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MAY 22,  2016

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:21 A.M. ET: 

BREXIT – FROM REUTERS:   LONDON (Reuters) - Anger at established elites and irritation at the interventions of leaders such as U.S. President Barack Obama will help to push British voters to opt for an exit from the European Union on June 23, the head of the Vote Leave campaign said.  With a team of about 60 full-time staff in a tower block across the River Thames from Parliament, Matthew Elliott is plotting what he describes as a revolution: Brexit.  A British exit would rock the European Union -- already shaken by differences over migration and the future of the euro zone -- by ripping away its second-largest economy, one of its top two military powers and by far its richest financial center.  I favor Brexit.  The European Union has become a menace to Western democracy – a bureaucratic mess handing down edicts on how every citizen of every member state should live their lives and fold their napkins.  Out now.  Save Britain.

THE PRESIDENT'S HOME TOWN – FROM THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES:   A city employee caught in gang crossfire was among five people killed and 32 more wounded in shootings across Chicago since late Friday afternoon, police said.  Chicago Police issued a statement Sunday in the middle of one of the first consistently warm weekends of the spring, as intensified city gun violence typically accompanies rising temperatures.  “As we look toward the summer months, Superintendent Johnson has made it very clear that the violence will not be tolerated – period,” the statement said. “The cause of the violence traces back decades, and everyone has a role to play in fixing it – police working with parents, judges, residents, clergy, community leaders, and others. Put simply, we need more values, fewer guns and stronger sentences against violence offenders.”  What we need is some truth-telling about crime – that social breakdown and lax law enforcement are the keys.  New York largely solved its violent-crime problem under Rudy Giuliani by modern police tactics and a refusal to kowtow to the "inner city" leadership.  Not so in Chicago.

ANOTHER GREAT MOMENT IN EDUCATION – FROM REDALERTPOLITICS.COM:  Student demands now have an effect on tenure and promotion Pomona College professors. As The Claremont Independent reported, the faculty voted last week to for a professor’s “attention to diversity in the student body” as criteria for promotion and tenure.  The vote came after an open letter was circulated by the student body, which referenced a Fall 2015 demand to do with “a commitment to amending the wording of the Faculty Handbook to include a faculty member’s support of a diverse student body as a criteria considered in reappointment, tenure, and promotion.”   The letter also noted how the students “voiced our pain and disappointment with unsafe academic environments and the negative effects of those environments on students’ well-being and everyday lived experiences.”   At Pomona College, however, students have expressed their “pain and disappointment with unsafe academic environments” by creating less than ideal situations for others. Stephen Glick, a junior, felt forced to resign from the writing center due to his political beliefs. Minority students were also labeled as “Shady Persons of Color” (SPOC) if they didn’t agree with the demands as tactics.  The new fascism on American college campuses.  This kind of intimidation should be abhorrent to the academic world, but it really isn't.  Maybe it will convince the American people that a "college education" isn't what it's cracked up to be.

May 22,  2016     Permalink

WELL DESERVED – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  Occasionally President Obama does something right.  It may be an accident, but it's still right.  From CNN:

(CNN) Women who served as pilots during World War II finally can be buried at Arlington National Cemetery, thanks to bipartisan efforts.

President Barack Obama signed a bill into law allowing the ashes of woman who flew in the Women Airforce Service Pilots program (WASP) to be laid to rest at the military cemetery.

For Tiffany Miller, who launched an online petition last year to have her grandmother Danforth Harmon's ashes allowed into Arlington, the recent news has been overwhelming.

"It was her last wish to be in Arlington. We haven't been able to hold a funeral for her because we wanted to honor that wish," the 37-year-old told CNN.

Harmon's grandmother was fresh out of college when she joined the WASP program in 1944, flying with male pilots who needed to go through instrument training. The 22-year-old was in the program for less than a year before it was dismantled, but the experience had a lasting impact, Miller said.

These original fly girls flew countless U.S. Army Air Forces planes for noncombat missions during the war in order to free up their male counterparts for combat. Between 1942 and 1944, they flew more than 60 million miles in bombers, transports and trainer aircraft.

COMMENT:  I'm always glad to see military women recognized for the contributions they make, and have made.  I visit Arlington whenever I can, while in Washington.  Every American should visit.  And now these female World War II pilots will receive the recognition they deserve. 

May 22, 2016       Permalink 

AH, VENEZUELA, SOCIALIST PARADISE – AT 11:24 A.M. ET:  The country is in horrible condition.  Movie stars don't even visit anymore to give praise to the socialist government.  Can you imagine that?  From AFP: 

Caracas (AFP) - If a visitor to Venezuela is unfortunate enough to pay for anything with a foreign credit card, the eye-watering cost might suggest they were in a city pricier than Tokyo or Zurich.

A hamburger sold for 1,700 Venezuelan bolivares is $170, or a 69,000-bolivar hotel room is $6,900 a night, based on the official rate of 10 bolivares for $1.

But of course no merchant is pricing at the official rate imposed under currency controls. It's the black market rate of 1,000 bolivares per dollar that's applied.

But for Venezuelans paid in hyperinflation-hit bolivares, and living in an economy relying on mostly imported goods or raw materials, conditions are unthinkably expensive.

Even for the middle class, most of it sliding into poverty, hamburgers and hotels are out-of-reach excesses.

"Everybody is knocked low," Michael Leal, a 34-year-old manager of an eyewear store in Caracas, told AFP. "We can't breathe."

In Chacao, a middle-class neighborhood in the capital, office workers lined up outside a nut store to buy the cheapest lunch they could afford. Nearby restaurants were all but empty.

Superficially it looked like the center of any other major Latin American city: skyscrapers, dense traffic, pedestrians in short sleeves bustling along the sidewalks.

But look closely and you can see the economic malaise. Many stores, particularly those that sold electronics, were shuttered.

"It's horrible now," said Marta Gonzalez, the 69-year-old manager of a corner beauty products store.

"Nobody is buying anything really. Just food," she said as a male customer used a debit card to pay for a couple of razor blades.

COMMENT:  Bernie Sanders would probably call it a paradise in the making.  But it's an amazing thing about those paradises:  they never get fully made.  They eventually collapse. 

There are now all kinds of ideas being floated about what to do to save Venezuela.  Most Latin American countries don't want the United States to intervene.  Shades of colonialism.  But they may have to intervene themselves, for it is unthinkable that a country the size of Venezuela – 28 million people – would go completely under. 

May 22, 2016       Permalink

TRUMP GAINS ON HILLARY – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  This poll creeping isn't doing Hillary any good, but it can easily be misinterpreted.  From The Hill:

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s lead over likely general election rival Donald Trump has narrowed to just 3 points in a new poll.

Clinton leads the presumptive Republican nominee, 46 to 43 percent, in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released early Sunday, within the survey's margin of error.

In a similar poll in April, Clinton held an 11-point lead over the businessman, 50 to 39 percent.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, however, would beat Trump 15 points in a hypothetical match-up, 54 to 39 percent, according to the new poll.

Trump and Clinton are both burdened with high unfavorable ratings in the latest poll. Fifty eight percent view Trump unfavorably while 54 percent have a negative opinion of Clinton.

Pollsters also found that almost half of voters, 47 percent, would consider a third-party candidate if Clinton and Trump face off as the major parties’ nominees in the fall.

COMMENT:  The number that will be looked at carefully in that poll is the one showing Bernie beating Donald by 15 points.  But remember, that was Hillary's lead over Donald only a few months ago.  The focus has been on Hillary as the presumptive nominee, and in that role she carries much baggage.  Sanders has not been vetted in any way.  His views have not been given wide examination.  Should that happen, his numbers would fall, for this is not a socialist country.

What's so sad here is the dislike of the two major candidates, Trump and Clinton.  The fact that almost half the voters would consider a third-party candidate is telling, and an indication that a third-party race, if carefully run, could have a profound impact, including throwing the election to the House of Representatives if the third party takes three or four states.

May 22,  2016     Permalink

MAY 21,  2016

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

CREEPY – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:   CAIRO — In an eerie coincidence, the EgyptAir jetliner that plunged into the Mediterranean on Thursday was once the target of political vandals who wrote in Arabic on its underside, “We will bring this plane down.”  Three EgyptAir security officials said the threatening graffiti, which appeared about two years ago, had been the work of aviation workers at Cairo Airport. Playing on the phonetic similarity between the last two letters in the plane’s registration, SU-GCC, and the surname of Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, some workers also wrote “traitor” and “murderer.”  There is still nothing definitive about what caused the crash, but the informed speculation includes the possibility of terrorism or an attempted hijacking. 

A BLOW AGAINST TERROR – FROM THE HILL:   Microsoft is updating its terms of use to specifically ban the posting of "terrorist content" on its services.  The company is also considering whether to prominently display "positive messaging" in its Bing search results when users look for terror-related materials. However, it will not hide results for terror content on its search engine unless it is banned by local governments.  "Terrorism is one of the truly urgent issues of our time," the company announced Friday. "We are committed to doing our part to help address the use of technology to promote it or to recruit to its causes."  The announcement follows a number of steps by other tech companies like Twitter. Earlier this year, the Obama administration began publicly pressuring tech companies to help combat the spread of terror-related content online.  Freedom of speech or press, as guaranteed by our First Amendment, has never included the freedom to advocate criminal violence.  I'm glad that tech companies are finally concluded that their own freedoms depend on defeating the terrorist scourge. 

MORE "SETTLED SCIENCE" – FROM LONDON'S DAILY MAIL:   It has long been held that a diet high in salt is dangerous to the heart, raising the risk of heart attack and stroke.  But, in a dramatic U-turn, the scientific evidence has suggested the opposite can also be true.  A global study has found that, contrary to past belief, low-salt diets may not be beneficial.  Rather, they can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death, compared with average salt consumption.  The study, published in the reputable Lancet journal, has garnered strong reaction, with one expert declaring his 'disbelief', while others are critical of the study's methods, and calling its findings into question.  I have absolutely no knowledge of this subject, but I do find it interesting that conventional wisdom is often questioned in science, and is sometimes overturned.  Whenever someone says "settled science" to you, run in the other direction.

May 21,  2016     Permalink

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED, THAT THIS IS GOING ON –  AT 2:26 P.M. ET:  It's so upsetting to find our public servants straying from the straight and narrow.  From Daily Caller: 

Department of Justice officials diverted millions of dollars slated for victims of the 2008 housing meltdown to politically favored third parties, including “left-wing radical groups,” according to the chairman of a House of Representatives oversight subcommittee.

Rep. Sean Duffy, ?a Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the House Financial Services oversight and investigations subcommittee, said Friday the officials “skimmed” off three percent from mortgage-related bank settlements. This created what he called a $500 million “slush fund” that could be steered toward favored groups.

“The first objective of a settlement is to make sure that we have victims who are made whole,” Duffy said, referring to millions of Americans who lost their homes during the meltdown that led to the Great Recession of 2009. “If you’re diverting money away from victims and sending it to third-party activist groups, you have victims who are being harmed not just once, but a second time.”

Justice officials were long able to “skim 3 percent of any settlement money into their own account to for the most part spend it the way they see fit,” Duffy told participants in the media briefing hosted by the Cause of Action Institute, a nonprofit legal watchdog group.

COMMENT:  This obviously requires a Congressional investigation.  But what comes after that?  Ordinarily, anything that turns up in a Congressional probe that may be criminal is turned over to the Department of Justice.  But that department is apparently the culprit here.

Special prosecutor?  I think so.

May 21, 2016       Permalink

A KINDER, GENTLER TRUMP? – AT 1:50 P.M. ET:  Donald Trump, or those advising Trump, are starting to take the necessary steps to undo some of the damage Trump's statements made during the primary campaign.  It remains to be seen how much repair work will be successful.  From The Hill:

Prominent Hispanic conservatives say they could back Donald Trump if the presumptive GOP nominee changes his tone and walks back some of his policy positions.

Republican Latino leaders have chaffed at Trump’s call for a wall on the southern border and statements from his campaign launch about rapists and criminals coming across the border from Mexico.

The tone and policy positions have contributed to Trump’s unpopularity with Hispanics. Trump trailed Clinton by 39 points among Hispanic voters in a Fox News Latino poll released on Friday.
But prominent voices in the conservative Hispanic world say they’re ready to move toward Trump if he can move toward them.

Alfonso Aguilar, a former White House official under President George W. Bush who now leads the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, said he’d be open to a conversation.

Aguilar has criticized Trump in the past, but he praised the presumptive nominee’s decision to send a video to this weekend’s National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC). Trump's video aired Friday night, along with one from Clinton.

“If in the process of unification, he were to seek my support and show he’s willing to change his tone and be open to some form of legalization, I would be willing to reconsider my position,” he said.

“He’s done with the Latino community, he’s done with the Latino conservatives,” Aguilar said on Fox News in October. “If Donald Trump is the GOP candidate, we won’t work to support him and we are sure he will lose the general election because there’s no way a GOP candidate can win the White House if they don’t get more support from Latino voters.”

COMMENT:  The question is whether Trump can sustain any reconciliation.  His mouth is big, his restraint is small.  Some of his economic messages can resonate with both Hispanics and blacks, if he would present them correctly and respectfully.  Let's see what his charm offensive brings.

Just yesterday Trump shot off his mouth after the crash of the Egyptian airliner into the Mediterranean, asserting, with no proof whatever, that it was an act of terror and that Islamists were behind it.  That outburst was unpresidential, and will, legitimately, be held against him.  The Clintonistas are already basing their campaign on the idea that Trump is temperamentally unsuited for the presidency.  Unfortunately, Trump sometimes goes out of his way to prove their point.

May 21, 2016       Permalink

WEST POINT – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:  Yesterday I was honored to attend the graduation parade at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  Here are some photos.  It was very pleasant to be on a campus where the American flag is in the sky, not on the floor:

May 21,  2016      Permalink