Category Archives: Obama

It’s Friiiday!!

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And that means it’s time for the Follies. Today we have several entries for the Follies. First, Obama has been slapped upside the head again by another federal judge. This time, it’s about Domino’s Pizza. The judge ruled that Obama cannot force Domino’s Pizza to offer birth control to its employees.

Judge: Feds Can’t Make Domino’s Founder Offer Birth Control

March 14, 2013 6:31 PM

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) — A federal judge has blocked the Obama administration from requiring Domino’s Pizza founder Tom Monaghan to provide mandatory contraception coverage to his employees under the federal health care law.

The devout Roman Catholic says he considers contraception “gravely immoral” practice. His lawsuit also lists as a plaintiff his Domino’s Farms, an office park outside Ann Arbor.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Zatkoff granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the law against Monaghan and Domino’s Farms.

Monaghan has sold most of his controlling stake in Domino’s Pizza. He offers health insurance that excludes contraception and abortion for employees.

The new federal law requires employers to offer insurance including contraception coverage or risk fines.

Michigan has a large contingent of Catholics—30-40% of those who claim to be religious. This suit was only for Domino’s Pizza but it can be used to support similar lawsuits filed by the Catholic Church and other religious organizations.

The Michigan Catholic Conference and other Catholic entities also sued over the new law, saying it violates religious freedom by requiring many religiously affiliated hospitals, schools and charities to comply.

***

Obama met with some of the GOP for lunch…except he wouldn’t eat with them. You see, he didn’t have his food taster with him. 

Really! Here’s the story from The Daily Caller.

Obama couldn’t eat at Hill meeting without food ‘taster’ [AUDIO]

4:39 PM 03/14/2013

 WASHINGTON — Following President Obama’s lunch meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill, Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins described the food served and said the president was not able to eat since his “taster” was not present.…

“Unfortunately, you know, the president can’t,” said Collins when asked if Obama ate at the lunch meeting.

“He looked longingly at it,” Collins continued. “He honestly did look longingly at it, but apparently he has to have essentially a taster, and I pointed out to him that we were all tasters for him, that if the food had been poisoned all of us would have keeled over so, but he did look longingly at it and he remarked that we have far better food than the Democrats do, and I said that was because I was hosting.”

Unbelievable!

***

Local elections are coming up next month. Here in Raymore, the Mayor and several city council seats are open. I haven’t seen the ballot yet, I’ve not seen who is running for what for every position. There has been a shuffle with the resignation of my ward’s councilman, Jeff Cox, who was elected as our county’s Presiding Commissioner last November.

I’m supporting a friend for Jeff’s seat but overall, I’m not sensing much…excitement. More like…”Ho-hum. Just routine.” That’s very unfortunate.

Why? Because there is the potential that some of the new councilmen will chuck the fiscal conservatism that has been the city’s policy for some time. That policy has kept the city in the black and maintained a very comfortable cash reserve and emergency fund.

There are some council members who lust to spend those reserves.

One former councilwoman, who lost her seat in the last election and is running again, wants to spend those reserves, put the city into debt, to build a community center—with a pool, fitness center, inside basketball court and meeting rooms. She ignores the fact that one exists only three miles away. A center built by our sister-city, Belton.

I’m concerned that all too many of these so-call fiscal conservatives are RINOs who will twist and bend under political pressure. The county has a history of political corruption. Our city has been spared from that political taint. But…we must never forget we’re only one election away from returning to those “bad, old days” when the county was ruled by a political oligarchy more interested in filling their own pockets than in the welfare of their constituents.

There is more to this election than just city of Raymore. There is also an election for the Ray-Pec school board. I’ve only heard of one candidate in this election and he’s the darling of the teacher’s union and has their active support.

Can we say, “Fox guarding the henhouse?” My recommendation is to vote against ANYONE who has the endorsement and support of teacher’s unions. Remember, the primary interest of the teacher’s union is the union, not education and certainly not educating our children. Anyone who tells you differently is woefully ignorant or is lying.

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Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3

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My high school English teacher was an older, unmarried lady who had a, well let’s say, a risque reputation when she was younger. My parents knew her for years and when I was a high school sophomore, she was my teacher.

She loved Shakespeare. We were required to read a number of Shakespeare’s plays and his poetry. I barely passed. At age 15, Shakespeare didn’t interest me.

Fast forward four years. I’m now in college and once again I’m in an English lit class and we’re reading Shakespeare’s “historical” play, the Henrys, Richard the Third, and a few of his comedies. I’ve forgotten the instructor’s name. It’s been over fifty years. I do remember he read to us in class, in dialect of the times. Shakespeare became real. It became one of my favorite classes.

It was a four credit-hour class. We met four times a week and we spent a week on Henry the Fifth, one of Shakespeare’s most well known and most quoted plays. One of those famous quotes is  in Act IV, Scene 3 when Henry is in France, at Agincourt…on St. Crispin’s Day eve.

SCENE III. The English camp.

Enter GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, ERPINGHAM, with all his host: SALISBURY and WESTMORELAND

GLOUCESTER

Where is the king?

BEDFORD

The king himself is rode to view their battle.

WESTMORELAND

Of fighting men they have full three score thousand.

EXETER

There’s five to one; besides, they all are fresh.

SALISBURY

God’s arm strike with us! ’tis a fearful odds.
God be wi’ you, princes all; I’ll to my charge:
If we no more meet till we meet in heaven,
Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford,
My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter,
And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu!

BEDFORD

Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go with thee!

EXETER

Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day:
And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it,
For thou art framed of the firm truth of valour.
Exit SALISBURY

BEDFORD

He is full of valour as of kindness;
Princely in both.
Enter the KING

WESTMORELAND

O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!

KING HENRY V

What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more, methinks, would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made
And crowns for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian:’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispin’s day.’
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember’d.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

Now, let’s move forward nearly 700 years and revise Henry’s speech into modern terms. It is still potent and applicable today—with a bit of tongue-in-cheek.

Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3.

Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3, Revised.

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2016: The Documentary

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My wife and I saw 2016 yesterday afternoon.  The number of show-times have expanded dramatically from the weekend.  Last week it was shown at one time, noon. This week it has expanded to four times a day. Evidently the demand has been…surprising for theater managers.

I’m not going into much detail about the movie. It was based on Dinesh D’Souza’s best-selling book, Obama’s America: Unmaking the American Dream. One theme was the parallels in Obama’s early life and that of D’Souza. Obama’s early life was spent in Indonesia, a former Dutch colony. D’Souza was Indian and grew in in post-colonial India.  Both were products of colonialism and post-colonialism, or rather anti-colonialism shaped both—Obama in one direction, D’Souza in another.

There really wasn’t, for me, much new information in the documentary. I knew that Obama’s mother and father were married only a short time. Obama, Sr., left the family to attend a US university. Obama’s mother shortly after Obama, Sr.’s departure  married Lolo Soetoro and moved to Indonesia where Soetoro was employed by the Indonesian government.

That marriage didn’t last long either.  Soetoro moved, due to his job, to the Right while Obama’s mother moved further to the Left. When Obama was in the 5th grade, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Hawaii.

When Obama was older, his Grandfather arranged for Obama to have a mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. Davis was a card-carrying member of the Communist Party of the USA.

In his biography of Barack Obama, David Mendell writes about Obama’s life as a “secret smoker” and how he “went to great lengths to conceal the habit.” But what about Obama’s secret political life? It turns out that Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was a communist.

In his books, Obama admits attending “socialist conferences” and coming into contact with Marxist literature. But he ridicules the charge of being a “hard-core academic Marxist,” which was made by his colorful and outspoken 2004 U.S. Senate opponent, Republican Alan Keyes.

However, through Frank Marshall Davis, Obama had an admitted relationship with someone who was publicly identified as a member of the Communist Party USA CPUSA). The record shows that Obama was in Hawaii from 1971-1979, where, at some point in time, he developed a close relationship, almost like a son, with Davis, listening to his “poetry” and getting  advice on his career path. But Obama, in his book, Dreams From My Father,refers to him repeatedly as just “Frank.” — Accuracy in Media

The documentary continues with Obama’s other mentors, Bill Ayers, Roberto Unger and Edward Said. None of this is any revelation to anyone who has been attentive to the news.  However, listening to some of the  comments from the audience yesterday, it was a revelation for some.

The core theme of the documentary is that Obama’s world view is that of an anti-colonialist. Socialism/communism is just a tool to be used to punish the colonial powers, to redirect their wealth to the 3rd world. “But,” you say, “the US is not a colonial power.” Obama’s viewpoint, according to D’Souza, is that the US is the inheritor of colonialism and is therefore equally guilty.

One bit of information that was new concerned Obama’s half-brother George in Kenya. Some of George’s comments explains why he has been ignored by Obama.  George is not an anti-colonialist. In fact, he stated that Kenya would have been better off, more developed, “like Malaysia. Singapore and South Africa,” if the “whites” had stayed longer. Kenya gained independence in the early 1960s. The “whites” and educated blacks fled Kenya leaving the country to wallow in poverty. George clearly believes that Kenya was not ready for independence. When asked why Obama had not helped his brother who lives in poverty, George smiled and said, “He has his own family.” The inference is that it is George’s non anti-colonialist opinions are the real reason.

All in all, the documentary is well worth seeing. For conservatives, it confirms our views and opinions about Obama. For the average democrat, it will be a revelation. But, I don’t expect the mind-washed will bother to see 2016. It would break too many of their illusions.

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Our Town

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James Taylor sang a song for the movie, Cars, titled “Our Town.”  It is one of my favorites.

The storyline is a small town that was once thriving but is no longer.  The town was located on the fabled US Route 66. Then the Interstate arrived and by-passed the town. Since then it has been slowly dying.

That scenario exists today.  Just substitute any small town in America for the one in the movie. Instead of the arrival of the interstate, substitute the liberal economic policies of Obama and the democrat leaders in Congress. 

You can see the results yourself. Just drive down any highway and look at the empty, abandoned buildings, the empty gas stations, small businesses, former construction lots…all empty, overgrown with weeds and covered with For Sale and realtor signs.

These are the lyrics of Our Town.  Substitute a word , here and there, and it becomes your town.

Long ago, but not so very long ago
The world was different, oh yes it was
You settled down and you built a town and made it live
And you watched it grow
It was your town

Time goes by, time brings changes, you change, too
Nothing comes that you can’t handle, so on you go
Never see it coming, the world caves in on you
On your town
Nothing you can do.

Main street isn’t main street anymore
Lights don’t shine as brightly as they shone before
Tell the truth, lights don’t shine at all
In our town

Sun comes up each morning
Just like it’s always done
Get up, go to work, start the day,
Open up for business that’s never gonna come
As the world rolls by a million miles away

Main street isn’t main street anymore
No one seems to need us like they did before
It’s hard to find a reason left to stay
But it’s our town
Love it anyway
Come what may, it’s our town.

[Thanks to gjcoram@yahoo.com for lyrics]

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Quotes and Gaffs

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Sometimes it is so easy to find a topic…unlike most of the time.  There I was, sipping coffee and thinking about Dave Ramsey’s comment earlier.  He was discussing the Facebook IPO.  As best as I remember he said…

“Using your Grandma’s money to buy an extremely risky tech stock in a highly hyped IPO is STUPID!  What’s worse is blaming someone else when you lose your money because you were stupid is stupid!”

It was his opening topic. He was discussing the various complaints because the stock went from $38 to $29 in about a week.  He said the demands for an investigation was trying to  blaming someone else because you were stupid…like suing because hot coffee was…hot.

It’s obvious Dave is a conservative. Everything he preaches against is a common trait of democrats and liberals. You’re fun to listen to, Dave.

***

The next item is more serious. Much more serious. I supposed it could be filed under the topic, “How to lose friends and make enemies.” Obama just insulted 38 million Poles.

It’s not the first time he has insulted the Poles. A earlier incident occurred when he played golf instead of attending the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski, the Polish First Lady, and 94 senior Polish officials who perished in the Smolensk air disaster. Eight months before that, Obama arbitrarily canceled the Euro missile shield site in Poland when he kowtowed to Vladimir Putin who insisted the deployment threatened Russia.

The current flap was caused when Obama described the WW2 death camps in Poland as, “Polish death camps,” instead of Nazi camps.  What was worse was that he was reading off a teleprompter! Is the Obama White House so incompetent that NO ONE knew the difference nor of the impact such a statement would have!?

The Polish Foreign Minister immediately demanded an apology.  That should not be difficult for Obama.  He has had so much practice apologizing to our enemies—and our friends, due to other similar gaffs and insults.  As expected, the White House tried to dance, unsuccessfully, around the incident.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement, “The President was referring to Nazi death camps operated in Poland. The President has demonstrated in word and deed his rock-solid commitment to our close alliance with Poland.” — ABC News.

In response, the Polish Foreign Minister called the incident an act of “ignorance and incompetence.”

You know, Obama opponents couldn’t make up stuff like this!  Some folks in a forum tried to create a list but it keeps growing. Geez! What a boob!

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You Ain’t No Teddy Roosevelt!

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A hundred and some years ago, Teddy Roosevelt came to Osawatomie, KS, and praised progressivism.  The supposed purpose of the visit was to commemorate the creation of a state park.  Instead, Roosevelt used the event to attack elements in his own political party who chose to follow a path contrary to that desired by Roosevelt.

The Kansas Historical Society has a webpage describing the event. Roosevelt intended to bridge a gap between the Eastern and Western factions of the Republican Party.  He failed, partly due to the machinations of William Allen White.

The essence of Roosevelt’s speech has been discussed by numerous historians. it was, according to Prof. George E. Mowry, “the most radical speech ever given by an ex-President… . His concepts of the extent to which a powerful federal government could regulate and use private property in the interest of the whole and his declarations about labor, when viewed [with]…the eyes of 1910, were nothing short of revolutionary.” [30]

Roosevelt stated:

The American people are right in demanding that new Nationalism without which we cannot hope to deal with new problems. The new Nationalism puts the National need before sectional or personal advantage. It is impatient of the utter confusion that results from local legislatures attempting to treat National issues as local issues. It is still more impatient of the impotence which springs from over-division of governmental powers, the impotence which makes it possible for local selfishness or for legal cunning, hired by wealthy special interests, to bring National activities to a deadlock. This new Nationalism regards the executive power as the steward of public welfare. It demands of the judiciary that it shall be interested primarily in human welfare rather than in property, just as it demands that the representative body shall represent all the people rather than any one class or section of the people… . I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare. Normally…the ends are the same, but whenever the alternative must be faced I am for men and not for property… .

These ideas, plus a very clever comparison between the crisis which Brown and Lincoln faced in the 1850’s and the crisis Roosevelt and the American people faced in 1910, constitute most of the speech. Taken with the 17 specific reforms Roosevelt discussed, they are the essentials of the address. [31] — Kansas Historical Quarterly – Theodore Roosevelt’s Osawatomie Speech by Robert S. La Forte

Roosevelt adopted the edicts of Progressivism to gain support of the populist movements of that time.  Again, he failed and in a few years created a third party, the Bull Moose party, as a platform for another run for the Presidency.

It’s problematic whether Teddy Roosevelt actually believed in Progressivism or whether he used them to advance his personal political aims.  Regardless, it lead to his defeat for another Presidential term and into obscurity.

Obama came to Kansas last week, to Osawatomie, KS, like Roosevelt. He did not come as President to commemorate an event or announce some policy statement. No, he came an Candidate Obama running for President in next year’s election.  Like Roosevelt, he attacked private property, embraced big government and more.  Like Roosevelt, he failed too.

Obama’s Godfather Speech

The president sounds more like a Corleone than a Roosevelt.

By DANIEL HENNINGER

Most press accounts of Barack Obama’s speech in Osawatomie, Kansas, Tuesday described it as delivered by the “president of the United States.” And indeed the person delivering it analogized himself to Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Bill Clinton. In fact, the Osawatomie speech was not given by the President of the United States. It was given by the leader of the Democratic Party.
…

Dan Henninger says that the president sounds
more like a Corleone than a Roosevelt.

The Osawatomie speech sounded like what you’d expect to hear in Caracas or Buenos Aires. As in: “The free market has never been a license to take whatever you can from whomever you can.” (Applause.) And: “Their philosophy is simple. We are better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves and play by their own rules.”

Some will say hearing crude Chavista populism in the Obama speech is an overreaction. That once it’s understood the Kansas speech was the work of the party leader, not the president of the United States, it becomes easier to think about it without overreacting to its intense and vivid rhetoric: “Millions of working families in this country . . . are now forced to take their children to food banks for a decent meal.”
…
About two-thirds through Mr. Obama’s Kansas speech, I started to think of “The Godfather.” After slapping around the “wealthy” for about a half hour, Mr. Obama said, “This isn’t about class warfare.” Maybe that’s true. In “The Godfather,” when awful things are about to be done to people, Michael Corleone or Tom Hagen reassure those about to get hit, “It’s not personal; it’s strictly business.”
But I could be wrong about that. There is that defining moment when Michael Corleone says to Fredo, his brother, “You’re nothing to me now.” When even as party leader, a president of the United States gives a major speech in which people get singled out repeatedly as basically enemies of “the middle class,” one has to wonder if they are nothing to him.
…
The Kansas speech was built around one concrete policy idea: that the rich and millionaires (officially still defined as families with before-tax income above $250,000) should send him more money so he can “invest” it. This single policy, if we heard correctly, will end high unemployment, raise middle-class incomes, put children through college, make America fair and defeat countries that pollute. 
Obama, rather than sounding and emulating Teddy Roosevelt sounded more like Hugo Chavez railing against capitalism and free markets.  Like the reigning democrats, Obama mouths platitudes while blocking acts that would actually help the country. It’s become obvious that the democrats do not want economic recovery.  Turmoil—political and economic, they believe, enhances their position.  As long as they can ferment and promote class warfare, they can remain in power.

It’s not the haves vs. the have-nots.  It’s the parasites vs. the producers, the dependency class against the productive citizens of this country.  It’s Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged come to life.

Mushrooms

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I think all of you have heard the definition of mushrooms—kept in the dark and fed BS. I can safely say that all of us, from time to time, has been a mushroom.  When I was an engineer, planning projects, making cost estimates, various people and organizations tried to make me a mushroom.  It rarely worked. But “rarely” isn’t never.  Yes, there were times when I was a mushroom.  I knew it but could do little about it.

But there are other kinds of mushrooms, mushrooms that creates light and feeds on itself.  There is a possibility those mushrooms may appear.  In the Mideast.

JERUSALEM | Wed Nov 2, 2011 11:00am EDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel test-fired a missile from a military base on Wednesday, two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of the “direct and heavy threat” posed by Iran’s nuclear program.

The missile test was to prove that Iran was within reach of Israel.  The test was a response to the news that China was supplying missiles to Iran and that an IAEA report next week would be “a game changer” according to the UK Guardian.

China is continuing to provide advanced missiles and  other conventional arms to Iran and may be doing so in violation of other U.N. sanctions against the Tehran regime, according to a draft report by the congressional U.S.-China Commission. 
“China continues to provide Iran with what could be considered advanced conventional weapons,” the report of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission says.
According to the report, which will be made public Nov. 16, China sold $312 million worth of arms to Iran, second only to Russia, after Congress passed the Iran Freedom Support Act in 2006 that allows the U.S. government to sanction foreign companies that provide advanced arms to Iran.
…
Most of the weapons transfers involved sales of Chinese anti-ship cruise missiles, including C-802 missiles that China promised the United States in 1997 would not be exported to Iran.
The missiles exported by China are mostly short ranged. However, Iran already possesses longer ranged missile supplied by North Korea and Russia. 
Iran would cause serious damage to the United States and Israel should Jewish state strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, Iran’s top military official said on Wednesday.
The “Zionist regime’s military attack against Iran would lead to heavy damages to the US as well as [to the] Zionist regime,” Iran’s Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi said.
Iran would attack Israel in a “surprising” way, he was quoted by Army Radio as saying.
Israel, however, takes the threats from Iran seriously.  When/if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, no one doubts the mullahs in Iran would not hesitate to use them.

The UK, in fact, is developing contingency plans if a heightened threat of regional nuclear war does continue to grow in the Mideast.
Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.
The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities. British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.
The flaw in the British plans is that they assume Obama would not stand by and allow the Mideast to burn.  Most likely, Obama, as is his habit, would dither until it was too late to take effective action. And, while dithering, the missiles would fly.
Would Israel use her nukes?  That is the pivotal question.  No one in the West doubts that Israel has nukes.  Some estimates run as high as 100 to 300 warheads.  Israel has never responded to questions whether they have nukes.  The silence and non-denials is a very good answer to that question.
In the Second Gulf War, Israel did not respond when Iraqi missiles were fired on Israel.  The Patriot missiles furnished to Israel destroyed some, shoved off course others, and the ones that did get through contained only high-explosives, not chemical weapons that were a possibility.  Israel restrained their response on the assurances and aid from the US.  Those assurances are not forthcoming this time around.  Israel stands alone.
Is it likely mushrooms will grow in the Mideast?  No one knows, especially me.  The possibility, maybe probability, continues to grow.  If they do, the US will be involved in one form or another.