Blake loves hats and Grandma bought him one for Valentine Day!
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Obama and murdered police. (See 1 below.)
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More Israeli medical developments. (See 2 below.)
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Hizballah continues preparing for the eventual war with Israel and with Russian assistance. (See 3 below.)
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The cost of big government where there is no direct responsibility and therefore, no accountability and/or price to pay when waste and boondoggles surface. http://fullmeasure.news/news/
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Cliff May and a report from The Foundation for Defense of Democracies. (See 4 below.)
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Obama argues he will nominate a qualified judge and Republicans are anti-Constitutional if for challenging him. Yet, the Demwits rejected Judge Bork who also was eminently qualified. When the shoe is on the other foot Demwit hypocrisy simply confirms they lie with abandon and think nothing of it while attacking Repubs for doing the same thing.
Then we have Schumer displaying "croc tears" yet, he too is guilty of what he now accuses Repubs of doing and let us not forget Obama's comments with respect to Justice Alito. If Repubs do not fight back, defend against the opposition's obvious hypocrisy and go on the offensive they are damn fools and have abdicated their right to exist as a viable representative of conservative concerns and philosophy. No wonder the embrace of the likes of Trump is occurring.
There is a significant difference between a qualified judge and one who could destroy what is left of our Republic and has life tenure. So let's see what they do and how they fight. Scalia's tragic and premature death provides Repubs a legitimate opportunity to prove they are not wimps, have the ability to fight effectively and not roll over because Obama accuses them of being obstructionists.
Meanwhile, Hillarious' campaign seems to be coming apart at the seams. She looks as if the rigors of campaigning are physically getting to her and husband Bill seems to have gone of the deep end with some of his recent comments. Bernie is gaining momentum and if the DNC, under the co-ordinated orchestration of Debbie Wasserman, use super delegates to thwart him then that party could also be committing suicide because it would enrage his youthful supporters. If they nominate Bernie then the Demwits will have certified they have become The Socialist Party of America and will have traded DP for the SP.
Madison warned us parties would be the destruction of our Republic. Have we reached that point and are about to validate his prediction? Time will tell. (See 5 below.)
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Over time obstinacy can work against you and now the Palestinians are finding out about this fact.
Palestinians will never improve their lot until they become realistic about the leadership they consistently elect.
Leadership is critical for all nations. America's leadership under Obama has been tragic and look at where we are - pitiful economic recovery, military basically decimated, China, Russia N Korea and Iran emerging as threats to ourselves and world stability, allies discouraged and fearing they have to devise their own strategy, our Middle East influence around our ankles and millions of people have been killed and/or dispersed, potential terrorists entering our nation through our porous borders and the corruption of many agencies etc. All in 7 years. (See 6 below.)
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Let's end with some humor:
This is a frightening
statistic !
25% of the women in this country are on medication for mental illness.
That's scary. It means 75% are running around untreated.
Husband and wife had a tiff. Wife called up her Mum and said, "He fought
with me again, I am coming to live with you."
Mum said, "No darling, he must pay for his mistake. I am coming to live with you.
From Genesis: "And God promised men that good and obedient wives would be
found in all corners of the earth."
Then He made the earth round...and He laughed and laughed and laughed
Dick
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1) White House Tweets Shout out to Grammy Winner of Best Rap Album, Still No Word on Recent Spate of Cop Killings
Eight police officers have been gunned down by assailants so far this year -- six of them in just the past week -- and law enforcement officials have been blasting the Obama White House for stoking the anti-cop fervor in black communities.
“I cannot recall any time in recent years when six law enforcement professionals have been murdered by gunfire in multiple incidents in a single week,” National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund CEO Craig W. Floyd said in a statement Friday. “Already this year there have been eight officers shot and killed, compared to just one during the same period last year and represents a very troubling trend."
President Obama has yet to say a word about the recent uptick in cop killings around the country, but the White House did find time to tweet congratulations to hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar Monday night for winning the "best rap album" Grammy for an album that has a message against police brutality.
Obama's deafening silence on the police killings, meanwhile, has led one Maryland sheriff to share his disappointment in a viral Facebook post.
"Mr. President, your silence about these events SPEAKS VOLUMES!!!! PS: I'll be standing outside in the cold next week with my deputies for the funerals of the Harford Co deputies; I'll save you a spot next to me!"Facebooked Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees.
His post, blasted throughout law enforcement social media and highlighted by the National Sheriffs' Association, has become part of therallying cry among cops that the president is ignoring attacks on them, and even fostering anti-police feelings.
The Fraternal Order of Police even called on Obama to expand hate-crime laws to those targeting police. In a letter also posted on Facebook,FOP President Chuck Canterbury wrote, "Mr. President, that is eight officers–six in less than a week–who have been gunned down by assailants striking from ambush or career criminals with active warrants who decided they would not be taken into custody, no matter the cost. Enough is enough! This must end."
DeWees made public the belief among many in law enforcement that the president is only concerned about violence when somebody is shot by a police officer.
His Facebook posting came after two nearby Harford County deputies were gunned down.
"I understand that you are a busy man and are being pulled in multiple directions every day of the week," wrote DeWees. "But, when my president doesn't take the time to openly recognize the sacrifices that brave men & women of law enforcement make each day to keep domestic peace, I'm disappointed! I suspect that if these same deputies walked in to a restaurant, and without provocation shot and killed an innocent man, you and your staff would quickly whisk their family away to Washington for a future speech to make an example of police officers nationwide," he added.
DeWees concluded on Facebook, "For me Mr. President, it has nothing to do with Republican or Democrat; black or white, male or female; but, it has everything to do with leading or following. I'm not shocked that you haven't openly reached out or acknowledged publicly the recent rash of deaths in law enforcement, but I'm tremendously disappointed!"
Kendrick Lamar is reportedly Obama's favorite rap artist and, perhaps not coincidentally, is also a favorite of the Black Lives Movement. He won his Grammy for “To Pimp a Butterfly,” which includes the blatantly anti-cop song “Alright,” featuring the line, “we hate the po-po / wanna kill us dead in the street fo sho.”
Last June, Lamar opened the BET Awards with the song -- which has become an unofficial anthem of the Black Lives matter movement -- while standing on top of a graffiti-covered patrol car.
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2) New Israeli Bandage Can Stop What Was Once Thought to Be 'Uncontrollable' Bleeding
The new technology is hailed by its inventors as a life-saving bandage that can succeed where conventional treatment procedures might fail to stop a deadly hemorrhage.
A new Israeli-developed bandage aims to save lives in cases of severe bleedings, where conventional treatment procedures could fail to stop a deadly hemorrhage.
According to Yuval Yaskil, owner and CEO of developers Core Scientific Creations (CSC), the bandage, called WoundClot, not only stops severe bleedings within minutes - without the need to apply pressure on the wound - but also enhances the blood's natural process of clotting.
Cases of severe, uncontrolled bleedings are the number one cause of death in the battlefield, Yaskil told Reuters at his office in the Israeli city of Kfar Saba. While the traditional protocol for treating such bleedings include applying pressure on a wound to stop it from bleeding and rushing the patient to hospital, Yaskil said that in some cases like stab wounds to the neck or head trauma injuries, pressure does not work.
"These products allow us to treat very severe bleeding in the field, with minimum amount of, I would say, training, with minimum amount of interfering with the regular medical treatment or protocols that are used today," said Yaskil.
Just stopping the blood from leaving the patient's body is not enough, Yaskil explained, as it can sometimes take hours before a patient reaches a hospital. He says that this is why WoundClot was chemically crafted to stop bleeding, enhancing the natural clotting process while maintaining its own stability for 24 hours.
"Our product is unique because it is the only product in the market that is non compressional application for severe bleeding while at the same time being bio absorbable. Because this is a contradiction: Bio absorbable means you want the product to break down, but with holding severe bleeding means you have to have a very stable membrane. And that is basically the trick, or the patent that we develop," he said.
The mind behind the science of WoundClot is Dr. Shani Eliyahu Gross, Vice President and CTO of CSC. Holding up a dry WoundClot -- which looks like any other bandage -- and soaking it in water, Dr. Eliyahu Gross explained that its unique chemical structure allows the absorption of large amounts of liquids without disintegration.
"When it is exposed to liquids, this product starts to absorb enormous amount of blood and then it transforms into a gel state," she said, adding that the more blood absorbed in the bandage, the quicker the clotting process will proceed.
"The special molecular structure actually holds the whole physical structures together with the blood that (is) absorbed within the product and allowing the blood to remain active, to help the wound to clot and stop bleeding," she said.
Video footage of a trial surgery documented and edited by CSC, shows how a 10 by 10 centimetre strip of WoundClot stops a liver wound from bleeding in less than three minutes.
Yaskil said that CSC is providing WoundClot to Israeli police forces and the army, as well as selling it to hospitals, where treating bleeding consumes precious time and expensive products in the emergency or operation room.
WoundClot costs from less than 10 U.S. dollars per bandage and up to around $100 USD for larger surgical products. While this price range is within the high end of the market, Yaskil said the bandage can replace other products or procedures that cost up to thousands of dollars.
"We are replacing very very expensive products because... our product doesn't have any active ingredients in it, it just works on a physical level, on a biological level, on a physiological level, that's what it does. But it does it so efficiently that in many cases we replace products that have active ingredients that are suppose to promote coagulation."
Start-up’s sealant for collapsed lungs nabs prize at Innovex
Vigor Medical named top start-up by Israel’s science minister for its treatment for common battleground injury
The makers of a system that can seal wounds, internal and external, without suturing, bandages, or tape is set to get a million dollars from crowdfunding and was named Israel’s most innovative company by Ofir Akunis, minster of science, technology and space.
Akunis named Vigor Medical Technologies as winner of the Innovex Disrupt contest at this year’s Innovex2016 conference, which took place in Tel Aviv last Thursday. Vigor is now set to receive a million dollars in funding from investors via crowdfunding, in a special raise for the company by Google and Israeli crowdfunding firm OurCrowd.
Over 1,200 of the tech industry’s top leaders from Israel and abroad attended this year’s Innovex event, where visitors heard about issues like entrepreneurship, cyber-security, creativity, Internet of Things, medical technology, nano-technology, China’s economy and its impact on tech, and cloud computing. Speakers included such Israeli tech figures as Economy Ministry Chief Scientist Avi Hasson, top executives from EMC, Microsoft, Flex, and other international tech giants, and researchers from universities and international firms.
Notable was the presence at the event of executives from a number of Japanese firms, including NEC, Honda, Hitachi, and others – none of which have substantial operations in Israel. Because of that, the executives were only willing to speak off the record and anonymously, though one top executive said he hoped that by next year he would be able to speak on the record on behalf of his company. “It’s been a process, but Japan is finally feeling more comfortable with Israel. After your prime minister visited Japan in 2014 and ours came here last year, it’s as if both governments signaled that they are open for business, and are encouraging that business.”
The latest sign of that improving relationship is the purchase of Israel’s Altair Semiconductors by Sony, a deal that was announced several weeks ago. With the deal, Sony becomes one of the first Japanese firms, and certainly the most prominent, to open up shop in Israel.
Traditionally very cautious when it comes to doing business in Israel, “the Japanese have been hearing about the Start-Up Nation for several years now, and their curiosity has been roused,” said the Japanese executive. “In recent months a lot of people like me have been visiting Israel, and we like what we see in many of the start-ups we have been visiting.”
The Disrupt portion of Innovex is always one of its highlights, said Shlomo Gradman, chairperson and organizer of Innovex. “This event is one of Israel’s most important for presenting the country’s latest innovative technology, and the only one that puts so many resources into helping new companies develop the next generation of tech, assisting them in developing partnerships between large Israeli firms and multinationals from around the world.”
With its incoming million dollars, Vigor will be able to continue developing and commercializing its unique wound repair system. Consisting of a device with a specially engineered sealant, the system is designed for use in cases of thoracic trauma, a chest injury that can cause the lungs to collapse due to the entry of air into the pleural cavity (the area between the lung and its protective layer).
If not treated within an hour, major damage or death is likely – as many as 20 percent of soldiers injured in battle die from collapsed lungs – but if treated within an hour, the injured person has an 80% chance of survival, according to Vigor. The company’s sealant devices can be carried in the field by medical personnel and administered in case of an emergency, sealing the breach into the victim’s pleural cavity until they can be taken to a hospital.
Technion Israel Develops Small Portable Ultrasound System For Live Imaging
Prof. Yonina Eldar’s lab at the Technion Faculty of Electrical Engineering is developing a minute and efficient innovative ultrasound system that transmits scans to the treating physician immediately. With such a system, ultrasound scans can be performed in disaster areas, in the case of road accidents in developing countries with limited medical infrastructure, and the team at the site can be given medical instructions based on the findings.
Prof. Yonina Eldar’s lab at the Technion Faculty of Electrical Engineering has developed a new approach to ultrasound examinations. The lab has developed an advanced probe that eliminates the need for the large ultrasound devices that we know from clinics and hospitals. The probe acquires only the relevant data, which is transmitted to a remote processing unit or cloud. The resulting image is then transferred to the treating physician’s smartphone (or tablet). Dr. Shai Tejman-Yarden, a cardiologist at Sheba Medical Center, explains that in the case of injuries, for example, “The development will provide a doctor who is not at the scene with information in real time, enabling him to instruct the paramedic at the scene. This development will also enable remote treatment for patients in developing countries, under the guidance of Israeli doctors.”
Ultrasound imaging is one of the world’s most common medical tests. Its advantages: it is non-invasive, does not involve exposure to ionizing radiation, is risk-free and relatively inexpensive. Ultrasound is based on high-frequency sound waves that we cannot hear. During the examination, a probe that transmits sound waves is placed against the patient’s body, and an image of the organs being scanned is created based on the pattern of the waves reflected back to the probe. This technology is used in a wide variety of important medical tests: assessing the condition of the fetus in utero, examining the baby’s brain through the fontanel (the gap between the bones of the skull), diagnosing conditions of the internal organs, evaluating blood flow, diagnosing thyroid problems, cardiac examinations, detecting tumors and infections, and more.
At present, ultrasound examinations are performed at clinics and hospitals using a probe connected to a large, cumbersome and expensive ultrasound device. The results of the scan are collected in the computer and interpreted by a radiologist, who sends the diagnosis to the patient’s doctor (generally the family doctor). This process takes several days, which could be critical in some cases.
Uploading the scan results to a cloud and enabling the patient’s doctor to view the findings on his mobile device could save time, but until now this has been avoided due to the large quantity of data acquired in each ultrasound scan. In addition, because of the device’s high data acquisition rate, the probe must be connected to it by means of a thick, heavy cable.
The good news is that the SAMPL Lab at the Technion Faculty of Electrical Engineering, headed by Prof. Yonina Eldar, has developed a system that dramatically changes the nature of ultrasound examinations. First, with the new algorithm developed at the lab, the data can be reduced at the initial scanning stage, so that it can be uploaded to a cloud without harming image quality and without loss of data on the way. Second, the innovative probe developed at the lab eliminates the need for the large ultrasound devices currently used at most clinics.
Prof. Yonina Eldar’s lab is dedicated mainly to developing innovative data processing methods using only a small portion of the data sampled. Reducing the quantity of data sampled has very dramatic positive implications: shortening the data acquisition and processing time, miniaturizing the systems and accelerating their operation, reducing power consumption and saving money. The idea here is of course finding ways to reconstruct the preliminary data even though it is not transferred in full in this process. This is what the researchers at the lab are working on, and now, as stated, they have recorded a dramatic achievement in the field of ultrasound imaging.
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3) Report: Hizballah Has Russian Technology Capable of Downing Israeli Jets
3) Report: Hizballah Has Russian Technology Capable of Downing Israeli Jets
Hizballah is using advanced radar technology to "lock on" to Israeli aircraft flying reconnaissance missions over Lebanon, according to Israel's Walla news service andreported by i24 News.
The new technology enables Hizballah to identify Israeli jets and fire missiles at them, Israeli security sources said.
"The connection between Hizballah, Russia and Syria have greatly changed the rules of the game in the region...Hizballah is indicating to Israel that it is ready for the next stage," said an Israeli security official, quoted in Walla.
Israeli fighter jets are capable of detecting radar that threatens them, allowing pilots to alter their course. Nevertheless, the reports signal a troubling development that could hinder Israel's freedom of movement in airspace across the northern border and its ability to effectively monitor Hizballah.
Following the 2006 war between Israel and Hizballah, the terrorist organization began acquiring sophisticated anti-aircraft systems and other advanced weapons from Syria and Iran. A recent report suggests that Hizballah is using Iranian anti-tank missiles in Syria that could be used against Israel in a future confrontation.
In light of these developments, Israel has allegedly targeted Hizballah weapons convoys on several occasions coming into Lebanon from Syria over the past few years. Nevertheless, the terrorist organization continues to build up its weapons arsenal and consolidate a base of operations on the Syrian Golan in order to attack the Jewish state.
Last month, Hizballah field commanders with operatives fighting in Syria told the Daily Beast that Russia is providing the terrorist organization with advanced weaponry amid enhanced coordination among both actors. The report outlines that Hizballah is acquiring long-range tactical missiles, anti-tank systems, and laser guided rockets from the Russians.
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4)
Message body
Cliff outlines a very timely program co-sponsored by FDD on Capital Hill on the rising tensions between Saudia
Arabia (sunni) and Iran (Shia). Below are the Cliff notes(no pun intended)). For those of you who want to hear
the entire program start at about minute five and go to the end. I encourage you to especially listen to the
q/a with John Hannah of FDD who has advised three administrations on National Security. I clicked on the link
and listened to the entire hour. Most of you won't- but I kept it on while working on another screen(just a
suggestion).
Last week, FDD co-sponsored a briefing on Capitol Hill with Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE) on the
rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran and their energy and national security implications. Hill staff,
energy sector, foreign policy professionals and press filled the room to capacity (104 attendees, including 68
Hill staff).
The panel featured FDD Senior Counselor John Hannah; former Deputy Commander of the U.S. European
Command General Charles Wald; and international energy market consultant Robert McNally. The
conversation, moderated by television and print reporter Indira Lakshmanan, made clear that the lifting of
sanctions on Iran is paving the way for Tehran to sell more oil in an already saturated global market.
John explained that while the White House has publically been even-handed towards Saudi Arabia and Iran as
tensions have risen, the administration has privately blamed the Saudi’s execution of Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr
al-Nimr for the situation. As a result, “The Saudis believe they are alone in the fight against Iran.”
Gen. Ward was adamant that the U.S. cannot do what it needs to do in the Middle East without access to
the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). Being nuanced and less involved in the region, according to Gen. Wald,
is “not the best idea for the United States.”
Mr. McNally argued that the recent change in Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy is due to shifts in U.S. energy and
foreign policy. Continuing to disengage from the Middle East would be a mistake, he said. “As important as
the Middle East has been in the past fifty years, it will be in the next fifty years.”
John added that withdrawing from the Middle East would “invite conflicts that would draw the United
States back to the region at a much higher cost.” Moreover, a continued presence in the region is
imperative, especially with the ongoing illicit activity conducted by Iran. To address this behavior, John
recommended that the U.S. should challenge Iran when it undermines our interests or the interests of our
closest allies.
Mr. McNally predicted that the proxy wars Saudi Arabia is involved in will not affect the country’s broad energy
policy. For Saudi Arabia to decrease its oil production, it needs to be sure that Iran’s oil production cannot
grow, that Iraq slows down its oil production, and that shale oil production in the United States does
not increase again.
John concluded that in order to assuage Saudi concerns post-Iran deal, Congress should continue to keep the
issue of Iranian illicit activity front and center and encourage the administration to condemn Iranian cheating.
Congress also should continue increasing pressure on Iran and the IRGC for human rights abuses and support
of terrorism. Ultimately, “Saudi Arabia needs to see the United States engaged in the Middle East and
defending against Iranian hegemony.”
FDD continues to ensure that policy influencers, lawmakers and their staffs have the reliable, up-to-date
information they need. A video of the event is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZm2ltj6lfU
Your support makes this work possible.
Thanks,
Cliff
Clifford D. May
President, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
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5)Bernie and the ‘Lunatic of One Idea’The dangers of monomania, from Freud’s belief that sex ran
everything to Sanders’s ‘Wall Street’ obsession.
5)Bernie and the ‘Lunatic of One Idea’The dangers of monomania, from Freud’s belief that sex ran
everything to Sanders’s ‘Wall Street’ obsession.
By Joseph Epstein
In his poem “Esthétique du Mal,” Wallace Stevens refers, in a memorable and useful phrase, to a “lunatic
of one idea.” The phrase refuses to leave my mind whenever I hear Bernie Sanders—and I have heard quite
a lot of him in past weeks—campaigning or debating or making, most recently, victory speeches. Mr.
Sanders’s one idea is what he takes to be the stark economic injustice of too few people having too much
money, and through the power of their money having tilted American life in a way that is vastly unfair,
unjust, flat-out morally wrong. He has repeated this one idea so often, and with such ardor in its expression,
as to make Johnny One-Note look like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mr. Sanders’s synecdoche for his idea is Wall Street. Everything wrong with American life can be charged
up, in his telling, to a small neighborhood in lower Manhattan. Something old-fashioned there is about
blaming Wall Street for all the country’s deficiencies. But, then, lunatics of one idea, basking in the pleasure
of Manichaeism, like to focus all their enmity on one target.
For the old American Communist Party this enemy was “the bosses.” But a street with a symbolic name is
even better. Wall Street was viewed as villainous long before Mr. Sanders. For a span it was replaced by
Madison Avenue, understood as a hive of hucksters inflaming our desires for things we didn’t need. Bernie
Sanders has now brought back Wall Street, with as he claims its big-money ability to rig elections and hence
destroy all possibility of the good society that socialism, left to its own inner devices, would surely achieve.
One idea, and one idea only; it isn’t that complicated.
Lunatics of one idea have been immensely influential, though it is far from certain that this influence has
been beneficial. Think of Karl Marx, whose one idea—not so far removed from Mr. Sanders’s—was the
class struggle. This is an idea that ended in the formation of the Soviet Union and seven decades of
pointless suppression, suffering and murder on a scale never before known.
Think of Sigmund Freud, whose one idea was that sex is at the absolute center of human existence,
eclipsing all else in its importance for the development of human character. This is an idea that has skewed
thinking about human nature for more than a century, and, even though Freud’s thought is now no longer
assigned intellectual respectability, the hangover from it continues nonetheless to influence Western culture.
One idea—that’s all that it takes.
Being a one-idea lunatic makes life a lot simpler. For one thing, it permits one to eliminate any interfering
complexity from the intrusion of other or contradictory ideas, not to mention common sense. The one idea
—class struggle, sexual determinism, evil Wall Street, vile Madison Avenue—becomes talismanic. Merely
utter the words in which the idea is encased and all becomes plain: inner meaning, outward significance,
morality, plan of action. That the one idea may not comport with reality is beside the point. As the Spanish
philosopher José Ortega y Gasset said, create a concept and reality leaves the room. But let that pass.
More interesting than Bernie Sanders’s threadbare idea is how it has caught on with the young. In generous
readings, is it their idealism that puts the young on his side? Is it his relentless moralizing that attracts
them? Mr. Sanders is, as they say in social psychology, a contrast gainer—next to Hillary Clinton, with all
her cumbersome political baggage (all of it Louis Vuitton, of course), he looks good. Yet when he utters his
mantra at large gatherings, “Are you ready for a political revolution?” one wonders: Does this generation
that has grown up with a greater sense of entitlement and protection than any other in history really want
the revolution Mr. Sanders is selling? Can they have so little sense of the past not to know that the promise
of socialism—“democratic socialism,” the senator would interject here—has ended up in gulags and brutal
cultural upheaval?
Perhaps the appeal of Bernie Sanders for the young goes no further than the simplicity of his one idea. The
nice thing about being a one-idea man or woman is that through it one can dismiss the complications of
politics as a business of deals, compromises, limited expectations and partial gains. Why bog down in the
grubby details of political life, when you can ride a single idea all the way home to utopia. As Bernie himself
says, the middle class has for too long supported Wall Street; now it’s time for Wall Street to support the
middle class. If you believe that, or believe that it is going to happen, you qualify, prima facie, as a one-idea
lunatic of your own. May you live and be well, as the Jews used to say about the czar, but not too close to me.
Mr. Epstein’s books include “Masters of the Games: Essays and Stories on Sport” (Rowman & Littlefield,
2015).
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6)
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