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Goodbye, America
How is America to be defined? By its failures or its triumphs? Today, there seems to be an obsession with the former and a dismissal of the latter. Is this dark vision of the freest and most prosperous nation on earth an accurate narrative or a cynical distortion? James Robbins, columnist for USA Today and author of Erasing America, considers that question in this video. How we view America's past will very much shape America’s future.
The New York Times Has Egg on its face once again as a consequence of their recent smear of Justice Kavanaugh,where everything the NYT's based their report on has now fallen apart. So what's new at the NYT's?
The mass media has become irrelevant and will continue to lose reader and viewership.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Bonus. Small pistol became gator-aid.(See 1 below.)+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++The energy area finally kicked in because of the attack on Saudi fields. It is producing an artificial rise and could last a while as oil supplies balance. Meanwhile, some previous technical damage is being rectified and Iran, allegedly, seizes another tanker in Strait of Hormuz.
This from fellow memo reader who gives insight into Houston: "In Baytown, which is not a part of the liberal City of Houston, Exxon, Chevron, and the Bayer Industrial Park employ approximately 7,400 people and this does not count the thousands employed in support businesses. Between Baytown and downtown Houston, there is a 15 mile strip along the Houston Ship Channel with non-stop petrochemical complexes. We will not be in favor of eliminating oil from our lives. And neither will the radical liberals when they learn they'll have to give up their cars, private jets, TV's, computers, dependable sources of electricity, most of their clothes, huge amounts of food, a substantial number of items found in their homes, and other rather significant items made from petroleum.
However, you never can tell just how stupid these people can be so it means we need to make sure to vote for those who think like we do.G---"
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Response from my friend who lives in Austin about street people inhabiting the city: "It is true, several tent cities have sprung up under overpass near our house. "++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Is another war brewing? When you allow a dragon to breath fire you only have to confront them at a later date. (See 2 below.)+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Dick+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++1) Florida Woman Stops Alligator Attack Using a Small .22 cal Beretta Pistol: This is a story of self-control and marksmanship by a brave, cool-headed woman with a small pistol against a fierce predator.
What's the smallest caliber that you would trust to protect yourself?Here's her story in her own words:
"While out walking along the edge of a pond just outside my house in the Villages with my soon-to-be ex-husband, discussing property settlement and other divorce issues, we were surprised by a huge 12-ft. alligator which suddenly emerged from the murky water. It began charging us with its large jaws wide open. She must have been protecting her nest because she was extremely aggressive. If I had not had my little Beretta .22 caliber pistol with me, I would not be here today!
Just one shot to my estranged husband's knee cap was all it took. The gator got him easily, and I was able to escape by just walking away at a brisk pace. The amount I saved in lawyer's fees was really incredible and his life insurance was a big bonus!"+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++2)Will Israel Go to War Over Hezbollah's Precision-Guided Missiles?
Israel’s Syria campaign has demonstrated that, despite their best efforts, Iran and its proxies “have no deterrence whatsoever” against Israel. But this may not last.
by Ilan Berman
TEL AVIV—In early September, Israel’s military shelled a series of Hezbollah factories and installations in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The strikes represented the most significant Israeli operation against the terrorist group since the 2006 Lebanon War. It also marked the start of what could well become another military conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shia militia.
That potential clash is an outgrowth of Israel’s efforts to eliminate Iran’s strategic footprint in the Levant, which has grown exponentially over the past half-decade as a result of the Islamic Republic’s campaign in support of the Syrian regime. The effort has allowed Iran to establish an expeditionary presence along Israel’s northern border—one that, over the past few years, has prompted a significant Israeli military response.
For now, Israeli officials seem generally satisfied with the results. According to defense experts here, the Israeli operations have succeeded in establishing at least a minimum level of deterrence against Iran in Israel’s north—and in demonstrating that Qassem Soleimani, the feared Iranian general who has been identified as the architect of Tehran’s Syria campaign, is not, in fact, “ten feet tall.” Other observers put the matter even more starkly: Israel’s Syria campaign has demonstrated that, despite their best efforts, Iran and its proxies “have no deterrence whatsoever” against Israel.
Yet, in recent weeks, the Israeli-Iranian front has shifted further west to Lebanon. There, Israeli experts say, Iran is assisting Hezbollah with what amounts to a major industrial project designed to improve the accuracy and precision of its extensive arsenal of short-range missiles and rockets. In turn, this “precision project” represents a grave threat to Israeli security, because it has the potential to qualitatively alter the missile threat facing the Jewish state.
Almost as soon as the 2006 war was over, Hezbollah began reconstituting its strategic arsenal. To do so, it turned to its main patron, Iran, for assistance, and in response received massive shipments of munitions from Tehran. Already half-a-decade ago, the terror group was known to have amassed some 100,000 munitions with which it could menace Israeli territory. (Today, that figure is believed to be closer to 150,000). Yet, these missiles and rockets were uniformly “dumb”: simple in design, of limited accuracy, and well within the capabilities of Israeli defenses to defeat.
Of late, however, that state of affairs has increasingly been called into question, thanks to Iran’s concerted efforts to expand the lethality of its most virulent proxy’s missile capabilities—and in the process, fundamentally alter the strategic equation facing decision makers in Jerusalem. “In the past, we could ignore some percentage of the missiles fired by Hezbollah, because we knew they would be inaccurate and wouldn’t hit their intended targets,” one Israeli expert told me. “Now, we don’t have that guarantee.”
This, in turn, threatens to lock Israel into an economic “war of attrition” in which the Jewish state is forced to expend disproportionate resources to intercept comparatively cheap Hezbollah missiles. Given the size of the group’s current arsenal, the prospects of doing so are potentially economically ruinous.
In response, Israel’s options are essentially threefold. The country could adopt a wholly defensive posture, relying on existing anti-missile systems and new technologies now in development to deal with the incipient precision missile threat. Such a strategy may indeed suffice, but Israeli defense research—much of which is conducted in collaboration with the United States—is currently limited by an Obama-era Memorandum of Understanding that makes it difficult for America to surge funds to Israel and spur faster technological development as needs dictate.
Alternatively, Israel could embrace deterrence, seeking to shape Hezbollah behavior through offensive action. This, effectively, is the strategy that the Israeli military is currently pursuing via airstrikes and bombings that raise the costs to Hezbollah and Iran of continuing work on sophisticated missiles. But there is no guarantee that such an approach will prompt the necessary restraint on the part of Hezbollah. According to the Israeli Defence Forces, the terror group is actively preparing for a major offensive, one whose “main effort” will entail the “firing hundreds of rockets and missiles at Israel per day.”
In the face of such a plan, the most realistic option may well be a resumption of full-scale hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah. In any such conflict, Israel will seek to bring overwhelming force to bear against the group and decisively dismantle its strategic arsenal and operational capabilities.
That possibility is certainly a worrying one for a weary Israeli public, which is loathe to embark upon yet another regional conflict. Yet, more and more, officials in Jerusalem appear convinced that the current period of relative calm—what Israelis have taken to calling the “campaign between the wars”—has run its course, and that decisive action will be unavoidable to truly reduce the latest iteration of the Iranian threat.
Ilan Berman is senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, DC.
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