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JUNE 16,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

THE PEOPLE'S CHAMPION – From London's Daily Mail:  "Hillary Clinton reportedly charged a Boys and Girls Club chapter $200,000 for an appearance, then left the premise without saying hello to children who benefit from the program.  The massive fee, which she donated back to her family foundation, was the largest the Long Beach, California, organization had ever paid a public figure for a speech, Politico reports.  By contrast, the club made $106,000 off the lunchtime, charity event - its lowest yield in 25 years. A contributing factor to the diminished proceeds: Clinton's large entourage that took up seats that would have otherwise been sold to donors."  Such style, such class.  Such Clinton.

MORE HILLARY, OUR HEROINE – From Breitbart:  "On Sunday, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager would not commit to releasing her health records during the 2016 campaign.  Face the Nation host John Dickerson pointed out that 'Hillary Clinton had a big health scare when she was secretary of state' and asked campaign manager Robby Mook, 'will she release her medial records as part of this campaign?'  'I will let Hillary decide that,' Mook answered. 'But I can tell you she has been hitting the campaign trail hard.'  In 2012, Clinton had to delay her Benghazi testimony to Congress after she fell and suffered a concussion. She later was treated for a blood clot in her brain, which experts said could have been 'life threatening.' Though Clinton joked about her 'cracked head' in emails that the State Department recently released, Bill Clinton revealed last year that Hillary’s injuries 'required six months of very serious work to get over.'"  Do you think Bill is trying to torpedo Hillary's campaign?  I've often had that feeling.  Come home, Hillary.  Come home.

OH, ISN'T THIS COMFORTING? – From the New York Daily News:  "Prosecutors say a man charged with orchestrating a shootout at an anti-Islam event in Texas wanted to join Islamic State and attack the Super Bowl.  The revelation at a court hearing for Abdul Malik Abdul Kareem shows that the Phoenix-based plot extended beyond last month's shootout at a Prophet Muhammad cartoon event in Texas that led to the deaths of two roommates."  Sooner or later ISIS is going to stage an event here.  Maybe they'll wait until Barack Obama becomes secretary-general of the UN, and can condemn America for "provocations."

June 16, 2015       Permalink

THE HELLHOLE KNOWN AS SOUTH AFRICA – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Rarely do we ever praise an editorial in The New York Times, but now is the time.  The paper actually nailed an important issue today, namely the vast corruption and wickedness of that hallowed country called South Africa. 

Since apartheid ended, South Africa has been treated as some kind of saintly nation.  The land of Mandela.  Can do no wrong.  Guiding star.  It was never true.  South Africa is a hellhole, ranking at the bottom of the list in sexual violence against women and crime overall.  Its foreign policy, presumably enlightened by "moral" leaders like Desmond Tutu, in reality an old, bigoted crank, was to be looked to for guidance.  But South Africa's foreign policy shows contempt for democracy and understanding for dictators.  From The Times: 

On Monday, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan fled arrest in South Africa and is now safely back in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. His escape is another blow to the International Criminal Court, which has been struggling to bring him to trial for six years on charges of crimes against humanity and genocide.

This could not have happened without the complicity of the South African government, which deserves international condemnation. The biggest losers are the innocent victims of Mr. Bashir’s cruel policies in Darfur who are still being denied justice

Members of the international court like South Africa are supposed to respect its warrants. The charges against Mr. Bashir include murder, acts of extermination and rape among other abuses in Darfur, where 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since 2003.

The court has been unable to enforce its writ partly because of opposition in Sudan and partly because some African governments believe the court has unfairly focused on African leaders. The court asked the United Nations Security Council in March to help it enforce the warrant for Mr. Bashir, he apparently felt he could travel safely to Johannesburg to attend an African Union summit meeting because the South African government insisted he had immunity.

COMMENT:  It's too much to expect that Obama's government will join in the condemnation.  South Africa is a sacred cow in the "anti-apartheid community."  But it is a disgrace to humanity, run by a bunch of corrupt old Communists.  Oh wait, isn't saying that really McCarthyism?  Why, of course.

June 16, 2015       Permalink

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:   Are you as impressed as I am by the success of Obama's reset with Russia, as executed by that renowned diplomat and orator, Hillary ("I needed the money") Clinton?  Just see how far we've come toward a serene, peaceful world.  From Reuters: 

KUBINKA, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Russia would add more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to its nuclear arsenal this year and a defense official accused NATO of provoking a new arms race.

Putin made his announcement a day after Russian officials denounced a U.S. plan to station tanks and heavy weapons in NATO states on Russia's border as the most aggressive U.S. act since the Cold War.

"More than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles able to overcome even the most technically advanced anti-missile defense systems will be added to the make-up of the nuclear arsenal this year," Putin, flanked by army officers, said in a speech to a military and arms fair.

Tension is high between Russia and the United States over the crisis in Ukraine and Washington and Moscow have disagreements on a range of other issues.

Russian officials have warned that Moscow will retaliate if the United States carries out the plan to store heavy military equipment in eastern Europe, including in the Baltic states that were once part of the Soviet Union.

COMMENT:  Why is Putin sounding so tough?  Because he can get away with it.  He knows Obama will back down.  And back down from what?  The plan to store some heavy equipment on some NATO borders is a borderline joke.  Very little equipment is involved, maybe enough for a few hundred troops.  Obama has no intention of doing anything serious.  Notice how much he's done to lift Moscow's grip on Ukraine.

This is the price of weakness, and that weakness can lead to an eventual clash in central Europe.

June 16, 2015       Permalink

A VERY GOOD MAN – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  We are reminded periodically that the black community isn't only led by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, and their useless comrades.  There are some truly inspired leaders, trying to save their people.  From CNS:

(CNSNews.com) – Corey Brooks, pastor of New Beginnings Church on the infamous south side of Chicago, wants Republican presidential candidates to speak to his congregation, because being black doesn’t mean you have to be a member of the Democrat Party – which he says has failed to help his community.

National Public Radio host Scott Simon asked Brooks on Saturday’s “Weekend Edition” why he has made the appeal to the Republican hopefuls.

“Well for far too long, Democrats have taken advantage of our community and just always felt as if we're just going to be there for them without having to do the things that are necessary in our community,” said Brooks, who is a Republican.

“The Republican Party has overlooked this, simply because they thought that - out of tradition and out of culture - that we're going to continue to just vote the same way all the time, but that is definitely not true.

“And if the Republican Party would be so kind to reach out, I'm sure that they will find a group of people who are interested in their policies and their practices,” Brooks said.

Simon, one of taxpayer-supported public radio’s most popular liberal hosts, then asked Brooks if the Republicans had “policies that would interest you more?”

“Absolutely,” Brooks said. “I think school choice is a big thing, and I think, educationally, that African-American children should have the same privilege that all other children that come from well-to-do families have, and that is they should be able to go to any school that is a good school, and they should not be regulated to poor-performing schools in their community just because they live in a certain ZIP code or certain area code."

COMMENT:  That is a good man, and he's opening the door to Republicans.  The question is whether Republicans will walk through it, or simply preach to the choir.  There are many Republican candidates running for president who have a history of reaching out to minorities, and who have that talent.  But they must be given the chance, and they must get the backing of the national party.

June 16, 2015       Permalink

STATESMANSHIP – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has written a statesmanlike letter to President Obama on the Iran nuclear issue.  The Iran negotiations are scheduled to wind up in two weeks.  From the Jerusalem Post: 

Corker’s letter referenced specific demands made by the Obama administration in recent weeks: That international inspectors be granted access across Iran “anytime” and “anywhere” that they reasonably suspect nuclear-related activities, and a satisfactory conclusion to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s investigation into the past military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear work.

“If Iran tries to cross these few remaining red lines, I would urge you to please pause and consider rethinking the entire approach,” Corker writes, charging that “no sites” should be off limits to inspectors.

“Walking away from a bad deal at this point would take courage, but it would be the best thing for the United States, the region and the world.”

Corker has been praised by Obama – and by his press secretary, Josh Earnest – as a “good and decent man” who is “principled” in his approach to legislating with regards to Iran.

But Corker was less congenial than he was critical in his letter, calling the president’s concessions to the Islamic Republic “breathtaking.”

And...

The White House rejected that criticism on Monday. Responding to The Jerusalem Post, National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said the Obama administration agrees with Corker “that no deal is preferable to a bad deal.”

“That is why our experts, along with the experts of the P5+1 and the EU, are hard at work right now in Vienna trying to finalize the technical details and annexes of the framework understanding that we reached in April,” Price said.

COMMENT:  I wish I could say that I had confidence in the White House and its integrity.  I don't.  I really fear what's coming up.  I'd love to be wrong.

June 16,  2015     Permalink

JUNE 15,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

JEB IS IN – From The Hill:  "Jeb Bush formally announced his bid for the White House on Monday with a speech that sought to tie Hillary Clinton closely to President Obama and his policies.  Bush, 62, suggested in an address at Miami Dade College that Clinton would be untested in the Democratic primary and if she won her party’s nomination would represent Obama’s third term.  'I, for one, am not eager to see what another four years would look like under that kind of leadership,' Bush said to roaring applause from a crowd that included his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. 'The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next.'"  We have been critical of Bush for a meandering non-campaign, but Bush's speech today has gotten very favorable reviews.  He clearly wanted to show that he's a fighter, animated, and determined.  Good.  The more improvement, the better it is for the race.

HILLARY'S TROOPS DO IT AGAIN – From NRO:  "Another day, another acrimonious interaction between the Clinton campaign and the press.  On Monday, as Hillary Clinton swung through New Hampshire, her staffers denied the designated print-pool reporter for the day, a man whose coverage has proven bothersome to the Clinton campaign, access to a breakfast event in Manchester. They then turned away journalists from a community meeting in Rochester, telling them to consult the pool report instead.  Pool reporters are responsible for providing coverage of campaign events that the rest of the press-corps can rely on if they are unable to attend. On Monday, David Martosko, the U.S. political editor for the Daily Mail, drove up to a Manchester restaurant to cover Clinton’s early-morning breakfast meeting there, on the understanding that he was the designated print-pool reporter for the day’s events. He was met by Meredith Thatcher, a press staffer with 'Hillary for New Hampshire,' who told him that wasn’t the case...The Daily Mail editor has proven a thorn in the Clinton campaign’s side, asking uncomfortable questions about the Benghazi attack during her last trip to New Hampshire and disparaging the favorable coverage of Hillary’s campaign relaunch this past Saturday."  You'd think by now that the Clinton troopers would realize that this is America, not one of the authoritarian countries they apparently prefer.  Frankly, I hope they keep it up.  Let the press turn on Hillary.  We will smile.

CHILLING – For more than two decades the great New York Police Department has worked, with spectacular effectiveness, to reduce crime.  Murder in New York City declined 80%.   Now murder is up again, and what is being done?  The federal government is moving in to "help."  Strange.  New York didn't need its help before.  From CBS:  "NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Bullet-riddled windows, yellow crime scene tape, and evidence markers denoting where shell casings fell on the sidewalk are becoming all-too-familiar sights on New York City streets.  Now in an unprecedented move, a federal agency is joining the effort to get gun crimes under control, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Monday.  Kramer is told it was a collective decision made by the federal government, the NYPD, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Those agencies are mounting a first-ever anti-gun initiative in high-crime areas."  Why do I suspect that this is part of a general plan to federalize law enforcement?  I suspect it because the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, is a socialist and a Fidelista.  It would be logical for him to ask for this, hoping the feds will eventually control what the NYPD does.  Look at how the feds are moving into Baltimore.  Gives me the chills.

June 15,  2015     Permalink

HILLARY'S WAY – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  What is Hillary Clinton's strategy?  She seems to have a new strategy to win her party's nomination, but what comes after that?  Andrew Malcolm at IBD has what I consider to be an excellent analysis: 

Clinton is not leading Democrats' current stampede to the far left of the political spectrum. She's trying to catch up. Aides say she would go farther than even Obama's executive orders in releasing illegal immigrants from restrictions.

Conventional political wisdom months ago had Clinton plotting to find a delicate way to distance herself from her lame-duck, ex-boss for the 2016 election. His poll numbers have sagged sadly with 584 days left. And Clinton's have plunged too, especially in dangerous categories like trustworthiness as a result of her private email server scandal and inconsistencies explaining it.

Instead of distancing herself, however, the 67-year-old Clinton has clearly calculated that her ambition of becoming the first lady president is better served by actually embracing the man she so often denounced in 2007-08.

She's going to need track shoes by fall 2016 if she intends to seek the middle-road where U.S. general election competitors usually collide.

With the exception of George H.W. Bush in 1988, modern American voters have also shown a distaste for electing the same party to inhabit the White House for three consecutive terms.

That's one reason only three kamikaze candidates are challenging Clinton, and Joe Biden has been so silent. And why so many on the Republicans' well-stocked bench are competing to face her. Jeb Bush announces today. Bobby Jindal late this month. Scott Walker in mid-July.

COMMENT:  Hillary is trying to keep together the Obama coalition, but that coalition was based on the excitement, in some circles, about a first black president.   They're low-information voters, and they may not come out for Hillary.

June 15, 2015        Permalink

JEB IN – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:   Jeb Bush will announce for president today.  As Johnny Carson used to ask, "Notice the difference?"  Thus far Jeb has been an unofficial candidate, but hasn't excited anyone.  Frankly, there is no real "wanting" of Jeb.  From London's Telegraph: 

Jeb Bush will finally end months of speculation and announce he is running for the American presidency on Monday, in a campaign carefully calibrated to portray himself as a natural heir to the family dynasty and at the same time distance himself from his brother George W.

In a key-note interview, he described his father, the first President George Bush, as the “greatest man alive” and said the mere thought of him might make him cry.

But by contrast he was careful to differentiate himself from his brother. “Jeb is different from George,” he told CNN. “Jeb is who he is and his life story is different.”

That is absolutely pathetic.  The thought of daddy might make him cry?  And he doesn't want to be associated with his brother, who is now more popular than Barack Obama?  Not exactly a great introduction to an argument to make Jeb president.  We can understand the lack of excitement.

Mr Bush plans to announce he is running for the White House in Miami on Monday, after months of unofficial campaigning.

He unveiled his campaign logo via social media site Twitter on Sunday, and immediately ran into teasing from the public that it is almost identical to the logo he used when he ran, successfully, for the governorship of Florida in 1998.

And the logo doesn't even mention his family name.  How courageous. 

But Jeb has lots of money, and the Republican establishment will be comfortable with him. 

Mr Bush said he was looking forward to telling a life story that was “full of warts and full of successes”, where he had had to make “tough decisions”.

In a jab at both President Barack Obama and, seemingly, some of his younger Republican rivals such as Marco Rubio, he was keen to project a statesmanlike appearance, touting his “life experience” as a state governor and overseas businessman.

“It’s something that’s been lacking in the presidency, to have someone who’s been tempered by life, and along the way I will get to share that,” said Mr Bush, who at 62 is eighteen years older than Mr Rubio and eight years older even than the departing president.

COMMENT:   Look, if Jeb is the nominee I will certainly vote for him.  But I'm not at all sure that this is the man who can create the passion necessary to defeat Hillary Clinton.  I think that he may turn out to be an also-ran, a decent man who just couldn't light any fires.

June 15, 2015       Permalink

NEW RIPPLE IN IRAN – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  An illness in Iran is casting a new shadow over the otherwise troubled nuclear negotiations, and over the future of the region.  From AP: 

Concerns over the health of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who reportedly suffers from prostate cancer, are mounting as the P5+1 and Tehran negotiate an agreement over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

According to recent reports in the Iranian press, Khamenei may only have months left to live, The Telegraph reported on Sunday, and an ensuing power struggle between hardliners and moderates over Iran’s top role could derail talks currently taking place ahead of the June 30 target date.

In March, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerics who appoint and can dismiss the country’s supreme leader, elected ultraconservative Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi as their new chairman.

According to the report, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, a protege of Khamenei’s and a hardliner, has been positioning himself for the role, conducting purges of the more moderate potential candidates.

Larijani is the brother of Ali Larijani, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator and now chairman of the Iranian parliament, the Majlis.

A senior Western diplomat told the Telegraph that the West is now worried this power struggle could jeopardize the deal.

“With so many people jockeying for position, the hardliners will be tempted to prove their revolutionary credentials by vetoing any deal with the US,” he was quoted as saying. “The fear now is that this could jeopardize any progress we make in resolving the issue and lifting the sanctions.”

COMMENT:  The illness of the big guy also warns us that any agreement might be a farce to begin with.  A new leader could simply tear it up.  What would Field Marshal Obama actually do in that case?  Probably nothing, given his pro-Iranian attitudes. 

History works its strange ways, doesn't it?

June 15, 2015        Permalink 

IRAQ – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  Iraq is becoming a major failure for President Obama, one of a number of foreign policy failures.  From Jen Rubin at the Washington Post:

If foreign policy has often been the refuge for second-term presidents, in Obama’s case it has become a scene out of “The Perils of Pauline.” First denying, then sending the most minimal amount of troops to show he is “doing something,” the president’s failure to degrade let alone defeat the Islamic State is undeniable. He can blame Iraq, or President George W. Bush, but the fault is his own and the stakes could not be higher for the U.S. Fred Kagan, one of the authors of Bush’s successful Iraq surge, writes, “The story of Iraq is, in some respects, even more tragic for being more avoidable. Had the Obama administration succeeded in negotiating a deal to keep American forces in Iraq after 2011, the US would have been positioned to prevent ISIS from gaining the strength and ground that it did leading up to the fall of Mosul and could have prevented that disaster. American inaction in the last few weeks has allowed ISIS to seize control of Ramadi — an eminently avoidable calamity that has completely disarranged any hope of Iraqi forces retaking Mosul this year.”

COMMENT:   Then there is the failure to deal with Putin of Russia and his chokehold on Ukraine.  And then there is the appeasement of Iran.  And the appeasement of North Korea.  And the opening to Cuba while getting nothing in return.  And the contempt for our allies.  Other than that, Obama is just swell.

June 15,  2015     Permalink