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JUNE 1,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:49 P.M. ET: 

BERNIE MAY TAKE CALIFORNIA – FROM BREITBART:  A new poll has confirmed that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has caught Hillary Clinton in the California primary, reaching a statistical dead heat with less than a week to go before the June 7 primary.  The NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll, released Wednesday, shows Clinton with 49% support from likely Democratic voters and Sanders with 47% — well within the poll’s margin of error of 4.2%.  The poll was conducted May 29-31 among 557 likely Democratic primary voters. Significantly, Clinton is ahead, 58% to 41%, among those who have voted already. The state began sending mail-in ballots to most voters in early May; roughly two-thirds of voters are expected to cast their ballots early. That means Sanders’s late surge may not be enough to outweigh Clinton’s support among early voters.  I suspect this is much more an anti-Clinton vote than a pro-Bernie one.  Bernie is getting increasingly obnoxious, and sounds like a hack.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  North Korea’s state media published an op-ed slamming Hillary Clinton and praising Donald Trump on Tuesday, roughly two weeks after the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said he’d be open to direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to try to halt the communist nation’s nuclear program.  The commentary describing Mr. Trump as “wise” and Mrs. Clinton as “dull” came amid a flurry of other developments Tuesday that saw a top North Korea official arrive for a visit to China just as Pyongyang carried out yet another failed ballistic missile launch — its fourth such unsuccessful test in two months.  This is a crushing disappointment to the Bernie Sanders base in the Democratic Party, which dearly wanted the Kim Jong-un vote.  As for Trump, someone should whisper in his ear that mature political adults disavow this kind of praise from a thug regime.

OUR DISGRACE – FROM FOX:   An Afghan who served alongside U.S. Marines, then sought refuge in Germany after being denied safe haven in America, told FoxNews.com he fears being sent back to his homeland where the resurgent Taliban has vowed to kill him.  Sami Kazikhani served U.S. troops as a translator during the war in Afghanistan, but was outed as a “collaborator” in a dramatic incident after most American troops pulled out of the region. FoxNews.com wrote in November of the incident that sent the 32-year-old, his wife and kids fleeing for their lives and riding the human wave of refugees to Germany.  Kazikhani, wife Yasmiin and infant daughter Roxanna have been living in camps for more than a year, fearful of being outed once again by fellow refugees, and steadily losing hope that their application for a U.S. visa will be approved. Now they have been told Afghanistan is "stable," and thousands of refugees from the war-torn country will soon be sent back.   What kind of a country are we, to turn our backs on this man and his family?  But there have been too many cases like this.  And Republicans are as much to blame as Democrats.

June 1,  2016     Permalink

MAJOR PSYCHIATRIC THREAT – AT 8:31 A.M. ET:   There is serious psychological danger to students at Johns Hopkins University.  Read all about it.  The oppressor is near.  From the College Fix: 

Letting employers and graduate schools know your grades is an attack on “marginalized” students.

That’s the claim by “two dozen student groups” who are up in arms over Johns Hopkins University’s plan to stop hiding freshmen first-semester grades from their transcripts starting with 2017’s entering class, The Baltimore Sun reports.

A handful of other colleges have similar policies, but according to the JHU committee that recommended the end of the 45-year-old “covered grades” policy – transcripts say either “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory” – it’s harmful to students:

Hopkins administrators say covered grades might give students a chance to goof off, put off learning good study skills, or cram difficult courses into their first semester.

“The students who we attract to Hopkins are highly accomplished and academically strong, but we do recognize that they need support in transitioning to the Hopkins environment,” said Kevin Shollenberger, the vice provost for student affairs. “We feel that the best way to help them transition is to give them the study skills that help them do well here.

“We’re concerned that the covered grades may delay them in seeking that type of help.”

Student groups say that if the world knows their grades for their first semester at Hopkins, they’ll be “stressed out” and have even worse mental-health problems.

And, of course, it’s racist:

“A lot of kids come here from private schools,” said Chase Alston, a rising senior from Waldorf studying public health. “They’re better equipped to handle coming to school.

“Students from marginalized populations, they may need more time to figure out what resources work for them and what study habits work for them.”

COMMENT:  I assume that counselors will be made available to handle the trauma.  While handling said trauma, maybe the counselors could introduce these damaged souls to the immigrant experience – where kids from homes where English wasn't even spoken were thrown in with privileged kids from independent boarding schools, and often beat the pants off them. 

What a mess our colleges have become.  What of the future of this country?

June 1, 2016       Permalink

THE HORROR OF CHICAGO – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:  The president's home town has become a living hell for many of its residents.  From Daily Beast:   

There have been more than 1,400 shootings and nearly 300 homicides in Chicago in 2016 already, and there is little hope the shooters will ever be caught.

CHICAGO — Abe Simmons sat down on a bus bench at the corner of Chicago and Leclaire late Saturday, watching as police worked one of dozens of shooting scenes that played out across the city over the holiday weekend.

Chicago’s ghost shooters—charged in only 26 percent of the city’s homicides last year—wreaked havoc on summer’s unofficial kickoff weekend, a three day period that saw at least 36 shot and four killed by Sunday morning, according to the Chicago Tribune. There have been more than 1,400 shootings and nearly 300 homicides in 2016 so far.

“I’m tired of this. I’m tired of this city, man,” Simmons, 36, said. “It’s messed up, man.”

The country wants to know why. Media descends on holiday weekends to track the violence and attempt to put it in perspective. But for many in Chicago, the mayhem is simply a part of life.

“This is every day in Englewood,” said Terrell, who declined to give his last name, at the scene of a homicide on the city’s southwest side Friday night just down the street from his new home.

The father of two young girls came to West 75th place—a quiet block of stout brick bungalows in a neighborhood where many police officers live—from Englewood, one of the city’s most violent areas. He moved in Friday and was watching a body being pulled from a car Friday night.

“This makes me think twice,” he said.

COMMENT:  There has to be a will to win in order to overcome crime.  That will existed in New York when Rudy Giuliani was mayor, and declared that murder had to stop.  He and his successor, Mike Bloomberg, working through a vastly improved and modernized New York Police Department, lowered the murder rate by 80%.   And one of Rudy's best characteristics was that he refused to bow down to "community leaders."

In Chicago, the top politicians do plenty of bowing down.  Local hacks have little incentive to lower crime rates, especially if it means greater incarceration of their "constituents."  Indeed, it can be argued that many minority leaders actually benefit from high crime rates.  The sheer spectre of violence gives them a kind of power.  They become the "go to" guys for cooling things off, and the go-to guys always want their cut of the "social program" funds. 

It's a business.  Political commerce...in human lives.

June 1, 2016       Permalink

TERROR ALERT – AT 8:06 A.M. ET:  This appears to be serious.  It's one of several terror alerts surrounding the same event.  From AFP: 

The United States warned its citizens Tuesday that this summer’s Euro 2016 soccer tournament and related events across France and Europe will present “potential targets for terrorists.

The month-long European Championship finals start in Paris on June 10, drawing the best international teams from the continent and hundreds of thousands of fans.

“Euro Cup stadiums, fan zones, and unaffiliated entertainment venues broadcasting the tournaments in France and across Europe represent potential targets for terrorists,” the State Department said.

The warning was contained in an update to its long-standing warning to US travelers to beware extremist attacks on transport and public gatherings in Europe.

“We are alerting US citizens to the risk of potential terrorist attacks throughout Europe, targeting major events, tourist sites, restaurants, commercial centers and transportation,” it said.

“The large number of tourists visiting Europe in the summer months will present greater targets for terrorists planning attacks in public locations, especially at large events.”

The French government has ruled out cancelling the prestigious tournament, which is expected to draw two million fans to cities across the country.

To strengthen security at Euro 2016, France has extended a state of emergency put in place after attacks last November on a concert hall, cafes, police and a football crowd.

COMMENT:  I'm often struck by the fact that France, which has some of the best relationships with Muslim nations, remains a major target of Islamic terror.  Maybe it's because the Islamists have such easy access to France.  But it demonstrates that a nation's "policies" may not be the cause of terror against it. 

June 1,  2016     Permalink

MAY 31,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

YOU CAN'T MAKE IT UP – FROM THE POLITICO:   One of Dena Minning’s biggest assets in her Congressional bid was her boyfriend: incumbent Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, who’s leaving the U.S. House to run for U.S. Senate.  Now, after Grayson has helped raise her profile and run for his U.S. House seat, he married her over the Memorial Day Weekend and gave her his last name, according to her Monday social-media posts and The Orlando Political Observer.  Dena Minning promptly became Dena Grayson on Twitter and Facebook. The largely unknown outsider in the Orlando-area district now has a potent tool in running under the name of the incumbent in a crowded Democratic primary.  “My handsome, brilliant, and amazing husband, Alan Grayson!!.” she said Monday on her page, which linked to his Senate account.  I guess she's not, as they say, keeping her name.  The new one gets more votes. 

OUTRAGEOUS – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   In the wake of an undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood’s alleged fetal trafficking operation, the California state legislature is considering a bill that would criminalize publishing secretly recorded video footage of “health care providers.”  AB 1671, which has been backed by Planned Parenthood, would criminalize the publication of confidential interactions with state-licensed medical personnel, including abortionists and clinician staff, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine per violation.  Introduced by Los Angeles Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, the bill has received criticism from both pro-life activists and those who worry about its potential to chill free speech and investigative journalism.  It is an absolute outrage, an insult to the First Amendment, and proof once more that the hard left has little interest in advancing freedom.  Indeed, it's a threat to freedom.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION?   It's widely speculated that the "third-party presidential candidate" Bill Kristol hinted at over the weekend, and who would serve as the alternative to Bonnie and Clyde, er, I mean Clinton and Trump, is David French, a highly respected conservative writer, Constitutional activist, Iraq War veteran, and past president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.  Intellectually, he's superb.  But he has never held public office, has almost zero name recognition, has no vast following or television presence, and I would have to wonder how many checks would be written for his campaign.  But this is an unusual year, so I withhold any serious judgment.  Let's see what develops.  Plenty of Americans are yearning for better choices.

May 31, 2016       Permalink   

FASCINATING POLITICS – AT 10:24 A.M. ET:  An intriguing political question has been circulating recently:  Why did Donald Trump so severely attack Republican Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, at a time when Trump needs Hispanic support?  Indeed, Martinez had been prominently mentioned as a possible vice-presidential choice.  Byron York, at the National Examiner, gives us the answer: 

Many observers were mystified when Donald Trump attacked New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. But the story was really very simple: Martinez hit Trump, so Trump hit back. Especially now that Trump is the GOP's presumptive nominee, he attempted to make an example of a Republican who won't get with the program. It might work, or it might not, but from Trump's perspective it's the tactic he used to beat 15 rivals for the GOP nomination.

The Trump-Martinez bewilderment focused on four factors: Martinez is Hispanic, she's a woman, she's a Republican (head of the Republican Governors Association), and she's popular. "I think it sent all the wrong signals," said Newt Gingrich, who has generally been pro-Trump. "You particularly don't want to see your candidate who needs to...get stronger with Latinos, and stronger with women, attack a Latina woman Republican governor."

But...

To Trump, there was something more important at work. "[Martinez] continues to attack him publicly and privately," one person in TrumpWorld told me recently. Trump has made a principle of hitting back harder than he is hit. And he has been so effective that many Republicans, elected and not, have decided the smart thing is to refrain from taking on Trump, even if they oppose him.

Not Martinez. In mid-April, the New Mexico governor issued a "remarkably strong rebuke" to Trump, in the words of a Washington Post report, when Martinez spoke to a GOP fundraiser at the home of David Koch in Palm Beach, Florida. Martinez, according to the Post, "did not mince words. She told the crowd of about 60 wealthy GOP backers that, as a Latina, she was offended by Trump's language about immigrants. Noting her years working as a prosecutor on the Mexican border and now as a border-state governor, Martinez said Trump's plan to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it was unrealistic and irresponsible, according to multiple people in attendance."

And...

Perhaps Martinez will change her tone after Trump wins New Mexico's primary on June 7. Perhaps not. As far as Trump is concerned, attacking Martinez, to the (unknown) degree that it angers Hispanic voters in general, could affect his fortunes far outside the boundaries of New Mexico. But Trump apparently felt it was more important now to crack down on Republican resistance, at least on GOP politicos who openly attack him, than it was to ignore Martinez's opposition.

It's not the way things are done these days. But the person in Trump World looked back to a time when powerful party bosses would occasionally make an example of an off-the-reservation official just to inspire others to stay in line. That's still necessary, the person said, and that's what Donald Trump is doing.

COMMENT:  Like him or dislike him, Trump is his own boss, and thus far his political instincts have led him to the Republican nomination.

Governor Martinez also deserves credit for standing up for her beliefs. 

May 31, 2016       Permalink

SAME OLD IRAN – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Reality is sinking in.  We were taken to the cleaners by Iran during negotiations over the nuclear deal, and predictions that Iran would moderate have been shown to be childlike and absurd.  From the great Walter Russell Mead at The American Interest:   

Somehow all those plucky moderates elected in Iran don’t seem to be having much impact on actual decisions:

A hard-line Iranian cleric who has been in the country’s power structure since its 1979 Islamic Revolution was chosen on Tuesday to lead the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that picks the country’s next supreme leader.

The selection of 89-year-old Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an ultraconservative who called for the execution of opposition activists after Iran’s disputed 2009 election and encouraged Iraqis to become suicide bombers against U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003, signals the power hard-liners still wield in Iran despite a recent nuclear deal with world powers.

For those puzzled by the hardline show of strength, it’s worth taking a look back at some of the smarter commentary at the time of the Iranian parliamentary elections this winter. The White House echo chamber and the 27 year-old know-nothings that Ben Rhodes has on speed dial were gushing over the “triumph” of the moderates and spinning it as a big win for the White House policy—but those who looked under the hood saw something different. As Eli Lake put it at the time:

Beginning in January, the regime’s Guardian Council began purging any candidates who espoused the slightest deviation from the country’s septuagenarian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Candidates who favored releasing political prisoners — including the leaders of the Green Movement that many Iranians feel won the 2009 presidential elections — were disqualified. Even members of the Assembly of Experts, who had previously passed the vetting process, were disqualified. So too was the grandson of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. To paraphrase a former top U.S. negotiator in the Iran talks, Wendy Sherman, Iranians on Friday will have a choice between hardliners and hard hardliners.

Bottom line: the much ballyhooed ‘triumph of the moderates’ was another piece of White House spin, presumably pumped into the national consciousness by those helpful folks at Ploughshares.

COMMENT:  The president owes an apology to those critics, foreign and domestic, who warned about this outcome, and were trashed by the Ben Rhodes machine.  Don't hold your breath.  Obama believes he is Divine, and divinities don't apologize. 

But we are the weaker for this president's leftist views and the way he applied them to foreign policy.  The next president will have to dig us out of this hole, assuming the American people want him to.

May 31, 2016       Permalink

HILLARY GETTING TRUMPED – AT 9:33 A.M. ET:  Donald Trump is creeping up on Hillary Clinton in the national polls.  These are early polls, of course, but Hillary should be worried.  After 24 years as a national figure, people know her.  Her upside potential is thin.  From The Hill:

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump trails Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by 2 points in the latest NBC News/Survey Monkey weekly tracking poll.

Trump, who gained 2 points in the last week, now trails Clinton, 47 to 45 percent, in the poll, released Tuesday morning.

Clinton’s results are unchanged since last week.

The online poll of 12, 969 registered voters, conducted between May 23 and May 29, has a 1.2 percent margin of error.

Clinton leads the billionaire by 1 point in the RealClearPolitics index of national polls.

COMMENT:  We look for trends at this stage of the campaign, not precise numbers.  Trump keeps on gaining.  And this poll was among registered voters.  Polls among likely voters almost always show a higher GOP number.

I can't deny that Trump is doing very well.  A major question is whether he will blunder and throw it all away.   Another major question is whether Obama will pull out all stops and go on a national tour to defeat him, trying to pull together the Obama coalition.  And still a third question is whether the inevitable mainstream media campaign for Hillary and against Trump will have its impact. 

The excitement is just starting.

May 31,  2016     Permalink