Assessing Threats to U.S. Vital Interests: Europe, Asia, Middle East

Heritage

The United States is a global power with global interests. . .

. . . "Scaling its military power to threats requires judgments with regard to the importance and priority of those interests, whether the use of force is the most appropriate and effective way to address the threats to those interests, and how much and what types of force are needed to defeat such threats.

This Index focuses on three fundamental, vital national interests:

• Defense of the homeland;

• Successful conclusion of a major war that has the potential to destabilize a region of critical interest to the U.S.; and

• Preservation of freedom of movement within the global commons: the sea, air, and outer space domains through which the world conducts business.

"The geographical focus of the threats in these areas is further divided into three broad regions: Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. 

"This is not to say that these are America’s only interests. Among many others, the U.S. has an interest in the growth of economic freedom in trade and investment, the observance of internationally recognized human rights, and the alleviation of human suffering beyond our borders. None of these interests, however, can be addressed principally and effectively by the use of military force, nor would threats to these interests result in material damage to the foregoing vital national interests. These additional American interests, however important they may be, therefore are not used in this assessment of the adequacy of current U.S. military power.

"Throughout this Index, we reference two public sources as a mechanism with which to check our work against that of other recognized professional organizations in the field of threat analysis: The Military Balance, published annually by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies,1 and the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community (WWTA).2 The latter serves as a reference point produced by the U.S. government against which each threat assessment in this Index was compared. We note any differences between assessments in this Index and the work of the two primary references in summary comments." . . .

Must-See TV: Scandalous: Chappaquiddick Premieres Tonight

Fox News takes aim at the hagiographic, airbrushed revision of the real history of Ted "The Swimmer" Kennedy. 

Peter Barry Chowka  "Highly recommended is a new program on the Fox News channel tonight, Sunday, December 2 from 8-9 P.M. E.T./P.T.  It's the second season premiere of the occasional documentary series Scandalous.  Season two, episode one ofScandalous: Chappaquiddick, "The Bridge," will be shown this evening, with three more hour-long episodes to follow on successive Sunday evenings in December.  The subject of the four new in-depth programs is the 1969 scandal involving the late Sen. Edward M. (Ted) Kennedy (D-Mass.) that essentially short-circuited his seemingly inevitable path to the presidency.  Not well remembered now, the scandal a half-century ago was also depicted in a dramatic feature film, titled Chappaquiddick, that premiered in theaters last April and bombed at the box office (only $18 million in ticket sales versus a $34-million budget).

. . . "Approaching the beach, the Oldsmobile sedan Kennedy was driving veered off the small Dyke Bridge and became submerged in the Poucha Pond below.  Kennedy escaped and said later that he repeatedly dove into the water in search of Kopechne, who remained trapped inside the vehicle.  Inexplicably, after giving up, Kennedy did not report the accident, but instead walked back to the cottage, where he conferred privately with several of his closest aides, who also failed to report the accident." . . .
. . . 
"Although he never made it to the Oval Office, Kennedy's career in the U.S. Senate lasted for over 40 more years until the day he died from a brain tumor in 2009.  Over time, the details of the 1969 incident at Chappaquiddick largely faded, and Kennedy – in life and after his death – was lauded by Democrats and Republicans alike, constantly celebrated and honored as the "Lion of the Senate."  Hopefully, Scandalous: Chappaquiddick's new four-hour-long deconstruction of the events almost a half-century ago will add some much needed clarity to the hagiographic, airbrushed revision of the real history that has dominated political discourse ever since."

Kennedy survived to demolish the reputation of Judge Bork who had been nominated for the Supreme Court.

The stomach-turning 'ballot-harvesting' that enabled Democrats to walk off with California

Monica Showalter  "The picture emerging from California's election is grotesque. How again did Democrats engineer their strange midterm victory in Orange County and in other traditionally Republican areas? In that election, apparently winning Republican candidates were all unseated as the ballots just kept arriving, and arriving, and arriving, until the results flipped. Each and every time. And no such flips happened for Republicans, just Democrats, after they learned that Republicans were winning. And Democrats say it's just 'counting all the votes.'

Welcome to ballot-harvesting.

The Daily Caller has an ace report with a video showing just how that's done:

Robert Barnes@Barnes_Law

Cali new law for 2018 election "allow anybody to walk into an elections office and hand over truckloads of vote by mail envelopes with ballots inside, no questions asked, no verified records kept. It amounts to an open invitation to large-scale vote buying, voter coercion"

. . . "This signals a grotesquely changed electoral landscape. Turns out the mail-in ballots are all that matters now, because all anyone has to do is harvest, and keep harvesting them, until Democrats get the result they want. I wrote about those lingering questions in the recent midterm here.

" 'Count all the ballots!' has been the Democrat rallying cry. Yet in reality, it was their defense of this sneaky little project, making anyone who doen't like it someone who wants to disenfranchise people.

"It's a lie. It's not about counting all the ballots in the slightest, it's about selectively counting the ballots of only voters who fill in the Democratic slots." . . .

Cohen’s Guilty Plea Isn’t Proof Trump Campaign Colluded with Russia

Debra Saunders

Trump’s actions, like any private businessman’s, were legal.

"On his way to catch Air Force One on Thursday, President Donald Trump shared his thoughts about Michael Cohen, his one-time personal lawyer who pleaded guilty that morning to lying to Congress about negotiations for a possible Trump Tower in Moscow during the 2016 presidential campaign.

"Trump said: (1) it was no secret he was interested in putting a Trump Tower in Moscow; (2) as a private citizen, he had every right to build in Russia; so (3) there was no reason for Cohen to lie to Congress, and if he did lie, it had nothing to do with the president.

"Trump has a point. As Brad Blakeman, a lawyer in President George W. Bush’ administration, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Trump’s actions were legal. Trump wasn’t president in 2016, and he didn’t know that he would win. He had every right to push to keep his business going.

“ 'He was hedging his bets,” Blakeman said. “I don’t know why Cohen had to lie about it.”

"The other big point: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has a penchant for winning guilty pleas from Trump associates who have lied to authorities, but from what America has seen, he has not made the case that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.

"Cohen’s guilty plea for lying about Trump’s flirtation with building in Moscow at least has a Russian angle. That’s much closer than the conviction of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was found guilty on charges of tax evasion and bank fraud as far back as 2010, long before he worked for Trump. Ditto co-defendant Rick Gates, who cut a plea deal to reduce his sentence in exchange for testimony against Manafort.

"There often has been a political tinge to Mueller’s actions. In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and bank fraud — charges that had nothing to do with Trump. But he also pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation related to a payment to a porn actress that was supposed to buy her silence on her involvement with Trump in 2006, as well as an improper payment to a former "Playboy playmate." . . .

UPDATED: 'Murphy Brown' features reporter beaten by 'sea' of MAGA-hat wearing thugs at 'Trump' rally

Recall our previous post on the virulent anti-Trump propaganda of Murphy Brown et al.

Washington Times

CBS‘ “Murphy Brown” took its jabs at the Trump administration to a new level this week with a story in which character Frank Fontana is beaten by a mob of MAGA-hat wearing thugs.

Rumors swirled this week that Candice Bergen’s show would not be renewed after its initial batch of 13 episodes aired, but the creators’ liberal stance was further solidified on Thursday with a story called “Beat the Press.”

"Actor Joe Regalbuto’s character is left battered and beaten after “President Trump” calls him out at a campaign event.

“ 'When Trump left the stage, I decided to leave the press pen and go interview some of the people. Next thing I know, I’m surrounded by a sea of red hats,” the character says at one point.

“ 'Oh, God,” replies the show’s lead, the media watchdog NewsBusters reported Thursday evening.

"The act was instigated after the fictional version of Mr. Trump lamented “Fibbin’ Frank Fontana” and suggested he deserved “a good body slam.”

"At a later point in the episode the victimized reporter likens America under Mr. Trump to Libya.

“ 'I filed [my Libya experience] away under ‘Bad stuff that can only happen in another country.’ But I’m home, Murph. This is America, and … I don’t feel safe here anymore.”

"The Hollywood Reporter noted Wednesday that CBS will not renew the show due to low ratings, although the show’s creator disputed such claims Thursday on Twitter.

“ 'No, we are not cancelled,” Diane English wrote. “But we will have to wait until spring to hear if we are renewed for another season of 13. Thank you for being such a loyal audience. We shoot episode 13 tomorrow. Meanwhile you have four more episodes to enjoy starting with tonight.”

Perhaps TV would consider a story about the assaults on pro-Trump people. Naaaah.

UPDATE:  On the other hand, no reporters have ever been physically assaulted by any Trump fan. In fact, it is quite the opposite. To date there have been at least 639 acts of violence committed against Trump fans since 2016.

. . . “He had it coming,” the woman seethes. “He’s fake news. He’s the enemy of the people.”
“He’s a journalist,” the reporter replies. “He was just there to cover the rally. That is what the free press does. That’s what separates a democracy from a dictatorship. Or maybe a dictatorship is what you’d prefer.”
Then the woman punches him, too.
All this is quite a leap from real life. In reality, not one Trump supporter has physically assaulted any reporter anywhere, much less doing so right at a rally where all the press would be there to see it and cover it.
Indeed, the only political supporters who have been caught assaulting reporters have been members of the left-wing Antifa.
Just to name a few examples, in August of this year, members of Antifa attackedjournalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, and in another case, Asian-American journalist Andy C. Ngo was attacked by Antifa protesters in Portland.

New Details Reinforce That The FBI Used Fake Pretexts To Start Investigating Trump

The Federalist

The evidence continues to mount that during the Obama administration, the FBI used George Papadopoulos as a prop to legitimize investigating the Donald Trump campaign.

"The evidence continues to mount that during the Obama administration, the FBI used George Papadopoulos as a prop to legitimize launching its investigation into the Donald Trump campaign. While the FBI claimed it initiated Crossfire Hurricane on July 31, 2016 in response to reports that Russian-linked individuals told Papadopoulos the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, that story seemed shaky from the start.

"Since then, text and email messages between former MI6 spy and Fusion GPS dossier author Christopher Steele and twice-demoted Department of Justice attorney Bruce Ohr raised the possibility that information Steele fed the FBI through Ohr was the true justification for the the FBI targeting the Trump campaign. A Wednesday tweet from Carter Page gives further credence to the suggestion that the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded Steele dossier served as the basis for the FBI’s interest in the Trump campaign.

"In his tweet, Page included a screen grab of a July 2016 text message from Washington Post reporter Damian Paletta (who was then working for the Wall Street Journal) asking the former Trump campaign advisor about his supposed meeting in Moscow with Igor Sechin, and another meeting Page reportedly had with “a senior Kremlin official—Divyekin—and he said they have solid kompromat on Clinton as well as Trump.' ” . . .

Far Left Group Trying to Agitate Migrant Caravan at U.S. Border

Breitbart Border

"Human rights groups in Tijuana are sounding the alarm about a far left organization that is trying to agitate members of the migrant caravan into rushing the U.S. border again. 

"The group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) is calling for all migrants to gather on Saturday morning at one of the shelters and then to make their way to the U.S.  border, where they will demand it be opened for everyone or they will “shut it down.” In addition to posting the information on their website, BAMN members have taken to social media encouraging other protesters and members of the migrant caravan."  . . .

SNIPES SNAPS! Rescinds Resignation, Vows to Fight Governor Scott’s Suspension

The Gateway Pundit  "Things are heating up in Broward County after Brenda Snipes rescinded her resignation Saturday and vowed to fight her suspension.

"Governor and Senator-elect Rick Scott SUSPENDED Broward County Elections Supervisor Brenda Snipes on Friday night and replaced her with Peter Antonacci."

. . . "NBC Miami reported:

Brenda Snipes’ attorney on Saturday said the recently suspended Broward County elections supervisor would rescind her resignation. “We believe these actions are malicious, we believe that the allegations that are set forth in the governor’s executive order are done for the purposes of embarrassing Dr. Snipes – embarrassing her and tarnishing her record, and we will be fighting this. In addition to that, Dr. Snipes herby rescinds her resignation that was set forth which would have been effective on the fourth of January,” Snipes’ attorney Burnadette Norris-Weeks said in a press conference.

"Brenda Snipes has a history of corruption and violating the law.

"In this year’s midterm election, Broward County Democrats mysteriously manufactured 83,000 votes in two days!"

Why do the new-found ballots all seem to be for Democrats?

Tony Branco

Trump hints at the scandal about to blow

The media-Democrat establishment! I love that term.

Thomas Lifson "There is big news ahead, and President Trump teased it yesterday from Argentina via Twitter.  Politics has become a game of narratives, something well understood by both President Trump and his enemies in the media-Democrat establishment.  For more than two years, the professionals of the cultural and media establishment have worked assiduously to create an objectively false narrative, with no evidence whatsoever, that Vladimir Putin actually changed the count of votes to hand Trump the presidency, making his victory illegitimate.  Most Democrats actually believe this now and have in earlier polls as well.

"But as I keep reminding our readers, President Trump was the most successful reality television producer in the history of the medium, and he understands a story arc well, as events that can be programmed unfold.  That must be kept in mind in understanding this enigmatic tweet that came from the president half a world away, in Argentina for meetings with the leaders of the 20 biggest economies in the world." . . .

How Trump Can Translate His Policy Successes into Political Success

Victor Davis Hanson

He just needs to re-calibrate his messaging and re-emphasize his solid achievements, reminding those he has benefited why and how he has helped them.

"President Trump’s challenges are not really his economic policies and foreign-affairs agendas. For the most part, these are supported by the American people and are resulting in prosperity at home and security abroad.
"The economy continues to deliver near-record-low unemployment, wage gains, strong growth, and unmatched energy production. 
"No nation can remain sovereign and secure with insecure borders. There are few ways to stop massive illegal immigration other than building a wall, insisting on employer sanctions, and recalibrating legal immigration so that it’s measured, diverse, and meritocratic. 
"For all the hysteria over Trump’s foreign policy, many observers quietly concede that the U.S. is far tougher on Vladimir Putin and Russia now than Obama was in 2016: stronger sanctions, more help to the Ukrainians, and greater NATO expenditures. 
"America had reached a point of no return with China. It either had to renegotiate its enormous trade imbalances and confront regional Chinese aggressions or simply acquiesce to China’s agenda of predetermined global superiority. 
"Yet there were few levers other than temporary trade tariffs to force China to trade equitably and follow global commercial norms.
"The status quo that Trump inherited with North Korean nuclear-tipped intercontinental missiles was an unsustainable proposition. So was an Iran deal that would have guaranteed eventual Iranian nuclear capability. Yet Trump cannot consistently reach 50 percent approval in the polls. And, like most presidents, he experienced a rebuke in the House during his first midterm elections. 
"So what might Trump do to translate his policy successes into 51 percent majority support?" . . ..

What Hillary Could Learn From Barbara Bush (A dead Republican, like George)

. . . Hillary Clinton could learn a lot from her fellow former First Lady. Chances are, she won’t. Either way, America was blessed by such a genial and gracious lady.

 

RedState, April 18, 2018;  . . .  "Certainly, the philanthropist will be exhaustively eulogized over the next few days. Much will be spoken of her time in recent years as well as her tenure as First Lady. What I find especially profound, however, is her poise and elegance in the in-between — specifically, in the aftermath of her husband’s crushing 1992 loss to Democratic challenger Bill Clinton. Her refinement and composure in the wake of that shortfall stand as a stark contrast to the acidic, belligerent nature of the First Lady who replaced her, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mrs. Bush imagined a day when a woman would indeed become President; but her vision was one of hope, not power-lust or egocentrism. The same cannot be said of the former senator from New York.

Less than two years after H.W.’s expulsion from the Oval Office, in support of her newly released, self-titled memoir, the Bush matriarch appeared on CNN’s Larry King Live to discuss family and friends, her 4-year White House residency, and life onward. Given her husband’s defeat, she might have conveyed bitter feelings about the election or his opposition. Rather, she was a picture of class, voicing gratitude for her treasured time as First Lady:

“I told George this on the phone…Last night before I went to bed, he called. I awakened Monday morning in New York City…and I looked…and a lot of things happened… the Pope…Arafat met with (Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak) Rabin…a lot of things happened. And I sat and watched the news. Darling Jessica Tandy died, and Hume [Cronyn], I thought about…I knew every single person and place that was on that television set, thanks to George Bush…Every single person knew me and I knew [them]. I told George, I said, ‘It really struck me how really great a life you’ve given me.'”

"One can hardly imagine Hillary Clinton having anything nice to say, had her husband fallen by the political wayside after his first presidential term. At present time — a year and a half after her failure in the 2016 election — she has made a veritable career of tastelessly spouting rancor, continuing to heave incendiary insults not only at the foe who bested her, but his supporters as well. Speaking at an Indian conference in March, Clinton said of Trump and the voters who elected him, “His whole campaign…was looking backward. You know, you didn’t like black people getting rights, you don’t like women getting jobs.” . . .

Bush 41’s death reveals the truth of the cliché: the only kind of Republicans the media like is dead ones . . . "The playbook is always the same.  Democrats, including most of the media, pretend they love Republicans when they die after they trashed them when they ran and lived." . . .

MSM/Dems are certain for the umpteenth time that the end is near for Trump admin, this time with Michael Cohen guilty plea

Thomas Lifson  "Once again, Robert Mueller’s team is nailing a witness they want to use to incriminate President Trump in some nefarious scheme with a guilty plea for lying, and thereby discrediting any future testimony against the intended target. Well, at least it gives them a scalp to nail to the wall to justify the tens of millions of dollars already expended over the last two years in an effort to unseat a sitting president.
. . . 

"No less than lifelong Democrat and Hillary Clinton voter Alan Dershowitz is pointing out that rather than uncovering past crimes, Mueller’s modus operandi is to generate new crimes in the course of investigation:

The recent guilty plea of Michael Cohen of lying represents the dominant trend in Mueller's approach to prosecution. The vast majority of indictments and guilty pleas obtained against Americans by Mueller have not been for substantive crimes relating to his mandate: namely, to uncover crimes involving illegal contacts with Russia. They have involved indictments and guilty pleas either for lying, or for financial crimes by individuals unrelated to the Russia probe. If this remains true after the filing of the Mueller report, it would represent a significant failure on Mueller's part.

Mueller was appointed Special Counsel not to provoke individuals into committing new crimes, but rather to uncover past crimes specifically involving alleged illegal coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. No one doubted that Russia attempted to influence the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump and against Hillary Clinton. But Mueller's mandate was not to prosecute Russians or to point the finger at Vladimir Putin. His mandate was to uncover crimes committed by the Trump campaign with regard to Russia's attempts to influence the election.

"Meanwhile, actual evidence that the Hillary Clinton campaign colluded with Russian intelligence agents (via cutouts Perkins Coie and Fusion GPS) to influence the election is apparently of no interest whatsoever to Mueller. It’s almost as if this entire effort is a cover-up…. "

How's this for collusion with Russia?