The above may be a bit over the top but I am
sure you get their not so subtle messages. If you
do not then you are beyond hope.
I would also remind you, PC'ism has reached the
point where it is restricting speech and the free
exchange of ideas. Both helped make this nation
great.
What are the progressives and liberals replacing
these outworn concepts with? Safe zones on
college campuses for wimps and drowning out
speech by radicals reminding us "black lives
matter" yet privacy in pubic restrooms is no
longer a choice.
We are getting to the point where fringe groups
have choices, which the majority must tolerate,
which, of course, infringe upon their own
shrinking rights. Selective tolerance supplants
common sense and this is what radicals want
because it ultimately leads to bitterness, division
and the breakdown of society.
Those who resist much of this nonsense are
unfeeling labeled racists. Here's a racist
thought:This has been Obama's goal from the
git go.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
More press pertaining to Daniel and Atlas Development's Beechview rehabilitation efforts.
I am proud our son is following in my father's foots steps and is doing through construction what my father did by bringing about changes through legal means.
Daniel has made excellent progress, getting the support of Mayor Peduto, Councilwoman Rudiak and PHDC Executive Director Victor Diaz.
Daniel visited Youngstown, Ohio to observe and learn about the impact of incubator opportunities and he and Victor are bringing the same concept to Beechview. (See 1 below.)
===
Sherwin Pomerantz wished Israel a Happy 68th birthday. (See 2 below.)
Meanwhile, this was sent to me by a dear friend and fellow memo reader. It was sent to him by a friend who also happens to be a [retired Saudi Navy commander] and pertains to a:
Public discussion between a Saudi Prince (ex ambassador to USA/England) and a retired Israeli General on the subject of Israel-Palestinians which took place At The Washington DC, institute for Middle East Studies.
===
Lately there have been a lot of campaign rhetoric about a variety of subjects and from a variety of people.
I want to add my own general thoughts. (See 3 below.)
When it comes to Benghazi, Clinton is vying to become America's CIC . The president's most important responsibility and oath is to protect and defend our nation.
Two reasons, among many, that make Hillary an unworthy candidate in my opinion:
When challenged she failed to respond to the safety of four brave Americans. She then lied about what caused the attack and then lied about the lie when asked by a family whose son was killed to explain what happened and why. (See 3a below.)
We also know Hillary Clinton has a long history of lying about a variety of matters and the funding sources of The Clinton Foundation.
A movie is to be released days before the Democrat Convention about money raising endeavors
by the Clinton Foundation and, I suspect, were Michael Moore the producer, liberals would not be boisterous but because it was produced by someone else the film is being challenged on all fronts.
(See 3b below.)
Romney has been quite vocal about his discomfort over Trump and seems to be doing whatever he can to challenge the nominee and make life difficult. Romney had his chance and blew it, in fact he blew it badly. I believe Romney would be wise to continue licking his own wounds and stop being a petulant and immature loser.
Lindsey Graham has also not distinguished himself of late either.
Then, we come to Speaker Ryan's unwillingness to embrace Trump. Seems to me, Ryan is being honest about wanting to unify the party so they can field the strongest and most coordinated effort focused on their opponent - Hillary. His job is to protect his members and many have significant challenges.
Furthermore, Ryan's views, on many issues, clash with Trump's. I suspect, in the end, if Ryan and Trump want to defeat Clinton they will, in due course, find their way to smooth over their differences and embrace.
In the final analysis, I would not want to be in Hillary's shoes with Bernie snapping at her heels, FBI Chief Comey and his crew investigating her for criminal activity and Trump has yet to drive her crazy.
The press and media folks live on a different planet. Thus, they might be capable of describing what American's feels they're generally in left field when it comes to their understanding these feelings.
Call me arrogant but I believe I am closer to sensing what is the majority of the public's mood below the radar than all the high paid geniuses on your TV screen. Too early to call who will ultimately win but I continue to maintain don't sell Trump short.
===
Dick
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1) Bienvenidos a Pittsburgh: The growth of the city’s Latino community is contributing to the revitalization of the South Hills
By Ryan Deto
For the past few decades, the South Hills neighborhood of Beechview has not really been considered a destination community. But on a recent Saturday, the streets were jammed with parked cars, and dozens of Pittsburghers took in Beechview’s second annual Cinco de Mayo festival.
Throughout the day-long celebration, more than 500 people filled the small parking lot next the Las Palmas-IGA grocery store on Broadway Avenue. Lines of revelers spilled onto the sidewalks; families chatted as a band belted out traditional Mexican folk songs; and young girls danced in flowing red, white and green dresses. It was hard to imagine that this fiesta didn’t happen every weekend.
Pittsburgh City Councilor Natalia Rudiak, who represents the neighborhood, enjoyed a taco. And Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto made an appearance.
“I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that organized this. This is what makes living in the city special,” said Peduto. “To be here today with everybody is a celebration of what makes the city so great.”
While the warm wishes were all around on this day, some Pittsburghers haven’t embraced the steady flow of Latinos into the Steel City.
The neighborhoods with the highest concentration of Latinos — Brookline and Beechview — have seen at least three incidents of racism-fueled vandalism directed at Latino-owned businesses over the past six months. One of the most blatant involved the words “Go back to Mexico” spray-painted on Brookline’s Las Palmas grocery. The Brookline store recently closed, but according to posts on social media by co-owner Missy Berumen, the reasons were related to rental costs, not intimidation. (The Berumens could not be reached to comment for this story.)
There are rumors that the city’s powers-that-be are providing secret funding to bring more Hispanic businesses to the area. City officials say the rumors are false and absurd.
And while a few dissenting voices have undoubtedly made Latinos feel unwelcome, a bigger group of Pittsburghers is trying to embrace one of the city’s fastest-growing demographics. In April, Peduto and Rudiak criticized the vandalism and issued statements in support of the targeted businesses. As City Paper reported in January, residents sent flowers and candles to the Berumen family, owners of Las Palmas.
“There are going to be some loud voices that are not ready to be inclusive,” says Rudiak. “But on the flip side, there are so many people in the community embracing the Latino community.”
And now, even more support is pouring into the community, especially in Beechview. Big plans are in the works: Developers, city officials and business leaders are working to ensure that the neighborhood’s potential growth benefits everyone.
A quick stroll down Broadway Avenue in Beechview offers a snapshot of the community’s strengths and weaknesses. The northern end of the thoroughfare is marked by a dozen vacant structures, some of which appear unstable. What activity does occur in this sleepy business district revolves around the lunchtime taco stand outside the Las Palmas-IGA grocery.
“Latino development has bolstered our community; it’s a draw to our neighborhood,” says Rudiak. She defends the Latinos who live in her district and cites the positive contributions they have made to Beechview.
“We have Latino residents renting apartments, buying homes, frequenting all the businesses and sending their kids to Pittsburgh Public Schools,” she says. “They are Americans trying to live the American dream.”
The growth of this community has attracted some outside interest in Broadway Avenue. The Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation, which focuses on bolstering Latino businesses throughout the region, has set up shop in the heart of the neighborhood.
PHDC Executive Director Victor Diaz says the group is starting a business incubator that is actively targeting Latino entrepreneurs. The incubator, which occupies the second floor of the Brew on Broadway building, has already attracted a startup that builds prosthetics for people with disabilities, a company that exports products to Chile, and some businesses from Miami.
“Attracting Hispanic business to that area is going to bring people to the neighborhood,” says Diaz.
One of those businesses is a planned beer distributor. Owners Janey Taylor and her husband, Oscar Santiago, moved to Coraopolis a few years ago. Taylor says her husband works as a roofer and has made many Latino friends, who mostly live in Beechview. Because the neighborhood doesn’t have a place to buy beer other than the local bars, Taylor and Santiago, with some help from Rudiak’s office, found a space in the middle of the business district. “A bunch of people are working hard here all day. They want to be able to relax and have a beer,” says Taylor. She says they plan to carry a wide variety of brews, with an emphasis on imports.
PHDC’s work goes beyond attracting Latino entrepreneurs. The nonprofit is also forming an all-inclusive community group — the Beechview Revitalization Advisory Group — that aims to unite people who care about the area and want to see it grow.
“Diversity is good for the city,” Diaz says. “Just because we are Hispanic does not mean we are excluding anybody.”
Diaz believes that attracting Latinos to Pittsburgh is in the region’s best interest, especially considering that the Latino population here, while growing, is still very small. According to U.S. Census figures, Beechview has the largest percentage of Latinos in the region at 6 percent (about 500 people); Allegheny County’s Hispanic population is only 1.7 percent (about 21,000 residents).
But those small percentages have been inching up. Since 2010, the county has added more than 3,000 Latino residents, and Pittsburgh has added more than 1,000 Latinos in the same time period. (The city’s overall population has continued to decline since 2010.)
“Hispanics are the biggest minority [group] in the country, but we don’t exist here,” says Diaz. “It is a small population, but it is growing. Why not take advantage of that momentum?”
There appear to be good economic reasons to bring in Latino residents. Remy Arteaga, executive director of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, in California, recently conducted a nationwide study that shows that from 2007-2012, the number of Latino-owned businesses grew 47 percent, while non-Latino businesses grew less than 1 percent.
“It is pretty shocking in some ways. We knew the growth was large but did not realize how much larger than non-Latino businesses,” says Arteaga. “For the overall growth of privately held businesses, 86 percent of growth is from Latino businesses.”
Arteaga says the growth of Latino entrepreneurs is not the only reason cities should be attracting Hispanics. He says the Latino population is young, growing at a faster rate than any other demographic, and Latino businesses are in the “sweet spot” of growth and community interaction. The study also shows the U.S. economy could grow by $1.4 trillion if Latino businesses were fully supported and thrived at their maximum potential. “It’s a pretty compelling case for wanting Latinos to move into the area.”
In fact, one town in central Pennsylvania has already benefitted from of an influx of Latinos. Hazleton, in Luzerne County, received a wave of Latino immigrants in the mid-2000s. Some in the community claimed that crime grew as a result. (Stats show the opposite for most years in the 2000s.) In 2006, the town passed a controversial law aimed at keeping out undocumented immigrants. The law was later repealed, the Latino population kept growing, and according to news accounts the local economy has been buoyed by an increase of Latino-owned businesses. Hazelton’s commercial district has been revitalized, with Latino bakeries sitting next to longtime pizza joints.
Arteaga says stories like these are common, and especially surprising given that Latino entrepreneurs don’t receive nearly the same level of capital investment that non-Latino businesses do.
Some say Beechview is lucky because the neighborhood has garnered interest not only from the folks at the PHDC, but also from a major developer like Daniel Berkowitz.
As head of Atlas Development, Berkowitz has become one of Beechview’s biggest champions. He, like Councilor Rudiak, sees Beechview’s potential not only in terms of the growth of the Latino community, but also because of its transit access.
“You find me a neighborhood that is 12 minutes on a light-rail from Downtown in most major cities, and I will show you a vibrant neighborhood,” says Berkowitz.
The existing light-rail lines along Broadway Avenue are currently under construction, and Rudiak is somewhat hopeful that Beechview will receive a state grant that will bring a modern, “complete streets” design to the business district. (Latinos fit into the transit plans, too. Port Authority has recently put up billboards and bus-shelter ads in Spanish, with many of them concentrated in the Beechview/Brookline area.)
Berkowitz also recognizes that Beechview was already revitalizing before he started focusing on it a year ago. “Hands down there is more [vitality] in the neighborhood because of Latinos,” says Berkowitz. “There’s the taco guy at Las Palmas, patrons at El Milagro [taqueria], and there are young kids on the street.”
While Berkowitz embraces the Latino businesses in the area (he called the PHDC incubator “the battery” of the community), he says his plans go beyond what Latinos will bring. He says he has plans for an Italian restaurant, a diner, a jazz club, an online media company and an insurance planner, in eight buildings he owns or has options on. Berkowitz also plans to construct 12 new apartment units on Broadway Avenue.
For the past few decades, the South Hills neighborhood of Beechview has not really been considered a destination community. But on a recent Saturday, the streets were jammed with parked cars, and dozens of Pittsburghers took in Beechview’s second annual Cinco de Mayo festival.
Throughout the day-long celebration, more than 500 people filled the small parking lot next the Las Palmas-IGA grocery store on Broadway Avenue. Lines of revelers spilled onto the sidewalks; families chatted as a band belted out traditional Mexican folk songs; and young girls danced in flowing red, white and green dresses. It was hard to imagine that this fiesta didn’t happen every weekend.
Pittsburgh City Councilor Natalia Rudiak, who represents the neighborhood, enjoyed a taco. And Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto made an appearance.
“I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that organized this. This is what makes living in the city special,” said Peduto. “To be here today with everybody is a celebration of what makes the city so great.”
While the warm wishes were all around on this day, some Pittsburghers haven’t embraced the steady flow of Latinos into the Steel City.
The neighborhoods with the highest concentration of Latinos — Brookline and Beechview — have seen at least three incidents of racism-fueled vandalism directed at Latino-owned businesses over the past six months. One of the most blatant involved the words “Go back to Mexico” spray-painted on Brookline’s Las Palmas grocery. The Brookline store recently closed, but according to posts on social media by co-owner Missy Berumen, the reasons were related to rental costs, not intimidation. (The Berumens could not be reached to comment for this story.)
There are rumors that the city’s powers-that-be are providing secret funding to bring more Hispanic businesses to the area. City officials say the rumors are false and absurd.
And while a few dissenting voices have undoubtedly made Latinos feel unwelcome, a bigger group of Pittsburghers is trying to embrace one of the city’s fastest-growing demographics. In April, Peduto and Rudiak criticized the vandalism and issued statements in support of the targeted businesses. As City Paper reported in January, residents sent flowers and candles to the Berumen family, owners of Las Palmas.
“There are going to be some loud voices that are not ready to be inclusive,” says Rudiak. “But on the flip side, there are so many people in the community embracing the Latino community.”
And now, even more support is pouring into the community, especially in Beechview. Big plans are in the works: Developers, city officials and business leaders are working to ensure that the neighborhood’s potential growth benefits everyone.
A quick stroll down Broadway Avenue in Beechview offers a snapshot of the community’s strengths and weaknesses. The northern end of the thoroughfare is marked by a dozen vacant structures, some of which appear unstable. What activity does occur in this sleepy business district revolves around the lunchtime taco stand outside the Las Palmas-IGA grocery.
“Latino development has bolstered our community; it’s a draw to our neighborhood,” says Rudiak. She defends the Latinos who live in her district and cites the positive contributions they have made to Beechview.
“We have Latino residents renting apartments, buying homes, frequenting all the businesses and sending their kids to Pittsburgh Public Schools,” she says. “They are Americans trying to live the American dream.”
The growth of this community has attracted some outside interest in Broadway Avenue. The Pittsburgh Hispanic Development Corporation, which focuses on bolstering Latino businesses throughout the region, has set up shop in the heart of the neighborhood.
PHDC Executive Director Victor Diaz says the group is starting a business incubator that is actively targeting Latino entrepreneurs. The incubator, which occupies the second floor of the Brew on Broadway building, has already attracted a startup that builds prosthetics for people with disabilities, a company that exports products to Chile, and some businesses from Miami.
“Attracting Hispanic business to that area is going to bring people to the neighborhood,” says Diaz.
One of those businesses is a planned beer distributor. Owners Janey Taylor and her husband, Oscar Santiago, moved to Coraopolis a few years ago. Taylor says her husband works as a roofer and has made many Latino friends, who mostly live in Beechview. Because the neighborhood doesn’t have a place to buy beer other than the local bars, Taylor and Santiago, with some help from Rudiak’s office, found a space in the middle of the business district. “A bunch of people are working hard here all day. They want to be able to relax and have a beer,” says Taylor. She says they plan to carry a wide variety of brews, with an emphasis on imports.
PHDC’s work goes beyond attracting Latino entrepreneurs. The nonprofit is also forming an all-inclusive community group — the Beechview Revitalization Advisory Group — that aims to unite people who care about the area and want to see it grow.
“Diversity is good for the city,” Diaz says. “Just because we are Hispanic does not mean we are excluding anybody.”
Diaz believes that attracting Latinos to Pittsburgh is in the region’s best interest, especially considering that the Latino population here, while growing, is still very small. According to U.S. Census figures, Beechview has the largest percentage of Latinos in the region at 6 percent (about 500 people); Allegheny County’s Hispanic population is only 1.7 percent (about 21,000 residents).
But those small percentages have been inching up. Since 2010, the county has added more than 3,000 Latino residents, and Pittsburgh has added more than 1,000 Latinos in the same time period. (The city’s overall population has continued to decline since 2010.)
“Hispanics are the biggest minority [group] in the country, but we don’t exist here,” says Diaz. “It is a small population, but it is growing. Why not take advantage of that momentum?”
There appear to be good economic reasons to bring in Latino residents. Remy Arteaga, executive director of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, in California, recently conducted a nationwide study that shows that from 2007-2012, the number of Latino-owned businesses grew 47 percent, while non-Latino businesses grew less than 1 percent.
“It is pretty shocking in some ways. We knew the growth was large but did not realize how much larger than non-Latino businesses,” says Arteaga. “For the overall growth of privately held businesses, 86 percent of growth is from Latino businesses.”
Arteaga says the growth of Latino entrepreneurs is not the only reason cities should be attracting Hispanics. He says the Latino population is young, growing at a faster rate than any other demographic, and Latino businesses are in the “sweet spot” of growth and community interaction. The study also shows the U.S. economy could grow by $1.4 trillion if Latino businesses were fully supported and thrived at their maximum potential. “It’s a pretty compelling case for wanting Latinos to move into the area.”
In fact, one town in central Pennsylvania has already benefitted from of an influx of Latinos. Hazleton, in Luzerne County, received a wave of Latino immigrants in the mid-2000s. Some in the community claimed that crime grew as a result. (Stats show the opposite for most years in the 2000s.) In 2006, the town passed a controversial law aimed at keeping out undocumented immigrants. The law was later repealed, the Latino population kept growing, and according to news accounts the local economy has been buoyed by an increase of Latino-owned businesses. Hazelton’s commercial district has been revitalized, with Latino bakeries sitting next to longtime pizza joints.
Arteaga says stories like these are common, and especially surprising given that Latino entrepreneurs don’t receive nearly the same level of capital investment that non-Latino businesses do.
Some say Beechview is lucky because the neighborhood has garnered interest not only from the folks at the PHDC, but also from a major developer like Daniel Berkowitz.
As head of Atlas Development, Berkowitz has become one of Beechview’s biggest champions. He, like Councilor Rudiak, sees Beechview’s potential not only in terms of the growth of the Latino community, but also because of its transit access.
“You find me a neighborhood that is 12 minutes on a light-rail from Downtown in most major cities, and I will show you a vibrant neighborhood,” says Berkowitz.
The existing light-rail lines along Broadway Avenue are currently under construction, and Rudiak is somewhat hopeful that Beechview will receive a state grant that will bring a modern, “complete streets” design to the business district. (Latinos fit into the transit plans, too. Port Authority has recently put up billboards and bus-shelter ads in Spanish, with many of them concentrated in the Beechview/Brookline area.)
Berkowitz also recognizes that Beechview was already revitalizing before he started focusing on it a year ago. “Hands down there is more [vitality] in the neighborhood because of Latinos,” says Berkowitz. “There’s the taco guy at Las Palmas, patrons at El Milagro [taqueria], and there are young kids on the street.”
While Berkowitz embraces the Latino businesses in the area (he called the PHDC incubator “the battery” of the community), he says his plans go beyond what Latinos will bring. He says he has plans for an Italian restaurant, a diner, a jazz club, an online media company and an insurance planner, in eight buildings he owns or has options on. Berkowitz also plans to construct 12 new apartment units on Broadway Avenue.
Nonetheless, Beechview is rightfully leery of trusting developers. Bernardo Katz, a cellist and investor, once owned 80 percent of the neighborhood’s business district and promised $2.6 million to revitalize the area. Then, in 2007, he defaulted on his loans and fled to his native Brazil; it has taken 10 years to clear the properties for sale and development.
Berkowitz says he understands this history and that is why he chose to work out of the Brew on Broadway building. “We spent 12 months getting to know the community; we attended community meetings, and we used their input to inform what we do. … I can do better in the long run if I don’t piss off the neighborhood.”
Momentum is building in Pittsburgh’s Latino community, and support is growing stronger. On May 1, the same day as the Pittsburgh Marathon, more than 100 marchers paraded from Beechview to Brookline in support of immigrant rights. Religious leaders, politicians and Latino families with young children held signs saying “La ciudad de puentas, no fronteras” (The city of bridges, not walls) and “Full rights for all immigrants.”
Guillermo Perez, a Latino labor organizer with United Steelworkers, has been leading marches in the community for years and says they continue to grow. He says community members have not been focused on the incidents of vandalism in the neighborhood because they are focused on working and providing for their families. “Scrawling some graffiti on the back of a restaurant is not going to deter anybody,” says Perez.
During the march, a white Beechview resident was waving a Confederate flag while the marchers passed by. However, Perez says this incident had little effect on crowd, and they carried on. They seemed to have heeded Perez’s earlier line when he said the community is here and not going anywhere: “Aqui estamos, y no nos vamos!
Berkowitz says he understands this history and that is why he chose to work out of the Brew on Broadway building. “We spent 12 months getting to know the community; we attended community meetings, and we used their input to inform what we do. … I can do better in the long run if I don’t piss off the neighborhood.”
Momentum is building in Pittsburgh’s Latino community, and support is growing stronger. On May 1, the same day as the Pittsburgh Marathon, more than 100 marchers paraded from Beechview to Brookline in support of immigrant rights. Religious leaders, politicians and Latino families with young children held signs saying “La ciudad de puentas, no fronteras” (The city of bridges, not walls) and “Full rights for all immigrants.”
Guillermo Perez, a Latino labor organizer with United Steelworkers, has been leading marches in the community for years and says they continue to grow. He says community members have not been focused on the incidents of vandalism in the neighborhood because they are focused on working and providing for their families. “Scrawling some graffiti on the back of a restaurant is not going to deter anybody,” says Perez.
During the march, a white Beechview resident was waving a Confederate flag while the marchers passed by. However, Perez says this incident had little effect on crowd, and they carried on. They seemed to have heeded Perez’s earlier line when he said the community is here and not going anywhere: “Aqui estamos, y no nos vamos!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2)
Israel at 68: Truly a Miracle
By Sherwin Pomerantz
69 years ago I was a seven year old kid marching up the Grand Concourse in New York City’s Bronx in support of the creation of the a state for the Jews in Palestine, ultimately to be known as Israel.
In those days the Jewish population of the Bronx numbered just under a million people, there were synagogues every few blocks and everyone seemed Jewish. As a matter of fact, in the public elementary school that I attended I learned Yiddish songs as the Irish Catholics in the neighborhood all went to Catholic schools leaving the public schools to the Jews. Truly amazing in retrospect if one thinks about it.
My father of blessed memory was the President of Chapter #66 of the Zionist Organization of America and twice a year, in the spring and the fall, there was a parade in support of a UN resolution to partition Palestine. Most of the time I supported his efforts by stuffing envelopes but, if the weather was good (in those days our parents were a bit over protective and would not let me march in the rain) I marched with everyone else as we walked from the area of Yankee Stadium to the reviewing stand near Fordham Road and on to the terminus of the parade route.
It was inconceivable to anyone in those days that if, indeed, the support for a Jewish state resulted in success, 69 years later we would be living in the kind of amazing country Israel has become. Who would have believed, for example, that we would become a high tech power with more tech startups than any country in the world except for the United States? Who would have believed that Israel in 2016 would be a country with one of the world’s strongest currencies? Who would have believed that Israel would be the only western country whose birth rate is significantly above replacement levels, even among secular Israelis? Who would have believed that someday more than half of world Jewry would live here? Who would have believed that ultimately foreign direct investment in Israel would rival or exceed that of most of Europe and that the world would beat a path to our door to do business with us? And as recently as 30 years ago who would have believed that someday people would pay $12 million for an apartment in Tel Aviv? Nobody would have believed these positive manifestations of statehood.
Of course, the fears that were expressed in those days as to how a country surrounded by enemies could survive, or how the country could sustain growth without adequate water supplies, or how would we continue to attract immigrants given how poor the country would be at the start were all valid concerns. But with a unique brand of guts, chutzpah, creativity and, of course, faith that a higher power wanted us to succeed, we have done so, and beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Not to say there aren’t problems yet to be solved. For sure there are but what country in the world today does not have serious challenges? The world is in bad shape, visionary leadership is lacking, and it often appears that world war III has already begun. Given all of that we are doing pretty well.
But all one has to do is turn on his or her lap top and go to the following internet link:
to have their spirit rejuvenated and their faith in our future renewed. The link will take the reader to the last portion of last night’s opening Independence Day ceremony at Mt. Herzl where the flags of the State of Israel are transferred to the IDF unit that will watch over them during the coming year. There is no way to watch these 20 minutes with a dry eye. And added to the inspirational value of the event itself, is watching General (Ret) David Rokni, 84 years young, in uniform and acting as the master of ceremonies of the event as he has for the past 38 years. Ramrod straight and able to stand during the entire ceremony he, along with those magnificent young men and women of the IDF marching by are the symbols of everything that is good about this country.
After 32 years in this country I still get a tear in my eye when I see the Israel flag unfurled at the ceremony and think back to the days when we marched up the Grand Concourse in support of the creation of Israel. Those of us who live here are blessed to be able to do so and grateful to all of the forces, human and otherwise, that make this possible. May we all be around for many years to come to continue celebrating the independence of our country, the democratic and Jewish State of Israel.
Sherwin Pomerantz is a 32 year resident of Jerusalem, former National President of the Association of Americans/Canadians in Israel and president of Atid EDI Ltd., a Jerusalem-based business development consulting firm.
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3) When truly objective persons look in the political mirror they do not see Donald Trump. What they see is a nation that has fallen off its perch and they see the faces of angry voters who no longer believe America resembles the nation we once were or the nation we long to be again They see a people who have lost faith in their government, their politicians and in themselves..
The Clinton campaign loudly denounced the book as a “smear project” last year and Schweizer’s publisher, the Murdoch-owned Harper Collins, had to make some corrections to the Kindle version. But the changes, in the end, involved seven or eight inaccuracies, some of which were fairly minor in the context of the larger allegations, Politico reported.
What happened to "that shining city on the hill," to the nation that defeated Communism? The causes are many. They did not occur overnight. They have been building for decades.
Ironically, the proferred solutions to our current conditions attack the very virtues that made us great.
We have developed a distaste for independence, entrepreneurship, self reliance, military strength, risk taking, creativity etc. Many seem prepared to embrace the grave yard of Socialism.
Obama is not to blame for our decline though he accelerated the pace.
Democrats were successful, against two listless successive Republican candidates, by running against G.W and blaming him for going to war based on specious intelligence and destabilizing The Middle East.
The candidate they presented allowed us to withdraw from this 'unwinnable' and costly war. Obama gave us hope but the change he sought to impose turned out to be the equivalent of fool's gold.
Some seven years later the wreckage wrought by this arrogant neophyte has us so dispirited we seem ready to believe Trump has the answers. Perhaps he does but presidents cannot solve our problems. What they can do is shape conditions that better allow us to solve our own problems. Government is US and when we place our faith in government, and a big one at that, we are simply setting ourselves up for more failure. Presidents can lift our spirits and surround themselves with talent but, in the final analysis,"We The People" must solve the mess we have imposed on ourselves.
A reason we may not succeed is that we have educationally "dumbed" ourselves down as Professor Bloom warned and Obama has persisted, for political gain, not only in dividing us but also in turning us against each other.
If elected, I do believe Trump will be a roller coaster president because he is unlike any traditional type. Also, he will be learning on the job and has a mouth that suggests he is the northern equivalent of Ted Turner (the mouth of the South.)
That said, Trump brings to the Oval Office, should he win as I believe he can, something reminiscent of Reagan. Trump is logical, practical, driven by common sense, up to a point, and understands and relates. He proved that during the nominating process as he defied the pros and the long odds they kept choking on as he slayed the more favored 17 dragons.
Obama became an early embarrassment and his supporters blame Republicans for being intransigent but that dog won't hunt because Obama went to Egypt and apologized, Obama and Clinton misread Putin, Obama and Clinton withdrew our forces thereby creating vacuums which Islamist terrorists filled.
Trump's opponent, should it be Hillary, has a chance as long as she is breathing because voters have proven robotic but I believe the ice under her skates is thin. She is neither trusted nor liked unless you are rabidly loyal and are incapable of smelling.
Time will tell. It always does.
3a) 'We could have been there': Squadron member speaks out on stalled Benghazi response
By Adam Housley
His squadron got the alert: a “real world mission was going down.”
The team – at Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy – raced to the field and was briefed, as planes were armed and prepared to launch. Hundreds of miles away, fellow Americans were under attack in Benghazi.
"There were people everywhere. That flight line was full of people, and we were all ready to go” to Benghazi, he said.
Only they were waiting for the order. It never came.
“The whole night we were told that we are waiting on a call,” he told Fox News.
This account is from a squadron member at Aviano the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, terror attack in Benghazi. The source, the first in his squadron to speak out publicly since that attack, is going public to explain – in his view – that more could have been done to save Americans under attack that night.
He asked that his identity be protected for fear of retribution. He says others in his squadron also have wanted to talk about Benghazi from the beginning, but no others have been interviewed and all are afraid of the potential backlash from speaking out.
“I'm not trying to give away any type of [information] that could ever harm the military,” the source told Fox News. “That is never my plan. I feel that some things need to come to light.”
Namely, he said, that a team was ready to go that night to help protect Americans under fire in Benghazi – an account that runs counter to multiple official reports, including from a House committee, a timeline provided by the military and the controversial State Department Accountability Review Board investigation, which concluded the interagency response to Benghazi was “timely and appropriate.”
The source said: "I definitely believe that our aircraft could have taken off and gotten there in a timely manner, maybe three hours at the most, in order to at least stop that second mortar attack … and basically save lives that day."
Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed in that second wave. Ambassador Chris Stevens and information officer Sean Smith were killed in the initial attack on the main compound.
“We could have been there. That's the worst part,” the source said.
The source who spoke with Fox News challenged the military claim that a re-fueling tanker wasn’t available. He said American jets routinely refuel by using what’s called a “hot pit maneuver,” which allows the jets to land and then get fuel without shutting off the engines.
Multiple sources say there were multiple locations available the night of the attack.
He said they were waiting on the call, though, through the night. The men say they didn’t truly learn about the mission they had missed until they returned home the next day from the airfield and saw the reports about the Benghazi attack on the news.
Many still don’t talk about the subject and some insist it has hurt morale within the squadron because “people know we were stationed there and didn’t respond.”
The same frustrations have compelled Mike, a former team sergeant for a military anti-terror quick reaction force, once known as the CIF, to talk.
“For some reason they were all shut down, and I think it leads back to a policymaker somewhere because nobody in the military is going to shut down an operation,” he said. On the night of the attack, Mike was at Delta Force headquarters in the U.S. monitoring the events as they happened.
“We had hours and hours and hours to do something ... and we did nothing," he said.
Despite the claim by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department that nothing more could have been done, a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit recently revealed that Department of Defense Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash immediately offered assistance to the State Department on the night of Sept. 11, saying forces could move to Benghazi and “they are spinning up as we speak.”
Mike echoed that: “I know everything was spun up and nothing was done.”
He added: "At our level, we were doing everything we were supposed to be doing. At everybody else's level above us, it was political."
In June 2014, Delta Forces captured Abu Khattala, a man now charged in the attack.
Mike, though, said Khattala is a low-level operative and not one of the terror cell leaders. He said the U.S. could have collected intelligence leading to “bigger fish” had the U.S. acted sooner following the attack.
Meanwhile, while Democrats have called the House investigation into the Benghazi attacks a waste of time and money, committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., says his committee has uncovered new facts – but does admit they still are having issues finding witnesses.
“It’s been very frustrating,” Gowdy told Fox News.
In response to Fox News’ reporting, he also issued a statement saying it is “deeply troubling there are individuals who would like to share their stories, but have not because they are afraid of retaliation from their superiors.”
The two men who spoke with Fox News have not spoken with the committee.
Adam Housley joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in 2001 and currently serves as a Los Angeles-based senior correspondent.
3b) ‘Clinton Cash’ doc set to stir up controversy as it debuts at Cannes
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It packs the kind of Trump-esque mainstream punch that may have the presumptive GOP nominee salivating. He recently declared, “We’ll whip out that book because that book will become very pertinent.”
The hour-long documentary is intercut with “Homeland”-style clips of the Clintons juxtaposed against shots of blood-drenched money, radical madrassas, villainous dictators and private jets, all set to sinister music.Produced by Stephen K. Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, with Schweizer as the film’s talking head, the documentary might be easy to dismiss as just another example of the “vast right-wing conspiracy” the former secretary of state referenced so many years ago.But what complicates matters for Hillary Clinton’s campaign is that the book resulted in a series of investigations last year into Schweizer’s allegations by mainstream media organizations from The New York Times and CNN to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, many of which did not dispute his findings — and in some cases gathered more material that the producers used in the film. More recently, some information uncovered in the Panama Papers has echoed some of Schweitzer’s allegations in the movie and book.
The Clinton campaign loudly denounced the book as a “smear project” last year and Schweizer’s publisher, the Murdoch-owned Harper Collins, had to make some corrections to the Kindle version. But the changes, in the end, involved seven or eight inaccuracies, some of which were fairly minor in the context of the larger allegations, Politico reported.
Neither the Clinton campaign nor the Clinton Foundation responded to calls and emails requesting comment about the film Tuesday.
One of the most damning follow-ups to Schweizer’s most startling accusation — that Vladimir Putin wound up controlling 20 percent of American uranium after a complex series of deals involving cash flowing to the Clinton Foundation and the help of Secretary of State Clinton — was printed in The New York Times.
Like Schweizer, the Times found no hard evidence in the form of an email or any document proving a quid pro quo between the Clintons, Clinton Foundation donors or Russian officials. (Schweizer has maintained that it’s next to impossible to find a smoking gun but said there is a troubling “pattern of behavior” that merits a closer examination.)
But the Times concluded that the deal that brought Putin closer to his goal of controlling all of the world’s uranium supply is an “untold story … that involves not just the Russian president, but also a former American president and a woman who would like to be the next one.”
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“Other news outlets built on what I uncovered and some of that is in the film,” Schweizer, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, told NBC News Tuesday. “To me the key message is that while U.S. politics has long been thought to be a dirty game, it was always played by Americans. What the Clinton Foundation has done is open an avenue by which foreign investors can influence a chief U.S. diplomat. The film may spell all this out to people in a way the book did not and it may reach a whole new audience.”
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