American Delegation Visits Israel About Embassy

 

United States delegation led by Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL) visited Israel this past Saturday and Sunday and has studied the possibility of placing the United States Embassy in Jerusalem. In the past, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders have warned moving the embassy could spark violence in Israel, the Palestinian territories and the Middle East region as a whole. We posit the question of how one would be able to find this any different than the current situation. Obviously there would be little if any noticeable effect on Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the Sinai or even Turkey which has had a number of large terrorist bombings in the past few months. In Israel and the Palestinian Authority ruled areas it runs hot and cold on the levels of terror all depending on the signals they get from the ruling media. When Abbas takes to the airwaves and claims that he cannot control the uprising which is solely the expression of the desperation of the people oppressed by Israel, they know that this means it is time to rise up and try to kill Israelis by any means available. Then whatever means they find, stabbings or ramming with vehicles become the name for that Intifada which was how the last Intifada was called the Stabbing Intifada. The Palestinians decided by personalizing their uprisings instead of numbering them they would not be drawing attention to their nearly constant level of violence. Though Israeli defensive measures brought the level of stabbings down measurably, we still have the vehicular assaults as proven by the recent truck attack in Jerusalem. The reality is that the threat of added violence is exactly that, a threat. There will be no change in the levels of violence, especially in Jordan where their militarized law enforcement will not tolerate even peaceful demonstrations, let along any violence. Should Mahmoud Abbas decide to elevate the levels of violence and terrorism against Israel, then Israel will find the solution and implement one as rapidly as possible. That would be an Israeli problem and should have little effect upon the American decision to locate their embassy in the Israeli Capital City of Jerusalem. Israel promises that your embassy will be safe and guarded equally in Jerusalem as it has been in Tel Aviv and those guarding it will feel a small measure of greater pride guarding it in Jerusalem, trust us.

 

United States Embassy Tel Aviv, Israel

 

But it will cost the United States status in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as the Arab and Muslim worlds react to the move. Well, allow us here in Israel to give you a little insight. You already lost that little edge you are so afraid of losing just by bringing up the subject for debate. Further, the level of loss will continue to increase for as long as the debate continues. Now there are two means of ending the sliding effect of the United States in the MENA world’s view, either by moving the embassy or declining to move the embassy and announcing that you are fearful of moving the embassy. Oh, you claim that fear would not be the reason; it would be so as to respect the feelings of the nations who have stated their opposition. Really, you think that works? Here is the reality, should you decide not to move the embassy then whatever amount of respect you believe you had lost in the MENA world would instantly be surpassed immeasurably. By not moving the embassy you signal now that you can be bullied by the nations of MENA simply claiming that your intended act would hurt their feelings and you have no stomach for any disagreement, let alone an actual fight. You claim you really want to not lose any respect from the MENA nations by moving the embassy but the truth is to regain everything that they claim you are and will be losing by moving the embassy and gain measurable amounts of extra credit for making the correct choice, then simply move the embassy because ignoring threats and saying what you believe and then acting on it counts for everything in the MENA world.

 

What you need to learn if you do not yet understand the MENA world is that everything is a threat and every threat is a bluff. The only thing which gains you respect is calling everyone else’s bluff. When you call their bluff, then they need to decide whether going through with their threats is worth what it may cost in the future and if they back down, how they can mitigate their timidity. Their reaction to your not moving the embassy is pocketing the knowledge that if their world threatens violence then the American back down. This will only serve to make their actions towards the United States as cowardly and able to be scared by threats of violence. Once you decide to move the embassy, the ones who threatened you will influence others from their world to join in making greater threats hoping to still make the United States back down. The announcement that you will move the embassy threatens their image of the United States as a nation which can be backed down with simply threats as that has happened ever since the first announcement for moving the embassy in the 1990’s. These threats will continue and grow or lessen according to the believed potential for the United States to move the embassy. Remember that a certain level of violence equal to the ability of the terrorist organizations to penetrate the security and intelligence of the United States exists at all times. Their efforts increase whenever the United States either acts against the terror interests or when the United States announces plans that those controlling the terror interests wish to prevent.

 

 

There is but one means to remove the threat level over moving the embassy to Jerusalem once and for all, move the embassy. Do not even announce the move, simply in secret in concert with the least number of Israeli departments and individuals as the less number of people knowing of the plans, the less the possibility for any leaking of the plan. It should be possible for the United States to build an embassy building using security approved construction personnel from the United States who can hold to a cover story. Make the building being constructed be referred to as a new office building from where a series of headquarters of American companies will be operating. This would qualify for why a building is being built by American workers in the center of the modern downtown of central west Jerusalem. Then once the building is completed and everything is readied for operations, the grand opening can reveal the new name which will appear on the outside of the building which has been covered since it was first mounted. The cover comes off and it states “United States Embassy” and then be ready for about ten to twelve weeks of screaming and shoe throwing. Place additional Marines around every MENA embassy and meet the reaction head on. Once the MENA nations and groups have vented sufficiently to make their chest beating need be satisfied they will quiet back to normal, which is not all that quiet as the NSA, CIA, Military Intelligence and other data gathering agencies can tell you and back it with evidence in spades. Then everything can return to its nominal level, not its normal level as nothing about the MENA nations of the world can be deemed normal, so nominal will have to suffice.

 

Imagined New Style for United States Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel

 

Further, the embassy will be in Jerusalem, West Jerusalem but still Jerusalem, and that will set a precedent for other nations and it will remove the claims from some out of the MENA world who claim that all of Jerusalem belongs to Islam and that neither the Jews nor the Christians have any rights, claims or history to or from Jerusalem and that neither Jews or Christians ever held Jerusalem because before Islam conquered Jerusalem it had no previous history because everything in Islam begins and ends with Islam and no other existence holds even the level of fancy as far as the Muslims are concerned. Moses, not a Jew, Noah, well, he really was not a Jew, Abraham, not a Jew, Isaak was never taken for sacrifice on Mount Moriah because that was Ishmael just as the Koran says and the Hebrew Bible is a misrepresentation because Judaism made up everything because only the Quran is true and the Christian Bible is also just a pack of lies and misrepresentations also because only the Quran tells truths and Jesus was an Islamic prophet, nothing more. Jesus will play a role in the end times according to the Quran. Jesus will return as a prophet readying the world for the return of the true final prophet of Allah, Jesus will return and make the world suitable for Muhammad who will come and lead the world into the age of perfection Islamic style. With this as the prescription for our future according to the Quran and Islam, what possibly could be the terrible consequence for moving an embassy to the Israeli capital city? Face it, there is nothing to fear but prolonging the agony by continuing the debate as the law declared the embassy move into law and all any President can do is prolong the agony so why not go for the ecstasy and just move the embassy to Jerusalem and get ‘er done!.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Trump Clinton, the Aftermath

 

Well, it actually is all over except the shouting, and there sure seems to be a whole lot of shouting. If you do not believe us, go visit Facebook and if your page is not filled with screaming heebie jeebies, well, then your friends either do not speak English or other major languages or your friends have never heard of this place called the United States of America. Just for your edification, right now they do not appear all that united. The winner of the election rightfully depends on how you figure the winner. By the rules set forth in the United States Constitution, Donald Trump won receiving the majority of the Electoral College Delegates and it was not even close. If, on the other hand, you play by whatever rules best support your argument, in this case the popular vote, then Hillary Clinton should be the President. But if you really want to be picky, then the Democrat candidate should have been the disenfranchised Bernie Sanders and everybody knows that he would have won, just ask his supporters, they’ll tell you all about how he was cheated and how he would have creamed Trump in the General election. Just in case you have not caught on, it’s complicated. To make matters even more bizarre, Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President, did not win a single Electoral College Delegate but still demanded recounts in the three states which Hillary Clinton was closest to beating Donald Trump and would have, any two of the three, given Hillary Clinton the victory making her President. Just for clarity, Jill Stein had nothing to gain in any recount even if done by a blind supporter of her candidacy. For reasons that escaped those on the left, that includes most Hillary Clinton supporters and all of Jill Stein supporters, the courts refused the recount efforts and decreed that the recount request by Jill Stein was ridiculous because it could never have gained her any advantage. They were very polite not to dress her down for acting for Hillary Clinton and at the Clinton Campaign’s request that she be her agent so that Hillary could remain above the dirty down under shenanigans. So, the end result is Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, which is like saying she received over 60% of California and New York plus, for the record, over 90% of Washington D.C., which way outnumbered anything Texas could produce as it was almost close in Texas, 55% Trump, but Donald Trump received the most Electoral College Delegates, that is more states which were close such as Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and you get the idea, thus winning the Presidential race. For those having difficulty, if one were to be running for school president and each of the twelve levels of classes received one delegate and candidate A won three of the classes by fifty votes each but Candidate B won the remaining nine classes by three votes on average then Candidate B wins the election nine to three but loses the vote count by one-hundred-twenty-three votes.

 

Now let us give you the particulars. You will hear the claim that each person’s vote in Wyoming, the least populous state, was equal to a thousand votes in California, the most populous state, which explains why Hillary Clinton killing Donald Trump in California but losing Wyoming was important, that actually is how it is supposed to work. If the vote were straight popular vote would anybody ever campaign in Wyoming or Alaska or anywhere other than California, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida and Texas? Winning California, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida would easily win you the popular vote but what about the remaining forty-three states, what are they, chopped liver? That was exactly what the Founding Fathers wished to avoid except in their day it was Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The Electoral College is made up of five-hundred-thirty-five delegates. Each state receives two delegates to equal their number of Senators and then they get a delegate for each member of the House of Representatives. Every state is guaranteed a minimum of one Representative thus in the Electoral College Wyoming gets three delegates and California gets fifty-five delegates. The population of California is many times greater than the population of Wyoming, sufficient that seventy-five delegates might be a closer representation of the difference, but that is not the rule and the rules for the election were clear, crystal clear, at the beginning of the campaign. Despite knowing that she would win in California and New York, Hillary Clinton still campaigned in both states as if they were in question and crucial to her winning yet she spent little if any time in Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Michigan believing they too were guaranteed. They were not. Still, the screaming will continue as if a great miscarriage of justice has been committed because Hillary Clinton was owed the Presidency and Donald Trump is a poser.

 

So, what is the truth behind this election? Well, first off is Donald Trump is not worthy of the office of President, but then again neither was Hillary Clinton. Probably there might have been a third party or independent candidate worthy but the actual reality is the only ones with any hope of winning were the two major party candidates. So, what are the American people to do when both parties put up such candidates? They chose, it is that simple. Truth of the matter is that there are likely a fair number of people who voted for Donald Trump who now wish they had not but had Hillary Clinton won there would have likely been a near equal number of people upset with having voted for her. When the vast majority of the people are voting against one candidate rather than supporting the candidate receiving their vote, there can be no validated winner. That aside, the fact is Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton by three-hundred-six delegates to two-hundred-thirty-two delegates. That is an electoral landslide despite losing the popular vote. That leaves a vast number of disgruntled Americans facing a President who feels he has an electoral mandate. The media will do what it is able to deprive Donald Trump of any feelings of great victory be constantly questioning his victory and claiming he stole the Presidential election. Even the more conservative and Republican friendly media will not be all that favorable to Donald Trump thus he is unlikely to have many friends anywhere along the political landscape. But there are those who claim, us included, that if you are making everybody angry then you are probably being extremely fair as nobody likes a fair decision, they want their side to obviously win.

 

Still, the question is what choice was there when both candidates were so obviously flawed? The honest truth was the election was more about which candidate was going to lose, not who would win. Hillary lost the election far more than Trump won the election. Each candidate received more of their votes from people scared to death of the other candidate in the White House. As it turned out, more voters in more states were terrified of the Clinton Foundation and the pay to play politics than they were of a complete clown and poser playing at President for the next four years. More people over a wider geographic area felt that Trump could and would do less damage to the nation than Clinton. There were no great expectations or value voters but had there been such, they voted Trump over Clinton. The reality was once Hillary Clinton campaigned in a single speech that she would be President Obama’s third term she lost. Her repeating that mantra cost her the election as the states between the great mountain ranges, the Appalachians and the Rockies, voted all but unanimously for Trump. Hillary won the megalopolises and Trump the smaller cities, towns and countryside. This election was very much similar to the Truman defeat of Dewey by taking rural America over the cities. That election was initially called for Dewey famously by the Chicago Daily Tribune leading to the famous picture of Truman holding up that paper with the headline of “Dewey Defeats Truman” at his victory party. There was one news magazine which had reported a Clinton victory in the election thus history repeated itself except we had to fake the picture. This election will be exciting demonstrations and questions about what will be and might have been. No matter which side of the argument you sit, you cannot win on Facebook. To be honest, Facebook has gotten borderline toxic no matter who you supported as the extremes are ruling the posting wars. If you can survive more than fifteen minutes either you are ignoring the vast majority of posts or you have apolitical friends. All we can request is please bring back the kitten and puppy pictures and funny videos, please.

 

Dewey Defeats Truman and
Clinton Defeats Trump
Headlines Then and Now

 

The future will debate on into infinity what would have been and what was. There will be predictions of how different things would be and debates over if Trump or Clinton really is the anti-Christ. Trump is the President and the best thing we all can do is pray that he makes at least mostly good choices. We also need remember that many of the things Trump will do, that can be reversed in the future just as things President Obama did are now being altered or nixed all together. That is how the American system functions, or malfunctions, all depending on whether your side is in power or not. After four years the American people will be given the opportunity to decide if Donald Trump was a worthy President or not. First the Republicans will get to decide whether to run Trump again or not and then the people will get a chance if the Republicans have not replaced him. Then there is the chance that Trump will decide four years of the bearing the responsibilities is a bit much for him and not run for reelection. It is possible as it has probably happened before like when Lyndon Baines Johnson decided not to run for another term seeing he would definitely have lost and did not want that on his resume. Whatever the case will be, in two years the entire House of Representatives is up for election and one third of the Senate, which leaves a large amount of potential change if people decide that the nation is going in the wrong direction still. This election was somewhat about the direction of the nation with Hillary Clinton claiming to retain the status quo and Donald Trump being the agent for change, radical change. What was interesting is that radical change won as that is uncharacteristic of the American voters and has seldom been the case. The last time such was chosen was Ronald Reagan, not to draw even the slightest of comparisons though if Donald Trump does half as much good he will have been a success. That will likely get some reactions claiming we are insane if we believe Reagan was a good President and that it was Carter’s policies of freedom that broke the Soviet empire down. That is the belief in some circles; fortunately we travel largely in equilateral triangles so as not to get dizzy. All that can be said in honesty now is may Donald Trump be guided by the better angels and produce good for the largest numbers of peoples as he is able with the limited amount of power he legally wields and may he only wield those defined powers.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

Can President Trump Cure the Ills of America?

 

The United States new leader, President Donald J. Trump, promised to “Make America Great Again.” The real question should be can he cure the United States of her illness. This disease has numerous symptoms of which we will cover a few of the most threatening. The first on the list is a sinister little one which hides in plain sight. The current reproductive rate is 1.84 children per woman which is well below the 2.33 reproductive rate necessary for maintaining a nation’s population. This simply means that the United States will have fewer workers to support an aging population and this will only grow more and more serious over time. The only obvious solution is to allow for immigration, eventually massive immigration. From all expectation, any large immigration program will lead to a rebalancing of the predominant population statistics in the favor of whichever groups of foreign nations contribute to the immigration. The most readily available populations are from Central America and South America. This has been the trending for the past decades which is leading to a growing Hispanic population which is rapidly becoming the largest minority population and with time they will become the predominant population. There is a fortunate trait in that the vast majority of such immigrants hold similar religious identities and have a Judeo-Christian ethics and history which will make for a merging of the populations and not as much a shock to the culture or as much a threat for large changes in laws and outlook of the resultant population. Should the United States instead bring in immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) there would be an inevitable confrontation between the emerging culture and the currently existing culture. If history is any indicator, an increasing Islamic minority would at some point lead to an actual confrontation which the aging Judeo-Christian community who would most definitely loses.

 

The Donald-Make America Great Again-Trump

 

This problem has been traced from demographic studies to have a direct relation to the legalization of abortion after the 1973 Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade decision leading to nationally recognizing a legal right for a woman to obtain an abortion. The good news is that the numbers of abortions have steadily decreased over the past few decades. The not so great news is that this has not led to any measurable increase in the reproductive rate as was expected. Demographic studies have shown that couples are waiting until later in life before getting married. This had led to the obvious postponement of starting families and, as in most cases both husband and wife are professionals with careers, they often put off having a family until even later leading to many couples having a single child , or worse, deciding not to have children at all. Societal studies have also seen a trending in millennials for their deciding to forgo marriage, children and even permanent relationships instead settling to have small groups of friends who have open partnerships or some simply leading singular lives dropping in and out of relationships never desiring to become involved in a permanent relationship. Perhaps these individuals will settle down later in life but that will likely lead to a childless relationship as they may wait until past the point of fertility. Whatever the future, the current trends indicate that the only solution to the American childlessness will be through immigration and praying that the new immigrants prove immune to the childless culture as they come from a more reproductive friendly culture.

 

Islamic immigrants would also have a higher reproductive rate than the current American culture. The one catch is that it has been found that as financial wealth of a society increases, reproductive rates plummet. This was what has struck Europe and has been given as one of the reasons the political rulers have been allowing a free import of Syrian and other MENA refugees. Whether such a program was a good idea or a potential allowing for an infiltration leading to an eventual takeover by Islamic policies is something which is still being debated. Time may settle that debate before any conclusions are forthcoming. The one certainty is that many of the existing European populations are not overly excited about the newcomers and may be voting in a whole new and opposing set of leaders as elections sweep across the continent. Should Europe start to become an Islamic based society, then that may play well for solving some of the system shock for the United States as many of the elite, and any others with sufficient means, would flee Europe for the apparent safety of the United States. Much of this future will depend on socioeconomic developments and for the existing confrontations and other dangerous situations not developing into a far broader set of conflicts leading eventually to an all-encompassing conflict. This might actually have the effect of shocking the current Western World out of its self-serving egoism and realizing that there is only a future if there exists a prodigy to which to hand over that future and that depends on having said prodigy. Having such a revelation sweep Western society would be a blessing though it would be preferable for it not to have to be impressed through some horrific conflict as such changes have been initiated in previous eras. Such conflagrations have also brought down empires which not much earlier had been considered a permanent fixture assured forever into the future. The lesson there for the United States is that nothing remains on top forever, not Rome, not the British, not the Spanish, not the Egyptians, not Alexander’s Greeks and not even China, one of the longest continuous empires still existing and asserting a presence in the modern age.

 

Another serious illness striking the United States is the political divide which has not only grown wider this century but has also grown far nastier and more toxic. This past week proved this beyond any shadow of doubt. When President Obama was first elected in 2008 there was disappointment on the Republican side but most Americans hoped for the best. Many were disappointed but still believed there was hope and President Obama was reelected. After the 2012 election there was a smattering of protests which were nonviolent and largely quiet. The media made sure they had a short self-life by largely ignoring their existence. This present Inauguration brought back the protests and cries of foul from 2000 except with far more violence and vitriol. Madonna spoke of dreaming of blowing up the White House. That was quite far overboard as that would be such a waste of the rebuild after the War of 1812 which was finally completed in 1817 and President James Monroe moved into the new and improved White House. The demonstrations were boisterous and somewhat over the top including the burning of President Trump in effigy. The problem was with the violent actors who destroyed property, attacked police, attacked injuring innocent people who were simply attending Inaugural Dances including the insulting, spitting upon and injuring of a Gold Star widow and her sister. Spirited protests and debate are one thing and destruction of property and assaulting people and police is a completely different and unacceptable form of protest and should be considered beyond the pale. People work and depend on those places for their families and futures and the destruction of their workplaces hurt innocents and since a good many of these places were in major cities, especially those in Washington D.C. where over 90% voted for Hillary Clinton, most of the people hurt by these unscrupulous acts were Hillary supporters. Whatever the presumed excuse, such violence, if left unchecked, only grows and eventually leads to the destruction of the society.

 

The other problem with the violence was that it was presumed to be in support of groups which resemble numerous fascist entities of the past such as the infamous Brownshirts which used violence in order to scare the German people into demanding the government do something, anything, just end the violence. Once the people agreed to the government assuming emergency powers giving them absolute power, the Nazis wiped out the Brownshirts replacing them with the SS who became the new enforcers. The possibility that hidden somewhere within the leftist ranks are those seeking a repeat from history, using the rabble to stir up sufficient troubles at some point in the future to takeover and put in place a dictatorial fascist governance is all too possibly the end result. This has been the manner in which virtually every democratic based government has fallen throughout history; so saying it could not happen here is a fool’s gambit. Many of the demonstrations resembled the Red Guard demonstrations at the beginning of the Communist takeover of Russia deposing the Russian Provisional Government which was democratically elected in a limited vote and was presumed to be setting up a democratic form of government when the Communists decided they didn’t need any democracy, they simply desired replacing one dictatorial government with another. Caesar also replaced a democratic republic of Rome relegating the Senate into an echo chamber until they decided to depose him old school. The assassination of Caesar did no good as all it did was immortalize his name making it the title for the reign of dictators until the fall of Rome centuries later. Obviously saying it cannot happen here is a blindness that no democracy can afford. Reportedly, American Abolitionist and liberal activist Wendell Phillips on January 28, 1852 speaking to members of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society stated,

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few. The manna of popular liberty must be gathered each day or it is rotten. The living sap of today outgrows the dead rind of yesterday. The hand entrusted with power becomes, either from human depravity or esprit de corps, the necessary enemy of the people. Only by continued oversight can the democrat in office be prevented from hardening into a despot; only by unintermitted agitation can a people be sufficiently awake to principle not to let liberty be smothered in material prosperity.”

 

Beyond the Cusp