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Let's hear it for mankind which will soon disappear: Climate Change Alarmism Is the World's Leading Cause of Hot Gas
And while we are at it, let's hear from Maxine:Why Wall Street must get ready for Maxine Waters
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Netanyahu makes a bold comment. I would like to believe him but think he might be leaning too far over his skis. (See 1 below.)
Meanwhile: (See 1a and 1b below.)
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Trump, Schumer and Pelosi met today and rest assured the nation's welfare will not be of interest to the two Democrats because they no longer find protecting our borders politically positive . They are driven by blocking Trump at every turn. As for Trump, in a fit of pique, he might agree to a shut down and let the chips fall where they may. This time any shutdown will be minimal in its effect because sufficient funds have been authorized to keep the government basically humming along as it always does.
Pelosi needs to do what allows her to be selected as Leader, that is what guides her every waking moment. Schumer is driven by a contempt for Trump and blocking him whenever he can. Trump is driven by a desire to accomplish his campaign commitments.
There is probably no way they can agree on much of anything unless it means spending money on which they all agree and that leaves only infrastructure.
Trump is our first " total commercialism transactional " president. Politics does not drive him as much as doing a deal based on what he sees as logical and common sense. Therefore, he does not look at decisions through a sensitivity prism or even one based on what is lawful if the results prove negative. This, I am sure, among other reasons, is why Trump and Tillerson did not get along.
I am currently reading "The Accidental President. It is the story of Truman's first four months in office. In some ways Trump and Truman are alike. Both did not have patience, a willingness to suffer fools. Truman was direct, to the point, blunt and very orderly and methodical. He could make a momentous decision and then go to bed and sleep well. Trump's personality is more combative and driven by both insecurity and egotism but Truman had many self-doubts as well and was unprepared for the presidency nor wanted to be president. Bess hated the limelight.
Unlike Truman, who was a prodigious reader, Trump lacks Harry's depth. Trump's decisions are driven by ideology whereas Truman's were more measured and thoughtful. Both sought advice but I suspect Truman's views were more shape-able by it as long as the advice did not violate certain personal norms and values. I suspect Trump listens more than the biased mass media give him credit for doing but I also suspect his boundaries are narrower than Truman's.
In the case of the atom bomb, Truman did everything in his power to warn the Japanese they would be totally destroyed and yet, believed by dropping the first two bombs it would save more lives even though it would kill many. Like the Israelis, he warned Japanese civilians to vacate their homes and move away from targeted zones. That said, he also had no love for "Japs" and felt deeply the pain they inflicted upon the world.
I believe both Truman and Trump had/have a special feeling for the military , Truman's was more fleshed out because he served in the artillery during WW 1 but Trump attended a Military prep school and was infused with discipline at an early and impressionable age. I can relate because I spent four years at Georgia Military Academy near Atlanta and loved my brief time in The Marines. Spit and polish is part of my DNA and my closet could stand an inspection to this day. I am orderly in a disorganized way.
Finally, let's spend a few words on a rascal named Comey, who decided to give us insight into his goal. Defeat Trump at all costs. Amazing that a former FBI Director would voice such bias and conduct himself as such a partisan hack.
One has to wonder how a person like this was allowed to run the, reputedly, world's best investigative bureau. Those who still work for The FBI and are loyal to the Agency as well as the nation should be appalled.
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Salena Vito is an acquaintance who predicted Trump's election in 2016. She reminds me of Jack Germond. Jack, a fiend, was an old type professional cardiologist type reporter who dug, went to bars, got out among the real people, understood and took the pulse of America. He was based in Baltimore but loved traveling even though grossly overweight. (See 2 below.)
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Dick
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1)Netanyahu: Israel is preventing Iran from taking over the Middle East
by IsraelHayom Staff for Israel Hayom
Speaking with Fox News, the prime minister vows to “uncover the rest” of Iranian proxy Hezbollah’s tunnels, stop Iran’s “takeover” of Middle East • Days after first tunnel exposed, PM asks countries to join U.S. effort to condemn Shiite group at U.N..
Israel will prevent Iran from using cross-border tunnels from Lebanon as a “weapon of aggression” against it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Thursday, two days after the Israel Defense Forces launched Operation Northern Shield to expose and neutralize terror tunnels dug by Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
1a) UN Approves Terror, Torpedoes Peace
by Bassam Tawil for the GatestoneInstitute,
The UN General Assembly on December 6 voted down a US-sponsored resolution condemning the activities of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups. (UN Photo/Loey Felipe)
Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorist groups have interpreted the failure of the US-sponsored resolution as an internationally sanctioned license to continue killing Jews.
What Hamas is telling the UN and the rest of the world is: “Now that you have refused to brand us terrorists, we have the right to launch all forms of terrorist attacks and kill as many Jews as possible.” Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders are, in fact, threatening not only to continue, but also to step up, their terrorist attacks on Israel.
1b)
The U.N. General Assembly narrowly defeated a resolution last Thursday that would have condemned Hamas for its terror campaign against Israel. Three days later, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a group of Jews waiting at a bus stop near the West Bank Jewish community of Ofra and wounded seven people, including a pregnant woman whose life and baby were endangered by the assault.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which opposed the measure aimed at the bitter rivals of P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party, declared victory. Hamas then endorsed Sunday’s shooting attack. And should the culprit for the drive-by shooting be found, the supposedly moderate P.A., which sits in the United Nations with non-member observer status, will pay them and their family regular pensions to reward them for the shedding of Jewish blood.
YOUNGSTOWN — There is a house I see every so often in my travels. It is perched where the alabaster 33-mile marker stands along the long-defunct Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad line, by an old stone foundation that has likely stood for over a century.
1b)
Despite UN vote, Palestinian terror is still a losing strategy
By Jonathan Tobin
Israel’s foes scored a tactical victory in New York, but their defense of terror is marginalizing them, not the Jewish state.
The U.N. General Assembly narrowly defeated a resolution last Thursday that would have condemned Hamas for its terror campaign against Israel. Three days later, a Palestinian gunman opened fire on a group of Jews waiting at a bus stop near the West Bank Jewish community of Ofra and wounded seven people, including a pregnant woman whose life and baby were endangered by the assault.
Taken together, the two events painted a dismal picture of international indifference to terror directed at Israelis and Jews. After the vote on Hamas failed, the U.N. General Assembly then passed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements by a 156-5 vote with only Israel, the United States, Australia, Liberia and the Marshall Islands voting against it.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, which opposed the measure aimed at the bitter rivals of P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party, declared victory. Hamas then endorsed Sunday’s shooting attack. And should the culprit for the drive-by shooting be found, the supposedly moderate P.A., which sits in the United Nations with non-member observer status, will pay them and their family regular pensions to reward them for the shedding of Jewish blood.
But rather than regard these events as proof that Israel’s critics are right about time running out before outrage over its policies would lead to its complete isolation, the truth is just the opposite. The vote actually illustrated that the world is losing patience with the Palestinians.
It wasn’t long ago that neither the United States nor Israel would have bothered trying to pass anything that condemned Palestinian terror. Yet 87 nations voted to condemn both Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns, as well as its use of civilian infrastructure to mask its ability to commit such war crimes. It was only because of a last-minute vote to require a two-thirds majority for passage that it failed. But a majority of nations still voted yes, with 57 voting no and 33 abstentions.
So while outlets like The New York Times tried to depict the result as a defeat for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley before she leaves her office at the end of the year, the numbers actually ought to trouble Palestinian leaders and their exploited followers.
Despite the pro-forma support for the Palestinians in such settings, most of the world has lost interest in their century-old war on Zionism.
Part of the credit for this shift must be given to the both Haley and the Trump administration. A year ago, Haley vowed that in the future, the United States would be noticing which nations opposed Washington on key votes, saying she would be “taking names.” Trump made it clear that he would consider cutting U.S. aid to those who flouted American objectives while taking its money. To some extent, that was a hollow threat. But Haley’s successful combination of tough rhetoric and private diplomacy paid dividends, and the 87 votes against Hamas shows it isn’t impossible for America to make progress at the world body long known for its anti-Israel measures.
It also demonstrates that despite predictions that U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would further isolate America and Israel, the opposite has happened.
Yet Abbas and Hamas also know that even many of those Arab nations that voted with them at the United Nations are content to go on paying lip service to the Palestinians in New York, while dealing with and supporting Israel in private. Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and many other Sunni nations have to keep voting against Israel in such forums because to do otherwise would spark outrage among their largely anti-Semitic populations. But in practice, these same governments look to Israel as a strategic ally against both Iran and radical Islamic movements like ISIS, Hezbollah and Hamas.
Those nations are perfectly happy to isolate the terrorist state in Gaza that is blockaded by both Israel and Egypt. They also fear an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank might soon be ruled by Islamists who pose as much of a threat to Cairo, Amman and Riyadh as it would to Jerusalem.
Were the entire Muslim world truly united in their support for the Palestinians, it wouldn’t be possible for Israel to make new friends in Africa and Asia, or to continue to integrate into the global economy as it has done in recent years.
Were the Palestinians serious about peace, this might not be the case. But though American left-wingers who back BDS are willfully ignorant of the last 25 years of history, most of the world knows that it is the Palestinians who have repeatedly rejected peace and who cling to terrorism.
While many thought the anomalous and unpleasant status quo in the West Bank couldn’t last, it continues because of incidents like the latest terror attack and the periodic rocket barrages from Gaza.
Israelis understand that neither Abbas nor Hamas is capable of making peace. Every rocket launched and every drop of Jewish blood spilled merely reinforces support for the Israeli government’s refusal to make more territorial concessions until the Palestinians demonstrate they have given up their long war and the brutal terror it engenders.
It’s painfully obvious that the Trump peace plan crafted by his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner—slated to be released in 2019—will get nowhere because the Palestinians are, as they were when they rejected previous peace proposals, simply incapable of recognizing the legitimacy of a Jewish state. Few, even in the Muslim world, will care much after that leaves the Palestinians stuck in the same ideological dead end where they’ve allowed themselves to remain for 70 years.
The make-believe world of the United Nations may sometimes yield symbolic results that cheer Israel’s enemies. In the meantime, Israel will continue to grow stronger, militarily, economically and diplomatically, and its isolation will continue to ease. If Hamas thinks that’s a victory, I’d like to see what they call a defeat.
Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS — Jewish News Syndicate.
By Salena Zito
Every year, ivy and wild vines suffocate its simple charm, climbing up and over its slanted gingerbread slate roof on its right side, the one that faces Cedar Street. And every year, it loses one more shingle and sheds more luster from its ancient apricot-colored paint.
In the back of its sloped property, a smaller structure sits — likely a cold cellar, where the family would have stored roots, canned fruits and vegetables, and jerky. The elements have been less kind to it, and its roof has nearly peeled off.
Once upon a time, a man and a woman likely walked through the threshold of its front door and began their lives together, with the same hopes and aspirations most young couples share. They may have struggled; they may have sacrificed; they may have raised their family; and they may have grown old in this home after their children left for far-off places.
At least, that's how I imagine this story goes. I don't know the ending other than to say the owners are gone, and I wonder why no one came back to love this home again.
It is a line of thought my mind travels down every time I see a place, whether it is a home or a business, that time and people have left behind. How did that impact the neighbors? The community?
It's increasingly popular to criticize journalists today for spending too much time reporting on places that used to be something much greater. Those who are not populists have become bored, and ultimately dismissive, of places that used to prosper and the people who made them thrive.
The reaction has gone from a mild annoyance to full-on hostility — placing the blame of the places' collapse on some sort of racism, denialism or lack of intelligence. The root of this hostility may be irritation at who is president and how that insults their sense of place in society.
"People like to talk about the dichotomy between coastal elites/fly-over; rural/urban; low density/high density," said Tom Maraffa, professor emeritus of geography at Youngstown State University. "I would add that the difference is between the placed and placeless, or people who are rooted in their places versus people who are essentially nomads."
These placeless people, like those highly critical of fly-over folks, develop affinities for ideology and abstractions, as opposed to neighborhoods and cities. The lives of the coastal elites, academics, big-business owners, high-tech innovators, entertainers and media personalities have led to this, because they are so mobile.
People who live in the heartland are not so mobile. Neither the rooted nor the rootless are "better." But too often, the cultures clash, with one spending an inordinate amount of time putting the other down, usually on a widely read platform.
"Many people in small towns, rural areas and some cities ... are tied to their places for generations. So, issues such as climate change and globalization are therefore viewed fundamentally different," said Maraffa.
The placeless think of global policies, abstract efficiencies and lofty ideas like social justice.
The placed think of how things will affect their neighborhood, town and city.
"Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are both demagogues," Maraffa said, referring to the president and the independent Vermont senator. "Trump is the demagogue of the placed. Bernie Sanders is the demagogue of the placeless."
Examples abound, said Maraffa: "People who voted for Trump share a rootedness in place. Think of people in J.D. Vance's 'Hillbilly Elegy' or the TV series 'Justified,' which was tied by the phrase 'We dug coal together,' an expression of place."
"The recent GM/Lordstown discussion is fundamentally about corporate abstraction versus the impact on places," he said on the Detroit carmaker's decision to render the 52-year-old plant "unallocated" to make a car beginning next year.
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