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MAY 7,  2016

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

DEFENSE TEST IN NEW YORK – From the New York Daily News:   Don't hold your breath, it’s only a test.  The Department of Homeland Security will release “harmless particle materials” in the city’s subway system next week.  The “non-toxic, safe gas material” will be released at subway stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens in order to understand where hazardous material would travel in the event of a biological terrorist attack.  “This is important information to help local authorities to enhance their emergency preparedness,” DHS Program Manager Dr. Donald Bansleben said Friday.  Officials said there is currently no credible threat against either New York City or the subway system.  At least they're awake.  I think there is serious concern about an attack here soon, following Paris and Brussels. 

VOCABULARY ALERT – From Daily Caller:   An official with the Department of Justice said the agency will no longer call people “felons” or “convicts” after they are released from prison because it is too hard on them emotionally.  Assistant Attorney General Karol Mason wrote a piece in The Washington Post Wednesday saying “many of the formerly incarcerated men, women, and young people I talk with say that no punishment is harsher than being permanently branded a ‘felon’ or ‘offender.'”  Mason said the decision is not to condone their behavior, but to use words to help them reenter society....This new policy statement replaces unnecessarily disparaging labels with terms like “person who committed a crime” and “individual who was incarcerated,” decoupling past actions from the person being described and anticipating the contributions we expect them to make when they return.  There is some logic to this, trying to move people back into society after they've done their time.  However, society – especially schools and sensitive employers – also have a right to know if they're about to employ someone who's committed a violent crime.  My concern is that changes in vocabulary will be joined with other moves that minimize what the person has done, placing others at risk.

YIKES – From The Hill:   A senior Donald Trump adviser is hinting that the presumptive GOP nominee could speak every day at the Republican National Convention in July.  “I don’t know why the candidate only speaks on acceptance night, why shouldn’t he speak every night from a different city?” Barry Bennett said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg’s "Masters in Politics" podcast.  “But I think when it comes to the program a lot of us feel that we could juice up the format just a little,” he said. “More entertaining, more interesting.”  Bennett also said the convention could rely on broadcasts on Facebook or Google to reach a wider audience, instead of focusing just on prime-time coverage by TV networks.  “Why are we just relying on 45 minutes of network television time?”  Well, they're thinking creatively, but I'm not sure we need Donald Trump every day.  People will start calling him Fidel.

May 7, 2016       Permalink

GETTING CLOSER? – AT 12:52 P.M. ET:   There seems to be a great deal of activity in the FBI probe into Hillary's e-mail style.  How much it means, I have no idea.  From Fox: 

EXCLUSIVE: The Romanian hacker who says he easily breached Hillary Clinton’s personal email server also claimed, in a series of interviews with Fox News, that he spoke with the FBI at length on the plane when extradited from Romania to Virginia last month.

"They came after me, a guy from the FBI, from the State Department," 44-year-old Marcel Lehel Lazar, who goes by the moniker "Guccifer," told Fox News during a jailhouse phone interview. He said the conversation was "80 minutes ... recorded," and he took his own notes.

A government source confirmed that the hacker had a lot to say on the plane but provided no other details. Lazar was flown to the U.S. to face separate cyber-crime charges.

In addition to the apparent conversation with the FBI on the plane, Fox News has learned a meeting was expected as early as this week at the Alexandria, Va., detention center where he’s being held involving Guccifer, the FBI, the U.S. attorney and the defendant’s court-appointed lawyer.

These officials have not commented on his clams or detention.

COMMENT:  Absolutely no way to assess this story.  My own sense is that some manner will be found to finesse Clinton's e-mail behavior.  An indictment would be devastating, and probably end her presidential hopes.  But the case might be negotiated to something much less.  Clinton might have to pay a huge fine and admit some kind of vague wrongdoing, while accepting charges of favoritism.  But morality in America is pretty flexible right now, and she might come away with relatively little damage.

May 7, 2016       Permalink 

THAT THIRD-PARTY IDEA – AT 12:20 P.M. ET:   We've been reporting rumblings of a third-party movement.  The Hill has a good summary of what's been happening:

Conservative activists who want a third-party alternative to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton face one big obstacle: finding the right candidate.

Former Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) would be a unifying figure for conservatives, but his health is in question after a battle with cancer.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), who helped kick off the push for a third-party pro-Constitution candidate in February, has taken himself out of the running, citing obligations to his family.

“The answer is no. Senator Sasse has been clear when asked this before: he has three little kids and the only callings he wants — raising them and serving Nebraskans,” said his spokesman James Wegmann.

The names of Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R-Texas) and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) had both been mentioned, but they removed themselves from consideration by announcing they will support Trump.

Two other potential candidates — Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, who is expected to win the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president later this year — are non-starters with the conservatives who are involved in discussions about a third-party candidate.

Erick Erickson, the conservative writer and radio host who has organized conference calls about a Trump alternative, said the movement wants a new face, which is not Romney.

“His name has been floated by three separate groups and all of them came to the conclusion that a new face was needed,” he said.

But Erickson added, “I do think it’s possible” for conservatives to rally behind someone.

“Given the antipathy for Trump and Hillary [Clinton], you could put together a compelling ticket that would unite conservatives and the more establishment Republicans and probably pick up some independents along the way,” he said.

COMMENT:  Sounds pretty amateurish.  You have to have that candidate first.  Then you can stir up some excitement.

If only David Petraeus hadn't gotten himself in trouble, he would have been ideal.

May 7,  2016     Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  Harvard is the most influential university in the United States.  So this is especially discouraging, and frightening.   From The Fire, an excellent group that fights for the rights of students: 

BOSTON, May 6, 2016—In a stunning attack on freedom of association, Harvard University announced today that members of independent, single-sex, off-campus organizations will be blacklisted from Rhodes and Marshall scholarships and banned from leadership of on-campus organizations or athletic teams.

Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust stated that next year, members of fraternities, sororities, and “final clubs” will begin to be denied these opportunities in an effort to foster “inclusion” and “address deeply rooted gender attitudes.” According to Dean Rakesh Khurana, who recommended the changes, such organizations have been independent from Harvard since 1984. They operate as off-campus entities and do not receive any recognition or benefit from the university.

“Outrageously, Harvard has decided that 2016 is the right time to revive the blacklist,” said Robert Shibley, executive director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which defends freedom of association on campus. “This year’s undesirables are members of off-campus clubs that don’t match Harvard’s political preferences. In the 1950s, perhaps Communists would have been excluded. I had hoped that universities were past the point of asking people, ‘Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of a group we don’t like?’ Sadly, they are not.”

COMMENT:  Modern McCarthyism mostly comes from the left, so this doesn't really surprise me.  What does surprise me is that Drew Faust, the president of Harvard, is involved.  She's usually more thoughtful than this.  I'd imagine that, in some way, she was threatened.

This is very serious stuff, and I wonder how the groups involved will react.  We can assume that they're in touch with their lawyers.  I would hope that they would jointly sue Harvard. 

I wonder how schemes like this will affect women's colleges and historically black schools.  This is a can of worms.  Of course, we're speaking only of inclusive worms.

May 7, 2016       Permalink

MAY 6,  2016

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

JEB REJECTS TRUMP – From Facebook:  "In November, I will not vote for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, but I will support principled conservatives at the state and federal levels, just as I have done my entire life. For Republicans, there is no greater priority than ensuring we keep control of both chambers of Congress. I look forward to working hard for great conservatives in the Senate and House in the coming months."  This is not "let's talk," it's an utter rejection.  Some major Republicans are digging in, with the "never" word.  Talk of a third party or independent candidate continues to grow, but the rebels lack the necessary man on a white horse, or in a Honda, or something.

BUT CHENEY GOES DONALD – From CNN:   Washington (CNN) Former Vice President Dick Cheney will support Donald Trump, he told CNN Friday, an important move as the presumptive Republican nominee is encountering intense resistance from senior members of his own party.  Cheney told CNN Special Correspondent Jamie Gangel that he has always supported the GOP nominee and will do so this year as well.
The announcement makes Cheney one of the few Republican Party elders to announce their support of Trump and comes a day after House Speaker Paul Ryan told CNN he is "just not ready" to back Trump.  Very bold of Cheney, especially after Trump's savaging of the Iraq War.  Cheney is an architect of that war.

ONLY AN AVERAGE LIE – From Weekly Standard:  Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said Friday that Hillary Clinton's attorney has been in contact with the Justice Department throughout the investigation into her use of a private email server as secretary of state.  "David Kendall is her top counsel and he has been in touch with the Justice Department throughout this review. We've always been very upfront about that," Fallon said in an interview on CNN.  The FBI has already interviewed Clinton's closest aide, Huma Abedin, as well as some other Clinton confidantes, CNN reported Thursday. However, in an interview with MSNBC Tuesday, Clinton said that the FBI had still not contacted her "representatives."  Fallon did not address Clinton's apparent mistruth.  We cannot expect Clinton's spokesman to address every lie.  Let's be reasonable here.  The man must be allowed a life.

May 6, 2016       Permalink

DEMS FEAR DON – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  While Republicans tear their party apart over Donald Trump, Dems are getting nervous.  Their political operatives don't see Trump as a pushover.  They see him as a serious threat.  From NRO:   

Listen for a few minutes to Republicans in the “Never Trump” camp, and you’d think the outcome of November 8’s election a foregone conclusion. Donald Trump’s unfavorables are so high, they argue, his bridges to minority voters so thoroughly burnt, that Hillary Clinton will inevitably trounce him in a landslide akin to Lyndon Johnson’s historic victory against Barry Goldwater in 1964.

But talk to Democratic strategists and you’ll hear a different story. Despite Clinton’s persistent lead in the polls, many of them are far from sanguine about her prospects against the presumptive Republican nominee. They view Trump’s ability to harness the anger of America’s dispossessed white working class as a powerful threat in several Midwestern swing states, especially now that he’s openly courting Bernie Sanders supporters and aping the Vermont senator’s rhetoric on trade. They worry the New York real-estate mogul’s brash, bullying campaign style could throw the easily flustered Clinton off balance, upending her campaign at a crucial moment. And they fear that a relentlessly negative campaign would turn women voters away from politics altogether, depriving Clinton of the votes she’ll need to overcome Trump’s likely advantage with white men.

“Ted Cruz and almost any other Republican would’ve been much easier, because they’re conventional politicians,” says Mary Anne Marsh, a veteran Democratic strategist from Boston. “Donald Trump was always going to be the hardest candidate, because he is so unconventional. . . . I think this has the potential to be as close as the 2000 election.”

COMMENT:   I agree.  No matter what you may think of Trump, he's pulled off a political miracle.  No one knows if he can mine that to pull off a second miracle, victory in November.  But I'd never underestimate him.  He may appeal only to anger, but if 50% plus one of Americans are angry, he's president.

May 6, 2016       Permalink

SASSE GETS SASSY – AT 10:12 A.M. ET:  Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska is considered a young Republican star.  When he speaks, the party listens.  Now he's gone out on a limb, and it will be fascinating to see what happens.  From the Washington Examiner:   

Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse lit up Twitter for the second time in 24 hours Wednesday night in a rant against presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and the GOP that backs him.

It started with Sasse jokingly asking if the GOP's tweet thanking the entire Republican field for a "hard fought race" was sent from a "parody account"?

The first-term Tea Party senator said GOP politicos have attempted to reach out to him since his Tuesday rant that Trump and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton are both dishonest people.

Sasse sassed those who said either candidate are the people's only choices this November.

But this was not just another Twitter rant for the lawmaker. Sasse said he was in the middle of penning an open letter that asks, "Why would Americans settle for a choice like this?"

"The two political parties resort to character attacks because they think voters are too dumb for a real debate," Sasse tweeted.

And...

...Sasse commanded the party to "reject them and go bigger." The call to action, though not referring to himself as the answer, could be seen as his opening to a third-party run.

COMMENT:  You've got to give the guy credit.  At least he has convictions.  He is risking his career with such outspoken comments. 

Sasse is a very attractive guy, and very articulate.  If he runs as a third-party candidate, he will probably lose, but maybe he sees his future as the head of a new party.  Hey, you never know. 

May 6, 2016        Permalink

ECONOMIC GLOOM – AT 9:55 A.M.  ET:  Day by day the numbers are getting worse, and that's trouble for Hillary.  From Bloomberg: 

Employers in April added the fewest number of workers in seven months and the U.S. jobless rate held steady as subdued economic growth prompted a more moderate rate of hiring.

The 160,000 gain in payrolls followed a revised 208,000 rise in March, a Labor Department report showed Friday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 200,000 April advance. The jobless rate, projected to ease, stayed at 5 percent, while wage growth accelerated.

Industries that showed strong first-quarter job growth pulled back, with retailers cutting payrolls by the most in two years and construction companies adding the fewest positions since June. More tempered additions to headcounts shows hiring managers are adjusting in the wake of economic growth that has slowed for three straight quarters.

“Employment was never going to continue rising at more than 200,000 a month indefinitely,” Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics in Toronto, said in a research note. “Those monthly gains are simply unsustainable in an economy with a potential economic growth rate of less than 2 percent.”

COMMENT:  And of course we have to look at the kind of jobs being created.  They haven't been all that great, and wage stagnation has been the rule, not the exception.

Not much for Hillary to run on.  Calling the woman card!

May 6,  2016     Permalink