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My long time, dear friend and fellow memo reader, Robbie Friedmann, reports on the recent Tel Aviv murders: http://isgap.org/flashpoint/
I cannot see how Israel will avoid all out war if Hezbollah launches rockets and should that occur I also see no way Israel can tolerate the type of attack Hezbollah has the capacity to unleash. Therefore, I suspect Israel will basically eliminate most of Lebanon and the world will be enraged and as usual the liberal press and media will blame Israel by switching and making Hezbollah the aggrieved victim. (See 1 below.)
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If you think the biased media and press, which are in Hillary's Camp, will report on this you are delusional. This is the non-reporting Bozell talked about and this is why The Fourth Estate has lost all credibility and are distrusted. You will get your news increasingly from social media geeks like this guy, me and others. God help America if citizens have to rely upon the likes of me. Yes, when all else fails lower your standards.
For those who are interested, Trump will expose the Clinton's this coming Monday evening or shortly thereafter in a speech that needs to be heard.
Even if Trump loses his run for The White House, one can hope he has changed the spineless Republican Party and force them to grow some backbone. Without it, they will continue to sink into political oblivion, as they should, for having proved they are all verba non acta. (See 2 below.)
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I post what several op ed writers have to say regularly because I either know them personally and/or mainly because I agree with what they write. I also believe they have integrity and are objective, notwithstanding the fact they tend to be conservative.
This is quite true of Kim Strassel who Bret Stephens told me to get to know and that was over 7 years ago, I believe Bret was right. Kim is bright and soon will have her first book published and I look forward to reading it.
Kim has given The Donald some wise advice which parallels my own thinking. It is way past time for him to man up.
Perhaps Trump will prove right about running a campaign on the cheap, up to a point. That said, he must understand , and I am sure he does, he will not get any media and press free pass goes now that he is the Republican nominee. He is going to be attacked unmercifully and if he thinks he can withstand these attacks without being surrounded by a protective cadre of bright and creative types, who he should listen to, he is going to go down in unnecessary flames and that would be a shame because Hillary is a misguided missile and her election would perpetuate the disaster this nation has has born for too long.
Even Archie Moore could only take so many body blows and Ali, as fast as he was, eventually developed Parkinson.
We know where there is smoke there is fire and Bozell pointed out that social media technology is beginning to capture audiences who, up to now, depended upon newspapers and television to provide them with news which they then digested and used as a basis for being informed.
We also know Facebook and Google are located in California's Silicon Valley and are 'overrun' with employees and executives who are very liberal and are now being accused of the same type of bias that drove readers and watchers from traditional press and media sources whose ratings of trustworthiness is even below that of Congress, if you can believe that.
Now that Obama has entered the fray and koshered Hillary's actions, by stating he does not believe she violated laws and revealed state secrets, Trump has the opportunity to go after Obama but that raises the stakes and risks because even though Obama probably corresponded with Hillary on her secret and unauthorized server etc.he is clever and gets away with accusing others of what he is guilty but no one, to date, has really called his hand and been effective because he has coated himself racially speaking, Can and/or will Trump be able to pierce Obama's armor as he takes on the Clinton?Time will tell.
For sure the 2016 will be the nastiest in recent history and may result in turning off most evryone who normally votes. Time will tell. (See 3 below.)
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Dick
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1)
The next war between Israel and Hezbollah will be devastating, and Hezbollah will be the guilty party, journalist Willy Stern wrote in the June 20 issue of The Weekly Standard.
Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terrorist group based in Lebanon, has an arsenal of more than 130,000 rockets, more than all NATO countries, excluding the U.S., combined. This number includes long-range rockets and M-600 ballistic missiles, which carry a high payload and would be able to “wipe out a good chunk of Times Square and maim and kill people four football fields away from the point of impact.” Hezbollah has approximately 100,000 short-range rockets trained on schools, homes, and hospitals in northern Israel that would unleash chaos and potentially kill hundreds of Israeli civilians. Geoff Corn, an international military law expert, explained the difficult choices Israeli officers face when Hezbollah purposefully places such weaponry in civilian areas. If Israel were to strike in this instance, he concluded that “both legally and morally, the cause of these tragic consequences will lie solely at the feet of Hezbollah.” Because of this, Corn said, “Hezbollah should be pressured starting today to avoid locating such vital military assets among civilians.” Otherwise “the instinctual condemnation of Israel will only encourage continuation of these illicit tactics.”
Stern explained that while Hezbollah has the manpower and weapons arsenal “of a nation-state…its tactics are those of a terrorist organization.” Because of this, the destruction inflicted upon Lebanon in the event of war will be massive. This is despite the fact that the IDF wages war in a cautious way to minimize civilian casualties; in fact, Michael Schmitt, chairman of the Stockton Center for the Study of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College, said, “The IDF’s warnings certainly go beyond what the law requires, but they also sometimes go beyond what would be operational good sense elsewhere. People are going to start thinking that the U.S. and other Western democracies should follow the same examples in different types of conflict. That’s a real risk.”
In a New York Times article in May 2015, Israeli military officials detailed how Hezbollah has “moved most of its military infrastructure” in and around Shiite villages, which “amounts to using the civilians as a human shield.” One official stated that Lebanese civilians are “living in a military compound.” He told the Times: “We will hit Hezbollah hard, while making every effort to limit civilian casualties as much as we can…We do not intend to stand by helplessly in the face of rocket attacks.” Stern, who was shown maps of the locations of Hezbollah weapons, said that they are not only being stored in these southern villages, but in Beirut itself.
Yaakov Amidror, Israel’s former national security advisor, met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the summer of 2013 and showed him “detailed evidence of Hezbollah’s deadly arsenal and the fact that it was strategically placed within densely populated civilian centers.” When Amidror asked Ban what the Israelis should do, he “offered no response and no suggestions.” Stern concluded his piece, “Nobody, it seems, in times of peace is willing to offer Israel a constructive suggestion on how to deal with an Iranian-backed terrorist organization in possession of a massive arsenal on its northern border. But these same organizations stand front and center to criticize Israel for acting legally and proportionately for protecting its own citizens in wartime.”
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2)
Hillary University: Bill Clinton Bagged $16.46 Million from For-Profit College as State Dept. Funneled $55 Million Back
by Stephen K. Bannon
With her campaign sinking in the polls, Hillary Clinton has launched a desperate attack against Trump University to deflect attention away from her deep involvement with a controversial for-profit college that made the Clintons millions, even as the school faced serious legal scrutiny and criminal investigations.
In April 2015, Bill Clinton was forced to abruptly resign from his lucrative perch as honorary chancellor of Laureate Education, a for-profit college company. The reason for Clinton’s immediate departure: Clinton Cash revealed, and Bloomberg confirmed, that Laureate funneled Bill Clinton $16.46 million over five years while Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. pumped at least $55 million to a group run by Laureate’s founder and chairman, Douglas Becker, a man with strong ties to the Clinton Global Initiative. Laureate has donated between $1 million and $5 million (donations are reported in ranges, not exact amounts) to the Clinton Foundation. Progressive billionaire George Soros is also a Laureate financial backer.
As the Washington Post reports, “Laureate has stirred controversy throughout Latin America, where it derives two-thirds of its revenue.” During Bill Clinton’s tenure as Laureate’s chancellor, the school spent over $200 million a year on aggressive telemarketing, flashy Internet banner ads, and billboards designed to lure often unprepared students from impoverished countries to enroll in its for-profit classes. The goal: get as many students, regardless of skill level, signed up and paying tuition.
“I meet people all the time who transfer here when they flunk out elsewhere,” agronomy student Arturo Bisono, 25, told the Post. “This has become the place you go when no one else will accept you.”
Others, like Rio state legislator Robson Leite who led a probe into Bill Clinton’s embattled for-profit education scheme, say the company is all about extracting cash, not educating students. “They have turned education into a commodity that focuses more on profit than knowledge,” said Leite.
Progressives have long excoriated for-profit education companies for placing profits over quality pedagogy. Still, for five years, Bill Clinton allowed his face and name to be plastered all over Laureate’s marketing materials. As Clinton Cash reported, pictures of Bill Clinton even lined the walkways at campuses like Laureate’s Bilgi University in Istanbul, Turkey. That Laureate has campuses in Turkey is odd, given that for-profit colleges are illegal there, as well as in Mexico and Chile where Laureate also operates.
Progressives have long excoriated for-profit education companies for placing profits over quality pedagogy. Still, for five years, Bill Clinton allowed his face and name to be plastered all over Laureate’s marketing materials. As Clinton Cash reported, pictures of Bill Clinton even lined the walkways at campuses like Laureate’s Bilgi University in Istanbul, Turkey. That Laureate has campuses in Turkey is odd, given that for-profit colleges are illegal there, as well as in Mexico and Chile where Laureate also operates.
Shortly after Bill Clinton’s lucrative 2010 Laureate appointment, Hillary Clinton’s State Dept. began pumping millions of its USAID dollars to a sister nonprofit, International Youth Foundation (IYF), which is run by Laureate’s founder and chairman, Douglas Becker. Indeed, State Dept. funding skyrocketed once Bill Clinton got on the Laureate payroll, according to Bloomberg:
A Bloomberg examination of IYF’s public filings show that in 2009, the year before Bill Clinton joined Laureate, the nonprofit received 11 grants worth $9 million from the State Department or the affiliated USAID. In 2010, the group received 14 grants worth $15.1 million. In 2011, 13 grants added up to $14.6 million. The following year, those numbers jumped: IYF received 21 grants worth $25.5 million, including a direct grant from the State Department.
Throughout ten Democratic Party debates, Establishment Media have not asked Hillary Clinton a single question about she and her husband’s for-profit education scam.
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3)
Trump Can’t Wing It Forever
He needs a campaign—to raise cash, cut ads and keep him focused on Clinton.
Donald Trump campaigning in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., June 7. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
The problem with accomplishing the impossible is that it leaves the impression doing so can be routine. In that mind-set may rest the question of whether Donald Trump has a shot at the presidency.
Give the man credit: He broke every law of political physics and still won the primary. He rambled; he barely spent a dime on TV; he skipped entire states; he ignored delegate math; his focus group was himself. An entire generation of political consultants is debating checking in to a psych ward.
His impossible victory in hand, Mr. Trump is proceeding as if he can win the general election the same way. Fundraising and advertising? Mr. Trump told Bloomberg that he had no plans to raise the $1 billion his campaign initially estimated, since “I get so much publicity” and free airtime. He wrapped up the nomination more than a month ago, yet only this week did his national finance team hold its first official meeting.
A data operation? The real-estate mogul last month said the whole know-who-your-voters-are thing is “overrated.” After all, he says he can reach nearly 20 million people on social media. How about a fully staffed campaign operation? No need. Mr. Trump is running a bare-bones effort—reported to be about 80 people in total—and he told the New York Times that such leanness is “smart.”
In short, he’s winging it. He continues to operate on the assumption that he will bask in free airtime forever, that the masses will flock to him come November, that he can tweet his way to the Oval Office. And perhaps, given his primary achievement, he gets the benefit of the doubt.
Save one thing: It isn’t working. Mr. Trump’s past rule-breaking succeeded because of a crowded primary field, in which Mr. Trump was the most entertaining figure, and in which the press didn’t have a stake. It succeeded because a decade of specific frustrations had made conservatives unusually open to his style and message.
That’s all over now. Mr. Trump is in a race against a seasoned politician who commands a machine and is already savaging him daily. The mainstream media are in the tank for her, and their airtime will be devoted to skewering him. Mr. Trump’s supporters remain the minority in a fractured party that he has yet to unify.
There’s no need to guess whether Mr. Trump’s lack of a campaign is hurting him. It’s proven by two irrefutable weeks of negative press coverage, missed opportunities and eroding poll numbers.
Campaigns exist to keep the candidate focused and ready to exploit rare opportunities. In recent weeks, Mr. Trump wasted three such golden moments: the report by the State Department’s inspector general on Mrs. Clinton’s email practices; Hillary’s foreign policy speech; and last week’s dismal jobs report.
Mr. Trump could have hammered the Clinton ethical morass and wrapped Barack Obama’s failed foreign and economic policies around Mrs. Clinton’s neck. Instead he confined himself to random tweets, calling the email report “devastating,” the jobs report a “bombshell,” and Hillary’s teleprompter skills unpresidential.
Campaigns exist to stop the candidate from digging himself into a hole, as Mr. Trump has with highly personal attacks on the judiciary. They exist to tee up a regular series of addresses on key issues, much like Mr. Trump did (admirably) on energy policy several weeks ago. (The mogul reportedly will give a major address next week on the Clintons’ “politics of personal enrichment,” which is at least a start.)
Campaigns exist to counter negative advertising. But the blitz that the Clinton camp commenced against Mr. Trump as far back as April has largely gone unanswered. The super PAC backing Mrs. Clinton has spent millions and vowed another $130 million. Her campaign, with an estimated $60 million in hand, had an ad up within days of the judge controversy. The Trump campaign has run one Web ad—weeks ago—about the Clintons, which hit Bill for his sexual past.
Campaigns exist to shore up the party, yet there are renewed rumblings about ditching Mr. Trump at the convention. They exist to work hand in hand with party leaders: The Republican National Committee has invested years and millions preparing for this race, but it can be of little help in the absence of an all-cylinders Trump campaign.
Mr. Trump boasts that he is a business success, and so he surely understands the necessity of a well-oiled operation. Were he to spend the next weeks focused on gearing up one, he’d even the odds against Hillary and make inroads among many Republicans who need reasons to feel confident.
What could it hurt? If Mr. Trump is as skilled as his supporters believe, imagine him also backed by a fabulous campaign.
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