Please note that you can leave a comment on any of our posts at our Facebook page.  Subscribers can also comment at length at our Angel's Corner Forum.

MARCH 16,  2018

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

OUTRAGE – FROM FOX:  As reports emerged about an engineer's warning of cracks days before Thursday's calamitous collapse of a pedestrian bridge in Florida, a U.S. senator wants to find out exactly who was behind the construction that may have led to the structure's fatal failure.  Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, is “demanding” documents related to oversight of the construction of the bridge at Florida International University in Miami, according to a statement from his office.  I don't blame the senator.  This was a brand new structure, apparently paid for with federal funds. 

ANOTHER WITCH IN THE HUNT – FROM VARIETY:    John Bailey, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is under investigation for allegations of sexual harassment.  The Academy received three harassment claims on Wednesday and immediately opened a probe, according to sources familiar with the situation.  Bailey was elected president of the institution in August. If he were forced to step down, he would be temporarily replaced by Lois Burwell, a veteran makeup artist who is the Academy’s vice president, until the next election in July.   I have no idea what the truth is here, but that's the point.  Life after life is being ruined by these charges, which are taking on the tone of McCarthyism.  Let's have a serious, but fair investigation before a name is made public. 

CHOPPING BLOCK – FROM FOX:  The Justice Department dealt a stunning blow to former Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe on Friday night, firing him just days before he would have been eligible for a lifetime pension after determining that he lied to investigators reviewing the bureau’s probe of Hillary Clinton’s email server.  "Pursuant to Department Order 1202, and based on the report of the Inspector General, the findings of the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility, and the recommendation of the Department’s senior career official, I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement.  This is only the start of a new phase of the story.  Inevitably, the mainstream press will compare this to Watergate's Saturday Night Massacre, because they compare everything to Watergate, including sinus trouble.

March 16, 2018       Permalink

SOMEWHERE, OUT THERE, EVERY DAY – THERE ARE PEOPLE AIMING AT US – AT 1:53 P.M. ET:   No, we shouldn't be paranoid, but we should understand what is happening, put a proper and accurate label on it, and counter it.  From Daily Mail: 

A teenage asylum-seeker who built a 'Mother of Satan' nail bomb in the bedroom of his foster home before trying to blow up a tube train is facing a lengthy jail term after he was convicted of attempted murder today.

Ahmed Hassan, 18, tried to kill 93 people by setting off a 'bucket bomb' at Parsons Green station in west London last September. Luckily the device failed to properly detonate, but still left 51 passengers with serious burns.

Hassan had left his native Iraq and travelled through Turkey, Italy and France before getting into the UK on the back of the lorry coming through the Channel Tunnel.

After being looked after in a charity-run shelter, he was taken in by loving foster parents Penelope and Ronald Jones in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey and sent to a local college.

But while his foster parents were away on holiday last summer, he studied YouTube videos on how to make explosives before building a bomb from household objects including Tupperware boxes, a vase and 2.2kg of knives, screwdrivers and nails.  

Following today's verdicts, it can be reported:

• Hassan had lived in ISIS-held territory before illegally entering Britain through the Channel Tunnel. He told immigration officers he had trained with the terror group.

• But he was given a foster home and an education, although teachers started having fears over his radical views after he said he had a 'duty to hate Britain'.

• A local council today admitted that its anti-extremism programme was not good enough. 

• Hassan researched bomb recipes on YouTube and bought components on Amazon. 

• The foster parents who took him were previously given honours by the Queen, but have reportedly told friends they want to stop fostering after the incident.

Many passengers were badly burned, but it was only a 'matter of luck' that scores were not killed, prosecutors have said.

The disturbing case will raise questions of authorities after it emerged Hassan told immigration officials he had been 'trained to kill' by ISIS, and said to a teacher it was his 'duty to hate Britain'.

COMMENT:  Got the information from YouTube?  Will YouTube please explain that.  Why was material of that type permitted?

Did the teacher do anything, warn anyone?  Or was she just trying to understand this clown's cultural frustrations?

We were lucky this time.  We can't be lucky every time.

March 16, 2018       Permalink

THE WOBBLY STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION – AT 12:21 P.M. ET:   Of course, we report on this regularly, the poor state of higher education, outside the sciences.  The humanities and social sciences have, on too many campuses, become jokes, or simply propaganda operations of the far left.

Do people out in the real America actually care?  It turns out they do, and that caring can ultimately result in the cutting of federal aid, or even the disappearance of departments within colleges or some of the colleges themselves.  From the Washington Times: 

Soaring tuition costs, degrees of dubious value and nonstop student activism have combined to bring public confidence in the ivory tower tumbling down.

Even college and university presidents acknowledge that the country is becoming disillusioned with higher education. In a recent survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup, 51 percent of institution leaders said the 2016 election “exposed that academe is disconnected from much of American society.”

The erosion of higher education’s brand comes as no surprise to Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson. He said the public’s negative perception of academia reflects the “reality of left-wing bias disconnected from American society.”

“Particularly in the humanities and social sciences, many faculty view political activism and indoctrination as a core part of their academic mission,” said Mr. Jacobson, who runs the Legal Insurrection blog. “While they may have the academic freedom to do so, there is a price to pay for the higher educational system.”

When asked to assess which factors are responsible for the negative view of higher education, 86 percent of college and university presidents cited the perception of liberal bias on campus.

And...

A survey released last year by the Pew Research Center shows that just 36 percent of Republicans believe colleges and universities have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country, compared with 58 percent who say they have a negative effect.

Those numbers are nearly reversed from 2010, when 58 percent of Republicans said higher education has a positive effect and 32 percent a negative effect.

Seventy-two percent of Democrats, meanwhile, had a high regard for higher education, which is up slightly from 65 percent in 2010.

COMMENT:  Read the entire piece.  Well written and well worth it.  The colleges are in trouble, and properly so.  They have shown too much contempt for the nation they presumably serve.

There are consequences to decades of decline.

March 16, 2018       Permalink

MORE PROGRESS  AT 11:35 A.M. ET:  Most of the economic signs are very good.  From The Wall Street Journal: 

U.S. consumers’ confidence hit a fresh 14-year high this month, as lower-income households reported feeling more optimistic about the economy.

The University of Michigan on Friday said the preliminary result of its consumer-sentiment index was 102.0 in March, up from 99.7 in February. That was the highest level since January 2004, and well above the 99.0 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected.

The reading “continues what has been a strong run across a range of consumer sentiment measures,” JPMorgan Chase economist Daniel Silver said in a note to clients, adding “this strength in sentiment is one of the reasons we think consumer spending will pick up soon following a soft start to the year.”

The index rose 5.3% in March from a year earlier. A final reading for the month will be released March 29.

The latest survey showed optimism improved markedly for households in the bottom third of income distribution.

And...from the Daily Caller: 

The number of food stamp dependent Americans hit a six-year low in President Donald Trump’s first year in office, reflecting an improving economy and falling unemployment, according to a U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) report.

An average of 42.2 million Americans participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program in 2017, which is an 11 percent decrease from 2013, when a record number of people used food stamps, according to USDA.

“Federal spending for SNAP totaled $68.0 billion or 4 percent less than in the previous fiscal year,” USDA reported. “This was also 15 percent less than the historical high of $79.9 billion set in FY 2013.”

It’s the fourth year in a row SNAP participation fell. Previously, the number of people on food stamps grew for 12 years. About 13 percent of Americans used food stamps in 2017. That’s well above pre-recession levels.

COMMENT:   All good.  But the Democrats are arguing that it's all a mirage, and you may be certain that the mainstream media will eagerly focus on those who may not be benefiting.  They will not permit the president to take any credit.

Booming economy.  A new vibrance and toughness in foreign policy.  Increased optimism.  You'd think these things would combine to produce a Republican victory in November.  I'm not so sure.

March 16,  2018    Permalink

MARCH 15,  2018

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

YOU NEVER KNOW – FROM FOX:  It could come down to a recount.  Democrat Conor Lamb has already declared victory over Republican Rick Saccone in Pennsylvania’s special House election, but Republicans say they aren’t giving up until every vote is counted.  The contest has still not been called, but Lamb leads Saccone by a few hundred votes. There’s no mandatory recount for a federal race in Pennsylvania, but Republicans have the option of petitioning for one.  "This race is too close to call and we’re ready to ensure that every legal vote is counted,” National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Matt Gorman said late Tuesday. “Once they are, we’re confident Rick Saccone will be the newest Republican member of Congress."  As of Wednesday morning, Lamb's lead stood at just 641 votes -- out of more than 224,000 votes cast, according to unofficial results. Election officials said there are about 200 absentee votes and an unknown number of provisional ballots still to be counted.  There may also be military ballots.  It's unlikely that Lamb's lead can be flipped, but in an election this close, extreme care is worth it.

THE NERVE – FROM BREITBART:  Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate, the illegal alien acquitted last year of murdering 32-year-old Kate Steinle in July 2015, has sued the federal government, demanding that it produce documents “pertaining to vindictive prosecution and collusion” with the state government in its prosecution against him.  In November, a San Francisco jury found Garcia-Zarate not guilty of murdering Steinle, agreeing that although he had the gun from which the fatal shot was fired, the discharge could have been accidental.  The jury did convict Garcia-Zarate of felony possession of a weapon. He had seven previous felony convictions and had been deported five times before finding “sanctuary” on the streets of San Francisco, a noted “sanctuary city.”  Watch, a "progressive" group will ask him to run for Congress, as a representative of the oppressed.

A CORECTION?  REALLY? – FROM FOX:    The online news site ProPublica said Thursday night that it had retracted part of an article alleging Gina Haspel, President Trump's new choice to head the CIA, oversaw the waterboarding of an Al Qaeda suspect at a so-called agency "black site" in Thailand.  "We at ProPublica hold government officials responsible for their missteps, and we must be equally accountable," editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg said in a statement. "This error was particularly unfortunate because it muddied an important national debate about Haspel and the CIA’s recent history.  "To her, and to our readers, we can only apologize, correct the record and make certain that we do better in the future," Engelberg added.  Trump announced Tuesday that he had chosen Haspel to succeed Mike Pompeo, who is the president's pick to replace ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Several senators, including some Republicans, have said that Haspel must give a full account of her involvement in the CIA's interrogation program in the early days of the War on Terror.  We give credit where it's due, and, in an age of sloppy, irresponsible journalism, it's refreshing to see a liberal outlet admit to a serious editorial error.  We need more of this, we also need greater effort to make sure these mistakes are not made in the first place.

March 15, 2018       Permalink

HILLARY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE – AT 2:05 P.M. ET:  Apparently, the Democratic Party is now realizing about Hillary what the country realized a long time ago.  From The Hill: 

Democrats are angry that Hillary Clinton continues to discuss what went wrong during the 2016 presidential election against President Trump.

Even some of Clinton’s own former aides and surrogates say the former Democratic presidential nominee should back away from the discussion about her failed campaign because it’s harmful to the party.

During a conference in India this weekend, Clinton called states that supported her in the election more economically advanced than the states that backed Trump.

The remarks reminded many of the former secretary of State’s comments in 2016 that some of Trump’s supporters fit in a “basket of deplorables,” a line the Republican then used against her repeatedly during the final stretch of the campaign.

She also insinuated that women who voted for Trump were motivated by “ongoing pressure to vote the way that your husband, your boss, your son, whoever, believes you should.”

In interviews with The Hill on Tuesday, even the staunchest Clinton allies as well as longtime advisers say the comments were cringeworthy and ultimately detrimental to Democrats.

“She put herself in a position where [Democrats] from states that Trump won will have to distance themselves from her even more,” said one former senior Clinton aide. “That’s a lot of states.”

Another Clinton surrogate questioned the decisionmaking behind Clinton’s remarks. For months, some Democrats have been arguing that Clinton’s sentiments have been counterproductive to the party’s rebuilding efforts. And some have told her she should emulate former President Obama’s model to only make statements when it’s essential.

COMMENTS:  It might also be pointed out that Hillary is about 50 years out of date, and that she has no direct connection with the real world.  Other than that, and some character issues, she's adequate.

March 15, 2018        Permalink

WELL DONE – AT 10:32 A.M. ET:  The United States and its allies have joined together to condemn Russia.  I guess Trump isn't colluding with Moscow after all.  From Fox: 

The leaders of the United States, Germany and France have joined together with the United Kingdom in accusing Russia of being behind the nerve agent attack on an ex-Russian spy.

In a joint statement Thursday, President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May said they "abhor" the attack against Sergei Skripal, 66, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, in Salisbury on March 4. A police officer who came to the pair's aid was also sickened.

"This use of a military-grade nerve agent, of a type developed by Russia, constitutes the first offensive use of a nerve agent in Europe since the Second World War," the statement said.

“It is an assault on U.K. sovereignty and any such use by a State party is a clear violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and a breach of international law. It threatens the security of us all,” they said.

The quartet stated “there is no plausible alternative explanation” to Russian responsibility for the attack on British soil and the Kremlin’s failure to respond to a “legitimate request” for an explanation “further underlines its responsibility.”

“We call on Russia to live up to its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council to uphold international peace and security,” the statement ended.

The leaders’ remarks come a day after Britain expelled 23 Russian diplomats and suspended high-level contacts with Moscow over the incident.

Russia is expected to take retaliatory measures soon.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov wouldn't reveal how Russia will retaliate, but said the decision will come from President Vladimir Putin, "and there is no doubt that he will choose the option that best reflects Russian interests."

COMMENT:  Extremely serious stuff.  Handled well.  I don't know what the Dems will say.  Maybe they'll bring out their big anti-Russia guns, like Field Marshal Obama and Grand Admiral Kerry.  I'm joking.

March 15, 2018        Permalink

A WARNING – AT 10:18 A.M. ET:  We are wrapped up in politics, and endless speculation about White House firings and hirings.  But the real world goes on, and it is dangerous.  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

The United States is monitoring information indicating that North Korea may be running a large underground military base in Syria that could be used for advanced weaponry and nuclear-related work, according to regional reports and U.S. officials tracking the situation.

Regional reports have begun to surface indicating North Korea has neared completion of the construction of an underground military base located near Qardaha in Syria, the hometown of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"According to … satellite images and a military source the underground facility has been under construction for seven years, started by the beginning if the Syrian revolution in March 2011," Zaman Al Wasl, a Syrian news outlet, reported earlier this month. "The high level of secrecy and tight guard in the North Korean base raise speculations whether it's a nuclear facility or overseas depot for North Korean weapons."

U.S. officials told the Washington Free Beacon they are monitoring these reports and efforts by North Korea to help Assad rebuild Syria's chemical weapons factories.

"We are aware of reports regarding possible DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] assistance to Syria to rebuild its chemical weapons capabilities," a State Department official, speaking on background, told the Free Beacon. "We take these allegations very seriously and we are working assiduously to prevent the Assad regime from obtaining material and equipment to support its chemical weapons program."

The Trump administration has been engaged in efforts to counter North Korea's proliferation in Syria, particularly its efforts to supply Assad with chemical weapons.

COMMENT:  The name "North Korea" comes up once again.  One of the reasons that thoughtful people are concerned about North Korea is that it exports its horrors.  The above story is part reporting and part informed speculation.  We'll keep after it.

March 15,  2018     Permalink