RUTHFULLY YOURS

Why did Rome and Byzantium fall apart after centuries of success? What causes civilizations to collapse, from a dysfunctional fourth-century-B.C. Athens to contemporary bankrupt Greece?

The answer is usually not enemies at the gates, but the pathologies inside them.

What ruins societies is well known: too much consumption and not enough production, a debased currency, and endemic corruption.

Americans currently deal with all those symptoms. But two more fundamental causes for decline are even more frightening: an unwillingness to pay taxes and the end of the rule of law.

Al Sharpton is again prominently in the news, blaming various groups for the Baltimore unrest. But Sharpton currently owes the U.S. government more than $3 million in back taxes, according to reports. His excuses have ranged from insufficient funds to pay them to sloppy record-keeping and mysterious fires.

President Obama’s outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Congress today that the global security environment “is as uncertain as I’ve seen in 40 years of service.”

Appearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense for the last time, Gen. Martin Dempsey added that “we are at a point where our global aspirations are exceeding our available resources.”

“We’ve heard the Congress of the United States loud and clear that we have to become more efficient and we have to do the rigorous strategic thinking to determine the minimum essential requirements that we believe — that is to say, the uniform military — are essential to protect our national interests across the globe,” he said, testifying for a budget proposal that “represents a responsible combination of capability, capacity and readiness. But we are at the bottom edge of our manageable risk in achieving and fulfilling our national security strategy, as it is currently designed.”

De Blasio Gearing Up to Release Nationwide ‘Progressive Agenda’ By Bridget Johnson

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said he’s borrowing from the tactics of Newt Gingrich in putting forward a left-wing version of the Contract with America: The Progressive Agenda.It will be unveiled on May 12 on the steps of the Capitol with lawmakers at his side from the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

“The bottom line here is that we are in a moment of history where we need to hear a clear vision for addressing the economic reality. A number of us have put together such a vision that’s going to go right at the question of income and equality, which I think is the crisis of our times,” de Blasio told MSNBC this morning, adding the plan will include “raising the minimum wage, providing the kinds of benefits families need like paid sick leave that are rare for many families.”

Last March 17th, Benjamin Netanyahu won big in the Israeli elections. His own right-of-center Likud Party came out well ahead of the pack with 30 Knesset seats (out of 120). The right-wing/religious bloc of parties came out with 67, compared to 40 seats for the left-wing parties (an Arab party that is unfriendly to Israel as a Jewish state rounded it out with 13 seats).

Yet, on Wednesday night, after 42 days of grueling coalition negotiations, Netanyahu squeaked through two hours before an extended deadline with a 61-member coalition — that is, razor-thin and the smallest possible.

How did it happen?

For one thing, reportedly, Netanyahu offered a place in the coalition to his opposite number Isaac Herzog, leader of the center-left Zionist Union that came in second in the elections with 24 seats, and was rebuffed.

The arrival of jumbo jet with the logo “Saudia” to Ben-Gurion Airport overnight Tuesday generated a stir in the Israeli media on Wednesday after surprised airport workers spotted the plane.

The plane in question, an Airbus A330-300 devoid of passengers, arrived from Brussels to Tel Aviv for routine maintenance work with the Bedek Aviation Company, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), officials said. A European client that works with Bedek for plane maintenance happens to lease its jets to various corporations, including Saudia, they explained.

“IAI confirmed that the Airbus came to IAI facilities in order to have maintenance work done due to an agreement that IAI has with a European company that leases the plane to Saudi Arabia,” a spokeswoman for IAI told The Jerusalem Post.

Typically, routine maintenance on such planes takes about a few weeks, officials said.

With apologies to William Congreve (24 January 1670 – 19 January 1729)who wrote “Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast”…..

Last night I went to the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, in New York City. The occasion was a performance of the Bach Mass in B Minor, which is, to my mind, the most glorious and magnificent music ever composed- and that tops a list of many favorites. There were no savage breasts in the audience which was enthralled and respectful and enthusiastic from the minute the baton was raised to the coda two and a half hours later, despite sitting on hard wooden pews.

The Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, of the Church of Saint Ignatius Loyola, is directed by the conductor, composer and organist K.Scott Warren with outstanding orchestra and chorus and solo performers.

He is also chief Organist and Choirmaster at Congregation Emanuel in New York and the Shabbat, and Holy Day servies which include choral performances that are webcast year round. Also, the superb bass Enrico Lagasca hails from the Philippines, and among his other operatic and oratorio performances has toured internationally with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Below the main level of the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, on Park Avenue and 84th Street, lies Wallace Hall, one of Manhattan’s most beautiful and versatile rental spaces. Or Zarua, a conservative synagogue nearby uses Wallace Hall for high attendance services on Rosh Ha-Shana and Yom Kippur.

New York, New York it’s a wonderful town.

Staring at identical Rorschach blots of the Clintons’ now-famous foundation, their 24-karat speeches, the missing emails and nonstop nonanswers about all of it, Republicans and Democrats come to separate conclusions.

Republicans keep asking: Will she get away with it? Democrats alter one word in this question: Will she get by with it? Conservatives think the liberal media will cover for Hillary. Liberals expect the Clinton machine will beat the rap, again.

Some bipartisan advice for aging elephants and donkeys: You’re not in 1993 anymore.

At least one of the gunmen who shot up a Texas free speech event on Sunday was known to the FBI as a potentially violent radical and was convicted in 2011 on a terror-related charge. The Islamic State claimed credit for this domestic attack, albeit an unproven connection. So it is strange that Congress is moving to weaken U.S. surveillance defenses against the likes of shooters Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi.

Two years after the leaks from Edward Snowden’s stolen dossier, a liberal-conservative coalition is close to passing a bill that would curtail the programs the National Security Agency has employed in some form for two decades. Adding to this political strangeness, France of all places is on the verge of modernizing and expanding its own surveillance capabilities for the era of burner cell phones, encrypted emails and mass online jihadist propaganda.

“The left-wing British parliamentarian George Galloway has for several years represented the majority-Pakistani electoral district of Bradford West, where he has built a constituency based on his alliances with local clans and his longstanding record of hatred for Israel. Last summer, he declared Bradford West an “Israel Free-Zone.” Ben Judah visited the district and met with members of Galloway’s staff, who invited him to attend a rally the next day:”

A Jew in Bradford How Britain’s Muslim North became George Galloway country.By BEN JUDAH

Welcome to Gallowayland.

This is what I think as I drive into Bradford.

In two hour’s time I will be punched in the head.

The squinty moon-face of one of Britain’s most ferocious orators glares from the street posters, capped by a black fedora.

George Galloway has turned the constituency of Bradford West into his own world, catapulting into parliament as a Muslim-grievance politician from Britain’s most Islamic city.

Galloway, a former Labour Party MP, has got his seat by using anti-Zionist rhetoric, whilst suing critics who say he is anti-Semitic. His political genius is to have twigged that Bradford’s multiculturalism is a mirage: He now plays the city’s Pakistani clan politics, of family controlled votes, for power.

British civility has collapsed in Bradford’s elections.

An Israeli organization called Breaking the Silence has released a report, based on statements made to it by Israeli soldiers, excoriating Israel’s conduct in last summer’s Gaza war. Matti Friedman explains why the report—which has received much media attention in the U.S.—lacks credibility and, more importantly, what is fundamentally wrong with Breaking the Silence itself:

I’ve been asked a few times about the “Breaking the Silence” report that is currently being played up by the international press, as is any report that fits the narrative of Israelis as war criminals. (Contradictory reports, like the recent one I posted here from two US military experts, are not considered news.) I hope that most intelligent people have stopped taking international press coverage of Israel too seriously. But there are a few things that are important to understand.