Non-Bakken News And Comments -- July 24, 2016

Updates

Terrorist attacks in the US, Britain, and Germany are becoming so commonplace it's hard to keep track of what terrorist attack a headline story is reporting. It's beyond time to start naming terrorist events in the headlines reporting the stories just like they name hurricanes. 
 

Original Post

 
Yahoo!Mail is down. At least here in north Texas, in and around Denton, Texas. This is about 40 minutes away from my hovel in Grapevine. I won't know if Grapevine was affected until about 9:30 later this evening. I'm up in Denton with our oldest granddaughter at water polo practice. My Gmail account is up and running but I don't use Gmail except for "emergencies." Gmail: not one piece of spam over several years of having a Gmail account. Yahoo!Mail? 50 spam messages daily including some that seem to come from Yahoo itself. Maybe Verizon will scrap Yahoo!Mail and simply start over. LOL.

Terror in Germany. I see there was another terrorist bombing in Germany today -- in Ansbach. Ansbach is an administration capital of Middle Franconia. In addition, the US Army had (has?) a huge military presence there. No links, story everywhere.

Terror in Turkey. I also see that there is a "massive" fire in / around a NATO base / US air force base in Turkey: Izmir. No links; story easily found. I provide more background at "Mideast on the brink."

Disarray in Philadelphia: And, of course, the Wasserman story. It looks like it is playing out like this:

• CNN: someone resigned? Really? Who? Hillary waiting in wings to be crowned.
• MSNBC: someone resigned? Really? Let's go interview some demonstrators.
• Fox News: DNC implodes.

Sets new record: shortest time on job -- I'm not even sure this is "legit,"  but wikileaks is now reporting that Donna Brazile who had been named to replace Debbie Wasserman-Schultz has now, in turn, been replaced by someone named Marcia Fudge. Yup, it's "legit." Fudge represents a district in Ohio. So, Donna Brazile held the job as an interim DNC chairperson for about ... oh, maybe 30 minutes. Long enough for Hillary to make a phone call. Too bad she didn't act this quickly the night of Benghazi. Just saying. I wonder who will write the speeches for Marcia Fudge? My hunch she is not ready for prime time and for all those Bernie Sanders protestors. A sacrificial lamb?

The press can't keep up. Some mainstream media outlets are still reporting that Donna Brazile will be the interim DNC chairperson for the duration of the convention. (8:25 p.m. Central time: Hollywood Deadline)

My thoughts:

Wow, let's just say I was completely wrong. Not in a million years would I have expected DNC chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz to step down. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Right now the press is having a field day with this. I'm watching this at a McDonald's (with wi-fi and no limit on how long I can stay here) for about 30 minutes before going back to watch oldest granddaughter at water polo practice). I think this will be a 24-hour story. As one commentator said, Hillary will "power through this."

The Sanders folks won't be appeased; her stepping down may even give them renewed strength to see what "else" they can get. But if Hillary does power through this, the national perspective is what is important. I think this makes Hillary look a lot more decisive, a strong leader -- she saw the wikileaks and said it was time for Wasserman to go. Hillary didn't even let Wasserman twist in the wind; the hanging was quick.

Hillary has the media on her side. They will report the convention but won't dwell on the Wasserman story. It goes without saying that Fox News ... so I won't say it. 

Obviously the Sanders folks are not going to vote for Trump in the November election; whether they stay home or not is the real question. I think a lot more folks than just the Sanders folks who wanted to see Wasserman go. The obvious question is to what degree Kaine played a role?

180 days: until January 20, 2017.