- A U.S. Army soldier died when he fell out of a helicopter at Fort Hood. Fifteen Marines were injured when their amphibious assault vehicle caught fire during a combat readiness evaluation at Camp Pendleton; six of the Marines are in critical condition. Eight U.S. Army special forces soldiers were injured in an explosion at Fort Bragg.
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North Korea fired another missile that passed over Japan. The missile reached an altitude of 480 miles and traveled 2,300 miles.
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The head of the Department of Defense’s Strategic Command is operating under the assumption that North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb earlier this month.
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A group of South Korean legislators are in Washington, D.C. asking the Trump administration and Congress to station nuclear weapons in South Korea again.
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Canyon Bridge Capital Partners’ planned $1.3-billion acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor Corp (LSCC.O) was one of the largest attempted by a Chinese-backed firm in the U.S. microchip sector and was the first announced deal for the buyout fund, which launched last year with a focus on technology investment. U.S. regulatory scrutiny grew after Reuters reported in November that Canyon Bridge was funded partly by capital from China’s central government and had indirect links to its space program.
- The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation is presenting its annual Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award to Planned Parenthood:
This is widely considered one of the most prestigious awards in medicine and is often referred to as the “American Nobel,” because 86 previous awardees have gone on to win a Nobel Prize.
According to the foundation, Planned Parenthood will receive the award for its provision of “essential health services and reproductive care to millions of women for more than a century.” Past Lasker-Bloomberg awards have gone to public figures such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Michael Bloomberg, and even Lyndon B. Johnson.
This award, granted by one of the most influential groups in medical research, bestows on the abortion provider yet another medal of honor from the powers that be, another indisputable piece of evidence that, in American public life, it doesn’t get much more “establishment” than Planned Parenthood. It would be absurd to suggest otherwise.
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An American fighting for ISIS in Syria surrendered to the Syrian Democratic Forces, who transferred him to the U.S. military. No one from the American government is saying anything about where he is now.
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Russia claims two of its submarines operating in the Mediterranean fired a total of seven cruise missiles at ISIS targets in eastern Syria.
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ISIS staged three suicide bomb attacks in southern Iraq, killing at least 60 people. The attackers targeted a police checkpoint and two restaurants near the city of Nassiriya.
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The Iraqi parliament voted to remove the governor of Kirkuk from office over his support for the Kurdish independence referendum. The governor, Najmaddin Kareem, says he’s staying.
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The government of Iraqi Kurdistan is considering a plan offered by the U.S., the U.K., and the U.N. to delay the independence referendum, currently scheduled for September 25.
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American special operators working with the Syrian Democratic Forces and the YPG believe it’s important for the U.S. to stand by them in the face of pressure from the Turkish and Iraqi governments to abandon them lest the Kurds declare independence.
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The Trump administration renewed a waiver of the most significant sanctions against Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal.
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Vladimir Putin claims he’s open to the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in eastern Ukraine. The Ukrainian government supports the idea as long as Russian soldiers are not among the U.N. troops.
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A Brazilian prosecutor charged President Michel Temer with obstruction of justice and racketeering. This was the second set of criminal charges filed against Temer.
Tag: South Korea
Links for 9-6-2017
- Donald Trump cut a deal with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to fund FEMA to the tune of $7.85 billion and attach it to a three month continuing resolution and debit ceiling increase:
President Donald Trump briskly overruled congressional Republicans and his own treasury secretary Wednesday to cut a deal with Democrats to keep the government operating and raise America’s debt limit. The immediate goal was ensuring money for hurricane relief, but in the process the president brazenly rolled his own party’s leaders.
In deal-making mode, Trump sided with the Democratic leaders — “Chuck and Nancy,” as he amiably referred later to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — as they pushed for the three-month deal, brushing aside the urgings of GOP leaders and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin for a much longer extension to the debt limit. Republicans want that longer allowance to avoid having to take another vote on the politically toxic issue before the 2018 congressional elections.
The House approved the $7.85 billion for FEMA on a 419–3 vote. The “no” votes came from Justin Amash, Andy Biggs, and Thomas Massie.
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The House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill making it possible for companies to deploy self-driving cars that lack human controls. The bill also prevents states from setting their own performance standards for self-driving cars.
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During a confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, Senator Dianne Feinstein attacked Barrett’s Catholic faith. Donald Trump nominated Barrett for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Dick Durbin and Mazie Hirono also attacked Barrett’s faith during the hearing.
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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a district court ruling that prevented Texas from enforcing its latest photo voter ID law. The law was designed to respond to the Fifth Circuit’s objections to the previous photo voter ID law, but the district court decided to block it anyway.
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Hina Alvi cut a deal with federal prosecutors and will return to the U.S. from Pakistan to face criminal charges. Alvi is the wife of Imran Awan, who was arrested as he leaving the U.S. for Pakistan. Both worked as IT contractors for Debbie Wasserman Schultz and other House Democrats.
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The vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, Stanley Fischer, resigned unexpectedly.
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The MV–22 Osprey that crashed off Australia’s coast has been recovered and will be sent to Hawaii for analysis. Three Marines died in the crash.
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Conservative book publisher Regnery cut its ties to The New York Times best seller list because it’s slanted to the political left:
“Increasingly, it appears that the Times has gathered book sale data in a manner which prioritizes liberal-themed books over conservative books and authors,” Regnery President Marji Ross said in a company press release. “The net result has been a bestseller list that has increasingly become less relevant to the Regnery audience, and less reflective of which books are actually selling best in the country, regardless of one’s political persuasion.”
- Symantec reported that a hacker group called “Dragonfly 2.0” has penetrated power companies in the U.S. and other countries.
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The remaining four launchers for South Korea’s THAAD anti-missile system will be installed tomorrow. South Korea’s defense minister suggested that the U.S. re-deploy tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea as a deterrent. The U.S. withdrew its nuclear weapons from South Korea in 1991.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the idea of cutting oil exports to North Korea as part of strengthened U.N. sanctions. North Korea gets most of its oil from China, but has been working to increase imports from Russia.
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U.N. war crimes investigators released a report stating that the Syrian government used chemical weapons more than two dozen times during its civil war.
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A United States Holocaust Memorial Museum study that absolved the Obama administration of responsibility for failing to prevent genocide in Syria was put on hold after “prominent Jewish communal leaders and thinkers” criticized it:
Some Jewish communal leaders suggested both privately to Tablet, and in conversations with board members and staff at the Holocaust Museum, that the Museum’s moral authority had been hijacked for a partisan re-writing of recent history, and alleged that the museum had absolved the Obama administration of any moral or political error in its response to mass atrocities in Syria. At least one of the architects of the Obama administration policy in Syria, former deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes, was appointed to the museum’s Memorial Council during the closing days of the Obama administration. The Council also includes Obama NSC alumni Grant Harris and Daniel Benjamin. Other Obama NSC alumni, including Hudson and Anna Cave, have joined the Museum’s staff.
Links for 9-2-2017
- Andrew McCarthy argues that it wasn’t former FBI Director James Comey’s decision to exonerate Hillary Clinton before the FBI investigation was over, but Barack Obama’s decision:
This was the start of a series of Justice Department shenanigans we would come to learn about: Cutting off key areas of inquiry; cutting inexplicable immunity deals; declining to use the grand jury to compel evidence; agreeing to limit searches of computers (in order to miss key time-frames when obstruction occurred); agreeing to destroy physical evidence (laptop computers); failing to charge and squeeze witnesses who made patently false statements; allowing subjects of the investigation to act as lawyers for other subjects of the investigation (in order to promote the charade that some evidence was off-limits due to the attorney-client privilege); and so on. There is a way – a notoriously aggressive way – that the Justice Department and FBI go about their business when they are trying to make a case. Here, they were trying to unmake a case.
Knowing all these things, as we now do and have for a year, I’m baffled by complaints that Comey allegedly made “his” decision not to charge Clinton before key witnesses were interviewed. The main issue is not that witnesses hadn’t been questioned; it is that by April 2016, restraints were already in place to ensure that witness interviews would be fruitless, and that any incriminating information they accidentally turned up would be ignored or buried.
- The Obama administration used a loophole in federal immigration law to put beneficiaries of the DACA program on the path to full citizenship:
The House and Senate Judiciary Committees revealed that more than 45,000 DACA recipients were approved for “advance parole,” which is permission to leave and reenter the U.S. despite not being in permanent legal status here.
But under a quirk of law, those granted advance parole can then ask to adjust their status and gain legal residence — and eventually citizenship — as long as they have a qualifying relationship.
The Obama administration had seemed intent on keeping the data secret, refusing to answer requests from Congress. The Trump administration complied.
- Politico reported that the Department of Homeland Security labeled Antifa a domestic terrorist threat, and at least some of its members are on terrorism watch lists:
Federal authorities have been warning state and local officials since early 2016 that leftist extremists known as “antifa” had become increasingly confrontational and dangerous, so much so that the Department of Homeland Security formally classified their activities as “domestic terrorist violence,” according to interviews and confidential law enforcement documents obtained by POLITICO.
Later:
Previously unreported documents disclose that by April 2016, authorities believed that “anarchist extremists” were the primary instigators of violence at public rallies against a range of targets. They were blamed by authorities for attacks on the police, government and political institutions, along with symbols of “the capitalist system,” racism, social injustice and fascism, according to a confidential 2016 joint intelligence assessment by DHS and the FBI.
Later still:
The intelligence assessments focus less on guns than handmade weapons used by antifa, with photos of members brandishing ax handles and shields, often with industrial-sized bolts attached to create crude bayonets. A senior state law enforcement official said, “A whole bunch of them” have been deemed dangerous enough to be placed on U.S. terrorism watch lists.
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Imran Awan was arraigned in federal court on four felony fraud charges. He asked that his GPS monitoring bracelet be removed in case he needs to “attend to an emergency with his children.” His wife and children are in Pakistan.
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ExxonMobil began restarting its Baytown, Texas refinery after repairing damage caused by Hurricane Harvey. The refinery is the second largest in the U.S.
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Donald Trump announced more than 40 nominations on Friday night, including Jim Bridenstine to head NASA and Richard Grenell to be ambassador to Germany.
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The U.S. and South Korea agreed to amend a treaty that restricts South Korea’s ability to develop ballistic missiles. Donald Trump also gave “conceptual approval” to South Korea’s plans to buy billions of dollars of military equipment from American companies.
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The “sonic weapon” attacks on American diplomats in Cuba continued through last month.
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Turkey has taken up the habit of arresting Germans, effectively holding them hostage. Turkey is now holding twelve German citizens on political charges.
Links for 8-31-2017
- The Department of Defense reported that the soldier still missing after a Black Hawk helicopter crash off Yemen’s coast is Staff Sgt. Emil Rivera-Lopez.
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The Trump administration ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco and annexes in Washington, D.C. and New York City. This was done in retaliation for Russia’s ordering 755 American diplomats to leave the country. The U.S. did not expel any Russian diplomats.
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Energy Secretary Rick Perry authorized the release of half a million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The oil is going to Philips 66’s refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
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Sally Jenkins profiled the “Cajun Navy” that’s rescuing people in Houston.
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Former FBI Director James Comey started drafting an order exonerating Hillary Clinton over her private email server long before FBI agents finished investigating the case and before Clinton and her aides were interviewed.
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A federal district court judge blocked key parts of Texas’ sanctuary cities law, including the provision requiring cities and counties to cooperate with federal requests to turn people over for possible deportation.
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The New American Foundation staffer who was fired for criticizing Google, Barry Lynn, wrote an article for The Washington Post:
We should all be worried about big business interfering with our speech, our thinking and our expression. Corporations are geared to pursue their interests, and criticism is not in their best interest. It’s our job as citizens to build a political economy that keeps those tendencies in check. But we’re failing. Wherever you work, whatever you do, as businesses grow and concentrate their power, your livelihood will be at risk if corporations continue to extend their reach into the world of ideas.
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For reasons unknown, the Southern Poverty Law Center is shuffling millions of dollars in donations to offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, and Bermuda. That’s an odd thing for a U.S. nonprofit to do.
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Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that in 2016, the average American spent more on taxes than food and clothing combined. There’s also this: “The same data also shows that in three years—from 2013 to 2016—the average tax bill for Americans increased 41.13 percent.”
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Two B–1B bombers and two F–35 fighters flew over South Korea in response to North Korea’s latest ballistic missile test.
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Not only does Iran not want the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to inspect its military installations under the 2015 nuclear deal, but the IAEA doesn’t want to go there itself.
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The Trump administration is withholding $255 million in military aid to Pakistan until they crack down on terrorist groups that are destabilizing Afghanistan.
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The Iraqi government says it pushed ISIS out of Tal Afar. ISIS gained control of the city in June 2014.
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Venezuela’s constituent assembly voted unanimously to put opposition leaders on trial for treason.
Links for 8-25-2017
- Divers recovered the body of another sailor from the USS John McCain.
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Sebastian Gorka resigned as Deputy Assistant to President Trump. Here are excerpts from his resignation letter:
Regrettably, outside of yourself, the individuals who most embodied and represented the policies that will “Make America Great Again,” have been internally countered, systematically removed, or undermined in recent months. This was made patently obvious as I read the text of your speech on Afghanistan this week…
The fact that those who drafted and approved the speech removed any mention of Radical Islam or radical Islamic terrorism proves that a crucial element of your presidential campaign has been lost…
Just as worrying, when discussing our future actions in the region, the speech listed operational objectives without ever defining the strategic victory conditions we are fighting for. This omission should seriously disturb any national security professional, and any American who is unsatisfied with the last 16 years of disastrous policy decisions which have led to thousands of Americans killed and trillions of taxpayer dollars spent in ways that have not brought security or victory.
- Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Arpaio was an early Trump supporter.
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A retired Social Security Administration administrative law judge, David Daugherty, was sentenced to four years in prison. Daugherty pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Social Security disability lawyers.
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Donald Trump reneged on a campaign promise to stop enforcing the Johnson amendment, which curtails the First Amendment rights of churches.
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The Trump administration imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela intended to prevent the government and the state-owned oil company, PDVSA, from selling new bonds to Americans or U.S. financial institutions:
Most existing Venezuelan debt traded in the U.S. was issued by PDVSA. The sanctions don’t prohibit the resale of those bonds, only purchases and trades of new PDVSA debt.
But trades of existing bonds issued by the Venezuelan government — which are different from PDVSA bonds — will be barred, a move intended to harm and sow discontent among Maduro’s inner circle. That debt is held by high-level Venezuelan government leaders, who will now be forced to turn to other so-called secondary markets in, say, China or Russia, though senior Trump administration officials said they hope Friday’s sanctions will make those countries think twice before purchasing the debt.
- The U.S. Air Force awarded contracts to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to develop a nuclear cruise missile.
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Someone threw red paint on a statue of Thomas Jefferson at the University of Virginia. Someone else decapitated a statue of a Revolutionary War hero at a courthouse in Ohio.
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A former Volkswagen engineer who played a key role in the company’s diesel emissions cheating scheme, James Liang, was sentenced to 40 months in prison and a $200,000 fine. Liang pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors.
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Federal authorities arrested a Chinese national, Yu Pingan, and accused him of providing the malware that was used to hack the U.S. Office of Personnel Management in 2014 and 2015.
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In recent months, the city has adopted higher minimum wages, mandatory paid leave and “fair” scheduling requirements, forced unionization of rideshare drivers, “democracy vouchers” (taxpayer-funded campaign contributions), and a soda tax. Sure, these policies have destroyed job opportunities and autonomy for lower-income earners and entrants into the labor market, strained, stagnated, and alienated small businesses, undermined federal labor law, violated the First Amendment, and increased the cost of delicious, sugary beverages. Nonetheless, Sawant and Company have earned major #Resistance bona fides. They are so woke.
The council is determined to offset the negative effects of “regressive taxes” and fight income inequality, so they’ve enacted a tax, not to meet any specific fiscal need, but to, admittedly, redistribute wealth. Predictably, they are messaging this as a civil rights issue on par with abortion legalization and the redefinition of marriage. The primary problem is, the tax is illegal.
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A federal district court ordered Texas to re-draw nine state house districts before the 2018 election.
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Soldiers in Brussels shot and killed a man who attacked them with a knife while yelling “Allahu Akbar.”
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A man armed with a knife attacked two police officers outside Buckingham Palace; he was arrested.
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A suicide bomber and gunmen attacked a Shiite mosque in Kabul, killing at least 30 people. ISIS claimed responsibility.
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The former head of Samsung Group, Jay Y. Lee, was convicted of bribery and sentenced to five years in prison. He plans to appeal.
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Japanese fighters intercepted six Chinese H–6 bombers flying near Okinawa.
Links for 8-24-2017
- The U.S. Navy identified the sailors who died or are missing after the USS John McCain collision. One sailor, Electronics Technician 3rd Class Kenneth Aaron Smith, is dead, and nine are still missing. The ship is so badly mangled that divers are having trouble entering it to search for the missing.
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North Korea published photos hinting that they’re developing a three stage intercontinental ballistic missile, which would likely have sufficient range to reach all of the U.S.
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The Department of Defense is planning to install radars on the Pacific island of Palau, which would give the U.S. a better view of North Korean missiles. Palau is an independent country, but the U.S. is responsible for its defense.
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North Korean hackers are still targeting the U.S. government and American companies, particularly defense contractors.
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Russia sent Tu–95 bombers, Su–35 fighters, and A–50 early warning and control aircraft on a tour of South Korea and Japan, prompting those countries to send fighters to intercept them.
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Donald Trump told Pakistan that it will be held accountable for supporting terrorist groups. Pakistan’s government denied that charge, but:
Pakistan’s denial is laughable on its face. For decades, the country has permitted a number of jihadist groups to openly operate under its aegis. Many of these groups – such as Lashkar-e-Taiba, Harakat-ul-Muhahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Hizbul Mujahideen, and Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami – were created with the support of Pakistan’s military and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.
- American diplomats in Cuba may have been more seriously injured by “sonic weapons” than previously reported — the phrase “traumatic brain injury” appears in the characterization of their injuries. Diplomats in Cuba are still reporting problems, and the only reaction from the Trump administration has been to deport two Cuban diplomats.
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The Trump administration imposed visa sanctions on Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone for refusing to take back people the U.S. is trying to deport. The State Department will stop issuing visas to some or all of the citizens of these countries.
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Hans von Spakovsky wonders why the Department of Justice continues to go to great lengths to defend the IRS in lawsuits filed by conservative groups that were targeted by the IRS when they filed for tax exempt status:
As soon as President Donald Trump was inaugurated and the first members of the Trump transition team landed at the Justice Department, one of the first steps they should have taken was to order the Tax Division to stop its deliberate litigation strategy of fighting all attempts to ferret out what exactly happened at the IRS, and who was responsible for it.
Instead, the Justice Department has continued to obstruct discovery in this lawsuit that has been going on for four long years, resulting in [Judge Reggie] Walton’s Aug. 17 order against the IRS and the Justice Department.
- The Texas legislature passed a bill during its regular session designed to address complaints by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals about the state’s photo voter ID law. The governor signed the bill and the Department of Justice is satisfied with it, but before it could go into effect a federal district court blocked its implementation. Texas will appeal the ruling, but this is getting ridiculous. Not only are the federal courts trying to legislate, but each level of the federal court system is legislating in a different way.
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A federal jury refused to convict four men in the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff. This was the second time federal prosecutors tried to convict the four. The judge in the second trial worked to avoid a jury nullification outcome and it appears it happened anyway.
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The leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party, Devlet Bahceli, said Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum could justify war.
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A man named Masa’ud al Surghuti went on a stabbing rampage in Surgat, Russia, injuring eight people before he was killed. Russian media downplayed the possibility that it was a terrorist attack, but Surghuti left behind a video swearing allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
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One senior executive whose company was represented at the meeting told Reuters some companies were under “political pressure” to revise the terms of their joint ventures with state-owned partners to allow the party final say over business operations and investment decisions.
He said the company’s joint venture partner was pushing to amend their agreement to include language mandating party personnel be “brought into the business management organization”, that “party organization overhead expenses shall be included in the company budget”, and that posts of board chairman and party secretary be held by the same person.Changing joint venture agreement terms is the main concern, the executive said, noting that his company had thus far resisted.
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Former Venezuelan chief prosecutor Luisa Ortega claims she has evidence proving that President Nicolas Maduro is corrupt.
Links for 7-30-2017
- The U.S. responded to the latest North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test by flying two B–1Bs over South Korea. The U.S. also successfully tested a THAAD missile against a medium range ballistic missile.
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The number of American diplomats being kicked out of Russia by Vladimir Putin totaled to 755.
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Kevin Williamson compares Donald Trump to a failed, simpering Glengarry Glen Ross character:
He [Trump] has had a middling career in real estate and a poor one as a hotelier and casino operator but convinced people he is a titan of industry. He has never managed a large, complex corporate enterprise, but he did play an executive on a reality show. He presents himself as a confident ladies’ man but is so insecure that he invented an imaginary friend to lie to the New York press about his love life and is now married to a woman who is open and blasé about the fact that she married him for his money. He fixates on certain words (“negotiator”) and certain classes of words (mainly adjectives and adverbs, “bigly,” “major,” “world-class,” “top,” and superlatives), but he isn’t much of a negotiator, manager, or leader. He cannot negotiate a health-care deal among members of a party desperate for one, can’t manage his own factionalized and leak-ridden White House, and cannot lead a political movement that aspires to anything greater than the service of his own pathetic vanity.
He wants to be John Wayne, but what he is is “Woody Allen without the humor.” Peggy Noonan, to whom we owe that observation, has his number: He is soft, weak, whimpering, and petulant. He isn’t smart enough to do the job and isn’t man enough to own up to the fact. For all his gold-plated toilets, he is at heart that middling junior salesman watching Glengarry Glen Ross and thinking to himself: “That’s the man I want to be.” How many times do you imagine he has stood in front of a mirror trying to project like Alec Baldwin? Unfortunately for the president, it’s Baldwin who does the good imitation of Trump, not the other way around.
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This is hilarious: “Republicans on Sunday urged President Donald Trump’s new chief of staff John Kelly to rein in the chaos within the White House on Monday but said the retired Marine Corps general will be challenged to assert control.” If you believe John Kelly is going to rein in Donald Trump, I have a bridge to sell you.
