Month: December 2020

This article was submitted exclusively to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by the distinguished jurist Judge John H. Wilson (ret.)

If you paid attention to the mainstream media and their supporters, you would believe there is no evidence in existence whatsoever that voter fraud occurred in the 2020 election, or that voter fraud even exists on anything but a minor level.  Before the election even occurred, the Brennan Center for Justice issued a report claiming that, “(s)ensationalist claims have circulated this election season about the extent of voter fraud, with some politicians going so far as to tell voters to fear that this November’s election will be ‘rigged’…putting rhetoric aside to look at the facts makes clear that fraud by voters at the polls is vanishingly rare, and does not happen on a scale even close to that necessary to “rig” an election.” 

After the election, other statements were made in the same vein.  “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised,’ according to a joint statement issued by the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council.”

According to Newsmax, “(t)here is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. In fact, election officials from both political parties have stated publicly that the election went well and international observers confirmed that there were no serious irregularities.  The issues Trump’s campaign and its allies have pointed to are typical in every election.” 

According to the New York Times, “(e)lection officials in dozens of states representing both political parties said that there was no evidence that fraud or other irregularities played a role in the outcome of the presidential race.” 

Well, that must be the end of the issue – if the New York Times says so, then it must be true!

Yet, why do allegations of fraud continue to surround this election?  More important, is there any actual evidence of fraud, or could the mainstream media be telling us the truth this time?

To understand the disconnect between the left and the right on this issue, we first need to comprehend what actually constitutes evidence that would be admissible in a court of law.

According to the American Bar Association, ‘(t)he heart of (any) case is the presentation of evidence. There are two types of evidence — direct and circumstantial.  Direct evidence usually is that which speaks for itself: eyewitness accounts, a confession, or a weapon.  Circumstantial evidence usually is that which suggests a fact by implication or inference: the appearance of the scene of a crime, testimony that suggests a connection or link with a crime, physical evidence that suggests criminal activity.  Both kinds of evidence are a part of most trials, with circumstantial evidence probably being used more often than direct. Either kind of evidence can be offered in oral testimony of witnesses or physical exhibits, including fingerprints, test results, and documents. Neither kind of evidence is more valuable than the other.” 

Based upon this definition, there is clearly evidence, both direct and circumstantial, for the allegations made regarding voter fraud in the 2020 election.

According to Newsmax, “Republican National Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo that the RNC has collected 12,000 incident reports of election-related irregularities and malfeasance.  What might constitute even stronger evidence are the 400 affidavits submitted by eyewitnesses in swing states whose vote results are in dispute. These affiants have placed their observations on paper, from the fishy to the fraudulent.”   

These affidavits have been gathered at a website called Here is the Evidence.

Judge Wilson’s analysis concludes tomorrow

Photo: Pixabay

COVID-19 has impacted the military, as it has almost every other facet of life.

The House of Representatives has produced a defense budget (called the National Defense Authorization Act) in the face of deep challenges, some difficult because of the potential change in Administrations, and some wholly precedented due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The two parties reached an agreement on over 2,200 individual provisions. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-Wash.) and Ranking Member Mac Thornberry (R-Texas), issued a joint statement noting “The agreement we have reached includes important provisions affecting our national security. Among the provisions we are most proud of the authorization of hazardous duty pay for our service members in harm’s way, improvements to military housing and programs for military families with children with special needs, addressing the shortage in military child care, authorizing $8.4 billion in military construction projects to fortify critical infrastructure and base realignment and closure clean up , important new tools to deter China and Russia, reforms to make the Pentagon more efficient, innovative, and cost-effective, significant bipartisan provisions on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and provisions that strengthen our alliance with Israel. After the tragic loss of life in Pensacola last year, the NDAA also includes a prohibition on foreign student’s ability to possess firearms on military bases.”

COVID played a significant role in this year’s budget. The defense bill provides service members with the diagnostic equipment, testing capabilities and PPE they need, along with providing medical surge capacity in certain healthcare facilities; and it provides health benefits to members of the National Guard that supported the COVID-19 response.

The military’s role in COVID is more than just protecting its own.  The military will play a central role I distributing the vaccine, produced in record-breaking time thanks to the Trump Administration’s “Operation Warp Speed.” C. Todd Lopez, speaking for the Department of Defense, reports that the Pentagon has “the best logisticians in the world working in conjunction with the CDC, to guide every logistical detail you could possibly think of.” That effort involves things such as needles, syringes, swabs, adhesive bandages, dry ice and trucks, to name key examples. Operations centers, similar to those set up for hurricanes, will manage the effort.

Of course, the key focus will continue to be protecting the U.S. from the massive and growing threats from China and Russia.

The NDAA authorizes DoD nuclear weapons modernization programs and National Nuclear Security Administration infrastructure and weapons programs absolutely required to replace aging systems with diminishing reliability and survivability concerns that undermine the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation’s most important Defense capability – the Nuclear Deterrent. The bill also directs the production of an unclassified study of the nuclear weapons programs of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, so that the American people can be informed about the threats to the United States.

It also establishes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative which includes $2.2 billion of investments and new programs to modernize and strengthen U.S. posture and capability in the Indo-Pacific region and assist U.S. allies and partners to deter against Chinese malign behavior. The NDAA supports U.S. efforts to help Taiwan develop capable, ready, and modern defense forces necessary for it to maintain a sufficient self-defense capability.

Closer to home, The legislature includes a requirement for a Presidential assessment on how to deter Chinese industrial espionage and large-scale cyber theft of intellectual property and personal information, and mandates that public reporting of Chinese military companies operating in the United States be published on the Federal Register.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission  has issued its annual report to Congress. The New York Analysis of Policy and Government will periodically present summaries of their work.

CHINA’S VIEW OF STRATEGIC COMPETITION

China is engaged in a global competition for power and influence with the United States. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the liberal democratic values championed by the United States as a fundamental impediment to its external ambitions and an existential threat to its domestic rule. Chinese leaders’ assessment of the United States as a dangerous and firmly committed opponent has informed nearly every facet of China’s diplomatic strategy, economic policy, and military planning in the post-Cold War era. Although elements of this competition have been evident for some time, under General Secretary of the CCP Xi Jinping the competition has intensified.

Through its modernization efforts, China has emerged as an unprecedented economic rival and a growing military threat capable of inflicting grave harm on the United States and its allies and partners.

China’s economic engagement with the United States has proved to be a critical enabler of its rapid economic growth, steadily feeding Beijing’s confidence in its ability to act on its longstanding ambition to match and ultimately displace the United States as the predominant global leader. Meanwhile, Beijing has intensified its diplomatic efforts, underpinned by an increased use of economic and military coercion, to drive wedges between Washington and its allies.

Strategic competition with China presents an increasing challenge for the United States. As Chinese leaders have perceived the power gap between China and the United States as steadily closing, they have become increasingly confident in their ability to expand the reach of the CCP’s authoritarian values and repression to the detriment of the United States, its workers, businesses, and allies. Continued success by the Chinese government in achieving its economic, diplomatic, and military goals could set back U.S. economic and technological progress for decades at the cost of good jobs and shared prosperity, embolden autocrats and dictators around the world, and obstruct U.S. military support to U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific in the event of a future conflict.

Key Findings 

▶ Beijing has long held the ambition to match the United States as  the world’s most powerful and influential nation. Over the past  15 years, as its economic and technological prowess, diplomatic  influence, and military capabilities have grown, China has turned its  focus toward surpassing the United States. Chinese leaders have  grown increasingly aggressive in their pursuit of this goal following  the 2008 global financial crisis and General Secretary Xi’s ascent  to power in 2012. 

▶ Chinese leaders regard the United States as China’s primary  adversary and as the country most capable of preventing the CCP  from achieving its goals. Over the nearly three decades of the post Cold War era, Beijing has made concerted efforts to diminish the  global strength and appeal of the United States. Chinese leaders  have become increasingly active in seizing opportunities to present  the CCP’s one-party, authoritarian governance system and values  as an alternative model to U.S. global leadership. 

▶ China’s approach to competition with the United States is based  on the CCP’s view of the United States as a dangerous ideological  opponent that seeks to constrain its rise and undermine the  legitimacy of its rule. In recent years, the CCP’s perception of the  threat posed by Washington’s championing of liberal democratic  ideals has intensified as the Party has reemphasized the ideological  basis for its rule.  

▶ Beijing views economic competition with the United States in the  context of its broader economic development strategy. Beginning in  2006, the United States, as the global economic and technological  leader, became a target to chase and surpass as the CCP fostered  domestic production and innovation through successive waves of  industrial plans (see Figure 1). 

▶ In China’s most recent industrial policy wave, set by the 2016 Innovation Driven Development Strategy, which includes the Made in China 2025  plan, policymakers have promoted the development of China’s digital  ecosystem and accompanying regulatory architecture. The CCP believes  China faces a rare historic opportunity to establish control over a cluster  of revolutionary, networked technologies, including high-speed internet,  sensors, telecommunications, artificial intelligence, robotics, and smart  city infrastructure. Doing so could allow Beijing to leapfrog the United  States and other powerful competitors and lead in the next generation  of global innovation. 

▶ The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) views the U.S. military as its primary  strategic adversary and has engaged in long-term efforts to close the  wide capability gap with U.S. military power since the mid-1990s. In  2004, the PLA shifted its focus to emphasize leapfrogging the United  States in certain warfighting areas by introducing new concepts the PLA  believed could enable it to defeat a conventionally superior opponent. 

▶ The PLA’s long-term strategy to gain advantage over the U.S. military  includes developing “informationized” capabilities and exploiting  ostensibly civilian information systems, likely including those built  overseas by Chinese companies. The PLA is complementing these  efforts by developing cyberattack, space and counterspace, and  long-range precision-strike capabilities and expanding its capacity  to delay and threaten U.S. military forces at increasing distances  from China’s shores.

Picture: Forbidden City (Pixabay)

This article was provided to the New York Analysis of Policy and Government by Judge John H. Wilson (ret.)

Our modern secular society appears to have little use or respect for religion, and people of religious sentiment.  In fact, as our society becomes less respectful of God, His adherents, no matter the faith, are also treated with increasing contempt. 

The faithful expect attacks to come from the unfaithful.  But when the attacks originate from internal sources, the sense of betrayal is intense.

A recent and glaring example involves the Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism.  In October of this year, the grandchild of the grand rebbe, Zalman Leib Teitelbaum was to be wed in a synagogue in Brooklyn.  As reported by the New York Post, “Teitelbaum leads the Satmar sect in Williamsburg while his brother Aaron…heads the Satmar in the Kiryas Joel enclave in Orange County.” 

The wedding of the child of such an influential rabbi could expect to be well attended – that is, until Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State learned of this event.  In an unprecedented show of authority, “New York state issued an order barring the mass gathering, which would violate coronavirus restrictions…(t)he state limit on wedding receptions in New York City is 50 people.” 

Rather than fight the order – which did provide for a hearing – according to The Forward, “The synagogue where the wedding is set to take place…issued a statement late Saturday announcing that the wedding would be for family members only — but said that had always been the plan…’It’s sad that nobody verified our plans before attacking us,’ the statement says.” Who was it that alerted Governor Cuomo of this event?  Naftuli Moster, the Executive Director of a nonprofit group called Yaffed (which states as its goal the improvement of “secular education in ultra-Orthodox and Hasidic yeshivas”), admits full responsibility.  “I was the sole voice warning, both on social media and via private channels, about this upcoming potential ‘super spreader’ event,” he writes for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.  “(A)fter learning of this unnecessary mass event, in a community that has suffered tremendous loss due to COVID-19, I felt that I had to act. In a gathering of this size, it is almost inevitable that the virus would strike the vulnerable.” 

Yet, Moster admits he had other motivations. “For years I have witnessed government officials cozying up to grand rabbis like Zalman Leib…(w)hen the mayor was asked about the progress of the yeshiva investigation which was dragging on for many years, he often responded that he was ‘working with community leaders’ who supposedly pledged improvements in the schools.  It had always been clear to me that the city is either intentionally or unwittingly being taken for a ride by leaders who in Yiddish often said they had no intention of changing a thing.”

Thus, Moster found a way to attack a powerful rabbi who he felt was unresponsive to his concerns for the secular educational needs of Orthodox Jewish children – by using the guise of concern for the health of the Orthodox Jewish community. 

There is no doubt that New York State and New York City were hit particularly hard by the Chinese coronavirus.  However, according to the most recent data available as of this writing, daily cases in New York City are below 2500, with a death rate of approximately one or two people a day,  in a city with a current population of almost 19 million people.  Though we can all agreed that any death resulting from this virus is tragic, these rates are a far cry from the infection and death rates of earlier this year.

The Report concludes tomorrow.

Photo: Pixabay