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AUGUST 14,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

MAJOR HEALTH NEWS – From UPI:  PLYMOUTH, England, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Playing the block-stacking video game Tetris can ease cravings for food and drugs by about one-fifth, researchers found in a study of people in natural settings outside a laboratory.  Previous research had found that Tetris effectively reduced cravings in a lab setting. Most studies also were focused on food cravings, but researchers from Plymouth University and Queensland University of Technology found the method to be effective for smoking, alcohol, coffee, sex and sleeping, as well.  "We think the Tetris effect happens because craving involves imagining the experience of consuming a particular substance or indulging in a particular activity," said Dr. Jackie Andrade, a professor of psychology at Plymouth University, in a press release. "Playing a visually interesting game like Tetris occupies the mental processes that support that imagery -- it is hard to imagine something vividly and play Tetris at the same time."  I think they used to call that distraction.  Was this a government-funded study?

SUCH WARMTH – From Reuters:  HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's lead negotiator in talks with Washington told Reuters on Friday that the island's internal affairs would never be on the table and Havana would never move "one millimeter" to placate enemies in the United States.  "Decisions on internal matters are not negotiable and will never be put on the negotiating agenda in conversations with the United States," Josefina Vidal, director of U.S. affairs for the Cuban Foreign Ministry, said in an exclusive interview.  This is what happens when Washington flashes weakness.  This means Cuba will never discuss with us the treatment of its own people.  I doubt if Obama and Kerry really care.

JAPANESE NOTE V-J DAY – From AP:   Japanese and U.S. cities, together with the U.S. Navy, are holding a memorial service in Pearl Harbor to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.  Mayors and city council members from Honolulu and Nagaoka are coming together with the U.S. Pacific Fleet commander for Friday's event.  They plan to lay wreaths and float lanterns. Fireworks resembling white chrysanthemum flowers will be launched at the end of the ceremony. White chrysanthemums are often presented at memorial services in Japan.  Nagaoka is the hometown of the late Japanese Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor that launched the U.S. into the war in 1941. It is one of Honolulu's sister cities and is famous for fireworks. The city in Niigata prefecture was bombed by U.S. planes during the final stages of the war.  Japan has emerged as a major ally and vital democracy, thanks in part to the enlightened U.S. occupation of the nation after World War II.

YUCH – From Breitbart:   Friday, at the U.S. embassy in Cuba flag-raising ceremony celebrating the re-establishment of diplomatic relations, Secretary of State John Kerry said he felt “very much at home” in the country ruled by the authoritarian Castro regime.  Maybe he should visit the prisons where they keep the political prisoners and tell us how homey the atmosphere is.

August 14, 2015       Permalink

MILESTONE? – AT 10:57 A.M. ET:  As we mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, a victory over tyranny, we note that the United States will re-open its embassy in Havana today, a surrender to tyranny.  From Fox: 

Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday was to mark the historic re-opening of the U.S. Embassy in Havana after a half-century-long freeze, amid lingering tensions between the two countries and deep concern among anti-Castro lawmakers in Washington.

"There will be hiccups along the way, but it's a start," Kerry acknowledged, speaking briefly to reporters en route to the ceremony.

Cuban-American lawmakers in Washington fumed over Friday's ceremony. As Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., blasted the administration's deals with Iran and Cuba in a New York speech, Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., issued a scathing statement citing the continuing human rights problems on the island.

"This is a one-sided deal that is a win for the Cuban regime and a loss for the Cuban people," Menendez said. "The U.S. Embassy in Havana will be a hollow one. ... It will be diplomacy for show, not in practice. The United States' flag should only fly in Cuba when the island is free, when dissent is embraced, and when democracy is restored."

In a reminder of the rocky road ahead, Fidel Castro said in a newspaper column on the eve of the ceremony that the U.S. owes the island "numerous millions of dollars" for damages caused by the embargo. Americans, too, also want to resolve billions of dollars in half-century-old claims over property confiscated after the Cuban revolution.

COMMENT:  A typical Obama deal.  Human freedom meant nothing.

August 14, 2015       Permalink

DESPERATION – AT 10:12 A.M. ET:  I mean, how far down do you have to go?  From The Hill: 

Al Gore's supporters have started chatting with the former vice president about a potential 2016 presidential bid, BuzzFeed News reported Thursday, citing an unnamed senior Democrat.

“They’re figuring out if there’s a path financially and politically,” the Democrat told BuzzFeed, which noted Gore hasn't made any moves toward running. “It feels more real than it has in the past months.”

ABC's Rick Klein tweeted that a former Gore adviser confirmed that a "circle of his former aides are talking about" a potential 2016 bid though they are still in the very early part of the discussion.

Gore starting trending nationally on Twitter shortly after the reports emerged Thursday.

The former vice president to Bill Clinton was the Democratic presidential nominee and won the popular vote during the 2000 election to George W. Bush, though he lost the election.

Gore has since focused mostly on environmental activism, with little to no signs he is interested in another White House bid.

COMMENT:  I have a great slogan:  "Elect Gore, pay $1,000 a month for utilities!"  Doesn't that have a nice ring to it?  I'll accept all compliments.

August 14, 2015       Permalink

REMEMBERING HISTORY – AT 9:48 A.M. ET:   World War II came to an end 70 years ago today, with the announcement of the surrender of Japan.  It became known as V-J Day, victory over Japan.

Thus ended the greatest conflict in history.  The United States was one of the major combatants in that war, and emerged as the most powerful nation in the world, the only country that could build and deliver an atomic bomb. 

And yet, within three years, General of the Army Omar Bradley complained that the U.S. Army couldn't fight its way out of a paper bag.  We had disarmed, we had stripped our military of most of its power just at the time when the Soviet Union was building its mighty force.  There were battles within the Pentagon that almost resulted in America abandoning its aircraft carriers.

When President Truman decided to intervene in June of 1950 to stop the Soviet-directed invasion of South Korea, we were pathetically unprepared.  The first ground units sent were parade divisions from the occupation force in Japan.  We didn't have enough ships.  Our frontline jet fighters were inferior to the Soviets' MIG-15, a condition that didn't change until we deployed the North American F-86 Sabrejet.  And the Soviets had already exploded their own atomic bomb.

Every period of American disarmament has ended disastrously.  We eventually prevailed in Korea, which is why there's a free South Korea today, but at substantial cost. 

We are disarming again (see the post just below), and there are worries that we are heading for another disaster.  As we commemorate V-J Day, let us recall the lessons of that era:  Weakness invites war, strength often prevents it.  An investment in a strong national defense is one of the best investments our nation can make.

August 14,  2015     Permalink 

OUR NATIONAL NON-DEFENSE – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  There is genuine worry on the part of America's military leaders about the condition of our defense under Barack Obama, and it's being stated more and more openly.  From the Daily Beast: 

A series of classified exercises over the summer has raised concerns inside the Defense Department that its forces are not prepared for a sustained military campaign against Russia, two defense officials told The Daily Beast.

Many within the military believe that 15 years of counter terrorism warfare has left the ground troops ill prepared to maintain logistics or troops levels should Russia make an advance on NATO allies, the officials said.

Among the challenges the exercises revealed were that the number of precision-guided munitions available across the force were short of the war plans and it would be difficult to sustain a large troop presence.

“Could we probably beat the Russians today [in a sustained battle]? Sure, but it would take everything we had,” one defense official said. “What we are saying is that we are not as ready as we want to be.”

One classified “tabletop exercise” or “TTX”—a kind of in-office war game—“told us that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] have depleted our sustainment capability,” a second defense official explained, using military jargon for the ability to maintain a fight. The exercise was led by the Department of Defense and involved several other federal agencies.

In recent months, the top officers of the military have begun to call Putin’s Russia an “existential threat” to the United States. The results of those exercises—and Russian-backed forces’ latest advance in Ukraine—didn’t exactly tamp down those fears.

COMMENT:  Not everyone agrees, of course, and not everyone cares.  I doubt if Obama's White House is terribly concerned about Russia, not when it can heap scorn on our allies.

But we do seem to be facing a situation that we've seen before in this country, a period of "the uncertain trumpet."  The reference is to the Biblical warning, "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"  When there is a lack of confidence in a nation's defense, the nation's preparedness and will to win decline.  And the end result isn't peace, but war, as enemies try to take advantage. 

Maxwell Taylor warned about this in 1960.  The warning is just as valid today.

August 14, 2015       Permalink 

AUGUST 13,  2015

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

CALLING JOE BIDEN, OR SOMEONE – From the Washington Times:  A federal judge ordered the State Department on Thursday to work with the FBI to get access to the 32,000 emails former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said were personal and that she didn’t return to the government, as the courts get more deeply involved in the Democratic presidential front-runner’s email practices.  This is getting very serious.  Courts on the federal level are really tough to buy off; the FBI is pretty straightarrow.  There are reports of virtual panic in the Democratic Party.  It's hard to hold a presidential inauguration in a federal prison. 

AMERICA IN THE AGE OF OBAMA – From The Wrap:  Police agencies in Southern California are increasing their presence around movie theaters, specifically in urban areas, as Universal prepares to release “Straight Outta Compton” on Friday, law enforcement insiders tell TheWrap.  The Los Angeles Police Department plans to dispatch additional officers to theaters in its Southwest Division, which includes Baldwin Hills, Baldwin Village, Crenshaw, Exposition Park, Jefferson Park, Leimert Park and West Adams, a department insider said.  “There will be extra patrols around the theaters, cars and foot patrol. But not only because of the movie that’s coming out, but in light of all the recent activity in the country,” the LAPD insider explained.  Nice, huh?  Does our vacationing president have any comments on the need to protect movie theaters...from the audience and the community?  Don't bother him.

GUARDIAN OF OUR SAFETY – From CBS:  DURANGO, Colo. (CBS4) – Gov. John Hickenlooper, who famously said he drank fracking fluid to make a point about its safety, drank from the recently contaminated Animas River on Wednesday.  Three million gallons of waste from the Gold King Mine poured into the Animas River last week, prompting a state of emergency and a shutdown of all river activities.  The governor toured the affected area on Tuesday, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency arrived on Wednesday, and the attorneys general of three states were present to ask questions.  This man needs counseling, or a full-time nurse.

FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT – Knowing our readership as I do, I think you'll like this: There is a tradition in the British armed forces,  started in World War I, to select a female singer to represent the military.  She is known as the “forces sweetheart.” In World War II the best-known “sweetheart” was Vera Lynn, who became one of the most popular singers  of her era, and made famous some of the great songs of the war years,  especially “We’ll Meet Again.” Vera Lynn is still alive. A more recent “sweetheart” was Katherine Jenkins, an operatic singer who has maintained the tradition  of singing songs of World War II.

Early this year the Brits marked the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Katherine Jenkins performed “We’ll Meet Again” at a gala concert, singing in counterpoint to a film of Vera Lynn singing the same song during the war. It’s a very nice effect.  Enjoy.  Here's the link:  "We'll Meet Again"

August 13, 2015       Permalink

THE NERVE OF THIS GUY – AT 11:34 A.M. ET:  Fidel Castro speaks.  And he'll probably be taken seriously in the Obama White House.  From AFP:

Havana (AFP) - Fidel Castro marked his 89th birthday Thursday by insisting the United States owes Cuba "many millions of dollars" because of the half-century-old American trade embargo.

Castro spoke out in an essay published in local media a day before US Secretary of State John Kerry makes a historic visit to Cuba to reopen the US embassy as part of the countries' restoration of diplomatic relations.

The trade embargo that the United States slapped on communist Cuba in 1962, three years after Castro seized power by ousting a US-backed regime, remains in effect despite the thawing.

President Barack Obama wants Congress to lift it, although US officials say this will take time and is not an automatic part of the restoration of ties as it requires congressional action.

Many Republicans, who control both chambers of the legislature, oppose the idea, insisting Cuba has to improve its human rights record and make other democratic reforms.

Castro wrote: "Cuba is owed compensation equivalent to damages, which total many millions of dollars, as our country has stated with irrefutable arguments and data in all of its speeches at the United Nations."

He did not go into detail on precisely how much money he reckons Washington owes Havana. The Americans are also claiming compensation for US-owned property, such as real estate, that was confiscated when Castro took power.

Castro made no mention either of Kerry's visit to reopen the embassy, a step that comes eight months after Obama and Castro's successor and brother Raul announced plans to restore relations. It officially took effect July 20.

Fidel Castro ceded power to his brother in 2006, stepping down because of poor health.

Over the years, Fidel Castro has been a frequent contributor of essays to the communist party newspaper Granma and other media. Thursday's was his first piece since May 8.

COMMENT:  Republicans are, of course, right on this.  No lowering of the trade embargo without an improvement in the human-rights situation for the Cuban people.  Human rights are no longer on the Democratic Party agenda, so we don't expect much help from them.

August 13, 2015        Permalink

WAITING IN THE WINGS – AT 10:28 A.M. ET:  Joe Biden must be enjoying the news about Hillary.  He is vacationing in South Carolina, where, as I understand it, an important primary will be held.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

Vice President Joe Biden is using part of his vacation in South Carolina this week to sound out friends and family about a presidential bid, as some Democrats press him to enter the race and give the party another option in the face of lingering controversies involving Hillary Clinton.

From his vacation spot on Kiawah Island, Mr. Biden is giving the strongest signal yet that he is actively considering making a third run at the presidency. He is asking political allies for advice and gauging the strength of Mrs. Clinton’s campaign as he weighs his options, people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Biden is expected to announce his decision next month.

“He’s taking input from a lot of people he cares about and respects,” said James Smith, a South Carolina legislator and Biden supporter who said he has urged the vice president to run. “He knows where I stand. It’s just got to be his decision.”

COMMENT:  But Biden faces some serious hurdles.  First, although he's a very likable guy, there is no real yearning for him in the Democratic Party.  His poll numbers go nowhere.

Second, he'd run for president twice before, with disastrous results.  He didn't even come close.

Third, he is given to gaffes, and embarrassing moments.

Fourth, he'll be 73, going on 74.  The GOP will undoubtedly run a much younger, more dynamic candidate. 

Fifth, the president he's tied to, Barack Obama, is becoming increasingly unpopular. 

I don't think it's an easy decision for Biden.  I think it's 50-50 on his running.

August 13, 2015       Permalink   

WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  I'm generally no great fan of my former newspaper, but The New York Times is running a superb piece on rape in the Islamic State.  It is stark and more than troubling: 

QADIYA, Iraq — In the moments before he raped the 12-year-old girl, the Islamic State fighter took the time to explain that what he was about to do was not a sin. Because the preteen girl practiced a religion other than Islam, the Quran not only gave him the right to rape her — it condoned and encouraged it, he insisted.

He bound her hands and gagged her. Then he knelt beside the bed and prostrated himself in prayer before getting on top of her.

When it was over, he knelt to pray again, bookending the rape with acts of religious devotion.

“I kept telling him it hurts — please stop,” said the girl, whose body is so small an adult could circle her waist with two hands. “He told me that according to Islam he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God,” she said in an interview alongside her family in a refugee camp here, to which she escaped after 11 months of captivity.

The systematic rape of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority has become deeply enmeshed in the organization and the radical theology of the Islamic State in the year since the group announced it was reviving slavery as an institution. Interviews with 21 women and girls who recently escaped the Islamic State, as well as an examination of the group’s official communications, illuminate how the practice has been enshrined in the group’s core tenets.

The trade in Yazidi women and girls has created a persistent infrastructure, with a network of warehouses where the victims are held, viewing rooms where they are inspected and marketed, and a dedicated fleet of buses used to transport them.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  Then wonder why there is so little concern about this.  Maybe ask a multiculturalist professor, who anguishes over our failure to understand "other cultures."  The hypocrisy just flows.

Oh, remember when such lights as Michelle Obama held up a sign saying "Bring back our girls," after a Muslim group kidnaped girls in Africa?   That campaign lasted about a week.  Whatever happened to those girls?  Anyone still interested?

August 13, 2015       Permalink

CLOSING IN ON CLINTON – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:  As Charles Krauthammer pointed out, Hillary Clinton has now lost control of a situation she has tried hard to contain.  From Fox: 

The FBI has taken possession of the personal e-mail server used by Hillary Clinton during her tenure as secretary of state, according to a published report.

Barbara Wells, an attorney for Denver-based computer services firm Platte River Networks, told The Washington Post that federal agents picked up the server from a private data center in New Jersey Wednesday afternoon. The attorney told the paper that the server "was blank" and no longer contained useful information.

"The information had been migrated over to a different server for purposes of transition," Wells told the paper. "To my knowledge the data on the old server is not available now on any servers or devices in Platte River Network’s control." Wells added that the company had cooperated with the FBI and had been told it was not a target of the investigation.

The Justice Department is looking into whether classified information was improperly stored on or passed through the server, which Clinton used for all her correspondence during her time as secretary of state.

The Post reported that Platte River Networks had been hired by former President Bill and Hillary Clinton to upgrade their private e-mail network in June 2013, after Hillary Clinton had left the State Department. As part of the job, the old server was taken from the basement of the Clintons' Chappaqua, N.Y. home and moved to the New Jersey data center.

Clinton announced that she would turn the server over to the FBI Tuesday. That same day, Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III told members of Congress that at least two emails that traversed the device while she was secretary of state contained information that warranted one of the government's highest levels of classification.

COMMENT:  Hillary Clinton is in serious trouble.  As it's been pointed out, if an ordinary government employee did what she did, that employee would face grim legal consequences. 

Will this probe end Clinton's candidacy for president?  Well, she's in the modern Democratic Party, which has shown a remarkable tolerance for bad behavior.  Exhibit A:  her husband.  Exhibit B:  Al Sharpton.  But Clinton's poll numbers are declining, and there seems to be little upside for her.  And if she's indicted?  I can't see how she could stay in the race, although she's a Clinton.

August 13,  2015     Permalink