RUTHFULLY YOURS

Most of the political class seems to have decided that ObamaCare is working well enough, the opposition is fading, and the subsidies and regulation are settling in as the latest wing of the entitlement state. This flight from reality can’t last forever, especially as the evidence continues to pile up that the law is harming the labor market.

On Thursday the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia reported the results of a special business survey on the Affordable Care Act and its influence on employment, compensation and benefits. Liberals claim ObamaCare is of little consequence to jobs, but the Philly Fed went to the source and asked employers qualitative questions about how they are responding in practice.

The bank reports that 78.8% of businesses in the district have made no change to the number of workers they employ as the specific result of ObamaCare and 3% are hiring more. More troubling, 18.2% are cutting jobs and employees. Some 18% shifted the composition of their workforce to a higher proportion of part-time labor. And 88.2% of the roughly half of businesses that modified their health plans as a result of ObamaCare passed along the costs through increasing the employee contribution to premiums, an effective cut in wages.

Those results are consistent with a New York Fed survey, also out this week, that asked “How, if at all, are you changing (or have you changed) any of the following because of the effects that the ACA is having on your business?” For “number of workers you employ,” 21% of Empire State manufacturers and 16.9% of service firms answered “reducing.”

To complete the triptych, an Atlanta Fed poll earlier this month found that 34% of businesses planned to hire more part-time workers than in the past, mostly because of a rise in the relative costs of their full-time colleagues. ObamaCare may be contributing to that surge to the extent the law’s insurance mandates and taxes increase spending on fringe benefits for people who work more than 30 hours.

Tiny Israeli ‘Martian’ camera powers NASA repair robot
As in the movies, a vision system that can move in any direction will peer around, under, and into space equipment

NASA has adopted Israeli “Martian”-style technology for a robot to inspect equipment in deep space. The Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot, or VIPIR, is an articulating borescope tool designed to deliver near and midrange inspection capabilities in space to enable repairs of equipment using robots on unmanned spaceships — and a tiny camera from Israeli medical device company Medigus will be giving VIPIR its power of vision, allowing technicians on Earth to get a close-up look at equipment.

It’s like “War of the Worlds,” where Martians send machines down to Earth with roving “eyes,” cameras attached to the end of a flexible tube, nearly a meter (3 feet) long, to report back to the Martians on what is going on Earth. In the films (1953 and 2005) and in the original 1898 Wells book, the aliens use machines with cameras to peer around, under, and into any and everything, seeking out humans to destroy.

The tiny camera NASA will be using for its other-worldly robot project, called the micro ScoutCam 1.2, comes from the world of medicine, not Mars, and it’s already in space. It’s made by Medigus, an Israeli company that specializes in developing minimally invasive endosurgical tools and imaging solutions. For example, Medigus makes a system that enables doctors to examine, diagnose, and treat GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) — via the mouth, allowing patients to be treated without the need for surgery. The Medigus MUSE system for GERD includes a surgical stapler, ultrasonic sights for accurate positioning, and a miniaturized video camera, all in a single instrument.

MUSE is a clear precursor to the camera technology being used in VIPIR. The MUSE camera also sits on the end of a flexible tube, and can be controlled by doctors via a console instrument. The MUSE camera, at 3 millimeters diameter, is a marvel of technology, but the camera being used in VIPIR, at 1.2 millimeters, is the smallest in the world. The camera can deliver back to Earth a ~100-degree field-of-view image with a 224 x 224 pixel (0.05 megapixel) resolution. While the number of pixels may sound small compared to today’s commercially available digital cameras — it’s ideal for the close-range inspection jobs VIPIR will be doing, NASA said. With the Medigus camera, mission controllers can zoom in to resolve worksite details as tiny as 0.02 inch – thinner than a credit card. The tube itself can rotate up to 90 degrees in four opposing directions.

How Israel’s Leading Ebola Expert Could Eradicate The Virus And Why The US Military Is Investing In Him
By Dyana So and Maya Yarowsky, NoCamels

Africa is currently facing its worst Ebola outbreak in history, with over 1,600 officially reported cases of infection, a death toll of 880 and rising, and a startling mortality rate of up to 90 percent.

One of the reasons that the Ebola virus is so deadly is that there is still no proven vaccine or treatment, and only a handful of researchers around the world are currently working on a cure. But while the World Health Organization (WHO) is busy raising $100 million for an emergency response plan, increasing numbers of people in West Africa are prone to or have already become infected with one of the most deadly and dangerous diseases.

So what’s really being done about a cure? Dr. Leslie Lobel, an Israeli researcher at Ben Gurion University and one the world’s few experts on the Ebola virus, is currently ahead of many of his international colleagues when it comes to discovering a vaccine that would make humans immune to the virus. But besides toting his own vaccine as the cure all and end all of the Ebola epidemic, Lobel has some interesting insight to impart on why this is the most serious outbreak in history.

Giant flag in support of Palestinians draped on side of Manhattan Bridge
In the latest breach of security on New York City bridges, a large banner in the colors of the Palestinian flag was hanging on the south edge of the East River span, reading ‘Boycott,’ ‘Divest,’ ‘Sanction.’ It reads ‘Gaza in our hearts’ in the center.

A giant flag soliciting support for Palestinians in Gaza was unfurled from the Manhattan Bridge Wednesday — a second apparent breach of security in a month on an East River span.

The banner boasting the colors of the Palestinian flag was hung about dusk from the south edge of the bridge close to the Manhattan side tower. Writing on the red, green, white and black flag read “Boycott,” “Divest” and “Sanction.”

The flag also bore the words “GAZA IN OUR HEARTS.”

Cops immediately removed the flag and were investigating to determine who displayed it. No arrests were reported.

The flag was unfurled as about 500 pro-Palestinian protesters marched across the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan. The Brooklyn Bridge demonstration was organized via social media by New York Solidarity with Palestine and Direct Action.

Organizers, who encouraged people to bring Palestinian flags to the march, denied knowing who put the flag on the Manhattan Bridge.

Understanding the Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi alliance

Hamas’s war with Israel is not a stand-alone event. It is happening in the context of the vast changes that are casting asunder old patterns of behavior and strategic understandings as actors in the region begin to reassess the threats they face.

Hamas was once funded by Saudi Arabia and enabled by Egypt. Now the regimes of these countries view it as part of a larger axis of Sunni jihad that threatens not only Israel, but them.

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and its state sponsors Qatar and Turkey, are the key members of this alliance structure. Without their support Hamas would have gone down with the Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt last summer. As it stands, all view Hamas’s war with Israel as a means of reinstating the Brotherhood to power in that country.

To achieve a Hamas victory, Turkey, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood are using Western support for Hamas against Israel. If the US and the EU are able to coerce Egypt and Israel to open their borders with Gaza, then the Western powers will hand the jihadist axis a strategic victory.

The implications of such a victory would be dire.

Hamas is ideologically indistinguishable from Islamic State. Like Islamic State, Hamas has developed mass slaughter and psychological terrorization as the primary tools in its military doctrine. If the US and the EU force Israel and Egypt to open Gaza’s borders, they will enable Hamas to achieve strategic and political stability in Gaza. As a consequence, a post-war Gaza will quickly become a local version of Islamic State-controlled Mosul.

“Three of the House lawmakers who voted against funding for Iron
Dome—Reps. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), and
Walter Jones (R., N.C.)—have received a combined $21,145 in this
election cycle from J Street, according to publicly available Federal
Election Committee (FEC) documents.”The eight other J Street-funded lawmakers who abstained from the vote
are Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.), Susan Davis (D., Calif.), Lloyd
Doggett (D., Texas), John Garamendi (D., Calif.), Jim McDermott (D.,
Wash.), Raul Ruiz (D., Calif.), Jackie Speier (D., Calif.), and Ed
Whitfield (R., Ky.).”

Eleven lawmakers backed by liberal advocacy group J Street either
voted against or refused to vote in favor of increased funding for
Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system, which has been a critical
life-saver during Hamas’s latest assault on the Jewish state.

Congress overwhelmingly approved an emergency increase in funding for
Iron Dome this month by a vote of 395 to 8.

Three of the eight who voted against the funding increase are J
Street-backed lawmakers. Another eight abstained from the pro-Israel
vote and also are financially supported by the group.

Bloody riots continue in Ferguson, Mo, after the killing of a black teenager, but all is quiet in Miami after the murder of a visiting rabbi.

Obama is on the case. Eric Holder has been dispatched to the St. Louis suburb to personally take charge of the investigation as to what led to the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who prior to being shot was caught in the act of strong-arming a convenience store worker. This is on tape and has been broadcast widely.

Dozens of arrests have been made during the nearly two weeks of violent unrest and looting.

Windows have been smashed. Businesses are padlocked. Schools are closed. A city is burning. The president has asked for calm from both sides, from the rioters and from the police, which places those who break the law and those who protect the law on the same footing.

From outside of town in New York, where he doubles as Gotham’s mayor, Al Sharpton quickly got dressed and arrived on the Ferguson scene promptly.

A grand jury is scheduled to begin hearings.

http://conservativepost.com/gaza-corpses-caught-moving-when-they-forget-cameras-are-on-them/

Let the propaganda war begin. It looks like another bad move for Hamas, as they hold an ‘Islamic Funeral’ but they forgot one vital ingredient for the funeral: DEAD PEOPLE.

For years now Hamas has had a violent hold on Israel, and with that same grip, a hold on the mainstream media. We, the conservative post, remain unwavering.

Lights… Camera… Gullible Liberals:

John Kerry Calls for Disproportionate Response to ISIS Beheading an American By Bryan Preston
Secretary of State John Kerry offered remarks in reaction to the Islamic State’s murder of American journalist James Foley today. The State Department tweeted the highlights.
John Kerry ✔ @JohnKerry
Follow
ISIL must be destroyed/will be crushed.
3:24 PM – 20 Aug 2014

For the record, yes, IS/ISIS/ISIL should be crushed. Tellingly, neither Kerry nor President Obama has offered a plan and they are not gathering a coalition of the willing to get the job done. Obama went back to golf this afternoon.
Crushing IS would be right. But it’s not a proportional response to the murder of one American.
Hamas routinely kidnaps Israeli citizens, murders them and leaves their bodies by the side of the road. Hamas launches rockets into Israel with the purpose of killing Israelis and creating the feeling of dread and terror among them.
The international community, of which Kerry and Obama are members in good standing, always calls on Israel to respond “proportionally” to Hamas terrorism and rocket attacks.
Responding proportionally to terrorism is…what, exactly? So far, it’s destroying tunnels and perhaps airstriking a few terrorist leaders, but the group itself is left intact enough to come back and wage terror war another day. It’s not effective in getting rid of the problem of terrorism.

In fact, if we take “proportional’ literally, Israel should respond to Hamas by kidnapping innocent Palestinians and by launching random bombs on houses, schools and hospitals in Gaza. But that’s not what the “international community” means.
No one in the “international community” is calling on the United States to respond to IS beheading an American “proportionally.” At least not yet.
Why not? Hm.

John Nolte @NolteNC
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Doesn’t sound like a proportional response. Or is that standard only for The JooooZ? RT @JohnKerry ISIL must be destroyed/will be crushed.
4:01 PM – 20 Aug 2014

Leftists who have spent years defending Islamic extremism in Britain, labelling anyone who has raised concerns as bigoted, have been proved wrong. The Left, and those on the Right who cower before Leftist mantras, have much to answer for after James Foley’s murder.

The international outcry over the brutal beheading of innocent journalist James Foley underlines the shameful failure of the United States and Britain to take action over the Islamic State (IS) threat.

It should be no surprise at all that a British Muslim is likely to be responsible for the murder, as several hundred home-grown terrorists have already jumped onto planes, with their UK passports ready to shed blood in Syria and Iraq.

Those on the left, who have spent years defending Islamic extremism in Britain, labelling anyone who has raised concerns about it as bigoted, have been finally proved wrong. Our country does indeed have a very serious problem with Islamic extremism.

From the beheading of British soldier Lee Rigby by two men chanting “allahu akbar” to the Trojan Horse school takeover plot, this evil ideology is engulfing our communities and creating the next generation of UK terrorists.

The situation in Iraq with the Islamic State takeover is now critical, after our elected officials have spent months sitting back, observing the crisis and hoping it will just go away. This foolish and complacent strategy has meant that the IS movement has gained in strength, taking more cities and murdering more innocent people.

I wrote recently of the brutal persecution of Christians and other minorities in Iraq, and even since then the situation has worsened. Iraq and Syria are on the verge of become one single terrorist superstate, with the IS movement proving even more brutal and dangerous than al-Qaeda.

We have all known about this problem for many months now and David Cameron is quite right to break off his holiday and return to Downing Street to co-ordinate Britain’s response. Firstly, our remit needs to move beyond that of delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq.

This vital role must continue but we need to enter military engagement and support the US with airstrikes. Secondly, we should consider limited ground operations to support the armies attempting to hold IS back, even if we are only providing training and advice. Thirdly, we need to look again at the problems of Islamic extremism and its impact on British society.