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JULY 16,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:31 P.M. ET: 

NEW FOX POLL – From Fox:   Among Republican primary voters, Trump captures 18 percent. He’s closely followed by Walker at 15 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 14 percent. No one else reaches double-digits.  Support for Trump is up seven percentage points since last month and up 14 points since May. He’s also the candidate GOP primary voters say they are most interested in learning more about during the debates.  Walker’s up six points since he officially kicked off his campaign. That bump gets him back to the support he was receiving earlier this year. In March, he was also at 15 percent.  Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul gets eight percent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio receives seven percent, former neurosurgeon Ben Carson comes in at six percent, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee get four percent a piece.  We're still in the silly season.  Trump's all the craze, but he's still polling at only 18 percent.  Let's give it some months before we get serious about polling.  The next craze may not be Donald Trump, but Donald Duck.

YOU SHALL SLEEP – From Breitbart:   ADOR, Spain, July 16 (UPI) — A Spanish mayor has become the first in the country to issue a proclamation creating an official afternoon nap time for the entire city.  Mayor Joan Faus Vitoria of Ador in Valencia declared 2 to 5 p.m. as the official time for the city’s residents to take their afternoon siestas.  The edict asks residents to keep quiet during the siesta hours and the mayor recommended children be kept inside to prevent noise from traveling into open windows.  The mayor said the nap time was chosen due to the high afternoon heat making 2 to 5 p.m. the ideal time to take a break from working in fields.  Coming soon:  Official happy times.  Coming after that:  selling the country to a foreign nation to pay for revenues lost during the official nap times.

ANOTHER HORROR – From CBS:   CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- A gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire at two military facilities Thursday in Tennessee, killing four Marines and wounding two other service members and a police officer, officials told CBS News.  The shooter also was killed. Law enforcement sources told CBS News that the shooting suspect was identified as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. According to a U.S. law enforcement source, Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait and came to the United States in 1996. It's unclear if and when he became an American citizen.  A U.S. official told CBS News that Abdulazeez was not on law enforcement radar concerning possible terror links or aspirations. The FBI was not aware of him as being any kind of threat.  Repeat after me:  This has nothing to do with anything taught in Islam today.   It's a coincidence, just another coincidence.

July 16,  2015     Permalink

HILLARY DOING A TITANIC – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  She continues to sink, but her friends are not yet rushing to the few lifeboats.  From the Politico: 

Hillary Clinton is still leading the Democratic field for 2016, but her lead has shrunk in recent months, according to a Monmouth University poll out Wednesday, as independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders continues to make steady gains, despite trailing by a wide margin.

Among Democrats and those leaning toward the Democratic Party, Clinton picked up the support of 51 percent, down from 57 percent in June and 60 percent in April.

Sanders came in second with 17 percent, followed by former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb with 1 percent each. Lincoln Chafee, the former governor and senator from Rhode Island, registered no support.

If Vice President Joe Biden were to run, however, the results suggest that he would take some votes from Clinton. He has not announced his intentions, but poll respondents backed him with 13 percent, just behind Sanders.

Among voters who said they were likely to vote for Biden in the event of his candidacy, 68 percent said they currently support Clinton, while 18 percent said they are backing another candidate, with 14 percent undecided.

Clinton continues to have the best favorability ratings among her Democratic rivals in the Monmouth poll (74 percent favorable to 17 percent unfavorable), though Biden is close behind (67 percent to 17 percent).

COMMENT:  If Clinton is down to only 51% support, she has serious worries, and might have to bring in grown-ups to run her campaign.  There is serious talk about Joe Biden getting into the ring, and, if that happens, Clinton might well dip below 50%, creating a psychological storm.

Even the Dems aren't yearning for Clinton.  The party is a mess, Michelle Obama isn't running, and Jimmy Carter doesn't know there's an election. 

July 16, 2015       Permalink

ANOTHER IRAN-DEAL SELLOUT – AT 8:16 A.M. ET:   The more we learn about the Iran deal, the worse it gets.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

The Iranian nuclear deal reached in Vienna contains no reference to the Parchin military facility where most of Iran’s past nuclear arms-related work was carried out.

Additionally, the draft agreement made public on Tuesday contains no stated limits on Iran’s Russian-made Bushehr nuclear power facility that analysts say could produce plutonium for dozens of bombs.

Also, the accord will lift international sanctions on several Iranian entities currently engaged in supporting terrorism and building ballistic missiles, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-Air Force Al Ghadir Missile Command.

The Tehran-based command is a key element in developing nuclear-tipped missiles and is considered to be in operational control of Iranian missiles.

The lifting of sanctions in eight or fewer years will also include removing sanctions on Parchin Chemical Industries—a firm involved in the past in Iranian ballistic missile and chemical explosive work that was possibly related to nuclear arms applications.

COMMENT:  Don't you feel safer?  John Kerry does.  Barack Obama certainly does.  And he has the comfy knowledge that the forces he really feels close to have won another round, with his active help.  My, my, I can imagine his post-presidency, and where he'll be visiting.

July 16, 2015       Permalink

ON THIS DAY – AT 8:07 A.M. ET:  The day is symbolic, given the events of the week.  On this day in 1945, exactly 70 years ago, the United States detonated the first nuclear device in the New Mexico desert.  It was familiarly called "the gadget," and the test was called Trinity. 

This week the United States and other powers concluded a nuclear agreement with Iran, one of the worst regimes in the world, supposedly to prevent that country from getting its own nuclear bomb.  The agreement does nothing of the kind, and we can expect Iran will eventually be a nuclear power. 

America on this day in 1945 was led by Harry S. Truman, a man ridiculed by some as too minor for the presidency, and who achieved the office only because he'd been vice president when Franklin D. Roosevelt died suddenly on April 12th of that year.  But Truman grew in office, and is now regarded as one of our great, or near-great presidents.  It was under his leadership that the foundation of our struggle against Soviet Communism was put in place. 

Today America is led by one Barack Hussein Obama Jr., a man seen as a demigod by some when he was swept into office in 2008 with the help of an adoring press.  But he has shrunk in office, and is the petty little man we see today.

This week, with his "agreement" with Iran, Barack Obama put this country in grave danger.  It is something Harry Truman would never have done. 

And yet Harry Truman could not come anywhere near the presidential nomination of his party, the Democratic Party, today. 

Sad.

July 16,  2015     Permalink

JULY 15,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:32 P.M. ET: 

GREAT MOMENTS IN RESEARCH – From NRO:   Sociology researchers are now insisting that we as a society start accepting people who choose to “identify as real vampires” — so that they can be open about the fact that they’re vampires without having to worry about facing discrimination from people who might think that that’s weird.  The study, titled “Do We Always Practice What We Preach? Real Vampires’ Fears of Coming out of the Coffin to Social Workers and Helping Professionals” was conducted by researchers from Idaho State University and College of the Canyons and the Center for Positive Sexuality in Los Angeles.  It's about time we stop oppressing vampires.  Every time I read the Bill of Rights and then think of our attitude toward vampires, I realize how hypocritical we are.  I propose a national holiday to honor the vampire community and its contributions to our culture.  And it's high time that Dracula got a statue.

OBAMA ON COSBY – From AP:  President Barack Obama is rejecting the idea of revoking Bill Cosby’s Presidential Medal of Freedom because of sexual misconduct allegations.  Obama says there’s no precedent or mechanism to take back the medal. He declined to talk about the specific allegations against Cosby because there are pending legal matters.  Technically, Obama is right.  There is no precedent or mechanism.  But there should be.  Someone who brings discredit on the medal or the country should have the honor withdrawn upon recommendation of a bipartisan panel.  Very stringent conditions would have to be met, however, to avoid political correctness.

BERNIE ROMPS – From the Phoenix New Times:  Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders just announced that his campaign event scheduled for this Saturday in Phoenix will now be held at the downtown Convention Center. This marks the second time the campaign has decided to switch locations in order to accommodate the flood of RSVPs.   It's unclear exactly how many people have registered for the event (New Times was unable to reach the Sanders Campaign before press time), but the campaign is clearly anticipating a huge turnout.  It's getting clear that Hillary is in trouble.  That doesn't mean she won't get the nomination – she's built up plenty of party support over the years – but the lack of enthusiasm for her is pretty obvious.  She's too much the next person in line.

THE MARCH OF MEDICINE – From The Hill:   Eleven fictitious people created as part of an undercover watchdog effort were able to automatically re-enroll in ObamaCare coverage, a new report finds.  The report, from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, follows up on a GAO report last year. That report found that 11 of 12 fictitious people, with fake documents, were able to successfully enroll in ObamaCare coverage through the federal HealthCare.gov marketplace.  The follow-up report, released by congressional Republicans on Wednesday, finds that those 11 fictitious people were able to maintain their coverage through the end of 2014 and then were automatically re-enrolled for 2015. Some were re-enrolled even though no additional documentation was provided.  And I'll bet they got free birth-control pills as well, even the guys.

July 15, 2015       Permalink

WONDERFULLY SAID – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:  Barack Obama is already being compared to Britain's Neville Chamberlain, who sold out Czechoslovakia in the infamous Munich agreement of 1938.  But the brilliant Mark Steyn thinks that's unfair...to Chamberlain.  I think you'll like this, from Breitbart: 

Columnist and author of “The Undocumented,” Mark Steyn argued comparing President Obama to Neville Chamberlain is “rather unfair to Neville Chamberlain” on Tuesday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.

Steyn said of comparisons between Obama and Chamberlain, “I think actually that’s rather unfair to Neville Chamberlain, Sean. He got the central question of the 1930’s wrong, but he was an honorable man, who believed he was acting in the interests of his country and the British Empire which he loved. When Churchill became prime minister he kept Chamberlain on and had him chair the War Cabinet in his absence. And Churchill wept over Chamberlain’s funeral casket, and claimed he was an honorable man who just happened to be wrong. I don’t think you can say that about Obama. I think what Obama did is significantly worse than what Neville Chamberlain did. I don’t think, in effect, Obama was negotiating on behalf of the United States. I think what happened at these talks is that he and the Iranians were, in a sense, negotiating together to anoint Iran as the regional power in the Middle East and to facilitate Iran’s reentry, the biggest planetary sponsor of terrorism, to facilitate its reentry into the global community. That’s what Obama was there doing.”

Steyn added, “I think that’s the other difference between Obama and Chamberlain. The horrors of the — of what Germany did were not known to Neville Chamberlain. And in a sense the appeasers of the 1930’s did so because of the horrors of the first World War and the lost generation, and they didn’t want that to happen again. And it’s because we know they got it wrong, that history won’t give us the same opt out card. Because we should have known better because it had happened before. And I think what Obama gets here, I think it does come back to a — to his classic Marxist worldview in which he sees America as the problem on the world’s stage. And if you look at everything he did — he’s done, Sean, what he did with Iran fits into that context. I mean, whether you look at missile defense in Eastern Europe, where he takes the side of Russia over US allies like Poland and the Czech Republic. If you look at little things, like the Falklands Islands, where he takes the side of Argentina over a US ally like United Kingdom. And in the Middle East, he’s taken the side of Iran over US allies like the Sunni monarchies and Israel, because his central view is that America and American power is the problem in the world. And, therefore, American allies are part of that problem. And, therefore, what he does is, in a sense, withdraw from the world, and enhance the position of the enemies of American allies. That’s what he’s done in the Middle East. And it won’t be confined to the Middle East, it’ll spread beyond that.”

COMMENT:  Like John Podhoretz, quoted earlier today in this space, Steyn gets it right and states it eloquently.  What I'm encouraged to see in the 24 hours since the deal was announced, is that the best of our side is stepping forward and doing so with rhetorical power.  Now we must translate that rhetorical power into political power.

July 15, 2015        Permalink

SICKENING – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  It was inevitable.  With a wink from Obama, the international bashing of Israel has begun.  The Germany bashing came in first, with German businessmen practically bursting out of their pants to rush to Tehran to sell things, including weapons.

Now Britain, sadly, in a disgraceful comment by its foreign minister, joins the chorus.  From Reuters:

Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond told parliament on Wednesday that Israel would not have been satisfied with any kind of nuclear deal with Iran, dismissing criticism of the agreement struck between Tehran and foreign powers.

"The question you have to ask yourself is what kind of a deal would have been welcomed in Tel Aviv. The answer of course is that Israel doesn't want any deal with Iran," Hammond said in response to an opposition legislator who said he objected to the agreement and cited dismay in Tel Aviv.

"Israel wants a permanent state of stand-off and I don't believe that's in the interests of the region. I don't believe it's in our interest," Hammond said.

Earlier on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also criticized Israel's opposition to the deal, saying the agreement will help contribute to security in the Middle East.

"This is a responsible deal and Israel should also take a closer look at it and not criticize the agreement in a very coarse way," Steinmeier told German broadcaster ARD in an interview on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the deal as a "stunning, historic mistake" and said it would enable Iran to pursue a path to nuclear weapons.

Hammond said on Wednesday that Britain hopes to re-open its embassy in Iran before the end of the year, following the agreement.

"I very much hope that we will be in a position to re-open our respective embassies before the end of the year," Hammond said. The re-opening was dependent on resolving some technical issues, he added, without elaborating.

Diplomatic relations were suspended and the British embassy was closed after hundreds of Iranian demonstrators stormed the building in November 2011.

Hammond also said he had spoken to British finance minister George Osborne to ensure that the country was ready to capitalize on the "quite substantial" business opportunities that would arise from the diplomatic agreement.

COMMENT:  And that, my friends, is the bottom line.  And it's why there will never be new sanctions on Iran.  Let the good times roll.

July 15, 2015       Permalink

THE DAY AFTER – AT 9:06 A.M. ET:   It is a day after the "deal" was announced, and everyone who's anyone is reacting.  Among the thoughtful, those with a sense of history, there is real apprehension bordering on despair.  These are the people who think in national-defense terms, who believe that the survival of the United States is more important than the greater glory of Barack.  Sadly, there aren't too many of them in the media, but they are there.

Perhaps the best overall statement I've read about the Iran deal came from John Podhoretz of Commentary:

The United States and its allies have struck a deal with Iran that effectively ensures that it will be a nuclear state with ballistic missiles in 10 years, assuming Iran adheres to the deal’s terms, which is a very large assumption. And though I’ve only made a preliminary pass at the deal sheet and don’t want to make definitive calls about it, it appears from the language that Iran will have 24 days before it has to allow inspections at its sites, none of which has been shut down or dismantled — which will make cheating unbelievably easy. And, while the president this morning declared that violations would make sanctions “snap back,” the only way they will do so is after a U.N. commission meets and agrees such violations have happened and then imposes them — which you know Russia will never allow. The president and the secretary of state are making large claims for the deal that are not true; the same will be true of all of its signatories, who are seeing Nobel stars in their eyes. This is an infamous day, and while those of us who see Iran’s nuclearization as the threshold threat for the rest of the 21st century will not be silent and will not give up the fight against it, it is appropriate to take a moment to despair that we — the United States and the West — have come to this.

COMMENT:  The notion that sanctions can be reimposed is ludicrous on its face.  The money will start to flow between Iran and other countries, and what we will have will be the equivalent of international bribery.  No nation will give up lucrative contracts simply to prevent what they will see as inevitable anyway, an Iranian bomb. 

This deal cooks us.  It also tells us everything we need to know about Barack Obama. 

July 15,  2015     Permalink