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JULY 31,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M.  ET:

COLLEGE FASCISM – FROM DAILY CALLER:  A student government leader at the University of Houston was suspended for 50 days and ordered to attend a diversity seminar after she criticized the Black Lives Matter movement online.  Shortly after the July 7 shooting in Dallas that killed five officers, Rohini Sethi went on Facebook and opined “Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like AllLivesMatter.” The statement was later deleted, but only after numerous UH students denounced it as incredibly offensive or even hateful.  “Just for her to say, ‘forget Black Lives Matter,’ is a punch in the stomach,” student Nala Hughes told a local press outlet at the time.  Sethi serves as the vice president of UH’s student government association (SGA), and several UH students demanded her immediate removal.  I guess that the concept of all lives mattering is now considered racist.  I doubt that Dr. King would agree.

NUKE CONCERN AT OLYMPICS – FROM BRITAIN'S SUN:   EXPERTS from the United Nations have sent state-of-the art detection equipment to Brazil over fears suicidal terror nuts will target the Olympics with a devastating ‘dirty bomb’.  The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has loaned hi-tech radiation monitors – including personal detectors and portable scanners – for use on the ground throughout the Games.  Brazil’s anti-terror chief has already admitted there is a ‘credible threat’ ISIS will target Rio next month and said ‘numerous measures’ are being taken to prevent any attack.  Counter terrorism director Luiz Alberto Sallaberry said the threat had increased dramatically in recent months due to attacks across Europe  Great way to begin the Olympics.  Combine this with reports that security preparations have been lax and we have a truckload of worries.

SUPPORT FOR THIRD PARTIES RISES – FROM THE HILL:   Voters now confronted with the choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are making something abundantly clear: they want another option.  Surveys over the last six weeks have found a steady but noticeable jump in support for third-party candidates. The biggest beneficiary has been Libertarian Gary Johnson, who has shot up from 4.5 percent to 7.2 percent in RealClearPolitics polling averages. Green Party candidate Jill Stein has also seen an uptick since June — from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent.  The surge in support for a third-party candidate is adding a new element of unpredictability into the presidential race. Should voters opt for a third-party candidate in large numbers, it could potentially tip the scales in crucial battleground states.  Pollsters and political scientists say the deep malcontent with Clinton and Trump should give both candidates pause.  The third parties could hold the balance of power.  All they have to do is deny victory to either major-party candidate in a few states, and the election could be thrown into the House of Representatives.

July 31,  2016     Permalink

EUROPE'S TERROR – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  We have noted the increasing frequency of terror attacks in Europe, and the probability that there will be some terror action during our election campaign.  This piece from CNN brings it home – a terror attack in Europe every 84 hours:

(CNN) In the past week I have seen flowers and candles carpeting a street in Munich, the tranquility of a small Bavarian town shattered by a suicide bomb and a small church in suburban France sealed off after its octogenarian priest had his throat cut.

Before these horrific events, there was a knife-wielding teenager on a German train. And before that, much deadlier attacks in Nice, Brussels and last November, in Paris.

This year has seen an accelerating pattern of attacks linked to ISIS in Europe and beyond -- from Turkey to Bangladesh, the United States to Indonesia. According to the group IntelCenter, which tracks acts of terrorism, there has been a significant attack directed or inspired by ISIS every 84 hours since June 8 in cities outside the war zones in Iraq, Syria, Sinai in Egypt and Libya. CNN's own tracking of attacks supports that conclusion.

More than half of those attacks have been beyond big cities in places "not traditionally under threat of terrorist attacks," says IntelCenter. This rash of random, low-tech but deadly attacks has fueled public unease in Europe and eroded faith in governments to tackle the threat of terrorism or discern who might turn to violence.

COMMENT:  Read the whole piece.  Read it to those who still think that terror is simply an isolated problem.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.

July 31,  2016     Permalink

CHRISTIANS PAYING A PRICE IN TURKEY – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  Far too little attention is paid to the persecution of Christians around the world.  I cannot understand the relative silence of many Christian organizations.   Christians in Turkey, a member of NATO, are in distress.  From London's Express:

Mid the cacophony of police sirens, low-flying helicopters and rifle fire, there was another sound during the attempt to overthrow president Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The wailing of Turkey’s imams.

From the nations’s 85,000 mosques, their amplified voices were heard calling upon the faithful to take to the streets and defy the plotters. The people listened.

Some bravely stood in front of tanks as they defended the democratically elected president. Around 240 from both sides died and 1,400 were injured.

For others the night presented different opportunities as hardline Muslim Sunnis, whipped up to a frenzy, targeted Turkey’s Christian community.

In Matalya, a sprawling city in Anatolia, once the heartland of Christianity in the East, they targeted a Protestant church.

The word church is a grand term for the small, modern shopfront nestled in the city’s minority Alevi district.

For, despite a tolerant constitution, Protestants are not allowed to build churches in Turkey. Even the name church must be coupled to the non-threatening “association”.

Gangs chanting “Allahu akbar” rounded on it to smash its glass frontage. “The attack on the church was light. But it’s significant that it was the only shopfront attack in those three days,” said its minister, Pastor Tim Stone, last night. “We were the only targets.”

Nor was Matalya alone. In the Black Sea city of Trabzon others attacked the Santa Maria church, smashing windows and using hammers to break down its door.

The events of that Saturday night were not new for either city. In 2007, three Christian employees of a publishing house for Bibles in Malatya were attacked. After being tortured, their hands and feet were tied and their throats cut by five Muslim assailants.

COMMENT:   There are some Mideast countries in which Christianity might simply disappear.  That there is so little protest testifies to the decadence of the West, especially Western Europe, which seems to regard Christian churches as relics of the past.

July 31, 2016       Permalink 

ECONOMIC TRUTH – AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Despite all of Hillary's bluster, we are really not doing very well.  And I get a sense that Americans know it.  From The Wall Street Journal:

Even seven years after the recession ended, the current stretch of economic gains has yielded less growth than much shorter business cycles.

In terms of average annual growth, the pace of this expansion has been by far the weakest of any since 1949. (And for which we have quarterly data.) The economy has grown at a 2.1% annual rate since the U.S. recovery began in mid-2009, according to gross-domestic-product data the Commerce Department released Friday.

The prior expansion, from 2001 through 2007, was the only other business cycle of the past 11 when the economy didn’t grow at least 3% a year, on average.

Total growth this expansion ranks just 8th of the past 11 cycles. The U.S. economy, at the end of June, was 15.5% larger than it was when the recession ended in 2009.

The current expansion remains smaller than the one during Richard Nixon‘s administration. And that 16% expansion lasted just three years. The economy grew 18% from 2001 through 2007. It grew 52% from 1961 through 1969.

COMMENT:   Trump should be able to gain from these numbers, but the Dems are trying to raise doubts in voters' minds.  They're focusing on Trump's own business record, which they claim is filled with failures.  Trump will have to answer these claims one by one, if he can.

July 31, 2016     Permalink

JULY 30,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET:

INCREDIBLE – FROM YAHOO SPORTS:  Less than a week before the 2016 Rio Olympics are set to start, the Brazil Ministry of Justice terminated its contract with a private firm that was supposed to provide security for the games. The ministry cited “incompetence and irresponsibility” from the Rio de Janeiro-based firm Artel, and moved to strip them of their duties.  It’s not hard to see why the Ministry of Justice reacted so harshly. With only a few days left until the first venues are set to open, Artel admitted that they have only hired 500 security personnel.  They were supposed to hire 3,400.  These staff members were going to be responsible for screening visitors outside each Olympic venue. X-ray machines and body searches are now going to be handled by local police forces to secure areas that are expected to have tens of thousands of screaming fans.   Did they just discover these problems in the last week?  They've had years to plan.  What has the International Olympic Committee been doing, aside from collecting money for its executives?

THAT'S THE SPIRIT – FROM FOX NEWS:   Muslims have refused to bury one of the terrorists who murdered a French Catholic priest this week as he celebrated Mass.  Community leaders in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy said they did not want to "taint" Islam by having any association with Adel Kermiche, the 19-year-old jihadist who killed Father Jacques Hamel in his hometown in northern France.  Mohammed Karabila, president of the local Muslim cultural association and imam of one of the town's mosques, told Le Parisien newspaper: "We're not going to taint Islam with this person. We won't participate in preparing the body or the burial."  In a separate conversation with Sky News, Karabila reiterated there would be no involvement by the mosque's religious leadership in any funeral.  A fine statement of dignity.  We need more of this from Islam.

TERROR MARCHES ON – FROM REUTERS:   BRUSSELS - Police arrested two men suspected of planning an attack in Belgium after house searches on Friday evening, federal prosecutors said on Saturday.
The two, named as 33-year-old Nourredine H. and his brother Hamza H., will appear before a judge on Saturday to determine whether they should be held in custody beyond an initial 24 hours.  "Based on provisional results from the investigation, it appears that there were plans to carry out an attack somewhere in Belgium," the federal prosecution office said in a statement.  For the time being there was no connection with the attacks at Brussels airport and the metro on March 22, in which 32 people were killed, the prosecution office said.  We have three months and a week before our presidential election.  Sadly, the odds are great that there'll be another major attack during this period.

July 30, 2016       Permalink

THE COST OF "JUSTICE" – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:  There has been real damage done by the inept, unsuccessful prosecution of six police officers in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.  All charges against them have now been dropped.  From Paul Mirengoff at Powerline: 

The Baltimore Sun reports that the cost of defending the six Baltimore police officers charged in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray emptied the coffers of the city’s police union. The union was able to stay afloat only because its members voted to double the dues.

The vote was unanimous, according to the Sun’s sources.

Marilyn Mosby has finally dropped all charges in these cases. However, the dues will remain where they are so the union can replenish its treasury and be able to defend against future Mosby prosecutions.

The city’s demoralized police officers will think of Mosby every time they pay their dues.

The Freddy Gray trials also cost the city of Baltimore plenty. According to city officials, the price tag was $450,000.

Some will argue that even though the prosecutions were spectacularly unsuccessful, they were worth the price because the facts became known to the public and some level of closure was achieved. I understand the argument, but strongly disagree with it.

The hammer of the state’s criminal process should be used only to pursue justice (actual justice, not “social justice”). It shouldn’t be used to shed light, achieve closure, or (more to the point here) pacify a mob.

COMMENT:  I agree with that conclusion.  The prosecution seemed more a political act, than an act in pursuit of real justice.   For the justice system to work properly, it must be completely insulated from public pressure.  Justice cannot be defined as satisfying the mob.

July 30, 2016       Permalink

CLINTON WAS WARNED OF FOREIGN HACK OF HER CAMPAIGN COMPUTERS – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:  Apparently she just has a problem with these darned digital things.  From ace investigative reporter Michael Isikoff at Yahoo:

The FBI warned the Clinton campaign that it was a target of a cyberattack last March, just weeks before the Democratic National Committee discovered it had been penetrated by hackers it now believes were working for Russian intelligence, two sources who have been briefed on the matter told Yahoo News.

In a meeting with senior officials at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters, FBI agents laid out concerns that cyberhackers had used so-called spear-phishing emails as part of an attempt to penetrate the campaign’s computers, the sources said. One of the sources said agents conducting a national security investigation asked the Clinton campaign to turn over internal computer logs as well as the personal email addresses of senior campaign officials. But the campaign, through its lawyers, declined to provide the data, deciding that the FBI’s request for sensitive personal and campaign information data was too broad and intrusive, the source said.

A second source who had been briefed on the matter and who confirmed the Brooklyn meeting said agents provided no specific information to the campaign about the identity of the cyberhackers or whether they were associated with a foreign government. The source said the campaign was already aware of attempts to penetrate its computers and had taken steps to thwart them, emphasizing that there is still no evidence that the campaign’s computers had actually been successfully penetrated.

But the potential that the intruders were associated with a foreign government should have come as no surprise to the Clinton campaign, said several sources knowledgeable about the investigation. Chinese intelligence hackers were widely reported to have penetrated both the campaigns of Barack Obama and John McCain in 2008.

The Brooklyn warning also could raise new questions about why the campaign and the DNC didn’t take the matter more seriously.

COMMENT:  As they say, the fish rots from the head.  Hillary Clinton just does not take security seriously enough, and her attitude permeates her campaign.

It is incredible that the campaign did not make any attempt to accommodate the FBI.  What is the campaign hiding?

I get the feeling that this story will grow, and will be added to the e-mail scandal at the State Department to portray Clinton as careless with security.

July 30, 2016       Permalink

NEW POLL, BUT ACCURATE? – AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  A new Reuters poll, taking account of the Democratic Convention, shows Hillary Clinton up six points over Donald Trump.  But there's a complication.  From The Hill: 

Hillary Clinton is up by 6 points over Donald Trump nationwide, according to a weekly poll by Reuters.

Forty-one percent of voters support Clinton, 35 percent favor Trump, and 25 percent of voters chose “other.”

That's a remarkably high number for "other."

When Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are factored in, Trump and Clinton are tied at 37 percent, with Johnson at 5 percent and Stein at 1 percent. 

And that's the complication.  Those two will be on the ballot in many states.  They must be factored in.

Both Clinton and Trump are now officially their parties’ nominees following the two party conventions.

Clinton increased her lead over Trump from last week’s Reuters poll, when she was up by 3 points with 41 percent.

COMMENT:  Hillary will probably get a small convention bounce, but this election isn't in the bag for anyone.  It may well become a "turnout" election, with victory going to the candidate who has the best voter turnout operation.  That's usually the Democrats.

Many new post-convention polls should be out in the coming week.

July 30,  2016     Permalink