Lovely Denmark.
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If you wish to protect our lovely island from developers you can send your objection to
The once great liberal bastion - Williams College - flips (See 1 below.)
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You would think even liberals are smart enough to keep taxes low, cut spending and rules and regulations in order to make the economy stronger so as to benefit all socio-economic levels they profess to care about. However, that is not the case because if everything was doing well liberals would have no causes and thus would feel a loss of power.
Guess liberals are not sailors and know nothing about how boats float.(See 2 below.)
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Hamas and Palestinians. (See 3 below.)
And:
Bibi makes a vow. Will/can he keep it? (See 3a below.)
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Dick
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1) Typical for a small, elite, liberal-arts school, Williams College boasts a great variety of student organizations, including the fiercely pro-terrorist Students for Justice in Palestine and a Society for Conservative Thought. But, for the first time in over a decade, the college council decided to reject a new group’s appeal for official status, as Jonathan Marks writes:
Late last month, the College Council at Williams voted, thirteen to eight, against recognizing a pro-Israel club, Williams Initiative for Israel.
Some of the students who spoke against the club at a council meeting made no bones about their reasons. [The] “club is pro-Israel, which means [it] supports a state that is built on Palestinian land,” said one and made it clear that “believing in the right of Israel to exist” was a red line that no registered student organization should be permitted to cross. Israel is a “fascist state” said another. The “existence of Israel is built on the killing of Palestinians,” said a third.In short, the open espousal of “pro-Israel” sentiment, even in the limited sense of supporting the existence of Israel, is an affront too great for some students to bear. . . .
As a private institution, Williams College isn’t bound by the First Amendment. But it claims that it’s “committed to being a community in which all ranges of opinion and belief can be expressed and debated, and within which all patterns of behavior permitted by the public law and college regulations can take place.” . . . Colleges and universities cannot declare themselves in favor of freedom of expression and at the same time discriminate among clubs based on the subjective rightness or wrongness of their views.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++How much more is this the case with the club rejected by Williams College, which, unlike Students for Justice in Palestine, is not known for shouting down speakers, scorning dialogue, or otherwise setting itself at odds with the missions of most colleges and universities.
2) Poorest Americans Are Benefiting Most From Strong Economy
It’s hard to escape the good economic news these days.
New reports show that in the first quarter of 2019, the U.S. economy grew by 3.2%, outpacing expectations by almost a full percentage point. In the month of April, unemployment fell to a 50-year low of 3.6%. Businesses continue to add hundreds of thousands of jobs month after month.
The sustained good economic news is in no small part thanks to last year’s tax cuts, and President Donald Trump’s work to cut unnecessary regulations that made it too costly to hire new workers or grow businesses.
The old cliché is that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” That’s correct, but it misses the full scope of what a strong and growing economy does for the poorest among us. It is actually the poor, those who have been historically disenfranchised, people with disabilities, and lower-skilled workers who benefit the most from rising economic tides.
The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution. Find out more >>
Let’s look at the details.
In April, the unemployment rate for Americans with a high school degree fell to the lowest rates since before the Great Recession. Unemployment for workers with disabilities fell from 8% to 6.3% over the last 12 months, the lowest level since the measure began in 2008.
Hispanic unemployment is the lowest it has been since 1973 (also when the measure began). Black unemployment remains close to historic lows, climbing slightly since the end of 2018.
One could hardly wish for a better trend. This economy is working for every class of American.
When the economy is strong and unemployment rates are consistently low, two things happen. First, job openings pull workers off the sidelines and into the workforce. People who had been so discouraged that they stopped looking for work start getting jobs again. That’s what we’re seeing. New York Times reporter Ben Casselman noted that more than 70% of new hires last month “weren’t actively looking for work, but got jobs anyway.”
Second, employers raise wages in order to keep good talent and attract new workers to fill job openings. And that’s happening, too. Until recently, wage growth had lagged behind expectations. Not anymore.
Following the 2017 tax cuts, the growth rate for average hourly earnings began to tick up, and over the past year, average hourly earnings rose by 3.2%. That’s a raise of roughly $1,400 in a year’s take-home pay. Before 2018, wage growth hadn’t reached 3% since 2009.
The recent wage gains have been largest for those who need it most. For the last six months, wage growth for production and non-supervisory workers outpaced the average for the entire economy.
In the past year, wage growth was 6.6% for the 10th percentile of workers with the lowest incomes, according to the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers. That’s double the 3.3% growth rate for workers at the top of the income distribution.
As poorer workers continue to benefit the most from the strong economy, we will see trends in wage inequality go down. By one measure, we have already “seen some narrowing of inequality, measured as wages at the top relative to the bottom,” as reported by Obama administration economist Jason Furman.
The American people seem to be internalizing all the good news. Job satisfaction and consumer confidence are high. Workers have the highest job satisfaction since 2005, and satisfaction improved faster for lower-income households in the most recent data.
Thanks to the strong economy, Americans who aren’t happy at their current work are voluntarily leaving their jobs for better opportunities at the highest rate since 2000, when the measure started.
In addition, consumer confidence remains high after surging to an 18-year peak last fall, signaling that Americans are confident in the economy. Retirees are also more confident about their retirement security and ability to live comfortably on their savings, reporting the highest retirement confidence numbers since the early 1990s.
For now, American workers are enjoying the benefits of pro-growth policies. But there is still more that Washington can do to ensure this economic expansion continues. The most pressing example is Congress’ unwillingness to cut federal spending, which has driven our debt to dangerous levels that are already dragging down our economy below where we should be.
If spending isn’t brought under control, our ballooning deficits could lead to higher taxes on current and future generations.
Right now, the powers of good policy are buoying the U.S. economy and workers. If our representatives in Washington can manage to keep taxes low and rein in federal spending, the future can be even brighter.
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3) For Hamas, Even Palestinian Deaths Are a ‘Win’
By Jerome Marcus
With hundreds of missiles raining down on southern Israel, one of the most important stories is the one you won’t read about — because it hasn’t happened.
The Gaza missiles have hit homes, a synagogue, a hospital, and a school, and killed four civilians (and only civilians). The story you won’t read is the one quoting anyone from the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, or any other “humanitarian” organization decrying these absolutely clear violations of the law of war.
Every single one of the attacks is a clear, intentional attack on a civilian, and every single one is illegal under international law. Every single one is a violation of the human rights of the Jews who are the targets (though some of the first civilian deaths in this latest avalanche of missiles were Bedouin and another was an Israeli Muslim).
This latest unprovoked attack by the terror groups that run Gaza is only the most recent display of the simple strategy that for the last 20 years at least has animated Arab “military” efforts against the Jewish state: having learned long ago that they cannot defeat Israel’s soldiers, Arab efforts to destroy Israel are crafted entirely to cause civilian death and destruction.
The sickest part of this strategy is that they think they win, regardless of whose civilians are killed or wounded, or whose homes, hospitals, and schools are destroyed. If they are Jewish civilians, the Arabs have killed the enemy. If they are Arab people or Arab buildings, then they’ve created victims they can cry for in front of the television cameras.
In this respect, this weekend’s rocket attacks are like the weekly scheduled riots on the Gaza border fence. There as well, the goals are two-fold: destroy the fence so Hamas “soldiers” can penetrate into Israeli territory and murder Jewish civilians; and create Arab victims so the Jewish state can be accused of human-rights violations, thereby damaging its legitimacy.
Death on either side of the fence, in Hamas’ view, is a win.
This should be repugnant to any decent human being.
Such an evil plan would come to an end quickly except for one thing: It works.
It works because so much of the media and what passes for international institutions join in the charade that Israel — and only Israel — violates the law of war when deaths occur that are the inevitable result of this Arab “strategy.”
News agencies are likely to report on the violence with a headline like this one from UPI: “Gaza militants fire rockets; 5 Palestinians killed in strikes.” A caption under the picture at the top of the article explains that of the five Arab deaths, “three [occurred] in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip and two during protests after Friday prayer near the border with Israel.”
Were Jewish civilians killed intentionally by Arab rockets? One would never know about it from that headline.
Similarly, only a few weeks ago, a UN commission issued a report attacking Israel for killing civilians at the Gaza fence, disgracefully and falsely accusing Israel’s army of intentionally targeting the unarmed. This despite the fact that Hamas pays civilians to be at the fence; intentionally mixes civilians in with its own “fighters”; and then, like the Palestinian Authority that controls the West Bank, pays salaries for life to any of its people who kill Jews, or to the families of such people if they’re in Israeli prisons or killed during their attacks.
Oh, and by the way, the money used to pay those pensions comes from international subsidies provided by purportedly well-intentioned European countries. They used to come from US tax dollars as well, until the Trump administration and Congress refused to put up with such insanity any longer.
People who claim to be looking for a “just and lasting peace in the Middle East” are wasting their time as long as they fail to tell the Arab world that they no longer countenance this evil strategy. When that message gets through, peace will follow soon. And until that message gets through, there will be no peace in the Holy Land because the Arabs think they gain too much from death — both the Jews’ and their own.
Jerome M. Marcus is a lawyer and a fellow at the Kohelet Policy Forum in Jerusalem.
3a) Netanyahu vows to keep Iran from nukes after Tehran backs away from deal
Prime minister gives first Israeli response to announcement by Iran’s Rouhani that Tehran will keep excess uranium, resume high-level enrichment if no new terms are set
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear arms Wednesday, hours after Iran declared it would step up enrichment activity as the 2015 nuclear deal appeared close to crumbling.
Netanyahu has been one of the leading critics of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. The US pulled out of the deal in May 2018, and Iran marked the one-year anniversary of that move by announcing it was pulling out of some commitments under the deal and could soon begin ramping up its enrichment activity again.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said at an official ceremony to mark the annual Memorial Day held at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem.
The comment was the first from an Israeli official on the matter. Netanyahu has cheered US President Doanld Trump’s decision to pull out of the landmark deal and urged other signatories to do the same.
Earlier Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said during a televised speech from Tehran that the Islamic Republic would keep its excess enriched uranium and heavy water, and set a 60-day deadline for new terms for its nuclear deal.
He threatened that higher-level uranium enrichment would resume if new nuclear deal terms were not reached by the deadline.
Rouhani said Iran wanted to negotiate new terms with remaining partners in the deal, but acknowledged that the situation was dire.
“If the five countries join negotiations and help Iran to reach its benefits in the field of oil and banking, Iran will return to its commitments according to the nuclear deal,” Rouhani said.
In this photo released by the official website of the office of the Iranian Presidency, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a cabinet meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 8, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)
Iran sent letters Wednesday on its decision to the leaders of Britain, China, the European Union, France and Germany. All were signatories to the nuclear deal and continue to support it. A letter was also to go to Russia.
Also reacting to the announcement, China called on all parties to uphold the Iranian nuclear pact.
“Maintaining and implementing the comprehensive agreement is the shared responsibility of all parties,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang at a regular press briefing.
“We call on all relevant parties to exercise restraint, strengthen dialogue, and avoid escalating tensions,” he said, adding that China “resolutely opposes” unilateral US sanctions against Iran.
There was no immediate response from the US.
Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal in May last year but the other five signatories have all agreed to try to keep the pact alive on their own. Trump insists the original agreement did not go far enough in curbing Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and wants to renegotiate the JCPOA with stricter terms, reimposing harsh sanctions to force Iran back to the negotiating table.
Adding to the tensions, Washington announced it was deploying an aircraft carrier strike group with several nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the Middle East, and national security adviser John Bolton warned Washington would respond with “unrelenting force” to any attack by Tehran.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a hastily organized visit to neighboring Iraq on Tuesday, where he accused Iran of planning “imminent” attacks.
The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog says Iran has continued to comply with the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw it limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. But American sanctions have wreaked havoc on Iran’s already-anemic economy, while promised help from European partners in the deal haven’t alleviated the pain.
Under terms of the deal, Iran can keep a stockpile of no more than 300 kilograms (660 pounds) of low-enriched uranium. That’s compared to the 10,000 kilograms (22,046 pounds) of higher-enriched uranium it once had.
The US last week ended deals allowing Iran to exchange its enriched uranium for unrefined yellowcake uranium with Russia, as well as it being able to sell its heavy water to Oman. The US also has ended waivers for nations buying Iranian crude oil, a key source of revenue for Iran’s government.
Currently, the accord limits Iran to enriching uranium to 3.67%, which can fuel a commercial nuclear power plant. Weapons-grade uranium needs to be enriched to around 90%. However, once a country enriches uranium to around 20%, scientists say the time needed to reach 90% is halved. Iran has previously enriched to 20%.
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