SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

DISGRACEFUL – President Obama, who rarely reveals skills of leadership, disgraced himself today by his response to the awful shootings in Charleston.  Instead of a dignified expression of grief, he seized the opportunity to disparage his own country and call for gun control.  He said mass killings like this don't happen in other civilized countries.  Paris, anyone?  You'll recall that after the recent terrorism in Paris, world leaders gathered for an anti-terror march down a Parisian boulevard.  And guess who didn't show up.  Barack Obama.  He's getting a bad press on his political comments today.

MORE POOR TASTE – From Variety:  "Hours after delivering a statement on the shooting massacre of nine people at an historic church in Charleston, S.C., President Obama and a group of entertainment industry donors had a lengthy discussion about the roots of gun violence in the first of two Hollywood-centric fundraisers in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to an attendee who was present.  About 30 people attended the event at the Pacific Palisades home of Chuck Lorre, executive producer of 'Two and a Half Men.' Tickets for what was billed as an intimate discussion with the president sold for up to $33,400 each, with proceeds going to the Democratic National Committee."   Obama needs advice from Hillary, who gets $200,000 a speech, minimum, and gives the money to her own foundation.  Always such class.

IMMIGRATION MESS – The numbers are just staggering.  From AP:  "MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico now deports more Central American migrants than the United States, a dramatic shift since the U.S. asked Mexico for help a year ago with a spike in illegal migration, especially among unaccompanied minors.  Between October and April, Mexico apprehended 92,889 Central Americans. In the same time period, the United States detained 70,226 'other than Mexican' migrants, the vast majority from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador."  I have no solution for this, but what North America clearly needs is some kind of international immigration system.  What we have now is chaos, with the potential for terrorists to slip in among the migrants.

AND JUST WHO ARE YOU? – From The Politico:  "The U.S. Census Bureau is experimenting with eliminating the word 'race' altogether in its 2020 survey, according to a report from the Pew Research Center on Thursday.  As part of its final research push before finalizing its 2020 wording, test-census forms will be sent to 1.2 million households later this fall in without any references to “race” or “origin.” Instead, the forms will ask: 'Which categories describe person 1?' Respondents will then be able to choose from the usual list of racial and ethnic categories."  Each citizen will get a chance to invent himself.  Not much for a census, but great for political correctness.

June 18, 2015