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AUGUST 22,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:10 P.M. ET:

GREAT GUY – FROM FOX:   Pole vaulter Sam Kendricks charged down the runway in Rio and was prepared to make his jump when he heard the strains of The Star-Spangled banner.  Kendricks, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and an Olympic athlete, abruptly stopped, dropped his pole and stood at attention in a dramatic moment caught on video that has since gone viral. The Army reservist's patriotic pause came during the qualifying round, and it was not clear if he was penalized.  On American college campuses he'll probably be accused of insensitivity to other cultures.

PEOPLE FIND OUT – FROM DAILY CALLER:   Black Lives Matter finds itself under fire for protesting the Baton Rogue shooting, but ignoring the Louisiana flood, reports the Washington Times.  A video of a Baton Rogue resident asking where the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter people are has gone viral.  “I have not seen not one Black Panther boat, not one Black Lives Matter boat, truck or nothing else. So with all the drama that was going on with the Alton Sterling killing, oh they came out with guns, ready to go to war. But here we go, all these people flooded out and truly in need of some help and you can’t find not one of them,” Jerry T Washington said in the video.  The only black lives that matter to Black Lives Matter are those that advance the career interests of these racketeers.

CHILLING – FROM REUTERS:   For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the German government plans to tell citizens to stockpile food and water in case of an attack or catastrophe, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper reported on Sunday.  Germany is currently on high alert after two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month. Berlin announced measures earlier this month to spend considerably more on its police and security forces and to create a special unit to counter cyber crime and terrorism.  "The population will be obliged to hold an individual supply of food for ten days," the newspaper quoted the government's "Concept for Civil Defence" - which has been prepared by the Interior Ministry - as saying.  Does Germany know something that we don't know?  Like something about nuclear materials getting loose?  This kind of semi-mobilization should be seen as a major step.

August 22, 2016       Permalink

ISIS IN AMERICA – 10:53 A.M. ET:  This is absolutely chilling, yet I heard a CNN anchorwoman ridiculing the idea just this morning.  Doesn't fit the leftist party line.  From Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon: 

Sunni extremists are infiltrating the United States with the help of alien smugglers in South America and are crossing U.S. borders with ease, according to a U.S. South Command intelligence report.

The Command’s J-2 intelligence directorate reported recently in internal channels that “special interest aliens” are working with a known alien smuggling network in Latin America to reach the United States. The smuggling network was not identified.

Army Col. Lisa A. Garcia, a Southcom spokeswoman, did not address the intelligence report directly but said Sunni terrorist infiltration is a security concern.

“Networks that specialize in smuggling individuals from regions of terrorist concern, mainly from the Afghanistan-Pakistan region, the Middle East, and East Africa, are indeed a concern for Southcom and other interagency security partners who support our country’s national security,” Garcia told the Washington Free Beacon.

“There are major hubs that serve as entry points into the region for migrants from those areas of concern attempting to enter the U.S. along our border with Mexico,” she said.

The infiltrators from terrorist states and unstable regions exploit vulnerabilities in commercial transportation systems and immigration enforcement agencies in some of the countries used for transit, Garcia said.

“In 2015, we saw a total of 331,000 migrants enter the southwestern border between the U.S. and Mexico, of that we estimate more than 30,000 of those were from countries of terrorist concern,” she said.

Another problem in dealing with migrants from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia is a lack of information among the governments of the countries used by potential terrorists for transit.

COMMENT:  Nothing to see, nothing to see.  Field Marshal Obama and Grand Admiral Kerry will keep us safe. 

The 9-11 attacks were carried out by 19 people.  Imagine the cadre of ISIS supporters that is probably in the United States already.  And yet, there seems little interest in much of the mainstream press.  How important could this be compared with the right of boys who identify as girls to use girls' locker rooms?

August 22, 2016       Permalink

WILL TIME RUN OUT ON DONALD TRUMP? – AT 9:53 A.M. ET:  Trump has made some dramatic changes to his campaign in the last week.  There may be some uptick in a few polls already, although a new Ohio poll shows more slippage.  Even if the changes produce results, will they come in time?  From the great Andrew Malcolm at McClatchy: 

American politics just witnessed the launch of Donald Trump Campaign 3.0 as the billionaire sought to recover and retool his bid once again for the long slog to Nov. 8.

Aides say there’s plenty of time left for the unorthodox, unpopular candidate to build or regain momentum.

But here’s a news flash: It may be 11 weeks until the presidential votes are counted. But it’s only four weeks until voters by the millions begin casting their ballots.

Currently, 34 states allow early voting while three more do all voting by mail, negating that need.

The advent of early voting has exploded in U.S. politics – 1-in-5 votes were cast early in 2004, then 3-in-10 in 2008. Last time in the Romney-Obama tilt, fully 1-in-3 were all done before Election Day.

The proportion is expected to grow this year and beyond as Americans’ clear preference for anytime-everything grows – banking and shopping especially.

Early voting is changing the timing, tempo and content of what is already a truly awkward, expensive and cumbersome presidential selection process.

And...

Voting in crucial battleground Ohio begins Oct. 12, as does Arizona. Florida follows later that month as does North Carolina. Oregon, Washington and Colorado vote entirely by mail well before Nov. 8.

COMMENT:   Trump has consistently responded too late to problems in his campaign.  Will the clock run out on him?  The facts presented by Andrew Malcolm are stunning.  Trump has to turn this around in the next month.

August 22, 2016       Permalink

OH, THE ANGUISH – AT 9:21 A.M. ET:  Hillary Clinton has based part of her e-mail defense on the idea that "everybody does it."  Her supporters have cited former Secretary of State Colin Powell as giving Clinton advice about e-mail use at the State Department.  Not quite true, Powell says.  From Fox: 

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is pushing back on Hillary Clinton's reported claims that he advised her to use a personal email account -- telling reporters that the Democratic presidential nominee is trying to "pin" the scandal on him.

The New York Times reported last week that Clinton told the FBI that Powell detailed to her his email practices under George W. Bush. The paper cited a passage from an upcoming book about Bill Clinton’s post-presidency that read, “Powell told her to use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer.”

Powell, in response, said in a statement he only sent her a memo about his email practices and had no recollection of this conversation with Clinton.

He elaborated on that statement to The New York Post, saying “The truth is she was using it (her personal email) for a year before I sent her a memo telling her what I did.”

He added that, “her people have been trying to pin it on me.”

Powell said it didn’t bother him, according to The Post.

COMMENT:  If it didn't bother him, why did he go public?  Of course it bothered him.  He now wears the Clinton taint:  She uses someone and lies about him.  And she may take the oath of office in five months.

August 22,  2016     Permalink

AUGUST 21,  2016

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

UNHAPPINESS – FROM THE HILL:   Half of all voters say they definitely won't consider voting for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a new Morning Consult poll.  The poll also found that 45 percent of voters said they definitely wouldn't consider voting for Clinton.  About 35 percent of voters say they will definitely vote for Clinton, and another 16 percent say they will at least consider voting for the Democratic nominee.  For Trump, 29 percent of voters say they will definitely vote for the GOP nominee and 16 percent said they would consider voting for him.  According to the poll, 28 percent of Clinton and Trump supporters say they would consider voting for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson.  More than a quarter of those planning to vote for Clinton say they'd consider backing Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, but only 14 percent of Trump supporters say they would consider the same choice.  The poll also finds that 32 percent of all voters would consider voting for Johnson and 23 percent would consider backing Stein.  Another Morning Consult poll found that Clinton leads Trump by 3 points in the presidential race.  Such enthusiasm for our national leaders.

THE ACTIVIST ALSO RISES – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   Man (wait — am I allowed to say that?), Black Lives Matter activist Deray Mckesson sure has it good. Not only did he score a $165,000 gig at Baltimore Public Schools and a great place to stay courtesy of wealthy George Soros-connected donors, he’s now a Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics.  The perpetual blue vest-wearing activist will “lead a seminar series focused on social justice, social media, and organizing [which] are part of a larger discussion at the Institute of Politics this year examining a range of strategies aimed at affecting social change.”  Mckesson previously served as a Mellon Undergraduate Fellow (part of the Committee on Social Thought), and had a guest lecture gig at Yale.  When will people realize that these "causes" are often businesses, and that those at the top get the plums?

TAKING ALL THE FUN OUT OF IT – FROM THE HILL:   The race to get driverless cars in ride-hailing fleets has gone from a marathon to a sprint.  So-called autonomous vehicles have long been viewed as the future of transportation services, since the technology cuts out the costs of drivers, can lower fares for customers and has the potential to reduce traffic and pollution.  This week, Ford Motor Co. unveiled new plans to build a fully driverless car for commercial purposes by 2021, while Uber just announced that passengers in Pittsburgh will be able to summon semi-autonomous cars with their phones beginning this month.  The moves could raise pressure on competitors like Google, which has been a pioneer in testing self-driving cars on public roads.  What about the thrill of the open road?  What are we becoming?  Soon we'll have do-it-yourself heart surgery.  Won't that be fun?  What an advancement.

August 21,  2016     Permalink

TRUMP GOES FOR BLACK VOTE – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  Some may call him crazy, but there's real shrewdness here.  It's a classic tactic in politics to make your opponent spend time and money where he never thought he'd have to.  Clearly, there's been some internal polling by the Trump people indicating that some African Americans may be persuadable.  If Trump can pick up 15% of the black vote, that's a big dent in Hillary's numbers.  From The Hill: 

Eric Trump, the son of the Republican presidential nominee, is echoing his father's recent outreach to minority voters around the country.

“You have a lot of people from inner cities, especially minorities, who aren’t getting higher-level education. The schools around them are totally failing them. There’s 60 percent unemployment in some of these communities," Trump said in a radio interview with John Catsimatidis for "The Cats Roundtable" on Sunday.

"We’re not giving the youth the opportunities that they so rightfully deserve. My father’s going to focus on that, and he's going to change that, and he’s going to fix it because it’s just not right," he added.

Donald Trump is currently struggling with minority votes, polling almost 0 percent support among African Americans is some key battleground states.

The GOP nominee is also losing the Hispanic vote to Hillary Clinton by 66 percent to 24 percent nationally, according to Pew survey conducted in mid-June.

Eric Trump also took the opportunity to blast President Obama and Clinton for not visiting Louisiana in the wake of the recent flooding in the state.

“Our president was spending time in Martha’s Vineyard playing golf while people’s houses were under water, and people's cars were underwater, and caskets were floating down the streets of Louisiana. People were dying and there was death and destruction and everything else," said Trump.

"Our president was nowhere to be found. And Hillary Clinton, nowhere to be found,” he added.

COMMENT:  Let's see how this works out.  There are some rough polls showing Trump gaining some support in the black community, but I wouldn't depend on them.

It's reported that Trump is also reaching out to Hispanics.  It's about time.

August 21, 2016       Permalink

IS THIS EVER WEIRD? – AT 8:51 A.M. ET:   Huma Abedin, as most readers probably already know, is Hillary Clinton's "body woman," the aide closest to her.  And it turns out Huma has a very interesting past.  So interesting that it scares the daylights out of me.  From the New York Post: 

Hillary Clinton’s top campaign aide, and the woman who might be the future White House chief of staff to the first female US president, for a decade edited a radical Muslim publication that opposed women’s rights and blamed the US for 9/11.

One of Clinton’s biggest accomplishments listed on her campaign Web site is her support for the UN women’s conference in Bejing in 1995, when she famously declared, “Women’s rights are human rights.” Her speech has emerged as a focal point of her campaign, featured prominently in last month’s Morgan Freeman-narrated convention video introducing her as the Democratic nominee.

However, soon after that “historic and transformational” 1995 event, as Clinton recently described it, her top aide Huma Abedin published articles in a Saudi journal taking Clinton’s feminist platform apart, piece by piece. At the time, Abedin was assistant editor of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs working under her mother, who remains editor-in-chief. She was also working in the White House as an intern for then-First Lady Clinton.

Headlined “Women’s Rights are Islamic Rights,” a 1996 article argues that single moms, working moms and gay couples with children should not be recognized as families. It also states that more revealing dress ushered in by women’s liberation “directly translates into unwanted results of sexual promiscuity and irresponsibility and indirectly promote violence against women.” In other words, sexually liberated women are just asking to be raped.

COMMENT:  Better read the whole thing.  We wonder how Huma got security clearance.  Of course, we can also wonder how Hillary got security clearance. 

I wonder if the Trump people plan to use it.  It's probably something more suited for surrogates.  And I wonder what women's-rights advocates will say about this.  Probably nothing.

August 21, 2016       Permalink

SOME PUNDITS ACTUALLY FOLLOW THE NEWS – AT 8:30 A.M. ET:  And they're noticing changes in Donald Trump's campaign.  From The Hill: 

Signs of change are emerging in Donald Trump’s campaign as he seeks to close the gap with Hillary Clinton in the polls.

The Republican nominee has been giving more scripted speeches and spending less time at rallies, where his off-the-cuff style often resulted in controversy.

He has been tweeting less, doing fewer interviews and spending more time on retail campaigning, this week visiting local police departments and meeting with flood victims in Louisiana.

And after getting swamped by tens of millions of dollars in ad spending from Clinton and her allies, the Trump campaign purchased its first television ad buys this week, placing $4 million in spots that began airing in key battleground states on Friday.

Add it all up, and for the first time, the Trump campaign is taking on the appearance of something it has never had before: an air of normalcy.

“It's been a while since the Trump campaign handed Republicans anything to be encouraged about, but this renewed effort to run an orthodox campaign is certainly an improvement over what we've seen over the past couple of months,” said one GOP operative working on a Senate race in a battleground state.

“If he can stay disciplined he might actually close the gap.”

Trump has had quiet stretches before, only to upend the race again with a new incendiary comment or tweet. That pattern has made talk of a Trump “pivot” into something of a punch line, with political operatives increasingly convinced that the candidate cannot and will not change.

Trump himself has encouraged the idea that his campaign will stay the course.

“Everyone talks about, ‘Oh, you’ve got to pivot,’” Trump said during an interview in La Crosse, Wis. "I don’t want to pivot. I don’t want to change.

"You have to be you. If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people. No, I am who I am.”

Yet with 81 days to go until the election, the businessman appears to be making small but noticeable shifts in his approach.

COMMENT:  And they seem to be working.  The polls are showing some movement.  As we've noted, we'll know more about that in a few weeks.

And Hillary Clinton seems to be running for cover, using paid ads as a replacement for the real her.  The last time I saw her she was on a milk carton.

This race is just getting started.  It's possible Trump will return to his politically suicidal ways.  But if he doesn't, we could be in for a close election.

August 21,  2016     Permalink