Can't monkey with Democrats but can if you are a Republican.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I intended to play tennis Thursday but these collective thoughts have been rolling around in my head and I wanted to get them down on paper. Knowing of my love for the game it obviously is important to me.
This e mail is all me and not an easy one to write because I have many thoughts to express and want to do so in as clear and concise manner. Please indulge me.
A lot of people think I am brilliant. I never thought so. My father was brilliant.
I do believe I am somewhat of a futurist. Certainly not in the vein of Herman Kahn, who was truly a brilliant futurist.
What I do believe is, I am a cynic and pessimist and these characteristics conflict with whatever futurist thinking I am capable because they impact timing and timing is everything. Why? Because you can be right in your prediction but your timing can be so off and thus, worthless. Particularly is this the case when it comes to investing where you are measured by time and return on capital. Being early is particularly tiresome because it takes inordinate patience to be proven right and all the while time negatively impacts one's diminishing returns.
I also believe nature both serves to protect mankind as well as challenge mankind. Sexually man is endowed with a preponderance of semen and women are endowed with a small period of receptivity. Were this not the case, mankind might over populate its ability to sustain life. Yes, time is critical, of the essence!
I am going to flesh out broad swaths of some of my futuristic thoughts by using a single example to represent larger applications. In the case of Germany think Europe, of China and America think world, etc.:
GERMANY:
I believe Merkel, unlike Thatcher, will prove to have been a disaster for her fellow countrymen for several reasons.
a) Her flirtation, acquiescence and dependency on Russian energy puts Germany in a very precarious position. Particularly is this so when Germany has the opportunity to become reliant upon America's energy source. Trump is right.
b) Merkel allowed Germany to be flooded by Muslim immigrants fleeing persecution and that is a noble act considering Germany's history. However, I believe Angela has gone beyond what is rational, economical and socially sound. First, because Germans still desire to retain their Aryan culture and the flood of Muslims have failed to integrate or be integrated. Second, Germany sets the tone for the rest of Europe because it is dominant economically, politically etc. What happens in Germany casts a shadow over the rest of The EU.
c) Beneath the surface, I believe there remains a large vestige of antipathy towards what Merkel has done as evidenced by her weakened political position. A weakened Germany carries negative implications for NATO.
d) When you contrast Poland with Germany, the former has basically excluded Muslim immigration, has turned quite nationalistic and politically rejects policies Merkel has imposed on Germany.
A less unified EU undercuts NATO as well.
e) Whether Erdogan survives his pro radical-Islamization of Turkey is open to question but this also serves to undergird NATO.
Should Russia choose to increase its influence in The Middle East or in the Crimean/Ukraine arena a weakened NATO might be challenged beyond its ability to respond effectively and America might be unwilling to make the sacrifices to fill the holes created by the above noted events.
f) Continuance, on the EU's collective part, to refrain from resolving, in a reasonable manner, trade disparities weakens the probability of future American beneficence, tolerance and willingness to support historical relationships.
Friends who are unreasonable in continuing an unfair share of candy and victuals set the table for invitations for new friends and political realignments.
CHINA:
a) One of the problems I see, when it comes to China, is the Asian need to save face and, most particularly, China's need to expand and desire to supplant America as the world's ruling power.
Consequently, China seems unable to say yes to anything and this is further driven by the fact that they now have a ruler for life who faces a myriad of conflicting challenges.
b) China is financially over-leveraged with debt. This comes at a time when their appetite for military and commercial expansion is accelerating. Their middle class is also expanding and, like toothpaste, once out of the tube is hard to return. Currency is leaving China and poorly timed high cost overseas investments are being liquidated at losses. Many large banks in China are under-capitalized and flushed with bad loans.
c) A financially weakened China and an aggressive for life leader could prove a reluctant partner when it comes to achieving progress in areas of mutual concerns and potential flash points.
d) As China expands its commercial and diplomatic interests their military are in a perfect position to increase demands for expanding their power and thirst for equipment and modernization. China's expanding naval fleet and development in The South China Sea present real threats to our own naval dominance and the world's commercial waterborn traffic.
America is willing to share but not willing to allow choking of commercial sea traffic.
e) China has two important additional cards they can play pertaining to N Korea and Taiwan. We are dependent upon them and their reactions, in both instances, if we wish to eventually get N Korea to de-nuclearize and for Taiwan to remain unchallenged so we are not forced to make the painful decision to execute on our treaty obligations.
f) Our own economic relevance depends upon stopping the bleeding by China's theft of our technological intelligence. At some point, sanctions between our two nations must end in a manner that secures our intellectual property and offers some legitimate balance in trade relations.
Existing mechanisms for calling violators to task are failing and must be revised and enforced.
AMERICA:
a) I believe the election of Trump marks the beginning of a vast shift with respect to a variety of former relationships, challenges and role alignments. Reasons for doing so have become overwhelming and Trump has proven willing to touch the third rail and expose abuses to the Clorox of logic.
These transformations have been decades in the making and are the result of a variety of events starting with our psychological loss in Viet Nam, followed by the aftermath of anti-war challenges to authority, then the successful Gulf War, which emboldened our incursion in Iraq, which ended in mixed results, possibly resurrected our acceptance of losing. Then, Obama's election and now The Trumpian Era.
While the above was occuring, America's sinews were becoming flabby and our social values and national character were under a variety of strains and challenges in the area of: education, family cohesion, physical infrastructure, racial integration, religious importance, political adhesion and all the unresolved "bile build "that has been neglected with respect to illegal immigration, politics of division, disregard of adherence of enforcing laws leading to disrespect for conventional laws in general and agencies charged with enforcement and you know the list.
b) I further believe, America's was reluctantly cast in the role of being the world's leading untouched survivor after WW 1 and 2. Yes, we lost treasured blood but no territorial destruction and then compassion drove us to devise and embrace The Marshall Plan and the rest is history as the flag of dependence upon America, by world democracies, unfurled.
c) We benefited from vast opportunities that flowed from being the world's leader but our political system chose not to be fiscally responsible and we now have a crushing level of debt with no end in sight and our unfunded liabilities must be added to the acknowledged ones.
We are re-learning the adage "you cannot have your cake and eat it too" is alive and well. The cake eater is not.
If we do not "reset" our own buttons, when it comes to getting our debt load under control, it will create insipid repercussions that can bring us to our knees and provide unimaginable gifts to our adversaries.
Trump is correct in believing we must re-engage our economy but at what additional cost of debt?
An improving GDP and reflushing family balance sheets is fine but the piper still will demand payment.
d) Nothing can be accomplished as long as we remain divided politically and philosophically. The manic desire to increase diversity and allow for continued infusions of illegal immigrant blood will only exacerbate our growing unresolved problems.
This is why I thought Tobin's article on the consequence of the mid year nominated candidates in Georgia and Florida was so prescient. If the middle ground has morphed into becoming the extreme, Obama's desire to transform our nation will have become a tragic fact
It is far too early to predict which extreme wins, whether The House is recaptured by leftist oriented Democrats and Trump's impeachment ensues. However, darkening clouds are present and continue filling with torrential social and nation changing possibilities/threats.
e) If this is not enough plate matter, I have two other concerns that impinge and demand attention.
Trump has every legitimate right to hawk the improved economic picture but what goes up eventually comes down and pendulums correct. We seem to be entering what could ultimately become the blow-off phase in the stock market. The historic Bull snorts and marches on and appears in robust health but even a powerful bull tires as excesses mount.
Second, since I left "Wall Street" a plethora of trading opportunities have taken over. Long term investing seems a passing phenomenon as Wall Street, which has always been driven by an aspect of short term mentality, has now become a full time casino and play pen for youthful 'hedgies.'
Social media giant's algorithms are determining our freedoms and function as unregulated, biased monopolistic utilities. Fangs are in, Coca Cola and Ma Bell are passe. Dividend returns have been up- ended by zero rates and the long term implications are worrisome. Light bulbs brighten often before they die.
f) America remains the master when it comes to true technological development. I am not taking credit away from Israel and other nations who make dramatic technology contributions but America remains top dog in this arena. Most other nations are engaged in modifications and "variations on a theme," as it were.
Change is inevitable. Change that comes so rapid that it impacts and disrupts mankind's ability to adjust is not healthy. We are just beginning to understand the downside of cell phones.
Social media technology that turns people into anti-social beings and into uncommunicative loners, "anti-shopping deliver it to me at home consumers" causes implications that cannot be ignored. These trends impact hiring and create income disparities that must be dealt with and at what financial and social cost?
g) As course curricula turns into mush, families disintegrate and divorce and out of wedlock children become the norm and heightened demands fall upon upon a shrinking pool of good, participating and informed citizenry one can legitimately question whether our Republic's survival is secure.
There is no question legal immigration is a positive force. Illegal anything is simply that and rends the fabric of a society whose nation's foundation rests upon adherence to law and our trust in God. These precepts are embodied in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution and when they are challenged, when they are undergirded our foundations are shaken.
h) Because the wheels of the law grind slowly but finely we are finding out how various government agencies and high official of these agencies not only engaged in questionable activities but also, as is so often the usual response among bureaucrats, they continue to this day to thwart release of documents to constitutionally authorized Congressional oversight committees.
If that is not bad enough, when they are called to testify they cannot remember, engage in obfuscation and even commit perjury to save their sins from being uncovered and connected to their co-conspirators.
We have never witnessed this wide and deep level of complete contempt for the citizenry and their elected representatives by a profusion of public servants in recent memory. Trust in government to do what is right and do so in a costly and effective manner is the goal. That has become a joke but the joke has now become an entire comic opera which further weakens public trust in the foundations of our republic.
This cannot continue and partisan party efforts to cover up the deceit must stop.
i) Finally,we are witnessing the embrace of Socialism by unwashed products of those raised in and exposed to circumstances noted in 'g" above.
Empirically, Socialism has failed wherever tried. It successfully produces misery and we have current evidence in Venezuela,Cuba, Russia and other assorted nations where it has been embraced.. Capitalism has produced more blessings for more people than any economic system devised and using any metric is preferable to all others.
Without Capitalism you would not have the luxury to flirt with Socialism. Unlike Socialism, which causes markets to retreat, product availability to shrink, inflation to expand, currency values to collapse and rioting to ensue, Capitalism is associated with the reverse.It is built upon freedom's pillars, challenges engenuity and reallocates capital where best used for the benefit of all.
Socialism's popularity is the by-product of fake news. It is rancid jam on stale bread. I say to all those misguided souls who long for the taste - be my guest and move to those nations where you can "savor its grim flavor."
THE MIDDLE EAST and RADICAL ISLAMISM:
a) Obama was right about one thing. Radical Islamism is a serious problem. He was wrong about his solutions. You do not feed bullies, nor apologize to them. This simply encourages their appetite to expand.
Neither can you kill them all. Killing simply breeds more and it is anti-social, immoral and therefore, unproductive. That said, there is nothing wrong in responding to unwarranted attacks and fanaticism, religious or otherwise
Obama suggested we create jobs for them. This from a president who presided over pitiful unemployment type domestic growth and stated it was the new norm and suggesting we should basically suck it up.
b) I have no answer how to reverse tribal hatred and religious hatred more specifically. America did not contribute to the re-set button colonizing nations, basically from Europe, used to redistribute and/or partition land and peoples who occupied The Middle East. It was executed in a haphazard, selfish, violent, random and contentious manner and now the world is paying for this atrocity.
America continues to pay for its own sins of slavery, segregation and amoral attitudes and I maintain Obama not only did little to improve them but actually heightened them. We are more racially divided now than any time in the last several decades. In fact, we were making gradual strides though Professor/Senator Moynihan's predictions proved more than 100% correct. He warned his own party and was vilified in the process because welfare and poor education is the hypocritical glue that binds far too many voters to Democrats.
Trump was right when he asked Black Americans "what have you got to lose?" Since then, Trump has proven, by keeping campaign commitments, black statistics support his thesis, ie. employment is up, food stamp demand is down and yes, top down economics has a way of dripping benefits to all regardless of ethnicity and color but without education can only go so far.
By returning capital and eliminating significant corrosive, counterproductive red tape, entrepreneurial spirit has been unleashed for the benefit of all. This is a story the mass media will not allow to be told and Republicans are incapable of mastering. The tide against these facts is high because truth threatens voting allegiances. It is sad that hypocrisy is allowed to flourish but ignorance is a powerful fertilizer.
Trump's solution is a positive and plausible model and is working but I doubt it would work in The Middle East because of tribal and religious issues that make their diverse populations entrenched and thus, unreachable. We can't kill all the religious despots, we can't employ all the religious despots, we can't even educate them and teach them right from wrong because we are failing in that regard ourselves. Witness Chicago and the growth of 'wretched-soul populations " in our own shelter and sanctuary cities and communities.
On top of this we have the further intractable issue of tyrannical leadership that evidences total contempt for their citizens and whose atrocities are causing world wide displacement of fleeing immigrants overwhelming otherwise stable societies, ie. Europe, America etc.
b) From a demographic standpoint, the Muslim population is statistically destined to surpass others and this will create even greater threats to world stability.
The problem of Islamic Radicalism will either, though highly unlikely and dumb to believe, burn and/or consume itself. The more distasteful but predictable bet is that it will never end, will continue to be an irritant that challenges being control and will cause untold misery and expense for the world. The greatest threat is the free world will allow it to fester and result in some nuclear or similar type confrontation. War "oils" the Middle East.
Certainly, The U.N is not the organization that can impose a solution. In fact, The U.N is a contributing incubator of hate and discord and has drifted far from its intended mission course.
c) Rather than end on a sour note of hopelessness, let's lift our spirits with the realization that "the enemy of my enemy can, for a period, become my friend" and this leads me to Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Because Israel is strong, democratic and technologically speaking, advanced beyond its size and imagination and Iran is a burgeoning threat to Israel and most all of Israel's neighboring Arab adversaries, there is hope that comity and co-operation, driven by fear, will spread.
I openly wrote, when Trump moved our embassy to Jerusalem, nothing would happen because time and changing circumstances have a way of challenging false premises.
Secondly, the leadership change sweeping over Saudi Arabia and the threat from Iran make conditions for strange bedfellows to reach accommodations otherwise, thought to be impossible. Again another false premise falls by the wayside when mutual survival becomes a compelling interest.
Finally, Trump took the initiative, because he saw the opening which Obama had closed, when it came to our relationship with Israel and the growing threat Obama funded concerning Iran's pursuit of nuclear arms and missiles capable of carrying them etc.
Again, the mass media will not give credit to Trump because that would mean challenging their own blind and feckless support of Obama's misguided policies which entailed hostage payments
CONCLUSION:
Obviously I have neither offered solutions nor covered many serious remaining concerns that confront us and the civilized world. I have tried to address and highlight issues that should, at least, concern all who are interested in the world's well-being and thus, their own and who are willing to look at these problems in an, more or less, unbiased, dispassionate and reasoned manner.
Yes, I admit my distaste for Obama seeps in but I have attached it to factual reasons that form the basis of my views. I give not a whit about the color of Obama's skin but I do care about the content of his character and I continue to believe, in that regard, he failed himself, he failed the black community and he failed America.
As for Trump, I believe his policies have been positive and statistics validate that to date. I am concerned about the fact that his real estate fortune was built on leverage and this exposed him to severe financial distress in the recent downturn and that might shape his thinking regarding America's debt picture. If so, that would be tragic. Another misguided unconcern on the part of Obama.
When it comes to healing the nation's political divide and its manic embrace of diversity, I believe one begets and contributes to the other. Diversity also implies separateness. This is not the prescription a divided nation needs in order to heal.
Politics has always lent itself to combativeness but after the efforts to impeach Bill Clinton an entire number of new slings and arrows were introduced into the armory of political weapons. Even before Clinton's trial, PC'ism encouraged the politicization and eventually criminalization of basic acts of behaviour. It was all done to increase empathy and elevate one's power but it spread amoebic-ally and outstripped any intended positive. PC'ism heightened antipathy and discord, spawned tactics of political separation most evidenced by identity politics, politics among have and have nots, politics of envy, politics of oppression and then the street crowds entered the fray with attacks on Wall Street and capitalism, America's History, as evidenced by defacing and destroying public statutes and street demonstrations against alleged acts of police brutality. Many of these protests ended in wanton destruction and theft of merchandise whose proprietors served legitimate community needs etc.
Now, in the upcoming election we have the culminating opportunity for Democrats to address their unwarranted inability to graciously accept their candidate's defeat by re-taking The House, engagement in the pay back impeachment of Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors wholly based on misplaced hatred flamed by their own candidate and party's misdeeds which formed the basis of the issuance of illegal Fisa warrants in furtherance of claims of Russian Collusion by Trump and members of his administration etc.. A mouthful sentence but not outside the realm of fact and reason.
This is where the world and America stand as August ends and the mid-term election cycle begins in all seriousness.
If you have not already been exhausted by Mueller's pursuit it appears more is yet to come.
Perhaps as students return to college and university campuses protests against speakers who hurt their sensitive natures, who expose them to what they should discuss rather than protest will provide welcomed relief from the imbecile nonsense that will soon be directed at Trump's qualified nominee for Supreme Court Justice.
Perhaps you are even tired of hearing about Trump's bimbo payments and their sleaze lawyers.
How much more mass media gruel do we need before our collective digestive system screams in rebellion.
WELCOME TO ANOTHER FALL SEASON OF NFL PROTESTS AND LET US HOPE NOT THE FALL OF OUR REPUBLIC.
My last posting is old but relevant to the above commentary (See 1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e and 1f below.)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dick
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1) A new Harris Poll finds that a whopping 85% of blue-collar workers say that
their lives are headed "in the right direction." The high optimism level may
have much to do with the booming economy. The latest economic numbers
indicate that the surging economy shows no signs of slowing down. On
Wednesday, the Commerce Department raised its estimate for second-quarter
GDP growth to 4.2%, which means that annual growth for the first half of the
year now is above 3%. And with all indications pointing up, it has become
increasingly likely that growth for the entire year will be at 3% or better.
The country hasn't seen a year like that since 2005.
On top of the good GDP numbers is news on median household income, which is
now up more than 4%. As Investor's Business Daily reports
<https://www.investors.com/pol
y/> , "Inflation-adjusted median household incomes in July hit $62,450
according to the latest release from Sentier Research. That's the highest
level since Sentier started tracking this more than 18 years ago. And if you
combine Sentier's numbers with annual Census data, median household income
is at all-time highs."
IBD continues, "More interesting is the fact that median household income
has shot up more than 4% in the 19 months since Trump took office. It had
been flat over the previous year and a half. Over the course of President
Obama's entire eight years in office, median household income climbed a mere
0.3%, Sentier data show." Is it any wonder optimism is so high?
Harris also noted that 51% of blue-collar workers believe that the country
as a whole is headed in the right direction, and 80% said that they are
"very optimistic" about the future. 88% believed that their children would
likely attain a better future than they. Needless to say, the large swaths
of the country that Hillary Clinton and Democrats maligned and ignored - and
then lost in 2016 - are clearly reaping the benefits of their vote. Go ahead
and try convincing them that they voted for the wrong candidate.
1a) https://www.breitbart.com/
And
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
1b) The Truth Will Set Us All Free
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was star-crossed from the start. His friend and successor as FBI director, James Comey, by his own admission prompted the investigation — with the deliberate leaking of classified memos about his conversations with President Donald Trump to the press.
Mueller then unnecessarily stocked his team with what the press called his “dream team” of mostly Democratic partisans. One had defended a Hillary Clinton employee. Another had defended the Clinton Foundation.
Mueller did not at first announce to the press why he had dismissed Trump-hating FBI operatives Lisa Page and Peter Strzok from his investigative team. Instead, he staggered their departures to leave the impression they were routine reassignments.
But Mueller’s greatest problem was his original mandate to discover whether Trump colluded with the Russians in 2016 to tilt the election in his favor.
After 15 months, Mueller has indicted a number of Trump associates, but on charges having nothing to do with Russian collusion. They faced inordinately long prison sentences unless they “flipped” and testified against Trump.
We are left with the impression that Mueller cannot find much to do with his original mandate of unearthing Russian collusion, but he still thinks Trump is guilty of something.
In other words, Mueller has reversed the proper order of jurisprudence.
Instead of presuming Trump innocent unless he finds evidence of Russian collusion, Mueller started with the assumption that the reckless raconteur Trump surely must be guilty of some lawbreaking. Thus, it is Mueller’s job to hunt for past crimes to prove it.
While Mueller so far has not found Trump involved in collusion with foreign citizens to warp a campaign, there is evidence that others most surely were colluding — but are not of interest to Mueller.
It is likely that during the 2016 campaign, officials at the Department of Justice, FBI, CIA, and National Security Agency broke laws to ensure that the outsider Trump lost to Hillary Clinton. FBI and DOJ officials misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in order to obtain warrants to surveil Trump associates. National-security officials unmasked the names of those being monitored and likely leaked them to the press with the intent to spread unverified rumors detrimental to the Trump campaign.
A spy on the federal payroll was implanted into the Trump campaign. Hillary Clinton’s campaign team paid for research done by a former British intelligence officer working with Russian sources to compile a dossier on Trump. Clinton hid her investment in Christopher Steele’s dossier by using intermediaries such as the Perkins Coie law firm and Fusion GPS to wipe away her fingerprints.
As a result of wrongful conduct, more than a dozen officials at the FBI and DOJ have resigned or retired, or were fired or reassigned. Yet so far none of these miscreants has been indicted or has faced the same legal scrutiny that Mueller applies to Trump associates.
Hillary Clinton is not facing legal trouble for destroying subpoenaed emails, for using an unlawful email server, or for the expenditure of campaign money on the Steele dossier.
No president has ever faced impeachment for supposed wrongdoing alleged to have taken place before he took office — not Andrew Johnson, not Richard Nixon, and not even Bill Clinton, who lied about his liaisons with Monica Lewinsky in the Oval Office. With the effort to go back years, if not decades, into Trump’s business and personal life, we are now in unchartered territory.
The argument is not that Trump committed crimes while president — indeed, his record at home and abroad is winning praise. The allegations are instead about what he may have done as a private citizen, and whether it could have reversed the 2016 election.
The only way to clear up this messy saga is for Trump to immediately declassify all documents — without redactions — relating to the Mueller investigation, the FISA court warrants, the Clinton email investigation, and CIA and FBI involvement with the dossier and the use of informants.
Second, there needs to be another special counsel to investigate wrongdoing on the part of senior officials in these now nearly discredited agencies. The mandate should be to discover whether there was serial conflict of interest, chronic lying to federal officials, obstruction of justice, improper unmasking and leaking, misleading of federal courts, and violation of campaign-finance laws.
It is past time to stop the stonewalling, the redacting, the suppression, the leaking to the press, and the media hysteria. The government must turn over all relevant documents to two special counsels and free each to discover who did what in 2016.
Americans need the whole truth to ensure equality under the law and to thereby set us free from this nearly two-year nightmare.
1c)
The Trump administration has restored the United States to the position of honest broker – emphasis on "honest" – and taken a hatchet to a series of fantasies underlying the notion of an Israeli-Palestinian "peace process." Twenty-five years after the Oslo Accords ushered in radical, despotic, kleptocratic Palestinian self-government, the Accords are dead. And that's good.
The new construct is as follows:
- The U.S. is not neutral between Israel, America's democratic friend and ally, and the Palestinians, who are neither.
- Everybody has a "narrative," a national story. Not everyone's narrative is factual. The U.S. will insist that there are facts, and that history – both ancient and modern – is real and knowable. The American government's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel is simply the acceptance of the truth of history. The city was the capital of the Jewish people and never, ever the seat of government for any other. In this assertion, the president was joined by many members of the U.S. House and Senate, irrespective of party – although some had more trouble saying so than others.
- The U.S. will not pay for fraud, mismanagement, or support of terrorism by the Palestinians or the United Nations. Repeat the comment about congressional support.
- Neither will we fund two Palestinian governments simply because it is easier than figuring out what to do with Hamas and Fatah, who are fighting a civil war and agree on little besides the need for Israel's ultimate demise. Repeat the comment about congressional support.
In the new game, the Palestinians have something to lose – the sine qua non of successful negotiations.
The Washington rumor mill believes that President Trump's next move will be to change the definition of Palestinians as "refugees" in the American lexicon. Palestinians will cease to be the only population in the world in which refugee status is handed down generationally through one's father, which ensures permanent geometric growth in the refugee population. Palestinians will become like every other group. If you lose your home and can't go back – think Rohingya or Montagnard – you are a refugee. Settled in a country that will have you, you are no longer a refugee, nor will any of your future generations be. Think Vietnamese.
In tandem, then, comes the proposition that the descendants of refugees have no "right" to go and settle in places their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents claim to have lived. This, again, will make the Palestinians just like every other refugee population. Time moves forward only. Israel is here, Israel will remain, and Israel can determine who lives within its borders.
On the other hand, and there is always another hand, much of the discussion is driven by money. Although money is fungible, it isn't always easily so, and contrary to the professional refugee-managers, the goal is not to punish Palestinians whose only crime is the misfortune of living under Hamas or the P.A.
The American Taylor Force Act – passed and signed – will have the United States withhold money from the P.A. in the amount of the stipends the P.A. pays to terrorists and their families. The Palestinian Authority paid out approximately $350 million in 2017. The knowledge that their families will be taken care of financially has, in fact, led to a number Palestinians choosing what we, in the U.S., call "suicide by cop." Palestinians who feel hopeless and for one or another reason figure that they can best provide for their families by killing Jews are encouraged by their own government. That's an easy one. If P.A. strongman Mahmoud Abbas doesn't spend the money on terror stipends, he can replace the American shortage and spend the money on other things.
The Trump administration has also announced that it will stop the flow of U.S. taxpayer funds to the U.N. Human Rights Council – a bastion of anti-Israel sentiment. "We'll calculate 22 percent of the Human Rights Council and the High Commissioner's budget, and our remittances to the UN for this budget year will be less 22 percent of those costs – and we'll say specifically that's what we're doing," NSC adviser John Bolton said. "We expect that impact to occur on the Human Rights Council." Again, not much of a problem. One might hope the UNHRC will produce 22 percent less hot air, but that is not certain.
Then comes a more difficult issue. The administration has cut $300 million from UNRWA, leading to the expected wails about starving babies. UNRWA has, for almost seven decades, been the prison guard of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria, as well as running shanty towns for Palestinians in Jordan, where many hold both citizenship and refugee status. It has also hired Hamas and Hezb'allah operatives and shielded their weapons in UNRWA schools.
Babies won't starve unless the Palestinians want them to for a photo op. (Don't be huffy – it was Gaza leader Yaya Sinwar who praised "the sacrifice of" Palestinian children "as an offering for Jerusalem and the right of return.") On the other hand, it behooves the United States to work closely with Israel – the Israelis being most acutely sensitive to the connection between money and terror – to manage the change in available funds for the short term. Otherwise, it is possible that Hamas and the P.A. can gin up even more unhappy souls to engage in terrorism.
If "peace" is a bridge too far, a long-term stabilization process is not out of reach based on President Trump's new foundations for American policy. At a minimum, the United States can be sure that the policies that it pursues are consonant with American interests and American allies. President Trump has done well.
1d) Haley: US ready to end all UNRWA funding, scrap Palestinian 'right of return'
“The Palestinians continue to bash America,” but “they have their hand out wanting UNRWA money,” Haley said.
US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, in an address at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies summit in Washington on Tuesday, said the Trump administration is seeking ways to scrap the Palestinian “right of return” and to end all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA).
“The countries we give money to – do they believe what we believe?” she asked rhetorically.
“If they’re shouting ‘Death to America,’ why would we give them money?”
“The Palestinians continue to bash America…this is the government, not the people,” but “they have their hand out wanting UNRWA money,” she said.
UNRWA can stay there, and we can be a donor if they reform.”
The Palestinians reacted with fury, accusing the US of bullying.
1e)Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America .
1f) Caroline Glick: German-led E.U. Sides with Iran Against America
1e)Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America .
The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States . He said, 'If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America . It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'
'Here is how they do it,' Lamm said:
'First, to destroy America , turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bi-cultural country... History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: 'The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.' Canada , Belgium , Malaysia , and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, Corsicans and Muslims.'
Lamm went on:
'Second, to destroy America , invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. Make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal; that there are no cultural differences Make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.
'Third, we could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec ' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: 'The apparent success of our own multi-ethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricy and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.' Lamm said, 'I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities.'
'Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, un-assimilated, under-educated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high school.'
'My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology...' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority.'
'My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precept. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. 'E. Pluribus Unum' -- From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus' instead of the 'Unum,' we will 'Balkanize' America as surely as Kosovo.'
'Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits. Make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bi-cultural country, having established multi-culturalism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America , it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them.'
In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, 'Lastly, I would censor Victor Hanson Davis's book 'Mexifornia.' His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America . If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book.
There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America Take note of California and other states. To date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book '1984.' In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: 'War is peace,' 'Freedom is slavery,' and 'Ignorance is strength'
Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that our nation and the future of this great democracy is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped within three years, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream
1f) Caroline Glick: German-led E.U. Sides with Iran Against America
With each passing day, it is becoming increasingly clear that the European Union has decided to stake its diplomatic credibility on the nuclear deal the Obama administration concluded with Iran.
Last Thursday, the EU announced it was transferring $20 million to Iran to offset the impact of U.S. sanctions. EU foreign policy commissioner Federica Mogherini said it was part of a wider $58 million aid package to convince Iran to remain in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — that is, then-President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
The EU’s announcement followed other anti-American, pro-Iranian moves.
Those included approving regulations to protect EU firms from U.S. sanctions if they continue to trade with Iran, and barring EU firms from ending their trade with Iran to comply with U.S. sanctions.
Last Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas published an op-ed calling for the EU to set up a system to conduct financial transactions “independent of the U.S.” Maas’s idea is to enable Europe to continue to carry out banking operations with Iran outside the framework of the SWIFT system, which the U.S. largely controls.
Although German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected Maas’s suggestion, Merkel has stridently defended the nuclear deal and led the EU in opposing the Trump administration’s abandonment of it.
One of the odd aspects of the EU’s brazen and openly hostile preference for the nuclear deal with Iran to good relations with the U.S. is that the policy was not adopted in response to desperate lobbying by EU firms. Since President Donald Trump announced he was withdrawing the U.S. from the nuclear deal in May, the major European firms operating in Iran announced they were pulling out to protect their business interests in the much larger U.S. market.
On Friday, Air France-KLM and British Airways announced that they were suspending their operations in Iran. Siemens announced it was doing so on Thursday.
The U.S., for its part, protested against the EU’s latest decision to subsidize the Iranian economy. Brian Hook, the newly -appointed State Department special representative for Iran, slammed the EU for the aid funds. Hook released a statement saying that the aid “sends the wrong message at the wrong time.”
“Foreign aid from European taxpayers perpetuates the regime’s ability to neglect the needs of its people and stifles meaningful policy changes.
“More money in the hands of the Ayatollahs means more money to conduct assassinations in those very European countries,” Hook added.
It is, at first, hard to understand why Europe has chosen to risk upending its relations with Washington to preserve the JCPOA — aside from the financial gains some European companies hope to preserve.
On technical grounds, it makes no sense. The Iran deal was not a formal agreement. No one signed it. No one is legally bound to maintain it.
Moreover, the foundation of the deal was a lie. As Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have said, the premise of the deal was a false Iranian claim that its nuclear program was entirely peaceful.
Israel’s revelation in May of the Iranian nuclear archive, which the Mossad espionage organization seized from a warehouse in Tehran, proved beyond doubt that the reason Iran is developing nuclear capabilities is to build a nuclear arsenal. The Iranian nuclear archive included nuclear bomb designs and designs for ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Then there is the fact that Iran violated both the spirit and the letter of the JCPOA.
Iran’s testing of ballistic missiles violated the spirit of the JCPOA. Iran’s uranium enrichment activities and its heavy water production — both in excess of JCPOA’s limitations — were likewise a violation of the letter of the agreement. So too, Iran’s refusal to open its military nuclear installations to UN inspectors put paid to the claim that the JCPOA limited its nuclear activities in any real sense. Iran’s continued ballistic missile tests and development activities were also a violation of the spirit of the deal.
At the same time European political leaders were meeting with Iranian leaders to concoct a strategy to undermine the U.S. in June, European security officials prevented an Iranian government-led terror attack against an Iranian opposition rally in Paris. The foiled attack was to be carried out by an Iranian diplomat registered to the Iranian embassy in Vienna.
In short, the deal the Europeans have chosen to fight for is a failure, based on a lie. Far from blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal, the JCPOA guarantees its path. And the Europeans know it. So the EU is now in an open fight with Washington in order to advance Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal.
If the substance of the JCPOA weren’t enough to dissuade the Germans, French, and British from maintaining their strange devotion to the deal, there is the inconvenient fact that it isn’t even their deal.
True, they were included in later stages of the negotiations. And Mogherini was even allowed to present herself as the chief negotiator. But the fact is that this was an agreement between the U.S. and Iran.
Reaching a nuclear deal with Iran was Obama’s central goal in his second term. The Obama administration initiated the negotiations in secret talks with the Iranians in Oman. If the Obama administration had not led the talks, Democrats — formerly sensible on the subject — would not have abandoned their principles to support the deal that ensured Iran’s path to the bomb.
Then there is the plain fact that from an economic perspective, the EU’s stubborn insistence on defying the U.S. on behalf of Iran is insane. The U.S. market accounts for ten percent of Germany’s total exports.
Militarily, despite German bravado that it can afford for the U.S. to abandon them, the fact is that the U.S. has 33,000 troops and a nuclear arsenal stationed permanently in Germany to defend it. And without U.S. and Israeli intelligence assistance, the Europeans would be all but helpless to defend themselves against terror cells operating in Europe.
In conversations with Breitbart News, senior U.S. officials attested that the EU’s policy on Iran is being steered by Germany. France was never particularly enthusiastic about the nuclear deal. Indeed, in 2013 and in 2015, French objections to the weak inspections regime and the JCPOA’s allowance of continued uranium enrichment nearly blocked the deal.
As for Britain, the officials maintain that British Prime Minister Theresa May is siding with Germany against the U.S. out of fear of harming Britain’s chances of negotiating a favorable Brexit deal.
Which brings us to the question of what is motivating the German government to side with Iran against Washington.
Germany has long been Iran’s protector in Europe. Merkel is the reason that the EU has refused to outlaw Hezbollah. Due to Germany, the EU made an artificial distinction between the Iranian proxy group’s “military wing” and its “civilian wing.” The latter is permitted to operate legally in EU member states. Hezbollah thus uses its presence in Europe to indoctrinate and recruit members and to fundraise. As the Jerusalem Post has reported, German intelligence estimates that there are 950 Hezbollah terrorists operating in Germany.
The U.S. officials claim that Merkel is siding with Iran against the U.S. because despite the fact that the JCPOA was a U.S. initiative, she views it as a European foreign policy achievement. She believes the JCPOA is proof that Europe can have a foreign policy independent of Washington.
It is notable in this vein that Merkel has chosen to adopt a policy of enabling Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, and to operate terror cells openly in Europe, as a means of distinguishing Europe from America.
To a degree, this isn’t surprising. EU member states have only been able to coalesce around one common foreign policy: hostility to Israel.
Only last week, the EU issued an angry condemnation of Israel for announcing it was issuing permits for 382 new homes in its communities in Judea. The EU and European member states invest in excess of $125 million annually to support networks of anti-Israel NGOs in Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Europe. These NGOs delegitimize Israel’s right to exist, support economic boycotts of Israel, work to turn Israel’s Arab citizens against their state, and support Palestinian terror groups. At the UN, there are few anti-Israel initiatives that do not pass with European support.
Since the OPEC oil embargo in 1974, Western European countries have used their hostility towards Israel as a means to distinguish themselves from the U.S. It costs them nothing, since Israel is at a trade disadvantage with Europe. And it appeals to the antisemitic and anti-American sentiments held by a large percentage of Europeans.
Just two few days before Maas wrote his article calling for the EU to develop a new financial network to undermine U.S. sanctions and keep trading with Iran (and so enable the regime to survive, continue sponsoring terrorism and waging war while developing nuclear weapons), he visited the German death camp Auschwitz. While at the site of the largest death factory in human history, he said, “We need this place because our responsibility never ends.”
How odd, given the German government’s decision to pin its independence on its ability to help Iran’s regime overcome U.S. sanctions and develop the means to annihilate Israel and murder the six-and-a-half million Jews that live there.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 
No comments:
Post a Comment