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JULY 13,  2016

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

UNBELIEVABLE – FROM BRITAIN'S EXPRESS:    Number 10’s newest occupant has received calls from leaders in Germany, France and Ireland but has so far heard nothing from America’s outgoing White House chief.  German chancellor Angela Merkel was the first leader to phone Mrs May when she called from Kyrgyzstan to applaud David Cameron’s successor.  France’s president Francois Hollande called the Prime Minister to wish her well in the new role and discussed with Mrs May the importance of maintaining a close relationship between Britain and France.  And the Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny also spoke with Theresa May as he offered to visit London soon to discuss the ties between the two leaders’ countries.  Obama is a petty man, and goes out of his way to prove it.

SPEAKING OF BRITAIN – Boris Johnson, the pro-American former mayor of London, has just been named foreign secretary in the cabinet of Britain's new conservative prime minister, Theresa May.  In 2007, Johnson described Hillary Clinton as follows:  “She’s got dyed blonde hair and pouty lips, and a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital …”  Ah, it takes a Brit to get it just right.  The only virtue of Hillary Clinton being elected is to have us watch her greeting Boris at the White House.

FRIDAY AT 11 – Donald Trump will announce his choice for vice-presidential running mate Friday at 11 a.m. ET.  Most presumably informed pundits believe that it's now a race between Indiana Governor Mike Pence and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, with the outside chance that Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey could still be in the running.  Vice-presidential announcements are greeted with great fanfare, but, in truth, they usually have little effect on the presidential race.  The last time I think there was a proved effect was 1960, when Lyndon Johnson's presence on John F. Kennedy's ticket helped Kennedy carry Johnson's home state of Texas.  It's often said that the role of the vice presidential candidate is to stay out of trouble.

July 13,  2016     Permalink

A LOSS FOR ISIS? – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  ISIS has suffered military setbacks recently, and may be preparing to give up, temporarily, its "caliphate."  But never count ISIS out.  From Fox, via the New York Post: 

Islamic State terror leaders reportedly are preparing for the fall of its so-called caliphate after the US-led coalition and Russian-backed forces made significant gains in recent months in Iraq and Syria.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that the terror group’s leaders in Syria are bracing for its strongholds to fall, but vow to continue its wave of terror attacks abroad. US counterterrorism experts believe the recent large-scale attacks in Istanbul and Baghdad are a sign that its reign in the Middle East is dwindling.

Experts still believe that even if the terrorists affiliated with ISIS start to move underground, the group will still remain dangerous abroad.

“Where al Qaeda was hierarchical and somewhat controlled, these guys are not. They have all the energy and unpredictability of a populist movement,” retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden told the Washington Post.

ISIS officials still believe that its vision of a “caliphate” across the Middle East is still viable despite its losses across the region it claims. One also insisted that the group had “shifted some of our command, media and wealth structure to different countries.”

COMMENT:  Armed factions are often most dangerous when they are nearing defeat, for they fight fanatically.  The United States suffered its highest casualty rate in World War II in 1945, the last year of the war.  The Japanese and Germans were fighting on their home territory, and fought to the death.

Islamic fanaticism will continue, with or without ISIS.

July 13, 2016       Permalink 

SHUT UP MADAM JUSTICE – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the United States Supreme Court has unloaded on Donald Trump, and neither Republicans nor Democrats are happy about it.  Getting involved in politics is simply not what judges do, especially judges on the nation's highest court.  From Fox: 

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg faced a growing and bipartisan backlash Wednesday -- including a call from Donald Trump to resign -- as she doubled down on her criticism of the presumptive GOP nominee, calling him a “faker” who is unqualified to be president.

Even political figures and newspaper editorial writers who might agree with the comments swiftly said they were out of line for a high court justice.

The liberal icon justice had kicked off the storm with comments to The New York Times published Saturday. “I can’t imagine what this place would be — I can’t imagine what the country would be -- with Donald Trump as our president. For the country, it could be four years. For the court, it could be -- I don’t even want to contemplate that,” she said.

She doubled down late Monday, telling CNN: “He is a faker."

"He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. ... How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns? The press seems to be very gentle with him on that," she said.

Trump swiftly responded Tuesday, telling the Times it was “highly inappropriate that a United States Supreme Court judge gets involved in a political campaign”

“I think it’s a disgrace to the court and I think she should apologize to the court. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it,” the presumptive Republican nominee said.

Trump’s criticisms were echoed by Republican congressional leaders. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday Ginsburg’s comments were "totally inappropriate.”

"It raises a level of skepticism that the American people have from time to time about just how objective the Supreme Court is, whether they're over there to call the balls and strikes, or weigh in on one side or another," he said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan used similar language at a CNN event Tuesday.

"For someone on the Supreme Court who is going to be calling balls and strikes in the future based upon whatever the next president and Congress does, that strikes me as inherently biased and out of the realm," Ryan said.

Ginsburg’s comments also left Democratic lawmakers squirming.

“We all know that the justices on the Supreme Court have political views. I’m not sure we’re well served by them airing them out in the open,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told Politico.

“She may have got out over her skis a little bit and more forthright and political than she should have been. It’s very unusual,” Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told the outlet.

COMMENT:  Grossly improper.  She's 83, and some people will cut her some slack, but maybe it's time to go.  She has compromised even the appearance of neutrality.  Please remember that the 2000 election, Bush versus Gore, wound up in the Supreme Court.  If something like that happens this year, Ginsburg would certainly have to recuse herself to maintain the Court's credibility...but she might refuse.  Age might have its privileges, but being on the Supreme Court is not one of them.

July 13, 2016       Permalink   

TRUMP ROMPS – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  Donald Trump is rising rapidly in the polls.  The rise comes just when he needs it, in the week before the Republican convention.  The numbers will bolster his case against the anti-Trump movement that hopes to derail his nomination when Republicans meet in Cleveland next week.  From The Hill:

Donald Trump has overtaken Hillary Clinton in Florida and has a lead in the swing state of Pennsylvania, according to a new poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University.

Trump leads Clinton, 42 to 39 percent, in Florida in the latest Quinnipiac University poll. That's an 11-point swing from last month, when Clinton led, 47 to 39 percent.

Trump has also retaken the lead from Clinton in Pennsylvania, where he now leads her, 43 to 41 percent. Last month, Clinton held a slim lead, 42 to 41 percent.

The pair remains tied in Ohio, where Republicans will gather to formally nominate Trump at a convention in Cleveland next week. Trump and Clinton each get 41 percent apiece there. In the poll last month, each won 40 percent.

The shift in the polls comes after a tough week on the campaign trail for Clinton, who dodged criminal charges from the FBI over her use of a private email server as secretary of state but was criticized harshly by FBI Director James Comey.

Clinton has had difficulty in winning over voters throughout the election, and Comey's remarks were further ammunition for Trump and Republicans to attack her trustworthiness.

"While there is no definite link between Clinton's drop in Florida and the U.S. Justice Department decision not to prosecute her for her handling of e-mails, she has lost ground to Trump on questions which measure moral standards and honesty," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

COMMENT:  I'm not so sure that being seen with Bernie Sanders is helping Hillary.  Bernie may be the darling of the leftist intellectuals and some in the press, but he's widely regarded as a fringe figure. 

It's being reported that Hillary is vetting retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts, for vice president.  I don't know whether this is one of those planned leaks, designed to strengthen Hillary's national security cred, or the real thing.  It would be a fascinating choice, though.

July 13,  2016     Permalink

JULY 12,  2016

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

SUCH STYLE AND DIGNITY – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed her aides for bungling her emails, telling a federal court Tuesday that department employees knew she was using a secret account and they should have been the ones to police her.  Mrs. Clinton, through her lawyers, begged the court not to order her to have to testify under oath about her emails, saying she no longer has any of them and she didn’t set the system up to try to thwart open-records laws, so she has little to add to the ongoing Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.  Judicial Watch, a conservative legal group that’s been pursuing Mrs. Clinton’s emails for years, has asked a federal judge to make Mrs. Clinton sit for a sworn deposition so it can get to the bottom of what happened to some 30,000 messages the former secretary refused to turn over to the government.  Blaming the aides.  Adults usually say, "I take full responsibility."  Hillary never heard those words.

I LOVE IT – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Pennsylvania police officers picked up the tab Saturday for a couple of diners who reportedly refused to sit next to them.  Four officers were dining at the Eat’n Park restaurant in Homestead when a man told server Jesse Meyers that he didn’t want to sit near them, The Blaze reported.  “A table goes to sit down and the guy looks over at one of the police officers and was like, ‘Nah I don’t want to sit here,’” Mr. Meyers told WTAE, a local ABC News affiliate. “So they got moved completely opposite, away from the police officers.”  Homestead Police Officer Chuck Thomas said it was obvious that the man and the woman he was with didn’t want anything to do with the officers.  “I looked over and said, ‘It’s OK, sir. You won’t have to worry about it, we won’t hurt you,'” Officer Thomas recalled. “He looked at me hard again and said he’s not sitting here and walked away.”  He said he and another officer in his group paid for the couple’s check, which came to $38.50.  So the creeps walked away, but let the officers pay their tab.  They'd probably let the cops take a bullet for them also.

ANOTHER STORY OF CLASS AND GRACE – FROM DAILY CALLER:   President Obama referred to himself 45 times over the course of the speech he delivered Tuesday at the memorial service for the five police officers killed in Dallas last week.  Obama referred to himself twice before finishing his opening salutations and before mentioning the slain officers or their families. After noting the presence of President Bush, members of Congress and Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings, Obama appeared to go off-script.  “Chief Brown, I’m so glad I met Michelle first because she loves Stevie Wonder,” Obama said, jokingly referencing Dallas Police Chief David Brown’s earlier speech in which Brown quoted lyrics from the song “As” in tribute to the deceased. The president looked around the room, pointed at Brown and cracked a grin while the audience laughed at and applauded his joke.   The first ten minutes of Obama's speech were fine, even eloquent.  But then he went political, and ruined the whole thing.  Wrong man to lead the country at a time like this.

July 12, 2016       Permalink

BALTIMORE TRAGEDY – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:   We watch a city die, and we see a direct link with the irresponsible behavior of its leaders and their failure to back law enforcement and the rule of law.  From Powerline: 

Baltimore has descended into chaos since, in the aftermath of Freddy Gray’s death, the city failed to back its police force.

Murders surged a staggering 63 percent in 2015, with 344 people killed. This year hasn’t been quite as bad so far, but the murder rate remains abnormally high.

Meanwhile, Baltimore’s police force is shrinking dramatically. According to Blake Neff of the Daily Caller, at the beginning of 2015, Baltimore had 2,805 police officers. By the end of the year, the force was down to 2,634 officers, a drop of 6.1 percent. In June of this year, there were only 2,445 officers in the force, a decline of 6.8 percent since January.

The shrinkage in the size of the police force seems clearly to be related to the events that followed Freddy Gray’s death — the riots during which Baltimore’s mayor, having talked about making space for “those who wish to destroy," had the police stand down; the prosecution of six officers on charges that appear to be without merit; the wave of anti-police sentiment that politicians like prosecutor Marilyn Mosby have fueled and legitimized.

According to Gene Ryan, president of the Baltimore Fraternal Order of Police, these events were, as one would expect, “morale killers” for Baltimore cops. Many officers, he adds, are defecting to the police departments of nearby cities, including Washington, D.C.

Ryan says that lack of personnel has forced many specialty agents to fulfill routine roles like responding to emergency calls. Instead of trying to prevent crime, these agents are simply mopping up. Ryan also believes that officers are “walking on eggshells,” which also means less proactive policing.

Simply put, there is less policing, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Not surprisingly, the murder rate has spiked.

COMMENT:  I'm afraid we're going to make the same mistake over and over, in part because our news is filtered through liberal news networks, and our children are educated in liberal schools.  There is simply an effect, over time, that cannot be denied.

July 12, 2016       Permalink

MORE ON HILLARY – REMARKABLE – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  Another poll just out, a unique one, paints a devastating picture of Hillary Clinton's standing among young people.

Now, let me be blunt:  I am not a fan of young people in politics.  Youth is often accompanied by immaturity and lack of experience.  But, for better or worse, we allow young people to vote.  Even in adult elections.  And they're not falling in love with the Queen.  From AP: 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton is struggling to make inroads among young Americans who overwhelmingly supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic presidential primary, a worrisome sign as she tries to reassemble the coalition that twice propelled Barack Obama into the White House.

Opinions of Clinton among young Americans vary by race and ethnicity, according to a new GenForward poll of adults ages 18 to 30. The majority of the nation's younger blacks and Asian-Americans have a favorable impression of Clinton, but the presumptive Democratic nominee struggles with whites and Hispanics.

Very significant.  Some observers lump all "minorities" together, but in fact they're very different.  Hispanics, as they get into the second and third generation, are certainly going their own way.  They don't consult with other "minorities" to know what to think.

Asian Americans, still a bit unsteady politically, will surely also go their own way.  If any observer thinks they'll consult with Al Sharpton, that observer is in need of treatment.

Just 26 percent of young whites and 49 percent of Hispanics have a positive opinion of the former secretary of state. Both groups overwhelmingly say she is not trustworthy.

"I just don't see her being honest and straightforward," said Alexander Tomas, an 18-year-old Hispanic from Fort Worth, Texas. A recent high school graduate, Tomas supported Sanders in the state's Democratic primary, but says he's now undecided about his choice in November's general election.

GenForward is a survey by the Black Youth Project at the University of Chicago with the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The first-of-its-kind poll pays special attention to the voices of young adults of color, highlighting how race and ethnicity shape the opinions of the country's most diverse generation.

The survey polled all young adults, not necessarily registered or likely voters, but the findings suggest Clinton may struggle to turn out people 18 to 30 to support her candidacy. While Clinton emerged victorious in her unexpectedly tough primary with Sanders, the contest revealed a stunning weakness with such young voters.

The GenForward poll found that among those who preferred Sanders in the primaries, only half are prepared to say they'll back Clinton in her general election face-off with presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump. About a quarter say they won't support Clinton, and nearly a quarter say they're not sure.

COMMENT:  Now let's see if Trump, who often is one big self-inflicted wound, can appeal to young people and their fear that the future may not be all that bright.  Trump's slogan should be, "I build," and he should show how he will.

July 12, 2016       Permalink

HILLARY RIDES THE TITANIC – AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  Damage has been done.  Her lead over Donald Trump is shrinking.  From NBC: 

Hillary Clinton's lead over Donald Trump narrowed to 3 points this week after several days of controversy following FBI Director James Comey's recommendation that no criminal charges be brought against the former secretary of state over her use of a private email server.

While the developments are certainly good news for the Clinton campaign, Comey's critical statement on Clinton's handling of the matter was not positive. Clinton's lead over Trump has deteriorated in the past couple weeks since her lead peaked two weeks ago.

A strong majority of voters (82 percent) agreed that it was inappropriate for Clinton to use a personal email server during her tenure as secretary of state. A smaller majority — 56 percent — also said they disagreed with Comey's recommendation that Clinton not be prosecuted for use of the server.

COMMENT:  This election may well turn out to be a tight horse race.  And minor-party candidates might draw enough votes to change the outcome in a number of states. 

One can only wonder where the race would be right now if the Republicans had a skillful presidential candidate, not a sledgehammer.  This should be an easy fight for Republicans.  If they lose the presidential contest, some heavy soul-searching will be in order, soul-searching that should focus on the way candidates are nominated.  We'll have more to say about that.

July 12,  2016     Permalink