+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Rep. Nunes has proven the will of the people, acting through their legitimate representatives, have the power, if used, to make un-elected bureaucrats heel. (See 1 below.)
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It is finally dawning on some China is neither our friend nor to be trusted. DUH!. (See 2 below.)
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In Iran, this time it is different. (See 3 below.)
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I want to return to the mass media's, judge from a distance, conclusion President Trump is neither up to the demands of the office he occupies and is absolutely incompetent, even insane.
As usual they made the critical mistake of extrapolating his tweeting and missed the whole picture of the man but then they are, and have been, so biased and angry at screwing up their predictions they fell into a trap he laid for them. Trump has now turned the camera on their own insanity. And boy do they look stupid and foolish. No doubt they will now double down because he has them cornered and their reputations will continue on a deserved downward path.
He reminded his detractors he has thrived on taking the heat, a certain kind of heat.
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A Senior Egyptian Intelligence officer suggests the press and tv, accept Trump's decision to move the American Embassy to Jerusalem. (See 4 below.)
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So you want more government health care like in Europe.
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Bad news Bannon steps down after stepping on his own (you add what you want.) (See 5 below.)
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Finally, we senior citizens have to put up with a lot of crap from our fellow citizens. But ---(See 6 below.)
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Dick
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1) The Russian Transparency Front
A House committee is finally getting to see Steele dossier papers.
By The Editorial Board
The effort to find out how the FBI used the infamous Steele dossier on Donald Trump and Russia made progress on two fronts late last week.
First, federal Judge Richard Leon rejected the request by Fusion GPS for a preliminary injunction against a congressional subpoena for bank records about its clients and payments. Fusion is the outfit that hired Christopher Steele to produce his dodgy dossier under the pay of Clinton campaign associates. Judge Leon ruled that the records under subpoena have a “reasonable possibility” of providing information relevant to the committee’s “congressionally authorized investigation.”
Committees in both the House and Senate have been battling an uncooperative Fusion for this and other information for the better part of the past year. This is the same Fusion whose two founders claimed to be all in favor of “transparency” in an op-ed last week in the New York Times.
Meanwhile, the FBI and Justice Department finally agreed to turn over to the House Intelligence Committee information it had subpoenaed in August. House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes had threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in contempt if they refused to comply. The two men went to Speaker Paul Ryan to try to end run Mr. Nunes. Mr. Ryan refused. A few hours later, Mr. Nunes announced that he had secured an agreement with Justice and the FBI to see the subpoenaed materials.
In his letter to Mr. Rosenstein outlining that agreement, Mr. Nunes listed the documents he expected to see—plus the witnesses such as FBI agent Peter Strzok and Justice official Bruce Ohr who “will be made available for interviews to be conducted in January.” On Friday committee investigators finally had access to these documents, with the exception of an FBI interview form that Director Wray was scheduled to show personally to the committee’s senior investigators on Monday due to its sensitive national security information.
This is real transparency. But it didn’t happen because of the ready and willing cooperation of the FBI, Justice or Fusion. Credit goes to a House Intelligence Committee that fought for it every step of the way.
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2) Left and Right Agree: Get Tough on China
U.S. foreign policy feels as polarized as ever. But a new consensus is forming.
By Walter Russell Mead
At the same time, these real and damaging divisions may be overrated. The most important trend in American foreign policy today is that a consensus is emerging. Liberals, populists and conservatives quarrel bitterly over the Middle East and Europe, but they increasingly agree on two facts: first, that America must do substantially more to counter an increasingly authoritarian, mercantilist and aggressive China; second, that the Indo-Pacific region is the most important world theater for the U.S.
This agreement hasn’t yet created a new national-security consensus anything like the Cold War consensus on containing the Soviet Union. But it is getting there. Beijing, driven by a toxic mix of arrogance and insecurity reminiscent of Wilhelmine Germany before 1914, keeps alienating its friends and energizing its American foes.
Within the Republican Party, China is what unites the Steve Bannon wing with the H.R. McMasters and the Rex Tillersons. Where the populists see a threat to American jobs and wages from unfair Chinese competition, the national-security types worry about protecting important sea lanes and American allies in the region from an aggressive, rapidly arming power. As many traditional pro-China voices in corporate America fall silent in the face of Beijing’s mercantilism, the Richard Nixon-George H.W. Bush legacy of Republican friendship with China is on the wane.
Democrats also are increasingly focused on perceived threats from Beijing. Organized labor has long argued that Chinese competition undermines American wages and jobs. But now China, not content with suppressing human rights in its own territory, is seeking to advance the cause of nondemocratic governance in places like Venezuela and Zimbabwe. That brings it into conflict with the powerful human-rights constituency in Democratic politics.
Beyond that, the often left-leaning tech lords of Silicon Valley have been hit by some of China’s most aggressively mercantilist abuses. They have been harassed and hampered when they try to operate in the Chinese market. They have watched their intellectual property get stolen. They fear competition from the massively protected and subsidized Chinese tech industry as it roars out into the world in search of new markets.
Even the Democratic focus on Mr. Trump’s alleged ties to Russia is pushing many liberal foreign-policy experts to look at China with renewed concern. Espionage, hacking, using business ties to advance state interests: These aren’t just Russian techniques. They are Chinese tools as well.
China’s economy is roughly 10 times the size of Russia’s and poses a much greater threat than Russia ever could. From Australia to Africa and beyond, China has shown few scruples about wielding its economic and financial might in the service of its geopolitical ambitions. The dramatic centralization of power in the hands of President Xi Jinping and his allies, along with the mass purges that have cemented political authority over Chinese business, gives Beijing powerful tools to integrate economic mercantilism with geopolitical revisionism.
The goals of America’s policy toward China do not need to change. The U.S. wants a prosperous and secure China that acts as a responsible stakeholder in the world system and a good neighbor in Asia. But Republicans and Democrats alike are coming to understand that achieving this will be harder than they once hoped—and that treating Beijing with kid gloves may set that project back. China seems determined to test the strength of the world system, and it will be up to the U.S. to ensure that the world system survives.
At a time of fractured thinking in U.S. foreign policy, diverse constituencies are coming to recognize the importance of Indo-Pacific politics to the security and prosperity of all Americans. The question is whether the U.S. can develop a coherent approach to this national challenge. History suggests that it can.
Mr. Mead is a fellow at the Hudson Institute and a professor of foreign affairs at Bard College.
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3) These Iranian Protests Are Different From 2009
Then, the cause was a rift within the regime. Now, the people are demanding an end to the regime
By Maryam Rajavi
Millions of Iranians live in poverty. Yet Tehran has spent upward of $100 billion on the massacre in Syria, according to reports obtained by the National Council of Resistance of Iran. The chants of “Death to Hezbollah” and “Leave Syria, think about us instead” clearly demonstrate the people’s opposition to the regime’s belligerent regional schemes.
The country’s official budget this year allocates more than $26.8 billion to military and security affairs and the export of terrorism. This is in addition to the $27.5 billion in military spending from institutions controlled by Mr. Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The budget for health care is a mere $16.3 billion. Weak and vulnerable, the regime spends such astronomical sums on regional meddling as part of its strategy for survival.
Skeptics might point out that Iran has faced protests before. What makes the current uprising different from the 2009 protests?
The 2009 protests were sparked by rifts at the top of the regime. The current protests—which began in Iran’s second-largest city of Mashhad and quickly spread across the country—were motivated by rising prices, economic ruin, widespread corruption and resentment toward the regime. This systemic economic mismanagement has its roots in the political system, and it grows worse every day. That is why the demand for regime change surfaced almost immediately. It seems to be the only conceivable outcome.
Another major difference: The 2009 uprising was initially led by the upper middle class, with university students at its core and Tehran as its center. The recent demonstrations span a much broader swath of the population—the middle class, the underprivileged, workers, students, women and young people. Nearly all of society has been represented on the picket line.
Nor is the current uprising tied to any of the regime’s internal factions or groupings. There are no illusions about reform or gradual change from within. One of the popular slogans in Tehran is “Hard-liners, reformers, the game is now over.” This is yet another sign of the certainty of overthrow. As an Iranian expression goes: Maybe sooner or later, but definitely certain.
The final differentiating factor is the pace of events. In less than 24 hours, the protesters’ slogans shifted from economic woes to rejection of the entire regime. The establishment has been caught off guard and is scrambling to find a unified solution. The IRGC declared victory over the protests on Sunday, but this reflects its hopes more than the reality on the ground.
The regime has issued strong warnings against joining the leading opposition group, Mujahedin-e Khalq. One after another, low-ranking and senior officials, joined by the Friday prayer leaders across the country who toe the regime’s line, blame the MEK for the protests. The torrent of statements by regime officials reflect their panic at the expansion of the nationwide uprising and the rising popularity of the MEK and the National Council of Resistance of Iran.
The religious dictatorship has resorted to extensive suppression to confront protesters. The IRCG has killed at least 50 people and wounded hundreds. By the end of the ninth day of protests, at least 3,000 had been arrested, according to our sources in the country. Numerous reports indicate that security forces literally knock on people’s doors and warn them against attending demonstrations. The net of suppression has been cast as wide as possible.
In light of this brutal repression, the international community must not remain silent. The United Nations Security Council must adopt punitive measures against the regime’s crimes. This has long been the demand of the Iranian people and opposition. We must not forget that the perpetrators of the horrific 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners are still in power today, holding senior executive and judicial positions while engaging in the murder of protesters in the streets.
Perhaps the final difference between the 2009 protests and the recent uprising will be that the latter succeeds in overthrowing the reviled theocracy in Iran. The people of Iran fervently hope so.
Mrs. Rajavi is president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an Iranian opposition coalition based in Paris.
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4)SENIOR EGYPTIAN INTELLIGENCE OFFICER ASKS TV HOSTS TO ACCEPT U.S. JERUSALEM ANNOUNCEMEN
A senior Egyptian intelligence officer asked several influential TV hosts in Egypt to urge their viewers to accept President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, according to the New York Times.
In a report published on Saturday, the newspaper said that it obtained audio recordings in which Egyptian Captain Ashraf al-Kholi told the hosts that instead of condemning the decision they should downplay its significance and persuade their viewers to accept it.
In one recording, Captain al-Kholi says: “I am telling you what is the stance of Egypt’s national security apparatus and what it stands to benefit from in this matter of announcing Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, O.K.?.
He further argued that widespread unrest over Washington’s move would “revive the Islamists and Hamas,” adding that the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital “will become a reality. Palestinians can’t resist and we don’t want to go to war. We have enough on our plate.”
The story was confirmed by TV host Azmi Megahed. The recordings were provided to the New York Times by an intermediary supportive of the Palestinian cause and opposed to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Following the report, the Egyptian State Information Service said: “Egypt’s positions on international issues are not derived from alleged leaks from an anonymous source. Rather, Egypt’s positions are conveyed by the president, the minister of foreign affairs and in official statements as well.”
Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s Jerusalem announcement, Egypt submitted a UN Security Council resolution demanding a reversal of the decision, whilst Egyptian state media reported that President al-Sisi had personally protested to Trump. The Security Council resolution was vetoed by the U.S.
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5) Bannon Out At This News Organization
Stephen K. Bannon has stepped down from Breitbart News Network, where he served as Executive Chairman since 2012.
Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition.
Bannon said, “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”
According to Breitbart CEO Larry Solov, “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish.”
5) Bannon Out At This News Organization
Stephen K. Bannon has stepped down from Breitbart News Network, where he served as Executive Chairman since 2012.
Bannon and Breitbart will work together on a smooth and orderly transition.
Bannon said, “I’m proud of what the Breitbart team has accomplished in so short a period of time in building out a world-class news platform.”
According to Breitbart CEO Larry Solov, “Steve is a valued part of our legacy, and we will always be grateful for his contributions, and what he has helped us to accomplish.”
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6) Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency of the modern world, real or imaginary. We know we take responsibility for all we have done, failed to do and do not blame others.
6) Senior citizens are constantly being criticized for every conceivable deficiency of the modern world, real or imaginary. We know we take responsibility for all we have done, failed to do and do not blame others.
HOWEVER, upon reflection, we would like to point out that it was NOT the senior citizens who took:
The melody out of music,
The pride out of appearance,
The courtesy out of driving,
The romance out of love,
The commitment out of marriage,
The responsibility out of parenthood,
The togetherness out of the family,
The learning out of education,
The service out of patriotism,
The Golden Rule from rulers,
The nativity scene out of cities,
The civility out of behavior,
The refinement out of language,
The dedication out of employment,
The prudence out of spending,
The ambition out of achievement
or God out of government and school.
or God out of government and school.
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