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Wednesday's Angel's Corner is here.

MAY 9,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:35 P.M. ET: 

RUSSIA SHOWS OFF – Ah, the good old days.  Major military displays in Red Square.  From the L.A. Times:  "Western boycott of Russia's Victory Day parade Saturday did little to chasten the Kremlin as Russian President Vladimir Putin rolled out fearsome new armor and weapons in a thundering message that might makes right.  In the absence of Russia’s World War II allies who stayed away in protest of Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, Putin was surrounded at the Red Square event largely by leftist foreign leaders for his display of the military power that has made Russians proud and their neighbors nervous.  Under blue skies and sunshine befitting a postcard, the Kremlin marked the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany by parading 16,000 troops, nearly 200 tanks and armored vehicles, truck-mounted ballistic missiles and 140-plus aircraft before thousands of Russian dignitaries, Soviet war veterans and about two dozen foreign leaders."  Russian rearmament should be one of our two or three greatest concerns.  But we don't focus on it too often, and the Dems are so far to the left that many of them really don't care.

MAJOR EDUCATION NEWS – From Fox:  "A University of New Hampshire professor will be teaching the ins and outs of the recent scandal surrounding the New England Patriots this fall.  Michael McCann, a sports law professor, will teach a course on 'Deflategate' in the fall term. McCann has designed the four-credit undergraduate class to take a look at the legal underpinnings of the scandal.  The class will be about the 'interplay between those footballs…and the legal, regulatory and journalistic systems governing sports,' the course description says. The class will be open to about 75 students.  McCann is a sports law contributor for Sports Illustrated and is an attorney in Massachusetts."  Actually, it sounds like fun.  But I await the moment when discussion will turn to the nickname for a football – the pigskin – and an impassioned debate over whether this is hate speech directed at an oppressed animal minority.

THE CLOONEY VOTE – Hillary Clinton is running as the candidate of the little people.  She publicly frowns on big money in politics, then collects three hundred grand for a speech.  And look at the peasant-like contributions she's getting.  From fusion.net:  "It looks like Hillary Clinton’s got the #TeamClooney vote on lock. In a new interview with Fusion’s Jorge Ramos, George Clooney says that he’ll assist Clinton, whom he describes as a 'tremendous candidate,' in 'whatever way [he] can help.'  Clooney’s full support could be huge for the Clinton campaign, given its primary fundraising goal of $100 million. Back in 2012, the Academy Award-winning actor held a fundraising event for Barack Obama at his Studio City, California, home that ultimately raised $10 million for the incumbent—the largest amount of money raised at a single Obama campaign event up to that point."  Oh, Clooney once referred to Hillary as "polarizing."  I guess he's gotten the message from the Clinton syndicate.

May 9,  2015     Permalink

THE THREAT GROWS – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  North Korea plunges ahead with advanced weapons, any one of which can be exported to countries like Iran.  Obama will of course "study" the matter, and maybe even appoint a commission.  From businessinsider.com:   

North Korea announced Saturday the successful test-firing of a submarine-based ballistic missile — a technology that would offer the nuclear-armed state a survivable second-strike nuclear capability.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the test, hailed the newly developed missile as a "world-level strategic weapon," according to a report by the official KCNA news agency.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the test, which would mark a major breakthrough for the North's missile programme and violate UN resolutions prohibiting Pyongyang from conducting ballistic missile tests.

Development of a submarine-launched missile capability would take the North Korean nuclear threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula.

Satellite images earlier this year had shown the conning tower of a new North Korean submarine, which US analysts said appeared to house one or two vertical launch tubes for either ballistic or cruise missiles.

According to the KCNA report, the test was carried out by a sub that dived to launch depth on the sounding of a combat alarm.

"After a while, the ballistic missile soared into the sky from underwater," the agency said, adding that the weapon had been developed on the personal initiative of Kim Jong-Un.

COMMENT:  Extraordinarily dangerous stuff.  A second-strike capability means that a nation can absorb a nuclear attack and still have assets left – in this case missile submarines – that can strike back with its own nuclear weapons.

By the way, the American diplomat who negotiated agreements with North Korea in the 1990s that were supposed to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power is the same person, Wendy Sherman, who's negotiating the nuclear agreement with Iran.  In Washington they fail upward.  Gives you confidence, doesn't it?

May 9, 2015       Permalink

SIGN OF THINGS TO COME? – AT 11:40 A.M. ET:  There are things happening in Europe that should get our attention.  Until recently the trendy left looked to Europe for guidance.  So much more refined than the flyover people in America.  Isn't it so, Comrade? 

Uh, stuff has started happening.  Look at the British election of just two days ago.  The left got massacred.  And throughout the "progressive" countries of northern Europe there's a rethink about freewheeling abortion.  A 20-week limit is now the favored course.  And even Europe's "progressive" approach to welcoming immigrants from hostile countries is undergoing review.  More and more Europeans are saying,  "Play by our rules.  You're here now."  From Norway's Local: 

Norway has scrapped its longstanding blasphemy law, meaning it is now legal to mock the beliefs of others, in a direct response to January’s brutal attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The proposal to rush through the change was made in February by Conservative MP Anders B. Werp and Progress Party MP Jan Arild Ellingsen, who argued that the law “underpins a perception that religious expressions and symbols are entitled to a special protection”.

“This is very unfortunate signal to send, and it is time that society clearly stands up for freedom of speech,” the two wrote in their proposal.

Norway’s parliament first voted to scrap the blasphemy law back in 2009, against strong opposition from the Christian Democrat party.

COMMENT:  The problem with blasphemy laws is that they don't protect modern religions, who don't need them.  They protect mostly religious movements, like radical Islam, that have a political component.  Suddenly we find that the political component is getting special protection, which is inherently undemocratic. 

One can legitimately argue whether some kind of blasphemy laws have some value.  But Norway's act should remind us that free speech is under challenge in the West, and too many people are much too casual about it.

May 9,  2015     Permalink

THE DEFENSE DOESN'T REST – AT 11:08 A.M. ET:  Lawyers defending the six cops charged in connection with Freddie Gray's death in Baltimore are striking back.  This has as much to do with the court of public opinion as a real court, and I think these lawyers will bring people to their side.  From Fox: 

Defense attorneys representing six Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray filed a motion Friday to have the case dismissed, or for the city’s top prosecutor to be recused from the case and replaced by a special prosecutor, citing alleged conflict of interest.

The attorneys argue in the documents that the officers were victims of an "overzealous prosecution" by State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who they claim has personal and political motivations in the case.

Among the alleged conflicts of interest cited, the motion includes Mosby's marriage to the city councilman who represents the district where Gray died.

The motion claims that Mike Mosby had a professional and personal interest in having riots in his district that erupted after Gray's death come to an end, and that Marilyn Mosby therefore had an interest in filing charges quickly.

“...His wife, Marilyn Mosby, had a professional and personal interest in accommodating the needs of her husband – his political future directly affects her personal, professional and political interests,” the motion argues.

Defense attorneys contend that Mosby's relationship with the Gray family attorney also creates a conflict of interest. The attorney, William Murphy, is a close friend, ally and lawyer for Mosby.

The filing also cites a pending motion against her office, her office’s role in investigating the case and Mosby’s personal relationships with potential witnesses as reasons she should be recused from the case.

The defense also argues that Mosby denied the officers their right to due process by using inciting rhetoric when announcing the charges last week. Mosby told protesters: “I heard your call for ‘no justice no peace.’ Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man…You’re at the forefront of this cause and as young people, our time is now.”

COMMENT:  Of course she has a conflict of interest.  And of course this is a political case.  On the left, everything is political.  "The personal is political," they say.  A trial is simply a political event.   And we are seeing politics replace justice.

May 9,  2015      Permalink

MAY 8,  2015

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

MENTAL HEALTH NEWS – We share his pain.  From Reuters:  "Mayor Bill de Blasio said New Yorkers don't appreciate his 'very special' accomplishments since he took office in January 2014, and criticized the actions of his predecessors and even President Barack Obama, according to a Rolling Stone interview.  De Blasio, who has fulfilled a campaign promise to establish universal pre-Kindergarten education and is pressing forward with other reform programs, was quoted as saying out-of-towners see his administration more clearly than his own constituents.  'A lot of people outside New York City understand what happened in the first year of New York City better than people in New York City,' de Blasio said in the interview, published online on Wednesday. 'But I'm convinced something very special happened here.'"  Who does this man talk to?

DOUBLE STANDARDS – From Fox:  "Critics say a newly-hired Boston University professor has crossed the line with recent tweets bashing whites, but the school says it’s simply free speech.  'White masculinity isn’t a problem for america’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for america’s colleges,' Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at Boston University, tweeted in March.  In another tweet from January, she wrote: 'Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. and every year i find it nearly impossible.'  In another, she called white males a 'problem population.'"  Can you just imagine a white professor saying the same thing about African-Americans?  They'd find a way, in about two minutes, to get rid of that professor.  Freedom of speech must be defended, as must academic freedom.  But academic freedom must be joined by academic responsibility.  And maturity.  And excellence.  I wonder if those words are used anymore.

WHOOPS – The new attorney-general of the United States, Loretta Lynch, has announced that her department will investigate the Baltimore police.  Gee, I'm a bit confused.  Just months ago the Obama administration was heaping praise on those same cops.  From IBD:  "Just two months ago, President Obama held up the Baltimore police force as a model of unbiased community policing. Now he's investigating it for civil-rights violations. What's changed?  In a March White House report on police reforms, Obama and his Task Force on 21st Century Policing praised Baltimore's force and its black chief for 'implementing national best practices for policies and training,' including 'use of force' reforms. His task force even quoted Baltimore Police Commissioner Anthony Batts, who said he changed 'outdated procedures' that 'put officers at odds with the community.'"  So exactly what is being investigated?  And why can't the city government make any needed changes without the exercise of federal power?

May 8, 2015       Permalink

THIS DAY – AT 10:55 A.M. ET:  This is the 70th anniversary of V-E Day,Victory in Europe day, the day World War II ended in Europe.   It is increasingly forgotten, as the World War II generation passes into history.  The youngest American World War II veteran would today be 87.  But there are commemorations today.  From AP:

PARIS — With quiet moments of memory or military pomp, leaders and ordinary citizens across Europe are marking 70 years since the Nazi defeat and the end of a war that ravaged the continent. But the East-West alliance that vanquished Hitler is deeply divided today.

Russia is celebrating Soviet wartime feats in a ceremony Saturday that is causing diplomatic tensions because of the country’s role in Ukraine’s conflict. Poland has held a ceremony meant as an alternative to Moscow’s.

Paris’s mile-long Champs Elysees was closed to traffic to make way for a procession of official motorcades and mounted military escorts that ascended the wide boulevard from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe, site of France’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“The victory of May 8th wasn’t the supremacy, the domination, of one nation over another. It was the victory of an ideal over a totalitarian ideology,” President Francois Hollande said in a speech before arriving at the giant stone arch.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and the US ambassador to France joined French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to lay a wreath at the tomb, in a sign of appreciation for the American role in liberating France from German occupation.

It would have been nice for Obama to come, but I guess there's a golf game this weekend.

Photos taken 70 years ago show massive crowds of Parisians filling the Champs Elysees to celebrate the Nazi surrender, after nearly five years of occupation. May 8 is now a public holiday in France, but relatively few people turned out on the Champs Elysees Friday for the official ceremony.

Other ceremonies took place around Europe, including in Poland, where President Bronislaw Komorowski was joined by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the presidents of Ukraine and several Central European countries for a ceremony at the site where some of the first shots were fired by Germany against Poland at the start of the war on Sept. 1, 1939.

In Germany, top officials gathered at Berlin’s Reichstag parliament building for an hour-long commemoration of the end of the war in Europe.

COMMENT:  Who will remember in ten years?  Or in 13, when the youngest American veteran will be 100?
A giant generation is passing.

May 8, 2015        Permalink

GAS IN SYRIA – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  The issue of poison gas is back in the Syrian conflict, a conflict that is consuming hundreds of thousands of lives.  From Fox: 

Allegations are mounting that the Assad regime has returned to using chemical weapons against Syrian rebels and civilians, nearly two years after the government agreed to dismantle their stockpile.

The suspicions have the Obama administration calling for an immediate U.N. investigation into the "abhorrent acts" -- though it remains unclear what, if any, punishment Bashar Assad might face if formally blamed for the string of alleged chlorine gas attacks.

Yeah.  The Obamans are just the type to call for UN investigations. 

One western U.N. diplomat told Fox News the situation has become "unacceptable" in Syria.

Yup.  Investigation required.

"There is mounting evidence of repeated chlorine attacks," the diplomat said.

Civilians, including children, allegedly have been injured and killed in the latest attacks. In a letter sent this week to the U.N. Security Council from the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, the group cited reports of chlorine gas attacks in the Idlib and Hama areas and urged the creation of a no-fly zone to protect the Syrian people.

"In the past two weeks alone, witnesses and medics on the ground in Idlib and Hama governorates reported at least nine separate instances of toxic chemical attacks -- several of them deadly," the group wrote. "... in each instance, barrel bombs loaded with poisonous chemical substances were deployed from Syrian regime helicopters."

COMMENT:  We're sure that the letter will be "studied," then "examined," then "analyzed."  There will then be "consultations."  And then there'll be nothing.  There will be no American leadership.

Syria is an ongoing tragedy.  Obama laid out red lines at one time, then ignored those lines when they were crossed.  There is no hope in sight.  Assad's forces are weakening, and Syria might finally slip under the control of terror groups. 

May 8, 2015       Permalink

TERROR WARNING – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:   Have we become immune to these warnings?  I hope not because they're getting more and more alarming.  From the Washington Times: 

Though much Islamic State rhetoric may be bluster, analysts say the terrorist group is sufficiently wealthy and has enough social media savvy that, if unchecked, it likely could execute a 9/11-scale attack in the U.S. a few years from now.

In the latest indication of U.S. counterintelligence difficulties with “lone wolf” attacks, the FBI director said Thursday that the agency warned local police and sent them an intelligence bulletin several hours before a Muhammad cartoon-drawing contest that a man with Islamist terrorist ties might show up there.

FBI Director James B. Comey insisted in a roundtable discussion with reporters that the bureau didn’t know that Elton Simpson and a fellow American Muslim planned to shoot up the event by an anti-Shariah group in Garland, Texas.

“What I’ve seen so far looks like we did it the way we were supposed to do it,” said Mr. Comey in his first public remarks since the Sunday gunfight in which Simpson and accomplice Nadir Soofi were killed. “We didn’t have reason to believe that he was going to attack the event.”

But the event already had been identified as a potential target for Islamist violence: Simpson had a conviction on terrorism-related charges, and his social media activity had brought him under investigation anew in recent months.

The Islamic State has capitalized upon and praised the Garland attack this week, posting another online threat against the U.S. two days ago, claiming it has 71 trained guerrillas in 15 states.

COMMENT:  Much of the news coverage of the attack centered on journalists vying with each other to denounce the event that was targeted – an event aimed at Islamism.  Too provocative, critics said.  Not nice, others said.  What a defense of free speech. 

May 8, 2015       Permalink

CONSERVATIVE MARGIN GROWS IN BRITAIN – AT 8:38 A.M. ET:  As the vote count winds up, it appears the conservative victory in Britain's national election is even greater than originally thought.  No coalition government will be necessary.  From Fox: 

British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Tory party scored a decisive victory over the opposing Labour Party, left far-left and far-right parties in the dust and defied pre-election polls with a resounding election triumph he called "the sweetest victory of all."

Aided by the Scottish National Party's rout of Labour in Scotland, Cameron and the Tories left opponents on the right and left in tatters. The Labour Party lost 24 seats in Parliament according to early returns, and party leader Ed Miliband resigned from his role. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg resigned after acknowledging a "cruel and punishing defeat," in which his left-of-center part suffered its worst-ever defeat - dropping from 57 seats to just 8. On the right, UK Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage, a thorn in Cameron's side, failed to win a seat and resigned as party leader.

The resounding victory left Cameron and his party with a slim majority in the 650-seat House of Commons, meaning he won't need to form a coalition government and now has a mandate to implement the party's full agenda of cutting government, entitlements and taxes. With 643 constituencies counted, the Conservatives had 326 seats to Labour's 230.

"I think this is the sweetest victory of all," Cameron said. "There are so many things to be proud of in this result. The fact we held on in Scotland. The fact we extended our representation in Wales. The fact that candidates I have seen work so hard week in, week out, some of them year in, year out, have triumphed in so many seats."

Cameron went to Buckingham Palace Friday to inform Queen Elizabeth II that he had enough support to form a government. It would be the first time the Conservatives had won a parliamentary majority since 1992. Cameron is the first Conservative Prime Minister to win re-election since Margaret Thatcher.

COMMENT:  Kind of reminds me of last year's American election, when Republicans retook control of the U.S. Senate by a greater-than-expected margin. 

I have no doubt that Obama would have much preferred that the leftists win in Britain.  I'm glad he didn't get his way.  The next great international electoral test will come in October, when Canada votes.  That election will determine whether the great Stephen Harper, Canada's conservative prime minister, remains in power.  Polls this month show Harper heading for victory, but it's a long way to October.

May 8,  2015     Permalink