What Israel Means

On this day:

1789
Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America.
1789
French Revolution: citizens of Paris storm the Bastille.
1790
French Revolution: citizens of Paris celebrate the constitutional monarchy and national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération.
1798
The Sedition Act becomes law in the United States making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.
1916
Start of the Battle of Delville Wood as an action within the Battle of the Somme, which was to last until 3 September 1916.
1933
Gleichschaltung: in Germany, all political parties are outlawed except the Nazi Party.
1965
The Mariner 4 flyby of Mars takes the first close-up photos of another planet.
1969
Football War: After Honduras loses a soccer match against El Salvador, riots break out in Honduras against Salvadoran migrant workers.
2003
To discredit U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who had written an article critical of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Washington Post columnist Robert Novak reveals that Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame is a CIA “operative”.

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“Given the fuss they tend to make, I wonder if we should mention the Catholics too,” one Mamdani staffer debating the planned July 4th comments.

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Critical Theory is little more than a conspiracist epistemology to rationalize why none of Marx’s predictions panned out and why the revolution didn’t happen the way he promised. It achieves this rationalization by casting all conflicting arguments as a construct to sustain the “oppressors” who allegedly stand in the way of Marxist normative goals for society, and dismissing them accordingly without having to address their substantive challenges or evidence.--magness

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Misiorowski getting scratched from his Sunday start also means he will miss Tuesday's All-Star Game. It is said he has "arm fatigue."

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“The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World,” Trump, as in trumpeting, said in a Truth Social post on Monday.

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Roughly 252 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic extinction event, often called the "Great Dying," wiped out about 96% of marine species and 70% of land animals. Species whose metabolisms were less able to cope with warmer, oxygen-poor water suffered the highest extinction rates.

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Leveraged ETFs are quietly distorting a fragile market.
Roughly $200 billion sits across about 700 leveraged ETF funds. Because these products use derivatives, that $200 billion controls a notional value near $500 billion, with real market exposure about 2.5 times the money invested. Assets Under Management (AUM) runs 13:1 leveraged long versus short: for every $1 wagered on things falling, $13 is wagered on things rising. The exposure is concentrated almost entirely in tech.

TQQQ's $32 billion in AUM amplifies every Nasdaq-100 move 3x, turning a 10% index drop into a 30% single-day loss for holders.

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What Israel Means

For much of the last several centuries, Jews have wandered back, disorganized but hopeful, to Palestine and the land of the Old Testament. As part of the settlement after the first world war the British, still locked in their fading struggle with France, took control of this area called the British Mandate and, in July of 1922, divided Palestine into two administrative sections, east and west, where Jews were allowed only in the west. (The Balfour Declaration in November 2, 1917 to "establish a national home for the Jewish people" was a hope, not a policy.) November 29, 1947 the General Assembly of The United Nations voted 66% to partition western Palestine into two separate states, one Jewish and one Arab. (The Arabs rejected it.) Israel became a recognized separate state and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan Syria and Lebanon invaded it, fought a war, and lost. About 600,000 Jews left Arab lands for Israel, 720,000 Arabs left Israel for Arab lands. An armistice was signed in 1949.

In 1966-67 Syria began shelling Israel from parts of the Golan Heights, Egypt expelled the UN peacekeepers from the Israel border and attacked in the "Six Day War' and lost again. When the dust cleared Israel held the Gaza Strip, The Sinai Desert, Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights.

In 1970 a civil war broke out between Arafat and King Hussein in Jordan. Arafat ended up with better control of the West Bank but no control over the rest of Jordan.

In October 6, 1973, Syria and Egypt again attacked Israel and lost. To get peace, Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt and signed an agreement with Jordan.

What are we to conclude from this history? Debate continues over the Arab handling of Arab refugees, of Hamas and Hezbollah, of bombing schools and strapping bombs to children. But as important as these points are individually, there are some overwhelming truths here. One, Israel was created out of whole cloth; there were people there whom the British displaced to create the state. Britain can claim the land was gained as a spoil of war, but the circumstances are still the same. Two, the Arabs will continue to throw themselves at Israel forever. They are not deterred by defeat, regardless of how humiliating. They will come back. And each time they are better armed and better prepared. Two Arab states have nuclear capability. Three, Israel will, with its last breath, destroy all her enemies. There will be no TKO, with Israel led bleeding to the side to decline in a new Palestine state; Israel, at its end, will take all of its tormentors to hell with her.

This brings us to the fourth point: This nightmare--which could easily blow the industrialized world back to the steam age--is a direct result of political arrogance and stupidity. The political leaders--from the British to the U.N. to the Americans now--have guided this area through one devastating, homicidal period to another without any apparent second thoughts or guilt about the destruction and death they have unleashed or the clear danger to all the world that lies ahead. This homicidal fine-tuning, this murderous goodwill, this apocalyptic optimism is repeated and repeated by administration after administration, state after state, until now we are faced with real Arab power staring back at the West and its feckless leaders while we poor souls wait and wonder how much the dead and wounded will be expanded this time and whether we will be included.

(I wrote this in 2011. It wasn't that I was prescient; it is that nothing has changed except the weaponry.)

The Middle East Minuet of Death

On this day:

180
Marcus Aurelius dies leaving Commodus the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
624
Led by Muhammad, the Muslims of Medina defeat the Quraysh of Mecca in the Battle of Badr.
1776
American Revolution: British forces evacuate Boston, Massachusetts, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city.
1780
American Revolution: George Washington grants the Continental Army a holiday “as an act of solidarity with the Irish in their fight for independence”
2008
Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer resigns after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute. Lieutenant Governor David Paterson becomes New York State governor.

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Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This, our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.--Lincoln

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The Pens-Colorado game last night was terrific. Colorado is really big and fast.

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There is some talk that Russia's Shahed drone with its self-guidance system can be jammed--or even taken over and pirated to be redirected against its original user--and Russia is turning to control them better by using Starlink.

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Fernando Tatis Jr., Ketel Marte, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Junior Caminero, and Manny Machado. That's part of the batting lineup of the Dominican World team.

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Is there some sort of gene coupling in politicians, like fair skin and red hair? Do they all act with just a little bit of Spitzerism? And how do they know, like Stalwell, that the electorate will rarely hold them responsible for their bad judgment? Or compulsion?

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The Middle East Minuet of Death

Is the "conventional weapons shield" of Iran's nuclear production that so demanded American interference a new concept? A new moniker, a new buzzphrase to capture the Press's imagination? Or is a shift afoot? Was the mother-of-all-bombing-raids inadequate? Or is there a true policy shift? Or, as it looks, did the Israelis unearth new information that made them decide to attack Iran, and did the U.S. tag along to give the appearance of calling the tune?

Certainly, the resulting Iranian response must have been a surprise to most. The international spiteful suicide bomber was felt to be the sole default setting of Israel; to have Iran unmask itself as willing to destroy as much of the world as it could in defeat was unexpected.

And why, while brandishing their indiscriminate, destructive threats, do they want to appear so thoughtful and precise?

Iran Musing

On this day:

241 BC
First Punic War: Battle of the Aegates Islands – The Romans sink the Carthaginian fleet, bringing the First Punic War to an end.
1629
Charles I of England dissolves the Parliament, beginning the eleven-year period known as the Personal Rule.
1762
French Huguenot Jean Calas, who had been wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspired Voltaire to begin a campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform.
1804
Louisiana Purchase: In St. Louis, Missouri, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.
1814
Napoleon I of France is defeated at the Battle of Laon in France.
1831
The French Foreign Legion is established by King Louis-Philippe to support his war in Algeria.
1848
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.
1876
Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful telephone call by saying “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
1891
Almon Strowger, an undertaker in Topeka, Kansas, patents the Strowger switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching.
1906
The Courrières mine disaster, Europe’s worst ever, kills 1099 miners in Northern France.
1922
Mahatma Gandhi is arrested in India, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years in prison, only to be released after nearly two years for an appendicitis operation.
1945
The U.S. Army Air Force firebombs Tokyo, and the resulting firestorm kills more than 100,000 people, mostly civilians.
1952
Fulgencio Batista leads a successful coup in Cuba and appoints himself as the “provisional president”.
1959
Tibetan uprising: Fearing an abduction attempt by China, 300,000 Tibetans surround the Dalai Lama’s palace to prevent his removal
1980
Madeira School headmistress Jean Harris shoots and kills Scarsdale diet doctor Herman Tarnower
2006
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.

***“

"It does not sound crazy to a Silicon Valley executive that maybe they could be in charge instead of you,” AI alignment researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky warned politicians. “If they actually could control superintelligence, they’d discard you like used toilet paper.”
Great. Politicians as an abused group.

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On 13–14 October 1761, one of the Calas sons, Marc-Antoine, was found dead on the ground floor of the family's home. Rumors had it that Jean Calas had killed his son because he intended to convert to Catholicism. When interrogated, the family initially claimed that Marc-Antoine had been killed by a murderer. Then they declared that they had found Marc-Antoine dead, hanged. Because suicide was considered a heinous crime against oneself, and the dead bodies of suicides were defiled, they had arranged for their son's suicide to look like a murder. The law thought the boy had been killed because of anti-Catholic fanaticism.trial/torture description is quite grim.
French philosopher Voltaire, after initial suspicions of anti-Catholic fanaticism were dispelled by his investigations, began a campaign to get Calas's sentence overturned, claiming that Marc-Antoine had committed suicide because of gambling debts and not being able to finish his university studies due to his denomination.

Voltaire's efforts were successful, and King Louis XV received the family and had the sentence annulled in 1764.

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Two famous brothers who worked as real estate brokers have been convicted of drugging and raping dozens of women over the course of decades.
Tal Alexander, 39, and Oren Alexander, 38, rose to prominence from their sales of luxury real-estate properties in New York and Miami. Along with a third brother Alon, 38, a jury found all three guilty of sex trafficking by a jury in New York.

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Is European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen overreaching?

The diplomats who spoke to POLITICO argued that von der Leyen’s flurry of tweets and conversations with Gulf leaders did not formally represent EU foreign policy positions. Critics also voiced skepticism about what von der Leyen, who has no military means at her disposal and has no mandate to shape EU-wide foreign policy positions, could be offering Gulf states under missile and drone attack from Iran.

“What exactly is she promising when she says we will support them?” asked Loiseau. “Who is ‘we’? For now, the support is the Charles de Gaulle [French aircraft carrier], Rafale jets in Abu Dhabi, and defense agreements with some countries.”

“What we’re seeing is role-play with nothing behind it,” said Loiseau, who belongs to French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party. (Politico)

Ambition fills any vacuum.

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Iran Musing

What was the impact of the B-2 bombing? Wasn't it supposed to make another attack unnecessary? What was the revelation that made this attack a next and necessary step? Have you ever heard of the "conventional-weapons-shield-of-nuclear-weapons thesis" the Americans used to justify it?

An unsubstantiated theory, i.e., out of whole cloth: Israel, for some reason (and their intel is very good), had decided to attack Iran again, and the Americans thought the appearance and power of the two together created a better public relations picture and gave them the appearance of control. America followed them in. (Warning: Made up.)

Iran had their own strange war moment. When it was clear they were getting clobbered, Iran began to attack everybody, old friends and foes alike.

There is a theory, the Sampson Theory, stating that Israel has no minor fight. Every struggle threatens their very existence. Any vulnerability was a step toward their eventual destruction. Every fight was a fight to the death. There would never be a compromise; there would never be a standing-eight count. They would never sue for peace.

And if it was clear that events had gone against them, that the tide was running in their enemy's favor, they, like Sampson, would pull the whole building down around their ears. They would put their 53 or so nukes in the air against every living target they could reach and turn the Middle East--and its oil--into a lifeless, useless husk of a place.

Perhaps that is what Iran planned too.

From Hell's Heart

On this day:

109
Roman emperor Trajan inaugurates the Aqua Traiana, an aqueduct that channels water from Lake Bracciano, 40 km north-west of Rome.
637
The Battle of Moira is fought between the High King of Ireland and the Kings of Ulster and Dalriada. It is the largest battle in the history of Ireland.
1374
A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1916
World War I: the Battle of the Somme begins with a week-long artillery bombardment on the German Line.
1947
Kenneth Arnold makes the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

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Stephanie Hockridge, a former Phoenix news anchor-turned-fintech entrepreneur, has been convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a federal case involving hundreds of millions of dollars in COVID relief funds.

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If Iran has hidden some Uranium, Israel will find it. And steal it.

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Did the diffident Obama administration and the ineffectual Biden Regency teach the Iranians false lessons?

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From Hell's Heart

Towards thee I roll, thou all-destroying but unconquering whale; to the last I grapple with thee; from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee. Sink all coffins and all hearses to one common pool! and since neither can be mine, let me then tow to pieces, while still chasing thee, though tied to thee, thou damned whale! Thus, I give up the spear!

                                                    *

Fight for peace. Buy more, save more. Our world reverberates with Orwellian weirdness, but nowhere as much as the Middle East, where the intensity of feelings overrides all logic and practicality. Iran has had the very purpose of its government removed by the American air attack. The nuclear destruction of the hated Israelis is no longer possible, and the inability to recreate the circumstances necessary to attempt it again has been revealed.

Now Iran is fighting off its back, has violated the ceasefire, and allowed Israel to rationalize restarting Iran's punishment. Iran must be convincing even the dithering Press of the danger they present. Iran's willingness to suffer for an unachievable goal should be alarming to all. If anything, it proves Trump's point and justifies his actions. Iran is beyond all restraint in its obsession. The sensible argument that Iran would not destroy the Straits of Hormuz because that would destroy their own economy and their own people clearly does not apply.

Conniving Israel may be the only reasonable player in the field: Iran cannot be hurt too much.

Ahabism is not in the OED, so we are not constrained by a definition. Our definition of Ahabism: narrow, focused, monomaniacal, tyrannical, and single-minded pursuit of a goal that results in self-destruction.

Ahab's destruction is probably deserved, but he does take the Pequod with him.

Some Questions About Iran

On this day:

1269
King Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without an identifying yellow badge to be fined ten livres of silver.
1306
The Earl of Pembroke’s army defeats Bruce’s Scottish army at the Battle of Methven.
1586
English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
1846
The first officially recorded, organized baseball match is played under Alexander Cartwright’s rules on Hoboken, New Jersey’s Elysian Fields with the New York Base Ball Club defeating the Knickerbockers 23-1. Cartwright umpired.
1953
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are executed at Sing Sing, in New York.
1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
1982
The body of God’s Banker, Roberto Calvi is found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London.

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Is Caitlin Clark being targeted in the WNBA despite her remarkable impact on fans and on the game's popularity?

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Karen Read was found not guilty. Very interesting case, essentially, showing 'unanswered question' replacing 'reasonable doubt.' And, of course, the privilege given to white women with good jawlines and high cheekbones.

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Some Questions About Iran

Iran and Israel are beating each other to a pulp. Iran is particularly damaged and seems to no longer control its airspace. so Israel theoretically could continue air attacks until it runs out of armaments. How come one has declared war on the other? What would war look like if not this?

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It is said that Iran is months away from a nuclear weapon. This has been the war chant for at least the last decade. Iran is always just a step away from destroying the Middle East. The last version of this was the chant of WMDs in Iraq, which created a military black hole for years. And, of course, we poor citizens are inundated with other imminent crises: global cooling, climate change nee global warming, population growth leading to global starvation, population shrinkage leading to welfare state collapse, social security bankruptcy, falling test scores, and growing adolescent stupidity. These are legitimate concerns for thinking people, but do they deserve a national war footing?

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Have we become numb to the war drums of crisis? The endless war chants of the Press: Trump is Hitler, threats to democracy, WMDs? How can a democracy make reliable decisions when its information system is as warped as a midnight infomercial? Will we have to rely on outsiders with their own agendas, like Israel?

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The silence of America's enemies is deafening. No one is supporting Iran in the Middle East. Vicious theocracies are biting their collective tongues. Even China is quiet. What does this mean? Are all these countries aware of the Iranian threat? Is everyone worried?

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There is also silence from America's friends. The G7 actually voted on innocuous wishes for peace. Ciphers.

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War does expose the comic. The dithering Europeans, Putin's clownish offer to mediate peace, the American Left's stunned silence. 21% of responding Americans are "unconcerned" over Iran getting a nuclear weapon.

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What does this say about a nation's internal politics? Is the Iranian theocracy representative of the Iranian citizen? Because they wear clerical robes, do the religious leaders get more of a vote because, presumably, they are closer to God? Does anyone care about the poor Iranian citizen caught in this mess?

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If Iran is a threat to the world because of their homicidal theocracy, what about North Korea? Should they have a bomb? 

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Where does the U.S. get the authority to declare who should have a nuclear weapon and who should not?

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What would be the model for a government that gives up its nuclear ambitions for the betterment of world peace? Libya?

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Everyone was upset about the Russian attack near the reactor in Ukraine. Is an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear facility okay?

Some Questions on Iran/Israel

On this day:

1645
English Civil War: Battle of Naseby – 12,000 Royalist forces are beaten by 15,000 Parliamentarian soldiers.
1775
American Revolutionary War: the Continental Army is established by the Continental Congress, marking the birth of the United States Army.
1789
Mutiny on the Bounty: Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km journey in an open boat.
1800
The French Army of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrians at the Battle of Marengo in Northern Italy and re-conquers Italy.
1807
Emperor Napoleon I’s French Grande Armee defeats the Russian Army at the Battle of Friedland in Poland (modern Russian Kaliningrad Oblast) ending the War of the Fourth Coalition.
1830
Beginning of the French colonization of Algeria: 34,000 French soldiers begin their invasion of Algiers, landing 27 kilometers west at Sidi Fredj.
1846
Bear Flag Revolt begins – Anglo settlers in Sonoma, California, start a rebellion against Mexico and proclaim the California Republic.
1940
The Soviet Union presents an ultimatum to Lithuania resulting in Lithuanian loss of independence.
1940
World War II: Paris falls under German occupation, and Allied forces retreat.
1941
June deportation, the first major wave of Soviet mass deportations and murder of Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, begins.
1947
Roswell UFO incident A supposed UFO crash lands in Roswell, New Mexico

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Disagreements and protests are inherent to freedom and democracy. But are confrontations inherent to democracy?  Aren't elections the alternative to confrontation?

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CNN reporter Christine Amanpour stated she was fearful to visit the U.S. to speak at Harvard, comparing her anxiety to that of visiting North Korea. Does that kind of judgment disqualify her opinions elsewhere?

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Military celebrations are planned in the U.S. to mark the 250th anniversary of the American armed forces. There is also a "Trooping of the Colour" in London, a parade to celebrate the King's birthday.

Demonstrations are planned in the U.S. with the theme "No Kings." Is that a protest against Charles ' birthday? Do the demonstrators think London is in the U.S.? Are the protesters just products of the American education system who think the U.S. is part of Great Britain? Is this a protest against the Biden Regency? Or is this just incoherent?
An additional question has been raised in interviews with Democrats: they are suddenly and inexplicably concerned about the cost of the parade. One can only hope this outbreak of fiscal responsibility seeps into the rest of the national expenses.

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Last month, over 350 academics, clinicians, and activists signed an open letter titled “Biology is not binary.” Addressed to Bridget Phillipson, the United Kingdom’s Minister for Women and Equalities, its purpose was to denounce recent legal and policy developments in the U.K. that reassert the biological basis of sex in law.

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Some Questions on Iran/Israel

The conflagration in the Middle East raises some serious world questions and some strange domestic ones. 

Despite the proximity of Iran's proxy anti-Israel groups, this is not a border dispute. Iran is 1,000 miles from Israel.

1. This conflict creates a clear confrontation of significantly divergent world views. Israel vs. Iran pits the totalitarian East against the democratic West, unelected religious hierarchy vs. elected representation, homicidal and obliterative motives vs. desire for survival. These appear to be obvious conflicts that essentially involve the old, tribal, authoritarian world against the modern, reflective, individual present. It will be interesting to see how the college-educated street demonstrators and the increasingly peculiar Democrats come down on this question.

As an aside, the Democrat Vice-President candidate, Tim Walz, said the problems between Iran and Israel require mediation, and his idea of the national intermediary with the most "moral authority" is.....China. China. The Democrat VP candidate thinks China is the world's moral leader. Understand, he really thinks this.

2. Israeli planes refueled over Syria. Could that be done without some international agreement?

3. The precision and thoroughness of the Israeli attacks raise the question of how espionage is best done. Israeli success seems much more personal than electronic.

4. The Israelis launched their drones from inside Iran, much like Ukraine's successful attack on Russia. This should raise some serious questions about domestic land ownership. Free property ownership has always been a basic principle in American philosophy, but this technology might challenge that. China has bought a lot of American farmland.

5. Iran is a true menace to the world community. Their hatred for Israel has far-reaching effects even for uninterested parties: their proxies attack commercial ships in international waters and kill randomly. Israel's success so far might well help the economies and stability of countries around the world, even countries that hate them. They have become like a strange, special unit group for the world, perhaps an international mercenary in some future dystopian world. Imagine a Davos strike force.

"Assault on the Liberty"

The University of Virginia paid two DEI executives annual salaries of more than $500,000 apiece, spent $20 million annually on over 200 DEI employees, and has committed almost $1 billion over the long term to race-based scholarships, faculty chairs, and other “equity projects.” Companies typically pay DEI directors in the U.S. at least $200,000 annually, much more at large firms, and globally spend an estimated $9 billion on DEI.

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Assault on the Liberty

Every so often, the political animal shows its stripes. And national ambition will always trump friendship. Something like this always gives a little context.

Most of this is from St. Clair's summary of "Assault on the Liberty," a first-hand account by James Ennes Jr. whose book of the event is a hair-raising story of betrayal by America's presumed friends and its own leadership. On this day in history, June 8, 1967.

In early June of 1967, at the onset of the Six-Day War, the Pentagon sent the USS Liberty from Spain into international waters off the coast of Gaza to monitor the progress of Israel’s attack on the Arab states. The Liberty was a lightly armed surveillance ship.
Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. They made eight trips over three hours. The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel.

An easily-identified lightly-armed American surveillance ship in international waters.
Soon more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns.
A few minutes later a second wave of planes streaked overhead, French-built Mystere jets, which not only pelted the ship with gunfire but also with napalm bomblets, coating the deck with the flaming jelly. By now, the Liberty was on fire and dozens were wounded and killed, excluding several of the ship’s top officers.
The Liberty’s radio team tried to issue a distress call, but discovered the frequencies had been jammed by the Israeli planes with what one communications specialist called “a buzzsaw sound.” Finally, an open channel was found and the Liberty got out a message to the USS America, the Sixth Fleet’s large aircraft carrier, it was under attack
Two F-4s left the carrier to come to the Liberty’s aid. Apparently, the jets were armed only with nuclear weapons. When word reached the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara became irate and ordered the jets to return. “Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately,” he barked. The planes turned around. And the attack on the Liberty continued.
After the Israeli fighter jets had emptied their arsenal of rockets, three Israeli attack boats approached the Liberty. Two torpedoes were launched at the crippled ship, one tore a 40-foot wide hole in the hull, flooding the lower compartments, and killing more than a dozen American sailors.
As the Liberty listed in the choppy seas, its deck aflame, crew members dropped life rafts into the water and prepared to scuttle the ship. Given the number of wounded, this was going to be a dangerous operation. But it soon proved impossible, as the Israeli attack boats strafed the rafts with machine gunfire. Nobody was going to get out alive that way.
After more than two hours of unremitting assault, the Israelis finally halted their attack. One of the torpedo boats approached the Liberty. An officer asked in English over a bullhorn: “Do you need any help?”
The wounded commander of the Liberty, Lt. William McGonagle, instructed the quartermaster to respond emphatically: “Fuck you.”
The Israeli boat turned and left.
A Soviet destroyer responded before the US Navy, even though a US submarine, on a covert mission, was apparently in the area and had monitored the attack. The Soviet ship reached the Liberty six hours before the USS Davis. The captain of the Soviet ship offered his aid, but the Liberty’s conning officer refused.
Finally, 16 hours after the attack two US destroyers reached the Liberty. By that time, 34 US sailors were dead and 174 injured, many seriously. As the wounded were being evacuated, an officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence instructed the men not to talk about their ordeal with the press.
The following morning Israel launched a surprise invasion of Syria, breaching the new cease-fire agreement and seizing control of the Golan Heights.
Within three weeks, the Navy put out a 700-page report, exonerating the Israelis, claiming the attack had been accidental and that the Israelis had pulled back as soon as they realized their mistake. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara suggested the whole affair should be forgotten. “These errors do occur,” McNamara concluded.

The Children of Israel are never alone. But sometimes it's hard to see why.

The Micromanager of Afghanistan Glances Eastward

The Hilary campaign paid for the Steele dossier, accounted for it as "legal expense" and litigated that decision in court.

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About 30 percent of fast-food workers are teens, and another 30 percent are between twenty and twenty-four years old. With 60 percent of its workforce twenty-four or younger, the fast-food industry stands in sharp contrast to the other industries, in which only about 13 percent of workers are that young.

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The Micromanager of Afghanistan Glances Eastward

"I need ammunition, not a ride."--Zelensky

Robert Gates, who served as secretary of Defense in the Obama-Biden administration, famously disparaged Joe Biden’s 40-year involvement in foreign policy before he became president: “He has been wrong on nearly every major issue.” This, combined with the traditional Liberal arrogance, has led the Americans to an embarrassing--and possibly dangerous--situation in the Middle East.

Biden also seeks consistency. In 1982, at a closed-door meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden had threatened Begin with cutting off military aid for Israel’s offensive campaign in Lebanon. As Tevi Troy noted in the Wall Street Journal, the story went that Begin responded in fiery outrage:

"Don’t threaten us with cutting off aid to give up our principles. I’m not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, when necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid."

Biden is also consistent in his understanding of leadership as being some measure of extortion. But the calm smugness of the Left, so wonderfully personified by Obama, distains results. Do they really see Israel negotiating with their enemies from a position of compromise?

Out for a Penny, Out for a Pound

Harvard University's Office for Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging will once again host "affinity celebrations" at its 2024 commencement, according to documents obtained by National Review.
Harvard plans to hold a "Disability Celebration," a "Global Indigenous Celebration," an "Asian American, Pacific Islander, Desi-American (APIDA) Celebration," a "First Generation-Low Income Celebration," a "Jewish Celebration," a "Latinx Celebration," a "Lavender Celebration" — which refers to LGBT students — a "Black Celebration," a "Veterans Celebration," and an "Arab Celebration." The university will also hold a central commencement ceremony for students of all backgrounds.

***

Anyone interested in the astonishing idiocy of politicians generally and the VP particularly might look at her unbelievably stupid statement on the women's championship basketball bracket. Its stupidity is hard to grasp completely.

***

Out for a Penny, Out for a Pound

The world is fretting over the possible Israeli invasion of Rafah. It fears genocide. It fears expanding the conflict. Biden has threatened a change in philosophy if Israel does not change its policy toward refugees and Rafah. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday she would move to block the sale of F-15s to Israel after seven aid workers were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza earlier this week.

Israel vs. Palestine is a small conflict. Israel is a dense, heavily armed, nuclear power with an international footprint and aspirations; Gaza is a tiny failing agrarian community threatened with becoming hunter-gatherers. The risk to the world there is accident and vandalism. A nuclear misstep. Interrupting the world trade of oil. Iran, the major sponsor of anti-Israeli military action, insists upon several degrees of separation. A veneer of hands-off innocence.
 
But Israel just struck an Iranian outpost in Syria and killed three high-ranking officers. Iran vowed it would take revenge for the attack, and now foreign media is reporting that US intelligence is fearful of an attack on Israel. The CIA has warned that Iran will attack in 48 hours.

So, how's that U.S. containment/de-escalation policy going? Everything okay in Rafah?

Middle East Futures

All men who can save are industrious, because all men are greedy for wealth…. It is only the guarantee of ownership and enjoyment of their gains which can put heart into them and make them diligent.--Quesnay

***

We are the party of fiscal discipline, but the national debt rose nearly 40% during Mr. Trump’s presidency. We are the party of limited government, yet in the name of helping working people, populists support massive intervention in the marketplace through federal controls on prices and interest rates and, as in Disney’s case, using government to punish a corporation for expressing “woke” opinions. In their big-government activism, populists more resemble progressive Democrats than traditional Republicans.--danforth

***

In America and Canada, a recent Lancet study found that 20,000 people die each year from heat, but 170,000 die from cold.
Globally, the study finds 4.5 million cold deaths, which is nine times more than global heat deaths.
The study also shows temperatures increasing 0.5 degrees Celsius in the first two decades of this century have caused an additional 116,000 heat deaths annually.
But warmer temperatures now also avoid 283,000 cold deaths every year.

***

Middle East Futures

The Middle East is a laboratory of modern distortion of both the past and future.

From the past, nothing can be forgotten. Hatreds must linger and flare. The Civil War in America was not enough. The revolution in the West against slavery was not enough. Independence in the Land of Ire is not enough. The Ottoman invasion of Serbia must be paid for. 

The world is a patchwork of Hatfields and McCoys fueled by ignorance, ill will, and conflict entrepreneurs. And this is seen as the moral high ground. The way we should all be. College students in the U.S. are in the streets demanding Israeli blood. Iran and Hamas are promising the righteous destruction of Israel and the death of its people.

Endless hatred is the child of identity and factionalism. At one time it was uselessly painful and destructive. But times have changed, as the Middle East shows. What are the possible outcomes in Israel? Status quo is one. The rubbing of the wounds continuing forever. Ugly and painful but tolerable for the rest of the world. Two, Israel kills their enemies, solidifies their borders, and lives in a stable area forever. That would be fine for Israel and for the world. Three, Israel loses. This is the scenario that seems to be misunderstood. Israel will never lose. It will never ask for a standing eight count, never lay down their arms, never sue for a compromised peace. If they are falling, they will take all their enemies with them, destroying the Middle East as they fall, a nuclear Sampson. This is what makes the animosity of Israel's neighbors, the strange bloodlust on the campuses, so unreasonable, like a nuclear suicide bomber. The end of Israel will be the end of the Middle East, the end of radioactive oil, and maybe--if there are enough accidental interlocking treaties--the end of us all.

USS Liberty

 

              The Amazing Story of the USS Liberty

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Damaged USS Liberty. Photo: US Navy.

(This is from St. Clair, mostly a summary of "Assault on the Liberty," a first-hand account by James Ennes Jr. whose book of the event is hair-raising story of betrayal by America's presumed friends and its own leadership. On this day in history, June 8, 1967.)

'In early June of 1967, at the onset of the Six Day War, the Pentagon sent the USS Liberty from Spain into international waters off the coast of Gaza to monitor the progress of Israel’s attack on the Arab states. The Liberty was a lightly armed surveillance ship.
Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. They made eight trips over a period of three hours. The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel.
Soon more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns.
A few minutes later a second wave of planes streaked overhead, French-built Mystere jets, which not only pelted the ship with gunfire but also with napalm bomblets, coating the deck with the flaming jelly. By now, the Liberty was on fire and dozens were wounded and killed, excluding several of the ship’s top officers.
The Liberty’s radio team tried to issue a distress call, but discovered the frequencies had been jammed by the Israeli planes with what one communications specialist called “a buzzsaw sound.” Finally, an open channel was found and the Liberty got out a message to the USS America, the Sixth Fleet’s large aircraft carrier, it was under attack
Two F-4s left the carrier to come to the Liberty’s aid. Apparently, the jets were armed only with nuclear weapons. When word reached the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara became irate and ordered the jets to return. “Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately,” he barked. The planes turned around. And the attack on the Liberty continued.
After the Israeli fighter jets had emptied their arsenal of rockets, three Israeli attack boats approached the Liberty. Two torpedoes were launched at the crippled ship, one tore a 40-foot wide hole in the hull, flooding the lower compartments, and killing more than a dozen American sailors.
As the Liberty listed in the choppy seas, its deck aflame, crew members dropped life rafts into the water and prepared to scuttle the ship. Given the number of wounded, this was going to be a dangerous operation. But it soon proved impossible, as the Israeli attack boats strafed the rafts with machine gunfire. Nobody was going to get out alive that way.
After more than two hours of unremitting assault, the Israelis finally halted their attack. One of the torpedo boats approached the Liberty. An officer asked in English over a bullhorn: “Do you need any help?”
The wounded commander of the Liberty, Lt. William McGonagle, instructed the quartermaster to respond emphatically: “Fuck you.”
The Israeli boat turned and left.
A Soviet destroyer responded before the US Navy, even though a US submarine, on a covert mission, was apparently in the area and had monitored the attack. The Soviet ship reached the Liberty six hours before the USS Davis. The captain of the Soviet ship offered his aid, but the Liberty’s conning officer refused.
Finally, 16 hours after the attack two US destroyers reached the Liberty. By that time, 34 US sailors were dead and 174 injured, many seriously. As the wounded were being evacuated, an officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence instructed the men not to talk about their ordeal with the press.
The following morning Israel launched a surprise invasion of Syria, breaching the new cease-fire agreement and seizing control of the Golan Heights.
Within three weeks, the Navy put out a 700-page report, exonerating the Israelis, claiming the attack had been accidental and that the Israelis had pulled back as soon as they realized their mistake. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara suggested the whole affair should be forgotten. “These errors do occur,” McNamara concluded.'

The Children of Israel are never alone. But sometimes it's hard to see why.

The Amazing Story of the USS Liberty

Truth-tellers are not always palatable. There is a preference for candy bars. -Gwendolyn Brooks, poet (7 Jun 1917-2000)

Chris is off to Europe.
We had dinner at the old Rico's and it was pretty good.

U.S. imports from Mexico came to $372 billion last year, according to the federal government. So slapping a 5% tariff on them amounts to a federal tax hike of … … $19 billion. Total federal taxes last year: $3.3 trillion. So that's about a 0.6% tax hike. And it will, after the mandatory theft, get recycled back into the economy.

When is a renewable not a renewable? “Nationally and internationally, large hydroelectric plants—or mega-dams—are often considered to be nonrenewable energy. Mega-dams divert and reduce natural flows, restricting access for animal and human populations that rely on rivers." (Natural Resources Defense Council) Note the "renewable" element has shifted from how the energy is created to the little woodland folk it might impact. Their energy objections are much larger than they admit and might include civilization in general.

Facebook employees have given nearly 10 times more campaign cash to Democrats than Republicans since it was founded in 2004.

“Women who work full time are paid just 80 cents, on average, for every dollar paid to men.” But these figures are raw medians for all men and women, meaning they don’t control for occupational choices, career paths, hours worked, differing risks of on-the-job fatality, and so forth. The “80 cents” figure is simply incompatible with calls of equal pay for equal work. Studies that compare apples with apples find a much narrower pay gap—or none at all.

Spotify struck a deal for Higher Ground, the entertainment-production company started by Barack and Michelle Obama, to develop and produce podcasts that will be available only on the streaming service

Today, by contrast, government is trying to “protect” us from pillows that don’t match, poorly constructed caskets, and bad massages. The state now obstructs entry into occupations like truck driving ( beyond showing that you can drive a truck), florists, funeral attendants, and hairdressers, and so many more professions. This is crazy as the only license that anyone should need to be free to sell her services to another adult is the willingness of a buyer to purchase the service. The buyer’s willingness to spend his own money on the service certifies that it meets the buyer’s standards. And if the consumer isn’t happy, he won’t come. There is no need for the state to intervene.--deRugy







           The Amazing Story of the USS Liberty

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Damaged USS Liberty. Photo: US Navy.

(This is from St. Clair, mostly a summary of  "Assault on the Liberty," a first-hand account by James Ennes Jr. whose book of the event is hair-raising story of betrayal by America's presumed friends and its own leadership. On this day in history.)

'In early June of 1967, at the onset of the Six Day War, the Pentagon sent the USS Liberty from Spain into international waters off the coast of Gaza to monitor the progress of Israel’s attack on the Arab states. The Liberty was a lightly armed surveillance ship.

Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. They made eight trips over a period of three hours. The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel.

Soon more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns.

A few minutes later a second wave of planes streaked overhead, French-built Mystere jets, which not only pelted the ship with gunfire but also with napalm bomblets, coating the deck with the flaming jelly. By now, the Liberty was on fire and dozens were wounded and killed, excluding several of the ship’s top officers.

The Liberty’s radio team tried to issue a distress call, but discovered the frequencies had been jammed by the Israeli planes with what one communications specialist called “a buzzsaw sound.” Finally, an open channel was found and the Liberty got out a message it was under attack to the USS America, the Sixth Fleet’s large aircraft carrier.

Two F-4s left the carrier to come to the Liberty’s aid. Apparently, the jets were armed only with nuclear weapons. When word reached the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara became irate and ordered the jets to return. “Tell the Sixth Fleet to get those aircraft back immediately,” he barked. The planes turned around. And the attack on the Liberty continued.

After the Israeli fighter jets had emptied their arsenal of rockets, three Israeli attack boats approached the Liberty. Two torpedoes were launched at the crippled ship, one tore a 40-foot wide hole in the hull, flooding the lower compartments, and killing more than a dozen American sailors.

As the Liberty listed in the choppy seas, its deck aflame, crew members dropped life rafts into the water and prepared to scuttle the ship. Given the number of wounded, this was going to be a dangerous operation. But it soon proved impossible, as the Israeli attack boats strafed the rafts with machine gun fire. No body was going to get out alive that way.

After more than two hours of unremitting assault, the Israelis finally halted their attack. One of the torpedo boats approached the Liberty. An officer asked in English over a bullhorn: “Do you need any help?”

The wounded commander of the Liberty, Lt. William McGonagle, instructed the quartermaster to respond emphatically: “Fuck you.”

The Israeli boat turned and left.

A Soviet destroyer responded before the US Navy, even though a US submarine, on a covert mission, was apparently in the area and had monitored the attack. The Soviet ship reached the Liberty six hours before the USS Davis. The captain of the Soviet ship offered his aid, but the Liberty’s conning officer refused.

Finally, 16 hours after the attack two US destroyers reached the Liberty. By that time, 34 US sailors were dead and 174 injured, many seriously. As the wounded were being evacuated, an officer with the Office of Naval Intelligence instructed the men not to talk about their ordeal with the press.

The following morning Israel launched a surprise invasion of Syria, breaching the new cease-fire agreement and seizing control of the Golan Heights.

Within three weeks, the Navy put out a 700-page report, exonerating the Israelis, claiming the attack had been accidental and that the Israelis had pulled back as soon as they realized their mistake. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara suggested the whole affair should be forgotten. “These errors do occur,” McNamara concluded.'

The Children of Israel are never alone. But sometimes it's hard to see why.

The New France

Marie Brenner has written an article in Vanity Fair on France and anti-Semitism. It is very sad. Here are some sections.

Amedy Coulibaly, who had grown up in a Paris suburb with his Malian parents, attacked people in a Jewish delicatessen, the Hyper Cacher, in a quiet area in Porte de Vincennes. The day before, Coulibaly had killed a policewoman who was investigating a traffic accident in the suburb of Montrouge. He had at least one Kalashnikov rifle, a Scorpion submachine gun, two Tokarev pistols, knives, ammunition, and a silver laptop, with instructions on how to upload his footage and what to say to the news media. What he did not bring, however, was any equipment to make it work without Wi-Fi. The Hyper Cacher had no Wi-Fi. He held 19 people hostage, eventually massacred four people. He wore a GoPro video camera strapped to his torso to record the slaughter. He reportedly announced to his hostages: “I am Amedy Coulibaly, Malian and Muslim. I belong to the Islamic State.” He admitted that he had killed the policewoman in Montrouge and that he was working with Cherif and Said Kouachi, the brothers responsible for the Charlie Hebdo massacre. He said, ‘There are many people like me who are now preparing in Arab countries.’ He told others, ‘I am not crazy. We understand the Koran. We understand the good and the right way.’ He said, “Do you understand why I am doing what I am doing? Do you understand what I am doing here? I am here because the Prophet has given me an order. I am here to stop the war in the Arab countries.”
By the time the siege was over, four French Jews were dead, including one young man who grabbed a gun that Coulibaly had left on a counter because it had jammed. 

France has the largest population of Jews in Europe (and the third largest in the world, after Israel and the United States) and has always been seen as the laboratory to understand what is happening on the Continent. But Jews make up less than 1 percent of the French population. Even so, according to the S.P.C.J., they are the target of 51 percent of all racist acts in France. The country has become Israel’s biggest source of immigrants.

70% of French Jews are Sephardic Jews, the Jews of Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East and their descendants. The adjective "Sephardic" and corresponding nouns Sephardi (singular) and Sephardim (plural) are derived from the Hebrew word "Sepharad," which refers to Spain.

 “This is not the Paris of Woody Allen. That Paris no longer exists.”
 =======       

The base of the Statue de la République is defaced with a swastika as a protest in support of Palestinians turns anti-Semitic, Paris, July 26, 2014. By Etienne Laurent/EPA/Corbis.

Jonathan Pollard and Priorities

Jonathan Pollard, the American Navy employee who spied for Israel in the mid-nineteen-eighties and is now serving a life sentence in Federal prison, has wormed back into the news again. It is said the Obama administration is commuting his sentence and will release him as a sop to Israel for the recent Iran treaty.
If that is true then the Iran Treaty must be a lot to apologize for.




Pollard has always been that curious mixture of dangerous threat and jerk. He used to lie about being a spy in college. When he eventually was recruited by the Israelis he was deeply in debt. He then became a heavy cocaine user and tried to set up a number of unlikely arms deals with friends and foes alike.

By his own estimates, Pollard passed to his Israeli handlers more than 800 classified publications and more than 1,000 cables, probably the largest cache of materials ever passed through espionage. “Much of what he took, contrary to what he'd have you believe, had nothing to do with Arab countries or the security of Israel," former Director of Naval Intelligence Thomas Brooks said in a "Foreign Policy" interview. It “had everything to do with U.S. collection methods, to include most specifically against the Soviet Union.” Then Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger said, "It is difficult for me...to conceive of greater harm done to national security." The Pollard loses were more than simple data losses, they were loses of process.
In 1993 Secretary of Defense Les Aspin reported that Pollard had tried 14 times to disclose classified information in letters written to various recipients from his prison cell.
 
Nonetheless Pollard insists he is essentially innocent of any crimes against the United States, rather he was just trying to protect Israel from its enemies. Somehow these terribly arrogant, destructive and dangerous people are constantly trying to assume the high-ground. (The Rosenbergs said they wanted to level the nuclear playing field away from the dangerous Americans so they gave American nuclear secrets to Russia.)



RASIN is an acronym for radio-signal notations. The manual, which is classified "top-secret Umbra," fills ten volumes, is constantly updated, and lists the physical parameters of every known signal. Pollard took it all. "It's the Bible," one former communications-intelligence officer said. "It tells how we collect signals anywhere in the world."


Defense Intelligence Agency's Community On-Line Intelligence System DIAL-COINS contained all the intelligence reports filed by Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine attaches in Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East--and their sources. Pollard got them.

National SIGINT Requirements List is essentially a compendium of the tasks, and the priority of those tasks, given to various N.S.A. collection units around the world. So American bias and interests, sometimes projected out decades, could be inferred by examining them. Pollard again.


And all of these crucial sources went to Israel.
Then to Russia. Russia.


The Israelis used the information to barter for Russian Jews to be repatriated to Israel. According to William Casey, the late C.I.A. director, "For your information, the Israelis used Pollard to obtain our attack plan against the U.S.S.R. all of it. The coordinates, the firing locations, the sequences. And for guess who? The Soviets."  Casey then explained that the Israelis had traded the Pollard data for Soviet émigrés.




Maybe the "Godfather" was wrong; maybe we should keep our friends closer.

Obama and Juliet

A number of years ago, in a movie called "Romanov and Juliet" with the wonderful Peter Ustinov, the U.N. was overwhelmed by a difficult and contentious domestic fight in a small member county. The British decided it best to partition the country and their U.N. representative rose and delivered a somber speech centering around "a house divided against itself can not stand" in favor of partition. A few days later the British realized they had made a mistake and wanted to reunite the recently partitioned country. The British ambassador rose and somberly gave the identical "house divided" speech, word for word.

Comedies abound in politics. Perhaps it is the only thing about these people that keeps us sane. This time in Ramallah two Nobel prize winners were united on the stage, symbolically of course with the President speaking on the podium and Arafat on one of those huge posters so characteristic of despotic countries behind, but as greater symbols--one an accomplished bomber of school buses and planes, one a semi-accomplished community organizer--both reminding us that no one pays any attention to anything these people do or say.

On this occasion Obama announced that the Palestinian Authority was having financial difficulties not helped by what Hamas could extort or steal or that homicidal Saudis could gift so the U.S. would give them money. This when we do not have the money for White House tours. He then compared the American civil rights movement to the Palestinian struggle. Finally he compared the Israel-Palestinian conflict with the Canadians and the U.S.--he wasn't saying which was which: "And those two states I think will be able to deal with each other the same way all states do. I mean, the United States and Canada has arguments once in a while, but they’re not the nature of arguments that can’t be solved diplomatically." 

Now who could take any of this seriously?