RUTHFULLY YOURS

“Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.”

Al Bernstein

American sportscaster

June is the month – at least in the Northern Hemisphere – of the summer solstice, the day when the sun reaches its highest point. Subsequently, the sun retreats south. Days shorten, until six months later we experience the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. The calendar is a reminder of the ever-changing world in which we live.

For Greece, of course, the sky turned darker as the month wore on, culminating in a decision to close banks for a week. For years, it has seemed that, ultimately, the only answer is for Greece to abandon the Euro and then enter detoxification. (As of early this morning, it appears that Greece has, with conditions, accepted the terms of its creditors.) Nevertheless, Greece is addicted to spending what they do not have.

I have recently become quite concerned about ice ages and the dangers they pose to humans on our planet — and indeed to most of terrestrial ecology.

I must confess I never much worried about the supposed dangers of global warming — even if we could rely on the predictions of IPCC climate models. In fact, they seem to be failing miserably, as judged by the ongoing pause in GW — while atmospheric levels of anthropogenic CO2 and other greenhouse gases continue to increase. It seems that our climate is mainly controlled by natural forcings, like solar activity and atmosphere-ocean oscillations that are not included in current models.

What drew my attention to ice ages is the manuscript (Climate and Collapse) by agricultural economist Dennis Avery, my coauthor on Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 years [Rowman&Littlefield 2007]. Dennis documents the historic collapse of civilizations, using recorded history and archeological data. Cold periods and droughts appear to be the main dangers to agriculturally based societies in all regions of the world.

Sure, an Iran nuclear deal might work as envisioned by the White House — as long as it’s enforced by some power more functional than the crew that is concocting this deal in the first place.

If a deal finally emerges from the latest diplomatic hoopla in Vienna, maybe the Obama administration should farm out the monitoring and enforcement to an outfit that actually keeps its promises and meets its deadlines. Say, Federal Express. Or the Bombay lunchbox delivery [1] system. As it is, the Iran nuclear deal reportedly taking shape is one that, instead of dismantling Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, would aim merely to keep Iran at least a year away from nuclear breakout.

This would require rapid detection of any cheating by Iran, swift confirmation of the problem, and decisive response — one timely and effective enough to stop Iran in its tracks.

President Obama was confronted directly about the U.S. hostages in Iran today as the deadline of the P5+1 nuclear talks has been extended to July 7.

At a press conference with visiting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Obama was asked what he would say to the families of Amir Hekmati, Saeed Abedini, Jason Rezaian and Bob Levinson if he went ahead and signed an agreement with Tehran without the release of U.S. hostages.

Amir Hekmati, a decorated Marine veteran who served in the Iraq war, was visiting extended family for the first time in August 2011 when he was seized and sentenced on trumped-up espionage charges.

While secretary of state, Clinton was keenly attentive to domestic political issues
WASHINGTON—While serving as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was keenly attentive to domestic political issues—following the gay-rights debate, staying in touch with Democratic allies and keeping tabs on her public image—a batch of emails released by the State Department Tuesday shows.

The 3,000 pages of emails offer a window into the thinking of Mrs. Clinton and senior staff, who ran the State Department during President Barack Obama’s first term.

Mrs. Clinton, now the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, received numerous updates from her department advisers about the changing politics of gay rights and activists’ frustration with the Obama administration. Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton both ran against gay marriage in 2008 but the politics of the issue were quickly changing within the Democratic Party after Mr. Obama’s election.

One top adviser sent Mrs. Clinton a 2009 Politico article titled “Gay groups grow impatient with Obama.” Advisers also shared a CNN article that emphasized Mrs. Clinton’s early role in pushing the Obama administration to give federal benefits to same-sex couples.

The emails also show Mrs. Clinton tending to her image. Shown an early draft of some remarks for a food event, Mrs. Clinton wrote to her top advisers, “Can we claim more leadership for you, me and State?”

Despite an express ban on his employment by the Obama White House, newly released e-mails show how Hillary Clinton confidant Sidney Blumenthal operated as a shadow State Department employee during the first year of her term as secretary of state, sending her a steady stream of diplomatic memos and media advice even as her staff fretted over his possible discovery.

The professional relationship between Clinton and Blumenthal already has come under fire in the wake of leaked e-mails revealing extensive correspondence between the two on the 2011 Libyan revolution. In addition to the White House prohibition of his employment, concerns were raised over the sensitive nature of the intelligence being shared and the conflicts of interest regarding Blumethal’s employment at the Clinton Foundation and his business dealings in Libya. In May, Clinton said Blumenthal’s frequent communications had been “unsolicited.”

New Hillary Clinton e-mails released late Tuesday night by the State Department reveal that, despite denials to the contrary, top Obama-administration officials were aware, within the first nine months of President Obama’s first term, of then–secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server to conduct government business.

The White House has not said when President Obama and his lieutenants first learned of Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server, noting only that they became aware in August 2014, after Republican lawmakers got hold of the information, that it could become a political problem.

But e-mails from 2009 show that chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and senior adviser David Axelrod understood at the time that Clinton used a private e-mail account and server for official business. Indeed, top officials were forced to explicitly ask Clinton aides for her e-mail address.

“Axelrod wants your emails,” read the subject line of an e-mail from Clinton chief of staff Cheryl Mills on June 8, 2009. “Can you send it to him or do you want me to?”

Clinton replied from her e-mail account HDR22@clintonemail.com. “Does he know I can’t look at it all day so he needs to contact me thru you or Huma or Lauren during work hours.”

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=CULTIVATIN+CANAAN+BY+ALEX+GROBMAN

By design, Israel’s enemies have created confusion about her right to exist as a Jewish State. Among the many lies fostered are:

*Jews have no legal, moral or historical right to the land of Israel;

*Jews have no right to national self-determination;

*Jews have no historical or religious connection to the Holy Land;

*Jews either stole Arab land or purchased property at very low prices;

* The Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are an impediment to peace and are illegal;

* Israel is Jewish, but not democratic.

Cultivating Canaan exposes these fabrications used against Israel in the international media, the U.N. and governmental forums.

Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and a former senior director of the National Security Council. He is finishing a book on President Eisenhower and the Middle East. He tweets @doranimated.
The new memoir by Michael Oren, Israel’s former ambassador to Washington, tells all—except for one thing.

“More than [about] policy…, Barack Obama was about ideology and a worldview often at variance with Israel’s.” These words constitute the thesis statement of Ally: My Journey across the American-Israeli Divide, the new memoir by the historian Michael Oren, who served as Israel’s ambassador in Washington from 2009 to 2013. Given the grave urgency of the regional and international challenges facing the Jewish state, and given what is widely perceived today as a severe crisis in America-Israel relations, the book couldn’t be timelier—as the instantaneous media ruckus attending its publication amply testifies.

While the date may be extended slightly, today marks the official deadline for concluding a U.S.–Iranian atomic-weapons deal. One might think that Obama’s supposed partners in peace would use conciliatory words befitting the occasion. Instead, top Iranians keep kicking hot gravel in his face.

• Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently declared that America “is stubborn, difficult to deal with, breaks promises, and is a backstabber.”

• “I will not allow foreigners to come and talk to the nation’s dear scientists and children and interrogate them,” Khamenei said last month. “Our rude and brazen enemy expects us to let them talk to our scholars and scientists about a fundamental national and domestic [achievement], but such permission will never be issued.”

• When a crowd that Khamenei addressed early this month chanted “Death to America,” he got swept up in the excitement. “Yes,” Khamenei chimed in. “I, too, say death to America!”