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MAY 14,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:04 P.M. ET:

ROMNEY DIGS IN – FROM THE HILL:   Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, is among those courting prospects for a possible third-party bid to keep Donald Trump from the White House, according to a Washington Post report.  Among those prospects are Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who suspended his presidential campaign in early May.
Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver said the governor isn’t interested in running an an independent.  A Sasse spokesman declined to comment.  But it’s not looking too good for a late in the game third-party bid, according to the report.  Deadlines have passed to get on the ballot in big states like Texas, though organizers argue a legal challenge there would be successful.  In an ordinary election season I'd say that any new effort is futile.  But this isn't an ordinary election season.  Nobody knows anything. 

OBAMA CHALLENGED...BY BLACKS – FROM BREITBART:   The president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP) says that the Obama administration’s assertion that single-sex bathrooms are discriminating against gender-confused individuals in much the same way that blacks experienced discrimination in the United States is a “gross insult” to all who fought for equality for African-Americans.  “There is simply no relation between the struggles that Black Americans have faced and the desire of a tiny minority group to violate the dignity and privacy of women and girls,” said Rev. Bill Owens in a statement sent to Breitbart News. “To suggest some sort of equivalence is a gross insult to all of those who marched with Dr. King and faced fire hoses and hatred in the name of equality.”  I'm glad someone said it.  That is an accurate statement.  Issues involving transgendered individuals can be handled with dignity and respect without having to shove an ideology down our throats. 

SHUT UP! – FROM DAILY CALLER:  The new Muslim mayor of London has issued a warning to Donald Trump: Moderate your stance on Muslims, or they will launch more attacks against America.  Trump recently praised Sadiq Khan for winning London’s mayoral race, and said he would be willing to create an exception in his policy restricting Muslim entry into the United States in order to allow Khan to visit. But in a statement Tuesday, Khan dismissed Trump’s invitation, and also denounced his views on Islam as “ignorant,” suggesting Trump’s policies would increase the terrorist threat in both the U.S. and U.K.  “Donald Trump’s ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe – it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists,” he said. “Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam – London has proved him wrong.”  Methinks the mayor should shut up.  Whether we agree with him or not, he is interfering in the internal affairs of the United States.  Someone should walk him around Buckingham Palace and explain the rules.

May 14, 2016       Permalink

MOVE THE OLYMPICS! – AT 12:15 P.M. ET:  The cry from health experts is getting louder.  The Rio Olympics are set to start on August 5th, but Rio is far from ready.  There is disease.  There is hopeless pollution in waters that will be used by long-distance swimmers.  The political situation is unstable, with the president of the country stands impeached.  Hey, welcome to good sportsmanship.

The International Olympic Committee, not always held in the highest regard, says it is monitoring the situation.  Not good enough.  From Fox: 

...while thousands of Americans have smartly reconsidered their vacation plans to Zika-afflicted regions, and the MLB wisely canceled a two-game series to be held in Zika-ravaged Puerto Rico, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as recently as this week, has insisted that the 2016 Summer Games will go on as scheduled in the Zika hotbed of Rio.

Before we were even concerned about Zika affecting our athletes, alarms were sounded over the poor conditions and polluted waters of Brazil, and the country’s inability to address these issues. Plans were made for a fleet of boats to patrol the waters to keep trash and debris from floating into the paths of competing sailors, but that doesn’t speak to the untreated human waste that mars the country’s beautiful beaches. But Brazil has been plagued by economic woes, so who is to say that the funding for these contingency plans will actually be kept in place?

On Thursday, the country’s senators voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff over corruption and economic failures, adding to the instability just months before August’s Opening Ceremonies. I can’t say for sure, because I have not seen it firsthand, but I would be surprised if, at a time like this, the country’s health remains a top priority. There is no longer a leader to promise us our athletes and spectators will be protected, and there is no strong voice to ensure that the Zika protocols are being enforced. In February, Rio's organizing committee announced plans to protect our athletes during their stay by charging them up to $100 for a mosquito net to be affixed to their rooms.

In responding to a call by a Canadian health professor to postpone or move the games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical director Richard Budgett said that the committee would continue to monitor the situation closely, but the games are still scheduled to start August 5. In order to avoid a total cancellation, we shouldn’t be “monitoring the situation” in Brazil, we should be exploring our options in other countries to host the events elsewhere. It’s not the IOC’s fault completely, because none of the countries’ Olympic committees have called for a boycott of Rio either.

COMMENT:  The Olympics are about money, always have been.  The athletes are glorious, the Olympic movement cynical.  We wish for the success of the Olympics, but it would be wise to prepare to move them. 

May 14, 2016       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  Thoroughly obnoxious.  But what will the punishment be?  Probably nothing.  From Daily Caller: 

In honor of National Police Week (which falls May 15-21), Dartmouth’s College Republicans reserved a bulletin board at the Collis Center and used it to create a display honoring police officers and firemen who have fallen in the line of duty. One part of the display noted that 60 police and 343 firemen were killed in the 9/11 attacks, while another declared over 20,000 police officers have been killed while on-duty in the history of the United States.

At the bottom, the display said in big letters, “BLUE LIVES MATTER.”

This last part of the display appears to have outraged Black Lives Matter supporters at Dartmouth, several of whom vocally complained on Twitter and Facebook that the display was offensive and even “white supremacist.”

But Black Lives Matter did more than just complain, they also took action. The original display was torn down Friday morning, at about 11 a.m, and in its place almost three dozen sheets of paper were used to cover the bulletin board, all of them carrying an identical message: “YOU CANNOT CO-OPT THE MOVEMENT AGAINST STATE VIOLENCE TO MEMORIALIZE THE PERPETRATORS.” At the bottom, each sheet also had the hashtag “#blacklivesmatter” printed on it.

COMMENT:  The BLM censors must be severely disciplined.  We cannot teach students the importance of freedom of expression and then permit individuals or groups to decide what expression others will be allowed to see and hear.  Of course, there are plenty of people teaching in universities and colleges who don't actually believe in freedom of expression, unless it's their own.

Let's see what Dartmouth does.  I'm not optimistic.  A previous disruption by BLM was buried.

May 14, 2016       Permalink

SICKENING – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  Fox News has done a superb, if discouraging, report on the state of the U.S. Air Force in an administration that seems to care little for national defense.  From Fox: 

EXCLUSIVE: It was just a few years ago, in March 2011, when a pair of U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers – during a harsh winter storm – took off from their base in South Dakota to fly across the world to launch the air campaign in Libya, only 16 hours after given the order.

Today, many in the Air Force are questioning whether a similar mission could still be accomplished, after years of budget cuts that have taken an undeniable toll. The U.S. Air Force is now short 4,000 airmen to maintain its fleet, short 700 pilots to fly them and short vital spare parts necessary to keep their jets in the air. The shortage is so dire that some have even been forced to scrounge for parts in a remote desert scrapheap known as “The Boneyard.”

“It's not only the personnel that are tired, it's the aircraft that are tired as well,” Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News.

Fox News visited two U.S. Air Force bases – including South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base located 35 miles from Mount Rushmore, where Pfrommer is stationed – to see the resource problems first-hand, following an investigation into the state of U.S. Marine Corps aviation last month.

Many of the Airmen reported feeing “burnt out” and “exhausted” due to the current pace of operations, and limited resources to support them. During the visit to Ellsworth earlier this week, Fox News was told only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s fleet of bombers can fly.

“We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,” Pfrommer said.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  Our defenses overall are being degraded.  It's clear that the personnel being interviewed were granted permission to speak out.  Highly unusual in the services. 

We've allowed this before, always with catastrophic consequences.  And the Republicans deserve their share of the blame.  They should be publicly outraged every day.  But there are elements of the Republican Party that are turning their backs on the Reagan legacy of a powerful national defense.  We should be appalled. 

May 14,  2016     Permalink

MAY 13,  2016

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

NEWSWEEK GUSHES – From Newsbusters:   Journalistic love for Barack Obama certainly hasn’t gone away. Newsweek’s Twitter page on Tuesday hyped, “Has there been any president cooler than Obama?” The magazine, which barely publishes these days, features contributions from a website called Quora. That article wondered, “OBAMA, THE FIRST POP CULTURE PRESIDENT?”  The piece is written by Stephanie Vardavas, a 2008 Democratic National Convention delegate. She rhapsodized, “Along comes a youthful, vigorous, brilliant black man, with a lively interest in popular culture (especially sports and music) as well as the serious issues of the day. He gets elected president—twice—which still seems like a miracle to me when I think about it.”  A dead magazine proves there is liberalism after death.  And Obama worship.  And adolescent minds.

A NEW CRISIS – Can America survive?  From Daily Beast:    Hollywood’s perceived gender bias has become a cause célèbre in recent years thanks to Patricia Arquette, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, and other powerful women in the industry who have spoken out about the issue.  Now, in a move that brings a new level of seriousness to the issue, the feds are investigating gender discrimination in the industry.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announced the news on Wednesday, a year after they first urged the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate discrimination against women film and TV directors.  Seven months after the EEOC began interviewing female directors, they’re now conducting the same process with studio executives, showrunners, male directors, agents, and other industry players.
“We are encouraged by the scope of the government’s process and are hopeful that the government will be moving to a more targeted phase,” said Melissa Goodman, director of the LGBT, Gender and Reproductive Justice Project at the ACLU of Southern California, in a statement released Wednesday.  I'm against all discrimination in the industry, but this is frightening.  How do you prove discrimination in an artistic medium?  If you want a film with a black point of view, would you hire a white director?  If you wanted a youthful, hip point of view, would you hire a 70-year-old director?  If you were making a huge action film, wouldn't you hire the best action director, regardless of gender?  It's chilling that the government can intervene in artistic decisions to fill out quotas.  But that is what will happen. 

YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – From Fox:   Particle physics and string theory pose plenty of interesting questions, but educators at Massachusetts Institute of Technology this week wrestled with yet another vexing dilemma: "Is Islamophobia Accelerating Global Warming?"  That was the topic at a Monday panel at the venerable Boston school whose alums include Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Michael Bloomberg and Charles and David Koch. The presentation, sponsored by the school's Global Studies and Languages Department, looked at “an entanglement of two crises, metaphorically related with one being a source of imagery for the other and both originating in colonial forms of capitalist accumulation,” according to an online advertisement for the event.  Now the world is clearer to me.  Muslims would feel more free if I stopped driving my Honda.

May 13, 2016       Permalink

THE SCANDAL MACHINE LIGHTS UP AGAIN – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  The Clintons are a gift for which writers and journalists should be eternally grateful.  From the New York Post: 

Bill Clinton’s foundation doled out $2 million to a power company partly owned by a wealthy blond divorcée — who some say is the frequent visitor to his home nicknamed “Energizer.”

The “commitment” to Julie Tauber McMahon’s firm from the Clinton Global Initiative was placed on its 2010 conference agenda at Clinton’s urging, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The initiative “commits $2 million to support the work of Energy Pioneer Solutions, a company founded to deliver energy savings to communities in rural America,” said a 2010 statement from the charity.

Clinton even went to bat for the company when it came to lobbying for federal funds. He helped steer an $812,000 federal grant to it by endorsing the funds via then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the Journal said.

McMahon owns 29 percent of Energy Pioneer Solutions, which was given the money to make people’s homes more energy-efficient.

COMMENT:  I'm sure Energizer is completely serious about delivering energy savings to communities in rural America.  Why, this is public service at its best.  Don't you think?

May 13, 2016       Permalink

IS THIS AMERICA? – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:   In the last year, once his obligations to the Democratic Party were coming to an end, the true Obama has come out.  We have seen the fierce leftist, the racialist, the divider, the man who abuses our allies and comforts our enemies.  The un-American president.

But this takes the prize.  From Fox: 

The Obama administration has sent a letter to every public school district in the country telling them to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their chosen gender identity, as opposed to their birth certificate.

The letter, which is signed by officials at the Justice Department and the Department of Education, was sent out Friday. A copy was posted on the Department of Justice’s website.

While the letter does not have the force of law, it does warn that schools that do not abide by the administration’s interpretation of civil rights law may face lawsuits or loss of federal aid.

"There is no room in our schools for discrimination of any kind, including discrimination against transgender students on the basis of their sex," Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement.

Officials say the letter is meant to clarify expectations of school districts that receive funding from the federal government. Educators have been seeking guidance on how to comply with Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal funding, Education Secretary John B. King said in a statement.

COMMENT:  No matter what side you're on, you have to be concerned about this abuse of power.  The idea that the authors of Title IX, which originally focused on providing equality to women in college athletics, even dreamed of this application of the law is ludicrous. 

There is, of course, no public input permitted.  This is dictatorial government, seeking to impose an ideological solution consistent with the agenda of the hard left.  The public be damned.  Women who innocently walk into restrooms be damned.  This is the way you will live your lives, peasants!

It is frightening.  It is things like this that partially explain the rise of Donald Trump.

May 13, 2016       Permalink

OH, THE INTRIGUE – I LOVE IT! – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  The former speaker of the House goes public with a notion that usually has only been whispered.  From The Hill: 

Former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday took shots at Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and said he wouldn't be surprised if Hillary Clinton ends up withdrawing from the presidential race.

Addressing the SALT Conference in Las Vegas, the former Speaker suggested that Democrats might have to turn to Vice President Biden to be their 2016 nominee.

Boehner says he "would not be surprised at all" if Clinton "has to withdraw" and Biden "parachutes in."

Republicans have long speculated that the FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server could result in criminal charges, wounding her candidacy.

COMMENT:  Even if it doesn't result in criminal charges, it could result in findings that Clinton was grossly negligent in her handling of the nation's secrets.  That will help her on the Marxist left, but nowhere else.

It appears the FBI probe is reaching a critical stage, with Clinton's top assistants called to testify.  So far there's no indication she has been called to give answers under oath, but wait.  She might be the last witness.

May 13,  2016     Permalink