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MARCH 25,  2017

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

BREAKING TRADITION – FROM THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON:  The Secret Service has gotten ready for an imminent appointment of a new director with a senior military rank. This is the first time a Secret Service agency chief would be appointed from outside of the agency in modern history, the Washington Examiner reported on Thursday.  Secret Service agents and officers are expecting retired Marine general and former head of U.S. Central Command John Kelly, the Department of Homeland Security secretary, to tap another general to lead the agency.  Two sources told the Washington Examiner that the outside hire would help reform the agency and impose more rigorous and even-handed discipline. Employees are anticipating the announcement of the new appointment to take place next week.  The new hire would come in the wake of several controversial moments that the Secret Service has faced since the 2016 presidential campaigns.  It's time for a change.  The Secret Service used to have a pristine reputation, but no more.  Just last week an intruder got over the White House gates, and spent more than 20 minutes on White House grounds before the Secret Service realized he was there.

HE MAY BE RIGHT – FROM THE HILL:  Former Vice President Joe Biden late Friday night voiced regret about his decision not to run for president, predicting if he had secured the Democratic nomination he could have won against Donald Trump.  "I had planned on running for president and although it would have been a very difficult primary, I think I could have won," he said. "I don't know, maybe not. But I thought I could have won."  "I had a lot of data and I was fairly confident that if I were the Democratic Party's nominee, I had a better than even chance of being president," Biden continued.  Biden explained that he didn't regret the time he was able to spend with his son Beau Biden, who later died after battling cancer. “But do I regret not being president? Yes,” Biden said. "I was the best qualified."  Biden is a decent man, but his record on foreign policy is filled with bad ideas.  However, his presence would have given the Democratic nomination race a bit more drama than it had, and a bit more class.

AMERICAN POLITICS 2017 – FROM FOX:   A scuffle broke out on a Southern California beach where President Donald Trump supporters were marching as counter-protesters doused organizers with pepper spray, authorities said Saturday.  The violence erupted when the march of about 2,000 people at Bolsa Chica State Beach reached a group of about 30 counter-protesters, some of whom began spraying the irritant, said Capt. Kevin Pearsall of the California State Parks Police.  Three people were arrested on suspicion of illegal use of pepper spray and a fourth person was arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, Pearsall said.  I'm sure the media will figure out a way to blame Dick Cheney.

March 25, 2017       Permalink

AND THE WORLD OF INTELLECT MARCHES ON – AT 1:31 P.M. ET:  Our young generation continues to amaze with its maturity, poise, and judgment.  From College Fix:   

Student protesters at Swarthmore College feel that one of the school’s core values is “under attack” … all because they discovered they’re actually not permitted to do whatever the heck they want.

Last month, members of the anti-fossil fuel group Mountain Justice occupied Chief Investment Officer Mark C. Amstutz’s office to denounce the school’s investments in fossil fuels. This past week, five of the group were cited for their (alleged) refusal to vacate the premises.

According to Philly.com, the quintet face punishment ranging from a warning to probation.

Swarthmore President Valerie Smith said in a statement that, while the school has “proud tradition” of free expression, the activists prevented Amstutz “from completing all but the most menial of tasks and restricting his movements and rights.”

Will Marchese, one of the five students cited, griped that even a warning would be “against college values.” He said the occupiers didn’t do anything “inappropriate,” and “actually helped Amstutz shred documents.”

“I was really disappointed and confused,” said Stephen O’Hanlon, a senior political science and sociology double major from Downingtown who was cited. O’Hanlon said for all but a few minutes, he was in the hallway outside the office and acting as a mediator with public safety department. He was never asked to leave, he said.

The action has sent a chill on and off the campus as students and alumni view the citations as a way to suppress student voices.

COMMENT:   How do children like this get into a prestigious small college like Swarthmore?  When I was in high school, and Lincoln was president, Swarthmore was the equivalent of Harvard.  Now it appears to be a glorified sandbox.

Don't let them near a voting booth.

March 25, 2017       Permalink

AND THE PLOT THICKENS – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  I'm getting awfully tired of most of the media referring to some terrorists as "lone wolves."  After the label is carefully sewn on, we often learn that the loner wasn't so alone, that he was radicalized by others and often welcomed that radicalization.  And so it appears to be with the latest star in the terrorist firmament, this week's attacker in London.  From Fox:

LONDON – The man who killed four people outside Britain's Parliament was in Saudi Arabia three times and taught English there, the Middle Eastern country's embassy said.

A Saudi Embassy statement released late Friday said that Khalid Masood taught English in Saudi Arabia from November 2005 to November 2006 and again from April 2008 to April 2009.

The embassy said that he had a work visa. It said he returned for six days in March 2015 on a trip booked through an approved travel agent.

The Saudi Embassy said that he wasn't tracked by the country's security services and didn't have a criminal record there.

Before taking the name Masood, he was known as Adrian Elms. He was known for having a violent temper in England and had been convicted at least twice for violent crimes.

Masood drove his rented SUV across the crowded Westminster Bridge on Wednesday, striking pedestrians. Then he jumped out and attacked police officer Keith Palmer, who was guarding Parliament, fatally stabbing him before being shot dead by police.

In all, he killed four people and left more than two dozen hospitalized, including some with what have been described as catastrophic injuries. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

COMMENT:  I guess he went to Saudi Arabia because he enjoyed the scenery.  Wonderful sand, I hear.

He wasn't a "lone wolf."  He was radicalized, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, a nation that historically has exported terror, although there's been some improvement in recent years.

The threat of terror continues, and some experts say it has increased.  Don't tell the media.

March 25, 2017       Permalink

NOW WHAT? – AT 11:55 A.M. ET:  The Republican Party must regroup after yesterday's defeat in the House.  From Fox: 

The Republican divided that doomed the party’s ObamaCare replacement bill appears as equally wide in the aftermath, with leaders in disagreement about the next step.

“At some point, on behalf of the American people, we have to resolve the issues that are driving up costs, limiting choices and causing the individual (health insurance) market to spiral downward,” Tennessee GOP Sen. Bob Corker said Friday night. “I stand ready to work with the administration and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in order to fix our broken health care system.”

Corker made the announcement hours after House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday cancelled the final vote for the ObamaCare replacement bill, upon concluding he didn’t have enough votes despite the chamber’s GOP majority.

“We’re going to be living with ObamaCare for the foreseeable future,” the Wisconsin Republican said afterward, making clear that neither he nor President Trump intend to introduce new legislation.

Trump’s new strategy appears to be to allow ObamaCare to continue --with the expectation that the 2010 health care law will implode amid increasing costs and few options for Americans.

"ObamaCare will explode and we will all get together and piece together a great healthcare plan for THE PEOPLE," Trump tweeted Saturday. "Do not worry!"

COMMENT:  I'm not sure this is exactly the right strategy.  Obamacare is a reckless, irresponsibly constructed program that will indeed implode.  But when it does, millions of people will be hurt.  The Democrats will actually be responsible, but what Republicans must understand is that the media will blame Trump and Republicans in Congress.  That's the way the game is played, and the Republican Party has not yet learned to play it.

The GOP must master what Reagan mastered – how to speak directly to the American people, above the heads of the press lords.

March 25, 2017     Permalink

MARCH 24,  2017

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

HEALTH CARE – Chin up, conservatives.  The GOP didn't quite make it in trying to replace Obamacare with something that works, and the mainstream media is gloating as never before.  Their overall theme:  Trump, the so-called great negotiator, couldn't make the deal.  The Dems, who've lost a thousand legislative seats in the last eight years, were positively ecstatic.  One Dem columnist even cited a poll showing the growing popularity of Bernie Sanders.  Of course, Sanders isn't governing, so popularity is easy to come by.  Let them all gloat, just as they gloated when Donald Trump won the Republican nomination.  The Dems then marched, in high Dewey, right into an unexpected defeat.  The doom and gloom we feel right now will dissipate, and we will move on to tax reform in Congress, although it's possible that new ideas for health-care reform will also surface.  And don't let the polls get you glum.  Obama ranked low in the polls during most of his presidency.  It's common.

GOOD SPIRIT – FROM FOX:   They’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore.  So they’re marching.  On Saturday, backers of President Trump are planning marches across the country in a show of unity and support for his agenda. In several places, anti-Trump groups are vowing to try to undermine the rallies.  Pro-Trump groups say they are tired of all the attacks on a president who has been in office barely three months.  "Why are we here is because we have a president that has been in office, by the time of the march, what ... 65 days?” asked former Rep. Doreen Costa, a Rhode Island Republican, in a rhetorical question to the Providence Journal.  “All this resistance: 'He's not my president,'" she continued. "News flash: He is. He is everybody's president. I did not vote for Barack Obama, but he was still my president. And you can only resist so much and it's not going to change the outcome of the election.”  The marches, dubbed “Make America Great Again,” or "MAGA,” have met with opposition in some areas, with anti-Trump groups planning to counter-demonstrate.  I'm glad to see the pro-Trump people taking action.  I was not a Trump supporter, but the attacks on this president have been unprecedented, and grossly unfair. 

THE OTHER SIDE – FROM CNN:  A federal judge in Virginia ruled in favor of the Trump administration Friday, declining to join other federal courts that halted the President's revised travel ban last week.  Two federal judges -- one in Maryland and one in Hawaii -- have blocked implementation of the core provisions of the travel ban, and it remains on hold nationwide. Drawing on a litany of then-candidate Donald Trump's statements about Muslims during the presidential campaign, both of the judges concluded that the new executive order likely violates the establishment clause of the Constitution by disfavoring Muslims.  But Virginia-based US District Judge Anthony Trenga was not persuaded that Trump's past statements automatically mean the revised executive order is unlawful, especially given the changes it made from the first version.  How much publicity do you think this decision will get?  Check page 94 of your daily liberal paper.

March 24, 2017       Permalink

A WARNING – AT 11:51 P.M. ET:  North Korea, used to years of appeasement by the United States, does not act as if it's afraid of the Trump administration.  From Fox: 

North Korea is in the final stages of preparing for another nuclear test, which could come in the next few days, U.S. officials with knowledge of the most recent intelligence from the region told Fox News.

“The test could come as early as the end of the month,” said one official.

U.S. defense officials have seen evidence that North Korea has completed digging new tunnels around the Punggye-ri nuclear test site, but it still has to move more equipment into the area for a possible test, the official added. The Pentagon is keeping a close eye on these looming developments.

North Korea’s nuclear preparations prompted the U.S. military in recent days to move a surveillance aircraft used to test the air following nuclear explosions to the region. The Air Force WC-135 Constant Phoenix arrived in Japan and will be used to patrol the area off the Korean peninsula in the coming days, according to a separate official.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was in Beijing last weekend to press the case about what to do about North Korea’s erratic leader and his drive to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.

North Korea first conducted a nuclear test in 2006. Last year, it carried out two additional tests.

Secretary Tillerson declared the Obama-era policy of “strategic patience” was over when dealing with North Korea and called the past 20 years of negotiating with the communist regime by past administrations a failure.

COMMENT:  North Korea is emerging as the first major foreign-policy crisis of the Trump administration.  The North Koreans are not changing any of their aggressive, threatening policies.

The possibility of pre-emptive military action here cannot be discounted, especially as North Korea is developing missiles that can strike the United States.

March 24, 2017       Permalink

THE HEALTH-CARE VOTE – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:   The House will, unless there's a change, vote on the GOP health-care bill later today.  The outcome is in doubt, with a number of Republicans expressing opposition.

The opposition is understandable.  Republicans have had eight years to come up with a coherent replacement for the failing Obamacare program, and didn't do so.  What is proposed today is a patchwork job, improved through President Trump's skillful intervention, but still not the stellar plan that we had a right to expect. 

Gerald Seib, of The Wall Street Journal, presents a thoughtful analysis of the dilemma:  

Former President Barack Obama tried the big fix in health care and he came away with the scars to show for it. Now, House Speaker Paul Ryan and President Donald Trump are trying for the big health-care fix, and they are coming away with the scars to show for it.

Maybe there is a lesson in there.

It is this: Health care is such a giant national issue that it isn’t easily or effectively resolved with broad plans that have only narrow partisan support. When that is attempted, even small factions within a single party have the power to disrupt things. That is precisely what has happened to Messrs. Ryan and Trump as their plan hit a roadblock built by members of their own party.

The president and the speaker may well bring their bill back from the brink of disaster in the House in the coming hours or days, by making fixes designed to please just enough conservative Republicans without offending too many moderate Republicans.

But that will only ensure that the legislation is headed for a similar minefield in the Senate, and then, if it passes the Senate, an even more perilous one when lawmakers try to reconcile whatever the House passes with whatever different plan finds its way through the Senate.

Then, even if a big health plan can be muscled through Congress on a strictly party-line vote, the lack of any bipartisan buy-in means it lacks the broad support to be sustainable. Mr. Obama and the Democrats are learning that as their plan is being thrown overboard by the GOP at the first opportunity.

Obviously, this isn’t optimal for either party, or for the nation’s giant health-care economy.

Perhaps the only way to do a comprehensive rewiring of the nation’s health system that has sustainable support is to do it with a broad bipartisan coalition. Yet clearly such a bipartisan coalition doesn’t exist right now. Perhaps one can emerge only if the health system truly appears to be approaching a disaster, much as the two parties could only come together to fix Social Security in the 1980s when the system appeared to be headed toward disaster.

COMMENT:  When Obamacare was passed, it was noted that it was the only major social legislation in American history to be adopted without some bipartisan support.  Not a single Republican voted for it, and Democrats made it plain they didn't care.

Seib has a point.  Maybe legislation of this kind simply requires a broad coalition, even though neither side will get all that it wants.  For if the GOP bill passes the House today, it will surely be completely rewritten in the Senate, setting up a clash between House and Senate Republicans.  Not good.

News stories today suggest that President Trump now believes it would have been wiser to take up tax reform as his first legislative issue, and I think that's correct. 

March 24,  2017     Permalink

KEYSTONE APPROVED...FINALLY – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  It is long overdue.  A project that was derailed by vastly overstated environmental "concerns" has now been approved by the Trump administration.  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) The State Department issued a permit Friday allowing the Keystone XL project to proceed, reversing the Obama administration's decision to block the controversial oil pipeline.

Tom Shannon, the State Department's undersecretary for political affairs, issued TransCanada's permit, making good on one of President Donald Trump's campaign promises. The move greenlights the Canadian company to complete construction on the pipeline that will funnel crude oil from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Friday morning, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump would make an announcement on the pipeline later in the morning.

The announcement comes in the midst of Republicans' heated and protracted debate about their Obamacare replacement legislation. A vote is set for later Friday on the bill, though it's unclear if it will pass and its failure would be a significant political embarrassment for Trump.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, recused himself from the decision earlier this month. Trump in January signed an executive order to advance the pipeline's approval.

COMMENT:  It is a practical move, and one that shows respect for Canada, our nearest ally.  By contrast, Obama's attitude toward Canada was decidedly aloof, although Canada's foreign-affairs officials handled Obama with keen diplomatic style.

March 24,  2017     Permalink