;

My oldest daughter and her husband spend time in Sedona Arizona to avoid the bitter winter in Birmingham, Michigan. They have been doing this for many years and have developed many friendships among the permanent residents. One such is a former military pilot, photographer and sort of an Edwardian. I have never met him but he is now a fellow memo reader and sent me this photo and described it as follows: "---there are a few areas in Wood and other canyons that have some very neat erosion areas and this is one of those that is in Wood Canyon … just east of Jacks' Canyon and W of I-17. Most of the bushes are Junipers and really pretty boring to look at so I took artistic leave and altered them a wee bit … perhaps I dealt with the allergens that they emit too … sure, why not. I like the way that at the top it appears a large section just cleaved from the slope and then erosion took over. I also wonder how long ago that the event took place … hundreds of years? Thousands? Anyhow it is kind of a neat place.

Short one tonight and need to wrap the day. Keep breathing, smile and enjoy the day … like why not? We make choices every day all of which determine how we look back at the day … good … not so good … choose well.

Cheers Ted

The growing grain and the placid sky have a kind of voice; and though you are

alone, the boundlessness of the universe is with you.

Max Ehrmann"

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I am leaving again this Friday for Stella's 6th birthday returning late Monday. Probably my last memo for a while. Could be my last ever. We are flying Allegiant.
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Walter Williams points out Political Black Power has increased dramatically and benefited the black political class but they have done little for their constituents. Have black politicians been bought off? When it comes to their achievements in the various cities, towns etc, they run/control as mayors etc. the picture is even sadder.

In my own former city, the Birmingham black mayor was convicted of taking graft and wound up in jail. Here in Savannah the former black police Chief is in jail for much the same reason. and so the story goes.

That is not to say corruption is exclusively an affliction solely found among black public servants but it does confirm my belief black politicians have a higher obligation to do everything possible to help their own given the opportunity to do so and when they fail shame on them.

If black voters think they are served by buffoons like Maxine Waters they need to look in the mirror. Getting back at "whitey" will not advance their legitimate cause. (See 1 below.)
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Yesterday the tug of war between rising rates and fear of rising inflation versus earnings was won by the former for the time being.

When interest rates broke over 3% on the 10 year note and gold continued strong reported earnings, which have been decent, no longer mattered and the market tanked.

Market headwinds remain the same, ie.un-resolved trade issues , N Korea, Iran, concern about pressure on The Fed to raise rates which could slow the economy resulting in reduced liquidity, continued domestic fiscal deficits and contentious politics.

One can argue reduction in taxes and repatriation of dollars has yet to kick in so the market correction we are currently experiencing will eventually find support. Time will tell whether positive earnings will serve as a prop once the second earnings reporting period has ended.

Certainly the recovery has lasted a long time and market valuations are somewhat extended.
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The second season of Fauda will begin May 24.
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A Recap by Leibler. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1)

Black Political Power Means Zilch

By Walter Williams

(Bradley Prize Winner 2017

Professor of Economics.
wwilliam@gmu.edu
(703) 993-1148
D158 Buchanan Hall
Department of Economics
George Mason University)

It’s often thought to be beyond question that black political power is necessary for economic power and enhanced socio-economic welfare. That’s an idea that lends itself to testing and analysis.

Between 1970 and 2012, the number of black elected officials rose from fewer than 1,500 to more than 10,000. Plus, a black man was elected to the presidency twice. Jason Riley, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, tells how this surge in political power has had little beneficial impact on the black community.

In a PragerU video, “Blacks in Power Don’t Empower Blacks” (http://tinyurl.com/y84psoyt), Riley says the conventional wisdom was based on the notion that only black politicians could understand and address the challenges facing blacks. Therefore, electing more black city councilors, mayors, representatives and senators was deemed critical. Even some liberal social scientists now disagree. Gary Orfield says, “There may be little relationship between the success of … black leaders and the opportunities of typical black families.” Riley says that while many black politicians achieved considerable personal success, many of their constituents did not.

After the 2014 Ferguson, Missouri, riots, which followed the killing of Michael Brown after he charged a policeman, much was made of the small number of blacks on the city’s police force. Riley asks: If the racial composition of the police force is so important, how does one explain the Baltimore riots the following year after Freddie Gray died in police custody? Baltimore’s police force is 40 percent black. Its police commissioner is black. Its mayor is black, as is the majority of the City Council. What can be said of black political power in Baltimore can also be said of Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta and New Orleans. In these cities, blacks have been mayors, police chiefs, city councilors and superintendents of schools for decades.

By contrast, when blacks had little political power, they made significant economic progress. During the 1940s and ’50s, black labor force participation rates exceeded those of whites; black incomes grew much faster than white incomes. Between 1940 and 1950, black poverty rates fell by as much as 40 percent. Between 1940 and 1970, the number of blacks in middle-class professions quadrupled. Keep in mind that was before affirmative action programs. Riley says that racial gaps were narrowing without any special treatment for blacks. After the 1960s, the government began pouring trillions of dollars into various social programs. These programs discouraged marriage and also undermined the work ethic through open-ended welfare programs, helping keep poor people poor.

The fact that political success is not a requirement for socio-economic success — and indeed may have an opposite effect — doesn’t apply only to blacks. American Jews, Italians, Germans, Japanese and Chinese attained economic power long before they had political power. By almost any measure of socio-economic success, Japanese and Chinese are at or near the top. Riley asks, “How many prominent Asian politicians can you name?” By contrast, Irish-Americans have long held significant political power yet were the slowest-rising of all immigrant groups.

Riley says that the black experience in the U.S. has been very different from that of other racial groups. Blacks were enslaved. After emancipation, they faced legal and extralegal discrimination and oppression. But none of those difficulties undermines the proposition that human capital, in the forms of skills and education, is far more important than political capital. Riley adds that the formula for prosperity is the same across the human spectrum. Traditional values — such as marriage, stable families, education and hard work — are immeasurably more important than the color of your mayor, police chief, representatives, senators and president.

As Riley argues in his new book — “False Black Power?” — the major barrier to black progress today is not racial discrimination. The challenge for blacks is to better position themselves to take advantage of existing opportunities, and that involves addressing the anti-social, self-defeating behaviors and habits and attitudes endemic to the black underclass.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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2)

Threatening Regional Storm Clouds

By Isi Leibler

IIsiPPho

Notwithstanding the exuberance of Israelis at the jubilant 70th Independence Day celebrations, justified in light of Israel’s extraordinary achievements and progress on both the diplomatic and defense fronts, the Jewish state will be facing major challenges over the next few months.

Until recently, largely due to the effective diplomacy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel was in an ideal situation, receiving the support of the Trump administration as well as enjoying a unique relationship with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. This, despite Putin’s determination to retain influence in Syria and his wish not to breach his cordial relations with the Iranians who, for their own reasons, have played a key role in assisting him to save Syrian President Bashar Assad from oblivion. However, this has encouraged the Iranians to overtly create military bases in Syria while shamelessly and repeatedly proclaiming their determination to wipe Israel off the map, which Israel regards as serious, potentially existential threats.

Until now, frequent consultations between Israel and Russia have served to avoid conflicts. Israel refrained from engaging in activities intended to bring about regime change or threaten Russia’s regional interests. In turn, the Russians did not react to Israel’s repeated bombing incursions in Syria to neutralize arms shipments to Hezbollah or prevent the Iranians from advancing toward its northern borders.

Unfortunately, Israel is now finding it extremely difficult to maintain these delicate balances.

Assad’s employment of chemical weapons against his own citizens has outraged the international community which, until only recently, had been passive while hundreds of innocent civilians were butchered weekly by Assad’s forces.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who, to Israel’s dismay, had announced his intention to withdraw all American troops from Syria, then reversed his decision and succeeded in persuading the French and British to join him in a joint military intervention to punish the Syrians. It was a strictly limited operation in which four major installations were destroyed with minimal casualties because the Syrians were made aware of the potential targets and evacuated them in advance. It was not an attempt to achieve regime change. But even this limited operation contrasted starkly with former President Barack Obama’s cowardly failure to follow up previous threats when the Syrians engaged in chemical warfare.

However, the tension between Israel and the Iranians has escalated. The Iranians have been employing Lebanese and Palestinian surrogates to carry out their terror activity and in February, in what was their first direct attack on Israel, the Iranians dispatched a drone from one of their Syrian air bases carrying explosives intended to devastate a location in Israel. It was shot down by an Israeli Apache helicopter.

Israel made it clear that Iranian bases in Syria were unacceptable and launched a retaliatory raid, targeting the major T4 air base in central Syria and in which an F-16 fighter jet was lost. In a second wave of strikes, Israel destroyed a significant percentage of Syria’s air defenses, which also incurred Iranian casualties. Although no Russians were injured, the Putin government criticized Israel for this foray.