Click this link:American Spitfire Pilot in WWII
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Charles Schulz was a misfit. Everything he tried wound up leaving him out in the cold. Everything he tried, work wise, was rejected and then!!
He had one talent he was convinced was good - his ability to draw cartoons. So he decided to draw a cartoon about a little boy who was the story of his own life of "rejection.". Schulz told the story that all of us can relate to and thus, he became world famous. Peanuts became an endearing cartoon of a little boy and His Friends.
Perhaps I m stretching the comparison of the way Democrats/liberals react and how Shulz drew Peanuts' and told how he reacted to rejection and disappointment. I know generalizations are odious and I might also offend. That is not my intent. I simply want to pose a contrast that might cause some to look inward and rethink their behaviour and views.
Democrats do not like it when their ideas are laughed at, when their views are not taken seriously and it frustrates them no end to be scoffed. They cannot understand why their ideas have not worked and frequently blame it on lack of funding or other outlandish reasons. They believe when they say or pronounce something , it is so. It is their way or the highway. They are always right and those on their right are always wrong.
When Liberals do not have their way they engage in all kind of reactions. They parade, they burn down and destroy, they stop others from espousing their views, they seek to impose their will, their ideas. They believe change is the only way and it has to be their change. They take themselves very seriously. They tend to be less tolerant even while professing to seek tolerance.
They are a strange breed.They are a spoiled lot. They are often impenetrable because they are so self-righteous and lastly they are quite hypocritical. These are not endearing qualities. They are no charming characteristics.
Peanuts never took this path when he was rejected.
We have all experienced what Peanuts endured. Peanuts' message,to me, is pick yourself up, dust yourself off, keep on plugging, get back in the game, realize your faults and try to overcome them rather than let them overcome you. I can sum it up in one word - fortitude!
I prefer the Peanuts approach towards life.
Dick
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On the morning of Sunday, February 13, 2000, newspaper readers opened their comic pages as they had for nearly fifty years to read the latest adventures of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts Gang. This Sunday was different, though; mere hours before newspapers hit doorsteps with the final original Peanuts comic strip, its creator Charles M. Schulz, who once described his life as being “one of rejection,” passed away peacefully in his sleep the night before, succumbing to complications from colon cancer. It was a poetic ending to the life of a devoted cartoonist who, from his earliest memories, knew that all he wanted to do was “draw funny pictures.”
The poetry of Schulz’s life began two days after he was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 26, 1922, when an uncle nicknamed him “Sparky” after the horse Spark Plug from the Barney Google comic strip. Sparky’s father, Carl, was of German heritage and his mother, Dena, came from a large Norwegian family; the family made their home in St. Paul, where Carl worked as a barber. Throughout his youth, father and son shared a Sunday morning ritual reading the funnies; Sparky was fascinated with strips like Skippy, Mickey Mouse, and Popeye. In his deepest desires, he always knew he wanted to be a cartoonist, and seeing the 1937 publication of his drawing of Spike, the family dog, in the nationally-syndicated Ripley’s Believe it or Not newspaper feature was a proud moment in the young teen’s life. He took his artistic studies to a new level when, as a senior in high school and with the encouragement of his mother, he completed a correspondence cartoon course with the Federal School of Applied Cartooning (now Art Instruction Schools).
As Schulz continued to study and hone his artistic style from the late 1920s through the 1940s, the genre of comic art experienced a great shift. The full-page comics of the 1920s and 30s afforded artists the space to reflect the Art Deco details and sensibilities of the day, including the highly-stylized illustrations of Dick Tracy and Little Nemo in Slumberland. Newspaper editors in the late 1940s and 50s, however, promoted a post-War minimalist model, pushing their cartoonists to shrink strip size, minimize pen strokes, and sharpen their humor with daily gags and cerebral humor for an ever-increasingly educated audience. Schulz’s dry, intellectual, and self-effacing humor was a natural fit for the evolving cultural standards of the mid-20th century comics.
Two monumental events happened within days of each other in 1943 that profoundly affected the rest of Schulz’s life; his mother, to whom he was very close, passed away at age 50 from cervical cancer; and he boarded a troop train to begin his army career in Camp Campbell, Kentucky. Though Schulz remained proud of his achievements and leadership roles in the army for the rest of his life, this period of time haunted him with the dual experiences of the loss of his mother and realities of war.
After returning from the war in the fall of 1945, Schulz settled with his father in an apartment over Carl’s barbershop in St. Paul, determined to realize his passion of becoming a professional cartoonist. He found employment at his alma mater, Art Instruction, sold intermittent one-panel cartoons to The Saturday Evening Post, and enjoyed a three-year run of his weekly panel comic, Li’l Folks, in the local St. Paul Pioneer Press. These early published cartoons focused on concise drawings of precocious children with large heads who interacted with words and actions well beyond their years. Schulz was honing his skills for the national market. The first Peanuts strip appeared on October 2, 1950, in seven newspapers nationwide. Although being a professional cartoonist was Schulz’s life-long dream, at 27-years old, he never could have foreseen the longevity and global impact of his seemingly-simple four-panel creation.
The continuing popular appeal of Peanuts stems, in large part, from Schulz’s ability to portray his observations and connect to his audience in ways that many other strips cannot. As each character’s personality has been fleshed out over the years, readers came to intimately understand Linus’ attachment to his Security Blanket, Charlie Brown’s heartache over the Little Red-Haired Girl, Schroeder’s devotion to Beethoven, Peppermint Patty’s prowess in sports and failure in the classroom, and Lucy’s knowledge of … well … everything. The rise in Snoopy’s popularity in the 1960s had a direct correlation to his evolution from a four-legged pet to a two-legged, highly-imaginative and equal character in the strip, which allowed Schulz to take his storylines in increasingly new directions.
Schulz’s understated genius lay in his ability to keep his well-known and comfortable characters fresh enough to attract new readers while keeping his current audience coming back for more. His humor was at times observational, wry, sarcastic, nostalgic, bittersweet, silly, and melancholy, with occasional flights of fancy and suspension of reality thrown in from time to time. When Schulz announced his retirement in December 1999, the Peanuts comic strip was syndicated in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide, with book collections translated in over 25 languages. He has been awarded with the highest honors from his fellow cartoonists, received Emmy Awards for his animated specials, been recognized and lauded by the U.S. and foreign governments, had NASA spacecraft named after his characters, and inspired a concert performance at Carnegie Hall. And still today, the Peanuts Gang continues to entertain and inspire the young and the young at heart.
What a legacy for us all.
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Threats always loom when it comes to Israel. (See 1 and 1a below.)
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Ross Rants. (See 2 below.)
Ross Rants. (See 2 below.)
Dick
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1) THE ALGEMEINER
While Israel is mired in domestic scandals and coalition crises, the greatest threat the country has known since the eve of the Yom Kippur War — perhaps since the War for Independence — is steadily taking shape. This menace, posed of course by Iran, essentially consists of a wide range of growing threats closing in on us.
The Iranians, who invented the game of chess, are exceedingly adept at playing several boards simultaneously, with the winner’s prize no less than control of the entire Middle East and beyond.
The bottom chessboard is regional. The Iranians cunningly took a step back and allowed the superpowers to destroy their main enemies in the region. The Americans weakened the Taliban and eliminated Saddam Hussein, and, along with Russia, they annihilated the Islamic State group. The Iranians also helped Shiite militias exhaust and chase American forces from Iraq. The resulting vacuum in Iraq and Syria was filled by the Iranians and their proxies.
Today, Iran is penetrating deeper across the Middle East and is guiding the Shiite majorities in eastern Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. It has also established a foothold among the Houthis rebels in Yemen. Just several days ago, Bahraini forces thwarted a coup attempt orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. At the same time, the Iranians have forged unprecedentedly strong alliances with Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Together with their complete control over Lebanon, the Iranians have laid siege to virtually the entire Middle East.
The upper chess board is the international sphere, where the Iranians have secured a nuclear deal. This achievement grants them all the advantages of military nuclear capabilities without the costs. While Iran doesn’t have to fear a military strike on its nuclear facilities, sanctions relief and lucrative business deals have provided the immense funds it uses to realize its regional aspirations. In around 10 years, when the nuclear deal expires, no country will step in to stop Iran if it continues developing nuclear weapons, for fear of squandering its vast investments in the Islamic republic.
In the meantime, the Iranians have displayed an incredible capacity to maneuver between Western powers. Thus, for example, during Tehran’s rapprochement with Washington under the Obama administration it also struck a tangible military alliance with Russia, which helped it restore its status as a player in the Middle East. This dexterity is particularly discernible on the main chessboard — Syria.
Influence in Syria, which links Tehran to Beirut; and Damascus to Iraq and the Persian Gulf, is a preeminent Iranian interest. In Syria of all places, however, Iran’s status is questionable due to the lack of a Shiite population there. Therefore it is working to cleanse Syria of its Sunni majority and bolster the Alawites — who are essentially an offshoot of Shiite Islam — and their regime.
To replace the banished or killed Sunnis, Iran is importing Shiites from across the Middle East from as far as Pakistan and Afghanistan. To this end, the Iranians enlisted Moscow’s help and in return agreed to Russia’s continued presence in the war-torn country. Through their extensive economic ties with Iran, meanwhile, the Europeans are funding the ethnic cleansing of Syria and inducing the tsunami of refugees reaching their shores. All Iran has to do now is establish a military foothold in Syria to overcome the last obstacle on its path to regional hegemony — Israel.
Iran wants to force Israel into a state of perpetual check; in other words, paralysis before death. Surrounded by tens of thousands of missiles held by Hamas and Hezbollah, and in range of the Iranian army’s long-range missiles, Israel will struggle to impede Iran from entrenching itself in Syria. When this undertaking culminates, the Iranians will be able to take the Israeli “king” and declare checkmate.
This can be prevented. The Israeli government has thus far set clear red lines prohibiting the Iranians from building missile bases and ports in Syria and from transferring sophisticated weaponry to Hezbollah. These red lines must be stringently enforced, but international support must also be enlisted. Israel has to develop a diplomatic and legal “iron dome” capable of defending us if IDF soldiers are forced to enter Hezbollah’s strongholds in southern Lebanon.
No less importantly, Israel must remove the Palestinian stumbling block on the path to a strategic alliance with the Sunni world, and the creation of a united Middle Eastern front to counter Iran.
The Iranians might be experts at chess, but rest assured, Israel has champions of its own.
Michael Oren is a former Israeli ambassador to the US. He currently serves as deputy public diplomacy minister.
1a) The Most Unnerving Visit to the Middle East in a Long Time
In Syria and Lebanon, Iran and its proxies escalate their threats to Israel, Sunni Arabs and the U.S.
By Lindsey Graham
I recently returned from the Middle East, where I visited Jordan and Israel. I have been to the region many times, and this was the most unnerving visit I’ve taken in a long time. With the help of Vladimir Putin and Bashar Assad, Iran is winning. Sunni Arabs, Israel and the U.S. are on their heels. How did this happen?
Severe missteps from the Obama administration empowered Mr. Assad, who at the time saw no consequences for slaughtering thousands of Syrians. The death toll has since climbed into the hundreds of thousands, and the war rages on. President Obama’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq, against military advice, led to the rise of Islamic State. He also ignored advice from his national-security team to help Syrian democratic forces when Mr. Assad was on the ropes. Hezbollah and eventually Russia and Iran came to Mr. Assad’s aid, entrenching him in power.
The Trump administration took the gloves off in fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The results on the battlefield speak for themselves. Yet I do not see a coherent strategy from the administration to combat Iran’s growing influence in Iraq and the domination of Syria by Russia and Iran. Today Mr. Assad is an Iranian proxy and a Russian puppet.
Listen to our military leaders. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, told the House Armed Services Committee last month that “countering Iran is not one of the coalition missions in Syria.” He added: “Iran’s malign activities across the region pose the long-term threat to stability in this part of the world.” As for the Russians, “Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria . . . then serving as an arbiter to resolve disputes, attempting to undermine and weaken each party’s bargaining positions.”
In the Golan Heights, Israeli soldiers pointed out villages under the control of ISIS and others under the control of the Assad regime—accompanied by fighters from Hezbollah, one of Israel’s mortal enemies and an Iranian proxy. This growing threat on the Israel-Syria border must be confronted before it becomes a launchpad for more rockets into Israel.
The biggest concern is Hezbollah’s militarization of southern Lebanon. When Israel withdrew from the region in 2000, the United Nations promised to provide a buffer via the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, to ensure that southern Lebanon would not continue to be a threat to Israel. On our visit, we were stunned by how pervasive sophisticated rockets have become in the area. The Israel Defense Forces informed us that Hezbollah—with Iran’s help—is manufacturing precision-guided weapons there. Under the nose of Unifil, there are thousands of intermediate-range rockets and missiles pointed at Israel.
Soon Israel will have to attack these rocket sites, which Hezbollah has integrated into civilian infrastructure such as apartment buildings, schools and hospitals. Israeli leaders are concerned that this integration will lead to high civilian casualty rates if the Jewish state has to defend itself. Israeli officials repeatedly reminded us of this fact and expressed hope we would be there for them. I intend to do both. I will hold hearings about the military buildup in southern Lebanon, the failures of Unifil, and the need for more missile-defense funding for Israel.
I hope the administration will develop a strategy that includes no-fly zones inside Syria, so refugees can safely return home, and that the U.S. continues to train forces who want to take on Mr. Assad. We must also make clear to Iran and Russia that they engage these forces at their peril.
Without change on the ground, Israel will be forced to face the growing threats from Iran and its proxies inside Lebanon and the Syria border region. Jordan cannot withstand more refugees, and the civil war in Syria has taken a heavy toll on the Jordanian economy and created radical Islamic threats on Jordan’s border.
There are no easy choices left, because the Obama administration allowed Iran and Russia to fill a vacuum created by poor policy choices. But the worst option is to remain on the sidelines. The antidote is a clear and coherent strategy to push back—not continue a policy of indifference.
Mr. Graham, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from South Carolina.
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2)
2)
The economic numbers this past week were excellent. Not only were there far more jobs created than any economist predicted, by 50%, but there is no sign of wage inflation as the rate of increase was very reasonable, yet above inflation. More important the participation rate is rising and U6 is still low by historical comparison at 8.2%. The lowest U6 rate was 6.8% one time in Oct 2000. At the rate people are returning to the workforce, that number might be reachable. If so then we can start to worry about wage inflation. Given the large number of people returning to the labor force voluntarily this month, it seems there is still some level of slack at least at the unskilled level. From here it is likely we will see the unemployment rate begin to decline from 4.1% down to maybe 3.5% or lower. Black unemployment is 6.8%, which means that even the unskilled and older teens are going to work. All of that means the possibility that crime in ghetto areas will start to decline, at least where there is not a sanctuary city and where the cops are allowed to do their job again. Right now CA is experiencing a material crime increase- homeless increase and health problems in cities. The same is true in Portland, OR and Baltimore. Maybe the mayors of these places will wake up and realize their sanctuary city and restraint of cops policies do not work.
It seems clear now that the whole tariff plan is really aimed at a giant negotiation with the EU and others to deal with all of the tariffs and non-tariff restraints on trade that harm US products. The other primary goal is China. They produce nearly 50% of all the steel in the world and although they are only a small number of direct sales to the US, Chinese steel is trans shipped through other countries and is dumped to keep the giant steel plants in China able to have full employment. If you see what occurred this weekend, the EU met with US representatives to try to do a deal. That was day one of a negotiation. They have 2 more weeks but the real negotiation is all those taxes and restraints by the EU that are not reciprocal by us. This is why I said let’s wait to see where all this goes before we all criticize Trump for the tariffs. Canada and Mexico now have another issue to deal with to pressure them to give more on NAFTA. Japan will have to ease up on non-tariff rules that keep[ out US farm and other products. The EU will have to do the same, especially on farm products and cars. In my view this was never about steel and aluminum. It was a plan to pressure the world to start to peel back all of the taxes and non-tariff rules and restraints that have harmed US exports for decades. The next two weeks will tell the story. But if Trump does pull this off, and there are major concessions by the EU and Japan and China, and if NAFTA does get resolved fairly well, then the Republicans have another major will to talk about in November. We will see what happens, but I think the critics jumped too fast before understanding what is really going on.
N Korea
The talking heads on TV are already complaining the meeting with Kim is wrong, too filled with risk that Trump will concede too much, failure means war, this is not how these meetings are supposed to be set up, etc . So nothing has really happened yet other than N Korea conceded and said they will stop testing for now and they will discuss denuclearization. The left is going nuts now because Trump succeeded where they thought he would fail, and that he was being irrational. Tillerson and Mattis deserve a lot of the credit I am sure, as they have been quietly working this behind the scenes. Kim made massive concessions already just agreeing to meet and to discuss denuclearization. The critics are already attacking Trump and laying out all the risks, and these are the exact same critics who were screaming that Trump’s tweets and approach was all wrong and negotiation was the only way. So now there is the ultimate negotiation and they are, of course, attacking Trump for the way the negotiation meeting has been set up. If the meeting happens, and if Trump does get a verifiable elimination of nukes and missiles, that will be unprecedented, and it will change world geopolitics for decades to come. It will also guarantee Trump a second term. There is no way to know what will happen, or if the N Koreans are playing games again, but one can assume the Chinese are exerting enormous pressure for the first time on Kim to concede, and the sanctions are starting to impact his ability to stage a war. If the Chinese can push this to be the end of the nukes, and they have a N Korea with no US troops or S Korean troops on their border, they have a huge win as well. There is tremendous reason now to get a deal. Somewhere in all of this is the trade deal we make with China and that I am sure has been part of the discussions with XI on N Korea. It never could have happened under Obama and Hilary or Kerry. This is the exact counter point to the Iran deal, and if it succeeds, then Iran will be subjected to the same threats and pressure, and the Europeans will find themselves in a tough spot to go along with US threats and pressure, or to side with Iran. If we can exert enough pressure on Iran and reinstall sanctions, and other pressures, then the CIA and Mossad may be able to instigate more and bigger riots in Iran, and undermine the mullahs. In short, put things back to where they would have been had Obama not given away the whole store and made it possible for the Iranians to be in Syria and Iraq and Lebanon now. What happens in N Korea will have a huge impact on the Middle East. The Trump policies are the exact opposite from Obama and the EU, so over the next year we will see what works or not. Everything across the world rides on this N Korea meeting. Xi can work with Trump to make it happen, or he can kill the opportunity by helping Kim avoid the pressure. My bet is Xi sees real peace as a far better alternative for his regime and his legacy, than war in Korea. He is key to this working or not. If Trump pulls this off, then the established liberal policies that have driven geopolitics for 70 years, and the left wing in the US are dead. If he fails, the world will be in a real mess.
If all of this does work, the equity markets will soar beyond any expectation. If not, and if the tariff and trade negotiations fail, then it could be very ugly.
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