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JUNE 26,  2015

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

WALKER CALLS FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT – From The Politico: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, seizing the moment after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, called Friday for a Constitutional amendment that would allow the states to decide whether gay marriage should be legal.  Walker’s call came shortly after the high court ruled 5-4 that same-sex couples could marry across the country, overturning a number of state same-sex marriage bans.  The ruling was “a grave mistake,” the Republican governor said, touting his support for amending his state’s constitution “to protect the institution of marriage from exactly this type of judicial activism.”  There isn't much current support for an Amendment.  The Dems, who have been captured by every special interest on Earth, would never go along.  I like Lindsey Graham's approach, which is to pass legislation strengthening religious freedom.

AMERICANS FEARFUL OF ECONOMY – From the Washington Examiner:   The ever-expanding Republican presidential field, which threatens to splinter over social issues as dark horses grab hot-button topics for attention, is being urged to stick to the economy where the real pot of voter gold sits.  "Concern over the economy is the highest I've ever seen," top GOP pollster Ed Goeas told the moderate Republican Ripon Society. He said 72 percent are worried about an economic downturn.  "Republicans need to get into the game on better turf and that means talking in specifics about how we will bring the economy back and help create the jobs that go with real recovery," added pollster David Winston.  I think that's good advice.  Most Republicans have admirable views on social issues, but the media distorts them to make the GOP look like a party of bigots, which it is not.  The economy and Obama's failed foreign policy should be the centerpieces of next year's campaign.

THIS IS NOT THE SOVIET UNION, AT LEAST NOT YET – From Daily Caller:  Americans trust their doctors, so the White House wants these medical professionals to be a mouthpiece for President Obama’s global warming agenda.  “We also need doctors, nurses and citizens, like all of you” President Obama said in a taped speech presented to medical professionals gathered at the White House, “to get to work to raise awareness and organize folks for real change.”  I wasn't aware that doctors and nurses are messengers of the government.  I hope the medical profession ignores Obama's invitation to be part of the socialist revolution.  I hope doctors and nurses practice the best medicine they can.

June 26,  2015     Permalink

SUPREMES GO LAVENDER – AT 11:14 A.M. ET:  The U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 today that gay marriage must be legal in all 50 states.  From The New York Times: 

WASHINGTON — In a long-sought victory for the gay rights movement, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote the majority opinion in the 5 to 4 decision. He was joined by the court’s four more liberal justices.

The decision, the culmination of decades of litigation and activism, came against the backdrop of fast-moving changes in public opinion, with polls indicating that most Americans now approve of same-sex marriage.

Justice Kennedy said gay and lesbian couples had a fundamental right to marry.

“No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family,” he wrote. “In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were.”

COMMENT:  The issue here is not whether you or I favor gay marriage.  We have two gay marriages in our extended family.  Having worked in Hollywood, I've worked with many gay people over the years.

Ronald Reagan, a former actor, was the first president to have a gay couple stay at the White House.

The issue, though, is whether a court, even the Supreme Court, should make judgments on a cultural and religious institution that goes back thousands of years.  Once again the high Court is acting like a legislature, as it did in Roe v. Wade. 

A court decision has legal power, but no moral power.  A legislative decision has moral power in that it represents, at least in theory, the will of the people.

The law is now settled.  But it was settled by the wrong branch of government.

June 26, 2015       Permalink

U.S. MOVES DOMESTICALLY AGAINST ISIS – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  It won't be nearly enough, but at least some government agencies are taking action.  From Bloomberg:   

The FBI has been rounding up more potential "lone wolf" terrorists, Congressional leaders and the Justice Department say, in response to the perception of a mounting threat of domestic attacks inspired by the Islamic State.

Since the thwarted attack on a "Draw Muhammad" conference in Garland, Texas, on May 3, the Justice Department has announced the arrests of 10 individuals it says were inspired by and supporting the Islamic State. The lawmakers say there have been more arrests that have not yet been announced.

They say the FBI has shifted its approach toward arrests rather than keeping suspects under surveillance, and is also targeting individuals thought to be planning attacks in the U.S., unlike the bureau's past focus on volunteers preparing to join ISIS's fight abroad.

"Lately, we have seen an uptick in the number of arrests of ISIL followers who were planning violent acts in our homeland," said John Carlin, the assistant attorney general for national security. "ISIL, differing from some other foreign terrorist organizations, has demonstrated that they see value in mobilizing sympathizers anywhere in the world."

The spate of arrests comes in response to what Congressional leaders and the Justice Department say is a mounting threat that radicalized Americans will attempt low-tech, lone wolf attacks in the near future. Lawmakers see the changes as necessary because the Islamic State uses social media so effectively to radicalize Americans and because the group is getting better at using encryption to shield its communications with new recruits.

COMMENT:  I'm afraid it will take another large attack here to wake up the nation, and put the Democratic Party's left on the defensive once again, which is where it belongs. 

June 26, 2015       Permalink

BLUNTNESS ON TERROR – AT 9:30 A.M. ET:  Iran is the key, but don't expect that to interfere with the nuclear talks.  From Fox: 

The nation’s top intelligence official labeled Iran the leading state sponsor of terrorism and called the regime -- and its proxy Hezbollah -- the single most important factors keeping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in power, according to a letter obtained by Fox News.

The warning comes as Obama administration officials enter the final phase of nuclear negotiation with Tehran. But despite the diplomatic track, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper assailed the country’s role in destabilizing the region in the letter to Republican senators.

"Iran remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism and is increasing its ability to influence regional crises and conduct terrorism," Clapper wrote in the June 3 letter. "This has been the consistent view of the IC [intelligence community] for more than three decades."

On its role propping up Assad, accused of using chemical weapons on his own people, Clapper stated that, "Iran and Hizballah's efforts in Syria have been instrumental in preventing the collapse of the Assad regime, which they view as critical to maintaining their 'axis of resistance' against Israel and the West."

Clapper was blunt in the letter to senators, after some lawmakers earlier questioned why Iran and Hezbollah were not listed in the “terrorism subsection” of the 2015 Worldwide Threat Assessment; both had been listed in previous years’ assessments.

COMMENT:  It's hard to believe this will get better.  It would require a change in party in the White House, and that may not happen.  Even if it does, a new Republican president might be prevented by economics, military weakness, and media opposition from doing what is necessary to wage a true war on terror.

June 26, 2015       Permalink

TERROR DAY – AT 9:07 A.M. ET:  Three major terror attacks today, just days before we are scheduled to conclude a nuclear agreement with the world's leading sponsor of terror, Iran.  From Fox: 

France was on high alert Friday after a man at a U.S.-based chemical company was decapitated by terrorists who left his severed head scrawled with Arabic phrases and dangling from a fence amid two ISIS flags, authorities said.

The attack occurred at approximately 9:50 a.m. local time in Saint-Quentin-Fallavier, northwest of the Alpine city of Grenoble, according to Le Dauphine newspaper. The newspaper reported that two men dressed as deliverymen arrived at the plant, and that one walked into the main office, declared he was a member of ISIS and beheaded someone there. The terrorists reportedly left the severed head hanging from a fence, and set off several gas canisters at the plant.

And, from CNN:

Terrorists killed at least 27 people in an attack Friday on a beachfront Tunisian hotel, Tunisian officials said, according to the state-run TAP news agency.

Tunisia's interior minister reported 27 dead -- at least some of whom were guests at the Hotel Riu Imperial Marhaba in Sousse, TAP reported.

Still, those figures are preliminary. In fact, an operation was still underway Friday afternoon after Tunisian security forces exchanged gunfire with the attackers.

And, from BBC: 

At least four people have been killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Shia mosque in the Kuwaiti capital.

Many people were injured, and unconfirmed reports put the death toll much higher.

The blast hit during Friday prayers at the Imam Sadiq Mosque in al-Sawaber, a busy area to the east of Kuwait City.

An Islamic State- (IS) affiliated group said it was behind the attack. IS has carried out similar recent attacks in neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

COMMENT:  Of course, the war on terror is over.  Field Marshal Obama has said so.

June 26,  2015     Permalink

JUNE 25,  2015

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

THE SUPREMES ON OBAMACARE – From Fox:   While Chief Justice John Roberts delivered a blow to ObamaCare foes with a majority opinion upholding subsidies, he backed up the law's opponents on one point: The language in the Affordable Care Act was kind of a mess.  "The Affordable Care Act contains more than a few examples of inartful drafting," he wrote.  And many examples of inartful thinking.

STRANGE HOLIDAYS – From AP:   SUSAN-RI, North Korea — June is something like Hate America Month in North Korea.  Officially, it’s called “Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism Month” and — more so than usual — it’s a time for North Koreans to swarm to war museums, mobilize for gatherings denouncing the evils of the United States and join in a general, nationwide whipping up of anti-American sentiment.  Sounds like an average week on an American college campus.

NO MORE SEEING THE USA IN YOUR CHEVROLET – From Reuters:  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Two self-driving prototype cars, one operated by Google Inc and the other by Delphi Automotive Plc, had a close call on a Silicon Valley street earlier this week, a Delphi executive told Reuters on Thursday.  It was believed to be the first such incident involving two vehicles specially equipped for automated driving.  The incident occurred Tuesday on San Antonio Road in Palo Alto, said John Absmeier, director of Delphi's Silicon Valley lab and global business director for the company's automated driving program, who was a passenger in one of the cars.  It was the other robot's fault.

WHY NOT JUST TURN OFF THE COMPUTER? – From Financial Times:  Desperate times call for desperate measures. One luxury hotel company has come up with the ultimate way to help its guests to relax: a switch that kills the internet.  A silver switch next to the beds in the Villa Stéphanie spa resort in Baden-Baden activates a copper grid in the walls to block all wireless internet signals.  Seems like an excessive solution to a small problem.  I mean, you can turn off the computer.  You can pull the plug.  Is there an extra charge for the switch?  What if you want gold?

June 25, 2015       Permalink

OBAMA WINS IN COURT – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:  This is just developing:  The Supreme Court has sided with President Obama over Obamacare.  From Fox: 

In the second major court win for President Obama on his signature health care law, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld ObamaCare subsidies in states that did not set up their own health care exchanges.

The decision was 6-3.

A ruling against the administration would have threatened subsidies in nearly three-dozen states. For months, though, the administration said it had no back-up plans, confident the Supreme Court would rule in its favor.

The Supreme Court previously upheld the law's individual mandate in 2012, in a 5-4 decision.

This time, the justices said the subsidies that 8.7 million people currently receive to make insurance affordable do not depend on where they live, under the 2010 health care law.

Chief Justice John Roberts again voted with his liberal colleagues in support of the law. Roberts also was the key vote to uphold the law in 2012. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a dissenter in 2012, was part of the majority on Thursday.

COMMENTS:  Roberts is becoming the Earl Warren of today.  President Eisenhower appointed Warren as chief justice, thinking he was getting a Republican.  He got Earl Warren.  George W. Bush thought Roberts was a reliable conservative vote.  He is not. 

June 25, 2015       Permalink

BERNIE KEEPS RISING – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Socialist Bernie Sanders keeps gaining against Hillary Clinton.  If truth be told, Clinton's support has very little depth.  From Bloomberg: 

Bernie Sanders is gaining on Hillary Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire, with an appeal as an issue-oriented protest vehicle potentially capable of slowing any coronation of the popular front-runner.

In simultaneous surveys, the U.S. senator from Vermont received nearly a quarter of support from likely Democratic caucus and primary voters in the states that host the first presidential nomination balloting early next year, cutting sharply into Clinton's still-huge lead.

The polls suggest substantive and symbolic support for the socialist, as well as a craving among some Democrats for a Clinton rival to rise.

“I want to try to get him along as far as I can,” said Democratic poll participant John Murphy, 74, a retired railroad worker in West Des Moines, Iowa. “He’s going to bring up some issues that she may not want to talk about.”

The surveys were commissioned to test sources of strength for Sanders, who has seen audiences at his campaign events swell in recent weeks. The polls were conducted June 19-22 by West Des Moines-based Selzer & Co. in Iowa and Washington-area Purple Strategies in New Hampshire, the latter done in cooperation with Saint Anselm College. The margin of error on the full samples—401 in Iowa, 400 in New Hampshire—is plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.

COMMENT:  Clinton surrogates are already describing Sanders as an "extremist."  There is concern about him.

I don't agree with Sanders on much, but he's an admirable man in that he actually tells you what he believes.  You don't have to go along; I don't, but at least you know where the man stands.  By contrast, Hillary Clinton is a living embodiment of Groucho Marx's line, "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others."

June 25, 2015       Permalink

BLACK JOBS MATTER – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:  Black business people are coming down hard on the EPA, warning that some of its extreme measures will mean an increase in black poverty.  From CNS:

(CNSNews.com) - A study commissioned by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, which represents 2.1 million black-owned businesses in the United States, found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan would increase black poverty by 23 percent and cause the loss of 7 million jobs for black Americans by 2035.

The study also found that the EPA's plan would increase Hispanic poverty by 26 percent and cause the loss of 12 million jobs for Hispanic Americans by 2035.

The EPA proposed the Clean Power Plan on June 2, 2014 to cut carbon emissions from power plants. The National Black Chamber of Commerce commissioned the study to evaluate the potential economic and employment impacts of the plan on minority groups.

National Black Chamber of Commerce President Harry Alford explained the results of the report, “Potential Impact of Proposed EPA Regulations on Low Income Groups and Minorities” at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on Tuesday.

“The study finds that the Clean Power Plan will inflict severe and disproportionate economic burdens on poor families, especially minorities,” said Alford in his prepared statement. “The EPA’s proposed regulation for GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions from existing power plants is a slap in the face to poor and minority families.

“These communities already suffer from higher unemployment and poverty rates compared to the rest of the country, yet the EPA’s regressive energy tax threatens to push minorities and low-income Americans even further into poverty,” Alford added.

COMMENT:  Some of this administration's policies will do far more harm to blacks than Confederate symbols will.  But don't tell that to the politically correct crowd.

June 25, 2015       Permalink

EXTRAORDINARY – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  When his own former advisers publicly warn President Obama about his Iran policy, that is serious.  Former advisers don't normally lecture their former boss.  From The New York Times: 

Five former members of President Obama’s inner circle of Iran advisers have written an open letter expressing concern that a pending accord to stem Iran’s nuclear program “may fall short of meeting the administration’s own standard of a ‘good’ agreement” and laying out a series of minimum requirements that Iran must agree to in coming days for them to support a final deal.

Several of the senior officials said the letter was prompted by concern that Mr. Obama’s negotiators were headed toward concessions that would weaken international inspection of Iran’s facilities, back away from forcing Tehran to reveal its suspected past work on weapons, and allow Iranian research and development that would put it on a course to resuming intensive production of nuclear fuel as soon as the accord expires.

The public nature of the announcement by some of Mr. Obama’s best-known former advisers, all of whom had central roles in the diplomatic, intelligence and military efforts to counter Iran’s program, adds to the challenge facing Secretary of State John Kerry as the negotiations head toward a deadline of next Tuesday.

COMMENT:  And France is also warning that the agreement shaping up is unacceptable.  It would be wise for President Obama to pull out of the talks, warning that the Iranians were not being cooperative.  They need this agreement more than we do.  If he pulls out, while threatening more and stiffer sanctions, the Iranians might just come to their senses.  But Obama is a weak president, with a bizarre sympathy for the Iranian regime.  His chief adviser, the hard leftist Valerie Jarrett, was born in Iran.  I doubt if Obama will do anything as sensible as putting more heat on Tehran.

June 25,  2015          Permalink