Europe – It is All About the Money

 

President Trump has been accused of simply reversing every last one of the items President Obama set forth as his legacy. Much of doing so is something with which many Constitution loving Americans would find laudable. Of all the items which President Trump has removed the United States from the clutches have been the Paris Climate Control Agreement and the other the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) which is better known as the Iranian Nuclear Agreement and are at the top of moves great for the United States. These are also two of the moves made by President Trump which received the greatest acrimony from the European nations and their big brother, the European Union (EU). Allow us to cover the two separately though they do have something in common, upsetting the Europeans and forcing them to prove that their motives are all purely monetary and that it is all about the money.

 

The Paris Climate Control Agreement of 2015 which was so quickly grasped upon by President Obama is actually not about the climate at all, it is about the redistribution of national wealth and the crippling of manufacturing in the developed world in order to force their productive efforts to be relocated to the third and developing world. Then there are the nations who were completely exempted from meeting any of the restrictive pollution limits, China, India and Brazil. These are nations whose carbon footprints are excessively large on a per person basis, and that actually includes China. China is heavily dependent upon coal-fired electricity plants most of which are utilizing the easiest and least environmentally tuned designs as their main need is to build these quickly and inexpensively. These coal-fired plants do not even have the most basic of pollution controls which are scrubbers. This became evident in the buildup to the 2008 Beijing hosting of the Olympics, though the world ignored the entire situation and went on as if nothing was peculiar, even ignoring the necessary emergency efforts required, as China shut down more and more industrial plants and even electrical generation to clear the air in Beijing for the games. We may as well face it, very few Olympians would be willing to wear such a mask as the women below has donned when running a marathon or especially the 100 meter sprint, not to mention the swimming events. But the normative air quality in Beijing is a health hazard to Chinese citizens forced to breath, or should we say chew, such low air quality.

 

Citizens Wearing Masks in the Streets of Beijing Credit: Greg Baker AFP

 

Another nation exempted from these stringent measures was India where the worshiped life-blood of India, the Ganges River, has become a health hazard to those who bathe in it daily. The reports on the deteriorating situation has become a critical health hazard to the thousands of Indians who need the water simply to survive and the quality has sunk below the requirement for use in many factories who have had to buy equipment to clean the water from the Ganges River just for industrial use. Needless to point out, but much of this treated water after it has been used in an industrial process end up back in the Ganges River. The history of India is written along the banks of the Ganges River and unless India desires its future to be written along these same banks, then their efforts to clean it should be their primary interest. The reason that the pollution of the Ganges River has reached such abominable proportions has in part been their being exempted from climate and pollution treaties thus a lack of pressure from the world bodies. Their problem has reached a point where the health of the people and the nation are now at risk. India hopefully will take the necessary steps to address this situation and to remedy their diseased river.

 

India Along the Ganges River with Trash Along the Shoreline

 

So, with nations highest in actual pollution, specifically air and water, why are the Europeans so upset with the United States leaving the Paris Climate Control Agreement and not saying a word about these nations with total exemptions? The reason is the requirements demand monetary redistribution. With the United States in the agreement, much of these investments required to be made to assist the developing nations was to come from the United States. Further, the standards demanded of the United States were even more strident and restrictive than those on any other nation, even compared to Europe as a whole. This is due to the fact that the demands and requirements are proportional to each national economic production and GDP. With the United States pulling out of the agreement, the European nations stand to face requirements that are slightly more stringent. This is an economically depressive result which they would prefer to avoid. Their only means of avoiding this eventuality was to pressure the Trump administration by attempting to shame them into staying in an agreement which was against their best interests. This proves one of the accusations against President Trump, namely that he has no shame. Sometimes having a thick hide and acting in your own best interests, one must be prepared to suffer some shaming, especially from those who stand to lose the most. The rest of the world, especially third world and developing nations, joined the cacophonous choir protesting Trump pulling the United States from the Paris Climate Control Agreement. President Trump simply pretended their calamitous screeching was music to his ears, and who knows, realizing the benefits to American industry, that just might have been the case.

 

 

When the reality is taken into account, the problem of CO² eight-hundred pound gorilla when it comes to such emissions becomes obvious. Even a cursory glance at the above graph would inform one that the main problem is China. The United States with its leading production numbers and almost uncountable vehicles on its roads actually has done quite well in bringing their emissions under control. Europe as well has done an exemplary job but the other problems out there are the nations which make up the rest of the world. These nations have, for the most part, minimal production and electricity generation but what they do have comes from plants with little if any pollution control mechanisms. If only their electrical generating plants were to employ scrubbers on their smokestacks, they could reduce their particulate and other emissions significantly. This is one area where the United States also stands to make improvements as there are a number of smaller electrical generating plants whose profit margins has made installing these devices cost prohibitive. This is one place where a tax reduction or 100% write off on taxes over ten years would allow for these smaller electricity producers to employ these technological marvels and reduce their output of pollutants including CO² even further. This is something the Trump administration could address and, with active citizen support, get a bill through Congress and start the ball rolling. The United Nations could also make strong gains and a positive influence in the world by arranging for these devices to be installed worldwide on all coal-fired plants. This would have far greater benefit for the human race than just sitting around and imagining more resolutions to pass claiming it is all Israel’s fault.

 

World Pollution Index from 2017

 

The map above gives a view of the pollution survey of the nations which chose to provide data or upon whom such data already existed as filed under requirements of climate treaties and agreements. Africa mostly did not provide nor did data exist largely because they are almost always exempted from these treaties and agreements. That is sad because they actually are part of the problem and need to become part of the solution. This too is an area where the United Nations could make a great difference simply by providing scrubbers to these nations to utilize on their coal-fired plants. This map includes all forms of pollution and another great problem outside Europe, the United States and the rest of the advanced world, is potable water. When it comes to Africa and potable water, communications, health and virtually every other humanity related field one can imagine, Israel has been quietly making huge strides which are making an incredible difference for the better. This is the Israeli form of quiet diplomacy which acts as supplemental to the aid Israel gives to anywhere they are permitted on the globe when disasters strike, even the United States. If the world really wished to place all forms of pollution under control and benefit all of the people living on the planet, that would be an accomplishable set of tasks but would require changing the governmental structure of much of the third world and developing nations. The main difficulty is getting past the greed, avarice and the suffocating grip the numerous dictatorial regimes impose preventing any constructive developments in much of that world. Israel gets around this barrier largely by applying their aid directly to the villages they are assisting with their water and other difficulties. That is the secret to repairing those things which are broken in our world, direct intervention avoiding governmental obstacles which are placed in the way. Sometimes working small is far more beneficial than attempting grand plans attempting to repair everything at once. Those grand schemes are more often so some political group or individual can grandstand and claim to the world, look how great a person or group we are. That is why most of the world does not know of the good Israel does, we, other than my efforts, largely just desire to assist those most in need when and where we can and forgo the publicity. This was why when CNN came across the Israeli field hospital in Haiti she was so completely blown away (see video below). Sometimes, when you are a smaller operation and everything is interconnected with limited scenarios set to cover the widest possible range of events, you appear to outdo those who are far larger and have numerous more dominoes necessary to be in a line before anyone can move. That is much of the problem with addressing the pollution and climate difficulties as the United Nations cannot make a move without every last possible nation demanding they receive their piece of the pie before even the first item is installed.

 

 

The final and concluding thoughts revolve around the other problem the European Union suffers from even more than its individual members, and that is the lack of power and inability to force its opinions and demands upon the rest of the world. The European Union was designed by those at the top to be a challenge to the power projection of the United States. They had been riding high as for the last few decades, going all the way back to just after President Reagan, the European Union has been effective in challenging the United States and even, on occasion, able to intimidate the United States into taking actions which were more advantageous to the Europeans than to the United States. That recently came to a very sudden halt and the pulling out of the Paris Climate Agreement despite the severe protestation of the European Union, even with it being backed by the United Nations, China, Russia and anybody else who felt they needed to jump up and protest, was the final ringing of the clarion bell signifying that a new sheriff was in town. The Europeans now have basically two choices, they can continue in the Paris Climate Agreement or they can also pull out and allow the agreement to come crashing down, as it probably should do. The climate agreements have largely been about taking money from the developed world and flushing down the drain claiming it was doing good being sent to the third world and developing nations. Did they do any good, probably some with perhaps three or four percent of the funds. What happened to the vast majority of the funding? It went where the vast majority of funding goes whenever these misconstrued egalitarian agreements are imposed, into the pockets of the dictatorial regimes and their cronies. Until the governmental structures of the vast majority of these nations is altered for the better where there is transparency and real accountability, nothing is going to change and development will take a back seat to avarice and outright theft. Our world is still largely a tribal world where governments remain in power by playing one tribe off of another such that their groups is seen as the sole power structure which can manage these waring factions. Despite the derogatory label that colonialism has, in some specific cases, nations have been improved and become able to slowly start to move beyond their tribal pasts. India is a prime example of such a nation though it is facing threats to her stability which will need to be answered if India is to advance further. The answer to tribalism is the real challenge the world needs address, and once that has been resolved, much will change for the better. What is the answer? If we knew that, we would be making our plans to go to Stockholm and receive a million dollar plus prize.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Palestinian Leadership Declare War on Israel

 

Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Fatah and the Palestinian Authority (PA) head-man and ruler of the Palestinian Arabs as well as being leader of the revolt and instigator for terrorism, Mahmoud Abbas has decided to wage war through surrogates throughout the world. Abbas has announced standing with French President Macron that the United States has disqualified itself from Mideast peace process. Apparently, Mahmoud Abbas is serious about this, for now, as he has also refused to answer Jared Kushner’s phone call and turned down the United States invitations for a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. But he has been a busy little beaver beyond refusing everything offered which might actually be capable of finding a solution. But Abbas does not desire a solution; he simply wants to destroy Israel by any means he can leverage. His current target is President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and future sight for the American Embassy. Abbas is drooling over the chances he might grab allowing him to hold the Temple Mount, Old City, Mount Olives Cemetery and all of Eastern Jerusalem where he can evict three entire neighborhoods for the fact that they are Jews, the unwanted, what he terms invaders despite the fact that two of these neighborhoods are Jews reclaiming what was their homes before the Jordanians performed their ethnic cleansing, something Abbas intends to repeat. Abbas hungers for all of East Jerusalem and every inch of the lands Jordan occupied for nineteen years. Abbas and the “PLO Executive Committee praised the “uprising of the Palestinian people” in response to the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and stressed the importance of further strengthening the “popular struggle by peaceful means.””

 

Salim Zanoun, the chairman of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), who also serves as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) Central Council, demanded on Sunday that the Central Council members, who are meeting in Ramallah to take a stand on the future of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and to reexamine the PLO’s recognition of Israel, renege on the Palestinian supposed recognition of Israel, something which despite Abbas constantly pretending, was never accepted. The reality is the Arab leadership will once again claim that Israel is a European colony with no connection to the Jews. Additionally they will restate a claim with a slight twist, that the Arabs were the Canaanites who originally built Jerusalem six thousand years ago. They also claim that the largest navy in the world at the end of World War II, the Netherlands Navy, to transport European Jews, the ones with no connection to Israel, to take the lands away from the Palestinian Arab founders of the area and, according to another older claim, the Palestinian Arabs invented the Canaanite language which was the first written language on Earth. You cannot make these claims up and outdo their wild declarations.

 

Abbas has gone to one of his favorite Jew and Israel hating entities, this time the European Union. He has demanded that they join him in declaring the State of Palestine as an independent nation with East Jerusalem as its capital and the June 4, 1967 lines. The date he is demanding is quite important as it is the day before Jordan joined Egypt and Syria, who had conjoined to become the United Arab Republic (UAR) who had invaded Israel intending to destroy Israel and force the Jews from the land one way or another the next morning of June 5, 1967 and the war concluded on June 10, 1967 after only six days, thus the name Six Day War. Instead of driving the Jews out of Israel, Israel had defeated the combined forces of three Arab nations, Egypt, Syria Jordan and Saudi Arabia with units from Lebanon and Iraq and additional assistance from Algeria, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Sudan and Tunisia. Below is a map of Arab nations’ military moves which predicated the Six Day War as the threat encircled the Jewish State.

 

Arab nations’ military moves which predicated the Six Day War

 

The threats became war when Israeli intelligence intercepted the attack orders and in a defensive move attacked the Egyptian Air Force while the majority of the planes were still on the ground. Israeli intelligence was so thorough that they left the decoy aircraft which were plywood replicas spread on the airfields to confuse any attacker as to which were the real aircraft so they would waste resources attacking the decoys. Israel struck only the real aircraft cementing their air superiority for the war. Later that fateful day in June of 1967 the Israeli Air Force defeated the Syrian Air Force and when the Jordanian Air Force attacked that afternoon they were met and routed by the Israeli Air Force. By the end of the war on June 10, 1967 when the United Nations, Soviet Union, United States, Britain and numerous other entities all demanded that the Israeli forces cease their advances and realizing the Arab forces had been routed and completely defeated and Israel stood ready to capture Cairo, Amman and Damascus if not prevented by the rest of the world, there was no other choice, Israel had to be prevented from capturing any Arab capital city. Israel was threatened by the world powers thus preventing Israel from declaring total victory and instead settling for territorial gains and without capture of any Arab capitals. Below are two maps showing the starting positions and resulting territories Israel captured or liberated (Judea and Samaria were occupied by Jordan renamed West Bank) during the Six Day War.

 

Six Day War Beginning and Resulting Positions from June 5, 1967 to June 10, 1967

 

So, now we understand Abbas and his inspiration for choosing June 4, 1967, as he desires a reset to the starting points from the Six Day War. Egypt already made peace and all of the Sinai Peninsula was returned by Israel and Egypt relinquished all claims to Gaza which was later gifted to the Palestinian Authority in August and September of 2005, and then taken over in a coup by Hamas in 2007. This also would return the highlands overlooking the densely populated and industrialized lands within Israel allowing for direct firing of rockets into Tel Aviv and surrounding areas. Abbas is not relying solely on the European Union as he has a great idea for using the United Nations. He desires for the United Nations convening of an international conference with full powers to resolve all the outstanding issues and all final status issues. He insists that this United Nations conference be empowered to set the final borders of the Palestinian State along the June 4, 1967 lines, the 1949 Armistice Lines or the Green Line, all names for what Israeli Abba Eban; Israeli diplomat, politician and scholar, who referred to the pre Six Day War lines as Israel’s “Auschwitz borders.” The reasoning becomes evident in the two pictures below, one before Israeli retreat back to the June 4, 1967 lines and the lower one within days if not minutes after Israel is forced back behind the Green Line, the Auschwitz borders.” That is why Israel can never accept such a solution and even should the entire world demand Israel fold and accede to Mahmoud Abbas and his eternal demands, the only result would be an inevitable war as even one attack would be intolerable.

 

Tel Aviv Now Before Green Line Peace
and
Tel Aviv the Day After Green Line Peace

 

Abbas is attempting to collect every adversary of Israel’s continued existence calling on the United Nations and European Union to join him in declaring the maximum potential borders as reality including forcing all the Israeli residents from their Judea and Samaria communities, East Jerusalem and even areas of Western Jerusalem which would become no-man’s land just as it was when Jordanian snipers would randomly shoot any Israeli which came within their scope sights. Not only would parts of Jerusalem become areas where one’s life would be endangered just traversing, but also major Israeli roadways and even Ben Gurion Airport (see images below). For people who regularly use Trans-Israel Highway Route 6 daily, they would be required to find an alternate route using secondary roads and finding a longer and more time consuming route to and from work, family, friends or simply to go to another area of Israel as simply by constructing what appears to be a residence in order to use the roof to place a sniper making this section of the Trans-Israel Highway Route 6 completely unusable unless encased in a rocket and bullet proof encapsulation. A person with a MANPAD standing on the grounds overlooking Ben Gurion Airport they could blow any aircraft landing or taking off right out of the sky. These are further examples why Israel would not be able to permit a Palestinian State to have the June 4, 1967 borders demanded by Mahmoud Abbas, and he is totally aware of this which is why his demands.

 

Trans-Israel Highway Route 6
(c/o Dr. Martin Sherman and Arutz Sheva)

 

Ben Gurion Airport Plane Vulnerability from Palestine
(c/o Dr. Martin Sherman and Arutz Sheva)

 

Mahmoud Abbas can get the European Union, United Nations and any other group, organization or grouping of allied nations to declare whatever borders or solution he can arrange, no such declaration will have any effect on the current situation and will most definitely establish any real borders which he is chasing so eagerly. The only place that Mahmoud Abbas can go and readily arrange to have borders, peace and an actual state is to meet with Israel. Only Israel is capable of making an agreement which would be enforceable. Not the United Nations and all its various institutions, not the European Union or any of its members, not Russia, China or the United States and not the Arab League, Organization of Islamic Cooperation or the entirety of Islam and the force of Allah can force a solution. If Mahmoud Abbas truly desires peace and actually wants a real nation then instead of refusing every offer and grandstanding collecting condemnations of Israel, United Nations statements which are completely unenforceable or other meaningless denunciations of the situation, then he simply need to sit down with the Israelis and not demand that Israel get nothing and he gets his entire wish list. But being reasonable or even settling for anything which does not instantly destroy Israel would be not making good on his endless promises to destroy Israel and that is why he will never accept peace as he believes that if the Arab press this long enough the world will tire of the entire affair and destroy Israel just to be rid of the conflict. We will not ruin it by providing a spoiler, as that exact situation was already predicted and the result of the ensuing conflict was given in the Bible. The world should hope it never comes to that, as the end is less than pretty.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Predictability of the Security Council

 

The resolution designed to nullify President Trump recognizing Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel and announcing the United States intended plans for moving their embassy to Jerusalem invigorated almost every member of the United Nations Security Council bringing them to immediate action. As you probably already know, their reaction was absolutely no different from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation conclusion reached in Turkey. The fourteen nations who attempted to nullify and void President Trump and actually believed that they have the power to force the United States to cancel their plans for moving the American embassy to Jerusalem were China, Russia, England, France, Japan, Italy, Egypt, Bolivia, Uruguay, Sweden, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan and Senegal. The audacity of the United Nations believing they actually have the power and right to instruct the President of the United States and the Congress and the people what they could decide and do through their elected government is astonishing. Reality is that the United States is currently planning and hopefully will be moving their embassy in the near future with or without the United Nations, OIC, European Union and almost countless nations’ blessings. Of course, United States Ambassador to the United Nation Nikki Haley vetoed using the power available to the United States just as it is to France, Britain, China and Russia currently. But what if the United States decided they wanted to do more to blunt the power of the United Nations.

 

Let us go down that road for a moment. First, were New York City inspectors to go and really give the United Nations buildings a good going over, we bet they could find sufficient serious deficiencies necessary to condemn the building and setting a date for its destruction giving the inhabitants thirty days to vacate. The real estate upon which the complex at Turtle Bay sits is prime New York property worth tens of hundreds of million or more per square foot along 1st Avenue between 42nd and 48th Streets. Somebody could build a new productive structure, a nice, private, super skyscraper, nice and new with the latest technology and interconnections for the new occupants which would be far more productive than the United Nations. The headquarters could be moved somewhere in Europe such as Paris, Geneva, Vienna or better still, Mosul, Iraq. Well, if the United Nations was located in Mosul, then we would see them make a fast and furious recognition of Kurdistan and placing Mosul within its borders probably as the capital city and they would include all the Kurds and permit the Kurdish first leaders to determine who would be permitted to reside within their borders and who would need to relocate being sent into Turkey, Iraq or even Syria depending on which area they currently reside and Kurds would be granted protective relocation inside the new national borders. The United Nations would probably warn Turkey against any belligerence or resistance to this arrangement as the United Nations would probably desire to be located in a place which was stable with democratically elected governance. They could even be sent to China or Russia, just anywhere outside the United States and hopefully to some place willing to provide them with most, or at least much, of its required financing for all functions. The reason for this is the United States could decide to just pay their minimum dues or resign from the United Nations entirely and ignore anything passed as inconsequential and inapplicable to the newly freed United States. So, what would be left of the United Nations without any American funds? Very little is the honest answer.

 

United Democracies for Freedom and Liberty

 

Of course, should the United States pull out of the United Nations and take its cash flow with them, which includes twenty-two percent of the budget, twenty-five percent of peacekeeping costs, and a relatively unknown amount for UNRWA, it would be Free of the influences of the United Nations, and the United States would free themselves of many of the pressures made through that international agency. That could include the amounts that are paid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) which is not disclosed, as there are numerous ways in which funding is sent to the PA. The only honest estimation we could make is total funding of the PA is measured in tens of billions of dollars per year if not higher. Once a goodly share of that funding stopped, the leadership would actually be required to spend a higher percentage to care for the population and less would end up in their pockets. Such might allow for a greater chance for peace. Imagine the savings if peace were to break out in the Middle East, or at least a severe calm. Free from the United Nations and the dictatorships of the world, the United States could choose a dozen or couple dozen nations, or whatever number they could find willing to operate to make the world be filled with more freedom for the people, governance which provided a plethora of liberties and assist in actually solving problems, advancing conditions throughout the world and assisting the nations which are willing to work towards a better world for all peoples, of course starting with their own but also ready, willing and capable of assisting other nations still developing and requiring the basic technologies which were available to the United States by the central era of the last century such that they might join the advanced world in the future. The United States could also work on their own infrastructure, modernizing of their aging structures.

 

What many people do not realize or even have the vision to see, our world is on a precipice walking a narrow path where the technology for near infinite possibilities is on the verge of exploding and becoming very real while at the same time some of the most threatening and destructive technologies are also becoming widely available. We were watching a story which was a slight dramatization of Albert Einstein’s life and times which included parallel events such as the Manhattan Project. When World War II came to an end, they showed the scientists who worked to develop a nuclear weapon for Germany and one of their leading physicists, Werner Heisenberg, is talking with another of the physicists who wondered what prevented them from reaching the point of making a weapon and Werner Heisenberg simply replied, let me get a piece of paper and I will draw you how to make a bomb or some similar comment. He knew and likely, any number of other Nazi scientists knew how to manufacture a simple device and simply chose not to speak up knowing the people who would be using any device they produced and very privately hoping for their defeat. We can only hope that there are such principled people but we unfortunately know otherwise, North Korea has exploded devices which, judging the data provided, are most likely designed as “Super EMP” devices. Iran is said to be close and probably able to manufacture simple nuclear weapons within the next decade. We fearfully believe that Iran not only could manufacture a thermonuclear weapon of sophisticated design already and that they probably have already produced any number of “Super EMP” devices as well as any number of thermonuclear warheads capable of placement atop their ballistic missiles and their ICBM’s and these warheads are fully capable of surviving reentry. Iran and North Korea have both launched satellites which employed the most preferred approach angles upon the United States approaching from the south which is considered the area where the United States interceptions and detection systems are partially blind.

 

That leaves the world two directions, the science fiction future we saw in things like Star Trek, Babylon V, Lost in Space and other depictions of flying around the universe, or at least the solar system, and the other side of science fiction such as On the Beach, Damnation Alley, Cyborg and other post-apocalyptic stories even including Blade Runner. The possibilities of World War III actually coming to fruition are limited but a distinct possibility while a positive future may be closer than any of us believe. The difference might be how long the United Nations spends all of its efforts joining the Europeans and parts of the Islamic world in destroying the one Jewish State of Israel while ignoring the real problems in the world. The world needs to decide what direction it desires to take whether forward towards a world of cooperation and near unbelievable discoveries and advancements which science is on the verge of discovery or back to sniping with nations against nation leading to war and ruin very possibly sending the world back thousands of years losing all that has been built within a few generations needing to start from scratch once more, if some discoveries are true.

 

Beyond the Cusp