Obama will not support the Kurds because they
are winners.
The $15 fight crowd!
===
I arranged for some members of The Savannah Classical Academy to visit Don Kole's marvelous museum of African Artifacts and the head master, BenPayne, sent this response:
"... Our students really enjoyed their visit to the Kole's collection...Our art teachers were inspired as well.
The school is moving along. 1,100 on the wait list for next year, fully enrolled. The new building will be ready in mid-July. Hillsdale partnership is in transition. It could be an exceptional arrangement.
We miss you two. The girls are perfect. B=="
===
Liberals and progressives want more government. Even they understand more government comes at a cost and needs to be paid for so, since they do no believe in paying for their wants, they decided it would be nice for the filthy rich to pay. Therefore, if Hillary or Bernie become president, they will raise taxes on the rich.
Then, we have a lot of people protesting and they have become the $15 fight crowd. They believe the minimum wage should be raised to $15/hour because they cannot raise a family on the current rate. Forget the fact that the minimum wage was never meant to provide income for the purpose of raising a family. The minimum wage was meant to bring young unmarried's into the work force so they could learn how to be on time, how to dress, how to deal with the public and how to be responsible.
Like all government programs far too often their intended purpose morphs into something never intended. This is the case with the minimum wage matter.
Since public education no longer teaches economic or, to make matters even worse, comparative economics the $15 fight crowd do not have the slightest idea what the impact will be of what they are seeking. They do not understand someone will have to pay more for their hamburger etc. and to offset these increased costs, which will lead to diminished demand, the impact will cause more replacement of human workers by equipment and specialized machines.
Also the greatest impact will be on small shop keepers and business owners, which of course, are the largest employers in America. How did that come to be? Well freedom combined with a capitalistic system allows individuals to go into business for themselves, to take risks and to possibly achieve what used to be The American Dream.
There are consequences but the $15 fight crowd do not understand capitalism and certainly do not understand economics. They have never read books on economics. Even if they have heard of "Wealth of Nations" they probably think the author, Adam Smith, was Eve's husband.
Who are these $15 fight crowd folks? They are primarily Hillary and Bernie youthful supporters and they prefer socialism over capitalism because they believe the free stuff they covet will be paid for by the filthy rich.
Bernie has driven Hillary to the left so now we have two dingbats espousing nonsense to those who are dumb enough to believe what they are hearing.
God Help America because we are beyond being able to help ourselves.
This from a long time, learned friend and also a fellow memo reader: "I think more and more of the Fermi paradox -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
===
To some degree, this validates what I have been writing, ie. the Saudis and Israel are beginning to move towards each other because of their common enemy, Iran, and their fear of the consequences of Obama's destruction of America's foreign policy. (See 1 below.)
The brother of one of my dear friends and fellow memo readers just retired from The Foundation of The Defense of Democracies and another brother of a dear friend and sometime memo reader is on the board of this organization and from time to time I post articles by Jonathan Schanzer (See 1a below.)
===
Some Christians understand the threat from ISIS! (See 2 below.)
===
Renewable energy costs are hitting Europe. Being green takes a lot of green backs (See 3 below.)
===
DickLiberals and progressives want more government. Even they understand more government comes at a cost and needs to be paid for so, since they do no believe in paying for their wants, they decided it would be nice for the filthy rich to pay. Therefore, if Hillary or Bernie become president, they will raise taxes on the rich.
Then, we have a lot of people protesting and they have become the $15 fight crowd. They believe the minimum wage should be raised to $15/hour because they cannot raise a family on the current rate. Forget the fact that the minimum wage was never meant to provide income for the purpose of raising a family. The minimum wage was meant to bring young unmarried's into the work force so they could learn how to be on time, how to dress, how to deal with the public and how to be responsible.
Like all government programs far too often their intended purpose morphs into something never intended. This is the case with the minimum wage matter.
Since public education no longer teaches economic or, to make matters even worse, comparative economics the $15 fight crowd do not have the slightest idea what the impact will be of what they are seeking. They do not understand someone will have to pay more for their hamburger etc. and to offset these increased costs, which will lead to diminished demand, the impact will cause more replacement of human workers by equipment and specialized machines.
Also the greatest impact will be on small shop keepers and business owners, which of course, are the largest employers in America. How did that come to be? Well freedom combined with a capitalistic system allows individuals to go into business for themselves, to take risks and to possibly achieve what used to be The American Dream.
There are consequences but the $15 fight crowd do not understand capitalism and certainly do not understand economics. They have never read books on economics. Even if they have heard of "Wealth of Nations" they probably think the author, Adam Smith, was Eve's husband.
Who are these $15 fight crowd folks? They are primarily Hillary and Bernie youthful supporters and they prefer socialism over capitalism because they believe the free stuff they covet will be paid for by the filthy rich.
Bernie has driven Hillary to the left so now we have two dingbats espousing nonsense to those who are dumb enough to believe what they are hearing.
God Help America because we are beyond being able to help ourselves.
This from a long time, learned friend and also a fellow memo reader: "I think more and more of the Fermi paradox -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
===
To some degree, this validates what I have been writing, ie. the Saudis and Israel are beginning to move towards each other because of their common enemy, Iran, and their fear of the consequences of Obama's destruction of America's foreign policy. (See 1 below.)
The brother of one of my dear friends and fellow memo readers just retired from The Foundation of The Defense of Democracies and another brother of a dear friend and sometime memo reader is on the board of this organization and from time to time I post articles by Jonathan Schanzer (See 1a below.)
===
Some Christians understand the threat from ISIS! (See 2 below.)
===
Renewable energy costs are hitting Europe. Being green takes a lot of green backs (See 3 below.)
===
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1)Israel: Saudi Arabia Gave Written Assurances Over Freedom of Passage in Tiran Straits
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon says the document ensures the commitment of Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t have formal ties with Israel, to adhere to terms of Israel-Egypt peace treaty.
By Gili Cohen
The Island of Tiran, one of two that Egypt has pledged to hand back to the Saudis,
as viewed from Sharm el-Sheikh. Photo credit: Arnaud Chicurel/AFP
Israel's freedom of passage in the Straits of Tiran following their handover to Saudi Arabia was guaranteed in the deal, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon said in a Tuesday briefing with military reporters.
The countries involved in the issue agreed to continue the freedom of passage in the area, and this is reflected in a document handed to Israel. The document ensures the commitment of Saudi Arabia, which doesn’t have formal agreements with Israel, to carry on with the principles reached by Israel and Egypt in their 1979 peace agreement. According to the accord, the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba are international waterways open to free sailing and flying.
Map of the islands of Sanafir and Tiran in the Red Sea.
The two islands, Tiran and Sanafir, control entry to the Gulf of Aqaba and the ports of Eilat and Aqaba in Israel and Jordan, respectively. Tiran is the closest of the two to Egypt's coast, lying about six kilometers from the Red Sea Resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israel's 1979 treaty with Egypt guarantees Israel full maritime passage rights in the Red Sea and through the Straits of Tiran, a deal enforced by the presence of a multinational force deployed in the Sinai Peninsula.
Ya'alon noted since the freedom of passage is ensured in the peace agreement between Israel and Egypt, an early request was made to Israel regarding the transfer of the islands of Tiran and Sanafir to Saudi Arabia.
"An appeal was made to us – and it needed our agreement, [and the agreement of] the Americans who were involved in the peace agreement and of the MFO," Ya'alon said, referring to the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping forces at the border. "We reached an agreement between the four parties – the Saudis, the Egyptians, Israel and the United States – to transfer the responsibility for the islands, on condition that the Saudis fill in the Egyptians' shoes in the military appendix of the peace agreement."
Ya'alon added that the defense establishment does not object to the construction of an overland bridge at the site, and that the move was carried out with Israel's consent. He even stated that the Saudis' understandings and obligations are ensured in the document.
1a)
- U.S. Military Campaign Takes Toll on Islamic State - Matthew Rosenberg
American airstrikes have killed 25,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria and incinerated millions of dollars plundered by the militants, according to Pentagon officials. Iraqi and Kurdish forces have taken back 40% of the militant group's land in Iraq, the officials say. Yet the fight against ISIS is likely to go on for years. While ISIS fighters in the Middle East have proved susceptible to American airpower, the U.S. and its European allies must now also engage in a far more complex struggle against homegrown militants who need relatively few resources to sow bloodshed in the West.
- "You can defeat ISIS in ISIS-controlled territories, but you're not going to defeat ISIS itself. The ideology of jihadism continues to evolve and continues to exist," said Jonathan Schanzer, a former terrorism finance analyst at the Treasury Department who is now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington. (New York Times)
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2)
Sick of ISIS Persecution, Mid-East Christians Form Biblical Brigades
By Ahuva Balofsky
Persecution of Christians in the Middle East at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS) has become so serious a problem that it has been recognized as genocide. Some Christians in the region are unwilling to go like lambs to the slaughter, however, and have begun forming militias to fight back.
One such group is the Babylon Brigade, some 500 to 1,000 Christian fighters who mobilized after ISIS took control of their hometown in Mosul, Iraq in 2014. Christians were forced to leave, convert or pay bribes, and many were expelled from their homes. Women were raped and sold into slavery or killed.
Not content to let things be, the members of the Babylon Brigade are offering resistance to ISIS forces. They are a part of a larger group called the Popular Mobilization Forces, which qualifies them for funding from the government.
ISIS “displaced us from our houses, they took our money, killed our young men and women and they took our properties,” the group’s commander, Rayan Al-Kildani, told NBC News. “Therefore, Christians decided to fight the terrorists of ISIS.”
This is a far cry from turning the other cheek as typically mandated by Christian doctrine, but the Babylon Brigade is not alone. Dwekh Nawsha, which translates from Syriac to “one who sacrifices”, was formed the same year to protect Iraq’s Assyrian Christians from ISIS. Dwekh Nawsha operates in coordination with the regional and international security forces and counts several foreign fighters among its ranks, including from the US, France and Australia.
Meanwhile, the Nineveh Plain Protection Units consist primarily, though not exclusively, of Christian fighters. Most of Iraq’s Christians are concentrated in this region.
Not all the Christians standing up for themselves, their people and their homes are men, either. In Syria, the “Female Protection Forces of the Land Between the Two Rivers” of the Syriac Christians Brigade celebrated its second class of fighters in early January.
“I’m a practicing Christian, and thinking about my children makes me stronger and more determined in my fight against [ISIS],” one fighter named Babylonia, who graduated with the first class in December, told AFP. She said she is fighting for her children’s future and “against the idea that the Syriac woman is good for nothing except housekeeping and make-up,” something her husband, also a soldier, encouraged her to do.
Just last year, Iraq also welcomed its first all-Christian brigade to its regular forces, as well. The “Tiger Guards” answer to the government of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region.
“Around 600 peshmerga from our Christian brothers in the Nineveh plain joined this course, which focused on physical training, military lectures and shooting exercises,” said Abu Bakr Ismail, the commander of the training academy.
“All the participants are volunteers…and want to liberate their land from ISIS and then protect it,” the Kurdish special forces major general told AFP, according to its report carried by al-Arabiya.
As King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for peace, but there is also a time for war.
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3)Europe's Energy Crisis Poses Warning for the U.S.
Europe has a problem that may soon become ours. Countries like Germany, Spain, and England are finding that their recent “green energy” experiments are proving too costly to continue. Between 2005—when the European Union adopted its emissions trading scheme—and 2014, residential electricity rates in the EU increased by an average of 63 percent. In Germany, rates increased by 78 percent; in Spain, by 111 percent; and, in the U.K., by a whopping 133 percent. Over the same decade, residential rates in the United States rose only 32 percent.
Across Europe, the cost of electricity has been rising, thanks to a well-intentioned but mistaken plunge into “renewable energy.” And what’s happening in the EU portends a troubling lesson for the United States. Simply put, green energy is proving to be an expensive failure. Yes, green energy works when heavily subsidized by the taxpayer. But Europe’s taxpayers can no longer afford the experiment.
What did our European friends get for their exercise in green energy exploration? Power shortages, job loss, and the bankruptcy of major green energy giants like Spain’s Abengoa, which received more than $2 billion in loan subsidies from the Obama Administration. In fact, Spain is now confronting $27 billion in debt from failed wind and solar projects, thanks to a program estimated to have eliminated at least two jobs for every “green” job it created.
This isn’t the picture that renewable energy activists like to trumpet when praising wind and solar power. Germany’s activists proudly talk of renewables powering a record 78% of the day’s energy needs on July 25, 2015. It sounds breathtaking, but the fine print is more relevant. Three days before, the same renewables powered only 25 percent of energy demand.
A more accurate picture emerges the closer one looks at Germany’s actual experience. On the recent afternoon of April 4, 2016, for example, the data show production of only 2.23 Gigawatt (GW) of wind power, zero GW of solar, and 46.48 GW of “Conventional” energy. That conventional energy comes mostly from coal plants, which still generate roughly 40 percent of total German electricity.
There are several lessons here for the Obama Administration. First, wind and solar will always require back-up power from gas, coal, and nuclear plants. That’s because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. Second, renewables are expensive, because they require standby support from gas, coal, and nuclear. Third, any effort to rely on renewable energy as the primary source of power is simply not feasible.
Unfortunately, the Obama Administration continues to ignore the evidence. The president’s “Clean Power Plan,” which hopes to install 125,000 wind turbines nationwide while eliminating 40 percent of America’s coal fleet, means a blind leap into the same green chasm.
The Clean Power Plan is projected to raise consumer utility costs $214 billion by 2030, with another $64 billion needed for the installation of renewables infrastructure. The Administration ignores who will be hurt the most by such cost increases. U.S. manufacturers will suffer when competing with countries like China that enjoy cheaper energy. And America’s low-income communities will certainly be hurt by higher residential electricity costs, leaving them with less discretionary income for essential services.
Unfortunately, environmentalists continue to disregard the state-of-the-art technology now employed at U.S. power plants to trap and scrub coal emissions. But this clean coal approach works. And the same technical innovation can capture carbon dioxide, just as it has cleaned coal of conventional pollutants. Given our nation’s technological prowess and world-leading coal supply, clean coal should be a logical option if America’s goal is safe, reliable, affordable power.
Let’s hope America learns quite soon to embrace clean coal. Otherwise, the alternative will be the heavily subsidized model of renewable energy now provoking a crisis in Europe.
Terry Jarrett is an energy attorney and consultant, and a former commissioner on the Missouri Public Service Commission
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