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DECEMBER 17,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:58 P.M. ET: 

I'M SO RELIEVED – From ABC:    Flanked by his national security team, President Obama reassured Americans that there was "no specific, credible threat" against the country ahead of the holidays.  "We do not have any specific and credible information about an attack on the homeland," Obama said today at the National Counterterrorism Center. "That said, we have to be vigilant."  Obama said security experts are constantly hard at work putting up safeguards to prevent terrorists from entering the country, while at the same time bringing the fight to terrorists plotting overseas.  Well, that certainly satisfies me.  If there were going to be an attack, wouldn't we have credible information about it?  Maps?  Exact locations and plans?  Didn't we have clear information before 9-11?  Fort Hood?  San Bernardino?  Oh, uh, maybe I'd better rethink this.

HE'S BAAACK – At least for a few hours.  From Breitbart:   Hyper-liberal Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore challenged Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump by holding a sign reading “We Are All Muslim” outside Trump Tower on Wednesday before penning an open letter to the candidate on Facebook...“We are all Muslim. Deal with it,” Moore concluded.  Moore has become increasingly vocal about his dislike for the Republican frontrunner; last week, he invited Facebook followers to report Trump for “hate speech” in an effort to have him banned from the social media service.  In an interview with the Daily Beast the day before his latest stunt, Moore said Trump should embrace his “female side.”  Moore might consider embracing his grown-up side, but would have considerable difficulty finding it.

BERNIE AIN'T FINISHED – From Buzzfeed:  WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders added more progressive grassroots support to his campaign Thursday, picking up the endorsement of the Vermont-based Democracy For America, which was founded out of Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign.  The endorsement gives the Vermont senator another big piece of the organized progressive movement to leverage for fundraising and grassroots organizing. It’s the first time DFA has endorsed in a Democratic primary since its founding, and the group pledged Thursday to throw its weight behind Sanders as the homestretch to the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries begins in earnest.  It’s an especially sweet addition to Sanders’ lengthy list of lefty boosters thanks to the way the endorsement came about. DFA asked its members to vote for who the group should endorse, as it does for most of its political endorsements. Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley each made direct appeals to DFA members. Dean, who founded the group and backs Clinton, wrote an email to DFA voters on her behalf: “I hope that Hillary will be your choice,” Dean wrote.  Unless Hillary is indicted, she probably has the nomination sewn up.  If she is indicted, Obama will engineer a Democratic Party coup by Joe Biden.  Bernie is a sentimental favorite, but he has little support among the minorities who have veto power over Democratic nominations.

December 17,  2015     Permalink

SAY IT AIN'T SO, MICKEY – AT 7:45 P.M. ET:   It had to come to this.  Some of America's favorite theme parks will now get extra security.  From the Orlando Sentinel: 

In a sign of how jittery the nation has become about terrorism and gun violence, Orlando's major theme parks on Thursday added metal detectors as a security precaution.

Walt Disney World placed walk-through metal detectors in front of its theme parks. Universal Orlando began using wand-style metal detectors in an area leading into its parks and nightlife district. SeaWorld also began using wand-style detectors.

The safety measures extend outside Orlando. Disneyland and Universal Studios in Hollywood are also using the devices.

Security in general has been a major concern following recent deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. On Wednesday, the federal Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin saying it was "especially concerned that terrorist-inspired individuals and homegrown violent extremists might be encouraged or inspired to target public events or places." It warned people to expect more police and more stringent security at large gathering places.

The apparently coordinated decision at theme parks seems to be "really kind of a destination statement of, 'Look, we're ensuring all our guests traveling to Orlando experiencing the parks, we're going to try to provide the safest environment possible,'" said Scott Smith, an assistant hospitality professor at the University of South Carolina.

Disney World — where a man was arrested last week after trying to enter the Magic Kingdom with a handgun — also said Thursday it would discontinue the sale of toy guns. New rules also include a ban on costumes for visitors 14 and older, even at Halloween parties. It is unclear whether people can still wear them at Disney races.

COMMENT:  Well, there goes my Minnie Mouse outfit.  But, if it protects people, it's worth it.  What we must also concentrate on is schools and universities.  Schools should be hardened and protected, even if it offends the gun-control crowd.  We protect jewelry stores better than we protect our kids.

December 17, 2015       Permalink

STRANGE ENDORSEMENT – AT 9:37 A.M. ET:  Donald Trump has a fan.  From AFP: 

Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday described US Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as a talented and outstanding man, welcoming his stance on Russia.

"He is a very outstanding man, unquestionably talented," Putin told journalists after his annual press conference in Moscow.

"It's not up to us to judge his virtue, that is up to US voters, but he is the absolute leader of the presidential race," Putin added.

Putin said Russia is ready to work with the United States no matter who is elected president next year. "We are ready to work with any president chosen by the American people."

Trump, a tycoon and onetime reality television star who has unexpectedly become leader of the Republican presidential candidates' race, has been gaining both fans and enemies recently for his inflammatory remarks against Muslims.

He has vowed to ban all Muslims from entering the United States if he succeeds in his bid to become the next US president.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday called Trump's comments "divisive, stupid and wrong."

Putin said that Trump's comments to his domestic audience while on the campaign trail were not Russia's concern, but added that he likes the Republican hopeful's statements on Russia.

"On domestic politics, his manner of speaking, what he employs to raise his popularity" -- that is none of Russia's business, Putin said. "It's not our concern to evaluate his work."

Some of Trump's statements on Putin are apparently music to the Russian president's ear.

"He says that he wants a different level of relations, tighter and deeper relations with Russia, how can we not welcome that? Of course we welcome it," Putin said.

COMMENT:  Very shrewd comments by Putin, who is probably the best strategic player among the major world leaders.  Why should he attack Trump, like so many others?  What's in it for Russia?  By praising him, he has a friend should Trump get elected.  I'm not in favor of Trump, but watching Trump and Putin deal with each other would be a political feast.

December 17, 2015       Permalink

NOTHING TO SEE, NOTHING TO SEE – AT 9:09 A.M. ET:  We're sure these were just innocent tourists contemplating the beauty of our border areas.  From Judicial Watch:

A Middle Eastern woman was caught surveilling a U.S. port of entry on the Mexican border holding a sketchbook with Arabic writing and drawings of the facility and its security system, federal law enforcement sources tell Judicial Watch.

The woman has been identified as 23-year-old Leila Abdelrazaq, according to a Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) report obtained by JW this week. Abdelrazaq appeared to have two accomplices, a 31-year-old man named Gabriel Schivone and a 28-year-old woman named Leslie Mcafee. CBP agents noticed the trio “observing the facilities” at the Port of Mariposa in Nogales, Arizona on December 2. Schivone was first noticed inside the entrance of the pedestrian area while the two women stood outside by the entry door, the CPB document states.

When federal officers asked Abdelrazaq why she was drawing sketches of the facilities she “stated because she’s never been to the border,” according to the CBP report. Abdelrazaq resisted showing officers the sketchbook, citing personal reasons, but subsequently handed it over. “During the inspection of the Abdelrazaq sketching book, CBPOs noticed the book contained writings in English and Arabic language,” federal officers write in the document. “There were drawings of what appeared to be vehicle primary inspection area and an additional drawing of pedestrian turn stile gate depicting video surveillance cameras above the gate.” The report proceeds to reveal that the drawings were “partial and incomplete.”

This distressing information comes on the heels of two separate—and equally alarming—incidents in the same vicinity. A few weeks ago JW reported that five young Middle Eastern men were apprehended by the U.S. Border Patrol in Amado, an Arizona town situated about 30 miles from the Mexican border. Two of the men were carrying stainless steel cylinders in backpacks, alarming Border Patrol officials enough to call the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for backup. DHS officially denies this ever occurred, but law enforcement and other sources have confirmed to JW that the two men carrying the cylinders were believed to be taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

COMMENT:  As the saying goes, our authorities have to be lucky every day.  The terrorists have to be lucky only once.  There is, according to every survey, tremendous apprehension in this country – a sense that there will be more attacks.  The apprehension is justified.  It may well affect the 2016 presidential election.

December 17, 2015       Permalink

JUST BRILLIANT – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  It's hard to make this up.  From CNN:

Belgian authorities may have had the chance to arrest one of the Paris attackers two days after terror struck the French capital, but were unable to do so due to a law limiting police raids on private homes, the country's justice minister said Wednesday.

Koen Geens told Belgian media Wednesday that police had tracked Salah Abdeslam to an apartment in Brussels just two days after the Nov. 13 attacks killed 130 people and injured 350 others. However, authorities were forbidden to carry out a raid to capture the terrorist dubbed "Europe's most wanted man" due to an obscure law that prohibits police from entering private homes between the hours of 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The only exceptions to the law, which dates to 1969, are if a crime is in progress or if the home is on fire.

The apartment where Abdeslam was believed to be hiding out was located in Brussels' western suburb of Molenbeek, which has been singled out by authorities as a hotbed of jihadist activity. Abdeslam grew up in the neighborhood, as did the mastermind of the Paris attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in a raid by French police Nov. 18

A spokesman for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office acknowledged to The New York Times that authorities did not seal off the area during the night and that Abdeslam was gone when police returned the following day to carry out their operation. Belgian media reported that investigators found evidence during their search that Abdeslam had indeed been in the apartment during the night, though that was not explicitly confirmed by authorities.

COMMENT:  Moral of the story:  Keep laws up to date, and interpret them sensibly.  Human lives are at stake.

December 17,  2015     Permalink

DECEMBER 16,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

CARTER, TOO? – From Fox:  Defense Secretary Ash Carter used his personal email account to conduct some of his professional correspondence during his first months on the job earlier this year, the Pentagon admitted late Wednesday.  Carter's use of the personal account was first reported by The New York Times, which said that he had been confronted about his email habits by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough this past May, three months after Carter took office as defense secretary.  Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook released a statement saying that Carter believes his use of personal email for work-related business was a mistake. Cook declined to say whether it was a violation of Pentagon email policies. Cook also said Carter stopped the practice, but Cook did not say when.  Very surprising.  Ash Carter is a good man who knows his way around the Pentagon.  He is probably one of Obama's best appointments.  Hillary Clinton is under FBI investigation for the same abuses of e-mail.  Was this public disclosure involving Carter a way to help Hillary or hurt her?  Very mysterious.

WELL THAT SETTLES IT – From Mediaite:   Hillary Clinton held a campaign event alongside Warren Buffet in Nebraska today, where she jokingly assured Republicans that even though she’s a Democrat, it doesn’t mean she’s some sort of liberal demonic creature of the underworld.  While Clinton was discussing her economic policy positions, she decided to give her attendees some advice if their conservative-leaning acquaintances ever ask what they were doing listening to her. While she told them to hold out hope that she might change their minds, Clinton said that the “first thing you can tell them, as best as you can tell looking under the lights, I don’t have horns.”  Clinton continues to face problems attracting conservative voters, having been deemed by some as untrustworthy, constantly getting lumped in with criticisms of President Obama, and still coming off of how she called Republicans her “enemy.”  I'm relieved.  I never thought Hillary had horns.  A stone heart maybe.  A warped mind.  A violent temper.  But horns?  I'm just a fair-minded commentator, and I haven't seen any evidence of horns.  But if you have, please write.

THIS YOU GOTTA SEE – From Fox:   Trigger warning! This story and video may be unsuitable viewing for the “safe space” crowd.  Looking to understand just how controversial the debate over free speech on our college campuses really is, filmmaker and satirist Ami Horowitz recently traveled to Yale University, one of our nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning, to speak directly to students.  “I decided to take this campus free speech debate to its logical conclusion,” said Horowitz, who asked students if they’d sign a petition calling for an outright repeal of the First Amendment. “The result was this unbelievable display of total stupidity.”  In fact, Horowitz discovered a solid majority of the students asked willingly signed the petition, with several expressing their enthusiastic approval for his anti-First Amendment efforts.  Some of these colleges might look into what standards are being applied by their admissions offices.  Or maybe they just don't care.  Yale is one of the most selective schools in the country, but you won't believe the dumbness of some of the comments on the video. 

December 16, 2015       Permalink

HOW SAD, BUT HOW COMMON – AT 10:12 A.M. ET:   We've all asked where the money for "charities" actually goes.  The answer is often quite murky.  From the Daily Beast: 

Shaun King is very good at raising money in support of black lives and—one of those lives might be his own.

King, one of the most visible faces of the Black Lives Matter movement and no stranger to controversy, is now beating back accusations that he has misappropriated or mismanaged charitable funds.

King collected millions of dollars for everyone from Haitian orphans to the families of black men and children killed by police across America. Some of that money went to survivors or victims’ families, but much of the largess either went into failed projects, King’s own pockets, or is unaccounted for.

“It’s just b--------,” King told The Daily Beast on Tuesday after allegations were lobbed against him by members of his own movement. “People need to understand that failure is not fraud.”

The former mega-church pastor-turned-citizen journalist has leveraged heavy doses of charisma into 218,000 Twitter followers and a column at the New York Daily News to chronicle instances of suspected injustices carried out by police in predominantly non-white communities. King counts a flurry of A-list celebrities and largely left-leaning politicians among his most ardent fans. They follow his Twitter timeline for the latest news—whether it’s a video of cop shooting an unarmed black boy or a school resource officer accused of brutalizing a teenager.

COMMENT:  It's important to read the entire thing.  Remember that these are charges.  There is no legal finding of guilt so far.

But these questions about charities arise time and again.  They're similar to the questions raised about government "social programs."  Where does the money go?  Who gets rich?  Who gets helped?  What kind of "research" underlies the claims?

We'll follow the story.

December 16,  2015     Permalink

AND IN THE REAL WORLD – AT 9:45 A.M. ET:   Let us not forget that, as we focus on ISIS, Iran is the major enemy.  From Reuters: 

UNITED NATIONS Iran violated a U.N. Security Council resolution in October by test-firing a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, a team of sanctions monitors said, leading to calls in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday for more sanctions on Tehran.

The White House said it would not rule out additional steps against Iran over the test of the medium-range Emad rocket.

There won't be any.  The agreement with Iran is Obama's "legacy," the only thing he cares about.

The Security Council's Panel of Experts on Iran said in a confidential report, first reported by Reuters, that the launch showed the rocket met its requirements for considering that a missile could deliver a nuclear weapon.

"On the basis of its analysis and findings the Panel concludes that Emad launch is a violation by Iran of paragraph 9 of Security Council resolution 1929," the panel said.

Diplomats said the rocket test on Oct. 10 was not technically a violation of the July nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers, but the U.N. report could put U.S. President Barack Obama's administration in an awkward position.

Iran has said any new sanctions would jeopardise the nuclear deal. But if Washington failed to call for sanctions over the Emad launch, it would likely be perceived as weakness.

COMMENT:  Being perceived as weak is Obama's life work.  It wouldn't bother him.  The Iranians are already cheating.  But a future president will have to deal with that.

December 16, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA SLIPS AGAIN – 8:46 A.M. ET:  His poll numbers could impact Hillary's campaign.  From Breitbart: 

The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll reveals that following the San Bernardino terrorist attack, 70 percent of Americans now believe the nation is headed in the wrong direction and only 43 percent approve of Barack Obama’s job performance as president.

About 71 percent of Americans say that the “shootings and random acts of violence that took place this year in Charleston, S.C., Oregon , Colorado, and the terrorist shootings in San Bernardino, California — are now are now a permanent part of American life.”

Domestic terrorism and national security have more than doubled this year and now are the top issue for 40 percent of Americans. The next nearest categories are job creation and economic growth at 23 percent and the deficit and government spending at 11 percent.

President Obama told global leaders at the opening of the Paris climate change conference, just after the San Bernardino attack, that dealing with climate change was a “rejection” of what terrorists seek to do to the world. But only 7 percent of Americans rate climate change as their number one priority.

The NBC/WSJ survey found a continuing partisan divide in the poll, with 58 percent of Republican primary voters saying national security/terrorism is their top concern, versus only 26 percent of Democratic primary voters saying it is their top priority. Democrats by 33 percent and Republicans by 12 percent rate economy/jobs as their top issue.

When asked, “Is taking military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in our national interest or not,” roughly 60 percent are ready to send in the military and only a paltry 13 percent are opposed to direct intervention. Forty-two percent say the military should use both airstrikes and combat troops; 36 percent say it should be limited only to airstrikes; and just 12 percent say military action should not be taken.

As a result of these negative trends, President Obama’s disapproval rating has risen by 11 points since early summer, to 51 percent.

COMMENT:  Devastating.  And Hillary has to run, at least in part, on Obama's record.  She was part of his administration, and you may be sure that he's putting the heat on to keep her in line.  Joe Biden waits in the wings if the FBI probe into Hillary produces results as bad as we think they might be. 

Hillary and Barack recently had a lunch together, and Hillary came out spouting the Obama line.  She didn't do it out of intellectual conviction.

December 16, 2015       Permalink