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JUNE 14,  2016

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

IT'S A THING AMONG DEMOCRATS –  FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:  WASHINGTON — Two groups of Russian hackers, working for competing government intelligence agencies, penetrated computer systems of the Democratic National Committee and gained access to emails, chats and a trove of opposition research against Donald J. Trump, according to the party and a cybersecurity firm.  One group placed espionage software on the committee’s computer servers last summer, giving it unimpeded access to communications for about a year. The committee called in CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity firm, early last month after the Democratic Party began to suspect an intrusion.  Why, they should have called in Hillary.  She knows all about these things.

ASK FOR THE DETAILS – FROM BREITBART:   Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) says he be may be “open” to placing new gun controls on law-abiding citizens following the terror attack on Pulse Orlando.  According to CBS News’s Steven Portnoy, McConnell has a meeting with FBI director James Comey and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday. Portnoy Tweeted that McConnell has signaled he may be willing to consider new gun controls after that meeting.  The suspected gunman in the Orlando attack passed background checks for his guns, submitted to a waiting period before picking up his handgun, and held a Florida Security Officer license and a Statewide Firearms License. There is no word on what additional gun controls McConnell might be “open” to discussing.  All the legal mechanisms were in place to prevent the Orlando shooter from obtaining guns, but they didn't work.  The FBI had investigated the man, but the information was never placed in the federal database that is used in background checks.  Very baffling, and requires a Congressional probe.

AND OBAMA ALLOWS THIS – FROM AP:   MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican authorities say migrant traffickers have adopted a new trick to smuggle Central American clients to the U.S. border: renting high-end tour buses.  Mexico's Immigration Institute says it has found 102 migrants on two buses being used to whisk them across the length of the country.  The migrants reported paying between $7,000 and $10,000 to go from an area near the Guatemalan border to Reynosa, a city across from McAllen, Texas.  The institute said Monday that because the traffickers wanted to move quickly, they had not stopped to get the migrants food or water for two days.  Where are the "human rights" organizations?  Maybe this is their vacation time.

June 14, 2016     Permalink

THERE, SHE USED THE WORDS – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  Until yesterday Slick Hilly went along with the Obama line and refused to use the words "radical Islamism."  Suddenly that has changed.  The internal polling probably went sour.  From The Hill:

Revealing her more hawkish side, Hillary Clinton on Monday made a significant pivot by using the term “radical Islamism” to describe the terror threat posed by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Clinton, after coming under criticism from Donald Trump, said she was “happy to say either” radical jihadism — a term she has used before — or radical Islamism to describe terrorist groups.

“I think they mean the same thing,” Clinton said, adding that from her perspective, “It matters what we do more than what we say.”

The fight over the term took on a new dimension after a gunman killed 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub early Sundaymorning. The man pledged allegiance to ISIS during the attack, underlining the threat to the homeland from homegrown terrorism inspired by the foreign group.

Democratic strategists said Clinton’s choice of words represented a significant alteration to her message, and Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, immediately took credit for it.

COMMENT:  Clinton has secured the nomination.  The hard-left Sanders people won't like the change in vocabulary, but there's little they can do about it.  It's the great political center where the election will be won, and Clinton is polling poorly among independents. 

Clinton must be calculating that another attack will come during the campaign.  The public will become more hawkish, and, indeed, she is regarded as much more hawkish than the administration she served as secretary of state.  I'm sure she also sees the possibility of picking up moderate Republicans who are turned off by Donald Trump, and that can make a difference in a close race. 

June 14, 2016       Permalink

AT LEAST THEY GET IT – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:  We often associate European public opinion with self-delusion and a bent toward appeasement.  Maybe, with poll results like this things are changing.  You can hide reality only so much.  From Reuters: 

BERLIN, June 13 (Reuters) - Europeans view the militant group Islamic State as the biggest threat facing their countries, ahead of climate change, economic instability and refugees, a survey by the Pew Research Center showed on Monday.

Respondents in nine of 10 European countries surveyed said they saw IS, also known by the acronyms ISIS and ISIL, as the greatest danger, with 93 percent of Spaniards and 91 percent of French describing the group as a "major threat".

Most of the surveys were conducted in April, a month after militants loyal to IS killed 32 people at the Brussels airport and metro. The Pew report was published a day after a gunman who had pledged allegiance to IS killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Greece, struggling to return to growth after nearly seven years of recession, was the only country where respondents did not list IS as the top threat. Instead, 95 percent of Greeks said that global economic instability posed the greatest risk to their country.

COMMENT:  The question, of course, is whether the European elites, and the governments they control, feel the same way.  After all, it's not "sophisticated" or "intellectual" to be overly concerned about ISIS.  Some of the European elites still take their cue from the hopeless Barack Obama.

It is much easier for ISIS or Al Qaeda operatives, based in the Mideast, to strike Europe rather than America.  Europeans know this, and know that something big is coming.

June 14, 2016       Permalink

SHOCK IN FRANCE – AT 8:53 A.M. ET:  The murder of a French police officer and the torture/murder of his wife, is now growing into a major international story, probably because of Islamic extremist links.  From Fox: 

A Muslim radical who was being investigated for terror ties stabbed a French police chief to death outside his home, then tortured the man's wife in front of their toddler son - all while livestreaming his rampage on Facebook.

The shocking attack in Magnanville, 35 miles north of Paris, ended after a three-hour standoff, when French commandoes stormed the home, rescuing the boy and killing Larossi Abballa, 25. Before the raid, Abballa, a French national with a prior terrorism conviction and ties to jihadists based in Pakistan, made a horrific appeal to his Facebook followers, writing, "I don't know what I'm going to do with the boy."

Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, was not in uniform when he was ambushed and stabbed repeatedly in the stomach outside of his home shortly before 8.30 p.m. on Monday. His wife, a 36-year-old secretary at a local police station, was killed with a knife inside the residence while the couple's 3-year-old son hid behind a couch. The French interior minister called the slaughter "an abject terrorist act."

Three men believed to have close ties to Abbala were brought in for questioning by French police shortly after the attack, officials said.

Word that Abbala had filmed a 12-minute video of the attack and posted it on Facebook Live shocked the nation Tuesday morning. Abbala also tweeted twice during the killings.

COMMENT:  Please note that this monster used knives, not guns.  Other terrorists use explosives. 

This is the third stunning terror attack during the month of Ramadan.  One in Israel, one in Orlando, and now another in France.  We must brace ourselves for more, while the president of the United States still refuses to use the term "Islamist terror."

June 14,  2016     Permalink

JUNE 13,  2016

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

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   Confidence in newspapers has hit an all time low in the latest Gallup survey, and TV news is also at a new low, the latest proof that Americans are losing faith in the media.  Gallup found that just 20 percent have confidence in newspapers, a 10-point drop in 10 years. TV news saw an identical 10-point drop, from 31 percent to 21 percent.  Gee, I wonder why.  You don't think it has anything to do with liberal bias, do you?  No, impossible.

ANOTHER PROBABLE ISIS ATTACK – FROM FOX:    A police officer has been stabbed to death near Paris in an attack reportedly linked to the Islamic State.  The officer was stabbed nine times in the abdomen at about 8.30 p.m. local time outside his home.  Armed police stormed the building, in the Yvelines area near Versailles, shots were fired and at least two explosions were heard at the scene.  Inside, police found the body of a woman, believed to be the officer's wife, and a three-year-old boy believed to be their son.  The little boy was in shock but is now safe.  The alleged knifeman, reportedly a neighbour of the police officer, was also found dead.  Islamic State's Amaq news agency cited an unnamed source as saying that an "ISIS fighter" had carried out the attack.  "Source to Amaq agency: Islamic State fighter kills deputy chief of the police station in the city of Les Mureaux and his wife," Amaq said on its news website.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.  We await President Obama's scholarly explanation of the event.

THIS JUST IN – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Sadiq Khan, London’s first Muslim mayor, announced Monday that “body shaming” advertisements will no longer be allowed in London’s public transport.  “As the father of two teenage girls, I am extremely concerned about this kind of advertising which can demean people, particularly women, and make them ashamed of their bodies. It is high time it came to an end,” Khan said.  The mayor added, “Nobody should feel pressurised, while they travel on the Tube or bus, into unrealistic expectations surrounding their bodies and I want to send a clear message to the advertising industry about this.”  The nanny state has officially arrived. 

June 13, 2016       Permalink

THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, NOT – AT 1:16 P.M. ET:  President Obama came out of the bunker today to speak further about the Orlando attack.  The insanity rolls on.  From London's Daily Mail: 

President Barack Obama said Monday that there's 'no clear evidence' that the shooter at an Orlando nightclub was directed to conduct his attack or part of a larger plot.

What do they have to do?  Send us a sworn statement?  It's early in the probe, and, as usual, our leftist president is trying to play down the role of radical Islam.

The president declared instead in an Oval Office press availability that the shooter appears to have derived inspiration from extremist information disseminated over the internet.

I wonder why it was disseminated.  I guess it was an educational campaign. 

And he suggested an anti-gay bias, not a terrorist influence, may be the primary reason for the weekend's bloodshed in Orlando, Florida.

'The fact that it took place at a club frequented by the LGBT community I think is also relevant,' he stated.

Of course it's relevant, Mr. Field Marshal.  Radical Islam hates gays.

The president blamed 'propaganda and perversions of Islam that you see generated on the Internet' for the mindset that drove a sympathizer with the ISIS terror army to kill 49 people Saturday night, along with 'the capacity of that to seep into the minds of troubled individuals or weak individuals.'

'I think we don't yet know the motivations' of the shooter, the president said.

The mass-murder pledged his loyalty to ISIS in a 911 call as he carried out the attack.

Maybe Obama hadn't heard.

FBI Director James Comey explained in a statement after his meeting with Obama that the killer also sympathized with other radicals, including one who was part of a group in direct conflict with ISIS, however, leading to confusion about his own goals in carrying out the attack.

And...

Obama hedged, however, against the possibility that the 49 dead might be genuine victims of a jihadi directed from abroad, even as he declared that there is 'no sign' of a wider plot against the United States.

What a horrible president.  After all the world has experienced at the hands of radical Islam, he plays down the threat.

'Regardless of the particular motivations of this particular killer,' he said, 'there are connections between this vicious bankrupt ideology and general attitudes towards gays and lesbians.'

'And unfortunately that's something that that LGBT community is subject to,' he said, 'not just by ISIL but by a lot of groups that purport to speak on behalf of God around the world.'

Here we go.  We're all responsible.  ISIS (or ISIL, as he says) is no different from a lot of other "folks" around the world.

COMMENT:   Obama never liked this country or its people.  Some "sophisticates" even describe him as the first  "post-American" president, and they use the term approvingly.

He is, in fact, a shallow propagandist who will leave this country far less safe than it was when he took office.  But he'll blame us, for we are the sinners.

June 13, 2016        Permalink

THE TRUTH WELL STATED – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  The Wall Street Journal sums up our dilemma quite well, and with common sense:

A young American Muslim pledging allegiance to Islamic State is now responsible for the largest mass shooting in U.S. history. Can we finally drop the illusion that the jihadist fires that burn in the Middle East don’t pose an urgent and deadly threat to the American homeland?

We hope so after the Sunday morning assault on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that killed at least 51 and wounded 53 as we went to press. The killer was Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, the son of immigrants from Afghanistan who was heard shouting “allahu Akbar” (God is great) as he fired away. Mateen attacked a popular night spot for gays, who are especially loathed in Islamist theology.

Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and it rarely does so unless it played some role. CNN and others reported that a U.S. official said Mateen made a 911 call during the attack in which he pledged allegiance to Islamic State and mentioned the 2013 Boston marathon bombing.

We’ll learn more about Mateen’s ISIS ties in the days ahead, but it hardly matters to the victims whether the would-be caliphate planned the attack or merely inspired it. As we learned again after December’s murders in San Bernardino, ISIS propaganda over the internet can all too easily reach Muslims alienated from American society. Young men who are second generation immigrants seem to be especially vulnerable to calls for jihad.

COMMENT:  That says it.  We need a large dose of common sense in this country, to replace the left-wing fantasies of Barack Obama and his follows in the anthropology departments of the world.

Concern is that another attack is coming, either here or in an allied country.  It will come.  It always does.

June 13, 2016       Permalink

TAKING CREDIT – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  ISIS has taken credit for the Orlando attack.  From
The Hill: 

The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) claimed responsibility Sunday for a deadly nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., that left 50 dead and 53 injured.

"The attack that targeted a nightclub for homosexuals in Orlando, Florida and that left more than 100 dead and wounded was carried out by an Islamic State fighter," ISIS said in a statement.

The organization offered no proof for the attacks.

Speaking to reporters on the scene shortly before 3 p.m., Florida Sen. Bill Nelson (D) said ISIS had accepted responsibility for the shooting. But he said it had not been confirmed by the FBI.

“In this case, if we’re getting those kind of statements from the news agency of the Islamic State, we’ll have to see what those connections are.”

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) also referenced the United States’s ongoing fight against terrorism but said the FBI would have more information about possible connections to terrorism.

Fifty people were killed and 53 others were injured early Sunday morning when a gunman opened fire inside the Pulse nightclub in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Federal law enforcement officials say the gunman was Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old American citizen living in Port St. Lucie, Fla. He was killed at the scene in a shootout with police.

He was reportedly armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and a handgun.

News networks reported Mateen phoned 911 moments before the shooting to pledge allegiance to ISIS.

COMMENT:  The fact that Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS is sufficient, in my view, to establish a terrorist motive.  And the attack came during the month of Ramadan, a favorite time for Islamic extremists to strike.  And we've learned that Mateen had a history of belligerent statements supporting jihad.

And yet, there are already attempts by the usual suspects to minimize the terrorist link.  Why, it was simply a hate crime against gays.  He's unstable.  He had a bad marriage.  Maybe his air conditioner failed.

It was a terror attack.

June 13,  2016     Permalink