Month: September 2019

YouTube fine is beginning to illustrate the schisms at the FTC between three GOPers and two Dems over a) settlement concessions, and what the starting pt for negotiations should be, and b) the agency’s existing power, and how much is needed to be tougher https://t.co/f8UJklSLcP?amp=1

US State Department sounds like it’s in fine, fine shape https://t.co/wuaIXnHHqV?amp=1

Who needs a cabinet? Netanyahu appoints himself welfare minister, the fourth cabinet ministry position he now holds in addition to prime minister. https://t.co/H8wiQmUYdP?amp=1

After Boris Johnson’s stinging defeat in his first parliamentary vote on Brexit, U.K. lawmakers promised to complicate his plan for a swift general election https://t.co/FMVbWjFQ8K?amp=1

ICYMI: Here was the 10-page John Doe letter arguing against unsealing of non-parties in the Jeffrey Epstein litigation. https://t.co/z44Vm4wFxF?amp=1

As China expands its interests along the BeltandRoad, the need for military protection arises https://nbr.org/…/securing-the-belt-and-road…/

Check out the new NBR Special Report to see just how China is securing its overseas interests and what that means for the United States and its allies

Pence officials said on the record that the president suggested Pence stay at his hotel. Later in the day Pence’s office called stories quoting those statements false and blamed the press. https://t.co/pH35wOoScn?amp=1

NEW: Trump, Pence, & aides have repeatedly invoked the Secret Service when explaining why they stay in Trump resorts, arguing that it’s easier for law enforcement to secure them. But Secret Service vets say that’s not true, and can actually make it harder. https://t.co/BXVpUyycZj?amp=1

The Trump administration plans to reallocate $3.6 billion from 127 military construction projects in order to finance the border wall https://t.co/IwMmy3JxzW?amp=1

“CENTCOM had kept a keen eye on Assad’s stockpile of chemical weapons, and we were picking up indications that he was preparing to use them against his own people,” Mattis writes. To stop this from happening, in August 2012, he says, “President Obama issued a firm warning. ‘That’s a red line for us,’ he said. ‘There would be enormous consequences if we start seeing movement on the chemical weapons front or the use of chemical weapons.’”

“A short time later, Assad did employ chemical weapons, killing hundreds of civilians,” Mattis continues. “At CENTCOM, I assumed we would be the ones to provide the President’s ‘enormous consequence.’ We prepared options to hold Assad harshly accountable, with NATO and Arab allies in support, from single strikes to more extensive operations, depending on the President’s judgment.”

But Obama declined to do anything. “This was a shot not heard around the world,” Mattis writes. And the effects were felt far beyond Syria and even the Middle East.

“Old friends in NATO and in the Pacific registered dismay and incredulity that America’s reputation had been seriously weakened as a credible security partner,” Mattis writes. “Within thirty-six hours, I received a phone call from a friendly Pacific-nation diplomat. ‘Well, Jim,’ he said, ‘I guess we’re on our own with China.’”

Mattis concludes, “Over the next several years, Syria totally disintegrated into hell on earth. The consequences included an accelerated refugee flow that changed the political culture of Europe, punctuated by repeated terrorist attacks. And America today lives with the consequences of emboldened adversaries and shaken allies.” https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/…/emboldened…