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DECEMBER 5,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET: 

INEVITABLE – From WaPo:   LONDON — British police were investigating a stabbing at an east London subway station Saturday evening as a “terrorist incident” after the attacker reportedly claimed he had acted “for Syria.”  The stabbing, which came just three days after the British Parliament approved airstrikes in Syria against Islamic State targets, left three people injured — one seriously. British media outlets reported that the seriously wounded victim had been stabbed in the throat. Two other people were treated for minor injuries.  A video circulating online purportedly shows the aftermath of the attack depicted a gruesome scene, with a large pool of blood smeared on the floor near the ticket turnstiles at the Leytonstone Underground station.  We're certain that this was an isolated incident and should not be attributed to any ideology, religious belief or human being.

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A CHECK – From Fox:   The U.S. military says its 15-month bombing campaign on the Islamic State is depleting its munitions supply and that additional money and other support is “critical” for “the long fight.”  "We're expending munitions faster than we can replenish them,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Friday. “We need the funding in place to ensure we're prepared for the long fight. This is a critical need."  The Air Force has reportedly fired more than 20,000 bombs and missiles in Syria in the fight to dismantle the self-proclaimed Islamic State.  You'd think the administration would have covered this by now.  Maybe they can find the money in their "war on cops" budget.

A BIT OF TRUTH – From the Washington Examiner:   The New York Times front-page editorial asserts a "gun epidemic," which is an odd phrase, unless you think guns themselves — not deaths or shootings — are an evil.  If the editors meant to refer to a gun-death epidemic or a mass-shooting epidemic, here's a relevant bit of information: Per-capita murders in the U.S. are at their lowest level since FBI records began, and they are trending downwards. The Times editors write "motives do not matter to the dead." I would add that "weapons of choice do not matter to the dead."  See the chart in the story here.

December 5,  2015     Permalink

JOURNALISTIC HISTORY (CHOKE) – AT 12:22 P.M. ET:    If you must, you can read the "historic" front-page editorial in The New York Times here.  As you've now heard over and over, it's the paper's first front-page editorial in 95 years.  From The Times:  "The last time The Times ran an editorial on the front page was in June 1920, when it lamented the nomination of Warren G. Harding as the Republican presidential candidate. It was a move, The Times wrote, that would 'be received with astonishment and dismay by the party whose suffrages he invites.'"

From Warren Harding to gun control.  Nothing in between. 

The in betweens got it right.  This front-page editorial is almost laughable in its simple-mindedness, lack of information, and, actually, lack of urgency.  It is not laughable in its timing.  It is so clearly designed to draw attention away from terrorism and toward the anointed president's favorite subject – gun control.  The editorial offers nothing new, but follows the sacred party line.  It tells the viewer that The Times, which once advertised its independence, is now simply part of the regime press.

In a way, this decision to blow it all on a ridiculous "historic" editorial was inevitable.  The Times is run by a member of the owning family, and is operated with an adolescent's passion and a fanatic's single-mindedness.  The paper was bound, ultimately, to make a fool of itself at some point. 

We await the next "historic" editorial.  Planned Parenthood?  Stop and frisk?  Lack of safe spaces in the anthropology department?  You can predict every word.

December 5, 2015       Permalink 

JEB STILL A FACTOR? – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:   Jeb Bush, to paraphrase an old watch commercial, takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.  But is he still a factor?  From The Politico: 

Jeb Bush didn’t fix it. His attempted attacks on rivals have fallen flat. His $30 million in TV ads have failed to move his numbers. And now, with the Iowa caucuses less than two months away, he’s polling at a miserable 3 percent nationally.

But there’s one significant success that is keeping his campaign alive: Jeb Bush has convinced major GOP donors and supporters that the polls are wrong.

“I am like the Israelites following Moses, and I am not the only one,” said Mike Fernandez, the top donor to Bush’s super PAC, after a new CNN poll showed Bush an astounding 33 points behind the poll leader. “Unfortunately, it might not be that many of us.”

While rival campaigns boast that some Bush backers are making side bets on other candidates, hardly any Bush donors have publicly abandoned him — largely out of unwavering loyalty to an incomparable Republican dynasty and to a candidate many put on a pedestal in spite of his political shortcomings.

“Given the poll numbers currently, you would think there would be these massive defections from a campaign like this,” said Slater Bayliss, a Florida-based GOP operative and longtime Bush ally. “And the reason there haven’t been is Jeb Bush; because people believe he’s in it for the long haul and believe he’s a serious candidate — even in a cycle where serious doesn’t seem to be selling. They like him because he’s serious. Eventually, they think serious will sell.”

Outside the steady-under-fire nature of Bush’s top-level donors, he has kept his campaign together because of the true-believer nature of campaign manager Danny Diaz and longtime adviser Sally Bradshaw. Both are expert in making regular, data-filled pitches of proprietary campaign research that put worried donors at relative ease.

The two, along with longtime Bush aide and South Carolina director Brett Doster, will make yet another presentation to top donors on Saturday in Miami. Their bottom-line message is unchanged: National polls aren’t predictive of primary success and the campaign’s organizational efforts will bear fruit. More privately, Bush’s team says there’s still time to engineer an unlikely comeback.

COMMENT:  I admire Bush's stamina, but I just don't think this is his year.  Obviously, that is speculation.  He's a serious man with a fine record as governor of Florida, and he reminds us that there are Republicans running who've actually governed.  It is a very strange year.  The nominations are nine months away.

December 5, 2015       Permalink

BRITAIN IN THE CROSSHAIRS? – AT 10:45 A.M. ET:  There are reports that Britain will be the next target of ISIS.  From London's Daily Mail:

ISIS fanatics have identified the UK as their next target, a security expert has warned.
British-born jihadists who have travelled to Syria to join the extremist group have been tasked with returning home to carry out a Paris-style terror attack within weeks, it was claimed.

European security agencies have reportedly obtained 'specific intelligence' that Britain is next on the ISIS hit list, with the risk heightened in the wake of the Commons vote which saw a majority of MPs back airstrikes on the terrorists' strongholds in Syria.

In a chilling warning, CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said he had spoken to an unnamed 'senior European counter-terrorism official' who received intelligence that ISIS is 'aiming to hit the United Kingdom next'.

He said: 'The intelligence suggests that British ISIS operatives in Syria and Iraq are being tasked to return to the UK to launch an attack against the United Kingdom.

He added: 'They are treating this very, very seriously indeed' but said 'it is not clear how imminent this threat is'.

During the debate in the lead-up to the airstrike vote, MPs were told that seven ISIS plots have been foiled in the last year, with intelligence agencies warning attacks are being orchestrated from Syria.

Last month it emerged that the number of Britons who have fled the country to fight for ISIS or rebels in Syria has hit 800. The defence review said up to 400 are now back in the UK.

COMMENT:  It is an ideological battle that we refuse to understand.  Some of the countries hit – like France – have some of the most pro-Arab and pro-Muslim policies in the world.  And yet, they are far from immune.  Ideology is not interested in temporary policy changes.  It is interested in total domination.

December 5,  2015     Permalink

DECEMBER 4,  2015

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

HORRORS – Stand by for major journalistic ecstasy, as the mainstream media rushes to give huge hugs and gender-appropriate greetings to The New York Times for publishing its first front-page editorial in 95 years.  We'll have plenty to say about that in the next few days.  Oh, the subject of the heavy thinking?  Gun control.  Guess the other stuff over the last 95 years – The Holocaust, World War II, the atomic bomb, the Great Depression, the birth of radio, television and talking pictures, the Salk Vaccine, the assassination of a president, and a fourth term for another, and the Civil Rights movement – didn't make the cut.   We will send honorable mention to each of these.  People don't know whether to laugh or cry.

THE T-WORD – The FBI said it.  Even CNN said it.  San Bernardino was a terrorist act.  No more workplace violence.  No more personnel issues.  No more "searching for a motive," although investigators will try to determine why that particular target was hit.   FBI Director James Comey and his alleged boss, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, held a press conference to discuss the attack.  The picture of both of them together was striking.  The FBI is now the center of the Universe in terms of the terror investigation.  But it is also the center of the Universe into the investigation into Hillary Clinton, a potential president.  The spotlight will be on the Bureau and on Mr. Comey.  What he discovers, and says, and recommends, may change American history.  If the political powers try to thwart him, he may well have the power, and the spine, to resist, and come out a national hero.

POLITICAL FUN – From The Politico:   The most accurate pundits in the history of American presidential politics reside far from the Beltway, on a 403-square mile patch of land along the western border of Indiana. At the intersections of U.S. Highways 40 and 41, and off Interstate 70, you find yourself in Vigo County, with its 108,000 residents and its ho-hum county seat, Terre Haute, situated along the Wabash River. Terre Haute is the land of Clabber Girl Baking Powder—and its citizens call it the “Crossroads of America.” It’s the place where both Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh and labor leader and Social Democratic Party founder Eugene Debs were born, and home to the U.S. penitentiary where the Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh died.  And, in nearly every presidential election since 1888, voters here in this blue-collar county have selected the winning candidate, missing only twice: Once, in 1908, when they opted for Williams Jennings Bryan instead of William Howard Taft, and again in 1952, when they chose Adlai Stevenson rather than Dwight D. Eisenhower.  And the county appears to be tilting toward...Donald Trump.  Well, remember they've been wrong twice.

December 4, 2015       Permalink

THIS IS WEIRD, MAN – AT 9:58 A.M. ET:  Attorney General Loretta Lynch is proving that she is the second coming of Eric Holder.  From dailywire.com:

The day after a horrific shooting spree by a "radicalized" Muslim man and his partner in San Bernardino, California, Attorney General Loretta Lynch pledged to a group of Muslim activists that she would take aggressive action against anyone who used "anti-Muslim rhetoric" that "edges toward violence."

Speaking to the audience at the Muslim Advocate's 10th anniversary dinner Thursday, Lynch said her "greatest fear" is the "incredibly disturbing rise of anti-Muslim rhetoric" in America and vowed to prosecute anyone guilty of what she deemed violence-inspiring speech.

Assuring the pro-Muslim group that "we stand with you," Lynch said she would use her Justice Department to protect Muslims from "violence" and discrimination.

Claiming that violence against Muslims is on the rise and citing France's clamp down on potentially radicalized mosques, Lynch suggested the Constitution does not protect "actions predicated on violent talk" and pledged to prosecute those responsible for such actions.

“When we talk about the First Amendment we [must] make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not American," said Lynch. "They are not who we are, they are not what we do, and they will be prosecuted."

"My message not just to the Muslim community but to all Americans is ‘We cannot give in to the fear that these backlashes are really based on,'" said Lynch.

It is painfully clear that, like her predecessor Eric Holder, Lynch is far more concerned with promoting the social justice agenda than protecting the Constitutional rights of American citizens.

What exactly is speech that "edges toward violence"? What exactly are "actions predicated on violent talk"? In the end, it is whatever she decides it to mean.

COMMENT:  When Lynch came in we had some hope, based on her record, that she would distance herself from the propagandistic tone of the Obama administration.  That hope is fading rapidly.

Annual FBI reports show that Jews are five times more likely than Muslims to be the targets of hate crimes.  In fact, America has been remarkably generous toward Islam.  Political leaders of both parties have gone out of their way to make a distinction between terrorists and ordinary Muslims.  Indeed, the Democrats won't even use the term "Islamist extremism." 

There are tensions involving Islam because Islam has a serious terrorism problem.  But I certainly don't see any national, violent movement against Muslims.

December 4, 2015       Permalink

A GOOD JOBS REPORT? – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:   That's what the Obama media is saying, and it will lead to an interest-rate increase.  Ain't that grand?  From The New York Times: 

The American economy created 211,000 jobs in November, the government reported Friday, a robust showing that all but guarantees policy makers at the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade when they meet this month.

The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent, unchanged from October.

The big gain in hiring reported for October was revised upward by 18,000, while September’s weaker payroll performance was revised upward by 8,000.

The overall picture of labor market strength evident in the November report removes the last major obstacle ahead of the Fed decision.

“Short of geopolitical events that are larger than anything we’ve seen lately, this is a done deal,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial in Chicago.

Before the report for November, economists had been looking for payrolls to rise by 200,000, with no change in the unemployment rate.

This week, the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Janet L. Yellen, and other top Fed officials hinted that a rate increase was imminent.

Raising rates, Ms. Yellen said in a speech Wednesday, would be “a testament, also, to how far our economy has come in recovering from the effects of the financial crisis and the Great Recession.”

“It is a day that I expect we all are looking forward to,” she added.

Besides the tempo of hiring and the unemployment rate, Ms. Yellen and fellow Fed policy makers have been paying close attention to the pace of wage increases, or until very recently, the lack thereof.

COMMENT:  A rosy report that tells us nothing about the kind of jobs being "created," and the percentage of people who've given up.  In the real world most Americans tell survey takers that the country is heading in the wrong direction. 

It's expected that Obama will use his last year in office to pile on new regulations that may set back or halt much economic progress. 

Please also watch the price of oil.  While low oil prices are great for consumers, prices below the $40-a-barrel level are a danger for the energy industry, and may force the slowing of the American oil boom that is making us energy-independent. 

I'd want to see four or five more monthly reports before I try to retire on the Riviera.

December 4, 2015       Permalink

THE PLOT THICKENS – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  Except for ideological leftists, which, sadly, means most of the Obama crowd, it's now established that the San Bernardino shooters were, at minimum, terrorists in training.  From Fox: 

Federal investigators believe there is a "very serious" possibility that Tashfeen Malik, one of two shooters who murdered 14 people and wounded 21 others in San Bernardino, Calif. Wednesday, radicalized her husband and co-assailant, county restaurant inspector Syed Farook, Fox News has learned.

Investigators also believe that the couple had planned a second attack after the shooting at a social service center for the disabled when they were killed in a shootout with local authorities approximately two miles away.

Little is known about Malik's background prior to her meeting Farook. However, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News that the two met and became engaged after Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia in September 2013. Malik, a Pakistani citizen, applied for a K-1 visa at the American embassy in Islamabad in May 2014 and Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia that July to bring her to the U.S. The Saudi Embassy in Washington has confirmed that Farook's 2014 trip lasted nine days.

They were married on Aug. 16, 2014, in nearby Riverside County, Calif. according to their marriage license. Both listed their religion as Muslim.

Investigators believe that on at least one of those trips to Saudi Arabia, one or both members of the couple made contact with suspected Al Qaeda terrorists. The exact nature of that contact was not immediately clear.

Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, an organization that tracks and analyzes extremists, told the Associated Press it hasn't found any connection between Farook and jihadi groups. But she also said that some of Farook's social media posts seem to have been deleted before the attack.

Law enforcement sources told Fox News late Thursday that there was a "very strong" possibility that Malik functioned as Farook's terror trainer and may have even put together pipe bombs found by authorities at the various crime scenes Wednesday.

COMMENT:  The key revelation is that the shooters probably planned a second attack.  This would have been consistent with the planned technique of the Paris massacres.  Those attackers also planned a second assault that didn't come off.

At the same time, the usual suspects in media are still "struggling" to understand the "motives" for the San Bernardino shooters.  Oh, the anguish.  Oh, the lack of cultural understanding.  Maybe the shooters were "offended" by some anti-Muslim remark.  Maybe they were "offended" by the Christmas decorations at the party they attacked.  In the hours after the attack, some left-wing groups assumed the assailants were right-wingers.  Blame anyone but the guilty.

December 4,  2015     Permalink