In The Shadow Of Mt Hollywood

I'm still amazed at how quickly this year's campaign timetable is moving. I've been saying for quite a while that even in years where Democrats lost the presidential election badly, McGovern in 1972, Dukakis in 1988, or Kerry in 2004, opinion pieces on how badly the Democrat campaigns were going didn't start to emerge until after the summer party conventions. Rush Limbaugh used to speculate that this was because the big-name reporters who had the inside info wanted to keep it secret until they published their own books as post-mortems after the election. By the same token, the defining images of the failed campaigns, like John Kerry windsurfing in the photo above, didn't come out until fall; the Republican ad featuring him turning with the wind came out in September 2004, as did the September 1988 film of Dukakis riding an Abrams tank. The extended drama of Thomas Eagleton's electric shock treatments took place in late July 1972 following the Democrat convent...

I certainly agree with the consensus expressed by Alan Dershowitz and others over Judge McAfee's ruling in the Fulton County RICO case, that in an effort to be even-handed, he split the baby, but the baby died. But most observers miss the bigger point, which I began to discuss a month ago in another post about incompetence as it relates to Nathan Wade and the eventual progress of the Fulton County case. Jordan Sekulow looks at the edges of the same problem below at 2:57: Sekulow: . . . here's the queation, Andy: If Nathan Wade is removed, the work that he generated, the work product that he generated during this period of time, would be, under the Wong Sun case [371 U.S. 471 (1963)], normally deemed fruit of the poisonous tree. Andy: That's right. Sekulow: There's nothing in the order about that at all. Andy: No, he doesn't think it out, the judge doesn't think it out. Sekulow: What happens, then, to all the -- he was the lead prosecutor. What ha...

For the second time this week: President Biden on Thursday was heard asking for permission from a staffer to “take a couple of questions” from the audience during a campaign stop in Michigan — prompting other aides to quickly move the press out of earshot. “Can I take a couple questions?” Biden, 81, asked a female staffer as he met with supporters and campaign volunteers on the front porch of a Saginaw city council member’s home. “Yeah, we’re going to take a few questions,” the staffer responded. The staffer’s response apparently served as a signal to three other aides, who quickly began to herd up the reporters already positioned on the sidewalk about 20 feet away. “Thank you, press … back in the vehicles,” they shouted, escorting the media away before Biden could take any questions. It looks like the Post reporter saw the same possibility I entertained on Tuesday , that if Joe "asks for permission to take questions", he's really saying it's time t...

I've read enough Bible history to know that Israel was regularly overrun by successive powerful neighbors, beginning with Egypt and leading up to the Seleucid Greeks, at which point the decision was made to ally with the upstart power Rome for protection from all the others. That was mildly successful until Rome took over itself and obliterated Israel at least as successfully as any of the others. Israel's modern history has involved alliance with another upstart world empire, the US, having received assurance from a fading empire, the UK, that it would grant territory for a new Jewish state in territories it controlled under the Palestine mandate. Harry Truman's immediate support for the emergence of the new state after World War II was the key factor in its initial survival. It's beginning to appear, though, that Israel's relationship with the US may wind up more like its ancient relationship with Rome. Just this morning in The Hill : During President...

Last week I noted that Biden wasn't really addresing the country in his State of the Union address. In fact, he wasn't addressing the free world, he wasn't addressing the American people, he wasn't addressing Congress, he wasn't addressing the justices of the US Supreme Court, although he did offend them gratuitously while insisting women had electrical power. I pointed out that he was actually addressing nervous Democrat donors, who'd sent a back-channel message that they wanted to see "passion and fire out in public as assurances" that Joe was still sharp and able to take on Trump. The answer from the big guy himself, according to the CNN report I linked, was a cryptic "State of the Union". The implication seems to have been that this is where he'd turn it all around. After a week, it hasn't happened . In the latest HarrisX/ Forbes poll, which was taken three days following last week’s State of the Union address, Joe...

BIDEN: "Am I allowed to take any questions? Anybody here?" Biden's handlers IMMEDIATELY kick the press out of the room and end the feed. pic.twitter.com/VgIyewvQNz — RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 11, 2024 Joe was at a New Hampshire rally yesterday and created a remarkable vignette: at the end of his remarks, he asked, "Am I allowed to take questions? Anybody here, the staff?" By several accounts, his handlers immediately cut the feed, replaced it with a test pattern, visible in the clip above, and chased the reporters from the room. I briefly wondered if this wasn't as spontaneous as it seemed, and maybe it was some sort of pre-arranged code word from Joe to his handlers that it was time in fact to wrap things up -- that might have been a slightly better take on what happened, but only slightly. I watched it again, and Joe seemed very much at loose ends, the audience giggled nervously before an awkward pause, and then the handlers cut the feed. This...

I noted in last Wednesday's post that Victoria Nuland's retirement from the State Department must represent some change, but so far not one that's been announced, in US policy over the Ukraine war, since she had been both the chief advocate and often an implementer of US support for a pro-Western alignment there since betore the 2014 Maidan Revolution, which was engineered by the CIA with her collaboration. This story at Zero Hedge , while it contains speculation, offers some possible insight into the potential policy change: Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern in a new interview has speculated over the reasons behind Victoria Nuland stepping down from her high-ranking position as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, the number three top official in the State Department. . . . While there have been rumors that maybe she could be in poor or declining health, McGovern has told Russia's Sputnik that the notoriously hawkish Nuland was a liability at a moment NAT...