+++++++++++++
The US Should Make a Stand in Lebanon to Push Back Against Iran’s Ambitions
By Russell Berman via The Hill
By Russell Berman via The Hill
Russell Berman writes that American leaders cannot afford to maintain a singular focus on negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, while paying little or no attention to the economic and political crisis in Lebanon. Berman believes that it is crucial for America to help stabilize the small Arab country in order to prevent possible crises with broader geopolitical implications, including increased levels of Islamic extremism, a new wave of refugees into Europe, the opportunity for Hezbollah to consolidate power in Lebanon, and expanded Russian and Iranian influence in the Middle East.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Do you believe in the tooth fairy? I once did, not sure anymore if it involved government.
On Wednesday, Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, was interviewed...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Caroline Glick's view:
Biden Is Iran's Survival Strategy | Opinion
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Biden takes powerful stand:
https://townhall.com/columnist
https://townhall.com/columnist
Biden Team Invites Cuba to Investigate and Critique US Human Rights Violation
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Democrats have become the party of the elite:
Class—the Word We Dare Not Speak
The Left does not wish to admit it has become the party of wealth.
By Victor Davis Hanson
How often during the last year of woke, have middle- and lower-class Americans listened to multimillionaires of all races and genders lecture them on their various pathologies and oppressions?
Million-dollar-a year university presidents virtue signal on the cheap their own sort of “unearned white privilege.”
Multimillionaire Meghan Markle and the Obamas, from their plush estates, indict Americans for their biases.
Former Black Lives Matter founder and cultural Marxist Patrisse Khan-Cullors Brignac decries the oppressive victimization she and others have suffered—from one of her four newly acquired homes.
Do we need another performance-art sermon on America’s innate unfairness from a Hollywood billionaire such as Beyoncé, Jay-Z, or Oprah Winfrey—or a multimillion-dollar-per year Delta Airlines or Coca-Cola CEO?
During the 1980s cultural war, the Left’s mantra was “race, class, and gender.” Occasionally we still hear of that trifecta, but the class part has now increasingly dropped out.
The neglect of class is ironic given that dozens of recent studies conclude class differences are widening as never before.
Middle-class incomes among all races have stagnated and family net worth has declined. Far greater percentages of rising incomes go to the already rich. Student debt, mostly a phenomenon of the middle and lower classes, has hit $1.7 trillion dollars.
States like California have bifurcated into Medieval-style societies. The state’s progressive coastal elite can boast of some of the highest incomes in the nation. But in the more conservative north and central interior nearly a third of the population lives below the poverty line, explaining why one of every three American welfare recipients lives in California.
California’s heating and cooling, gasoline, and housing—the stuff of life—are the highest in the continental United States. Most of these spiraling costs are attributable to polices embraced by an upper-class elite—in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and marquee universities—whose incomes shield them from the deleterious consequences of their utopian bromides. The poor and middle class have no such insulation.
So why are we not talking about class?
First, we are watching historic changes in political alignment.
The two parties are switching class constituents. Sixty-five percent of Americans making over $500,000 are now Democrats. Seventy-four percent of those who earn under $100,000 are Republicans. Gone are the days of working people voting automatically Democratic or Republicans caricatured as a party of stockbrokers on golf courses.
By 2018, Democrats controlled all 20 of the wealthiest congressional districts. In the recent presidential primaries and general election, 17 out of the 20 wealthiest zip codes gave money overwhelmingly to Democratic candidates.
Increasingly, the Democrats are a bicoastal party of professional elites of corporate America, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, the media, universities, entertainment, and professional sports. All made out like bandits during 21st-century globalization.
Democrats have lost the most support among working-class whites, especially in the interior of the country. But they are also fast forfeiting backing among the Hispanic middle class, and just beginning to lose solidarity among similarly situated African-Americans.
The Left does not wish to admit it has become the party of wealth. All too often its stale revolutionary speechifying sounds more like penance arising from guilt than genuine advocacy for the middle class of all races.
The wealthy leftist elite has mastered the rhetoric of ridicule for the lower middle classes, especially struggling whites. Multimillionaires Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden wrote off their political opponents as supposedly crude, superstitious, and racist, in smearing them as “clingers,” “deplorables,” irredeemables,” “dregs,” and “chumps.”
Class is also fluid; race is immutable. So by fixating on race, the Left believes that it can divide America into permanent victimizers and victims—at a time when race and class are increasingly disconnecting.
The wealthy of all races are the loudest voices of the woke movement. Their frequent assumptions of “victimhood” are absurd.
Americans who struggle to pay soaring gas, food, energy, and housing prices are weekly berated for their “white privilege” that is “unearned,” by an array of rich network and cable television news hosts, well-paid academics, media elite, and corporate CEOs.
Note that the woke military is the brand of four-star admirals and generals, and retired top brass on corporate boards, not of the enlisted. Multimillionaire CEOs bark at the nation for their prejudices, not saleswomen and company truck drivers.
America is a plutocracy, not a genocracy. Wealth, not race, now more likely ensures one power, influence and the good life.
In the pre-Civil Rights past, race was often fused to class, and the two terms were logically used interchangeably to cite oppression and inequality.
But such a canard is fossilized. And so are those who desperately cling to it.
The more the elites scream their woke banalities, the more they seem to fear that they, not most Americans, are the real privileged, the coddled, the pampered—and sometimes the victimizers.
About Victor Davis Hanson
Victor Davis Hanson is a distinguished fellow of the Center for American Greatness and the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. He is an American military historian, columnist, a former classics professor, and scholar of ancient warfare. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush. Hanson is also a farmer (growing raisin grapes on a family farm in Selma, California) and a critic of social trends related to farming and agrarianism. He is the author most recently of The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won and The Case for Trump.
+++
BLM and Cuba:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ross continues to Rant:
Consumer inflation expectations are reaching high levels and rising. When consumers believe prices will go up materially, they tend to buy more sooner, which just pushes prices higher as demand increases. As home prices continue to rise, and as the stock market continues to rise, people feel wealthier, and since they have a lot of excess savings now, and low debt, there will continue to be increased spending and potentially increased inflation for the next few months. At 5.4% annualized inflation there is a long way to come back down especially with very high producer prices this month. Lumber industry sources say prices are forecast to go back up. However here are some offsets to inflation we were unaware of. The Fed is buying bonds at the same rate, however they are using daily reverse repos to recoup the cash back from the banks to neutralize their bond buying. In short they are sucking up the excess cash they just put into the system through bond buying, by issuing repos to the banks which means the banks in essence give back the cash and take back the bonds in an overnight transaction, so there is little net new cash into the system from bond buying by the Fed. This makes a huge difference. In addition, of the 5.4%, one third is used car prices. This month used car prices are down a little. These two things may partially explain why the ten year is not over 2%. It is more Fed manipulation. It is also why gold is stable and not rising, and why the dollar is somewhat stable right now. On the other hand gas prices are moving up, as are food prices, and consumers (voters) see that every day.
The administration is pushing ahead with the 15% international tax plan. I have heard some in Wall St say 15% is not such a big issue as to really matter. In my view that is wrong thinking. The analysis needs to be who is best to have control of that cash, and how will it best be deployed to grow the economy and raise wages and increase jobs. To me that is a simple answer. Big international companies use their cash to invest in growth, and then hire and raise wages. Just look at Amazon growing, and hiring over 100,000 new people. It is a productive use of the cash in most cases. If they give that cash to the government, they have less to use for these things that grow the economy and the employees standard of living. It also means US companies lose some level of ability to compete with Chinese companies since this will hit more US businesses than others. If they give that cash to the government, the money then gets partly eaten up paying bureaucrats to process and allocate the cash, and then to track it. The remainder goes to mostly wasteful programs that pay people not to be motivated to work, or it pays women to have babies, or it goes to other wasteful uses. There are now no longer work requirements to get any entitlement money.
The government collects enough in taxes. If so much was not wasted we would have the cash to build the military faster to counter China, to improve the infrastructure, and to do research on things the private sector can't risk doing on its own. So in the end, the right way to view this is, who can utilize the cash more productively and efficiently, and we all know the answer to that. Keep in mind the Dems also want to raise corporate taxes to 28% and personal taxes. That makes the above argument even more compelling. Diverting all that added cash to Bernie to spend $3.5 trillion on his socialist agenda would be a material misuse of cash, and would inhibit economic growth and wages. If they want to make the tax code more "fair" and efficient, they need to look at all the junk in the code that allows some to take advantage of special deductions that were pushed through by lobbyists. I am not a tax expert, so I can't site specifics, but I know from all my years in business and Wall St that there are a variety of special deductions that could be eliminated, or modified, so that these special tax breaks do not skew investment decisions.
In case you wondered how the administration came to the economic policies, and the new "competitive policies" regulations they are trying to implement, it is based on what in my view, is very flawed research. Those studies claim that large companies margins have increased substantially, which falsely they claim means they are raising prices due to little competition. False. The real reason margins are better is costs have been materially reduced by technology, and by sending some manufacturing offshore. We see that inflation has been very low for many years, but profits have risen materially. Just that alone is evidence that lower costs are the reason for better margins since prices until now have been stable or reducing vs greater value being delivered. The Dem economists ignore the great value added to most products which are sold for the same or similar prices as a couple of years ago. Just take your phone. Today it does lots of things very fast that were not possible just a few years ago. They go on to claim small companies create a smaller share of new jobs. With AMZN hiring hundreds of thousands it is hard for small companies to add jobs at the same rate as companies like AMZN does. In addition, many start-up companies today are a couple of people sitting in front of computers, and not factories with many more staff as in the past. The academics do not have a valid way of measuring this complete change in what businesses are most start-ups today vs 20 years ago, thus how does that impact number hired. This same researcher claims the economy has become less dynamic (pre-pandemic) . He fails to say unemployment hit record lows in 2019, and poverty dropped substantially, and the GINI values improved, thus reducing inequality. That is impossible to do if the economy is not dynamic. They ignore that things like cell service requires billions of investment, and small companies cannot do what is needed-(T Mobile-Sprint merger) . They ignore that in some businesses today, the tech investment required to be most efficient is very costly. They also ignore that bigger profits mean higher wages and higher stock prices, which means a lower cost of capital, which means better ability to invest and upgrade systems, which leads to lower costs and lower prices-(other than the Covid caused supply chain and labor issues we now have). Venture capital funds are as busy as ever and writing much bigger checks. Startups increased materially under Trump as the deregulation policies allowed much greater flexibility. So this whole policy of attacking business due to supposed lack of competition is based on false premises and bad data.
Combine the Dem push for a minimum world tax, minimum US tax of 21% for corporations, 28% corporate taxes and 43% cap gains taxes, plus the massive new regulations which will be issued to "improve competitiveness", plus a massive spending spree on socialist entitlement programs, and the US economy will tank, and inflation will really take hold. This is a set of policies that are far left, and very destructive.
In the next week the EU plans to release a proposed carbon tariff. It says that every product imported must show how much carbon it created, and pay a tax on that. Apparently EU companies must do something like this now, and so the tariff is supposed to even the cost structure so EU products can compete. Now if you are like me you say -and just how does one determine the carbon creation or usage. By some sort of expensive audit of some type. A wonderful use of corporate cash. You may wonder how they even do this. I have no idea, but it sounds like classic EU bureaucracy run amok. It is questionable if this will ever really be implemented, but it is a further example of how the world is doing really stupid things in the name of climate change when as we now know, there is little truly reliable data and modeling on which to base such costly policies. These are the same people who screamed how bad it was that Trump was imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum. The world is running full speed to stop "climate change" which we know is happening with or without human input, and is unstoppable as it has been for eons.
How worrisome is a delta virus breakout in the fall. 88.7% of people over 65 have been vaccinated, and another percentage have become immune from having had the virus. So it is likely over 92% of the most vulnerable are immune. 67.5% over 18 are vaccinated and say another 10% are naturally immune from having contracted it. So maybe 77% are immune, and another 500,000 are getting shots every day so by mid-September another 30 million will have shots at the current rate - that is another 9-10% of the population. So 75% of all over 12 will be vaccinated and another 10%-15% will be immune from having had the virus. Kids under 18 are rarely contracting it, so 15% of the population is unlikely to get sick. So while there are some people who foolishly will not get a shot, and may get sick from the Delta variant, there will not be any mass infection rate other than maybe places like AL or AK where the vaccination rate is very low. 99.95% of new cases are unvaccinated people. If that happens it will not materially impact GDP. Ignore all the press and Fauci fear mongering that we are starting to hear about Delta. Reality is the most vulnerable to getting sick- over 65, are mostly all immune now. Even the top Wall St analytical firm is grossly over reacting putting out a statement that said, "Delta variant wreaks havoc". Total nonsense. Many are not going back to the office full time for a variety of other reasons- they like working from home 2-3 days a week, in NYC they want to stay out of Manhattan to avoid city taxes and crime, they moved to the suburbs and learned it is not fun to commute, their job can be done just as well from home or a satellite office. Delta is not the real issue for most of these people, since most are already vaccinated. The US is very widely vaccinated or naturally immune, so the impact on the economy of Delta will not be much, and the US is in much better position than most of the world thanks to Warp Speed. Therefore the US stock market will be the place to invest for several months.
As a result of the lockdowns there were an added 21,000 drug overdose deaths in 2020. We don't have a count yet of how many more people died needlessly due to the lock down from cancer, heart and other diseases that did not get detected in time, nor how many suffered mental illness that would not have happened otherwise.
We spent 4 years of lies and hyperbole from Trump, but Joe is seemingly trying to outdo him. His speech on the voting law changes being put through in red states was a set of lies and hyperbole from start to finish. It seems clear nobody in the White House ever took an American history course about the Jim Crow era, the civil rights laws of the sixties and seventies, and they ignore that minority turn out was the highest in history in 2020. 70% of blacks favor voter ID, but Dems are trying to stop it claiming blacks and people in rural areas can't get IDs. Kamala's line that people in rural areas can't photocopy their IDs was as stupid and insulting as Hilary's deplorables. At this rate of Dem mistakes and bad policy, and the cost of food and gas, plus crime and illegal immigration, on top of what is being taught in schools, if Republicans do not sweep in 2022, they have only themselves to blame.
Since I often talk about proportionality, consider this: in the worst year in Afghanistan 498 US soldiers died, and not all from combat. In Chicago in 2020: 3,261 people were shot and 769 were murdered-just in Chicago, and most were blacks killed by a black shooter. 2021 is going to be much worse. So what do the Dems scream about, cops shooting a black guy who was resisting arrest and had a gun, or who was shooting at a cop. The press likes to say blacks get shot by cops in greater proportion than whites. They do not balance that with blacks are involved proportionately in more violent crime episodes and shootings than whites which leads to proportionately more blacks getting shot. We need the press and politicians to start dealing with reality, and not hyped exaggerations. If black lives really mattered to the press or politicians they would be doing something about all the killing happening, and put an end to no bail, and get rid of judges who release criminals to do it again and again. Broken windows policing and stop and frisk would be brought back. It worked wonders in NYC under Giuliani, Bratton and Ray Kelly. It is mainly blacks getting shot, so if they really cared, they would be open about that, and not claim it is gun sellers. Criminals don't go buy a gun in a store and then register it. There are loads of illegal guns for sale on the street. Biden had a nice photo op with his crime meeting this week, but it accomplished zero.
Bentley College in MA, is now offering a degree in "diversity, equity, and inclusion". In short a degree in how to be an officer in a corporation or agency to enforce anti-white rules and regulations. They are just the first. Davidson College is offering a course called "Abolish the Police". Bard College has a course "Abolishing Prisons and Police". This is what they learn in universities today. You will now see this spread to many schools by 2022, and this will result in a flood of these anti-white, anti-police graduates going forth to preach the gospel of, it is all white supremacy and systemic racism that keeps blacks from success, not hard work or culture. Big companies will hire them so they can say, look at us, we have a whole department of these people to prove we are not racist. So now universities will be teaching courses in why you should hate white men and cops. This is liberal education now. Find out what courses your school teaches before you donate anything. 150 corporations are now out with anew letter re voting rights so they can look "woke". More irresponsible PR social media hyperbole.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Amazing how the mass media is full of clams when it comes to Democrats, BLM, Hunter and "Pop."
Things just got a lot more complicated for President Biden, thanks to the shady actions of his son Hunter.
We all know that Hunter Biden probably deserves to be in prison. He's gone from one controversy to another since before his father Joe landed in the White House.
But a new report from a government watchdog group is turning up the heat on Joe over the possibility that he benefited from Hunter's less-than-ethical business dealings.
The Government Accountability Institute claims that information from Hunter's infamous laptop shows Joe Biden was a "direct beneficiary" of his son's shady business relationships.
You can read the alarming claims right here and decide for yourself.
And:
Biden never amounted to much as a politician other than getting re-electing and making a fool out of himself.. No legislation in his name, basically been wrong on every major cross-road decision and now let's look at more of his stupidity:
a) He helped over 10,000 well paid, highly qualified energy technicians lose their jobs.
b) In conjunction with "a" he helped cripple a host of thriving communities
c) In conjunction with "a" he drove oil prices up causing erosion in American consumer buying power as government was filling their tanks with wasteful and inflationary cash.
d) In conjunction with "c" Biden turned America back into an energy dependent nation while helping Russia open their pipeline so Putin could turn his into a profitable venture which made all of Europe more energy dependent on Russia and less so on American gas exports.
e) The Biden Administration extended rent forgiveness and this has had a crushing effect on landlords who must continue to meet their mortgage payments while renters are free to spend their subsidies on whatever suited their desires and it also increased the opportunity of Americans not to seek work since they made more sitting on their fattening butts.
e) As a consequence of "e" America's economy has dragged, inflation is driven higher as employers bid higher wages for workers and suffer in their own profit column and doubly so because of supply chain constraints, again due to reduced employment and manufacturing capabilities.
f) Virtually everything Biden has done has increased inflation, led to a national moral decline, slowed the economy's opening, hurt the lowest socio-economic level and strengthened our adversaries. It took our idiot president only 6 months to basically undo what Trump accomplished prior to COVID19.
g) Oh, by the way, killings have continued, police remain targeted and dysfunctioning, ant-Semitism is on the rise, and a new effort to attack American education has spread throughout our public school system as labor unions join in CRT blame game hypocrisy.
Cities and states, run by either black mayors or white liberals, continue to suffer and deteriorate, and no telling what the prospects of creeping inflation and higher taxes will do as China distances itself economically, militarily and diplomatically through Silk Road expansion and financing offers etc..
Finally:
The current issue of The Naval War College Review is one of the best ever.
The first article discusses the complete recasting of the IDF in view of the next war Israel believes it will have to defend against and with Hamas and Hezbollah.. As a result, the IDF has reduced reliance on tanks, large battalions and troop numbers and more on smaller specialized units as well as increased technology and it’s Air Force,
It has also reduced the time of compulsory service for many whose numbers are no longer deemed necessary and offered opportunities in other military ranks, specialties and units.
The second article discusses Israel’s need to become a major regional naval power because it must protect it’s vast gas discoveries and Turkish claims that defy territorial boundaries and own growing fleet and aggressive behavior towards Greece and Cypress,
The article discusses, in depth, the emphasis Israel has always placed on being land centrist and how it has evolved against compelling odds to become receptive to demands to devote resources and training so as to become a regional naval power.
The third article is chilling because it demands the reader understand the implications of China’s dominance as a naval threat both militarily as well as commercially. With respect to the latter. China has become a dominant force in every facet of naval capability while America has become a former dominant maritime nation.
The implications are depressing because we will inevitably become increasingly dependent upon China in terms of leasing their growing fleet of ship bottoms, China's control of world port facilities, including the Panama Canal, China's economic ability to intimidate entire nations and ability to bend them to their will.
One very simple example was China's successful demand that a foreign airline fire an hostess who criticized China on her blog site.
A more encompassing example was China's severing business with Australia for negative comments expressed by The Australian Government regarding COVID 19. China has ceased all Australian lobster purchases and other commercial activities.
America is so far behind the eight ball regarding our ability to meet potential Chinese threats it has reached alarming proportions.
What America has allowed to happen regarding it’s naval dominance is truly depressing. We became our own enemy. Woe is us because, in time, China will be in a position to dictate policy, to raise prices on critical goods, to control the open seas and force us into becoming an ever shrinking influential nation. We allowed ourselves to become short sighted and the price will be constant, inevitable and possibly beyond our ability to correct considering our growing financial weakness and dependency.
Hell, in time, we might not even be able to pay reparations demanded by angry blacks who hate our nation yet refuse to leave and seek greater opportunities elsewhere.
+++
The attached WSJ op Ed simply validates what I have telling readers in my memos for decades.
If War Comes, Will the U.S. Navy Be Prepared?
A new report details a culture of bureaucracy and risk-aversion that is corroding readiness.
By Kate Bachelder Odell
Is the U.S. Navy ready for war? A new report prepared by Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle and Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, both retired, for members of Congress paints a portrait of the Navy as an institution adrift. The report, first reported by the Journal and commissioned by Sen. Tom Cotton, Reps. Mike Gallagher, Dan Crenshaw and Jim Banks, concludes that the surface Navy is not focused on preparing for war and is weathering a crisis in leadership and culture.
The impetus for the report was a series of recent catastrophes—a ship burning in San Diego last year; two destroyer collisions in the Pacific in 2017. Were these isolated events? Or did they indicate “larger institutional issues that are degrading the performance of the entire naval surface force”? The report surveyed active and recently retired service members of various ranks, conducting 77 candid hourlong interviews. A key finding: “Many sailors found their leadership distracted, captive to bureaucratic excess, and rewarded for the successful execution of administrative functions” rather than core competencies of war.
“I guarantee you every unit in the Navy is up to speed on their diversity training,” said one recently retired senior enlisted leader. “I’m sorry that I can’t say the same of their ship-handling training.”
Adm. Montgomery told me in an interview over the weekend that when he was a junior officer in the 1980s there was “an intense focus” on a likely confrontation with the Soviet navy—learning about classes of ships or the missiles aboard. After decades without a peer adversary at sea, “the same focus is not permeating the Navy today.”
The Navy has improved its pipeline for surface-warfare officers since the 2017 collisions, reversing a 2003 money-saving mistake of training junior officers by giving them 23 compact discs loaded with reading material. But the Navy doesn’t spend the money and time training surface warfare officers that it does submariners or aviators, and has revamped training so many times, usually in an effort to spend even less money, that commanding officers are left with “inconsistent, often ill-prepared wardrooms.”
Civilian Pentagon appointees of both parties have been poor stewards of the surface Navy’s capabilities. The report estimates that 20 ships a year are extended on deployment, and keeping them at sea creates “a host of problems.” The ship is late to postdeployment maintenance, which can mess up the yard’s schedule for work on other ships. Longer deployments tend to mean more repairs, and delays can cut into training time.
The report also details a deep culture of risk aversion: If the missiles start flying, will a destroyer captain be ready to make quick decisions and take calculated risks, even if his communications are jammed and he can’t reach his superiors?
Historically, ship captains couldn’t reach the higher-ups while at sea and had to make decisions on their own. The price of absolute authority was “the cruel business of accountability,” as a 1952 editorial in this newspaper called it. Now admirals can micromanage “from the comfort of terrestrial headquarters,” as the report puts it. A ship captain quoted in the report recalled his experience of escorting ships through the Strait of Hormuz. “Every single time I knew in the back of my head” that admirals “were literally watching the cameras on my ship second-guessing every single thing I did.”
Commanders have less authority but brutal accountability. In the report, sailors expressed “near universal disdain” for a “one mistake Navy” that defenestrates leaders who make an error. It’s a “drag on retention, lethality and morale.” Former Navy Secretary John Lehman ticks off in the report the five-star admirals who won World War II and their mistakes: Bill Halsey “was constantly getting in trouble for bending the rules or drinking too much”; Chester Nimitz “put his first command on the rocks”; Ernie King was “a womanizer.” They were punished at times, but Navy leadership always realized “these were very, very promising” officers. None, he concludes, could have made it past captain in today’s Navy.
Note also an illustration that captured this mentality in practice from a recent piece in Proceedings magazine. During an overseas exercise (the article doesn’t say when), a U.S. destroyer and a British frigate “traded some paint,” a minor run-in. “The next day at a gunnery exercise, the British ship was on the gun line, and the U.S. ship was headed to port to embark the investigation team.”
Then there is the unhealthy fear of bad publicity. After negative news stories, the report found, “the senior ranks are perceived as quick to sacrifice junior personnel” to save their own tails. Discipline is “bent to the unsteady whims of public perception, not the Navy’s own standards and regulations.”
A command master chief told sailors to “clap like we’re at a strip club” when Vice President Mike Pence came aboard the carrier. He resigned, his 30-year career ending after one misjudgment. Admirals “hide in foxholes at the first sight of Military.com and the Military Times,” said one intelligence officer.
China will be the big topic when Carlos Del Toro, President Biden’s nominee for Navy secretary, appears before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. Perhaps Mr. Del Toro, a former destroyer captain, can shake the Navy awake. As the new report notes in closing, there isn’t much time for learning once war is under way.
Mrs. Odell is an editorial writer for the Journal.
++++++++++++++++++++
Good News Israel By Ordman (edited.)
-
In the 18th July 21 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
Israeli tech restores the sense of touch and helps the blind to “see”.
Celebrating Israel’s first deaf MK and its first visually impaired doctor.
Israel’s second moonshot project gets huge funding boost.
Israeli scientists have made another breakthrough in nano-optics.
Israeli technology to pollinate a million Australian tomato plants.
Three archaeological discoveries cement the Jewish link to the Land of Israel.
President Herzog is inaugurated.
Best,
Michael
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
Restoring touch sense to damaged nerves. (TY UWI) Tel Aviv University researchers have developed the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) sensor that can be implanted in the body, e.g., under the tip of a severed finger. It connects to another nerve that functions properly and restores tactile sensation to the injured nerve.
https://en-engineering.tau.ac.il/Engineering-Faculty-Dr-Ben-Maoz-Restoring-Tactile-Sensation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncoE-w6I7AE https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsnano.0c10141
Blind man can see with sound. (TY UWI & JNS) Israeli neuroscientists have trained a 50-year-old man, blind from birth, to recognize objects using Israel’s EyeMusic (see here previously). The system uses sensory substitution that EyeMusic’s Professor Amir Amedi researched at the Hebrew University (see here previously).
https://www.israel21c.org/blind-mans-brain-learns-to-see-through-his-ears/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921003062?via%3Dihub
Keep your feet. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Votis Subdermal Imaging Technologies develops devices to diagnose Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) affecting 200+ million people globally. The condition affects mainly diabetics and can lead to Chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) with the subsequent need to amputate the feet.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/votis-subdermal-imaging-technologies-raises-us2-5-million-301302733.html https://www.votis.net/
Portable ultrasound heads to space. Israel’s UltraSight (see here previously) is starting clinical trials of its portable ultrasound device in the US and Israel. It will also be tested by Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe as part of the Israel Space Agency’s upcoming Rakia mission on the International Space Station.
https://www.israel21c.org/putting-ultrasound-in-the-hands-of-all-doctors/
Repairing the heart. Israel’s Cardiac Success is developing a transcatheter ventricular repair device for heart failure patients. The “V-sling” system aims to transform invasive open-heart surgery on patients with Reduced Ejection Fraction (HFrEF) into a safe and effective minimally invasive transcatheter procedure.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3911698,00.html https://www.cardiacsuccess.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze_cQPAkIMo
Know your Health Plan member. Israel’s Medorion uses behavioral intelligence software to provide health insurers with an in-depth understanding of their plan members. It helps the companies retain customers by addressing members’ needs, improving medical conditions and helping members balance health against cost.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3911926,00.html https://medorion.com/
Covid vaccine boosters. Israel’s Health Ministry has authorized Israel’s healthcare providers to give a third anti-Covid-19 vaccination to adults with impaired immune systems. Israel is the first country to provide boosters to patients who do not develop sufficient antibody response after two doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-world-first-covid-boosters-rolled-out-for-some-at-risk-israelis/
Israel’s Covid vaccine. The Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) (see here previously) has signed an agreement with Israeli-founded NRx Pharmaceuticals. NRx will complete Phase 2 / 3 trials and commercialize IIBR’s “BriLife” COVID vaccine. Clinical trials will be completed in the Ukraine, Georgia and Israel.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309717
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-nrx-to-commercialize-israels-covid-19-vaccine-1001377983
Solving healthcare challenges. The PlayBeyondBio initiative has selected nine Israeli startups for its program for companies developing solutions for future challenges to healthcare systems. C2i Genomics, Nucleai, Itamar medical, Medial Earlysign, iBex, Octopus.health, Imagene, iCardio.ai and Cordio Medical.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912456,00.html
Saving children during epidemic. (TY WIN) Israeli NGO ‘Save a Child’s Heart’ (SACH) has been saving hundreds of lives during the Covid-19 pandemic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRAxjlgZ8ZA
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
Deaf MK’s unites Knesset. Shirly Pinto, Israel's first deaf Member of Knesset, delivered a speech entirely in sign language from the Knesset plenum. At the end of her address, the entire Knesset stood up and applauded, both by clapping and in sign-language. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, “You are an inspiration to us all.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309729
The doctor will see you now. Keren Amiel has congenital nystagmus, which causes her eyes to “dance” uncontrollably. As one of this year’s 241 Technion medical graduates, she is Israel’s first visually impaired doctor and has started residency in child and adolescent psychiatry at Schneider Children’s Medical Center.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2021/07/keren-amiel-md-technion-visually-impaired/
Israeli Druze is coronavirus tzar. (TY Hazel) Druze epidemiologist Professor Salman Zarka is Israel’s new coronavirus commissioner. Previously Director-general of Ziv Medical Centre in Safed and IDF colonel, he established and commanded the IDF field hospital in the Golan to treat Syrians wounded in their civil war.
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/prof-salman-zarka-appointed-as-next-coronavirus-commissioner-673817
No disposables on Ashdod beach. Ashdod city council has banned disposable products and bags from being brought onto its beaches. It is a continuation of Ashdod’s “green” vision, which includes being the first Israeli city, four years ago, to replace disposables with reusable dishes at schools, afternoon programs and daycares.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309488
Above and beyond for the greater good. Israeli NGO Together&Beyond equips Jewish and Arab young adults with social entrepreneurial and professional tools. Its founder Ditsa Keren, also co-founded FoodChain with a Palestinian Arab partner, connecting businesses with surplus food to charities that are in need of food.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912352,00.html
Rehabilitating primates. (TY Stuart) The non-profit Israeli Primate Sanctuary Foundation (IPSF) is a refuge for 850 primates rescued or retired from biomedical research, petting zoos and the exotic pet trade. Thousands more have been rescued over the years and given a second chance to live as monkeys amongst monkeys.
https://www.ipsf.org.il/en/ https://haifadiarist.blogspot.com/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eaqiE18QH-GHYDcg43hVuGUC2g_nmhoQ/view
International drones. (TY JNS) The Israeli Air Force hosted an international drone exercise for the first time. Aviation teams from the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and France have joined the IAF for the drill, which will run for two weeks and see drones fly primarily over the Palmachim airbase in central Israel.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/07/14/in-first-iaf-hosts-international-drone-exercise/
First agriculture agreements with UAE. Israel has signed its first cooperation agreements with the United Arab Emirates in the field of agriculture. It covers research and innovation, including development of produce suitable for growing in desert conditions, as well as other advancements in water management and irrigation.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-signs-first-agricultural-agreements-with-the-uae/
UAE embassy in Israel. The United Arab Emirates physically opened its embassy in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange building in June (see here previously). Now, at the official opening, UAE Ambassador Mohamed Al Khaja said it would provide a model for new narrative and approach for conflict resolution in the Middle East.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/just-the-beginning-uae-opens-tel-aviv-embassy-as-sides-hail-ties/
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309840
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-eCuQHUQxo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4KUBCPXpxk
Miami mayor thanks IDF team. (TY WIN) The IDF search-and-rescue team that traveled to Miami last month in the wake of the recent disaster was praised effusively before flying home over the weekend. Miami Dade County’s Mayor presented them with medals, saying they “would never ever forget what you have done”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odZgZmdSkq0
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Beresheet 2 gets funding. (TY WIN) Israel’s SpaceIL has raised $70 million from investors for Beresheet 2 - its second mission to the lunar surface, to launch in 2024. It is the first ever lunar mission attempting to land two small crafts detaching from a mothership. One aims to be only the second craft to land on the far side.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-spaceil-shoots-for-the-moon-for-second-time-raises-70-million/
Florida-Israel Space Prizes. (TY JNS) There were 4 winners of the 2021 Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program. They include an antenna for satellites (MTI); nanoparticle materials to cool down objects using sunlight; recycling plastic into radiation protection vests; and thermal imaging for microsatellites.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/antennas-and-sunlight-cooling-nanoparticles-win-top-florida-israel-space-prize/
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912254,00.html https://www.mtiwe.com/
Sustainable development. Israel’s Doral Energy (see here previously) is partnering Israel’s Technion Institute in green projects. They include the areas of renewable energy, energy storage, integration of agriculture and solar energy, hydrogen production, carbon capture, waste treatment, water, and environmental infrastructure.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2021/06/technion-dorel-mou-energy/
Green walls to cool buildings. In the first study of its kind, researchers at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University have shown that covering the facades of buildings with plants can reduce temperatures indoors by several degrees in the summer and increase them in winter. The process is called evapotranspiration, which also purifies the air.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/plant-covered-walls-can-tame-summer-heat-israeli-study-finds/
Breakthrough water technology. Israel’s BlueGreen Water Technologies (see here previously) has been named the Global Water Awards “2021 Breakthrough Technology Company of the Year” by Global Water Intelligence (GWI). BlueGreen has transformed cyanobacteria (toxic blue-green algae blooms) treatment.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309758
An intelligent water filter. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Netafim, the world’s pioneer and leading drip irrigation specialist, has launched its AlphaDisc filter to protect irrigation systems against clogging caused by organic contaminants. Its remote sensing system and algorithms also provide farmers with online data and insights.
https://www.netafim.com/en/products-and-solutions/product-offering/filters/disc-filters-alphadisc/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKMrHtdKA3I
Better optics – just add water. Technion scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in the manufacture of nano-sized precise optical components (e.g., medical imaging). If the component is placed in liquid (water plus glycerol), light slows down, and the component needs to be much larger. It can even be printed on a 3D printer.
https://www.technion.ac.il/en/2021/06/advanced-optics-science-industry/
Smarter traffic lights. Israel’s ITC – Intelligent Traffic Control (see here previously) has now successfully tested its smart traffic light technology in Israel and overseas. In this article, the two Ben Gurion University graduate founders tell their story. The system saves time, fuel, emissions and accidents.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912225,00.html https://www.itc-israel.co.il/
Training ex-IDF into hi-tech workers. Israeli non-profit Scale-Up Velocity has launched its Cyber4s program for Israelis finishing IDF combat service. It trains them for a smooth and speedy transition into employment in the hi-tech sector. Its second group of 40 students will graduate mid-July.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3911495,00.html
Hi-tech in the kindergarten. Israel’s next school year will include a new government program that will include computer science, robotics and other fields of study to equip students for future employment in hi-tech. It will launch in middle-schools and will be integrated into elementary schools and eventually in kindergartens.
https://worldisraelnews.com/israel-to-promote-hi-tech-studies-in-kindergartens/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Another record quarter. Investment in Israeli high-tech companies in the 3 months from Apr to Jun 2021 surged to a record $6.52 billion - triple the amount raised in the same quarter the previous year.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-tech-firms-raise-record-6-52b-in-q2-led-by-fintech-and-cybersecurity/
Land of the Unicorns. (TY UWI & I24) Israel has more billion-dollar private companies per capita than any other country. Great video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz_M201g3yg
Expo 2020. (TY WIN & I24 News) Due to Covid, Expo 2020 in Dubai is now to take place from Oct 2021 to Mar 2022 and Israel will be a key exhibitor. Ohad Cohen, head of Israel’s Foreign Trade Administration, discusses Israel’s Expo plans and exports success. Israeli 2021 exports are heading for a $120 billion+ record.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ii0Sh9G8G34&t=19s
Birds of a feather. Israeli startup Aerodrome, which develops unmanned aerial systems for the defense sector, is paying some NIS 15 million for Israel’s FlyTech, which develops drone solutions for the civilian market. The acquisition will help Aerodrome’s plans to expand into the US civilian UAV sector.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912144,00.html https://www.flytechil.com/
https://www.aerodrome-ops.com/home/ https://finder.startupnationcentral.org/company_page/flytech-il
No address, no credit card, no problem. Israeli-Arab startup Haat Delivery in Um Al Fahim delivers food to areas with infrastructure issues, like cities with no addresses, or people with no credit cards and who only pay cash. It delivers 70,000 orders a month to 30 Israeli cities and plans to expand to Africa and South America.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912161,00.html https://www.haat.delivery/
GoTo goes to Madrid. Israel’s GoTo Global (formerly Car2Go) has now deployed its shared cars, motorbikes, bicycles, e-bikes, and electric scooters to the Spanish city of Madrid. GoTo has the largest shared multimodal fleet in Madrid, with over 1,300 vehicles which can be rented by the minute. They include parking places.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hitting-road-to-madrid-israel-firm-offers-variety-of-shared-vehicles-with-1-app/
Coca-Cola and no-cow milk. The Central Bottling Company, also known as Coca-Cola Israel, has signed a strategic agreement with Israeli startup Biomilk (see here previously) to invest and collaborate with the firm to develop products based on its cultured milk technology.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/coca-cola-israel-invests-in-biomilk-to-develop-cultivated-milk-products/
Pollinating Australian tomatoes. The Costa Group, Australia’s leading grower of hydroponic glasshouse tomatoes, is to deploy the pollination robots of Israel’s Arugga (see here previously). At peak production, Costa’s 300,000+ square meters of glasshouses in Guyra, New South Wales, contain over one million plants.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912229,00.html
Chorus.ai exits for $575 million. Business intelligence company ZoomInfo is acquiring Israel’s Chorus.ai (see here previously) for $575 million. Chorus.ai has developed an AI-based system to analyze sales calls. ZoomInfo has about 1,800 employees in the U.S., while its R&D center with 300 employees is located in Israel.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3912362,00.html
Israeli investment for Mnuchin. Liberty Strategic Capital, headed by former US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin (see here previously) has made its first investment. Its funding of Israel’s Cybereason (see here previously), plus funds from elsewhere, triples the value of Cybereason to $3 billion.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-us-treasurer-mnuchin-leads-275-million-funding-in-israeli-cybereason/
Investment in Israeli startups: Cybereason raised $275 million; Aidoc raised $66 million; NoTraffic raised $17.5 million; IVIX raised $13 million; Shopic raised $10 million; Venn raised $10 million; FeelIt raised $7 million; BioMilk raised $2 million;
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT`
Summer in Jerusalem. (TY Sharon) So many events - Design Week, President Herzog’s inauguration, Teddy Park fountain and lights, ice-skating, Beer festival, Wine festival, Street Ball festival, Outline festival, Food trucks, Summer in the neighborhood, concerts, camping in the parks, Silchot tours, Snow Kingdome and more!
http://rjstreets.com/2021/07/11/jerusalem-15-happenings-for-bright-summer/
https://www.jerusalem.muni.il/en/events-and-culture/events-in-jerusalem/?cat=summer#eventsSearchForm
Teaching basketball to Israeli kids. Every year former pro basketball player and the “Jewish Jordan” Tamir Goodman runs a basketball camp for Israeli children. This year, the camp was privileged to have NBA Hall of Famer and retired basketball legend Rick Barry come coach the kids. He also heralded Israel’s innovations.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-nba-hall-of-famer-teaches-israeli-kids-the-art-of-basketball/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1bdW0tiL84
Ironman comes to Israel. The famous grueling triathlon contest Ironman 70.3 will take place for the first time in Israel on 12th Nov. 1,000 athletes from 17 countries signed up for the event within an hour of registration going live. It involves a 1.2-mile swim of the Kinneret, a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run.
https://www.israel21c.org/in-first-ironman-contest-will-come-to-israel-in-november/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCZJ0rqRsM8
THE JEWISH STATE
3,000-year-old Biblical inscription. (TY UWI) A 1,100 BCE inscription has been recovered from excavations in Israel at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Qiryat Gat. It bears the name ‘Jerubbaal’ in alphabetic script, which is recorded in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash who led the Israelites at that time.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309675
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAGwf5S0cnI (For English subtitles, turn on captions and auto-translate)
The Eastern wall of Jerusalem. Just in time for Tisha B’Av – the 9th Av mourning for the destruction of both Temples. 30 meters of the Jerusalem wall (1st Temple period 1000 BCE) has been exposed during excavations in the City of David National Park. The wall is on a slope too steep for the Babylonians to destroy in 586 BCE.
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/07/14/found-missing-section-of-wall-that-defended-jerusalem-until-the-babylonian-conquest/ https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309836
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Wqhf_8itA
Jewish revolt coins found in Samaria. (TY UWI) A coin unearthed in the Binyamin region of Samaria shows that Jews continued to live in the area decades after the Romans destroyed the 2nd Temple. The coin, minted around 134-135 CE, bears the inscription LeHerut Yerushalayim (for the freedom of Jerusalem).
https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/07/13/ancient-coins-could-upend-theories-about-what-followed-the-roman-sack-of-jerusalem/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/2000-year-old-coins-hailing-freedom-of-zion-jerusalem-uncovered-in-west-bank/
The nation state of the Jewish People. In a landmark ruling, Isael’s Supreme Court has upheld the decision of the Knesset in passing the nation-state law. As one judge wrote, its recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish People, “does not hurt the individual rights of any Israeli citizen,” regardless of faith or ethnicity.
https://worldisraelnews.com/supreme-court-upholds-law-recognizing-israel-as-nation-state-of-jewish-people/
President Herzog the 2nd. Isaac Herzog is the 11th President of Israel, replacing Reuven Rivlin. The President was sworn in on the same Bible used to swear in his father Chaim, Israel’s 6th president. His grandfather (later Israel’s Chief Rabbi) Yitzhak Halevi Herzog took it to Europe after the Shoah to rescue hidden Jewish children.
https://video.i24news.tv/details/_6262740135001?lang=en
+++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment