SECRETARY FORRESTAL STATED THE OBVIOUS OVER 66 YEARS AGO

Many highly-placed Americans opposed Pres. Truman's decision to recognize Israel and this is perhaps the most compelling argument:

But opposition really came from an even more formidable group: the "wise men" who were simultaneously creating the great Truman foreign policy of the late 1940s -- among them [George] Marshall, James V. Forrestal, George F. Kennan, Robert Lovett, John J. McCloy, Paul Nitze and Dean Acheson. To overrule State would mean Truman taking on Marshall, whom he regarded as "the greatest living American," a daunting task for a very unpopular president.

"There are thirty million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other," Defense Secretary Forrestal told Clifford. "Why don't you face up to the realities?" 

BTW, IT WASN'T HAMAS

UPDATE: See correction above

The murder of 3 young Israelites was not done by Hamas and the Israeli government knew that within 48 hours of their deaths, so when Netanyahu blamed Hamas, he was lying because he wanted a justification to attack Gaza.

FATS ALSO ISN'T DOING VERY WELL IN BOSTON

Michael Harris was interviewed by the Boston Herald and this passage is interesting:

As for ratings, WTKK’s former talk competitor, WRKO-AM (680), was in a dismal 25th place during the spring ratings period among coveted 25- to 54-year-old listeners. WBUR-FM (90.9) was 14th, while its NPR competitor, WGBH-FM (89.7), was 17th. News station WBZ-AM (1030) was 15th.

WRKO carries Limbaugh and Mark Levin.

STATING THE OBVIOUS

But as Orwell stated, "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

Ex-FBI director warns that Gaza violence will fuel al-Qaida threat

By Michael Isikoff 6 hours ago Yahoo News

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller warned that the current violence in Gaza will inflame anti-U.S. sentiment in the region and exacerbate an increasingly dangerous terror threat to the U.S.

"We cannot forget that what's happening in Gaza today will feed and fuel the desire for many more to join radical groups," Mueller said, speaking at the Aspen Security Forum on Friday.

BECK RELYING ON TWISTED LOGIC AGAIN

Glenn Beck falsely accused a Saudi college student of being deeply involved in the Bostonn Marathon despite the fact that the student was cleared by the investigators.  The student sued for defamation and Beck's lawyer is trying to wiggle out of the charge by claiming the student is a "public figure."  Of course, the student never was a public figure so I'm looking forward to the success of the students law suit.

I HAVE TO GIVE GEORGE NOORY SOME CREDIT

I used to think his segments about the effects of a solar storm were typical Coast to Coast AM ghost stories but a study by the National Academies of Science found that the damage to the electrical system as described by Noory is plausible.

TED "TAIL GUNNER" CRUZ SHOULD STOP PANDERING

(h/t David Weigel)

At the CUFI conference, Cruz said this:

 "Give up the centrifuges," said Cruz. "Hand over the enriched uranium—all of it. Shut down the ICBM program."

Here's the news about the enriched uranium:

Iran completes process of eliminating enriched uranium
20 July 2014 Last updated at 20:06 ET
BBC News

Iran has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the UN nuclear agency says.

The conversion of its stock of 20%-enriched uranium was part of a deal to curb Iran's nuclear programme.

The US said last week it would unblock $2.8bn in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran's compliance.

HOW/WHY DID CBS NEWS FAIL THIS TIME?

The headline - "John Kerry defies FAA ban, flies into Israel to push for cease-fire" - is mistaken because the FAA ban only applies to US commercial flights and Kerry rode on a USAF plane. This is from the CBS news article:

Kerry flew into Tel Aviv on an Air Force jet one day after the FAA banned commercial flights into Ben-Gurion International Airport.

THE MSM HAS FAILED US AGAIN

Except for David Weigel at Slate, no one seems to have covered the maniacs at the latest CUFI conference.  Considering that 4 US senators (Cruz, Inhofe, Graham and Tim Scott) spoke at this conference, it  should have been covered by at least a couple of MSM political reporters, and especially foreign affairs reporters considering these statements by Pastor Hagee:

“I’ll bless those that bless you and I’ll curse those that curse you,” said Hagee, quoting from the book of Genesis. “That’s God’s foreign policy statement, and it has not changed.”

The objective of Hamas, said Hagee, “is to win the media war with dead civilians. We’ve come to Washington to ask our government to stop demanding for Israel to show restraint.”

IF A MARKET CAN RE RIGGED, IT WILL BE RIGGED

That should be the 1st Law of Capitalism and even Adam Smith recognized this flaw almost 250 years ago:

People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.
The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter X

Today we have investment banks taking the place of individual traders, as Matt Taibbi pointed out last February:

The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet
By Matt Taibbi
February 12, 2014 11:00 AM ET
ROLLING STONE

Today, banks like Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs own oil tankers, run airports and control huge quantities of coal, natural gas, heating oil, electric power and precious metals. They likewise can now be found exerting direct control over the supply of a whole galaxy of raw materials crucial to world industry and to society in general, including everything from food products to metals like zinc, copper, tin, nickel and, most infamously thanks to a recent high-profile scandal, aluminum.

The aluminum rigging was almost child's play for the banksters:

A Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, Pure Gold

By DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI
Published: July 20, 2013
NY Times

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — Hundreds of millions of times a day, thirsty Americans open a can of soda, beer or juice. And every time they do it, they pay a fraction of a penny more because of a shrewd maneuver by Goldman Sachs and other financial players that ultimately costs consumers billions of dollars.

The story of how this works begins in 27 industrial warehouses in the Detroit area where a Goldman subsidiary stores customers’ aluminum. Each day, a fleet of trucks shuffles 1,500-pound bars of the metal among the warehouses. Two or three times a day, sometimes more, the drivers make the same circuits. They load in one warehouse. They unload in another. And then they do it again.

The back-and-forth lengthens the storage time. And that adds many millions a year to the coffers of Goldman, which owns the warehouses and charges rent to store the metal. It also increases prices paid by manufacturers and consumers across the country.

ANOTHER CASE OF AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

(h/t The Weather Channel)

Out of 20 countries polled, America has the lowest percentage of people who think man-made global warming is real:

WHY IS CHRIS CILLIZZA GETTING A PAYCHECK?

His analysis here doesn't even reach the superficial:

Marco Rubio made the single best argument against Hillary Clinton’s presidential prospects today
By Chris Cillizza July 22 at 11:46 AM
WaPo

The point Rubio is driving at is that Clinton is politics past, not politics future

ALL conservatives by fact and by definition are politics past.

HEDGE FUNDS ARE TRICKSEY

Before I begin, I don't think John McCain should be on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations because he's ignorant & cranky.  This time he doesn't seem to have gummed up the investigation but that's probably only because he was re-elected in 2012. The leverage allowed under this scheme is clearly a threat to the general economy.

Senate Inquiry Faults Hedge Funds’ Tax Strategy
By ALEXANDRA STEVENSON
July 21, 2014 5:13 pm
NYT

“These banks and hedge funds involved in this case used dubious structured financial products in a giant game of ‘let’s pretend,’ costing the Treasury billions and bypassing safeguards that protect the economy from excessive bank lending for stock speculation,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the Senate subcommittee.

The basket options under scrutiny were structured as accounts that allowed hedge funds to bypass taxes on short-term trades. Barclays and Deutsche Bank used the options to build special accounts for their hedge fund clients in their own names and claimed they owned the assets when it was, in fact, the hedge fund clients that exercised full control of the assets, determining each trade and reaping all the profits, the Senate investigation found.

The basket options were also structured to allow hedge funds to borrow greater amounts of money to trade, far exceeding the federal leverage limits for Wall Street firms that are broker-dealers; these limits were first enacted in the 1930s. Hedge funds, which are not regulated as broker-dealers are, borrow money to help amplify their returns.

Under the average brokerage account, investors are allowed to borrow only $1 for every $2 in the account. Within these complicated financial structures, Renaissance Technologies was able to borrow as much as $17 for every $1 in the account.

MONEY & POLITICS

I was recently listening to a re-broadcast of this NPR program and I was struck by the claim that about 150,000 donors dominate US electoral politics.  I sent an email to Mayday PAC and I've gotten a reply that pointed me to this WaPo article:

Supreme Court ruling gives small number of wealthy donors new ways to drive campaigns
By Matea Gold April 3, 2014

If the overall limits had been lifted for the 2012 campaign, about 1,200 wealthy donors who hit or came close to the limit on giving to candidates and party committees could have poured an additional $304 million into federal political committees, according to an analysis by the liberal groups Demos and U.S. PIRG.

That nearly equals the $313 million that 4 million small donors gave to the campaigns of President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney that cycle.

KEVIN GETS TO THE BOTTOM OF THE DATA ONCE AGAIN

Kevin Drum looked into a Bloomberg article which argued that stagnant wages were an illusion caused by the retirement of so many Boomers and found that stagnation is real regardless of Boomer retirements:

EVIDENCE AGAINST 2 3 MAJOR TENETS OF ECONOMIC CONSERVATISM

(1) Conservatives always say that higher taxes reduce or eliminate job growth but California is a counter-example:

David Cay Johnston: State’s job growth defies predictions after tax increases
By David Cay Johnston
Special to The Bee
Published: Sunday, Jul. 20, 2014 - 12:00 am
Last Modified: Sunday, Jul. 20, 2014 - 3:08 pm

Dire predictions about jobs being destroyed spread across California in 2012 as voters debated whether to enact the sales and, for those near the top of the income ladder, stiff income tax increases in Proposition 30. Million-dollar-plus earners face a 3 percentage-point increase on each additional dollar.
“It hurts small business and kills jobs,” warned the Sacramento Taxpayers Association, the National Federation of Independent Business/California, and Joel Fox, president of the Small Business Action Committee.
So what happened after voters approved the tax increases, which took effect at the start of 2013?
Last year California added 410,418 jobs, an increase of 2.8 percent over 2012, significantly better than the 1.8 percent national increase in jobs.
California is home to 12 percent of Americans, but last year it accounted for 17.5 percent of new jobs, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.

(2) Conservatives always say the cutting taxes will promote revenue growth & jobs but Kansas is a great counter-example:

Conservatives Have Free Reign In Kansas. It’s Failing.
Oliver Willis on May 07, 2014
THE DAILY BANTER

Brownback and his buddies have enacted all manner of conservative economic policy in the state. Cutting taxes, etcetera. What is the result? Guess.

Citing a sluggish recovery from the recession, risk inherent in the governor’s tax plan and uncertainty over the Legislature’s ability to keep cutting spending, one of the nation’s two major debt rating agencies downgraded Kansas’ credit rating Thursday.
Moody’s Investors Service dropped Kansas from its second-highest bond rating, Aa1, to its third highest, Aa2. The Kansas Department of Transportation also took the same downgrade.

As Businesweek explained, “the immediate effect has been to blow a hole in the state’s finances without noticeable economic growth.”

UPDATE: Make that 3 tenets (h/t Digby) -

New Data Show Faster Job Growth in States With Higher Minimum Wage
Sam Frizell @Sam_Frizell
July 19, 2014
TIME

State-by-state hiring data released Friday by the Labor Department reveal that in the 13 states that boosted minimum wages at the beginning of this year, the number of jobs grew an average of 0.85 percent from January to June. The average in the other 37 states was 0.61 percent, the Associated Press reports.

CHILD IMMIGRANTS & DISEASE

Many conservatives have been warning for years about the diseases immigrants bring with them and this offers a little push back on that meme:

County says immigrant kids pose minimal health risk

July 18, 2014 8:00 pm • By Jamar Younger
Arizona Daily Star

The undocumented Central American children passing through a processing center in Nogales and staying in Tucson pose a very low health risk to county residents, according to a memo from county health officials.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Chief Raleigh Leonard, the federally designated incident commander for the area, told Garcia that federal officials did not have any health concerns regarding the health and well-being of the children in Nogales, who are held at the facility for three days.

While at the facility, the children undergo a medical evaluation that includes multiple vaccinations, a brief behavioral assessment and a pregnancy test.

UPDATE: Some data -

As final migrant kids leave Nogales, officials say they are in good health
Mariana Dale, The Republic | azcentral.com 10:53 p.m. MST July 18, 2014

"I have a 4- and 8-year-old," said Pima County Health Director Francisco Garcia, who produced a report for the county. "The kinds of things these kids have are the kinds of things my kids get at school."

All children processed in Nogales receive vaccinations for measles, mumps and rubella, pertussis (whooping cough) and diphtheria, influenza and meningococcus. Of the more than 4,000 children processed at the Nogales facility, there have been two cases of influenza, two cases of chicken pox and one case of tuberculosis, according Garcia's report.

ANOTHER WHINE ABOUT THE NEWS MEDIA

This time its concentrated on science news instead of political news. Here's the gist:

As Hank Campbell and I detailed in our book, Science Left Behind, science journalists are quick to point out unscientific flaws in Republican statements and policies, but shy away from doing the same for Democrats.

If you deny Evolution and the Big Bang, of course journalists are going to take a hard look at your other statements.

PERSPECTIVE & SPLIT LOYALTIES

Here's a scoreboard for the Israel-Palestine conflict (as if this picture weren't enough) -

Deadly day in Gaza as Israeli offensive widens
Yousef Al-Helou and Jabeen Bhatti,
Special for USA TODAY 1:58 a.m. EDT July 21, 2014

The deaths bring the total number of Israeli military casualties to 18. Two civilians have also been killed by attacks in Israel while at least 432 Palestinians have been killed and another 3,000 wounded since the conflict began nearly two weeks ago, according to Gaza Health Ministry officials.

Here's two guys who Sheldon Adelson should commemorate:

Two of the 13 Israeli soldiers killed Sunday were dual U.S.-Israel nationals, the Times of Israel reported.

One of them was identified as Sean Carmeli of South Padre Island, Texas, Chabad.org reported.

Max Steinberg, a Los Angeles native and volunteer in the Israel Defense Forces, also was among the soldiers killed, JewishJournal.com reported. Steinberg, from the Woodland Hills section of the San Fernando Valley, was a sniper in Golani and joined Israeli forces in December 2012, it said.

THE KORAN ON THE JEWS

I went to this site first and it seems to be the best one.  I used the site's search function to look for "Jews" and there are 122 results.  I will list the ones here that are unfavorable to the Jews along with the translator and chapter & verse citation.

I tried avoid mere doctrinal disputes to get at what in the Koran leads many Muslims to hate Jews.


Surat Al-Fātiĥah (The Opener)
1:7
Muhsin Khan [This is where I will give the translator's name)

The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace , not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians).

Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow)
2:89
Muhsin Khan

And when there came to them (the Jews), a Book (this Quran) from Allah confirming what is with them [the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel)], although aforetime they had invoked Allah (for coming of Muhammad Peace be upon him ) in order to gain victory over those who disbelieved, then when there came to them that which they had recognised, they disbelieved in it. So let the Curse of Allah be on the disbelievers.

Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow)
2:91
Muhsin Khan

And when it is said to them (the Jews), "Believe in what Allah has sent down," they say, "We believe in what was sent down to us." And they disbelieve in that which came after it, while it is the truth confirming what is with them. Say (O Muhammad Peace be upon him to them): "Why then have you killed the Prophets of Allah aforetime, if you indeed have been believers?"

Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow)
2:96
Muhsin Khan

And verily, you will find them (the Jews) the greediest of mankind for life and (even greedier) than those who - ascribe partners to Allah (and do not believe in Resurrection - Magians, pagans, and idolaters, etc.). Everyone of them wishes that he could be given a life of a thousand years. But the grant of such life will not save him even a little from (due) punishment. And Allah is All-Seer of what they do.

Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow)
2:99
Muhsin Khan

And indeed We have sent down to you manifest Ayat (these Verses of the Quran which inform in detail about the news of the Jews and their secret intentions, etc.), and none disbelieve in them but Fasiqun (those who rebel against Allah's Command).

Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow)
2:142
Muhsin Khan

The fools (pagans, hypocrites, and Jews) among the people will say, "What has turned them (Muslims) from their Qiblah [prayer direction (towards Jerusalem)] to which they were used to face in prayer." Say, (O Muhammad SAW) "To Allah belong both, east and the west. He guides whom He wills to a Straight Way."

Surat 'Āli `Imrān (Family of Imran)
3:118
Muhsin Khan

O you who believe! Take not as (your) Bitanah (advisors, consultants, protectors, helpers, friends, etc.) those outside your religion (pagans, Jews, Christians, and hypocrites) since they will not fail to do their best to corrupt you. They desire to harm you severely. Hatred has already appeared from their mouths, but what their breasts conceal is far worse. Indeed We have made plain to you the Ayat (proofs, evidences, verses) if you understand.

Surat 'Āli `Imrān (Family of Imran)
3:181
Muhsin Khan

Indeed, Allah has heard the statement of those (Jews) who say: "Truly, Allah is poor and we are rich!" We shall record what they have said and their killing of the Prophets unjustly, and We shall say: "Taste you the torment of the burning (Fire)."

Surat 'Āli `Imrān (Family of Imran)
3:183
Muhsin Khan

Those (Jews) who said: "Verily, Allah has taken our promise not to believe in any Messenger unless he brings to us an offering which the fire (from heaven) shall devour." Say: "Verily, there came to you Messengers before me, with clear signs and even with what you speak of; why then did you kill them, if you are truthful?"

Surat An-Nisā' (The Women)
4:44
Muhsin Khan

Have you not seen those who were given a portion of the book (the Jews), purchasing the wrong path, and wish that you should go astray from the Right Path?

Surat An-Nisā' (The Women)
4:160
Muhsin Khan

For the wrong-doing of the Jews, We made unlawful to them certain good foods which has been lawful to them, and for their hindering many from Allah's Way;

Surat Al-Mā'idah (The Table Spread)
5:51
Muhsin Khan

O you who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians as Auliya' (friends, protectors, helpers, etc.), they are but Auliya' to one another. And if any amongst you takes them as Auliya', then surely he is one of them. Verily, Allah guides not those people who are the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers and unjust).

Surat Al-Mā'idah (The Table Spread)
5:62
Muhsin Khan

And you see many of them (Jews) hurrying for sin and transgression, and eating illegal things [as bribes and Riba (usury), etc.]. Evil indeed is that which they have been doing.

Surat Al-Mā'idah (The Table Spread)
5:54
Muhsin Khan

The Jews say: "Allah's Hand is tied up (i.e. He does not give and spend of His Bounty)." Be their hands tied up and be they accursed for what they uttered. Nay, both His Hands are widely outstretched. He spends (of His Bounty) as He wills. Verily, the Revelation that has come to you from Allah increases in most of them their obstinate rebellion and disbelief. We have put enmity and hatred amongst them till the Day of Resurrection. Every time they kindled the fire of war, Allah extinguished it; and they (ever) strive to make mischief on earth. And Allah does not like the Mufsidun (mischief-makers).

Surat Al-Mā'idah (The Table Spread)
5:82
Muhsin Khan

Verily, you will find the strongest among men in enmity to the believers (Muslims) the Jews and those who are Al-Mushrikun (see V.2:105), and you will find the nearest in love to the believers (Muslims) those who say: "We are Christians." That is because amongst them are priests and monks, and they are not proud.

Surat Al-'An`ām (The Cattle)
6:146
Muhsin Khan

And unto those who are Jews, We forbade every (animal) with undivided hoof, and We forbade them the fat of the ox and the sheep except what adheres to their backs or their entrails, or is mixed up with a bone. Thus We recompensed them for their rebellion [committing crimes like murdering the Prophets, eating of Riba (usury), etc.]. And verily, We are Truthful.

Surat Al-'A`rāf (The Heights)
7:167
Muhsin Khan

And (remember) when your Lord declared that He would certainly keep on sending against them (i.e. the Jews), till the Day of Resurrection, those who would afflict them with a humiliating torment. Verily, your Lord is Quick in Retribution (for the disobedient, wicked) and certainly He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful (for the obedient and those who beg Allah's Forgiveness).

Surat At-Tawbah (The Repentance)
9:29
Muhsin Khan

Fight against those who (1) believe not in Allah, (2) nor in the Last Day, (3) nor forbid that which has been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger (4) and those who acknowledge not the religion of truth (i.e. Islam) among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizyah with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.

Surat Al-'Aĥzāb (The Combined Forces)
33:26
Muhsin Khan

And those of the people of the Scripture who backed them (the disbelievers) Allah brought them down from their forts and cast terror into their hearts, (so that) a group (of them) you killed, and a group (of them) you made captives.

Surat Al-Mujādila (The Pleading Woman)
58:14
Muhsin Khan

Have you (O Muhammad SAW) not seen those (hypocrites) who take for friends a people upon whom is the Wrath of Allah (i.e. Jews)? They are neither of you (Muslims) nor of them (Jews), and they swear to a lie while they know.

Surat Al-Ĥashr (The Exile)
59:2
Muhsin Khan

He it is Who drove out the disbelievers among the people of the Scripture (i.e. the Jews of the tribe of Bani An-Nadir) from their homes at the first gathering. You did not think that they would get out. And they thought that their fortresses would defend them from Allah! But Allah's (Torment) reached them from a place whereof they expected it not, and He cast terror into their hearts, so that they destroyed their own dwellings with their own hands and the hands of the believers. Then take admonition, O you with eyes (to see).

Surat Al-Mumtaĥanah (She that is to be examined)
60:13
Muhsin Khan

O you who believe! Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allah (i.e. the Jews). Surely, they have been in despair to receive any good in the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have been in despair about those (buried) in graves (that they will not be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection).

Surat Al-Bayyinah (The Clear Proof)
98:6
Muhsin Khan

Verily, those who disbelieve (in the religion of Islam, the Quran and Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)) from among the people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians) and Al-Mushrikun will abide in the Fire of Hell. They are the worst of creatures.