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MARCH 14,  2016

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

BERNIE? – There are some signs that Bernie Sanders is closing, somewhat the gap with Hillary Clinton.  From The Hill:   The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is tightening, with Bernie Sanders closing in on Hillary Clinton in two important contests.  Sanders is leading Clinton in Missouri and has cut into the Democratic front-runner’s lead in Ohio and Illinois, according to a new survey the left-leaning Public Policy Polling (PPP).  All three states now look like toss-ups, with the PPP poll showing Sanders trailing Clinton by just 5 points, 46 percent to 41 percent, in Ohio.  The change is particularly notable because several polls in Ohio at the beginning of the month showed Clinton with a 20- to 30-point lead over the Vermont senator.  The race has drawn much closer since Sanders's surprise win in Michigan; he also trailed by double-digits in that state weeks before its primary.  In Illinois, Clinton gets 48 percent in the PPP survey compared to 45 percent for Sanders.  I have the feeling that the vote is turning more away from Clinton than toward Sanders.  Hillary isn't loved.  She has more baggage than American Airlines, and she doesn't lose hers.  I also think that gross irresponsibility by the press is fueling at least part of Sanders's rise.  As with Obama, the media men refuse to tell us what Sanders actually believes, as reflected in his political background.  He's a hard leftist, and cannot be trusted with the defense of this country.

A PRICE IS PAID –  College protests are taking their toll on the very institutions being protested.  The working-class kids will be hurt the most.  From Fox:   Safe spaces may become empty spaces at the University of Missouri, where officials acknowledged that an expected sharp decline in enrollment next fall is due at least in part to protests that rocked the campus last fall.  The school is braced for a 25 percent drop in new students this coming fall, forcing the institution to enact painful budget cuts, as well as hiring and salary freezes.  “We do know that the events of last fall have had an effect on our application numbers; however, it’s difficult to provide a specific number as we do not have any hard data," University of Missouri spokesman Christian Basi said in a statement to Foxnews.com.   Why go to an unstable institution that knuckled under to the protesters when you can go somewhere else?  The market works. 

SHE TOLD THE TRUTH!  From the New York Post:   Here’s a novelty: Hillary Clinton told the truth. Oops!  “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business,” Clinton said Sunday night while boasting about her clean-energy program — and with a big smile on her face.  In fact, this is standard Democratic policy: President Obama’s been throwing coal miners out of work for seven years now, aiming to deliver on his 2008 pledge to “bankrupt” the coal industry.  But most Dems have the sense to pretend they’re just protecting the environment — and bashing business, ’natch.  Hillary said today that no Americans died in Benghazi.  Maybe it depends on what your definition of "died" is.

March 14,  2016     Permalink

MORE HAPPY TALK – AT 10:56 A.M. ET:   North Korea is increasingly seen as a real and growing threat, not a theoretical problem.   From the great Bill Gertz at the Washington Free Beacon:

Escalating threats from North Korea’s communist regime are indicators of a future military attack or another nuclear test in the coming days, according to a recent U.S. intelligence assessment.

Intelligence agencies issued the assessment last week warning that threatening rhetoric from Pyongyang in response to large-scale U.S.-South Korean military exercises and new U.N. sanctions had reached the highest level in years.

The unclassified assessment circulated within government states that the intense language suggests North Korea is preparing for a surprise military strike or a demonstration of strategic capability, such as a new long-range missile test or underground nuclear blast, according to U.S. officials familiar with the report.

On Sunday, North Korean state news media warned its missiles could destroy New York City in a thermonuclear attack.

“Our hydrogen bomb is much bigger than the one developed by the Soviet Union,” the outlet DPRK Today stated.

“If this H-bomb were to be mounted on an inter-continental ballistic missile and fall on Manhattan in New York City, all the people there would be killed immediately and the city would burn down to ashes,” the report said.

COMMENT:  Real nice talk.  Of course, the liberals have assured us that we have "agreements" with North Korea.  Yeah, the kind of agreements that Chamberlain had with Hitler. 

Maybe we should cut our defenses further, as a sign of our good will.

March 14, 2016       Permalink

IRAN – A HILLARY-OBAMA BREACH? – AT 9:56 A.M. ET:  New missile tests by Iran are putting some distance between Hillary Clinton and the aging Obama administration.  But don't get your hopes up.  From The Hill:

Iran's ballistic missile tests are reigniting the debate over sanctions and putting new pressure on the Obama administration.

Republicans, and many Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, are calling for a strong response, after Iran test-fired ballistic missiles twice last week, in defiance of international law. They were the first tests since an international nuclear deal with Iran took effect earlier this year.

Lawmakers are particularly incensed over the second day of testing, when Iran reportedly fired missiles with the words "Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth" written in Hebrew -- an explicit threat to a close U.S. ally.

Republicans say the test is a blatant violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls upon Iran not to conduct any launches of ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear weapon. Iran has denied that the tests did so.

GOP lawmakers seized upon the tests as evidence Iran could not be trusted to uphold the nuclear deal, which lifted heavy sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits to its nuclear program, and blasted the Obama administration as naive.

"Conducting ballistic missile tests is akin to throwing dirt in the face of the entire free world. And it reveals Iran has little intention of abiding by the terms of the nuclear deal it agreed to just months ago," said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).

Republicans say the U.S. sanctions imposed by the administration earlier this year in response to similar tests in October and November are too weak, and vowed to press ahead with new sanctions.

"Clearly the current ballistic missile sanctions regime is ineffective," Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said earlier this week.

He told reporters the Senate is working to extend the Iran Sanctions Act, which expires at the end of the year and hinted at other sanctions legislation to cover Iran's conventional weapons and ballistic missile development.

"There is already a strong bipartisan movement in the Senate to act," he said.

COMMENT:  Yeah, right, until Field Marshal Obama cracks the whip, as he did with the absurd Iran nuclear deal.  Watch the Democrats fall right in line. 

Iran is laughing at us.  I'm sure the mullahs fell off their chairs reading the recent interview with the field marshal in Atlantic, wherein Obama seemed to blame America's allies for most of his troubles.  Damn pro-American stooges, always trying to survive!  Have they not understood the wisdom of Barack?

March 14, 2016       Permalink

HISPANICS FOR TRUMP – AT 9:35 A.M. ET:  Is it possible that Donald Trump is getting some support in Florida?  Well, maybe.  From the Tampa Bay Times: 

HIALEAH — Cuban-Americans here have the rare opportunity to vote for two of their own for the presidency of the United States. Yet, some are making a different choice: They're backing Donald Trump.

The controversial frontrunner has insisted he'll draw Hispanic voters despite launching his campaign last June with inflammatory remarks about Mexicans and rapists. And as he competes in Florida, the biggest state yet to test his boast, there is anecdotal evidence of support among Miami-Dade's staunchly Republican Cuban-American voters even as most back Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, whom many Cuban-American voters helped elect to the U.S. Senate in 2010.

For Trump backers, ethnicity plays no factor.

"I don't think Cuban, I think American," said former Hialeah Mayor Julio Martinez, who, for two weeks, has held a Trump campaign sign outside an early voting site just blocks from where Rubio last week implored Hispanics to vote for him in Tuesday's presidential primary.

Perched in a lawn chair outside the John F. Kennedy Library, holding a "The Silent Majority Stands with Trump" sign, Martinez said he was backing Trump because there was "nobody better suited" to fixing the economy.

"The worst problem the United States has today is the economy," he said.

Trump's pledge to force Mexico to pay for construction of a wall at the U.S. border and his call to deport the nation's estimated 11 million immigrants who are here illegally have infuriated Hispanic advocacy groups and led to heated protests at his rallies. But for backers, they play no role. Even Trump's support for closer ties with Cuba's government makes no waves.

COMMENT:  It's very hard to know how far this goes.  Most polls show Trump extremely unpopular among Hispanics.  There have been stories that Trump is making inroads among blacks, but polls don't really bear that out.

I'm noticing, by the way, some support for Trump on the far right, not the conservative right, but the far right.  The people who think Iran is just fine.  I am not a Trump supporter, and I find the weirdness of the campaign thus far a danger, not an asset.  Clarity and clear definitions of policy are what I look for, and we're not getting them.  I still maintain that a good chunk of the Trump vote, possibly a majority, is an anger vote, a protest vote, with little coherence.

March 14,   2016     Permalink

MARCH 13,  2016

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

RUMBLINGS AT BREITBART – From Buzzfeed:  Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields and editor-at-large Ben Shapiro are resigning from the company over the site’s handling of Donald Trump’s campaign manager’s alleged assault on Fields, BuzzFeed News has learned.  Fields and Shapiro informed Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon of their decision Sunday night.  “Today I informed the management at Breitbart News of my immediate resignation,” Fields said in a statement sent to BuzzFeed News. “I do not believe Breitbart News has adequately stood by me during the events of the past week and because of that I believe it is now best for us to part ways.”  In his own statement, Shapiro said the episode was emblematic of how he believes the site’s management had sold out the legacy of its founder and namesake, the late Andrew Breitbart.  There have been reports of substantial tension at Breitbart, a site that has often provided valuable information for conservatives.  I hate to see this happen.  Michelle Fields claims she was manhandled by a Trump official.  The Trump organization denies it.  An outside arbitrator should be brought in.

STRANGE AND CHILLING – From the Oregonian:   BELGRADE, Serbia — Serbia's authorities are investigating reports that a cargo package bound for Portland contained two missiles with explosive warheads on a passenger flight from Lebanon.  N1 television said the package with two guided armor-piercing missiles was discovered Saturday by a sniffer dog after an Air Serbia flight from Beirut landed at a Belgrade airport.  Serbian media say documents listed the final destination for the AGM-114 Hellfire missiles as Portland. The American-made projectiles can be fired from air, sea or ground platforms against multiple targets.  The Serbian state news agency Tanjug reported that the missiles had been packed in wooden coffins and unloaded at the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport, where they were inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs.  The FBI says it's looking into the story.  I certainly hope so.  This is very serious stuff. 

PAINFUL – From The Hill:   Hillary Clinton is taking a new tack to boost her image in the Democratic presidential campaign.  Clinton acknowledged during Wednesday’s Democratic debate that she was “not a natural politician” and expanded on the theme in an interview with the SiriusXM radio show “The Mayor” the following day.  “This is harder for me,” she said. “I admire the skills my husband and President Obama have. They’re charismatic and they’re compelling and they’re great orators. I do get up every day and say, ‘What can I do to try make someone’s life better?’”   Few objective observers view such comments as spontaneous moments of candor. Rather, they see them as part of a strategy to warm up perceptions of the Democratic front-runner, who is seen suffering an enthusiasm deficit by comparison with her rival Bernie Sanders.  Each week I await the "new" Hillary.  It's almost exciting, like opening an old package of baseball cards, throwing away the bubble gum that came with them, and wondering which guys you got this time. 

March 13, 2016       Permalink

GREAT MOMENTS IN NATIONAL SURVIVAL – AT 11:43 A.M. ET:   You just can't make this up.  Read it straight on.  From Powerline: 

Unbelievable, but true: President Obama’s CIA Director, John Brennan, doesn’t think the agency should engage in spying. He finds espionage unsavory, apparently. John Sipher, a former member of the CIA’s Senior Intelligence Service and a recipient of the agency’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, explains:

In what was otherwise a thoughtful interview with National Public Radio last week, CIA Director John Brennan expressed his personal view that the CIA should be not be viewed as a spy agency. In the 24 February interview he said, “I don’t support government spying…. We don’t steal secrets… We uncover, we discover, we reveal, we obtain, we elicit, we solicit. All of that.” What? We don’t steal secrets? Is he joking? Brennan has reportedly also made clear to the officers under his charge that he eschews the term espionage, and does not view the CIA as an espionage service. …

While his comments might not resonate outside of the Intelligence Community, make no mistake, it is a long-term danger to our security when the head of the nation’s espionage organization says that he doesn’t support spying. It sends a chill through those who work in the shadows to keep us safe and makes them wonder if their boss has their back. It also confirms the fears of many CIA employees and alumni that Brennan’s recent efforts to restructure and change CIA culture were a furtive means of weakening the clandestine service.

COMMENT:  Geez.  I mean, what do you say?  I was in the CIA many years ago, and, I guarantee you, we knew we were in the espionage business. 

I can only the imagine the harm Brennan is doing.  But he's doing it at the behest of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., who seems to work overtime to weaken the national defense of the United States.

March 13, 2016       Permalink

OH, THIS IS RIDICULOUS – AT 11:21 A.M. ET:   Hillary Clinton, who appropriately attended Nancy Reagan's funeral, praised Mrs. Reagan for having a national discussion about AIDS.

Well, you'd think she was praising the Devil himself.  The anger of the political left came down on Clinton, demanding she apologize for getting it "wrong."  You see, the approved narrative is that the Reagan administration was indifferent to AIDS.  You must not stray from that narrative, even though it is entirely inaccurate.  It tries to suggest that the Reagans, who were the first presidential family to have a gay couple stay overnight at the White House, were anti-gay.  In fact, both Reagans, in Hollywood, had worked with gay people every day. 

Little was known about AIDS during a good part of the Reagan administration.  However, as researchers began to understand the disease, Reagan financed more research fully.  The administration was all in.  But the party line doesn't permit that truth.  From The Hill: 

Hillary Clinton penned an article in Medium Saturday, expanding on her previous apology for praising Nancy and Ronald Reagans' response to HIV and AIDS.

“Yesterday, at Nancy Reagan’s funeral, I said something inaccurate when speaking about the Reagans’ record on HIV and AIDS," she wrote. "I made a mistake, plain and simple."

On MSNBC Friday, Clinton applauded Reagan for her contributions to the fight against AIDS.

"It may be hard for your viewers to remember how difficult it was to talk about HIV [and] AIDS back in the 1980s,” Clinton said. "Because of both President and Mrs. Reagan, in particular Mrs. Reagan, we started a national conversation where before nobody would talk about it."

Clinton immediately received pushback on the comment; the Reagans have been harshly criticized for initially ignoring the AIDS epidemic.

“To be clear, the Reagans did not start a national conversation about HIV and AIDS," Clinton wrote. "That distinction belongs to generations of brave lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, along with straight allies, who started not just a conversation but a movement that continues to this day.”

Clinton went on to call for a continuation of research and legislation to help people with HIV and AIDS.

COMMENT:  This is why Hillary ranks low in ratings for integrity.  The truth, which she actually told on Friday, ranks far behind political gain. 

I understand the politics, but the apology was a lie.

March 13, 2016        Permalink

CLOSE IN OHIO – AT 10:46 A.M. ET:  A new NBC/Marist poll shows Ohio Governor John Kasich leading Donald Trump in Tuesday's Ohio primary, but Trump romping in Florida and leading in Illinois.  Hillary is ahead in all three states, with Illinois close.  From NBC News: 

Donald Trump leads the Republican presidential field in the March 15 primary states of Florida and Illinois, while John Kasich holds the edge in his home state of Ohio, according to three new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist polls.

On the Democratic side, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton leads Bernie Sanders in all three states, although she's just narrowly ahead in Illinois.

In Florida, Trump holds a 2-to-1 advantage among likely GOP voters over Marco Rubio, the state's U.S. senator, 43 percent to 22 percent. They're followed by Ted Cruz at 21 percent and John Kasich at 9 percent.

In Illinois, Trump gets the support of 34 percent of likely GOP primary voters, Cruz gets 25 percent, Kasich gets 21 percent and Rubio gets 16 percent.

But in Ohio, Kasich, the state's incumbent governor, holds a six-point lead over Trump, 39 percent to 33 percent - followed by Cruz at 19 percent and Rubio at 6 percent.

In the Democratic race, Clinton is ahead of Sanders among likely primary voters by 27 points in Florida, 61 percent to 34 percent; by 20 points in Ohio, 58 percent to 38 percent; but by just six points in Illinois, 51 percent to 45 percent.

COMMENT:  Let's say these numbers hold.  Trump can claim major victories in Florida and Illinois, but a loss in Ohio will prevent him from claiming total victory.  He will still be well ahead for the nomination, and will have knocked Rubio out of the race in Florida.  But he'll still have to fight Cruz.  The numbers even give Cruz a fighting chance in Illinois, if – a big if – Trump has been hurt by the disrupted rally on Friday night.  Also, notice that Trump never reaches 50%, and is only in the 30s in Illinois and Ohio. 

On the Dem side, it would take major miracles for Sanders to catch Hillary in either Florida or Ohio, but he might upset Hillary in her home state of Illinois.  The result?  He gets some bragging rights, but little more.  Hillary would continue her delegate count to the nomination, with the FBI her real opponent.  She gets over 50% in all three states.

March 13,  2016     Permalink