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 last night.  It's here.

JUNE 22,  2015

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

A LOSS – From London's Daily Mail:   A single-engine plane registered to Oscar-winning composer James Horner has crashed in Southern California, and while the identity of the one person who died has not been released it is believed to be the famed musician according to one of his friends.  Ventura County fire spokesman Mike Lindbery said the crash happened around 9:30am Monday in the Los Padres National Forest.  The pilot was killed. No one else was on board.  Horner wrote the music for "Titanic."  No one has heard from him since the crash.  As his lawyer was quoted as saying, if it wasn't him in the plane he would have called.  He was a quality composer.  This is a loss.

MAJOR MEDICAL NEWS – From the Los Angeles Times:  Are conservatives more likely to stick to a diet than liberals? The answer might be yes.  In a paper published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers say there is a link between political ideology and the ability to exert self-control.  In a series of three studies with more than 300 participants, the authors found that people who identify as conservative perform better on tests of self-control than those who identify as liberal regardless of race, socioeconomic status and gender.  Ah, we've always known it.  We have greater discipline.  We're more mature.  And we're thinner!  Think I'll have some ice cream.

HYPOCRITE – From Vanity Fair: News outlets, the Internet, and Hillary Clinton’s own staff were charmed by the former secretary of state’s decision to headquarter her presidential campaign in Brooklyn. But in the months since the campaign’s official launch, it seems that one person is pretty much over Brooklyn: Hillary Clinton.  Clinton has been spending most of her time in the city at her Manhattan office, which is located in Tower 45, a Midtown high-rise not far from Times Square. According to Politico, Clinton “works exclusively from Midtown” when she’s in New York.  The now-candidate had signed a two-year lease on the Midtown space before she declared her campaign. The thought then, a spokesman told Politico, was to use it as a personal office. Once senior staffers developed a habit of working at the Manhattan office while they were taking meetings in the city, however, it had to be declared a campaign expense.  What a hypocrite.  Woman of the people.  Headquartered in Brooklyn.  Seems like a phantom office.  She has a tin ear, and her campaign is not going well.

THE NEW MUSIC – From RealClearScience:  Barney was a fairly normal chimpanzee. A 24-year-old, low-ranking member of a group of five adult male chimpanzees raised at the Biomedical Primate Research Centre in the Netherlands, he generally showed stereotypical behaviors: he played, he banged bottles, he climbed trees. Then, one January day, he walked away from his group and sat down outside, placing an upturned bucket between his feet. He then rattled off the only-known spontaneous, unsolicited chimpanzee drum solo. Primatologists at the center were taken completely by surprise.  Watch.  He'll be signed by a recording company.  He'll have an agent by Friday.  Movie deal.  It's understood he wants to direct...and will probably raise the level of Hollywood movies several notches.

June 22, 2015       Permalink

ARE WE STILL THE UNITED STATES? – AT 1:21 P.M. ET:  If you don't think Obama has gutted our armed forces, please read this.  From USA Today:

Faced with a shortage of U.S. Navy ships, the Marine Corps is exploring a plan to deploy its forces aboard foreign vessels to ensure they can respond quickly to global crises around Europe and western Africa.

The initiative is a stopgap way to deploy Marines aboard ships overseas until more American vessels are available, said Brig. Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander, U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa.

The Marines will be able to respond quickly to evacuate embassies or protect U.S. property and citizens, a need highlighted by the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.

"There's no substitute for U.S. amphibious" vessels, Cooling said. "We're looking at other options" in the meantime, he added.

The Marines have been working with Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom and other close allies to determine the suitability of the foreign ships for U.S. personnel and aircraft.

COMMENT:  Did you ever think you'd see the day when the U.S. Marine Corps had to hitch rides?  What an indictment of the Obama administration.  But, of course, it reached the point quite a while ago where we started depending on the Russians to put us in space.

Nations decline.  This one is being murdered from within.

June 22, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY'S WEAKNESS – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  Michael Barone, one of the best political analysts we've got, is noting Hillary Clinton's poll weakness, not something a frontrunner enjoys.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Hillary Clinton has relaunched her campaign on Roosevelt Island with a 4,687-word speech. But it's not clear whether she and her husband Bill Clinton can win four presidential elections as Franklin Roosevelt did.

Negative news for Clinton's prospects comes in the latest Quinnipiac polls in the key mega-states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In each of them she leads or ties Republican opponents, though in many cases not by statistically significant margins.

But she also is running under 50 percent of the vote in every pairing, averaging 47 percent against six different Republicans in Florida, 44 percent against seven Republicans in Ohio and 46 percent against four Republicans in Pennsylvania. That's a danger zone for a candidate with universal recognition.

Similarly, less than 50 percent — 47 percent in Florida, 44 percent in Ohio and 46 percent in Pennsylvania — express favorable feelings about her. Only 43 percent in Florida and 40 percent in Ohio and Pennsylvania feel she is honest and trustworthy.

And, perhaps surprisingly for a Democrat, only 48 percent in Ohio and Florida and 45 percent in Pennsylvania say she "cares about the needs and problems of people like you."

Clinton campaign spokesmen have said their goal is to reassemble Barack Obama's winning coalition. But she's falling short in three large states which Obama carried in 2012 with 50, 51 and 52 percent of the vote. These states have 67 electoral votes, without which Obama would have won only 265 — and Mitt Romney would be president.

The latest Detroit News poll has Clinton averaging 44 percent against four Republicans in Michigan, whose 16 electoral votes Obama won with 54 percent in 2012.

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  Barone always knows his stuff.  It's clear that there's no great wanting of Hillary, even in the Democratic Party.  There is an opening there.  Problem is, there may not be a Democrat who can fill it, and who wants to take on the Clinton machine.

But the Democratic race, as we've noted before, isn't a sure thing.

June 22, 2015       Permalink

BY THE NUMBERS – AT 8:35 A.M. ET:   Some GOP candidates are moving up in some polls.  Keep your eye on Carly.  From The Hill:

Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Mike Huckabee have each earned more support from GOP primary voters since launching presidential campaigns last month, a new poll finds.

Republicans’ support for one of those candidates has risen since a similar sampling in April, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey released on Sunday.

It said that Fiorina saw the biggest jump in GOP primary voters’ backing.

The former Hewlett-Packard CEO now has 31 percent of Republicans saying they would support her, up from 17 percent in April, it said.

It added that those results are roughly even with the 29 percent who would not back Fiorina’s candidacy.

Carson, the poll said, now commands 50 percent approval from positive voters.

That number, it added, is up from 41 percent in April for the retired neurosurgeon.

The survey additionally saw Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, nabbing 65 percent of positive voter support in June.

He is thus up 13 points from a similar poll in April, it said, where he earned 52 percent instead.

COMMENT:  Huckabee is probably benefiting from high name recognition.  I applaud the rise of Fiorina and Carson.  We've got to move Carly up in the polls so she's included in the top tier of candidates, and eligible for the first debate.  She's the best speaker of the lot.

June 22, 2015       Permalink

IRAN COUNTDOWN – AT 8:18 A.M. ET:  We are eight days away from the presumed deadline for reaching a nuclear agreement with Iran.  Things don't look good.  In the face of American displays of weakness, the Iranians are stiffening their position.  Consider this late news, from PJ Media:

The Iranian parliament passed a bill outlining the country’s “nuclear rights” as the deadline for a final agreement on their nuclear program approaches at the end of this month.

The bill would prevent any inspections of military sites, forbid the IAEA from interviewing its nuclear scientists, and insist that all sanctions on Iran be lifted at the time they begin implementation of the deal.

Administration talking points released after the framework deal was agreed to state that sanctions would be lifted over several years, that all sites deemed “suspicious” would be open to inspection, and that the IAEA would investigate previous efforts by Iran to build a nuclear weapon. This would necessitate interviewing Iranian scientists, something the Iranians have now taken off the table.

COMMENT:  The only way an agreement can be reached is if Obama caves in on vital points, which would not surprise me.  As noted last night, his apparent strategy would be to label opponents of the deal as warmongers.  He would be helped by his increasingly leftist party and by The New York Times. 

But what would Hillary say?  She'd have to support Obama, but would inject enough caveats to allow her to say later that she was for it before she was against it.

June 22,  2015     Permalink

JUNE 21,  2015

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

GOP CONGRESSWOMAN PESSIMISTIC ON IRAN – From The Hill:  A high-ranking GOP lawmaker predicts that President Obama will use the "bully pulpit" to pressure lawmakers into backing a yet-to-be-seen deal to restrict Iran's nuclear program.  Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), a former chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, wants her colleagues to buck the White House on what she calls a "very weak deal," but is bracing for Congress to approve it. The Republican says Democratic lawmakers will buckle after Obama presents stark options to the public about the deal — due by June 30.  "The president has so much power, he’s got the bully pulpit, and he's gonna tell everybody in all of our communities that if your member of Congress isn’t for this deal, then that member of Congress wants to go to war with Iran. That's not true. So I'm afraid of the president using the megaphone that he has to get members of Congress to go with him on this very weak deal," the Foreign Affairs Middle East and Central Asia subcommittee chairwoman tells The Hill's Molly K. Hooper.  I think she's right.  Obama will use one of the lowest tactics in politics – accusing his opponents of being warmongers.  That will scare the Democrats into voting for any Iran deal.  That is the state of American politics.

RUSSIA MARCHES ON – From The Times of Israel:   Saudi Arabia and Russia reached an agreement on Friday under which Riydah is reportedly to build up to 16 nuclear reactors under Moscow’s supervision, further bolstering ties between the two countries days ahead of the deadline for nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers.  According to Saudi owned al-Arabiaya TV, the agreement, which provides for the “peaceful use of nuclear technology,” was signed at a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at an economic forum in St. Petersburg. The Saudi report, which cited unnamed sources, was not immediately confirmed.  We seem to be losing everywhere in the world.  I have no great admiration for Saudi Arabia, but it used to be a reliable American ally.  Now it seems to be looking elsewhere as Obama cozies up to Iran.

WONDERFUL – From hereandnow.wbur.org: For the eighth year in a row, the entire senior class at Verbum Dei High School – an all-male college and career preparatory Jesuit high school in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles – has been accepted into college.  The 68 seniors, many of whom are the first in their families to go to college, will be leaving their inner-city neighborhood to pursue higher education across the country.  “The Verb,” as the school is called, caters to low-income students – some of whom are behind in their academic standing by about two or three years. The school packs six to seven years of high school into four, and does so with a four-day school week. Administrators say that rigorous course work, small college preparatory classes, corporate work experience and a supportive environment from teachers and family is the key to students’ success.  You see, it can be done, with discipline, determination, and respect for high standards.  Good luck to these kids, and a pat on the back for those who pushed them.

June 21, 2015       Permalink

BERNIE DOES LA-LA – AT 1:41 P.M. ET:  Bernie Sanders, in keeping with socialist tradition, hit the cocktail circuit in Los Angeles, appealing to die-hard "progressives" in their substantial, yet sensitive homes.  From Hollywood Reporter:

With the dust still settling after Barack Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s glitzy fundraising trips to Hollywood this week, Clinton’s first official Democratic rival — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — slipped quietly into town Saturday for a pair of low-key events that didn’t raise seven-figure sums, but did warm the hearts of two overflowing crowds of Hollywood progressives.

Sanders’s supporters might be called the entertainment industry’s irreconcilables — the left flank of the Hollywood Dems’ most progressive faction, with activists deeply disappointed in Obama, who they supported, and unwilling to sign on to a Clinton presidential campaign. In the former Secretary of State, they see another moderate waiting to happen.

Early Saturday morning, they filled the already blazing frontyard of actress Mimi Kennedy’s Van Nuys home and — at midday — the living room of long-time activists Betty and Stanley Sheinbaum’s sprawling Brentwood Park mansion to hear the program of a candidate they see as everything Hillary is not.

“I’m here with my wife and my friends because we believe Bernie is providing us with the opportunity to have a voice and a role in the Democratic process at a time when progressives are on the rise,” said former California state Senator Tom Hayden, who introduced Sanders at the Van Nuys event.

COMMENT:  The left has convinced itself that it's "on the rise."  It is not.  But they always think they're on the rise.  The revolution is just around the corner.  The workers are in the streets.  Bernie is in our living rooms.

I mean, Tom Hayden?  I thought he was in a wax museum.  Remember, he was married to Jane Fonda in the age of sail.

One thing about Bernie, though – he believes what he says, and has real principles.  For that I admire him.

June 21, 2015       Permalink

SCOTT'S PROGRESS – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:  Scott Walker is very methodical.  That much we have learned about him.  And he's running a disciplined, careful campaign for the White House.  He hasn't yet actually announced his formal candidacy, but that is coming.  Is his campaign, though, too careful? From The Hill:

Scott Walker edged closer to a White House bid this week, but his official entry into the race is still not expected until mid-July.

The Wisconsin governor’s slow-moving campaign launch could cause him to lose altitude, some observers say, since other top-tier candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) are already in.

“The biggest risk is that, with every week, donors start to make decisions about who they want to invest in,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of public affairs at Princeton University.

“The voters who are paying attention now are shaping their perceptions of who’s good and who’s bad, and they are not really thinking about him as much as the others,” Zelizer added.
When it comes to donors, however, Walker’s Thursday announcement of a new “testing the waters” committee might help. The new committee has more leeway than an official campaign under election-finance regulations, and its formation crystallizes the sense that Walker is indeed moving toward a presidential run.

He is widely expected to join the race on July 13 in his native Wisconsin, the state where he has been governor since 2011. He won a recall battle in 2012 and reelection in 2014.

And...

Walker is performing very well in opinion polls, especially in Iowa. In three of the four most recent polls among Republicans in the Hawkeye State, he led his nearest rival by either seven or eight percentage points. The other survey also showed him leading, but by a more modest margin of four points.

In New Hampshire, where Walker’s socially conservative outlook is less of an asset, he is nonetheless running a close second to Bush in the RealClearPolitics polling average. The equivalent national polling average shows the two in a de facto dead-heat.

Walker has made such strides while neither seeking nor attracting as much national media attention as Bush, Rubio or even candidates whose poll numbers are lower, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Walker’s participation in Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) barbecue-and-motorcycle-riding “roast and ride” event two weeks ago — he rode his own Harley-Davidson — was one of his relatively rare high-profile events of late.

Some Republicans believe that Walker’s skills are being underestimated by a news media that don't recognize his blue-collar appeal.

COMMENT:  Walker is not Mr. Excitement, but he builds confidence in the voters.  He's a fighter.  He doesn't give up.  He won the governorship of Wisconsin, fought back against a recall attempt and came out with more votes than in his original victory, and won re-election.  Don't underestimate him.

June 21, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY'S DILEMMA – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  We sense a growing disenchantment with Hillary Clinton.  While she still has a lock on the Democratic nomination, the locksmiths are at work, picking that lock.  We rarely quote Maureen Dowd, but she's written some very perceptive things about Hillary, like this, from The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — IT’S hard being Elizabeth Warren.

Especially when you’re not Elizabeth Warren.

Hillary Clinton had an awkward collision last week juggling her past role as President Obama’s secretary of state, her current role as Democratic front-runner and her coveted future role as president.

As secretary of state, she helped Obama push the Trans-Pacific Partnership that is at the center of the current trade fight. In Australia in 2012, she was effusive, saying that the trade pact “sets the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field. And when negotiated, this agreement will cover 40 percent of the world’s total trade and build in strong protections for workers and the environment.”

Now Hillary says she is unsure about the pact and would likely oppose giving President Obama the special authority to negotiate trade deals for an up-or-down vote in Congress. As a future president, of course, she would want the same authority to negotiate trade deals that Obama is seeking in the messy Capitol Hill donnybrook.

But as a candidate pressured by progressives like Warren and Bernie Sanders and by labor unions, she turned to Jell-O, shimmying around an issue she had once owned and offering an unpleasant reminder of why “Clintonian” became a synonym for skirting the truth.

COMMENT:  Ouch!  A "synonym for skirting the truth."  And that is the image of Hillary that people increasingly have in their heads.  You don't know what she believes, if anything.

And you wonder if some new competitor will emerge.  John Kerry anyone?  Now that may be laughable to us, but it may not be laughable to a Democratic Party looking for a better choice.

Or...the Dems could try a genuine draft of their heroine, Elizabeth Warren.  Terrible campaigner, but they love her, despite her own past, for which the word "honesty" does not always apply.

Stay tuned.  The Dem race may not be over.

June 21,  2015    Permalink