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.

MAY 4,  2017

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

SHE'S AVAILABLE, AS ALWAYS – FROM THE DAILY MAIL:  Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton is building a new political group meant to reengage in politics and help take part in the opposition to President Trump, and plans to call it 'Onward Together.'  The name is a play on Clinton's campaign theme, 'Stronger Together,' which was meant to rally the diverse coalition that brought President Obama to power and contrast with candidate Donald Trump's sometimes divisive rhetoric.  At the same time, Clinton is getting back into the lucrative business of appearing before associations and corporations for six-figure paychecks. 
That is a line of work that also has echoes of her failed campaign, as her paid speeches to Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms helped spark opposition and fuel both the primary challenge from Bernie Sanders and her ultimate opponent, Trump.  I can't wait.  Some people don't know how to leave graciously.

REPORT FROM YALE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   Political clashes on American campuses have dominated headlines in recent months, fueled by violent student revolts and blatant rejection of conservative speakers at several major schools. When things get this emotionally charged, straightforward numbers can sometimes provide a startling reality check. A new survey of Yale University students reveals that 88 percent said their professors were liberal while 6 percent felt their instructors were politically moderate. Only 1 percent said the professors were conservative. Seven of 10 have fallen victim to “political bias in the classroom,” while a third said their professors expressed their personal social and political beliefs that were “completely unrelated” to the subject of the course.  The numbers are a cautionary tale for campuses where left-leaning academics flourish. Young scholars may not like a one-sided community.  It's time to start cutting federal aid to higher education, outside the sciences.  The American people don't have to finance a propaganda network.

SICKENING – FROM THE HILL:  Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) went after President Trump on Wednesday night, calling him a “disgusting, poor excuse of a man” and saying, “I want him impeached.”  Waters was speaking at a gala held by EMILY’s List, a PAC that aims to help elect female Democrats who support abortion rights. During her address, the frequent Trump critic railed against his policies, calling on young people to step up and resist.  “We must take our anger, our pain, our collective strength to right this wrong, to resist this tyranny and to save our democracy from a man whose immoral character and distorted thinking are an imminent threat to our nation,” she said. Waters called Trump a “disgusting, poor excuse of a man” and slammed his Cabinet as “ill-prepared, right-wing billionaires.”  Waters also called for Trump’s impeachment, after saying she didn’t like using the term.  This woman, sometimes called "Sister Maxine," is considered one of the major voices in the Democratic Party.  What a disgrace.

May 4, 2017       Permalink

NEW TERROR WARNING – AT 11:16 A.M. ET:  Day after day, new warnings are issued.  They are based on intelligence, and should be taken seriously.  From NBC News:

Truck owners and truck rental agencies in the U.S. must be "vigilant" about the increasing frequency of "ramming attacks" by terrorists using vehicles as killing machines, according to a new Transportation Security Administration report obtained exclusively by NBC News.

The unclassified report warns owners, operators and rental agencies to protect their vehicles from theft. Entitled "Vehicle ramming attacks: Threat landscape, indicators and counter measures," the report was sent Tuesday to local law enforcement agencies and private companies working with the Department of Homeland Security.

The report notes that in the past three years, at least 173 people have been killed and more than 700 wounded in 17 ramming attacks around the world. Of the 17 attacks, 13 resulted in fatalities. Five were carried out in France both before and after the Nice attack and four took place in Israel.

Nine of the 17 attackers were carried out in the past 10 months. One involved an Ohio State University student who drove his car into a crowd last November, then began slashing fellow students before campus police killed him. Eleven people were wounded.

COMMENT:  There are going to be more attacks.  The questions are where and when.  I would also expect attacks by ordinary passenger vehicles. 

Trucks can also be used as explosives-bearing vehicles, as we saw in the Oklahoma City bombing. 

It has just been announced that President Trump will visit Israel and Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as president.  I would not be surprised if radical Islamist elements attempted one or more attacks while the president is in the Mideast.

May 4, 2017       Permalink

CRITICAL VOTE – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:  The House is expected to vote today on the GOP's new health-care plan.   The vote will be close, but the House leadership says it has the support it needs to see the bill through to victory.  From Reuters: 

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives was set on Thursday for a cliffhanger vote to repeal Obamacare, as Republican leaders worked to deliver President Donald Trump a win for one of his top legislative priorities.

House Republican leaders have expressed confidence the bill would pass and several party moderates who previously objected to it got behind it on Wednesday, giving the effort new momentum.

Still, the vote was expected to be close. Even if the measure passes the House, it faces daunting odds in the Senate where Republicans hold a narrower majority.

Keen to score his first major legislative win since taking office in January, Trump threw his own political capital behind the bill, meeting lawmakers and calling them in an effort to cajole their support.

Trump, whose Republican party controls both the House and Senate, is seeking to make good on his campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Aides said he worked the phones furiously.

An active and serious president, not afraid to get in the trenches and fight.  Compare please to the last gent.

Wavering moderate Republicans had worried that the legislation to overhaul President Barack Obama's 2010 signature healthcare law would leave too many people with pre-existing medical conditions unable to afford health coverage.

But the skeptical Republican lawmakers got behind the bill after meeting with Trump to float a compromise proposal that is still expected to face unanimous Democratic opposition.

The legislation's prospects brightened further after members of the Freedom Caucus, a faction of conservative lawmakers in the House who played a key role in derailing the original version of the bill last month, said they could go along with the compromise.

Millions more Americans got healthcare coverage under Obamacare, but Republicans have long attacked it, seeing it as government overreach and complaining it drives up costs.

COMMENT:  Republicans need a legislative victory on behalf of Trump.  The fact that the GOP in the House, after not being able to pass an earlier version of the bill, came back and tried again, is very commendable.  Some argued after that first defeat that they should have abandoned the issue, but they refused.  Give an A for effort. We're watching for today's vote.

May 4, 2017       Permalink

RETURN TO THE COLD WAR? – AT 9:25 A.M. ET:  There was action off Alaska this morning.  From Fox: 

Two Russian Bear bombers -- escorted for the first time by a pair of Su-35 "Flanker" fighter jets -- entered Alaska's Air Defense Zone early Thursday morning, U.S. officials told Fox News.

The Russian formation was intercepted by a pair of U.S. Air Force F-22 stealth fighter jets that were already flying a patrol about 50 miles southwest of Chariot, Alaska.

It was the first time the U.S. Air Force has seen advanced Russian Su-35 fighter jets escort Russian Cold War-era bombers near Alaska.

The Russian fighter jets were unarmed and remained in international airspace, officials said.

Late last month, Russian bombers flew near Alaska over four consecutive days for the first time since 2014.

Thursday's episode comes one day after President Trump spoke over the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House said the conversation focused on crises in the Middle East and North Korea, with no mention of recent Russian provocations.

The conversation was described in a readout as "a very good one."

Trump in April said U.S. relations with Russia were at an "all-time low," and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also described the relationship between the countries as being at a "low point."

COMMENT:  Whether we want it or not, we seem to be in a new Cold War with Russia.  It appears that Putin wants it, to reassert both Russia's power and his perception of Russia's greatness.

The deployment of the Su-35, even unarmed, demonstrates that, despite the weakness of the Russian economy, Russia still has the capacity to develop and build the most modern weapons.

There is a tendency in some circles to belittle Russia and underestimate her capabilities.  We forget that the old Soviet Union fought World War II with a third-world economy, yet made mincemeat of Hitler's armies. And even countries with wobbly economies can direct the resources they have to defense, and those may be considerable resources.

May 4,  2017     Permalink

MAY 3,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:57 P.M. ET:

INCREDIBLE – FROM BREITBART:   A stunning new poll shows that Hispanic support for President Donald Trump has grown to 45 percent since his election.  “The biggest surprise in this new poll is Trump’s approval among Hispanic voters, which is at 45 percent approval/51 percent disapproval,”  Zogby said. “In February the numbers were less among Hispanics at 39 percent approval/53 percent disapproval.”  In November, Trump won roughly 29 percent of the Latino vote.  It is not clear why Trump’s support has risen among Latinos. But a series of polls stretching back to 2014 show that many Hispanics strongly support more border security to protect their communities from crime and low-wage labor.  If accurate, this is big trouble for the Democrats.

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  A student at the University of California, Berkeley, has written an op-ed claiming that free speech is merely “a tactic used by the state,” and that Berkeley should prioritize the “safety of the marginalized” over American constitutional freedoms.  At the Daily Californian, UC Berkeley transfer student Juniperangelica Xiomara Cordova-Goff writes: “Free speech is not dead. It was never alive.” Cordova-Goff, a self-described “brown trans femme,” claims that the American ideal of “shar[ing] perspectives and differing opinions,” and UC Berkeley’s tradition of “discuss[ing] and organiz[ing] with opposite sides of the political spectrum” has “done nothing more than maintain the white supremacist, capitalistic and patriarchal nature that allowed colonizers to protect their power centuries ago and that has allowed their descendants to elect an openly racist, queerphobic, Islamophobic/xenophobic and anti-poverty adminstration [sic].”  I'm convinced.  Aren't you?

I'M SO RELIEVED – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  This is the moment the fabled Loch Ness Monster was “officially” spotted for the first time this year – bringing more than eight months of uncertainty to an end.  Nessie’s official recorder admitted he had been “worried” after a dry spell of sightings meant not one person had claimed to see the beast since August last year.  Enthusiasts were so concerned about Nessie that Gary Campbell, the official recorder, revealed he had fielded calls from as far afield as Moscow and California.  But tourist Hayley Johnson saw a strange and dark shape at dusk in the loch’s Urquhart Bay yesterday – said to be a favorite haunt of Nessie.  The 28-year-old, a care assistant from Manchester, England said: “I couldn’t believe my eyes.”  I couldn't imagine a world without Nessie.  What else is there to talk about?

May 3, 2017      Permalink

NOT A SHINING HOUR – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:   No party for decades has had the chance the Republican Party has now.  Its Democratic opposition is at its weakest point in almost a hundred years.  Republicans control the White House, the the US Senate, the House, most state legislatures, and most governorships. 

And yet, it has yet to show this year that it is a governing party, at least in Washington.  It is attempting to make good on its promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, but failed in its first effort.  Now it is trying again, and failure may once again be the result.   Grade of D.  From The Hill:

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said early Wednesday that he thinks the GOP healthcare proposal is still a few votes short of the number needed to pass.

During an interview on CNN's "New Day," King, who is undecided on the healthcare measure, was asked if he thinks there will be a vote on healthcare this week.

In response, King said he thinks that's a "complete toss of the coin."

"I think they're holding four to six votes short of what they need to go on the floor," he said.

"And I don't know how soft some of those votes that are sitting on the balance are, but that's my prediction. It's just going to be a toss of the coin on whether they will or whether they won't."

King said during the interview he moved his whip announcement last week to "undecided."

"It's a result of these negotiations that have to do with the essential health benefits that throws us back into the lap of the 50 states for them to fight over what they want to do," he said.

COMMENT:   It is absurd that the GOP, which has had six or more years to come up with a replacement for Obamacare, hasn't done so in a way that can guarantee passage in the House.  And then there's the Senate, where Republicans only have a slim majority.

If the Obamacare replacement fails this week, the Republicans should immediately go on to tax reform, which would have to include a meaningful tax cut.  If they can't get that done, they'll be in serious trouble in the 2018 midterms.

May 3, 2017       Permalink

AS FRANCE GOES – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  The French presidential runoff election is this Sunday.  It is important, as France is a key nation in Europe and one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.   If France should choose an anti-European leader and pull out of the EU, as Britain is doing, the EU would collapse.  I'm not saying that would be a bad thing.  From AFP:

Paris (AFP) - French presidential candidates Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen face off in a final televised debate on Wednesday which is expected to be bitter, personal and potentially decisive ahead of the run-off vote this weekend.

The stakes are high ahead of the contest between the pro-European Macron, a 39-year-old former investment banker, and far-right leader Le Pen, the 48-year-old scion of the National Front party.

Their starkly different views on Europe, immigration, the economy and French identity will be explored for the first time face-to-face, after a week marked by bruising clashes between them.

Polls show Macron holding a hefty but narrowing lead in the polls of 59 percent versus 41 percent, but previous debates during the rollercoaster French campaign have quickly shifted public opinion.

"Our goal is to avoid being dragged into mud-slinging," an aide to Macron told AFP on condition of anonymity ahead of the two hours and 20 minutes of exchanges between the candidates.

Whatever the outcome, the event marks a new step into the mainstream for Le Pen, whose party was once considered by France's political establishment to be an extremist fringe of racists to be boycotted.

When her father Jean-Marie made it into the final round of the presidential election in 2002, his conservative opponent Jacques Chirac refused to debate him out of fear of "normalising hate and intolerance".

Fifteen years later, Le Pen scored 21.3 percent in the first round of the French election on April 23 after successfully softening the FN's image -- but without fully removing doubt about the party's core beliefs.

COMMENT:   I'd imagine Macron will win.  I have no idea what that ultimately means.  France has become a major terror target, despite a tilt toward appeasement of Islamic radicalism.  Its economy could be much better.  Its people exhibit the same anger toward their plight that American workers showed during the last election.

May 3, 2017        Permalink

BE PREPARED – AT 8:01 A.M. ET:  The United States is seriously preparing for military action against North Korea, should it be necessary.  There is never any harm in full preparations and intensive training.  Indeed, these can, under rational circumstances, be part of an effective deterrent.  From the great Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon: 

U.S. special operations forces are set to conduct operations against North Korean nuclear, missile, and other weapons of mass destruction sites in any future conflict, the commander of Special Operations Command told Congress Tuesday.

Army Gen. Raymond A. Thomas stated in testimony to a House subcommittee that Army, Navy, and Air Force commandos are based both permanently and in rotations on the Korean peninsula in case conflict breaks out.

The special operations training and preparation is a warfighting priority, Thomas said in prepared testimony. There are currently around 8,000 special operations troops deployed in more than 80 countries.

"We are actively pursuing a training path to ensure readiness for the entire range of contingency operations in which [special operations forces], to include our exquisite [countering weapons of mass destruction] capabilities, may play a critical role," he told the subcommittee on emerging threats.

"We are looking comprehensively at our force structure and capabilities on the peninsula and across the region to maximize our support to U.S. [Pacific Command] and [U.S. Forces Korea]. This is my warfighting priority for planning and support."

Disclosure of the commander's comments comes as tensions remain high on the peninsula. President Trump has vowed to deal harshly with North Korea should another underground nuclear test be carried out. Test preparations have been identified in recent weeks, U.S. officials have said.

Trump said on Sunday that China appears to be pressuring North Korea but that he would be upset if North Korea carries out another nuclear test.

COMMENT:  I'd imagine another test is coming, unless North Korea completely changes, under Chinese pressure, its method of operation. 

Don't be shocked, by the way, if you start seeing more pieces in the mainstream media questioning why our confrontation with North Korea is even justified.  The political left is getting organized on this issue.  The notion will be to portray President Trump as an uninformed warmonger.  We've been here before.  The usual suspects will come out of the woodwork.

May 3,  2017     Permalink