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MAY 10,  2017

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

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – FROM FOX:    DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. –  Boos, catcalls and the turning of backs welcomed the commencement speaker at Wednesday’s Bethune-Cookman University graduation ceremony.  For 20 minutes, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s most opposed cabinet secretary nominee during confirmation hearings, endured jeers from the graduates and interruptions from the university president to calm down the crowd.  At one point, President Edison Jackson even threatened to “send your diplomas in the mail” if the noise didn’t stop.  Betsy DeVos is a wealthy woman who could have spent her life going to liberal cocktail parties in Manhattan and Beverly Hills.  Instead, she devotes herself to education.  This is the thanks she gets.

MADNESS – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:  A new NYPD directive forbids cops from entering a residence in response to a noise complaint — unless they’re given permission.  The directive, a copy of which has been obtained by The Post, means loud partiers can simply tell the cops who come to their door to just go away.  The bizarre constraint is the result of costly, successful lawsuits against the city by homeowners who complained that cops barged onto their properties without a warrant, multiple sources told The Post.  A week after it was issued, the directive had already outraged brass and rank-and-file cops alike, who warned Wednesday that neighborhoods will suffer from sleepless nights and trash, and that the NYPD will lose the vital ability to police out-of-control parties by known or suspected gang members.  Another victory for degeneracy and chaos.  But the intellectual classes will be pleased.  After all, loud parties never happen in their neighborhoods, so why should they worry?

WHO CARES ABOUT TERRORISM? – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:  Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, announced Wednesday that he intends to block President Trump's nominee for the top post monitoring terrorism financing at the Treasury until the department releases documents relating to Trump and his dealings with Russia.  "I have stated repeatedly that we have to follow the money if we are going to get to the bottom of how Russia has attacked our democracy," the Oregon Democrat said in a statement Thursday afternoon announcing the "hold" on the nomination of Sigal Mandelker to be undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.  Wyden said the hold would remain in place until the requested documents were provided to the Finance and Intelligence committees. On Wednesday, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner, told reporters that he had requested documents from the Treasury showing any ties between Trump or his campaign associates and outside entities, including Russia.   I mean, who cares about monitoring terrorism?  If you're a Democrat, and a follower of Hussein Obama, terrorism is defined as a "manmade disaster."  It can wait. 

May 10, 2017       Permalink

AND DON'T FORGET IRAN – AT 12:20 P.M. ET:    With all that's going on involving the FBI, Korea, and the re-emergence of Barack Obama, it's easy to forget that Iran is forging ahead with its own military programs.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

Iran is preparing to launch two new domestic satellites into space, according to a new announcement by Iranian military leaders that is stirring discussion among U.S. national security insiders who say the move is likely cover for the test firing of advanced intercontinental ballistic missile technology that could be used as part of Iran's nuclear program.

The latest test comes as the Trump administration continues to engage in a comprehensive review of the Iran nuclear agreement that U.S. officials tell the Washington Free Beacon will result in a full-scale plan to "meet the challenges Iran poses with clarity and conviction."

Iran continues to boost its military might and move forward with the testing of controversial ballistic missile technology. The expertise needed to launch satellites into space is similar to that needed to properly launch intercontinental ballistic missiles, which could potentially reach U.S. soil.

U.S. officials and national security experts have been paying close attention to Iran's missile progress as North Korea ups its provocative moves. Tehran and Pyongyang have long traded illicit missile technology on the black market and Iran's nuclear progress closely mirrors that of its partner.

The Iranian satellite launches also come as Iran engages in an unprecedented effort to reorganize and boost its military so it can serve as an offensive fighting force, a move that has drawn concern among U.S. national security insiders.

COMMENT:  When President Trump said that Obama had left him a mess, he was accurate.  No international problem was ever solved, or even seriously confronted, by Barack Obama.  Cans were continually kicked down the road, and we're at the end of that road.

May 10, 2017       Permalink

COULD BE BUMPY – AT 11:18 A.M. ET:  South Korea just elected a new president who's not as cozy with the U.S. as we might have wished.  From Reuters: 

South Korea's new liberal President Moon Jae-in was sworn in on Wednesday and vowed to immediately tackle the difficult tasks of addressing North Korea's advancing nuclear ambitions and soothing tensions with the United States and China.

Moon said in his first speech as president he would begin efforts to defuse security tensions on the Korean peninsula and negotiate with Washington and Beijing to ease a row over a U.S. missile defense system being deployed in the South.

In his first key appointments, Moon named two liberal veterans with ties to the "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with North Korea from the 2000s to the posts of prime minister and spy chief...

..."I will urgently try to solve the security crisis," Moon said in the domed rotunda hall of the parliament building. "If needed, I will fly straight to Washington. I will go to Beijing and Tokyo and, if the conditions are right, to Pyongyang also."

Spy chief nominee Suh said Moon could go to Pyongyang if it was clear the visit would help resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and ease military tension on the Korean peninsula.

North Korea is likely to welcome Moon's election but its state media made no mention of his victory on Wednesday.

COMMENT:  This new guy might qualify for the label "peacenik" if he were American.  He seems to be one of these politicians who believe that the object of negotiations is negotiations.  The so-called "Sunshine Policy" never worked.  North Korea went right ahead and built its nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.

We'll have to see if Moon remains his wobbly self or sees the light and tries to align himself more with American policy.  That may well happen if the real world caves in on him. 

Also, our concern with North Korea doesn't only involve its threat to the South.  It involves its threat to Japan, the Philippines, and, ultimately, to the United States itself.  It is developing ICBMs that can hit Hawaii, Alaska, and our West Coast.  And North Korea has always considered America a mortal enemy.  It was the U.S., after all, that led the successful multi-nation effort to repel the North Korean attempt to take over South Korea in the early 1950s. 

Trump will not allow the new South Korean government to dictate our policy.  Our own lives are involved.

May 10, 2017       Permalink

DAY TWO – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  It's day two of the Great Constitutional Crisis – the firing of James Comey.  We will now refer to the event as the GCC, since an abbreviated name is necessary to mark its importance.

The Dems are going crazy.  It's Watergate!  The Democratic Party vocabulary has been reduced to four words – racism, Hitler, Watergate, and abortion.  If you can't push one of those four buttons, the party has no use for you.  They've tried to wrap three around Trump's neck.  They haven't quite gotten to the abortion thing.

From Fox: 

Top Democrats who just months ago called for FBI Director James Comey to be fired are now blasting President Trump for doing just that.

Just last week, Hillary Clinton blamed the FBI director for costing her the presidency by briefly reopening the investigation into her handling of classified emails. But after Trump sacked Comey Tuesday night, Clinton's former campaign manager pronounced the move "terrifying."

"Twilight zone," Robby Mook wrote on Twitter. "I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled. But this terrifies me."

Just hours before Comey was canned, former Clinton cmpaign chairman John Podesta tweeted: "The American public is getting mildly nauseous listening to Jim Comey."

Then, after Comey was fired he tweetd: "@realDonaldTrump Didn't you know you're supposed to wait til Saturday night to massacre people investigating you?"

COMMENT:  Nice try, but I don't think it'll work.  Trump will soon appoint a successor, and attention will shift to that person.  I hope he does his homework and doesn't pick someone with a problem. 

The rumor mill is at work.  No favorite names so far.  The Dems, of course, would prefer a woman who is also a minority who is also no fan of the president.  Whoopi Goldberg would be fine.

Director Whoopi would be confirmed easily.

May 10,  2017     Permalink

MAY 9,  2017

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

COMEY OUT – The president has fired James B. Comey from his post as director of the FBI.  I watched with amusement tonight as so-called "journalists" and "experts" gave us their profound analysis of the dismissal.  One journalist called it a dark day.  We were warned that this is a Constitutional crisis, maybe greater than the Civil War, surely on a par with Watergate.  I suggest you ignore everything you see and read.  Go rest.  Sleep for a while.  Watch old Ronald Reagan movies.  Nobody knows anything about this.  If it's the first attempt by TRUMP (!!!!) to destroy American democracy, we'll know soon enough.  I don't really think it is.

MAJOR ROMANCE NEWS – FROM MARKETWATCH.COM:  Some people inquire about a potential mate’s age or how many previous partners they’ve had. Others are more interested in another number.  Some 42% of adults say knowing someone’s credit score would affect their willingness to date that person, according to a survey released on Wednesday of 1,000 adults by personal finance website Bankrate.com. That’s up from nearly 40% last year. Women were nearly three times as likely to consider credit score a major influence on a potential partner compared to men (20% versus 7%). Younger daters are not as concerned about these three digits: 45% of older millennials, defined here as those aged 27 to 36, said that knowing someone’s credit score would only have a minor impact on their desire to date.   So, pay your credit-card bills.  It's good romantic advice.

THIS JUST IN – FROM BREITBART:   Former President Barack Obama warned the world that more people on the planet were eating meat, causing a dramatic rise in climate emissions.  “As people want to increase meat consumption, that in turn is spiking the growth of greenhouse emissions coming out of the agricultural sector,” Obama said, pointing to countries that were consuming more meat.  The former president shared his views about the growing threat during a conversation about food with his former chef Sam Kass at a food innovation summit in Milan.  “People aren’t as familiar with the impact of cows and methane,” Obama said, adding that “as people want to increase more meat consumption, that in turn is spiking the growth of greenhouse emissions coming out of the agricultural sectors.”  Killer hamburgers!  Killer steaks!  And to think that we worry about North Korea.

May 9, 2017       Permalink

THE DYING CITY – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  The anguish of Chicago gets worse, not better.  The question must insistently be asked:  At what point do we recognize that the city cannot be governed, that its people are in mortal danger?  At what point do we think about the unthinkable, that it's time to consider sending in federal troops to patrol the streets and see to it that Chicago's children will come home safely?  From Fox:   

The Chicago Police Department warned its officers Monday about gangs armed with high-powered weapons, after three people were shot to death over the weekend and two cops were targeted in an ambush last week.

Anthony Guglielmi, a police spokesman, said three people who were killed in shootings Sunday were all members of the same street gang. Two of them died while attending a memorial for the earlier victim.

A shooting in the early morning hours on Sunday left one man dead, and the two others were killed and eight people were injured in a spray of more than two dozen shots from two guns while attending a makeshift memorial for him. Police said they believe the victims were all shot by members of a rival street gang in the same neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side – Brighton Park.

Police increased patrols after the morning shooting of 26-year-old Daniel Cordova, who was found dead between parked cars in the Brighton Park neighborhood. The other shooting happened about a block away. The names of the other victims were not immediately released.

Given the very real possibility that the gang war has not played itself out, the department has saturated the same area with officers and tactical teams, Guglielmi said. It also has issued a warning about gunmen with weapons powerful enough to pierce bullet-proof vests.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said Monday that a reputed gang member sprayed a police van with more than two dozen rounds from an assault rifle after mistaking the vehicle and plainclothes officers inside for rival gang members. Authorities arrested the alleged driver in the ambush, Angel Gomez, but not the shooter. The shooting occurred in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

COMMENT:  No city is perfect, but we generally don't see this kind of warfare in New York.  It's because two mayors, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg, put public safety at the top of their lists, and didn't take the advice of self-serving "minority leaders," who always found excuses for the criminal class.

Chicago is becoming the new Detroit.  And Barack Obama, who comes from Chicago and will have his presidential library there, doesn't seem to care.

May 9, 2017       Permalink

KOREAN MYSTERY – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:   What's on those artificial islands that North Korea has been building?  From Fox: 

North Korea is at it again. Or rather, it is continuing what it started five years ago.

Artificial islands have been discovered surrounding Sohae Satellite Launching Station, a missile development and testing site roughly 70 miles northwest of Pyongyang. Satellite images suggest the islands are home to military installations and have been under development for at least five years.

While their purpose is unknown, suspicions are high that the islands could be used to launch missiles.

Those speculations are not far off the mark, according to Gordon Chang, author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World.”

“North Korea is never up to any good,” Chang said in an emailed statement to Fox News. “The new facilities, whatever their purpose, will be used for evil deeds, mischief, or troublemaking of some sort.”

“My sense is that the facilities on the new islands will be used for missile launches of some kind, especially because they are near Sohae.”

North Korea could just be following in its neighbor China’s footsteps. In recent years, China has reportedly been stocking its disputed man-made islands with missiles.

COMMENT:  Others disagree with the analysis and see no visible danger from the islands.  But I doubt if North Korea would build artificial islands near a launching station as vacation getaways. 

The situation with North Korea is frightening.  It has one of the most irrational and militant regimes in the world, and it not only builds weapons of mass destruction, it exports them.

I suspect Trump is waiting for another North Korean nuclear or missile test before making a decisive move.  He has promised to solve this problem, not simply kick the can down the road.

May 9, 2017       Permalink

CHARLES IS SO RIGHT – AT 8:05 A.M. ET:  Former President Obama accepted the "Profiles in Courage" award from the Kennedy family a few nights ago, prompting one to wonder what courage he ever displayed. 

Charles Krauthammer noticed something else.  From Mediaite: 

Former President Barack Obama spoke last night about the importance of political “courage” in his first public remarks following the health care vote in the House last week. Charles Krauthammer – not a big Donald Trump fan – tonight said Obama expressed a level of condescension that served as a good reminder of why we should be grateful he’s out of office.

“It’s been a full 100 days,” Krauthammer observed, “but it was nice to be reminded of why we should be grateful as a nation he is gone.”

He said the “complete moral condescension” Obama showed last night in talking about opponents as cowards and building himself up as the one holding the “courageous position” is nonsense.

Krauthammer said this was a recurring element throughout Obama’s eight years and concluded, “Good riddance, Mr. President.”

COMMENT:  You can see the video of Obama in the linked story.  He and his Democratic crowd never learn anything.  They believe themselves to be superior in every way, and they make clear their feelings.  When they get together, they're insufferable. 

I guess the Kennedys had to give Obama the award since Caroline served under him as ambassador to Japan.  But Obama seems out of place whenever true courage, or character, is discussed.  A more fitting recipient would be the leader of the Navy SEALS, or a similar figure.   But I'm not sure they have much standing among today's liberals.

May 9,  2017     Permalink