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DECEMBER 29,  2015

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

EARTH-SHAKING POLITICAL NEWS – George Pataki has dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination.  Oh, let me explain.  He was once governor of New York.  You may remember him.  Even people living in New York may remember him.  Not a bad guy.  Was governor during 9/11.  But that was 14 years ago.  His campaign this year failed to ignite. 

MAJOR GRIEVANCE – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas, never known for intelligence or ability, has raised a new demand.  She wants some hurricanes to have distinctly African-American names, like Jamal or Leticia.  She also wants hurricane warnings broadcast in language more understandable to people in inner cities.  Apparently there's some culturally distinct way to tell people that 150-mile-an-hour winds may strike their home.  Antics like this just demean the African-American community.  They help no one.  Maybe Ms. Lee can find an honest line of work.

REMINDER – From NBC – The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman came about 1,500 yards from an Iranian rocket in the Strait of Hormuz last week, two U.S. military officials told NBC News on Tuesday.  As the Truman was transiting the strait, which connects the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, Iranian Revolutionary Guards conducted a live-fire exercise right near the U.S. carrier Saturday, officials said.  A U.S. military official said an Iranian navy fast and short attack craft began conducting a live-fire exercise at the same time the carrier was nearing the end of the strait, firing off several unguided rockets. A French frigate, the U.S. destroyer USS Buckley and other commercial traffic were also in the area.  It's been reported that, in case of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran, Iran's dream would be to take out an American carrier.

BOYCOTT! – From The Hill:   The founders of Ben and Jerry’s are making a fundraising pitch for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, days before the year-end fundraising deadline.  Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, who co-founded the Vermont-based ice cream chain, sent an email to supporters Tuesday, urging them to volunteer and donate $3 before the Dec. 31 deadline.  The two are ardent supporters of the Vermont senator and frequently stump for him in the early-voting states.  I am personally boycotting Cherry Garcia and New York Fudge Chunk.  Take that, socialists!

December 29, 2015       Permalink

QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 12:35 P.M. ET:   The brilliant Thomas Sowell examines 2015 and finds it the year of the lie.  And he singles out one in particular.  From Townhall: 

More than anything else, 2015 has been the year of the big lie. There have been lies in other years, and some of them pretty big, but even so 2015 has set new highs -- or new lows.

This is the year when we learned, from Hillary Clinton's own e-mails, after three long years of stalling, stone-walling and evasions, that Secretary of State Clinton lied, and so did President Barack Obama and others under him, when they all told us in 2012 that the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed the American ambassador and three other Americans was not a terrorist attack, but a protest demonstration that got out of hand.

"What difference, at this point, does it make?" as Mrs. Clinton later melodramatically cried out, at a Congressional committee hearing investigating that episode.

First of all, it made enough of a difference for some of the highest officials of American government to concoct a false story that they knew at the time was false.

It mattered enough that, if the truth had come out, on the eve of a presidential election, it could have destroyed Barack Obama's happy tale of how he had dealt a crippling blow to terrorists by killing Usama bin Laden (with an assist from the Navy's SEALS).

Had Obama's lies about his triumph over terrorism been exposed on the eve of the election, that could have ended his stay in the White House. And that could have spared us and the world many of Obama's disasters in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. That is why it matters, and will continue to matter in the future.

Lying, by itself, is obviously not new. What is new is the growing acceptance of lying as "no big deal" by smug sophisticates, so long as these are lies that advance their political causes. Many in the media greeted the exposure of Hillary Clinton's lies by admiring how well she handled herself.

COMMENT:  So true.  And yes, the only reaction that many in the media had to Clinton's testimony before Congress on Benghazi was to comment on her fine style. 

Lying has indeed become accepted by the chattering classes.  And why not?  In college these days students are taught that each culture has its own "validity," and that a lie isn't a lie, but another "narrative."  And, after all, who are we to question it?

December 29,  2015     Permalink

TERROR WARNING – AT 10:33 A.M. ET:   There have been new terror arrests in Belgium, linked to New Year's Eve.  From the BBC: 

Belgian police have arrested two people suspected of planning attacks in Brussels on New Year's Eve.

Raids took place on Sunday and Monday in Brussels and the provinces of Flemish Brabant and Liege.

Police seized military clothing and propaganda materials in the raids, but no weapons or explosives.

Belgium has been on high alert since the attacks of 13 November in Paris. Several of the perpetrators are thought to have been based in Belgium.

However, the latest arrests are not linked to the Paris attacks, prosecutors say.

One of those arrested is suspected of leading and recruiting for a terrorist cell.

The suspects are accused of planning attacks against several "symbolic targets" in Brussels, as well as on the police, according to the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

Propaganda for the so-called Islamic State group was among the materials seized.

COMMENT:  This comes several days after we learned that warnings have been issued to several European cities and to Boston, Massachusetts, about possible terror attacks between Christmas and New Year's.  We stress that we have no specific information.  But stay on the alert.  As they say, correctly, if you see something, say something. 

December 29, 2015       Permalink

SICKENING – AT 9:22 A.M. ET:  It is hard to believe that this is happening in today's world.  From Reuters:

WASHINGTON: Islamic State theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when "owners" of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females.

The ruling or fatwa has the force of law and appears to go beyond the Islamic State's previous known utterances on the subject, a leading Islamic State scholar said. It sheds new light on how the group is trying to reinterpret centuries-old teachings to justify the sexual slavery of women in the swaths of Syria and Iraq it controls.

The fatwa was among a huge trove of documents captured by U.S. Special Operations Forces during a raid targeting a top Islamic State official in Syria in May. Reuters has reviewed some of the documents, which have not been previously published.

Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing, but take nausea pills first.  Then please note the silence of so-called "women's" organizations.  Will some news operation please investigate what these groups actually do for women.  Seems to me that many of them (not all) have simply become functionaries of the Marxist left.  The plight of women appears secondary.

December 29, 2015        Permalink

POLL SPLIT ON OBAMA'S LEGACY – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:  A new CNN/ORC poll does not bring particularly welcome news for the man who came to office pledging to sweep his hand over this country and cure its ills.  From CNN:

(CNN) Heading into the final year of Barack Obama's presidency, the American public is divided on whether he's brought positive or negative change to the United States, and expresses broad dissatisfaction with government and anger about the way things are going in the nation generally.

Americans are divided in their views of Obama generally: 48% have a favorable opinion of him, 50% an unfavorable one. According to CNN/ORC Poll results from the same survey that were released on Monday, his overall job approval rating tilts negative, 52% disapprove while 47% approve. But on the issue that dominated the 2008 election campaign which brought Obama to the White House -- the economy -- the president scores his highest marks and the public remains optimistic.

A narrow majority -- 52% -- approve of Obama's handling of the economy, an uptick since last month. Obama last reached majority approval on the economy in June of this year.

COMMENT:  Part of the economic approval is due to low gas prices, even though Obama has opposed the very practices that have brought those prices down, namely the vastly increased petroleum production in the United States.  It's not the first time Obama has taken credit for something he opposed.  He opposed increased sanctions on Iran.  But, when they began to bite and have an impact, he suddenly found himself a sanctions fan, at least for a time.

Obama will not leave office with the lowest approval ratings of modern times.  Bush 43's were far lower.  So were Harry Truman's.  Truman is now seen as a great or near-great president.  I don't think Obama can even dream of that.  Left-wing historians in the universities will help him out of course.  But there's not much success to look at, and his greatest domestic "achievement," Obamacare, is running into grim economic facts.

December 29,  2015     Permalink

DECEMBER 28,  2015

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

CONFUSED?  From London's Daily Mail:   Health labels on food could be making people fatter rather than helping them to lose weight, a study has found.  People eat more food than they should if it is labelled healthy because they think it is less filling than fatty options.  Consumers tend to binge when they see nutritional signs because they automatically assume they are making a better choice.  As a result they could end up consuming more calories overall, researchers said.  The results suggest that, while eating too much is often the cause of obesity, eating too much healthy food could make you fat too.  I will stop reading labels immediately.  I never read one that I liked.

HE'S BAACK – From AP:   BERLIN (AP) — For 70 years since the Nazi defeat in World War II, copyright law has been used in Germany to prohibit the publication of "Mein Kampf" — the notorious anti-Semitic tome in which Adolf Hitler set out his ideology.  That will change next month when a new edition with critical commentary, the product of several years' work by a publicly funded institute, hits the shelves.  While historians say it could help fill a gap in Germans' knowledge of the era, Jewish groups are wary and German authorities are making it clear that they still won't tolerate any new "Mein Kampf" without annotations.  I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I don't see how publication can be prevented in a democracy once a copyright expires.  If used correctly, Mein Kampf can be a warning about extremism.  If used incorrectly, it can spawn new fascist groups.

STANDINGS – From Rasmussen:   Presidential frontrunners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump remain all tied up in a hypothetical matchup heading into 2016.  If the 2016 presidential election was held today, 37% of Likely U.S. Voters would vote for Clinton, while 36% would vote for Trump. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that a sizable 22% would choose some other candidate, while five percent (5%) are undecided.  These findings are nearly identical to those measured in October when Trump picked up 38% support to Clinton’s 36%.  More than anything, I think these results show Clinton's weakness.  She really isn't very popular.  There is very little "wanting" of Hillary, except among the mink-coat pseudo-feminist crowd, still pining for the 1960s. 

December 28, 2015        Permalink

BALTIMORE STORY – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  Baltimore is a mess.   And yet, there is so little reporting on the kind of governmental incompetence that led to its current, tragic situation.  From Fox: 

A violent weekend in Baltimore raised the number of those killed in the city this year to 336, which is the second-highest number on record and is the highest per-capita rate in history.

The Baltimore Sun reported Tuesday that the most recent homicides include two men who were fatally stabbed early Sunday. And a 17-year-old died Sunday after being stabbed inside a classroom last month.

The paper also reported that a 1-year-old was killed on Dec. 16.

The report said that the homicide rate in the city is now 54 per 100,000. Back in 1993, the city had a record 353 killings.

The city has seen its share of unrest over the past year that centered on the case of Freddie Gray, who died April 19, one week after being found unresponsive in a police transport van following his arrest.

COMMENT:  Many cities are returning, in the age of Obama, to the conditions of 25, 30 and 35 years ago.  Yet, have you noticed how few media reports examine how New York City essentially solved its crime problem, reducing the murder rate by 80%?  Gee, I wonder why the media doesn't want to go there.  You don't think it's because most of the progress was made under a Republican mayor named Rudy, do you?  Nah, the press doesn't act that way, now does it?  Choke.

December 28, 2015       Permalink

THE NEW COLD WAR – AT 9:57 A.M. ET:  We sometimes forget that Russia is now heavily involved in the Mideast, thanks to the power vacuum left by Field Marshal Obama and his merry men.  And the Russkies are none too pleased with our attitude.  This is from Tass, the Russian news agency: 

MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. The Pentagon, refusing to transfer the data on terrorist targets in Syria to the Russian military, continues to fight against the Islamic State terrorist group "in word only", Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters on Monday.

He thus commented on a recent statement by the Pentagon spokesperson Michelle Baldanza who confirmed that the US military did not intend to share with Moscow the information on IS targets until Russia changes its policy towards Syrian President Bashar Assad. "We are not going to cooperate with Russia on Syria until they change their strategy of supporting Assad and instead focus on ISIL (IS)," Baldanza said.

"The hackneyed thesis has once again confirmed that the Pentagon will fight against IS in word only, instead of taking real action," Konashenkov said. "The statement by the US Defense Department spokesperson Michelle Baldanza about the [US side’s] refusal from any cooperation in the fight against Islamic State is a broken record, and it’s high time to change it," he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said that at last week’s news briefing of the chief of the Main Operations Directorate of the Russian General Staff, General Sergey Rudskoy, the military presented data on changes in the routes of illegal transportation of oil by the Islamic State militants.

COMMENT:  Ah, it's good to hear that old-time Soviet religion again, isn't it?  There is a new Cold War, even though the Obama White House won't call it that.  Get used to it.  As long as Putin is in power, it isn't going away.

December 28, 2015       Permalink

TERRORISTS WINNING SAY AMERICANS – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  Not good news for the Obama administration, and clearly a campaign issue.  From CNN:   

Washington (CNN) Americans are more likely to say that terrorists are winning the war against the United States than they have been at any point since the September 11 attacks, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

The public is broadly unhappy with the nation's progress, with nearly three-quarters of Americans saying they are not satisfied with how the war on terror is proceeding. That figure, following terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, this fall, is well above the previous high of 61% who said they were dissatisfied in August 2007.

The poll was conducted December 17-21, several weeks after the Bernardino shootings.

While less than half of Americans say the terrorists are winning, the current 40% who do believe that is 17 points above the previous high of 23% reached in August 2005. Another 40% say neither side has an advantage, and just 18% say today that the U.S. and its allies have the upper hand -- 10 points off the previous low for that measure, reached in January 2007.

Majority dissatisfaction with the war on terrorism crosses party lines, with even a majority of Democrats, 59%, expressing unease with the case prosecuted by the Obama White House. Seventy-nine percent of independents and 86% of Republicans also say they are dissatisfied with how it has fared.

A majority of Republicans, 55%, say they think the terrorists are winning, while most Democrats, 52%, feel neither side has an edge.

COMMENT:   With each successful attack, and ISIS launched a number of them in 2015, support for Obama's policies on terror erodes.  If there is another successful attack on American soil, the dam may break, and Americans could start demanding immediate, even drastic action.

December 28, 2015       Permalink

RAMADI – AT 8:58 A.M. ET:   Building on our report of last night, Iraqi forces have made further progress in trying to retake the city of Ramadi, but we have to be very careful about reports.  One early report said that they had retaken Ramadi, but a later report pulled that back, claiming that only a government compound had been retaken.  From Fox:

Iraqi government forces took control of the central government complex in the city of Ramadi Monday, liberating the city from the ISIS terror group, a military spokesperson said.

However, Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of military operations in Anbar, said that troops had only retaken the complex itself, and parts of the city remained under ISIS control.

The complex was thought to have been the last holdout for a few dozen ISIS militia members who had tried to slow the Iraqi advance through the city with snipers and improvised explosive devices.

"Yes, the city of Ramadi has been liberated. The Iraqi counter-terrorism forces have raised the Iraqi flag over the government complex in Anbar," joint operations spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rahsool said in a statement broadcast on state televiison.

Earlier Monday, Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi told The Associated Press that the militants had stopped firing at the troops from inside the complex at around 8:00 a.m. (12 a.m. EST) and that "we believe that they were either killed or fled."

The capture of Ramadi, the capital of mainly Sunni Muslim Anbar province in the Euphrates River valley west of the capital, would deprive ISIS militants of their biggest prize of 2015.

COMMENT:  Of course we want to see victory for our side, but we've seen this drill before.  Claims followed by retractions.  I'm guessing that the Iraqi army will in fact take the city, but ISIS can counterattack. 

As we've reported, the ISIS leader has warned his followers of tough times ahead on the ground.  They may in fact be hurting because of American air strikes.  But don't be shocked if they react with another attack in Europe.  This is an ongoing story.

December 28,  2015     Permalink