The belief that $400 million in cash was not
ransom, had to be delivered before captives
released and flown in an an unmarked plane.
Obama believes we are stupid and some are
blind enough to believe him. (See 6 below.)
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As readers know I just returned from Nashville attending our grandson's wedding. Nashville is a great city on the way up. It attracts young people, reminds me of China with all those cranes building big buildings and adding to the city's attraction for young people.
Nashville is a mixture of good food, great music, sports facilities and teams, education and government.
My father's law firm maintains a very large office there and while we were there we visited the Frist Museum. The Museum is housed in one of the most magnificent Art Deco decommissioned post office buildings I have ever seen and though they do not have a particularly extensive art collection the show there now is about Italian designed cars that were forerunners of those eventually produced. We saw Maserati's, a Briggs Cunningham Lincoln, Alfa Romeo's and Ferrari's among others.
As I looked at these magnificent sleekly designed cars I thought about the fact they could not be made and sold today. Why? Because government regulations which stifle design due to safety rules.
No doubt some of the protruding dash board knobs are dangerous but the design of the cars were so far ahead of their times. Most of these cars were made in the "50's and "60's.
Like everything government touches creativity is challenged and often crushed.
Our son is currently rebuilding an entire neighborhood in Pittsburgh and his architect partner is learning government rules and regulations restrain his creativity because the cost is prohibitive when rehabbing a three or four story building. The cost of meeting these rules and regulations can be spread over tall building more easily.
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Maureen Scott discusses Obama and considers him the architect of destruction. This is a re-posting.
How this man can still enjoy a rating above 50% is beyond credulity.(See 1 below.)
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This from a very dear friend and fellow memo reader. Anyone in their right mind knows elections have been stolen. Jokes about this just do not come into being unless there is a modicum of truth.
I recently posted a link to how the card you are given to place in the voting machine can be pre-programmed and you will never know. Now that technology has replaced the written ballot the ability to disenfranchise your vote is easier. Trump is correct to raise the issue but nothing can and/or will be done about corruption of the voting process.
The idea of voter ID is as justified as the argument that we should not allow illegal immigration. People have to go somewhere to get a driver's license and voting is a sacred responsibility.
This is just another wedge issue based on the view that requiring an ID is a return to them old days where a poll tax was imposed. Ironically you cannot take a plane,enter a Federal Building or even get a book from the library without an ID but liberals and progressives favor voting without an ID.
Another instance where PC'ism trumps logic.(See 2 below.)
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Iran's missile and cyber capabilities have improved since the Iran Deal so the U.S is contemplating using The Iron Dome that has protected Israel.
Let's see: Muslim Brotherhood, which Obama supported, no longer in power, ISIS' JV Team continues spreading terror, Iran Deal looks like a piece of Swiss Cheese it is so full of holes, Russia's Putin and Turkey's Erdowan (Obama's closest friend) are growing closer and Netanyahu denies he has changed his mind regarding the Iran Deal. Obama striking out on all fronts it seems but at least he remains with a strong approval rating. What does his approval relate to? Are people approving all his failures of leadership?(See 3 below.)
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This from a friend and fellow memo reader. It is a response Trump should be making to Hillary's accusation regarding his comments about the 2d Amendment which have been twisted out of shape purposely. (See 4 below.)
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One of my Israeli friends is a senior officer in the IDF and the number two executive of the largest private University in Israel - IDC Herzliya. I have told him, on innumerable occasions, when Israel deems the time has come to attack Iran, it should start by eliminating Iran's electrical grid. Now it seems they have the capability. (See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1) The Architect of Destruction
By Maureen Scott
Barack Obama appears to be a tormented man filled with resentment, anger, and disdain for anyone of an opinion or view other than his. He acts in the most hateful, spiteful, malevolent, vindictive ways in order to manipulate and maintain power and control over others.
Perhaps, because, as a child, he grew up harboring an abiding bitterness toward the U.S. That was instilled in him by his family and mentors…it seems to have never left him.
It is not the color of his skin that is a problem in America .
Rather it is the blackness that fills his soul and the hollowness in his heart where there should be abiding pride and love for this country.
Think: Have we ever heard Obama speak lovingly of the U.S. Or its people, with deep appreciation and genuine respect for our history, our customs, our sufferings and our blessings? Has he ever revealed that, like most patriotic Americans, he gets "goose bumps" when a band plays "The Star Spangled Banner," (no he gets goose bumps when he hears the ''Muslim call to prayer" (his words) or sheds a tear when he hears a beautiful rendition of " America the Beautiful?" Does his heart burst with pride when millions of American flags wave on a National holiday - or someone plays "taps" on a trumpet? Has he ever shared the admiration of the military, as we as lovers of those who keep us free, feel when soldiers march by? It is doubtful because Obama did not grow up sharing our experiences or our values. He did not sit at the knee of a Grandfather or Uncle who showed us his medals and told us about the bravery of his fellow troops as they tramped through foreign lands to keep us free. He didn't have grandparents who told stories of suffering and then coming to America , penniless, and the opportunities they had for building a business and life for their children.
Away from this country as a young child, Obama didn't delight in being part of America and its greatness. He wasn't singing our patriotic songs in kindergarten, or standing on the roadside for a holiday parade and eating a hot dog, or lighting sparklers around a campfire on July 4th as fireworks exploded over head, or placing flags on the grave sites of fallen and beloved American heroes.
Rather he was separated from all of these experiences and doesn't really understand us and what it means to be an American. He is vof the basic emotions that most feel regarding this country and insensitive to the instinctive pride we have in our national heritage. His opinions were formed by those who either envied us or wanted him to devalue the United States and the traditions and patriotism that unites us.
He has never given a speech that is filled with calm, reassuring, complimentary, heartfelt statements about all the people in the U.S. Or one that inspires us to be better and grateful and proud that in a short time our country became a leader, and a protector of many. Quite the contrary, his speeches always degenerate into mocking, ridiculing tirades as he faults our achievements as well as any critics or opposition for the sake of a laugh, or to bolster his ego. He uses his Office to threaten and create fear while demeaning and degrading any American who opposes his policies and actions. A secure leader, who has noble self-esteem and not false confidence, refrains from showing such dread of critics and displaying a cocky, haughty attitude.
Mostly, his time seems to be spent causing dissension, unrest, and anxiety among the people of America , rather than uniting us (even though he was presented to us as the "Great Uniter"). He creates chaos for the sake of keeping people separated, envious, aggrieved and ready to argue. Under his leadership Americans have been kept on edge, rather than in a state of comfort and security. He incites people to be aggressive toward, and disrespectful of, those of differing opinions. And through such behavior, Obama has lowered the standards for self-control and mature restraint to the level of street-fighting gangs, when he should be raising the bar for people to strive toward becoming more considerate, tolerant, self-disciplined, self-sustaining, and self-assured.
Not a day goes by that he is not attempting to defy our laws, remove our rights, over-ride established procedures, install controversial appointees, enact divisive mandates, and assert a dictatorial form of government.
- Never has there been a leader of this great land who used such tactics to harm and hurt the people and this country.
-Never have we had a President who spoke with a caustic, evil tongue against the citizenry rather than present himself as a soothing, calming and trustworthy force.
-Never, in this country, have we experienced how much stress one man can cause a nation of people - on a daily basis!
Obama has promoted the degeneration of peace, civility, and quality of cooperation between us. He thrives on tearing us down, rather than building us up. He is the Architect of the decline of America, and the epitome of a Demagogue
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2) Next time you hear Hillary, or any other Democrat, ranting about Republicans wanting to disenfranchise minorities by requiring voter ID, keep the following in mind:
* In 59 voting districts in the Philadelphia region, Obama received 100% of the votes with not even a single vote recorded for Romney. (A mathematical and statistical impossibility).
* In 21 districts in Wood County Ohio, Obama received 100% of the votes where GOP inspectors were illegally removed from their polling locations - and not one single vote was recorded for Romney. (Another statistical impossibility).
* In Wood County Ohio, 106,258 voted in a county with only 98,213 eligible voters .
* In St. Lucie County, FL, there were 175,574 registered eligible voters but 247,713 votes were cast.
* The National SEAL Museum, a polling location in St. Lucie County, FL had a 158% voter turnout.
* Palm Beach County, FL had a 141% voter turnout .
* In one Ohio County, Obama won by 108% of the total number of eligible voters .
NOTE: Obama won in every state that did not require a Photo ID and lost in every state that did require a Photo ID in order to vote .
Imagine that.....
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3) Pentagon: Iran’s cyber-attacks more aggressive, ballistic missiles more sophisticated since nuclear deal Pentagon considering adapting Iron Dome to defend U.S. forces
Iran has improved its cyberwarfare capabilities and made significant progress in developing more advanced ballistic missiles in the year since the nuclear deal was reached, the U.S. Defense Department has stated. Iran has “a substantial inventory of missiles capable of reaching targets throughout the region, including U.S. military bases and Israel,” the Pentagon announced in its annual report to Congress on Iran’s military capabilities, which Bloomberg News published on Tuesday. Furthermore, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is tasked with exporting the Iranian revolution, has continued to hone its ability to “support and carry out” terrorist attacks.
Since the nuclear deal, Iran has “been testing to see what kind of activities it can get away with without jeopardizing sanctions relief and foreign investment,” Michael Eisenstadt, director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Military and Security Studies Program, wrote in a report last month. The Islamic Republic has “ramped up cyberspying operations against U.S. officials, journalists, and academics engaged in Iran policy, presumably for intelligence purposes, using email and social media contact lists harvested from the computer of detained Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi.” The Associated Press reported last December that Iranian hackers had been targeting the U.S. electric grid’s networks and stealing highly sensitive data since August 2013. Iran is also “increasingly turning the tools of computer espionage against both exiles abroad and potential dissidents at home,” Elias Groll wrote inForeign Policy Tuesday.
Iran has conducted several ballistic missile tests since the agreement was reached, most recently last month. The launch prior to that, in May, featured a missile with an estimated range of around 1,250 miles. Another launch, in March, included a missile with a range of around 870 miles that had the phrase “Israel must be wiped from the face of the earth” inscribed on it in Hebrew. UN Security CouncilResolution 2231, which codified the nuclear deal, calls on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.” The resolution also says that Iran must abide by previous Security Council resolutions, which placedrestrictions on ballistic missile work until 2023.
The resolution “calls upon” Iran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles, whereas UNSC resolution 1929, which 2231 replaced, explicitly stated that Iran “shall not” engage in such activity. United States and European Union officials wrote in a letter to the United Nations this past March that Iran’s ballistic missiles tests “were inconsistent with” and “in defiance of” of UNSC 2231, but did not call it a violation. However, while appearing before Congress last December, Ambassador Stephen Mull, the Obama administration’s lead coordinator for implementing the nuclear deal, said that such missile launches would “violate that part of the UN Security Council resolution.”
Israel’s Iron Dome interceptor is being consider by the United States Army to defend deployed troops, Defense News reportedTuesday.
Iran Dome was primarily produced by the Israeli defense giant Rafael, but many of its component systems were provided by the American defense contractor Raytheon. That company has now built its own version of the Iron Dome’s Tamir interceptors, called SkyHunter.
Skyhunter is one of three systems being evaluated by the U.S. Army to defend against “a spectrum of threats, from cruise missiles and UAVs to rockets, artillery and mortars,” Defense News reported. If selected, the Tamir would be totally constructed by Raytheon and redesigned to meet American standards.
“The minute that the US decides to procure Iron Dome, [Rafael] will transfer all the knowledge and production file to Raytheon,” said Yosi Druker, head of Rafael’s Air Superiority Systems division. According to the two companies’ joint agreement, Rafael will produce 40 percent of the component parts.
Iron Dome is considered a favorite to win the contract because it is low-cost and has a proven track record. The Tamir interceptor was also successfully tested in the United States in April.
In its trademark description of SkyHunter, Raytheon describes it as “a ground-based missile interceptor system consisting of a guided missile with electro-optic sensors and adjustable steering fins for tracking and destroying incoming enemy rockets, missiles, artillery and mortars.”
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4)“...Your well known and previously announced plan to get rid of guns in America and your expressed stand on the second amendment are both widely known. Those stands have enraged hunters and target shooters all over this country and those people are apt to vote nearly 100% against you because of those expressed views. That’s all I meant by that comment and the media made up not only what I meant but what I presumably had said. I never ever mentioned assassination or anything of the sort and you very well know it. Your bringing it up at this debate means either you don’t listen very well or you’re lying to the American people. Again!”
It’s short, covers the issue, and leaves little wiggle room for her to reply without digging a hole for herself which he should promptly fill, preferably with quotes from her and other Democrats about Republicans in the past, “none of which the media covered with anything like the furor they did with my remarks.”
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5)
Israel could send Iran ‘back to the stone age’ with electromagnetic bomb
Detonation would disrupt all the enemy’s technological devices, Sunday Times reports
By Aaron Kalman
Israel could destroy Iran’s electric network with a specially designed electromagnetic bomb in the event of a military conflict between the countries, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.
An electromagnetic bomb of this sort would be detonated above the ground, creating an electromagnetic pulse that would “disrupt all the technological devices working on the ground,” an American expert was quoted as saying to the London paper.
The use of the new technology by Israel was brought up in discussions regarding a possible attack on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, the report claimed. Such a move would send Iran “back to the stone age,” the British paper said.
This kind of bomb would operate based on the nonlethal technology of gamma rays, the report explained. The outburst of energy would “fry” electric devices and currents around the source of the explosion.
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By Rick Richman
Why did the Obama administration make its $400 million payment to Iran on January 17 in untraceable foreign currency and then not only fail to disclose that the payment had been made in cash but withhold that information from Senator Tom Cotton in response to his repeated inquiries about it? According to both former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey and former Treasury terrorism finance analyst Jonathan Schanzer, President Obama could have paid Iran legally in a conventional banking transaction rather than cash. The administration disclosed theamount of the payment in its January 17 announcement of the deal, but not that it had been made in cash.
The reason for both the use of cash and the effort to hide its use may well relate to Hezbollah–Iran’s wholly-owned terrorist proxy in Lebanon–and to the “Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015” (“HIFPA”), which was enacted by Congress one month before the cash payment. HIFPA helps explain (a) why Iran wanted $400 million in cash and why it needed it in January and (b) why the administration did not want to disclose its cash payment to Congress.
As of 2015, Iran’s annual funding of Hezbollah was $200 million per year (in addition to weapons, training, intelligence, and logistical assistance), according to the testimony of Matthew Levitt, of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, in a September 17, 2015, Congressional hearing. He told Congress that, as a result of the then-pending Iran deal, “Hezbollah is about to take a place of even greater prominence within the planning of Iran’s revolutionary elite,” and that with the coming sanctions relief for Iran:
Hezbollah expects additional funds will come its way… A newly enriched Hezbollah would be more aggressive at home and abroad, challenging less-militant parties across the Lebanese political spectrum and boosting its destabilizing activities outside of Lebanon.
Enacted three months later, HIFPA set forth a policy to use “all available diplomatic, legislative, and executive avenues… to block [Hezbollah’s] ability to fund its global terrorist activities.” The new law barred any foreign bank from access to the American financial system if it facilitated a significant transaction for Hezbollah. On December 18, 2015, President Obama signed the legislation into law.
In April 2016, the Treasury Department issued regulations under HIFPA, and in May the governor of Lebanon’s central bank announced that Lebanon banks would close Hezbollah’s accounts as a result of the U.S. law. By June, thousands of bank accounts of Hezbollah officials and their family members had been closed, eliminating Iran’s ability to finance Hezbollah through the Lebanese banking system.
In 2015, both Iran and Hezbollah saw this coming: Hezbollah had condemned HIFPA in vitriolic terms in November 2015 as it was being considered by Congress. Once HIFPA was enacted at the end of the year, the coming sanctions on banks dealing with Hezbollah meant Iran would have to find a new way to finance its terrorist arm in Lebanon. The $400 million in cash that the Obama administration gave Iran in January is enough to fund it at twice the level as last year, without recourse to the Lebanese banking system.
On June 24, 2016, Hezbollah’s head, Hassan Nasrallah, taunted the United States about HIFPA. He said, “his group would not be affected by fresh US sanctions because it receives its money directly from Iran, not via Lebanese banks.” He added, “Hezbollah’s budget, salaries, funds, food, drink [and] weapons all come from Iran… As long as Iran has money, we have money.” The Treasury Department believes that Nasrallah’s statement demonstrates American success in targeting the group’s finances, but it will be no surprise when 2016 Iranian funding for Hezbollah doubles–say, to about $400 million–since Iran need not try to fund it through the no-longer-available Lebanese banking system, but can use cash obtained from the United States.
The administration’s intentional withholding of the fact that it made its payment to Iran in cash suggests the administration knew that payment in that form not only violated the goal of HIFPA but would actively facilitate Iran’s efforts to evade it on behalf of its principal terrorist ally. We do not know exactly what the administration knew about Iran’s intended use of $400 million in untraceable cash, nor when the administration knew it, but perhaps a congressional committee will try to find out.
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