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JUNE 21,  2017

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

A CHANGING AMERICA – FROM AP:   WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States is growing older and more ethnically diverse, a trend that could put strains on government programs from Medicare to education, the Census Bureau reported Thursday.  Every ethnic and racial group grew between 2015 and 2016, but the number of whites increased at the slowest rate - less than one hundredth of 1 percent or 5,000 people, the Census estimate shows. That's a fraction of the rates of growth for non-white Hispanics, Asians and people who said they are multi-racial, according to the government's annual estimates of population.  I would not read too much into this.  Predictions of what a country will be in 20 years are often notoriously wrong, as groups change over time, and so do political allegiances.  Remember the solid Democratic South?  Or the heavily Republican "affluent" suburbs?  At one time the "black vote" was Republican, but no more.  And the "Catholic vote" was a lock for the Democrats, but no more.

NEW TALES OF THE TAPE? – FROM FOX:  Sean Spicer, the White house press secretary, said Tuesday that he expects an announcement “this week” on whether there are taped phone conversations between President Trump and his former FBI director, James Comey.  So far Trump has, at best, been coy about his possession of such tapes.  In May, Trump fired a loud warning shot, tweeting, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”  The president last month told reporters that "I'll tell you about that maybe sometime in the near future" but offered no hints as to whether the tapes exists, except saying that some journalists would "be very disappointed" to find out the answer.  Maybe we'll have an entirely new era in entertainment.  Or maybe we'll be stuck with the current soap opera.

A NEW McCARTHYISM – FROM DAILY SIGNAL:  The nation’s leading source of information on U.S. charities faces mounting criticism for using a controversial “hate group” designation in listings for some well-known and broadly supported conservative nonprofits.  GuideStar, which calls itself a “neutral” aggregator of tax data on charities, recently incorporated “hate group” labels produced by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center.  The decision by the tracker of nonprofits prompted 41 conservative leaders to protest the move in a letter provided exclusively to The Daily Signal. The letter, dated June 21, asks the website to drop the “hate group” labels put on 46 organizations.   Reminds me of the lists published in the early 1950s, accusing people of Communist sympathies.  Same tactics.

June 21,  2017     Permalink

THE WORST-RUN STATE? – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:   Right now it has to be Illinois.  Even though the state finally has a Republican governor, he's struggling with the disasters built up over time.  He may not make it.  This is worse than global warming.  From Fox:

Illinois is grappling with a full-fledged financial crisis and not even the lottery is safe – with Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner warning the state is entering "banana republic" territory. 

Facing billions in unpaid bills and pension obligations, the state is hitting a cash crunch that is rare even by Illinois standards.

A top financial official just warned 100 percent of the state's monthly revenue will be eaten up by court-ordered payments. Rauner is calling a special session of the Democrat-led General Assembly in a bid to pass what he hopes will be the first full budget package in almost three years.
And Illinois will – literally – lose the lottery if the budget fails. 

The state lotto requires a payment from the legislature each year. The current appropriation expires June 30, meaning no authority to pay prizes. In anticipation of a budget deadlock, the state already is planning to halt Powerball and Mega Millions sales. 

“It is disappointing that the legislature’s inability to pass a budget has led to this development and will result in Illinois lottery players being denied the opportunity to play these popular games,” Illinois Lottery Acting Director Greg Smith told Fox News.

“We’re like a banana republic,” Rauner said earlier this month, after the General Assembly failed, yet again, to pass a budget package by the regular session deadline. “We can’t manage our money.”
The governor has called for a special session starting Wednesday. The state so far is operating on a series of stopgap spending packages. 

COMMENT:  There is a one-word description of this mess:  Chicago.  Chicago is the biggest influence in Illinois, and the city is in chaos.  It's Barack Obama's home city, and you'd think he'd show some interest.  Maybe the interest will start when his library is built.

June 21, 2017       Permalink

AND A CLOSER VIEW OF THE GEORGIA RACE – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  You gotta know the territory.  Seems the voters of Georgia's Sixth C.D. were not interested in what the Democratic Party was selling.  From Fox: 

Turns out…money can’t buy you love. Or a House seat in Georgia’s 6th District.

Democrats pulled out all stops in their effort to show that the #Resistance isn’t just about marches and slogans and insulting the president, but also about flipping the House in 2018. They poured tens of millions of dollars into what became the most expensive House race ever, trying to elect 30-year-old nonentity Jon Ossoff to fill the seat of HHS head Tom Price. They cast the race as a referendum on Donald Trump, and a bellwether for 2018. Republicans will be elated with the outcome, and hopeful that both those claims are true.

What is undoubtedly true is this: despising Donald Trump is not much of a platform.

Ossoff, who received gobs of money from outside Georgia and doesn’t even live in the 6th District, started his campaign by exhorting voters to “Make Trump Furious.” But more recently he backed off that attack line, and ran what even the New York Times called a “milquetoast” campaign. He portrayed himself as a centrist, with a platform about as thin as his resume. Apparently he came to realize that those activists sending contributions from LA and New York would not be showing up in the voting booth, and that he had to win the hearts and minds of Georgia Republicans.

Democrats’ eagerness to put Trump in the middle of the race may have been a misstep, but they were  swayed by the president’s declining approval ratings and by his narrow victory in the district in November. He won the 6th by only 1.5 percentage points, while Mitt Romney had a 23 point margin four years earlier and Tom Price had been reelected by 24 points last year.

But it turned out that suburban Atlanta’s voters had other things on their minds, including possibly hoping for a candidate better able to serve their interests than the youthful former congressional aide and documentary filmmaker. Despite a torrent of ads casting the election as a way to vent their disapproval of President Trump, the largely Republican district came through for Karen Handel, who has worked her way up through state politics and was a reliable middle-of-the-road candidate. 

COMMENT:   I think that's very accurate.  The Dems put up a candidate whose candidacy made no sense.  They should have put up a giantkiller, but instead ran a perfectly respectable young man with nothing much to offer.  And he could have taken an apartment in the district, just to show some respect.  The fella couldn't even vote in his own election. 

Also, President Trump may not be as unpopular as some polls show.  Remember that he consistently underpolled during the election campaign.  His current Rasmussen approval number is 45%, which is about where Obama spent most of his presidency.  A recent poll showed that he would still beat Hillary Clinton.  Never underestimate his political skills.

June 21, 2017        Permalink

THAT GEORGIA RACE – QUOTE OF THE DAY – Oh, the Dems must be in anguish this morning.  To paraphrase Cole Porter in "Kiss Me, Kate" – another election, another loss.  Politico says it nicely:

Good Wednesday morning and happy first day of summer. THE FACTS -- KAREN HANDEL quite easily beat JON OSSOFF in Georgia. House Republicans are now 4-0 in contested special elections since PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP won the presidency. That means Democrats have failed -- despite millions of dollars in spending -- to win a single race with a president who has a record low approval rating. Democrats are even further from the majority than they thought. Let’s be clear: something ain’t working for Democrats, party insiders privately tell us. The Ossoff race galvanized national donors and activists in a way that led many to believe House Democrats were en route to wresting control of the chamber from Republicans. That’s not how they feel this morning. Caveat: this is a Republican seat. Being close is nice. But after six years in the minority, that’s about all it is.

-- REP. SETH MOULTON (D-MASS.) (@sethmoulton): “#Ossof Race better be a wakeup call for Democrats - business as usual isn’t working. Time to stop rehashing 2016 and talk about the future.” … “We need a genuinely new message, a serious jobs plan that reaches all Americans, and a bigger tent not a smaller one. Focus on the future."

COMMENT:  Maybe the Dems will finally figure out that they're not loved.  They think because Trump's approval ratings are low, that the voters will run into their arms.  They will not.  The Democratic Party is a train wreck.  It has lost the White House, the Senate, the House, most governorships and most state legislatures.  It has lost a thousand legislative seats nationwide since Obama took office.

Most Americans really don't like what the Dems stand for.  And I'm sure plenty of Americans are sickened by the fact that leading Dems, like Senator Kamala Harris of California and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, as well as National Chairman Tom Perez, drop curse words into their speeches.  Who are they trying to appeal to?

June 21, 2017     Permalink 

JUNE 20,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

HANDEL HANDLES IT – Republican Karen Handel has won the special Congressional election in Georgia's 6th C.D., defeating Democrat Jon Ossoff.  Handel received 52.1 percent of the vote to Ossoff's
47.9 percent.  So ends the Democratic dream of making this the most important election in world history.  The district is traditionally Republican, and Ossoff certainly ran a close race, benefiting from millions of dollars from sources outside Georgia.  But he lost.  One hopes the Democratic Party understands that losing is not good, and not an expression of public confidence.  We'll probably have more on this latest Democratic failure tomorrow.

HILLARY GETS MORE HEAT – FROM FOX:  The State Department has opened a formal inquiry into whether former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her aides mishandled classified information while she was the nation’s top diplomat, Fox News has learned. Despite being under investigation, Clinton and her staffers still have security clearances to access sensitive government information.  The department’s investigation aims to determine whether Clinton and her closest aides violated government protocols by using her private server to receive, hold and transmit classified and top-secret government documents. The department declined to say when its inquiry began, but it follows the conclusion of the FBI’s probe into the matter, which did not result in any actions being taken against Clinton or any of her aides.  Depending on the outcome of the current State Department inquiry, Clinton and her aides could have their access to sensitive government documents terminated.   The aides' clearances should be terminated, but I'm guessing that Hillary will keep hers.  I don't think Trump wants to humiliate her further.  He wants to be the big guy, and I think the word will be passed to the press that he personally approved her clearance.

SO MUCH FOR GUN CONTROL – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:    The man who was killed after plowing a car filled with guns into a police van on the Champs-Elysées had a permit to carry arms despite being on France’s terror watch list, officials said.  Adam Dzaziri, 31, had at least nine weapons — including two pistols and a Kalashnikov-type assault rifle — in his home in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil, a source close to the probe told the Telegraph of the UK.  Dzaziri was carrying in his car an assault rifle, two handguns, ammo and two large gas canisters, two police sources and the judicial official told the paper.  Prime Minister Edouard Philippe expressed his alarm that Dzaziri was able to have a weapons permit despite being on a jihadist watch list.  “What I know at this stage is that the first weapons permit was given before this individual was flagged up,” he told BFM-TV and RMC radio Tuesday.  He said “nobody can be satisfied — and certainly not me” that Dzaziri had still been able to carry lethal weapons.  We're told they're so tough on guns in Europe, yet look at the number of terror incidents in which guns were found, either on the offender or in his residence.  Criminals and terrorists do not observe gun-control laws. 

June 20, 2017       Permalink

THE SPECIAL COUNSEL PROBLEM – AT 11:29 A.M. ET:  Robert Mueller, former FBI director and now special counsel to the Justice Department, hired to probe President Trump, has a problem.  A trust problem.  A credibility problem.  Glenn Harlan Reynolds, master of Instapundit, explains the dilemma at USA Today:   

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a problem: He has a disqualifying conflict of interest regarding a large part of his work. It involves a choice between investigating or relying on former FBI director James Comey, a longtime close friend of Mueller’s.

Ideally, he’ll recognize that and resign. But if he doesn’t resign, Attorney General Jeff Sessions should appoint another special counsel to take over the obstruction-of-justice part of the investigation, where Mueller is disqualified.

At present, there are two investigations: One into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians (a claim that even Democrat Chris Matthews admitted fell apart after Comey’s recent testimony) and an investigation into whether, while being investigated for this claimed collusion, President Trump or someone else obstructed justice. That investigation is closely tied to Comey, and so is Mueller.

As Bill Otis wrote in these pages last week, Mueller is too close to Comey to be impartial, and that violates Justice Department conflict of interest rules.  As Otis noted, “Comey and Mueller have been friends for nearly 15 years. They were partners in the episode that defined Comey's professional persona more than any other in his public service. It would be surprising if it had not also forged a permanent bond with Mueller ... Comey now finds himself at the center of the Russian investigation over which Mueller presides.

Questions swirl around Comey — about whether the president wanted/hinted/hoped/asked/directed/or something else the investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn to be stopped/abandoned/slowed/soft-peddled/something else. This is probably the central element of the obstruction of justice case that Trump's opponents would like to see made against him. Questions also swirl about Comey's notes about this conversation and why he gave them to a private individual (professor Dan Richman of Columbia Law) to convey to journalists.

And...

We have a deeply divided nation, and Trump’s supporters already see this investigation as a witch hunt, an attempt at a lawyer’s coup by the “Deep State” that has always opposed Trump’s presidency.  An outcome that looks rigged could produce an even bigger explosion than Trump might produce by firing Mueller.

If Trump is cleared by a new special counsel, the country will be spared a great political trauma. Should the investigation go the other way, however, only a new special counsel — preferably one from outside the Beltway — can hope to placate the millions of Americans who cast their votes for Donald Trump.

Will Mueller step down, or will Sessions appoint another counsel? What happens next will tell us a lot about both men.

COMMENT:  Very wise, very well argued.  The whole Mueller episode is poisonout.  You'd think Mueller would realize it and do the right thing. 

It's no-win for Mueller.  He'd be best turning the probes over to someone else.

June 20, 2017       Permalink

US DOWNS IRANIAN DRONE OVER SYRIA – AT 10:38 A.M. ET:  This comes only two days after a US Navy fighter shot down a Syrian jet.  American military action is increasing in the Syrian theater, another sign of President Trump's seriousness about ending the conflict on our terms.  No Obama he.   From Fox:

A U.S. jet shot down an Iranian drone flying in southern Syria near U.S.-backed forces on Monday, a U.S. defense official confirmed to Fox News.

A U.S Air Force F-15 shot down the Iranian-made drone, according to the official.

This is the second time the U.S. has shot down an Iranian drone in less than a month. U.S. officials reported on June 8 that an American fighter jet shot down a drone likely connected to Iranian-supported Hezbollah forces. The drone fired on U.S.-backed troops before it was taken down. An Army spokesman at the Pentagon said at the time that the drone carried more weapons and was considered a direct threat. 

Monday's incident also marks the fifth time since late May that the U.S. military has bombed pro-Syrian forces in southern Syria.

US special operations forces have been training Syrian rebels at an outpost near al-Tanf Syria, close to Syria’s border with Iraq and Jordan for the past few years.

On Sunday, a U.S. F-18 Super Hornet shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet near the town Tabqa for the first time, U.S.-led coalition headquarters in Iraq said in a statment. The Syrian government SU-22 dropped bombs near the Syrian Democratic Forces. 

COMMENT:  Don't look for extensive discussions about the Trump/Mattis military strategy on CNN or its fellow leftist networks.  Important news stories are being pushed aside in favor of the investigations. I mean, what's important here?

ISIS is being defeated in Syria and Iraq, but the threat will not be over.  They'll turn even more of their attention to international terror.

June 20, 2017       Permalink

TODAY IN GEORGIA – AT 9:40 A.M. ET:  There's the now-famous special Congressional election today in Georgia, to replace Tom Price, who resigned his seat to become secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump Cabinet.

 The seat is traditionally Republican – it was once held by Newt Gingrich – but Dems see the chance for an upset, and have poured millions of dollars, most of it from out of the district – to flip the seat.  It's now the most expensive Congressional race in history.  If the Dems succeed, they will bill the race as a referendum on Donald Trump, and will say that this is one of the most important elections in world history.  Maybe even beyond world history.  Maybe even beyond humanity.  The most important in the Universe.  If the Dems lose they will blame Russia.  From Fox: 

ATLANTA –  With campaign spending expected to top $50 million, the race to fill the suburban Atlanta congressional district, vacated when Tom Price was named Health and Human Services Secretary, is the most expensive in U.S. history. Both candidates in the 6th District are calling on heavy hitters with Georgia roots to get out the vote on Tuesday.

“It’s time to be knocking on those doors. It’s time to be making those calls. It’s time to be sending those emails,” Secretary Price told supporters at a weekend rally for Republican Karen Handel. “It’s time to be making certain that you are asking every single individual that you see within the 6th District, ‘Have you voted?’”

Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, also stumped for Handel over the weekend, while Democrat Jon Ossoff enlisted the support of Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia congressman and civil rights icon.

“With this election, it would indicate that people are prepared to change,” Lewis said at a weekend campaign event. “I think that many people will see the handwriting on the wall.”

The Real Clear Politics Average of polls shows Ossoff with a slight lead of 49.6 percent to Handel’s 47 percent in a district that normally favors establishment Republicans.

COMMENT:   They're voting now.  Oh, Ossoff isn't voting as he doesn't even live in his own district.  But, why worry about a little thing like that?

Ossoff is a lightweight, but has some charisma, and all that Democratic money.  Karen Handel is a solid candidate, but with no particular magic.  Ossoff has already been caught lying on his resumé.

My sense is that Ossoff  may pull it out, and he'll then become a symbol of an imagined Democratic resurgence.  Don't buy it.  Special elections rarely symbolize anything but the special conditions under which they're held.

June 20,  2017     Permalink