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APRIL 19,  2015

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

ANOTHER DAY IN THE WAR ON TERROR, WHICH, OF COURSE, IS OVER – From Fox:  "Federal authorities said late Sunday that they had arrested six people in Minnesota and California in connection with an investigation into young men who have traveled or tried to travel to Syria to fight alongside ISIS.  A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota said the arrests were made Sunday in Minneapolis and San Diego but there is no threat to public safety. A spokesman for the Minneapolis FBI office confirmed the number of people arrested. No further details were available about the identities of the suspects or the specific charges they faced."  The White House will probably tell us that they were on spring break.

WHAT CONFLICT OF INTEREST? – From Mediaite:  "Anthony Weiner — yes, that Anthony Weiner — talked to Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter Sunday morning about Hillary Clinton’s road trip to Iowa in the now infamous Scooby van, which he said bespoke of the unexpected in comparison GOP’s candidate’s staged events, and said the media was focusing on arcane or frivolous details that mattered only to the insider types, not to voters.  If you’re thinking, 'Wait, Anthony Weiner’s a media critic now?' you’re not alone. You may also be thinking: isn’t Huma Abedin, Weiner’s long-suffering wife, also Hillary Clinton’s long-suffering aide, and wasn’t she actually in said Scooby van during the trip?"  Yeah, she was there.   I guess CNN put Weiner on because he's neutral.  Joke.

INSULTING – But to be expected.  From the Latin American Herald Tribune:  "NEW YORK – Top executives from big U.S. firms such as MasterCard, pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer and JetBlue airline will travel to Cuba on a trade mission headed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  The Monday visit, which had been announced in January, will be the first of its kind since U.S. and Cuban authorities last December made public their intention to normalize diplomatic relations between the two nations.  The list of participants, announced Sunday by Cuomo, also includes top officials from educational and research institutions and several politicians.  Among the businesspeople who will go on the trade mission are JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes, MasterCard vice president Walt M. Macnee and Pfizer VP Freda Lewis-Hall."  Cuba's thousands of political prisoners could not be reached for comment.

April 19, 2015       Permalink

MARCO – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  The Republican candidates for president, or almost-candidates, have been in New Hampshire this weekend.  It's a good group.  I don't think a party has had this many solid candidates for president since the Democrats in 1960, who had Jack Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Henry Jackson, Stuart Symington and Adlai Stevenson.  It was a different party back them. 

I haven't noticed any solid Democratic candidates for president.  And, after a week of Hillary Clinton on the stump, I still haven't noticed any. 

One of our favorites here is Marco Rubio, who, I believe, combines the ingredients needed for a winning candidate.  Here's Marco today, from The Hill: 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Sunday blasted 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, saying she had not accomplished any lasting victories during her tenure as secretary of State.

“We cannot ignore she was the secretary of State during the first four years of the Obama presidency and has virtually no meaningful achievements to show for it,” Rubio told host Bob Schieffer on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“On the contrary, whether it’s the reset in Russia, or our response to Benghazi, or everything in between, the Obama foreign policy during the Clinton years especially, as secretary of State, have been a disaster for America,” he added.

Rubio argued that a Clinton presidency would carry these failed policies further into the future. The 2016 GOP presidential candidate argued that drastic change was needed to restore lost U.S. prestige.

“Today, our allies trust us less,” he said. “Our enemies fear us less. And America has less influence in the world than it did four to six years ago.”

“I believe I’m positioned to help lead this country to this new American century,” Rubio claimed.

“The presidency’s a big job and I’m prepared for that,” he added.

Rubio argued Democrats were mistaken if they placed all their trust in Clinton’s campaign. The much-more crowded Republican field, he claimed, offered Americans a better array of candidates.

“We have a strong field of quality people that are running,” said Rubio.

“I think the Democrats are struggling to find one and we have eight or nine,” he said of each party’s 2016 candidates.

COMMENT:  Rubio presents himself well, and, most important, he presents himself as a national candidate, not the candidate of a group or region.  That's good thinking.  Americans tend to feel comfortable with national candidates.  That's exactly the way Reagan positioned himself.  So did Kennedy.  Americans have now had six and a half years of a "group" candidate, and they don't like what they see. 

April 19, 2015       Permalink

HORROR – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:   More murders of Christians by ISIS.  But where is the outrage in the West?  From Reuters: 

CAIRO - A video purportedly made by Islamic State and posted on social media sites on Sunday appeared to show militants shooting and beheading about 30 Ethiopian Christians in Libya.

Reuters was not able to verify the authenticity of the video but the killings resemble past violence carried out by Islamic State, which has expanded its reach from strongholds in Iraq and Syria to a conflict-ridden Libya.

The video, in which militants call Christians crusaders and say they are out to kill Muslims, showed about 15 men being beheaded on a beach and another group of the same size shot in their heads in Libya's southern desert interior.

Both groups of men are referred to in a subtitle as "worshipers of the cross belonging to the hostile Ethiopian church."

Libyan officials were not immediately available for comment.

A senior Ethiopian official said the government was gathering information about the reported killings and would respond when it had more details. He said Ethiopia had no embassy in Libya, making it more difficult to verify the incident.

COMMENT:  I'm afraid we're becoming immune to these ghastly events.  The press is more interested in whether Hillary Clinton carries her own luggage.  And there's a big story today on Michelle Obama's Mother's Day plans.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

April 19, 2015       Permalink 

THE PRICE OF OUR WEAKNESS – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  Every signal Obama sends to Iran flashes weakness, and contempt for the American tradition of negotiating from strength.  He caves in whenever possible.  On Friday he strongly signaled that Iran might well get its dream of immediate relief from sanctions if it signs a nuclear deal, a complete reversal of our former position.

Now the Iranians are repeating and emphasizing another demand – that there be no inspections of military sites in Iran.  Sadly, they'll probably get this, too.  From USA Today: 

A senior military commander in Iran said Sunday that foreign inspectors would be barred from military sites in the country under any nuclear agreement with world powers, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking on state TV, Gen. Hossein Salami, deputy leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, said allowing the inspection is tantamount to "selling out," according to the news agency.

The United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and Germany — the so-called P5 +1 group — reached an understanding with Iran earlier this month on limits to its nuclear program in return for lifting crippling economic sanctions.

Negotiators have until June 30 to fill in the critical details to assure Iran it will get relief from the sanctions as soon as possible and to guarantee world powers that Iran won't develop a nuclear weapon.

Earlier this month Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Hassan Rouhani said that any nuclear agreement must include the immediate lifting of economic sanctions.

That has now been negated by Obama, who caved.

The framework deal agreed to after the talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, states that sanctions will be suspended after international monitors verify Iran is abiding by the limitations set out and that sanctions will resume if Iran fails to fulfill its obligation.

Sanctions will never resume.  Once lifted they will be impossible to restore because economic interests, especially in Europe, will prevail.

The United States has said the sanctions would be lifted in phases, but the details have not been negotiated.

As noted, Obama caved on this Friday. 

COMMENT:  It's a very sad spectacle, but appeasement has now become American policy, and the outrage seems very limited.  The left-wing educators and journalists have done their jobs.

April 19,  2015     Permalink

APRIL 18,  2015

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

AMERICANISM – Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said what many Americans are thinking.  From The Hill:  ""I don't know about you, I'm tired of the hyphenated Americans. No more African-Americans. No more Indian-Americans. No more Asian-Americans,' Jindal said to applause."  I think that's a great theme, and I sense that many Americans, after years of political correctness, are ready for it.  I hope Bobby starts a trend.

ERNIE – This is the 70th anniversary of the death of Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated of the World War II reporters.  He was killed by a Japanese sniper on the island of Ie Shima, off the coast of Okinawa.  He had covered Europe during most of the war, getting close to the G.I.'s and telling their stories to the American people.  When the war in Europe was approaching its end, Pyle really didn't want to go to the Pacific, but felt he owed it to the soldiers he'd never covered.  The decision cost him his life.  Like most of the reporters of that era, Pyle never fancied himself "above" his country or neutral about the war.  He was an American reporter covering an American war, and he knew we had to win it for our freedoms to survive.

GREAT SHOW – From the Washington Examiner:  "Unlike this week's gyrocopter incursion, when waves of World War II aircraft sweep over the Washington Monument at only 1,000 feet next month, they will have security clearance.  The historic flyover of vintage fighters and bombers on May 8 is a salute to the 70th anniversary of Victory-Europe, the day the Allies accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany.  The waves of 30-60 World War II heavy bombers and fighters will come in low so that several hundred of the last living veterans of the war will get to see again the air power that helped deliver the victory. Those waves will form an hour-long air parade of P-51 Mustangs, P-40 Warhawks, B-25 Mitchells, the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator and B-29 Superfortresses and other trainer and fighter aircraft."  I'd love to go.

April 18,  2015     Permalink

MORE TROUBLE FOR HILLARY – AT 12:31 P.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton's campaign rollout was more of a rollover.  A real dud.  She came off as artificial and lackluster...because she's artificial and lackluster. 

And her problems keep building.  A lot of them involve money and its source.  From Newsweek:

Enemies of Hillary Clinton waiting to discredit her bid for the White House are likely to seize on news that one of the biggest benefactors to the Clinton Foundation has been trading with Iran and may be in breach of US sanctions imposed on the country.

Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk, 54, has courted the Clintons for at least nine years – in the United States, the Alps and Ukraine.

Earlier this year, he was confirmed as the largest individual contributor to the Clinton Foundation, whose aims include the creation of “economic opportunity and growth”. He also has links to the Tony Blair Foundation and represented its biggest single donor in 2013.

The fourth richest man in Ukraine, Pinchuk owns Interpipe Group, a Cyprus-incorporated manufacturer of seamless pipes used in oil and gas sectors.

Newsweek has seen declarations and documents from Ukraine that show a series of shipments from Interpipe to Iran in 2011 and 2012, including railway parts and products commonly used in the oil and gas sectors.

Among a number of high-value invoices for products related to rail or oil and gas, one shipment for $1.8m (1.7m) in May 2012 was for “seamless hot-worked steel pipes for pipelines” and destined for a city near the Caspian Sea.

Both the rail and oil and gas sectors are sanctioned by the US, which specifically prohibits any single invoice to the Iranian petrochemical industry worth more than $1m.

However, US sanctions laws are complex and, in certain areas, ill-defined. Interpipe may qualify for penalties due to the mere presence on American soil of North American Interpipe Inc, its United States subsidiary.

The US authorities can also penalise non-American companies with no base in the US at all which it judges to be working counter to its foreign policy, as happened to Zhuhai Zhenrong, a Chinese oil company, in 2012.

Being denied access to US markets and the US banking system could prove catastrophic to Interpipe, given that accountancy giant Ernst & Young has raised questions over its viability.

The person in charge of this list of non-US companies is the Secretary of State, who between 2009 to 2013 – the period during which Pinchuk’s company was trading with Iran – was Hillary Clinton.

COMMENT:  A bit of bother, I'd say.  Scandal just seems to stick to the Clintons.  The campaign is just beginning.  We have to wonder what will come out next. 

If given a choice between Clinton and any breathing Republican, the mainstream media will certainly back Clinton.  But there may be a point where the scandals are so overwhelming that even the power of the press won't save her.

The once-great Democratic Party should have many more candidates for president.  The fact that it doesn't is proof of what's happened to it over the years.  It has lost the Senate, the House, most governorships, and most state legislatures.  If it loses the presidency, that's the ball game. 

April 18, 2015       Permalink

CHICAGO HORROR – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  Maybe the president of the United States should spend some time helping to save his native city, which is spiraling downward.  Don't hold your breath.  From the Chicago Tribune: 

At least 18 people have been shot, two fatally, in shootings across the city's Northwest, West and South sides since Friday morning.

One man was killed and another wounded in a shooting in Humboldt Park late Friday, one of three separate shootings in the neighborhood in less than 24 hours, police said.

The shooting happened about 10:50 p.m. in the 1100 block of North Springfield Avenue, said Officer Amina Greer, a Chicago Police Department spokeswoman.

The two men, ages 35 and 36, were inside a car on the block when a gunman approached on foot and fired shots, Greer said.

The two men drove themselves to Presence Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center and were both later transported to John H. Stroger Hospital. The 36-year-old man was shot in the chest and later died from his wounds. Officials had not identified the man as of early Saturday.

The 35-year-old man was shot in the neck. His condition stabilized, police said.

In the most recent nonfatal shooting, a 25-year-old man was shot early Saturday in the 3200 block of West LeMoyne Street in Humboldt Park. The man walked into Norwegian American Hospital about 6:35 a.m., police said. He had been shot in his left calf and was expected to be treated and released, police said. The man is a documented gang member, police said.

COMMENT:  Hey, where's the "hands up, don't shoot" crowd?  Where's the "black lives matter" crowd?  I guess black lives don't matter unless they're useful to Al Sharpton's career. 

You may be sure that many of the victims reported above are innocent, minority people.  But who cares?  If a white cop looked at one of them the wrong way, that would be the story.

April 18, 2015        Permalink

THE BETRAYAL – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  I don't normally quote former Secretary of State James Baker here.  I never liked him.  But he wrote wisely in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about the need to keep sanctions on Iran until the Iranians proved they are sticking to the nuclear agreement that presumably will be finalized by June 30th.  Trouble is, by the end of yesterday, Obama had already signaled that he was willing to cave in on sanctions to get the deal.  From the Journal: 

Former secretary of state James Baker called on the Obama administration to hold firm on sanctions against Iran until verifiable mechanisms are in place to ensure the Islamic Republic’s compliance of any nuclear deal.

Writing an opinion piece for the Friday edition of The Wall Street Journal, the former top diplomat in the George H.W. Bush administration said that while he commended the current president’s efforts to solve a thorny issue without resorting to military force, he cautioned that Washington must rally its P5+1 allies to demonstrate steadfastness, particularly in light of Iran’s poor track record in adhering to international commitments.

“Iranian leaders quickly disputed key points about the White House’s description of the terms of the [framework] agreement,” Baker wrote. “Among them was Iran’s demand that all sanctions be removed once a final deal is signed.”

“That is a far cry from the US understanding that sanctions will only be removed over time, as Iran meets its obligations. This different Iranian position may have been aimed at Iran’s domestic audience. But if Iran holds to it, there should be no final agreement.”

Baker added that any threat to keep the sanctions in place can only be effective if it is Iran that is perceived as the obstructionist party that refused the deal, not the US, particularly given the fact that European countries as well as others are eager to resume doing business with the Islamic Republic.

COMMENT:  As a result of Obama's statement yesterday that he's willing to consider lifting sanctions immediately to make it easier for Iran's leaders to sell the deal to hardliners, Baker's advice is obsolete.  We've already given in.  In fact, it's hard to keep up with the pace of Obama's appeasement. 

The sanctions will probably be lifted immediately.  Obama will lie to us once more by saying they can be reimposed if Iran cheats, but they never will be reimposed.  First, Obama, with European help, will never certify that Iran was cheating.  And business interests will demand that they continue to do business in Iran, something that will be very popular in amoral Europe.

April 18,  2015     Permalink