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.

MARCH 21,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 7:09 P.M. ET: 

RENT CONTROL – From AP:  GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — A Colorado landlord will let dogs with good references live in the apartment he rents, but not anyone who backs Donald Trump.  Mark Holmes warned Trump voters not to call in an ad he placed last week for the two-bedroom apartment that’s part of his home in Grand Junction.  The 62-year-old told The Daily Sentinel that he doesn’t know what to do anymore about the possibility of the GOP front-runner getting elected but that he doesn’t want to live upstairs from someone who backs Trump.  How would he know who backs Trump unless the person told him?  And what would he do about an African-American lesbian woman who appeared with a DONALD button?  I see a beautiful court case.

WOW! – This is starting to make waves on the internet.  I'm sure an explanation is coming.  From the Washington Examiner:   Former President Bill Clinton asked Democratic voters on Monday to shrug off the "awful legacy" of President Obama's years in office in a speech Monday to support Hillary Clinton's campaign.  "Now if you don't believe we can all grow together again, if you don't believe we're ever going to grow again, if you believe it's more important to re-litigate the past, there may be many reasons that you don't want to support her," Clinton told a Spokane, Wash. audience.  "But if you believe we can all rise together, if you believe we've finally come to the point where we can put the awful legacy of the last eight years behind us and the seven years before that where we were practicing trickle-down economics with no regulation in Washington, which is what caused the crash, then you should vote for her," he added.  Trashing Barack Obama may not be the wisest thing for Hillary's campaign right now.  I don't understand this.  As noted, I expect an explanation to be issued.

WHAT'S THIS? – Donald Trump, expert on everything, said on CNN that the U.S. should rethink its role in NATO, and let the European countries defend themselves and pick up the tab.  This is stunning.  Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois came on refuting Trump, pointing out that, while we should insist Europe pay a larger share of its defense bill, this is hardly a time to threaten to pull out of NATO, with Russia in the Ukraine and menacing other countries in Europe.  Trump seemed to be going back to the disastrous periods of American isolationism, which always ended badly.  His statement stunned interviewer Wolf Blitzer.  It calls into serious question whether Trump can be trusted on critical issues of foreign policy. 

TAKING ABUSE FROM DICTATORS – From CNS:   (CNSNews.com) – In a joint press conference with Cuban dictator Raul Castro in Havana, Cuba, on Monday, President Barack Obama said he welcomes Castro’s criticism of the U.S.  “I actually welcome President Castro commenting on some of the areas where he feels that we’re falling short, because I think we should not be immune or afraid of criticism or discussion as well,” Obama said.  Oh please.  I'm happy to take criticism, but not from a thug.  I have no interest in hearing a career criminal critiquing the way I raise my children.  Obama is a real leftist, and proving it.

March 21,  2016     Permalink

CONVENTION RULES – AT 10:22 A.M. ET:   With so much buzz about a possible open Republican convention, we're starting to learn the intricacies of the convention process.  This whole thing could come down to a handful of votes.  From The Hill:

The possibility of a contested convention has put the spotlight on the unbound delegates who could determine the Republican presidential nominee.

Several unbound delegates told The Hill they are beginning to feel the pressure, now that party leaders are talking about a convention scenario that could prevent Donald Trump from winning the nomination.

"I’ve received hundreds of emails and I’m getting phone calls from people telling me who they think should be president and why," said Steve House, the chairman of the Republican Party in Colorado and an unbound delegate.

Under Republican Party rules, delegates from states that hold presidential primaries must be bound by those results. Those delegates must back their candidate for at least the first ballot at the GOP convention in Cleveland in July.

But many delegates — potentially close to 200 — are not bound by those rules.

A handful of states and territories — Colorado and North Dakota among them — chose not to hold a vote at all, which means most of their delegates will arrive at the convention free to cast their ballot for any candidate.

And in some states, the delegates who were bound to candidates no longer in the race — such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio — are unbound as well.

COMMENT:  Read the whole thing.  It's a good primer.  Open conventions are great fun, and you may be sure the TV journalists are praying for one, but they can embitter a party to the point where the national campaign is fatally damaged.  It happened to the Democrats in 1968.  And the anger in the Republican Party today is already boiling over.

March 21, 2016       Permalink

TRUMP MAKING NICE? – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Donald Trump may be starting a charm offensive to convince angry Republicans that he is a civilized grown-up.  From Fox:

Donald Trump will reportedly meet Monday in Washington with nearly two dozen influential Republicans, with the apparent hope of improving relations with the GOP establishment.

The Republican presidential front-runner will be in the nation’s capital to speak at the annual policy conference for AIPAC, or the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel group.

Trump’s meeting with Republican lawmakers and other party leaders, as first reported by The Washington Post, will be his first major discussion with them since last fall, when he was on Capitol Hill to protest President Obama’s Iranian nuclear agreement.

The off-the-record meeting was reportedly organized in part by Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has endorsed Trump.

The names of the attendees have not been released, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told “Fox News Sunday” that he’ll be in his home state of Kentucky on Monday, while Congress is on a two-week recess.

COMMENT:  There are all kinds of reports about this meeting popping up on the internet.  One has it that anti-Trump Republicans will try to infiltrate it to confront Trump.  Other reports say that the make-nice meeting will have no effect, that angry Republicans with deep pockets are serious about trying to deprive Trump of the Republican nomination.

Stand by.  This is becoming an intriguing story.  If Trump fails at making peace with his opponents within the party, the combat could get much worse.  Trump fights.

March 21, 2016       Permalink

WARNING – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  The nuts are out in force again in the Mideast, and their targets are American soldiers.  From the Jerusalem Post:

Hezbollah fighters in Iraq have threatened to attack the American soldiers stationed in the country, following the decision by the US army to send reinforcements to Iraq to support the international coalition in its fights against ISIS.

In a statement released Sunday, the organization claimed: "the United States increasingly intervenes in Iraq's issues with its presence in the Iraqi joint operations command."

While the US army says it is sending reinforcements to Iraq to help the international coalition vanquish ISIS, Hezbollah's statement claimed the opposite.

"ISIS, the stepdaughter of the Americans, is taking its last breaths, so the Americans dispatched their ground troops to protect the "clinically dead" body of ISIS," Hezbollah's statement read.

"We have vanquished the American occupation with our quality and quantity in the past and we will continue attacking them, with our resources significantly increased. Iraq's streets are still filled with the ruins of their vehicles that destroyed our explosive devices, and those injured by their soldiers are still hospitalized.

"The occupation's coward soldiers should understand that however protective their vehicles are, these vehicles will become an obstacle for them and they will burn to death inside them," the statement read.

COMMENT:  Isn't Obama the president who claims he ended two wars?  Where are these wars?  Haven't found them.

We are sending a small number of American troops back into Iraq, and they're clearly in danger.  One was killed just a few days ago.  We can expect further casualties in a region that is on fire.

March 21,  2016     Permalink

MARCH 20,  2016

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

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – From Time:   About 4,000 students living in the Virginia area recently received an email from the University of California at Santa Cruz congratulating them on admission—an impressive accomplishment, no doubt, considering they never applied to the school.  A regional admissions officer mistakenly sent an email invitation to a list of prospective students instead of admitted students, the Washington Post reported, citing university officials.  “Congratulations on your admission to UC Santa Cruz!” the email read. “To celebrate your achievement and to provide an opportunity to learn more about UC Santa Cruz, you and your family are cordially invited to a special reception in the Virginia area on March 28th, 2016.”  I think all those kids should show up at the reception and demand that UC honor its word.  The person responsible for this mess need only declare himself oppressed, and in need of a safe space.  He'll get a promotion.

MAYBE STICK TO SPORTS – From Mediaite:   The Twitter account for ESPN’s SportsCenter sent out a tweet Sunday about Fidel Castro’s love of sports that was criticized for painting the Cuban dictator in a positive light.  “Savior and scourge, Fidel Castro was many things to many people,” the now-deleted tweet read. “One thing all can agree on: He loved his sports.”  And that Adolf Hitler.  The way he loved dogs.  What a sporty guy.

MAJOR POLITICAL OPINION – From the New York Daily News:   Leonardo DiCaprio said China — the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases — could end up being the “hero of the environmental movement” for its work to combat climate change.  DiCaprio, who exhorted the world to fight climate change during his Oscar acceptance speech for Best Actor, praised China’s record during a trip to Beijing on Sunday to promote his movie “The Revenant.”  “As we all know, the United States and China are the two biggest contributors, and I think that China has made radical movements forward as far as alternative energy and ways to be sustainable,” DiCaprio said at a press conference in Beijing.  Well that does it for me.  I'm making a renewed commitment to wonton soup, just to show my appreciation.

NICE, HUH? – And this actually comes from a leading left-wing newspaper, Britain's Guardian:   Cuban police forcibly broke up a pro-democracy demonstration and arrested several dozen activists on Sunday, just hours before Barack Obama was to arrive in Havana to become the first US president to visit Cuba in almost 90 years.  The protesters, from the Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) and other opposition groups, were bundled into buses and police vans after a shouting match with pro-Castro supporters during their usual weekly demonstration near the Santa Rita church.  Nothing to see, nothing to see.  Probably just members of the Tea Party in Cuban disguise.

March 20, 2016       Permalink

TERROR WARNING – AT 12:32 P.M. ET:  The warnings from Britain and Europe have become increasingly stark and alarming.  From The Times of London: 

POLICE and special forces troops have been told to prepare for up to 10 simultaneous terror attacks on the streets of London.

The National Crime Agency has been ordered to make a crackdown on firearms a priority amid fears of a Paris-style attack by terrorists returning from Syria.

A minister familiar with the proposals said: “We used to plan for three simultaneous attacks but Paris has shown that you need to be ready for more than that. We are ready if someone tries with seven, eight, nine, ten.”

Army regiments outside London are also on standby to help the SAS and Metropolitan police in the event of a multiple target attack.

COMMENT:  It's inevitable.  Europe and Britain are flooded with "refugees," some of whom have to be infiltrators.  Yet, if you raise questions about the refugee programs, you're a racist, an Islamophobe. 

I love that a crackdown on firearms has become a priority.  Why not tell your opponents exactly where you're looking?  You may be sure that the terror groups know exactly how to hide firearms.  A crackdown will probably make no difference at all, but will pacify the politically correct crowd. 

Democracies, in order to act, need to be woken up occasionally.  That is the coming tragedy here.

March 20, 2016       Permalink

A VIEW OF TRUMP – AT 11:45 A.M. ET:  Michael Goodwin is one of the most incisive writers around, and so, even though I may sometimes disagree, I take him seriously.  He has a view of Donald Trump that has evolved.  Although I'm not a Trump supporter, I thought it was important to reprint it.  From the New York Post:  

My gut tells me much of the contempt for Trump reflects contempt for his working-class white support. It is one prejudice gentry liberals and gentry conservatives share.

It is perhaps the last acceptable bigotry, and you can see it expressed on any primetime TV program. The insults don’t all seem good-natured to me. I grew up in central Pennsylvania, surrounded by the kind of people supporting Trump, and I sympathize with their worsening plight.

For generations, they went all in for the American dream. Their families fought the wars, worked in the factories, taught school, coached Little League and built a middle-class culture. Now they are abandoned and know it.

Nobody speaks for them. The left speaks for the unions, the poor and the nonwhite, even shedding tears for illegal immigrants and rioters and looters. The GOP speaks for the Chamber of Commerce, big business and Wall Street.

Trump alone is bringing many of these forgotten Americans into the political system, much as Obama did with millennials and black voters. Trump has done it with full-frontal attacks on lopsided trade deals and a broken immigration system. His message is a potent brew of populism and nationalism that reaches across the partisan divide, and the public response is stirring the country.

In fact, many who despise Trump concede he is right that globalization and the open-border flood of cheap labor, while benefitting many Americans, has hurt many others. But instead of working to fix a broken status quo, many on the left and right echo each other’s venomous attacks against him. One day he is Mussolini, the next he’s Hitler, and he’s routinely accused of hate speech and racism.

What is his great sin? Breaking the taboo about what ails the middle class? Daring to challenge a power system that only pretends to have the consent of the governed?

The shame is that others didn’t beat him to it.

COMMENT:  That is very well said, and it needs to be said.  It's too bad, though, that Trump is such a flawed messenger.  Ronald Reagan spoke to many of these same concerns, but he did it so much better.

Can Trump grow into a better candidate, and move the nation in the right direction?  No one can predict that.  The "stop Trump" groups and individuals are meeting and planning, but the primary voters will eventually decide whether he'll get the nomination.  I'm guessing he will.  Late reports have it that the "stop Trump" crowd is giving up on the idea of a third party and is trying to find some candidate who can save the day.

But Dwight Eisenhower isn't available.  Neither is Ronald Reagan.  And David Petraeus stumbled. 

The two big questions in the primary season are, "Will Trump be stopped?" and "Will Hillary be indicted?"

It's come to that.

March 20, 2016        Permalink

YANQUI COMING! – AT 11:22 A.M. ET:  President Obama is on his way to Cuba.  Aren't you excited?  I'm sure he wishes he had Desi Arnaz with him.  From AP:

HAVANA (AP) — Eyeing a new future with the U.S., Cubans are preparing their famed capital for a long-awaited visit by President Barack Obama, who will make history when Air Force One touches down in Havana on Sunday.

Obama's visit to the island nation will serve as a powerful symbol of the relationship that the U.S. and Cuba are now forging. For Obama, the 2 1/2-day trip offers one of the last, best chances to advance the diplomatic opening with President Raul Castro before Obama leaves office early next year.

Ahead of Obama's arrival, American flags were raised in parts of Havana alongside Cuban flags, an improbable image for those who lived through more than a half-century in which the U.S. and Cuba were bitter foes. Cubans have been hard at work cleaning up Old Havana in recent days and giving buildings a fresh coat of paint, as the city buzzed in anticipation of Obama's visit.

Will some brave reporter ask why the buildings weren't painted earlier?

Yet while Obama remains a popular figure in Cuba, the jubilation that surged here in the early days of detente has been tempered by the absence of tangible improvement in most people's lives.

What a shock.

"I haven't seen anything" change since Washington and Havana renewed ties, said Roberto Albar, a 68-year-old retiree. Pointing to his decaying house near the sea, he added, "That's falling down, and the poor are still poor."

Nonetheless, he sees the thaw as a sign that both countries can benefit from the relationship: "We are practically neighbors," Albar said, and Cuba's political system "doesn't mean we have to be enemies."

In a reminder of how tightly Cuban society is still controlled, the Castro government announced a virtual shutdown of Havana during Obama's stay, and few Cubans expected to see him in person.

Extensive closures of main boulevards were planned during the day, and the city's seaside Malecon was largely deserted in the morning except for a few cars, joggers, fishermen and pelicans.

Still, the historic significance of Obama's visit was impossible to overlook. Not in nearly 90 years has a sitting American president visited Cuba.

COMMENT:  The main beneficiaries of the "detente" will probably be the Castro brothers and the big American corporations who yearn to make profits in Cuba.  These are the very corporations the American supporters of Castro have always despised.  Irony.

March 20,  2016     Permalink