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OCTOBER 2,  2016

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

TRUMP OFF MESSAGE AGAIN – FROM WAPO:   ANHEIM, Pa. — Donald Trump's campaign announced Saturday evening that the candidate would soon deliver a nine-sentence critique of comments Hillary Clinton made months ago about many of the millennials supporting her primary rival, Bernie Sanders. It was an attempt to latch onto a new headline in hopes of finally escaping the controversies that had consumed his week.  It didn’t work.  It took Trump nearly 25 minutes to read the brief statement because he kept going off on one angry tangent after another — ignoring his teleprompters and accusing Clinton of not being “loyal” to her husband, imitating her buckling at a memorial service last month, suggesting that she is “crazy” and saying she should be in prison. He urged his mostly white crowd of supporters to go to polling places in "certain areas" on Election Day to "watch" the voters there. He also repeatedly complained about having a "bum mic" at the first presidential debate and wondered if he should have done another season of “The Apprentice.”  He cannot take the pressure.  He is losing the election single-handedly.  The next presidential debate is a week from tonight.  If he cannot get his act together by then, I fear, and so do other writers, that he'll be toast.  Hillary cannot win an election, but Trump can lose one.  Same result.

THIS DOESN'T SOUND RIGHT – FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES:   CAIRO — Two men who found a travel bag containing a bomb on a Manhattan street last month — and then walked off with the bag but left the bomb — were not just employees of EgyptAir but in-flight security officers for the carrier, two officials at the airline said on Friday.  Surveillance footage showed two men finding the bag on West 27th Street on the evening of Sept. 17, soon after a bomb exploded on West 23rd Street, injuring 31 people and triggering terrorism fears across the region.  In the video, the men were seen pulling from the travel bag a white plastic bag that contained a pressure cooker connected to wires and a mobile phone. They left the white bag on the sidewalk and walked away with the travel bag. The bomb did not explode, and investigators have said that the men may have inadvertently disabled the device.  The two men, identified as Hassan Ali and Abou Bakr Radwan, had flown to New York from here, serving as unarmed security guards on the flight, the officials said.  The bag they found contained one of several homemade bombs that prosecutors say were planted that day in New York and New Jersey by Ahmad Khan Rahami, an Afghan-born American citizen.  They were security guards and didn't recognize a bomb?  Gimme a break, would you?  And, by coincidence, they found the bomb?  I want to know more about these two birds.

ANOTHER ODD DEVELOPMENT – FROM THE HILL:   WikiLeaks has canceled an unknown announcement it had planned for next week due to security concerns, according to an NBC News reporter.  WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was scheduled to make an announcement Tuesday from the balcony of London's Ecuadorian Embassy. It was expected to be connected to Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.  However, NBC News reporter Jesse Rodriguez reported that because of security concerns at the embassy, the event has been canceled. WikiLeaks hasn't said whether the announcement will be rescheduled.  Over the summer, Wikileaks published a trove of emails which appeared to show top officials at the Democratic National Committee planning how to undermine Sen. Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign.   Assange has promised to release more emails from the massive hack of the Democratic National Committee.  Last month, Assange said more Clinton leaks would be coming soon.  What security concerns could there be?  Obviously, the Clinton people would prefer that Assange release nothing, but...security concerns?  Seems to me this may be a major story waiting to break out.

October 2,  2016     Permalink 

OH DEAR, OH DEAR, THE TRUTH COMES OUT – AT 1:31 P.M.  ET:   The New York Times, defender of the left, gets its comeuppance.  From Breitbart:

The New York Times has excited the Clinton campaign and the rest of the media with a revelation that Republican nominee Donald Trump declared a $916 million loss in 1995 that might have resulted in him not paying taxes in some subsequent years.

The implication, reinforced by CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union on Sunday morning, is that Trump “avoided” paying taxes, when in fact his tax liability was zero.

But the Times itself has “avoided” paying taxes — in 2014, for example.

As Forbes noted at the time:

… for tax year 2014, The New York Times paid no taxes and got an income tax refund of $3.5 million even though they had a pre-tax profit of $29.9 million in 2014. In other words, their post-tax profit was higher than their pre-tax profit. The explanation in their 2014 annual report is, “The effective tax rate for 2014 was favorably affected by approximately $21.1 million for the reversal of reserves for uncertain tax positions due to the lapse of applicable statutes of limitations.”

If you don’t think it took fancy accountants and tax lawyers to make that happen, read the statement again.

New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani defended Trump on Sunday, telling NBC News’ Meet the Press that Trump was a “genius” in business who was simply doing what the tax code allows every American to do by counting losses against tax liabilities, and bouncing back from failure to success.

That would include the New York Times — which, however, is still struggling.

COMMENT:  Any good business person will try to pay the minimum tax legally allowable.  What, precisely, is wrong with that? 

October 2, 2016       Permalink

MIDEAST HORROR – AT 12:44 P.M. ET:  As we fight our election, a horrible war is raging in Syria.  Not only are the local forces involved, but Russia is involved, and tensions are growing between Washington and Moscow.  Field Marshal Obama and Grand Admiral Kerry have no clue.  This is dangerous stuff.  From AP:

BEIRUT (AP) — Russia warned the United States Saturday against carrying out any attacks on Syrian government forces, saying it would have repercussions across the Middle East as government forces captured a hill on the edge of the northern city of Aleppo under the cover of airstrikes.

Meanwhile, airstrikes on Aleppo struck a hospital in the eastern rebel-held neighborhood of Sakhour on Saturday, putting it out of service, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees. They said at least one person was killed in the airstrike.

Russian news agencies quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that a U.S. intervention against the Syrian army "will lead to terrible, tectonic consequences not only on the territory of this country but also in the region on the whole."

She said regime change in Syria would create a vacuum that would be "quickly filled" by "terrorists of all stripes."

U.S.-Russian tensions over Syria have escalated since the breakdown of a cease-fire last month, with each side blaming the other for its failure. Syrian government forces backed by Russian warplanes have launched a major onslaught on rebel-held parts of Aleppo.

Syrian troops pushed ahead in their offensive in Aleppo on Saturday capturing the strategic Um al-Shuqeef hill near the Palestinian refugee camp of Handarat that government forces captured from rebels earlier this week, according to state TV. The hill is on the northern edge of the Aleppo, Syria's largest city and former commercial center.

The powerful ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham militant group said rebels regained control Saturday of several positions they lost in Aleppo in the Bustan al-Basha neighborhood.

State media said 13 people were wounded when rebels shelled the central government-held neighborhood of Midan.

COMMENT:  More bloodbaths are expected.  And next door, in Iraq, there is an imminent attempt being planned to take back territory now controlled by ISIS.  It is estimated that there might be as many as a million new refugees from the impending fight.

Obama will leave a mess.  But the liberals are more interested in non-gender restrooms.

October 2, 2016       Permalink

TRUMP IN TROUBLE – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Donald Trump is losing it, in many ways.  After weeks of superb campaigning, under the guidance of excellent new advisers, he blew the first debate big time, and followed that loss with a bizarre campaign against a former Miss Universe.  He was baited by Hillary Clinton, and, like the political amateur he is, Trump took the bait.  He is now losing in every poll, and the losses could mount.

The excellent Michael Goodwin, who has been remarkably fair to Trump, sums it up very well in the New York Post, noting the Miss Universe distraction: 

Compounding a debate performance where Trump missed golden opportunities, his bizarre behavior exacted a price. The first polls show he is back on a road to defeat, and the damage is likely just beginning. He’ll keep core supporters, but he’s making it very hard for undecided voters to back him.

Clinton isn’t saying much, in keeping with the maxim to step aside when your opponent is committing political suicide.

Some call her lucky, but her luck is the kind the late baseball executive Branch Rickey described as the “residue of design.” The way Clinton and her team used the Khans and Machado amounts to a clinic on how to exploit an opponent’s weakness.

It might be the only way she could win. Burdened by scandals, branded a liar, suffering a charisma deficit and hobbled by health issues, she is making Trump an unacceptable alternative.

Still, she couldn’t do it without his help. Although he has the change message that best matches the moment, he is beating himself.

Previous predictions of his demise were wrong, but time is running short for another comeback. Besides, if the armchair shrinks are correct that he fears victory, Trump would always find a way to secure defeat.

Then again, a deep dive into his psyche may not be necessary. His behavior could be proof that Clinton and the NeverTrumpers were right all along — that he’s not temperamentally fit to be president.

Whatever the reason for his conduct, we could be witnessing the beginning of the end.

COMMENT:   An extraordinary comment from the very measured Michael Goodwin.  I'm afraid it's true.  October 8th will arrive this week.  The election will then only be one month away.  October 9th is a week from today, when the second presidential debate will be held, in St. Louis.  The moderators will be the very liberal Anderson Cooper of CNN and the equally liberal Martha Raddatz of ABC.  (Once again, the Republican Party aids in the suicide by agreeing to absurd moderators.  Lester Holt, moderator of the first debate, acted like Hillary Clinton's campaign manager.)

Unless there's a dramatic change, Trump is on his way to handing the election to Hillary Clinton.  If her victory is large enough, she might bring in a Democratic Senate.   And this was supposed to be a change election.

Miracles do happen.  Americans are forgiving.  But Donald Trump is wearing out his welcome.

October 2,  2016     Permalink

OCTOBER 1,  2016

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

OUR FUTURE LEADERS – FROM THE COLLEGE FIX:   More than 100 students walked out on retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Allen West on Thursday as he began a speech at Saint Louis University to discuss the threat of radical Islam.  The students protesters — led by the SLU Rainbow Alliance and the Muslim Students’ Association — had arrived early and filled many of the seats in the two-story auditorium where West was slated to speak. As he took the stage they stood up and filed out.  At issue is West’s use of the term “radical Islam” — also the subject of his speech.  Last week an administrator at Saint Louis University told the conservative and Republican students organizing the talk that they were not allowed to use the words “radical Islam” on advertisements for the event, reported Young America’s Foundation, which sponsored the talk.  West should be commended just for showing up, in the face of that adolescent display.  He's a better man than that whole bunch, put together.

NO LONGER OUR INTERNET – FROM AFP:   Washington (AFP) - The US government on Saturday ended its formal oversight role over the internet, handing over management of the online address system to a global non-profit entity.  The US Commerce Department announced that its contract had expired with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the internet's so-called "root zone."  That leaves ICANN as a self-regulating organization that will be operated by the internet's "stakeholders" -- engineers, academics, businesses, non-government and government groups.  The move is part of a decades-old plan by the US to "privatize" the internet, and backers have said it would help maintain its integrity around the world.  US and ICANN officials have said the contract had given Washington a symbolic role as overseer or the internet's "root zone" where new online domains and addresses are created.  But critics, including some US lawmakers, argued that this was a "giveaway" by Washington that could allow authoritarian regimes to seize control.  I much preferred the older system.  I like Americans in control.

OUR VULNERABLE ELECTIONS – FROM BLOOMBERG:    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is urging state and local election officials to seek assistance from the federal government to fend off cyberattacks that could be used to manipulate the results of the November presidential elections.  The agency is ready to provide any assistance to help states secure their systems, if they request it, Jeh Johnson, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement Saturday. Threats are rising that criminals will use cyberattacks to try to disrupt the administration of U.S. elections, the agency said.  “These challenges aren’t just in the future -- they are here today,” Johnson said in the statement. “In recent months, malicious cyber-actors have been scanning a large number of state systems, which could be a preamble to attempted intrusions. In a few cases, we have determined that malicious actors gained access to state voting-related systems.”  On the one hand, the federal government's assistance should be valued.  On the other hand, it brings us closer to federal control of election machinery, not a welcome development.

October 1,  2016     Permalink

WELL, WHADAYA KNOW? – AT 12:44 P.M. ET:  Shock – Hillary says one thing publicly, and something else privately.  I never would have suspected.  From Fox: 

Hillary Clinton is back on the campaign trail locking arms with former Democratic rival Bernie Sanders to tout debt-free college education. But Clinton has privately distanced herself from such promises and other progressive ideals championed by Sanders, instead describing herself as a “center-left to the center-right” candidate, according to a recently released audiotape.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, made the comments in February, at a private fundraiser in northern Virginia. The audio tape was purportedly included in a Clinton campaign staffer’s email that was hacked, then given to The Washington Free Beacon, which reported the story Friday.

In the roughly 49-minute tape, Clinton suggests the 2016 presidential race has been divided into two camps: the far-right “populist, nationalist, xenophobic, discriminatory kind of approach” espoused by many Republican candidates and Sanders’ democratic-socialist vision that includes “free college, free healthcare” and “go as far as Scandinavia, whatever that is.”

“I am occupying from the center-left to the center-right,” continued Clinton, who warned about over-promising potential voters.

COMMENT:  Overpromising?  The Democrats?  Who is this woman?  Why, maybe she's a right-wing nut in disguise.  Bernie people, take note!

Is there any integrity left in American politics?  I'm not hearing an answer.

October 1, 2016       Permalink

GOOD MESSAGE FROM DONALD – AT 11:41 A.M. ET:  Trump has been off-message all week, a response to his marginal performance in the debate.  Now he's got to get back, because he's losing.  Maybe this is a start.  From RealClearPolitics: 

At a campaign rally in Novi, Michigan Friday evening, Donald Trump asked President Barack Obama not to "pardon Clinton and her co-conspirators" if any charges were filed related to the email scandal.

"Mr. President," Trump said. "Will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators for their many crimes against our country, and against society itself. No one is above the law."

DONALD TRUMP: If she gets the chance, she will put the Oval Office up for sale, like she always does.

Remember folks, she's been doing this for 30 years. She deleted and bleached 33,000 emails after a Congressional subpoena. You can't do that!

And here's a demand I'm making today to President Obama: Mr. President, will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators for their many crimes against our country, and against society itself?

No one is above the law. Clinton and her cronies will say anything, do anything, lie about anything to keep their grip on power.

COMMENT:  Well said.  And now expand it and start talking about a stalled economy, a joking foreign policy, and a lack of understanding of the average American – what used to be called "the forgotten man."

Trump is now back to being down about five points in the national polls.  Another bad debate and the bottom may start to fall out.  He has about two weeks to reset the momentum of his campaign.  The election is a month and a week away.

October 1, 2016       Permalink

GHASTLY – AT 11:06 A.M. ET:  A reminder of what failure looks like, and a warning to what the far left would bring us.  From Townhall.com: 

Venezuelans continue to fight for survival, as the nation’s socialist experiment has all but collapsed. Looting is commonplace. Hunger is rampant, with Venezuelans of every economic class eating out of garbage cans for sustenance. And a medical system that is so starved of supplies, like soap and gloves, that newborns are reportedly being put in cardboard boxes in maternity wards. That’s coupled with the spikes in infant deaths that began when the country started to falter. The energy shortages haven’t helped either. The rapid inflation has rendered the nation’s currency worthless, there’s no real domestic food production, and all of this has led to empty shelves at supermarkets.

The long lines have been a source of ire for the socialist government led by President Nicolas Maduro, the late Hugo Chavez’s successor, who says that his nation’s economic woes are brought on by outside sources. He’s banned lines outside of bakeries and supermarkets. Those who are willing to sleep outside of supermarkets to beat the rush are arrested and detained. As The Washington Post reported, these people are given sentences like community service and cleaning the streets, but they’re not defined punishments in Venezuelan law. Moreover, there’s no clear definition as to what constitutes hoarding or transactions on the black market. It’s the Maduro government’s attempt to find a scapegoat. So far, almost 10,000 people have been scooped up by “Dracula’s bus,” which might as well be the nickname for the food police.

COMMENT:  You might consider sending this piece to every college student you know.  You can be sure the students are given a very different picture by their "professors."

Venezuela is a failure.  We can hope for a peaceful transition to something better, but the left normally doesn't give up power peacefully.

October 1,  2016     Permalink