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A female CNN journalist heard about a very old Jewish man who had been going to the Western Wall to pray, twice a day, every day, for a long, long time.
So she went to check it out.
She went to the Western Wall and there he was, walking slowly up to the holy site.
She watched him pray and after about 45 minutes, when he turned to leave, using a cane and moving very slowly, she approached him for an interview.
"Pardon me, sir, I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. What's your name?
"Morris Feinberg," he replied.
"Sir, how long have you been coming to the Western Wall and praying?"
"For about 60 years."
"60 years! That's amazing! What do you pray for?"
"I pray for peace between the Christians, Jews and the Muslims."
"I pray for all the wars and all the hatred to stop."
"I pray for all our children to grow up safely as responsible adults and to love their fellow man."
"I pray that politicians tell us the truth and put the interests of the people ahead of their own interests."
"How do you feel after doing this for 60 years?"
"Like I'm talking to a fucking wall.
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Democrats are upset because energy companies are making more money due to Biden's energy policies. Democrats say they should be passing these profits to drivers. They just do not understand capitalism, they love to blame (scapegoat) others for their own stupidity and they always look for a fall guy.
These same Democrat politicians are also seeking to allow those who borrowed money for college to avoid meeting their commitment/obligation.
Virtually every time I watch political/congressional hearings I think Kabuki Theater.
I also know why politicians believe we "deplorables" are stupid because we allow so many of them to get elected.
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Biden reminds me and Newt of a pin ball as "Joe" goes from crisis to crisis, mostly of his own making:
Biden’s Crisis of Crises
There are so many things going wrong – and so many radically bad decisions being made – it would be useless to focus on just one issue for my latest column. Before we can solve anything, we need to go item by item to understand the insanity, incompetence, and destructiveness that historians will someday write defined the “Biden Disaster.”
Image Source: Olivier Douliery
In early February, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley projected that a Russian invasion of Ukraine might seize Kyiv in "72 hours," a far cry from the month-long struggle Russia and Ukraine are currently engaged in.
Milley told Congress during private sessions on February 2 and 3 that Ukraine would lose 15,000 troops compared to Russia's 4,000.
During his appearance before the House Armed Services Committee, Milley altered his prognosis. Milley was grilled by members of Congress on what the US might have done to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from invading Ukraine.
How could he make such a blunder?
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I listened to a discussion on Iran today and the presenter said there has been a complete misunderstanding of Iran's current government.
Carter 's policy of abandoning the Shah was totally misguided and allowed the Ayatollahs to impose on the Iranians untold acts of abuse. Second, successors to the Shah manipulated the man in the street to believe Americans were to blame for the pain and suffering the Iranians endured as a consequence of Mohammad Mosaddegh, who in fact, was appointed by the Shah.
Consequently, Biden's decision to remove both sanctions and the terrorist tag will prove to be another disaster. The Iranians needs to be supported because they are ready and capable of lifting the Ayatollah's yoke off their backs. The current government will never convert nor can be reformed.
From a historical perspective the speaker explained how Iran, until 43 years ago, actually had a 2000 year history of being a democratic society and our own founders were influenced by Persia's history.
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Iran’s Master Class in Evading Sanctions
The ‘central banker of terrorism’ could coach Russia on how to diminish pressure from the West over the Ukraine war.
By Mark Dubowitz and Matthew Zweig
The most important resource Tehran can share with Moscow is expertise in evading Western sanctions. Iran’s clerical regime reportedly is talking with the Kremlin about working together to get around the restrictions they both face. If the U.S. and its allies want to limit this sort of cooperation, they should learn from the mistakes they made while employing sanctions to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Iran’s sanctions-evasion techniques are sophisticated and sweeping. The Journal reported last month that Tehran has developed a “clandestine banking and finance system to handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under U.S.-led sanctions.”
Tehran could teach Moscow how to replicate this illicit financial architecture, or the clerical regime could serve as the Kremlin’s broker, taking a cut of the covert trade it facilitates on Russia’s behalf. The combination of Russian and Iranian expertise in illicit financial activities could produce the world’s most sophisticated and expansive sanctions-evasion network. If Western sanctions lose their bite, the pressure on Moscow to end its invasion of Ukraine and other threats would diminish.
The first lesson in dealing with Iran is that the government’s key financial institutions, such as the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), play a leading role in managing illicit activities, including the transfer of funds to Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations. While serving as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice labeled Iran “the central banker of terrorism.”
As part of the nuclear negotiations taking place in Vienna, the Biden administration likely will agree to lift sanctions on the CBI and other terrorist-supporting entities if Tehran accepts some temporary limits on its nuclear program. If the U.S. agrees to those terms, that will contradict Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s commitment to Congress to maintain terrorism sanctions on Iran and undercut its efforts to hold Russia accountable in Ukraine.
The CBI already received one get-out-of-jail-free card as part of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Its illicit activities continued, yet the Obama administration didn’t hold it accountable, lest Tehran withdraw from the nuclear pact. But in September 2019, the Trump administration named the Central Bank of Iran a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 for providing “billions of dollars to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps . . . its Qods Force . . . and its terrorist proxy, Hizballah.”
If the Biden administration wants to lift sanctions on the CBI, it should first prove that the bank has stopped funding terrorists and managing Iran’s sanctions-evasion efforts.
A second lesson for dealing with Iran is that the CBI’s terror funding wasn’t self-contained; it infected the country’s entire financial system. In 2007 the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, warned U.S. banks about the Iranian financial system’s links to terrorist activity and proliferation. In November 2011, FinCEN moved to designate Iran a jurisdiction of primary money-laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act. In effect, FinCEN was warning that the threat of illicit finance had permeated Iran’s entire economy, so foreign banks doing business in the country should take precautions. The advice wasn’t binding, but major international banks followed it.
While the 2015 nuclear deal remained in effect, the Obama administration hesitated to finalize FinCEN’s Section 311 designation, which would have made it binding. The nuclear deal’s unintended effect was to protect Iran’s illicit financial networks, lest a push for accountability lead Tehran to withdraw.
In 2019, more than a year after the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal, FinCEN issued a new evidentiary finding and a final rule that declared Iran a jurisdiction of primary money-laundering concern and imposed binding restrictions on U.S. banks.
A third lesson from dealing with Iran is that the U.S. should address Russian (or Russian-Iranian) illicit financial practices through the Financial Action Task Force. FATF is a 39-member intergovernmental body that establishes international financial standards. FATF cited Iran as a threat to the global financial system in 2007, noting its lack of “anti-money laundering/combatting the financing of terrorism” mechanisms.
In 2008 the group recommended that its members conduct enhanced due diligence when dealing with Iranian financial institutions, thus placing Iran on its “gray list.” Iran failed to shore up its weaknesses, and the following year FATF moved the country to its “black list.” If a jurisdiction is on the black list, other jurisdictions are required to implement due-diligence measures to protect their banks against the risk to the international financial system presented by the blacklisted jurisdiction.
The 2015 nuclear deal granted Tehran another reprieve. The Obama administration lent its support to an arrangement that would suspend FATF countermeasures against Iran for two years, during which Tehran would bring itself into compliance with FATF standards. Iran never made a good-faith effort to address money-laundering and terror-finance concerns, yet it took until 2020 for FATF members to agree to reimpose countermeasures. The lesson for Washington is that it should never grant leniency based on hope that rogue states will mend their ways.
Rather than learning from the past, the Biden administration is determined to repeat it. While declaring its intent to make Russia a pariah, the administration reportedly is also relying on Moscow to cajole Tehran into concluding a revised nuclear deal. Russia would be made the guarantor of the deal, responsible for taking Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium that it needs to produce a nuclear bomb. For Iran, the terms of the proposed deal are more favorable than the original one. Now there’s the added risk of Washington’s throwing Moscow a financial lifeline to ensure the deal keeps moving forward.
Given the administration’s stance, it is up to Congress to intervene legislatively to protect the U.S. and international financial systems. New legislation could require the president to certify annually that the CBI or other Iranian financial institutions aren’t involved in illicit and deceptive financial practices, including terrorism financing or facilitating Russian efforts to evade Western sanctions—and mandate sanctions if they are.
While the 2015 nuclear deal was in effect, Washington hesitated to confront Tehran about its provocations, from funding terrorism to attacking American troops and allies, to obstructing the work of nuclear inspectors. Now Vladimir Putin and Ali Khamenei are waiting to see whether a revised nuclear deal will give them a license to facilitate Russian sanctions evasion and Iranian terror financing.
Mr. Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Mr. Zweig, a senior fellow at FDD, has served in senior positions at the State Department and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
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Our daughter and son in law's recent trip to Italy and this is of Rome:
SmugMug Rome-Part 1/October 2021
Rome-the heart of Italy. Over three different stays, we spent 5 days roaming tourist Rome. As I have stated previously, we were there at a time when very few tourists were in Rome. We basically had no lines for any museums; and restaurants were relatively uncrowded. The weather was the low 70s.
I am dividing my Rome pictures into two albums. Today's photos cover the areas of Rome that Debra and I covered on our own without any guide. Part Two will cover our guided visits to the Roman Forum and the Vatican and its museums.
Rome is a city where the fabulous past is everywhere. From Renaissance palaces such as the Borghese Gallery to the Roman ruins of the Forum, almost everywhere you walk is History. In addition cafes and restaurants and wonderful and unique shops line the piazzas and streets.
I love to take pictures from high up in buildings but Rome has no skyscrapers. But it does have the massive King Victor Emanuel Monument; one of the largest marble buildings in the world. Climbing to the top of the Monument we had amazing views of the Roman Forum ruins in one direction and all of Rome in the other.
Our time in Rome will always be unforgettable. My only regret is I forgot to throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain to assure my return.
As usual, I would love to hear if you have any favorite pictures. Wishing you all a wonderful Passover or Happy Easter.
To read Debra's impressions of Rome, in google write debradarvick.com and Rome. Her site also will allow you to read about our visits to the Cinque Terra, Milan, Venice and Florence; pictures of which have I previously sent out.
 | Rome-Part 1/October 2021 |
Rome-the heart of Italy. Over three different stays, we spent 5 days roaming tourist Rome. As I have stated previously, we were there at a time when very few tourists were in Rome. We basically had no lines for any museums; and restaurants were relatively uncrowded. The weather was the low 70s. | |
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| See more photos from this SmugMug site. | |
P.S. I can get you 20% off a subscription to SmugMug if you’d like a website for unlimited photos of your own. | |
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