Have a great week and weekend.
===
Congressman Buddy Carter
Member of the Workforce and Education, Homeland, Oversight and Government Reform Committees
Member of the Workforce and Education, Homeland, Oversight and Government Reform Committees
Please join hosts
Kim & Mark Smith
(Host Committee as of 2/17)
for a Reception with
Congressman Buddy Carter
and Special Guest
House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Host Reception & Photo Opportunity: 5:30 PM
Social Reception: 6:00 PM
Cotton Sail Hotel
126 W Bay St.
Savannah, GA 31401
Requested Contribution:
Host & Photo Opportunity: $5,400
Co-Host & Photo Opportunity: $2,700
Sponsor & Social Reception: $1,000
Attendee & Social Reception: $500
(All Per Couple)
Kim & Mark Smith
(Host Committee as of 2/17)
for a Reception with
Congressman Buddy Carter
and Special Guest
House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Host Reception & Photo Opportunity: 5:30 PM
Social Reception: 6:00 PM
Cotton Sail Hotel
126 W Bay St.
Savannah, GA 31401
Requested Contribution:
Host & Photo Opportunity: $5,400
Co-Host & Photo Opportunity: $2,700
Sponsor & Social Reception: $1,000
Attendee & Social Reception: $500
(All Per Couple)
RSVP: Alexandra Kendrick 912-655-8721 RSVP@highcottonconsulting.com
===
Now that JEB has suspended his campaign and Trump has proven a viable campaigner the postmortems have begun as to what is wrong with the Republican Establishment.From my perspective, the explanation of the latter is simple. When you walk away from your philosophy, when you consistently select losing candidates, when you allow the opposition to walk all over you because you do not resist and when you become a version of what you theoretically oppose it is little wonder why you cannot keep going back to the well and asking for support.
It is as true about a consistently losing sports team as a political party. Eventually Americans seek change because they prefer winning to losing. It is human nature.
Trump has captured our anger and therefore, has not needed to flesh out the skeleton of his campaign. He has a record of achieving wealth, of creating and he, obviously, understands marketing and how to sell soap. There will come a time when he will have to be more precise but, for the moment, his iconoclastic style trumps all others. He has become a conduit, an outlet, for our frustration with a president who was elected twice and then drove nails into our coffin as he told us he intended but we would not listen.
Our inability to reason is still alive and well and is why Trump is acceptable. We are being driven by misdirected anger. We should be disgusted with ourselves, not our politicians because what has happened we have allowed to happen.
Specific to JEB, he may have had a record of accomplishments but the mood for his record, as Governor of Florida, no longer fit the national temperament. The time for JEB's laid back, calm style has passed. It might return one day but it will be too late for him.
As for the Democrats, they too have been willing to flirt with an unknown but since they like winning at any cost they, apparently, will accept a distressed candidate whose integrity is questionable, whose likability is down around her ankles and her heralded achievements are a figment of her lying imagination, slick handlers and zombie partisans.
Where this leaves our Republic is anyone's guess. Maybe we have finally allowed the destruction of the essence of our Constitution to reach the level our once great nation is no longer worth saving by selecting viable leadership. If that be the case, it is a tragic epitaph to leave for our progeny but then there is nothing written in the Bible or Shakespeare that says America must survive.
Even a great nation can endure only so much self imposed punishment and mismanagement. (See 1 below.)
===
I suggested to a very astute investor friend that I thought the market was still at the door of a further downturn and asked his thinking. This is his reply: "Believe so. China is funding the support of their mkts and currency by selling foreign assets. Sovereign wealth funds are plugging the gap in their budgets (from low oil prices) by selling foreign assets. The Fed remains in a “not loosening” mode in which QE is not currently in the cards (though that could change). These are all examples of tightening liquidity. Offsets to this are the BoJ and the ECB, who have each decided to experiment with negative interest rates policies (NIRP). NIRP is negative for bank profitability and bank lending. I guess one could argue it reduces the cost of sovereign debt, but given the amount of debt both Japan and Europe (and everyone) has this seems like squeezing blood from a turnip.
Short-term the market became oversold and a further bounce is reasonable to expect. Gold looking much better to us.
Hope that helps.
P------"
==
Plot to assassinate Netanyahu thwarted. (See 2 below.)
===
Rep. and MD Tom Price (R - Ga.) is a soft spoken well informed Representative and is an asset when it comes to proposing sensible health care legislation. (See 3 below.)
===
Is Southern Company onto something? (See 4 below.)
===
Continuing my review of Dennis Ross' book. (See 5 below.)
===
Finally, Glenn Beck just does not get it. (See 6 below.)
===
Rep. and MD Tom Price (R - Ga.) is a soft spoken well informed Representative and is an asset when it comes to proposing sensible health care legislation. (See 3 below.)
===
Is Southern Company onto something? (See 4 below.)
===
Continuing my review of Dennis Ross' book. (See 5 below.)
===
Finally, Glenn Beck just does not get it. (See 6 below.)
===
Dick
========================================================================
1)Obama’s “Master Plan” To Destroy America Revealed By Russia
2)
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A stunning new confidential report released in the Kremlin today by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA)
is warning that President Barack Obama has embarked upon a “master plan” to forever alter the entire electorate of United States utilizing what Federation legal analysts are describing as the most fearsome US Supreme Court case to ever have been litigated in that nations history—and should it be successful could very well see America completely destroyed. 2)
Chilling Details Emerge From Thwarted East Jerusalem Hamas Plot to Assassinate Netanyahu in Terror Attack
Details of a thwarted Hamas-hatched plan to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were revealed for the first time on Sunday, after a two-month interrogation of the suspects involved, the Hebrew news site Walla reported.
According to the report, the plot was made public with the Attorney General’s indictment last month of two of the terrorists, including the head of the cell, a 25-year-old from Kfar Yassuf in the West Bank who had rented an apartment in the Abu Dis neighborhood of east Jerusalem.
Ahmed Azzam was in the advanced stages of establishing Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, with funding and direction from Hamas in Gaza, the indictment said. To this end, he had purchased chemical materials and rented the apartment in east Jerusalem, where he set up an explosives lab. Also, according to the indictment, Azzam recruited the terrorist who was tasked with transporting the bombs beyond the Green Line.
It was this terrorist, Hazam Sanduka — nicknamed “the mechanic”for his intimate knowledge of cars — who had determined that Netanyahu would be the main target.
The 22-year-old resident of east Jerusalem and a student of Arabic at Abu Dis University was recruited in November by Azzam, who was looking for a Jerusalem resident to aid in the preparation of terrorist attacks.
The following are excerpts of interrogations conducted by the Shin Bet-Israel Security Agency and Sanduka:
Interrogator: Did you plan where to carry out terror attacks?
Sanduka: After discussing with Azzam the possibility of kidnappings, suicide attacks or bombings, I began to think about the most suitable place to carry them out. Since I worked for a security company in Jerusalem, Ithought the most appropriate places were the Malha shopping mall, the Jerusalem [sports] Arena and the Great Synagogue, because many people frequent those places, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Interrogator: What was your job at the security company?
Sanduka: My job was to conduct security checks at the Arena and the Great Synagogue… After purchasing the (chemicals) in Abu Gosh, I drove to Jaffa to check out whether I was being followed and if there was a good place there for a terror attack… I saw that there was, at the Jaffa Port and on the beach, where many restaurants are located, so it is filled with people.
Interrogator: Tell me about your work at the security company.
Sanduka: I worked there for a few months… as a guard and usher… I thought to myself that a stage [at the Jerusalem Arena] would be suitable for blowing up a bomb when… Netanyahu was on it with those close to him. I did not do it, because I don’t know how to do it and I don’t know how to create explosives and bombs.
Interrogator: Did you have the thought of becoming a martyr?
Sanduka: I did not have that thought, but I know that to die a martyr is the most sacred death.
According to Walla, the Shin Bet originally believed that this group was an ISIS cell operating in Israel. But eventually, it was led to focus on Azzam, who had served time in an Israeli prison two years earlier. It was during his stint in jail, Azzam later told his interrogators, that he had decided to contact Hamas in Gaza and pledge to carry out attacks in Israel in order to receive financial aid.
But Hamas inmates told him to stop talking about military operations, for fear that they would not be able to be released in future prisoner swaps. Nevertheless, according to Walla, in August Azzam managed to make the necessary connection with a dispatcher in Gaza – via the app Telegram and through Gmail chat – who told him he would be responsible for Azzam’s training.
Azzam told his interrogators about the instructions he received. Meanwhile, he said, he began to look for people to join the Hamas cell he was establishing – a mere few kilometers from Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem.
===================================================
3)Georgia’s Price looks to balance GOP interests in second budget
By Tamar Hallerman - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As chairman of the House Budget Committee, Roswell Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Price has an enviable political perch on Capitol Hill. He has the ear of the speaker and a megaphone for disseminating ambitious policy ideas such as balancing the budget in 10 years — views he’s indicated he’d like to move to an even larger national platform someday.
But being the head of a committee also has its share of unglamorous moments, including the arm twisting and nitty-gritty legislative compromises that sometimes have election-year consequences.
Price will reclaim his place in the spotlight this week — and likely experience the rush and headaches that come with his position — as he looks to advance his second budget blueprint through his panel and eventually across the House floor.
His task isn’t an easy one.
Price must find a way to build consensus between two increasingly disparate wings of his party: fiscal conservatives wary of any federal spending that adds to the debt and defense hawks whose main focus is to funnel more resources to the Pentagon.
“The budget is one of those things that, because it’s so expansive, there are always things that people could look at and say, ‘No, I don’t believe that’s what we ought to do and therefore I’m not going to be supportive.’ It’s why I tell folks you’ve got to want to vote yes, and then we can identify and incorporate things within the budget that you’d like to see because no one person is going to agree with everything in the budget,” Price said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “Shoot, I didn’t even agree with everything in the budget, but that’s the nature of the budget.”
The resolution Price is seeking to move does not have the force of law, even if both chambers of Congress pass the measure. It’s not even mandatory this year, since congressional leaders and President Barack Obama already agreed last fall on how much to spend on government programs for the upcoming budget cycle.
Its importance is mainly as a political blueprint that lays out the House GOP’s vision for governing — in contrast with the president’s — that can help set the parameters for work later this year on the 12 must-pass spending bills that collectively fund the government. It could also unlock a special fast-track legislative process some lawmakers are hoping could be used to aid a possible Republican president in early 2017.
Failing to move such a blueprint would be a political embarrassment for Price and party leaders, since it would raise questions about their ability to govern and manage their members. It would be especially mortifying for new Speaker Paul Ryan, a former Budget Committee chairman, himself, who has built expectations among members of his party for completing spending bills that showcase the GOP’s policy priorities.
Price said that having Ryan, R-Wis., whom he also counts as a friend, in the speakership makes his job easier.
“It’s as different as night and day in terms of the understanding from the top level of the leadership about the budget process,” he said.
Hurdles ahead
This class of House Republicans is a raucous bunch, one that helped drive then-Speaker John Boehner to resign in October and has made it hard for party leaders to move even routine legislation.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are angry about $30 billion the October budget deal added to non-entitlement programs for the new budget year and want to see it erased. The defense hawks want to keep it in place and see even more money go toward the Defense Department.
Price, now in his second year at the helm of the Budget Committee, has bought into the Ryan school of being a committee chairman: He said he’s had an open-door policy, engaging with lawmakers on and off the committee all year about what they would like to see in the upcoming blueprint. Price said he also tried to be upfront about what is and is not accomplish-able through the blueprint, since it does not have the force of law.
“I think sometimes there’s a sense among members of Congress that the budget is more than it is,” Price said.
The challenge is finding a plan that secures 218 Republican votes, since the minority party generally does not vote for the majority’s budget. That means leaders can only afford to lose 28 Republicans, assuming all members vote.
That essentially gives the conservative House Freedom Caucus veto power if its 40-odd members stick together. The same goes for the informal group of defense hawks, which at times tops 100 members.
“With documents this large, it’s important to make certain that we’re listening to every faction within the conference so that they have an understanding and appreciation for what it is that we have attempted to include in the budget that addresses their major concerns,” Price said.
He has so far divulged few details about this year’s budget outline, which will be released later this week, other than that it will balance within 10 years and he plans to use the fast-track legislative tool in order to make some sort of major policy change. (Some GOP colleagues would like to see an overhaul of poverty-related programs, while others would like to clear the path for a potential GOP president to repeal the Affordable Care Act in early 2017.) He declined to offer specifics during the AJC interview.
Last year’s plan
Price was forced to thread a similarly difficult political needle last year, when he was a rookie chairman.
His blueprint last year followed the approach championed previously by Ryan when the Wisconsin Republican was chairman, balancing the budget within 10 years while cutting spending by $5.5 trillion over a decade, repealing the 2010 health care law and making major changes to social programs such as Medicaid and food stamps. It teetered at the edge of disaster at several points after both military and fiscal hawks rebelled and party leaders tried to make an end run around him.
But Price maneuvered his way through the series of conflicts by knowing the members of his committee, working closely with his Senate counterpart and being flexible. He was ultimately rewarded with having his name attached to the first balanced-budget agreement between the House and Senate since 2001. His blueprint also enabled Congress to send a separate bill repealing Obamacare and stripping Planned Parenthood of its federal funding to the president’s desk. (Obama vetoed the legislation last month.)
It will be harder for Price to balance the budget this year, since the country’s aging population is putting more of a strain on entitlement programs, while a deal on taxes and government spending that passed in December added more than a half-trillion dollars to the deficit.
This year’s exercise will be a critical one for Price, who is known for relentless message discipline and has not been shy about his aspirations for elected party leadership. The Michigan-born orthopedic surgeon competed for the House GOP’s No. 2 position last fall after Boehner’s surprise resignation, but he was ultimately boxed out during the process that ultimately propelled Ryan to the speakership.
Asked whether he is eyeing any other leadership posts in the future, Price chose to focus on the present.
“What I’m eyeing at the moment,” he said, “is the budget resolution and the privilege and honor of serving as the chairman of the Budget Committee in the House of Representatives and relishing in the challenge and in the task.”
U.S. Rep. Tom Price, R-Roswell
Price, 61, became the chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee in 2015. He is also a member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
He was first elected to represent Georgia’s 6th Congressional District in November 2004.
In the past, Price has served as chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee and chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
Key legislation:
In 2015, Price pushed through an agreement between the House and Senate that would balance the budget over a 10-year period. The blueprint, which passed along party lines, is the first balanced-budget agreement between the House and Senate since 2001.
An orthopedic surgeon, Price is a prominent voice on health policy in the Republican Party and a critic of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. He says the ACA “is driving up costs for families and businesses and kicking millions of people off of health care plans they had and liked.” He has proposed his own bill as an alternative to Obamacare that would provide age-based tax credits that range from $900 to $3,000 per year. The replacement would be less generous than the current income-based tax credits, which average $3,264 per year.
Previous experience:
Price, who served four terms in the Georgia State Senate, became Georgia’s first Republican Senate majority leader after the GOP took control of the chamber in the 2002 election.
A native of Lansing, Mich., Price worked for nearly 20 years as an orthopedic surgeon. He was an assistant professor at the Emory University School of Medicine and the medical director of the orthopedic clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital.
Education:
Bachelor’s and Doctor of Medicine degrees from the University of Michigan.
Completed his residence in orthopedic surgery at Emory University.
Family:
Wife, Betty, who now serves in the Georgia House of Representatives, and they have one son
=====================================================================4)Southern explores potential of molten salt reactors
By Jack Craver
Nuclear energy requires lots of heat and might get even hotter.
Increased heat is part of what makes a new type of reactor so promising. But it's not only the way the heat is used, but also the way it is safely contained that leads some to believe that Molten Salt Reactors, or MSRs, will play a major role in reducing or even freeing the U.S. from its dependence on fossil fuels for electricity.
The most recent display of optimism comes in the form of a $40 million grant awarded by the Department of Energy to Southern Co. -- which already operates a fleet of conventional nuclear plants throughout the South -- to develop what the company calls a Molten Chloride Fast Reactor, which is a type of MSR.
In an MSR, the nuclear fuel that is put into the reactor is immediately dissolved in the salt and continuously circulated, creating non-stop fission. The reactor also operates at a much higher temperature than conventional reactors (about 700 degrees Celsius vs. 200 degrees Celsius), which is made possible because the salt has a far higher boiling point than coolants traditionally used in reactors, such as water.
It is unclear how many other companies applied for the grant, and both the DOE and Southern declined to provide a full copy of the company's grant application, saying that it contained sensitive proprietary information. But a spokesman for the DOE said that Southern had offered to fund 40 percent of the cost of the project -- the department wanted applicants willing to pay at least 20 percent -- which will take place at a DOE laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and will include collaboration from another nuclear energy firm, TerraPower, along with the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute and Vanderbilt University.
Steve Kuczynski, the chief executive of Southern Nuclear Operating Co., the division that will be leading the project, said he envisions a multi-year research and development process that will hopefully culminate in a commercially viable product by around 2030.
Kuczynski said he believes the technology could be a game-changer in a number of ways.
"There's an opportunity to use the heat from this reactor not just to generate electricity but other things, like generating hydrogen or desalinating water or selling it to industry," he said.
Payment of the full $40 million is not guaranteed unless the DOE is satisfied with the project's progress at various stages. The agency said it set aside $6 million for 2015 to be split between Southern and X Energy, a startup that was similarly awarded a $40 million grant to develop a pebble bed modular reactor. That will be followed by $12.5 million in fiscal 2016, but funding in following years is contingent on results of the research.
What makes molten salt reactors truly revolutionary, explained Erich Schneider, an associate professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, is that they will be able to use almost all of the nuclear fuel put into them. That contrasts with conventional reactors which typically only use about 5 percent of the fuel before the fuel rod has to be taken out and disposed.
"The other 95 percent we kind of don't know what to do with it," he said. "There are parts that remain radioactive for millions of years."
But in an MSR, he added, "You can leave the fuel in there until it's entirely used up."
That not only suggests that nuclear power could become much more efficient and economical, but far safer. Instead of generating large amounts of extremely hazardous unused fuel, MSRs generate a far less radioactive residue that is only hazardous for several hundred years.
That's a big improvement over the assurances from officials that any waste stored at some point at, say, the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada, would be safely contained for at least 10,000 years, a timeframe that Schneider points out exceeds recorded human history.
"I can say as an engineer that we can build a facility that can keep that waste safe and totally isolated from harming anybody for 300 years," he said. "But 10,000 years -- it almost becomes a philosophy debate. It's outside the human context."
Like most other reactors these days, the MSR has a "negative temperature coefficient" that automatically shuts down the reactor if temperatures get too high. But what promises to prevent Fukushima-style disasters, said Schneider, is that the salt in which the fuel is mixed keeps it cool even after the reactor shuts down.
While environmental groups with close ties to Democrats, including the Sierra Club and the League of Conservative Voters, have historically opposed nuclear power as an unacceptable compromise between fossil fuels and renewable energy, the Obama administration clearly sees a future role for nuclear in the economy.
"I think the administration has been very consistent that they believe through their actions that nuclear has to remain a part of our portfolio," said Kuczynski.
Affirming as much, a statement from a DOE spokesman included the following note: "As the nation's largest source of clean electricity, nuclear energy is an important part of the solution to the nation's energy challenges."
Schneider, who collaborates with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on efforts to develop MSRs, believes the technology means that nuclear could replace natural gas as the dominant partner of renewable sources, such as wind and solar.
"What I'm really interested in is moving toward synergy between nuclear with the renewables, because the renewables can't do it alone," he said.
For now, however, conventional nuclear power plants, which are expensive to build and maintain, aren't an economical alternative to natural gas, especially now that it's so cheap. Also, nuclear reactors stay running 24/7 and lose money when the wind is blowing hard and there is no demand for additional energy from the grid.
Hopefully, said Schneider, a new generation of nuclear power plants that are much cheaper to build and present far fewer safety headaches will be able to knock carbon out of the electricity game entirely. That, in turn, could make electricity an even more attractive solution for powering transportation, ultimately reducing or eliminating our dependence on petrol.
"It's hard to get to a low or carbon free economy without nuclear," he said.
=====================================================================
5) Review of Dennis Ross's book:
In discussing Nixon, I should have indicated he remained perplexed about the fact that he was urged to support Israel to save them from being over run yet, when it came to South Viet Nam he was roundly criticized for comparable assistance.
In discussing Nixon, I should have indicated he remained perplexed about the fact that he was urged to support Israel to save them from being over run yet, when it came to South Viet Nam he was roundly criticized for comparable assistance.
Jimmy Carter came into office with a mind set supported by his closest advisers, Brzezinski, Harold Brown and Cyrus Vance, that Israel was a liability in terms of our maintaining a relationship with Arabs. This continue to prove wrong headed but Carter, who is a stubborn mule, also believed he had failed to be more involved in Civil Rights and felt compelled to make amends. Consequently, he sympathized with the Palestinians and blamed Israel for their plight.
Secondly, Carter came into office totally fixated on bringing about peace in The Middle East and failed to focus on the bigger picture, most particularly what was developing in Iran between the Shah and the Mullahs. Israel offered to advise Carter about rescue missions and even offered a Farsi speaking unit but Israel's offer was rejected by Defense Sec. Harold Brown who also failed to respond to a subsequent Israeli offer to analyze our helicopter recovery mission disaster after the fact.
Carter and his top advisers were hidebound and believed any visible relationship with Israel would hurt our efforts to have a relationship with the Arabs and could result in another oil embargo. Carter never comprehended and/or accepted the fact that The Saudis were more dependent on us literally for their survival. Egypt had made peace with Israel and Jordan had been given assurances Israel would defend them but resolved their plight on their own.
Finally, a personal observation. As noted earlier, President Johnson was motivated by his Bible readings to empathize with the Israelis. In the case of Carter, I believe and have been told on good authority, Carter's rigid Baptist background did not bring him to the same conclusion. Carter always had a distrust of Israeli motives and when he was given encouragement by others he easily embraced this view.
Walking back it must be recognized that peace between Israel and Egypt, Sadat's voluntary visit to Jerusalem, Camp David all happened on Carter's watch and he devoted an exhausting amount of time engaged in helping to bring peace between these two foes etc.
It also should not be forgotten that Carter's single focus on Egypt and Israel caused him to lose sight of what was happening regarding Russia's invasion of Afghanistan, correct warnings by a few members of our own State Department that the Mullahs were about to overthrow The Shah and it is inexplicable that Carter ignored the human rights abuses of our 'Arab partners' but was obsessed with Israel's alleged abuses towards Palestinians.
It is ironic that Carter, who still believes and claims Israel is an apartheid nation, has miraculously seen his brain cancer disappear because of an Israeli drug.
I knew many of the local players in Carter's Administration and I voted for him the first time. The more I learned and read about him, the more I observed his policies the more disaffected I became. I once asked Sam Nunn what, if anything positive would Carter be recognized for and he responded ' making human rights part of our foreign policy.'
The first significant change in America's relationship with Israel came with President Reagan for a variety of reasons.
First, Reagan stated Israel "has the democratic will, national cohesion, technological capability and military fiber to stand forth as America's trusted ally."
Third, early on the part of Haig and Shultz there was budding evidence and rising concern about Arab terrorism beginning to form.
Once again there existed a personnel schism in the administration. Cap Weinberger, James Baker and even V.P Bush were mostly opposed to a close relationship with Israel, saw them as a liability when it came to their belief it would effect our Arab relationships and resisted much of what George Shultz and Alexander Haig sought to accomplish. The latter were in sync with Reagan's view of Russia and the strategic benefit Israel was to America.
Notwithstanding the above, Reagan was even handed when it came to meeting requests for weaponry from the Saudis who wanted AWACS. Prime Minister Begin was a thorn in Reagan's side and his objection to Reagan supplying AWACS caused a visceral reaction from Reagan.
Eventually, Reagan, at the urging of Sec. Haig, and a visit from Begin, crafted a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) based on the shared strategic views of America and Israel and from this has come an enormous amount of co-operation at all levels, pertaining to a multiplicity of areas of mutual interest and benefits. In time, Haig became an irritant and Reagan accepted his offer to resign.
Then came Israel's invasion of Lebanon, Sharon's aggressiveness and ultimate dismissal and the tragedy at Shatila which caused Reagan to demand Israel's total withdrawal. While this was occurring the Reagan Plan was crafted and rejected by Israel and the Arabs, The PLO were forced out of Lebanon and eventually Syrian forces followed after Israel forces withdrew.
The greatest impact on Reagan's thinking was the Marine Barracks Bombing. Shultz wanted Israel to return to Lebanon to establish order and failing that he urged Reagan to send more American troops but Weinberger, Bush and Rumsfeld were opposed and won the day.
The Iran Contra disaster blindsided Reagan. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Israel, a senior CIA member had initiated secret meetings with the PLO, in contravention of the Ford Memorandum which confirmed Israel would be consulted first on matters pertaining to its security and Arab relationships etc.
Once again, there is a continuing thread running through every administration when it comes to duality vis a vis Israel. Every administration has senior level personnel who remain opposed to our relationship with Israel notwithstanding the fact that their concerns have been proven to be overblown. Arabs know their security is dependent upon a strong and involved America. This is why Obama's feckless and wrong headed policies has proven to be a disaster. More on this later.
There is no doubt Reagan left an indelible imprint in altering our relationship with Israel which has over come, to some degree, the anti-Israel mindset that still infects the Pentagon, CIA and most particularly, The State Department. In addition to the concern that a close relationship with Israel effects our Arab relationships, Israel is also seen as always making demands for more and more while giving less and less.
I have no doubt there is truth in this feeling but I also know that one cannot always equate the value of intelligence in dollar terms. Israel has proven an amazing source of intelligence, good and reliable intelligence. Israel has always provided America total access to captured Soviet Equipment and they have shared intelligence pertaining to their battle tactics and improvements they have made on American sourced military equipment. America has pre-positioned tons of military equipment in Israel and Israel has continuously offered medical assistance to our wounded, supported us in U.N votes more than any Middle East nation and remains the only democratic nation in the region that has proven a dependable ally.
An undercurrent exists that The Jewish Lobby dictates our policies and this too is false. Yes, AIPAC, provides material, arranges Congressional visits and petitions Congress on behalf of maintaining a strong relationship between our two nations. However, when a president wishes to act in a manner contrary to Israeli wishes they virtually always do and get their way. (Sam Nunn kindly invited me to have lunch with him when I once happened to be in Washington and he asked me whether I belonged to AIPAC and volunteered I should join because it was one of the most beneficial organizations in D.C and provided excellent and reliable help and information to his staff. I have been a member of AIPAC for over 40 years.)
Lobbyists have a Constitutional Right, as do private citizens, to protest and petition government.
========================================================================
6) Subject: USA No. 1 Threat - An Opinion
Lamenting the president’s recent focus on climate change at the COP21 summit in Paris,
Glen Beck addressed Obama on his radio program in the wake of Wednesday’s deadly
massacre in San Bernardino, CA.
“Mr. President,
I say this with as much respect as you deserve,” Beck began. “Screw global warming.”
“What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked. “If you actually believe that global warming is the biggest problem we face, with terror all over the world, and 18 trillion dollar debt, no real allies left that trust us, riots in our streets, riots on our university campuses, race relations worse than I’ve seen since the 1960’s, and a distrust of our fellow Americans unlike anything I’ve ever seen, you, sir, are either delusional or you’re the dumbest son-of-a-bitch on the planet.”
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