On Holding Elections

The 1864 Presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 8, in the midst of civil war. Paper ballots had to be counted by hand, and results transmitted by telegraph, not only from Eastern States, but also from California, Oregon and the recently created States of Kansas, West Virginia and remote Nevada. The ballots of Union soldiers serving in the field had to be collected and tabulated.

Nevertheless, the re-election of President Lincoln was known by 2:00 a.m., Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, November 9, and a band and crowd appeared on the White House lawn to serenade and celebrate with Mr. Lincoln.

Let's contrast that with this week's New York City Mayoral election. The final results are not known and indeed may not be known for weeks. Heck, the elections board is not even certain how many ballots were cast. Such is progress.

Closed-Loop Geothermal Energy May Offer Constant Carbon-Free Electricity

 

Far beneath the surface of the earth, it is uniformly hot. The earth's mantle is an inexhaustible source of heat energy, which can be used to generate electricity with no carbon emissions, on a 24-7-365 basis, with or without sunlight or wind. Until now geothermal power has been viable only where super-heated water is relatively close to the surface. However, we are on the verge of developing the technology for closed- loop projects using injected fluids (which are recycled), which could be located practically  anywhere. Ironically, fracking may be the key, as Andy Kessler explains in today's Wall Street Journal. 

U.S. Naval Weakness Invites War With China

If naval warfare between China and the United States broke out today in the Pacific, China almost certainly would prevail in the initial battles.  That would increase the likelihood of nuclear war, because the United States might feel pressed to respond with nuclear weapons to an impending defeat, or China might decide to act pre-emptively to prevent American retaliation.  In a longer war, the United States might eventually prevail (as it did in the Pacific in World War II, after initial Japanese victories), especially if Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and perhaps even Vietnam (traditionally an enemy of imperialist China) were fighting with us and against China.  But any such war would be incredibly costly in lives and treasure.  Taiwan, certainly, South Korea, and perhaps even Japan, might have to endure Chinese invasion.

Overwehlming American military strength, especially in naval forces, probably would deter China.  Unfortunately, our navy has shrunk from a high of 660 ships under President Reagan, to only 297 vessels today.  Numbers do not tell the entire tale, but sadly the quality and preparedness of our naval forces also have declined, as detailed in today's WSJ [America’s Naval Strategy Is at Sea - WSJ].  In contrast, China has been rapidly building us its navy, and today has the largest navy in the world. Rather than slowing down, China is accelerating the pace of ship building.  It recently commissioned three warships in a single day. [China simultaneously commissions three warships on Navy anniversary (defensenews.com)]

Strength deters war.  The appearance of weakness invites conflict.  The U.S. and its SEATO allies much reverse the current decline in forces and readiness.

Rebbetzin Ellen Fischer, of Blessed Memory

Tomorrow afternoon, our dear friend Rebbetzin Ellen Fischer z”l (חנה אסתר בת חיים ראובן ) will be laid to rest in Eretz Yisrael in the Rabbinical Council of America section of the Eretz Hachaim Cemetery. To properly mourn, to appreciate the loss from a death, one needs to know something about the departed. That is the purupose of a hesped, a Jewish eulogy--to publicize to the community the significance of the loss.

To that end, here is a link to an article written by Ellen, entitled "Carpe Kiruv," published just one year ago to the day, in Orange County Jewish Life http://jlifeoc.com/carpe-kiruv/.

And here below is a photo of Ellen, with the smile that all of us who knew her remember, and indeed do not remember ever seeing her without it.

May her memory be for a blessing. May Rabbi Dov Fischer be comforted among the other mourners for Zion and Jerusalem.

Happy Yom Yerushalayim

This is a link to an essay I posted here in 2011: http://hedgehogcentral.blogspot.com/2011/06/we-have-returned-reunification-of.html

President Trump Addresses the Israeli American Council National Summit

Today President Trump addressed the Israeli American Council National Summit. 

If you read the mainstream media you will be told that American Jewish groups are criticizing President Trump for his comments today at the Israeli American Council National Summit, because they claim he used "anti-Semitic tropes." Do not believe it. You need not rely on what I say--listen to the entire speech here. I did. The media, as usual, are lying.

Now, I will be the first to admit that Donald Trump is not a great speaker, if one likes formal, grammatically correct, flowing, poetic rhetoric. (Effectiveness and impact are different matters, however--he may be the most effective motivational speaker in the White House since President Reagan.)

In any event, this speech was probably the most pro-Israel, Judaeophilic speech ever made by a U.S. President. The "American Jewish groups" who are criticizing the President's address are the usual suspects: liberal, Democratic-orientated organizations who will never say anything positive about Donald Trump and who looked the other way when President Obama stabbed Israel in the back in the United Nations Security Council.

During his address, Donald Trump reviewed the unprecedented actions he had taken for Israel and the Jewish people. He moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. He vigorously opposed and condemned BDS and anti-Semitism. (Not even mentioned by the President was his State Department's withdrawal of the Carter era legal opinion that Israeli settlements in Yehuda and Shomron are illegal.)

Most importantly, President Trump is actively opposing Iran, which poses an existential threat to Israel--clearly the most serious threat to the Jewish people today.

So where do these American Jewish groups get off trying to attack this President as an anti-Semite? They put their petty partisanship over the survival of Israel and lives of Jews. Shame on them!

A Jewish Liberal Writer Warns Jewish Democrats, Ignore the Signs at your Peril

Today in Tablet,  Liel Leibovitz warns his fellow Jewish liberals that, no matter how much they may despise President Trump, they ignore at their peril the warning signs regarding the anti-Semitic path taken by their party.  Of special concern to Leibovitz, beyond the whole phenomenon of "the Squad"'s anti-Zionist activity and the Democratic failure to confront them:

Earlier this year, Rep. Betty McCollum (D.-Minn.) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives titled “H.R. 2047—Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act.” In June, a host of high-profile Democrats co-sponsored her bill, including Seth Moulton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib.

The bill’s purpose is to require that “United States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children.” It then goes on to present a long list of citations from reports compiled by non-government organizations that accuse Israel of everything from applying coercive interrogation techniques against children as young as 11 to holding minors for days without a trial.

...this bill—backed by a cadre of House Democrats who abjure anti-Semitism in theory and yet astonishingly manage to “accidentally” perpetrate it over and over—tracks, in an eerily perfect way, with a long and murderous tradition: Fantasizing that Jews have a special fondness for killing, abducting, maiming, or otherwise abusing non-Jewish children, and leading mobs to attack them based on these accusations.

In my view, what is needed most now is for Cory Booker, Julian Castro and Kamala Harris to vociferously and directly confront the anti-Semitism in their party. A good start would be to openly oppose not only this bill, and the Squad, but also to repudiate support from Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, who these same candidates have been patronizing. I mention these three candidates because they are persons of color, while the same actions by the other candidates might well be dismissed by the Left as a display of white privilege. However, I concede that it is highly unlikely that my advice will be taken up by the Democratic leadership.

The New Woke Racism

In a column in American Greatness, Victor Davis Hanson discusses the new Woke Racism.  It is epitomized by a recent speech by U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass):

"If you’re not prepared to come to that table and represent that voice, don’t come, because we don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. We don’t need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don’t want to be a queer voice. If you’re worried about being marginalized and stereotyped, please don’t even show up because we need you to represent that voice."

Hanson writes:

"In sum, Pressley just outlined the classic anti-Enlightenment mindset: we are all permanent captives of our superficial race, religion, and sexual orientation. We must at all times think, act, and speak in such tribal fashion—and do so monolithically and collectively, in adopting the party line as set down by such elites as those like Pressley herself.
"Blacks who oppose affirmative action, or Muslims who recognize Israel, or “queers” whose sexual preferences are incidental, not essential to their personas are thus declared not authentic and thus not to be welcomed by Pressley into the new racialist Democratic Party."

Please read the entire article.

Tom Friedman Comments on the Israeli Elections  (as envisioned by Dry Bones)

Colin Crossing the Delaware

Ironically, the same historic American flag was prominently displayed at the Second Inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Apparently, Colin, Beto and Julian Castro only regard the Betsy Ross American flag as a symbol of racism and oppression if it is on a Nike tennis shoe or flown by a Republican.

Bernie the Creator vs. Bernie the Destroyer: Who has done more to benefit humanity?

Bernie Marcus, now 90 years young (he should live to 120) is a co-founder of Home Depot.  He has given around $2 billion to over 300 charitable organizations. Recently, he announced that he plans to give away most of his remaining fortune, another $6 billion, during his lifetime.

Marcus recently said that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Socialist and a leading Democratic Presidential candidate, is "the enemy of every entrepreneur. So who has done more for  his fellow human beings?
 

As recounted by Issues & Insights:

Marcus, with Arthur Blank and Ken Langone, started a company in 1978 that today has more than 2,200 stores across all 50 states and in Canada. When those men were putting long, grinding hours into their startup in the late 1970s, Sanders was “working” for the American People’s Historical Society. There he made a 30-minute documentary about Eugene Debs, the perpetual Socialist Party presidential candidate whom he called “the great American trade unionist, socialist and revolutionary.”

Home Depot currently employs more than 400,000. Since its inception, it has created millions of jobs. Home Depot also provided health care insurance for, again, millions of families whose husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers have worked for the company, now 27th on the Fortune 500 list, where it has been found every year for the last 25.

In addition to the jobs provided by Home Depot, vendors that depend on the company for much of their sales, many of them small businesses that have increased in value, have also created jobs as they have grown along with the chain.

Meanwhile, Sanders, who has never started a business, wants to guarantee a job to everyone through government fiat, and has overheated dreams about forcing the country into a Medicare for All system, an impossible-to-pay-for arrangement which no other nation in the world has, not even the Scandinavian countries he says are his models.

Marcus has also helped make Americans who never worked for Home Depot better off — and we’re talking about more than the millions of consumers who have eagerly patronized the chain, and contractors who buy material there. A share of Home Depot stock bought in March 1989 is now worth 200 times the purchase price. The company has created immense wealth for the millions who own and have owned stock directly and through institutions. In fact, Home Depot created as many as “20,000 millionaires overnight” when the company went public

Meanwhile, a share of Sanders, if there was such, bought in 1989 would certainly have brought a loss. Rather than create wealth, it’s Sanders’ aim to forcibly spread it around.

Both men are committed to giving money to help others.  Bernie Marcus gives his own, which he earned through his hard work, while tremendously benefiting his employees, suppliers, and his customers.  Bernie Sanders wants to spend your money.

Please read the entire article. 

https://issuesinsights.com/2019/07/02/bernie-vs-bernie-who-has-improved-more-lives-marcus-or-sanders/?fbclid=IwAR3jxeyZddUu5QOtBOGbTSm0KqbCCr_CPD1xl7M4qRyRKhmX7T8ClNOrqJ8

"BROKEN TRUST" Policing Replaces "BROKEN WINDOWS" Policing

Once upon a time, "broken windows policing" theory was applied, first in New York City, and then in Los Angeles. This theory held that broken windows left unrepaired, and graffiti that is not painted over, gives out a message that no one cares. Neighborhoods and cities then decline and crime rises. The solution was to strictly enforce misdemeanor laws against littering, vagrancy, turnstile jumping, defacing private property, public urination, and public indecency. Violators suddenly were being arrested, booked and prosecuted. And lo and behold, crime went down, including serious, violent crime, streets were safer and cleaner, and cities prospered.

Then came the Progressives, who declared that this type of policing discriminated against the poor, homeless and minorities (even though they are most often the victims of crime). New, enlightened policies replaced "broken windows policing." Law enforcement officers were ordered by mayors and judges to tolerate vagrancy, public urination and defecation, public indecency, and camping on the sidewalks. Streets were not repaired and garbage piled up, to the joy of rodents. Street crime returned, escorted by filth and disease.

Call it "broken streets policing"; or "broken trust policing."

Segregation Comes to Minnesota

The City of Minneapolis has scheduled "Sacred Conversations with City Staff" to commemorate, of all things, the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first African slaves at Jamestown, Virginia. The City has arranged separate meeting times for "Black Bodied Staff" and "White Bodied Staff." To me, it is clear that a City cannot sponsor segregated public meetings--surely if Brown v. Board of Education means anything, it means that.

This segregated meeting also is an insult to the memory of the soldiers of the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. On the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, at a critical moment when the Confederate assault threatened to push Union troops off Cemetery Ridge, General Winfield Scott Hancock ordered the regiment to assault a much larger enemy force, telling regimental commander Col. William Colvill to take the enemy's colors. The Confederate brigade outnumbered the Minnesota regiment by a ratio of 5:1. There is no question that these veteran Minnesota soldiers knew what they were being asked to do.The fateful charge bought the time needed for other forces to be brought up to bolster the gap in the Union lines on Cemetery Ridge. During the charge, 215 members of the 262 men who were present at the time became casualties in five minutes, including Col. Colvill, and all but three of his captains. The unit's flag fell five times and was raised again each time. The 47 survivors rallied back to General Hancock under the senior surviving officer, Captain Nathan S. Messick. The 82% casualty rate stands to this day as the second-largest loss by any surviving military unit in U.S. history during a single day's engagement.

On that day, the Minnesota troops lived up to the words of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free." 156 years later, the City of Minneapolis should be ashamed at its betrayal of that heritage.

powerlineblog.com

Segregation Comes to Minnesota

It has often been observed that progressives are re-segregating some areas of the country, especially college campuses. But Minnesota has never been segregated, so our progressives are boldly venturing to segregate our citizens by race for the first time. The City of Minneapolis has scheduled a seri...

IMPORTANT NOTICE TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TOURISTS

Should you ask a tour guide to show you "Ford's Theater, where the assassination took place," the guide will take you to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room.

FBI Russia Probe Resulted from Clinton Campaign Dirty Trick

Real Clear Investigations reports:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation formally opened its Trump investigation after Western intelligence assets and Clinton-affiliated political operatives repeatedly approached the Trump campaign and tried but failed to damage it through associations with Russia, a growing body of evidence suggests. 

Before the FBI began investigating the Trump campaign in an operation code-named “Crossfire Hurricane,” there were at least seven different instances when campaign advisers were approached with Russia-related offers. Most of those contacts — including Donald Trump Jr.’s much-publicized meeting with a Russian lawyer and others in June 2016 — offered the prospect of information damaging to Donald Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

Two of these approaches were made by one U.S. government informant already publicly identified as such, Stefan Halper. Another was made by a man who swore in court that he had worked as an FBI informant. Two others were made by figures associated with Western intelligence agencies. Another two approaches included political operatives, one foreign, with ties to the Clintons.

President Obama’s director of national intelligence, James Clapper, has asserted that dispatching Halper to follow the Trump campaign "protected" it from the Russians.

But Mark Wauck, a former FBI agent with experience in such tactics, sees an effort at entrapment. “What appear to have been repeated attempts to implicate the Trump campaign, in some sort of quid pro quo arrangement with Russians who claimed to have ‘dirt’ on Hillary,” Wauck told RealClearInvestigations, “look like efforts to manufacture evidence against members of the Trump campaign or create pretexts to investigate it.”

Read the whole shocking story. You see, folks, Hillary was supposed to win, and then this corrupt attempt to damage the Trump campaign would have been swept under the rug. But shockingly, Trump won, and, ironically, the Mueller investigation in the supposed ties between Russia and the Trump campaign is revealing the conspiracy. Oops. And so the cover-up is crumbling and the conspiracy is revealed.

Remember the famous Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump, Jr. and
Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, who has longtime links to the Kremlin.  Well, Real Clear Investigations reports:

Veselnitskaya had at least two other significant meetings the day before and the day after her Trump Tower appointment. Both were with the same man: Glenn Simpson.

In addition to providing litigation support to Veselnitskaya for the U.S. court case she was handling, Simpson’s communications firm, Fusion GPS, had been hired by the Clinton campaign to investigate Trump’s ties to Russia.

So the Donald Trump Jr. meeting, which caused Democrats to call for criminal prosecution of Donald Trump, Jr. and Jared Kushner, was a Clinton campaign dirty trick.

SNEAK PEEK at the U.S.-North Korea Agreement

Because I am a close confidante of the President, I received an advanced sneak peek at the agreement with North Korea. Kim Jong Ung gives up his nuclear weapons. In return, he receives California. That gives him Koreatown in Los Angeles, which is the world's second largest Korean community. It gives Californians the Socialist dictatorship they seem to crave, and may even lower their taxes. Dennis Rodman gets the Golden State Warriors.

17 Tammuz in American History

In an article in Commentary, entitled "The Full Measure of Devotion," Rabbi Meir Soloveichik calls our attention to two extraordinary historical coincidences:  Both July 4, 1776 and July 4, 1863 (the date of the Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, which assured that the Union would prevail in the American Civil War), fell on the Jewish fast day of 17 Tammuz, which on the Jewish religious calendar begins "the three weeks," the annual period of mourning for the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem -- and our prayers for its restoration and Jewish redemption -- which culminates with the Fast of the Ninth of Av (Tisha b'Av).  Because the Hebrew calendar is lunar, with leap months, while the Julian calendar is solar, the concurrence of July 4 and 17 Tammuz is no means an annual event.  This year, for example, July 4 falls on 21 Tammuz.

Allow me to state what I believe Rabbi Soloveichik believes but only implied in his column:  This "coincidence" is not coincidence at all, but rather steps in the fulfillment of the prophecy of Zachariah (8:18-19). "“Thus says the Lord: The fast of the fourth month (17th Tammuz), the fast of the fifth month (Tisha B’av), the fast of the seventh month (Tzum Gedalya), and the fast of the tenth month (10th of Tevet), shall become for the House of Judah days of joy and gladness – happy festivals – [on the condition that] you must love and follow – emet v’shalom – truth and peace. ”

The birth of the United States of America, and our nation's preservation during its Civil War, were stages in God's fulfillment of Zachariah's prophecy, which will culminate in the ultimate redemption not only of Judah and Israel, but also America and all mankind.  May it come about speedily and in our days.

The Mainstream Media Questions President Trump's Mental Stability

To Save Iran Deal, Obama Administration Blocked U.S. Efforts to Target Hezbollah Billion Dollar Criminal Enterprise

According to this report published at Politico.com (hardly a Republican media stronghold), the Obama Administration actively obstructed the efforts of a U.S. task force to bring down a billion dollar criminal drug, arms and money laundering operation by Hezbollah. The reason: to protect the nuclear deal with Iran.  The Obama Administration did so even though Hezbollah was funneling cocaine into the United States.

Princeton Hillel Cancels Appearance by Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Princeton Hillel chapter has cancelled an appearance on campus by Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (pictured below). This is truly a sad and disturbing story, which raises serious concerns about the commitment of Jewish college students to Israel. Fortunately, Ms. Hotovely will still speak at Princeton, but under the sponsorship and auspices of Chabad rather than Hillel. Shame on Rabbi Julie Roth, Executive Director of the Center for Jewish Life on Princeton’s campus, for caving in to the demands of these so-called "progressives."