‘President Biden’ Would Be Music to Russian and Taliban Ears: Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, July 4, 2020
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The Death-Knell Sounding for Hong Kong’s Freedom
Frederick Krantz
Isranet.org, July 6, 2020The death-knell is sounding for freedom in Hong Kong, one of the world’s most open and dynamic city-states, as a brutally repressive act, redolent of the 1989 Tiananmen Square freedom-movement suppression (though not yet as bloody militarily) is carried out.
As elsewhere monuments fall, freedom of expression is threatened, and political divisions deepen, alarm bells should be ringing more widely. Lovers of liberty in riot-torn America, and especially supporters of another small, vital, and beleaguered democracy, Israel, should be deeply concerned. Communist China has issued a decree violating the fifty-year “one country, two systems” autonomy agreement signed with Great Britain in 1984 and implemented in 1997. It is imposing draconic “security” legislation overriding constitutional guarantees to Hong Kong solemnly entered into with Great Britain and overseen by the United Nations.
Free speech is outlawed, and free assembly, mandating life sentences for “subversion of state power” and “collusion with foreign forces”.
Henceforth, chanting slogans, flying flags, passing petitions, or accusing police of brutality, can lead to arrest and extended imprisonment.
Local police, exempted from due-process, can search people at will, freeze assets, and engage in warrant-less surveillance. Extradition to Chinese mainland courts is possible, bail is limited, and claimed international applicability makes possible the arrest of foreigners passing through Hong Kong’s international-hub airport.
Despite the new law, thousands still celebrated the 23rd anniversary of the autonomy agreement, shouting “One Hong Kong, One Nation”, and waving now-outlawed independence flags. Tear-gas and pepper spray were used against demonstrators, and over 360 were arrested (the first a man wearing a “Free Hong Kong” shirt).
Carrie Lam, the city’s Beijing-backed chief executive, praised the new law in Orwellian terms as “constitutional, lawful, reasonable and rational”, claiming it would not undermine “the high degree of autonomy, the judicial independence and the rule of law” in Hong Kong.
Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, termed the law “a ‘sword of Damocles’ hanging above “the extremely few criminals who are severely endangering national security”, and noted anyone traveling overseas “to spread malicious rumours” could be prosecuted.
Joshua Wong, the young protest leader, disagreed: “The law marks the end of the Hong Kong that the world knew before”, vowing, on Twitter, to defend his city “until they silence, obliterate me from this piece of land”. Bonnie Leung, another pro-democracy activist, said “we have [now] to avoid throwing ourselves recklessly into jail…The fear is there. The real danger is there. We have to protect ourselves”.
International reaction was swift. Boris Johnson denounced China for its “clear and serious” violation of the 1997 agreement and pledged that Great Britain would extend five-year work and study visas to Hong Kong’s 2.9 million British national overseas passport holders.
In the U.S., both House and Senate unanimously passed legislation sanctioning Hong Kong officials threatening the city’s “one country, two systems” autonomy, and any banks supporting them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took steps to remove the city’s privileged economic status, declaring it now “just another Communist-run city”. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
Prof. Frederick Krantz is an historian. He is also the Founder and Executive Director of the CIJR and editor of the Daily Briefing.
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A Magnificent Speech
Roger Kimball
American Greatness, July 4, 2020
Donald Trump did not mention Lincoln’s First Inaugural address in his speech commemorating the spirit of American Independence at Mount Rushmore on Friday night. But the president’s speech—perhaps his most forceful and eloquent to date—vibrated with the same energy and existential commitment that fired Lincoln in March 1861.
Lincoln came to office at a time of crisis. His election had precipitated the secession of seven Southern states. His inaugural address was both a plea for conciliation and unity as well as a warning that violence would be stopped with force. “We are not enemies, but friends,” Lincoln said.
Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
Donald Trump issued a kindred invitation to unity in the midst of conflict. The signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in July 1776 was a world-historical event. It represented, the president rightly said, “the culmination of thousands of years of Western Civilization—and the triumph not only of spirit, but of wisdom, philosophy, and reason.” At the center of the triumph was the animating possession of liberty, made possible by the unanimous affirmation of the principles Thomas Jefferson articulated in the Declaration: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights . . .”
The president’s speech was a passionate celebration of American freedom and American greatness—a greatness, he noted, that was embodied by the sublime majesty of the heads of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt sculpted into the granite pinnacle of Mt. Rushmore.
But just as Lincoln spoke on the eve of civil war, so Donald Trump spoke in the midst of widespread and organized violence against the emblems and the spirit of the American promise. “[T]here is,” he warned, “a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought, struggled, and bled to secure.” … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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The Trump Campaign Needs to Hit ‘Reset’
Karl Rove
WSJ, July 1, 2020
It’s Team Trump’s time in the barrel. After the underwhelming crowd in Tulsa, Okla., and polls showing the president trailing Joe Biden substantially, the political commentariat is beginning to say Mr. Trump has no chance of re-election.
Hold on.
The president is behind with less than 18 weeks to go, and he’s trailing by more than Harry S. Truman in 1948, George W. Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012, all of whom rallied to win. But 2016 should give every pundit a gigantic dose of humility: Don’t count this president out.
The campaign hasn’t really begun. Sequestered in his basement, out of sight for days at a time, Mr. Biden has taken the lead without campaigning as the media’s spotlight has been squarely on the incumbent during a difficult time. But the Democratic nominee can’t hide forever.
For Team Trump, the question is what the president must do to regain momentum after a catastrophic June. As president, Mr. Trump has powerful tools, and polls show that on the most important issue in presidential elections, the economy, Americans trust him over Mr. Biden.
Though Trump campaign officials say their tracking shows the president’s numbers improving after a drop in early June, the campaign must admit that a reset is needed. Then it needs to do it.
This week’s modest staff shake-up isn’t it. A reset is a presidential address on new policy initiatives or a significant change in tone that allows the White House to say credibly that the country is moving in a new direction, repositioning the president. Confronting Senate Democrats over their decision to block consideration of Sen. Tim Scott’s police reform measure presents one such reset opportunity.
Finding an issue that grabs public attention is only the start. No president gets re-elected saying only, “I’ve done a good job.” Last week Sean Hannity asked Mr. Trump about his second-term agenda. The president dodged, perhaps not wanting to lay it all out on cable TV. But the moment is fast approaching when Mr. Trump must describe what comes next. Find your calendar and circle Aug. 27, when he will accept his party’s nomination. More Americans will be listening then for what Mr. Trump wants to accomplish in the next four years than at any time in the campaign besides the debates.
The last three presidents who won re-election used their acceptance speeches to convince voters they had something new to offer. In 1996, President Clinton pledged to “build a bridge to the 21st century” with an agenda of broader access to education, a balanced budget, an expanded child tax credit, welfare-to-work programs, gun control and support for law enforcement.
Mr. Bush’s 2004 convention speech emphasized his economic agenda: tax reform, regulatory relief, energy independence and opportunity zones. He also promised health savings accounts, Social Security reform, increased emphasis on math and science education and an attack on junk medical malpractice lawsuits. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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President Biden’ Would Be Music to Russian and Taliban Ears
Andrew C. McCarthy
National Review, July 4, 2020
HARD to fathom which notion is more hilarious. Is it that Joe Biden would get tough with the Taliban, or that Joe Biden would get tough with Russia?
The former veep wants you to know that he’s furious that President Trump sat on his hands for the past four months despite knowing that the Kremlin was paying bounties to the jihadists for targeting American troops in Afghanistan. Biden is sure this must have happened. No, he conceded at a rare press availability this week, he does not have access to classified information, nor has he been given an intelligence briefing on the subject. But Biden knows it must have happened because the New York Times and the Washington Post say so, relying on their crack anonymous intelligence sources.
Hmmm . . . The Times and the Post, relying on uncheckable sources of unknowable veracity, are peddling a story that Donald Trump has betrayed his country for the benefit of Vladimir Putin. Who wouldn’t take that to the bank after three years of collusion?
In this new and improved narrative, you’re to believe that Trump, who has dramatically beefed up military spending over Obama/Biden levels so that our forces can protect themselves, would knowingly endanger those forces; but that Biden, who last worked as a top official and strategist in an administration best known for imposing rules of engagement that made those troops sitting ducks, would back them to the hilt — against those diabolical Russians, who know Biden well, and who therefore know that, why, if they try any of that rough stuff, by God ol’ Joe would . . . um . . . you know . . . uh . . . the thing!
The thing being . . . he’d do nothing. And that’s if we’re lucky. His idea of doing something is to enrich the world’s leading state sponsor of anti-American terrorism while putting its regime on a glide path to nuclear weapons . . . all the while knowing that the mullahs are backing Taliban terrorists targeting our troops . . . and that the Russians are backing the mullahs.
On balance, I am not a fan of President Trump’s foreign policy. He’s done some good things — among the best was withdrawing us from the dreadful Iran nuclear deal that the Obama/Biden administration had to end-run the Constitution and collude with Russia to pull off. And, since the Putin regime is utterly corrupt and untrustworthy — just ask any Democrat, at least since November 8, 2016 — Trump is wise to have pulled us out of the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the Open Skies Treaty. After all, it is counterproductive to remain strait-jacketed by an arrangement that the other side flouts at will.
Still, for all the babble about “principled realism” regarding radical Islam, on the Taliban, Trump is just as delusional as any transnational-progressive: pretending that we can negotiate a satisfactory settlement with incorrigible jihadist enemies who (a) knowingly gave al-Qaeda the launchpad they needed to attack our homeland and our overseas facilities; (b) are still confederated with al-Qaeda; and (c) are content to put aside internecine Sunni–Shiite strife when it comes to collaborating with Iran against the Great Satan. The president is so mulishly committed to his “endless war” blather, so hot to cut a deal with the Taliban and pull our few remaining forces out, that he was ready to host our jihadist enemies at Camp David until panicked aides managed to talk him out of it. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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For Further Reference:
Victor Davis Hanson: Even Biden’s Supporters ‘Worried’ by News Conference: WND, July 2, 2020 — Joe Biden didn’t help his presidential campaign with a recent news conference, the first after some three months of isolation because of the coronavirus pandemic, contends Victor Davis Hanson, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
A Tale of 2 Revolutions, and Why America Must Be Celebrated: Jonathan Tobin, Israel Hayom, July 3, 2020 — In the view of those cheering on the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement, this July 4 will be one less of celebration than of soul-searching and reassessment. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the normal festivities were always going to be muted.
Bounties for Taliban? The New Big Russia Lie: Larry C Johnson, Vic Semper Tyrannis, July 2, 2020 — Anyone who embraces the stupid and absurd claim that Russia’s military intelligence outfit, the GRU, is paying (has been paying) the Taliban to kill U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan, is either guilty of ignorance or congenitally retarded. It is that simple. There is not gray area here. The claim is a lie.
Finding Leaders We Can Work With in the BLM Era: Rabbi Abraham Cooper, The Medialine, July 5, 2020 — A sense of crisis, gloom, and even panic has gripped American Jews as they grapple with the Black Lives Matter tsunami that has upended the political, cultural, and social norms of our nation
