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JANUARY 21,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET:

BERNIE BURNS HILLARY – From The Hill:   Bernie Sanders has overtaken Hillary Clinton in Iowa just 10 days before the caucuses there, according to a new poll.  A CNN-ORC poll released on Thursday found Sanders receiving 51 percent support in Iowa to Clinton's 43 percent. Clinton led by 18 points in the December version of the poll.  But among Iowans who participated in the 2008 caucuses, the survey found, Clinton leads Sanders 55 percent to 38 percent.  They just don't like Hillary, and, if the FBI doesn't like her, she's toast.

AND AGAIN – From channelnewsasia:  MOGADISHU: At least 19 people were killed when Somalia's Islamist Al Shabaab militants detonated a bomb before storming a popular seaside restaurant in the capital Mogadishu late on Thursday (Jan 21), police said after the operation ended at 3am.  "They killed nearly 20 people, including women and children," Somali police officer Mohamed Abdirahman said, describing it as a "barbaric and brutal attack against innocent civilians".  After a huge explosion, five gunmen burst into the restaurant on Thursday evening as diners were sitting down for their evening meal.  I think we vastly underestimate the potential for a sustained terror drive in the United States.  I don't think Bernie Sanders has the answer. 

KNUCKLING UNDER – From the L.A. Times:  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will weigh new rules intended to encourage more diversity among its membership and its nominations, The Times has learned.  The academy's 51-member Board of Governors has added the diversity issue to the agenda for its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday night in response to an outcry over an all-white slate of acting nominees for the second year in a row, according to a person briefed on the matter.  Among the options the board could choose are expanding the number of films in the best picture category to 10 every year, expanding the number of acting nominees in each category and changing the way the academy invites new members by allowing prospective members to put themselves forward, rather than waiting to be asked.  What happens when another group insists on being represented among the nominees?  Will Hollywood gather 'round Hispanics?  Asians?  Older women?  There is no fair way to increase minority nominations.  Minorities will begin to resent each other.  Good movies well cast will eventually result in more diversity, but any gimmick will reduce the value of the Oscar. 

January 21,  2016     Permalink

DEFIANCE! – AT 10:41 A.M. ET:  Can it be?  Do we see some spine in an American college?  I think we might.  From Daily Caller: 

Oberlin College’s president released a statement refusing to even consider a 14-page list of demands submitted by student activists, one of the most significant shows of defiance in the past few months to a wave of intense campus activism.

The list of demands at Oberlin, released in mid-December, is one of the most extreme seen at any college in the past two months. Among other things, the list demands the firing of several school employees, creation of segregated black-only safe spaces, a school stipend for protest leaders, and the creation of a bridge program to educate released convicts at the school. The list’s authors are anonymous, but several hundred students signed a Google Doc endorsing it.

Now, over a month later, Oberlin president Marvin Krislov has responded with a harsh tone. In his response, Krislov says the tone of the demands is utterly unacceptable, even if the document raises some valid concerns. As a result, he simply refused to directly engage with any of the list’s demands.

“Some of the challenges outlined in the document resonate with me and many members of our community, including our trustees,” Krislov says. “However, some of the solutions it proposes are deeply troubling. I will not respond directly to any document that explicitly rejects the notion of collaborative engagement. Many of its demands contravene principles of shared governance. And it contains personal attacks on a number of faculty and staff members who are dedicated and valued members of this community.”

It remains to be seen what the response, if any, will be from those who created the demands. In the original document, they want any refusal will provoke a dramatic response.

COMMENT:   It also remains to be seen how long this courageous president will last.  Oberlin is one of the most liberal schools in the country.  There is a hard core of faculty and student nut jobs who might not take kindly to a discussion above the reform-school level.  We await further bulletins.

January 21, 2016       Permalink

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS – AT 9:19 A.M. ET:   It's turning out that some of Obama's sharpest critics are those who have worked for him.  What we're seeing is a petty little man whose ego vastly exceeds his ability.   From Daily Caller: 

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served during the Obama administration, has turned into a harsh critic of the president, saying that Barack Obama always thinks he’s the smartest person in the room.

Gates also bashed Obama for bringing on advisers who do little else but constantly agree with his proposals, fostering a group-think environment where dissenting opinion essentially does not exist, The Free Beacon reports. In other words, there are no “strong” people around the president. And when there is dissent, Obama tries to crush it. Back in October, Politico reported that Obama’s advisers urged him to deal with Syria more aggressively, but the president refused to listen to advice. Now, the administration has been forced to acquiesce to Russian demands that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad remain in power. Additionally, Russian airstrikes, which have proved to be far more effective than U.S. strikes, continue to stomp on the Obama administration’s foreign policy objectives.

“You know, the president is quoted as having said at one point to his staff, ‘I can do every one of your jobs better than you can,'” Gates told Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, on Tuesday.

While Gates ostensibly appeared on Morning Joe to promote his new book on leadership, he veered off into discussing the president’s ability to govern effectively. In the current White House, Gates said that the greatest problem is the inability to develop and implement a strategy.

In a separate interview with Business Insider, Gates said that Obama’s biggest foreign policy achievement, namely the Iran nuclear deal, is likely to fall flat on its face, in that it will not cause Tehran to cease support for terror groups across the Middle East.

COMMENT:  Well, there goes Gates's White House dinner invitation.  And, to think, he'd already had his pants pressed.  Gates has always been known as a straight shooter, and here he shoots very straight.  Obama is the classic, inexperienced politician who started to believe his own press clippings.  We see the result.  He'll be gone, and we'll be left with a train wreck.

January 21, 2016       Permalink

REALITY INTERVENES – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  Jobless claims have risen once more.  Add to this the stumbling stock market.  Are we back to the bad old days?  From the Washington Times: 

More people are applying for unemployment insurance, a first sign of weakness in a part of the labor market that has been running red-hot in recent months.

New applications for unemployment benefits rose to 293,000 in the second full week of 2016, the Department of Labor reported Thursday morning, continuing a recent upward trend. That was the highest number for jobless claims since July.

Economists had expected jobless claims to drop from an unrevised 284,000 to 275,000, and halt the recent upward movement, according to economists polled by Bloomberg.

The four-week moving average for jobless claims rose by 6,500 to 285,000. The average was the highest since April.

COMMENT:  We'll need further samplings to get a closer read on things, but if companies start laying off large numbers of employees we could be in for a very bumpy ride in 2016.  That should help the Republicans in the election, if the Republicans remember to help themselves.

January 21,  2016     Permalink

JANUARY 20,  2016

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

MAJOR BLAME NEWS – From Fox:   The world’s first farmers and their slash-and-burn agriculture may have set off global warming.  A new analysis of ice-core climate data, archaeological evidence and ancient pollen samples is being used to suggest farming some 7,000 years ago helped put the brakes on a natural cooling process of the global climate, possibly contributing the warmer climate seen today.  But the study is expected to raise a few eyebrows, given there were far fewer people on Earth back then and industrialization -- and the coal-fired power plants that come with it -- was still a long ways off.  So now we know the truth about global warming, at least the truth until next week.  Watch this space for next week's truth.

THIS IS TOO MUCH – From The Hill:   President Obama says he's not willing to give a speech at his daughter Malia's high school graduation ceremony.  The reason: He expects to be too emotional, according to ABC.  “Malia's school asked if I wanted to speak at commencement and I said no,” the president was overheard saying during a lunch stop in Detroit on Wednesday.  “I'm going to be wearing dark glasses ... and I’m going to cry.”  Oh please.  What an act.  A lot of us should be crying because the mess this country is in as a result of Obama's policies.

CLINTON CASH – From The Hill:   Despite Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's lead in national polls, her campaign is worried about getting "outraised" by rival Bernie Sanders.  "Here's the truth: We know we have more supporters than he does. But a higher proportion of his supporters have stepped up to fund his campaign," campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in an email to Clinton supporters with the subject line "This is what being outraised looks like."  The email said Sanders's campaign is outspending them on TV in Iowa and New Hampshire "just as voters are starting to pay attention, and the polls are incredibly tight."  It asked for supporters to give funds — just $1 — to "help close the gap."   Clinton didn't expect this, and doesn't seem to know how to battle Sanders.  She may well break his momentum once they get beyond Iowa and New Hampshire.  I still maintain that her real hurdle will be the FBI investigation.  If that produces evidence of crimes, Bernie's fundraising can become a minor annoyance.

January 20, 2016       Permalink

UTTERLY FASCINATING – AT 12:48 P.M. ET:  A postscript to last week's supposed "prisoner swap" with the Iranians.  From ABC News: 

It turns out that so-called “prisoner swap” with Iran didn’t involve much of a swap. When given the chance, none of the Iranians freed from U.S. custody chose to return to Iran, according to U.S. officials familiar with the negotiations.

As the United States and Iran secretly negotiated the terms of a deal that culminated with a “prisoner swap” this weekend, both parties agreed they would fly their prisoners to Geneva, Switzerland, for the exchange – a neutral country that for years has worked as a diplomatic mediator between the two adversaries.

After an hours-long and nerve-wracking delay, a Swiss plane took off Sunday from a military base in Tehran just before 7 a.m. ET carrying three long-held American prisoners: journalist Jason Rezaian, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati and Christian pastor Saeed Abedini.

That same day, a plane took off from somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, carrying the seven Iranian-Americans freed from U.S. custody who wanted to return to Iran (or so everyone believed). But not one of them boarded the plane, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the process. The plane left anyway because it was designated to bring the freed Americans on to their second destination in Landstuhl, Germany.

COMMENT:   I don't know how the front operators for the Iranian regime will explain this.  People made a choice.  They didn't choose Iran. 

That's why "progressives" hate democracy.  People make these wrong choices.  Terrible, terrible.  Kerry probably thinks these Iranians were brainwashed by Laura Bush.

January 20, 2016       Permalink

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:  Government incompetence on the march.  From Daily Caller: 

General Services Administration (GSA) officials designed a $75 million federal law enforcement facility so unsuited to what the intended occupants needed that they couldn’t use the building when it was completed, according to the Government Accountability Office.

GSA, already notorious for wasteful spending on conferences and employee videos, didn’t talk to the Federal Protective Service (FPS) during design phase of the more than 180,000 square foot building, the congressional watchdog agency said in a report made public Tuesday.

“As a result, FPS said that no law enforcement agencies were able to use the facility and that GSA invested resources for a facility that is not suitable for its intended tenants,” GAO said.

Officials at GSA thought the new facility was for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ district headquarters so they consulted with the FPS on perimeter security. But GAO said GSA’s failure to coordinate with FPS before constructing a nearly $75 million building is evidence of a serious lack of communications between two agencies according to GAO.

Officials with both agencies told GAO investigators they experienced a bomb threat at another GSA-owned facility with 3,000 tenants, but they didn’t know who was responsible for things like when to evacuate.

COMMENT:  Who will be punished.  Probably no one.  Your tax dollars at work. 

January 20, 2016       Permalink

UPDATE – NEW TERROR ATTACK – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  We started reporting on this last night, a new terror attack at a Pakistani university.  This is the latest, from CNN:

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) Militants raided a university in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, timing their attack to a ceremony at the school to ensure maximum casualties.

After security forces combed the campus block by block after the massacre, Mehmood Khan, provincial home minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said 19 civilians were killed, along with four terrorists. He expects the number of civilian deaths to increase.

Earlier, an army spokesman said that 21 civilians had been killed.

The attack took place at Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Peshawar, less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) from where the Pakistan Taliban slayed 145 people, including 132 children, in a school attack in December 2014.

It's unclear whether the group was responsible for the Wednesday incident.

One Pakistan Taliban spokesman, Umar Mansoor, said the attack was in retaliation for military operations against the group. Mansoor was also the mastermind behind the December 2014 attack, Pakistan's DawnNews reported.

But another spokesman, Mohammad Khurrassani, from the Pakistan Taliban's central organization, disavowed any role.

COMMENT:  I can only guess, but I doubt that a Taliban spokesman would claim credit unless authorized to do so.  But I stress that's a guess.

Clearly, though, it's a Taliban-style terror attack on innocent students.  And once again we note the sheer number of terror attacks recently.  Just a minor problem, says our president.  Exaggerated.

January 20, 2016       Permalink

FREE AT LAST, FREE AT LAST – AT 9:55 A.M. ET:  Well, not quite.  But it is noteworthy that Barack Hussein Obama Jr. leaves office a year from today.  We will have a new president. 

I think any of the people running, including Hillary Clinton, would be better than Obama, with the possible exception of Bernie Sanders, who actually believes what he says. 

Obama, a shallow, often infantile man, has weakened this country, damaged its international credibility, run down its military, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq, appeased Iran, strapped the domestic economy with the regulatory state, exacerbated race relations, and wrecked national morale.  He has also imposed a health system that is heading for bankruptcy, and requiring another federal bailout.  Further, he lies regularly or lives in his own fantasy world, whichever is worse.  And he never seems to know very much.

Other than that, Obama has been a great president.  I know.  Chris Matthews will tell me.  At the end of Obama's term you are likely to hear, "Hey, Obama's ready for Mount Rushmore."  Yeah, as a tourist.

So we have to wait a year.  It's a long time.  But we can start marking the days on our calendars.

January 20,  2016     Permalink