On Monday, the Institute for Supply Management’s Manufacturing Index for December came in showing contraction for the second consecutive month, and with a slightly worse reading (48.2 percent, versus 48.6 percent in November; any reading below 50 percent signifiies contraction). These two results followed readings which just slipped over the expansion bar (50.2 and 50.1 percent, respectively) in September and October.

The average of the past four months’ readingz is 49.3. In a situation that was not as troubling in late February 2007, David Leonhardt at the New York Times declared that “For Manufacturing, a Recession Has Arrived.” But after yesterday’s ISM report, as readers here would sadly expect, no Times reporter bothered to elaborate on the latest in an awful string of ISM manufacturing reports, instead posting wire service dispatches from Reuters and the Associated Press which appear not to have made the Old Gray Lady’s print edition.

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At the Associated Press, Wisconsin-based reporter Scott Bauer, who has spent the better part of the past five years describing Badger State Governor Scott Walker as "polarizing," has been given the opportunity to get involved with 2016 presidential campaign coverage.

Leftists and Democrats rarely earn negative descriptors in Bauer's reports, while Republicans and conservatives receive them routinely. Now that he has been tasked to cover Ted Cruz, Bauer has been using a scattershot approach, employing a plethora of negative terms, apparently in search of one or two which will cast the the Texas Senator in the most negative light possible.

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From New York:

January 1, 2016 | 4:51am | Updated January 1, 2016, 4:40 p.m.

​A 25-year-old man ​wished “Happy New Year” to a woman just before he saved her life by shoving her from a faulty elevator that suddenly took a plunge — but the brave act cost him his own life, witnesses said.

Stephen Hewett-Brown, 25, was in the crowded elevator at 131 Broome St. ​on Manhattan’s Lower East Side ​when Erudi Sanchez, 43, who lives in the building, ste​​pped inside around 11:45 p.m. with her 10-year-old nephew to throw out trash.

“When I got into the elevator, I felt it dropping and I thought my feet would get caught in the gap but the man pushed me out and said, ‘Happy New Year,’” Sanchez told The Post on Friday in Spanish.

But suddenly, the malfunctioning ​elevator dropped farther and Brown’s body was caught between ​it and the third floor, Sanchez said.

“I saw he was trapped and the elevator was crushing him. It was awful,” she said.

The woman’s son-in-law Emanuel Coronado, 23, desperately tried to pull Brown out, but it was too late.

“I feel bad I couldn’t save him. I tried to pull him out but the weight of the elevator was too heavy,” said Coronado, who was still shaken up by the horrific accident.

He said a woman in the elevator who appeared to be with Brown was in hysterics as she witnessed him being mangled.

“She was crying. He was saying, ‘I can’t breathe. Please help me,’” Coronado recalled.

​“To me, he is a hero. My mother-in-law might not be alive right now.” …

Go here for the rest of the story.

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From the Institute for Supply Management (most paragraph breaks added by me; bolds are mine):

Economic activity in the manufacturing sector contracted in December for the second consecutive month, while the overall economy grew for the 79th consecutive month, say the nation’s supply executives in the latest Manufacturing ISM® Report On Business®.

… The December PMI® registered 48.2 percent, a decrease of 0.4 percentage point from the November reading of 48.6 percent.

The New Orders Index registered 49.2 percent, an increase of 0.3 percentage point from the reading of 48.9 percent in November. The Production Index registered 49.8 percent, 0.6 percentage point higher than the November reading of 49.2 percent.

The Employment Index registered 48.1 percent, 3.2 percentage points below the November reading of 51.3 percent. The Prices Index registered 33.5 percent, a decrease of 2 percentage points from the November reading of 35.5 percent, indicating lower raw materials prices for the 14th consecutive month. T

he New Export Orders Index registered 51 percent, up 3.5 percentage points from the November reading of 47.5 percent and the Imports Index registered 45.5 percent, down 3.5 percentage points from the November reading of 49 percent.

As was the case in November, 10 out of 18 manufacturing industries reported contraction in December. Contraction in new orders, production, employment and raw materials inventories accounted for the overall softness in December.

The complete scoreboard on industries was that 6 reported growth, 2 were flat, and 10 reported contraction. In November, it was 5 growing, 3 flat, and 10 in contraction.

The three key GDP drivers are all in contraction, though two of them are barely so: Orders, Production and Backlog (not noted above, coming in at a dismal 41.0).

As bad as today’s ISM report is, it’s not nearly as bad as the regional reports we’ve seen, and it arguably understates the degree of contraction which is really occurring.

Since last night, Matt Drudge has teased his link to CNN’s coverage of Hillary Clinton “heckler” Katherine Prudhomme O’Brien with the following headline: “Clinton heckled in NH by rape survivor.”

The headline at CNN’s story by Dan Merica is quite different: “NH GOP lawmaker heckles Hillary Clinton over Bill Clinton’s sex scandals.” The headline difference is not unusual. What is unusual is that Merica’s article as currently posted never refers to O’Brien as a “rape survivor” (which, by the way, she has said since at least 2000). Since Drudge usually refers in some way to a story’s content when he writes his headlines, this opens up the possibility that earlier versions of Merica’s story did mention O’Brien’s rape survivor status, and that CNN censored it. What we do know is that CNN and Merica made sure that readers of their story wouldn’t know that Juanita Broaddrick credibly accused Bill Clinton of raping her, and that they treated Clinton’s one-man war on women sexual history as entirely “alleged” (bolds are mine):

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From Vatican City:

Jan 1, 2016 / 05:38 am

The miseries of the world are powerless against the mercy of God, whose entrance into history brought about a new era for humanity, Pope Francis said at the opening Mass of the new year.

“History does not determine the birth of Christ; rather, his coming into the world enables history to attain its fullness,” the Pope said in his homily Friday morning in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

“For this reason, the birth of the Son of God inaugurates a new era, a new computation of time, the era which witnesses the fulfilment of the ancient promise.”

Pope Francis delivered these remarks during Mass for the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, which is celebrated each year on Jan. 1.

In his homily, the Pope centered his reflection on the day’s second reading from Saint Paul to the Galatians which speaks of God having been “born of a woman” in the “fullness of time.”

Taking into account that moment in history, under the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus, the pontiff explained how Jesus’ birth in the “fullness of time” should not be seen in a geopolitical context. Rather, it should be considered from God’s fulfillment of his promise to humanity.

The fullness of time is God’s presence in history, he said. “Now we can see his glory, which shines forth in the poverty of a stable; we can be encouraged and sustained by his Word, made ‘little’ in a baby. Thanks to him, our time can find its fullness.”

However, Pope Francis noted how the mystery of God’s entrance into history “clashes” with the human experience of injustice and violence against the weak and the innocent. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

In his most recent Washington Post column, Fareed Zakaria, who also works at CNN, told readers that “working-class whites” can no longer handle the fact that they’re not an “elite group” any more, and that this loss of status explains an alarming increase in suicide in their ranks. Supposedly, these people support Donald Trump because his “Making America Great Again” is about putting them back on top again.

Assuming that Zakaria actually wrote what appeared in the Post — he was suspended for a single instance of plagiarism in 2012 and has been credibly accused of doing so dozens of other times — his awkward opening paragraph seems to say that Trump’s main supporters are people who are tragically no longer with us (HT Gateway Pundit; bolds are mine throughout this post):

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From Vatican City:

Dec 31, 2015 / 06:12 pm

As this year comes to an end, Pope Francis has encouraged faithful to look back at the events of 2015, telling them to be attentive to both the presence of God, and the signs he is giving.

“Retracing the days of the past year can be done either as a memory of facts and events which bring moments of joy and sorrow, or by trying to understand if we have perceived the presence of God, who makes all things new and sustains them with his help,” the Pope said on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31.

He gave a brief homily during his celebration of Vespers on the eve of the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, and the start of the new year.

We are challenged, he said, to see if the world’s events have been done according to God’s will, or “if we have primarily harkened to the projects of men, which are often characterized by private interests, of unquenchable thirst for power and of senseless violence.”

Francis also urged attendees to focus in a special way on the “the signs” that God has given us, saying they are a means of touching “with our own hands” the strength of his merciful love. …

Go here for the rest of the story.

A time-honored tactic in political TV ads is to use contrasting degrees of photographic exposure, one bright and snappy for your candidate and a darker hue, sometimes even going to old-fashioned black-and-white, for your opponent.

On December 29, at the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, Max Ehrenfreund cited a conveniently timed “study” which looked at 2008 ads produced by and on behalf of GOP presidential candidate John McCain, and concluded that the McCain campaign and its supporters, by using such a tactic, were engaging in racism:

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From Miami, Florida:

Dec. 29, 2015 10:13am

A few days after Christmas, Miami Dolphins free safety Walt Aikens was relaxing at his home when his apartment’s front desk man called, struggling to explain a strange package that had just been left in his name.

Curious, Aikens headed downstairs to retrieve the mysterious parcel. The package, decorated in Christmas ribbons and bows, was “from some lady at Walmart,” the front desk man haltingly explained Monday afternoon.

“Then it hit me,” Aikens told TheBlaze in an interview later that day.

Only a couple of days prior, on Christmas Eve, Aikens went to the retail superstore for wrapping paper and other supplies. Instead of grabbing a shopping cart, Aikens said he was “being the macho man that I am” and tried to carry everything in his arms.

It was while he was waiting in a long holiday line that an elderly woman offered him her cart as she saw that he was struggling to balance all of his items. At first Aikens refused, but when she asked again, a few minutes later as he was still struggling, he relented.

“This time I accepted because the line was moving nowhere near as fast as it was when I had first gotten in line,” Aikens said. “I was very thankful and appreciated her generosity.”

Aikens said he noticed her cart was filled with chocolate chips, cake batter, sprinkles and baby clothes, and the 24-year-old inferred that she was going to bake Christmas cookies for her grandchildren. As it was Christmas — and in spite of the woman’s protestations — Aikens paid for the woman’s items along with his own.

He told TheBlaze that the woman simply asked for his address in return, having no idea that he was a professional athlete, and promised to send him cookies as she said no one had ever been that nice to her — “especially in Florida” — before.

Surprising Aikens, the woman at the store kept true to her promise and had a box of homemade baked goods delivered to him. …

Go here to see a copy of the woman’s thank-you letter, and for the rest of the story.

On Wednesday, Nate Cohn at the New York Times, who by some accounts is being anointed the next Nate Silver of polling, made a clumsy and despicable attempt to inject race into his political “analysis” of the Donald Trump phenomenon.

Cohn’s tediously long writeup, which made Page A3 in the New York version of the Old Gray Lady’s print edition on Thursday, attempted to identify and characterize Donald Trump supporters. Apparently troubled by finding that Trump’s support crosses into a number of groups with whom Republican presidential candidates have usually fared poorly, he felt the need to go far afield for evidence of something sinister. Thus, he attempted to correlate the level of current support for Trump’s presidential candidacy to regional levels of racism as seen in Google searches. That’s right, Google searches — from 9-12 years ago.

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