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FEBRUARY 4,  2017

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

HOW THE GIPPER DID IT – FROM MEDIAITE:  The University of California, Berkeley was the site of a major protest this week, though this is hardly the first time the school witnessed a political demonstration. More than 40 years before students protested a speech from Milo Yiannopoulos, they challenged Ronald Reagan while he was the governor of California.  In 1969, UC Berkeley students protested over city plans for the use of a small community park (People’s Park) near the college. Reagan ordered the California Highway Patrol and Berkeley Police to the school, and he instructed them to use “whatever methods they choose” to crack down on the situation.  Watch the clip of Reagan taking on the press and the professors.  A steppingstone to the presidency.

NUT CASE – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   A former Defense Department official under the Obama administration has raised the specter of a military coup to remove President Donald Trump from power.  In an editorial penned for Foreign Policy, senior Pentagon policy official Rosa Brooks publicly suggested a military insurrection against the Trump administration may be the only option to oust one of the most divisive presidents in American history.  “Donald Trump’s first week as president has made it all too clear: Yes, he is as crazy as everyone feared,” Ms. Brooks wrote. “[One] possibility is one that until recently I would have said was unthinkable in the United States of America: a military coup, or at least a refusal by military leaders to obey certain orders.”  For the first time in her career in public service, including three years as senior counselor to the Pentagon’s policy chief from 2009 to 2011, “I can imagine plausible scenarios in which senior military officials might simply tell the president: ‘No, sir. We’re not doing that.’”
Ms. Brooks‘ editorial comes as a recent poll by Public Policy Polling group found that 40 percent of registered voters support Mr. Trump’s impeachment.  Rosa Brooks was one of the most left-wing officials in the Obama administration.  She is the daughter of hard-left writer Barbara Ehrenreich.  Her comments about the military are particularly uninformed, as the military is never required to follow an illegal order.  Indeed, the military is prohibited from following such an order.  A military coup, though, would clearly be an illegal act. 

MORE IRAN MISSILE TESTS? – FROM BLOOMBERG:   Iran carried out further missile tests during an annual military exercise, a day after President Donald Trump imposed fresh sanctions on a raft of individuals and companies in response to the country test-firing a ballistic rocket last week.  The country successfully tested a range of land-to-land missiles and radar systems during the drills in a 35,000 square-kilometer stretch of desert in the northern Iranian province of Semnan, the semi-official Tasnim agency reported Saturday, citing Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ aerospace division.  The issue is whether the missiles are of a type to concern us, and whether they violate the relevant UN resolution.  We'll know more in a few days.

February 4, 2017       Permalink

OBAMA JUSTICE – AT 12:48 P.M. ET:   This  was bound to happen eventually.  I guess the Obama vetting process wasn't exactly first class.  From the San Antonio Express-News: 

A San Antonio man who was freed from life in prison by President Barack Obama is back behind bars after allegedly crashing his vehicle into another motorist and undercover police cars while fleeing from a drug deal Thursday.

Robert M. Gill, 68, whose life sentence for cocaine and heroin distribution conspiracy was commuted by Obama and expired in 2015, was profiled last year in the Express-News about his readjustment to life on the outside.

Jailed from the time of his arrest in 1990, Gill earned a legal education inside prison libraries and successfully petitioned the then-president for a second chance after his court appeals were exhausted.
He was taken to federal court Friday, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry Bemporad ordered him held without bond pending a bail hearing on Feb. 16. Gill is charged with possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

He again faces a potential sentence with a mandatory minimum, five years, and could get up to 40.
Gill was one of about 1,700 federal inmates whose sentences Obama commuted as part of a broader campaign to give relief to nonviolent offenders serving long prison terms that dated to a frenzied period in the nation’s war on drugs.

COMMENT:  We shouldn't assume that all commutation cases, or even most, end this way, but we should assume that vetting, like the vetting of immigrants, must be done carefully and thoroughly.

February 4, 2017       Permalink

THE ISIS TRUTH – AT 11:53 A.M. ET:  Readers know that at Urgent Agenda we call 'em as we see 'em.  No party line.  No automatic political stands.  We have been very critical of my old newspaper, The New York Times, and for good reason.  But The Times today is running one of the best pieces of journalism, and one of the most important, that I've seen in a long time.  It gives the lie to the term "lone wolf," as applied to terror attacks:

HYDERABAD, India — When the Islamic State identified a promising young recruit willing to carry out an attack in one of India’s major tech hubs, the group made sure to arrange everything down to the bullets he needed to kill victims.

For 17 months, terrorist operatives guided the recruit, a young engineer named Mohammed Ibrahim Yazdani, through every step of what they planned to be the Islamic State’s first strike on Indian soil.

They vetted each new member of the cell as Mr. Yazdani recruited helpers. They taught him how to pledge allegiance to the terrorist group and securely send the statement.

And from Syria, investigators believe, the group’s virtual plotters organized for the delivery of weapons as well as the precursor chemicals used to make explosives, directing the Indian men to hidden pickup spots.

Until just moments before the arrest of the Indian cell, here last June, the Islamic State’s cyberplanners kept in near-constant touch with the men, according to the interrogation records of three of the eight suspects obtained by The New York Times.

As officials around the world have faced a confusing barrage of attacks dedicated to the Islamic State, cases like Mr. Yazdani’s offer troubling examples of what counterterrorism experts are calling enabled or remote-controlled attacks: violence conceived and guided by operatives in areas controlled by the Islamic State whose only connection to the would-be attacker is the internet.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  Absolutely required.  The "lone wolf" stuff is nonsense.

February 4, 2017       Permalink

THE PRESIDENT AND THE JUDGE – AT 11:20 A..M. ET:  A federal judge has put a freeze on President Trump's immigration order, and the president is striking back.  From Breitbart: 

The White House issued a statement vowing to file for an emergency stay of a federal judge’s order to block President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration and refugees from high risk countries from the Middle East.

“At the earliest possible time, the Department of Justice intends to file an emergency stay of this order and defend the executive order of the President, which we believe is lawful and appropriate,” read a statement from Sean Spicer to reporters.

The statement explained that Trump’s order was issued under his constitutional authority to protect the American people.

U.S. District Court Judge James Robart took the unusual step of issuing a emergency stay of Trump’s order as the attorneys general of Washington and Minnesota filed a lawsuit to overturn the legislation.

The plaintiffs argue that Trump’s order violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law, including what they say is discrimination against a particular religion.

But Trump defied the order, sending a message on Twitter on Saturday.

“The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!” he wrote.

COMMENT:  I, too, hope the administration appeals the order.  At the same time, I wish someone would cancel the president's Twitter account.  I admire the vigor of his views, but his language diminishes him.  James Robart is not a "so-called' judge.  He's a judge.  Maybe he's the worst judge in the world, but he's a judge, and demeaning him with an insult makes the president look petty. 

This may well reach the Supreme Court.

February 4,  2017     Permalink

FEBRUARY 3,  2017

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

THE ART OF THE DEAL – FROM FOX:   The Trump administration announced Friday that the Pentagon has reached a tentative deal with Lockheed Martin for the purchase of 90 F-35 jets at the lowest price in the program’s history – saving the government millions, officials said.  Trump, as president-elect, made headlines in December when he tweeted that the costs for the F-35 program were “out of control.”  This led to meetings and negotiations with the defense mega-contractor, apparently culminating in Friday's nearly $9 billion agreement.  Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, F-35 program executive officer, called the contract a "good and fair" deal for taxpayers.  "We continue to work with Industry to drive costs out of the program," he said in a statement.  The Trump effect, well played.

AND MORE GOOD NEWS – FROM FOX:   Japan, which has a consistent trade surplus with the U.S., is putting the finishing touches on a package that it claims will create 700,000 jobs in the U.S. and help create a $450-billion market, Reuters reported, citing government sources familiar with the plans.  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Trump are expected to meet on Feb. 10. Major Japanese newspapers cited a draft of the proposal that calls for cooperation on building high-speed trains in the U.S. northeast, Texas and California. The two sides would also jointly develop artificial intelligence, robotics, space and Internet technology.  The Japanese may use money from its foreign exchange reserves to fund the package, Reuters reported.  Never happened under Obama.  Never even thought of.

DON'T TAKE IT SO SERIOUSLY – FROM RASMUSSEN REPORTS:   A lot of Americans have hard feelings after last November's presidential election.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 40% of Likely U.S. Voters think the election has negatively affected their personal relationship with a friend or family member. That's a jump from the 26% who said just days before the election that the presidential race itself had already hurt their relationship with a friend or family member.  Contrary to the media and most pollsters who felt Democrat Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in for the presidency, Republican Donald Trump was the surprise winner. Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters who Strongly Disapprove of the job President Trump is doing say the election has hurt a personal relationship. Just 35% of those who Strongly Approve of Trump's job performance agree.  We conservatives simply have a sunnier disposition.  The Democratic Party used to say that "Democrats have more fun."  Today the Democrats want fun abolished, or at least investigated.

February 3, 2017       Permalink

AND THE SANCTIONS HAVE COME – AT 11:05 A.M. ET:  The administration has just announced those sanctions on Iran that we mentioned in the post just below.  From Fox: 

The Trump administration followed up Friday on its vow to put Iran “on notice” over its recent missile tests and support for Shiite rebels in Yemen, imposing sanctions on 13 individuals and a dozen companies – while the U.S. Navy moved a destroyer into position off the coast of Yemen.

The president’s national security team had previewed possible action earlier in the week, and Trump warned Friday morning on Twitter that Iran was “playing with fire” with its recent actions.

The Treasury Department announced the additional sanction targets late Friday morning.

The sanctions, coming in the first weeks of Trump's term, reflect his administration's desire to take a strong stance toward Iran from the start. Throughout his campaign, Trump accused the Obama administration of being insufficiently tough on Iran and vowed to crack down if elected.

The move won praise from Republican allies in Congress.

“This announcement makes clear that it is a new day in U.S.-Iran relations and that we will no longer tolerate Iran’s destabilizing behavior,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in a statement. “A coordinated, multi-faceted effort to pushback against a range of illicit Iranian behavior is long overdue.”

Trump’s team stepped up approach toward Iran in the wake of ballistic missile tests and a recent attack on a Saudi naval vessel by Tehran-backed militants in Yemen.

Military officials told Fox News that Iran actually has conducted two recent missile tests, one on Dec. 6 and another this past Sunday. U.N. resolution 2231 calls on the Islamic Republic not to conduct such tests.

Meanwhile, a defense official told Fox News that the USS Cole, the same warship attacked in Yemen in 2000, is now patrolling off the coast of that country in the Gulf of Aden.

COMMENT:  A proper and moderate first step, with a signal that there will be more to come if Iran continues its behavior.  Now we have to watch to see what Iran does.  We hope the Iranians back down, if only quietly, and realize there's a new policy in place in Washington.

I'd like to see more military power deployed to the region, so the president has an even stronger deterrent force available.  The idea is to prevent military conflict, not encourage it through weakness.

February 3, 2017       Permalink

TRUMP CONFRONTS IRAN – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:   President Trump is doing exactly what he said he'd when he ran for president.  He is making it clear to Iran what the limits are.  From Reuters:

Donald Trump tweeted early on Friday that "Iran is playing with fire" and "they don't appreciate how kind President Obama was to them. Not me!"

Trump plans to impose sanctions on several Iranian entities, seeking to ratchet up pressure on Tehran while crafting a broader strategy to counter what he sees as its destabilizing behavior, people familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

Iran's decision to test-fire a ballistic missile on Sunday helped trigger Trump's decision, which could be announced as early as Friday, they said.

In response Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif tweeted that "Iran is unmoved by threats."

Adding that Iran will "never initiate war" and would only rely on its "own means of defense."

COMMENT:  I love that line about Obama.  I love it.  Now President Trump has laid down a marker.  He must enforce his declaration by imposing harsh sanctions.  He must persuade other nations to go along with him, at the risk of damaging their relations with the United States.  He has repairing the massive damage that Barack Obama did.

February 3, 2017       Permalink

MONA LISA HAS A CLOSE ONE – AT 9:05 A.M. ET:  There has been a terror attack at the Louvre, in France.  From the Daily Mail:

A terror probe has been launched in Paris after a machete-wielding man was shot after trying to attack four soldiers outside the Louvre.

The suspect was shot five times in the stomach and is in a critical condition.

He was shouting 'Allahu Akbar' - Arabic for 'God is the greatest' - according to the Paris prefect.
After being refused entry, he pulled out the weapon and was shot by a soldier, officials have confirmed. A soldier is believed to have suffered a head injury.

US President Donald Trump tweeted following the attack in the French capital: 'A new radical Islamic terrorist has just attacked in Louvre Museum in Paris. Tourists were locked down. France on edge again.

A second man was arrested after 'acting suspiciously' close to the scene, but it is not known if he is linked to the attack.

French Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has described the attack as 'terrorist in nature'.

Interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet said the the identity and nationality of the suspect are not yet known. Interior minister Bruno Le Roux has cut short a trip to the Dordogne and is set to visit the injured soldier this afternoon.

An estimated 1,250 people were inside the famous art gallery, home to the Mona Lisa, when the shooting happened. Pictures from inside the museum shows schoolchildren cowering during the emergency lockdown.

French President Francoise Hollande has praised security forces for their quick response.

COMMENT:  The political left will now demand that we ask what the Mona Lisa has done to Islamic civilization to provoke this understandable and passionate reaction.  Who are we to judge?  That woman in the painting has that smirky smile that some cultures could interpret as an insult. 

February 3,  2017     Permalink