No memo Sunday. Have written enough this week.
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Have any cases, that are at least valid on their face and presented to The SCOTUS, justify being heard? Is The Texas Case as bad as Erickson claims? The Pennsylvania case seems to me to have merit but could it be denied because the claimed violations of the law were ignored until the 2020 election?
Is it just too late to disrupt certifications by the various state electoral college members?
Does Biden become president by default and will his tenure as president, such as it may last, be forever clouded?
Does the 2020 election results cry out for change and returning to voting in person with identification except for those requesting absentee ballots?
Can our republic survive and ever be the same because of what we have allowed, ie. rioting, intimidation, PC'ism etc.?
Will China gain the upper hand and successfully cause our decline?
Will the vaccines be accepted, taken and end the current pandemic?
Is the world forever changed as a result of the pandemic and in what ways?
What do you think and what are your own concerns?
Does it really matter what Americans think anymore or have they lost control of their government?
Was POGO correct?
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Can one believe all of this?
ELECTION SUPERVISOR: Drops
Bombshell on Dominion…They’re
TOAST!
machines–Flip Votes, delete votes, add votes, count the same ballots multiple
times and count blank ballots. WATCH FULL VIDEO.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Bret Stephens says Biden can bide his time regarding Iran. Will he?
On Iran, Biden Can Bide His Time
The new administration should not be stampeded into returning to the nuclear deal
By Bret Stephens
President-elect Joe Biden has made it clear that his preferred method for dealing with Iran is to find a way back to the nuclear deal the Obama administration concluded in 2015, while bargaining for an extension to some of its key provisions.
“If Iran returns to strict compliance,” Biden wrote in a September op-ed for CNN, “the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations.”
The Iranian regime, for its part, has made it clear that, in reaction to last month’s assassination of its nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, it intends to ramp up its production of enriched uranium while threatening to expel international inspectors by early February if the United States doesn’t immediately lift sanctions.
The regime has also ruled out any extensions to the nuclear deal, from which President Trump withdrew in 2018. “It will never be renegotiated,” says Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. “Period.”
There’s a way out of this impasse. The Biden administration should — and, more important, can — bide its time.
Tehran is desperate to have sanctions lifted. In 2016, after the nuclear deal had taken effect, it exported roughly 2.1 million barrels of crude oil a day. In 2020, after the Trump administration imposed sanctions, it exported less than a quarter of that. The inflation rate is running somewhere between 42 and 99 percent. Protests a year ago, triggered by a rise in fuel prices, led to massive street demonstrations calling for an end to the regime.
The regime’s response to its economic and political crises has been to up the stakes. It wagers that it can provoke a nuclear crisis and then stampede the new administration into giving up its immense economic leverage even before meaningful negotiations begin. Once the main sanctions are lifted, Tehran can concede things it never had a right to withdraw, such as U.N. access to its nuclear facilities under the terms of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, while haggling for things it shouldn’t be allowed to get, such as the lifting of sanctions on an Iranian airline that supports the regime’s proxies.
But Tehran’s escalation is also a bluff. There’s a limit to how far it can go in provoking a nuclear crisis with the United States without risking a confrontation with an enemy that is much closer to home.
In the last six months, explosions in Iran have destroyed large parts of a centrifuge manufacturing facility in Natanz, a secretive military installation at Parchin, a power plant in Isfahan, a missile facility in Khojir and an underground military installation in Tehran, among other places. Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Al Qaeda’s second-highest leader, was gunned down in August in the streets of Tehran. As for Fakhrizadeh, he was not the first Iranian nuclear scientist to meet a violent end, and probably won’t be the last.
Nobody has taken responsibility for these attacks, but nobody is in much doubt about their source, either. They reveal an astonishing degree of penetration of the Iranian security complex. If Tehran tries to race toward nuclear breakout, it knows it will encounter a determined and effective challenge. There’s a limit to how far the regime can go with its provocations before those provocations become dangerous to the regime itself.
In short, Tehran’s negotiating position is weak and its options for escalation are limited. (Even its apparent attack last year on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations, while technically impressive, did little permanent damage to the kingdom while accelerating the recent Arab-Israeli rapprochement.) If disputed rumors of the 81-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s ill health prove true, the country would experience its first transfer of real authority since 1989, another tumultuous event for an already unpopular regime.
Contrast this with the Biden administration, which will come into office holding four powerful cards — assuming it chooses to play them. First, it can credibly outsource effective deterrence to Israel without having to bear the immediate risks. Second, it can leverage the military, economic, intelligence and diplomatic resources of an increasingly united Israeli-Arab front. Third, it doesn’t have to impose new sanctions to cripple Iran’s economy. It merely has to enforce the ones already in place.
Finally, there is growing evidence that Iran has long been in breach of its past commitments by hiding hundreds of tons of nuclear equipment and material that should have been disclosed under the terms of the nuclear deal. The Biden administration and its European partners have a right and responsibility to insist that Tehran provide a full accounting of that material as the entry price of negotiations.
There is a road toward a credible and durable deal with Iran that can muster the kind of regional support and bipartisan buy-in the last one lacked. It’s a deal that forces the regime to choose between a nuclear program or a functioning economy, rather than getting both. A Biden administration that has the patience to see through Tehran’s bluster can be rewarded with a lasting diplomatic achievement that a future administration, unlike the last one, will not easily erase.
And:
Oh Well! https://mobile.twitter.com/
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Danielle Pletka, Marc A. Thiessen, and Dan Blumenthal | |
Will the Biden administration hold the tough Trump line on Beijing? Will the world hold China responsible for the Covid pandemic? And how does this all factor into Xi Jinping’s global ambitions? AEI’s Dan Blumenthal, author of the newly released “The China Nightmare: The Grand Ambitions of a Decaying State” joined the show to explain the threat posed by a decaying but aggressive China. He discusses the Chinese Communist Party’s long-term goals, conflict with the US, the country’s authoritarian use of technology, and more. Dan Blumenthal is a resident fellow and the director of Asian studies at AEI, where he focuses on East Asian security issues and Sino-American relations. He has served in and advised the US government on China issues for more than a decade. | |
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Israel, Morocco Agree to Normalize Relations in Latest U.S.-Brokered Deal
Israel and Morocco agreed on Thursday to normalize relations in a deal brokered with the help of the United States, making Morocco the fourth Arab country to set aside hostilities with Israel in the past four months.
As part of the agreement, U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, where there has been a decades-old territorial dispute with Morocco pitted against the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish an independent state in the territory.
Trump sealed the agreement in a phone call on Thursday with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, the senior U.S. official said.
Morocco is the fourth country since August to strike a deal aimed at normalizing relations with Israel. The others were the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Under the agreement, Morocco will establish full diplomatic relations and resume official contacts with Israel, grant overflights and also direct flights to and from Israel for all Israelis.
“They are going reopen their liaison offices in Rabat and Tel Aviv immediately with the intention to open embassies. And they are going to promote economic cooperation between Israeli and Moroccan companies,” White House senior adviser Jared Kushner told Reuters.
“Today the administration has achieved another historic milestone. President Trump has brokered a peace agreement between Morocco and Israel – the fourth such agreement between Israel and an Arab/Muslim nation in four months.
“Through this historic step, Morocco is building on its longstanding bond with the Moroccan Jewish community living in Morocco and throughout the world, including in Israel. This is a significant step forward for the people of Israel and Morocco.
“It further enhances Israel’s security, while creating opportunities for Morocco and Israel to deepen their economic ties and improve the lives of their people.”
A White House statement on the phone call between Trump and the king of Morocco said Trump “reaffirmed his support for Morocco’s serious, credible, and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute over the Western Sahara territory.”
“And as such the president recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory,” the statement said.
Palestinians have been critical of the normalization deals, saying Arab countries have set back the cause of peace by abandoning a longstanding demand that Israel give up land for a Palestinian state before it can receive recognition.
With Trump to leave office on Jan. 20, the Morocco deal could be among the last his team, led by Kushner and U.S. envoy Avi Berkowitz, is able to negotiate before they give way to President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming administration.
Much of the momentum behind the deal-making has been to present a united front against Iran and roll back its regional influence.
The Trump White House has tried to get Saudi Arabia to sign on to a normalization deal with Israel, believing if the Saudis agreed other Arab nations would follow, but the Saudis have signaled they are not ready.
One more Middle East breakthrough is possible. Last week Kushner and his team traveled to Saudi Arabia and Qatar seeking an end to a three-year rift between Doha and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
A tentative deal has been reached on this front but it was far from clear whether a final agreement to end a blockade of Qatar will be sealed. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt have maintained a diplomatic, trade and travel embargo on Qatar since mid-2017.
While Biden is expected to move U.S. foreign policy away from Trump’s “America First” posture, he has indicated he will continue the pursuit of what Trump calls “the Abraham Accords” between Israel and Arab and Muslim nations.
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I would love to see this creep expelled:
"BREAKING! The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to take up the lawsuit from Texas, which now has a total of 10 states (Tennessee just joined) banding together to save America!
That means Justice John Roberts even voted for the good guys!
That AND the suit in PA is still in effect!
Can we all say that December 8th was a bad day for Biden?
This date will be remembered for years to come!
Amen" +++ A Summary of the Texas Election Lawsuit Robert MadsenA complete roundup of the facts involved in the most important lawsuit in American history. More+++ Parsing Out Pennsylvania. J.Marsolo +++ Margot Cleveland, The Federalist++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ China, as I have often written, wants/intends to dominate the world. America remains the only country, at this time, positioned to keep this from happening. Maybe in the future, India might be in a position to do this alone or in concert with us. Europe, is and will remain, irrelevant. There was another article in The WSJ entitled: "Profit Keeps Corporate Leaders Honest," by Alexander William Salter (an associate professor of economic in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University.) The thrust of his article was about The Davos Conference which China influences along with Soros and who both, want to urge adoption of agreements that would threaten and harm Capitalism and therefore, America economically. At first Trump did not want to attend knowing it was a waste of time but was persuaded to go and he did. While there he made a rousing speech in support of America and capitalism, irritating the Chinese etc. We have slowly begun to realize China is our main antagonist, not Russia, though the latter remains an irritant. This is why I am so interested in/concerned about Hunter and "the big man" and how they have the potential of compromising America. This is not an attempt, on my part, to stick it to Biden though, I have no faith he will be effective even if Hunter was not a junkie fool busily engaged in selling influence etc. Biden is bad enough but , believing he will not serve out his term, my concern deepens when and if Kamala takes over. Hatred of Trump is one thing but using it as a lame excuse to vote for Biden borders on deranged thinking and will, in my opinion, prove very dangerous. I repeat: "POGO Was RIGHT!" +++ Joe Biden, the Manchurian President John LeonardThere can be little doubt left that Chinese influences corrupted the 2020 elections, interfering on behalf of Joe Biden. More+++ China Wants to Be the World’s Banker The U.S. is in danger of losing its dominant leadership position in global financial services.By Henry M. Paulson Jr The U.S. remains the dominant force in the financial-services industry, leading in nearly every area of finance, from venture capital and private equity to banking and asset management. The liquidity and scale of U.S. capital markets support the primacy of the dollar, which allows Americans to pay less for foreign goods and helps finance U.S. government spending. America’s financial leadership, however, is increasingly being challenged by fierce competition from abroad and by shortsighted and counterproductive policies at home. Maintaining U.S. financial pre-eminence should be a priority for the Biden administration. Traditionally, challenges to American leadership have come from well-established financial centers like London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. But mainland China will be an increasingly formidable challenger in financial services in the next few years. The last-minute cancellation last month of Ant Group’s planned initial public offering—which would have been the largest in history, raising some $34 billion—reminded many investors about the risks of the Chinese market. But the deal’s size also showed China’s ability to attract massive amounts of capital. Despite the stumble, China’s domestic exchanges are well-positioned for the future. China lags behind the advanced financial centers, but it has belatedly begun to open up and attract best-in-class foreign financial institutions. Its markets have governance and accounting issues to overcome, but Beijing is working to enhance its regulatory structure to meet global standards and provide greater transparency and better enforcement. China’s relatively quick recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic without a major fiscal stimulus has also allowed it to maintain higher interest rates and a stronger currency. This is attracting large investment inflows to Chinese stocks and other securities. Shanghai ranked first among global exchanges for number of IPOs and capital raised through the first nine months of 2020. These IPOs show that major fundraising can take place outside the U.S. financial ecosystem. At the same time China is working to attract global capital, the U.S. is moving in the opposite direction. Ultimately, the strength of America’s capital markets rests on trust in the country’s stable macroeconomic and fiscal policies, and in the resilience of its open political system. The U.S. government has undermined this trust through shortsighted actions and long-term fiscal negligence. Efforts to delist legitimate Chinese companies from U.S. exchanges make for good politics, but bring serious and underappreciated risks. These efforts come at exactly the wrong time, driving away Chinese demand for dollars at a moment when the U.S. is taking on large amounts of debt. Let’s hope that China doesn’t rethink the wisdom of its Treasury holdings. While investors from around the world are benefiting from investing in equity securities from China, Washington is making it more difficult for U.S. investors to do so. These risks are worth avoiding. But unless something changes dramatically, China will remain the world’s fastest-growing major economy, surpassing the U.S. in size in the foreseeable future. More Fortune Global 500 companies are already based in China than the U.S. Other financial centers like Hong Kong, London, Tokyo and even Shanghai will be competing for the Chinese listings that the U.S. is now discouraging. A more fundamental threat is the lack of political will to deal with America’s long-term structural deficit, which undermines confidence in the U.S. economy and the dollar. Interest rates are at historic lows, and the federal debt is larger as a share of the economy than at any time since the end of World War II. This debt will continue to grow as Washington finances necessary pandemic-related stimulus and recovery measures. But as the debt level grows, the attractiveness of U.S. debt will gradually decline. A world-class financial system can’t exist in a country that fails to maintain the quality of its credit. When the pandemic passes, it is critically important to bend down the steep trajectory of the rising national debt. Otherwise, the dollar will eventually be debased. Washington won’t be able to pay its bills. America’s leadership in financial services is a core strength of the U.S. economy. But this mantle of leadership isn’t preordained. If it is to endure, America needs to play to the strengths that have made its capital markets the envy of the world. At the same time it must craft a smarter approach to dealing with China, one that avoids unnecessary conflict and takes advantage of the opportunities that exist to attract more capital. Mr. Paulson served as Treasury secretary, 2006-09, and is chairman of the Paulson Institute. +++ And even selected mayors: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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