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

OH PLEASE – FROM THE HILL:   President Obama said Saturday that he is "concerned" by the FBI assessment that the State Department has acted carelessly in handling classified information.  "I am concerned," he told reporters at a news conference in Warsaw Saturday, according to Reuters.  But he cast the problem as a government-wide struggle to keep up technology and the fast-paced flow of information.  "The advent of email and texts and smart phones is just generating enormous amounts of data," Obama said, which is "putting enormous pressure on the department to sort through it, classify it properly."  That is an almost perfect statement of an excuse mentality.  Nothing Clinton allegedly did could be attributable to anything Obama is talking about.  She was reckless and indifferent.  We had reckless and indifferent people in the age of pencil and paper.

VEEPSTAKES – FROM THE HILL:   Donald Trump is considering a retired Army general to be his running mate, the Washington Post reported Saturday.  Former Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn is on the presumptive GOP presidential nominee's shortlist for vice presidential candidates, the report said.
Flynn retired as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in 2014.  It is Trump himself, and not his advisors, behind the push for Flynn, the report said. Trump feels the current national unrest calls for a "tough and steady" figure, the Post said.  Flynn joins a shortlist that reportedly includes former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence.  Flynn is an excellent man who gets the war on terror right.  But he has no political experience and is apparently a registered Democrat.  Trump needs someone to help him navigate the political waters.  Flynn has great strengths, but campaign skill is not on that list.

COMMON SENSE – FROM CNN:  London (CNN) There will be no "do-over" of the Brexit vote. The British government on Saturday rejected a petition signed by more than 4 million people calling for a new poll on whether Britain should remain in or leave the European Union.  In the original June 23 referendum across the UK, 52% of voters said they wanted to leave the 28-member European Union...Britain's foreign office broke the news to EU supporters Saturday in statement, saying that Prime Minister David Cameron had made clear that the "decision must be respected." Cameron announced after the vote that he would step down in October, saying a new leader would be needed to usher the country through the transition.  A mature decision.  The political class and the "young voters" (brats) among the population thought they could get a do-over.   They only do that in kindergarten. 

July 9, 2016