The Actual Diamond In The Rough Won and Democrats Cannot Accept This Fact. Trump's Republican Detractors Are Embarrassed By Him. More Innovation.

Two blondes were filling up at a gas station and the first blonde says to the second, "I bet these awful gas prices are going to go even higher."

The second blonde replies, "Won't affect me, I always put in just $20 worth."

And sign of the times before PC'ism gripped our nation: (See 1 below.)

Finally:

Worth a repeat: Here's a brilliant speech from the UK's Katie Hopkins. It deserves to go viral.

 Https://www.youtube.com/embed/G811L4a5aZE

frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen>

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Nothing Trump could ever do will satisfy the Trump haters.  FDR sought to make a friend of "Uncle Joe Stalin" and got screwed and died before he could right the course. Stalin was one of the greatest ogres the world has ever known. Churchill warned FDR who did not listen. Gen. Patton wanted to go to war with Russia and maybe he was right.  We will never know.  I suspect Patton's enemies arranged for his death.

Obama told Putin he would be more flexible and Putin walked all over him because Putin knew he was dealing with a golfing patsy.

Trump is a rough and tumble New York real estate business man who is blunt, not particularly diplomatic but pretty much lays it out and then carries through.  Putin is not dealing with a golf patsy when it comes to Trump. In fact, Trump owns golf courses. Above all, Trump is not a politician though he can be devious if that helps him move the ball in the direction he wants.

Putin has his own weaknesses and we know  his word is not good unless it is to his advantage to keep it and we have strengths Putin only wishes he had and never will, so Trump has some advantages over Putin and I am confident, with Pompeo and Bolton at his side, we will be well represented.

Will Trump accomplish what is best and in our interests perhaps if we are willing to deal? Depends on the entry price to engage in the game but for Trump not to try to have a better relationship with an adversary is nonsense.  Nonsense and buffoonery is what drove Obama, Clinton and Perry's foreign policy initiatives. Silly re-set buttons  made us a laughing stock.

The mass media would never lay it out as I have because they are interested in making heroes out of the team they root for and helped elect. Naturally, unlike the media, I want Trump to come out on top because I want my country, my president to win but I am cynical enough to try and be clear eyed and objective.  I do not hate Trump,. In fact I am pleased with most of what he has accomplished as I knew he would if he was able to do what he said. Trump's accomplishments are based on common sense not political theory that has failed time and again.

So let the Helsinki meeting take place and give whatever occurs time to reveal consequences.  The jury is still out vis a vis N Korea but the meetings were important so each leader could assess the other and, perhaps, lay some markers on the table as guidelines.

Trump reminds me of an ice breaker. Not always a pretty sight but the job needs doing, history needs to be reversed in many instances and he is willing to plow ahead against difficult odds.

As for the Democrats, and even some Republicans, they would rather remain trapped by their contempt and negativism. Democrats cannot live with the fact  they lost the crown jewels by running a zircon thinking it was a diamond.  The actual  diamond in the rough won!  As for a few recreant Republicans there are always a few sour apples in any barrel.  Paul and McCain are loners who muddy the water. Their several  female counterparts are feathery peacocks who need to plume.
Trump embarrasses them and mostly pays them little heed but realizes he needs them so he pays them lip service and that has to be galling. (See 2 and 2a below.)
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More innovations from Avi and Israel. (See 3 below.)
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I have consistently maintained the "trade war" would eventually resolve itself and in most instances  we would be favored.  Another highly respected investor has joined my camp:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/07/14/market-analyst-mohamed-el-erian-usa-is-poised-to-win-a-trade-war/

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Dick
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1)

Men Teaching Classes for Women at THE ADULT LEARNING CENTER REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED  By June 28, 2018 NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL  OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM . Class 1 Up in Winter, Down in Summer - How to Adjust a Thermostat  Step by Step, with Slide Presentation. Meets 4 weeks,   Monday and Wednesday for 2 hrs. beginning at 7:00 PM. Class 2 Which Takes More Energy - Putting the Toilet Seat Down, or Bitching About It for 3 Hours?  Round Table Discussion. Meets 2 weeks,   Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours. Class 3 Is It Possible To Drive Past a Wal-Mart Without Stopping?--Group Debate. Meets 4 weeks,   Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours. Class 4 Fundamental Differences Between a Purse and a Suitcase--Pictures and Explanatory Graphics. Meets Saturdays at   2:00 PM for 3 weeks. Class 5 Curling Irons--Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Bathroom Cabinet?  Examples on Video. Meets 4 weeks,   Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM Class 6 How to Ask Questions During Commercials and Be Quiet During the Program  Help Line Support and Support Groups.  Meets 4 Weeks,   Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM Class 7 Can a Bath Be Taken Without 14 Different Kinds of Soaps and Shampoos?  Open Forum  ..  Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours. Class 8 Health Watch--They Make Medicine for PMS - USE IT! Three nights;   Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours. Class 9   I Was Wrong and He Was Right!--Real Life Testimonials. Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined. Class 10 How to Parallel Park In Less Than 20 Minutes Without an Insurance Claim.  Driving Simulations. 4 weeks,   Saturday's noon, 2 hours. Class 11 Learning to Live--How to Apply Brakes Without Throwing Passengers Through the Windshield .  Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined. Class 12 How to Shop by Yourself.

Meets 4 weeks,   Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

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2) Putin’s Aggression Is the Issue in Helsinki

Trump shouldn’t make a deal on Syria or Ukraine, or keep silent on Russia’s crimes against the West.

By David Satter

President Trump arrived Sunday in Helsinki in the manner of most of his predecessors: with little awareness of recent Russian history and in apparent confusion about what a meeting with Vladimir Putin can achieve. Reacting to concerns about Mr. Putin’s career in Russian intelligence, Mr. Trump said at a recent rally: “Putin’s fine. He’s fine. We’re all fine. We’re people.” According to a news report, White House advisers describe the Trump-Putin meeting “as a chance to reset a tense relationship.”

The tension in U.S.-Russian relations, however, is the result of Mr. Putin’s aggression, not a lack of communication. If the summit leads to formal agreements or informal deals that legitimize recent Russian actions, the aggression will become worse.

Three issues are vitally important to the U.S.: Russia’s aggression in Syria, its occupation of Crimea and support for separatists in Eastern Ukraine, and its interference in the West, including election meddling and the nerve-gas attack in Britain. In each case, Mr. Putin seeks American acquiescence.

Russia has been fighting in Syria for three years, during which it has completely changed the course of battle in favor of Bashar Assad. Reports on a possible deal, quoting Israeli, European and American experts, suggest the U.S. could accede to Mr. Assad’s remaining in power in exchange for Russian promises to limit Iranian influence.

Such an outcome would not end the Sunni-Shiite split in the Middle East, and Syrian opposition leaders have warned that a U.S. “betrayal” would create the conditions for a jihadist uprising. It would also signal acceptance of Russia’s tactic of attacking civilian targets, including hospitals, to put pressure on rebel groups. If such attacks prove successful and are tacitly accepted by the West, nothing would prevent Moscow from using them in the future.

On Ukraine, Mr. Trump has hinted that he may consider recognizing Russia’s claim to Crimea, which Mr. Putin seized in 2014. This could encourage Russia to reactivate the war in Eastern Ukraine. But the most important consequence would likely be to plunge Ukraine into civil unrest.

The situation already is very tense, the result of corruption, a lack of reform, and the absence of any serious Ukrainian strategy to end the war in the Donbas. More than 10,000 people have been killed in the war zone, and although the conflict is at a stalemate, cease-fires are constantly violated and the death toll rises. Despite an official ban on trade between Ukraine and the separatist areas, long convoys of cars and trucks loaded with alcohol, cigarettes and coal carry on illicit business, angering and bewildering Ukrainian soldiers.

Against this background, far-right groups in Ukraine that have attacked art exhibitions, gay events and antifascist demonstrations seek to exploit Ukrainian veterans’ resentment. Far-right paramilitary groups played a critical role early in the war, and some fear they could turn against the government, particularly if the West endorses Russia’s seizure of Crimea.

In the case of Mr. Putin’s crimes against the West, no deal is necessary. Mr. Trump’s silence is enough. The handful of Republican senators who traveled to Moscow early this month to protest U.S. election interference undercut their message with their presence. The Russians denied interference and changed the subject. If Mr. Trump does not raise the issue with Mr. Putin, the Russians will consider the matter closed.

Mr. Putin also wants Mr. Trump to keep silent about the attempted murder of the Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and the killing of a British civilian, Dawn Sturgess, with Novichok, a Russian nerve agent. Sturgess is believed to have accidentally come into contact with Novichok—a chilling reminder that if Russia is left free to carry out killings in the West, anyone can be a victim.

Most of all, Mr. Putin will want Mr. Trump to be silent about Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down over Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014. Last year I was asked to be an expert witness in the case against Russia, brought by relatives of the 298 victims, in the European Court of Human Rights. I was prepared to testify that although MH17 might have been downed accidentally by Ukrainian separatists, the Putin regime’s action in providing the irregulars with a weapon like the BUK-M1 missile showed a wanton disregard for human life.

This May, however, the Netherlands and Australia announced that the joint task force investigating the incident had concluded that MH17 was shot down by a BUK-M1 belonging not to separatists but to the Russian 53rd Air Defense Brigade, based in Kursk. Jerry Skinner, the aviation lawyer representing 274 relatives of the victims, determined with the confidential help of a former BUK-M1 field commander that the camera in the launcher from which the missile was fired was capable of obtaining a thermal image of the target. The two engines of a large commercial airliner like the MH17 Boeing 777 could not have been mistaken for the smaller, single engine of a Ukrainian military jet. It was also determined with the help of Ukrainian air-traffic control that no Ukrainian aircraft were in the sky within 30 miles of the Malaysian plane. The evidence suggests that MH-17 or one of three other passenger airliners in the air corridor at that time was targeted deliberately.

Russia has denied involvement in the downing of MH17, producing more than 60 alternative theories, each of which has been debunked. For the sake of international air travelers everywhere, Mr. Trump needs to raise the evidence of Russian culpability with Mr. Putin.

There are no opportunities for good deals with Russian aggression. Mr. Trump has a chance to make that clear.

Mr. Satter is affiliated with the Hudson Institute and Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is “The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship under Yeltsin and Putin.”

2a)Netanyahu talks to Trump before Trump-Putin summit

By HERB KEINON

 “I hope they got the message," Netanyahu said of the IDF strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza over the weekend. "Otherwise they will get it in the future."

Netanyahu said that Israel will not accept a ceasefire whereby Hamas will be able to continue sending incendiary kites and balloons into Israel. 

“We will not accept any attacks against us and will respond accordingly,” he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned from meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, spoke by phone with the US president Donald Trump Saturday, just two days before the  Trump Putin summit in Helsinki.

Netanyahu, at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, said he spoke with Trump about security and diplomatic issues in  light of developments in the region, first and foremost about Syria and Iran.

Netanyahu said these issues will be raised at the Helsinki meeting, and that he discussed them with Putin.

“I thanked President Trump for his aggressive policies toward Iran, because since he took this line, we are seeing a big impact on Iran and inside Iran,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said Trump reiterated his commitment to Israel’s security and his willingness to assist Israel in different areas.

Relating to the situation in Gaza, Netanyahu said that over the weekend Israel hit Hamas with the strongest blow since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

Netanyahu says Israel will take strong action against Hamas terrorism, July 14, 2018 (PM of Israel Twitter)

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3)

How Israeli Innovation Led to a 'GPS for the Brain' By Avi Jorisch Call it a different type of shock therapy. For the last 30 years, scientists have used a technique called deep brain stimulation to send electrical impulses to the brain to treat movement and psychiatric disorders. Knowing exactly where to place the electrodes, however, was always a challenge – until Alpha Omega, the largest Arab-owned high-tech company in Israel, created the industry standard for devices that act as a GPS inside the brain. Not only is Alpha Omega in the forefront of science; it is a company that embodies the rich diversity that powers Israel's culture of innovation. Since the 1960s, researchers have used electrical stimulation to locate and distinguish specific sites in the brain. In more recent decades, scientists began using neurostimulators, often referred to as "brain pacemakers," to treat movement and psychiatric disorders using electrical impulses. But it wasn't until 1987, when French neurosurgeon Alim-Louis Benabid used deep brain stimulation to successfully target the most common movement disorder, essential tremor, that researchers realized the procedure's full power. Scientists around the world have mapped the brain and use deep brain stimulation to reduce the effects of various diseases, from Parkinson's and obsessive-compulsive disorder to depression. Clinical trials are testing the effects of the procedure on a variety of other disorders, including Alzheimer's, Tourette's syndrome, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy and even schizophrenia. According to Hagai Bergman, a professor at Hebrew University and one of the world's most acclaimed neurologists, more than 150,000 people have undergone deep brain stimulation. Many have been treated using medical devices produced by Alpha Omega, which Bergman says "is by far the most reliable and experienced company in the world in the area of multiple electrode data acquisition." In the early 1990s Imad and Reem Younis, a married Arab couple from Nazareth who are graduates of Israel's premier engineering school, the Technion, began to develop proprietary tools to aid in locating the exact point in the brain to target, a problem that had been incredibly challenging. Given the obstacles the couple had to overcome – from breaking societal norms to being Arab Christians in a predominantly Jewish country – the company's rise is every bit as remarkable as its innovation. Imad and Reem pursued neuroscience after graduating from the Technion, and in large part as a result of their interaction with Hagai Bergman and his research on the brain. In 1993, Bergman introduced the couple to Benabid, the godfather of deep brain stimulation. Eventually, the four began to collaborate. Imad got hooked because it's so rewarding. "Every time I see our devices," he says, "I am struck and say, 'Wow, this device really helps patients.'" As for Reem, helping those with Parkinson's is personal. Her father had the disease, and while he wasn't able to benefit from Alpha Omega's devices, Reem is thankful she's able to help others. Alpha Omega devices act as a GPS inside the brain that guides doctors to the correct location for implanting a permanent electrode. Today, the devices are used in more than a hundred hospitalsand 500 labs around the world. The company's sophisticated machinery is manufactured in Nazareth but marketed by its offices in the United States, Germany and Israel, as well as by representatives in China, Japan and Latin America. The Younises attribute their success in large part to their very diverse group of engineers: Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews. "Imad and Reem Younis represent the rich diversity of the country's high-tech and start-up culture," says Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin. "They bring together all the communities in Israel with a shared vision for the future." Says Imad: "When we employ people from different cultures, we can go even farther because each one thinks differently," and this, he says, "can create innovation. We have the same father [Abraham]. We can work together to achieve common goals." The Younises' business model is supported by research studies, which indicate that one of the biggest drivers of innovation is a diverse team of leaders and employees. But the type of diversity matters. Publicly traded companies that have both inherent diversity – based on qualities people are born with, such as gender and ethnicity – and acquired diversity, which results from life experiences, typically do better than their competition. According to McKinsey & Company, having both forms of diversity can allow companies to gain a foothold in underserved markets and encourage different types of thinking. As the medical community discovers how to successfully treat various neurological diseases, Bergman and the Younises are now collaborating on what might be one of the biggest leaps in the history of deep brain stimulation. In 2015, they created a tool that places electrodes in the brain without human intervention. "You push the button and the system goes," says Bergman, who likens it to a driverless car. He dreams of creating devices that will replace humans for most surgery-related functions. Being in the vanguard of their field is rewarding for Imad and Reem Younis. What's more rewarding, however, is knowing that their company has helped tens of thousands of people. As Reem puts it, "We return people back to life." There is no higher reward than that.

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