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MAY 13,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:51 P.M. ET: 

CHECK ONE FOR MARCO – From The Politico:  "Sen. Marco Rubio now has another billionaire in his corner: Oracle founder Larry Ellison.  Ellison will host a fundraiser for the Florida Republican’s White House bid at his mansion in Woodside, Calif., on June 9, according to an invitation obtained by POLITICO.
A VIP reception and photo opportunity with Rubio will cost attendees $2,700 per person. The fundraiser will also include a host committee dinner for couples who have raised $27,000."  Rubio is clearly making some noise.  A speech he just gave before the Council on Foreign Relations got very high marks.

I'M SHOCKED – From Daily Caller:  "Political leaders and activists in Baltimore are using the city’s recent riots as an opportunity to demand more state funding for the city’s school system and after-school programs.  At two different events on Monday, activists and politicians directly cited the riots as showcasing the need to funnel more money towards educational efforts in Baltimore, The Baltimore Sun reports. Activists want Hogan to direct about $68 million in funds he hoped to allocate for other state needs back to education. About $11 million of that money would go to Baltimore.  At least one lawmaker suggested Baltimore deserved more money because, following the riots, it would be better spent."  Yeah, right.  If this money is authorized, watch it go right down the drain.  It won't be sent directly to people.  It will go to "leaders" to administer "programs."  After every riot there's a demand for what, in effect, is protection money.

RUSSIANS DON'T HEART AMERICA – A new poll shows that Russians see us, laughingly, as a threat.  The Putin propaganda machine is doing its job.  From CBS:  "According to the Russian polling group Levada Center, 59 percent of Russians see the United States as a threat, reports Global Post. That number was 47 percent in 2007.  Of those who said the U.S. is a threat, 31 percent are worried about the possibility of an American invasion and occupation of Russia.  'Lately we can see that all the measures are directed at the consolidation of [Russians’] national identity. And depicting the United States as the enemy has become one of the structural elements for social consolidation,' Karina Pipiya, sociologist at the Levada Center, was quoted by Izvestia newspaper as saying, according to the Moscow Times."  Just like the good old days. 

May 13, 2015       Permalink

HOW THE WORM TURNS – AT 11:31 A.M. ET:  Did you ever think you'd see the day when supreme leftist Barack Obama was attacked for being sexist?  That day has come.  From The Hill:

National Organization for Women (NOW) president Terry O'Neill on Wednesday called President Obama's critique of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) sexist.

O'Neill told The Hill she took issue with Obama calling Warren by her first name during an interview with Yahoo News published Saturday.

"Yes, I think it is sexist," O'Neill said. "I think the president was trying to build up his own trustworthiness on this issue by convincing us that Senator Warren's concerns are not to be taken seriously. But he did it in a sexist way."

Obama told Yahoo that Warren was opposing his trade agenda to further her own political brand.

“The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else. And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that,” Obama told Yahoo.

O'Neill said Obama's "clear subtext is that the little lady just doesn't know what she's talking about."

"I think it was disrespectful," O'Neill said.

COMMENT:  Remarkable.  Quite remarkable.  Look Barack, if you've lost NOW...

May 13,  2015     Permalink

DOES SHE EVER LEARN? – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:   Or maybe it's Bill who, as usual, can't control himself.  The Clintons, through their foundation, are continuing to take foreign money.  From the Washington Examiner: 

A number of foreign donors pledged new support for Clinton Foundation efforts during a conference in Marrakech last week, raising questions about the strength of Hillary Clinton's campaign promise to cut off foreign donations to her family philanthropy while she runs for president.

The Kingdom of Morocco was among the foreign entities that committed to new projects at the Clinton Global Initiative event, which drew dozens of big-ticket donors to the country for a three-day meeting headlined by Bill Clinton. Hillary was slated to attend the Marrakech conference before her name was quietly removed from the schedule earlier this year amid criticism of the foundation's foreign activities.

The Clinton Global Initiative is an arm of the Clinton Foundation that acts a broker between donors and entities that are interested in completing charitable projects. Under the memorandum of understanding that guided the foundation's activities while Hillary Clinton was in office, the Clinton Global Initiative was not allowed to hold major events overseas.

In all, 34 U.S.-based and foreign entities offered their support to Clinton Global Initiative projects at the Marrakech summit.

COMMENT:  I have no doubt that these "foreign entities" will be well rewarded for their contributions.

It is simply incredible that the Clintons don't understand the importance of appearances.  Or maybe they just don't care, and feel they can get away with it, with the help of a sympathetic press.

May 13, 2015       Permalink

ALOHA, WE THINK – AT 9:12 A.M. ET:   The annals of Obamacare are being written.   The one in Hawaii may, if things continue, be distributed in a plain wrapper.  Things aren't good.  The question is whether this disaster is being repeated widely.  From Americans for Tax Reform: 

Despite over $205 million in federal taxpayer funding, Hawaii’s Obamacare exchange website will soon shut down. Since its implementation, the exchange has somehow failed to become financially viable because of lower than expected Obamacare enrollment figures. With the state legislature rejecting a $28 million bailout, the website will now be unable to operate past this year.

According to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the Hawaii Health Connector will stop taking new enrollees on Friday and plans to begin migrating to the federally run Healthcare.gov. Outreach services will end by May 31, all technology will be transferred to the state by September 30, and its workforce will be eliminated by February 28.

While the exchange has struggled since its creation, it is not for lack of funding. Since 2011 Hawaii has received a total of $205,342,270 in federal grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In total, HHS provided nearly $4.5 billion to Hawaii and other state exchanges, with little federal oversight and virtually no strings attached.

Despite this generous funding, the exchange has underperformed from day one. In its first year, Hawaii enrolled only 8,592 individuals – meaning it spent almost $23,899 on its website for each individual enrolled. Currently over 37,000 individuals are enrolled in Hawaii’s exchange - well below the estimated 70,000 enrollees that is required to make the website financially viable. Unfortunately, taxpayers will have to hand out an additional $30 million so that Hawaii can migrate to the federal system.

This is not the first time that a state exchange has failed, and taken millions of dollars in federal funds down with it. Earlier this year, Oregon’s state exchange was officially abolished at an estimated cost of $41 million.

COMMENT:  You'd think the mainstream media would consider Obamacare, our first experiment with nationalized health service for everyone, a major, continuing story.  But we actually read little about it.  Support for the program among voters has increased.  But that may be due to the politicized manner in which Obamacare is being introduced – increased services up front, costs and taxes later on.  The classic credit-card mentality. 

I get the feeling that the first recognizable crisis in Obamacare will be funding, and not far behind will be the quality of care, especially for the elderly.  Will there be "death panels," as Sarah Palin predicted?  Oh, sure, but they won't be called that.  They'll be called "intelligent choice" programs.  Except that the choices will be made by the government, and granny might not be happy.

May 13, 2015       Permalink

WHOOPS – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:  Did someone say something about an economic recovery?  I thought I heard someone mention it.  Better tell it to the American people.  From Fox Business:   

U.S. retail sales were unchanged in April as households cut back on purchases of automobiles and other big-ticket items, suggesting the economy was struggling to make a strong rebound after barely growing in the first quarter.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales for March were revised up to show a 1.1 percent increase instead of the previously reported 0.9 percent rise.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales rising 0.2 percent last month.

Retail sales excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services were also unchanged after an upwardly revised 0.5 percent increase in March.

The so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.

Economists had forecast core retail sales rising 0.5 percent in April after a previously reported 0.4 percent increase in March.

Retail sales have trended weaker despite households getting a massive windfall from lower gasoline prices. Consumers appear to have saved much of the money from the cheaper gasoline.

COMMENT:  Any Democratic candidate for president would want to take a strong economy into the 2016 election, and it just isn't happening.  The economy, as noted in the Fox Business article, is still struggling. 

It is still too early to assess the economic damage that might have been done by the Baltimore riots or the storms in the Midwest.  Hillary, though, cannot be smiling.

May 13,  2015     Permalink

MAY 12,  2015

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

JUNK – From CNBC:  "Moody's downgraded Chicago's credit rating down to junk level 'Ba1' from 'Baa2.'  The announcement, which the ratings agency released Tuesday afternoon, cited a recent Illinois court ruling voiding state pension reforms. Moody's said it saw a negative outlook for the city's credit.  Following that May court decision, Moody's said it believes that 'the city's options for curbing growth in its own unfunded pension liabilities have narrowed considerably.'"  This comes just before the official announcement that Obama's presidential library will be housed in Chicago.  So we'll have junk financing followed by junk history.

WHAT A SURPRISE – From Fox:  "As cap-and-gown season gets underway at American colleges and universities, graduates and their loved ones will be getting an earful from left-wing commencement speakers, according to a report.  Liberal speakers will outnumber conservatives by at least 6-to-1 at the nation's top 100 schools as ranked by U.S. News & World Report, according to conservative watchdog group Young America’s Foundation. Among the top 10 of the list--which includes schools such as Princeton, the University of Chicago and Duke--none is hosting conservative speakers.  'Our 2015 survey shows the conservative blackout on college campuses has only gotten worse,' Ron Robinson, president of Young America's Foundation, said in a statement to FoxNews.com. 'While conservatives won the national elections by a wide margin, campuses have doubled down on liberal speakers--with zero elected conservative officials scheduled to speak at our nation's top schools.'"  And for this the colleges charge $50,000 a year, and up. 

CONGRATS – From Fox:  "Richard Overton feels a 'little stiff' from time to time and he's cut out the whiskey but other than that, he feels pretty good.  Not bad for America's oldest living military veteran, who turned 109 on Monday.  'I get around pretty good, just get a little stiff. I'm doing all right, I guess,' Overton told FoxNews.com, as he waited at his Austin, Texas, home for a car to pick him up to take him to meet Gov. Greg Abbott.  'Gonna go see the governor,' he added. 'He wants to talk to me.'  The World War II veteran's friends and family tossed a birthday party for him last week, with as many as 100 people in attendance."  Great to have this man still with us.

MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH –   You probably saw Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York on TV in the last few days.  He's making his move to become a national "progressive" figure, trying to move Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party even further left.  But, uh, wasn't he elected to do a job?  New Yorkers seem to think so.  From the New York Post:  "He’s aiming to become a national spokesman for the left, but a new poll suggests Mayor de Blasio might want to pay more attention to the folks who elected him in New York City.  De Blasio received the lowest job approval ratings of his mayoral career in a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday, with 44 percent of voters giving him a thumbs up compared to 40 percent who thought he was doing a lousy job.  That was a 5 percent drop from January, when the mayor a 49 percent positive rating and 40 percent negative one.  And nearly half of those surveyed —46 percent — said the mayor’s jaunts around the country were distracting him from his duties at City Hall. Forty-two percent had no problem with the trips."  Crime is up in New York since de Blasio took office, and the crimes are becoming more brazen.  Same old liberal story.

May 12,  2015     Permalink

ANNALS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT – AT 11:54 A.M. ET:  The state of the law-enforcement community is not good, and the recent anti-cop hysteria is taking its toll.   From the Washington Times: 

Law enforcement morale is at an all-time low as uniformed officers endure increased pushback from the communities and politicians they’re risking their lives to protect, and a new report released Monday shows on-duty law enforcement deaths in 2014 occurring at nearly twice the previous year’s rate.

“One of the things that we’ve seen just lately, that we’ve never seen before, is police officers are telling their own families, and their own children, ‘Don’t go into this line of duty, this line of work, because it’s not worth it any more,’” said Bill Johnson, executive director of the National Association of Police Organizations.

The number of law enforcement officers who were feloniously killed in the line of duty in 2014 increased 89 percent as compared to the year prior — with most dying after being shot by gun-carrying criminals, according to a preliminary report issued by the FBI on Monday.

In raw numbers, 51 law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty in 2014, versus 27 such deaths in 2013.

The FBI report Monday was preliminary; the complete annual report will be released in the fall.

And the number killed in deliberate ambush attacks has tripled in a year, according to data collected by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. In 2014 there were 15 officers killed in fatal ambushes compared to five in 2013, the group said.

Police unions are “very much concerned” over the increased number of attacks on officers, which seem to be planned ambushes and unprovoked attacks, Mr. Johnson said.

The recent fatal attacks on New York police officer Brian Moore, 25, as well as Hattiesburg, Mississippi, police officers Benjamin Deen, 34, and Liquori Tate, 25, have resonated with law enforcement officers nationwide, said Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President Jon Adler.

COMMENT:  Who will be the next generation of police officers?  Where will we get them?  Will they be interested in protecting the community, or "understanding" the criminals? 

After years of good government in New York City, under Mayors Giuliani and Bloomberg, New Yorkers reverted to form and elected a leftist Democratic mayor.  Now crime is rising rapidly again, and the mayor, Bill de Blasio, is spending increasing amounts of time out of the city, campaigning for a national "progressive" agenda.  Will the media hold him to account?  Will the people of the city?

I really do feel that America is at a crossroads.  And too many Americans, led by a liberal media, leftist college professors, and go-along "artists," may take the wrong road.

May 12, 2015       Permalink

TROUBLING – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  First, let me state that I respect mothers who are single, often because of circumstances they can't control, or because of tragedy, and who work hard to raise their children.  I've known some, and they should not be stereotyped, or lumped in with the irresponsible.

Still, some recent statistics raise troubling questions about the stability of this society.  From CNS: 

(CNSNews.com) - Forty-five percent of American mothers in their twenties have never been married, according to data that the Census Bureau released leading into the Mother’s Day weekend.

As of June 2014, according to the Census Bureau, there were 8,118,000 American women who were mothers and were from 20 to 29 years of age. Of these 8,118,000 American mothers in their twenties, 3,689,000 had never been married. That is 45.4 percent.

"In comparison with all mothers, young mothers are more likely to have had their first birth when they were neither married nor cohabiting,” states the Census. “Among young mothers who had their first birth between 2005 and June of 2012, 38 percent were neither married nor cohabiting at the time of the first birth.”

While the percentage of babies who are born to unmarried mothers is increasing, the average number of babies born per woman is declining.

“The average number of children ever born has dropped from more than three children per woman in 1976 to about two children per woman in 2012,” says the Census Bureau’s report on “Fertility of Women in the United States: 2012,” which was published in 2014.

Of the 4,125,353 who had a child in the 12 months prior to the 2012 Census Bureau survey, 31.3 percent had never been married and 7.0 percent were not married at the time of the survey. Only 61.8 percent of the new mothers was “currently married.”

COMMENT:  The fertility statistics are also troubling, if you look at what's happened in Western Europe.  Fertility is so low that the native populations in some countries cannot reproduce themselves.  That means that countries like the Netherlands may well not exist in 50 years.  Another country in danger of just fading away is Italy.  Those cultures will be lost. 

The West is failing in so many areas, but reproduction of home populations is basic to survival.

May 12, 2015       Permalink

THE MESS – AT 9:17 A.M. ET:  The extent of Obama's foreign-policy disaster can be seen in the way presumed Arab allies of the United States are treating this administration.  We may not love those countries and their political systems, but I'd rather have them with us than against us, or even neutral.  From a commentary in The Wall Street Journal:   

The promise of a successful nuclear deal with Iran is that it will stop nuclear proliferation, moderate Tehran’s behavior, make the Middle East a safer place, and perhaps allow the U.S. to play a less active role in a troublesome region. Try telling that to the Arab leaders who were supposed to visit the White House and Camp David this week, but are now finding a reason not to show up.

President Obama announced the visit when he unveiled the Iran “framework” last month. The goal is to reassure the king of Saudi Arabia—along with the emirs and princes of Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates—that the U.S. will continue to support them despite the nuclear deal with Iran. The President has also suggested he’ll have a “tough conversation” about their internal politics, though how another Obama lecture on good governance will ease concerns about U.S. reliability is anyone’s guess.

But at the last minute the senior Arab leaders are finding excuses not to make the trip. New Saudi King Salman pulled out on the weekend only days after confirming his attendance, and he will send lower-level officials instead. Bahrain’s king has also bowed out. These rejections can only be described as political snubs rooted in distrust of President Obama and his diplomacy.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  As usual with Wall Street Journal editorials, it's worth it.  The hype surrounding Barack Obama's entry into the presidency was almost intolerable, and that hype has never been equaled by his performance.  I cannot think of a single victory for American foreign policy since Obama took the oath.  And for most of that time, Hillary Clinton was his secretary of state. 

The snubbing of an American president should be taken very seriously.  It's a signal that allies might look elsewhere for support, or make deals with our enemies.  But, really, does Obama actually care? 

May 12, 2015       Permalink

MORE TROUBLE FOR HILLARY – AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  What's significant about Clinton scandals is that they're ongoing.  They never seem to end.  New, exciting discoveries are made all the time that keep them going.

The Democratic Party may well nominate a candidate for president who has a reasonable chance of being indicted.  There's a first time for everything.  From Fox:

A federal judge has agreed to reopen a lawsuit that seeks to gain access to emails from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private server.

Judge Reggie B. Walton’s decision Friday came after the State Department and Judicial Watch, which brought the lawsuit, agreed that the documents that Clinton kept on her own email server separate from the government should be turned over.

“This is the first case that’s been reopened,” Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch told The Washington Times. “It’s a significant development. It points to the fraud by this administration and Mrs. Clinton.”

Previously, the court dismissed Judicial Watch's request, on the grounds that the documents did not exist.

Judicial Watch is a conservative, non-partisan educational foundation that promotes transparency and accountability in government.

Clinton provided about 30,000 emails to a House committee investigating the 2012 terror attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya but deleted 32,000 emails she considered personal and not government business.

COMMENT:  This is developing just as the Queen's candidacy gets going.  Will it have an effect?  Hard to predict.  The standard line of the liberal left when confronted with scandal is to insist that Americans want to "move on."  (That in fact is how the group moveon.org got started.)  It may not be that easy when the scandal surrounds a presidential candidate.

You may be sure that the usual suspects in the media will try to come up with an equal and opposite scandal involving whatever GOP candidates emerge from the pack, just so Hillary isn't alone.  It's a service they perform regularly.

May 12,  2015     Permalink