Archive for the ‘Foreign Policy’ Category
Tuesday, August 20th, 2019
AMAZON’S CEO OWNS A TERROR-LINKED PAPER
The Washington Post’s ties to Islamic terrorists are a national security risk.
August 16, 2019 Daniel Greenfield Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism
Millions of Americans brought Alexa into their homes only to learn, belatedly, that not only software, but human beings, were listening in on them. Amazon employees and contractors from Costa Rica to India were caught reviewing thousands of recordings, of casual requests, private conversations and intimate moments, and sharing clips that they thought were funny in chat sessions with each other.
The Amazon product is always listening and maintains recordings of your conversations indefinitely.
But now there’s something bigger at stake than privacy violations. Amazon expects a $10 billion cloud contract for the military. The $10 billion contract was a sweetheart deal for a politically influential company that seemed unstoppable until President Trump suddenly slammed the brakes on JEDI.
The deal had always been dubious and many critics had questioned how or why a single company could expect to have a monopoly on the JEDI cloud for the United States military. Amazon’s cloud business is huge, but the Capital One breach of 100 million credit card applications by a former Amazon employee highlighted the company’s security and workforce issues. Capital One kept its data in the cloud through AWS or Amazon Web Services and the hacker was a former AWS employee with specialized knowledge.
In the Obama era, Amazon had received a $600 million cloud contract that covers all 17 intelligence agencies. The secret deal was met with protests especially since Amazon’s wasn’t even the lowest bid.
Just as with JEDI, all the national security eggs were being put into one very fragile basket.
Amazon’s federal cloud contracts took off in the Obama era. Many of the biggest contracts are classified making it difficult to measure how much taxpayer money is being sucked into the Bezos business. But Amazon is winning contracts in the usual Washington D.C. way, by spending millions a year on lobbying.
The dot com titan began lobbying the Pentagon in 2016. That was the year Amazon’s lobbying expenditures hit a whopping $11 million, up from $1.62 million during the Bush administration. Amazon’s PAC, which the company strongly encourages employees to donate to, accounted for $515,200 in donations to members of Congress.
Amazon was the fourth biggest contributor to Senator Mark Warner. And when President Trump put Amazon’s JEDI deal on hold, Warner was among the first to protest the move. In his letter, Warner urged the Secretary of Defense to “resist political pressures” that might scuttle $10 billion for Amazon.
Senator Warner, who was applying political pressure to the Secretary of Defense, to protect a contract that would benefit his contributors, appeared to be unaware of the irony of his message.
But Amazon’s lobbying millions were only the tip of the iceberg of its dubious political influence.
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Posted in Arab Winter, Big Government, CIA, Congress, Corporate Cronyism, Cyber Security, Cyber Warfare, Daniel Greenfield, Democrats, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Jihad Watch, Liberalism, Lobbyists, Media, Middle East, Military, Muslim Brotherhood, National Defense, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Political Corruption, Radical Islam, Saudi Arabia, Soros, Technology, Terrorism, Transparency | No Comments »
Saturday, August 17th, 2019
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Uncle Trump to the Naval Rescue
Europe claims it can’t rely on the U.S., but look who’s protecting ships.
By the Editorial Board August 9, 2019
Well, well, look who’s coming to the rescue of the British and shipping in the Middle East. None other than the Trump Administration that is supposed to be an unreliable ally. The Brits now say they’re joining a U.S.-led coalition to protect merchant shipping after they failed to get help from the rest of Europe.
The Royal Navy will join the effort organized by the U.S. Central Command after Iran seized a third ship this week. On July 19 the HMS Montrose frigate was patrolling near the Strait of Hormuz but was too far away to stop Iranian forces from taking a British-flagged tanker and crew that Tehran still hasn’t released.
Britain needs help because nearly half of its frigates and destroyers are undergoing major repairs or upgrades. The Royal Navy has around 80 ships, down from more than 130 during the 1982 Falklands War. The country is without a deployable aircraft carrier, though it has plans for two. London spent more than 2% of gross domestic product on defense in 2018, fulfilling its NATO requirement. But former Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood admitted after the tanker seizure that “our Royal Navy is too small to manage our interests across the globe.”
Germany refused to help, perhaps because it doesn’t want to offend Iran and might lose a naval engagement. While the Deutsche Marine has helped fight piracy in East Africa, it struggles to meet basic NATO commitments. At one point in 2018 its entire U-Boat fleet—six submarines—was stuck in dry dock. The surface fleet has held up better, though it’s aging fast.
Berlin spent only 1.2% of GDP on defense in 2018. Chancellor Angela Merkel ’s heir apparent, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, called for Germany to meet its 2% commitment during her recent swearing-in ceremony. Her fellow lawmakers responded with boos.
The French would have had a limited benefit to a patrol mission, perhaps because La Royale has only a single aircraft carrier after cancelling plans for a second years ago.
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Posted in Dept of Defense, Donald Trump, England, Europe, Foreign Policy, France, Germany, International Affairs, Iran, Middle East, Military, National Defense, NATO, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Radical Islam, Socialism | No Comments »
Friday, August 16th, 2019
CLARION PROJECT VIDEO – OFFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER Help spread the word about radical Islamist indoctrination of kids!
Posted in 9/11, Arab Winter, CAIR, Caliphate, Child Endangerment, Foreign Policy, Indoctrination of students, ISIS Terror Group, Jihad, Middle East, National Defense, Palestine, Radical Islam, Religion, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, Videos, Women's Issues | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 7th, 2019
WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Democratic doomsayers
| August 01, 2019 Editorial
To hear most of the Democratic presidential candidates is to wonder if their role model growing up was Chicken Little.
In a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity, arguably at the height of America’s power and inarguably at the height of her wealth, they all yell that the sky is falling, while demanding radical solutions to protect the nation from the dragons in their minds.
Sen. Bernie Sanders asserted in Tuesday night’s debate a need to “transform our economy and our government.” Bill de Blasio went further, calling on his listeners to “restructure society” itself, starting by “tax[ing] the hell out of the wealthy.” Spiritualist Marianne Williamson said, “the NRA has us in a choke hold, but so do the pharmaceutical companies, so do the health insurance companies, so do the fossil fuel companies, and so do the defense contractors.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren agreed: “Giant corporations … have taken our government and are holding it by the throat.”
Now put these alarmist comments into context. The nation’s unemployment rate has been at or below 4% for 16 consecutive months, the lowest in half a century. Wages have been rising steadily for seven years. Inflation remains below 2%. Inflation in health-related prices is below even the core inflation rate. The stock market is reaching record highs each month. The poverty rate is at or near historic lows, as are rates of violent crime.
These good numbers don’t even account for the much higher rise in actual standard of living and discretionary leisure time enjoyed in America today.
Abroad, meanwhile, we are at peace. The grand total of fewer than 17,000 troops in even semi-hot, bullets-flying war zones is quite low, and combat fatalities are averaging fewer per year than they averaged per day for most years in Vietnam.
Yet Democratic candidates talk as if America is a dystopian wasteland straight out of science fiction. Marianne Williamson said there is a “dark underbelly of American society,” a “dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up.“
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Posted in Conservatism, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Election 2020, Environmental Issues, Foreign Policy, Global Warming, Liberalism, Politics, Progressive Movement, Racism, Radical Left, Women Candidates | No Comments »
Monday, August 5th, 2019
I have always thought of Biden as one of those people who waits to see which way the wind is blowing before taking a position on any subject. Nancy
Joe Biden’s Iraq Memories
The former Vice President omits a few details about his strategic misjudgments.
Joe Biden speaks during the Senate Foreign Relations hearing, July 31, 2002. PHOTO: CQ-ROLL CALL|,INC.
Foreign policy was barely discussed at the Democratic presidential debates this week, and not in a good way when it was. The main point seemed to be to stop “endless war,” which sounds like Donald Trump as a candidate in 2016.
That includes Joe Biden, who as a former Vice President and veteran of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should know better. Yet when criticized about his 2002 vote for the Iraq war, Mr. Biden had a memory lapse.
“I did make a bad judgment, trusting the President [George W. Bush] saying he was only doing this to get inspectors in and get the U.N. to agree to put inspectors in,” Mr. Biden said. “From the moment ‘shock and awe’ started, from that moment I was opposed to the effort, and I was outspoken as much as anyone at all in the Congress and the Administration.”
Mr. Biden forgets that he was also a loud critic of Saddam Hussein, had been so for many years, and also worried that the dictator might have weapons of mass destruction. Everyone knew that the vote in 2002 was about authorizing a potential military intervention.
But Mr. Biden didn’t stop there this week. “Secondly,” he added, “I was asked by the President [Barack Obama] in the first meeting we had on Iraq, he turned and said, ‘Joe, get our combat troops out,’ in front of the entire national-security team. One of the proudest moments of my life was to stand there in Al-Faw Palace and tell everyone that we’re coming—all our combat troops are coming home.”
Mr. Biden is trying to make a virtue out of a tragic strategic blunder. The total withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 set the stage for the rise of Islamic State, and the takeover of Mosul and much of Iraq by the “caliphate.” By 2014 U.S. forces were fighting again in Iraq, and it took five years to defeat the caliphate after the premature Obama-Biden withdrawal.
Mr. Biden will run on his foreign-policy chops, but on Iraq he supported the war, then turned against it when the going got tough, then opposed the 2007 Bush surge that finally won the war, then supported a withdrawal that let the enemy regroup. That isn’t a record to boast about.
Posted in American History, Democrats, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, Iraq - Surge, ISIS Terror Group, Joe Biden, Middle East, Military, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Politics, Radical Islam, Transparency | No Comments »
Thursday, August 1st, 2019
This is an excellent video that explains exactly how Democratic Socialism, Socialism, and Communism are all connected. Dr. Kengor is speaking to a group of Young Americans at the Reagan Ranch. Please share with your email lists. Nancy
VIDEO – DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM EXPLAINED
Dr. Paul Kengor
From your friends at the Institute for Faith and Freedom
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What is “democratic socialism” and what makes it different than socialism or communism? In a speech at the Ronald Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, CA, Dr. Paul Kengor unpacks this complex leftist ideology, putting all the pieces on the table.
Click here to watch this video on our website to get the facts you need to have:
Enjoy,
The Institute for Faith and Freedom
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Posted in Big Government, Democracy, Democrats, Dictators, Education, Europe, Foreign Policy, Frankfurt School, History, Indoctrination of students, Liberalism, Marxism, National Defense, President Ronald Reagan, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Redistribution of Wealth, Ronald Reagan, Russia, Social Justice, Socialism, Totalitarian, Transparency, Tyranny, Videos | No Comments »
Monday, July 29th, 2019
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Xi Changed My Mind About Trump
The president defends not only U.S. sovereignty but the entire world order.
By Gordon G. Chang Mr. Chang is author of “The Coming Collapse of China” and is frequently seen on Fox News giving his analysis of China’s latest actions
July 25, 2019
Chinese President XI Jinping proposes a toast in Beijing, April 26
EXCERPT FROM THIS ARTICLE: As the Hudson Institute’s Charles Horner told me by email last week, many world leaders are nationalistic, but Mr. Xi is the only one whose “officially propounded nationalism takes the form of a global imperial vision.” That is consistent with his lawless behavior: treating neighbors as vassals, taking territory, closing off the global commons and intimidating leaders around the world.
“Tianxia,” Fei-Ling Wang notes, “inevitably and even necessarily makes the People’s Republic view and treat its neighbors and eventually all other states as essentially nonequals and lesser entities, to be influenced, controlled and subjugated with force, money, favor, ruse and fear.”
China is not, as some believe, a “trivial state” that seeks nothing more than to preserve its regime and defend its territory. With Mr. Xi pursuing tianxia ambitions, the world could use more of Mr. Trump’s defense of sovereignty, and even a little more “America First.” These concepts are not, as I once thought, unnecessarily provocative. They are a necessary defense of the centuries-old international order against an existential threat.
At first I had no idea why President Trump talked so much about sovereignty. I’ve changed my mind. To be more precise, Xi Jinping changed it. Mr. Trump is the only thing that stands between us and a world dominated by China.
“We do not expect diverse countries to share the same cultures, traditions, or even systems of government,” Mr. Trump told the United Nations General Assembly in September 2017. “But we do expect all nations to uphold these two core sovereign duties: to respect the interests of their own people and the rights of every other sovereign nation.”
Mr. Trump mentioned sovereignty 21 times in that speech. Why? Everyone knew America was a sovereign state, one of nearly 200 in the world. The idea of sovereignty has been firmly established for more than three centuries. Mr. Trump’s defense of it seemed unnecessary.
Yet for more than a decade, President Xi has been dropping audacious hints that China is the world’s only sovereign state. As a result, I have come to believe that Mr. Trump’s defense of sovereignty is essential to maintaining international peace and stability.
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Posted in China, Democracy, Demographics, Donald Trump, Economy, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, History, Human Rights, Liberalism, Marxism, Military, National Defense, Nationalism, Sovereignty, Totalitarian | No Comments »
Sunday, July 28th, 2019
One of the most hopeful and inspiring speeches I’ve ever heard. I guarantee you won’t regret the 20 minutes it takes.
Senator Hawley’s keynote at the National Conservatism Conference
Posted in A Force for Good in the World, American History, Big Government, Congress, Conservatism, Constitution, Cultural Marxism, Culture Rot, Deep State, Democracy, Democrats, Donald Trump, Economy, Education, Election 2020, EU ( European Union), Europe, Foreign Policy, Founding Fathers, France, Free Enterprise, Globalists, Globalization, GOP, History, Illegal Immigration, Indoctrination of students, Legal Immigration, Liberalism, Multiculturalism, Nationalism, One World Government, Open Borders, Patriotic, Political Correctness, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Religion, Religious Freedom, Same Sex Marriage, Social Issues, Social Justice, U.N., Videos, Wall Street, Words of Wisdom | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019
ONE AMERICA NEWS VIDEO
Obama officials caught advising Iran how to defeat U.S. foreign policy
Posted in Deep State, Democrats, Donald Trump, Foreign Policy, Intelligence, International Affairs, Iran, Iran Nuclear Deal, Legal Issues, Liberalism, Middle East, Missle Defense, National Defense, Obama, Obama Administraiton and Policy, Political Corruption, Progressive Movement, Radical Left, Resistance, Terrorism, Transparency, Tyranny, Videos | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 23rd, 2019
Gatestone Institute
European Union: A Massive Expansion of Top-down Powers
- An examination of von der Leyen’s main policy proposals reveals that she is calling for a massive expansion of top-down powers of the European Commission. Her proposals would substantially increase the role of Brussels in virtually all aspects of economic and social life in Europe — all at the expense of national sovereignty.
- Von der Leyen warned that Brussels would overrule EU member states opposed to her tax overhaul… She called for a comprehensive “European Rule of Law Mechanism” to ensure the primacy of EU law over the national laws of EU member states. She warned that there would be financial consequences for member states that refuse to comply…. She called for a change in rules so that the EU could act even without the unanimous consent of EU member states.
- “What you’ve seen from Ursula von der Leyen today is an attempt by the EU to take control of every single aspect of our lives. She wants to build a centralized, undemocratic, updated form of Communism that will render [obsolete] nation state parliaments, where the state controls everything, where nation state parliaments will cease to have any relevance at all.” — Nigel Farage, European Parliament, July 16, 2019.
| Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, who has been narrowly confirmed as the next President of the European Commission, promises an ambitious left-leaning policy program on climate change, taxes, migration and the rule of law. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images) |
Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been narrowly confirmed as the next President of the European Commission, the powerful administrative arm of the European Union.
In a secret ballot in the European Parliament on July 16, von der Leyen, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, received 383 votes, only nine more than the 374 required — the lowest margin since the position of President was established in 1958. She will take over from Jean-Claude Junker in November 2019 for a five-year term.
Before the vote, von der Leyen promised an ambitious left-leaning policy program on climate change, taxes, migration and the rule of law. Many of her pledges — which would require transferring yet more national sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels — appeared aimed at enticing support for her candidacy from Greens and Socialists in the European Parliament.
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Posted in Big Government, Brexit, Democracy, Diversity, England, Environmental Issues, EU ( European Union), Europe, Foreign Policy, Germany, Global Warming, Globalists, Globalization, Government Regulation, Legal Immigration, Liberalism, Nationalism, One World Government, Open Borders, Sovereignty | No Comments »
