Why the 3/5ths Compromise Was Anti-Slavery
Is racism enshrined in the United States Constitution? One of the most misunderstood clauses in America’s founding document is known as “the three-fifths compromise.” Viewed by many as proof that American blacks were seen as less than fully human, it raises an obvious question: How could the same Founding Fathers who endorsed the idea that all men are created equal endorse the idea that some men are not? The answer provided in this week’s video by Carol Swain, professor emeritus of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, may surprise you.
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Just returned from Orlando. Took Dagny home. Go out of town this Thursday and return Sunday.With Bill Eiland Wednesday. First he talks about GMOA's history at Adult Learning Center, then lunch and dinner in the evening.
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Israel continues to advance in terms of technology. (See 1 below.)
Meanwhile:
Netanyahu is pleased with results of Hellsinki meeting and understanding reached with Putin regarding Iran's presence in Syria. (See 1a below.)
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Another Rant. (See 2 below.)
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Not his money. (See 3 below.)
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Obama did not have a hacking cough for 8 years he was just constantly hacked. (See 4 below.)
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Carl "Bubba" Friedman was a dear family fiend, founding partner of the largest law firm in Alabama, and an avid Democrat.
Another dear friend and fellow memo reader discusses his relationship with "Bubba."(See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1)Even the UN cannot ignore Israeli innovation as it leaps another six places to number 11 in the world. My photo is of some of Israel's technological Innovations displayed in the history of Zionism posters at Ben Gurion airport.
I am currently in the UK, looking forward to a family celebration at the end of July. I hope to publish my next newsletter on Sunday 5th August.
Please recommend www.verygoodnewsisrael.
Don't forget to visit www.IsraelActive.com and use the SEARCH box to retrieve any of the 12,500+ archived articles on subjects that are of interest to you. If this email went to your Spam folder, please click on the "not spam" button and let me know. Thanks.
Best regards
Michael
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In the 22nd July 18 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:
- It’s official - reading my positive Israel newsletter can help beat cancer!
- Israel gave agricultural technology training to 350 Palestinian Arab farmers.
- Israeli-donated computers are transforming the lives of Nigerian children.
- Israel leaped six places to number 11 in the UN Global Innovation rankings.
- A second Israeli company donated its services to help rescue the Thai boys.
- Up to 2000 US army veterans will use wheelchairs with Israeli technology.
- A 7-year-old Israeli girl is a European chess champion.
- Click here to see the 8th July newsletter on IsraelSeen, Ruthfully Yours, Janglo, and United With Israel, with extra features on Health, Global impact, Technology, Business and Jewish State. Also (TY Sandra) in German.
- Please click here, to donate (a small or large amount) to help me expand the reach of VeryGoodNewsIsrael.
ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
A genetic test for aging. The WizeAging study at Israel’s Weizmann Institute has enrolled 150 volunteers who take a blood test once a year to check for genetic mutations that indicate abnormal aging. Their target is 10,000 volunteers over the age of 50, to help with the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of age-related diseases.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.
Instant blood tests from a pin-prick. I reported previously (see here) on Israeli startup Sight Diagnostics and its Malaria blood test. Now Sight Diagnostics has launched a “lab-grade” desktop blood count analyzer called OLO, that digitizes blood images into complete blood count (CBC) tests from only a finger prick of blood.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/
Re-engineering the immune system to fight cancer. I have reported nearly 20 articles (see here) about Israeli scientists using immunotherapy to tackle cancer. Now Israel’s Cancer Research Fund and US Cancer Research Institute are partnering to decide which, of 160 Israeli research projects, could make the next big breakthrough.
http://www.israelnationalnews.
Positive emotions can shrink tumors. (TY WIN) Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have linked positive emotions with cancer remission. In laboratory tests, increased levels of the pleasurable neurotransmitter dopamine helped the immune system to reduce tumor size by 50 per cent.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/
Palestinian Arab baby saved. Israeli Border Police in the city of Hebron saved the life of a nine-month-old Palestinian Arab baby. Hearing shouts from a house, they found an unconscious baby boy and distraught parents. They administered CPR until an Israeli medical team arrived to restore the baby’s breathing.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
Mobile dental clinic for Kenya. Israeli humanitarian aid organization IsraAID set up a mobile dental clinic for one week in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. The four-person dental team treated many of the 190,000 refugees in the camp, many of whom had never received dental care in their lives.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL
PA farmers attend Tel Aviv agrotech event. (TY UCI) More than 350 Palestinian Arab farmers (60% of the delegates) joined together with Israeli farmers at an agriculture technology event in Tel Aviv. At the fair, Israeli companies demonstrated technology and products to help the farmers.
https://
60,000 Syrian refugees seek Israeli help. Following the battle of Deraa, 60,000 Syrian refugees have fled to the Israeli border. Many had horrific injuries and the IDF used trucks and helicopters to transport them to Nahariya’s Galilee Medical Center where Israeli surgeons reconstruct skulls, faces, limbs and perceptions.
https://www.jns.org/opinion/
https://
Syrians thank Israelis for help. Israel’s aid and treatment of wounded Syrians doesn’t go totally unrewarded. Expressions of gratitude stretch from warm handshakes to an Israeli flag drawn by a 9-year-old Syrian girl. And a letter that in Arabic expresses “hope that the borders between us will one day be purely geographical”.
https://www.ynetnews.com/
The Israeli humanitarian mindset. Thai officials leading the cave rescue operation ordered $100,000 worth of innovative communications devices from Israeli startup Maxtech, but CEO Uzi Hanoni donated them free of charge. “That’s the Israeli contribution to this rescue effort”, he said.
http://thejewishvoice.com/
Aid to flooded Japanese. (TY TIP) Japan IsraAID Support Program (JISP), has sent an emergency response team to the Okayama prefecture in western Japan where the heaviest rainfall in decades has caused flooding, landslides and loss of life. The JISP team are Japanese professionals who have received training in Israel.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Jump-starting education in Nigeria. Civil war has ravaged Nigeria for decades, afflicting the lives of children in the West African nation. To help alleviate the situation, the Embassy of Israel in Nigeria has donated Israeli-flagged tablet computers to young students. See how these (Muslim) children’s lives are being transformed.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
https://www.youtube.com/embed/
Wonder Woman visits children’s hospital. Israeli actress Gal Gadot took a break from filming the sequel to the 2017 movie “Wonder Woman” to visit a children’s hospital in Virginia in full costume. Gadot visited children on the wards at Inova Children’s Hospital in Annandale.
https://jewishnews.
Cybercrime agreement with Europol. Israel Police and the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol are to collaborate in battling cybercrime, terrorism, and fraud. They will joint plan operational activities and exchange strategic information. It is the Europol’s first such agreement with a non-EU country.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Soaring up the Innovation Index. Last year (2017) Israel rose 4 places to 17 in the United Nations’ Global Innovation Index. This year, Israel jumped sixfurther places to number 11, leaping over Japan and France. Israel came top in Researchers and talent, R&D spend, VC deals, Innovation linkages and ICT services exports.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
https://www.
https://www.
60 years of aid to developing countries. (TY Stuart Palmer) Growing lettuce in Senegal, child education in Ghana and Nepal, combatting human trafficking, courses to empower women, a neonatal clinic in Ghana. Just some of the 60th year of activities of MASHAV - Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation.
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/mashav/
Green Israel. For a country that is over 60% desert, Israel is tremendously GREEN.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/
“The epicenter of magic”. REALITY Experience, an initiative by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, brings inspiring influencers from around the globe on a transformative journey through Israel to reignite their passion and potential for repairing the world. Here they describe some of what they have learned.
https://www.jns.org/leading-
Weizmann in top ten for research quality again. The Leiden University of the Netherlands has issued its latest ranking of the 1,000 best Universities (CWTS Leiden Ranking). Israel’s Weizmann Institute was awarded ninth place for its Research Quality. It has risen from 19th in 2008 and from 10th in 2017.
https://wis-wander.weizmann.
http://www.leidenranking.com/
400 graduating innovators. Israel’s Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design is unveiling this year’s innovations by more than 400 graduating industrial design students. Highlights - a field blood supply kit for medics, a home dialysis machine, artificial fruit to fight global food and vitamin shortages, and a mosquito control system.
http://www.jewishpress.com/
Detecting water leaks in Finland. The cloud-based technology of Israel’s TaKaDu (see here) is now operational in 13 countries. Jyväskylä Energy Group, the water utility of central Finland’s largest city, will deploy TaKaDu’s central event management solution to improve network efficiency and customer service.
https://www.israel21c.org/
Broadband satellite communications. Israel’s Gilat Satellite Networks is to develop fast, secure broadband data transmission via the Phase-1 Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite from Canada’s Telsat that was launched earlier in 2018. https://www.gilat.com/
You can fly. Israeli startup XTend has developed drone-based extended reality technology to simulate the experience of pilots or race car drivers. They say users will realize their dreams of flying. XTend’s founders previously launched 3D company Replay Technologies which they sold to Intel for $170 million.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Protecting Brazilian cotton against pests. Israel-based Evogene is partnering with Instituto Matogrossense do Algodão (IMAmt) to test its pest-resistant genes in Brazil’s cotton crops. Annual damages caused by the Cotton Boll Weevil is estimated at $468 million just in Brazil.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
The other Israeli tech in Thai rescue mission. In addition to the radios from Israel’s Maxtech, the comms systems from Israel’s Radwin were used to coordinate rescue operations by the various forces in the area. A team from Radwin’s office in Bangkok established a wireless network in an area with little to no connectivity.
http://nocamels.com/2018/07/
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Dutch Christians sell Israeli products. John Farenhorst, a member of Netherlands’ Christian Friends of Israel, sells Israeli products at the Israel Product Center in Nijkerk, near Utrecht. IPC’s store has a mail order department with a network of over 200 volunteer salespeople who sell the products from their homes.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/
OurCrowd is five years old. In its first five years, Israel’s leading global investing crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, has helped 160 startups raise $750 million. It supports 25,000 small investors from 120 countries.
https://www.crowdfundinsider.
Maritime accelerator makes a splash. Of 6,000 active startups and companies in Israel, just 50 are in the maritime category. But now TheDOCK Innovation Hub has begun working with Danish shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk to co-create the next billion-dollar success in next generation logistics, trade and supply chains.
http://nocamels.com/2018/07/
$125 million to improve its image. I reported previously (see here) on Israeli startup Trax with its image recognition and analysis technology. Trax has just received an injection of $125 million to help it continue to enhance its vision technology at its Tel Aviv development center and explore engineering options in China.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/
2,000 SoftWheel wheelchairs for veterans. (TY Hazel) I reported previously (Sep 2015) on the plan for US Army veterans to receive revolutionary wheelchairs from Israeli startup SoftWheel. The US Department of Veterans Affairs has since approved 361 of the wheelchairs and a new deal makes that into a total of 2,000.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Riding the high seas. Israeli shipping giant Zim is to jointly operate lines between Asia and the US East Coast with vessel operators Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). The accord will run for seven years. https://www.timesofisrael.com/
Skoda invests in Anagog. I’ve reported previously (here) on Israeli sensor company Anagog. Now Skoda, Volkswagen’s Czech subsidiary, is investing $1.5 million in Anagog. Porsche (Skoda’s sister company) and Daimler are already invested in Anagog.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
Lufthansa start two routes to Eilat. German airline Lufthansa is starting twice-weekly flights from Munich and Frankfurt, in Germany, to Eilat, Ovda Airport, in Southern Israel, starting from 28 Oct 2018. They will be the first flights to Eilat by Lufthansa.
https://www.touristisrael.com/
$30 million Pentagon contract for Orbit. The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded a $30 million contract to Israel-based Orbit Communications. Orbit will provide repairs and upgrades to communication technology aboard the U.S. military's aging KC-135 refueling jets over a 5-year period.
https://www.calcalistech.com/
CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT & SPORT
The best time to come to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) has launched a series of “iTravelJerusalem” services to make the city more accessible and convenient for tourists. A new Jerusalem City Pass entitles the holder to discounts on main attractions and includes a free bus ride from Ben Gurion airport.
https://www.israel21c.org/
The culture of Jerusalem. The Jerusalem Season of Culture Festival (Mekudeshet) is an innovative art initiative from Aug 8 to Sep 4. Events encompass music, art and extra-sensory experiences.
https://www.touristisrael.com/
“Operation Wedding”. I publicized previously (3rd Sep) this documentary of the 1970 attempt by 16 Jews to steal a plane and escape the Soviet Union. The film is going to be shown again on 29th July in Rishon Lezion.
https://www.operation-wedding-
https://www.operation-wedding-
Explore Tel Aviv by bike. Tel Aviv offers many bike pathways and is relatively flat, making it easy to enjoy a casual cruise along the beach and one of the best ways to see this dynamic city. Several bike-share companies offer 24-hour eco-friendly rental programs to grab a bike when needed and park it when finished.
https://www.touristisrael.com/
European chess champion. (TY TIP) Israel’s Liel Levitan, who just turned 7, won the Girls U7 category at the 2018 European Schools Chess Championships in Krakow, Poland. Liel is now eligible to compete in the World School Championship 2019 to be held in Tunisia.
https://www.israel21c.org/
THE JEWISH STATE
Where Jews hid 2,000 years ago. Pottery vessels dating back to the Hellenistic era, over 2000 years ago, were retrieved in a complex rock-climbing operation from a cave on a cliff along the Lebanon border. Large wine jugs, cooking pots and other crockery indicate that those who brought them planned to live there for a while.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/
The Dead Sea Scrolls – a window to Jewish history. The Dead Sea Scrolls are the oldest copy of the Jewish Bible. Sophisticated technology deciphered some of their contents. The scrolls are now accessible online, offering a window to the deep roots of the Jewish people in their ancient homeland, the Land of Israel.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/
1a)Russian envoy: Moscow, J’lem reached understandings on southwest Syria
Netanyahu and Putin have met three times this year, and have now spoken on the phone at least 10 times, a frequency that underlines the degree of coordination between the two countries.
Israel and Russia have an understanding regarding what southwestern Syria will look like after President Bashar Assad retakes complete control over the area bordering Israel, Russia’s ambassador to Israel said in a recent interview.
Anatoly Viktorov, in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya- 24 television channel on Friday, said the high-level Russian delegation that came to Israel and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day before he left for Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 11, “came to an understanding what these territories will look like after the complete expulsion of renegade and terrorist groups.”
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2)Huge week. EU coming to do trade deal. Both sides need to do a deal so one is likely. Big earnings week. 80% will beat already very high forecasts. GDP to be announced Friday. Will possibly beat 4%. If all this does happen, the stock market will take off. If you are not in all equities on Monday you will miss out, however risk is no trade deal and miss on GDP. Then stock market tanks. I am betting it all works.
Maybe, because nobody ever gave me anything, and I grew up as a kid where my father would not drive through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel because it cost too much -25 cents at the time- I learned that, in the end, it is yourself who you rely on, and some others who you thought were friends who you could rely on, instead, come and go, move on, use you, lie, or otherwise are often not there when you really need them. I learned early on, you have nobody but you to make a success of your life. Others may offer the opportunity, a job, encouragement or mentoring, love, or whatever, but in the end, it is you who must seize the opportunity and perform, and make your life a success, however you choose to define that. There is no free lunch. Or, as my mother always said- Life is tough you know. This is why I have the view that entitlement programs, and do good programs, are fine in a crisis, but not as a way of life, except for those who truly are unable to care for themselves. Self-reliance, not handouts, builds character, self-esteem and success. Before the sixties and seventies, blacks had a tight family unit and higher home ownership, and did not expect anything from government other than harassment and discrimination. Starting in the sixties, when the sexual revolution, civil rights, drugs, and women's lib became the culture of the day in reaction to the organization man culture and discrimination of the fifties, a view developed that we need to help blacks recoup from all of the discrimination they suffered by giving them handouts instead of self-respecting jobs.. Interestingly, almost everyone forgot that it was Ulysses S Grant who did far more for black civil rights than anyone before or since. He was not the corrupt drunk history has made him seem. But that is another story. I also learned as a youngster that my friend Albert, who was black, was just another kid to hang with and have fun. His being black never occurred to me as making any difference until my mother commented on it.
Once the liberals got control of government, they began to implement a series of entitlements that made their consciousnesses feel good. What started as well-meaning help programs, and job training, have spiraled to be a massive, terribly destructive series of spending programs that have decimated black family life, and led to the real problems of poor schools, crime and dysfunction we see today, and mostly useless job training. Entitlements have now become the military industrial complex of today. It is the basis of how tens of thousands of government employees and non-profits earn a living and gain powerful positions. They are how Democrats buy votes. Vote Democratic and get more freebies. Now it is free college degrees, plus $500 a month for doing nothing. In addition, we have generated a massive, dysfunctional government bureaucracy, and a budget deficit at all levels of government that is simply crushing the ability of the country to afford those things we really need to enhance the lives of everyone, and grow the economy much more productively. When combined with government employee pensions at the state and city level, we are now in a fiscal crisis at all levels which has led to a diminution of critical services like police, effective health care, and education, that will need radical steps and massive GDP growth to deal with. Yet the liberals just demand to spend more, create even more entitlements, more government control and regulation, and they tell us centrists and Republicans that we are the ones who are heartless for cutting budgets and pushing deregulation. Apparently liberals do not understand -Only an idiot keeps doing the same thing after it fails every time. People on the right are not heartless. They are the ones who are trying to better the lives of all citizens by reducing government spending on wasteful, useless programs that never die, and regulations that inhibit animal spirits, which is what really builds the economy and creates jobs for everyone. All we need do is look at the huge job gains blacks have made under Trump in 18 months, created by major reductions in regulation and tax cuts, and big reductions in government interference, compared to under Obama, the liberals hero, where there were massive new regulations, and many major new spending programs, and constant anti-cop rhetoric. It is really obvious and simple to understand. Obama did not set the stage for the economic growth we are now experiencing- he materially inhibited what it should have been those eight years. Just look at the EU economy to see the same effects - the US is racing way ahead due to deregulation and tax cuts, but the EU is again suffering a slowing economic growth, and political dysfunction due to more regulation from Brussels, and the mass immigration problem, which was a liberal program. The data are simple to see and understand, and impossible to deny. France was dying until Macron came in and did what-cut regulations, changed labor laws, and reduced taxes and some entitlements. Why is Italy dying- massive over regulation of everything. I never understand why this should be hard for even liberals to grasp. Blacks needed decent jobs that gave them pride as useful citizens and as parents, and an opportunity for a good education for their kids. They did not need entitlements which destroyed their families, paid them to have kids with no father, and ruined their lives and tight knit communities. They do not need DeBlasio and the teachers union preventing their kids from going to charter schools to get that better education. They do not need racial preferences to get into top schools like Harvard or Penn or Bronx High School of Science where many will stumble because their middle and high school education was poor preparation, but they look good on the racial quota diversity chart. Wake up and look around at the data and facts. Entitlements are very counter-productive in most cases
A recent study by Cato Institute provides statistical proof of the point, and one of the main reasons Trump won. When they adjusted for all of the giveaway programs -around $1 Trillion- that are not included in the standard Census Bureau income distribution stats, and made other adjustments for taxes paid, they show an astonishing degree of equality for the bottom 60% of Americans. In short, all the give away programs raise the actual incomes of the non-working almost to those of the working and middles classes. The working class under Obama saw no real increases in their take home pay during his entire administration, but the non-working saw large increases in entitlements, their take home tax free cash. The working class began to perceive a major inequality, not in income, but in effort to achieve a lifestyle, and the way the government mistreated them. This was a major driver of why blue collar Democrats supported Trump and his tax cuts, and his pro-business growth agenda, vs the Dems big government, more entitlements agenda. Some numbers: the bottom 20% earned 2.2% of earned taxable income, but received 12.9% of spendable income due to entitlements. The next 20% earned 7% of earned income but received 13.9% of spendable due to entitlements. Even for the middle 20%, (40%-60%) they earned 12.6% but received only 15.4% of spendable. The top 20% earned 57.7% of earned income, but only kept 39.9% of consumable income due to taxes and fees etc. The bottom 20% earned 2.2% of earned income, but its share of spendable money 12.9%, was almost equal to the spendable income of the second 20% on the earned income scale- 13.9%. This despite lower middle income workers (the second 20% tier) who worked 2.5 times as much in terms of full time working hours as the bottom 20%, but ended up with barely more in their pockets than the bottom 20% entitlement receivers. Or compare this- the middle 20% of workers (40%-60%) earned 12.6% of earned income, but got only 15.4% of spendable income, but the bottom 20% received 12.9% of spendable income for 1/7th of the work effort and time of the middle 20%. The middle group (40%-60%) had more than 7 times as many people working 2 or 3 jobs vs the bottom 20%, to get only an added 2.5% share of spendable cash. In short, the middle income family works very hard, but sees the bottom 20% who work only fractionally as hard, living just as well off the backs of middle income tax payers. This also explains why many in the bottom 20% are not motivated to go to work in hard jobs, or extra jobs just to have close to the same spendable money they get not working hard, or not working at all. So the next time a Dem says we need higher taxes on the rich, and more entitlement spending so things are fair, pull out these numbers. Now you understand how Trump won in the industrial states. Few Americans resent Trump, Gates or Buffet, or others for their financial success. It is attributed to hard work and brains, not to unfair advantage. It is the elite coastal Dems who seem to resent big success, and practice the politics of envy. Nancy Pelosi is wealthy thanks to her husband.
Maybe, because nobody ever gave me anything, and I grew up as a kid where my father would not drive through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel because it cost too much -25 cents at the time- I learned that, in the end, it is yourself who you rely on, and some others who you thought were friends who you could rely on, instead, come and go, move on, use you, lie, or otherwise are often not there when you really need them. I learned early on, you have nobody but you to make a success of your life. Others may offer the opportunity, a job, encouragement or mentoring, love, or whatever, but in the end, it is you who must seize the opportunity and perform, and make your life a success, however you choose to define that. There is no free lunch. Or, as my mother always said- Life is tough you know. This is why I have the view that entitlement programs, and do good programs, are fine in a crisis, but not as a way of life, except for those who truly are unable to care for themselves. Self-reliance, not handouts, builds character, self-esteem and success. Before the sixties and seventies, blacks had a tight family unit and higher home ownership, and did not expect anything from government other than harassment and discrimination. Starting in the sixties, when the sexual revolution, civil rights, drugs, and women's lib became the culture of the day in reaction to the organization man culture and discrimination of the fifties, a view developed that we need to help blacks recoup from all of the discrimination they suffered by giving them handouts instead of self-respecting jobs.. Interestingly, almost everyone forgot that it was Ulysses S Grant who did far more for black civil rights than anyone before or since. He was not the corrupt drunk history has made him seem. But that is another story. I also learned as a youngster that my friend Albert, who was black, was just another kid to hang with and have fun. His being black never occurred to me as making any difference until my mother commented on it.
Once the liberals got control of government, they began to implement a series of entitlements that made their consciousnesses feel good. What started as well-meaning help programs, and job training, have spiraled to be a massive, terribly destructive series of spending programs that have decimated black family life, and led to the real problems of poor schools, crime and dysfunction we see today, and mostly useless job training. Entitlements have now become the military industrial complex of today. It is the basis of how tens of thousands of government employees and non-profits earn a living and gain powerful positions. They are how Democrats buy votes. Vote Democratic and get more freebies. Now it is free college degrees, plus $500 a month for doing nothing. In addition, we have generated a massive, dysfunctional government bureaucracy, and a budget deficit at all levels of government that is simply crushing the ability of the country to afford those things we really need to enhance the lives of everyone, and grow the economy much more productively. When combined with government employee pensions at the state and city level, we are now in a fiscal crisis at all levels which has led to a diminution of critical services like police, effective health care, and education, that will need radical steps and massive GDP growth to deal with. Yet the liberals just demand to spend more, create even more entitlements, more government control and regulation, and they tell us centrists and Republicans that we are the ones who are heartless for cutting budgets and pushing deregulation. Apparently liberals do not understand -Only an idiot keeps doing the same thing after it fails every time. People on the right are not heartless. They are the ones who are trying to better the lives of all citizens by reducing government spending on wasteful, useless programs that never die, and regulations that inhibit animal spirits, which is what really builds the economy and creates jobs for everyone. All we need do is look at the huge job gains blacks have made under Trump in 18 months, created by major reductions in regulation and tax cuts, and big reductions in government interference, compared to under Obama, the liberals hero, where there were massive new regulations, and many major new spending programs, and constant anti-cop rhetoric. It is really obvious and simple to understand. Obama did not set the stage for the economic growth we are now experiencing- he materially inhibited what it should have been those eight years. Just look at the EU economy to see the same effects - the US is racing way ahead due to deregulation and tax cuts, but the EU is again suffering a slowing economic growth, and political dysfunction due to more regulation from Brussels, and the mass immigration problem, which was a liberal program. The data are simple to see and understand, and impossible to deny. France was dying until Macron came in and did what-cut regulations, changed labor laws, and reduced taxes and some entitlements. Why is Italy dying- massive over regulation of everything. I never understand why this should be hard for even liberals to grasp. Blacks needed decent jobs that gave them pride as useful citizens and as parents, and an opportunity for a good education for their kids. They did not need entitlements which destroyed their families, paid them to have kids with no father, and ruined their lives and tight knit communities. They do not need DeBlasio and the teachers union preventing their kids from going to charter schools to get that better education. They do not need racial preferences to get into top schools like Harvard or Penn or Bronx High School of Science where many will stumble because their middle and high school education was poor preparation, but they look good on the racial quota diversity chart. Wake up and look around at the data and facts. Entitlements are very counter-productive in most cases
A recent study by Cato Institute provides statistical proof of the point, and one of the main reasons Trump won. When they adjusted for all of the giveaway programs -around $1 Trillion- that are not included in the standard Census Bureau income distribution stats, and made other adjustments for taxes paid, they show an astonishing degree of equality for the bottom 60% of Americans. In short, all the give away programs raise the actual incomes of the non-working almost to those of the working and middles classes. The working class under Obama saw no real increases in their take home pay during his entire administration, but the non-working saw large increases in entitlements, their take home tax free cash. The working class began to perceive a major inequality, not in income, but in effort to achieve a lifestyle, and the way the government mistreated them. This was a major driver of why blue collar Democrats supported Trump and his tax cuts, and his pro-business growth agenda, vs the Dems big government, more entitlements agenda. Some numbers: the bottom 20% earned 2.2% of earned taxable income, but received 12.9% of spendable income due to entitlements. The next 20% earned 7% of earned income but received 13.9% of spendable due to entitlements. Even for the middle 20%, (40%-60%) they earned 12.6% but received only 15.4% of spendable. The top 20% earned 57.7% of earned income, but only kept 39.9% of consumable income due to taxes and fees etc. The bottom 20% earned 2.2% of earned income, but its share of spendable money 12.9%, was almost equal to the spendable income of the second 20% on the earned income scale- 13.9%. This despite lower middle income workers (the second 20% tier) who worked 2.5 times as much in terms of full time working hours as the bottom 20%, but ended up with barely more in their pockets than the bottom 20% entitlement receivers. Or compare this- the middle 20% of workers (40%-60%) earned 12.6% of earned income, but got only 15.4% of spendable income, but the bottom 20% received 12.9% of spendable income for 1/7th of the work effort and time of the middle 20%. The middle group (40%-60%) had more than 7 times as many people working 2 or 3 jobs vs the bottom 20%, to get only an added 2.5% share of spendable cash. In short, the middle income family works very hard, but sees the bottom 20% who work only fractionally as hard, living just as well off the backs of middle income tax payers. This also explains why many in the bottom 20% are not motivated to go to work in hard jobs, or extra jobs just to have close to the same spendable money they get not working hard, or not working at all. So the next time a Dem says we need higher taxes on the rich, and more entitlement spending so things are fair, pull out these numbers. Now you understand how Trump won in the industrial states. Few Americans resent Trump, Gates or Buffet, or others for their financial success. It is attributed to hard work and brains, not to unfair advantage. It is the elite coastal Dems who seem to resent big success, and practice the politics of envy. Nancy Pelosi is wealthy thanks to her husband.
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3) Cuomo added 374 ‘special assistants’ to state payroll
By Rich Calder and Bruce Golding
Gov. Cuomo padded the state payroll with as many as 374 “special assistants” — creating what critics call a veritable army of loyalists who keep his political machine rolling.
The gubernatorial appointees raked in a combined $33.8 million during fiscal 2016-2017, the latest year for which information is available, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy’s “SeeThroughNY” website.
Their numbers represent a nearly 70 percent increase over the 222 “special assistants’’ who were on the state payroll during fiscal 2010-2011, when Cuomo was first sworn into office — and they’re costing taxpayers more than double the $15.7 million paid out then.
The vaguely titled workers include the head of the governor’s speech-writing team and a veteran political operative who has since left Cuomo’s administration to work on his campaign for a third term in office.
The governor’s special assistants aren’t subject to civil-service exams or statutory salary limits, and critics accused Cuomo — a potential 2020 presidential contender — of abusing his patronage power for electoral advantage.
“This isn’t just giving a friend a job,” Douglas Kellogg of the conservative anti-tax group Americans for Tax Reform said.
“The governor is using New York taxpayers to foot the bill to pay off and maintain his branch of the Democrat political machine.”
Even fellow Democrat Betsy Gotbaum, a former New York City public advocate who now heads the good-government group Citizens Union, said she was alarmed by the spike in spending.
“Skirting around the edges of civil service has the potential to create conflicts of interest between public service and political campaign service,” she said.
Not all of the special assistants have political connections, and they include one of the state’s best-known employees: longtime lottery-drawing announcer Yolanda Vega, who is a $107,751-a-year special assistant with the state Gaming Commission and who came on board before the Cuomo administration.
The biggest salary doled out for the posts — $178,046 — went to Mahesh Nattanmai, whose LinkedIn profile describes his actual job as “chief digital health strategist” for the state Department of Health.
The No. 2 salary went to Keith Servis, who runs the Department of Health’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct.
During fiscal 2013-2014, his annual salary was $139,325, but it jumped more than 12 percent — to $156,322 — when his title changed to special assistant the following year.
Servis’ 2016-2017 salary then rose to $176,044, according to SeeThroughNY. In addition to directing the OPMC, Servis is also the Health Department’s deputy director of primary care and health systems management, according to Cuomo’s office.
Other special assistants include Tom Topousis, a former Post reporter and editor who was hired in March 2015 as director of speechwriting for Cuomo, who employs at least five scribes to prepare his prose.
Topousis’ 2016-2017 salary was $140,716, paid by the Office of Children and Family Services, instead of the Executive Chamber.
That arrangement was featured in an Albany Times Union exposé that last year led the Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office to open an ongoing probe into Cuomo’s off-budget hiring practices. His office said Topousis has since been re-classified as an Executive Chamber “confidential assistant.”
In December 2015, Cuomo also hired Abbey Fashouer as a deputy press secretary and later promoted her to first deputy, but put her on the payroll as a special assistant in his office.
Fashouer — whose 2016-2017 salary was $89,089 — recently began serving as Cuomo’s re-election campaign spokeswoman.
“If he wants to go hire political staffers, he should do so on his own dime,’’ said City Councilman Joe Borelli (R-SI).
Both ex-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and current state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli had special assistants on their 2016-2017 payrolls, but the numbers pale when compared with Cuomo’s, at 77 and seven, respectively.
Cuomo’s hiring also outstrips that of Mayor de Blasio, whom The Post previously revealed to have spent $23.3 million on 298 special assistants during fiscal 2016-2017.
Cuomo spokesman Tyrone Stevens insisted that the governor currently employs fewer special assistants than revealed by the records, saying there were only 305 as of Friday, and compared that number to what he said was an average 304 employed during fiscal 2007-2008.
Stevens also defended Cuomo’s hiring of special assistants as part of a “lawful” tradition that dates back “over 50 years,” and denied it had anything to do with politics.
“We seek to hire the absolute best and brightest to deliver results for New Yorkers. It’s that simple,” he said.
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4) HOW OBAMA PRESIDENCY WAS 8-YEAR HACKING NIGHTMARE
Top intel, national security officials were successfully attacked by rank amateurs
When President Trump asked why the Obama administration didn’t do anything to stop Russian hacking in the lead-up to the 2016 election, he bluntly raised a question many of the key players behind the “collusion illusion” would rather Americans just plain forgot or never learned.
The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration. Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2018
Not only did the largest hacks of government databases and infrastructure take place on Barack Obama’s watch, but even the nation’s top intelligence and national security officials were themselves hacked – in some cases even by rank amateurs – in one case, by a teenager.
Everyone, of course, remembers how Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s insecure, protocol-breaking private email server was compromised. But she was hardly alone among top Obama officials – like CIA Director John Brennan, who was hacked by a 15-year-old kid from the United Kingdom. And, of course, while the federal government was warning the private sector to take cybersecurity seriously, the U.S. Office of Personnel management suffered the biggest hack in history in which the personal data of some 21.5 million employees, military service people and former federal government staffers was compromised.
If indeed Russia actually conducted dirty cyber tricks, as alleged, it happened on Obama’s watch. It happened before the election. Obama’s national security officials watched it and did nothing.
Interestingly, there is no special counsel investigating that kind of “collusion” by omission. There are no congressional hearings on it. And there is no media concern.
In fact, the Obama’s eight years represented a hacking nightmare, a cybersecurity scandal and some of the loudest anti-Trump voices were not only responsible, but victims because of their own negligence for violating their own rules and protocols.
Let’s review what received little media attention in the U.S. at the time or since.
In September 2016, U.S. authorities arrested two North Carolina members of the “Crackas With Attitude” group involved in hacking CIA Director Brennan’s personal email account and leaking sensitive files including a top-secret application for a security clearance, as well as other senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI. The hackers leaked the personal details of 31,000 government agents belonging to nearly 20,000 FBI agents; 9,000 Department of Homeland Security officers and some Department of Justice staffers. The attacks took place in October 2015. “In some instances, members of the conspiracy uploaded private information that they obtained from victims’ personal accounts to public websites, made harassing phone calls to victims and their families and defaced victims’ social media accounts,” the government announced at the time. According to the FBI officials, between October 2015 to February 2016, the hacking group used social engineering in order to trick the victims into revealing their account number, password and other details.
In January 2016, a hackers associated with the same group accessed personal email and phone accounts belonging to the director of National Intelligence, James Clapper. The group also broke into the AOL email of the FBI Deputy Director Mark Giuliano. They also broke into Clapper’s and his wife’s emails, home phone and internet connection. While in control of Clapper’s FIOS connection, they said they redirected all calls to his number to the Free the Palestine movement.
How did the CIA director, the director of National Intelligence, officials of DHS and the 31,000 FBI agents get hacked?
It gets worse. For CIA Director Brennan, who recently called President Trump’s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin “treasonous,” it was the second time his personal email account was hacked. The first time was by a 15-year-old British hacker, a story that received virtually no media coverage in the U.S. The teenager, Kane Gamble, was sentenced to serve two years at a youth detention center. UK authorities arrested him in early 2016, and he pleaded guilty to 10 hacking charges in October 2017. In addition to sentencing the now-18-year-old to two years in prison, the judge also ordered his computers to be seized. Kane also impersonated his victims and called internet and phone providers’ customer support hotlines to get confidential info and to reset their targets’ passwords. Kane stole 40 attachments from Brennan’s email, some of which were published by Wikileaks.
When the CIA director and his boss, the director of National Intelligence, along with 21,000 FBI agents are hacked, one of them by a 15-year-old boy, it makes you wonder how much credibility the intelligence community has in their certainty about Russia leaking hacked documents from Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. As President Trump tweeted: “Julian Assange said ‘a 14 year old could have hacked Podesta’ – why was DNC so careless?”
Office of Personnel Management Director Katherine Archuleta resigned in July 2015, a day after revealing the largest government data breach in American history. She got the job directing all human resources management for the federal government – from recruitment, hiring, development and support – after serving in Obama’s re-election campaign in 2008. The attack has been attributed to the Chinese government. But, once again, there were no consequences – other than Archuleta’s resignation. Ironically, the next year she got a job partnering with nation pollsters to assess the views and opinions of Latino voters through her company – Latina Data Project.
“This erodes confidence going forward that the federal government will be able to protect federal employees,” said Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland after the devastating attack. The National Treasury Employees Union, which has sued over the breach, said the government’s offer of three years of fraud monitoring was woefully inadequate.
The union “continues to be outraged that so many of our members have had their personal information compromised due to these breaches,” union president Colleen Kelley said. “We will continue to pursue our lawsuit to provide lifetime credit monitoring and identity theft protection.”
An OPM statement noted that for anyone who underwent a background investigation in 2000 or later, “it is highly likely that the individual is impacted by this cyber breach.”
Indeed, it gets worse still. Even Barack Obama’s Twitter account and campaign emails were hacked in 2013 by an outfit that called itself the Syrian Electronic Army.
His organization, Obama for America, downplayed the damage, saying “Only the links within our tweets had been hacked. At no point did they have access to the twitter handle,” an official said. The group decided to beef up security as a result – going to Google’s two-step authentication.
Only after Obama had left office did NBC News break the story of China’s cyber spies accessing the private emails of “many” top Obama administration officials. The email grab – first codenamed “Dancing Panda” by U.S. officials, and then “Legion Amethyst” –- was detected in April 2010, according to a top secret NSA briefing from 2014. The hack was so widespread, it forced Google to acknowledge that the private Gmail accounts of some American officials had been comprised in 2011, and the recent NSA briefing made it clear that several email accounts from various providers were also compromised. The attacks began around the same time Hillary Clinton’s private email server was compromised.
In August 2015, the news broke that China successfully broke into more federal government databases. Just days after the reported spear-phishing attack on the Pentagon’s joint staff email system, which exposed some 4,000 civilian and military employees and was attributed to Russia, NBC News reported that a separate set of Chinese hack attacks targeted the personal emails of “all top national security and trade officials.” These attacks – among the more than 600 hacks attributed by officials to hackers working for the Chinese government – sought personal email info from top administration officials and began in 2010.
“The U.S. government has proven itself incompetent when it comes to protecting its data,” said Evan Greer of advocacy group Fight for the Future. “Information sharing bills like Cisa would make us even more vulnerable by dramatically expanding the amount of private data the U.S. government keeps in its databases and the number of government and law enforcement agencies who would house that data.”
There were other successful cyberattacks during Obama’s eight years – including the White House, the U.S. Postal Service, the State Department, the FDIC and even the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
A pattern of downplaying cyberattacks developed through most of the Obama years. So, it shouldn’t be a surprise that, once again, in the fall of 2016, when the intelligence agencies detected what they claim was Russian hacking connected to the presidential election, that the administration said nothing and did nothing. Both Democrats and Republicans took issue with Jeh Johnson, the former secretary of DHS, when he explained: “One of the candidates, as you recall, was predicting that the election was going to be ‘rigged’ in some way. We were concerned that by making the statement we might, in and of itself, be challenging the integrity of the election process itself.”
Of course, Jeh Johnson knows something about hacking. Not only was it his job to protect Americans from cyberattacks during his time directing DHS. He was also another victim of that 15-year-old kid from England.
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5) Hello,
Woke up this morning and some past conversations (go back 20+ years) with Carl (Bubba) Friedman. As far as I was concerned he was the leader (a powerful one at that) of the Jewish Democratic Party in Birmingham.
He was on my mailing list and from time to time he would answer back trying to contradict whatever I was mailing him (a lot during the Obama time) negative about what the Democrats and Obama were doing to wreck America (a lot of it came from you [Me]) it was pissing him off! Many months later, one day he called me and told me to take him off my mailing list, he was hot under the collar! Before I could take the time to take him off I got messages that he had blocked my emails.
I visited Birmingham a few years later visiting my Sister and Brother. During a party we had a short conversation and at the end of that conversation he made a statement to me. "No matter, we have a long range plan and you Republicans don't stand a chance!" It made little sense at the time. This morning it came to me, Is the information contained in the email I received and mailed to you: "Subject: Fwd: Corruption, (er, coincidences!) - Interesting---Think there is Any Corruption in DC??" was this corruption part of that long range plan that "Bub" was referring to years back?
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Wow.... and we can't do anything about it.....???
Interesting-----Any corruption in DC??
From 2001 to 2005 there was an ongoing investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
A Grand Jury had been empaneled.
Governments from around the world had donated to the “Charity”.
Yet, from 2001 to 2003 none of those “Donations” to the Clinton Foundation were declared.
Hmmm, now you would think that an honest investigator would be able to figure this out.
Guess who took over this investigation in 2002?
Bet you can’t guess.
None other than James Comey.
Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it?
Guess who was transferred in to the Internal Revenue Service to run the Tax Exemption Branch of the IRS?
Your friend and mine, Lois “Be on The Look Out” (BOLO) Lerner.
Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it?
It gets better, well not really, but this is all just a series of strange coincidences, right?
Guess who ran the Tax Division inside the Department of Injustice from 2001 to 2005?
No other than the Assistant Attorney General of the United States, Rod Rosenstein.
Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it?
Guess who was the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation during this time frame???
I know, it’s a miracle, just a coincidence, just an anomaly in statistics and chances, Robert Mueller.
What do all four casting characters have in common?
They all were briefed and/or were front line investigators into the Clinton Foundation Investigation.
Now that’s just a coincidence, right?
Ok, lets chalk the last one up to mere chance.
Let’s fast forward to 2009.
James Comey leaves the Justice Department to go and cash-in at Lockheed Martin.
Hillary Clinton is running the State Department, on her own personal email server by the way.
The Uranium One “issue” comes to the attention of the Hillary.
Like all good public servants do, you know looking out for America’s best interest, she decides to support the decision and approve the sale of 20% of US Uranium to none other than, Russia.
Now you would think that this is a fairly straight up deal, except it wasn’t, the People got absolutely nothing out of it.
However, prior to the sale approval, none other than Bill Clinton goes to Moscow, gets paid 500K for a one hour speech then meets with Vladimir Putin at his home for a few hours.
Ok, no big deal right?
Well, not so fast, the FBI had a mole inside the money laundering and bribery scheme.
Guess who was the FBI Director during this timeframe?
Yep, Robert Mueller.
He even delivered a Uranium Sample to Moscow in 2009.
Guess who was handling that case within the Justice Department out of the US Attorney’s Office in Maryland.
No other than, Rod Rosenstein.
Guess what happened to the informant?
The Department of Justice placed a GAG order on him and threatened to lock him up if he spoke out about it.
How does 20% of the most strategic asset of the United States of America end up in Russian hands when the FBI has an informant, a mole providing inside information to the FBI on the criminal enterprise?
Guess what happened soon after the sale was approved?
145 million dollars in “donations” made their way into the Clinton Foundation from entities directly connected to the Uranium One deal.
Guess who was still at the Internal Revenue Service working the Charitable Division?
None other than, Lois Lerner.
Ok, that’s all just another series of coincidences, nothing to see here, right?
Let’s fast forward to 2015.
Due to a series of tragic events in Benghazi and after the 9 “investigations” the House, Senate and at State Department, Trey Gowdy who was running the 10th investigation as Chairman of the Select Committee on Benghazi discovers Hillary ran the State Department on an unclassified, unauthorized, outlaw personal email server.
He also discovered none of those emails had been turned over when she departed her “Public Service” as Secretary of State which was required by law.
He also discovered that there was Top Secret information contained on her personally archived email.
Sparing you the State Departments cover up, the nostrums they floated, the delay tactics that were employed and the outright lies that were spewed forth from the mouths of the Kerry State Department, we shall leave it with this…… they did everything humanly possible to cover for Hillary.
Now this is amazing, guess who became FBI Director in 2013?
Guess who secured 17 no bid contracts for his employer (Lockheed Martin) with the State Department and was rewarded with a six million dollar thank you present when he departed his employer.
None other than James Comey.
Amazing how all those no-bids just went right through at State, huh?
Now he is the FBI Director in charge of the “Clinton Email Investigation” after of course his FBI Investigates the Lois Lerner “Matter” at the Internal Revenue Service and exonerates her.
Nope couldn’t find any crimes there.
Can you guess what happened next?
In April 2016, James Comey drafts an exoneration letter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile the DOJ is handing out immunity deals like candy.
They didn’t even convene a Grand Jury.
Like a lightning bolt of statistical impossibility, like a miracle from God himself, like the true “Gangsta” Comey is, James steps out into the cameras of an awaiting press conference on July the 8th of 2016, and exonerates Hillary from any wrongdoing.
Can you see the pattern?
It goes on and on, Rosenstein becomes Asst. Attorney General, Comey gets fired based upon a letter by Rosenstein, Comey leaks government information to the press, Mueller is assigned to the Russian Investigation sham by Rosenstein to provide cover for decades of malfeasance within the FBI and DOJ and the story continues.
FISA Abuse, political espionage..... pick a crime, any crime, chances are...... this group and a few others did it.
All the same players.
All compromised and conflicted.
All working fervently to AVOID jail themselves?
All connected in one way or another to the Clinton's.
They are like battery acid, they corrode and corrupt everything they touch.
How many lives have the Clinton'sdestroyed?
As of this writing, the Clinton Foundation, in its 20+ years of operation as the largest International Charity Fraud in the history of mankind, has never been audited by the Internal Revenue Service.
Let us not forget that Comey's brother works for DLA Piper, the law firm that does the Clinton Foundation's taxes.
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