Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

Our Angel's Corner archive is here.

MARCH 18,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET:

OUR NEW ALLIES – From London's Telegraph:  Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is planning to build a statue of the US sailors who were captured in Iranian waters earlier this year, a senior officer said.  The provocative proposal is likely to cause outrage in the US and be seized on by Republicans opposed to President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran.  Commander Ali Fadavi, the head of the Guard’s naval forces, said the monument of the surrendering Americans would be a “tourist attraction”.  “There are very many photographs of the major incident of arresting US Marines in the Persian Gulf in the media and we intend to build a symbol out of them inside one of our naval monuments,” he told Iran’s Defense Press news agency.  Iran goes out of its way to humiliate the United States at every turn, knowing Field Marshal Obama will do nothing in response.  And, oh, by the way, didn't Iran recently elect a more "moderate" parliament?  Notice the difference?

HOW WILL SHE RESPOND?  You can't make this up.  From Fox:   Hillary Clinton is working hard to consolidate support during a tougher-than-expected Democratic primary, but there’s one backer she may wish to back away from: a Ku Klux Klan grand dragon.  “We want Hillary Clinton to win,” Will Quigg, the grand dragon of the KKK’s California chapter, said during an interview with The Telegraph.  Republican frontrunner Donald Trump was recently criticized for a perceived reticence to disavow the endorsement of former KKK leader David Duke. Trump has since clearly disavowed Duke’s vote of confidence. Clinton has yet to be asked about Quigg’s endorsement.  Quigg bases his support on his belief that Clinton is pushing false promises on the campaign trail. Once she gets elected, he contends, her agenda will completely shift.  Incredible that no one in the press has asked Hillary about this.  I guess they only ask Republicans. 

HILLARY ROMPING IN NEW YORK STATE – From PJ Media:  A new Emerson College poll for New York has Donald Trump getting trounced by both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in his home state this November if he is the GOP nominee. The poll is significant because Trump has maintained that he "expands the map" for the GOP with his candidacy. But Clinton beats him quite handily in New York, 55% to 36% and Sanders bests him 53% to 36%. Trump's closest rival, Ted Cruz, loses to Clinton by 31 points (61% to 30%). The good news for Trump is that he easily beats Cruz for the state's 95 delegates by more than 50 points: 64 - 12. John Kasich only gets 1%, despite his big win in Ohio.  There had been some hope, from earlier soundings, that Trump might pose a serious challenge to Hillary in New York, but this latest poll hardly offers encouragement.  New York is a very blue state, due primarily to the overwhelming population of New York City, the Democrats' leading urban stronghold.

IMPORTANT NUTRITIONAL NEWS – From the College Fix:   Red Bull gives you wings, but Middlebury College clips them.  The small liberal arts school in Vermont has officially banned the sale of popular energy drinks on campus in the name of student health.  Some students have praised Middlebury’s paternalism with language that echoes the late Nancy Reagan’s 1980s anti-drug campaign “Just Say No.”  Middlebury’s health czars allowed one exception, though: an ethnic-sounding beverage whose main ingredient has been linked to cancers that are common in South America.  The sales ban on drinks including Red Bull and 5-Hour Energy went from proposal to approval in barely two weeks, in a process led by students, and took effect last week.  At a Community Council meeting Jan. 19, Dining Services intern Myles Kamisher-Koch argued the sale of energy drinks violates Dining Services’ stated mission to “nourish and nurture today and tomorrow by sustaining mind, body and earth.”  Another victory in the battle against food oppression.  If the evil Red Bull can be defeated, what about Edy's Rocky Road?  Our stomachs belong to the people!

March 18, 2016       Permalink

THE KID STAYS IN THE FIGHT – AT 11:44 A.M. ET:  Despite the electoral math, Bernie Sanders isn't giving up.  From The Hill: 

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is pushing back on talk, including from President Obama, suggesting that Democrats rally around rival Hillary Clinton as the likely nominee.

During a television appearance late Thursday, Sanders said while he didn't want to speculate on Obama's remarks, it was "absurd" to think he would drop out of the White House race anytime soon.

"When only half of the American people have participated in the political process, when some of the larger states in this country, people in those states have not yet been able to voice their opinion on who should be the Democratic nominee, I think it's absurd for anybody to suggest that those people not have a right to cast a vote," Sanders told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.

"I am extremely proud that in state after state we are winning the votes of working people," Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, added in the interview. "So to suggest that we don't fight this out to the end would be, I think, a very bad mistake."

COMMENT:  Bernie's decision means that Hillary Clinton will still have to fight on in primaries, spending a lot of money and time, instead of concentrating on the general election campaign.  But it might actually do her a lot of good because it keeps her in the news...unless Bernie actually catches fire.  I mean, what if he starts winning the way Obama started winning against Hillary in 2008?  What if Hillary is indicted, or even slapped on the wrist by the FBI?

You know, If I were Bernie, I'd stay in as well.

March 18, 2016        Permalink

THE TRUTH COMES OUT – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  This had been hinted at in earlier news reports, but the Obama administration makes a conscious effort to downplay reports of Islamic terrorism on American soil.  Now we know.  From CBS News: 

FRESNO, Calif. -- A California college student who went on a stabbing rampage that wounded four people before he was shot down by a campus police officer was inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) but acted alone, the FBI said Thursday.

Faisal Mohammad, 18, appears to have become self-radicalized, drawing motivation from terrorist propaganda that he found online before launching the Nov. 4 attack at the University of California, Merced, authorities said.

"Every indication is that Mohammad acted on his own," Gina Swankie, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Sacramento field office, said in a statement. "It may never be possible to definitively determine why he chose to attack people on the U.C. Merced Campus."

The knife attack happened a month before a gun-wielding husband-and-wife team in San Bernardino killed 14 people and wounded 21 others at a workplace holiday party. In that case, too, investigators said they were influenced by ISIS, but not directly connected to it. Like Mohammad, they had not raised red flags that put them on a watch list.

In both cases family members said they were unaware of their loved ones' interests in terrorists groups.

In Merced, Mohammad burst into a classroom, stabbing two students. He stabbed a construction worker who intervened, then ran from the building, where he knifed a school employee sitting on a bench. Police shot and killed Mohammad.

The FBI says the college freshman from Santa Clara, California, had visited the websites of ISIS and other extremist groups for several weeks. He planned the attack at least a week before carrying it out, investigators said.

COMMENT:  True, we cannot say definitively that Mohammad was influenced only by ISIS, but ISIS was clearly part of his life, and, as the story noted, this pattern has been seen before.

We wonder how many others there are, and how many we're letting into this country through our insane immigration policies. 

March 18, 2016       Permalink

STATE OF THE PARTY – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  Parts of the Republican Party are panicking over the possible nomination of Donald Trump.  But is their panic too late?  Or even put on?  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) The Republican Party is waking up -- but it might already be too late.

Donald Trump's stroll toward the GOP presidential nomination is starting to turn the denial evident for months among key party power brokers to desperation. The mood of some in the party was aptly summed up Thursday by Republican lobbyist and former congressman Vin Weber on CNN's "The Lead" with Jake Tapper.

"All of a sudden, everybody is saying 'Oh My God — the house is burning down we should have done something before it got this far,'" said Weber, who is supporting John Kasich in the presidential race and is calling on the party to unite behind the Ohio Governor.

Sen. Marco Rubio, who pulled out of the presidential race on Tuesday after failing to take down Trump, had a grim assessment of the Republican Party's state of play on his first day back at work in the Senate on Thursday.

"Hopefully there's time to still prevent a Trump nomination, which I think would fracture the party and be damaging to the conservative movement," Rubio told reporters.

Anti-Trump forces are getting a sense of the backlash they'd face if they deny him the nomination. Trump warned earlier this week on CNN's "New Day" that the convention could deteriorate into a "riot" if he is blocked from power.

And on Friday, a top Trump aide threatened to give up his credentials as a convention delegate and leave the Republican Party in a stark warning to the GOP about the "consequences" if Trump is blocked from the nomination.

COMMENT:  I think the party has finally realized that Trump plays hardball even if he's negotiating the purchase of a candy bar.  He is all hardball.  He is unlike the gentlemanly types who have often dominated the Republican Party – people who accept defeat graciously.  In that he is both an asset and a liability.  He fights hard, but he can be obnoxious.

The party will have to deal with it.  There are many meetings reported, but it's unlikely that a stop-Trump movement can be organized successfully around a single alternative candidate.  The obvious alternative is Ted Cruz, who is also disliked, intensely, by the party establishment.

March 18,  2016     Permalink

MARCH 17,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

THE SHOW-ME STATE:  The margin was razor-thin, but Hillary Clinton has won the Missouri primary, held Tuesday.  From The Hill:   The AP called the race for Clinton at 6:06 p.m., two days after the Tuesday primary.  Sanders conceded on Thursday and said he will not seek a recount in the Show Me State, according to the AP.  So far, according to the AP’s delegate tracker, Clinton has been awarded 44 of the 84 total delegates, while Sanders has received 32.  The race was too close to call on Tuesday night, with Clinton leading Sanders by 0.2 percent. The two were separated by about 1,500 votes.  The Missouri Republican primary has yet to be called.  Unless the FBI investigation destroys her, it's hard to see how Clinton can be denied the nomination.  Her backers aren't very enthusiastic, while Bernie's are passionate, but what counts in the end are numbers, and Bernie's just aren't there.  On the other hand, some pundits are saying that Bernie, and his socialism, are the future of the Democratic Party because young people are so heavily in favor of the Bern.  I wouldn't count on it.  Young people occasionally grow up, and when they do they usually move right.

THERE SHE IS, NOT EXACTLY MISS AMERICA – From the New York Post:   She’s got her dedushka’s eyes — but this gun-toting, punk-rocking gal is as American as apple pie, although she does loves to cook borscht.  Tattooed Chrese Evans, 44, of Portland, Ore. — a Buddhist who runs an antique shop — is far removed from her notorious grandfather, Joseph Stalin, the former Soviet Union’s ruthless “man of steel.”  Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin’s only daughter, defected from the Soviet Union in 1966 and married Evans's future father, architect William Wesley Peters.  “Stalin for me was one of the three people who won the Second World War — Churchill, Roosevelt and him,” she told the Express of the UK. “Then my mother asked me to listen to her. This is when I found out about his crimes.”  I wish she'd go on a speaking tour and explain Communism to the dummies in our universities, but they probably wouldn't invite her.  You know, privileged white girl.

SIGN OF THE TIMES – From Reuters:   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Law enforcement officers in the United States are increasingly buying professional liability insurance policies amid worries they may be sued for their on-duty actions, the Fraternal Order of Police, the biggest U.S. police union, told Reuters.  Between July 2014 and July 2015, the number of members who bought the union's liability insurance jumped 15 percent, according to data from the FOP released this week and shared exclusively with Reuters.  In previous years, liability insurance purchases grew only between one to three percent, said Jim Pasco, executive director of the FOP, which represents more than 330,000 officers.  The insurance would help cover legal fees, but would not protect against criminal prosecution.  Can't blame the officers.  I think the premiums should be paid for by city and state governments. 

PASSING – This will have meaning for those of a certain age.  Gogi Grant, who became famous in the 1950s for singing one song, "The Wayward Wind," has died at 91.  From The New York Times:   Gogi Grant, whose rendition of “The Wayward Wind” replaced Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” on top of the Billboard singles chart in 1956, died on Thursday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 91.  Her death was announced by her family....Ms. Grant recorded “The Wayward Wind,” a ballad about a woman yearning for her wandering beloved, as an afterthought in the final minutes of a long recording session devoted to the single “Who Are We.” Herb Newman, the owner of the Era label, gave Ms. Grant the song, which he had written with a college classmate, Stan Lebowsky.  There are a number of great stories of neglected songs, seen almost as throwaways, that became enduring hits.  "The Tennessee Waltz" is the most famous, recorded by Patti Page as the B-side of a single.  The A-side was a Christmas novelty song that went nowhere.  The B-side, "The Tennessee Waltz," became immortal.  Gogi Grant was famous essentially for one song, but it, too, with her artistry, has endured.   

March 17,  2016     Permalink

MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD, PEOPLE ARE COUGHING – AT 9:33 A.M. ET:  They're supposed to have Obamacare, but a lot of people are bailing on Obama's signature program.  From IBD: 

President Obama described ObamaCare as a great product. So why did one in four of those who signed up in 2015 cancel their plans?

An official report released last Friday said that enrollment in the ObamaCare exchanges fell to 8.8 million by the end of the year, from 11.7 million who’d initially signed up. That’s a 25% decline.

About 1.5 million who signed up never paid their first premium, so the number of actual enrollees dropped to 10.2 million by the end of March 2015. Then another 1.1 million canceled their coverage in the last six months of the year, according to an analysis by the Mercatus Center‘s Brian Blase. Half a million got booted off because they couldn’t verify citizenship or immigration status.

There’s been no solid research to why so many canceled their ObamaCare plans before the year was out, but it’s not hard to make educated guesses.

For many, ObamaCare just isn’t worth it, even for many of the 84% who get insurance subsidies. The plans typically feature sky-high deductibles. As the New York Times reported, even if the coverage is cheap, that’s leaving “some newly insured feeling nearly as vulnerable as they were before they had coverage.” Why bother paying even heavily subsidized premiums?

There’s also a built-in incentive to cancel plans before the year is out because of ObamaCare’s 90-day grace period, which lets people getting subsidies keep coverage for three months if they stop paying premiums. Plus, the mandate tax penalty only kicks in for those who’ve been without insurance for three months or more. ObamaCare guarantees they can get their coverage back the next year — without making good on their unpaid premiums.

Then there are those who’ve learned to game the system — buying insurance midyear when they have big health care expenses, and then dropping it once the bills are paid. (The administration is trying to crack down on this.)

Presumably some drop ObamaCare plans because they get better coverage somewhere else. Still, since the healthier are more likely to drop out, the ObamaCare risk pool gets sicker, which will add upward pressure on premiums.

COMMENT:  Not quite as quick and easy as Obama made it sound.  And I'd like to see any statistics, which are sure to come, on the impact Obamacare is having on patient health. 

What Americans like is choice.  A selection.  I don't think they're seeing it with Obamacare.  But Republicans can't just whine about the program's failures.  They have to come up with something better themselves, and they really haven't.  As Obamacare deteriorates, the political left will claim that it never went far enough, that only a government-run, single-payer system will work.  You know, like those European paradises.  In the absence of a coherent Republican plan, the country may actually go in that direction.

March 17, 2016       Permalink 

LET THE SCHEMING BEGIN – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:   The reality of Trump, whether we like him or not, is starting to take hold at the Republican National Committee.  From the Washington Times:

Top Republicans will try to force more transparency at the party’s national convention in July, aiming to scrap their 1,500-page rule book in favor of simpler procedures that they hope will head off arcane maneuvers designed to deny Donald Trump the presidential nomination.

The changes wouldn’t guarantee Mr. Trump the nod but would make it easier for all sides to see what sorts of changes anti-Trump factions are attempting.

Some members of the Republican National Committee want to ditch the massive rule book, which is based on the parliamentary handbook of the U.S. House, and instead use Robert’s Rules of Order to govern floor action at the convention. Robert’s is the standard manual used by entities such as civic associations, county boards and state legislatures.

Those pushing the change are not Trump partisans, but they want to make it hard to forge in secrecy what voters might see as backroom deals to “steal” the presidential nomination from Mr. Trump, the front-runner.

“To make this convention more transparent, I will advocate, at the RNC Standing Rules committee meeting in April, adoption of Robert’s Rules of Order to replace the 1,500-page U.S. House rules to govern the convention,” Oregon RNC member Solomon Yue told The Washington Times on Wednesday.

COMMENT:  I really don't know if Robert's will be any better than the current rules, but at least the party is starting to be concerned about public perception.  Now, if Trump would adopt some measures to make himself more presidential, and bring any thuggish elements around him into line, some progress could be made.  This will not be an easy presidential election for the GOP.  And the future of Senate control is at stake as well.

March 17, 2016       Permalink

ABOUT TIME – AT 8:57 A.M. ET:  Finally, our mighty Department of State is prepared to use the G-word in connection with ISIS.  From Fox: 

Secretary of State John Kerry has determined that the Islamic State group is committing genocide against Christians and other minorities in Iraq and Syria, according to U.S. officials, as he acted to meet a congressional deadline.

But Kerry's finding, set to be announced Thursday, will not obligate the United States to take additional action against ISIS militants and does not prejudge any prosecution against its members, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly preview Kerry's decision.

A day after the State Department said Kerry would miss the March 17 deadline, the officials said Kerry had completed his review and determined that Christians, Yazidis and Shiite groups are victims of genocide. The House this week passed a nonbinding resolution by a 393-0 vote condemning IS atrocities as genocide.

Lawmakers and others who have advocated for the finding had sharply criticized the department's disclosure Wednesday that deadline would be missed. The officials said Kerry concluded his review just hours after that announcement and that the criticism had not affected his decision.

COMMENT:  So, let's see.  Kerry misses a deadline for finding ISIS is committing genocide against Christians and others.  He gets criticized for missing said deadline.  And the very next day, the day of the deadline, he will announce his suddenly available "finding."

You get the feeling that Grand Admiral Kerry isn't too serious about genocide?  Yeah, I get that uneasy feeling.  Why get people upset? 

Seems to me it's time for religious organizations in the United States to start to scream.

March 17,  2016     Permalink