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MAY 31,  2016

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

YOU CAN'T MAKE IT UP – FROM THE POLITICO:   One of Dena Minning’s biggest assets in her Congressional bid was her boyfriend: incumbent Florida Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson, who’s leaving the U.S. House to run for U.S. Senate.  Now, after Grayson has helped raise her profile and run for his U.S. House seat, he married her over the Memorial Day Weekend and gave her his last name, according to her Monday social-media posts and The Orlando Political Observer.  Dena Minning promptly became Dena Grayson on Twitter and Facebook. The largely unknown outsider in the Orlando-area district now has a potent tool in running under the name of the incumbent in a crowded Democratic primary.  “My handsome, brilliant, and amazing husband, Alan Grayson!!.” she said Monday on her page, which linked to his Senate account.  I guess she's not, as they say, keeping her name.  The new one gets more votes. 

OUTRAGEOUS – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   In the wake of an undercover investigation into Planned Parenthood’s alleged fetal trafficking operation, the California state legislature is considering a bill that would criminalize publishing secretly recorded video footage of “health care providers.”  AB 1671, which has been backed by Planned Parenthood, would criminalize the publication of confidential interactions with state-licensed medical personnel, including abortionists and clinician staff, punishable by up to one year in prison and a $10,000 fine per violation.  Introduced by Los Angeles Assemblyman Jimmy Gomez, the bill has received criticism from both pro-life activists and those who worry about its potential to chill free speech and investigative journalism.  It is an absolute outrage, an insult to the First Amendment, and proof once more that the hard left has little interest in advancing freedom.  Indeed, it's a threat to freedom.

THE FRENCH CONNECTION?   It's widely speculated that the "third-party presidential candidate" Bill Kristol hinted at over the weekend, and who would serve as the alternative to Bonnie and Clyde, er, I mean Clinton and Trump, is David French, a highly respected conservative writer, Constitutional activist, Iraq War veteran, and past president of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.  Intellectually, he's superb.  But he has never held public office, has almost zero name recognition, has no vast following or television presence, and I would have to wonder how many checks would be written for his campaign.  But this is an unusual year, so I withhold any serious judgment.  Let's see what develops.  Plenty of Americans are yearning for better choices.

May 31, 2016       Permalink   

FASCINATING POLITICS – AT 10:24 A.M. ET:  An intriguing political question has been circulating recently:  Why did Donald Trump so severely attack Republican Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico, at a time when Trump needs Hispanic support?  Indeed, Martinez had been prominently mentioned as a possible vice-presidential choice.  Byron York, at the National Examiner, gives us the answer: 

Many observers were mystified when Donald Trump attacked New Mexico Republican Gov. Susana Martinez. But the story was really very simple: Martinez hit Trump, so Trump hit back. Especially now that Trump is the GOP's presumptive nominee, he attempted to make an example of a Republican who won't get with the program. It might work, or it might not, but from Trump's perspective it's the tactic he used to beat 15 rivals for the GOP nomination.

The Trump-Martinez bewilderment focused on four factors: Martinez is Hispanic, she's a woman, she's a Republican (head of the Republican Governors Association), and she's popular. "I think it sent all the wrong signals," said Newt Gingrich, who has generally been pro-Trump. "You particularly don't want to see your candidate who needs to...get stronger with Latinos, and stronger with women, attack a Latina woman Republican governor."

But...

To Trump, there was something more important at work. "[Martinez] continues to attack him publicly and privately," one person in TrumpWorld told me recently. Trump has made a principle of hitting back harder than he is hit. And he has been so effective that many Republicans, elected and not, have decided the smart thing is to refrain from taking on Trump, even if they oppose him.

Not Martinez. In mid-April, the New Mexico governor issued a "remarkably strong rebuke" to Trump, in the words of a Washington Post report, when Martinez spoke to a GOP fundraiser at the home of David Koch in Palm Beach, Florida. Martinez, according to the Post, "did not mince words. She told the crowd of about 60 wealthy GOP backers that, as a Latina, she was offended by Trump's language about immigrants. Noting her years working as a prosecutor on the Mexican border and now as a border-state governor, Martinez said Trump's plan to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it was unrealistic and irresponsible, according to multiple people in attendance."

And...

Perhaps Martinez will change her tone after Trump wins New Mexico's primary on June 7. Perhaps not. As far as Trump is concerned, attacking Martinez, to the (unknown) degree that it angers Hispanic voters in general, could affect his fortunes far outside the boundaries of New Mexico. But Trump apparently felt it was more important now to crack down on Republican resistance, at least on GOP politicos who openly attack him, than it was to ignore Martinez's opposition.

It's not the way things are done these days. But the person in Trump World looked back to a time when powerful party bosses would occasionally make an example of an off-the-reservation official just to inspire others to stay in line. That's still necessary, the person said, and that's what Donald Trump is doing.

COMMENT:  Like him or dislike him, Trump is his own boss, and thus far his political instincts have led him to the Republican nomination.

Governor Martinez also deserves credit for standing up for her beliefs. 

May 31, 2016       Permalink

SAME OLD IRAN – AT 9:52 A.M. ET:  Reality is sinking in.  We were taken to the cleaners by Iran during negotiations over the nuclear deal, and predictions that Iran would moderate have been shown to be childlike and absurd.  From the great Walter Russell Mead at The American Interest:   

Somehow all those plucky moderates elected in Iran don’t seem to be having much impact on actual decisions:

A hard-line Iranian cleric who has been in the country’s power structure since its 1979 Islamic Revolution was chosen on Tuesday to lead the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body that picks the country’s next supreme leader.

The selection of 89-year-old Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, an ultraconservative who called for the execution of opposition activists after Iran’s disputed 2009 election and encouraged Iraqis to become suicide bombers against U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003, signals the power hard-liners still wield in Iran despite a recent nuclear deal with world powers.

For those puzzled by the hardline show of strength, it’s worth taking a look back at some of the smarter commentary at the time of the Iranian parliamentary elections this winter. The White House echo chamber and the 27 year-old know-nothings that Ben Rhodes has on speed dial were gushing over the “triumph” of the moderates and spinning it as a big win for the White House policy—but those who looked under the hood saw something different. As Eli Lake put it at the time:

Beginning in January, the regime’s Guardian Council began purging any candidates who espoused the slightest deviation from the country’s septuagenarian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Candidates who favored releasing political prisoners — including the leaders of the Green Movement that many Iranians feel won the 2009 presidential elections — were disqualified. Even members of the Assembly of Experts, who had previously passed the vetting process, were disqualified. So too was the grandson of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. To paraphrase a former top U.S. negotiator in the Iran talks, Wendy Sherman, Iranians on Friday will have a choice between hardliners and hard hardliners.

Bottom line: the much ballyhooed ‘triumph of the moderates’ was another piece of White House spin, presumably pumped into the national consciousness by those helpful folks at Ploughshares.

COMMENT:  The president owes an apology to those critics, foreign and domestic, who warned about this outcome, and were trashed by the Ben Rhodes machine.  Don't hold your breath.  Obama believes he is Divine, and divinities don't apologize. 

But we are the weaker for this president's leftist views and the way he applied them to foreign policy.  The next president will have to dig us out of this hole, assuming the American people want him to.

May 31, 2016       Permalink

HILLARY GETTING TRUMPED – AT 9:33 A.M. ET:  Donald Trump is creeping up on Hillary Clinton in the national polls.  These are early polls, of course, but Hillary should be worried.  After 24 years as a national figure, people know her.  Her upside potential is thin.  From The Hill:

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump trails Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton by 2 points in the latest NBC News/Survey Monkey weekly tracking poll.

Trump, who gained 2 points in the last week, now trails Clinton, 47 to 45 percent, in the poll, released Tuesday morning.

Clinton’s results are unchanged since last week.

The online poll of 12, 969 registered voters, conducted between May 23 and May 29, has a 1.2 percent margin of error.

Clinton leads the billionaire by 1 point in the RealClearPolitics index of national polls.

COMMENT:  We look for trends at this stage of the campaign, not precise numbers.  Trump keeps on gaining.  And this poll was among registered voters.  Polls among likely voters almost always show a higher GOP number.

I can't deny that Trump is doing very well.  A major question is whether he will blunder and throw it all away.   Another major question is whether Obama will pull out all stops and go on a national tour to defeat him, trying to pull together the Obama coalition.  And still a third question is whether the inevitable mainstream media campaign for Hillary and against Trump will have its impact. 

The excitement is just starting.

May 31,  2016     Permalink

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