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I meant to read "Start-Up Nation" when it was first published in 2009 but just got around to it because a dear friend and fellow memo reader, learning that I had not done so, sent me a copy.
The book was written by Dan Senor and Saul Singer and tells the story of how Israel became an economic miracle with the largest number of companies listed on our various Stock Exchanges of any foreign nation.
In a sense,Israel , out of necessity, accomplished miracles because Israelis had no choice.
There are several factors that made Israel so accomplished when it comes to start ups:
a) Required Military service provides maturity . Second,Israel's military is not rigid. Every member is charged with responsibilities unheard of in most developed nation's armies.
Israel does a magnificent job of determining who is given the chance to become part of their prized units and being a small country these members link later in life as they enter business and they bring skills they learned in the military to their organizations.
Israelis vie to become part of these prized units as well. Acceptance becomes a prize that later opens doors and creates opportunities.
In America we do not take advantage of our former military personnel who have amazing skills.
b) Israelis have a unique culture. They are not typical, they possess an anti-hierarchical ethos, they have the guts (chutzpah) to challenge authority.
c) Israel's immigration has been a boon because they have one of the highest percentages of qualified engineers and mathematicians and scientists per ca-pita.
d)Israel's universities are among the finest in the world.
e) The government wisely realized the need for capital and devised a strategy to provide matching challenges to outside investors.
If anyone wants to know why Israel excels and its Arab/Muslim enemies, which surround it, fail, I urge them to read this short and insightful book.
Does Israel face challenges beyond that posed by Iran? Yes, as is the case with any successful nation.
Specific to Israel, a big problem is "brain drain." Far too many of their best leave to teach elsewhere.
A second problem facing Israel is the fact that the most religious and Arab Israelis do not participate in the military and thus, the skills learned are not available and they are multiplying and become economic drains.
The final threat to Israel's success is the world's animosity towards Israel. In time, after the
successful receive their quotient of admiration they become envied and then hated. It is happening now in America as The Demwit Party, led by Obama, pits their "enslaved" against our nation's successful. Resentment politics wins votes and saps strength.
I am now starting to read "The Oath" by Jeffrey Toobin. It is about The Obama White House and The Supreme Court.. I will let you know what I learn in a subsequent memo.
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Market action leads me to believe any further downward reaction should now provide an opportunity for those with a long time horizon to begin re-nibbling. If The Fed raises rates at their next meeting it should be mostly discounted. If they do not,the market could react downward on the premise The Fed is concerned about our economic recovery not being strong enough, thereby, providing an even better purchasing level.
Our economy is not that strong but it is moving modestly upward and a Republican victory would , in my humble opinion, be seen as a favorable event, if only for a short period of time. I say this,because historically markets do better when Democrats are in office and not as well when Republicans are in because the latter feel obligated to clean up the mess caused by Democrats and that means placing restraints on government spending which sucks oxygen out of the Demwits inflated balloon act.
But that phenomenon,called Trickle Down,takes time and the media, press and thus, the public, do not have the patience for the private sector engine to work and Republicans like to stay in office and get frightened. Americans also are pain averse, love fast food and fast cars and have no patience with slow economic results that are part and parcel of a large complex and developed economy such as our own. Furthermore, the larger the government the greater are the restraints on any recovery.
Finally, there is the biggest impediment to success and it is called Congress. Most in Congress are more concerned about retaining power, have little faith in Capitalism because Capitalism connotes free markets and anything free means less control and,in turn,less power. Most politicians do not connect the success of America with Capitalism. They believe passing laws,which restrain Capitalists,spreads wealth when, in fact, it restricts wealth development and growth.
I am not suggesting Capitalists should be given unbridled freedom. There needs to be a balance but politicians are incapable of fine tuning. Because of politics and ideological differences they employ the meat ax approach and I cite Dodd-Frank as a prime example. Because Greenspan allowed rates to stay low too long and Progressive do gooders wanted everyone to own a house, whether they could pay the mortgage or not, Wall Street devised vehicles that were suited for the insanity the politicians' policies encouraged and a bubble formed,burst and Wall Street Greed was blamed.
Of course Wall Street is full of greed but D.C is full of stupidity. Mix greed and stupidity and you get chaos. Politicians are adept at offloading blame and Wall Street is always the pigeon because The Street is all about risk and uncertainty. Politicians are risk averse and hate uncertainty because it threatens control and power. Newspapers and the media are always looking for stories and placing blame sells.
This memo goes to a lot of people. Well over 900,'bless their heart' souls. There are some who generally agree with what I write and post and then there are those who do not agree with what I write and post mostly because they do not understand what I write. They do not understand basic economics, have never read Hayek's "Road To Serfdom" and believe money grows on trees and government is a cow with endless udders. They think with their heart, not their head and cannot come to grip with the fact that tops must have bottoms. They believe in fairness, which they cannot define, and bleed every time they see something that tugs at their heart strings. This affliction tends to make them unbalanced in their judgement and reaction. For instance, they feel terrible when a dentist kills a lion yet, do not react comparably when millions of people are slaughtered, driven from their homes, etc.
They believe there are solutions to every ill and government is the way to solve all of man kind's problems while retaining our freedoms. They cannot understand when government fails why it did and are unwilling to admit government mostly fails because you cannot solve a small problem with something that is a big problem.
I understand I will not change most minds but that is not my concern because I get sufficient fulfillment out of writing and do not consider my mission in life is based on how many I can convert like notches on a gun belt. I also am not egotistical enough to believe those who receive my missives actually read them but may prefer not to hurt my feelings,'bless their souls,'though, from time to time, I write something so offensive I get a request to delete them from my memo list as I did recently but then I also get a request to add some poor souls as well.
So life goes on as does the market and we are probably at a point where six months from now a reasonable number of decent stocks will be higher than now and, of course they may not. It all depends on 'climate change' which, as we know,is the greatest threat facing our market or was it the
military? But as our next president. God Forbid, is known to have said: "what difference does it make?"
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Having just returned from Orlando I had a lot of e mails, snail mail, bills, reading material to plow through but I had some thoughts running through my head as well and wanted to get them on paper.
The last one, before I retire, pertains to Hillarious, and was precipitated by an op ed written by my friend, Kim Strassel. (See 1 below.)
There seems to be a redo a week when it comes to Hillarious struggling to be likable and trustworthy enough to be our next president.
In the process of struggling with re-set buttons she denied her private server was a depository of classified material but was open enough to tell us she erased over 30,000 e mails which were about being a grandmother, going to Yoga classes and a few to her off again on again lover - Ole Bill!
When that did not fly, she told us the State Department, over which she presided, added the classifications after the fact but, again, she admitted she knew the difference between classified and unclassified because she was in a position to know the difference.
Then she also told us she would not release these private e mails because they were none of the nation's business and when that did not fly she said that she would because there was nothing in them. The State Department stonewalled a Federal Judge, who said he had enough and now they are being drizzled out like honey to a buzzing public.
But that too only added flames to a crackling fire because it is evident some of her e mails were sensitive enough to go beyond simple low classifications and cartoons are now being printed showing Congress seeking what was in them from China and Russia, so that ploy has not worked either.
Since nothing she has tried is working her staff and handlers have come up with a personal re-do! Go have some interviews, make some jokes, use some make-up, try a new hair do and spin away. That is not working either because Hillarious has been around long enough so we know who is the real person and not the make over. To make matters worse, Hillarious is not cuddly. She is not a warm fuzzy type. In fact, Hillarious is a cold fish, stiff as a door knob and about as funny as a bad joke. In other words Hillarious has proven to be a bomb, an egg layer supreme.
In desperation, she finally admitted hiding from the public was dumb because she has been in the public's eye for more than two third's of her life trying to be our first female president. So her new tack is admit, let it all out. She did this in her first interview but could not bring herself to apologize. So in her second interview she said she was sorry to have blundered and started talking about her mother and teared up! but not enough to make her mascara run because it was as thick as icing on a wedding cake.
So here we are some 6 or more months into her second run for the roses and she is still struggling, Her poll numbers are dropping as if The Good Ship Hillarious hit an ice flow and yet she remains the front runner because The Demwits are frantic at the thought of losing power. Also lurking in the background is the shadow of Doofus but of more concern is that 74 year old Socialist who is running a slick campaign telling everyone, who will listen, he is proud to be a Socialist. When asked what being a Socialist might mean for our Republic most are incapable of responding because they are still grappling with comprehending Hope and Change!
Now some of you will say I need to be more respectful of Miss Hillary and I suspect you are correct because this is not Israel where even an alligator cannot take the beating administered by the voters of their chosen leaders. Not to be combative, however, I ask why must I be respectful of someone who has shown little respect for me and some 300 million other Americans and this goes back over 40 years?
You reap what you sow and Miss Hillary has been lying for virtually all her life and it became increasingly evident when she entered the public arena and tried to take our health care away, made a slick fortune on back dated cattle futures in a day and you know the endless rest.
No, I think I will continue to be less than respectful of those who take me for a fool and that includes those on both sides of the aisle, come in all colors and shades of humankind etc. because it is my only defense to the contempt shown me by those who profess they desire to serve and seek my support.
Orwell predicted the government would eventually tell me how to think and what to think and I am convinced that day is coming but until it does I get joy in being disrespectful of those who deserve nothing less.
My father once replied to a judge who threatened he would hold him in contempt; 'judge, you cannot comprehend the contempt I have for this court.' And so it goes at 3 AM!
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John Bolton is a good man and could become Trump's Secretary of State. (See 3 below.)
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Then and now according to SIRC's next year's President Day Dinner Speaker. (See 4 below.)
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Dick
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1)
The Department of Hillary
How it is that the nation’s diplomatic corps has become an arm of the Clinton presidential campaign?
The candidate at a press conference in Ankeny, Iowa, Aug. 26. PHOTO: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS
Whatever the Clinton campaign is paying Mark Toner, it ain’t enough. Oh, wait; it isn’t anything. Which is interesting.
Mark Toner, you see, is a federal employee. Technically, he’s a spokesman for the State Department. This isn’t always clear, though, especially when the nimble Mr. Toner takes to the podium to ferociously defend the putative Democratic nominee six ways from Election Day. Hillary Clinton’s communications gurus Jennifer Palmieri and Nick Merrill—they do a fine job. But Mr. Toner? He’s the bomb.
And he’s not alone. Since the dawn of the Clinton email scandal, the entire State Department has been vigorously protecting Hillary Clinton. Whatever the motivation (and more on that later), what we are witnessing is an extraordinary all-hands government assist for a presidential candidate.
This assist was evident from the first moment, when Congress discovered the server and demanded the former secretary of state’s emails. The State Department scrambled to ask former holders of her office for private documents—giving Mrs. Clinton the excuse that everybody did it. State has ever since slow-walked the surrender of her correspondence to the House committee investigating the Benghazi fiasco. Chairman Trey Gowdy on Thursday had to conduct a hearing with former Clinton Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills while still not in possession of her work emails.
State has also gone to bat for Mrs. Clinton in court. A federal judge had to order the department to release her emails starting this summer (rather than next year, as State had vaguely promised). A federal judge also had to order it to find out if Mrs. Clinton and her aides had in fact turned over all their email. The same judge had to order State to tell him what it had done to find her deleted email. On hearing the answer—absolutely nothing—he ordered the department to work with the FBI.
The State Department has also assisted with Mrs. Clinton’s “not marked as classified” diversion. And an utterly ridiculous diversion it is. If Mrs. Clinton left a top-secret briefing, then emailed what she’d heard, that information is classified. Markings don’t matter. And yet State has deliberately sent the media down Mrs. Clinton’s “markings” rabbit hole.
Ask yourself this: Why does the State Department care so much about what was classified in Mrs. Clinton’s emails—unless its goal is to help her story line? Or ask yourself about a Fox News report this week that State Department lawyers changed the categorization of several Clinton emails, making them “deliberative” rather than classified, a designation that shields them from congressional investigators.
And then there’s State’s lockdown on basic information. Mr. Toner in several wild news conferences this week refused to answer reporters’ questions about whether Mrs. Clinton sent classified material on her server; or whether her server was breached; or if she was bound by the foreign-affairs manual; or who exactly knew about and signed off on her arrangement; or how high up that knowledge went. At one point, when asked whether anyone at State had disagreed with her having a private server, Mr. Toner graciously acknowledged that this was an “appropriate” question, but that it was more “appropriate” for “other” entities to answer. The reporter’s stunned response: But “she was the secretary of state.”
We can’t know exactly what’s going on here, but some basic facts offer plausible explanations. This could be straight politics. State is still run by Obama officials, and President Obama wants another Democrat in the Oval Office to preserve his legacy. Mrs. Clinton, despite her travails, remains his best shot. The White House has every incentive (if no right) to provide Mrs. Clinton with cover for the email mess.
This also could be institutional damage control. If Mrs. Clinton does end up in legal hot water over misusing classified information, you can bet she’ll use the State Department as her defense. She’ll point out that State knew about the private server, cleared her use of it and provided technical help—and she will name names. Both career and political State employees might also face charges. How high up did that knowledge and signoff go; who aided in this misadventure? The State Department doesn’t want to go there.
This could also be personal damage control. Most of Mrs. Clinton’s cronies have left the department, but Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of management before she arrived, remains in his job. His name and his judgment have been questioned in both the Benghazi debacle and the Clinton server setup, since his group runs both diplomatic security and information management. Mr. Kennedy is still running State’s response to both the Benghazi and the Clinton email investigations—a flagrant conflict of interest.
State’s inspector general, Steve Linick, has plenty going on right now, but he might still ask how it is that the nation’s diplomatic corps has come to be an arm of the Clinton campaign. And now that Secretary of State John Kerry is done pandering to ayatollahs, he might also be asked to show some accountability on a scandal that is undercutting his department’s basic credibility. The State Department exists to serve the American people’s interests abroad. It isn’t the Department of Hillary.
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3)
Dick –
The single largest global security crisis is happening right here at home...in Washington.
President Obama has secured enough votes in the U.S. Senate to ensure the Iran Deal passes.
This is outrageous. Agreeing to this deal will be as disastrous as our hasty withdrawal from Iraq. Thanks to Obama, the stage is now set for a major upheaval in the Middle East. A nuclear Iran will have serious consequences for the free world – especially Israel.
I am strongly urging all those who oppose this rotten deal to fight it up until the very end.
Dick, if you oppose this deal, I need you to express your outrage right now.
Click here to sign my emergency petition demanding all U.S. Senators who support the deal reconsider their votes and throw this deal out with the trash. We can't give up, even if the odds are against us.
After you've signed, please consider chipping in $5, $20, $50, or even more, so I can spread this message.
I count on your support to reach patriotic Americans who think Barack Obama is a national security disaster.
Dick, time is running out. I need you to act now.
For America,
John Bolton
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
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4)
Remembering September 11, 2001 and 2012
By Allen West
The US Congress will return to Capitol Hill this week after the August recess and Labor Day holiday. They will immediately have to take up a monumental foreign policy issue that will present immense challenges for the free world: The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iranian nuclear deal.
Last week, U.S. Senator from Maryland Barbara Mikulski became the coveted 34th vote that sealed President Obama’s veto. Due to the U.S. Senate not treating the JCPOA as a treaty - as the Constitution outlines - President Obama only needed to attain one third in order to sustain his veto of the resolution of disapproval. However, since the Republican controlled Senate decided to restore the 60 vote filibuster threshold – remember Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid had changed it to a simple majority – Obama can keep the JCPOA resolution from even coming to a vote with 41 Senate Democrats. That means Obama needed only seven more Democrats to preclude the JCPOA from even being brought to a vote.
Let’s recall that President Obama stated that the JCPOA should be voted upon and not just simply debated in the media. Upon this agreement being signed by the P5+1 the objective was not to allow our Congress to read, debate, and vote – but instead the Obama Administration went first to the UN Security Council for approval, which was unanimously achieved. And now the goal is to garner enough partisan party votes to defeat the resolution of disapproval itself.
So much for the American legislative process and the consent of the governed.
This Wednesday, there will be a massive rally at the US Capitol against the JCPOA. According to President Obama this is just a gathering of “crazies,” but the American people deserve to know: how exactly does the JCPOA benefit America? There are no “snapback” sanctions. America is not allowed to participate on any inspection teams. We have come to find out what one of the IAEA-Iran side deals is – Iran gets to inspect its own Parchin military installation. You know, the one that Iran has been stonewalling for inspections and hiding.
Iran has already started negotiations for weapons deals, despite the supposed ban on conventional weapons sales and purchase for another five years. Iran has unveiled a new ballistic missile system, when it is supposed to be under a ballistic missile ban for another eight years.
We, the “crazies,” just want to know what it is that America gets from the JCPOA? Spare us the rhetorical explanation that the only alternative is war – history dispels that assertion. President Obama’s declaration referencing this “deal” was no different than the declaration of President Bill Clinton in 1994 referencing the North Korean nuclear deal. It was just twelve years later in 2006 that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), North Korea, tested a nuclear device. Chamberlain did not avert war; Clinton did not avert war; and Obama’s JCPOA will not avert war. As history evidences, the weakness will only serve to embolden the “Dogs of War.”
So here we are just a few days from 911, a very sacred day when we shall remember the assaults of Islamic jihadism/terrorism against the United States. In 2001 thousands of Americans lost their lives because we failed to confront the enemy, Al Qaeda. Our lack of determined action only emboldened their movement. And it was the Clinton administration that allowed a group called the Taliban to establish a 7th century Islamic caliphate in Afghanistan, from which they planned, trained, and launched their attack. Today, we have allowed ISIS to establish an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria, and our lackluster response is enabling them to grow and proliferate their savage and barbaric ideological objectives – as well as create the greatest refugee crisis since World War II.
We are a few days from remembering 9-11-2012, which some consider a faux issue, where our nation abandoned four Americans to die. But even more disturbing was the obfuscation by the Obama Administration, which blamed it all on a video.
And now, we are being told to support an agreement with the largest state sponsor of Islamic terrorism in the world. We must ask ourselves: who exactly are the “crazies,” those who oppose this ill-conceived policy? Or could it be the ones shouting “death to America,” “death to Israel,” and who hope for the day of return of the 12th Imam, the Mahdi. They are the ones who believe that a catastrophic event will usher in the restoration of a global Islamic caliphate. Perhaps the “crazies” are the ones who have no defense of the JCPOA other than to demonize those presenting appropriate inquiry?
Regardless, we shall all be deemed as “the crazies” if at the time when we remember 9-11 we enable the Islamic Republic of Iran to further its design to support Islamic terrorism. We owe our children and grandchildren a better and more secure future. We must not fail as others have throughout history to recognize the dangers and threat posed to liberty, freedom, and peace. Neville Chamberlain’s wrong assessment of “peace in our time” led to the loss of millions of lives.
As we remember 9-11, let us not forget that Iran was killing Americans even before 2001. 241 people were killed in the 1983 Beirut Barracks bombing. And today, we know that 20% of the deaths in Iraq – estimated at 500 American troops – were killed due to Iran supplying of explosive force penetrator IEDs to Islamic terrorists.
Two words come to mind: “never again.”
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