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MARCH 24,  2016

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

ET TU, CHELS – Early in the week Bill Clinton spoke about the awful legacy of the last eight years.  It seemed he was going after Obama, although the damage-control squad later claimed he was really talking about the Republican Congress, even though the GOP has only controlled Congress for the last five years.  Now Chelsea Clinton is chiming in.  From Weekly Standard:   A video shows Chelsea Clinton blasting the "crushing costs" of President Barack Obama's signature legislation. In the video, Chelsea Clinton tells a crowd that her mother, Hillary Clinton, is open to using executive action to reduce "crushing costs" of Obamacare.  "...cap on out of pocket expenses. This was part of my mom's original plan back in '93 and '94, as well as premium costs. We can either do that directly or through tax credits. And, kind of figuring out whether she could do that through executive action, or she would need to do that through tax credits working with Congress. She thinks either of those will help solve the challenge of kind of the crushing costs that still exist for too many people, who even are part of the Affordable Care Act and buying insurance..."  What's going on here?  Hillary needs Obama, and yet the Clintons are trashing him.  Do they know something about the FBI investigation and how Obama will handle the results?  Hmm.

WALKER PREDICTS – From the Madison Capital Times:  If the Republican Party finds itself with an open convention in July, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believes the nominee may not be Donald Trump, Ted Cruz or John Kasich.  "I think if it’s an open convention, it’s very likely it would be someone who’s not currently running," Walker told reporters Thursday. "I mean, who knows. The one thing I qualify — it’s like the qualifications you see on those ads you see for car dealerships. I think any of us who comment on this election have to qualify that almost every prediction’s been off, so it’s hard to predict anything."  The governor, who ended his own presidential campaign in September, has yet to endorse a candidate. He plans to decide whether to endorse within the next few days, he said.   There is speculation he'll endorse Cruz.  If he can carry Wisconsin for Cruz, the chances of an open convention grow greater.  Maybe Walker sees himself as the emerging hero. 

MAJOR CRIME NEWS – From Fox:   A 12-year-old girl was arrested and booked into juvenile detention after she allegedly pinched a boy’s butt in school during what she described as a popular game at her Florida school.  The girl is facing misdemeanor battery charges after the incident at Milwee Middle School, which is outside Orlando, and was reportedly read her Miranda Rights, put in the back of a patrol car and later charged.  “Lord, lord, lordy. . . what has this world come to?” asked the girl’s father, whose first name is Ray. “Kids can’t even be kids, and that’s basically what it is. She’s 12 years old, she was acting like a 12-year-old child.”  I personally feel safer knowing that this predator is behind bars.  I've seen her kind.  Today it's a pinch, tomorrow it's God-knows-what.  Thank goodness for the brave educators who met the menace head-on and turned her in.  Stop laughing. 

March 24, 2016       Permalink

EUROPE'S ISIS BRIGADE – AT 10:14 A.M. ET:   The threat is probably greater in Europe because of its proximity to the Mideast, but many experts believe it will inevitably come here.  From AP:

The Islamic State group has trained at least 400 fighters to target Europe in deadly waves of attacks, deploying interlocking terror cells like the ones that struck Brussels and Paris with orders to choose the time, place and method for maximum carnage, officials have told The Associated Press.

The network of agile and semiautonomous cells shows the reach of the extremist group in Europe even as it loses ground in Syria and Iraq. The officials, including European and Iraqi intelligence officials and a French lawmaker who follows the jihadi networks, described camps in Syria, Iraq and possibly the former Soviet bloc where attackers are trained to attack the West. Before being killed in a police raid, the ringleader of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks claimed he had entered Europe in a multinational group of 90 fighters, who scattered "more or less everywhere."

But the biggest break yet in the Paris attacks investigation — the arrest on Friday of fugitive Salah Abdeslam— did not thwart the multipronged attack just four days later on the Belgian capital's airport and metro that left 31 people dead and an estimated 270 wounded. Three suicide bombers also died.

COMMENT:  Other experts have put the probable number of ISIS fighters in Europe as closer to 600.  There are investigations into possible ISIS supporters in all 50 American states.  An attack here is inevitable.

Oh, President Obama did the tango in Argentina yesterday, and we applaud his quest for cultural understanding.

March 24, 2016       Permalink

YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS UP – AT 9:44 A.M. ET:  A story out of Emory University, which began with the antics of a few immature kids, is building, as the immaturity is growing.  From Daily Caller: 

Emory University’s student government has announced that it is deploying “emergency” student funds in response to an outbreak of pro-Donald Trump chalk around campus, which many students claimed was “triggering” and damaging to their psychological well-being.

The announcement came one day after several dozen student protesters demonstrated outside Emory’s administration building, asking why the school had responded quickly after swastikas were drawn on a Jewish house but hadn’t reacted similarly to support for Trump. They called on James Wagner, the university’s president, to have the school officially denounce Trump and his on-campus supporters. Wagner declined to do so, but did send out a campus-wide email pledging to improve social justice work on campus.

Now, the student government is getting in on the action, pledging to provide much-needed assistance to students offended by the chalk markings, which included phrases such as “Build the wall” and “Accept the inevitable: Trump 2016.”

The Student Government, presumably our future leaders, sent a heartfelt message:

“[B]y nature of the fact that for a significant portion of our student population, the messages represent particularly bigoted opinions, policies, and rhetoric directed at populations represented at Emory University, we would like to express our concern regarding the values espoused by the messages displayed, and our sympathy for the pain experienced by members of our community,” the message said.

It then went on to suggest the chalk marks had imperiled by the basic safety of Emory students.

COMMENT:   There is no area where free speech is more imperiled than in our colleges and universities.  They have become sandboxes, and free speech has become the enemy, an enemy that damages the emotional health of people who will probably be parents within the next ten years.  Ah, what thoughtful parents they will be, no doubt. 

I recall when the voting age was lowered to 18, the idea being that if you were old enough to fight, you were old enough to vote.  Now we might consider raising the voting age to 35.  Children should not be voting.  For faculty members I'd make that 45. 

March 24, 2016       Permalink

GOP RACE NARROWS IN NEW FOX POLL – AT 9:10 A.M. ET:  And other surprises.  From Fox:

The Republican field has narrowed and so has the race for the party’s nomination: front-runner Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are within the margin of error in a new Fox News national poll on the 2016 election.

Trump remains in the top spot with 41 percent support among GOP primary voters, while Cruz has 38 percent. John Kasich gets 17 percent.

Since mid-February, support for both Cruz and Kasich has doubled, and support for Trump is up five points. Of course in the meantime, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, and Marco Rubio dropped out of the race.

The odds are still against Cruz, especially with Kasich remaining in the race, but Cruz's rise is dramatic.  Look, you never know. 

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton receives 55 percent support for the nomination among Democratic primary voters, while Bernie Sanders gets 42 percent. That’s a change from last month when Sanders held a three-point edge nationally after his dominant New Hampshire primary win.

Fifty-six percent of GOP primary voters are “extremely” interested in the presidential election. Just 43 percent of Democratic primary voters feel that way.

COMMENT:  I don't see any great surge for Sanders.  He still has a bloc of fanatically loyal supporters, especially on the left and among the young.  There is little enthusiasm for Clinton, but she keeps drawing on party loyalty and Democratic Party rules, which tilt in her favor, and will very probably get the nomination, unless the FBI probe brings her down.

March 24,  2016     Permalink

MARCH 23,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:48 P.M. ET:

WISCONSIN POLL – The GOP Wisconsin primary is April 5th.  From Weekly Standard:   The poll, conducted March 20 to 22 by Emerson College, indicates that Kasich's presence in the race is taking more votes from Cruz than from Trump. Kasich's supporters view Cruz as more favorable than Trump by an 9-point margin—36 percent to 27 percent.  Some Kasich supporters may move to Cruz when they learn that Cruz is the only candidate who has a shot of beating Trump in Wisconsin's winner-take-all primary. It appears that many Kasich supporters who weren't firmly committed to the Ohio governor ended up voting for Cruz in Utah's primary yesterday.  Another sign that Cruz would win a two-man race against Trump is that an overwhelming majority of Wisconsin Republicans have a favorable view of Cruz, while Trump's overall favorability rating is negative.  Winning Wisconsin would be a major gain for Cruz, but many of the following primaries are in the northeast, currently seen as more favorable to Trump.  The Cruz goal is to prevent Trump from going to the convention with enough votes to win on the first ballot.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCHOLARSHIP – From the Washington Times:   An associate professor at the University of North Dakota called the police on two ROTC students carrying replica rifles on campus, saying the group’s practice drills are “highly inappropriate” and “irresponsible” in light of recent school shootings.  In a letter Sunday to the Grand Forks Herald, Heidi Czerwiec described the panic she felt when she looked up from her office computer to see “two figures in camo with guns” outside her window.  “My first thought is for my students’ and my safety: I grab my phone, crawl under my desk and call 911,” she wrote.  The threat, however, was two ROTC students carrying guns on their way to a routine training exercise, Campus Reform reported.  “I can barely talk — first, with fear, and then with rage when the dispatcher reports back that yes, in fact, I’ve probably just seen ROTC cadets, though they’re going to send an officer to check because no one has cleared it with them,” Ms. Czerwiec wrote.  I feel her pain.  For her it must have been like...like Vietnam, or Ferguson, Missouri, or a Donald Trump rally.  We must be sure this woman is given help, covered by Obamacare.

ADVENTURES IN NEW YORK GOVERNMENT – And a warning to the rest of the country.  This is what happens when liberalism has absolute control, in this case over transportation systems in the New York area.  From the New York Post:   Ever wonder how the Port Authority spends its take from soaring tolls? Promise not to jump off a PA bridge, then take a peek at some crazy new data on what the authority’s paying employees.  One PA cop, Joseph Macaluso, pulled down a whopping $348,095 last year. That’s right: $348,095 for a cop. A chief maintenance supervisor, Stephen Olmo, raked in $325,880, including $186,846 in overtime.  It sounds surreal. But data just released by the Empire Center show that the average PA employee got $100,253 last year, up from $97,673 in 2014.  An executive, Michael Francois, topped the list at $366,698. But three dozen employees took in $250,000 each, including 25 PA cops. And 170 PAPD officers pulled down $200,000-plus, again thanks to juicy OT.  And public transportation is still sub-par, though the prices are gold-plated.  Families that used to travel around the area casually now must ask if they want to go to grandma's house when the bridge toll costs $14.

March 23, 2016       Permalink

AMERICA AND THE WORLD – QUOTE OF THE DAY – from the great British historian, Andrew Roberts, via the Hoover Institution.  As we watched President Obama attend a ball game in Cuba yesterday in the midst of the Brussels horror, we inevitably thought about the foreign policies he's pursued in his wretched seven years as president: 

Yet in the situation the United States has found herself post–World War II, the retention of strategic alliances spanning the globe has been essential, for both fighting and winning the Cold War, for subsequently prosecuting the War Against Terror, and also for facing the emerging threats from a revanchist, irredentist Russia and an increasingly confident and nationalist China. The United States fought all her major postwar struggles—primarily in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan—as the leader of a coalition of allies. But the Obama administration has a deeply unimpressive record of nurturing and protecting America’s allies, which are in a worse state of repair than at any time since the Carter administration over a third of a century ago.

Although many Europeans among America’s allies derided President George W. Bush’s administration and opposed his invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, none doubted his resolve to protect them from Russian or Chinese incursions against their sovereign territory. They were willing to nestle safely under the American umbrella while sneering at the president who obligingly held it over them.

By total contrast, today America’s allies are deeply concerned that American support for them is weak, partial, and hesitant, while continuing to praise President Obama personally. Specifically, the eastern European and Baltic states worry that Obama has been insufficiently tough over Vladimir Putin’s seizure of the Crimea from Ukraine, and not supportive enough of Ukraine in its struggle against separatist rebels who are willing even to shoot down Malaysian airliners (at no cost, so far). They worry whether Obama would support the Baltic states if Putin were to destabilize them, too. In the Middle East, the Israelis, Saudi Arabians, and other Gulf allies of America are also deeply concerned at Obama’s appeasement of Iran and refusal to destroy the Islamic State. In the South China Sea, China’s saber rattling and aircraft carrier-building have left its neighbors deeply concerned, especially as Obama’s much-vaunted “shift to the east” now looks like just so
much verbiage.

COMMENT:  That's what happens when a president is elected simply on the basis of political correctness.  Obama came to office as an inexperienced, self-important kid from Chicago.  And that's the way he's leaving office.  He hasn't grown at all.  How can you improve on perfection?

What a waste.

March 23, 2016       Permalink

YESTERDAY'S PRIMARIES AND CAUCUSES – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  The results were split.  Both Donald Trump, on the GOP side, and Hillary Clinton, on the other side, won strong victories in Arizona, which is a voting primary.

But Bernie Sanders wiped Hillary out in the Utah and Idaho caucuses.  And Ted Cruz defeated Trump in Utah as well.  There were no GOP caucuses in Idaho.  From Fox: 

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton padded their delegate totals with convincing wins in the valuable Arizona primary Tuesday night – but their respective rivals, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, kept the race alive with victories in the Utah and Idaho caucuses.

The Associated Press projected Sanders and Cruz the winners of the Utah contest early Wednesday morning. Idaho’s Democratic-only caucuses were called for Sanders.

Though Arizona was the biggest prize on the map in Tuesday's Western contests, Sanders and Cruz won their states by huge, double-digit margins. Cruz took all of Utah's delegates by finishing with more than 50 percent of the vote.

Together, the Western contests seemed to leave the race in a familiar place: with the front-runners building their tallies and trying to shift to a general election mindset, yet unable to shake underdog rivals buoyed by their own victories and finding reason to press on.

With Sanders' two wins, he roughly split Tuesday's delegate haul with Clinton. And Cruz’s victory in Utah indeed slows Trump’s march toward the nomination on the GOP side.

COMMENT:  I think it's significant that Cruz's and Sanders's victories came in caucuses.  The frontrunners seem to do very well in a straightforward primary election, but caucuses bring out the challengers' true believers.  I have no idea why.

I regard Sanders as the most dangerous candidate in the race.  He is personable, and very decent, but has some of the worst ideas I've ever seen in a major candidate, particularly on national defense.  Some observers say he's the future of the Democratic Party, but I'm not so sure.  First of all, he's 74.  Second, his personal qualities can't easily be duplicated in other candidates.  Third, his appeal is mostly to the young, but there are lots of un-young voters out there.

Clinton and Trump still lead their respective fields.  But few things are predictable in this race.  Clinton could face an FBI problem.  And Trump does seem to be showing signs of weakness, at least for now. 

Cruz was endorsed yesterday by Jeb Bush.  In terms of votes, that may not mean much.  But the endorsement could open Bush's donor network to the Cruz campaign. 

March 23, 2016       Permalink

THE THREAT – AT 8:35 A.M. ET:  ISIS is taking "credit" for yesterday's carnage in Brussels, and is promising more.  From Times of Israel:

The Islamic State terror group threatened the US and European countries with continued attacks early Wednesday, hours after taking responsibility for a series of blasts in Brussels that left at least 34 people dead, and as police in Brussels carried out a massive manhunt for suspects in the attacks.

A statement from the group promised “dark days” for countries allied against the Islamic State.

“What is to come will be more devastating and bitter,” reads the statement directed against “crusader nations allied in their war against the Islamic State,” a reference to the US-led coalition bombing the group’s positions in Syria and Iraq.

The communique was published in Arabic, French, and English according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.

IS also released photos purportedly showing its fighters in Syria giving out candy to children to celebrate the Brussels attacks, according to SITE.

Twitter accounts linked to the group also distributed a picture of a fighter standing above a beheaded Statue of Liberty.

Three intelligence officials in Iraq told the AP that they had warned European colleagues last month of IS plans to attack airports and trains, although Belgium wasn’t specified as a likely target.

COMMENT:  We have no excuse for being surprised.  But we will have, for the next ten months, a commander-in-chief who went to a Cuban baseball game yesterday in the midst of the bulletins about the Brussels horror. 

Britain is on high alert, expecting an attack in as many as ten places simultaneously.  I worry about the same thing here.  Remember that 9-11 was a multi-pronged attack as well – on the World Trade Center, on the Pentagon, and a failed attempt to attack another target in Washington by United Flight 93, which was brought down in Pennsylvania.

March 23,  2016     Permalink