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

JUNE 15,  2015

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

JEB IS IN – From The Hill:  "Jeb Bush formally announced his bid for the White House on Monday with a speech that sought to tie Hillary Clinton closely to President Obama and his policies.  Bush, 62, suggested in an address at Miami Dade College that Clinton would be untested in the Democratic primary and if she won her party’s nomination would represent Obama’s third term.  'I, for one, am not eager to see what another four years would look like under that kind of leadership,' Bush said to roaring applause from a crowd that included his mother, former first lady Barbara Bush. 'The presidency should not be passed on from one liberal to the next.'"  We have been critical of Bush for a meandering non-campaign, but Bush's speech today has gotten very favorable reviews.  He clearly wanted to show that he's a fighter, animated, and determined.  Good.  The more improvement, the better it is for the race.

HILLARY'S TROOPS DO IT AGAIN – From NRO:  "Another day, another acrimonious interaction between the Clinton campaign and the press.  On Monday, as Hillary Clinton swung through New Hampshire, her staffers denied the designated print-pool reporter for the day, a man whose coverage has proven bothersome to the Clinton campaign, access to a breakfast event in Manchester. They then turned away journalists from a community meeting in Rochester, telling them to consult the pool report instead.  Pool reporters are responsible for providing coverage of campaign events that the rest of the press-corps can rely on if they are unable to attend. On Monday, David Martosko, the U.S. political editor for the Daily Mail, drove up to a Manchester restaurant to cover Clinton’s early-morning breakfast meeting there, on the understanding that he was the designated print-pool reporter for the day’s events. He was met by Meredith Thatcher, a press staffer with 'Hillary for New Hampshire,' who told him that wasn’t the case...The Daily Mail editor has proven a thorn in the Clinton campaign’s side, asking uncomfortable questions about the Benghazi attack during her last trip to New Hampshire and disparaging the favorable coverage of Hillary’s campaign relaunch this past Saturday."  You'd think by now that the Clinton troopers would realize that this is America, not one of the authoritarian countries they apparently prefer.  Frankly, I hope they keep it up.  Let the press turn on Hillary.  We will smile.

CHILLING – For more than two decades the great New York Police Department has worked, with spectacular effectiveness, to reduce crime.  Murder in New York City declined 80%.   Now murder is up again, and what is being done?  The federal government is moving in to "help."  Strange.  New York didn't need its help before.  From CBS:  "NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Bullet-riddled windows, yellow crime scene tape, and evidence markers denoting where shell casings fell on the sidewalk are becoming all-too-familiar sights on New York City streets.  Now in an unprecedented move, a federal agency is joining the effort to get gun crimes under control, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Monday.  Kramer is told it was a collective decision made by the federal government, the NYPD, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Those agencies are mounting a first-ever anti-gun initiative in high-crime areas."  Why do I suspect that this is part of a general plan to federalize law enforcement?  I suspect it because the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, is a socialist and a Fidelista.  It would be logical for him to ask for this, hoping the feds will eventually control what the NYPD does.  Look at how the feds are moving into Baltimore.  Gives me the chills.

June 15,  2015     Permalink

HILLARY'S WAY – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  What is Hillary Clinton's strategy?  She seems to have a new strategy to win her party's nomination, but what comes after that?  Andrew Malcolm at IBD has what I consider to be an excellent analysis: 

Clinton is not leading Democrats' current stampede to the far left of the political spectrum. She's trying to catch up. Aides say she would go farther than even Obama's executive orders in releasing illegal immigrants from restrictions.

Conventional political wisdom months ago had Clinton plotting to find a delicate way to distance herself from her lame-duck, ex-boss for the 2016 election. His poll numbers have sagged sadly with 584 days left. And Clinton's have plunged too, especially in dangerous categories like trustworthiness as a result of her private email server scandal and inconsistencies explaining it.

Instead of distancing herself, however, the 67-year-old Clinton has clearly calculated that her ambition of becoming the first lady president is better served by actually embracing the man she so often denounced in 2007-08.

She's going to need track shoes by fall 2016 if she intends to seek the middle-road where U.S. general election competitors usually collide.

With the exception of George H.W. Bush in 1988, modern American voters have also shown a distaste for electing the same party to inhabit the White House for three consecutive terms.

That's one reason only three kamikaze candidates are challenging Clinton, and Joe Biden has been so silent. And why so many on the Republicans' well-stocked bench are competing to face her. Jeb Bush announces today. Bobby Jindal late this month. Scott Walker in mid-July.

COMMENT:  Hillary is trying to keep together the Obama coalition, but that coalition was based on the excitement, in some circles, about a first black president.   They're low-information voters, and they may not come out for Hillary.

June 15, 2015        Permalink

JEB IN – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:   Jeb Bush will announce for president today.  As Johnny Carson used to ask, "Notice the difference?"  Thus far Jeb has been an unofficial candidate, but hasn't excited anyone.  Frankly, there is no real "wanting" of Jeb.  From London's Telegraph: 

Jeb Bush will finally end months of speculation and announce he is running for the American presidency on Monday, in a campaign carefully calibrated to portray himself as a natural heir to the family dynasty and at the same time distance himself from his brother George W.

In a key-note interview, he described his father, the first President George Bush, as the “greatest man alive” and said the mere thought of him might make him cry.

But by contrast he was careful to differentiate himself from his brother. “Jeb is different from George,” he told CNN. “Jeb is who he is and his life story is different.”

That is absolutely pathetic.  The thought of daddy might make him cry?  And he doesn't want to be associated with his brother, who is now more popular than Barack Obama?  Not exactly a great introduction to an argument to make Jeb president.  We can understand the lack of excitement.

Mr Bush plans to announce he is running for the White House in Miami on Monday, after months of unofficial campaigning.

He unveiled his campaign logo via social media site Twitter on Sunday, and immediately ran into teasing from the public that it is almost identical to the logo he used when he ran, successfully, for the governorship of Florida in 1998.

And the logo doesn't even mention his family name.  How courageous. 

But Jeb has lots of money, and the Republican establishment will be comfortable with him. 

Mr Bush said he was looking forward to telling a life story that was “full of warts and full of successes”, where he had had to make “tough decisions”.

In a jab at both President Barack Obama and, seemingly, some of his younger Republican rivals such as Marco Rubio, he was keen to project a statesmanlike appearance, touting his “life experience” as a state governor and overseas businessman.

“It’s something that’s been lacking in the presidency, to have someone who’s been tempered by life, and along the way I will get to share that,” said Mr Bush, who at 62 is eighteen years older than Mr Rubio and eight years older even than the departing president.

COMMENT:   Look, if Jeb is the nominee I will certainly vote for him.  But I'm not at all sure that this is the man who can create the passion necessary to defeat Hillary Clinton.  I think that he may turn out to be an also-ran, a decent man who just couldn't light any fires.

June 15, 2015       Permalink

NEW RIPPLE IN IRAN – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  An illness in Iran is casting a new shadow over the otherwise troubled nuclear negotiations, and over the future of the region.  From AP: 

Concerns over the health of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who reportedly suffers from prostate cancer, are mounting as the P5+1 and Tehran negotiate an agreement over Iran’s disputed nuclear program.

According to recent reports in the Iranian press, Khamenei may only have months left to live, The Telegraph reported on Sunday, and an ensuing power struggle between hardliners and moderates over Iran’s top role could derail talks currently taking place ahead of the June 30 target date.

In March, Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerics who appoint and can dismiss the country’s supreme leader, elected ultraconservative Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi as their new chairman.

According to the report, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, a protege of Khamenei’s and a hardliner, has been positioning himself for the role, conducting purges of the more moderate potential candidates.

Larijani is the brother of Ali Larijani, Iran’s former chief nuclear negotiator and now chairman of the Iranian parliament, the Majlis.

A senior Western diplomat told the Telegraph that the West is now worried this power struggle could jeopardize the deal.

“With so many people jockeying for position, the hardliners will be tempted to prove their revolutionary credentials by vetoing any deal with the US,” he was quoted as saying. “The fear now is that this could jeopardize any progress we make in resolving the issue and lifting the sanctions.”

COMMENT:  The illness of the big guy also warns us that any agreement might be a farce to begin with.  A new leader could simply tear it up.  What would Field Marshal Obama actually do in that case?  Probably nothing, given his pro-Iranian attitudes. 

History works its strange ways, doesn't it?

June 15, 2015        Permalink 

IRAQ – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  Iraq is becoming a major failure for President Obama, one of a number of foreign policy failures.  From Jen Rubin at the Washington Post:

If foreign policy has often been the refuge for second-term presidents, in Obama’s case it has become a scene out of “The Perils of Pauline.” First denying, then sending the most minimal amount of troops to show he is “doing something,” the president’s failure to degrade let alone defeat the Islamic State is undeniable. He can blame Iraq, or President George W. Bush, but the fault is his own and the stakes could not be higher for the U.S. Fred Kagan, one of the authors of Bush’s successful Iraq surge, writes, “The story of Iraq is, in some respects, even more tragic for being more avoidable. Had the Obama administration succeeded in negotiating a deal to keep American forces in Iraq after 2011, the US would have been positioned to prevent ISIS from gaining the strength and ground that it did leading up to the fall of Mosul and could have prevented that disaster. American inaction in the last few weeks has allowed ISIS to seize control of Ramadi — an eminently avoidable calamity that has completely disarranged any hope of Iraqi forces retaking Mosul this year.”

COMMENT:   Then there is the failure to deal with Putin of Russia and his chokehold on Ukraine.  And then there is the appeasement of Iran.  And the appeasement of North Korea.  And the opening to Cuba while getting nothing in return.  And the contempt for our allies.  Other than that, Obama is just swell.

June 15,  2015     Permalink

JUNE 14,  2015

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

ON TARGET, WE HOPE – From Fox:  "The U.S. military launched an airstrike that targeted and 'likely' killed the Al Qaeda leader behind the attack on a gas plant in Algeria in 2013 that killed 35 hostages, including three Americans, a senior defense official told Fox News Sunday.  Libyan government and U.S. officials say warplanes targeted Mokhtar BelMokhtar and several others in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. The U.S. filed terrorism charges against BelMokhtar last year in connection with the Algeria attack. Officials have said they believe he remained a threat to U.S. and Western interests."  It's always good to get news of a success.  The other kind of news has been too common recently.

SHE HAS AN OPINION? – From The New York Times:  "DES MOINES – Hillary Rodham Clinton on Sunday urged President Obama to listen to congressional Democrats – particular the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi – and make changes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that reflect their concerns about protecting American jobs and wages.  In her first detailed comments on the trade deal since the House of Representatives refused on Friday to allow Mr. Obama to negotiate it freely, Mrs. Clinton laid out a far more calibrated position on the deal than many Democrats and Republicans have taken. She declined to take sides on the Friday vote itself but instead allied herself with Democratic critics of the deal — without actually opposing it."  Typical Hillary Clinton.  Doesn't actually take sides, and expresses an opinion only after the House Dems voted against the deal.  Real leadership.  Right.  A real Joan of Arc.

WHOSE SIDE IS BILL CLINTON ON? – Is Bill really trying to torpedo his wife's chances?  From CNN:  "New York (CNN) Bill Clinton said in an interview set to air Sunday on CNN's 'State of the Union' that he is impressed by many of the Republicans considering a presidential run in 2016, offering praise for a group that has made attacking his wife a badge of honor.  'They've got a lot of youth, they've got a lot of energy, they've got some significant diversity and they're no dummies' the former president said during an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper at the annual Clinton Global Initiative America meeting in Denver.  'And they believe what they believe,' Clinton continued, teasing them."  Hmm.  They have youth.  They have energy.  And they believe what they believe.  No one ever said that about Hillary.  I wonder which Republican Bill will be voting for.

June 14, 2015       Permalink

WHY ARE WE NOT SURPRISED? – AT 12:14 P.M. ET:   The prime minister of Israel is claiming what had been feared, that the United States is making further concessions to Iran just to have a nuclear agreement by June 30th.  It's not surprising.  It is the regular pattern of this administration.  From Reuters:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused world powers on Sunday of stepping up concessions to Iran to enable a deal by June 30 on curbing its nuclear program even as Tehran balks at demands for heightened U.N. inspections.

Netanyahu has argued that the agreement in the works would not deny Iran - which says its nuclear projects are peaceful - the means of making a bomb, while granting it sanctions relief that could help bankroll its guerrilla allies in the region.

"To our regret, the reports that are coming in from the world powers attest to an acceleration of concessions by them in the face of Iranian stubbornness," Netanyahu told his cabinet in broadcast remarks on Sunday. He did not offer further details.

Netanyahu's point-man on the Iranian talks, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, said it appeared that world powers were prepared to accommodate Tehran's resistance to expanded, short-order U.N. nuclear inspections and demand to continue research and development of uranium centrifuges that make nuclear fuel.

On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country, in the name of protecting state secrets, could reject stepped-up inspections - even at the cost of missing the June 30 deadline. Western diplomats had sought the right to carry out inspections with as little as two hours' notice.

But in a televised address on Sunday, Rouhani played up the benefits of easing Iran's international isolation and pledged to reach a deal that would end the hardship of sanctions.

COMMENT:  That, of course, is exactly what Iran is aiming for – a weak agreement that would not prevent Iran from developing the bomb, but would ease sanctions.  Looks like the "negotiations" are heading in exactly Iran's direction.

June 14, 2015       Permalink

THE MESS IN BALTIMORE – AT 11:23 A.M. ET:  I'm shocked, shocked, that this is happening in the peaceful city of Baltimore.  From the Baltimore Sun: 

Baltimore police arrested fewer people in May than in any month for at least three years, despite a surge in homicides and shootings across the city — triggering safety concerns among residents.

Several neighborhoods saw declines of more than 90 percent from April to May, while arrests in the West Baltimore area where Freddie Gray was arrested dropped by more than half during the same period, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of police data. Citywide, arrests declined 43 percent from April to May.

"I've noticed fewer police," said Steve Dixon, program director for the Penn North Recovery Center in West Baltimore. "We're having robberies at the playground in broad daylight. All these murders and shootings, we're having them in broad daylight."

The dramatic citywide decline — which has sparked a debate about police pulling back on enforcement efforts — came in the aftermath of the death of Gray. Six officers have been charged in the death of the 25-year-old, who suffered spinal injuries while in police custody and died a week after his April 12 arrest.

City leaders and police union officials have provided explanations for the slowdown.

Officers have been hesitant to make arrests since the rioting that followed Gray's funeral, union and police department officials have said. Officers also have been surrounded by camera-wielding residents recording their every move, according to the police commissioner. And since Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby filed the criminal charges in Gray's death, many officers are afraid that they risk being charged with crimes for trying to do their jobs, union leaders say.

COMMENT:  This is what happens when the racial arsonists go to work, and prey on low-information voters.  If there's a problem with police action, face it.  But don't destroy the incentive and morale of a police force that was heavily praised in a White House report just last year. 

The fact is that racial arsonists like high crime rates.  People feel vulnerable, and who do they turn to?  Too often they turn to those same racial arsonists.

June 14, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY'S LATEST DEBUT – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Philip Klein, of the Washington Examiner, absolutely nails Hillary Clinton's launch/comeback/do-over/I deserve a second chance speech yesterday: 

Clinton revealed all of her vulnerabilities as a candidate. Despite decades of practice, she remains a weak public speaker. It was a long, meandering, and flat speech, topping 40 minutes — highlighting her painfully bad sense of humor. "You won't see my hair turn white in the White House — I've been coloring it for years," she joked.

Back in 1996, her husband ran for re-election against a septuagenarian promising to build a bridge to the 21st century. Here she was, 20 years later, running for office building a bridge back to Roosevelt.

Beyond that, the speech demonstrated that despite claiming decades of experience, she has little to show for it in terms of actual accomplishments — and those accomplishments she does take credit for can be easily exposed as fantasy.

"I've stood up to adversaries like Putin," she said, even though her time as secretary of state started with a botched "reset" with Russia. Is her argument going to be that Putin waited until after she left office to invade Ukraine?

She also said she "reinforced allies like Israel" even though she was harshly critical of the Israeli government as secretary of state, even having the department brag about how she berated Prime Minister Netanyahu during a phone call.

Then she offered this sad boast: "I was in the situation room on the day we got bin Laden."

I was in my apartment, and deserve just as much credit for the bin Laden operation.

COMMENT:  Very well stated.  And yet, Hillary will have the support of the press and the academic establishment.  She will not be easy to beat, assuming she's the nominee.  But she must be defeated to reverse our national decline.

June 14, 2015       Permalink