Saving Israel for last?

It's time for Israel to remove the golden handcuffs

In a 420-9 vote, the House on Thursday approved $1 in billion in funding for Israel's missile defense system. The "Iron Dome" appropriation represents about a quarter of the $3.8 billion in military aid the United States provides to Israel annually — in recent years, exceeded only by aid to Afghanistan, and far more than any other nation receives.

This was a victory for pro-Israel lawmakers, but a superficial one. The vote was briefly delayed by resistence from progressive Democrats, reflecting a shift in the balance of power within the Democratic Party. Their influence boosted by slim congressional majorities, the left wing has challenged their party's traditional support for the Jewish state.

Israel shouldn't wait for that balance to shift further. If military aid is to be a fooball in partisan squabbles, the Jewish state can refuse to play.

This time, Israeli officials were quick to paper over any conflict. Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid blamed the previous government, which cultivated close ties to the Republican Party and, in his phrase, "abandoned Congress and the Democratic Party and caused significant damage to Israel-U.S. relations." Lapid expressed confidence that the bilateral relationship would improve moving forward.

That confidence may be misplaced. Backed by changing opinion among younger voters, liberals, and women, future Democratic administrations are likely to less friendly than Biden's. This aid measure passed. The next one — or the one after that — might not.

Israel needn't depend on that uncertain future. At one time, Israel was reliant on foreign allies. Now, as a high-income country with a growing economy and thriving technology sector, it's rich enough to pay for its own defense. In 2022, American aid will make up about 20 percent of Israel's $17.8 billion defense budget. That's a lot of money, but not an impossible loss for a country with about $400 billion GDP.

Moreover, the aid isn't really aid. Because almost all of it is reserved for purchases from U.S. suppliers, it's effectively a subsidy to the American arms industry. That bargain makes sense for members of Congress who want to benefit local industries or their own donors. It's not clear that it makes sense for Israel, which has domestic producers to support and an interest in getting the best price and products.

Beyond the money, however, the main reason to reconsider American aid is that it implies the U.S. possesses a special authority over Israel, and the value of strategic independence is inestimable. Our military aid is a symbol of American largesse that comes with an expectation of Israeli deference. That's a bad position for a state rightly proud of its independence. Israel should not need Washington's permission to act in its own interest.

Critics of the Jewish state might see a reduction of U.S. aid as a success for their cause, but they should be careful what they wish for. In its present form, military assistance is a source of leverage those same critics hope to use to influence Israel's conduct. If it disappeared, they'd have less influence rather than more.

American friends of Israel, on the other hand, have mobilized in support of the aid. In the short term, they're right: Restocking the Iron Dome is essential. In the longer term, however, it's worth considering whether tying Israel's security to American party politics is counterproductive. Although a squeeze play would likely to fail, it would be an embarassment for Israel if a future Congress or president tried to condition aid on policy concessions. It would be an act of statesmanship to close the books before that can happen.

There are hints that the idea of pivoting away from American aid is getting more consideration in Israel. Of course, revising this aspect of a "special relationship" isn't so simple as tearing up a check, but weaning off American funding would be good for Israel. And by forcing us to confront Israel as sovereign and equal rather than a needy dependent, it would also be good the United States.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/time-israel-remove-golden-handcuffs-094611604.html

>>14658959

Biblical?

Jesus Christ(ine)

>>14658988

2277

Q !!mG7VJxZNCI 09/27/2018 19:34:42

FEINSTEIN.

Q

>>14659169

Chris Wallace Hypocrisy Crisis. TRUMP WAS RIGHT!

Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace pushed back against one of President Donald Trump's major justifications for building a border wall, fact-checking White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders live on television.

Wallace pointed out that Trump has often argued that terrorists are entering the country illegally, using this as a reason to build the wall along the southern United States' border with Mexico. However, as Wallace pointed out, the assessment is inaccurate, as the State Department has said there is "no credible evidence" that terrorists have attempted to enter the U.S. at the southern border.

Sanders tried to push back, saying that 4,000 "known or suspect terrorists" attempt to enter the country illegally annually. But Wallace was quick to cut her off, pointing out she and the president were misrepresenting facts.

"I know this statistic, I didn't know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this," Wallace interjected. "Do you know where those 4,000 people come, where they're captured?" he asked. "Airports," he answered his own question.

Although Sanders responded by saying: "Not always," Wallace continued, saying: "The State Department says there hasn't been any terrorists that they've found coming across the southern border from Mexico."

Sanders dismissed Wallace's assessment, arguing: "It's by air, and it's by land and it's by sea. It's all of the above." She then insisted that the "most vulnerable point of entry" to the country is the U.S.-Mexican border.

A report released by the State Department in July of 2017 clearly stated : "There are no known international terrorist organizations operating in Mexico, no evidence that any terrorist group has targeted U.S. citizens in Mexican territory, and no credible information that any member of a terrorist group has traveled through Mexico to gain access to the United States."

Department of Homeland Security statistics from fiscal year 2017 also showed that the vast majority of those stopped from entering the U.S. because they were on a terrorist watch list were blocked at airports, Rolling Stone reported. Additionally, as Ned Price, who served on President Barack Obama's National Security Council, told NBC News, many people are flagged simply because their name matches that of someone on the watchlist, and this does not mean they are actually that person or a terrorist. Public records from the Justice Department also show that no immigrant crossing the southern border has been detained on terrorism charges in recent years, according to NBC.

None of those facts seem to bother Trump or Sanders, who have stuck with their inaccurate justification to defend the proposed border structure.

"[Suspected terrorists are] not coming across the southern borders," Wallace tried to explain to Sanders once again on Sunday. "They're coming and being stopped at airports," he said.

She dismissed his fact check however, responding by arguing: "They're coming in a number of ways."

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-pushes-back-trump-justification-building-wall-1280831

Container Ships Now Piling Up At Anchorages Off China's Ports

There are over 60 container ships full of import cargo stuck offshore of Los Angeles and Long Beach,but there are more than double that — 154 as of Friday — waiting to load export cargo off Shanghai and Ningbo in China,according to eeSea, a company that analyzes carrier schedules.

The number of container ships anchored off Shanghai and Ningbo has surged over recent weeks. There are now 242 container ships waiting for berths at countrywide.

Whether it's due to heavy export volumes, Typhoon Chanthu or COVID, rising congestion in China is yet another wild card for the trans-Pacific trade.

Volatile trade flows

Congestion in Chinese ports that slows the flow of exports is bad news for U.S. importers but it could temporarily alleviate pressure on the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

When operations at the Chinese port of Yantian were heavily curtailed by a COVID outbreak in June, ships at anchor in California's San Pedro Bay declined. The problem for California ports was that the temporary reprieve was soon followed by a surge of delayed cargo.

"The devil in these things is the whiplash effects," Simon Sundboell, founder of eeSea, told American Shipper. "What you'd rather have is more stability, not these swings, and I think what everybody fears is that the swings will become even more volatile. When the system is already this stretched, all of these unexpected events can be a causal factor in congestion."

Ships follow the money

A major driver of congestion on both sides of the Pacific Ocean: Landside capacity (terminals, trucking, rail, warehousing) is limited, but the vessel capacity of a single ocean trade lane is highly flexible.

While the number of ships in the world is finite, operators can shift ships to wherever they make the most money. And the trans-Pacific is now a particularly lucrative trade: Spot rates including premiums can top $20,000 per forty-foot equivalent unit (FEU).

"These assets [ships] are so super-mobile," said Sundboell. "What's happening now is the opposite of what dogged the industry for the past 20 years. Five years ago, people were asking: How can the trans-Pacific rate drop from $2,000 to $1,500 [per FEU] in the space of just six days? It was because you could take a vessel from one place and sail it someplace else, and suddenly there were more ships and a price war and rates dropped.

"Now we're seeing the opposite," he said. As ship operators pile more capacity into the trans-Pacific, congestion rises, delays mount, the incentive for shippers to pay premiums is supported, and all-in rates remain at record highs.

Surging number of services

According to eeSea, the number of Far East-West Coast services has surged from 48 in January to 67 this month. In contrast, the number of services on this lane stayed fairly steady last year, at 42-46.

Data for October-December 2021 based on current schedules. Chart: American Shipper based on data from eeSea

In addition, ships are being drawn from other trades to serve as "extra loaders" (ships that perform one-off voyages). In some cases, multiple ad hoc ships are doing multiple round trips — a hybrid of an extra loader and a scheduled service.

"We're definitely seeing carriers pulling ships from Asia-Middle East and Asia-Africa and putting them into the trans-Pacific trade," said Sundboell.

"Whether it's for one round trip as an extra loader or whether it becomes semipermanent, I don't even think the carriers know themselves right now. They're just playing the market and if it makes more economic sense to take a ship from the Middle East and put it in the trans-Pacific, they'll do it, whether it's for one month, three months or six months, which is why nobody knows what this network is going to look like six months from now.

"The line managers in Copenhagen and Geneva and Marseilles are looking at yields per container and costs per container. And not just per container. They're looking at it per day, and per container-TEU [twenty-foot equivalent per]-mile."

Trans-Pacific ships getting smaller

Yet another driver of increased trans-Pacific congestion: There are not only more ships, but the ships are getting smaller, meaning that more vessels are needed to carry the same TEUs.

According to eeSea, the average capacity of ships serving Asia-West Coast services was 8,601 TEUs in January and is 7,125 TEUs currently, a decrease of 17%.

more

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/container-ships-now-piling-anchorages-201330706.html

>>14659235

Good Catch

>>14659262

It's funnier that in Hollywood, that attire is admired. (when these puppets feel unloved, they pose for attention. That's all they have.)

Walk into walmart and get arrested.

kek

Fun word games. TDS – multiple meanings…

Welcome to the Zoo…

The next pandemic is already happening – targeted disease surveillance can help prevent it

As more and more people around the world are getting vaccinated, one can almost hear the collective sigh of relief. But the next pandemic threat is likely already making its way through the population right now.

My research as an infectious disease epidemiologist has found that there is a simple strategy to mitigate emerging outbreaks: proactive, real-time surveillance in settings where animal-to-human disease spillover is most likely to occur.

In other words, don’t wait for sick people to show up at a hospital. Instead, monitor populations where disease spillover actually happens.

Global health professionals have long known that pandemics fueled by zoonotic disease spillover, or animal-to-human disease transmission, were a problem. In 1947, the World Health Organization established a global network of hospitals to detect pandemic threats through a process called syndromic surveillance. The process relies on standardized symptom checklists to look for signals of emerging or reemerging diseases of pandemic potential among patient populations with symptoms that can’t be easily diagnosed.

This clinical strategy relies both on infected individuals coming to sentinel hospitals and medical authorities who are influential and persistent enough to raise the alarm.

There’s only one hitch: By the time someone sick shows up at a hospital, an outbreak has already occurred. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, it was likely widespread long before it was detected. This time, the clinical strategy alone failed us.

Zoonotic disease spillover is not one and done

A more proactive approach is currently gaining prominence in the world of pandemic prevention: viral evolutionary theory. This theory suggests that animal viruses become dangerous human viruses incrementally over time through frequent zoonotic spillover.

It’s not a one-time deal: An “intermediary” animal such as a civet cat, pangolin or pig may be required to mutate the virus so it can make initial jumps to people. But the final host that allows a variant to become fully adapted to humans may be humans themselves.

Viral evolutionary theory is playing out in real time with the rapid development of COVID-19 variants. In fact, an international team of scientists have proposed that undetected human-to-human transmission after an animal-to-human jump is the likely origin of SARS-CoV-2.

When novel zoonotic viral disease outbreaks like Ebola first came to the world’s attention in the 1970s, research on the extent of disease transmission relied on antibody assays, blood tests to identify people who have already been infected. Antibody surveillance, also called serosurveys, test blood samples from target populations to identify how many people have been infected. Serosurveys help determine whether diseases like Ebola are circulating undetected.

Turns out they were: Ebola antibodies were found in more than 5% of people tested in Liberia in 1982, decades before the West African epidemic in 2014. These results support viral evolutionary theory: It takes time – sometimes a lot of time – to make an animal virus dangerous and transmissible between humans.

What this also means is that scientists have a chance to intervene.

more

https://www.yahoo.com/news/next-pandemic-already-happening-targeted-130202377.html

>>14659367

Washington state hires 'Isolation & Quarantine Strike Team Consultants'

"These positions will staff the State Isolation and Quarantine Facility and provide for the needs of travelers that stay at the facility."

The Washington State Department of Health is recruiting applicants for a new unit called the "Isolation and Quarantine Strike Team," which would pay a salary of between $3,294-4,286 per month. This is an indication that Covid-inspired quarantine facilities are likely coming to Washington state.

more

https://thepostmillennial.com/washington-state-hires-isolation-quarantine-strike-team-consultants?utm_campaign=64474&fbclid=IwAR2i4bLq0LZ5G9LBMGs1LjfiUemvWeiEemoxjHc7pT9wE5fpInHHD5u99sY

>>14659384

Research Kari Mullis. Inventor of the PCR test. He tried to call out Fauci for his fradulent HIV testing. Dr's rely on these tests. Dr's then prescribe meds. Fauci was in bed with big pharma and was looking for a way to push AZT. It's believed that it was the drugs that killed these people, not AIDS. Did AIDS exist? Does COVID exist like HIV? Are these names given to cover pharma debacle? Next pandemic being prepped? Will it be just the Vaxed that suffer? What name will they give the "disease" (like AIDS) from the shots?

AFTER Writing continuously about the PCR test controversy, I thought of going off in a different direction today by writing about celebrity quarrels.

The trigger was a report about a big quarrel between Nobel laureate and PCR inventor Kary Mullis and infectious disease director Anthony Fauci, chief Covid adviser today to President Joe Biden. Mullis called Fauci a liar and an abuser of his test.

more

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/03/02/opinion/columnists/topanalysis/stories-of-friendship-and-the-quarrels-that-ended-them/846623

>>14659418

> Kari Mullis

** typo. Kary Mullis

>>14659460

When did the real Ruth Die?

Old pic looks more like Ruth Buzzy

So this troll musta been the "Ruth" stand in, double.

They all have them.

Someone posted the pic of the Actor currently playing Bidan the other day.