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MAY 21,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:26 P.M. ET: 

COPS INDICTED – From the Washington Times:  "BALTIMORE — The state’s attorney in Baltimore says all six officers charged in the police-custody death of Freddie Gray have been indicted by a grand jury.  State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby made the announcement Thursday. The charges returned by the grand jury were similar to the charges Mosby announced about three weeks ago.  Mosby has said Gray’s neck was broken because he was injured while being handcuffed, shackled and placed headfirst into a police van. She says his pleas for medical attention were repeatedly ignored.  Gray was arrested April 12. He died in a hospital a week later and became a symbol of what protesters say was police brutality against blacks."  It's a farce.  A grand jury indictment is no indicator of guilt.  As the expression goes, a grand jury can indict a ham sandwich.  Mosby, of course, took no questions.  This is as much a political case as a legal one.  The six cops will go to trial, barring a plea bargain.  That's when the truth will come out. 

CRUZ CRUISIN' – From the Daily Caller:  "Super PACs backing Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz have raised more than double the PAC backing presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Priorities USA Action has managed to secure just $5 million in 'hard commitments,' and expects to raise just $15 million through the end of June, reported The Wall Street Journal. The PAC is led by prominent Democrats including President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, Jim Messina.  Super PACs backing Cruz raised more than twice that in a week. A Cruz associate told Bloomberg the group of PACs, formed in April, raised $31 million in their first week."   Hey, Hillary might have to finance her own campaign.  I love it.  I can just see Chelsea on a street corner waving a contribution box.  "Give what you can for mom!"

HUMILIATING – From Reuters:  "SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Chinese state firms are poised to be strong contenders in the race to make high-speed trains that will sprint between Los Angeles and San Francisco, part of a $68 billion project to bring the service to the United States for the first time.
While 'bullet train' manufacturers from Germany, Japan, South Korea, and France are expected to be among those jockeying for the estimated $1 billion train contract, China’s ability to offer low prices and hefty financing appear to make it the one to beat, say lobbyists and industry insiders.  Lacking experience in the technology, California must turn to foreign firms to build the trains – albeit domestically and with American workers - setting off a geopolitical race to grab a foothold in the nascent U.S. high-speed rail industry."  Where did we drop the ball on this?  We should be able to build the world's best bullet train, dammit.

May 21, 2015       Permalink

STRANGE MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:   And they're getting stranger every day.  New York City in the grip of a radical, "progressive" administration.  The result has been dramatically increasing violence and a new stagnation in the school system.  It's as if the city administration yearns to return to the 1960s, and I have no doubt that it does.  Poor conditions play into the "government is the answer" crowd.   The strangeness has penetrated the state government, also run by a Democratic Party beholden to its left wing.  From the New York Post: 

The state Education Department has rejected all 15 applications for new charter schools, including 12 in New York City, claiming they failed to meet academic standards.

“We always look for quality and these applications didn’t measure up,” Education Department spokesman Dennis Tompkins said Wednesday. “We invited several of the applicants to reapply in June and we gave them suggestions on how to improve their applications.”

But charter-school advocates weren’t buying it, saying the rejection of all the applicants reeked of pro-teacher-union politics.

“The timing and nature of these blanket rejections should raise serious concerns for New Yorkers,” said Jeremiah Kittredge, CEO of the pro-charter group Families for Excellent Schools.

The decision, which was made in the past week, comes at a time when Gov. Cuomo and the Republican-controlled state Senate are pushing to raise the cap for charters allowed in the state from 460 to 560.

But Mayor de Blasio and the teachers unions oppose charter school expansion, as does the Democratic-run state Assembly.

Under the current formula, the city is authorized to open only 25 more charters — publicly funded, privately managed schools exempt from union rules.

Some of the rejected schools for the city included the Education for Tomorrow Bronx Charter HS and the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School 2 in Brooklyn.

“The last thing parents would want to see is the politics of the moment standing in the way of opening more high-quality public charter schools for students,” Kittredge said. “Solving New York’s failing-schools crisis requires both that independent authorizers move swiftly to open strong charter schools and Albany to eliminate the charter cap.”

COMMENT:  Nice, huh?  All applications turned down.  It's all about what's good for the teachers' unions and local "community" leaders, which is a code term for black machine politicians.  It's not about the kids.  They come last.  And these are the "progressives." 

These same "progressives" will turn around tomorrow and tell us how cruel Republicans are to "our children." 

May 21, 2015        Permalink

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK – AT 8:36 A.M. ET:   Some people just have a knack of what to do with the federal gifts they receive.  From CBS local: 

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Two of the Twin Cities men accused of trying to join ISIS are now charged with student loan fraud.

Investigators say both Hamza Ahmed, 19, and Hanad Musse, 19, used more than $1,000 from federal student loan accounts for plane tickets to Turkey and Greece. Prosecutors say they were really going to Syria to join ISIS.

Perhaps they saw it as an educational trip, a chance to enlarge their perspective.

On Tuesday, prosecutors combined two separate cases, meaning that seven young Minnesota friends will eventually be tried together for allegedly trying to join the terror group.

Prosecutors combined the case of Ahmed, who was arrested and charged in February, with that of six young men who were arrested in April. Prosecutors say Ahmed’s arrest should have served as a warning to the others.

The initials of some of those who were arrested in April appear in the Ahmed complaint.

Also on Tuesday, Abdurahman Daud, one of the two members of the group who the government says went to California to pick up fake passports, made his first court appearance in Minnesota.

COMMENT:   We have to wonder how many more of these types we have in America, and when they will get lucky.  We also have to wonder how a student loan account was used for a nefarious purpose.   Aren't these accounts monitored to see where the money goes?  Apparently not.

It's now estimated that thousands of young men from the West have joined ISIS.   There will be many more as a result of victories this week by ISIS in Iraq.  We seem to have no ready strategy to stop this plague.  And I doubt if any change in our "policies" as a nation will make a dent.  We are facing a fanatical ideology, just as we did when confronting imperial Japan or Nazi Germany in World War II. 

May 21, 2015       Permalink

MARTY, WE HARDLY KNOW YE – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley looks as if he'll challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.  Right now he's invisible in the polls, but one never knows what new scandal will envelop the queen.  From CNN: 

Washington (CNN) Martin O'Malley is expected to emphasize his "youthfulness," and a less scripted, more accessible presidential campaign, as a way to help contrast his candidacy with Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic nomination, an O'Malley confidante tells CNN.

"We do think there is a real generational argument to make and that he can seize upon it," said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

O'Malley, 52, announced Tuesday on two social media platforms, Snapchat and Twitter, that he would make a "special announcement" on May 30 in Baltimore -- when he is widely believed to formally enter the 2016 contest. Clinton, the former secretary of state and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders are already in the race for the Democratic nomination.

The former Maryland governor will release a new video Wednesday continuing to tease the May 30 event, according to an early version obtained by CNN. O'Malley's campaign is likely to produce several more similar videos leading up to the announcement.

"I think the way we're approaching things here, making him accessible, doing impromptu concerts at Irish bars, using non-traditional forms of communicating, and yes employing some humor hints at our general approach of running a fresher and less canned campaign," said the confidante.

Clinton, 67, has been criticized for refusing to regularly take questions from the media and engaging with voters only in carefully staged meetings held in key early states.

O'Malley has been making several visits to the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada and meeting with Democrats across the nation to gauge support for is candidacy. Current polling shows that Clinton would easily win the nomination today. O'Malley is polling about one percent in the same national polls.

COMMENT:  Very tough climb for Marty.  And he's making his formal announcement in Baltimore, where he was mayor?  What is he going to do, make the rubble bounce?  Baltimore is hardly a success story.

What O'Malley has is personality, and I wouldn't underestimate that.  Maybe his real idea is to introduce himself, then run in 2020. 

I think it will be very hard for the Dems to nominate someone other than Hillary, unless she seriously stumbles.  There's a gender factor in a party that sees everyone as a member of a group, the more downtrodden the better.  And Hillary looks more oppressed every day.

May 21, 2015       Permalink

ISIS ON THE MARCH – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  Do you remember when Field Marshal of the United States Barack Obama proclaimed ISIS the "junior varsity"?  Amazing what some good coaching can do.  From Fox: 

Islamic State militants reportedly captured the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra Wednesday as Syrian officials evacuated citizens and scrambled to keep priceless antiquities from falling into terrorist hands.

The Syrian Observatory for human rights told The Associated Press that government forces collapsed in the face of ISIS attacks and withdrew from the town late Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal reported that before fleeing, the National Defense Forces evacuated civilians as militants took control of residential areas and established themselves in the city’s nearby ruins.

It was not immediately clear how close to Palmyra’s famed archeological site ISIS forces had come, but Syrian activists said that Syrian soldiers were seen fleeing the area.

Hundreds of statues have been moved from Palmyra to safe locations, Syria's antiquities chief told Reuters.

"Hundreds and hundreds of statues we were worried would be smashed and sold are all now in safe places," Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters, but voiced his concern about Palmyra’s museum and large monuments that cannot be moved. "This is the entire world's battle,” he added.

Palmyra dates back to the second millennium B.C. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the city was one of the most important cultural centers of the ancient world and has been home to Arabic, Aramaic, and Greco-Roman culture. Palmyra contains numerous monumental ruins, including the Temple of Ba'al, an ancient theater, and its famous colonnade.

"Given ISIS' past actions, moving the statues is a vital precaution," Christopher Jones, a graduate student in ancient Near Eastern history at Columbia University and author of the Gates of Nineveh blog, told FoxNews.com. "The ruins themselves are still under threat though even if there are no statues."

Should ISIS take full control of the town, it would be the group’s second major victory in a week, coming just days after militants in Iraq secured the key city of Ramadi, capital of the Anbar province, causing thousands of refugees to flee to neighboring Baghdad.

COMMENT:  We have been assured by our Supreme Leader that all is well, that he will address the military collapse in Iraq as soon as he addressed global warming. 

There is a bitterness here for Americans, especially for those who fought in Iraq, and the families of those who died there.  All our gains are being erased, in large measure because Obama botched our withdrawal by not leaving a residual force to maintain order.

He may make the same mistake in Afghanistan.

May 21,  2015     Permalink

MAY 20,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:55 P.M. ET:

GRIM – From CNBC:  "At a time when 8.5 million Americans still don't have jobs, some 40 percent have given up even looking.  The revelation, contained in a new survey Wednesday showing how much work needs to be done yet in the U.S. labor market, comes as the labor force participation rate remains mired near 37-year lows.  A tight jobs market, the skills gap between what employers want and what prospective employees have to offer, and a benefits program that, while curtailed from its recession level, still remains obliging have combined to keep workers on the sidelines, according to a Harris poll of 1,553 working-age Americans conducted for Express Employment Professionals."  And that's why the unemployment rate appears to be low.  It doesn't take account of those who've given up.  These are not good numbers, for Obama or Queen Hillary.

PRO-ACTIVE – From CBS local:  "HACKENSACK, N.J. (CBSNewYork) — The FBI has targeted Bergen County, New Jersey to stop Islamic State militants from getting a stronghold there – and agents have been going to high school with a message.  Christine Sloan was there when agents visited a Bergen County school on Tuesday. An FBI intelligence analyst who did not wish to be identified spoke at the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School in Hackensack.  He warned students about a new threat – a sophisticated recruitment video trying to lure them into joining the terrorist group ISIS.  'There’s a role for everybody. Every person can contribute to the Islamic State,' a young Canadian man tells viewers in the recruitment video. 'You can even come here and rebuild.'  'It definitely was eye-opening,' said high school senior Zoey Zibor. 'You know, you learn that it’s in your own backyard. It’s Americans citizens wanting to join these terrorist groups.'"  I think it's great that the FBI is pro-active on this, warning young people directly.  We'll see if it has the intended effect.

FARCE – From the Washington Free Beacon:  "Saudi Arabia is making a bid to head the United Nations’ Human Rights Council (HRC) just days after it posted a slew of new job openings for executioners who would help carry out beheadings amid a massive uptick in state-sanctioned killings in the country.  Saudi Arabia, which has come under increasing criticism from human rights groups for an uptick in the number of executions in the country, has been a member of the U.N.’s top human rights body since 2014, along with Russia, China, and Cuba.  It is now making a bid to assume lead control over the HRC after 2016, when the presidency rotates to a new nation.  While the HRC has often been dismissed for hosting nations with some of the worst human rights records in the world, its importance in the coming year could be critical to how the international community deals with atrocities in Syria and other Middle Eastern nations."  The UN Human Rights Council is a farce.  It was dying before Barack Obama and his hard-left colleagues revived it by having the U.S. join it.  (President Bush had correctly stayed away.)  

May 20, 2015       Permalink

IRAN SAYS NO, NO, NO – AT 12:32 P.M. ET:   Nuclear negotiations with Iran are resuming, but the man in charge of Iran is taking a very tough line.  I can't see how these talks can work.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) – As the Iran nuclear talks were due to resume in Vienna on Wednesday, Iran's spiritual leader and its main nuclear negotiator both doubled down on rejecting a core element of any deal – the right of international inspectors to access military sites.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told military commanders Wednesday he will not allow international inspection of Iran's military sites or access to Iranian scientists under any nuclear agreement with world powers. He said Iran will resist "coercion and excessive demands," the Associated Press reported.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif insisted that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials would not be allowed to inspect the facilities, and also charged that Western claims to the contrary were merely designed to placate pressure groups at home.

The Obama administration says that Iran agreed to such inspections in an interim “framework” agreement reached on April 2. A White House fact sheet at the time said it was agreed Iran must allow IAEA inspectors “regular access to all” declared nuclear facilities, as well as access to any locations of suspected illicit nuclear activity, “anywhere in the country.”

That nuclear verification regime, described by President Obama as “the most robust and intrusive” ever negotiated,” goes beyond the requirements of the “additional protocols” to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which apply to the nuclear programs of more than 130 countries.

But Zarif, speaking alongside his Hungarian counterpart in Tehran, stated that Iran’s additional protocol implementation – which he emphasized was voluntary – would never entail “excessive and unreasonable” access to its facilities, since “military and even economic secrets” were not covered by the protocol.

The Tehran Times quoted him as saying that certain Western officials’ “sensational” remarks about access to Iran’s facilities were simply intended merely to “pacify” pressure groups.

Zarif also chided the U.S. for what he suggested was its disregard for what had been agreed upon in the framework agreement.

COMMENT:  The Iranians may be playing chicken, not a bad bet when dealing with Obama, but they may stick to their position, which may mean a collapse in the talks...or an extension of them.  It would make perfect sense for the Iranians to seek an extension, and then another.  They would keep running their nuclear program, while holding out the prospect of an agreement.  I'd imagine we'd go along rather than blowing up the talks.

One has to be impressed with the Iranian negotiators.  Iran has a history of highly skilled diplomacy.  They're getting what they want because they've sized us up perfectly.

May 20, 2015       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN MANLINESS – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  Sadly, this is one of those signs of the times that points to America as an increasingly wussified nation.   From CBS: 

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) A summer rite of passage in the dog days of summer won’t be available to Boy Scouts at their camps or other activities because the group recently announced a ban on the use of water guns for anything other than target practice and a limit on water balloons.

“Water guns and rubber band guns must only be used to shoot at targets, and eye protection must be worn,” reads page 99 of the 2015 Boy Scout handbook.

The new rule for water balloons dictates their size and origin — no more puffed up balls of latex for traditional water balloon fights.

“For water balloons, use small, biodegradable balloons, and fill them no larger than a ping pong ball,” page 100 of the handbook adds.

The news was revealed in a blog post in Scouting Magazine, written by Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, who is is senior editor of “Boys’ Life,” “Scouting” and “Eagles’ Call” magazines.

“Why the rule?” Wendell added. “A Scouter once told me this explanation I liked quite a bit: “A Scout is kind. What part of pointing a firearm [simulated or otherwise] at someone is kind?”

The position was not received well by commentators on the blog.

“What a load of politically correct crap. What’s the point of super-soakers if you don’t shoot them at others to get wet and cool off on a hot day?” wrote a guy who identified himself as Dave. “And water balloons no bigger than a ping-pong ball? Have you ever been hit by a water balloon that isn’t big enough to explode? It hurts more than one that is properly filled. This is such a load of BSA garbage!!!!”

COMMENT:  Is nothing sacred?  May we not have a water fight?  Is it Islamophobic? 

In World War II, Adolf Hitler ridiculed the United States military, saying American soldiers fought like Boy Scouts.  Well, those Boy Scouts did an awfully fine job.  I wonder what the case would be today if scouting is destroyed by political correctness.  It's going in that direction.

We must ask why.  And we go back to the old adage that evil triumphs when good men do nothing.  The left is militant, devoted, and on the march.  It believes it is righteous.  It believes it has the right, if not the duty, to destroy anyone in its path.  And our side has too often responded with vague speeches, hang-wringing, and business as usual.  The Republican Party, which should be bearing the battle, is too often consumed by me-tooism and a devotion to tax law.  It is the culture that is eroding.  Tax laws can be handled.

May 20, 2015       Permalink

CRAZY STUFF – AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  President Obama is going nuts.  With all the problems we face from Earthbound enemies – including a probable Iranian nuclear bomb – the little guy from Chicago is warning of the dire threat to national security from...climate change.  From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is framing the challenges of climate change as a matter of national security that threatens to aggravate poverty and political instability around the globe and jeopardize the readiness of U.S. forces.

"Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country," the president says in excerpts of a commencement address prepared for delivery Wednesday at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. "And so we need to act and we need to act now."

The president in recent months has pressed for action on climate change as a matter of health, as a matter of environmental protection and as a matter of international obligation. He's even couched it as a family matter, linking it to the worry he felt when one his daughters had an asthma attack as a preschooler.

Some say Dr. Obama is going too far with this.  Yah think?

His speech to the cadets, by contrast, is focused on what the Obama administration says are immediate risks to national security, including contributing to more natural disasters that result in humanitarian crises and potential new flows of refugees. Further, the president sees climate change aggravating poverty and social tensions that can fuel instability and foster terrorist activity and other violence.

Obama said the cadets would be part of the first generation of officers to begin their service in a world where it is increasingly clear that "climate change will shape how every one of our services plan, operate, train, equip and protect their infrastructure."

His prepared remarks said climate change "is not just a problem for countries on the coast or for certain regions of the world. Climate change impacts every country on the planet."

COMMENT:  He really has drunk the Kool-Aid, hasn't he?  You know, there's a famous story from the Civil War that applies here.  An officer complained to General Grant that he could not move more quickly because of deep mud.  Grant's famous, and cold reply was, "General Lee has the same mud."

If we have climate change, other nations will have it, too.  Presumably, it will be a threat to their security, yet I don't hear much talk about that from our allies.  My guess is that Obama is yapping about climate change to cover the fact that he's gutting the U.S. military.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

In fact, discussing climate change with military men is almost insulting.  The military, by definition, is trained to deal with extreme climate.  Military briefings often begin with a weather report.  The Navy deals with hurricanes, the Air Force with extreme winds.  The Army fights in heat and freezing cold.  And equipment is always built with climate in mind.

I can only visualize experienced officers and non-coms listening to their commander-in-chief lecturing them on the impact of weather.  Maybe they can present him with an olive green umbrella.  Fits his diplomacy as well.

May 20, 2015        Permalink

NEW CLAIM BY NORTH KOREA – AT 9:22 A.M. ET:   Even John Kerry made a minimal effort last week to lecture North Korea on its behavior.   North Korea's response was this, from Fox: 

North Korea claimed Wednesday that it has manufactured nuclear warheads small enough to fit on the head of a nuclear submarine, an announcement that is likely to rachet up tensions in east Asia, particularly with South Korea.

According to Yonhap News, a spokesman for North Korea's National Defense Commission said that the development of the alleged weapons was part of an initiative to boost Pyongyang's self-defense capability.

"It is long since the DPRK's nuclear striking means have entered the stage of producing smaller nukes and diversifying them," the spokesman said, using the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "The DPRK has reached the stage of ensuring the highest precision and intelligence and best accuracy of not only medium- and short-range rockets, but long-range ones."

If the North's claim is true, it presents a fresh threat to the security of South Korea and Japan, as well as the United States. Pyongyang has previously claimed that it has the technology to build a nuclear weapon small enough to fit on an intercontinental ballistic missile, which could reach the U.S. mainland.

COMMENT:  There may well be exaggeration in the North Korean claims.  But the direction of North Korea is not in doubt.  They have the atomic bomb despite "agreements" with the West not to go nuclear.  They have missiles and have fired them.  If they don't have all the capability they claim, they will have it, while Barack Obama stands by and does nothing.

Who will pay the price?  Our children, and their children.  Obama by that time will have his own Mount Rushmore.

May 20,  2015     Permalink