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 23,  2017

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

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT – FROM FOX:   White House officials said late Thursday President Trump wants the House to vote Friday on the legislation to begin dismantling ObamaCare, and if it fails, he is “done with health care,” and ready to move on to tax reform, a source told Fox News.  "My understanding is he’s going to get it," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicier said on "The O'Neill Factor."  "We’re hoping to make this the last anniversary that any American has to suffer under ObamaCare by instilling a patient-centric health care system in place, and the president has made that case to members throughout the spectrum of the Republican conference, and tomorrow, it’s time to vote," he added.  If the GOP plan goes down to defeat, Obamacare will remain, and continue in its death spiral.  Then what do you take home to the voters.

IMAGINE IF THEY HAD TO FIGHT THE DEPRESSION, AND THEN WORLD WAR II – FROM THE WRAP:   Turns out, you might be a millennial and not even know it. Even if you’re approaching 40.  According to new research by CBS’ TV ratings guru David Pollack and Nielsen Catalina Solutions, the youngest millennial should be graduating college this year — but that does’t mean they all consider themselves adults.  The median age of millennial is 30, Pollack says — meaning that half are older and half are younger. And 30 happens to be the age at which millennial tend to self-identify as adults, Pollack said. For these purposes, an “adult” is defined as “someone who has moved out of their parents’ home, has a job, and pays their own bills.”  This encourages me to pursue my idea of raising the voting age to 25.  Frankly, I'd prefer 50, but I won't push my luck.

I WONDER WHY – FROM CNS:   (CNSNews.com) - The counties containing Chicago, Detroit and the independent city of Baltimore were the biggest population losers in the United States from 2015 to 2016, according to data released today by the Census Bureau.  Cook County, Ill., where Chicago is the county seat, had the largest population loss of any county in the country from 2015 and 2016.  Between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016, Cook County lost a net of 21,324 people to hit 5,203,499, according to the Census Bureau.  Even while it was experiencing the largest net population loss of any county in the country, Cook Count was seeing an influx of migrants from foreign countries and more births than deaths.  Who wants to live in a shooting gallery?

March 23, 2017        Permalink

ISIS STAKES ITS CLAIM – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:   Britain, unlike the Obama administration here, is not holding back on declaring who the culprits are here.  From the Daily Mail:

ISIS has today claimed responsibility for the Westminster attack which left four dead and dozens injured.

The terror group said a 'soldier of the Islamic State' carried out the atrocity in which a British-born 'lone-wolf' ploughed a car through crowds near Parliament yesterday afternoon.

A statement by the ISIS news agency Amaq said: 'The perpetrator of the attacks yesterday in front of the British parliament in London is an Islamic State soldier and he carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of the coalition.'

But it gave no name or other details and it was not clear whether the attacker was directly connected to the group.

The carnage was unleashed on the same day Brussels was marking the anniversary of a wave of ISIS suicide bombings that killed 32 people.

Yesterday's attacker, described by witnesses as 'Asian and in his forties', has not been named by police while investigations continue into any possible associates.

COMMENT:  The prime minister, Theresa May, has now said that the perpetrator had been investigated years earlier for possible terrorist connections.  Clearly, he fell between the cracks.  This is a recurring story.  A number of terrorist acts have been committed by individuals who'd been on someone's radar screen. 

March 23, 2017       Permalink

ARE WE SERIOUS HERE? – AT 8:12 A.M. ET:  Who did what?  Susan Rice is talking about integrity in government?  Isn't this the same Suzie who flat-out lied to the American people after Benghazi, claiming the terrorist attack there was the result of a YouTube video?  Why, I think she is.  From The Hill: 

Former national security adviser Susan Rice says President Trump must improve his administration’s commitment to the truth or risk harming the nation's credibility.

“First impressions matter, and an unsettling pattern has already emerged,” she wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

“Still, it is possible to mitigate the long-term effects of this vacation from veracity – if the White House and the president quickly and convincingly return to the tradition of endeavoring to tell the truth from the Oval Office and the White House briefing room,” added Rice, who also served as former President Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations.

“If they do not, one is left to wonder whether the damage inflicted on U.S. global leadership is the deliberate derivative of the ‘deconstruction of the administrative state’ or simply the lasting consequence of compulsive mendacity. Either way, the United States' national security will suffer.”
Trump tweeted earlier this month — without evidence — that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in New York City during the 2016 presidential campaign.

COMMENT:  The nerve of that individual lecturing us on veracity.  She should have her mouth washed out with soap.  And why would the Washington Post take her seriously?  Because the Post is now part of the Obama legacy team.  Protecting Barack has become a religious requirement.

March 23, 2017       Permalink

OBAMANS IN TROUBLE? – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  Some new information suggests that Obama administration officials could face legal trouble over their handling of intelligence.  From the Washington Examiner: 

The Washington Post's Bob Woodward warned on Wednesday that there are people from the Obama administration who could be facing criminal charges for unmasking the names of Trump transition team members from surveillance of foreign officials.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said earlier that he had briefed Trump on new information, unrelated to an investigation into Russian activities, that suggested that several members of Trump's transition team and perhaps Trump himself had their identities "unmasked" after their communications were intercepted by U.S. intelligence officials.

The revelation is notable because identities of Americans are generally supposed to remain "masked" if American communications are swept up during surveillance of foreign individuals.

During an interview on Fox News, Woodward said that if that information about the unmasking is true, "it is a gross violation."

COMMENT:  We'll have to wait out the investigation, but wouldn't it be something if the tables were turned on the Dems, and all this stuff about Trump campaign collusion with the Russkies backfired on Trump's accusers?

March 23,  2017     Permalink

MARCH 22,  2017

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

BULLETIN – FROM THE HILL:   Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said Wednesday night he and President Trump have come to an “agreement in principle” on a plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare, just one day before a historic House vote on the bill.  “The president and I came to an agreement in principle,” Meadows said during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, adding that he was still ironing out a few final details with the White House.  “I think what we're trying to do now is make sure that our agreement is actually something that can be executed in a way that passes the Senate,” he added. “There's still work to be done, but I can tell you that the president is all engaged."  If true, this is enormously important, and a testament to the president's skills as a negotiator. Stand by for more tomorrow.

A BAD DAY FOR POLICE – IN BOTH LONDON AND IN THE USA – FROM AP:   WESTON, Wis. — A police officer and three other people were shot and killed when a domestic dispute at a bank escalated into shootings at three locations in northern Wisconsin on Wednesday, investigators said. A suspect was in custody.  The shootings happened at a bank, a law firm and an apartment complex, where officers, including a SWAT team, had a standoff with the suspect for several hours before ending in a volley of gunfire around 5 p.m.  Authorities took no questions in a brief news conference late Wednesday and gave no details on the four victims or suspect. They said there was no remaining threat to the public. Jason Smith, a deputy administrator for the state Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation, said more than 100 officers were investigating and more information would be released Thursday.  Most police officers are good and decent, and some get killed.  Maybe CNN could spend some time on this.

THE MADNESS CONTINUES, AND OUR DEMOCRACY DIES A LITTLE – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Students at the University of Missouri–Kansas City could soon decide to boot staff and administrators responsible for “victim-blaming and invalidation of rape” if officials accede to the latest demands of campus activists.  One object of students’ ire: an email from Vice Chancellor Mel Tyler in which he “routinely” referred to an alleged rape as “alleged.”...Students also marched on Tyler’s office March 8, where they found him “eating pizza,” according to a report in student newspaper University News that portrays the protesters in a heroic light.  They were led by student Helen Proctor, co-founder of Squad of Siblings, who told Tyler that “all of the administrators” need to go through sexual-violence training. She said without evidence that “one in five women will be sexually assaulted” at UMKC.  The one-in-five figure has been substantially debunked.  Using false figures diminishes the very serious issue of sexual violence.  So do childlike protests against the term "alleged."  That is a word properly inserted into reports of crimes before proof of the crime is presented.  What many "activists" don't realize is that their destruction of due process does real victims no good.  A fair, dispassionate process is best for all.  Then the result will be widely accepted.

March 22,  2017    Permalink

THE AMERICAN SPIRIT – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  When is the last time you heard the term "space program"?  It used to be one of most inspirational aspects of American life.  Under Obama, there was barely a mention.  Oh yes, he did tell his NASA chief that one of his jobs was "Muslim outreach."  Strange, but I never read that in the NASA charter. 

Things are different now.  From the New York Post:   

President Trump peeled back the curtain on his plans for the US space program on Tuesday — singing a sweeping NASA policy bill into effect and reaffirming the agency’s commitment to human exploration and putting a man on Mars.

“For almost six decades NASA’s work has inspired millions and millions of Americans to imagine distant worlds and a better future right here on Earth,” Trump explained during the signing, which was attended by astronauts, lawmakers and scientists.

“With this legislation, we support NASA’s scientists, engineers, astronauts and their pursuit of discovery,” he said. “It’s been a long time since a bill like this has been signed reaffirming our national commitment to the core mission of NASA, human space exploration, space science and technology.”

The bill, dubbed the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017, was co-authored by Trump’s campaign trail rivals Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, both of whom were in attendance for the signing. The event marked the first time President Trump spoke about the space program in public since the election.

The new NASA legislation mainly keeps the agency on the same trajectory it’s been since its last authorization act in 2010, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The bill extends a number of important space programs, including the Hubble Telescope and the International Space Station through 2024 — and calls for a crewed mission to Mars by 2033. It also states that manned missions to deep space would be NASA’s main goal in the decades to come.

COMMENT:  Terrific.  We will go to Mars...because that's what Americans do.  We're sure the Muslim world won't miss the "outreach."

March 22, 2017       Permalink

A CRITICAL TRIP – AT 8:08 A.M. ET:   The president, in a surprise move, will attend a NATO summit in May.  From the New York Post: 

WASHINGTON — The White House has announced what is expected to be President Donald Trump’s first foreign trip.

Press Secretary Sean Spicer says the president will travel to Brussels, Belgium, on May 25 for a meeting with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization heads of state.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the meeting earlier Tuesday.

Spicer says the president is looking forward to meeting with his NATO counterparts “to reaffirm our strong commitment to NATO, and to discuss issues critical to the alliance, especially allied responsibility-sharing and NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism.”

Stoltenberg is set to visit the White House on April 12.

Trump accused NATO of being “obsolete” during the campaign and criticized Brussels, equating it to “like living in a hellhole right now.”

COMMENT:  I think the NATO leaders will see a serious president, but will still play the European game of talking down to him.

Remember that Ronald Reagan, the most consequential president of our time, was laughed at in Europe.  Great throngs of European leftists would greet him with demonstrations.  The European press accepted the image of him as an "amiable dunce."  He was amiable, but no dunce. 

Reagan, with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, changed the world, made it more free, and more peaceful.  But Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter got Nobel Peace prizes.  That's Europe.

Nice museums, though.  Some are air-conditioned.

March 22, 2017       Permalink

A TRAGEDY THAT INFORMS – AT 8:03 A.M. ET:  A rape in Maryland is reverberating through the political world.  It is the kind of trauma that can move a political debate.  From Fox: 

The rape of a 14-year-old girl last week in a boys’ bathroom of a Maryland high school, for which two immigrants have been charged, has fueled opposition to officials making the state a sanctuary for illegal immigrants.

One suspect in last Thursday’s attack is 17; the other is 18. Both were enrolled as freshmen because of their weak English language skills. The two suspects, who were enrolled in Rockville’s Montgomery High School, are from Central America.

Four days after the rape, Maryland’s House of Delegates passed legislation to join states like California in becoming a “sanctuary state,” affording illegal criminal aliens additional protections and making it more difficult to deport them or ask about immigration status.

That action has infuriated Maryland officials.

“I am outraged by the brutal and violent rape of a 14-year-old girl in a Rockville public school,” Republican Gov. Larry Hogan said in a statement Tuesday. “The state of Maryland is calling on Montgomery County to immediately and fully cooperate with all federal authorities during the investigation of this heinous crime. The public has a right to know how something this tragic and unacceptable was allowed to transpire in a public school.”

The legislation that passed Monday will make Maryland a sanctuary for illegal alien criminals, further endanger its citizens and interfere with state and local law enforcement’s ability to cooperate with federal law enforcement, the governor said.

To no one’s surprise the attack has triggered widespread revulsion outside of Maryland.

"The reason the president has made it such a priority to crack down on illegal immigration is because of cases like this," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Tuesday.

COMMENT:  The whole idea of sanctuary cities is an insult to law-abiding Americans and the rule of law itself.  It tells a person who is here illegally that his lawbreaking will be protected by government agencies that presumably are dedicated to enforcing the law itself.  Outrageous.

March 22,  2017     Permalink