How novel!
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I have said, for years, when corporate America began to acquire mass media companies entertainment replaced hard news and this would be a dangerous matter. Why? Because much of public opinion is shaped by mass media. Go back to the days when, to a large degree, Walter Cronkite's was able to convince America we could not win The Viet Nam War.
It is critical for a free society that the mass media be legitimate and objective. They have strayed off the plantation and that is not healthy.
I will discuss in a this memo how Trump, according to O'Reilly, understands that in order to get an audience that voters remember what you are saying you must be outrageous and then will be repeated by the mass media. You must avoid making bland comments. You need to go extreme and Trump is a master at getting the mass media to focus, to monopolize their focus and all for free.
So here it is: https://youtu.be/m7XZmugtLv4
And (See 1 below.)
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Zito on small cities and towns recovering. (See 2 below.)
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Just a bump in the road? (See 3 below.)
And:
As said in a previous memo. (See 3a below.)
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You can argue about whether Trump's decision regarding our Kurdish allies was morally acceptable or militarily wise. What I believe is obvious it was not Trump at his best in terms of how he went about making the decision and how he handles it. Walter Russell Mead has written an insightful article.
Up to now,Trump has made some outlandish comments and made some unorthodox moves according to the mass media and Trump haters with respect to foreign policy but time proved him right. (NATO funding, Jerusalem as Israel's Capitol and withdrawal from Iran deal, trade sanctions etc.)
That said, the most recent action regarding the Kurds has to be seen as a tactical blunder and suggests Trump thought he could drink his own bathwater. This failure can hurt him. (See 4 and 4a below.)
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Government is too big, too unwieldy and leaks too much. In the case of Chinese technology theft we bleed and they benefit and it must stop. ( See 5 below.)
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I know I am reviewing O'Reilly's book as I move through it but each page seems pertinent to what is now happening.
He began PART 11 at The White House Correspondence's Association Dinner, April 16, 2015 and The Trump's were his guest. Obama tore into Trump because Trump had been raising the issue of Obama's Birth Certificate. Obama and Trump do not take criticism well and O'Reilly maintains Trump did not mean anything racially but Obama took it that way.
When it comes to attacks, Trump neither sees black or white. The mass media and Trump haters portray him that way for their own purposes but Trump can be and is equally nasty when he wants to fight back He attacked Rosie O'Donnell and certainly was not nice about Carly's face, Kelly, Hillary and Warren amongst white females.
With respect to Kelly's blindsided "attack" question, the author goes into some detail on it's impact on FOX, Trump's response, which Trump claims was taken out of context, and how it proved to Trump what he intuitively thought held water - he had a core who were fed up with the usual politicians, the way America was being treated by our allies, China, Mexico, the illegal immigration issue and they sought a candidate who was not PC in his manor. That candidate was Trump and his poll numbers began to rise. Then came the Charlottesville episode and the racist tail was now permanently attached.
The post Kelly interview on O'Reilly's TV show gave Trump another opportunity to respond to questions in a manner that left little doubt where he stood but also his positions were not fleshed out to any degree. After that performance it became clear to TV station owners the best way to rebuild their audience and ring the cash register with advertising dollars was to get Trump on for an interview and Trump was willingly available. He became the center of attention and that gave him instant gratification. In essence TV went on "Trump Time."
Hillary failed to realize the 2016 campaign would not be about policy but personality/attitude. She does not have personality, Trump does. Also, Trump' had themes- border security, the economy Muslim terror which jelled with "deplorables." Hillary had two themes: let's come together for the greater, common good and Trump was evil. Neither caught fire.
It might take a leap of faith that is stretched but I believe O'Reilly's description of the antipathy between Obama and Trump is credible and Obama was prepared to stop Trump at any cost even though Obama did not believe "Donald" would beat Hillary. If I am right about this,I believe Obama's contempt led to all that has taken place to cut Trump off at the knees. Why? In addition to the "birther" issue, Obama knew if Trump should win his policies and legacy would be shredded and though, and I repeat, he knew Hillary would win, he needed an insurance policy as Peter Strzok told us.
The only thing Obama and Trump have in common is they both distrust most everyone.
In terms of Trump's personality, O'Reilly knows he gets bored quickly and will do something to create excitement. He will start a feud, tweet something controversial knowing there will be a reaction so he can counter punch. He is a man of steel and can absorb the personal attacks though only sleeps about 4 hours a night. In fact, attackers energize his pugilistic/counter punching fervor/style. However, he never forgets. Yet, after the debates, after all 17 opponents had gone home, he proved he could be magnanimous. Most broke bread but not the Bushes and McCain.
Much is made of Trump lies and O'Reilly says Trump makes spontaneous statements that roll off his tongue because he is often not concentrating. He is a disrupt-er who uses this tactic to achieve what he wants and to batter his opponent and throw them off message and off track.. Trump also is an embellisher and, unlike typical Republican establishment non-confrontational patricians, Trump believes the end justifies the means and destroying your opposition is acceptable.
That he stretches the truth seems not to bother his supporters. Apparently they have come to accept his faults but like the fact they finally have a fighter for the things they believe are important.
Now 2/3rd's through The United Sates of Trump.
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Nice crumbs. (See 6 below.)
Dick
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1)Now that Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry, they'll need to convince 20 Republicans in the Senate to vote to convict and remove him from power.
1)Now that Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry, they'll need to convince 20 Republicans in the Senate to vote to convict and remove him from power.
That's not happening - so what is their end game?
It's not just to damage Trump politically for 2020. When Republicans impeached Clinton, his approval rating skyrocketed to 70% -- which is a major reason Pelosi didn't want to impeach Trump until now.
So, why are they going after a President who seems immune to every controversy (Teflon Don) in a booming economy creating thousands of jobs every month?
The president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani says they're blinded by hatred, unable to think clearly.
But we think there's a method to the madness...
The most important number when it comes to removing Trump from power isn't the 67 votes in the Senate needed to convict... or his approval rating... or any other statistic the media's bringing up.
No, the key to President Trump's fate lies in this hidden, but dangerous, trend.
Our team of researchers have recently put hundreds of hours -- and thousands of dollars' worth of research behind -- a shocking new discovery.
When you see it, you'll understand what's driving the Democratic Party, and the real reason for impeachment.
Regards,
William Dahl
Researcher, Stansberry Research
Researcher, Stansberry Research
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2)
How Small Cities And Towns Can Right Their Ship
By Salena Zito
ERIE, Pennsylvania -- Several large pieces of cobalt-blue glass panels bearing "Don't Give Up the Ship" and a bold likeness of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry lay broken at the top of the third-floor stairs of the old Park Place building in the city's main square.
If ever there were a motto that exemplified a place and her people, it would be those five words Perry had stitched on a flag -- words that inspired him over 200 years ago when he bore the flag in his unlikely defeat of the British at the Battle of Lake Erie.
Given everything this town has gone through -- from her heyday as the industrial powerhouse of the Great Lakes to a city bleeding people, jobs and opportunity -- finding this inspiring reminder in a building that used to produce "Carter's Little Liver Pills" brought into focus the city's effort at rebuilding.
John Persinger and Matt Wachter could live in any other city in the country and prosper quite nicely. Instead, the CEO and vice president of finance and development are the founding leaders of the Erie Downtown Development Corporation. They, along with Tim NeCastro, CEO of Erie Insurance, the city's largest employer, have committed themselves to not give up the ship but to stabilize and rebuild it.
All three men are standing along a row of century-old buildings on North Park Row. The bones are good, but the buildings have all seen better days. The three men are discussing the projects they already have underway. These are projects meant to spark a cultural and culinary center, which they hope will in turn lead to a citywide metamorphosis.
"This is Perry Square. This is the heart of downtown. It's often been called the 'beating heart,' but we're not sure how much it beats these days because there's not a whole lot of activity," he said of the boarded-up buildings and scant pedestrian activity.
Here's the odd thing: The moribund heart is surrounded by an arc of life. "UPMC Hamot campus is a few blocks away," Persinger explains, "where they (are) putting in a new $111 million patient tower."
There's more: "Erie Insurance employs 3,000 people right there. They're building a new office building. You can kind of see it over the tree line."
Erie Insurance has been here for 94 years. NeCastro jokes he hasn't been here for quite that long, but he is a son of Erie. "I was one of six kids. My father died when I was seven, and my mother found herself working as a waitress at three different places to keep food on the table. ...
"I walked to grade school here. I walked to high school, and I even walked to college," he said of his education at Gannon University.
NeCastro says he left for other opportunities after college but wanted to find his way home. That happened when an internal auditing job opened up at Erie Insurance. Twenty years later, he worked hard "and sometimes too much" to reach what they call the C-suite.
Except he's one of those CEOs who shop in the same grocery store as their employees and customers — and whose proverbial "C-suite" is street-level.
"The recovery of this city is extremely important to us at Erie Insurance because we're the largest employer here. If the city goes to hell in a hand basket, who's going to want to come work for us here?" he said.
This is where Persinger comes in.
In 2018, a few months after Persinger ran for mayor and lost, NeCastro was casting about in frustration, seeking a CEO to lead the Development Corporation.
So I called him," NeCastro says of Persinger, "and said: 'You wanted to be mayor because you wanted to make a difference in the city. Well, what if you could make a big difference, but you don't have to worry about the police department, the fire department, the streets, the picking up the garbage, all that stuff that goes with it?'"
Persinger's reaction? "Go on ..."
"Now a year and some change later, the EDDC has become one of the first cities in the country to attract investment to an Opportunity Zone, a 2017 federal jobs act designed to spur investments in low-income communities," he explains.
They've purchased eight properties surrounding Perry Square and have raised over $30 million in financing for their projects, which include retail as well as downtown housing.
NeCastro is the kind of guy who takes 10 days off from work every August to make 1,800 meatballs for his parish's Italian festival. Persinger is the kind of guy who grew up in New York City and went to Harvard but decided to make Erie his home because of his summers here with his grandparents.
They are both the kind of people who are called to serve the community, which happens to include the poorest ZIP code in the state. These are the guys dedicated to not giving up the ship.
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3)Do you recall President Obama referring to the Benghazi incident as "a bump in the road?" Recently I heard an ex-Navy Seal being interviewed on Fox News regarding a book he has written about how to handle crisis situations in our lives.
At the end of the interview he asked if he could make a comment on Benghazi and, of course, The anchor said "yes." He then thanked Fox News for keeping the Benghazi story in the news, since other news organizations are not.
He said the Seals who died deserve the public knowing the truth about the whole Affair. This poem was written by an anonymous Marine Corps officer:
"THE BATTLING BOYS OF BENGHAZI"
We're the battling boys of Benghazi,
No fame, no glory, no paparazzi.
Just a fiery death in a blazing hell,
Defending our country we loved so well.
It wasn't our job, but we answered the call,
Fought to the Consulate and scaled the wall.
We pulled twenty countrymen from the jaws of fate
Led them to safety and stood at the gate.
Just the two of us and foes by the score,
But we stood fast to bar the door.
Three calls for reinforcement, but all were denied,
So we fought and we fought and we fought 'til we died.
We gave our all for our Uncle Sam,
But Barack and Hillary didn't give a damn.
Just two dead Seals who carried the load
No thanks to us...we were just
"Bumps In The Road".
3a)
Bill Barr ‘Gets’ Religion
The attorney general gives a speech on secularism, and the left goes bananas.
By William McGurn
For Notre Dame fans, this football weekend was a twofer. Not only did the Irish beat a longtime rival, the University of Southern California, on Saturday, the campus was treated to a sight it had never before seen: the attorney general of the United States, at a pregame tailgater, serenading faculty, students and fans with his bagpipes.
Turns out that was William Barr’s second performance on campus. The first came at the law school Friday, when he delivered a bracing speech on the role of religion in the American story of freedom.
The attorney general advanced two broad propositions. First, the waning of religion’s influence in American life has left more of her citizens vulnerable to what Tocqueville called the “soft despotism” of government dependency. Second, today’s secularists are decidedly not of the live-and-let-live variety.
“The secular project has itself become a religion, pursued with religious fervor,” he said. “It is taking on all the trappings of religion, including inquisitions and excommunication. Those who defy the creed risk a figurative burning at the stake—social, educational and professional ostracism and exclusion waged through lawsuits and savage social media campaigns.”
Right out of central casting, critics stepped forward to prove his point. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman accused Mr. Barr of “religious bigotry” and described his words as a “pogrom type speech.”
Political ethicist and professional attention seeker Richard Painter tapped out a series of even more furious tweets, here calling the speech the latest episode of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” there suggesting Mr. Barr isn’t much of a Christian, here again saying Mr. Barr sounded like “vintage Goebbels.” Over at MSNBC, meanwhile, retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, once chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, told Joy Reid the attorney general is “Torquemada in a business suit,” a reference to the Spanish Inquisition’s grand inquisitor.
This is what we have come to expect when someone in public life mentions religion in a positive light. Many didn’t like Mr. Barr’s blaming secularism for social pathologies such as drug addiction, family breakdown and increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males. Yet few engaged his more arresting contention, which is that all these problems have spiritual roots. Whereas religion addresses such challenges by stressing personal responsibility, Mr. Barr argued, the state’s answer is merely to try to alleviate “bad consequences.”
“So the reaction to growing illegitimacy is not sexual responsibility, but abortion,” he said. “The reaction to drug addiction is safe injection sites. The solution to the breakdown of the family is for the state to set itself up as an ersatz husband for the single mother and an ersatz father for the children. The call comes for more and more social programs to deal with this wreckage—and while we think we’re solving problems, we are underwriting them.”
Vincent Phillip Muñoz, a Notre Dame professor, notes there was nothing particularly Catholic about this speech. Like Washington in his Farewell Address, he says, Mr. Barr focused on the irreplaceable role of religion in cultivating the morality citizens need to be capable of self-government.
“The speech wasn’t first and foremost about religious freedom,” says Mr. Muñoz. “It was about the human and social consequences of the new secular morality, and what happens when the state views its citizens not only in purely material terms, but as subjects who can’t really govern themselves.”
Even those who strongly disagree with Mr. Barr ought to have found this an invitation for thoughtful and vigorous debate. But rather than engage, some imply there is something unseemly about an attorney general’s even speaking at a Catholic university. Given the hostility that holding such a conversation engenders on campuses today, perhaps America can count itself fortunate it still has a university where this can happen.
Carter Snead, the law professor who invited Mr. Barr, puts it this way: “At Notre Dame, we are not afraid to explore the hard questions about God, religion and America together in friendship, especially on those matters about which people strongly disagree.”
Mr. Barr’s argument has been echoed throughout American history: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people” (John Adams). “Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith” (Tocqueville). “In teaching this democratic faith to American children, we need the sustaining, buttressing aid of those great ethical religious teachings which are the heritage of our modern civilization. For ‘not upon strength nor upon power, but upon the spirit of God’ shall our democracy be founded” (FDR). And so on.
That so many would become unhinged by Mr. Barr’s relatively modest contribution to the genre is highly revealing of the absolutism of secularist opponents determined to marginalize and destroy anyone who dares dissent from their own uncompromising orthodoxy.
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4) Mike Pompeo’s Predicament
The Syria withdrawal worried allies, divided the GOP, and made his job a lot harder
By Walter Russell Mead
Foreign leaders have found much to dislike in President Trump’s policy—the aggressive stance on trade, the chaotic policy process, the disregard for convention and past agreements. Yet they’ve seemed willing to work with the administration anyway. However much it pained them, they appeared to believe that Mr. Trump had a strong enough political coalition behind his foreign-policy program that, on the whole, it was better to deal pragmatically with the administration than to try to wait out his presidency.
That changed last week. The sudden decision to break with the Syrian Kurds, the shambolic execution of the decision, and the administration’s evident inability to manage the easily foreseeable political consequences in the Republican Senate crystallized a perception that the White House is in over its head. Unless that changes, foreign powers will increasingly act on the belief that the American executive is both politically weak and intellectually unfocused. The consequences for political stability and economic prosperity around the world are not good.
Mr. Trump’s trade diplomacy is particularly at risk. China is much less likely to make significant compromises if it thinks the president is a lame duck. As the Europeans shift from dealing with Mr. Trump through gritted teeth to waiting for his administration to end, the European Union will likely stiffen its trade stance as well
The geopolitical consequences of a weakened Trump administration will also be significant. Revisionist powers large and small are more likely to take risks and challenge American power when they believe the U.S. is distracted and divided. Russia’s attack on Georgia came in the summer of 2008 when George W. Bush was an unpopular lame duck and the building financial crisis was beginning to distract Americans from international news.
Russia, far from seeking any kind of special relationship with Mr. Trump, is likely to revel in his weakness. In the western Balkans, in Syria, and in hot spots like Venezuela, Russia must be expected to move more aggressively.
A belief that the Trump administration has divided political support will encourage hard-liners in Iran to press their regional advantage, leading to crises that could force Israel and its new Arab allies into risky moves of their own. Israelis are wondering how far they can count on the Trump administration even as they recalculate the odds that Democrats will control both Congress and the White House after the 2020 elections.
The Taliban is unlikely to make significant concessions at the negotiating table in the face of perceived American weakness. China will see a sustained period of internal division in America as an excellent opportunity to intensify its effort at strengthening its regional position and creating of a rival sphere of influence in the Asia-Pacific.
The greatest damage will likely be to U.S. relationships with allies that were already nervous—either because of the pattern of American withdrawal under President Obama or erratic decision making under Mr. Trump. As they watch the Democratic Party shift left and the Clinton-Biden wing of the party lose ground in the primary campaign, U.S. allies are likely to conclude that America’s turn inward will continue past 2020.
From South Korea and Japan to Australia, India, Israel, Germany, France and the U.K., policy makers and public opinion will perceive the U.S. as a less reliable, less engaged partner. They will, inevitably, think about how they can ensure their security and their other interests without America. Their interest in aligning their policies with America’s will diminish; it will only become harder for Mr. Trump and his successors to reach agreements with allies that benefit the U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo now faces the most critical challenge of his career. Leading a divided State Department in a divided country, America’s chief interlocutor with foreign governments must work to restore a sense of competence, continuity and calm. That won’t be easy. Mr. Pompeo has made loyalty to the president the foundation of his tenure—something that is necessary for anyone in that job, and especially vital in the Age of Trump. Without losing Mr. Trump’s confidence, Mr. Pompeo must also speak up for America’s permanent interests as most Americans, regardless of party, still understand them.
The only man in Washington under more pressure than Mr. Pompeo is Mr. Trump. This president is a unique historical figure whose unconventional approach to politics has reshaped American political life. But at the moment Mr. Trump has lost control of the international agenda and faces some of the greatest risks of his presidency. His survival in office and his place in history both depend on putting American foreign policy on a more solid footing, and the clock is against him. The coming episodes of “The Trump Show” look to be the most compelling, and the most consequential, yet.
4a)
What a fiasco. Foreign-policy blunders often take months or years to reveal their damaging consequences, but the harm from President Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria is playing out almost in real time.
Critics said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would invade northern Syria despite Mr. Trump’s public warnings, and the Turkish strongman did. Critics said our Kurdish allies would strike a deal with Syria’s Bashar Assad to defend themselves, and the Kurds have. Critics said Islamic State prisoners held by the Kurds would be released and scatter to wage jihad again, and they are.
Mr. Trump is also making matters worse with his unserious justifications. “After defeating 100% of the ISIS Caliphate, I largely moved our troops out of Syria. Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for their own land,” he tweeted Monday. “Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!”
4a)
Trump’s Syria Mess
He resorts to sanctions as the harm from withdrawal builds.
By The Editorial Board
What a fiasco. Foreign-policy blunders often take months or years to reveal their damaging consequences, but the harm from President Trump’s abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces from northern Syria is playing out almost in real time.
Critics said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would invade northern Syria despite Mr. Trump’s public warnings, and the Turkish strongman did. Critics said our Kurdish allies would strike a deal with Syria’s Bashar Assad to defend themselves, and the Kurds have. Critics said Islamic State prisoners held by the Kurds would be released and scatter to wage jihad again, and they are.
The mess compounded Monday when Mr. Trump authorized sanctions against several Turkish officials and agencies who are “contributing to Turkey’s destabilizing actions in northeast Syria.” The sanctions include financial measures and barring entry to the U.S. Mr. Trump also said he’s ending trade talks with Turkey and raising steel tariffs to 50%.
Mr. Trump now finds himself back in an economic and diplomatic brawl with Turkey that he said he wanted to avoid. Wouldn’t it have been easier simply to tell Mr. Erdogan, on that famous phone call two Sundays ago, that the U.S. wouldn’t tolerate a Turkish invasion against the Kurds and would use air power to stop it? Mr. Erdogan would have had to back down and continue negotiating a Syrian safe zone with the Kurds and the U.S.
Mr. Trump is also making matters worse with his unserious justifications. “After defeating 100% of the ISIS Caliphate, I largely moved our troops out of Syria. Let Syria and Assad protect the Kurds and fight Turkey for their own land,” he tweeted Monday. “Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte. I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!”
We suppose the Napoleon line was a joke, but the world is laughing at an American President. Mr. Trump was able to project an image of strength in his early days as he prosecuted the war against ISIS and used force to impose a cost on Mr. Assad for using chemical weapons. But that image has faded as he has indulged his inner Rand Paul and claims at every opportunity that the main goal of his foreign policy is to put an end to “endless wars.”
This is simple-minded isolationism, and it’s a message to the world’s rogues that a U.S. President has little interest in engaging on behalf of American allies or interests. Friends like Israel and Saudi Arabia are quietly dismayed, while Iran, Russia and Hezbollah can’t believe Mr. Trump has so glibly abandoned U.S. commitments and military partners.
By now it’s not unreasonable to conclude that Mr. Trump’s foreign policy can be distilled into two tactics—sanctions and tariffs. Mr. Trump wields them willy-nilly against friend and foe alike as substitutes for diplomacy and the credible threat of military force.
Mr. Trump won’t like to hear it, but the Syrian mess is hurting him at home too. Republicans who have stood by him through the Russia fight and more are questioning his judgment as Commander in Chief in an increasingly dangerous world. With impeachment looming, he can’t afford to alienate more friends.
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5) China’s Techno-Kleptomania
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5) China’s Techno-Kleptomania
Beijing’s schemes imperil American companies and national security. It’ll take a huge effort to stop them.
By William J. Holstein
The news that the U.S. has arrested Peng Xuehua of Hayward, Calif., for allegedly funneling classified American secrets to China’s Ministry of State Security can’t be dismissed as an isolated incident. Beijing seems to be digging for technological secrets across the U.S. Director Christopher Wray said in July that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has 1,000 active investigations into attempted intellectual property theft in America, mostly involving China.
The Ministry of State Security, China’s sprawling espionage agency, is at the center of many of these efforts. The People’s Liberation Army coordinates with the ministry to steal U.S. military technology. In addition to government forces, ostensibly private Chinese companies are increasingly bent to party whims under President Xi Jinping.
Beijing’s tech theft is a danger to every American and every opponent of the Chinese Communist Party. The line between commercial and military technology is often blurry—artificial intelligence, for instance, has many commercial and military uses. The party has also directly gone after military secrets. The Navy secretary said in March that his branch and its commercial partners are under “cyber siege” by China.
Here are recent major incidents and allegations that have been publicly disclosed:
• In September the Justice Department filed fraud charges against a professor in Texas, Bo Mao, for allegedly stealing solid-state-drive computer technology from a Silicon Valley startup, CNEX Labs. Mr. Mao has pleaded not guilty. Though the criminal case does not explicitly cite Huawei, Mr. Mao was earlier accused of stealing technology for Huawei in a civil suit CNEX filed against the Chinese tech giant. A jury for the civil case concluded in June that Huawei misappropriated solid-state-drive technology from CNEX. The civil suit closely parallels the criminal one laid out against Mr. Mao. It’s reasonable to conclude the civil suit describes the same incidents covered under the criminal charges against Mr. Mao.
• In July an American court found an adjunct professor from the University of California, Los Angeles guilty of penetrating the systems of a company that makes monolithic microwave integrated circuits. These devices provide the data for enhanced target acquisitions in weapons systems by the Air Force, Navy and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Yi-Chi Shih conspired with a co-defendant to transfer the technology to a company Mr. Shih ran in China, which was gearing up to manufacture the advanced chips. That company, Chengdu GaStone Technology Co., was placed on the Commerce Department’s Entity List in 2014 because “it had been involved in the illicit procurement of commodities and items for unauthorized military end use in China.” Mr. Shih faces a sentence of 219 years in prison.
• In March, Tesla Inc. filed a lawsuit against a former engineer at the company, Guangzhi Cao, who allegedly copied 300,000 files related to Tesla’s Autopilot system before taking a job at a Chinese self-driving car startup, Xiaopeng Motors. Mr. Cao denied stealing Tesla’s intellectual property, and a judge appointed a mediator last week. Developing electric cars, including autonomous vehicles, is one of the Chinese government’s goals. The technology also has clear military applications, such as creating unmanned combat vehicles.
• Perhaps the granddaddy of all recent incidents took place in December, when the Justice Department and FBI disclosed that they had broken up a roughly four-year operation by a hacking group known as APT10 in Tianjin, China, which worked with the Ministry of State Security. APT10 was able to penetrate America’s cloud computing systems using malware that fooled intrusion detection systems. It was then able to “hop” onto the systems of companies that relied on cloud computing firms, reportedly including IBM, to protect their data. One of the targets was the U.S. Navy. APT10 stole the names and personal details of 100,000 naval personnel and also stole ship maintenance information, which could have practical use in any naval showdown in the Pacific.
The U.S. needs a comprehensive strategy to combat this espionage. President Trump has proclaimed progress in a first phase of trade negotiations with Beijing, which includes some intellectual-property rules. But the White House doesn’t appear to have done anything at all to address Beijing’s hacking and spying in the U.S.
It will require Manhattan Project-like intensity and focus to harden America’s information-technology systems. It will take years and cost billions of dollars. U.S. government agencies will have to ask Congress for bigger budgets. Companies will have to devote more money and staff to IT, even if this puts pressure on profits. To be effective, they will also have to work with the government to root out economic espionage. Security experts say some companies seem reluctant to ask for federal help, perhaps fearing their dirty laundry will be aired in public. General Electric has led the way by agreeing to work with the FBI and Justice Department to break up two Chinese espionage operations, one involving turbines and the other the carbon composites used in jet engine fan blades.
Outside security, military and intelligence circles, the U.S. has been slow to wake up to theChinese hacking and espionage campaign because it has been subtle and long-term. The Chinese have never engaged in North Korean-style antics like crashing Sony’s Hollywood studio’s computers because it made a critical film. But it’s time to piece together the pattern of China’s activities and forge a consensus across the government and private sector on how the U.S. can best respond.
Mr. Holstein is author of “The New Art of War: China’s Deep Strategy Inside the United States."
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6)Nice crumbs:
6)Nice crumbs:
Stephen Moore: "A study by former Census Bureau researchers and now
statisticians at Sentier Research has found gigantic income gains for the
middle class under Trump. The median or average-income family has seen a
gain of $5,003 since Trump came into office. Median family income is now
(August 2019) $65,976, up from about $61,000 when he entered office (January
2017). Under George W. Bush, the household income gains were a little over
$400 in eight years, and under Barack Obama the gains were $1,043. That was
in eight years for each. Under Trump, in less than three years, the extra
income is about three times larger. ... The tax cut also added an additional
$2,500 to a typical family of four's after-tax incomes. So after taking
account of taxes owed, the income of most middle-class families is up closer
to $6,000 in the Trump era. Memo to Pelosi: That ain't crumbs."
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