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OCTOBER 8,  2015

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

CRUZ CRUISIN' – From The Hill:  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) brought in more than $12 million in the third fundraising quarter, a strong haul that will likely show him in good standing in the Republican presidential race.  Campaign aides Thursday night confirmed that haul, which was first reported by the Associated Press.
It brings the Texas Republican’s fundraising total to more than $26 million since he launched his bid — after bringing in $10 million in the second quarter and $4 million during the first quarter. Cruz launched his bid just one week before the end of quarter one.  He is fast emerging as the intellectual heavyweight of the conservative moment.  His debating skills are superb.  But he is loathed by the GOP establishment.  Watch him closely.  If he can escape establishment knives in the back, he can have a great future, and go all the way.

A BIT MUCH – From eagnews.org:   PUEBLO, Colo. – A female high-school student awaits a disciplinary hearing and could face expulsion for wearing a Halloween costume to school that prompted officials to lock down the building Wednesday.  An unnamed female student was spotted in the hallway at Pueblo County High School early yesterday morning wearing a gas mask and trench coat, and a classmate reported her to school officials, The Pueblo Chieftain reports.  The teen was hauled to the office where she was interrogated by the police, who also placed the school on lockdown for about an hour. The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, which was training near the school, also responded in full camouflage gear and a large armored vehicle to sweep the building for anything dangerous or suspicious. They found nothing, according to the news site.  I've always believed that Halloween costumes are a threat to national security.  I'm so glad that others agree.  I'd look closely at Donald Duck costumes as well.

AND THE HYPOCRISY FLOWS – From the Washington Times:   Senate Democrats gathered Thursday on the steps of the Capitol surrounded by about a dozen armed guards to announce a new push for tougher gun-control laws.  The officers from the U.S. Capitol Police, who carried sidearms, were in addition to the regular detail paroling the Capitol ground due the large number of elected officials attending the event, according to a officer on the scene.  And, of course, being Democrats, they demand the best in armed protection.  But let's not allow the peasantry to have that same protection. 

October 8,  2015     Permalink 

THE ANNALS OF SCIENCE – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  Science is about to bestow upon us the end of gym class.  From People: 

Exercising is about to get a whole lot easier.

According to research published in Cell Metabolism and Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, scientists are one step closer to developing "exercise pills."

Researchers at the University of Sydney studied four "untrained, healthy males following 10 minutes of high intensity exercise" to discover 1,000 molecular changes that take place in the body during exercise.

"While scientists have long suspected that exercise causes a complicated series of changes to human muscle, this is the first time we have been able to map exactly what happens," co-author of the paper Dr. Nolan Hoffman said in a statement. "This is a major breakthrough, as it allows scientists to use this information to design a drug that mimics the true beneficial changes caused by exercise."

Their research proves that unlike most drugs that target individual molecules, the exercise pill will have to target multiple molecules.

"Our research has provided the roadmap to figure this out," said the head of the study Professor David James.

COMMENT:  The educator, Robert Hutchins, once said that whenever he felt like exercising he went to bed until the feeling passed.  Looks like we'll be entering his world.

This might even help out the Chicago Cubs.

October 8,  2015     Permalink 

UNBELIEVABLE – AT 8:22 A.M. ET:   Where do Field Marshal Obama and Grand Admiral Kerry spin this as a victory?  Only in their heads.  From Reuters:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq may request Russian air strikes against Islamic State on its soil soon and wants Moscow to have a bigger role than the United States in the war against the militant group, the head of parliament's defense and security committee said on Wednesday.

“In the upcoming few days or weeks, I think Iraq will be forced to ask Russia to launch air strikes, and that depends on their success in Syria," Hakim al-Zamili, a leading Shi'ite politician, told Reuters in an interview.

The comments were the clearest signal yet that Baghdad intends to lean on Russia in the war on Islamic State after U.S.-led coalition airstrikes produced limited results.

Russian military action in Iraq would deepen U.S. fears that it is losing more strategic ground in the region as Russia weighs in behind President Bashar al-Assad with airstrikes in Syria and Iran holds deep sway in Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he would welcome Russian airstrikes on Islamic State militants in Iraq and powerful Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias hope for a partnership with Russia to counter U.S. influence.

"We are seeking to see Russia have a bigger role in Iraq. ... Yes, definitely a bigger role than the Americans," Zamili said.

Shi'ite militias, long mistrustful of the United States, see Russia's intervention as an opportunity to turn the tables.

Russia's drive for more clout in the Middle East includes a new security and intelligence-sharing agreement with Iran, Iraq and Syria with a command center in Baghdad.

"We believe that this center will develop in the near future to be a joint operation command to lead the war against Daesh in Iraq," said Zamili, using a derogatory Arabic acronym for Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

COMMENT:  Obama was warned repeatedly not to remove all American troops from Iraq, but to keep a stabilization force in that country.  His refusal to heed the warnings, from his top military advisers, and his own constant, callous denunciations of our military action in Iraq – which must've been loved by families who lost a soldier – have led directly to our essentially being invited out of the country we liberated.

Contrast that, please, with our staying the course in South Korea, through many difficult years.  The result is a vibrant, free, South Korea, an important American ally.

If someone had told me 40 years ago that an American president could do this much damage to his own country, I would have laughed.  I'm not laughing.  Maybe the term, "Manchurian candidate," isn't so far off.

October 8, 2015       Permalink

HILLARY THE INDEPENDENT? – AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  Ever the schemer, Hillary Clinton is trying to distance herself from her former boss, the president, while still keeping in his good graces, and protect herself from attacks, right and left.  Nice try.  From Fox:

Hillary Clinton, despite having served a full term in the Obama Cabinet, is making an overt effort to distance herself from the president’s agenda as she tries to distinguish herself as a candidate -- and blunt attacks from both ends of the political spectrum.

The 2016 Democratic front-runner executed her most significant break yet from President Obama on Wednesday when she came out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Obama has made the free-trade agreement a centerpiece of his second-term agenda, despite opposition from many on the left -- including labor unions and Clinton's top 2016 primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Clinton, after hedging for months, said in an interview with PBS on Wednesday there are too many "unanswered questions" about the deal, saying: "What I know about it as of today, I am not in favor."

She later said in a written statement that, "the bar here is very high and, based on what I have seen, I don't believe this agreement has met it." Her position on the agreement also marks a striking reversal for the former secretary of state, who promoted the deal in dozens of appearances during Obama's first term in office.

That's where the hypocrisy comes in.  Has she just discovered problems with the deal?

Even before Wednesday's statement, Clinton was drawing differences with Obama on several fronts, notably on Syria.

"I am not running for my husband's third term or President Obama's third term," Clinton told voters in Davenport, Iowa Tuesday, repeating a common theme from her campaign speeches. "I'm running for my first term."

Last week, Clinton called for a no-fly zone over Syria, in direct contrast with the administration’s current policy.

COMMENT:  If she didn't have a reputation as a conniver, this would be standard politics.  There's a certain amount of weaving in an election campaign that we'll always have.  The difference between others and Hillary doing this is the difference between an ordinary guy looking over a bank, and John Dillinger looking over a bank.  You know that Johnny has something in mind.

October 8, 2015       Permalink

NOT SURPRISING – AT 8:04 A.M. ET:  The urban violence of the past year, and several mass killings, have produced a predictable result.  There is a certain folk wisdom in the people.  From the Washington Free Beacon:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation processed a record number of background checks in the month of September, indicating that gun sales were at an all time high for the month.

The FBI’s National Instant Background Check System processed 1,795,102 applications to buy a firearm in September. That represents a new record: 335,739 more checks than the previous September high set in 2012, or a 23 percent increase.

The number of checks done in a particular month is considered a reliable gauge of how many gun sales have occurred since background checks are required on all sales made through licensed firearms dealers. The actual number of sales is likely higher since multiple firearms can be sold to the same person by a dealer under a single background check. The numbers also do not account for sales between private parties that do not require a background check.

COMMENT:  Unlike the great political philosophers you see on the air, Americans understand the need for, and responsibility for, self-defense.  They do not buy into the argument that new laws, which may take years to have any effect, will solve the problem.  Protecting the family is more important than applauding the political class.

October 8,  2015     Permalink

OCTOBER 7,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE –  AT 5:02 P.M. ET:

BULLETIN:  MAJOR POLITICAL NEWS – Donald Trump has won the very coveted Wayne Newton endorsement.  From The Hill:  Wayne Newton is placing his bets on Donald Trump.  The entertainer known as “Mr. Las Vegas” appeared on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday and voiced his support for the GOP presidential candidate.  “I love Donald, and he would make a great president,” Newton told hosts Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Steve Doocy, and Brian Kilmeade.  “Number one, he tells the truth,” said Newton. “Number two, he’s been where most of these guys want to be, in terms of riding on his own plane. He doesn’t have to worry about what hotels he stays in, he doesn’t have to worry about how his family gets to Hawaii, so on and so forth.”  Mr. Newton speaks for embalmed people everywhere.

SCIENCE STAGGERS ON – From London's Telegraph:  Breathalysers could be used to curb alcohol abuse among scientists at US bases in Antarctica following “unpredictable behaviour” caused by excess drinking, including fights and indecent exposure.  Officials from the National Science Foundation told an audit of healthy and safety at the two US-run bases — McMurdo Station and the South Pole — that drinking has led to “unpredictable behaviour that has led to fights, indecent exposure, and employees arriving to work under the influence," according to a report in Wired.  The agency is reportedly considering shipping several breathalysers to the isolated stations, which together house up to about 1,150 people, including scientists and support staff.  Look, I don't want to be rude, or anti-science, or anything like that, but aren't these the guys who take the temperature measurements that tell us all about “climate change"?

VW IN TROUBLE – One of Germany's most iconic companies, Volkswagen, is in trouble, and the trouble looks worse and worse.  From The New York Times:   FRANKFURT — Volkswagen’s new chief executive warned on Tuesday that the financial impact from the company’s emissions cheating scandal would be worse than previously acknowledged, forcing the company to curtail investment at a time when all carmakers are trying to keep ahead of a rush of new technology.  The automaker previously said it would set aside 6.5 billion euros, or about $7.3 billion, to cover the cost of bringing vehicles with illegal software into compliance with emissions standards.  “But that will not be enough,” said Matthias Müller, the Volkswagen chief executive, adding that job cuts might be ahead.  The technological slippage can be critical, even fatal.  Cars, and car manufacturing, have changed dramatically in the last ten years alone.  A few years of technological stagnation could make VW an also-ran.

October 7, 2015       Permalink 

REVENGE FOR THE IRAN AGREEMENT? – AT 10:29 A.M. ET:  It's possible, just possible, that Obama could be headed for a veto override, and the subject is national defense.  From the Washington Times: 

Senators overcame a filibuster on the annual defense policy bill Tuesday, delivering a significant victory to Republicans and teeing up a battle with President Obama over a threatened veto on the bill, which does everything from raising troops’ pay to setting policy for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

It would be the fifth veto of the president’s tenure, and Republicans said given the popularity of the bill and the dangerous threats the military is confronting overseas, an Obama veto would be the equivalent of declaring surrender.

A final vote is expected Wednesday before the bill is sent to the president’s desk.

“I cannot imagine a president of the United States vetoing a bill that authorizes the ability of Americans to defend this nation under these most challenging circumstances,” said Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican and chairman of the Armed Service Committee.

If Mr. Obama follows through on his threat, it would present the best chance yet for Congress to override him, which would take a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

There appears to be more than enough support in the Senate, which voted 73-26 Tuesday to head off a filibuster. From the Democratic caucus, 21 members sided with Republicans.

The House fell short of two-thirds support last week when it voted 270-156. Ten Republicans joined 146 Democrats in opposition, and many of them likely face intense pressure to support an override.

COMMENT:  If an override fails because Republicans in the House can't muster the votes, the political effect on the GOP will be explosive.  However, if truth be told, the vote in the House fell about 20 votes short of the two thirds required to override.  So even if the ten GOP holdouts switched, the veto would still be sustained. 

Also, I wonder if Dems in the Senate would vote to override an Obama veto, given the fact that they were kept almost rigidly in line on the Iran issue.  It's one thing to vote for a bill, another to go against a veto by the president of your own party. 

Tense votes coming.

October 7, 2015       Permalink

MORE "SETTLED SCIENCE" DOWN THE DRAIN – AT 9:51 A.M. ET:   Yeah, settled science again.  Don't drink whole milk.  Bad for you.  You'll start clutching your chest.  Well...maybe.  Maybe not.  There's "research" that questions a great deal of what we've been told.   From WaPo:

U.S. dietary guidelines have long recommended that people steer clear of whole milk, and for decades, Americans have obeyed. Whole milk sales shrunk. It was banned from school lunch programs. Purchases of low-fat dairy climbed.

“Replace whole milk and full-fat milk products with fat-free or low-fat choices,” says the the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the federal government's influential advice book, citing the role of dairy fat in heart disease.

Whether this massive shift in eating habits has made anyone healthier is an open question among scientists, however. In fact, research published in recent years indicates that the opposite might be true: millions might have been better off had they stuck with whole milk.

Scientists who tallied diet and health records for several thousand patients over ten years found, for example, that contrary to the government advice, people who consumed more milk fat had lower incidence of heart disease.

By warning people against full-fat dairy foods, the U.S. is “losing a huge opportunity for the prevention of disease,” said Marcia Otto, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Texas, and the lead author of large studies published in 2012 and 2013, which were funded by government and academic institutions, not the industry. “What we have learned over the last decade is that certain foods that are high in fat seem to be beneficial.”

COMMENT:  Oh really?  Look, I'm not an expert in this.  But apparently a lot of other people with letters after their names aren't experts either, but have been dispensing a lot of advice.

Read the article.  Judge for yourself.  Then remind yourself to hit the ceiling the next time you see the words "settled science."

October 7, 2015       Permalink

OH, NOW THEY TELL US – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  Your national security dollars at work.  Don't expect much value.  From IBD:

As the White House prepares to dump another 10,000 Syrian refugees on U.S. cities, it assures us these mostly Muslim men undergo a "robust screening" process. Not so, admits the agency responsible for such vetting.

Under grilling from GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, head of the Senate subcommittee on immigration, the Homeland Security official in charge of vetting Syrian and other foreign Muslim refugees confessed that no police or intelligence databases exist to check the backgrounds of incoming refugees against criminal and terrorist records.

"Does Syria have any?" Sessions asked. "The government does not, no sir," answered Matthew Emrich, associate director for fraud detection and national security at DHS' U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Sessions further inquired: "You don't have their criminal records, you don't have the computer database that you can check?" Confessed Emrich: "In many countries the U.S. accepts refugees from, the country did not have extensive data holdings."

While a startling admission, it confirms previous reporting. Senior FBI officials recently testified that they have no idea who these people are, and they can't find out what type of backgrounds they have — criminal, terrorist or otherwise — because there are no vetting opportunities in those war-torn countries.

Syria and Iraq, along with Somalia and Sudan, are failed states where police records aren't even kept. Agents can't vet somebody if they don't have documentation and don't even have the criminal databases to screen applicants.

So the truth is, we are not vetting these Muslim refugees at all. And as GOP presidential front-runners duly note, it's a huge gamble to let people from hostile nations enter the U.S. without any meaningful background check. It's a safer bet just to limit, if not stop, their immigration.

COMMENT:  The fish rots from the head, the saying goes.  Our procedures reflect the values of Barack Obama.  In a parliamentarty system, this make-believe president would have been retired a long time ago.  He is not an American president.  I don't know what he is.

October 7, 2015       Permalink

THE GREATEST THREAT – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  And it ain't global warming.  It is, of course, nuclear proliferation.  From a superb AP report, via WaPo:

CHISINAU, Moldova — In the backwaters of Eastern Europe, authorities working with the FBI have interrupted four attempts in the past five years by gangs with suspected Russian connections that sought to sell radioactive material to Middle Eastern extremists, The Associated Press has learned. The latest known case came in February this year, when a smuggler offered a huge cache of deadly cesium — enough to contaminate several city blocks — and specifically sought a buyer from the Islamic State group.

Criminal organizations, some with ties to the Russian KGB’s successor agency, are driving a thriving black market in nuclear materials in the tiny and impoverished Eastern European country of Moldova, investigators say. The successful busts, however, were undercut by striking shortcomings: Kingpins got away, and those arrested evaded long prison sentences, sometimes quickly returning to nuclear smuggling, AP found.

Moldovan police and judicial authorities shared investigative case files with the AP in an effort to spotlight how dangerous the nuclear black market has become. They say the breakdown in cooperation between Russia and the West means that it has become much harder to know whether smugglers are finding ways to move parts of Russia’s vast store of radioactive materials — an unknown quantity of which has leached into the black market.

“We can expect more of these cases,” said Constantin Malic, a Moldovan police officer who investigated all four cases. “As long as the smugglers think they can make big money without getting caught, they will keep doing it.”

COMMENT:  Utterly chilling.  It's only a matter of time when some terrorist group or rogue government gets the ingredients for a nuclear weapon, or at least a "dirty" bomb that can spread radioactivity over a wide area of a city.

I haven't noticed much alarm in the Obama administration.  Obama probably thinks it's only fair that Mideast extremists have the same weapons that we Western, whitish, colonialist, warmongering capitalists have.

October 7,  2015     Permalink