Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

AUGUST 24,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

IDIOT – From Breitbart:  Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation Sunday, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns told host John Dickerson he believes America is still a racist nation, and those who have questioned the legitimacy of President Obama’s birth certificate, namely, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, have done so as an alternative to using the N-word.  Burns outlived his usefulness years ago.  His Civil War series on PBS was excellent, but it's been downhill ever since.  He is a race-obsessed leftist, a graduate of ultra-leftist Hampshire College.  In my view, his constant anti-American drumbeat has diminished his effectiveness as a filmmaker.

MESSAGE TO HILLARY? – From The Hill:  The White House on Monday said President Obama may offer an endorsement in the Democratic primary, which could pit his former secretary of State against his vice president.  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the front-runner for the party's nomination, but Vice President Biden is looking at the race.  “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an endorsement during the Democratic primary,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday.  That means there'll be an endorsement, and it will go to Biden.  I can't imagine Obama really wanting Hillary to be president, especially with legal problems hanging over her.  By contrast, he's known to have a warm relationship with Biden.

THE NERVE – From Reuters:   MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday the United States has been sending "signals" that it wants to start mending ties with Moscow, badly strained over the past year and a half by the conflict in Ukraine.  The United States and European Union slapped economic sanctions on Russia last year after its annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula and support for a separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine.  Moscow, which denies arming the rebels, responded with its own counter-sanctions against Western countries.  Why would we want to mend ties when the Ukraine situation is still unresolved?  Again, as with Iran, it looks like Obama is on an appeasement mission.  I wonder what we'll give away this time.  Probably Ukraine.

August 24, 2015       Permalink

BIDEN TALK – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Joe Biden is the flavor of the week.  Next week it'll be cherry vanilla, followed by marshmallow swirl.  The fact is, many Democrats are turning on Hillary Clinton.  She still may win the nomination, but only those in her employ may be in the hall cheering.  From CBS: 

With the specter of Vice President Joe Biden jumping into the 2016 race for the White House, some prominent figures in the Democratic party seem less sure of Hillary Clinton's chances at clinching the party's nomination.

Notable Democrat California Gov. Jerry Brown weighed in Sunday on the possibility of Biden's run, saying if he were in the vice president's position, he would give "very serious consideration" to the 2016 contest.

"All I can say is, if I were Hillary, I would say [to Biden], 'Don't jump in,'" Brown told NBC News. "If I were Joe Biden, I'd probably give it very serious consideration."

Joe Biden's political star has risen in recent weeks, with his national poll numbers climbing despite his unofficial status as a potential candidate. In a move that could signal more earnest consideration of a run, Biden this weekend met privately with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a progressive policy leader of the Democratic party.

Brown, who once made a bid for the Oval Office in 1992 against Bill Clinton, added that his own personal experience has shown him presidential politics are "uncertain."

When asked if he expects Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination, Brown responded, "I don't make these expectations. I've been around politics long enough to know things are uncertain. I don't know. I think she's a good person. She's got a lot of experience, but the vagaries of politics are such, I think expectations are worth about that."

The two-time California governor also expressed concern for how Clinton's brewing email controversy could impact her run, calling the issue a "vampire" haunting her campaign.

COMMENT:  The message is sent.  Any idea of Hillary's "inevitability," which is what her camp was selling just months ago, is down the drain.  She isn't inevitable, although the numbers say she's still probable.

Much will depend on the progress of the e-mail investigation, and that, in turn, may be dependent on the wishes of Barack Obama, who controls the Justice Department.  If you were Obama, would you want Hillary Clinton to succeed you?  Or close friend Joe Biden?

The soap opera will go on for a time.  But Hillary is clearly in trouble.

August 24, 2015       Permalink

WELCOME TO REALITY – AT 10:16 A.M. ET:   Some elements in Britain and Europe are slipping right back to the mentality of the 1930s, and are starting to grovel to Iran, the better to get business deals early.  Con Coughlin, one of the leading Britain terrorism experts, is giving this crowd a stern word of caution.  From London's Telegraph:

Here we go again: another British foreign secretary in Iran with the hopeful expectation of forging closer ties with the ayatollahs. Ever since Iran’s Islamic revolution in 1979, the holy grail of British foreign policy has been to reach out to the moderates in Tehran, thereby isolating the hardliners.

Back in the Eighties when, thanks to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, British hostages such as Terry Waite and John McCarthy spent five or so years chained to radiators in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, Sir Geoffrey Howe, our then foreign secretary, frequently told me that the hostage crisis could be resolved if only we could establish a working relationship with the moderates in Tehran. But for all our entreaties, the hardliners won the day, and the hostages were eventually released when the ayatollahs deemed them to be surplus to their agenda.

More recently, in 2003, New Labour’s Jack Straw believed he had identified a similar moderate tendency in Iran’s political establishment, during the presidency of Mohammad Khatami. This, of course, was in the aftermath of the Iraq War, when the ayatollahs feared – not unduly – that they might be next on President George W Bush’s hit list.

The overthrow of Saddam Hussein certainly had a salutary effect on Tehran, which quickly suspended work on the nuclear weapons research programme that had made enormous strides under Khatami’s leadership. But the Straw initiative came to nothing, and the West’s reward was the election two years later of arguably Iran’s most divisive president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

So has anything changed in the past decade in this elaborate game of diplomatic cat and mouse? Well, to judge by Iran’s actions since the Obama administration’s controversial nuclear deal was signed with Tehran earlier in the summer, the omens are hardly encouraging.

He concludes:

When the US and its allies signed the nuclear deal, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s Supreme Leader, tweeted a picture of President Obama holding a pistol to his head, apparently committing suicide. That is how the Islamic regime thanked Washington for its attempts to forge a new understanding.

And there can be no doubt that Britain, too, would be committing suicide if it abandoned its traditional Arab allies in the Gulf in favour of the Islamic fanatics who currently hold sway in Tehran.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's a good presentation of what today's Iran really is, and what it stands for. 

There are thousands of American graves in Europe because of the degeneracy of pre-World War II Europe. We are seeing Europe's sequel.

August 24, 2015       Permalink

MARKET LATEST – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Related to the post just below.  From the Washington Examiner:   

Stocks plunged Monday as U.S. markets opened, as fears over China's economy roiled global asset markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened down over 900 points, over 5 percent.

Markets across Europe have also fallen sharply after the Shanghai Composite in China fell 8.5 percent Monday.

Chinese markets have been in turmoil since the central bank moved to devalue the yuan on August 11, a step that suggested that the Chinese government was concerned about the possibility of slowing economic growth.

As of the close of markets Monday, the Shanghai Composite was lower than it was at the start of the year, despite being up roughly 60 percent earlier in the summer.

Futures indicated a rout in U.S. markets Monday to follow a massive drop Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by over 500 points to end the week, and all major indices were down over 3 percent as fears related to China cause a broad-based decline in stock prices.

COMMENT:  Amazing, isn't it, how dependent we are on China? 

The 2008 election was upended by the financial crisis that broke out, conveniently, just before the election itself.  It no doubt helped Barack Obama win the White House, despite his empty record.  If we have a new financial crisis, who will be helped?  Or hurt?  It's quite possible that Donald Trump, who's been complaining about Chinese economic power, and cautioning that this country is "running on fumes," could be helped substantially.  He, like Obama in 2008, is the outsider.

August 24, 2015       Permalink

MARKET TUMBLE? – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  The financial world is very jittery this morning.  Declines last week, coupled with a steep decline over the weekend in Chinese stocks are creating a serious panic attack.  Will American stocks crumble?  From Reuters:

LONDON (Reuters) - Alarm bells rang across world markets on Monday as a near 9 percent dive in China shares and a sharp drop in the dollar and major commodities panicked investors.

European stocks were more than 5 percent in the red and Wall Street was braced for similar losses after Asian shares slumped to 3-year lows as a three month-long rout in Chinese equities threatened to get out of hand.

Oil plunged another 4 percent, while safe-haven government U.S. and German bonds and the yen and the euro rallied as widespread fears of a China-led global economic slowdown and currency war kicked in.

"It is a China driven macro panic," said Didier Duret, chief investment officer at ABN Amro. "Volatility will persist until we see better data there or strong policy action through forceful monetary easing."

Many traders had hoped that such support measures, which could include an interest rate cut, would have come from Beijing over the weekend after its main stocks markets slumped 11 percent last week.

With serious doubts also now emerging about the likelihood of a U.S. interest rate rise this year, the dollar slid against other major currencies.

COMMENT:  We'll be watching.  So will the political class.  If there's an economic turndown in the next six months, it clearly will affect the 2016 election.

August 24,  2015     Permalink

AUGUST 23,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

TRUMP RISES AGAIN – From Reuters:   WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican Donald Trump is pulling away from the pack in the race for the party's U.S. presidential nomination, widening his lead over his closest rivals in the past week, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Friday.  Republican voters show no signs they are growing weary of the brash real estate mogul, who has dominated political headlines and the 17-strong Republican presidential field with his tough talk about immigration and insults directed at his political rivals. The candidates are vying to be nominated to represent their party in the November 2016 general election.  Nearly 32 percent of Republicans surveyed online said they backed Trump, up from 24 percent a week earlier, the opinion poll found. Trump had nearly double the support of his closest competitor, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who got 16 percent. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was third at 8 percent.  One reason for this is that Trump is the only one getting much news coverage.  The other candidates seem to be taking late August off, and that may be just fine in the long run.  The next debate is September 16th, and things may start to shake out after that.

PAUL GETS A BREAK – From Fox:   LONDON, Ky. – The Kentucky state Republican Party on Saturday approved a caucus that will allows freshman Sen. Rand Paul to run for re-election and president at the same time.  Kentucky state law bans candidates from appearing on the ballot twice in the same election. To get around that law, Paul had asked Republicans to create a presidential caucus in Kentucky on March 5.  The Republican Party's executive committee unanimously approved the caucus in the spring. But since then, Paul's campaign has faltered in the polls. Many Republicans have questioned spending up to $500,000 for a caucus when Paul might be out of the presidential race by March.  These Republicans are correct.  Paul is going nowhere.  His foreign-policy views are way outside the mainstream of the Republican Party, and are to the left of many Democrats.  Republicans caught on.

UNINTENTIONALLY HILARIOUS – As Steve Hayward writes at Powerline:  "Democrats, party of the common man, RIP."  He cites this quote from a New York Times story on Hillary Clinton:  Among the places where Mrs. Clinton enjoys stalwart support are the Hamptons, where she and Mr. Clinton have spent the past several summers, walking their dogs on the beach, attending clambakes and raising money for their family’s philanthropic foundation. This summer, the fashion designer Tory Burch is among those hosting fund-raisers for Mrs. Clinton.  Is there anything that says "out of touch" more than that paragraph?  The Clintons are renting a home whose rental fee is a reported $100,000 for a couple of weeks.  Then Hillary will go out and talk about income inequality.  The Clintons assume they're so special that no one will object.  They live in their own world.  And all this money came from selling influence.

August 23, 2015       Permalink

CARLY IS RIGHT! – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  Another political outrage is about to take place, unless common sense prevails.  From The Hill: 

Carly Fiorina supporters are criticizing CNN's debate criteria that could prevent the former Hewlett-Packard CEO from grabbing a spot on the main stage at the second debate despite her surging poll numbers.

They say that CNN's decision to include polls from before the first presidential debate will work against Fiorina, who didn't make the main stage at the Aug. 6 Fox News debate in Cleveland but surged after a strong performance during the undercard debate.

"Ludicrous," was how Katie Hughes, communications director for CARLY for America super-PAC supporting Fiorina's campaign, termed it.

"The political class is still trying to keep her off the main debate stage, if you can believe that," argued Sarah Isgur Flores, Fiorina's deputy campaign manager, in a fundraising email to supporters on Friday.

A CNN spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Hughes said "the polls used should at least reflect the most recent attitudes of voters -- to not do so is ludicrous."

Two separate CNN and Fox News polls released earlier this week showed Fiorina in the middle of the pack of the crowded field with 5 percent in each poll.

Fiorina lacked significant national name recognition and was hovering at about 1 percent in most polls before the first debate.

Officially, Fiorina campaign spokeswoman Anna Epstein said that they "aren't weighing in on this topic right now."

"We're in New Hampshire this week and Iowa next week," she said, noting Fiorina's aggressive campaign schedule in the early primary and caucus states.

COMMENT:  Carly must be on that stage.  If she isn't, the debate is a farce and the Republican Party should not participate.  Going back to polls taken before the first debate assumes that nothing ever changes in politics.  Those polls are irrelevant.

CNN should come up with a common-sense solution, and not stick with absurd methodology.

August 23, 2015       Permalink

HER AGAIN? – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  The Elizabeth Warren crowd is stirring again.  Strapping on their Birkenstocks.  Downing their tofu.  Clipping on their peace buttons.  Oh, isn't it a time!  From The Hill:

Liberal activists and strategists argue Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would be beating Hillary Clinton in the polls by now if she had opted to run for president as a champion of Wall Street reform.

At a time when nervous Democrats are eyeing 72-year-old Vice President Biden and former Vice President Al Gore — who left office 15 years ago — as potential alternatives, some liberals say it’s not too late for Warren to jump in.

“I think she’d be beating Hillary. That’s my opinion,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, who earlier this year worked on a campaign to draft Warren to run for president.

“Based on the support Bernie’s got and the way he’s surged in the polls, that shows anything is possible,” he added in reference to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has exceeded expectations by drawing big crowds on the campaign trail.

Clinton leads Sanders by about 20 points in national polls, but he has shown flashes of strength.

A Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald survey from mid-August showed him topping her 44 percent to 37 percent in New Hampshire, the second state in the primary process.

While Clinton has broader support within the Democratic Party, Sanders has generated more enthusiasm on the stump.

Nearly 2,000 supporters flocked to his event in Dubuque, Iowa, this week and more than 27,000 filled the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena earlier this month to hear him speak.

COMMENT:  It was inevitable that the left-wing group in the Dem party would get moving.  But there are differences Between Sanders and Warren.  I don't agree with Bernie, but he's honest and decent.  Warren is a proved liar, starting with her claim that she's a Native American.  Bernie is no hypocrite.  Warren is the phoniest thing going.  She made millions in corporate law, and drove a BMW before running for the Senate as a champion of the little people.  Bernie is at least fun to listen to.  Warren is a bore, and a terrible candidate.

But Warren is the sentimental favorite of the crowd that thinks North Vietnam is just a swell place to live.

Getting interesting on the Dem side.  One more bombshell exploding near Hillary and it can get very interesting.

August 23, 2015       Permalink

FOLLOW-UP – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  We are learning more about the terrorist who tried to attack passengers on a French train, an attack stopped by three brave Americans and British and French passengers.  From Fox: 

The man who boarded a high speed Paris-bound train armed with a Kalishnikov before being subdued by passengers was on the radar of authorities in at least three countries, had ties to radical Islam and may have traveled to Syria, authorities said.

A French official close to the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, identified the attacker to The Associated Press as Ayoub el-Khazzani, 26, who was known to authorities in France, Belgium and Spain.

Officials didn’t disclose a possible motive for the Friday attack, but Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve said Spanish authorities had advised French intelligence about the suspect because he belongs to the “radical Islamist movement.” Three people were injured but no one died in the attack. Authorities have credited brave American, French and British passengers with stopping El-Khazzani, who they said was armed with the assault rifle, nine magazines, a pistol and a boxcutter.

El-Khazzani was being questioned by French counter-terrorism police who on Saturday who confirmed through fingerprints their suspicions that he was the same man who had been brought to their attention in February 2014, a French official told The Associated Press. French authorities said he had lived in the southern Spanish city of Algeciras, frequenting a mosque which is under surveillance there. He was transferred Saturday morning to anti-terror police headquarters outside Paris and could be held for up to 96 hours.

COMMENT:  The guy apparently was a walking time bomb, but we understand how difficult it is in Western democracies to keep people like this in detention unless they've actually committed a crime.  There will be more incidents like this.  As we saw in Chattanooga recently, we are not invulnerable.

August 23,  2015     Permalink