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

MAY 12,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

JUNK – From CNBC:  "Moody's downgraded Chicago's credit rating down to junk level 'Ba1' from 'Baa2.'  The announcement, which the ratings agency released Tuesday afternoon, cited a recent Illinois court ruling voiding state pension reforms. Moody's said it saw a negative outlook for the city's credit.  Following that May court decision, Moody's said it believes that 'the city's options for curbing growth in its own unfunded pension liabilities have narrowed considerably.'"  This comes just before the official announcement that Obama's presidential library will be housed in Chicago.  So we'll have junk financing followed by junk history.

WHAT A SURPRISE – From Fox:  "As cap-and-gown season gets underway at American colleges and universities, graduates and their loved ones will be getting an earful from left-wing commencement speakers, according to a report.  Liberal speakers will outnumber conservatives by at least 6-to-1 at the nation's top 100 schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, according to conservative watchdog group Young America’s Foundation. Among the top 10 of the list--which includes schools such as Princeton, the University of Chicago and Duke--none is hosting conservative speakers.  'Our 2015 survey shows the conservative blackout on college campuses has only gotten worse,' Ron Robinson, president of Young America's Foundation, said in a statement to FoxNews.com. 'While conservatives won the national elections by a wide margin, campuses have doubled down on liberal speakers--with zero elected conservative officials scheduled to speak at our nation's top schools.'"  And for this the colleges charge $50,000 a year, and up. 

CONGRATS – From Fox:  "Richard Overton feels a 'little stiff' from time to time and he's cut out the whiskey but other than that, he feels pretty good.  Not bad for America's oldest living military veteran, who turned 109 on Monday.  'I get around pretty good, just get a little stiff. I'm doing all right, I guess,' Overton told FoxNews.com, as he waited at his Austin, Texas, home for a car to pick him up to take him to meet Gov. Greg Abbott.  'Gonna go see the governor,' he added. 'He wants to talk to me.'  The World War II veteran's friends and family tossed a birthday party for him last week, with as many as 100 people in attendance."  Great to have this man still with us.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH –   You probably saw Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on TV in the last few days.  He's making his move to become a national "progressive" figure, trying to move Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party even further left.  But, uh, wasn't he elected to do a job?  New Yorkers seem to think so.  From the New York Post:  "He’s aiming to become a national spokesman for the left, but a new poll suggests Mayor de Blasio might want to pay more attention to the folks who elected him in New York City.  De Blasio received the lowest job approval ratings of his mayoral career in a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, with 44 percent of voters giving him a thumbs up compared to 40 percent who thought he was doing a lousy job.  That was a 5 percent drop from January, when the mayor a 49 percent positive rating and 40 percent negative one.  And nearly half of those surveyed —46 percent — said the mayor’s jaunts around the country were distracting him from his duties at City Hall. Forty-two percent had no problem with the trips."  Crime is up in New York since de Blasio took office, and the crimes are becoming more brazen.  Same old liberal story.

May 12,  2015     Permalink

ANNALS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT – AT 11:54 A.M. ET:  The state of the law-enforcement community is not good, and the recent anti-cop hysteria is taking its toll.   From the Washington Times: 

Law enforcement morale is at an all-time low as uniformed officers endure increased pushback from the communities and politicians they’re risking their lives to protect, and a new report released Monday shows on-duty law enforcement deaths in 2014 occurring at nearly twice the previous year’s rate.

“One of the things that we’ve seen just lately, that we’ve never seen before, is police officers are telling their own families, and their own children, ‘Don’t go into this line of duty, this line of work, because it’s not worth it any more,’” said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.

The number of law enforcement officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014 increased 89 percent as compared to the year prior — with most dying after being shot by gun-carrying criminals, according to a preliminary report issued by the FBI on Monday.

In raw numbers, 51 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2014, versus 27 such deaths in 2013.

The FBI report Monday was preliminary; the complete annual report will be released in the fall.

And the number killed in deliberate ambush attacks has tripled in a year, according to data collected by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In 2014 there were 15 officers killed in fatal ambushes compared to five in 2013, the group said.

Police unions are “very much concerned” over the increased number of attacks on officers, which seem to be planned ambushes and unprovoked attacks, Mr. Johnson said.

The recent fatal attacks on New York police officer Brian Moore, 25, as well as Hattiesburg, Mississippi, police officers Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 25, have resonated with law enforcement officers nationwide, said Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President Jon Adler.

COMMENT:  Who will be the next generation of police officers?  Where will we get them?  Will they be interested in protecting the community, or "understanding" the criminals? 

After years of good government in New York City, under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, New Yorkers reverted to form and elected a leftist Democratic mayor.  Now crime is rising rapidly again, and the mayor, Bill de Blasio, is spending increasing amounts of time out of the city, campaigning for a national "progressive" agenda.  Will the media hold him to account?  Will the people of the city?

I really do feel that America is at a crossroads.  And too many Americans, led by a liberal media, leftist college professors, and go-along "artists," may take the wrong road.

May 12, 2015       Permalink

TROUBLING – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  First, let me state that I respect mothers who are single, often because of circumstances they can't control, or because of tragedy, and who work hard to raise their children.  I've known some, and they should not be stereotyped, or lumped in with the irresponsible.

Still, some recent statistics raise troubling questions about the stability of this society.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) - Forty-five percent of American mothers in their twenties have never been married, according to data that the Census Bureau released leading into the Mother’s Day weekend.

As of June 2014, according to the Census Bureau, there were 8,118,000 American women who were mothers and were from 20 to 29 years of age. Of these 8,118,000 American mothers in their twenties, 3,689,000 had never been married. That is 45.4 percent.

"In comparison with all mothers, young mothers are more likely to have had their first birth when they were neither married nor cohabiting,” states the Census. “Among young mothers who had their first birth between 2005 and June of 2012, 38 percent were neither married nor cohabiting at the time of the first birth.”

While the percentage of babies who are born to unmarried mothers is increasing, the average number of babies born per woman is declining.

“The average number of children ever born has dropped from more than three children per woman in 1976 to about two children per woman in 2012,” says the Census Bureau’s report on “Fertility of Women in the United States: 2012,” which was published in 2014.

Of the 4,125,353 who had a child in the 12 months prior to the 2012 Census Bureau survey, 31.3 percent had never been married and 7.0 percent were not married at the time of the survey. Only 61.8 percent of the new mothers was “currently married.”

COMMENT:  The fertility statistics are also troubling, if you look at what's happened in Western Europe.  Fertility is so low that the native populations in some countries cannot reproduce themselves.  That means that countries like the Netherlands may well not exist in 50 years.  Another country in danger of just fading away is Italy.  Those cultures will be lost. 

The West is failing in so many areas, but reproduction of home populations is basic to survival.

May 12, 2015       Permalink

THE MESS – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  The extent of Obama's foreign-policy disaster can be seen in the way presumed Arab allies of the United States are treating this administration.  We may not love those countries and their political systems, but I'd rather have them with us than against us, or even neutral.  From a commentary in The Wall Street Journal:   

The promise of a successful nuclear deal with Iran is that it will stop nuclear proliferation, moderate Tehran’s behavior, make the Middle East a safer place, and perhaps allow the U.S. to play a less active role in a troublesome region. Try telling that to the Arab leaders who were supposed to visit the White House and Camp David this week, but are now finding a reason not to show up.

President Obama announced the visit when he unveiled the Iran “framework” last month. The goal is to reassure the king of Saudi Arabia—along with the emirs and princes of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates—that the U.S. will continue to support them despite the nuclear deal with Iran. The President has also suggested he’ll have a “tough conversation” about their internal politics, though how another Obama lecture on good governance will ease concerns about U.S. reliability is anyone’s guess.

But at the last minute the senior Arab leaders are finding excuses not to make the trip. New Saudi King Salman pulled out on the weekend only days after confirming his attendance, and he will send lower-level officials instead. Bahrain’s king has also bowed out. These rejections can only be described as political snubs rooted in distrust of President Obama and his diplomacy.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  As usual with Wall Street Journal editorials, it's worth it.  The hype surrounding Barack Obama's entry into the presidency was almost intolerable, and that hype has never been equaled by his performance.  I cannot think of a single victory for American foreign policy since Obama took the oath.  And for most of that time, Hillary Clinton was his secretary of state. 

The snubbing of an American president should be taken very seriously.  It's a signal that allies might look elsewhere for support, or make deals with our enemies.  But, really, does Obama actually care? 

May 12, 2015       Permalink

MORE TROUBLE FOR HILLARY – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  What's significant about Clinton scandals is that they're ongoing.  They never seem to end.  New, exciting discoveries are made all the time that keep them going.

The Democratic Party may well nominate a candidate for president who has a reasonable chance of being indicted.  There's a first time for everything.  From Fox:

A federal judge has agreed to reopen a lawsuit that seeks to gain access to emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server.

Judge Reggie B. Walton’s decision Friday came after the State Department and Judicial Watch, which brought the lawsuit, agreed that the documents that Clinton kept on her own email server separate from the government should be turned over.

“This is the first case that’s been reopened,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch told The Washington Times. “It’s a significant development. It points to the fraud by this administration and Mrs. Clinton.”

Previously, the court dismissed Judicial Watch's request, on the grounds that the documents did not exist.

Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation that promotes transparency and accountability in government.

Clinton provided about 30,000 emails to a House committee investigating the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya but deleted 32,000 emails she considered personal and not government business.

COMMENT:  This is developing just as the Queen's candidacy gets going.  Will it have an effect?  Hard to predict.  The standard line of the liberal left when confronted with scandal is to insist that Americans want to "move on."  (That in fact is how the group moveon.org got started.)  It may not be that easy when the scandal surrounds a presidential candidate.

You may be sure that the usual suspects in the media will try to come up with an equal and opposite scandal involving whatever GOP candidates emerge from the pack, just so Hillary isn't alone.  It's a service they perform regularly.

May 12,  2015     Permalink

MAY 11,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:41 P.M. ET:

SEALED MOUTH – From WaPo:  "Welcome to day 29 of the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign!  In those 29 days – including April 12, the day she announced, and today – Clinton has taken a total of eight questions from the press. That breaks out to roughly one question every 3.6 days. Of late, she's taken even fewer questions than that. According to media reports, the last day Clinton answered a question was April 21 in New Hampshire; that means that she hasn't taken a question from the media in 20 straight days."  When a liberal Democrat fears the mainstream press, you know we're in trouble.

GREAT MOMENTS IN ACADEMIA – From Fox:  "Boston University had a weekend change of heart about a new professor's angry tweets about white people, after FoxNews.com and others reported on the racially-charged comments -- and Terrier alumni threatened to stop writing checks.  Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at the school, tweeted in recent weeks that 'white masculinity is THE problem for america’s (sic) colleges,' white men are a 'problem population,' and that she tries to avoid shopping at white-owned businesses. On Friday, her new employer's spokesman, Colin Riley, told FoxNews.com that the tweets came from Grundy's personal Twitter account and that she was 'exercising her right to free speech and we respect her right to do so.'   Then, amid a deluge of angry emails from former students, the school sought to amend the comment.  'The University does not condone racism or bigotry in any form and we are deeply saddened when anyone makes such offensive statements,' Riley told FoxNews.com Saturday."  Yeah, deeply saddened.  We'll tell you what their opinion is tomorrow.

MAJOR CRIME NEWS – From Fox:  "NEW YORK – The NFL came down hard on its biggest star and its championship team, telling Tom Brady and the Patriots that no one is allowed to mess with the rules of the game.  The league suspended the Super Bowl MVP Monday for the first four games of the season, fined the New England Patriots $1 million and took away two draft picks as punishment for deflating footballs used in the AFC title game.  'Each player, no matter how accomplished and otherwise respected, has an obligation to comply with the rules and must be held accountable for his actions when those rules are violated and the public's confidence in the game is called into question,' NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent wrote to Brady."  They should send Brady to Washington, where some serious deflation is urgently needed.  He could start with Obama's ego.

May 11, 2015       Permalink

HER LOWNESS – AT 12:30 P.M. ET:   The author of the new book on the Clintons' financial maneuverings speaks common sense about the implications of what he found.  From Breitbart:

“Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer argued that the Clintons’ behavior would not be tolerated from any other political figure on Saturday’s “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on the Fox News Channel.

Asked about the unwillingness of prosecutors to look at the allegations in the book, Schweizer said that this was due to the fact that the book just came out and “people kind of expect from the Clintons that you’re going to get scandal. What I’ve encouraged people to do is look at these cases, take the name Clinton out of it and ask yourself, would you tolerate this from any other political figure? And I think the answer is no.”

He added, “I think the evidence, the fact pattern here is far more compelling than it was in the Governor of Virginia’s case, Senator Menendez in New Jersey, or Kitzhaber out in Oregon, who resigned. I think the fact pattern is far more compelling. … I think a prosecutor needs to look at this, I think the FBI needs to look at this, and I think we need to have Congressional committees that have subpoena powers to look at this.”

COMMENT:  Very well stated.  But I doubt if anything official will be done.  Obama is not going to allow a legal investigation of his former secretary of state.  It would look too odd, as if he were trying to bring her down.  As far as the Republicans, they're already investigating some of Hillary's activities, but they're clearly concerned about looking like they're trying to destroy a presidential candidate. 

Indeed, Americans have gotten used to the words "Clinton" and "scandal" appearing in the same sentence.  But I do sense in the polls a greater disgust than we've seen before.  After all, why should the first female president have to be a corruptionist? 

May 11, 2015       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN JUSTICE – AT 11:46 A.M. ET:   There's been much controversy surrounding the actions of Marilyn Mosby, the Baltimore prosecutor who threw the book at the six cops allegedly involved in the death of Freddie Gray.   She has more conflicts of interest than Hillary Clinton at a fundraisers' convention.  But it gets worse.  She conducted an "investigation" of the case, and that probe had a lead investigator.  Let us meet him, Avon Mackel, courtesy of Legal Insurrection:

Mr. Mackel used to be a high-ranking Baltimore police officer, according to CNN.

Well, until things went horribly wrong.

In 2009 Mackel was stripped of his command position because of a grievous failure to follow through on allegations of a mishandled robbery investigation by two of his officers.

In addition, according to that same CNN report, the Baltimore Sun newspaper reported that police in Mackel’s district were falsely “down-classifying” crimes in order to suggest crime rates were lower than was actually the case–and to make Mackel look more effective as a crime-fighter than he was.

But it gets even more interesting.

Four months after his demotion, Mackel engaged in a drunken gun-wielding incident at his home of sufficient severity that the Baltimore County police department sent in their SWAT team. Mackel was non-compliant with officers and obviously (the responding officers reported) intoxicated.

Despite being tasered by the SWAT team, the armed and intoxicated Mackel managed to barricade himself in his bedroom.

After that, the police record apparently gets vague, without any clear explanation for how the incident ended.

For some bizarre reason–I am shocked, SHOCKED!–Mackel was not arrested following these remarkable events.

I rather expect that if I had engaged in the same behavior in Baltimore County an arrest–if only to secure my assessment by psychiatric personnel–would have been effected post haste.

But who am I to speculate.

COMMENT: That's some lead investigator.  And on his work the fate of six police officers may rest.  But I have a feeling that the courts will trim the charges considerably.  And there may well be further pressure for the prosecutor to step aside.

The politics are appalling.  But the mob must be fed.

May 11, 2015        Permalink

WARNING ON HOMEGROWN TERRORISTS – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:   The threat of homegrown terrorists is growing and urgent, according to Homeland Security.  From The Hill:

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said Sunday that the United States is facing a new era in which a lone-wolf terrorist could “strike at any moment.”

“We’re very definitely in a new environment, because of ISIL’s effective use of social media, the Internet, which has the ability to reach into the homeland and possibly inspire others,” Johnson said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” using the administration's preferred acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“Because of the use of the Internet, we could have little or no notice in advance of an independent actor attempting to strike.”

As a result, Johnson said, the federal government is making a greater effort to engage with state and local law enforcement and encourage them to be “vigilant” about what is happening in their communities.

Part of this effort is meeting with Muslim community leaders and urging them to counter ISIS's recruitment campaign on social media, which Johnson called “slick” and “effective.”

Lawmakers and experts have been critical of the federal government’s attempts to challenge that campaign, with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) reportedly calling the efforts “laughable.”

Johnson took issue with this description, but acknowledged that community leaders are in the best position to reach out to individuals which might be vulnerable to radicalization.

“It has to come from Islamic leaders, who frankly can talk the language better than the federal government can,” he said.

“And so when I meet with community leaders, Islamic leaders, that’s one of the things that we urge them to do.”

The interview took place two days after the military increased security at U.S. bases over concerns about terrorist threats.

COMMENT:  I wish they'd change the vocabulary.  These are not "lone wolves" or independent actors.  They consider themselves part of a movement, a cause, and they're targeted for recruitment.  They may not be part of a structured military organization, but they are being guided.  They don't get up one day and decide to attack a target. 

May 11, 2015       Permalink

GROWING STORY – AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  We noted this last night.  The story is growing.  It is not only big, it is huge.  I don't recall anything like it – when the president of the United States is publicly snubbed by leaders of presumed allies.  From Fox: 

The White House was scrambling Monday to put a positive face on an upcoming summit of Persian Gulf states after learning leaders from four of the six invited nations are expected to skip.

While those nations are still sending representatives to the summit being hosted by President Obama later this week at Camp David, the absence of crucial heads of state -- notably, Saudi Arabia's new king -- could present an awkward situation for the administration.

Ya think?

In a statement Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Thursday's summit coincides with a humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Shiite rebels known as Houthis. He said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also interior minister, would lead the Saudi delegation and the king's son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is defense minister, will also attend -- but the king would not.

Obama had planned to meet Saudi Arabia's King Salman one-on-one a day before the gathering of leaders at the presidential retreat. The White House, though, did not present his decision to skip the summit as a sign of any substantial disagreement with the U.S.

"We first learned of the King's possible change of plans from Saudis on Friday night," a senior U.S. administration official told Fox News. "This was confirmed by the Saudis on Saturday. We coordinated closely with our Saudi partners on the alternate arrangement and timing of the announcement and look forward to welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This is not in response to any substantive issue."

King Salman, who took power in January after his brother King Abdullah died, has not traveled abroad since his ascension to the throne.

The tiny island kingdom of Bahrain said separately Sunday that its delegation would be headed by the country's crown prince, Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. Bahrain, whose leadership has close ties to the Saudis, is an important military ally of the U.S. It is the longstanding host to the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is responsible for operations around the Arabian Peninsula and northern Indian Ocean, and is Washington's main naval counterbalance to Iran.

Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at Emirates University, told the Associated Press Gulf leaders were staying away to signal their displeasure over the nuclear talks.

"I don't think they have a deep respect, a deep trust for Obama and his promises. There is a fundamental difference between his vision of post-nuclear-deal Iran and their vision," he said. "They think Iran is a destabilizing force and will remain so, probably even more, if the sanctions are lifted. ... They're just not seeing things eye to eye."

COMMENT:  And that of course is the issue, although the White House can never admit it.  Allies have lost faith in America under Obama.  It is a terrible moment for American foreign policy. 

And who carried out that foreign policy?  Hillary Clinton.  Will anyone in the press ask her about this, or will she get away with it one more time?  Do you have to ask?

May 11,  2015     Permalink