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 29,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

MARKETS WOBBLY – From CNBC: U.S. stocks plunged nearly 2 percent or more on Monday with the Dow and S&P 500 wiping out gains for the year on escalating tensions between Greece and its creditors.
"I think the uncertainty around Greece is just making people skittish and we haven't had a meaningful pullback for some time," said Ben Pace, chief investment officer at HPM Partners. "It's hard for anybody to fight this uncertainty."  Greece has gotten too little attention in the United States.  The country, economically, is collapsing, with a possible ripple effect throughout the West.  Happy days aren't here again.

IMPORTANT TRAVEL NEWS – From London's Daily Mail:   Michelle Obama says she'll do more foreign travel to promote education for girls in developing countries.  The first lady announced a new program earlier this year to help adolescent girls improve their lives by attending and staying in school called, 'Let Girls Learn.'  She since has traveled to Japan, Cambodia and London to promote the initiative and even stopped to have tea with Prince Harry.  She'd do a lot more good by staying home and donating the vast savings on her trips to a respected scholarship fund for girls.

CHICAGO CULTURE – From Breitbart:   Chicago’s 47th annual gay pride parade was disrupted several times by the usual city disruptions — gang activity, gunshots, and drunks — but the event was also disrupted by a car driving into a group of bystanders. Then there was an even larger interruption by “black lives matter” protesters.  Just about every Chicago parade these days features gunfire in the perimeters as gangs clash with police and drunks have probably been a parade disruption since forever. But this year a man tried to drive into the parade route, ramming his car into some bystanders — but not hurting anyone seriously.  Police swarmed the vehicle, smashed in the rear window and yanked out the driver, a middle-aged white man, and arrested him. Chicago police have released no details on the man’s identity nor his motivations for ramming the barricades for the parade.  But by far the biggest disruption was from a large group of “black lives matter” protesters. The group was joined by members of the black queer community of Chicago who announced the disruption on their website.  The respect among oppressed groups truly shows the unity that Barack Obama (come to save us) has brought to the United States.  Four more years!

June 29,  2015     Permalink

SUPREMES BLOCK EPA – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  The Supreme Court, which last week tilted liberal, is showing its more thoughtful side this week.  From The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday blocked one of the Obama administration’s most ambitious environmental initiatives, one meant to limit emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants.

Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion in the 5-to-4 decision, joined by the court’s more conservative members.

Industry groups and some 20 states challenged the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to regulate the emissions, saying the agency had failed to take into account the punishing costs its regulations would impose.

The Clean Air Act required the regulations to be “appropriate and necessary.” The challengers said the agency had run afoul of that law by deciding to regulate the emissions without first undertaking a cost-benefit analysis.

The agency responded that it was not required to take costs into account when it made the initial determination to regulate. But the agency added that it did so later in setting emissions standards and that, in any event, the benefits far outweighed the costs.

The two sides had very different understandings of the costs and benefits involved. Industry groups said the government had imposed annual costs of $9.6 billion to achieve about $6 million in benefits. The agency said the costs yielded tens of billions of dollars in benefits.

COMMENT:  Now maybe the EPA, which sometimes seems to have near-dictatorial powers, will be more careful, but I doubt it.

June 29, 2015       Permalink

IRAN TALKS ON THE BRINK – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  The Iran nuclear talks are supposed to end tomorrow with an agreement, but they won't.  It's now assumed they'll go past the deadline because there are still major disagreements.  The Iranian foreign minister has gone home.

There is substantial worry among grown-ups in Washington that Obama will make last-minute concessions that will turn any agreement into a farce.  From The Hill: 

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said on Sunday that he worries Iran has more momentum than the U.S. heading into final talks over Tehran’s nuclear arms research.

“I would actually fear that the Iranians have the upper hand right now,” Hayden told “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace.

“I would hope this is not the final round of talks,” he added.

Hayden argued on Sunday that the proposed deal does not do enough in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

“We get them out of the penalty box for their nuclear activities,” Hayden said.

“Then they’re free and empowered to do all their other activities in the region,” he added.

A senior U.S. official told reporters that negotiators will push back a self-imposed June 30th deadline.

“Now we’re down to brass tacks,” Hayden said. “What it is they say has to be what they actually agreed to.”

Hayden added that anytime, anywhere inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities are the most important concession the U.S. could secure in any final bargain.

COMMENT:  Even a group of former Obama advisers warned last week that they feared we would agree to provisions that fall short of minimum standards.  We're getting very little information out of the talks that's definitive, so it's hard to say precisely where we are.

I've seen some very good ideas from Dennis Ross and others that we simply extend the talks for months, not days, and go for a better deal.  The Iranians need this more than we do. 

June 29, 2015       Permalink

MORE HORROR FROM ISIS – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  Are we becoming immunized to the threats from the Islamic State?  They get more and more dire, yet our reactions are muted, and the Obama White House appears unmoved.  Consider this, from the Algemeiner: 

Leaflets distributed in Jerusalem in the name of the Islamic State terror group threatened Christians residents of the city with a “massacre” if they do not evacuate by the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to Israeli media reports.

Haaretz reported the discovery of leaflets in several Jerusalem locations on Saturday that were signed by “Islamic State, Jerusalem Emirate” and stated, “We tell the heretic Christians, you must clear out immediately or we’ll massacre you on Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, and one month is time enough to evacuate.” Additionally, Israel National News reported that leaflets signed by “ISIS Palestine,” vowing “revenge” against Christians, were found in eastern Jerusalem on Thursday.

Islamic State is notorious for its brutal slaughtering of Christians and other regional minority groups during its conquests in Iraq and Syria.

COMMENT:  What is appalling is the near-silence of Christian organizations in the West.  The evangelicals have spoken out, but the "liberal" groups, like the National Council of Churches, seem to reserve their ire for the United States and Israel. 

Christians should insist that liberal groups show the same opposition to anti-Christian hate as they do to "Islamophobia." 

June 29, 2015       Permalink

DR. BEN – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  Dr. Ben Carson has won another important straw poll, leaving political observers baffled.  What is it about this man that makes him so popular among some conservative groups?  Byron York, in a very solid analytical piece for the Washington Examiner, tries to explain.  This is the kind of journalism I like, because York actually thinks about what he writes. 

DENVER — Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who has never held or run for elective office, is currently fourth in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls — ahead of five governors, four senators, one CEO and one billionaire. Carson has been climbing in the polls since he announced his candidacy on May 4. On the day before the announcement, Carson was at 4.8 percent in the RCP average; now, he's at 9.4 percent.

The combination of Carson's rise and his unorthodox campaign style — Carson's short-on-specifics stump speech is like no other — has left some of his rivals baffled. "I just don't get it," one said in a private conversation recently. "I don't get it."

And...

Carson has scored points before audiences around the country by arguing that his lack of political experience is an asset, not a liability. "The professional pundits say, you can't do it because you're not a politician," he told a crowd at the Western Conservative Summit in Denver Saturday night. "I would say I can do it because I'm not a politician." A certain type of conservative crowd — usually ones who are fed up with Republicans — loves that line.

Carson makes the case that everyday life can prepare a person to be president. "Experience can actually come from a variety of different things," he said in Denver, "and I've had a lot of lifetime experiences that I think are very useful — experiences growing up in dire poverty, and experiencing every socio-economic level in our society. I think that's valuable experience, because it helps you see a lot of things."

Of course, not everyone grows up to be a world-renowned surgeon. But doing anything is better than being a politician, in Carson's view; as he tells it, political experience is a uniquely unqualifying experience for public office. "Ordinary people, citizens, can have all kinds of experiences," he explained. "For those who happen to have spent their lives pushing papers around and trying to get re-elected, to think that that is better life experience when it comes to solving problems, that they have the best experience, I think it's a suspension of intellectual activity, to believe something like that." More applause.

By the end of the Denver gathering, Carson came out on top of the straw poll.

Why do conservative audiences like him so much? The simplest answer is that Carson is a really appealing man. Another is that he speaks to the throw-'em-out strain among conservatives, the same kind of thinking that would be open to a third-party candidate. Yet another is that Carson's it's-really-very-simple commonsense approach to complex issues resonates with a significant segment of the party. And finally, as the only black candidate, Carson's race might have something to do with it; he might appeal to that part of the Republican mind that has been scarred by years of accusations of racism, and also to those who believe the GOP needs a minority candidate to win more minority voters.

COMMENT:  And Bernie Sanders, an avowed socialist, is rising among Democratic voters.  Maybe a message is being sent – that many of the party faithful, in each party, are tired of the same resumes, the same college majors, the same "and then I was appointed to" backgrounds. 

Read the whole piece.  Very instructive.

June 29,  2015     Permalink

JUNE 28,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET:

GREEK SALAD – From Fox: ATHENS, Greece – Greece's five-year financial crisis took its most dramatic turn to date Sunday, with the cabinet deciding, after an 8-hour session, that Greek banks would remain shut for six working days and restrictions would be imposed on cash withdrawals.  The Athens Stock Exchange would also not open on Monday, financial sector officials confirmed.  A decree published in the official Government Gazette stipulates banks will not open Monday morning and will remain closed through Monday, July 6. The finance minister could decide to shorten or extend that period.  Withdrawals from ATMs with credit or cash cards will be capped at 60 euros ($66) daily. The decree said ATMs would be working at the latest 12 hours from its publication, meaning cash machines would open by early afternoon, at the latest.  We also had a "bank holiday" when Franklin D. Roosevelt came into office in 1933.  It did help to stabilize the banking system which was being hit by massive withdrawals, but the Great Depression went on until World War II.

CHILLING MESSAGE FROM ISIS – From Fox: Islamic State is marking its first year as a self-proclaimed caliphate by calling on sympathizers around the world to take up arms and commit acts of terror.  It was on June 29, 2014 that the terrorist army then known as ISIS announced it had established a government run by a medieval version of strict Islam in territory that spanned northern Syria and Iraq.  Since then, the group has metastasized throughout the region, recruiting locals and foreign fighters alike and blazing a trail of death and misery. With the beginning of Ramadan on June 17, the terrorist organization has issued a call for stepped up attacks in the Middle East and around the world.  And, as we reported earlier today, American authorities are deeply concerned about possible attacks coinciding with our July 4th weekend.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCHOLARSHIP – New York City is now entering a new "progressive" era under the ludicrous leadership of its Fidel-loving mayor, Bill de Blasio.  Strange, but this seems like something the city tried in the past, with catastrophic results.  From the New York Post:  How do you fix a failing high school?  Change the grades.  Under pressure to boost student achievement, the state-designated “out of time” Automotive HS has resorted to rigging Regents exam scores.  The failing scores of five students who took the Regents in January were switched to passing scores of 65 or higher on their transcripts, the city Department of Education has confirmed.  One junior saw his scores upped to pass two exams required for graduation — Living Environment (biology) and algebra — even though he had failed both classes. The student insisted he deserved a break on the exams because “I studied my ass off.”  In 2011, the state banned “scrubbing” — the practice of re-scoring tests that fall just short of passing. In 2013, the DOE tried to fire a teacher who raised the scores of five students on a Regents physics exam. In 2014, city scores plummeted after a new rule barred teachers from grading tests given at their own schools.  Now, the city has sanctioned it.  Ah, back to the sixties, that wonderful era of chaos and crime. 

June 28, 2015        Permalink

IRAN TALKS DOWN TO THE WIRE – AT 12:16 P.M. ET:  The Iran nuclear talks are scheduled to end in two days, presumably with some agreement.  But the sides are still well apart, and the betting is that the talks will go into overtime. 

There is substantial fear in Washington, even among some diplomats who have worked for Obama, that he will cave in just to get an agreement, erasing still more red lines that he's drawn in the past.  Obama sees an Iran nuclear deal as part of his left-wing legacy.  I doubt if he cares much about the fact that Iran will eventually get the bomb anyway.  From Fox: 

The U.S., Iran and world powers started the final round of nuclear talks on Saturday in Austria, with diplomats expressing optimism that a deal could be reached while addressing serious issues that still need to be resolved.

The group has cited a June 30 deadline for completing more than 18 months of diplomacy aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for a lifting of economic sanctions.

The Wall Street Journal reports senior officials involved in the Vienna talks said Saturday they anticipated the diplomatic process would likely need to be extended beyond next Tuesday, due to the complexity of issues involved in the negotiations.

Secretary of State John Kerry met with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif for 90 minutes Saturday morning and the two diplomats held a second negotiating session in the afternoon for an additional hour. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius also arrived in Vienna Saturday and was expected to meet with Kerry as well.

“We’re determined to do everything we can in order to be able to make this important milestone, Kerry said. “But that depends on a lot of things and we’re going to work on them.”

Saturday’s talks focused around Iran’s willingness to send tons of enriched uranium to another country for sale as reactor fuel, diplomats told The Associated Press. While Iran has repeatedly said it doesn’t want nuclear arms, it has more than eight tons that could be turned into the fissile core of a dozen or more atomic bombs if the material was further enriched to weapons-grade levels.

COMMENT:  I have no confidence in this administration's intentions.  I hope I'm proved wrong.

Congress will get a chance to vote on an agreement, but, since it is not a treaty, Obama could veto any Congressional objection.  It is unlikely that Congress would override his veto, as that would require Democratic votes, and party discipline "on behalf of Barack's legacy" would be enforced.

June 28, 2015       Permalink

TERROR WARNING – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  American authorities are worried about an ISIS attack in the United States over the July 4th weekend.  From PJ Media: 

Federal authorities have warned local law enforcement officials across the country about a heightened concern involving possible terror attacks targeting the July 4th holiday, a U.S. law enforcement official said.

While there was no specific or credible threat of attack, the official said the intelligence bulletin prepared by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI alerted local colleagues to the ongoing threats posed by the Islamic State and other homegrown extremists. The official was not authorized to comment publicly.

The bulletins are frequently issued in advance of major U.S. holidays out of an abundance of caution and concern that operatives may exploit the timing to generate greater attention.

The warning comes as federal investigators have worked to disrupt a number of Islamic State-inspired plots, including a planned assault earlier this month on police officers in Boston. In that case, authorities fatally shot Usaamah Rahim as he allegedly planned to attack police with military-style knives.

COMMENT:  It's only a matter of time before ISIS pulls off an attack in the United States.  You may be certain that the Obama administration will blame President Bush. 

Polls show Americans are very concerned about terror, and have lost confidence in Obama's ability, or will, to deal with it.  We have no idea what Hillary Clinton's views are about fighting terror, as she expresses no views on anything these days unless she can gain some political points.

June 28, 2015       Permalink

APOLOGIES?  PROBABLY NOT – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:  There are apologies all around.  The Confederate flag is coming down.  People are apologizing for things they never did.  And, of course, the usual suspects are looking with moral fervor at the Republican Party.  Racists!  Bigots!   "Racist, sexist, anti-gay, GOP go away!"

But Scott Johnson at Powerline asks a pertinent question.  When is the Democratic Party going to apologize for its own past? 

In an open letter to DNC Chairman Debbie Blabbermouth Schultz, Jeffrey Lord provides a readout of the tangled history of the Democratic Party with slavery, segregation, lynching, and the Ku Klux Klan. Lord draws on the Democratic Party platforms of 1840, 1844, 1856 and 1860. He adds that, as the Civil War drew to a close, the Democrats opposed the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (ending slavery), and proceeded afterwards also to oppose the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Lord has more, all in the spirit of the moment; Lord calls on Schultz to apologize on behalf of the party.

Lord might have added that prominent Democrats also opposed the Republican president’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and 1864; they sought Lincoln’s rescission of the proclamation. Lincoln replied: “[T]he promise being made must be kept.”

Lincoln liked the thought so much that he repeated it, with commas the second time around: “[T]he promise, being made, must be kept.” Thank God Lincoln ignored the Democrats.

The Republican Party wasn’t founded until until 1854. In 1856 its first national platform opposed the extension of slavery to the territories and frankly asserted the party’s opposition to the “twin relics of barbarism — Polygamy, and Slavery.” Suffice it to say that it remains timely today.

COMMENT:  The leftist lecturers might also reflect on their own awful human-rights record, from indifference to genocide in Africa, to coddling up to murderous Iran in the Mideast.

Of course, many liberals cut their political teeth on the "anti-war" movement of the 1960s, which wasn't anti-war at all, just anti any war America had a chance of winning.  The effect of their "movement" was to deny to South Vietnam any chance at democracy.

And then there's Obama's opening to Cuba, which was done without asking anything in return on behalf of the enslaved Cuban people.  What a record!   What hypocrites.

June 28,  2015     Permalink