Sunday, February 18, 2018

Don't Open Hillary E Mail. More Rants From J Ross. IDF Strikes Again.

My wife and I had
words, but I didn't get to use mine.

If you get an email entitled, "Nude Photo of Hillary Clinton", don't open it.
 It contains a nude photo of Hillary Clinton (See 1 below.)

And

This from a close friend and fellow memo reader whose family members have been involved in Mass. politics for decades. (See 1 a below.)
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More rants from J Ross. (See 2 below.)
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A dear friend and fellow memo reader get's her posting published. (See 3 below.)
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Is Trump getting ready to put pressure on Israel?  Stay tuned.(See 4 below.)

IDF strikes again. (See 4a below.)
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Dick
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1) Does Mueller Indictment Mean Clinton Campaign Can Be Indicted for Chris Steele?

Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted foreign citizens for trying to influence the American public about an election because those citizens did not register as a foreign agent nor record their financial expenditures to the Federal Elections Commission. By that theory, when will Mueller indict Christopher Steele, FusionGPS, PerkinsCoie, the DNC and the Clinton Campaign? Mueller’s indictment against 13 Russian trolls claimed their social media political activity was criminal because: they were foreign citizens; they tried to influence an election; and they neither registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act nor reported their funding to the Federal Elections Commission.

First, if Mueller’s theory is correct, three things make Steele a criminal: first, he is a foreign citizen; second, he tried to influence an election, which he received payments to do (including from the FBI itself); and third, he neither registered as a foreign agent nor listed his receipts and expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. Also, according to the FBI, along the way, Steele lied…a lot, while the dossier he disseminated contained its own lies based on bought-and-paid for smears from foreign sources reliant on rumors and innuendo.


Second, if Mueller’s theory is correct, three things make FusionGPS a criminal co-conspirator: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission.
Third, if Mueller’s theory is correct, then three things make PerkinsCoie a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its receipt of payments from the Clinton campaign as a “legal expense.”
Fourth, if Mueller’s theory is correct, then three things make the DNC a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its payments to Steele as laundered legal expenses to a law firm.
Fifth, if Mueller’s theory is correct, three things make the Clinton Campaign a potential target: it knew Steele was a foreign citizen; it knew, and paid, Steele to influence an election; and it knew, and facilitated, Steele neither registering as a foreign agent nor reporting his funding from the Clinton campaign to the Federal Election Commission, by disguising its funding of payments to Steele laundered through a law firm as a “legal expense.”
Don’t expect such an indictment. Mueller chose his targets because he knows they will never appear in court, never contest the charges, and cannot be arrested or extradited as Russian citizens. Mueller’s unprecedented prosecution raises three novel arguments: first, that speaking out about American politics requires a foreign citizen to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act; second, that speaking out about American politics requires a foreign citizen list their source and expenditure of funding to the Federal Election Commission; and third, that mistakes on visa applications constitute “fraud” on the State Department. All appear to borrow from the now-discredited “honest services” theories Mueller’s team previously used in corporate and bribery cases, cases the Supreme Court overturned for their unconstitutional vagueness. The indictment raises serious issues under the free speech clause of the First Amendment and due process rights under the Fifth Amendment.
Robert Barnes is a California-based trial attorney whose practice focuses on Constitutional, criminal and civil rights law. You can follow him at @Barnes_Law.


1a)LOOKING BACK TO THE FUTURE
Nearly one year ago I commented on alleged Russian support of Donald Trump’s candidacy for President of the United States. Well, all the FBI and others had to do was a little research to determine that this investigation was a focused on the wrong target.  For decades the U.S.S.R. and now the Russian Federation have tried to undermine our democracy.  Yesterday, the focus may have begun to change with the indictments of 13 Russian operatives and 3 Russian companies. But, it shouldn’t have taken millions of dollars and thousands of hours of investigative time to determine this. Hopefully, we will now begin to see what is below the tip of the collusion iceberg. 

The questions to be answered are numerous and the investigation needs to zero-in on the Department of Justice and, sadly, on the FBI.  For example, Peter Strzok was the head of counter-intelligence.  Did he not know of  Russia’s plan and activities to sow discord among the Western Democracies with a particular focus on the United States?  Was he so consumed with hate for Donald trump that he had no time for his real job?  According to published reports, FBI agents Strzok and Lisa Ames exchanged some 50,000 text messages during the five months between the Trump transition and the launch of the Mueller investigation.

It is interesting to note that the average text message takes 3.71 minutes.  So do the math. 50,000 x 3.71= 185,500 minutes

or 3,091 hours.  Since the average work week in America is 46.7 hours, these texts took the equivalent of 1.2 working years.

Further, these texts were sent during five months where their combined work weeks would be some 2,575 hours. 

They were working overtime to undermine the President.  And, doing so on our dime.  Are they not required to report their

time and work related activities?  Is there no employee oversight with the agency?

Who was feeding the misinformation to the media?  There may be multiple sources, but one area that needs investigation are the large and  powerful public relations firms of Ketchum and Hill & Knowlton.  PR Week reports that Russia has spent $115 million on Western PR firms since 2000, with most going to Ketchum, a division of Omnicon.  Ketchum claims to have ended the relationship, but another Omnicom Division, GPlus continues its work for the Russian Federation.  We can assume then, that “stealth communications” continue to infect the U.S. information market.


Our electoral system is the heart of the world’s most powerful democracy, and now—thanks to Russian actions and the willing accomplices in the media and the Democrat Party we’ve been locked in a national argument over its legitimacy. We’re at war with ourselves.
There are scores of questions that demand answers, the above are but a few of them.

 TRUMP IS PUTIN’S WORST NIGHTMARE
by Lloyd Thompson
March 9, 2017

 What rational person believes Putin wanted Trump in the Oval Office? 

Vlad was very happy with the state of affairs during the Obama years, and was hoping for a continuation of the feckless foreign policy of John Forbes Kerry.  Clinton and Kerry literally handed him suzerainty over much of the Middle East, allowed an unfettered takeover of the Crimea, and continued to ease sanctions.  He viewed Obama as a weakling and must have been amused at the Re-Set strategy by then Secretary Clinton. (The ever-present and steel-eyed Molotov would have wet his pants laughing.)

Although Putin deplores Clinton for her interference in the Russian election of 2011, he certainly wanted her in office to continue weakening the United States’ world position, economy and military.  After all, it was Clinton’s State department that authorized the sale of some 20 percent of our uranium deposits to Uranium One.  Russia’s state-owned atomic energy, Rosatom, owns 17% of Uranium One.  The deal provided Russia with a strategic asset, and sent more than $2 million to the Clinton Foundation. And Bill Clinton received some $500,000 for a speech to an investment bank, with ties to Russia's government, that had a buy rating on Uranium One’s stock.

 If there was Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential Campaign, it backfired. 
 Now the Russians are faced with an American Administration run by Capitalists, not the Socialist friendlies of the past eight years.  Gone are the days of  “more flexibility after the election.”  Enter a new paradigm of American interests first.

The frantic Left is doing their best to discredit the 2016 election and administration of Mr. Trump.  The undoing of Lt. General Mike Flynn was probably an inside job, but who knows at this point.  It does means fewer sleepless nights for President Putin.  Flynn’s intelligence and cyber skills certainly rival, or exceed, those of Russian General Staff Chief Valery Gerasimov.  However, the Russians seem to have the advantage in the non-linear warfare espoused by Gerasimov.  The “Agit-Prop” operations of the former Soviet Union appear to be alive and well.  Russia’s carefully orchestrated, sophisticatedly targeted, generously funded, and professionally produced disinformation campaign has met little resistance in the West.  The Kremlin exploits the idea of freedom of information to inject disinformation into society. The effect is not to persuade (as in classic public diplomacy) or earn credibility, but to sow confusion via conspiracy theories and proliferate falsehoods.

For more than 14 years, the West has wrongly and naively believed that Putin was or could become a great ally.  Bush and Obama bought into this. Remember the “ I looked into his soul…” comment by Bush?

Hopefully, Mr. Trump will see the reality of Russia’s ambitions, and Putin will realize he is dealing with the king of dealmakers.  Trump knows how to deal with the media and with the distribution of information.  Now, this government needs to mobilize and weaponize our information assets to combat the disinformation threat from our Russian friends.
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2) 
It is clear inflation is starting to show up, but it is not at all clear it is much, if at all above the Fed 2% target. When you strip out food and energy it was below and the main driver was apparel which had a strange spike up that will not be repeated going forward. Producer prices are also rising, but again, it is not at all clear by how much.  One month does not make a trend. This is not 1981 with 14% inflation, and nothing remotely like that is going on.  Inflation has been nil across the world for 10 years and many of the things that kept it low are still there. One of the main things is online transparency of prices which has kept many of the old ability to jack up prices in check. Amazon, Wal Mart and Alibaba will continue to keep ricing lower than would have been the case in the past. This is not a short term phenomenon, but a revolution in pricing power shifting to buyers from sellers. Secondly, while interest rates are moving up, they are still at near record lows. Interestingly, as the economy improves, corporate rates and even junk bond spreads are  pretty stable because the better economy means companies can better cover debt so the risk premium is declining. It is not possible to predict how this plays out as the economy ramps up more over the next year. I would not get all in a dither about inflation yet. Let’s wait to see what February numbers look like and the Fed measure of inflation which is different than the CPI.  The CPI is not a very accurate measure which is why the Fed does not use it. The ten year will likely continue to see higher yields as the year progresses, but as I have mentioned before, 3% is still far below the historical norm of 5%-6%. The Fed is watching carefully, and we are not headed to any sort of inflation or rate rise crisis.

Markets do over react as we have seen. The big drop in the stock market was an over reaction then made much worse by the ridiculous positions in VIX and reverse VIX options. The fundamentals did not change as I have said several times, and to me I invest on fundamentals and stay away from all these esoteric derivatives, options and similar plays that sound good for a while,  but tend to blow up badly at some point. If the economy is growing well, as it is now, and has a good run ahead of it, and if inflation and interest rates are likely to remain in a reasonable rising band, then you can’t beat solid equities over the long term. I prefer to have protection of hard earned principal, and big long term gains, for quick profits on speculative instruments or crypto coins. Over the many years it has been the right strategy for me and has made me a lot of wealth. I am a turtle when it comes to investing.  If hedge funds had returns to beat mine, which on average they do not, then I might think differently, but over the past ten years hedge funds have materially underperformed the markets for all their quant and clever strategies, and in my mind it is who ended up with the best return at the end of the year, not who was more clever. The other issue is if things start to look bad, it is very easy to sell a good company stock with the keystroke.  Some of these derivatives or complex ETFs are impossible to exit when things get panicked, and that is when the losses really hit big and fast.

It is not at all clear what John Kelly knew about Rob Porter or not. It is not known what the FBI report said. It is well known that claims by ex-wives in divorce situations are often exaggerated to try to achieve the best financial outcome, so if all they had were allegations and no p[roof it is understandable firing Parker was not called for.  We really do not know the facts.  However, he was fired when the pictures came out, period end.  Maybe the handled it poorly but it is over and there are far more important things to be concerned about than if this guy was really a bad guy who hit his wife. The real story at that hearing was what the intelligence guys were saying were the massive threats facing us thanks to Obama policies, and the desperate need to rebuild the military capability that Obama decimated. That the press ignored since they preferred to go after General Kelly as some sort of enemy. The reality is Iran and N Korea, who NBC and CNN fawned over, are very imminent threats to us and the world. Israel and Iran are on the brink of a potential major showdown in Syria, and that could easily spin way out of control in an instant given all  the conflicting alliances and competing armies there. Porter is gone, so move on to things that really matter.

One of the problems Trump is having with the infrastructure program is most politicians do not understand public private partnership deals, and the private guys for good reason do not trust the politicians with their invested capital. As a developer in CA I can attest that the time and ridiculous costs of getting anything done there or in NY or many other places, is the real issue, and costs billions of dollars to major projects that make then unviable. Like DACCA, the Dems will say they want infrastructure programs, but they will stymie Trump in getting it done so they can try to claim in November the Republicans are incompetent and ineffective. Result is not much will get done, just as on immigration.  Same story on mass shootings.  It  is not the guns, it is the nut jobs who the law stops cops from arresting and putting into treatment. The kid in FL was well known to the cops and therapists, and apparently even to the kids, but the therapists said he was no danger so nothing was done to stop him and get him help . That is the true issue. Privacy is nice, but a bunch of dead kids in school is horrible. We need to go back to allowing the cops and courts to act quickly to take these mentally deranged people off the street and get them treated. There are 320 million guns in the US.  You are never going to collect even a fraction of them so let’s deal with the real issue- mental health and the trade between taking action or having many more dead kids.

Have a nice day—I am off in my boat to fish in the gulf.
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3)

Not My President


I recently received an email from an old friend who lives in a very blue state exclaiming that Trump was “not his president.”  This was completely unsolicited, as our email conversation up until that point had been non-political. He just felt it necessary to toss that in at the end, either as a way to build camaraderie with a fellow liberal or to be a flame-thrower to a conservative.

In my case, it was the latter.
I tried not to respond in anger, but merely with regret to learn that Trump was not “his” president, since wages were up, taxes were down, the stock market was up, and over 2 million new jobs had been created. Black and Latino unemployment were at new all-time lows. Were these not things that liberals cared about anymore? But, perhaps, I suggested a bit snarkily, these bits of news had not appeared in the New York Times. I doubt that I’ll ever hear from him again.

As the days went by, his comment that Trump was not his president kept rolling around in my head. I wanted to ask him, who IS your president? Are you operating now without a president? Is your state no longer part of the Union? And how does not having the United States’ president as your president work for you? Do you still get all your Social Security payments and Medicare benefits? Can you still sit in your lovely cabin by a lake and pontificate about how much smarter you are than people who voted for Mr. Trump?

And, after all, isn’t that really what such a comment was meant to convey? It meant that you, my erudite former friend, were just too smart to vote for someone like The Donald, and anyone who did vote for him was some sort of fool. So, you would sit back for four or eight years, take pot shots at him, smirk and guffaw at the peons who elected him, and bemoan the fact that the smartest woman in the world, for whom you voted, was not in the White House.

You would “resist”, whatever that means. You would not endorse anything Trump wanted to accomplish, even when it matched up with your liberal agenda of pre-November, 2016.


Let us imagine if Hillary had won, how things might be different now. The economy would still be limping along. The stock market would be at pre-election levels, give or take a modest amount. It certainly would not be up over $26 trillion, as stocks are now. Taxes would not have been cut, and the resultant business growth, bonuses and raises would never have happened. There would be no thought given to trying to stop illegal immigration, so our borders would be increasingly porous and crime rates would continue to climb. There would be no investigations into collusion with the Russians during our election because, as we are learning daily, the only collusion was on the part of the Democrats. Our trade deals would continue to disadvantage the US. We would still be dependent on foreign sources of energy, and our military would be underfunded. Veterans wouldn’t even be on the list of priorities, and attacks on police would be ignored or deemed to be the fault of bad police practices. As a result, fewer people would join the ranks of the thin blue line, and more crime would take over in our cities. Sanctuary cities would not be challenged, and federal benefits to illegals would be increased at the expense of our citizens and those waiting in line to enter the country legally.

Obama’s policies would be continued, further regulations would hamper business growth and formation, and the economy would fail to grow. The deficit would climb, and tax increases would be the only solution she would offer, further stifling growth.

Gee, sounds great, but then, I am a deplorable rube who doesn’t know what’s good for me. I don’t realize that government should take care of me rather than me doing it for myself. And I don’t realize that achievement and hard work are now bad things that must be destroyed so that government can rule over all with an iron fist and make all of us dependent on them.

I didn’t like Obama. I wanted him and his crew out of there as soon as possible. But it never occurred to me to say he was not my president. He was president of the United States, for better or for worse. We cannot continue to be united if we decide which laws to obey and which presidents to acknowledge. If you don’t like Trump, work to elect someone you do like next time.   While he is president, though, try to put your elite brains back in your heads where they belong and get over it.
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4) Is Trump Preparing to Put Pressure on Israel?
By Stephen M. Flatow
In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated that he intends to pressure Israel to make yet more concessions to the Palestinian Authority. I wonder why pro-Israel voices have not been expressing concern about this development.
I admit that Trump’s rhetorical swipes at the PA have been a welcome change from the “see no evil” policy of his predecessor. US Ambassador Nikki Haley’s speeches at the United Nations have also been terrific. And the administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was gratifying, although it’s still puzzling why it should to take two or more years to set up an American embassy in Jerusalem when the building already exists.
These positive verbal and symbolic flourishes will not count for much, however, if the current administration returns to the old pressure tactics that were unfairly used against Israel for so many years.
We all remember the Trump-Netanyahu press conference a year ago, on February 15, 2017, when the president said: “I would like you to hold back on settlements for a little bit.” Many of us wondered why. Jewish settlements in the historic Jewish homeland are peaceful, legal and deeply anchored in the Judeo-Christian heritage cherished by Israelis and Americans alike.

And what, exactly, did President Trump mean by “a little bit”? Weeks? Months? Years? How long should basic Jewish rights be “held back” in order to appease a regime that glorifies terrorists, and incites hatred and violence against Jews?Not only that, but settlements have nothing to do with the Israeli-Arab conflict. The Palestinians and other Arabs were waging war against Israel long before there were any settlements at all. They waged war before the Jewish state even existed. The idea that “holding back” would promote peace is utter nonsense.
In recent weeks, there have been more worrisome signs. In a tweet on January 2, the president wrote: “We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more.”
He used similar language when speaking to reporters in Davos on January 25: “I helped it because by taking it off the table — that was the toughest issue — and Israel will pay for that. You won one point and you’ll give up some points later on in negotiations if it ever takes place.”
Why in the world should Israel have to “pay” for the US decision to recognize reality? The Trump administration simply did what previous presidents should have done.
And what’s this about “giving up some points later on”? Ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel has been giving up, and giving up, and giving up some more in its dealings with the Palestinians.
Israel gave up the historically Jewish and strategically important Gaza Strip. It expelled more than 8,500 Jewish residents who had called Gaza home. In exchange, Israel has had thousands of rockets, missiles and mortars launched against it.
Israel gave the PA control over 40 percent of Judea and Samaria. Israel let the PA build a security force that serves as a de facto army. Israel released hundreds of terrorists as “gestures” to the PA, even though many of them then returned to terrorism.
Yet in an interview with Israel Hayom on February 9, President Trump said: “I think both sides will have to make hard compromises to reach a peace agreement.”
Until now, only one side, Israel, has been making all the significant compromises. It should not be expected to give up even more. The old moral-equivalency thesis — that both sides are guilty, and both sides must make “compromises” — is a timeworn falsehood. It deserves to be consigned to the dustbin of history.
In the midst of all these troubling hints, comes a report (from the Axios news site) on February 1 that, “The White House is considering presenting President Trump’s Middle East peace plan even if the crisis with the Palestinian Authority continues and Palestinian President Abbas refuses to come to the negotiating table…”
Yet President Trump and other administration spokesmen have said repeatedly that the US will support whatever solution the Israelis and the PA both want. If that’s the case, then why should the US present a plan of its own? The only conceivable purpose of an American plan would be to embarrass the two sides, and therefore pressure them to agree to the US terms.
The last thing that’s needed now is yet another American plan that will demand even more concessions from Israel in exchange for unenforceable Palestinian promises. It’s time for a US policy based on two principles: first, that Israel has already made enough concessions; and second, that there is value to waiting. Let’s wait until the PA demonstrates, through deeds, that it is ready for peace. Let’s wait until the PA outlaws and disarms terror groups, extradites terrorists to Israel and publicly recognizes Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
Until then, any new US plan is doomed to failure.
Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995.

4a)
DF strikes 18 terror targets in Gaza amid heaviest fighting in years
By HAGAY HACOHEN
After an intense Saturday, IDF forces struck 18 Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Air sirens were heard in communities close to the operations, yet no rockets were fired on Israel.

IDF forces struck 18 Hamas targets Saturday night, the IDF spokesperson's office reported. Among these targets were two Hamas outposts and weapons manufacturing facilities.

The attack was carried out by the Israeli Air Force as well as other army units, and the figure includes the targets struck earlier in the day.

Air sirens were heard in Israeli cities and towns nearby, but no rockets were fired on Israel during the night.

The IDF holds Hamas responsible for all that happens in the Gaza Strip and is determined to ensure the security of the people of Israel by any means necessary, the IDF spokesperson's unit stated.

Israeli radio station Reshet Bet reported that a Palestinian source claimed that Hamas leaders informed Egypt that they were interested in escalating the current conflict with Israel but that they were not responsible for the attack on IDF soldiers on Saturday.

Air sirens were heard in the southern cities of Sderot, Hof Ashkelon Regional Council, Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council, Ashkelon and Sdot Negev Regional Council.

This follows an intense Saturday during which the IAF struck various Hamas targets in the Gaza strip in response to a bomb detonation that wounded four Israeli soldiers as they patrolled the border fence.

Two soldiers were in serious condition, one was moderately wounded and one was lightly wounded, the army said. They were evacuated by helicopter to Soroka-University Medical Center in Beersheba.

Two Palestinian teenagers were killed during strikes on the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Palestinian Authority news site Wafa reported Sunday morning. The report states that the two were killed in Rafah city.
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The irony of life is that, by the time you're old enough to know your way around, you're not going anywhere.
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