Obama's Affirmative Action Promotions!
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Obama has used our military in two ways.
First, he sees our military as a threat to world peace and thus, through the eyes of a community organizer. Therefore, he uses the Pentagon as a social experiment.
Second, he believes in the concept of Affirmative Action because he is a product of same. Therefore, he has caused many battle tested senior officers to leave and replaced them with neophytes.
This is a fair way to rectify all the wrongs he perceives but it probably will cost us many lives in future wars we probably cannot win. (See 1 below.)
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If Brazil can do it why can't we? Are we too PC? (See 2 below.)
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Israel was established after the Holocaust but Zionists had been preparing for the establishment of Israel long before the Second World War even began. The establishment of Israel had been promised in The Balfour Declaration but nothing came of that commitment.
This article is written by a Canadian of Arab origin and in it he warns Palestinians that taking advantage of Israel's respect for human rights has served them well but might have reached an end point.
When you confront someone who has offered, time and again, to be amenable to a peaceful solution and you continue to seek more and constantly reject the offered compromise you could be moving, unwittingly, to a point where you could lose everything.
Israelis have no reason to commit suicide. If they are abandoned by the West on some trumped up charge of being an apartheid nation (aka Carter etc.) and an attempt is made to boycott the nation, Israelis might conclude they have nothing to lose and take matters into their own hands.
Israelis understand the jury is stacked against them and they are blamed for everything that goes wrong in The Middle East. This has made them frustrated and distrustful but it has also made them stronger and more creative. Consequently, the Palestinians have accomplished nothing but a lot of destruction, deaths, injuries and misery. There could come a time when the cost will reach an intolerable level and it will be too late to pull back.
Abbas has benefited from playing with fire. He and his cronies have become wealthy. They would be wise not to over reach. (See 3 below.)
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An article about our son's partner and what they are doing to rehabilitate a neighborhood over looking downtown Pittsburgh. (See 4 below.)
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I spend a lot of time writing and constructing these missives and notes like this make it a pleasure: "
Happy Passover from your Catholic friends.. We are soooooo grateful for your wonderful information every day and do not miss it. Yes, scary news tonight on Fox, Hard to believe how our wonderful—Pres. has left us in this mess. God Bless You for all you do. H---- and S------"
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1) Obama's New Navy
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Admiral Michelle Howard, USN is not in command of the US Navy, and is probably not of the Muslim faith. However, she was recently promoted to Vice Chief of Naval Operations, second in command to the Chief of Naval Operations. The selection process leading to her promotion to 4 star rank and her current position, is rather unique in a peace time US Navy. Obama may be planning to eventually promote her to Chief of Naval Operations.
Admiral Howard had command of only one non-capital ship, the USS Rushmore (LSD-47), when she was promoted to Flag rank, which was unique. She eventually received orders as the Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, thru January 2009. It then appears that Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus may have mentored her thru one senior billet after another, by-passing other highly qualified combat trained more senior Flag Officers. During the process, she received orders to the proper Command and Staff Colleges, in order to prepare her for each new command assignment, Mabus’ careful guidance led her to her current billet.In the last 7 years, Obama has modified the selection process for Flag and General Officer, by ensuring the potential selectee’s compliance with his very destructive and destabilizing 'Social Experiment On Diversity', as a condition for whether an officer will be considered for promotion to Admiral or General.Over the last 7 years, Obama has relieved over 250 highly qualified and combat trained Flag, General, and Senior Officers; some should have been relieved for cause, but many were doing a superb job when they were summarily relieved.Respectfully,Joseph R. John, USNA ‘62Capt, USN(Ret)Chairman, Combat Veterans For Congress PAC2307 Fenton Parkway, Suite 107-184San Diego, CA 92108
2) A Chance for Change in Brazil's Scandal
Summary
For the past two years, Brazil has been mired in the costliest corruption scandal ever uncovered in a democracy. Evidence surfaced in 2014 that contractors in Brazil had formed an alliance to overbid on projects for government-owned energy company Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras). Contractors pocketed the extra cash and bribed politicians and Petrobras executives to keep quiet. The scandal — the investigation of which came to be known as "Operation Carwash" — was so blatant and implicated such prominent political figures that it shocked Brazil, a country accustomed to high-level corruption. And now the odds that Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, will survive the fallout are looking slimmer and slimmer.
The Brazilian middle class reacted swiftly and harshly to the Petrobras revelations, staging massive protests whose scope eventually transcended the scandal. More than corruption, the protests are about waning patience with the ruling party as Brazil's economic recession drags into its second year. Swept up in the frustration is Rousseff, who has not been directly implicated in the Petrobras scandal, though she served as the company's chair for several years. Instead, Rousseff faces imminent impeachment proceedings, set to be voted upon in Brazil's lower house of congress April 17, for allegedly manipulating government budgets in 2014 to make the country's budget deficit appear smaller ahead of an election. The Petrobras affair supplied more fodder against her and proof, in the eyes of her detractors, of her ineptitude.
Analysis
Brazil's unfolding political tribulations are a significant departure from its recent trajectory. Just a couple of years ago, Brazil seemed destined for greatness. The biggest economy in South America, Brazil is part of the so-called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), a group of emerging economies highlighted for their massive growth potential. Social progress accompanied its economic advances. The World Bank praised the country for reducing inequality and raising the standard of living for its poorest citizens from 2003 to 2014. So how did Brazil fall so far? To ensure that the Petrobras scandal becomes a milestone in the country's progress, rather than the event that derailed its rise, Brazil must examine its underlying causes.
A Deterministic Geography
Brazil is a massive country spanning several varied environmental zones, a fact that has historically made it difficult to develop and to govern. On top of this, the country's formidable geographic challenges have had an almost deterministic effect. Northern Brazil comprises vast tracts of challenging jungle terrain, including the resource-rich but unforgiving Amazon Basin. South of the Amazon Basin, tropical savannah characterizes the inland region known as the cerrado, featuring extremely acidic soil and a dearth of waterways. Farther south, the Rio de la Plata region — named for the major estuary into which the Parana, Uruguay and Paraguay rivers empty — connects Brazil's cities to Argentina and Paraguay. This area of interconnected rivers has allowed for the growth of economies of scale in Brazil, though Argentina controls most of it. The traditionally arable land that is found in the southern part of the country is considered Brazil's economic core.
Accounting for less than 7 percent of Brazil's overall territory, the core is responsible for fueling the nation's economic growth. But its location atop the Brazilian Shield, a plateau that abuts the Atlantic Ocean, has forced Brazil's cities to form in the few places where the plateau does not reach all the way to the coast. This limitation has isolated the cities from one another and constrained their growth, contributing to enduring deficiencies in the country's infrastructure.
In turn, Brazil's infrastructure problems help perpetuate the boom and bust cycles that define its history. Brazil is prone to inflation because of the high input costs needed to overcome its infrastructure situation. Growth almost always causes prices to rise; that inflation then tempers growth. Additionally, high investment costs have historically limited the economic opportunities available to most citizens, preserving the oligarchic system created under colonialism. The country's tendencies toward elitism and inflation have conspired to increase the national dependence on commodities, rendering the Brazilian economy even more volatile.
The Brazilian economy's vulnerability to commodity prices further intensifies the country's boom and bust cycles. From the late 1990s until around 2012, China's growth and the resulting demand for commodities gave Brazil a boost. The Brazilian government increased social spending, causing its popularity to climb. Then, China's economy began to slow, and with it, the demand for commodities. The slowdown, coupled with other regional factors, started to dampen Brazil's economy. In 2009, Brazil's growth rate dropped dramatically and, apart from a brief rebound, has been steadily declining ever since. Last year, the Brazilian economy contracted by 3.8 percent.
During Brazil's rapid economic climb, abundant cash combined with the country's historical elitism to encourage rampant corruption. And despite the social strides that were made while Brazil prospered, inequality has remained a problem. Once the economy began to falter, support for the government began to decline, making revelations of this corruption all the more damaging for the country's rulers. Without the cushion of high economic growth, the Brazilian government is being forced to confront the long-term structural problems caused by its geography, high spending and corruption.
An Environment Ripe for Scandal
Beyond its tumultuous economic patterns, Brazil is a country predisposed to corruption and scandal. It was one of the last of the countries in Latin America to seek independence. When it finally established its sovereignty, the country remained a monarchy (first led by Portuguese Prince Pedro I) for decades. For years after that, long periods of dictatorship and military rule — only occasionally interrupted by democratic civilian rule — marked Brazil's history. The democracy currently in place was not born until 1985.
Brazil's authoritarian past helped to foster not only corruption but also the institutions now combating it. On one hand, the oligarchic legacy left by years of authoritarian rule contributed to the spread of corruption. On the other, Brazil's transition to democracy saw the creation of important institutions to safeguard against future authoritarian rule. Of particular import is Brazil's Public Ministry, which is considered an unofficial fourth branch of government. Because the body works independently from the government, it can hold the other branches accountable for their misdeeds. The Petrobras scandal marked the perfect convergence of the Public Ministry's maturation and the public discontent engendered by the economic downturn. For although corruption could be overlooked or forgiven when the economy was growing, it became more difficult to ignore as the economy slowed.
And as corruption goes, the Petrobras case is an impressive example. The entire affair is estimated to have involved $5.3 billion. Since the scandal broke, Brazil's ruling coalition has all but fallen apart, and support for Rousseff is at a record low. The president is now especially unpopular among the middle class, which has both resources and reason to mobilize, having suffered in the recession. Since Rousseff acted as Petrobras' chair from 2003 to 2010, while much of the illegal activity was taking place, the incident has cast doubt on her efficacy as a leader. Furthermore, the Petrobras scandal has fueled the campaign to remove Rousseff from the presidency on unrelated charges.
Nonetheless, Rousseff maintains support among the lower class thanks to her focus on social welfare programs. Geographically, that means her strongest support is in Brazil's north. Even so, the threat of massive social protest in the event of Rousseff's impeachment is quite minimal, both because her overall approval ratings are so low and because another Workers' Party favorite, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is expected to run for president in 2018. At the same time, da Silva himself has also been indicted in the Petrobras investigation. If he is convicted, resulting protests among some segments of the public could reveal deep rifts in Brazilian society.
Breaking the Corruption Cycle
In any corruption campaign, various targets emerge as scapegoats who embody the scandal. Once they have been dealt with, citizens — and lawmakers — can be satisfied with the campaign's success and move on. Rousseff, as the leader not only of the country but also of Petrobras during much of the time period under investigation, has come to emblemize Brazil's corruption. If at least two-thirds of Brazil's lower house (342 of 513 congressman) vote in favor of Rousseff's impeachment on April 17, the president will be one step closer to ouster. The case would then go to the Senate. Once a simple majority in the Senate accepts the impeachment case, she would be forced to step down for up to 180 days while it is evaluated. If two-thirds of the Senate members vote to impeach Rousseff, Vice President Michel Temer would officially assume the presidency, where he would be challenged with stabilizing the country politically and economically.
If he did take over the presidency, Temer's first challenge would be gaining enough support from opposition parties and from the parties breaking from Rousseff to form a ruling coalition. Temer's Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, a longtime ally of the Workers' Party, has already decided toleave the ruling coalition and to run its own candidate in the 2018 election. Additionally, Temer has been meeting with opposition leaders such as Brazilian Social Democratic Party President Aecio Neves. Temer would aim to quell investor worries as well as those of the public. To that end, he would pass a spate of reforms, including cutting budgets, overhauling the tax code and loosening labor laws, all to show he is more business-friendly and economically savvy than his predecessor. He would also likely expand privatization efforts to include other state-owned companies along with the select Petrobras assets already being privatized.
But these best-case scenarios for Temer overlook a political wild card that could be more disruptive than even Rousseff's impeachment. Based on allegations that Rousseff's presidential campaign received money gained through the Petrobras collusion, the entire 2014 election could be nullified. In that case, Rousseff, if not already impeached, would lose the presidency anyway. And because Temer was a part of the nullified election, he would also lose power, whether as vice president or president. The final rulings on this are not expected to take place until next year. Depending on the timing, the president of the lower house could assume an interim presidency while early elections are called, or Brazil's congress could elect a new president. Either way, the transition of power would likely be tumultuous.
Unrest, Not Chaos
To be sure, Brazil stands on the brink of political upset. Rousseff's impeachment would inspire some limited social unrest. But the swift approach of the 2018 elections would circumvent mass chaos. Da Silva leads polls at the moment, despite his own indictment. Furthermore, an impeachment would at least buy time until the 2018 elections — time during which protests might lose momentum and ruling politicians could reassure the public. A nullification, with the accompanying political shuffle, has more potential to stoke protests. But even a nullification comes with a clear plan of succession.
Rousseff may well find herself out of office soon. She is caught in what is fundamentally a legal dispute spurred on by political infighting. But her situation is also the product of broader economic forces that have been at work in Brazil for decades: a history of oligarchy and a period of massive economic growth that laid the groundwork for systemic corruption. Even so, Brazil's large-scale anti-corruption probe is a testament to the strength of the country's institutions and the success of democratization. If Temer and other lawmakers handle it well, the resulting reforms could eventually restore investor confidence and lead to stronger and more stable growth. Still, appeasing Workers' Party supporters in the event of Rousseff's ouster will present a challenge. Although they represent a minority in Brazil, their numbers are large enough to create a stir on the streets. Whether da Silva is convicted on corruption charges, along with the circumstances surrounding the next elections, will largely determine the extent of the difficulty this will pose for the next government. Meanwhile, foreign powers grappling with their own corruption problems are watching to see how Brazil emerges from this scandal, as it comes to terms with the regionalism, inequality and economic factors that contributed to it.
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3)
3)
Why the BDS Movement is Destroying a Future Palestinian State
From the moment Israel declared its independence, one of the main Arab tactics has been to exploit the Jews' Achilles heel – their highly developed culture, which respects and values life, and their support for human rights.
Of Arab origin, I have long known about the Arab stereotype of the West and Israel -- that they are weak because they care about the lives of their own people and they are eager to respect the human rights of their enemies. Golda Meir is reported to have said, "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."
Until now, Israel has conformed to that Arab stereotype -- such as with "knocks on the roof" in Gaza to warn residents to leave buildings being used for military purposes before they are targeted -- but in conversations with Zionists, it seems that this attitude is changing. While Jews will always value life, their determination to minimize enemy casualties and to respect their human rights at almost all costs might be unraveling, and it is the Palestinians who are likely to pay the price.
During the War of Independence, the Arab side ensured that not a single Jew was left on the Arab side of the 1949 armistice lines, but a large number of Arabs were allowed by Jews to remain on the Israeli side. Today those Arabs constitute 20% of the Israeli population.
Israel's respect for the human rights of Arabs living in Israel has been used by Arabs against Israel. The idea of any Jews on the Arab side is demonized and any "normalization" with Jews is aggressively discouraged
By contrast, Arabs living in Israel have consistently elected Arab parliamentarians, even anti-Zionist ones who openly support Palestinian terrorists. If Israel expels those politicians from the Knesset -- as there is a proposed law to do -- it is accused by the West of being undemocratic, but if it does not expel them it is seen by Arabs as weak.
During the Six-Day War of June 1967 -- a defensive war in which Israel repelled attacking Arab armies that included Jordan and Egypt -- Israel moved into large swaths of Arab land, including the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank and Gaza. Israel immediately offered to give land back in exchange for recognition and peace. Less than three months later, on September 1, 1967, the answer came back in the form of the famous "Three Nos" of the Khartoum Conference: No peace with Israel, no recognition no negotiations.
Israel could have played by Arab rules and deported all Arabs in the land it occupied, but it did not. Precisely because Israel respected the human rights of Arabs, and despite its own self-interest, Israel gave the Palestinians a platform from which to seek the destruction of Israel.
Today's Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement continues to apply the same hypocritical double standards in a transparent effort to make Israel extinct. Its leaders have stated in no uncertain terms that they are not interested in a two-state solution. They want a single Arab state to replace Israel. They are counting on the assumption that sooner or later, Israel will be forced to annex the West Bank and give Israeli citizenship to all its residents. After this, the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state would be just a matter of time.
The dominant sentiment on the Zionist side today is that the solution most Jews since the 1940s have accepted as ethical -- the two-state solution -- is simply not working. The vast majority of Zionists blame this on the unrelenting Arab refusal to accept such a solution and on the fact that when, in what negotiations have taken place, the Palestinians never suggested so much as a reasonable counter-offer. Even Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, supposedly the most moderate leader of the Palestinians, has never accepted a two-state solution unless it included a Palestinian "right of return," which would result in a fully Arab state next to a majority Arab state -- yet another way of making the Jewish state extinct.
With Israel's back to the wall, it will sooner or later have to choose between giving up the Jewish state and lowering its human rights standards for the Palestinians. It seems increasingly clear that Israelis will not choose the first. In their place, I wouldn't either. One sign is a proposed law that would deport the families of terrorists. Another is a proposed law that would expel Knesset members who openly support terrorists.
American human rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz has repeatedly warned that the BDS movement is destroying the prospect for a negotiated two-state solution, by making Palestinian leaders believe that they do not need to make any compromises. Dershowitz has not ventured what would happen if the BDS movement continues on its current track. He has just made the general and obvious prediction that it would lead to "more wars, more death and more suffering."
If this Arab-BDS tactic continues, Israel may well move to the right of its current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and elect a government for which respect of Palestinian human rights is a lower priority. Such a government would be far less reluctant than Netanyahu in expanding settlements across the West Bank and in responding with overwhelming force to terrorist attacks, thereby making the lives of Palestinians much more difficult and seriously harming dreams of Palestinian statehood.
The advocates of BDS seem to rely on the belief that Israel would never do that, but they are wrong for several reasons:
For almost 70 years, the Arabs have played a very dangerous game, counting on Jewish scruples to turn every defeat into a partial victory. Whereas throughout history those who lose wars -- especially wars they themselves started -- are forced to live by the rules of the winner, the Arabs have refused to live by Israel's rules and they even consistently rejected middle-of-the-road two-state solutions that would have been reasonable for both sides. One can only hope that they, like Egypt and Jordan, will soon decide to live in peace with a neighbor which turned out to be far better in the way it treats Palestinians than the Palestinians' own "Arab brothers" -- not all that bad, after all. One can only hope that Palestinian leaders will start promoting a culture of peace rather than a culture of hate.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 4) Diana Nelson Jones' Walkabout: A subway map of Pittsburgh fancy, fantasy Subway map designed by Ben Samson.
Two years ago, at a transit talk event in the Hill District, Ben Samson, an architecture student at the time, presented one of the most luscious images it has been my pleasure to behold: a subway map he designed for the Pittsburgh metro area, similar to networks in Washington, D.C.; New York City and Boston.
I have fantasized about that map and what it represents ever since. It represents a Pittsburgh that has finally hit the high note. The really high note.
All lines meet at a few central hubs and take off in every direction — Monroeville, Ambridge, Cranberry, Carnegie, Pittsburgh International and Allegheny County airports, Fox Chapel, North Versailles and the currently existing South Hills Village and Library terminals.
Six lines and an interior river loop, 233 miles of track, 114 stations, with a Downtown trolley connector and water taxis at various stops. If Mr. Samson’s subway were fast — and only fast will do — it would be Pittsburgh’s ticket to paradise.
I am grateful we have bus service, but buses are slow and schedules are convoluted. You have to get a different schedule for every bus and good luck interpreting the tiny print in those gridded graphs for times and stops.
Mr. Samson’s subway system has one color-coded map that shows the full-blown interconnectedness of the network, and what’s so compelling about his design is that most of the lines follow rights-of-way that exist now — HOV lanes, busways and railroad tracks. We have the local brains who could create technology to synchronize shared use of the tracks with the railroads.
And the HOV lane on the Parkway North is just lying there waiting for something to come along.
With Pittsburgh vying for a $50 million federal transportation grant, the city is already “a few stations away from having four or five interconnected lines,” Mr. Samson said. “We do have land that has been undermined and a lot of old utility issues, but nothing that couldn’t be solved.”
Mr. Samson’s architectural thesis at Virginia Tech included this map. He estimated the cost two years ago at about $35 million per mile, “a lot but not a lot” considering the revenue such systems generate.
His red line from Steel Plaza in Downtown to Monroeville would be far superior to bus rapid transit, which so many people believe is needed — and is in the planning stages — to connect Downtown to Oakland.
He has shown his map to city officials, but there’s been no early boarding. We can dream, though.
Just think: You could hop on the blue line from your home in Ambridge, transfer to the indigo “river” loop at Bellevue and then take the yellow line to Pittsburgh International Airport. Take the red line from Carnegie and transfer at Station Square to go to Sandcastle on the river loop. From New Kensington, take the yellow line all the way to the Strip District. If you live in Aspinwall, the orange line would deliver you directly to SouthSide Works.
The tracks along the Allegheny River through Lawrenceville and the Strip District would be the yellow line. The Norfolk Southern rails through the ravine from Hazelwood to Oakland are on the purple line Mr. Samson routed from McKeesport to Cranberry (connecting to the Parkway North’s HOV lane).
Mr. Samson calls himself an urbanizer and advocates both for smart growth with transit at the core and for a zoning upgrade. Our code dates to the late 1950s when society was gestating the bad seed — suburban sprawl. It still encourages parking and discourages density.
“We should be dense,” Mr. Samson said. “We should be better connected. This city is an amazing place, but we’ve got to stitch it together.”
And make the ride much faster. I once took the T from a very crowded North Side station to a friend’s house in Mt. Lebanon, and it took 75 minutes — although, to be fair, that trip typically takes around 35 minutes, which still seems slow.
Mr. Samson based his map on 30 years of transit planning, existing infrastructure and intuitive thinking. There is nothing about it that’s not possible.
“I am one person and I spent many hours doing this,” he said. “Imagine what 50 people could do in a year or 10 years. They could get a good start with $50 million in transportation funding.”
Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626
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