FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Trump’s Case Against Europe The president sees Brussels as too weak, too liberal, and anti-American on trade.By Walter Russell Mead

Posted By on June 4th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-case-against-europe-11559602940

“Why does he hate us?” is the question American foreign-policy types often hear from European friends and colleagues when the subject of Donald Trump comes up—as it often does. With Mr. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Europe this week, it seems an auspicious time to attempt an answer.

The news isn’t all bad. When Mr. Trump and senior administration officials talk about China, they attack it for abusing the international system in a ruthless quest for global hegemony. Their reading of Europe is different: that a mix of dysfunctional policies, unrealistic ideas about world politics, and poor institutional arrangements has locked the Continent on a trajectory of decline. As Mr. Trump’s team sees it, they aren’t trying to weaken Europe; they are trying to save Europe from itself.

There are five elements of the Trump critique of the European Union. First, some of the “new nationalists” believe multinational entities like the EU are much weaker and less effective than the governments of nation-states—so much so that the development of the EU has weakened the Western alliance as a whole. In this view, cooperation between nation-states is good and through it countries can achieve things they couldn’t achieve on their own. But trying to overinstitutionalize that cooperation is a mistake. The resulting bureaucratic structures and Byzantine politics and decision-making processes paralyze policy, alienate public opinion, and create a whole significantly less than the sum of its parts.

A second concern—in the Trump view—is that the European Union is too German. As some on the president’s team see it, German preferences mean the Continent is too hawkish when it comes to monetary and fiscal policy, and too dovish when it comes to defense. A fiscal and monetary straitjacket has cramped Europe’s growth, while the refusal of Germany to live up to its NATO commitments weakens the alliance as a whole.

A third concern is that the EU is too liberal—in the American meaning of the term, which is to say too statist on economics and too progressive on social issues. Besides the common American conservative view that statist economic policy undermines European dynamism and growth, Mr. Trump seems to believe European migration policy—especially Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome more than a million mostly Muslim migrants to Germany—is a tragic mistake.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Germany’s Coalition of the Dwindling Realignment is reshaping politics even in staid Berlin.

Posted By on June 4th, 2019

https://www.wsj.com/articles/germanys-coalition-of-the-dwindling-11559594595

Germans are said to love political stability, but apparently not too much. After delivering shock results in recent elections for the European Parliament and a state government in Bremen, Germans can now watch traditional parties decline before their eyes.

The crisis is most acute for the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), whose leader Andrea Nahles resigned Sunday. The SPD suffered a drubbing in the European vote last month, placing third with 16% compared to 2014’s close second-place finish of 27%. On the same day the party also lost control in Bremen for the first time since the war.

It’s the latest sign of the center-left identity crisis that’s set in during repeated stints in a left-right governing coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democrats (the CDU and Bavarian CSU). Those coalitions prevent the SPD from acting as a true opposition party, leaving that task to others. The winners have been the Greens who increasingly capture urban, more prosperous former SPD voters, and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) that appeals to parts of the SPD’s former blue-collar base.

Ms. Nahles is taking the fall for these poor showings, although it isn’t clear who could do better. The party is split on issues ranging from migration to labor reform. Many grass-roots members are still uneasy about the decision to form another “GroKo” (German shorthand for a grand coalition) after the party performed poorly in the 2017 national election. Yet those vying to replace her, such as Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, are conspicuously quiet about what they’d do differently on policy or politics.

HISTORY Comments turned off

The life of gay, Jewish bullfighter Sidney Franklin By Josefin Dolsten

Posted By on June 4th, 2019

https://www.jta.org/2019/06/03/culture/the-life-of-gay-jewish-bullfighter-sidney-franklin

Excerpts….

The bullfighting world of the 1920s and ’30s, Sidney Franklin was defined not only by his Americanness, elegance or tough-guy personality but also by his Jewishness. The first American to reach the status of a matador in Spain, he was nicknamed “El Torero de la Torah,” or “the Torah bullfighter.”

But Franklin had a complicated relationship with his Jewish identity. Born Sidney Frumkin in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, the matador-to-be often clashed with his traditional father. The fact that he was gay (although not openly so) made him feel even more alienated from his religion.

At the age of 19, Franklin left Brooklyn for Mexico. It was there that he discovered his love for bullfighting, learning from the prominent torero Rodolfo Gaona. He seemed unfazed by the dangers of the bloody sport.

“If you’ve got guts,” Franklin once said, “you can do anything.”

Moving to Spain to pursue his passion, he rose to fame in part because of his bullfighting skills and the circles he frequented.

In 1929, Franklin met Ernest Hemingway. The celebrated author became a close friend and wrote about Franklin in his book “Death of the Afternoon,” which explores the bullfighting tradition.

ANTI-SEMITISM Comments turned off

Why Are America’s Socialists — and Democrats and Journalists — Always So Angry?

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/06/03/why-are-americas-socialists-and-democrats-and-journalists-always-so-angry/

“The Left’s anger and seething resentment of the achievements of Western civilization is puzzling, especially when it’s directed toward America, and American institutions and traditions. To borrow the words of President Reagan in his first Inaugural address, no other nation has “achieved so much.” We have “prospered as no other people on Earth.” “Freedom and the dignity of the individual,” said the 40th president, “have been more available and assured here than in any other place on Earth.”

Bernie Sanders is mad. He fulminates about the abundance of consumer choices, such as “23 underarm spray deodorants” and “18 different pairs of sneakers.” He rails against credit card companies because he thinks their interest rates are too high. He thunders over the prices Americans pay for prescription drugs.

The Democratic senator from Vermont, who is truly a socialist, having campaigned for a Marxist group in the 1980s, is perpetually upset with the way private banks conduct their business, and forever enraged at corporations for making profits. When he speaks, he comes off as that bitter man who shakes his fist at those darned neighborhood kids. There’s a reason Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and others have called Sanders the “crazy uncle in the attic.” He’s mad because everyone won’t do as he says.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is another angry democratic socialist. She rages when her sophomoric Green New Deal is questioned. She was incensed when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced he was going to let the Senate vote on her legislation. She’s annoyed that cauliflower is grown in urban gardens, apparently because it’s a “colonial” vegetable. Columnist Peggy Noonan said Ocasio-Cortez was “sullen, teenage and at a loss” during President Trump’s State of the Union address. Her very manner is that of someone who is mad at the world and is always just seconds away from lashing out.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren carries anger around with her like a purse — it’s always there within easy reach. She’s “mad as hell at the influence of money in Washington, D.C.,” and is equally venomous toward Wall Street. Other things that make her furious: Congress’ reluctance to “refinance student loan interest rates” (whatever they are); “billions of dollars” in private sector profits; billionaires in general; the minimum wage.

ENVIRONMENT AND JUNK SCIENCE Comments turned off

Global Warming: Is There Anything It Can’t Do? June 02, 2019/ Francis Menton

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2019-6-2-global-warming-is-there-anything-it-cant-d

The general interest newsmagazines of the world have been in serious decline for years. Time, Newsweek, U.S. New and World Report — what ever happened to them? Although all of them still exist in some form, they are all shadows of their former selves.

But then there is The Economist of London. These people put out what at least looks on the surface to be a serious print edition every week. They devote real resources to gathering news from around the world. If you want to find out what’s going on in, say, Argentina or the Congo or Uganda, this is one of the few places that you can find it. But can you trust anything they say?

I’ve been a long-time subscriber to The Economist, and had long regarded them as relatively sensible, generally less infected by leftist groupthink than most mainstream sources. But then, a few years ago — I can’t pinpoint the exact date — they made what appears to be a corporate-level decision to go all in for global warming alarm. Henceforth, every issue would contain one or several global warming stories, always with the slant of trying to scare the readership about the allegedly terrible crisis at hand.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

European Leaders Are Making a Show of Taking Anti-Semitism Seriously. But Will They Actually Do So?Ben Cohen

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

https://www.jns.org/opinion/malmo-2020-world-leaders-against-anti-semitism/
Malmö 2020: World leaders against anti-Semitism
The first potential danger of the 2020 conference is that it will allow a city linked to assaults against Jews to clean up its image without cleaning up its act.

In October 2020, Sweden will host an international summit to combat anti-Semitism. When Stefan Löfven, the Swedish prime minister, announced the parley last Friday, he didn’t disclose any further details, but the Swedish press depicted the event as a forum that would be attended by government leaders and heads of state.

So it’s worth thinking about. Before anything else, there’s the planned location: the southern city of Malmö. Over the last 10 years, Malmö has become a potent symbol of Europe’s rising anti-Semitism and especially of its spread beyond the far right to the ranks of the left, as well as extremist elements within the city’s large Muslim community. The most immediate effect of this has been to shrink what was already a small Jewish population of 3,000 in 2009 by around 50 percent a decade later.

Indeed, Löfven’s presence in Malmö to make the announcement was partly caused by an anti-Semitic scandal involving the local branch of his Social Democratic Party’s youth wing. On May 1, the party’s young activists were caught chanting the slogan “Long Live Palestine, Crush Zionism!” at an international workers’ day rally. Given that Malmö was the scene of violent anti-Israel demonstrations when the Israeli tennis team competed in the 2009 Davis Cup tournament in that city, one could perhaps regard these thundering denunciations of the Jewish state as an established local tradition. Here, then, is the first potential danger of the 2020 conference: that it will allow Malmö to clean up its image as a center of anti-Semitism without cleaning up its act.

HISTORY, NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The Death of Morton Sobell and the End of the Rosenberg Affair Davide Evanier

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/history-ideas/2019/06/the-death-of-morton-sobell

With the recent death of the unrepentant spy, his story, along with that of other American Jews steeped in Communism, can finally be told.

ast December 26, at the age of one-hundred-one, Morton Sobell died. His name may be unfamiliar today, but the names of his associates are not: he was the co-defendant of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg in the 1951 atomic-bomb spy trial. The Rosenbergs were executed in 1953, but Sobell lived on, one of the few remaining survivors of the corps of Americans who spied for the Soviet Union. He kept the faith, steadfastly and with gusto, proclaiming his innocence and that of the Rosenbergs until 2008, when he belatedly confessed in public to their conspiracy to commit espionage.

To the degree that this belated confession shattered the vision of innocence still held by the remaining defenders of the Rosenberg ring—the vision, that is, that an entire generation of Soviet spies, including Alger Hiss, Judith Coplon, Harry Dexter White, Nathan Gregory Silvermasters, William Perl, Lauchlin Currie, and numerous others were pure and simple victims being hounded and persecuted by a paranoid United States government—then Sobell’s death marks the end of the entire sordid story.

But what exactly is his story? When I last saw him in 2016, at the age of ninety-nine, he threatened that if I wrote about him in a negative light, “You’ll take the consequences.” I found this strange, considering that he had already confessed to being a spy. But with his death it is at least possible to sketch that story in full.

ISRAEL Comments turned off

Israel – a global innovation powerhouse. Amb. (RET.) Yoram Ettinger

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

https://bit.ly/2HOfaFJ

1. Arab integration in Israel. During 2017-2018, 18.3% of Israeli students studied engineering, compared to 17.9% studying social sciences.  25% of Israel’s undergraduates study engineering and computer sciences. During 2012-2018, the number of Israeli students studying tech subjects (electronics, engineering, software, optical, math, computers) grew 30%, compared to a 100% surge in the number of Arab students. In 2018, the number of Arab students in the hightech subjects accounted to 12% of the total, compared to 8% in 2012 (Israel Council for Higher Education).

2. Economist Intelligence Unit, May 15, 2019: Israel’s GDP of $356BN and $40,230 per capita in 2018 is expected to surge to $667BN and $62,070 in 2030, reflecting Israel’s advantage – over developed and developing countries – in the areas of technology and demography.  Israel spends the highest GDP proportion, in the world, on civilian research & development. Its high investment in military research & development has had positive impact on civilian technology. For example, Israel has overcome low rainfall through desalination and water/sewage recycling, evolving into a major exporter of water technologies. More than 50% of Israel’s workforce has gone through tertiary education, and is expected to grow due to a relatively high fertility rate and positive net-immigration. Population growth is faster than any high-income country. Israel’s dynamic hightech sector will continue driving export growth, together with a strong contribution by business services. Exports of natural gas will make an increasing contribution in the 2020s. Israel’s isolation in the region will diminish gradually, as relations with Egypt and Persian Gulf Arab countries are improved. Israel will maintain the free-trade agreements with the US and EU and will expand trade ties with Japan, China and India and mid-size Asian economies. Israeli exports will rise from $111BN in 2018 to $283BN in 2030, as imports rise from $108BN to $233BN.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

5G: A Plan To Depopulate Earth? By Marilyn M Barnewall

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

http://newswithviews.com/5g-a-plan-to-depopulate-earth/

Do you use a cordless telephone?  A cell phone?  A Smart phone?  A Smart television?  Wi-Fi?  A Wi-Fi router?  A Smart meter?  If so, for the sake of your own life and health, you need to read this article.  Information about health dangers is being withheld from you.

In the following explanations of a highly dangerous and new technology, the letter G means generation and generation refers to a set of requirements that determine a standard and what compatible devices and networks qualify for the standard. It also describes technologies that power new types of communication.  The letters EMF mean electromagnetic force/field.

It sounds like it’s going to be a dull, complicated article.  It’s not.  It’s an attempt to help you save your health (possibly life) and that of your children.

Consumer use of the technology which has made our lives so much easier is not the only important reason you need this information.  A new 5G (5th generation) technology is about to inundate us with EMFs (electromagnetic fields/forces) which, according to scientific research, are much higher than allowed in most of the technologically sophisticated world.  Will they de-populate America?

Comparison of our limit alongside other countries’ standards:

USA\Canada = 1000 microwatts /cm2 (same as ICNIRP 1998)
Australia = 200 microwatts /cm2
Auckland (New Zealand) = 50 microwatts /cm2
Italy, Russia, Poland, Luxembourg, Paris (France),   Hungary, Bulgaria, China, Switzerland = 2.4 to 10 microwatts /cm2
Salzburg (Austria) = 0.0001 microwatts /cm2

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

David Marcus: From Occupy To AOC: The Rise Of The New Progressives, Part 1 In fall 2011, Occupy Wall Street captured the nation’s imagination and launched a platform that would come to define the New Progressives.

Posted By on June 3rd, 2019

https://thefederalist.com/2019/06/03/from-occupy-to-aoc-the-rise-of-the-new-progressives-part-1/

This is part one of a three-part series.

The Occupation Will Be Televised

Over the past decade, a new and virulently illiberal progressive movement has taken shape in the United States. Centered around identity politics, control and censorship of speech, and proposed government takeovers of much of the economy, today’s New Progressive now sounds and looks almost identical to the radical fringe elements of leftism as recently as the late 1990s. Although the actual number of these New Progressives may be small, the movement has broad and approving reach in the media, and has become a disproportionally large part of the national political debate.

For conservatives it is essential to understand the origins and nature of this new progressivism. Although the cultural, economic, and political ideas that undergird this movement can be traced back to at the least the late 1960s and the emergence of European postmodern philosophy, in the American context, the most useful starting point for understanding what is happening today is Occupy Wall Street (OWS).

Occupy brought together three ideas for the first time that were formerly on the fringe. First is the idea that group identity bestows differing rights and obligations on individuals, rather than individuals all having equal rights and obligations. Second, OWS created the concept of a battle between the 99 percent and the 1 percent, which replaced a more nuanced approach on the left to how wealth is distributed. Finally, it offered a deep distrust of and desire to silence corporate entities that OWS claimed are not persons and therefore essentially have no rights.

Before delving into each, it useful to consider the backdrop and causes of Occupy Wall Street. On September 17, 2011, a group of protesters took over Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan. The idea of the protest was first proposed by the Canadian progressive magazine Adbusters, and quickly gained the support of the Internet hacking organization Anonymous. From there, several other national and local progressive groups coordinated to create the occupation.

I spent a lot of time at Occupy Wall Street, first out of curiosity, then out of concern. Early on, there was a convivial feeling, a library was set up, and there was free food and music. The whole thing felt like an urban Woodstock. The message was “We are the 99 percent,” which placed blame on a small cabal of super rich and suggested that opposing and defeating them would be easy given vastly superior numbers.