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The Swamp Fights Back By Victor Davis Hanson

Posted By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/trump-fights-deep-state-swamp-fights-back/

Never before in the history of the presidency had a commander-in-chief earned the antipathy of so many — and lived to tell the tale.

Editor’s Note: The following excerpt is adapted from Victor Davis Hanson’s new book, The Case for Trump. It appears here with permission.

T rump was warned by friends, enemies, and neutrals that his fight against the deep state was suicidal. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, just a few days before Trump’s inauguration, cheerfully forecast (in a precursor to Samantha Power’s later admonition) what might happen to Trump once he attacked the intelligence services: “Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.”

Former administrative-state careerists were not shy about warning Trump of what was ahead. The counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd, who had worked in the CIA and the FBI under Robert Mueller, warned CNN host Jake Tapper in August 2017 that “the government is going to kill” President Donald Trump. Kill? And what was the reason the melodramatic Mudd adduced for his astounding prediction? “Because he doesn’t support them.” Mudd then elaborated: “Let me give you one bottom line as a former government official. The government is going to kill this guy. The government is going to kill this guy because he doesn’t support them.” Mudd further clarified his assassination metaphor: “What I’m saying is government — people talk about the deep state — when you disrespect government officials who’ve done 30 years, they’re going to say, ‘Really?’”

It was difficult to ascertain to what degree Mudd was serious or exaggerating the depth of deep-state loathing of Trump.

A writer for the London Review of Books, Adam Schatz, seemed even more direct. He reported a supposed conversation that he had with an American political scientist knowledgeable of the Washington permanent caste. He purportedly had assured Schatz that if Trump were elected, he would likely not survive his full term: “He will have to be removed from power by the deep state, or be assassinated.”

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Paul Manafort Was an Agent of Ukraine, Not Russia By Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted By on March 10th, 2019

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/03/paul-manafort-worked-for-ukraine-not-russia/

He is a scoundrel, but he was never a Kremlin operative.

Paul Manafort, the clandestine agent of Russia at the heart of the Trump campaign’s “collusion” scand — oh, wait.

Have you ever noticed what Paul Manafort’s major crime was? After two years of investigation, after the predawn raid in which his wife was held at gunpoint, after months of solitary confinement that have left him a shell of his former self, have you noticed what drew the militant attention of the Obama Justice Department, the FBI, and, ultimately, a special counsel who made him the centerpiece of Russia-gate?

According to the indictment Robert Mueller filed against him, Manafort was an unregistered “agent of the Government of Ukraine.” He also functioned as an agent of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine’s president from 2010 to 2014, and of two political parties, the Party of Regions and its successor, the Opposition Bloc.

Manafort was not an unregistered agent of Russia. Mueller never alleged that Manafort was a clandestine operative of the Kremlin. He worked for Ukraine, not Putin. Indeed, for much of his time in Ukraine, he pushed his clients against Putin’s interests.

POLITICS Comments turned off

If there is silence, Jew and Israel hatred grows with amazing speed Victor Sharpe

Posted By on March 10th, 2019

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/23552

There are some 11 Jewish Democrats in the House. If they remain without vigorously and effectively protesting the filth that spews from Omar’s mouth, then they shall be forever condemned by history.Rabbi Meir Kahane – he was a great man and is deeply missed, although maligned by many – once wrote that. “Turning the other cheek has never worked.”

He was correct, and as Jews we were never meant to practice such a Christian belief, which ironically was nearly always absent during the centuries of internecine warfare which racked Europe’s Christian nation states. But too often, Israeli responses to Palestinian Arab aggression have been just that.

Bombing empty buildings in Gaza. Warning the hate-filled Arab terrorists, who call themselves Palestinians, to remove themselves to safety from buildings before bombing them. Enduring the most unspeakable and relentless Palestinian Arab terror and responding to it with velvet gloved hands. None of this works and must end. And so it is when dealing with anti-Semitism. If there is silence and weak response, Jew and Israel hatred grows with amazing speed.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

SELLING SOCIALISM TO AMERICA: LINDA GOUDSMIT

Posted By on March 10th, 2019

http://goudsmit.pundicity.com/22437/selling-socialism-to-america

Socialism is a tough sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on facts and a remarkably easy sell to Americans who evaluate ideas based on feelings. The adult world of facts is a foreign land to the infantilized world of feelings where low-info millennial voters currently dwell. The heated political battle between Americanism and Socialism parallels the battle between parents and their children who refuse to grow up emotionally and leave the nest.

Becoming an emotional adult requires embracing a fact based cause-and-effect view of the world that rejects the fantasies of childhood. “No Johnny, you cannot fly like a bird even though you really really really want to.” What happens if Johnny insists that he can fly and takes a confident leap from a tall building?

Socialism and Johnny have a lot in common – both insist they can do what objective reality proves they cannot do.

So, what is the problem?

America is being challenged by a Peter Pan generation that refuses to grow up and lives in a world of subjective reality where feelings rather than facts determine public policy. Their fragile selves require enforced political correctness and safe spaces to protect them from unwelcome facts and opposing ideas. Johnny climbs to the top of a tall building because he “feels” like a bird – he refuses to accept the fact that he is a human being and cannot fly. Human beings have limitations just like Socialism does.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Growing global interest in Israel’s hightech Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on March 10th, 2019

https://bit.ly/2SPKEgZ

1. The growing interest, by global hightech companies, in Israeli technologies, is represented by the Pennsylvania-based Qlik, acquiring Israel’s data-integration Attunity for $560MN (Globes Business Daily, February 25, 2019). In January, 2019, Thoma Bravo private equity, which owns Qlik, acquired Israel’s cybersecurity Imperva for $2.1BN.

2. The Silicon Valley-based global cybersecurity leader, Palo Alto networks, acquired Israel’s automated security solutions, Demisto, for $560MN (Tech Crunch, February 19). In April, 2018, Palo Alto acquired Israel’s endpoint detection and response, Secdo, for $100MN.

3. Google acquired Israel’s cloud migration, Alooma, for $100MN. In January, 2019, Amazon acquired Israel’s Cloud Endure for $250MN (Globes, February 21).

4. Intel (which employs 13,000 Israelis, exporting $4BN from Israel) intends to invest $11BN in constructing a new fab in Israel – in addition to last year’s investment of $5BN – asking Israel for a 10% grant (Globes, January 29).

5. According to Bloomberg, February 12, 2019, “big carmakers are flocking Israel… dealing not with sales, but with research and development…. Volkswagen, Renault, Hundai, Skoda and Seat are a few of the companies that have opened such innovation centers… investing and collaborating with local startups…. Only two international carmakers have full-fledged R&D centers in Israel: General Motors (since 2008; 300 employees) and Daimlers, the parent company of Mercedes (since 2018)…. The user interface installed in the Bolt, Chevrolet’s electric car, and in many late-model Cadillacs was developed in Israel… which is a center for smart transportation…. Israeli startup entrepreneurs come with experience from the Israel Defense Forces hightech units….”

ISRAEL Comments turned off

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

Posted By on March 10th, 2019

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Freezing bladder tumors. Israeli startup Vessi Medical has developed unique bladder-specific cryotherapy technology for treating surface cancer on the inside lining of the bladder. Existing therapies are invasive and have a high recurrence rate. Vessi has conducted clinical trials and hopes to begin human trials shortly.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-seeks-to-freeze-bladder-tumors-after-seeing-success-in-pigs/

A computer in your heart. (TY Atid-EDI) I reported 3 years ago (see here) when Israel’s Vectorious Medical raised funds to trial its V-LAPTM microcomputer that monitors for imminent heart failure. The device has just been successfully implanted in the first human trials in a six-minute procedure, under local anesthesia. It is said to be the world’s first digital, wireless, battery-less device that can communicate from deep within the body.
http://nocamels.com/2019/02/vectorious-1st-human-trial-wireless-heart-monitor-implant/
http://vectoriousmedtech.com/

ReWalk’s soft suit completes trials. I reported previously (see here) about ReStore, the soft suit exoskeleton from Israel’s ReWalk that enables stroke patients to walk. ReStore recently completed successful trials at five US rehabilitation centers and ReWalk has now applied for US FDA and European CE approval.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3756695,00.html

Treatment for refractory seizures. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s Teva has launched a generic version of Sabril (vigabatrin) in the US for the treatment of refractory Complex Partial Seizures (CPS). It is meant for adults and children over 10 with this form of epilepsy who have failed to respond to several alternative treatments.
https://www.tevapharm.com/news/teva_announces_u_s_launch_of_a_generic_version_of_sabril_vigabatrin_02_19.aspx

Unique way to mend a broken heart. A 29-year-old Israeli staggered into Sheba Medical Center with a left ventricle aneurysm (ruptured heart artery). Cardiologist Professor Victor Guetta performed a “first in the world” procedure using a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) occlude (normally used to open arteries) to plug the hole.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-first-israeli-doctor-plugs-heart-bleed-with-innovative-procedure/

Lab-grown bone patient competes in triathlon. Danny Yaakobson suffered a serious leg injury in a car accident and risked losing his leg. He was the first patient to receive a transplant using bone grown from his own fat cells by Israel’s Bonus Bio. Danny completed the 112-mile cycle race of Eilat’s 2019 Israman triathlon.
http://nocamels.com/2019/02/world-1st-patient-lab-grown-bone-implant-israman-triathlon/

Predicting the spread of melanoma. Scientists at Ben Gurion University, working with others at the University of Texas, have used microscopic cameras to film live cancer cells. They then used artificial intelligence to identify cells with metastatic potential that were likely to spread to other parts of the body.
http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/ai_melanoma.aspx
https://www.the-scientist.com/image-of-the-day/image-of-the-day–bad-behavior-65202

Finding the cause of genetic diseases. Israeli biotech Emedgene has developed a platform that can pinpoint the genetic mutation(s) responsible for rare genetic diseases. Emedgene gets cases from healthcare organizations and uses Artificial Intelligence and information databases to help geneticists uncover the underlying problem.
https://emedgene.com/emedgene-raises-6-million-to-scale-genomics-based-care-with-ai/

Hope for safer skin grafts. It’s early days, but Shahar Ben-Shaul from Israel’s Technion Institute looks to have improved the success rate for skin grafts. In laboratory trials, she and her team were able to connect blood vessels faster and safer using more mature (14-day-old) cells grown in the lab, in combination with real skin.
https://www.israel21c.org/israeli-study-shows-more-successful-method-for-skin-grafts/
https://www.pnas.org/content/116/8/2955

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Sweden: Still More Migration by Judith Bergman

Posted By on March 9th, 2019

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13846/sweden-more-migration

Sweden’s reintroduction of the right to family reunion for people granted asylum in Sweden without refugee status, entitles so-called “unaccompanied children” to bring their parents to Sweden. Many of these “unaccompanied children” turned out to be adults, not minors. (The dentist who contributed to exposing this inconsequential detail was subsequently fired).

Mehdi Shokr Khoda, a gay 19-year old Iranian, who converted to Christianity in Sweden after he fled from Iran in 2017, probably wishes that Swedish authorities would apply their “humanitarian approach” to his particular case. The Swedish migration authorities rejected his asylum application, claiming that Khoda is “lying” about his situation. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has executed “between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians”, according to a 2008 British WikiLeaks dispatch.

As for Sweden’s humanitarian impulses — or lack thereof — regarding persecuted Christians, there are an estimated 8,000 Christians under deportation orders hiding in Sweden, according to attorney Gabriel Donner, who has assisted an estimated 1,000 Christian asylum-seekers facing deportation.

Sweden’s new government, which was finally formed in January after months of delay, is introducing policies that will lead to more immigration into Sweden — despite the main governing party, the Social Democrats, having run for office on a promise to tighten immigration policies.

The right to family reunion for those people granted asylum in Sweden who do not have refugee status is being reintroduced — a measure that is estimated to bring at least 8,400 more immigrants to Sweden in the coming three years. According to the Minister of Migration, Morgan Johansson, this measure will “strengthen integration,” although he has not explained how.

POLITICS, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Mad, Sad and Dangerous Always: Peter Smith

Posted By on March 8th, 2019

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/03/mad-sad-

FRENETICALLY outflanking each other, leftists in the United States have taken themselves to the brink of madness and beyond. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (above) Green New Deal (GND) is conclusive proof of that. And, be warned, where the US goes others might well eventually follow. Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, is a well-known aphorism of disputed origin. Let’s hope it proves to be true in this case, lest the current wave of socialists do what they’re best at: condemning us to shortages, deprivations and, eventually, to despotism and gulags.

The GND is steering the Democrat ship so hard to port that the old guard (Pelosi, Schumer, Biden, et al) are clinging onto the starboard rails for dear life. It is inane of course – free education, free child care, pleasant houses for all, good high-wage jobs for all, high-quality health care for all, universal access to healthy food, refitting all buildings for climate efficiency, meeting 100 percent of power through clean renewable emission-free energy, replacing air travel with fast trains, removing greenhouse emissions from agriculture; and so on, and so on, into Wonderland and through the Looking Glass.

Its sheer silliness is a comfort. Surely, no one can take it seriously? Wait on! According to the Washington Examiner on Feb 11, 67 House Democrats had signed onto the GND. Fox News reported a few days earlier that “seven senators either running for the Democratic presidential nomination or seriously weighing White House bids have signed on.”

I don’t know who has since signed on but I suspect that there is only upside to the numbers. After all, left-wing mobs can make life difficult for those who don’t fall in behind Ocasio-Cortez. Now, to be clear, the danger is not that the GND would ever be implemented. That would be impossible. The danger is that it is shifting the Democratic Party’s centre far to the left. What would have been on the fringe only a few short years ago is becoming mainstream.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The federal government’s end-of-year spending spree

Posted By on March 8th, 2019

https://www.openthebooks.com

In the final month of the fiscal year, federal agencies scramble to spend what’s left in their annual budget.

Agencies fear that leaving excess funds might prompt Congress to appropriate less money the next year.To avoid this, agencies spend like crazy every September. We call it the “use-it-or-lose-it” phenomenon, and it’s all on the taxpayer dime. 

Our latest oversight report, which broke this morning on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, quantified the $97 billion federal agencies spent in the final month of fiscal year 2018. That’s a 39-percent increase from fiscal year 2015.These last-minute transactions purchased a range of services and products including fidget spinners, guns and ammunition, alcohol and lobster tail, CrossFit equipment, musical instruments, and more. For the next six days, we are making this report available to you for free. Download your free copy of our breaking report today.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

Contrary to claims, US jobs bust not a fluke February’s disappointing jobs report was the result of exhaustion of parts of the labor pool and consumer resistance to paying for higher labor costs By David P. Goldman

Posted By on March 8th, 2019

https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/03/article/contrary-to-claims-us-jobs-bust-not-a-fluke/

US payroll employment grew by just 20,000 in February, against a market consensus forecast of 170,000 growth. Administration officials pointed to the 3.4% growth in average hourly earnings as a sign of economic health, but low employment growth and higher wages are twin images of the same picture. US employment growth has been concentrated in labor-intensive, low wage sectors, and that is where hourly earnings have risen the fastest.

Higher wages are NOT leading to inflation, as the Phillips curve predicts, but to lower growth. Household budgets are tight and consumers balk at price increases. The unexpected slump in hiring in labor-intensive sectors is consistent with the unexpected slump in retail sales and personal spending in December.

I expect not a US recession but a slowdown in growth to the 1%-1.5% range, down from last year’s 3%. The US consumer, as I wrote yesterday, remains the world’s biggest macro risk.