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SEPTEMBER 25,  2016

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

GOOD WORDS FROM DALLAS –  From Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who called a meeting with all of his coaches, players and field staff and firmly told them, "You are all simply paid performers on a stage and that field is my stage! You will stand, with your hand over your heart and with respect, when our country's national anthem is being played or you will no longer be a Dallas Cowboy, a coach for the Dallas Cowboys or have any association with the Dallas Cowboy Organization! I will immediately fire you, no matter who you are!"  Seems reasonable to me.  There's an old American saying:  "Your rights end where my nose begins."  A player, as a citizen, has a right to protest under the First Amendment, on his own time.  It is doubtful he retains that right when putting on a uniform and occupying space on a team's field.  No one has a right to come into your home and stage a political demonstration.

NO CLASS – FROM FOX:   Three Walmart workers in McDonough, Ga., refused to decorate a “thin blue line” cake for a police officer’s retirement party because they said it was racist.  A number of my Georgia readers alerted me to the story and on Saturday night I spoke directly with the police officer’s daughter. She asked that I not divulge her name and I’ve agreed to do that. “I was so shocked,” she told me. “I didn’t know what to do or say or anything. I was trying not to lose my temper or make a scene.”  For the record, Walmart has confessed that most of her allegations are true.  Next time these cake decorators are in danger, let them call as pastry chef to save them.  They should be dismissed immediately. 

NO GUN CONTROL – FROM FOX:   Authorities in Southern California have had more than 300 weapons lost or stolen over the last five years.  The Orange County Register reported Sunday that an investigation of 134 state and local police agencies from Kern County to the Mexican border showed 329 firearms were lost or stolen and some were involved in crimes.  Some of the lost weapons include Glocks, Sig Sauers, Remington shotguns, rifles and even grenade launchers. The paper reported that officers have treated their weapons in a reckless manner. High-caliber firearms were stowed in backpacks and gym bags, while handguns were hidden in center consoles.  According to the Register, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department reported that at least 103 of the agency’s 20,000 guns were lost or stolen over the last five years. Is this poor training, poor discipline, or is there some group (or groups) targeting police departments?  I'd like to know how many of these weapons are used in crimes.

September 25, 2016       Permalink

WILL PENNSYLVANIA DECIDE IT? – AT 12:50 P.M. ET:  Some pundits look to Pennsylvania as perhaps the decisive state in the presidential election.  And Trump is gaining.  From The Hill:

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s lead over Republican rival Donald Trump has narrowed to 3 points in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, according to a new poll.

Clinton leads Trump, 44 percent to 41 percent, in the Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll released late Saturday.

One week ago, Clinton had a 9-point advantage in that poll, 47 percent to 38 percent.

Clinton’s lead in a four-way matchup is now 2 points, 40 percent to 38 percent, pollsters found. Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson has fallen to 8 percent support, and the Green Party’s Jill Stein has 3 percent.

Trump saw a jump in support from his own party in the new poll, with 85 percent of likely Republican voters in Pennsylvania saying they’d pick him instead of Clinton. That’s up from 71 percent in the last poll.

COMMENT:  It has to be the Charlotte riots and Trump's firm law-and-order stand that is producing these new numbers. 

If Trump can capture Pennsylvania, it's hard to see Clinton winning the election.  Pennsy is a "must" state for her.

September 25, 2016       Permalink

THE TRUTH STARTS COMING OUT – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  Have you noticed how, after every mass attack, the "authorities" try to assure us that there's no evidence pointing to terrorism?  It's part of the politically correct culture of our time.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.   But the truth then starts to come out.  From the New York Post:   

The alleged New Jersey terrorist charged with trying to blow up Chelsea last weekend with homemade bombs spent weeks getting an “Islamic education” at a Pakistani seminary, according to a report.

Ahman Khan Rahami spent three weeks in Kuchlak, an area described as a longtime “hub” for the Taliban, in 2011, a security official inside the country told the Guardian.

Rahami, 28, attended lectures at the Kaan Kuwa Naqshbandi madrasa.

US authorities have been tight-lipped with details of Rahami’s trips to Pakistan, acknowledging he was married during a visit to Quetta.

Security agencies inside Pakistan have tried to “hide all details” of his visits to Quetta, one anonymous official told the Guardian.

Rahami also visited Surkhab and Nushki, where a US drone killed Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor in May.  

COMMENT:  I'm sure he was studying to be a hairdresser.  Why, what could be more logical?  And everyone knows that Pakistan is the world center for hairdressing education.  Choke.

And now we have the latest mall shooting – five dead – in the state of Washington.  We learn that the alleged shooter is from Turkey.  Of course, we must not condemn all turkeys, or Turks, or Muslims, or whatever.  I want to know more.  Why do I think I know where this is going.  These things always seem to go in the same direction.

September 25, 2016       Permalink

AS HIGH NOON APPROACHES – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  The first debate is a day away, and the race is getting tighter.  Several polls now suggest that Donald Trump is regaining the momentum after dropping the ball a few weeks ago by once again bringing up the Obama birthplace issue.  From the Morning Consult:

Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton by 1 percentage point among likely voters who were polled a few days ahead of the much-anticipated debate between the two presidential candidates. The debate will take place Monday evening.

The ratings for the televised matchup between the two candidates are expected to be at record highs. Two-thirds of registered voters say they expect to watch the debate, with 41 percent saying they are “very likely” to watch it.

In a nationwide poll of 1,712 likely voters taken Sept. 22 through Sept. 24, 39 percent of respondents chose Trump, while while Clinton was the choice for 38 percent. The difference between the two candidates is within the margin of error. The other candidates in the race continue to trail behind the leaders, with Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson at 9 percent and Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 4 percent; 10 percent of respondents say they don’t know or have no opinion.

In a head-to-head matchup without the third-party candidates, Clinton edges out Trump by 2 points among likely voters, 44 percent to 42 percent, within the margin of error.

COMMENT:  A new Washington Post poll, just out, also shows an exceptionally tight race.  I'm not sure what may have caused this new Trump surge.  Maybe it's Hillary's own weakness.  Maybe it's resentment at the viciousness of the attacks on Trump.  Maybe it's the rioting in Charlotte and the terrorist attacks in New York and New Jersey.

We'll be watching the TV rumble tomorrow night.

September 25,  2016    Permalink

SEPTEMBER 24,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

CAPTURED – A suspect has been captured in last night's mall shooting in Washington state, in which five died.  We'd been told, right after the event, that the wanted suspect was believed to be Hispanic.  It turns out he is not.   He is 20-year-old Arcan Cetin, whose family came from Turkey.  (We shouldn't make assumptions, but it's starting to sound familiar.)  We know that he went to high school in the state of Washington, was known as a loner, and had a run-in with police last year.  We expect to hear more in the coming days, as the investigation proceeds.  Nothing has been ruled out.

DEAD HEAT – FROM ABC:   The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has narrowed to essentially a dead heat nationally in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, raising the stakes dramatically for the first presidential debate Monday night.  A vast 74 percent of Americans plan to watch the debate. And while eight in 10 say it won’t change their minds, that leaves more than enough to shift the balance in an increasingly closely fought contest, with unprecedented levels of qualms about both major-party candidates...In all, 44 percent of likely voters say they’d vote for Trump if the election were today, numerically his best since spring. Forty-six percent prefer Clinton, unchanged from an ABC/Post poll early this month and virtually unchanged since June. The 2-point gap between them is not significant, given the survey’s margin of sampling error. The race has closed from an 8-point Clinton lead in early August.  We should note that, until this up-to-the-minute poll came out, there seemed to be a trend back to Clinton.  The polling later this week, after the debate, should tell us a great deal, but it may not tell us what will happen six weeks from Tuesday, election day.

HIM, TOO? – FROM BRITAIN'S GUARDIAN:    Ghanaian professors are calling for a statue of Mahatma Gandhi to be removed from their campus because they claim he was racist and considered Indians to be “infinitely superior” to black Africans.  A statue of the Indian independence leader was unveiled at the University of Ghana in June by the Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee, who had delivered a speech calling on students to “emulate and concretise” Gandhi’s ideals.  More than 1,000 people have since signed a petition calling for it to be torn down, saying that not only was Gandhi racist towards black South Africans when he lived there from 1893-1914, but that he campaigned for the maintenance of the caste system in his own country.  “We can do the honourable thing by pulling down the statue,” read the petition, which was delivered to the university council on Thursday. “It is better to stand up for our dignity than to kowtow to the wishes of a burgeoning Eurasian super-power. Some harm has already been done by erecting the statue. We have failed the generation that look up to us, namely our students.”  I mean, really. Wasn't Gandhi supposed to be perfect?  Ain't that what the movie said?  In fact, he was a major-league whackjob, whose ideas probably held India back.  He fought Britain, a modern, civilized nation.  Had he had to fight Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia, he would have been gone in a day.

September 24, 2016       Permalink

I'M JUST SO SHOCKED; MY PILLS PLEASE – AT 12:29 P.M. ET:  There are reports of voter fraud.  I cannot believe this is happening.  From the Washington Times:   

A CBS affiliate’s evidence of voter fraud in Colorado has sparked an immediate investigation by Secretary of State Wayne Williams.

Election sleuthing by Brian Maass of KCNC-TV in Denver exposed multiple instances in recent years where dead Coloradans were still voting. A dead World War II veteran named John Grosso voted in a 2006 primary election, and a woman named Sara Sosa who died in 2009 cast ballots in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. Mrs. Sosa’s husband Miguel died in 2008, but a vote was cast in his name one year later.

“This is the kind of thing you hear rumored, joked about in Chicago, that kind of thing,” Mr. Maass said during a Thursday evening broadcast. “Tonight, that changes. We did find voter fraud in Colorado that essentially waters down your vote.”

At one point Mr. Maass's investigation led him to the Colorado Springs home of Sarilu Sosa-Sanchez, the daughter of Mrs. Sosa. The reporter received the cold shoulder when he asked the homeowner about her mother’s “voting” record.

“Go talk to someone else,” the woman said. “I don’t have to clear anything up. I don’t know what that has to do with me.”

The son of Mr. Grosso, John, was much more willing to talk.

“I think that’s a disgrace,” he told the station. “The man is dead. He can’t vote. Somebody is cheating.”

Administrators with the Secretary of State’s Office said the veteran’s vote may have been the result of an election judge’s error, but the station said that still didn’t explain why “dozens of others were still listed as active voters months and sometimes years after their deaths.”

COMMENT:  Nothing to see, nothing to see.  But when we start hearing that more people voted in an election district than live there, maybe people will start to wake up.  In Chicago they used to say that you met your dear, departed relatives at the polls.  It's not just Chicago.  Go vote and meet Uncle Endicott.

September 24, 2016       Permalink 

BIAS – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:  One of the great stories of this election cycle, but not one you'll see on CNN, is the overwhelming bias of the press, a bias now more and more open.  The candidacy of the highly controversial Donald Trump is giving leftists in the press an opportunity to be more open about their own bigotries.  From Fox: 

It may not be a shock to her viewers, but NBC journalist Andrea Mitchell is not a fan of Donald Trump -- and leaked emails from June apparently show her describing the prospect of Trump getting the Republican nomination as “awful.”

Emails between former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mitchell from June, and leaked this month by DC Leaks, begin with a fairly standard journalist’s request for comment after former Bush deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage announced he was backing Hillary Clinton for president.

“Armitage now supporting her? Are you going to endorse? Wondering,” Mitchell asks Powell.

Powell brushes off the question and notes that Armitage has been saying this in public for a while. But then in an email chain dated June 17, Mitchell tells Powell that she thinks Republicans need to find a way to avoid nominating Trump.

“I know trump controls the convention rules committee but I keep thinking they have to find a way not to nominate him,” she tells Powell.

Powell responds by telling her he thinks Trump will get the nomination, and notes that Ryan has declared he is sticking with Trump.

“I don't see how. Even Paul Ryan in today's papers says he has problems, but is sticking with him. Trump is his own best critic right now. Be careful not to give him critics he can attack and divert attention. I assume he will get the nomination. Then the game is on,” Powell responded.

Powell’s outlook is not an optimistic one for Mitchell, who then responds: “It is awful,” apparently referring to Trump’s nomination.

COMMENT:  These so-called journalists are destroying what is left of their "profession."  Two problems are that they are 1) proud of what they do and 2) that they know that showing liberal bias will not hold them back in their careers.

September 24, 2016       Permalink

WASHINGTON STATE SHOOTING – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  There has been another multiple murder, this time in a mall in Washington state.  From CNN:

(CNN) A man carrying a rifle entered a Macy's store at a mall in Washington state, shot dead four women and a man, and vanished into the night, police said.

Authorities believe only one person fired the shots Friday night at Cascade Mall in Burlington, about an hour north of Seattle.

A search is underway for an armed man who headed toward Interstate 5 after the attack, said Sgt. Mark Francis, a spokesman for the Washington State Patrol.

Francis released a blurry surveillance photo of a man described as the suspect. His motive or relationship to the victims, if any, are unclear, he said.

The names of the victims were not immediately released.

Witnesses described chaotic scenes and confusion when the shooting started about 7 p.m. local time
Brandi Montreuil told CNN she was watching a movie at the mall when attendants suddenly told them to leave.

"I didn't know anything," she said. "The theater attendant came in and apologized for stopping the movie and said they were asked to have everyone leave immediately."

COMMENT:  We still don't know much.  The shooter was described as Hispanic, but we don't know the basis of the description.  Did he say something in Spanish?  Did someone recognize him?

The mall is, laughably, a no-gun zone, which may explain how the shooter got away so easily.  He was the only one with a gun.

The fact that four of the five fatalities were female may or may not be significant.  The shooter apparently wound up in the cosmetics department of Macy's.  Was he there intentionally, or was the department near the store's entrance?  Don't know.

We await more facts.  Clearly, we'll be on guard against any cover-up.

September 24,  2016     Permalink