BALTIMORE, Maryland April 28, 2015 - 'Credible and Incisive' is written almost every day in Baltimore, Maryland. This writer was born in Baltimore and has lived his entire life in Baltimore. It is with the most immense sadness that I have endured the events of the past days. In the Daily Mail in London there are candid and sickening pictures of what passes for "protest." Now, military soldiers from the National Guard ring a huge portion of the City deemed the most volatile, the most dangerous. Evil, pure feckless evil, drips everywhere.
Monday, on the so-called social media, word spread for high school students to converge on a large regional shopping mall smack dab in the middle of west Baltimore. Large national chains like Target have opened stores at the Mondawmin Mall, which is surrounded by urban residential neighborhoods. Mondawmin Mall arrived at its current guise after decades of pleading from city officials determined to overcome sceptics who said urban areas were not viable venues for popular retail chains. Riots in the immediate wake of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King in 1968 had laid to waste a proud city founded decades prior to the founding on these United States. Those riots were followed immediately by years of urban decay and spreading urban blight. After viewing those riots on national television, virtually no one was willing to come downtown. People living in the city moved out. Businesses located in the city failed.
Into this abyss came an average-looking man by the name of William Donald Schaefer. Born and raised in West Baltimore, Schaefer got himself elected to the City Council as a young man, and, after some shrewd political moves, came to be elected President of the Baltimore City Council. After the 1968 riots, and at the City's most desperate hour, he ran for and was elected Mayor. Through the shear force of his will, he began what looked for all the world like a hopeless task: rebuilding and revitalizing Baltimore. He pushed through an ambitious plan to clean up the city's inner harbor and build a festival-type shopping area that celebrated the City's maritime history. Opponents forced the plan to referendum. Working tirelessly, he and his nascent revitalization plan prevailed. There were other successes. At the same time he was attracting outside money to the City, he was knitting together the neighborhoods, emphasizing their uniqueness and making their residents - the City's residents - seem important, valuable, and involved in the City's progress. Blacks and Whites all united around Schaefer, who was as shrewd politically as he was smart as an urban planner.
Schaefer went on to become governor after many terms as Mayor. The City continued to rebound after the riots of 1968, and at length those terrible riots became a thing of the past. Before this past few weeks, the City had been regarded as a true success story in the annals of urban revitalization.
Roll forward now to April, 2015. Since 1968, and without exception, the City has had a Democratic Mayor and a City Council that is 100% Democratic. Most of the Police Commissioners have been black and the police force itself is now predominantly minority in nature (the last official statistics date to the administration of Martin O'Malley as Mayor. Nearly 20 years ago those stats revealed that the force was 43% black). With only two brief exceptions, the Governor of Maryland has been a Democrat and the Maryland Legislature has always been controlled by Democrats. Every judge in Maryland, with only a few exceptions, was appointed by a Democratic Governor. One of the problems for Obama and company in Maryland is that there is no passing the buck. Not that Obama and Hilary haven't tried.
The incident that was the catalyst for the current civil unrest is still under investigation. A 25-year-old man with 39 prior arrests, Freddie Gray, died about one week after being arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and fleeing from police. Before 9 am on the morning in question police on bicycles arrived at an intersection in a high crime area of the City. One or more of the officers made eye contact with Gray and he immediately tried to flee. According to police reports, one or more officers gave chase. Here, information becomes sparse. Gray was apprehended, handcuffed and placed into a police wagon. Some reports say his legs were not normal when he went into the van. Some reports say he acted violently during at least part of his trip in the van. A second prisoner in a separate compartment of the van said he heard Gray throwing himself about and hollaring in the van as if he was trying to hurt himself. There are persistent rumors that Gray was treated recently after leaping from a third-floor window while fleeing police prior to one of the other arrests. When the police wagon arrived at the station, Gray was checked on and found to be unresponsive. At some point medics were called. Some reports say he was actually clinically dead but was revived. What is certainly true is that he died one week later without regaining consciousness at the University of Maryland Hospital's Shock-Trauma Unit. Various reports say that 80% of Mr. Gray's spine was severed at a point in his cervical area.
Saturday's Riot
Violence grew on Saturday after a march said to be intended as a peaceful protest was permitted to spin out of control and into, in short order, full riot mode. Evidence that this descent into riot was being coordinated by Democratic activists being paid, in part, by the infamous and despicable George Soros have emerged. Fox reported that a study of social media posts by a firm specializing in such things revealed a striking similarity between social media posts at the outset of unrest in Ferguson and at the outset of unrest in Baltimore..
At any rate, there was a march that started near Baltimore's venerable City Hall and snaked through the City. A surprisingly small group, numbering no more than 1,000 people, the march at length headed in the direction of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and Camden Yards. Suddenly, a group of the protestors broke from the main group of marchers and began to set cars on fire, break windows and beat on innocent bystanders. Police, outnumbered the protestors but did nothing on orders by the City's Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings Blake. A family in a stationwagon driving on Russell Street, adjacent to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, found itself stranded in a crowd of rioters. The rioters beat on the car with objects, broke the windows, pulled the people from the car and beat on them. Wonderful. Stores and shops were looted. Police watched because the Mayor believed it was better to let the rioters get the destruction out of their system than to have police and rioters engage in a confrontation on national TV.
There were other incidents. Rioters surrounded a number of the gates at Camden Yards while inside over 36,000 fans were watching a Major League Baseball game between the homestanding Orioles and the visiting Boston Red Sox. The Sox travel well and the 36,000-plus included well over one thousand fans from Boston. As the game headed for a conclusion the scoreboard flashed a sign that said that due to civil unreast outside of the stadium, fans must remain inside until receiving further instructions. Fortunately for all of the baseball fans, the game went into extra-innings, giving police time to clear the crowd enough to allow the baseball fans to exit using the south gates. Police then ordered departing fans to use Interstate 395 South, even if they were heading north.
Monday's Riot:
Sunday passed peacefully, but it was but a lull before the storm. As described above, the Monday riot started when high school students - fired up by announcements about a "purge" re-enactment at Mondawmin, descended on the Mall determined to engulf it in hell. Across the street from the mall, Frederick Douglas High School Students poured out of the school at around 3 pm when the dismissal bell rang. They grabbed rocks, bricks and cinder blocks as they approached the mall, and once there, they opened up on police, who again held back, using no weapons or sticks. Seven officers were hurt in the chilling barage, one of whom was said to be unresponsive as he was rushed to the Shock Trauma Unit. But things were only getting started. Crowds busted into a closed (for the night) CVS Drug store and looted it thoroughly before torching it. Firemen who responded were themselves attacked by rioters as well as having their firehoses cut. Adjacent stores and other buildings, including several liquor stores, were looted and torched. Other drug stores were also looted and torched. On Fulton Avenue, near the epicenter of the hostilities, a woman who sadly found herself and her car in the middle of the crowd, were accosted. The car was whacked around and the woman was pulled from the vehicle and beaten. Police tried to battle their way to the stricken woman, but it took them quite a while. She survived, however her condition was unknown.
Finally at about 8:30 pm the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings Blake, was brow-beaten into calling the Governor and asking that he call out the National Guard. Maryland Governor Robert Hogan already had the Order prepared, and within 30 seconds of getting a call he hoped to get Saturday night, the Guard was activated. By Tuesday morning about 3,000 well-armed Guardsmen were in Baltimore.
Although Tuesday and Wednesday night were, on the whole, peaceful, each night saw over 100 arrests for violation of the curfew. Police revealed, according the the ABC News Outlet in Baltimore, that an activated IED (improvised explosive device) not unlike those used against the USA military in Iraq and Afghanistan, was found at the intersection - North and Pennsylvania Avenues in West Baltimore - that was the epicenter of the violence on Monday night. The device did not injure anyone only because it did not work as it was designed to do.
By Wednesday night, copycat demonstrations sprung up in New York, Boston, Minneapolis, San Diego and Los Angeles. There was evidence that these demonstrations were planned and coordinated by functionaries of the Democratic Party, now largely operated by an ultra far left anti-American element.
News also emerged on Wednesday and again on Thursday morning that none of the six police officers suspended after Mr. Gray's death were going to be charged with crimes associated with it. City officials were said to be tamping down expectations that such charges were imminent, while bracing for the worst. Despite relative calm on Tuesday and Wednesday, there is no word on when the National Guard would be withdrawn or the curfew ended.
The Baltimore situation is a poster case for the failures of ultra far left policies. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been poured into programs to benefit the poor in Baltimore, but despite this large investment, and despite a rapidly sinking population, the poverty rate in the City has continued to grow. Under Martin O'Malley's eight years as Governor of Maryland, the state became one of the most heavily taxed in all of these United States. And yet the plight of Baltimore did not improve. Barack Obama was elected with a virtual mandate to improve the life and living conditions for Black Americans, and yet the black unemployment rate has not improved and in some cases has actually worsened. Sadder still is the fact that none of Obama's initiatives was really intended to improve the rate of black employment. His absolute dedication to the ultra far left agenda is in spite of the situation faced by Black Americans, who need jobs and functional education, neither of which have been an agenda item for Obama.
It should not be like this and there is no excuse for it. None.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Terps Rally to Edge Liberty, 6-4; Will Face Cal. State Fullerton in Three Game Series Beginning Tonight
BALTIMORE, Maryland April 17, 2015 - It seems incredible, but Maryland's baseball team was only three measley outs away from its first three game losing streak of the season. This is the same school baseball team that went from 1971 to 2014 without qualifying for the NCAA Baseball Tournament. This is the same team that went from the year that the ACC decided that only the top eight teams in the conference regular season standings could play in the conference tournament - 2007 - until its last year in the conference, 2014, without being allowed to even play in the conference tournament. In other words, Maryland was not a good baseball team. In many of those countless seasons, they weren't even a fair baseball team. That all changed when Maryland hired John Szefc to be its baseball coach. Call that move a quiet act of genius. In Szefc's first campaign nothing spectacular happened. No NCAA or even ACC Tournament. But there were some new faces from some unusual places - the Bronx, New jersey - and a new life seemed to dominate the team. In 2014, Maryland's last season in the ACC, the team seem determined to at least qualify for the conference tournament. It was a struggle. But as April ended the Terps launched into a long winning streak. They swept a road series in Pittsburgh that included winning a game that was delayed by rain and didn't start until 9 pm on a Saturday night. They beat West Virginia on the last day of the regular season. Then, in the ACC Tournament, they beat Virginia and Florida State on back to back days and ended up making it all the way to the championship game. This got them into the NCAA Tournament. They were assigned to a four-team regional at the University of South Carolina. Going into that double-elimination affair, Marylalnd's all-time NCAA Tournament record was a dismal 1-6. But this Maryland team rallied in the ninth inning to beat Old Dominion in its first game, then on consecutive nights whacked South Carolina, in front of a placked Gamecock Stadium rooting for the home team.
The Terps had - for the first time in school history - qualified for an NCAA Super Regional. They were sent to Charlottesville to play Top-Ranked Virginia in a best-of-three series, with the winner getting a berth on the College World Series. Amazing. Even more amazing was Maryland winning Game One in the series. That put them one win away from the College World Series. But the bubble burst right there and the Terps lost the final two games of the series to the eventual National Runner-Up.
Anyway, that brings us to Wednesday night at Liberty, where a pretty-good Flame Team jumped ahead of Maryland, 4-0. Starter Bobby Ruse was gone and the game was flopped into the hands of Maryland's ever-stressed and stressing bullpen. But on this night the bullpen shined bright as it could, shutting out Liberty from the fourth inning on. Maryland, meanwhile, scored single runs in three different innings, but still trailed, 4-3, with two out and nobody on in the top of the ninth. That's when Kevin Martir doubled. After Jose Cuas reached on an error, Anthony Papio singled to score Martir. Then Maryland hitters drew three straight bases-on-balls to score two more runs and earn the Terps a 6-4 victory. Maryland broke a two-game losing streak with the rally. Despite losing two our of three at home last weekend to Iowa, Maryland is still ranked by all of the polls. They are No. 22 in the D1 Poll and the USA Today Coach's Poll, No. 23 in the NCBWA Poll, No. 24 in the Baseball America Poll and No. 26 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll. This weekend Maryland takes a break from the Big Ten Wars, but their schedule instead gives them three games at home with always powerful California State University at Fullerton. The Titans have always been a college baseball powerhouse. This season isn't their absolute best - they are 19-16 overall but a solid 6-3 in the Big West Conference, the same conference that blasted the University of California at Irvington - the Anteaters - into the CWS last season. This season, despite the so-so record, the Titans have beaten Stanford and Lousiville and swept series from Baylor and Texas Tech.
Tonight's game will be televised by the Big Ten Network beginning at 7 pm. Look for Maryland's incredible Mike Shawaryn to start. He has almost single-handedly kept the Terps in the national polls with his 8-0 record and 1.89 ERA. In 62 innings over nine starts, Shawaryn has struck out 69 and walked only 11. The sophmore now has 19 wins in less than two seasons, a figure which leads all sophmores across the country.
The Terps had - for the first time in school history - qualified for an NCAA Super Regional. They were sent to Charlottesville to play Top-Ranked Virginia in a best-of-three series, with the winner getting a berth on the College World Series. Amazing. Even more amazing was Maryland winning Game One in the series. That put them one win away from the College World Series. But the bubble burst right there and the Terps lost the final two games of the series to the eventual National Runner-Up.
Anyway, that brings us to Wednesday night at Liberty, where a pretty-good Flame Team jumped ahead of Maryland, 4-0. Starter Bobby Ruse was gone and the game was flopped into the hands of Maryland's ever-stressed and stressing bullpen. But on this night the bullpen shined bright as it could, shutting out Liberty from the fourth inning on. Maryland, meanwhile, scored single runs in three different innings, but still trailed, 4-3, with two out and nobody on in the top of the ninth. That's when Kevin Martir doubled. After Jose Cuas reached on an error, Anthony Papio singled to score Martir. Then Maryland hitters drew three straight bases-on-balls to score two more runs and earn the Terps a 6-4 victory. Maryland broke a two-game losing streak with the rally. Despite losing two our of three at home last weekend to Iowa, Maryland is still ranked by all of the polls. They are No. 22 in the D1 Poll and the USA Today Coach's Poll, No. 23 in the NCBWA Poll, No. 24 in the Baseball America Poll and No. 26 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll. This weekend Maryland takes a break from the Big Ten Wars, but their schedule instead gives them three games at home with always powerful California State University at Fullerton. The Titans have always been a college baseball powerhouse. This season isn't their absolute best - they are 19-16 overall but a solid 6-3 in the Big West Conference, the same conference that blasted the University of California at Irvington - the Anteaters - into the CWS last season. This season, despite the so-so record, the Titans have beaten Stanford and Lousiville and swept series from Baylor and Texas Tech.
Tonight's game will be televised by the Big Ten Network beginning at 7 pm. Look for Maryland's incredible Mike Shawaryn to start. He has almost single-handedly kept the Terps in the national polls with his 8-0 record and 1.89 ERA. In 62 innings over nine starts, Shawaryn has struck out 69 and walked only 11. The sophmore now has 19 wins in less than two seasons, a figure which leads all sophmores across the country.
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Feckless Hilary Again Rubs Elbows With Complicit Media
BALTIMORE, Maryland April 16, 2015 - What is an aging, feckless, amoral political hack doing running for President of the United States? Why Not? Isn't this the same nation that just elected - twice - a amoral Islamic Sympathizer with openly Anti-Semitic Tendencies and an openly Marxist Pollitical Outlook which he has morphed into openly Marxist Policies? It is! Hilary Clinton was the consensus favorite eight years ago when she managed to lose to President Obama, who back then was only briefly a United States Senator after spending his entire adult life as a hard left functionary fresh out of the Ivy League. Clinton lost pathetically. Now she is back and nothing at all has changed. In the interim she got herself involved in Obama's low-brow and disgusting Benghazi scandal and other policy failures that will fill many a book. In short, Obama has been an abject failure that many Dems won't even contest. Now Hilary is out there hoping all of Obama's low-information idiots will also vote for her, and just as often as they voted for Obama. This is what is known as a nation in swift decline, helped along by Obama and now Hilary.
Clinton is known for staging every event right down to the smallest detail. God knows why when the complicit media will clean everything up for her. Now, the Daily Mail of London - with thanks and full credit to Rush Limbaugh - has outed one such affair that took place this week in Iowa. Clinton functionaries lined up three devout Clinton adherents to appear at an Iowa Coffee Shop and toss softball questions and thinly disguilsed praises at Hilary after the candidate "just happens" to walk into the shop and "just happens" to sit at the table with the three operatives. The USA media horde all reorted this as a spontaneous event in which Hilary shone brightly. The Daily Mail didn't buy it - why would any real reporter? - and made some phone calls. The truth quickly emerged. None of the media adherents of Clinton who reported the event falsely can be expected to walk it back. So don't bother arguing about objectivity.
It was apparent within a few months of his inauguration that Obama would be a pathetic president. The only real question - as this column reported time and again - was whether Obama was merely a bad President or was he a bad person to boot. The latter quickly proved true. Freed from the worry of any elections, Obama has dropped any effort to conceal his anti-American feelings and his disgust with all things American. He now openly gussies up to American Enemies while heeping scorn on our Allies. He is openly Anti-Semitic. He has approved a deal that will allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon in his lifetime. The next worry will be when folks start to evacuate from Israel. Many won't. Many leaders, not all of them Christian, openly talk about the end times. And now onto this cheerful scene hops the low-brow, vicious Hilary Clinton. Only a win by a real conservative will reverse this disaster. How bad can it get?
Clinton is known for staging every event right down to the smallest detail. God knows why when the complicit media will clean everything up for her. Now, the Daily Mail of London - with thanks and full credit to Rush Limbaugh - has outed one such affair that took place this week in Iowa. Clinton functionaries lined up three devout Clinton adherents to appear at an Iowa Coffee Shop and toss softball questions and thinly disguilsed praises at Hilary after the candidate "just happens" to walk into the shop and "just happens" to sit at the table with the three operatives. The USA media horde all reorted this as a spontaneous event in which Hilary shone brightly. The Daily Mail didn't buy it - why would any real reporter? - and made some phone calls. The truth quickly emerged. None of the media adherents of Clinton who reported the event falsely can be expected to walk it back. So don't bother arguing about objectivity.
It was apparent within a few months of his inauguration that Obama would be a pathetic president. The only real question - as this column reported time and again - was whether Obama was merely a bad President or was he a bad person to boot. The latter quickly proved true. Freed from the worry of any elections, Obama has dropped any effort to conceal his anti-American feelings and his disgust with all things American. He now openly gussies up to American Enemies while heeping scorn on our Allies. He is openly Anti-Semitic. He has approved a deal that will allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon in his lifetime. The next worry will be when folks start to evacuate from Israel. Many won't. Many leaders, not all of them Christian, openly talk about the end times. And now onto this cheerful scene hops the low-brow, vicious Hilary Clinton. Only a win by a real conservative will reverse this disaster. How bad can it get?
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Thank Goodness for Miguel Gonzalez; Burnley Faithful Worry As Fixtures Dwindle
BALTIMORE, Maryland April 15, 2015 - The only memories I have of Miguel Gonzalez are of him pitching great baseball. He doesn't always get the win because everytime he pitches the Oriole offense seems to struggle to score. Last night was typical of the Gonzalez MO. Struggling to score against long time nemesis CC Sabathia, the Birds relied on Gonzalez to keep them in the game. He responded. Striking out a career-high ten batters, Gonzalez surrendered only one run over seven innings. Adam Jones homered and drove in two runs, and Clayton Joseph had two hits including a rally-starting triple as the Orioles beat back the Yanks, 4-3. Zach Britton retired the final five Yanks to earn the save. It was a must win after the bullpen flubbed another lead the night before in a 6-5 Yank win.
Burnley Drops Heartbreaker at Arsenal, 1-0
The days dwindle down and the challenge remains. Burnley sits in range of escaping relegation. It might be that only one more win will do it. It might be that two or three more draws will do it. But the days dwindle down. Saturday at powerful Arsenal, Burnley made just one mistake. In the 12th minute, Aaron Ramsey got a shot by Claret Keeper Tom Heaton - after Heaton had made two superb saves that he was nonetheless unable to control - and Arsenal then held on for dear life to defeat the Claret, 1-0. Burnley came so close, a theme for the entire season. Arsenal still has a chance to win it all and could ill-afford to lose at home. Yet Burnley almost defeated them after letting the Gunners take a lead. Danny Ings came so close on several occassions. So close. Even with time expiring Burnley continued to press the attack. The Arsenal crowd could hardly believe what they were seeing. The powerful Gunners looked like usurpers imitating a Premier League Power. The struggling Claret again were standing toe-to-toe with a power without backing down. One more win. Three more draws. The days dwindle down. Two weeks ago at Turf Moor Burnley drew with Tottenham. Saturday, Burnley goes to Everton.
Burnley Drops Heartbreaker at Arsenal, 1-0
The days dwindle down and the challenge remains. Burnley sits in range of escaping relegation. It might be that only one more win will do it. It might be that two or three more draws will do it. But the days dwindle down. Saturday at powerful Arsenal, Burnley made just one mistake. In the 12th minute, Aaron Ramsey got a shot by Claret Keeper Tom Heaton - after Heaton had made two superb saves that he was nonetheless unable to control - and Arsenal then held on for dear life to defeat the Claret, 1-0. Burnley came so close, a theme for the entire season. Arsenal still has a chance to win it all and could ill-afford to lose at home. Yet Burnley almost defeated them after letting the Gunners take a lead. Danny Ings came so close on several occassions. So close. Even with time expiring Burnley continued to press the attack. The Arsenal crowd could hardly believe what they were seeing. The powerful Gunners looked like usurpers imitating a Premier League Power. The struggling Claret again were standing toe-to-toe with a power without backing down. One more win. Three more draws. The days dwindle down. Two weeks ago at Turf Moor Burnley drew with Tottenham. Saturday, Burnley goes to Everton.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Obama Says Iran and Cuba No Longer Sponsor Terrorism; Russia Agrees to Sell Missles to Iran
BALTIMORE, Maryland April 14, 2015 - In the world that President Obama lives in, two nations that have filled a generation with repeated acts of state-sponsored terror are no longer doing so. At least, that is what Obama says. A couple of months back, Obama ordered that Iran be removed from the State Department's list of nations that sponsor repeated acts of terror on a global scale. Now, reports have it that Obama has instructed officials to remove Cuba from the same list. Over the weekend, Obama told Western Hemisphere Leaders that he was no longer interested in engaging in disputes that began in years before he was born. In other words, if he wasn't here to witness the event that started the international dispute, he would not engage in events aimed at rectifying the problem. It is a nice thought in a make-believe world, but across the table from Obama sat a man - Raoul Castro - who had played a prominent and admitted role in the execution of thousands of anti-communists and other events that together comprise the Cuban Revolution. And while many of those murders happened before Obama was born, they still continue after his birth, as if in the real world the date of his birth means exactly anything except to a Narcissus like himself. If Hitler had survived until after Obama's birth would he, too, be exonerated? This is Obama's Far Left World. I wonder what school of thought this line of thinking comes from?
Putin, Russia to Send Missles to Iran
Russia has announced that it will sell Missles to Iran as nations around the world prepared to sell all manner of goods, including weapons, to the Islamic Terror State in the wake of an announced agreement between Iran and Six Western Nations, a part of which will lift economic sanctions on Iran. Tbe lifting of sanctions will permit the sale of weapons by Moscow. While both Israel and the USA expressed reservatons with the announced sale, Israel placed the blame for the sale directly on President Obama, and the deal that he has sponsored with Iran that will allow Iran to continue refining uranium and moving toward acquisition of a nuclear weapon.
Putin reportedly seeks to build a land bridge to the Persian Gulf to that he can expedite sale of petroleum pumped from Russian lands. The Russian Strongman believes this sale will move both nations in the direction of such a project.
Putin, Russia to Send Missles to Iran
Russia has announced that it will sell Missles to Iran as nations around the world prepared to sell all manner of goods, including weapons, to the Islamic Terror State in the wake of an announced agreement between Iran and Six Western Nations, a part of which will lift economic sanctions on Iran. Tbe lifting of sanctions will permit the sale of weapons by Moscow. While both Israel and the USA expressed reservatons with the announced sale, Israel placed the blame for the sale directly on President Obama, and the deal that he has sponsored with Iran that will allow Iran to continue refining uranium and moving toward acquisition of a nuclear weapon.
Putin reportedly seeks to build a land bridge to the Persian Gulf to that he can expedite sale of petroleum pumped from Russian lands. The Russian Strongman believes this sale will move both nations in the direction of such a project.
Did Kerry and Iran Agree to Anything? Why the Vapidness of Hilary by Dems? What is Up and Shining on Ceres?
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND APRIL 14, 2015 - The Credible and Incisive Column resumes today after the author's back surgery. As of today it will again be at least a daily column.
Agreement in Principal May Have Been No Agreement at All
The essential and always intellectual Charles Krauthammer said recently that he believes the Obama administration lied when it said it had reached an agreement in principal with Iran on the issue of Iran building its own nuclear weapons. Part of the reason for his conclusion, he said, was the immediate rift between American and Iranian spokesmen on whether western sanctions placed on Iran many years ago will disappear the minute the agreement is finally signed, or will be slowly phased out on a set schedule. Iran, predictably, says the sanctions must disappear at once. Corroborating this really sullen stance is the fact that Iran has always said that any agreement it reaches with the west must be accompanied by the immediate cessation of all economic sanctons. Krauthammer reasoned that the only way Obama could keep the talks going without Congressional interference - with interference being Obama's chosen word, and not the GOP's - was to announce a tentative agreement or, in the Obama vernacular, an "agreement in principal; i.e., one that wasn't written down, and then to spin the agreement with false facts that many would approve of. The number one false fact, of course, was that the Iranians had agreed to scale back their nuke program whiule at the same time keeping economic sanctions in place in large part. Iranian spokesmen seemed increduloous, if, indeed, an Iranian spokesman knows how to feign such an emotion. I believe Mr. Krauthammer is on to something.
Hilary's Extremely Boring Entry Into Presidential Sweepstakes
It is a given that people across the country will not be waiting in line to hear Hilary Clinton gripe about what? Obama? Bush? Bill? If this cuastiuc woman cannot gripe, she is emotionless. This week many former and even current confederates are taking a shot at describinh her trash mouth and downright gnarly temper. I know that excites me. There are a few comedians with foul mouths who manage to use that schtick as a stepping stone to a comedic style. And it works if you aren't at the show with your mom. But Hilary has a foul mouth and perpetual bad mood for no known reason. About the only real interest in Hilary is entirely negative. She has no original ideas; not one. Several times in the last week some Hilary functionary was asked to name three accomplishments of hers while in public life. Many cannot even name one. Can you? I cannot. Yet we are told she would be a fine president. She would be a nightmare. It is guaranteed she would reprise Obama's stale far-left Agenda without admitting or even reaiizing that she is ripping America apart at the seams.
It is positively depressing that so feckless a person is deemed her party's consensus candidate. She is not a leader in any area relevant to government or public life. She tried to engineer a public health overhaul at the outset of her husband's first term as President but failed miserably. Many blamed her involvement as the reason the initiative failed. I had read many years ago that she was uncommonly mean to the Whitehouse Staff, many of them older black Americans with no political agenda but an uncommonly large amount of common sense. Yet she constantly berated them. I will admit that it bothered me a lot. People who are mean and ignorant to other people, especially those who would have a difficult time fighting back, to me have little to recommend them. The idea of somebody like her being President isn't just scary, it is deptessing. Of course, the idea that a fringe leftist with an old, stale, far out political agenda is just as deptressing. I've been depressed now, politically, for about six years, going on eight. If Hilary Clinton is the best the Democrats can do, the party is in deep trouble. And here I thought the party's big problem was its takeover by far left fanatics.
Dawn Mission Has Scientists Waiting Anxiously for Next Round of Photos From Ceres; What are the Lights?
The photographs of Ceres sent back to Earth from the Dawn Spacecraft in early March were, to say the least, Sensational. At he bottom of a large but otherwise undistinguished crater on this otherwise unspectacular asteroid were two very brilliant lights. One was far more brilliant than the oehter. Both were quite small considering the amount of light they were emitting. The only theories as to what these lights are were nothing more than educated guesses.
Upon reflection, scientists realized that the lights had been there for quite a long time. The Hubble Space Telescope had photographed Ceres back in 2004, and although detail in the photos was typical of pioctures made from so far across the solar system, scientists knew going in that something was casting a britlliant light on the surface of Ceres, not far north of the asteroid's equator. The Hubble photos did not reveal that there were two lights, or that they were very small for the amount of light being emitted.
Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory say the next series of photos were taken by Dawn on April 10 and April 14, but that neither will provide good views of the two lights. The spacecraft is in the process of descending into a lwer orbit and photos taken later this month will be from far closer than the ones taken in March, when Dawn was still tens of thousands of miles from Ceres. The April 10 photos were said to not include the area of the planet's surface where the lights are. The ones taken today may or may not, but even if they are included it will not be an optimal view. We are told to stay tuned, more or less.
Agreement in Principal May Have Been No Agreement at All
The essential and always intellectual Charles Krauthammer said recently that he believes the Obama administration lied when it said it had reached an agreement in principal with Iran on the issue of Iran building its own nuclear weapons. Part of the reason for his conclusion, he said, was the immediate rift between American and Iranian spokesmen on whether western sanctions placed on Iran many years ago will disappear the minute the agreement is finally signed, or will be slowly phased out on a set schedule. Iran, predictably, says the sanctions must disappear at once. Corroborating this really sullen stance is the fact that Iran has always said that any agreement it reaches with the west must be accompanied by the immediate cessation of all economic sanctons. Krauthammer reasoned that the only way Obama could keep the talks going without Congressional interference - with interference being Obama's chosen word, and not the GOP's - was to announce a tentative agreement or, in the Obama vernacular, an "agreement in principal; i.e., one that wasn't written down, and then to spin the agreement with false facts that many would approve of. The number one false fact, of course, was that the Iranians had agreed to scale back their nuke program whiule at the same time keeping economic sanctions in place in large part. Iranian spokesmen seemed increduloous, if, indeed, an Iranian spokesman knows how to feign such an emotion. I believe Mr. Krauthammer is on to something.
Hilary's Extremely Boring Entry Into Presidential Sweepstakes
It is a given that people across the country will not be waiting in line to hear Hilary Clinton gripe about what? Obama? Bush? Bill? If this cuastiuc woman cannot gripe, she is emotionless. This week many former and even current confederates are taking a shot at describinh her trash mouth and downright gnarly temper. I know that excites me. There are a few comedians with foul mouths who manage to use that schtick as a stepping stone to a comedic style. And it works if you aren't at the show with your mom. But Hilary has a foul mouth and perpetual bad mood for no known reason. About the only real interest in Hilary is entirely negative. She has no original ideas; not one. Several times in the last week some Hilary functionary was asked to name three accomplishments of hers while in public life. Many cannot even name one. Can you? I cannot. Yet we are told she would be a fine president. She would be a nightmare. It is guaranteed she would reprise Obama's stale far-left Agenda without admitting or even reaiizing that she is ripping America apart at the seams.
It is positively depressing that so feckless a person is deemed her party's consensus candidate. She is not a leader in any area relevant to government or public life. She tried to engineer a public health overhaul at the outset of her husband's first term as President but failed miserably. Many blamed her involvement as the reason the initiative failed. I had read many years ago that she was uncommonly mean to the Whitehouse Staff, many of them older black Americans with no political agenda but an uncommonly large amount of common sense. Yet she constantly berated them. I will admit that it bothered me a lot. People who are mean and ignorant to other people, especially those who would have a difficult time fighting back, to me have little to recommend them. The idea of somebody like her being President isn't just scary, it is deptessing. Of course, the idea that a fringe leftist with an old, stale, far out political agenda is just as deptressing. I've been depressed now, politically, for about six years, going on eight. If Hilary Clinton is the best the Democrats can do, the party is in deep trouble. And here I thought the party's big problem was its takeover by far left fanatics.
Dawn Mission Has Scientists Waiting Anxiously for Next Round of Photos From Ceres; What are the Lights?
The photographs of Ceres sent back to Earth from the Dawn Spacecraft in early March were, to say the least, Sensational. At he bottom of a large but otherwise undistinguished crater on this otherwise unspectacular asteroid were two very brilliant lights. One was far more brilliant than the oehter. Both were quite small considering the amount of light they were emitting. The only theories as to what these lights are were nothing more than educated guesses.
Upon reflection, scientists realized that the lights had been there for quite a long time. The Hubble Space Telescope had photographed Ceres back in 2004, and although detail in the photos was typical of pioctures made from so far across the solar system, scientists knew going in that something was casting a britlliant light on the surface of Ceres, not far north of the asteroid's equator. The Hubble photos did not reveal that there were two lights, or that they were very small for the amount of light being emitted.
Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory say the next series of photos were taken by Dawn on April 10 and April 14, but that neither will provide good views of the two lights. The spacecraft is in the process of descending into a lwer orbit and photos taken later this month will be from far closer than the ones taken in March, when Dawn was still tens of thousands of miles from Ceres. The April 10 photos were said to not include the area of the planet's surface where the lights are. The ones taken today may or may not, but even if they are included it will not be an optimal view. We are told to stay tuned, more or less.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)