Sturm und Drang

See Through
Hillary Clinton claimed Monday that she is the most transparent public official “in American history” on email during her town hall Monday on NBC. (freebeacon.com, 10/5/2015)

We get it! This was a joke from Hillary's SNL skit!

What? It wasn't from SNL?


Unlikely
Unlike his father, who said on television that he had no idea Mr. Harper-Mercer cared so deeply about guns, his mother was well aware of his fascination. In fact, she shared it: In a series of online postings over a decade, Ms. Harper, a registered nurse, said she kept numerous firearms in her home and expressed pride in her knowledge about them, as well as in her son’s expertise on the subject.

She also opened up about her difficulties raising a son who used to bang his head against the wall, and said that both she and her son struggled with Asperger’s syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder....Ms. Harper and Christopher’s father, Ian Mercer of Tarzana, Calif., divorced in 2006 and were separated years earlier. Mr. Mercer told CNN last week that he thought the nation should change its gun laws, saying the massacre “would not have happened” if his son had not been able to buy so many handguns and rifles. (New York Times, 10/6/2015)

No, actually Mr. Harper, the massacre would not have happened if your ex-wife had exhibited a modicum of common sense and kept your mentally ill son away from firearms. By the way, where were you while this was happening?


Mistaken
Russia squared off with Turkey and its NATO allies, calling the air incursion on Saturday an innocent mistake because of foul weather — a claim American officials rejected. News services said late Monday that a second airspace violation might have been committed on Sunday, but that report could not be immediately confirmed. (New York Times, 10/6/2015)

RedStateVT has always believed that the gravest danger that Barack Obama poses to America is in the area of foreign policy. Yes, he has and will continue to screw up things domestically; saddling future generations with Obamacare, strangling business with draconian regulations, failing to protect our borders and (today) opening the doors of the jails to free drug dealers. All of these things can be fixed, more or less. But it is Obama's weak-kneed approach to dealing with the geo-political challenges faced by every president that puts America most at risk in ways from which it will be hard to recover. The world's bad actors see in Obama a naive wimp. And accordingly they steamroll over him and over American interests. A new president and a strong Republican Congress can undo Obama's domestic disasters. But how do you get the Ukraine back? How do you get the Russians out of Syria?

Worse, Obama thinks he is getting it right. Witness:
Mr. Obama believes his Syria policy—the one that did nothing as 250,000 people were murdered; the one that did nothing as his own red lines were crossed; the one that allowed ISIS to flourish; the one that has created the greatest refugee crisis of the 21st century; the one currently being exploited by Russia and Iran for geopolitical advantage—is a success. (Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal, 10/5/2015)


Discouraged
Parents, teachers, classmates, friends and others are in the best position to pick up on these clues, but they often dismiss or ignore them. So “see something, say something” strategies, like those developed in New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, can help encourage people to speak up, Dr. Meloy said. (New York Times, 10/7/2015)

Of course, "see something, say something" is not to be employed when a kid name Mohammed brings a box to school with a lot of wires coming out of it. 


Shapeless
The group trying to persuade Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to enter the presidential race is set to broadcast an unusual commercial on national television in which Mr. Biden recounts how his life was shaped by the 1972 car accident that claimed the life of his first wife and their daughter and nearly killed his two sons.

The haunting, mostly black-and-white commercial from the group, Draft Biden, features audio from a speech he gave at Yale University’s commencement in May, just days before his elder son, Beau, died of brain cancer. (New York Times, 10/7/2015)

OK, we'll say it. We have hesitated up til now, giving Joe Biden and his supporters the space to grieve over the death of the VP's son. Now they have crossed the line and we are forced to say what some of you are, no doubt, thinking: The idea that Biden is deserving of the presidency because his son died tragically is just creepy. Of course, it fits in perfectly with the Liberal playbook: the part about the glorification of victims.


Pow Wow
Dartmouth College has removed the new director of its Native American Program after tribal officials and alumni accused her of misrepresenting herself as an American Indian. (Wall Street Journal, 10/5/2015)

On the other hand, Elizabeth Warren - another fake American Indian - remains a venerable figure at her old employer, Harvard Law. Heck, she might even be the next VP!