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MAY 23,  2016

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

COURSE CHANGE – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   A “Men in Literature” course taught successfully for eight years at Springfield College has now been canceled after campus officials complained the class was too focused on men.  The popular humanities department-approved course was taught by Dr. Dennis Gouws. Campus leaders, prior to axing the course, accused the scholar of turning the English class into something of a men’s gender studies class.  I'm so relieved that they finally got rid of this abomination.  Men in literature?  How dare they.

MADNESS – FROM JUDICIAL WATCH:  The Obama administration has ordered the nation’s colleges and universities to stop asking applicants about criminal and school disciplinary history because it discriminates against minorities. Institutions are also being asked to offer those with criminal records special support services such as counseling, mentoring and legal aid once enrolled. The government’s official term for these perspective students is “justice-involved individuals” and the new directive aims to remove barriers to higher education for the overwhelmingly minority population that’s had encounters with the law or disciplinary issues through high school.  Sure, we should help people get back into society, but not asking about criminal backgrounds is sheer madness.  What about sex predators?  Men with a history of assaulting women?  Don't colleges have a right to know the full backgrounds of their students? 

INEVITABLE – FROM DAILY CALLER:   A female security guard working at a Washington, D.C. grocery store was arrested Monday afternoon for physically escorting a man out of the women’s restroom after he refused to leave because he identifies as a woman.  The shopper — a young, African-American male who identified himself as Ebony Belcher to local news outlets — reportedly passed the security guard on his way into the women’s restroom at a Giant grocery store in Northeast D.C.  After seeing Belcher walk into the women’s restroom, the security guard followed him in and ordered the man to leave. When he refused, the security guard had to physically escort him out of the women’s restroom.   Upon leaving the store, Belcher called police to have the security guard arrested. D.C. police confirmed to NBC4 Washington that the woman was arrested and charged with simple assault. D.C. police told TheDC that they are treating the incident as a “suspected hate crime.”  Belcher told NBC4 that the security guard told him: “You guys cannot keep coming in here and using our women’s restroom. They did not pass the law yet.”  The security guard was acting reasonably.  But political correctness governs all.  Don't expect the "women's movement" to come to this guard's assistance, even though she was protecting women.  Left-wing politics comes first.

May 23,  2016     Permalink

REOPENING  OLD WOUNDS – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  The United States makes a major gesture toward Vietnam, but many veterans will not be happy.  From The New York Times: 

HANOI, Vietnam — President Obama said at a news conference on Monday in the Vietnamese capital that the United States had agreed to lift completely its embargo on lethal weapons sales.

“The United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some 50 years,” Mr. Obama said.

Vietnam had long asked for the embargo to be revoked. The decision involved weighing Vietnam’s human rights record against the country’s need to defend itself against an increasing threat from China, its neighbor.

COMMENT:  It would have been so much better if Vietnam were a democracy, with strong ties to the United States.  It was heading that way in the late 1960s, with the United States and its South Vietnamese allies winning every major military engagement of the Vietnam War.  But, the political will in the United States collapsed, under the barrage of relentlessly negative reporting that often exaggerated our problems and minimized our successes.

Today Vietnam is a complete dictatorship, its people denied the better life they would have had if America hadn't withdrawn from Vietnam under the fiction that all was lost, and had continued material aid to those who had fought with us. 

It is 41 years since Americans watched on television as helicopters evacuated, in conditions of chaos, the last of our people from the United States Embassy in Saigon.  And we still are left with the question:  How does a country win every battle and lose a war?  Only one institution can truly answer that question – the American media, and that media has been silent, refusing to close a gaping wound, preferring instead to continue the fiction that the war was unwinnable.

May 23, 2016        Permalink

MORE ECONOMIC TROUBLE – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  We are seeing more and more signs every day of a weakening economy, something that can profoundly affect the presidential campaign.  From
msm.com:

One of the labor market’s early-warning signs may be flashing trouble.

Hiring by staffing agencies has ground to a halt so far in 2016, a worrisome sign because the category fell off before a broader job-market slowdown ahead of the past two recessions. Many economists look at the sector as a leading indicator because cautious firms tend to first hire temps when an expansion begins and dismiss those nonpermanent workers when they sense the economy is faltering.

The question now is whether the recent flattening in temp employment points to another economic downturn or is just respite for an industry that has capitalized on a shift toward flexibility for workers and firms.

COMMENT:  If the economy was really healthy, as Chief Economist Barack Obama claims, you'd feel it around you.  Instead, we see a lot of struggling, stagnant wages, and pessimism.  There may be hot markets in luxury goods and million-dollar homes, but there doesn't seem to be much expansion elsewhere. 

We've seen recently a restlessness in labor unions, with some unions openly turning against their usual home, the Democratic Party, which, they charge, has lost touch with the working man or woman.   Donald Trump may have a unique opportunity here, if he learns how to exploit opportunities rather than turn voters away.

May 23, 2016       Permalink

BERNIE THE VICIOUS – AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  It is simply remarkable to see the level of viciousness in the Sanders campaign.  Even though he has almost no chance of getting his party's nomination, Sanders is escalating his attacks on his party's presumptive nominee.  I think he's starting to believe his own press clippings.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Bernie Sanders is turning the negative heat up on Hillary Clinton, highlighting her high unfavorability ratings to make the case for his candidacy.

Sanders, who spoke during an interview with ABC News' "This Week" to be broadcast Sunday, is letting the vitriol flow even as establishment Democrats hope to start uniting the party behind Clinton.

"We need a campaign, an election, coming up which does not have two candidates who are really very, very strongly disliked. I don't want to see the American people voting for the lesser of two evils," the senator told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos. "I want the American people to be voting for a vision of economic justice, of social justice, of environmental justice, of racial justice."

Asked by Stephanopoulos whether he would describe Clinton as the lesser of two evils against Donald Trump, Sanders responded, "No, I wouldn't describe it, but that's what the American people are saying."

COMMENT:  At this stage in a campaign, most contenders tone down their attacks if it's clear someone else will get the party's nod.  Better to be seen as a team player and fight another day.  Bernie isn't a team player, and probably views this election season as his only chance for national office.  He is also a socialist, a political extremist, and he doesn't play by the rules.

May 23,  2016     Permalink

MAY 22,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET: 

BREXIT – FROM REUTERS:   LONDON (Reuters) - Anger at established elites and irritation at the interventions of leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama will help to push British voters to opt for an exit from the European Union on June 23, the head of the Vote Leave campaign said.  With a team of about 60 full-time staff in a tower block across the River Thames from Parliament, Matthew Elliott is plotting what he describes as a revolution: Brexit.  A British exit would rock the European Union -- already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone -- by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial center.  I favor Brexit.  The European Union has become a menace to Western democracy – a bureaucratic mess handing down edicts on how every citizen of every member state should live their lives and fold their napkins.  Out now.  Save Britain.

THE PRESIDENT'S HOME TOWN – FROM THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES:   A city employee caught in gang crossfire was among five people killed and 32 more wounded in shootings across Chicago since late Friday afternoon, police said.  Chicago Police issued a statement Sunday in the middle of one of the first consistently warm weekends of the spring, as intensified city gun violence typically accompanies rising temperatures.  “As we look toward the summer months, Superintendent Johnson has made it very clear that the violence will not be tolerated – period,” the statement said. “The cause of the violence traces back decades, and everyone has a role to play in fixing it – police working with parents, judges, residents, clergy, community leaders, and others. Put simply, we need more values, fewer guns and stronger sentences against violence offenders.”  What we need is some truth-telling about crime – that social breakdown and lax law enforcement are the keys.  New York largely solved its violent-crime problem under Rudy Giuliani by modern police tactics and a refusal to kowtow to the "inner city" leadership.  Not so in Chicago.

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM REDALERTPOLITICS.COM:  Student demands now have an effect on tenure and promotion Pomona College professors. As The Claremont Independent reported, the faculty voted last week to for a professor’s “attention to diversity in the student body” as criteria for promotion and tenure.  The vote came after an open letter was circulated by the student body, which referenced a Fall 2015 demand to do with “a commitment to amending the wording of the Faculty Handbook to include a faculty member’s support of a diverse student body as a criteria considered in reappointment, tenure, and promotion.”   The letter also noted how the students “voiced our pain and disappointment with unsafe academic environments and the negative effects of those environments on students’ well-being and everyday lived experiences.”   At Pomona College, however, students have expressed their “pain and disappointment with unsafe academic environments” by creating less than ideal situations for others. Stephen Glick, a junior, felt forced to resign from the writing center due to his political beliefs. Minority students were also labeled as “Shady Persons of Color” (SPOC) if they didn’t agree with the demands as tactics.  The new fascism on American college campuses.  This kind of intimidation should be abhorrent to the academic world, but it really isn't.  Maybe it will convince the American people that a "college education" isn't what it's cracked up to be.

May 22,  2016     Permalink

WELL DESERVED – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  Occasionally President Obama does something right.  It may be an accident, but it's still right.  From CNN:

(CNN) Women who served as pilots during World War II finally can be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, thanks to bipartisan efforts.

President Barack Obama signed a bill into law allowing the ashes of woman who flew in the Women Airforce Service Pilots program (WASP) to be laid to rest at the military cemetery.

For Tiffany Miller, who launched an online petition last year to have her grandmother Danforth Harmon's ashes allowed into Arlington, the recent news has been overwhelming.

"It was her last wish to be in Arlington. We haven't been able to hold a funeral for her because we wanted to honor that wish," the 37-year-old told CNN.

Harmon's grandmother was fresh out of college when she joined the WASP program in 1944, flying with male pilots who needed to go through instrument training. The 22-year-old was in the program for less than a year before it was dismantled, but the experience had a lasting impact, Miller said.

These original fly girls flew countless U.S. Army Air Forces planes for noncombat missions during the war in order to free up their male counterparts for combat. Between 1942 and 1944, they flew more than 60 million miles in bombers, transports and trainer aircraft.

COMMENT:  I'm always glad to see military women recognized for the contributions they make, and have made.  I visit Arlington whenever I can, while in Washington.  Every American should visit.  And now these female World War II pilots will receive the recognition they deserve. 

May 22, 2016       Permalink 

AH, VENEZUELA, SOCIALIST PARADISE – AT 11:24 A.M. ET:  The country is in horrible condition.  Movie stars don't even visit anymore to give praise to the socialist government.  Can you imagine that?  From AFP: 

Caracas (AFP) - If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.

A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.

But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It's the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that's applied.

But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.

Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.

"Everybody is knocked low," Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. "We can't breathe."

In Chacao, a middle-class neighborhood in the capital, office workers lined up outside a nut store to buy the cheapest lunch they could afford. Nearby restaurants were all but empty.

Superficially it looked like the center of any other major Latin American city: skyscrapers, dense traffic, pedestrians in short sleeves bustling along the sidewalks.

But look closely and you can see the economic malaise. Many stores, particularly those that sold electronics, were shuttered.

"It's horrible now," said Marta Gonzalez, the 69-year-old manager of a corner beauty products store.

"Nobody is buying anything really. Just food," she said as a male customer used a debit card to pay for a couple of razor blades.

COMMENT:  Bernie Sanders would probably call it a paradise in the making.  But it's an amazing thing about those paradises:  they never get fully made.  They eventually collapse. 

There are now all kinds of ideas being floated about what to do to save Venezuela.  Most Latin American countries don't want the United States to intervene.  Shades of colonialism.  But they may have to intervene themselves, for it is unthinkable that a country the size of Venezuela – 28 million people – would go completely under. 

May 22, 2016       Permalink

TRUMP GAINS ON HILLARY – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  This poll creeping isn't doing Hillary any good, but it can easily be misinterpreted.  From The Hill:

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s lead over likely general election rival Donald Trump has narrowed to just 3 points in a new poll.

Clinton leads the presumptive Republican nominee, 46 to 43 percent, in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released early Sunday, within the survey's margin of error.

In a similar poll in April, Clinton held an 11-point lead over the businessman, 50 to 39 percent.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, however, would beat Trump 15 points in a hypothetical match-up, 54 to 39 percent, according to the new poll.

Trump and Clinton are both burdened with high unfavorable ratings in the latest poll. Fifty eight percent view Trump unfavorably while 54 percent have a negative opinion of Clinton.

Pollsters also found that almost half of voters, 47 percent, would consider a third-party candidate if Clinton and Trump face off as the major parties’ nominees in the fall.

COMMENT:  The number that will be looked at carefully in that poll is the one showing Bernie beating Donald by 15 points.  But remember, that was Hillary's lead over Donald only a few months ago.  The focus has been on Hillary as the presumptive nominee, and in that role she carries much baggage.  Sanders has not been vetted in any way.  His views have not been given wide examination.  Should that happen, his numbers would fall, for this is not a socialist country.

What's so sad here is the dislike of the two major candidates, Trump and Clinton.  The fact that almost half the voters would consider a third-party candidate is telling, and an indication that a third-party race, if carefully run, could have a profound impact, including throwing the election to the House of Representatives if the third party takes three or four states.

May 22,  2016     Permalink