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JUNE 28,  2016

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

ISTANBUL – It's happened again, of course.  The terror attacks across the globe are coming regularly, and the Islamic holy month of Ramadam has eight more days.  Ramadan is a favorite period for jihadist attacks.  The attack at Istanbul's airport tonight killed an estimated 36 people and injured more than 140.  It is one of a series of Islamic extremist attacks that we've seen since last fall.  The White House response, as usual, did not mention Islamic terrorism.  (Apparently the attack was carried out by characters from "The Wizard of Oz.")  Hillary Clinton mentioned "radical jihadism," about as far as she can go with Barack still in the White House, and an improvement over Obama's phrasing.  Trump said, "The terrorist threat has never been greater.  Our enemies are brutal and ruthless and will do anything to murder those who do not bend to their will. We must take steps now to protect America from terrorists, and do everything in our power to improve our security to keep America safe."  Perfectly fine, except there were no specifics, a major flaw in Trump's statements.  I fear more attacks are coming, and soon.

GOOD IDEA? – FROM BLOOMBERG:   ESPN has nothing on this summer's Republican national convention.   Donald Trump’s campaign aides are lining up a slate of iconic sports figures to appear at the national convention in Cleveland next month—including former undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, legendary Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight and NASCAR chief Brian France, people familiar with the planning told Bloomberg Politics.  Talks are in the works with a broad slate of other celebrities and top athletes, so the list of those appearing at the convention will grow, organizers said.  But much of Trump’s current list of sports champs seems to be more targeted at male voters age 45 and older, rather than minority and female voters.   Trump has boasted in the past about his endorsement by Tyson, who has re-emerged in popular culture in recent years with roles in popular movies like “Hangover” and the publishing of a well-received memoir.  "Mike Tyson endorsed me, I love it,” Trump said in April in Indiana. “You know, all the tough guys endorse me. I like that.”  I can't say I'm enthusiastic.  Trump should be building his image as a potential president, not planning a celebrity circus.  Inevitably, some of the sports figures he's inviting, like Bobby Knight and Mike Tyson, have controversial pasts.  If the celebs are just window dressing, that might be okay.  But if they're the main show, instead of serious political figures, it could be a further embarrassment for Trump.

OUR NEW FRIEND, IRAN – FROM THE WASHINGTON FREE BEACON:  Iran on Tuesday threatened to restart its contested nuclear program in violation of last summer’s international agreement if the United States and other countries fail to move forward with a massive sanctions relief program aimed at bolstering the Iranian economy, according to comments by a top Iranian leader.  Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chair of the Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign policy commission, warned that the Islamic Republic would “resume large-scale uranium enrichment” if leaders feel the international community is not doing enough for Iran under the nuclear deal.  “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s response to the other side’s non-compliance with the implementation of the nuclear deal will be uranium enrichment,” Boroujerdi was quoted as saying in Iran’s state-controlled press.  The comments come on the heels of a similar warning issued by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei earlier this month.  Such warmth.  Meanwhile, Iran continues to test long-range ballistic missiles and sponsor terrorism.  We shouldn't relax any sanctions until we are absolutely sure of Tehran's compliance.  And how can we be sure?

June 29,  2016     Permalink

ANOTHER OLYMPICS WARNING – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:   The Olympics start August 5th.  There are dire warnings about polluted waters around Rio, disease, high crime in Rio and the surrounding area, and Brazilian instability.  Other than that, a good time should be had by all.  From AP:

Rio de Janeiro's acting governor warned Monday that the Olympic Games could be a "big failure," because of budget shortfalls that threaten to compromise security and mobility during the games.

In an interview with Rio's O Globo daily, Francisco Dornelles said the state is still awaiting a $860 million payout from the federal government aimed at shoring up state coffers ahead of the Aug. 5-21 event. The funds were allocated last week but have not yet reached the state, and Dornelles warned that without them, police patrols may grind to a halt by the end of the week, for lack of gas money.

"How are people going to feel protected in a city without security," Dornelles was quoted as asking.

"I'm optimistic about the games, but I have to show reality," he said. "We can have a great Olympics, but if some steps aren't taken, it can be a big failure."

Rio has been particularly hard-hit by the recession besetting Brazil, which saw the economy shrink by around 4 percent last year and joblessness spike. The state is highly reliant on sinking oil royalties, and prior governments awarded billions in tax exemptions that resulted in near-empty coffers.

Another worrying issue for Dornelles is the metro line that was meant to ferry tourists to the main Olympic venue in the far-western Rio area of Barra da Tijuca. Promised for late last year, the metro is still not ready. A nearly $290 million federal loan aimed at finishing the project has also not yet been released.

"I've said that without security and without the metro there will be difficulties," Dornelles was quoted as saying.

COMMENT:  Yeah, I'd say so, Francisco baby.  The spread of disease is the greatest worry.  Some athletes have canceled, and ticket sales are affected.  Reports of highwaymen menacing tourists around the city are not helping with image problems.

This will be the first Latin American Olympics.  So far the horror stories are drowning out the excitement.  Rio isn't ready.  We're holding our breath.

June 28, 2016       Permalink

MAJOR HEADLINE REVELATION – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:   Hillary Clinton has announced that people don't trust her.  I am shocked.  I never thought people believed something like that.  From ABC News:

Hillary Clinton today acknowledged that many voters just don’t trust her, admitting, during a rare moment of self-reflection: “I have work to do on this front."

"A lot of people tell pollsters they don’t trust me,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said during her keynote remarks at a women’s luncheon in Chicago. "Now I don’t like hearing that. And I’ve thought a lot about what’s behind it. And, you know, you hear 25 years worth of wild accusations anyone would start to wonder. And it certainly is true, I’ve made mistakes. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t. So I understand people having questions."

Addressing the skeptical voters directly, Clinton explained that while Donald Trump’s attacks are “nonsense," that “you can’t just talk someone into trusting you, you’ve got to earn it."

“So, yes, I could say that the reason I sometimes sound careful with my words is not that I’m hiding something, it’s just that I’m careful with my words,” she said. "I believe what you say actually matters. I think that’s true in life and it’s especially true if you’re president. So I do think before I speak.”

The issue of Clinton’s trustworthiness is a top concern among Democrats. An ABC News/Washington Post poll from earlier this year showed 57 percent of voters do believe Clinton is trustworthy.

COMMENT:  Hillary, as is typical of her crowd, talks down to people.  Is it so hard for her to understand that, when you take $300,000 for a 40-minute speech, voters may have some concerns about what that $300,000 is buying? 

And when you tell people that Benghazi was caused by an online video, and you know that's a lie, can you understand why that might affect your trustworthiness?

Clinton's explanations for her image of dishonesty don't hold up.  They're dishonest and she's untrustworthy.

June 28, 2016       Permalink

BENGHAZI RETURNS – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  House Republicans released their much-anticipated report on Benghazi this morning.  The mainstream media is falling all over itself to try to prove that it shows nothing new about Hillary Clinton's role.  The New York Times makes Clinton's wonderfulness its headline.

But it's more complicated.  It presents, in professional detail, a picture of incompetence and shortsightedness, with a cover-up to follow.  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) House Republicans released a long-awaited report Tuesday on the Benghazi terror attacks that killed four Americans on Hillary Clinton's watch as secretary of state, reviving the politically charged issue less than five months before the election.

The report, parts of which CNN reviewed in advance, paints a picture of a perfect storm of bureaucratic inertia, rapidly worsening security in Libya and inadequate resources in the months that led up to the killings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on September 11, 2012.
Clinton told the House Benghazi Committee last year that she was aware of the dangers in Libya but "there was no actionable intelligence" indicating a planned attack.

The portion of the report obtained by CNN doesn't offer a scathing indictment of Clinton. But it does argue that intelligence was available suggesting an attack was possible and Clinton and a top aide, Patrick Kennedy, should have realized the risks posed to the Benghazi mission by extremist groups.
"It is not clear what additional intelligence would have satisfied either Kennedy or the Secretary in understanding the Benghazi mission compound was at risk -- short of an attack," the report says.

Conservative members of the panel released a more political analysis of the attack Tuesday that's far more critical of Clinton and the Obama administration. That study, authored by GOP Reps. Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Jim Jordan of Ohio, blames the attack on a "tragic failure of leadership."
Their decision to release an addendum to the main report appears to suggest that Pompeo and Jordan believe the committee report does not go far enough in criticizing Clinton and the administration.

"The overall report, it's about the facts, what happened," Jordan told Chris Cuomo Tuesday on CNN's "New Day." "But Mr. Pompeo and I thought it was important to ask the questions. Why were we still in Benghazi when almost every other country had left? Why did we stay in Benghazi when the security situation was so terrible, so dangerous? And why did the administration mislead us?"

COMMENT:  The "mislead" comment refers, of course, to the Administration's attempt, right after the terror attack, to blame it on an online video, a patently ridiculous maneuver.  Hillary Clinton participated in that lie.

Hard to know how much Benghazi will figure in the election.  Probably not much.  But even a generous interpretation paints Clinton as someone who made the wrong calls, or no calls at all, in the midst of a violent assault.  Not a recommendation for higher office.

I offer to read different interpretations of the report, because getting a straight story from the mainstreamers is mission impossible.

June 28,  2016     Permalink

JUNE 27,  2016

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

TROUBLE IN BALTIMORE – FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN:   The lead Baltimore police detective in the Freddie Gray investigation said she reluctantly read to grand jurors a summary of evidence provided by prosecutors that she believed was misleading, according to police records reviewed by The Baltimore Sun.  Hours later, the grand jurors issued criminal indictments against six police officers in the arrest and death of Gray.   Detective Dawnyell Taylor said in a daily log of case notes on the investigation that a prosecutor handed her a four-page, typed narrative at the courthouse just before she appeared before the grand jury.  "As I read over the narrative it had several things that I found to be inconsistent with our investigation," Taylor wrote, adding: "I thought the statements in the narrative were misquoted."  A very seedy situation.  This is what happens when mob rule dictates "justice."

AH, MORALITY – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   The Nevada director of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign reportedly suggested cheating by using double-sided coins to settle ties in the state’s caucuses — and was promoted to a national post.  According to a lengthy post-mortem report by CBS News on the Sanders campaign, Nevada State Director Joan Kato floated the idea of the loaded coins in preparation for the state’s Feb. 20 caucus. The network cited staffers who said they had been told to buy them.  There had been numerous reports that Hillary Clinton eked out an advantage in the Iowa caucuses by winning a statistically anomalous number of coin flips in caucus locations that had finished tied. Some progressives at the time suggested some form of skulduggery.  Mrs. Clinton wound up winning a slight, but clear, victory in the Nevada caucuses, defeating Mr. Sanders by 5 percentage points.  After the Nevada caucuses were over, according to CBS News, Ms. Kato was not let go by the Sanders team, but instead was appointed the Sanders campaign’s national delegate director.  In a Sanders administration he'd presumably be secretary of the Treasury.

SAY WHAT? – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:  Leading climate doomsayer Michael Mann recently downplayed the importance of climate change science, telling Democrats that data and models “increasingly are unnecessary” because the impact is obvious.  “Fundamentally, I’m a climate scientist and have spent much of my career with my head buried in climate-model output and observational climate data trying to tease out the signal of human-caused climate change,” Mr. Mann told the Democratic Platform Drafting Committee at a hearing.  “What is disconcerting to me and so many of my colleagues is that these tools that we’ve spent years developing increasingly are unnecessary because we can see climate change, the impacts of climate change, now, playing out in real time, on our television screens, in the 24-hour news cycle,” he said.  We do?  Where is this proof?  Or is "climate science" failing in its predictions, and so will be declared "obsolete"?  Do you sense a fast hustle?

June 27, 2016       Permalink

VINDICATION – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:   The former Republican governor of Virginia got good news today from the U.S. Supreme Court.  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously threw out the conviction of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

The 8-0 decision leaves open the possibility McDonnell can be retried but his current conviction is vacated.

"Because the jury was not correctly instructed on the meaning of 'official act,' it may have convicted Governor McDonnell for conduct that is not unlawful," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. "For that reason, we cannot conclude that the errors in the jury instructions were 'harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.' We accordingly vacate Governor McDonnell's convictions."

At issue is what constitutes the scope of "official action" under federal corruption law.

In 2014, McDonnell was convicted of 11 counts by a federal jury that found that he violated the law when he and his wife received money and loans (around $175,000 and a Rolex watch) from Jonnie R. Williams, the CEO of a Virginia based company called Star Scientific. Williams at the time was seeking state support in a bid to get FDA approval for a dietary supplement his company was developing called Antabloc.

The government argued that McDonnell received loans, deluxe shopping trips and golf outings and in return used the power of his office to help Williams's company.

McDonnell -- who attended oral arguments with his wife Maureen -- asked the Supreme Court to reverse his conviction. In 2015, he had been on the verge of reporting to prison for his two-year sentence when the court allowed him to stay out of jail pending his appeal.

McDonnell's lawyers argued that his actions were limited to routine political courtesies and he never put his thumb on a scale by exercising government power on Williams' behalf.

The case centered around the question of what constitutes the scope of an "official action" under federal corruption law -- and at oral arguments several justices searched for the proper line to draw between the regular activities of a politician, and actions that could violate corruption laws.
Public officials, as well as those who appear before them have been carefully watching the case to see the boundaries they face when interacting with constituents, donors and business leaders.

McDonnell's lawyers said that the governor's actions were limited to routine political courtesies such as arranging meetings, asking questions and attending events and that he never exercised any government power on behalf of Williams.

Noel Francisco, a lawyer for McDonnell, argued that the lower courts stretched "corruption laws beyond recognition."

COMMENT:   The case had the earmarks of a political hit on McDonnell.  I do not have independent knowledge of the facts.  We, of course, want to be on guard against corruption.  However, overzealous prosecution of officeholders can destroy the innocent and discourage good men and women from entering public service.

June 27,  2016     Permalink 

THE VULGAR LEFT – AT 9:18 A.M. ET:  I've never seen anything like it.  The left-wing mainstream media has gone nuts over Brexit.  You'd think the Brits had voted to reinstate flogging or build a memorial to Hitler.  CNN this morning, guided by that unbiased journalist, Chris Cuomo (brother of the Dem governor of New York), was clearly off its collective meds.  The sky isn't falling, it has fallen, and we are doomed.  Break out the Zoloft.  From the New York Sun:   

The big danger in respect of Brexit is the backlash the left is trying to foment against Britain’s unambiguous decision for independence from the European Union. It is in the very nature of the European project to disdain democratic decisions. That is precisely one of the factors that animated the voters in the United Kingdom in the first place. If their decision is to prevail, though, it looks like it will be every man and woman to the metaphorical barricades — and constant vigilance...

...What is important to bear in mind is that the decision the British people have just made is not some impulsive whimsy. It is a deep declaration of principle after years of betrayal. We would go so far as to say the decision was inevitable after the failure of the European Constitution to receive ratification. It demands and deserves respect abroad, nowhere more than in an America which long ago made its own exit from Europe. The sooner America’s leadership, in both parties, rallies to welcome the British decision, the better the transition to British independence.

COMMENT:  Absolutely on the button.  Watching CNN this morning was a revolting experience.  The "experts" came close to calling those who voted for Brexit ignoramuses, bigots, and fascists.  Who are these people who vote their conscience? 

And Boris Johnson, who may soon be prime minister, was called the British Donald Trump.  No mention that he was a successful mayor of London.  Why dote on trivia?

What passes for our free press may destroy us.

June 27, 2016       Permalink

WARNING!  TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  This is presented as a public service.  We don't want you to be needlessly embarrassed by insensitive, bigoted behavior.  Take notes please.  From the Daily Caller: 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued a guide this week which instructs students that Christmas vacations and telling a woman “I love your shoes!” are “microagressions.”

The taxpayer-funded guide — entitled “Career corner: Understanding microaggressions” — also identifies golf outings and the words “boyfriend” and “girlfriend” as microagressions.

The UNC Chapel Hill guide, published on Thursday, covers a wide range of menacing microaggressions — which are everyday words that radical leftists have decided to be angry or frustrated about.

Christmas vacations are a microagression, the public university pontificates, because “academic calendars and encouraged vacations” which “are organized around major religious observances” centralize “the Christian faith” and diminish “non-Christian spiritual rituals and observances.”...

...The microagression of liking shoes occurs when someone says “I love your shoes!” “to a woman in leadership during a Q & A after a speech.” So it’s a very specific microagression. The problem, the University of North Carolina document declares, is that the shoe admirer values appearances “more than” “intellectual contributions.”

Similarly, the public school pronounces, interrupting any woman who is speaking is a microagression.

COMMENT:  I don't want to see any reports of Urgent Agenda readers engaged in those crimes.  We have ways of dealing with readers who embarrass us. 

June 27, 2016     Permalink