Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

Our Angel's Corner archive is here.

MAY 15,  2016

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

NUTBAGS – From The College Fix:   Students in the country illegally and their allies at Georgetown University are angry over the school’s decision to host Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson as a keynote speaker at an upcoming graduation ceremony, saying his presence makes them feel unsafe and uncomfortable and that he must be disinvited.  Johnson is set to be the speaker at the commencement for Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service on May 21.  Instead of a degree, these children should be given elementary-school diplomas.

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – From Fox:   The latest issue of Al Qaeda’s online magazine Inspire released Saturday calls on would-be jihadis to undermine the American economy by targeting business leaders and entrepreneurs, according to analysts who monitor web chatter from the jihadist organization.  The newest edition obtained by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) features a cover with the headline “Professional Assassinations” and the subhead “Home Assassinations,” which the depiction of a hooded killer watching an upscale home from the outside.  We're sure they're just kidding.   They're such practical jokers.  Choke.

IS THIS PRESIDENTIAL? – From the L.A. Times: –   Attending a rally for Bernie Sanders usually involves long lines and security screenings, but that wasn’t the case at an intimate, informal event Friday evening supporting the Vermont senator’s presidential campaign in a park here.  Instead of metal detectors, entrance required burning ceremonial sweetgrass.  Participants were “smudged,” meaning the smoke from the sweetgrass was wafted over them before they could enter the sacred circle and begin a Wiccan ritual to support Sanders ahead of Oregon’s primary on Tuesday.   Sanders is nailing down the Wiccan vote.  Hillary must be panicking.  Those are her people.

May 15, 2016       Permalink

REPUBLICAN TROUBLES – AT 10:24 A.M. ET:  There really is a war going on inside the Republican Party.  It's the Trump people versus the anti-Trump people, and it's getting vicious.  It threatens to consume some of the party's best people.  From Breitbart: 

From Kyle Cheney writing at Politico:

Sen. Ben Sasse’s outspoken rejection of Donald Trump is roiling Nebraska Republican politics, and the discord is threatening to boil over at the state’s GOP convention Saturday.

A prominent Nebraska political operative — who is the nephew of senior GOP Sen. Deb Fischer — is behind a move to publicly rebuke the anti-Trump movement. Sam Fischer has issued a proposed resolution — set for a vote at the convention — declaring that the state party will refuse to support any Republican officeholder who opposes the GOP presidential nominee or agitates for a third-party candidate.

Though the measure doesn’t name Sasse, the junior senator is clearly the target. He has become the most prominent elected Republican to embrace the “#NeverTrump” movement and call for a conservative candidate to join the field. He recently reiterated his support for a February Facebook post in which he shredded Trump as ill-suited to be president and said he’d refuse to support him as the nominee.

COMMENT:  This is sad.  Sasse is one of the most outstanding young Republicans in Congress.  He is a possible future president.  It would be tragic to see him consumed by the Trump issue, an issue that will be resolved either by Trump becoming president, or by him being defeated, and fading from politics in half a second. 

There are always little civil wars within parties.  This threatens to become a big one, but the Republican National Committee did some very good work this week in bringing Trump together with party leaders.  That work must continue through the convention.

May 15, 2016       Permalink

A FINE MAN SPEAKS – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  It's college commencement time.  Many speeches will be given.  Most are forgettable.   A few are memorable.  Always count on Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas for wisdom.  From the Washington Examiner:   

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas urged college graduates who seek to "preserve liberty" to do so by fulfilling the duties of their daily vocations rather than attempting to achieve sweeping political goals.

"At the risk of understating what is necessary to preserve liberty in our form of government, I think more and more than it depends on good citizens, discharging their daily duties in their daily obligations," Thomas said Saturday during a commencement address at Hillsdale College, a small liberal arts college in Michigan.

Thomas lamented various aspects of contemporary society, especially with regard to colleges and universities. He diagnosed what he regards as a contemporary tendency to take pride in having "grievances rather than personal conduct" and to focus on individual rights as citizens, rather than responsibilities. "Hallmarks of my youth such as patriotism and religion seem more like outliers, if not afterthoughts," Thomas said.

He added, "Do not hide your faith and your beliefs under a bushel basket, especially in this world that seems to have gone mad with political correctness."

COMMENT:  Wonderful thoughts from a fine man.  Hillsdale College, where Justice Thomas spoke, is a conservative school that puts a premium on students understanding the Constitution.  I doubt if Clarence Thomas gets many invitations from so-called "prestigious" colleges.  They go for the trendies.

May 15, 2016       Permalink

WHAT A GREAT DEAL WE GOT – AT 10:07 A.M. ET:  I marvel at the American diplomacy that got us the Iran nuclear deal.  Why aren't we peasants more appeciative?  From The Times of Israel:

Iran is enhancing its nuclear activities, and has improved its capacity to enrich uranium, Iran’s nuclear chief told a gathering of his country’s diplomats in Tehran on Saturday.

“We are enhancing the industrial section of Iran’s nuclear activities technologically with modern systems and machines,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran who was a key figure in the negotiation of last year’s nuclear deal between Iran and the US-led P5+1 world powers.

Salehi spoke of advances in enrichment capability, asserting that the quality of process of uranium enrichment in Iran is also progressing, according to the Tehran Times.

Iran’s IRNA state news agency reported: “Salehi said that Iran’s nuclear program is on the right path naturally and compatible with the strategic plans of the country in a transparent way based on international factors.”

He also told the envoys, at a conference that focused on the nuclear deal, that Iran is establishing itself as an exporter of nuclear products, including heavy water. “We have improved the country’s situation in the field of the civilian nuclear energy,” Salehi said, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

COMMENT:  And in ten or so years, when the nuclear agreement expires, Iran will be well positioned to build atomic bombs.  By that time Obama will be secretary-general of the UN, and will be glad to welcome Iran as a major power. 

And we'll be left with targets on our backs.

May 15,  2016     Permalink

MAY 14,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:04 P.M. ET:

ROMNEY DIGS IN – FROM THE HILL:   Mitt Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee, is among those courting prospects for a possible third-party bid to keep Donald Trump from the White House, according to a Washington Post report.  Among those prospects are Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), one of Trump’s most vocal Republican critics, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who suspended his presidential campaign in early May.
Kasich’s chief strategist John Weaver said the governor isn’t interested in running an an independent.  A Sasse spokesman declined to comment.  But it’s not looking too good for a late in the game third-party bid, according to the report.  Deadlines have passed to get on the ballot in big states like Texas, though organizers argue a legal challenge there would be successful.  In an ordinary election season I'd say that any new effort is futile.  But this isn't an ordinary election season.  Nobody knows anything. 

OBAMA CHALLENGED...BY BLACKS – FROM BREITBART:   The president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors (CAAP) says that the Obama administration’s assertion that single-sex bathrooms are discriminating against gender-confused individuals in much the same way that blacks experienced discrimination in the United States is a “gross insult” to all who fought for equality for African-Americans.  “There is simply no relation between the struggles that Black Americans have faced and the desire of a tiny minority group to violate the dignity and privacy of women and girls,” said Rev. Bill Owens in a statement sent to Breitbart News. “To suggest some sort of equivalence is a gross insult to all of those who marched with Dr. King and faced fire hoses and hatred in the name of equality.”  I'm glad someone said it.  That is an accurate statement.  Issues involving transgendered individuals can be handled with dignity and respect without having to shove an ideology down our throats. 

SHUT UP! – FROM DAILY CALLER:  The new Muslim mayor of London has issued a warning to Donald Trump: Moderate your stance on Muslims, or they will launch more attacks against America.  Trump recently praised Sadiq Khan for winning London’s mayoral race, and said he would be willing to create an exception in his policy restricting Muslim entry into the United States in order to allow Khan to visit. But in a statement Tuesday, Khan dismissed Trump’s invitation, and also denounced his views on Islam as “ignorant,” suggesting Trump’s policies would increase the terrorist threat in both the U.S. and U.K.  “Donald Trump’s ignorant view of Islam could make both of our countries less safe – it risks alienating mainstream Muslims around the world and plays into the hands of extremists,” he said. “Donald Trump and those around him think that Western liberal values are incompatible with mainstream Islam – London has proved him wrong.”  Methinks the mayor should shut up.  Whether we agree with him or not, he is interfering in the internal affairs of the United States.  Someone should walk him around Buckingham Palace and explain the rules.

May 14, 2016       Permalink

MOVE THE OLYMPICS! – AT 12:15 P.M. ET:  The cry from health experts is getting louder.  The Rio Olympics are set to start on August 5th, but Rio is far from ready.  There is disease.  There is hopeless pollution in waters that will be used by long-distance swimmers.  The political situation is unstable, with the president of the country stands impeached.  Hey, welcome to good sportsmanship.

The International Olympic Committee, not always held in the highest regard, says it is monitoring the situation.  Not good enough.  From Fox: 

...while thousands of Americans have smartly reconsidered their vacation plans to Zika-afflicted regions, and the MLB wisely canceled a two-game series to be held in Zika-ravaged Puerto Rico, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as recently as this week, has insisted that the 2016 Summer Games will go on as scheduled in the Zika hotbed of Rio.

Before we were even concerned about Zika affecting our athletes, alarms were sounded over the poor conditions and polluted waters of Brazil, and the country’s inability to address these issues. Plans were made for a fleet of boats to patrol the waters to keep trash and debris from floating into the paths of competing sailors, but that doesn’t speak to the untreated human waste that mars the country’s beautiful beaches. But Brazil has been plagued by economic woes, so who is to say that the funding for these contingency plans will actually be kept in place?

On Thursday, the country’s senators voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff over corruption and economic failures, adding to the instability just months before August’s Opening Ceremonies. I can’t say for sure, because I have not seen it firsthand, but I would be surprised if, at a time like this, the country’s health remains a top priority. There is no longer a leader to promise us our athletes and spectators will be protected, and there is no strong voice to ensure that the Zika protocols are being enforced. In February, Rio's organizing committee announced plans to protect our athletes during their stay by charging them up to $100 for a mosquito net to be affixed to their rooms.

In responding to a call by a Canadian health professor to postpone or move the games, International Olympic Committee (IOC) medical director Richard Budgett said that the committee would continue to monitor the situation closely, but the games are still scheduled to start August 5. In order to avoid a total cancellation, we shouldn’t be “monitoring the situation” in Brazil, we should be exploring our options in other countries to host the events elsewhere. It’s not the IOC’s fault completely, because none of the countries’ Olympic committees have called for a boycott of Rio either.

COMMENT:  The Olympics are about money, always have been.  The athletes are glorious, the Olympic movement cynical.  We wish for the success of the Olympics, but it would be wise to prepare to move them. 

May 14, 2016       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – AT 11:52 A.M. ET:  Thoroughly obnoxious.  But what will the punishment be?  Probably nothing.  From Daily Caller: 

In honor of National Police Week (which falls May 15-21), Dartmouth’s College Republicans reserved a bulletin board at the Collis Center and used it to create a display honoring police officers and firemen who have fallen in the line of duty. One part of the display noted that 60 police and 343 firemen were killed in the 9/11 attacks, while another declared over 20,000 police officers have been killed while on-duty in the history of the United States.

At the bottom, the display said in big letters, “BLUE LIVES MATTER.”

This last part of the display appears to have outraged Black Lives Matter supporters at Dartmouth, several of whom vocally complained on Twitter and Facebook that the display was offensive and even “white supremacist.”

But Black Lives Matter did more than just complain, they also took action. The original display was torn down Friday morning, at about 11 a.m, and in its place almost three dozen sheets of paper were used to cover the bulletin board, all of them carrying an identical message: “YOU CANNOT CO-OPT THE MOVEMENT AGAINST STATE VIOLENCE TO MEMORIALIZE THE PERPETRATORS.” At the bottom, each sheet also had the hashtag “#blacklivesmatter” printed on it.

COMMENT:  The BLM censors must be severely disciplined.  We cannot teach students the importance of freedom of expression and then permit individuals or groups to decide what expression others will be allowed to see and hear.  Of course, there are plenty of people teaching in universities and colleges who don't actually believe in freedom of expression, unless it's their own.

Let's see what Dartmouth does.  I'm not optimistic.  A previous disruption by BLM was buried.

May 14, 2016       Permalink

SICKENING – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  Fox News has done a superb, if discouraging, report on the state of the U.S. Air Force in an administration that seems to care little for national defense.  From Fox: 

EXCLUSIVE: It was just a few years ago, in March 2011, when a pair of U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers – during a harsh winter storm – took off from their base in South Dakota to fly across the world to launch the air campaign in Libya, only 16 hours after given the order.

Today, many in the Air Force are questioning whether a similar mission could still be accomplished, after years of budget cuts that have taken an undeniable toll. The U.S. Air Force is now short 4,000 airmen to maintain its fleet, short 700 pilots to fly them and short vital spare parts necessary to keep their jets in the air. The shortage is so dire that some have even been forced to scrounge for parts in a remote desert scrapheap known as “The Boneyard.”

“It's not only the personnel that are tired, it's the aircraft that are tired as well,” Master Sgt. Bruce Pfrommer, who has over two decades of experience in the Air Force working on B-1 bombers, told Fox News.

Fox News visited two U.S. Air Force bases – including South Dakota’s Ellsworth Air Force Base located 35 miles from Mount Rushmore, where Pfrommer is stationed – to see the resource problems first-hand, following an investigation into the state of U.S. Marine Corps aviation last month.

Many of the Airmen reported feeing “burnt out” and “exhausted” due to the current pace of operations, and limited resources to support them. During the visit to Ellsworth earlier this week, Fox News was told only about half of the 28th Bomb Wing’s fleet of bombers can fly.

“We have only 20 aircraft assigned on station currently. Out of those 20 only nine are flyable,” Pfrommer said.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  Our defenses overall are being degraded.  It's clear that the personnel being interviewed were granted permission to speak out.  Highly unusual in the services. 

We've allowed this before, always with catastrophic consequences.  And the Republicans deserve their share of the blame.  They should be publicly outraged every day.  But there are elements of the Republican Party that are turning their backs on the Reagan legacy of a powerful national defense.  We should be appalled. 

May 14,  2016     Permalink