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.

Our Angel's Corner archive is here.

I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

MAY 30,   2016

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

WELL DONE – FROM BREITBART:   A Memorial Day service in Salt Lake City on Sunday honored Japanese-American veterans, including those who served in World War II.  One of the few remaining World War II veterans in the community, 93-year-old Masami Haisashi, told local Fox13 News he was thankful so many young children attended the service, to help keep the memories alive.  “I think the main thing that struck me is that I don’t have many friends left from WWII,” said Haisashi, who served as an interpreter and translator for military intelligence in the Philippines during the war. “I’m missing a lot of people. That’s the first thing I notice. I’m the only one around. The others are either sick or not able to walk.”  Japanese-American soldiers served with great honor in World War II, despite anti-Japanese feeling caused by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It's good to see them honored. 

WHO WOULD WANT TO HURT BERNIE? – FROM THE HILL:   Members of Bernie Sanders’s Secret Service team surrounded him as audience members at a rally on Monday tried to rush the stage, according to multiple reports.  At least three people were led away by security at the Oakland, Calif., event, held eight days before the state’s June 7 presidential primary.  The Vermont senator, who is trailing Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, was unharmed when agents leaped on the stage and pulled him away from his microphone as the unidentified attendees pushed through audience barriers.  Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said, "It was handled professionally by the Secret Service,” according to CNN.  First time in American history that a 74-year-old socialist candidate for president was saved by the Secret Service.  Sanders will probably now start a "Socialists' Lives Matter" movement.

MAYBE HILLARY HAD IT – FROM AFP:   One of the machines used to send coded messages between Adolf Hitler and his generals sold for £10 on eBay after being discovered in a shed in England, the buyer said Sunday.  Researchers at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park saw a “telegram machine” for sale on the auction site for £9.50 (12.5 euros/$14), and believed it may have actually been a Lorenz machine, used by the German army to send top-secret coded messages.  “My colleague was scanning eBay and he saw a photograph of what seemed to be the teleprinter,” John Wetter, a volunteer at the museum in Buckinghamshire, south England, told the BBC.  To investigate further, Wetter traveled to the southeastern town of Southend where he found the machine, which resembles a typewriter, on the floor of a shed, covered “with rubbish.”  “We said ‘Thank you very much, how much was it again?’ She said ‘£9.50,’ so we said ‘Here’s a £10 note — keep the change,” he added.  Hillary should take inspiration from the fact that she isn't the first public official to get sloppy with national secrets.

May 30,  2016     Permalink

MEMORIAL DAY – AT 11:56 A.M. ET:   This tells the story.  No analysis needed.  From ABC News:

At least 1.2 million people have died fighting for America during its wars dating back 241 years, according to Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs data.

Most died in battle, while many others never landed abroad but are no less honored on this Memorial Day.

Here’s a by-the-numbers breakdown of when and where they died, as of May 27, starting with the American Revolution:

American Revolution (1775-1783)

Battle Deaths: 4,435

War of 1812 (1812-1815)

Battle Deaths: 2,260

Indian Wars (approx. 1817-1898)

Battle Deaths (VA estimate): 1,000

Mexican War (1846-1848)

Battle Deaths: 1,733

Other Deaths (In Theater): 11,550

Civil War (1861-1865)

Battle Deaths (Union): 140,414

Other Deaths (In Theater)(Union): 224,097

Battle Deaths (Confederate): 74,524

Other Deaths (In Theater) (Confederate): 59,297

Spanish-American War (1898-1902)

Battle Deaths: 385

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 2,061

World War I (1917-1918)

Battle Deaths: 53,402

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 63,114

World War II (1941 –1945)

Battle Deaths: 291,557

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 113,842

Korean War (1950-1953)

Battle Deaths: 33,739

Other Deaths (In Theater): 2,835

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 17,672

Vietnam War (1964-1975)

Battle Deaths: 47,434

Other Deaths (In Theater): 10,786

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 32,000

(These cover period 11/1/55 to 5/15/75)

Desert Shield/Desert Storm (1990-1991)

Battle Deaths: 148

Other Deaths (In Theater): 235

Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater): 1,565

Global War on Terror, including Iraq and Afghanistan (Oct 2001 - present)

Total Deaths: 6,888.

In addition to those, the State Department Office of the Historian lists the Philippine-American War, 1899 to 1902, citing the deaths of more than 4,200 U.S. combatants.

COMMENT:  How do we prevent future casualties?  By being so strong that no nation dare attack us.  Wars are started, not by strength, but by weakness.  No war ever got started because America was too strong.

May 30, 2016        Permalink

NEWT CALLING DON – AT 11:30 A.M. ET:  There's been speculation that Donald Trump might choose former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich as his vice presidential nominee.  I admire Newt a great deal, but I have mixed feelings as to how effective a choice he would be.  After all, he's been out of public office for many years.   But Newt may want the job, and he would bring a great background of knowledge, and astute observations.  From RealClearPolitics:   

Former House Speaker and potential Trump VP Newt Gingrich, appearing on Jeanine Pirro's Fox TV show, explains why Donald Trump appears to be leaving Hillary Clinton in the dust, even though she has more than ten times as many campaign staffers as he does.

First off all, she is way overstaffed, Trump is his own instant response person, he is able to be fast, nimble, he learns, and he is constantly in motion. She has lots of people around her. I think they have ten times as big an organization as Trump does. [Trump] has won the nomination for less money than anybody in modern times.

His ability to use social media is , as you pointed out, literally historic, and potentially changes the game.

There's another problem, even when she tries to be authentic -- She said: Let's be authentic and go use the [NYC] Subway. Well, it was embarassing.

You want to say, come on guys!

Let her do something she is used to doing, like sitting in the back of a limo surrounded by the secret service. Don't try to make her someone she is not.

COMMENT:  Sounds like a man auditioning to be Trump's VP and political advisor.  I wouldn't be shocked.

May 30, 2016       Permalink

MAJOR POLITICAL INTRIGUE – AT 10:53 A.M. ET:  A lot of political buzz this Memorial Day morning over a tweet by conservative editor Bill Kristol predicting, not advocating, but predicting, a third-party candidate soon.  From Fox: 

Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday night to slam fresh predictions from Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol that an independent candidate would soon be entering the race for president, warning that a 2016 “spoiler” could swing the race to the Democrats.

Kristol, along with other conservative pundits, long has been working to attract an independent candidate to run in November amid lingering concerns in some wings of the Republican Party about Trump’s conservative credentials. This effort to date has struggled to recruit a willing candidate, while running into logistical hurdles -- including the rules and deadlines for getting new names on the ballot.

Yet on Sunday, Kristol teased a forthcoming announcement, saying on Twitter:

Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate--an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.

This prompted the flurry of tweets from presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump, whose claim to the nomination was affirmed last week with a fresh Associated Press tally that showed him with more than the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch it. Trump, while taking some personal shots at Kristol for good measure, warned that an independent bid could hurt the GOP in the fall.

If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an Independent, say good bye to the Supreme Court!

COMMENT:  The speculation flows.  Who is the Kristol candidate?  Does he...or she...actually exist, or is it a taunt?  Trump can refer to Kristol as a dummy, in his low-class style of demeaning anyone who criticizes him, but the fact is that Kristol, whether you agree with him or not, is a smart, sophisticated political observer. 

At the same time, if Kristol really has no one, it will hurt him severely.  I can't believe he'd risk that.

May 30,  2016     Permalink

MAY 29,  2016

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

HELP THESE SUFFERING CHILDREN! – FROM COLLEGE FIX:   Undergraduates in Yale’s English department have started a petition to “decolonize” their introductory curriculum, noting the Major English Poets sequence omits the “contributions of women, people of color, and queer folk.”  The petition “calls for the abolishment of this prerequisite and for the pre-1800/1900 requirements to refocus and include literature relating to gender, race and sexuality.”  “A year spent around a seminar table where the literary contributions of women, people of color, and queer folk are absent actively harms all students, regardless of their identity,” it reads in part.  The petition goes on to state that the Major English Poets sequence is “especially hostile” to minority students and that the sense of “alienation” causes students to leave in the middle of class.  Let's see if Yale caves in to this demand as well.

HILLARY MUST CHOOSE A LEFTY, SAYS BERNIE – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:   Bernie Sanders warned on Sunday that Hillary Clinton must choose a left-wing candidate as running mate if the Democratic party is to win the presidential election.  The comments came amid mounting criticism that Mrs Clinton's campaign is poorly equipped to take on Donald Trump.  Mr Sanders cautioned that to beat the bombastic Republican nominee, the Democratic party must defend working families by choosing a non-traditional candidate who would stand up to "Wall Street" and the "greed of corporate America".  "That means having a candidate who can excite working families, excite young people, bring them into the political process, create a large voter turnout," said Mr Sanders in a television interview. "It means someone who has a history of fighting for working families."  Karl Marx is not available, and Joe Stalin has other engagements.  Bernie is disappointed, but he'll find someone for Hillary.

CIRCUS – FROM CNN:   (CNN) Donald Trump's campaign is considering booking one of Cleveland's big sports venues for his acceptance speech in July, two GOP sources familiar with the planning of the upcoming GOP convention say.  The sources said First Energy Stadium, home of the Cleveland Browns, and Progressive Field, home of the city's Indians baseball team, are the two sites under consideration for Trump's acceptance speech on the final night of the convention.  One of the sources said the campaign is closing in on signing a contract for use of one of the two venues, with the football stadium currently the favorite for Trump's speech.  "It's going to be a big production," a Trump campaign adviser told CNN. "Given Trump's profile and how he handles things, nothing is off the table."  "And he's going to be intimately involved in it," the adviser added.  He needs Lady Gaga.

May 29, 2016       Permalink

NOT A GOOD SIGN – REMEMBER 1968 IN CHICAGO – AT 12:32 P.M. ET:   There are serious, well-founded concerns about violence at the political conventions this summer.  Here is evidence.  From Fox: 

A North Carolina police department backed out of sending 50 police officers to the Republican presidential convention in Cleveland in June over concerns about whether the city is prepared to host an event that is expected to bring at least 50,000 visitors to northeast Ohio.

Greensboro police made the decision earlier this week to pull its officers from the event, saying the city isn’t providing workers’ compensation for coverage for out-of-town officers and is requiring them to get physical exams they’d have to pay for themselves.

Deputy Police Chief Brian James wrote in a memo to the city’s police chief that he had spoken with police administrators experienced in planning events like the GOP convention and that they expressed “a lack of confidence in the city of Cleveland and their preparedness.”

"We have a responsibility to ensure that we are sending our officers to an event that is well planned," James wrote.

James told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer that his memo wasn’t intended to take shots at Cleveland police or say they weren’t prepared to handle the convention.

"But for us, for coming out of our jurisdiction into another state, we had hoped that we would have better clarification on different logistical issues, and specifically what our assignments would be going into Cleveland," James said. "And we don't have that information at this time."

COMMENT:   This is one of a number of complaints I've seen about Cleveland's "preparations."  And the Dems are meeting in Philadelphia, not exactly a rock of stability and good order.

A long hot summer, I'm afraid.

May 29, 2016        Permalink

PUBLIC REJECTS PRESIDENTIAL RACE – AT 11:51 A.M. ET:  Polls are now confirming the general perception that the American public is unhappy with both major choices in the presidential race.  Indeed, I've never seen a rejection of the candidates this great.  From The Hill:   

Most Americans are frustrated with the 2016 presidential election, according to a new poll released Saturday.

Seventy percent of respondents described themselves as frustrated with the election, while more than half, including majorities of both Republicans and Democrats, called themselves angry, the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found.

Only 23 percent said they were excited about the election, while 37 percent felt hopeful.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of those surveyed said the presidential race is interesting, compared to the 30 percent who called it boring.

The poll was conducted among 1,060 adults from May 12-15 with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percent.

COMMENT:  I sense that more and more people are asking, "Is this the best we can do?"  On the Republican side, fine governors and senators with proved ability were tossed aside in favor of a reality-show star and real-estate blowhard with no public-policy experience.  On the Democratic side voters are given a choice between the queen of dishonesty and a small-time clown who took the Young People's Socialist League too seriously.  Not a great showing. 

Political parties are private organizations.  They can make their own rules.  They might look at these rules, and, indeed, the entire primary system, and make changes that are more likely to produce better candidates.

May 29, 2016       Permalink

WHY REAGAN WAS GREAT – AT 11:15 A.M. ET:  President Reagan at Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day, 1982:

Mr. President, General, the distinguished guests here with us today, my fellow citizens:

In America’s cities and towns today, flags will be placed on graves in cemeteries; public officials will speak of the sacrifice and the valor of those whose memory we honor.

In 1863, when he dedicated a small cemetery in Pennsylvania marking a terrible collision between the armies of North and South, Abraham Lincoln noted the swift obscurity of such speeches. Well, we know now that Lincoln was wrong about that particular occasion. His remarks commemorating those who gave their “last full measure of devotion” were long remembered. But since that moment at Gettysburg, few other such addresses have become part of our national heritage—not because of the inadequacy of the speakers, but because of the inadequacy of words.

I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them.

Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.

Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.

It is this, beyond the controversy and the congressional debate, beyond the blizzard of budget numbers and the complexity of modern weapons systems, that motivates us in our search for security and peace. War will not come again, other young men will not have to die, if we will speak honestly of the dangers that confront us and remain strong enough to meet those dangers.

It’s not just strength or courage that we need, but understanding and a measure of wisdom as well. We must understand enough about our world to see the value of our alliances. We must be wise enough about ourselves to listen to our allies, to work with them, to build and strengthen the bonds between us.

Our understanding must also extend to potential adversaries. We must strive to speak of them not belligerently, but firmly and frankly. And that’s why we must never fail to note, as frequently as necessary, the wide gulf between our codes of morality. And that’s why we must never hesitate to acknowledge the irrefutable difference between our view of man as master of the state and their view of man as servant of the state. Nor must we ever underestimate the seriousness of their aspirations to global expansion. The risk is the very freedom that has been so dearly won.

It is this honesty of mind that can open paths to peace, that can lead to fruitful negotiation, that can build a foundation upon which treaties between our nations can stand and last—treaties that can someday bring about a reduction in the terrible arms of destruction, arms that threaten us with war even more terrible than those that have taken the lives of the Americans we honor today.

In the quest for peace, the United States has proposed to the Soviet Union that we reduce the threat of nuclear weapons by negotiating a stable balance at far lower levels of strategic forces. This is a fitting occasion to announce that START, as we call it, strategic arms reductions, that the negotiations between our country and the Soviet Union will begin on the 29th of June.

As for existing strategic arms agreements, we will refrain from actions which undercut them so long as the Soviet Union shows equal restraint. With good will and dedication on both sides, I pray that we will achieve a safer world.

Our goal is peace. We can gain that peace by strengthening our alliances, by speaking candidly of the dangers before us, by assuring potential adversaries of our seriousness, by actively pursuing every chance of honest and fruitful negotiation.

It is with these goals in mind that I will depart Wednesday for Europe, and it’s altogether fitting that we have this moment to reflect on the price of freedom and those who have so willingly paid it. For however important the matters of state before us this next week, they must not disturb the solemnity of this occasion. Nor must they dilute our sense of reverence and the silent gratitude we hold for those who are buried here.

The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI’s of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.

Winston Churchill said of those he knew in World War II they seemed to be the only young men who could laugh and fight at the same time. A great general in that war called them our secret weapon, “just the best darn kids in the world.” Each died for a cause he considered more important than his own life. Well, they didn’t volunteer to die; they volunteered to defend values for which men have always been willing to die if need be, the values which make up what we call civilization. And how they must have wished, in all the ugliness that war brings, that no other generation of young men to follow would have to undergo that same experience.

As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. And let us also pledge to do our utmost to carry out what must have been their wish: that no other generation of young men will every have to share their experiences and repeat their sacrifice.

Earlier today, with the music that we have heard and that of our National Anthem—I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: Does that flag still wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? That is what we must all ask.
Thank you.

COMMENT:  Reagan had an understanding that was rare.  What other president would note that our national anthem ends in a question?  It reminds me of Eisenhower's warning, in his farewell address, of the impact of funding on scientific integrity.  What other president discusses that?

Reagan inspired us, and stimulated us.  It's been a long ride down from there.

May 29,  2016     Permalink