When International Farhud Day was proclaimed at a conference convened at the United Nations headquarters on June 1, 2015, its proponents wanted to achieve more than merely establish a commemoration of the ghastly 1941 Arab-Nazi pogrom in Baghdad that killed and injured hundreds of Iraqi Jews. Farhud means violent dispossession. The Farhud was but the first bloody step along the tormented path to the ultimate expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from across the Arab world. That systematic expulsion ended centuries of Jewish existence and stature in those lands.

Jews had thrived in Iraq for 2,700 years, a thousand years before Mohammad. But all that came to end when the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, led the broad Arab-Nazi alliance in the Holocaust that produced a military, economic, political, and ideological common cause with Hitler. Although Husseini spearheaded an international pro-Nazi, anti-Jewish Islamic movement from India to Central Europe to the Middle East, it was in Baghdad—a 1,000-kilometer drive from Jerusalem— that he launched his robust coordination with the Third Reich. Read more ..

As three commercial airliners crashed into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on the orders of Osama bin Laden, Lewis’s What Went Wrong? The Clash Between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East was in galleys, almost ready for press. It became a major best seller.

With the publication the next year of The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror, Lewis had two number-one best sellers on the New York Times nonfiction list — one in hardcover and one in paperback.

“My historical studies suddenly became relevant,” he writes in his 2012 memoir, Notes on a Century. He was interviewed endlessly, and was invited to Washington, D.C., to educate politicians and to lecture at think tanks.

Even more than his vast erudition and capacious memory, it is his unparalleled ability to fit things together that has made Lewis one of the best-known public intellectuals of our time. It is not the historian’s task to predict the future, according to Lewis. “He can discern trends. He can look at what has been happening and what is happening and see change developing. From this he can formulate, I will not say predictions, but possibilities, alternative possibilities.” Long before 9/11, Bernard Lewis had been doing that as well as anyone in the world.

In 1976, he published an article in Commentary, “The Return of Islam,” that broke with the prevailing orthodoxy that the Middle East was rapidly headed toward a future of secular revolutionary movements. Read more ..

Rabbi Yotav Eliach’s new book, Judaism, Zionism and the Land of Israel, is the fruit of a lifetime of study and teaching, which seeks to frame the emergence of the modern state of Israel in a Biblical and historical reference. Rabbi Eliach has been a teacher for decades and is currently the esteemed principal of Rambam Mesivta High School in Long Island, New York. Bringing together his scholarship and spiritual leanings, he has produced a massive volume that bridges the gaps between the many elements of Jewish history, tradition and faith, in addition to the political and military history of the wider world.

Rabbi Eliach has written a work that begins with the Patriarch Abraham of some 4,000 years ago, continuing through the establishment of Jewish kingdoms under Solomon and David and to the times of occupations by Persian, Greek, Roman, Muslim, and British authorities to the foundation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. The relationship between God and His chosen people is woven throughout the book. Throughout the centuries after their dispersal from the land of Israel by the Romans during the First Century A.D., the Jewish people prayed to return to the land of the Promise. Rabbi Eliach also includes hard facts about the dispossession, marginalization and anti-Semitism that marked those centuries and that gave increasing impetus over nearly two thousand years to Zionism -- Jewish nationalism -- that brought to fruition the prayers and sacrifices of a people who had been far too long abused.

For Rabbi Eliach, the presence of God as a guiding force in the destiny of the Jewish people and the land that they claim is not to be dismissed. He writes: “The Israelites’ relationship to Hashem was based on a covenant binding God and Israel through a series of obligations.” As an eloquent and frank believer, Rabbi Eliach pays tribute in his book to the divine illumination that has aided theorists, diplomats, and warriors who sacrificed to make modern Israel a reality. Read more ..

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe
journalist and novelist, born March 1930
died 14 May 2018

The writer Tom Wolfe, who has died aged 88, was a great dandy, both in his elaborate dress and his neon-lit prose. Although he was in his late 50s when he became a bestselling novelist, with The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), some 30 years before that he was already famous as a journalist, was indeed that extremely rare thing, the journalist as international celebrity.

It was a part Wolfe played up to, wearing showy tailor-made white suits, summer and winter, as well as fancy headgear and shirts with detachable collars. The overall impression was of a fashionplate from a bygone age. The sartorial fireworks fitted in very well with the highly eccentric literary style Wolfe used and which made such a name for him when he published The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965), which brought the world the first news of the 1960s counterculture in California.

The curious style came about by chance. In 1963, commissioned to write about custom cars for Esquire magazine, Wolfe got as far as writing hurried notes and told his editor, Byron Dobell, to give them to someone else because he could not produce the finished piece. Dobell read the notes and printed them as they were.

The peculiar style, full of exclamation marks, words elongated for special effect, and words in capital letters, gave the impression of news that was too hot for the simple declarative sentence; also that it was highly complicated to explain but that Wolfe himself knew all there was to know about it, and from the inside. As the news was from the counterculture or, later on, from the world of the New York new rich, the prose seemed to fit the passion. Read more ..

For decades, Rabbi Yotav Eliach, esteemed principal of Rambam Mesivta High School in Long Island, has accumulated his teachings, writings, and those of many other scholars and rabbinical authorities, tracking the history of Israel. His mission was not just to chronicle the dispossession and repossession of a people, as Walter Laqueur did in A History of Zionism, but to go beyond. Rabbi Eliach completes the circle and ties in the religious component— spiritual Judaism itself. The result is a massive and incisive tome, Judaism, Zionism and the Land of Israel. It is designed to bridge the intellectual space between Israel’s cultural, political, intellectual, diplomatic, juridical, and historical pillars. Skillfully and doggedly, Rabbi Eliach weaves in the Biblical and Talmudic quintessence that laces it all together.

Buy
Judaism, Zionism and the Land of Israel

The work spans the millennia between Abraham’s covenant with God right through the fiery twentieth century and into the modern, post-Oslo Accords era. In this compilation, God is an acknowledged factor as much as turning-point wars, crumbling international agreements, and fractious diplomacy. On an early page, Rabbi Eliach writes, “The Israelites’ relationship to Hashem was based on a covenant binding God and Israel through a series of obligations.” God is written about as a real and all permeating force, an ipso facto that functions as the alpha and omega of the story—dwelling above all events.
The Divine is a part of the Israel equation that many modern commentators do not emphasize. But Rabbi Eliach magnifies the role of the Lord, intertwined with those of skillful diplomats and brave warriors, from the perspective of a believer, as one who walks in the aura of understanding that too many analysts in the secular world circumvent. Read more ..

Veteran prizewinning journalist Jay Bushinsky died on Wednesday at his home in Savyon. He was 85. Bushinsky covered the Middle East for American and Canadian newspapers, radio stations and television networks, and occasionally wrote for The Jerusalem Post as well.

He was the Israel bureau chief, columnist or correspondent, or a combination of all three for several prestige media outlets, including the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Washington Times and The Atlanta Constitution.

He also opened the Jerusalem bureau of CNN in June 1980.

An op-ed piece that he published in the Post in 2012 focused on war correspondents. He wrote there that they should not take unnecessary risks, and that their host countries should do everything possible to ensure their safety. Read more ..

He’s always got the new data, featuring irresistible twists:

One in five students use extra money from their student loans to buy digital currencies.

Nearly 8 percent of students would move to North Korea to free themselves of their debt.

Twenty-seven percent would contract the Zika virus to live debt-free.

All of those surveys came from Cloud’s website, The Student Loan Report.

Drew Cloud’s story was simple: He founded the website, an "independent, authoritative news outlet" covering all things student loans, "after he had difficulty finding the most recent student loan news and information all in one place." Read more ..

Prominent Turkish investigative journalist Fehim Taştekin, whose reports on Syria have attracted wide public interest, on Wednesday issued a statement on his Twitter account criticizing a court ruling that banned his book “Rojava/Kürtlerin Zamanı” (Rojava/Time of Kurds).

Following a verdict rendered by the Kahta Magistrate’s Court of Adıyaman province in eastern Turkey, Taştekin’s book was banned from public consumption due to accusations of terrorist propaganda. In his tweet Taştekin pointed to the absurdity of the court decision, which accuses the book of “having the properties of a terrorist organization.” Read more ..

About six months after Andrew Pessin posted on his Facebook profile a defense of Israel during its 2014 war against Hamas, the once popular Connecticut College philosophy professor was subjected to an academic smear campaign. The school paper published articles defaming him. The administration hosted condemnations of Pessin from across the campus community on the school's website, and tolerated other anti-Semitic activities that only worsened the climate for Jews and Israel supporters. Pessin received death threats and, in the spring of 2015, took a medical leave of absence. The Connecticut College administration offered no meaningful protection or support to Pessin, and never issued any apology for its role in his abuse. Read more ..

Gary Morgenstein’s fifth novel A Mound Over Hell is a powerful and explosive story about a nightmare – what if America and the West loses World War Three to Islam? In the novel, Israel has been wiped out and world Jewry decimated. Europe is now Muslim Europe. Out of the ashes, America, surrounded, has created a new society based on love and ethics, led by Grandma, head of The Family.

All acts of patriotism, from flying the flag to singing the National Anthem, are illegal. Social media has been banned under the Anti-Narcissism Laws. Religion, associated with Islam, is also illegal. In a nation where children are revered, abortion and the use of contraceptives are capital offenses along with pedophilia. Banks, lawyers, psychologists and the entertainment industry were banned by the Anti-Parasite Laws I and II. Robots with faces are also outlawed; during the 2030s the AIs caused havoc by posing as humans and blending into society. Read more ..

The 90th Annual Academy award was an unmitigated disaster. The decision to bring back one of the most polarizing figures of late night TV Jimmy Kimmel was not very wise. The ratings tanked, Kimmel bombed and the Red Carpet award show on E! was an embarrassment.

The 90th Academy Awards on Sunday drew an average 26.5 million viewers, making it the lowest rated Academy Awards show ever, as per Variety

It’s a nearly 20% drop from last year’s telecast, which brought in roughly 33 million viewers.

Several factors can be contributed to these horrible numbers. First the movies nominated for Best Picture were not very popular films to begin with. Seven of the nine films nominated for best picture averaged just $47 million at the box office, which means only about 5 million people saw them, according to Breitbart News. Second, Jimmy Kimmel. Read more ..

Vice President Mike Pence has come under attack once again by media leftists for his conservative Christian beliefs – this time it happened at the Oscars in front of millions.  

Academy Awards host Jimmy Kimmel made a joke about a film that features a homosexual romance between a teen boy and a man – a story that some might consider pedophilia.

New York Times best-selling historian Edwin Black, author of IBM and the Holocaust, appears March 20 at 7 PM at Manhattan East Synagogue to launch a 15-city lecture series outlining Israel’s history from ancient times to its most recent diplomatic dilemmas. No PowerPoint or slide show is used. Instead, as many as 80 live URLs are used to display that is settled knowledge that anyone can access on the Internet.

The presentation, Israel and International Law—the Historical Underpinnings, was described in one newspaper with this comment: “It was nothing short of spectacular. I thought I had a pretty good amount of knowledge … In reality, I knew almost nothing. Mr. Black gave us an education beyond anyone’s expectations.”

Black has assembled an impressive panel of expert questioners to lead the Q-A session afterword. Manhattan East Synagogue’s Rabbi Elie Abadie will head up the panel, followed by Israel lecturer Ken Abramowitz, and Rambam Mesivta High School Principal Rabbi Yotav Eliach, the author of a forthcoming exhaustive book chronicling the history of Zionism.

Black says, “Bring on the experts. The history projected onto the screen delves deep, and brings numerous threads together in a way that will change the very fabric of understanding most people have for Jewish State and its place in the geo-political word. Even the experts will learn. I myself am constantly updating the visuals.” Award-winning author Black has delivered versions of the presentation to university campuses and synagogues across America, but has freshly updated it to include the latest developments on Jerusalem recognition and Palestinian finance, as well as the significance of Israel at 70. Read more ..

In 2014, a young man named Alex Epstein - who's described as a "philosopher, energy theorist, and industrial policy pundit" - wrote a book titled "The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels."

Alex used this book to springboard to a career arguing the merits of his case on a website, magazine articles, YouTube videos and live debates. His website states that Alex will "accept a debate any time, any place." (I'll get back to this challenge later on).

Also, in 2014, Kathleen Hartnett White wrote a short book titled "Fossil Fuels: The Moral Case." Kathleen has held a number of very senior positions with government agencies and industry groups as an environment and energy expert. Read more ..

The Auto Channel is pleased to announce that Marc J. Rauch, the company's co-founder and executive vice president, has accepted an invitation to speak at the forthcoming National Ethanol Conference (NEC). Marc is an outspoken advocate of all biofuels and alternative energy. This is the 23rd Annual National Ethanol Conference, and the theme is Ethanol Strong: Empowering Dialogue to Grow Markets. The event will take place February 12-14, 2018 at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort Spa in San Antonio, TX.

The National Ethanol Conference is the most widely attended executive level conference for the ethanol industry. Since 1996, the Renewable Fuels Association’s NEC has been recognized as a preeminent conference for delivering accurate, timely information on marketing, legislative and regulatory issues facing the ethanol industry. With numerous networking opportunities, more business meetings are conducted and contacts made at this conference than any other ethanol conference. RFA expects more than 1,000 attendees at this year's event.

Marc will be discussing the hypocrisy surrounding the petroleum oil industry's attacks on ethanol. His session takes place on February 14th at 9:30AM.

"Valentine's Day is the perfect time for my love message to ethanol haters," said Marc Rauch. "Actually, I think that everyone will be quite surprised to learn that the oil industry has historically loved ethanol fuel, despite what they now say about ethanol. It'll be fun, lots of laughs, and I'll have the opportunity to share some important information."

Recently, Marc delivered four ethanol-related presentations in South Dakota in conjunction with the South Dakota Farmer's Union, Glacial Lakes Energy, and Lake Area Technical Institute. In 2016. Marc was a keynote speaker at the Australian National Biofuels Conference; he spoke (for the 2nd time) to a Congressional Ethanol Debriefing in Washington, DC; and he travelled to Taiwan to speak at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum on behalf of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Marc is often heard on broadcast radio shows, such as Bob Long's "AutoWorld" program, talking about alternative fuels and other automotive matters. Read more ..

The bestselling American fantasy novelist Maggie Stiefvater is leading a chorus of writers warning readers that if they download pirated ebooks, then authors will not be able to continue writing because they will be unable to make a living.

Stiefvater, author of the Shiver and Raven Cycle series, raised the issue after she was contacted on Twitter by a reader who told her: “I never bought ur books I read them online pirated.” On her website, Stiefvater later explained that, when ebook sales for the third book in the Raven Cycle – Blue Lily, Lily Blue – “dropped precipitously”, her publisher decided to cut the print run of the next book in the series to less than half of its predecessors.

“This is also where people usually step in and say, but that’s not piracy’s fault. You just said series naturally declined, and you just were a victim of bad marketing or bad covers or readers just actually don’t like you that much,” wrote Stiefvater, who had seen fans sharing pdfs online and was “intent on proving that piracy had affected the Raven Cycle”. So she and her brother created a pdf of The Raven King, which consisted of just the first four chapters, repeated, and a message explaining how piracy affected books. Read more ..

Guinness World Records claims education publisher Scholastic is trying to steal its business with a “Book of World Records” that “obviously copies” Guinness’ planned publication for 2018.

Both record books feature a colorful background and a title in large, three-dimensional black and white print, while Scholastic’s also includes pictures of celebrities like The Rock.

Scholastic designed their cover after it saw a mock-up of Guinness World Records’ at a 2017 business meeting, Guinness claims in a Manhattan federal court lawsuit.

Guinness has published its tome since 1955, selling more than 138 million copies in more than 100 countries, “rendering Guinness World Records itself the holder of a world record as the owner of the bestselling copyright title of all time,” according to court papers it filed against Scholastic. Read more ..

Reprinted from the Spring/Summer 2017 issue of the Authors Guild Bulletin.Doug Preston was the keynote speaker at the inaugural New Mexico Writers Dinner at La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe on March 2nd. We reprint his remarks here with his permission and our thanks.

I have no doubt that almost all of you in this room struggle with a central question in your lives: Why is it so goddamned hard to make a living as a writer today?
A recent study by the Authors Guild showed that from 2009 to 2015, the average income of a full-time author decreased 30 percent, from $25,000 a year to $17,500 a year. For part-time authors, the average income decreased 38 percent, from $7,250 a year to $4,500. Full-time authors with more than 25 years of experience saw the greatest drop — a 67 percent decrease from $28,750 to $9,500.

The collapse of authors’ incomes is not a problem. It’s not even a crisis. It’s a catastrophe. And not just for us, but for our nation as a whole. Writing is the lifeblood of American culture, of democracy, and of freedom. It is under assault as never before in the history of the Republic.

As a nation, we’ve always been on high alert against censorship. When a book is banned from a school library, when a journalist is arrested covering a protest or sued for libel, we pay attention. These events make the newspapers.

But what about the even more serious problem — when an important book isn’t even written? Not written because the author couldn’t get a decent advance or was rejected — not because the idea was bad, but because the publisher was unable to take the financial risk. Read more ..

New York Times bestselling author Edwin Black will conclude his three-week, coast-to-coast lecture series commemorating the Balfour Declaration 100 Years Later and its unique place in the history of Israel and international law during a panel discussion at the American Zionist Movement annual conference in Washington D.C. The three-day AZM conference features dozens of prominent speakers, November 15-17, 2018 at the Liaison Hotel, with some events at the Israeli Embassy, and the Congressional Visitors Center.

Black’s panel will feature an in-depth look at the Balfour Declaration text and its impact. Other panelists in Black's session include Col. Richard Kemp, Baroness Ruth Deech of the House of Lords, and author Mitchell Bard. The session is moderated by Elana Heideman.

see the Edwin Black event flyer

The Balfour Declaration, issued November 2, 1917, has ignited continuous controversy since its release. Although just a brief and non-binding 67-word letter, issued by British Foreign Minister Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, its far-reaching implications set in motion the indispensable international policy pivot that led to the creation of the State of Israel. Its revolutionary text mandating democracy was replicated in the San Remo Agreement, the Mandate for Palestine, and other international instruments. Its essence was preserved in the UN Charter. Yet, Balfour Declaration remains one of the most misunderstood, misportrayed, and misquoted diplomatic documents since the dawn of the twentieth century.

"I have only 7 minutes at this panel to do what I have done in 90 minutes for most audiences, said Black, adding, "but I can pack enough revelation into those 7 minutes to revamp the conference's understanding of the powerful Declaration and its distinguished place in world history." Read more ..

The Internet Archive has announced a promising initiative aimed at giving new, online life to 75-plus-year-old books. Although the Internet Archive has sometimes been cavalier about copyright and dismissive of the needs of authors, we are happy about this project, which aims to make 10,000 or more out-of-print books published between 1923 and 1941 available to researchers, historians, and readers. Helping libraries as well as authors take advantage of new digital opportunities is an Authors Guild priority.

Beginning with the pioneering Project Gutenberg, programs to scan printed books and make them available online have mostly been limited to those old enough to be in the public domain. That’s why Google’s notorious book-scanning project is able to display only small excerpts of copyrighted books, mostly with the cooperation of publishers. As a general rule, the cutoff date for displaying books in their entirety is 1923—all books published before then are automatically in the public domain.

The people at the Internet Archive, a San Francisco nonprofit founded by Brewster Kahle, are relying on an important feature of the Copyright Act that allows libraries and archives to copy books for researchers and scholars in the last 20 years of the books’ copyright life, as long as they aren’t commercially available. The exception was added to Section 108, the part of the copyright law that provides special exceptions for libraries and archives, in 1998 when the copyright terms were extended by 20 years. The rest of Section 108 was enacted in 1976, when the idea of “copying” didn’t envision the internet, and so section 108 badly needs updating. We’re working with the Copyright Office on this. Read more ..

New York Times bestselling author Edwin Black has launched a three-week, coast-to-coast lecture series commemorating the Balfour Declaration and its unique place in the history of Israel and international law. The 12-event, 5-state tour enjoys the support of a coalition of local and national organizations including the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET), ZOA, and StandWithUs. One of the kick off events was held in Washington, D.C. at the Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2060, October 24, 2017, featuring the participation of a dozen lawmakers including Representatives Trent Franks, Ron DeSantis, Mark Meadows, Doug Lamborn, Francis Rooney, Steve Russell, Ted Poe, and Gene Green, among others. The Rayburn event culminated with a Balfour 100 Proclamation executed by leaders of the event.

The Balfour Declaration, issued November 2, 1917, has ignited continuous controversy since its release. Although just a brief and non-binding letter issued by British Foreign Minister Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild, its far-reaching implications set in motion the indispensable policy pivot that led to the creation of the State of Israel. Its revolutionary text was replicated in the Sam Remo Agreement, the Mandate for Palestine, and other international instruments. Its essence was preserved in the UN Charter. Yet, the Balfour Declaration remains one of the most misunderstood and misportrayed diplomatic communications of the twentieth century and contemporary times.

Using an array of live Internet links to easily accessible materials, Black explains in stunning visual detail the historic run-up to the Balfour Agreement, what it is—and what it is not. The Balfour 100 Tour spans a collection of venues from the U.S. House of Representatives, to high schools, synagogues, and college campuses in five states. At each event, a Balfour 100 Proclamation will be issued. Read more ..

It’s a bizarre season in Hollywood. Almost nothing is “working,” and the studios can’t afford to waste any more money hoping things will turn around. They’re pulling flops from theaters earlier than usual.

This weekend, for example, Warner Bros. is putting out a white flag on “Blade Runner” after three tough weeks. They’ve cut the number of theaters showing Denis Villeneuve’s beautiful film by 855. So far, “Blade Runner” has made just $66 million.  Audiences have not clamored to it. And now, week by week, Warners will quietly take it away.

Warner’s isn’t alone. Universal is pulling Tom Cruise’s  “American Made” from 539 locations after a month in release. The Doug Liman directed thriller has made just $43 million. Good reviews haven’t helped push Cruise fans to theaters. One problem was lack of promotion since Cruise wasn’t available. Also, audiences may have just soured on him after “The Mummy” and other flops. With both studios, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Read more ..

The Weinstein Company is down to three board members, as Richard Koenigsberg today became the fifth to resign in the wake of the ongoing scandal involving company co-founder Harvey Weinstein.

Koenigsberg, an independent board member and one-time accountant to Harvey and Bob Weinstein, was reported to have resigned by the New York Times. That leaves co-founder Bob Weinstein, Tarak Ben Ammar, and Lance Maerov left on the company board, as rumors of sales and/or shut-downs swirl.

The departure by Koenigsberg follows the resignations of Tim Sarnoff, Paul Tudor Jones, billionaire Dirk Ziff and Marc Lasry.

Creatives and outlets have been galloping away from TWC since the October 5 New York Times piece on October 5 into Harvey Weinstein’s many sexual harassing actions and their resulting settlements. Since then, other women have come forward, former TWC partners have backed away, and law enforcement officials have allegedly started investigations into potential criminal complaints.

On Thursday, Rose McGowan’s access to her Twitter account was restored and she celebrated by firing off a series of angry tweets at people she thinks covered for Harvey Weinstein and accusing the movie mogul of rape.

Addressing all of her tweets to Jeff Bezos — the founder and CEO of Amazon — McGowan wrote, “I told the head of your studio that HW raped me. Over & over I said. He said it hadn’t been proven. I said I was proof.”

In response to the lengthy allegations made against Weinstein, a spokesperson for the movie mogul said, “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein.” Read more ..

No one’s fact-checking the fact-checkers.  After 2012’s Hurricane Sandy, Congress passed two spending bills.  Congress suspended its rules to pass the second one. What started out as emergency relief for Hurricane Sandy became Disaster Relief Appropriations. By skipping the normal appropriations process, Congress could load the bill with billions in hand-outs not related to Sandy. Or not an emergency. The annual appropriations process is the proper and transparent mechanism to review spending requests.

Recently, the Washington Post [here] and PolitiFact [here] claimed “virtually all” money was spent on Sandy relief.  In fact, billions were not for emergency relief. Or for Sandy.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development received 16 of the 51 billion from the 2^nd bill. Here are just two examples of HUD spending. Read more ..

The recent firing of the prominent anti-monopolist Barry Lynn and his Open Markets team from a Google-funded think tank has amplified attention on the tech giant’s readiness to use its power to suppress criticism and sway the cultural dialogue in its favor.

An August 31 New York Times article reported that Lynn and the Open Markets team had been fired from the New America Foundation shortly after he authored a statement praising the European Union’s landmark €2.4 billion penalty against Google for breaching antitrust rules. “The story began June 27, when we released a statement welcoming a European antitrust action against Google’s abuse of its monopoly power,” Lynn said in a press release. “Two days later, we were given two months to leave.” Read more ..

Iraqi Jews in Israel and abroad are mourning the death, on the second day of the Jewish New Year, of Professor Shmuel Moreh, 85, emeritus professor of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Born Sami Muallem in 1932 in Baghdad’s upmarket district of Bataween, Professor Moreh was a well-respected academic (as chairman of the Association of Academics from Iraq in Israel, he presided over the publication of countless books), who excelled in his command of the Arabic language.

Immigrating, together with most of Iraq’s Jews, to Israel with his family in 1951, he received his B.A. and M.A. from the Hebrew University in Arabic literature and Islamic Studies and his Ph.D. in modern Arabic poetry (SOAS, London University) in 1965. He was a poet and a prolific author of over 20 publications in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

His memoirs were serialised in the online Arabic medium Elaph in 2009 -10 and awakened huge interest among Iraqis in their lost Jewish community. The series was later published in Arabic as Baghdad Mon Amour. Read more ..

Mexican location scout Carlos Muñoz Portal was shot to death in a violent region in central Mexico Monday while scouting for season four of Netflix’s hit show “Narcos.” The seasoned scout, who worked for Stacy Perskie’s Mexico City-based production company Redrum, has a slew of high profile credits to his name, including, “Sicario,” “Spectre,” “Fast & Furious” and “Apocalypto.”

Netflix issued the following statement: “We are aware of the passing of Carlos Muñoz Portal, a well-respected location scout, and send our condolences to his family. The facts surrounding his death are still unknown as authorities continue to investigate.

Muñoz’s bullet-riddled body and car were found in a remote area near San Bartolo Actopan in the state of Mexico near the borders of Hidalgo state, which is said to have one of the highest murder rates in Mexico. In July, 182 cases of homicide were reported in the densely populated state, a ratio of 12.2 for every 100,000 inhabitants. Read more ..

Jóhann Jóhannsson is no longer involved with Blade Runner 2049, according to Icelandic newspaper Fréttablaðið (via the Iceland Review).

It had first been revealed in summer 2016 that Jóhannsson would be the film’s sole composer. In July 2017, it was reported that Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch were brought on to assist Jóhannsson.

All of Jóhannsson’s contributions have now been reportedly removed from 2049.

When reached for comment, Jóhannsson’s representatives replied, “Unfortunately due to a legal Non Disclosure Agreement Jóhann signed we’re not able to speak about this film at all.”

Sales were strong across much of the country this past summer, and the attitude going into the fall is positive, according to a PW survey of more than 15 independent bookstores last week.

“We had a really good summer,” said Ann Woodbeck, owner of Excelsior Bay Books outside of Minneapolis. “Sales were way up. We expect to finish out the year with a double-digit increase over last year.”