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MARCH 19,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:08 P.M. ET:

GOOD FOR HER!  – Dame Vera Lynn, whose very name will bring back memories among our older readers, is coming out with a new album...at the age of 97.  Dame Vera was the "sweetheart" of the British forces in World War II.  Her renditions of "We'll Meet Again," "The White Cliffs of Dover," "There'll Always be an England," and other songs inspired the British war effort.  She was the most famous singer of the Second World War.

RAND AT BERKELEY – Rand Paul got a rousing reception at the king of left-wing campuses today.  He spoke at Berkeley, where his father also spoke from time to time.  His reception shouldn't shock anyone.  The Pauls are favorites at college campuses where libertarianism and its offshoots tend to have a following.  I get the feeling there's more noise than numbers here.  Obama was able to make something of the "youth vote" in his runs for the presidency, but they're difficult voters to motivate.  We don't make predictions here, but once Rand Paul announces for the presidency, his views on social issues, and his left-of-Hillary foreign policy may turn off many of these same young voters who cheered him today.

CRISIS – From the New York Post:  "Michelle Obama’s crusade against sugar and fatty foods has inspired the White House pastry chef to pursue healthy cooking outside the first family’s kitchen.  Longtime executive pastry chef Bill Yosses has announced the 'bittersweet' decision to leave the White House and move to New York, where he will teach people how to eat more healthfully, according to The New York Times.  Still, the 60-year-old chef — who, while cooking for the Obamas, had to replace 'the usual blitzkrieg' of butter and cream with healthier ingredients like fruit purees, honey and agave — is not ready to give up the good stuff.  'I don’t want to demonize cream, butter, sugar and eggs,' he told the paper."  The war on whipped cream produces a major casualty.

RELATED TO THE ITEM JUST ABOVE – From The New York Times:  "Many of us have long been told that saturated fat, the type found in meat, butter and cheese, causes heart disease. But a large and exhaustive new analysis by a team of international scientists found no evidence that eating saturated fat increased heart attacks and other cardiac events.  The new findings are part of a growing body of research that has challenged the accepted wisdom that saturated fat is inherently bad for you and will continue the debate about what foods are best to eat.  For decades, health officials have urged the public to avoid saturated fat as much as possible, saying it should be replaced with the unsaturated fats in foods like nuts, fish, seeds and vegetable oils.  But the new research, published on Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, did not find that people who ate higher levels of saturated fat had more heart disease than those who ate less. Nor did it find less disease in those eating higher amounts of unsaturated fat, including monounsaturated fat like olive oil or polyunsaturated fat like corn oil."  I feel vindicated.  Edy's Rocky Road.  That's for me.

March 19, 2014        Permalink

UKRAINE LATEST – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  The blatancy of the Russian actions is startling.  Putin is clearly in the saddle, and he intends to get what he wants.  From Reuters:

SEVASTOPOL/SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) - Russian troops and unarmed men stormed Ukraine's naval headquarters in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Wednesday and raised the Russian flag in a tense but peaceful takeover that signals Moscow's intent to neutralize any armed opposition.

Russian soldiers, and so-called "self-defense" units of mainly unarmed volunteers who are supporting them across the Black Sea peninsula, moved in early in the morning and quickly took control.

Shortly after the incident, Ukraine's acting Defence Minister Ihor Tenyukh said in Kiev that the country's forces would not withdraw from Crimea even though Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a treaty to make it part of Russia.

But an hour later, Ukrainian servicemen, unarmed and in civilian clothing, began walking out of the headquarters.

Interfax Ukraine news agency said the commander of the Ukrainian navy, Admiral Serhiy Haiduk, was among those who left and was driven away by officers of Russia's FSB intelligence service. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The first group of servicemen was followed within a few minutes by a handful of troops in Ukrainian uniform, looking shell-shocked at the dramatic turn of events.

COMMENT:  This is happening as the West's nuclear talks with Iran are just resuming.  Russia is Iran's most important ally.  How enthusiastic will Putin be about getting Iran to make concessions, knowing that his power grabs have worked, and that America is retrenching? 

March 19, 2014       Permalink 

THE MESS AT HOME – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:   While our foreign policy collapses, the Obamans are working hard to duplicate that mess here at home.  From The Hill:

Health industry officials say ObamaCare-related premiums will double in some parts of the country, countering claims recently made by the administration.

The expected rate hikes will be announced in the coming months amid an intense election year, when control of the Senate is up for grabs. The sticker shock would likely bolster the GOP’s prospects in November and hamper ObamaCare insurance enrollment efforts in 2015.

The industry complaints come less than a week after Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sought to downplay concerns about rising premiums in the healthcare sector. She told lawmakers rates would increase in 2015 but grow more slowly than in the past.

“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” the secretary said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.

Her comment baffled insurance officials, who said it runs counter to the industry’s consensus about next year.

“It’s pretty shortsighted because I think everybody knows that the way the exchange has rolled out … is going to lead to higher costs,” said one senior insurance executive who requested anonymity.

The insurance official, who hails from a populous swing state, said his company expects to triple its rates next year on the ObamaCare exchange.

COMMENT:  It's a disaster, and ready-made for the Republicans.  Trouble is, Republicans do not yet have a coherent, easily explainable, attractive alternative, which they must have to avoid the label, sometimes accurate of "the party of no."

March 19, 2014       Permalink

PATHETIC – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Joe Biden is in Eastern Europe, trying to convince our allies there that Obama really cares about them.  Apparently, he's running into mass skepticism.  Gee, I wonder why.  From WaPo: 

VILNIUS, Lithuania—Vice President Biden’s we’re-all-in-this together tour of Eastern Europe, a two-country stop that concludes here Wednesday, has highlighted not only the growing regional anxieties over Russia’s designs on Ukraine but also how much work the Obama administration has to do to convince allies of its support.

At its core, Biden’s message here and in Poland was a simple reaffirmation of what one senior administration official called a “bedrock commitment”: The United States would honor NATO’s basic premise that if one member nation is attacked, all would come to its defense.

What?  We have to reassure allies that we will honor our treaty commitments?  This is what American foreign policy has come to?

“President Obama and I view Article 5 of the NATO Treaty as an absolutely solemn commitment which we will honor,” Biden said in an appearance with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, referring to the collective self-defense clause in the agreement. “We will honor.”

A timely message, perhaps, as Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated Crimea’s return to Russia through an annexation the Obama administration and its European allies have called illegal. But having to deliver the message at all is a measure of how uncertain Eastern Europe remains as it confronts an expansionist Russia - and how uncertain many leaders here are of the Obama administration’s intentions to help.

In some ways, the anxieties are the inevitable result of America’s military retrenchment after more than a decade of war.

COMMENT:  Biden is having a tough time for good reason.  One of the first things Obama did when he came to office was to cancel the anti-missile systems promised to Poland and the Czech Republic.  And he conspicuously sent a bust of Winston Churchill, which had rested in the Oval Office under Bush, back to Britain.  And he started badgering Israel, but went to Cairo to apologize for America's "sins."  And he ignored the North Korean nuclear breakthroughs.  And he was almost silent when Iranians rose up against their government in 2009 and looked to America for support.  And he has cut the defense budget in the face of Russian and Chinese military expansion. 

Good luck, Joe.  But I'm afraid America's allies are counting the days until your boss rides off into the sunset.

March 19, 2014       Permalink

HILLARY SPEAKS – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton has issued her first detailed comments on Ukraine, and it's clear that she's starting to separate herself from Obama.  It's tricky, because she served as his secretary of state.  But she seems to understand the need.  From Fox:

Other countries near Russia could also face aggression if President Vladimir Putin is allowed to get away with his actions in Ukraine, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday.

Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential contender, called Russia's move to annex Crimea illegal and a violation of international law.

"If he's allowed to get away with that, I think you'll see a lot of other countries either directly facing Russian aggression or suborned with their political systems so that they are so intimidated that in effect they are transformed into vassals, not sovereign democracies," Clinton said at an event hosted by the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal at the Palais des Congres.

In response to a question about Ukraine, Clinton advocated a "two-track" approach toward resolving the crisis that included economic incentives and "standing up for our values."

Along with sanctions against Russia, Clinton argued for increased financial and technical support for a democratic government in Kiev.

She also said Europe needs to be encouraged to find other energy sources so they aren't dependent on Russian oil and gas.

"We don't have to be rattling sabers and all that. That's not useful," she said.

"But people need to get moving in protecting themselves against future intimidation. It might take a year, it might take two years, but it needs to be slow and steady. And then once again people will see the difference, they will see the choices."

COMMENT:  Not perfect, but, for a liberal Democrat, not bad.  I suspect the Clinton camp realizes that liberals will have nowhere to go in 2016 except to vote for her, if she runs.  So a little tough foreign-policy talk won't hurt. 

The Clintonistas may also be sizing up the possibility of running against Rand Paul, whose foreign-policy positions are problematical, to put it mildly.  He sometimes sounds to the left of Obama, and his father, Ron Paul, sometimes sounds like the ambassador from the Taliban.  In 1960 Kennedy ran to the right of Nixon on defense policy, and you might see the same phenomenon in 2016, if Paul is the GOP candidate, with Hillary running to his right.  It would be shrewd, pick up the independent vote, and go a long way to securing a victory.

But I don't think Paul will be the nominee.

March 19,  2014     Permalink

MARCH 18,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:46 P.M. ET: 

THE AIRLINER – I sense a backlash building against the over-the-top coverage by the cable news networks.  You get very little information, as I noted this morning.  There were some tidbits that came through today, but, unless they find the wreckage and black boxes, this may remain an Earhart-like mystery.  One thing missing from all the speculation and tech guesses is a frank discussion about the Malaysian government, which controls most of the information.  I'm not confident we're getting a straight story.  More coming, if it's warranted.

HE'S JUST OUR JOE – Field Marshal Obama sent Sergeant Minor Biden to Eastern Europe this week to "reassure" our allies that we're right behind them.  And, almost immediately Joe came out with a gaffe...about his own history.  From The Hill:  "Vice President Biden misspoke on Tuesday, claiming he had led the fight for Poland to join NATO when he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Biden, whose tendency toward gaffes is well known, served as chairman from 2001 to 2003; Poland joined NATO in 1999."  Such reassurance.  I pray that Joe remembers the names of the countries he visits. 

EMBARRASSMENT – If Rand Paul wants to run for president, I hope he shuts his father up.  Ron Paul embarrasses himself regularly by siding with America's enemies and blaming America almost as often as the hard leftists do.  His latest pronouncements are on Ukraine.  The elder Paul writes: "Why does the U.S. care which flag will be hoisted on a small piece of land thousands of miles away?"  Because, old sport, we learned from the deaths of 600,000 American boys in World War II what happens when we don't care.  Let's not make that mistake again.

IRAN LAUGHS – Iran continues to behave as if it's in the driver's seat in its nuclear negotiations.  And it may well be.  The most recent Iranian maneuver, via AP:  "Iran’s foreign minister cancelled a planned dinner meeting with the European Union’s foreign policy chief on Monday over meetings she had with opposition activists during a visit to Iran earlier this month, semiofficial Fars news agency reported."  In other words, Western officials are not permitted to meet with Iranian politicians of which the government disapproves.  I hope the West doesn't buckle on this, and continues to seek meetings with dissidents, but I'm not all that confident.  Obama, as usual, is leading from behind, or from under the bed.

March 18,  2014     Permalink

REPLIES FROM READERS – AT 11:29 A.M. ET:  We tried a little experiment yesterday, posting a question from reader and military historian Will Stroock.  Will asked, ""Thinking back on the contest between Mitt Romney and Barrack Obama, what comes to mind?  Events, images, etc...."

Here are some quotes from reader responses, and a comment from Will at the end: 

This is in response to your 3/17/2014 post. I've referenced an anti-republicanculture.com link below…

http://www.anti-republicanculture.com/2012/12/cultural-staging.html

Here is another link on the "staging" issue…

http://www.anti-republicanculture.com/2013/02/adoring-americans.html

I think the greatest takeaway for me was the effective use of props in the Obama campaign. From Greek columns to adoring supporters, the imagery employed was striking.

Howard Towt
Parker, Colorado

 

What immediately came to my mind was the debate in which Candy Whatsername intervened with incorrect information, throwing Romney off balance, thereby making it look like he was having a Gerald Ford moment.

My next immediate reaction was anger that the Repubs keep allowing ''debates'' to be manipulated that way, in agreeing passively to ''moderators'' (''moderatrices"?) like that. Gwen Ifil comes to mind.

Gordon Daugherty

 

Regarding question by reader Will Stroock:

1. Romney has respect for those who have served our country in the military, Obama seems to have none
2. Romney has respect for those who own and operate businesses, employ people and pay taxes, Obama seems to have none
3. Romney has respect for Allies like the UK, Canada, Israel and others who have stood shoulder to shoulder to defend freedom, Obama seems to have none.
4. Romney has respect for American values and the heritage that made this country the greatest
on earth. Obama seems to want to apologize to our enemies for everything we have done the past hundred years.
5. Romney understands that no how noble the cause, spending money we do not have is not a great idea....especially for our children and grandchildren. Spending money we do not have
does not appear to bother Obma.

Claude Williams
Collierville, Tennessee

And Will Stroock replies:

All I can see, when I think back, is Mitt Romney being dragged down by one stupid meme after another, his dog, his taxes, his 47% comment, on and on.

Which is what I think we can do to Hillary Clinton.

COMMENT:  Interesting experiment.  Maybe we'll try it again.  What we want to encourage is more readers to write in.  Your comments are always welcome.

March 18,  2014     Permalink

IRAN IN THE AMERICAS – AT 9:29 A.M. ET:   For years there have been reports of Iranian military activity in Venezuela.  The reports often centered on an Iranian airliner that flew to Caracas once a week...with no tickets available to the public.  Strange way to run an airline.  A report from the Washington Times provides a fascinating look into what military "cooperation" between Iran and Venezuela means today.

The death of 22-year-old Venezuelan student Genesis Carmona at the hands of armed pro-government civilian militias, called “colectivos,” bears a striking resemblance to the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the Iranian student who was shot and killed in a similar fashion on the streets of Tehran during the Green Revolution of 2009.

This has led many analysts to begin comparing the colectivos’ tactics to those used by Iran’s Basij paramilitary force.

The similarity, however, is more than speculation.

In April 2009, the current Iranian commander of the Basij paramilitary force, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, accompanied then-Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar on a high-level visit to Caracas at the invitation by then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez and his foreign minister (now President) Nicolas Maduro.

Several defense agreements followed, but one in particular is relevant to what is transpiring on the streets of Venezuela today.

According to sources within the Venezuelan military, Gen. Naqdi’s role in these high-level meetings was to serve as an adviser to Venezuela’s Ministries of Defense and Interior to aid in training their civilian militias, the now-infamous colectivos.

A first glimpse of this advisory support came during the 2012 presidential election in Venezuela, as government documents were leaked to the foreign press about the Chavista plans to stir up civil unrest if their leader, Hugo Chavez, were to lose the elections on Oct. 7 of that year.

According to the leaked government documents, the Chavistas planned to mobilize the colectivos as a quick-reaction force called Redes de Movilizacion Inmediata, to quell opposition rallies and gain territorial control.

Modeled after those of the Iranian Basij units, the force’s tactics and functions included setting alphanumeric short codes for clandestine communication and infiltrating universities to gain intelligence.

COMMENT:  Extend it further.  What is to prevent Iranian operatives from infiltrating across the southern border of the United States, perhaps with the aim of getting a weapon of mass destruction into the United States?  Our border is porous, the Obama administration doesn't show much interest in hardening it, and Mexico's law enforcement is chaotic and unreliable.  It's a prescription for possible disaster, but I don't see too many people sweating the problem.

Read the whole piece.  Well worth it.

March 18, 2014       Permalink

AIRLINER – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:   Most of the news coverage is increasingly learning toward informed speculation, but the speculation is wearing thin.  People want facts.  The latest, from CNN:

(CNN) -- New information from the Thai government bolsters the belief that missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took a sharp westward turn after communication was lost.

The Thai military was receiving normal flight path and communication data from the Boeing 777-200 on its planned March 8 route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing until 1:22 a.m., when it disappeared from its radar.

Six minutes later, the Thai military detected an unknown signal, a Royal Thai Air Force spokesman told CNN. This unknown aircraft, possibly Flight 370, was heading the opposite direction.

Malaysia says the evidence gathered so far suggests the plane was deliberately flown off course, turning west and traveling back over the Malay Peninsula and out into the Indian Ocean.

But investigators don't know who was at the controls or why whoever it was took the plane far away from its original destination.

The Thai data is the second radar evidence that the plane did indeed turn around toward the Strait of Malacca.

COMMENT:   The U.S. has withdrawn the Burke-class destroyer USS Kidd from the search, but will retain the Navy's Poseidon aircraft, which has superb search capability, including the ability to look underwater, using advanced technology.

March 18, 2014       Permalink

UKRAINE – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  There is this 1930s feel that many of us have when looking at the events of the last few weeks.  From Fox:

Russian and Crimean leaders signed a treaty Tuesday to incorporate Crimea into Russia's territory following a referendum in which residents of Ukraine's region overwhelmingly backed the move.

President Vladimir Putin signed the document Tuesday with Crimea's prime minister and parliament speaker following a televised address to the nation, in which he vigorously defended Crimea's vote as a restoration of historical justice.

The agreement has to be endorsed by Russia's Constitutional Court and ratified by both houses of parliament to take effect. Those steps are considered mere formalities.

Putin has accused the West of encouraging unrest in Ukraine in order to break its historic ties with Russia, and dismissed Western criticism of the Crimean vote as illegitimate.

In a televised address to Russia Tuesday, Putin defended Russia's move to annex Crimea, saying that the rights of ethnic Russians have been abused by the Ukrainian government.

He also called authorities in Ukraine “nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites,” according to Reuters.

“Those who were behind recent events, they were ... preparing a coup d'etat, another one,” Putin said. “They were planning to seize power, stopping at nothing.”

He denied Western accusations that Russia invaded Crimea prior to a referendum vote there, saying Russian troops were sent there in line with a treaty with Ukraine that allows Russia to have up to 25,000 troops at its Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea.

COMMENT:  The reality is that the vote in Crimea to separate from Ukraine violates international agreements.  The Russian empire is building again. 

The United States responded with President Barack "Tuffie" Obama imposing minimal sanctions on individual Russian leaders and sending Vice President Joe "Hardnose" Biden to Europe to, laugh now, reassure our allies.  (If your daughter's safety ever depends on Joe Biden, gift her with a Smith & Wesson.)

At this juncture it appears that Putin has gotten away with it.  There may be some slight additional sanctions, but no one seems in the mood for a major escalation of a new Cold War.  Flash weakness, this is what happens.  The Sochi Olympics now look so distant, don't they?  Just as the 1936 Berlin Olympics looked like a distant memory in 1938, when Hitler annexed Austria.

March 18,  2014     Permalink