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DECEMBER 14,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – From London's Daily Mail:   Hundreds of asylum-seekers entering Norway were discovered to have images of ‘executions’ and ‘severed heads’ on their mobile phones.  The revelation comes amid heightened fears that ISIS is exploiting the migrant crisis to smuggle fighters into Europe, following last month’s attacks in Paris.  Police admitted that the ‘explosion’ of refugees crossing into the country over the summer and in recent months meant that security checks were less thorough than required, and weren’t checking the background of those entering the country.  I'm sure the images were simply parts of medical-school instructional videos.  Don't you think?

PRIORITIES – From the Washington Examiner:   The White House on Monday began "staff-level" meetings and calls with religious leaders to discuss how they could help combat growing anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.  Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to President Obama, and Melissa Rogers, who leads the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, held a conference call with leaders of all religions from across the country.  "Spoke with 890+ religious leaders to thank them for speaking up for every American's right to be free from religious discrimination," Jarrett tweeted on Monday. That right apparently does not extend to the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Christian groups that were savagely harassed and ridiculed during the debates over Obamacare.  Nor does it extend to Jews, who, according to the FBI, are five times more likely than Muslims to be victims of hate crimes.  By all means, let us stand for equal treatment of all Americans, but let's actually mean it.

MAJOR DIETARY NEWS – From Ohio's Chronicle-Telegram:   OBERLIN — Some Oberlin College students have taken issue with the campus dining services at the college, saying dining services is improperly preparing dishes and labeling them as Asian.  Clover Linh Tran, a student at Oberlin and co-chair of the Vietnamese Student Association, called for a meeting with campus dining after noticing inaccuracies in several Asian dishes that confused students.  For example, a Vietnamese Banh Mi sandwich was being served, but used the wrong bread and had coleslaw on it rather than pickled vegetables. Another dish was called “tandoori,” an Indian dish usually served for the Hindu holiday of Diwali. However, the dish had beef in it, which many Hindus do not eat.  The sushi served on campus was also a concern, one that some students even considered to be disrespectful.  This better get resolved soon, before the anthropology students go on a hunger strike.

UNBELIEVABLE – From the Hill:   Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson decided against ending a secret U.S. policy that prohibits immigration officials from reviewing social media posts of foreigners applying for U.S. visas, according to a report by ABC News.  Johnson decided to keep the prohibition in place in early 2014 because he feared a civil liberties backlash and “bad public relations,” according to ABC.
“During that time period immigration officials were not allowed to use or review social media as part of the screening process,” John Cohen, a former acting undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis, told ABC News.  One current and one former senior counterterrorism official confirmed Cohen’s account to ABC.  Wilful blindness.  More proof that this administration is run by doctrinaire leftists who place political correctness before the safety of Americans.

December 14, 2015       Permalink

BERGDAHL TO FACE COURT-MARTIAL – AT 4:23 P.M. ET:  Bowe Bergdahl, who is alleged to have deserted his unit in Afghanistan, will face a court-martial on that and other charges.  Of course, he is innocent until proved guilty, but the charges are very grave, and have clearly been vetted very carefully.   From ABC News:

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s case has been referred to a general court martial, where he could face a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy and he could face five years of prison time if convicted of desertion. On June 30, 2009, Bergdahl walked away from his unit’s remote outpost in eastern Afghanistan and was held captive by the Taliban for the next five years until a controversial prisoner swap for five former Taliban officials held at Guantanamo.

"The U.S. Army Forces Command's Commanding General referred two charges today, Dec. 14, in the case of United States vs. Sgt. Robert B. Bergdahl to a General Court-Martial," the Army said in a statement.

"The two specific charges referred under the U.S. Armed Forces' Uniform Code of Military Justice are: (1) Article 85: 'Desertion with Intent to Shirk Important or Hazardous Duty;' and (2) Article 99: 'Misbehavior before the Enemy by Endangering the Safety of a Command, Unit or Place,'" the statement added.

Bergdahl's attorney, Eugene Fidell, said in a statement that Gen. Robert Abrams, commander of U.S. Army Forces Command, did not accept the recommendation from a pre-trial hearing that Bergdahl’s case should be referred to a special court martial that would have limited prison time for a conviction to a year. Instead, Abrams decided to refer Bergdahl’s case to a general court martial for which he could get five years if convicted of desertion and a life sentence if convicted of misbehavior before the enemy.

"The convening authority did not follow the advice of the hearing officer who heard the witnesses," said Fidell, noting he "had hoped the case would not go in this direction."

At a pre-trial hearing in September known as an Article 32 hearing, Major General Kenneth Dahl, who had conducted an exhaustive investigation of Bergdahl’s case testified that he felt Bergdahl should not face jail time if convicted. “I do not believe that there is a jail sentence at the end of this process," Dahl said. "I think it would be inappropriate.”

COMMENT:   Very intriguing.  From appearances, and I don't know the internal details, Gen. Abrams made his decision without interference from the Obama White House.  You'll recall that Field Marshal Obama made a big deal of getting Bergdahl released by the Taliban, even inviting Bergdahl's parents to the White House and displaying them before the public, wherein it became clear that Bergdahl's father was batso.

Let's stretch it a bit.  Is this an indication of things to come, like a hands-off policy involving the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton?   This is pure speculation, of course, but the White House could say, "We don't interfere with FBI investigations," and leave Hillary to her fate.  Just askin'.

December 14, 2015       Permalink

THE MARKET STARTS TO WORK – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  I've long agreed with the proposition that the college bubble will soon burst – that Americans will finally see that we send too many people to "college," that many colleges are glorified high schools or even adolescent sandboxes, and that "college" isn't, in many cases, worth the money spent on it.  Now we're starting to see some hard-knuckle economic calculations to back up the doubts.  From USA Today: 

College is certainly an investment, but it’s worth it — right?

Maybe not, according to new research from Goldman Sachs.

The company said in a research note published in early December that the average return on college is falling. In 2010, students could expect to break even within eight years of finishing school. Since then, that has increased to nine years. And if this trend continues, students who start college in 2030 without scholarships or grants, it said, may not see a return on investment until age 37.

Recent graduates can relate to the report. Mary Kate Baumann, a 2010 graduate of a private college in upstate New York who also graduated from journalism and business graduate programs at the University of Missouri this year, said, “My undergraduate education was over $200,000 in total and my first job paid only $28,000. That’s a large disparity.”

Goldman Sachs calculated the economic return on college education as the “total all-in cost of college (net of grants and scholarships) and the wages foregone during the 4 years of study versus the wage premium that undergraduate degree holders enjoy versus high school graduates over their working life.”

While the National Association of Colleges and Employers reported in October that the job market for grads has seen recent improvements, Goldman Sachs said wages still aren’t cutting it to make up for education costs.

Of course, many students still say college is money well spent.

COMMENT:  Traditionally, we've been told that the economic benefits of college are less important than the intellectual benefits.  You know the line – we "grow" in college.  Trouble is, many colleges, including "prestigious" ones, have deteriorated into bad jokes, wallowing in victimhood and political correctness.  I'm not sure one grows in that environment, but one can certainly shrink.

December 14, 2015       Permalink

ANOTHER HILLARY DAY, ANOTHER SCANDAL – AT 9:12 A.M. ET:   Why do they torment her so?  What did this poor woman do to deserve such scrutiny?  She's a grandmother, an abused wife, a $200,000-a-speech common wage earner.   Are they trying to take the bread from her child's mouth?  From Fox: 

A conservative watchdog group will call for a federal investigation Monday into Hillary Clinton's actions toward a deep-sea mining company tied to her son-in-law, according to a published report.

According to Time magazine, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT), plans to file a complaint with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics alleging that Clinton gave Neptune Minerals "special access to the State Department based upon the company’s relationships with Secretary Clinton’s family members and donors to the Clinton Foundation."

The complaint comes two weeks after emails released by the State Department show that Clinton, now the Democratic presidential front-runner, ordered a senior State Department official to look into the request from Marc Mezvinsky.

Mezvinsky, a partner in a New York hedge fund and the husband of Clinton's daughter Chelsea, had received an email in May 2012 from investor Harry Siklas asking if he could help set up contacts with Clinton or other State Department officials.

That August, Clinton relayed a copy of the investor's email to Mezvinsky to Thomas Nides, then a deputy secretary of state and now vice chairman at Morgan Stanley, a major New York financial services firm. "Could you have someone follow up on this request which was forwarded to me?" Clinton asked Nides. He replied: "I'll get on it."

COMMENT:  So she's family-oriented.  So what?  Really, at this point what difference does it make?  I say leave Hillary alone!  She has enough problems with the FBI.

December 14, 2015       Permalink

CRUZ BECOMES RESPECTABLE!! – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  You know when a Republican candidate for president is becoming respectable.  The New York Times viciously attacks him.  It is a badge of honor, to be worn proudly.  From Howard Kurtz at Fox:

Just as Ted Cruz has become a serious threat for the nomination, we learn that he faces a gigantic obstacle that could doom his campaign.

In the view of the New York Times, he has one helluva charm deficit.

The paper pulled out the stops in depicting the Texas senator as socially awkward and not very likable. As the Times put it, “now comes the hard part: making friends.”

Now personality is part of politics and undoubtedly fair game. And no one would accuse Cruz of being a warm and fuzzy guy. He has a combative public personality. He’s alienated some of his Republican colleagues with tough tactics, filibusters, a government shutdown and sometimes harsh rhetoric.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a more approachable side. And the Times story seems to me to vacuum up every available negative dust ball to paint a dark picture.

It begins with the choice of opening anecdote:

“Senator Ted Cruz had been at it for several minutes, offering handshakes and uneasy smiles, when he encountered an apparent holdout in the crowd.”

The haughty holdout? A 3-year-old boy, who didn’t respond to the senator’s questions about toy dinosaurs and fire trucks. As if that’s never happened to any other politician.

“The article began by mocking a shy little boy,” a Cruz adviser tells me. He described Cruz as “a great guy to hang out with, a night owl who likes to laugh and have fun. People don’t see that side of him. He’s actually a little nerdy.”

Cruz did say in a debate—dutifully noted by the Times—that “if you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy. But if you want someone to drive you home, I will get the job done and I will get you home.” The adviser acknowledged that this was a mistake.

I haven’t hung out with Cruz, but I’ve chatted with him enough to know that his political passion is leavened by an easy sense of humor.

COMMENT:  Ted, you've arrived.  The New York Times hates you.  We'll send you a plaque commemorating the achievement.

Cruz is not Mr. Popularity.  But he is Mr. Brilliant.  If he gets into a scrap with Hillary, he'll have her for lunch.

December 14,  2015     Permalink

DECEMBER 13,  2015

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

TRUMP DOES IT AGAIN – And I think people are tiring of it, his endless insults and degrading comments about any opponent.  From CBS:   With Texas Sen. Ted Cruz usurping Donald Trump's lead in Iowa polls, the billionaire is launching a new line of attack against his latest threat -- and this time, he's resurrecting a favorite insult usually saved for Democratic presidential candidates and mass shooters.  Speaking with Fox News Sunday, Trump said that he doesn't think Cruz is "qualified" to be president: "When you look at the way he's dealt with the Senate, where he goes in there like a -- you know, frankly, like a bit of a maniac. You never get things done that way."  The act is wearing thin.  Ronald Reagan's Eleventh Commandment instructed that one didn't speak ill of a fellow Republican.  Trump not only speaks ill, he degrades and demeans, and provides ammunition for the Democrats.  I think he'll start to fade.  The act wears thin.

I'LL SLEEP BETTER TONIGHT – Comforting words (choke) from our secretary of state.  From Newsbusters:   On today's Meet the Press, John Kerry told Chuck Todd that "for the most part" we know who's entering our country. Kerry's statement came after he boasted about the Obama admin's "huge process" for vetting visa applicants. Not huge enough to catch Tafsheen Malik. Knowing for "the most part" who is entering the US is dangerously insufficient, given the hundreds of thousands of "refugees" and other immigrants from Muslim lands that President Obama wants to admit.  Also troubling was Kerry's response to Todd's question, whether, given that Malik had posted her radical views online before being admitted, we will begin searching the social media of would-be immigrants,. Kerry said we are looking into "whether there are means and whether we should," examine social media. If Kerry can't give an emphatic "yes" to both questions, how can we continue to admit people who might be out to kill us?  A third suggested question:  How, Mr. Kerry, did a goofball like you get to be secretary of state?

THE NEUTRAL, UNBIASED PRESS – From the Washington Examiner:   Journalists appeared to erupt in cheers Saturday afternoon after representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed to adopt the Paris Agreement, a major accord vowing to fight global warming.  Before the climate change deal was announced formally by officials in Paris, members of the press reportedly gathered close to cover the event, watching anxiously from a large room on site to hear news of the final agreement.  "Watching [the Paris Agreement] close [with] other journos," the Economist's Miranda Johnson tweeted from the French capital.  She then compared the event to the suspense of watching a major 2002 soccer match between England and Brazil.  Then the moment of truth arrived: A representative announced that the deal had passed, and that 195 counties had agreed to work together to fight climate change.  The reaction from the journalists reportedly on hand was a mixture of excitement and unbridled jubilation, as a video Johnson uploaded to social media showed.
The lack of neutrality in the international press, and our own domestic press, is a serious threat to democracy.  Democracy requires that accurate, balanced information be transmitted to the citizenry.  But what if the purpose of the press is to propagandize rather than inform?  That's where we're going, and that violates the fundamental mission of a free press.

December 13, 2015       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 12:17 P.M. ET:   It comes from Muslim commentator Amir Tahiri, whom I had the privilege of hearing just a week ago.  He discusses a phenomenon he calls Islamophilia, an irrational love of Muslims on behalf of Western elites.  From the New York Post:

The Islamophilia crowd do a great disservice to both Western democracies and to Islam itself. They invite Americans and Europeans to sacrifice part of their own freedom in atonement of largely imaginary sins against Muslims in the colonial and imperialist era. They also invite Muslims in the West to learn how to pose as victims and demand the rewards of victimhood as is the fashion in Europe and America. To the Muslims world at large, the message of Islamophilia is that Muslims need no criticism although their faith is being transformed into a number of conflicting ideologies dedicated to violence and terror.

Never mind if Islamic theology is all but dead. To say so would be a sign of Islamophobia.

Never mind that God makes only a cameo appearance in mosque sermons almost entirely obsessed with political issues.

All that Western intellectuals or leaders need to do is stop flattering Islam, as President Obama has been doing for the past seven years, claiming that virtually anything worthwhile under the sun has its origin in Islam.

Many Muslims resent that kind of flattery, which takes them for idiots at a time that Islam and Muslims badly need to be criticized. The world needs to wake from its slumber and ask: What is going on?

COMMENT:  Wonderfully stated from a great and quiet man.  I love his line about Obama claiming that "virtually anything worthwhile under the sun has its origin in Islam."  Obama probably got that idea from the old Soviets, who'd claimed that everything good had been invented in the Soviet Union.   American comedians used to use that claim as a laugh line. 

Read all of Taheri's piece.  Wisdom well delivered.

December 13, 2015       Permalink

SCANDALOUS – AT 11:32 A.M. ET:   Our anti-terror screening procedures in action.  Better get some locks on your doors.  From Fox: 

Tashfeen Malik, who along with her husband killed 14 people in Southern California, reportedly passed three background checks by American officials before she moved from Pakistan to the United States and none of them found her social media posts about jihad.

The New York Times reports U.S. law enforcement officials discovered old and previously unreported postings as they investigated Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook. Immigration officials don’t usually check social media posts as part of their background checks, according to the newspaper.

How brilliant of them.  I wonder if they still use quills.

Malik’s path to the U.S. immediately highlighted the U.S. government’s immigration vetting practices after she was identified as one of the attackers in San Bernardino, Calif. The Obama administration is reviewing the program, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Monday. He didn’t specify what changes were going to be made.

Johnson said it was too soon to tell if the government missed signs that Malik may have been radicalized before she was approved for her visa.

COMMENT:  They always say it's "too soon."  Why is it too soon?  The facts are becoming obvious.  And why do I think the Obama administration's "review" will go on until this president is safely out of office?

December 13, 2015       Permalink

TRUMP AND CRUZ DUKE IT OUT – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal shows Donald Trump ahead in the GOP race nationally, but Ted Cruz on his heels.  From The Hill:

Trump now has the support of 27 percent of Republican primary voters, according to the poll, a portion of which was conducted after Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

Actually, he called for a temporary shutdown, but facts are so boring.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) moved into second place with 22 percent, gaining 12 points.

Cruz benefited from the fall of retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, pollsters say.

He also benefited from his own brilliance as a speaker and debater. 

Carson dropped 18 points in the poll, released Sunday morning, falling to fourth place in the crowded GOP presidential field. Carson was atop the last NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll in late October. Carson now is the first choice of 11 percent of GOP primary voters.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has 15 percent support, up 4 percent, to hold the third spot in the new poll.

There's a widespread belief that the contest will ultimately come down to Trump, Cruz and Rubio, and ultimately to Trump vs. either Cruz or Rubio.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, with 7 percent support, and former HP chief executive Carly Fiorina, with 5 percent, round out the top six.

COMMENT:  Carson's fall is the result of his own blunders, especially his confused reaction to the Paris attacks and the rise of ISIS.  I think Carson, who was riding high only a month ago, is now pretty much out of it. 

But predictions are almost silly at this point.  The election is 11 months away, about 20 lifetimes in politics.

December 13,  2015     Permalink