The Life and Legacy of Sarah

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called “The Life and Legacy of Sarah.”

The Rebbetzin explained beautifully that when we live a good life, not only does our soul live on in the afterlife, but our good deeds continue to have an influence in this world even after we, ourselves, have passed.

We should never underestimate our influence in this world, and that what we say and do reverberates like concentric circles that spread out from the source farther and farther. Moreover, while you might not think that what you do matters all that much or is a big deal, you never really know the outsize impact that it can have. Therefore, even while Sarah had passed and Abraham mourned her, the truth is that her legacy of the great Jewish nation was only just beginning!

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

G-d Bless Senator Ted Cruz

@SenTedCruz Thank you for the beautiful speech supporting our friend and ally, Israel, and condemning the anti-Israel hate and anti-Semitism from the biased United Nations and the Obama administration.

G-d Bless House Speaker Ryan

I just wanted to thank (and bless) House Speaker Ryan for calling out the Israel-hate and anti-Semitism of the Obama administration.

“I am still stunned by what happened last month. This government—our government—abandoned our ally Israel when she needed us the most…We were there for her when rockets rained down on Tel Aviv. We were there for her by passing historic legislation to combat the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement. And we’ve been there for her by ensuring Israel has the tools to defend herself against those who seek her destruction. And in every one of those instances, Republicans and Democrats have worked together to get these things done. That’s because our historic alliance with Israel transcends party labels and partisan bickering…It’s time to repair the damage done by this misguided hit job at the UN. It’s time to rebuild our partnership with Israel and reaffirm our commitment to her security. And it’s time to show all of our allies that, regardless of the shameful events of last month, the United States remains a force for good.”

The House of Representatives voted overwhelming (342-80) to condemn the crooked, lopsided UN resolution against our friend and ally, Israel–in which the Obama administration shamefully let pass. And the Senate is anticipated to also condemn it. 

As Speaker Ryan and the many good, decent member of Congress who support Israel reiterated yesterday, “the United States [is and must] remain a force for good.”

This is a historic battle and we can shape world events, as guided by G-d, and help good to defeat evil. 😉

Parting Shot By An Anti-Semite

So today, Obama took his hateful and corrupt parting shot at our friend and ally, Israel.

Colluding with the Palestinians on a nonsensical, UNjust resolution that the Jewish Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not Jewish and condemning Israel settlements in the West Bank–Judea and Samaria–that Israel duly won in the 1967 Six Day War for it’s very survival and for which the Palestinians rejected in multiple proposed peace deals by Israel.

How absolutely absurd that Obama and the United Nations with blood on their hands for the last 5 years, left more than half a million people to be slaughtered mercilessly in Syria, with millions more wounded, displaced, and as refugees, yet they saw to pick on Israel and condemn them one more time today.

For his eight years in Office, Obama has consistently shown himself an utter hater of the Holy Land and Jews, just over 70 years since the genocidal Holocaust.

From his first international speech in Egypt in 2009 to his refusal to say the words “radical Islam” and his blaming of Christians for the terror attacks against them.

He befriended Iran, who threatens annihilation of Israel and is the arch enemy of the United States–removing sanctions on Iran and releasing $150 billion that Iran is using for terror.

Obama oversaw the disrespectful and horrible name-calling of the Prime Minister of Israel as a chickensh*t.

Then again, Obama abruptly snubbed the Israel Prime Minister and left him to go have dinner and then made him leave the White House from the back door.

During the 2014 war with terrorist organization, Hamas, Obama withheld needed weapons from the State of Israel.

Even in signing a 10-year arms deal with Israel, Obama made sure to cap the giving by forcing Israel to sign that they would give back anything extra that the U.S. Congress may try to give them above and beyond that over the next decade.

Shamefully, Obama even oversaw the UN Human Rights Council ridiculously brand the free and democratic Israel as the worst human rights offender as Israel is the one besieged by surrounding nations and terror organizations directing barrages of missiles, terror tunnels, homicide bombings, shootings, knifings, and vehicular terror attacks against their civilian population centers.

His hatred for Israel even went so far as to threaten to shoot down Israeli jets that would possibly attack Iran’s nukes targeting them as an existential threat.

While over the course of his administration, Obama was utterly weak and ineffective in front of mighty Russia and China (forgetting all red lines) and even prostrated himself before the likes of the belligerent mullahs of Iran and the warmongering dictator of North Korea, he continuously picked on and bullied tiny democratic Israel (the size of New Jersey).

Fortunately this unscrupulous, anti-Semitic regime will be gone in a few weeks and with it the sick Israel-hate that it brought to the esteemed White House and the global stage–and it’s good, good riddance, for sure. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Ending Up As A Rock

So some people would say ending up as a rock is not a bad thing. 

A rock symbolizes strength and something that weathers time itself. 

However, it’s one thing being alive and a rock and another being dead as one. 

Fidel Castro, the authoritarian Cuban President of 50 years, the revolutionary who defied the United State and brought us and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war, the dictator who violated the human rights of millions of the Cuban people…and where does he end up?

Dead at age 90, cremated, with his ashed placed inside a 15-foot tall rock. 

That’s what’s left of the man. 

Of course, there is his legacy in Cuba that includes high literacy, universal health care, environmentalism, and competitive sport’s teams. But there is also mass poverty and economic dysfunction, gross repression and human rights abuses, and Island isolationism. 

So perhaps with Fidel gone, over time, Cuba will find itself on a path of greater moderation and reform. 

In the meantime, Fidel is gone–like every other living thing comes and goes–no matter how strong he acted or how repressive he ruled, what is he now but a big useless rock with a nameplate affixed.

(Source Photo: Associated Press Via Wall Street Journal)

A Failed Presidency?

Every day we are reminded about the dysfunctional state of our national affairs.

The dictum of the Hippocratic Oath of” first do no harm” that medical students are taught is the very minimum expectation, but has even this been met?

The Promise vs. The Delivery

1) Promised reset with Russia – Delivered a resurgent Russia in Ukraine, Syria, the Baltics, cybersecurity, and more.

2) Promised red lines in Syria – Delivered more than 5-year and counting deadly civil war with chemical weapons, more than 500,000 dead, and millions wounded, displaced, and fleeing as refugees.

3) Promised end of war in Iraq and Afghanistan – Delivered continued troops and war in both with not an end in sight. 

4) Promised good deal with a moderating Iran – Delivered bad deal with continued aggressive Iran violating the agreement and on the path to reaching nuclear weapons.

5) Promised easing of ties with an opening of Cuba – Delivered one-sided deal and a continued hard-line communist Cuba abusing political opponents and human rights.

6) Promised defeat of ISIS terrorism – Delivered continued ISIS global terror (and it’s not workplace violence).

7) Promised closing of GITMO – Delivered GIMTO still open for business with dozens of dangerous terrorists. 

8) Promised a more unified America – Delivered a more divisive nation with raging inner city violence and civilian and police shootings.

9) Promised Obamacare affordable health insurance – Delivered unsustainable double digit premium growth and pending repeal and replacement.

10) Promised Dodd-Frank improved accountability financial reform – Delivered burdensome highly-regulated financial system stifling banking and lending leading to either significant scale back or complete repeal and replacement. 

11) Promised peace in the Middle East–Delivered a barrage of missiles, terror tunnels, shootings, stabbings, vehicular attacks, and arson for our friend and ally, Israel.

12) Promised government transparency to the American people – Delivered obscurity to the “media echo chamber” and devastating political email scandal and Benghazi fiasco. 

13) Promised fiscal and budgetary responsibility via Sequestration – Delivered a doubling of the national debt in 8 years to 20 trillion dollars! 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal via USA Today)

Getting Past The Political Blame Game

Really liked this Japanese bowl and cup set–so cute. 

The head is the bowl, and the cup which holds all the water and has the handle is the body. 

The head is much bigger than the body, like people’s egos are bigger than their sense of responsibility. 

Today, I read again about some leaders blaming others for the world problems:

“Obama said Trump’s election and the U.K.’s vote to leave the EU were spawned by world leaders’ mishandling of globalization.”

Note, he blames these unspecified “world leaders,” with no attribution or responsibility to himself. 

To be clear, he is resolute that his policies and way of governing had no impact on the rise of President-elect Trump, his diametric opposite!

This is similar to Hillary Clinton blaming her election loss on the FBI Director investigating her, and not taking responsibility for her own lengthy history of scandals.

Again on Sunday, the New York Times blamed the gender-based, glass ceiling on Hillary’s defeat, rather than acknowledging the impact of the “corruption ceiling” that may have prevented her winning. 

And there is a long pattern of this blaming in politics whether for gridlock, the deficit, healthcare, divisiveness, violence in inner cities, terrorism, improprieties, distrust of government, and more. 

In the extreme, some leaders even blamed the U.S. people themselves for the suffering caused by radical Islamic terrorism!

Even in the recent election, some blamed their own constituents for insulting and ruining their legacy if they don’t go out and vote for his DNC hand-picked successor. 

Yet despite the endless blame game, Obama attacked Trump for whining and blaming rigged elections, saying that this demonstrated a lack of leadership or toughness to be president. 

But at the same time, he takes credit for everything good that happens: for ending Iraq war, for killing Bin Laden, for saving the world economy, for reforming our schools, for “stamping out” Ebola, for $2 gas, and even for the success of Fox news!

How wonderful (NOT) is this philosophy and practice of leadership:

If something good happens, you take the credit; If something bad happens, you blame someone else. 

That’s a very big head on top of that very narrow body. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

It’s Getting Mighty Hot

This is a advertisement around Washington DC alerting people to the dangers of global warming.

“I’m Too Hot”

And 

“9 of the 10 hottest years have occurred since 2000.”

Wait a second, for some (or many) a little extra heat may be considered a good thing especially if you live up north with generally freezing cold and miserably snowy winters.

So don’t just tell us about it getting hotter, but tell us how hot is it actually going to get and what will happen when it does–melting glaciers, rising oceans and catastrophic flooding of cities, weather abnormalities and violent natural disasters, and so on.

We need to move on to the substance of this. 

Just like with the national debt, we keep talking about it going up (and up). 

Well what’s so bad about that if we can just print some more greenbacks and pay for more stuff, maybe it’s a good–or great–investment in our country and future?

Here again, the message that isn’t getting out clearly is what is going to happen when the debt becomes unsustainable and printing or devaluing dollars will not solve the problem and may actually exasperate it by creating run-away inflation, a downgraded or junk credit rating, and higher debt payments possibly tanking our economy and people’s savings.

Yeah, we don’t want to cause a panic. 

But shielding people from vital information on the dangerous paths we are on will only lead to going further down into the abyss of non-action and potential for cascading calamity. 

Let’s face it–it’s unpopular to talk anything doom or gloom–financial crises or natural disasters or especially anything with WMD–but if we aren’t the adults in the political room, who will be? 

For once, I’d love a leader who tells it straight, who helps us face our own worst nightmares, and actually gets us back on track again, rather than keeps the wool pulled over our eyes for another term or two.

Leadership is lost in rosy glasses, vote counting, pundits called upon to obscure the truth from the people, keeping a false calm, and creating wildly inflated legacies.

These motives for now are stronger than the determination to deal with the threats we face, but not forever, and then the pendulum will most abruptly swing in the other direction, precariously late for the ensuing global effects. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Getting To Truth

So I saw this quote on someone’s t-shirt.

Immediately, I thought this is pretty smart and took a mental photo. 

World

– Lies

Truth

I suppose the question is how much of the world we live in are lies and fallacies to deceive individuals or the masses. 

Lies made up by liars, driven by materialism and greed, by people seeking or taking power, lies to enslave others in thought and deed, lies to get people to do what we want them to or to get them to follow us blindly, lies to get our way or to get others to abandon theirs, lies to cheat, lies to steal, lies to corrupt, lies to control, lies to obscure or cover our tracks, lies to rewrite history, lies to create phony legacies, lies for the sake of lying. 

All the rest is the truth. 😉

(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

The Continued Softening Of Microsoft

Microsoft should not be acting old and grey.

Yet they are throwing away another $26.2 billion dollars in purchasing the relative revenue and profit weakling, LinkedIn, the professional networking social media site (where odds are you have your high-level resume-type information).

Have you ever paid a dime to LinkedIn or have you ever paid attention to  single advertisement on LinkedIn (I can’t even remember if there is advertising on there—see I pay it zero attention!)?

Unfortunately Microsoft is following suite with it’s worthless purchase of Nokia in September 2013 for $9.4 billion that was all written off and then some with yet another ridiculous, desperate move.

Microsoft has been living off their legacy product suites of Windows, Office, Outlook, and SharePoint for years…and apparently, aside from the regular forced upgrades, they seem to have virtually nothing in the innovation hopper.

Hence, loser acquisitions of things like Yammer in 2012 for $1.2 billion (anyone use that BS Facebook-like service for inside their organization—work is not social playtime folks!).

Anyway, I like Microsoft products–they are functional, which is what I want from email, creating and editing documents, spreadsheets and slides, as well as sharing files–it’s great for bread and butter tasks–nothing sexy.

But every attempt that Microsoft makes in desperation to expand beyond their core competencies comes up soft and a big money loser.

Innovation and success is not bred by acquiring virtually worthless properties in terms of high-technology with no synergy to who they fundamentally are.

It is almost heartbreaking to see a once great company like Microsoft continue to drown in its own excess cash and strategically hollow ideas.

Microsoft will only be successful by thinking beyond the boxed in windowed organization that they have imprisoned themselves in.

I hope they can break a few windows and escape to some new technological thinking again soon–but the big question is whether they currently have the talent to make it so. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)