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NOVEMBER 26,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:31 P.M. ET: 

THE PURITY OF SPORT – From The New York Times:  When they checked into their rooms at the Grand Hyatt in São Paulo, Brazil, just before last year’s World Cup, global soccer officials were greeted with leather gift bags from the country’s soccer federation. Each bag contained tourism books, a key ring, a Brazil jersey — and, in a small velvet pouch, a wristwatch worth $26,000.  Some realized that the watch, by the Swiss brand Parmigiani, was more than a trinket and turned it in to FIFA, the sport’s global governing body. But many officials accepted the watch, establishing it as a symbol of the largess enjoyed by soccer’s leaders.  Less than a year later, FIFA was brought to its knees when United States prosecutors unsealed corruption and bribery charges against 10 soccer officials from nine countries. Among them was the president of the Brazilian federation that gave out the watches last year, José Maria Marin.  Do sports have anything to do with athletes anymore?  I'll bet the officials who turned in their watches are considered the pariahs, not the officials who accepted theirs.

TIME TO GROW UP, CHILD – From the Independent:  Sweden’s Deputy Prime Minister broke down into tears as she announced the Government’s U-turn over the refugee crisis to reduce the number of people fleeing war and persecution from seeking asylum in Sweden.  More than 190,000 refugees were expected to enter Sweden this year after the Government announced its open door policy in response to the refugee crisis earlier this year.  On Tuesday, Sweden’s Prime Minister Stefan Löfven said this policy would be reduced to bring it in line with the EU minimum, meaning many would only be granted temporary residence permits. Mr Löfven said the country needed “respite” from accepting such a large intake of refugees. “It pains me that Sweden is no longer capable of receiving asylum seekers at the high level we do today,” he told the conference. “We simply cannot do any more.”  Åsa Romson became visibly emotional as she announced the U-turn on asylum policy at the conference.   Sweden is a classic example of what happens when you run out of other people's money, and other people's space.  Leftism is a religion in Sweden, and the governments love to lavish affection on immigrant groups.  But there's a price, and Swedes increasingly are resisting the price, including the loss of their culture, their right to walk the streets safely, and their economy.  Maybe the "generous" governments should lavish some affection on Swedes.

A FUTURE FOR THE SHACK? – From the New York Post:   After a brush with near-death this year, RadioShack has some ideas for surviving the holidays.  The 94-year-old retailer — once the go-to for staples like batteries, gaming accessories and cable connectors — hopes to compete with heavyweights like Amazon and Best Buy by selling offbeat tech gadgets and by teaming up exclusively with wireless provider Sprint.  Looking for a 3D pen, a drone the size of a silver dollar or a wearable speaker? RadioShack has it.  “You’ll see us take a stand on technology,” said Michael Tatelman, chief marketing officer of the retailer.  Owned by General Wireless, which bought the Radio­Shack trademark and 1,733 stores out of more than 4,000 at a bankruptcy auction in April, the scrappy retailer is emerging from a lean period in which it didn’t have the cash to buy inventory.  I love tech stuff, but Radio Shack fell way behind other retailers.  It had no identity, no flair, no identification with a breakthrough technology.  There are only so many batteries and cans of electronic cleaner that you can sell.  Let's see what the new boys do.  This is an adventure in capitalism.

November 26,  2015     Permalink

THIS DAY – AT 8:44 A.M. ET:  It is Thanksgiving, and we wish you all the most pleasant and reflective of days.  As usual, we will be driving to Virginia to celebrate the holiday with our family's Southern wing.  Okay, they don't fly the stars and bars or lament the "lost cause," but they're Southern just the same. 

We have much for which to be thankful, but I worry.  I worry that in ten years we might not be celebrating Thanksgiving at all.  No, Americans won't have their freedoms taken away.  We are not about to repeal the Bill of Rights.   I worry that we will simply give up our freedoms as we bow at the altar of political correctness.  Will we be "embarrassed" to celebrate Thanksgiving ten years hence, told that the holiday is evil, a symbol of oppression and European colonization?  Some people will yield to that absurd notion, as we watch their eyes switch from side to side, eager to learn whether their obeisance to the left will win them an invitation to a desired cocktail party. 

Americans are becoming more and more aware of political correctness, something that used to be called "the party line," and they are becoming aware of its costs.   On this day let us be thankful that we have the right to fight back against this new form of mind control, to defeat it, to commit it to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.

Exercise that right.

November 26, 2015       Permalink

DEMS BOLT ON CLIMATE CHANGE – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  What?  Could this be?  Democrats with brains?   Yes, it is happening.  Observe, please.  Show your children.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Hundreds of Democrats from 32 states are aligning against the centerpiece of President Obama's climate change agenda, the Clean Power Plan, which they say will cause unnecessary economic harm from increased reliance on renewable energy.

"As Democrats committed to a prosperous America and a healthy environment, we believe the United States has a unique opportunity to lead the world in addressing the global climate challenge, and yet do so, as we must, without unduly burdening the American economy or the American people," the Democratic coalition called CoalBlue said in a letter sent Tuesday to Obama.

The group joined with hundreds of Democratic officeholders and state, local and party officials in telling Obama that the Environmental Protection Agency's emission rules for power plants pose "serious and overriding concerns," representing the wrong approach to the problem of climate change.

"If we are going to provide real leadership in the world community on climate, we cannot begin by implementing policies that have no hope of succeeding outside of the United States, or possibly even within the United States," said the group's chairman, former U.S. Rep. Zack Space of Ohio. His state is one of 27 suing the EPA over the Clean Power Plan.

COMMENT:  When Barack starts losing Democrats, he might make some phone calls to his EPA administrator.   "Climate change" has become a religion, a doctrine, not a scientific principle.  We need far more study, and solutions, if required, that reflect common sense – two words the Democratic Party doesn't want to hear.

November 26, 2015       Permalink

ESCALATION – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  Russia re-entry into the Mideast is turning out to be bumpy.  And it is escalating tensions in the region.  From Fox: 

Russia ramped up the threat of a military confrontation between Turkey and Moscow Wednesday – a day after a Russian warplane was shot down by Turkey – by announcing that a state-of-the-art air defense missile system will be deployed at a Russian air base in Syria and that all its bombers will now be escorted by fighter jets on their missions.

Russian President Vladmir Putin ordered the S-400 missiles sent to the Hemeimeem air base in Syria's coastal province of Latakia, just 30 miles away from the border with Turkey, are capable of striking targets within a 250-mile range with deadly precision. The military also moved the navy missile cruiser Moskva closer to the shore to help protect Russian warplanes with its long-range Fort air defense system.

"It will be ready to destroy any aerial target posing a potential danger to our aircraft," Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said at a meeting with military officials. He also announced the severance of all military ties with Turkey and said that from now on, Russian bombers will always be escorted by fighters on combat missions over Syria.

COMMENT:   Turkey is a member of NATO, which makes the situation that much more serious.  A clash between Russia and Turkey could suck in the Western nations, including the United States.

And it's so odd:  the Turkey of today is not the Turkey that originally joined NATO.  That was a secular Turkey.  Turkey today is Islamic, and no longer covets association with the West.  I'd hate to be sucked into a conflict to defend the Turkish regime, although Obama might not mind.

November 26,  2015    Permalink

NOVEMBER 25,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:16 P.M. ET: 

OUR ULTIMATE WEAPON – From AP:   TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s top leader said Wednesday the United States is using “money and sexual attractions” to try to infiltrate the Islamic Republic and warned Iranians not to fall into the “enemy’s trap.”  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Revolutionary Guard commanders that authorities should take concerns about “infiltration” seriously and political factions should not use the issue against each other.  “The enemy sets up a network within a nation and inside a country mainly through the two means of money and sexual attractions to change ideals, beliefs and consequently the lifestyle,” he said in comments posted on his website and broadcast on state TV.  Our national defense has been reduced to money and sex.  That Barack, what a genius.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCHOLARSHIP – From the College Fix:   If you want tenure at Duke University, stay current on the latest microaggressions and zip your lips.  Valerie Ashby, the dean of the Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, told a campus forum on “bias and hate” earlier this month that it will be closely scrutinizing faculty in their annual reviews, The Chronicle reported:  "In addition, she noted that all faculty serving on search committees are required to undergo implicit bias training through the Office of Institutional Equity.  'We will evaluate the entirety of the person—you can’t be a great scholar and intolerant. You have to go,' she said."  Pretty chilling.  I'd love to know her definition of "intolerant."  I have a feeling it means any idea with which she disagrees.  Behavior like this requires a re-evaluation of federal aid, but that will only happen under a Republican administration.

FIELD MARSHAL OBAMA MAKES STRATEGY – From Daily Caller:    Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell suggested that Barack Obama didn’t order the bombing of ISIS’s oil transportation infrastructure until recently in part because he was concerned about environmental damage.  Morell also said the White House was concerned about destroying infrastructure that could be used by the Syrian people.  Appearing on PBS’s “Charlie Rose” on Tuesday, Rose pointed out that before the terrorist attacks in Paris, the U.S. had not bombed ISIS-controlled oil tankers.  Morell explained, “Prior to Paris, there seemed to be a judgment that … look, we don’t want to destroy these oil tankers because that’s infrastructure that’s going to be necessary to support the people when ISIS isn’t there anymore, and it’s going to create environmental damage. And we didn’t go after oil wells — actually hitting oil wells that ISIS controls because we didn’t want to do environmental damage and we didn’t want to destroy that infrastructure, right.”  “So now we’re hitting oil in trucks,” Morell then suggested. “And maybe you get to the point where you say we also have to hit oil wells. So those are the kind of tough decisions you have to make.”  Sherman said, "War is hell."  Obama says, "War is frustrating."  I prefer the former description.  Soon we'll be holding back because the noise might bother the goats.

November 25,  2015     Permalink

LEADERSHIP IN ACTION – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:   Scott Johnson, at Powerline, nails Field Marshal Obama and his dynamic, heart-pounding style of leadership: 

As President Obama enters the stretch closing out his second term, he is dedicating himself to sealing his reputation as the worst president in American history. He long ago blew by President Carter. He’s blowing by President Buchanan. He’s taken the lead and he’s putting distance between himself and the rest of the field.

Yesterday he deepened his hold on the laughingstock element of his performance in office. How to combine suffocating arrogance with gut-busting stupidity? See the man doing his thing side by side with President Hollande who was looking for something better than this Bartlett’s-worthy laugh line (video below): “[N]ext week, I will be joining President Hollande and world leaders in Paris for the Global Climate Conference. What a powerful rebuke to the terrorists it will be, when the world stands as one and shows that we will not be deterred from building a better future for our children.”

COMMENT:  That will be the precise moment to strike ISIS, while its leaders are doubled over in laughter.  Yes, sir, "we'll fight in the clouds, we'll fight in the rainstorms, we'll fight in the drizzle and in the flurries.  We will never surrender to the great beast thermometer."

I'm weeping with pride already.  Get your Obama pins here.

November 25, 2015        Permalink

BETTER MAKE THAT DOCTOR VISIT NOW – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:   In story after story in recent weeks, we see a picture of Obamacare as a kind of medical Titanic.  It's hit the iceberg, and it's sinking.  From the Washington Examiner: 

Until recently, the insurance giants saw Obamacare as a cash cow. They are now finding the law's insurance marketplaces to be sickly quagmires causing billions in losses.

In response, the Obamacare insiders — the wealthy and powerful operatives who alternate between top government jobs and top industry jobs — are hustling to find more bailout money for insurers. Republicans, if they are able to hold their ground in the face of lobbyist pressure, can block the bailout of Obamacare and its corporate clientele.

United Healthcare, the nation's largest insurer, last week announced it was suffering huge losses in the exchanges. "We cannot sustain these losses" UHC's CEO said in a conference call, saying conditions for the insurer were "worsening." The company forecast $700 million in losses on the exchanges. Fellow insurance giant Aetna also said it expected to lose money on the exchanges, and other insurers said enrollment was lower than they expected.

Hours after UHC's dire announcement, the Obama administration issued an interesting statement of its own — that it would find a way to get insurers the bailout money congressional Republicans had voted to deny them.

COMMENT:  Who's helping the fat cats now?  The Dem hypocrites pound the tables as they advance class warfare, then conspire to help those at the top, expecting campaign donations in return.  As Ira Gershwin wrote, "Nice work if you can get it."

November 25, 2015       Permalink

OH, JUST SAYIN' – AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  So what's new with the Iran nuclear deal?  Uh, seems there are some loopholes, some little problems.  But nothing to see, nothing to see.  From NRO: 

President Obama didn’t require Iranian leaders to sign the nuclear deal that his team negotiated with the regime, and the deal is not “legally binding,” his administration acknowledged in a letter to Representative Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.) obtained by National Review. “The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not a treaty or an executive agreement, and is not a signed document,” wrote Julia Frifield, the State Department assistant secretary for legislative affairs, in the November 19 letter.

Frifield wrote the letter in response to a letter Pompeo sent Secretary of State John Kerry, in which he observed that the deal the president had submitted to Congress was unsigned and wondered if the administration had given lawmakers the final agreement. Frifield’s response emphasizes that Congress did receive the final version of the deal. But by characterizing the JCPOA as a set of “political commitments” rather than a more formal agreement, it is sure to heighten congressional concerns that Iran might violate the deal’s terms.

“The success of the JCPOA will depend not on whether it is legally binding or signed, but rather on the extensive verification measures we have put in place, as well as Iran’s understanding that we have the capacity to re-impose — and ramp up — our sanctions if Iran does not meet its commitments,” Frifield wrote to Pompeo.

COMMENT:  Would you hire those lawyers?  That deal is a mess.  Iran has laughed at it openly since it was signed, er, ratified, er, agreed to.  Well, maybe someone shook hands.

In the midst of the current terror offensive, let's not forget that Iran is still the major enemy in the Mideast region, and that Iran has a substantial nuclear infrastructure. 

November 25,  2015     Permalink