Author: Judge John Wilson (ret.)

NY Attorney General Leticia James makes no recommendations regarding whether or not Cuomo should be prosecuted for his activities.  As reported in the New York Post, “she said that her office wouldn’t be bringing a case against Cuomo and instead left it up to local authorities and victims to bring charges or civil claims.  ‘Our work has concluded,’ James said. ‘The document is now public. And the matter is, civil, in nature, and does not have any criminal consequences. It is my understanding.’…(a)n AG spokesman said that the office didn’t bring a case against Cuomo since it has an inherent conflict of interest given that a division of the office is tasked with defending the state — and Cuomo — in numerous legal matters.” 

Yet are these allegations “civil in nature?”  In large part, yes.  Violations of 42 USC Sec 1983 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do not, in general, create criminal liability. 

However, under New York’s Penal Code, the governor’s “grabbing of Executive Assistant #1’s butt” would be the crime of Forcible Touching under Sec. 130.52 of the New York State Penal Law (“a person is guilty of forcible touching when such person intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly touches the sexual or other intimate parts of another person for the purpose of degrading or abusing such person; or for the purpose of gratifying the actor’s sexual desire.  For the purpose of this section, forcible touching includes squeezing, grabbing and pinching.”)    Further, under New York v. Darryl M., the “butt” is considered an intimate part of the body. 

Fortunately for Governor Cuomo, Forcible Touching is a Class A misdemeanor.  For someone of the governor’s stature, most prosecutors would rather pursue a felony charge, such as rape or felony sexual misconduct.  Thus, it would seem most likely that the victims of the latest “Lov Gov” will have to be satisfied with pursuing Cuomo in civil court for money damages.

Will this scandal finally result in Cuomo’s resignation from office?  Probably not.  As noted by CNN, “Cuomo has insisted he did nothing wrong and made no indication in a video response that he will step down.”  This despite calls from even Joe Biden that he resign. 

Why doesn’t Cuomo realize, as Spitzer did, that a scandal like this affects his ability to govern?  Maybe because it doesn’t necessarily have that effect.

As late as July of this year, before the Attorney General’s report was published, “a Siena College poll…found 23% of those surveyed said Cuomo should resign immediately, while 39% said he should serve out his term but not seek re-election. Another 33% said he should stay in office and run for re-election in 2022. Separately, 35% of voters said they were prepared to re-elect Cuomo if he runs, while 56% said they would prefer ‘someone else,’ up slightly from last month, the poll from the Albany-area polling institute found.” 

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Further, as reported by CBS News in March, “Cuomo’s support among Black constituents helps tell the story of how he has survived so far. The Siena poll showed that 59% of Black voters say Cuomo should be reelected while 29% said they prefer someone else. Among White votes, those numbers are reversed.  Black voters also give Cuomo high favorability ratings, while his numbers among white voters are under water: 61% of Black voters view him favorably while just 37% of white voters do. And they give him higher grades than other voters do on whether he can do his job effectively, given the various investigations and on his handling of the pandemic. ‘Communities of color are particularly attuned to and sensitive to issues of due process and not rushing to judgment,’ says a New York Democratic operative. ‘It isn’t necessarily rushing to support him but it’s wait-and-see mode.'” 

Of course, hedging their bet, that same operative also told CBS News that “there is a sense of respect among Black voters for Attorney General Letitia James and her ability to conduct the investigation.”  

Also in March of this year, we examined this investigation when first brought by Attorney General James.  At that time we discussed her motivations in pursing this investigation as a vehicle for her own potential run for governor.  We also noted that James is a full-fledged member of the progressive wing of the Democratic party, while Cuomo is not. 

Perhaps Governor Cuomo believes he is the “devil” voters know, as opposed to James, the “devil” they don’t know.  Perhaps Cuomo believes he is the only viable alternative to the Progressive James.

Whether Cuomo resigns, doesn’t resign, is reelected, or not, one thing is certain – Andrew Cuomo appears to be the only Democratic politician left in New York (and possibly nationwide) who thinks he can still lead after these revelations.

Judge Wilson’s Report Concludes Tomorrow

Photo: NY State Capitol

By now, the news has spread far and wide – another Governor of New York State is embroiled in a sexual scandal.  

It wasn’t that long ago that New York State Governor Elliot Spitzer, the self-described “Steamroller,” and “Sheriff of Wall Street,” resigned his office in disgrace after it was revealed that he’d had sex numerous times with prostitutes.  As described in the New York Post, Spitzer told his close advisor, Lloyd Constantine,  “I have to resign… the Times will report that I have been involved with prostitutes…I can’t continue as governor.”   Constantine added, “We urged him to stay for the good of the people of the state…(b)ut I guess he just didn’t want to be governor anymore.” 

Those events occurred in 2008, 13 years ago.  At that time, Spitzer realized that the public revelations of his actions meant he could no longer govern.  Compare that almost-quaint ethos with recent events.

“’This is a sad day for New York because independent investigators have concluded that Governor Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women and, in doing so, broke the law,’ said (New York State) Attorney General (Letitia) James…(s)tarting in December 2020, multiple women came forward with allegations that Governor (Andrew) Cuomo sexually harassed them. Over the course of the investigation, the investigators interviewed 179 individuals. Those interviewed included complainants, current and former members of the Executive Chamber, State Troopers, additional state employees, and others who interacted regularly with the governor…(b)acked up by corroborating evidence and credible witnesses, the investigators detail multiple current or former New York state employees or women outside state service who were the targets of harassing conduct on the part of the governor.” 

The Report from the New York Attorney General details a series of encounters between the new “Love Gov” and various women.  For instance, “Since approximately late 2019, the Governor engaged in a pattern of inappropriate conduct with…Executive Assistant #1…(t)hat pattern of conduct included: (1) close and intimate hugs; (2) kisses on the cheeks, forehead, and at least one kiss on the lips; (3) touching and grabbing of Executive Assistant #1’s butt during hugs and, on one occasion, while taking selfies with (Cuomo); and (4) comments and jokes by the Governor about Executive Assistant #1’s personal life and relationships, including…inquiring multiple times about whether she had cheated or would cheat on her husband, and asking her to help find him a girlfriend.”

Then there are these allegations: “In early November 2017, the Governor briefly met a New York State Trooper (‘Trooper #1’), a woman, at an event on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge…also known as the Triborough Bridge… Trooper #1 was then hired into the (Protective Service Unit) PSU, despite not meeting the requirement to have at least three years of State Police service to join the PSU… (a)fter Trooper #1 joined the PSU, the Governor sexually harassed her on a number of occasions, including…running his hand across her stomach, from her belly button to her right hip, while she held a door open for him at an event…running his finger down her back, from the top of her neck down her spine to the middle of her back, saying ‘hey, you,’ while she was standing in front of him in an elevator…(and) making sexually suggestive and gender-based comments, including (a) asking her to help him find a girlfriend and describing his criteria for a girlfriend as someone who ‘[c]an handle pain,’” 

Some couple won’t order generic cialis be able to enjoy the climax to its fullest. Having usually in stock purchase viagra on line difficulty keeping awake, not having a normal sex life. Breast Cancer in women is another type of disease that can be occurred by few of general sickness like- hypertension, high blood pressure, disorder of canada pharmacy cialis central brain system etc. Kamagra oral jelly is the new version of the same product and it is available in the viagra online canadian form tablets and different flavored jellys.

According to the Press Release issued by the Office of the New York State Attorney General, “The investigation found that Governor Cuomo’s sexual harassment of multiple women…violated multiple state and federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the New York State Human Rights Law, and 42 U.S. Code § 1983, in addition to the Executive Chamber’s own equal employment policies.” 

Judge Wilson’s (ret.) Report Continues Tomorrow

HONG KONG

In response to Beijing imposing harsh controls over Hong Kong and repressing more freedoms previously guaranteed, the US responded Thursday by announcing Deferred Enforced Departure for Hong Kong residents currently in the United States. It will provide Hong Kongers who are concerned about returning to Hong Kong with temporary safe haven in the United States for a period of up to 18 months.

The State Department Spokesperson, Ned Price, said the “United States stands in solidarity with the people in Hong Kong in the face of cruel repression by the PRC.” The US joins other nations offering similar options to those who fear returning to Hong Kong, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

“It is clear when you look at what is happening that PRC authorities seek to use the tools that they have given themselves… the national security law and other legislation – to make arbitrary arrests, politically motivated prosecutions of opposition candidates and politicians, activists, and peaceful protestors with the goal it seems – or certainly the end result – of creating an atmosphere of fear, of self-censorship, of repression among the general populace,” said Price. 

IRAN

Iran’s new leader, President Raisi, announced that his country will not back down from continuing to develop its nuclear program. Despite Raisi’s statements to the contrary, Price said the US is willing to wait on doing anything to see what direction the Iranian government takes going forward. When questioned about how long Washington is willing to wait, Price would not provide a timeframe, saying “we’re not going to put a timeline on it, but for us, this is an urgent priority, knowing the issues that are at play, and we hope the other – we hope the Iranians treat it with the same degree of urgency. 

Price told reporters Thursday that Iran “… has distanced itself from its nuclear limitations since 2018, the breakout time, according to published reports, is back down to a handful of months. For us, that is not a proposition that can last indefinitely, and it is also not a proposition that can last indefinitely when, as these nuclear constraints aren’t applied, Iran’s advancements continue day by day.”

GUATEMALA

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The US views the suspension last week of Guatemala’s special prosecutor for corruption as a move in the wrong direction. “Attorney General Consuela Porras’ sudden appointment of Rafael Curruchiche to lead FECI does not add confidence in the body’s ability to independently investigate and prosecute corruption cases. Our position remains that it is essential for FECI – that it is essential FECI is able to function, and its prosecutors and analysts are empowered to continue to investigate cases to maintain the fight against corruption in Guatemala,” according to Price. 

ETHIOPIA

The State Department announced a “substantial increase” in the amount of aid it provides to Ethiopia. “We have been very clear that we are supporting, and we are standing with the people of Ethiopia… we are doing all that we can to support the people of Tigray who have suffered tremendously from this conflict. We’re doing that in a number of ways: through the provision of aid, our calls for expanded humanitarian access – but on a political and diplomatic level – to bring the parties together, the Ethiopian Government and the TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front], to arrive at a negotiated ceasefire, just as we call an all of the armed actors in this conflict to halt the violence, to cease some of these atrocious attacks that, in some cases, reportedly have resulted in very grim civilian deaths. We are working urgently on this.” 

UKRAINE

Secretary Antony J. Blinken met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Washington this week to discuss Russian escalations along the Ukrainian- Russian border and in the occupied territories of Ukraine over the last few months. Prior to their meeting Blinken said that the US is “…very much committed to Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty, its territorial integrity.  We’ll talk about challenges to each of those and the work that we’re doing together to stand for a strong Ukraine that can defend itself against external aggression but also pursue the vitally important process of reform to strengthen even more its democracy and its economy.”  

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

What isn’t China up to these days warrants a shorter response than one which simply lists China’s overseas political, military, and commercial exploits. With the recent conclusion of the CCP’s latest 五年计划 (Wǔnián Jìhuà), or Five-Year Plan, and the celebrations surrounding the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the CCP in July, Beijing reaffirmed its commitment to aggressive adventurism for the foreseeable future. Its policy threatens the stability of the international rules-based system and portends a period of exacerbated conflict on multiple fronts across the world.

The unanswered question on military planners’ minds this summer is not if, but what will Beijing do, where will it do it, and when it will occur. China’s military might now exceeds that of its verbose political rhetoric of the early 2000’s. President Xi Jinping effectively used this two-decade period to take advantage of a so-called “window of opportunity” of Western largess. The doors to advanced Western military and commercial technologies were unlocked and swung wide open after China received permanent Most Favored Nation (MFN) status from the Clinton Administration. China marched through them and openly copied, stole, or reverse engineered what it needed from the West. The communist giant was able to skip three-to-four generations of technical development time and cost.

China’s military, according to senior American defense experts, is on par with that of the United States in many areas and, in some, exceeds US capabilities. Senior leaders at the Pentagon now openly admit that if the US were to go to war with China today it might not win. Forty years ago, that concept was unimaginable. China could not feed its own population during the 1980’s. It was forced to import grain to avoid widespread starvation. Fifty percent of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) was grounded at any given time due to a lack of trained pilots and spare parts. Its navy lacked over-the-horizon radar relegating ships to coastal “brown” waters close to the mainland. Computer chip production facilities a few decades ago contained dust bunnies the size of baseballs and had high failure rate and the country still was manufacturing black and white TV’s. The picture has changed. In 2021, China’s presence is felt in space, on the high seas, and in the corporate board rooms of major corporations. It controls the global market in Rare Earth Elements (REE’s) needed to build everything from military guidance systems to cell phones and hospital equipment. 

China today is more politically and economically involved in the Arctic region than in the past, according to “Exploring Gaps in Arctic Governance: Identifying Sources of Conflict and Mitigating Measures,” a major RAND report released this week. The region is emerging as strategically important due to investment in the critical energy, transportation, fishing, and communications sectors. “The sheer scale of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the country’s global ambitions more generally increasingly fuel Arctic states’ concerns over China’s longer-term ambitions in the region,” according to the RAND report.

Over the last couple of years, China has fortified man-made islands in the South China Sea and installed military weapons systems capable of sinking ships. It is continuing to build specialized runways that can handle military aircraft and dredge ports for its military ships. Chinese naval vessels not only patrol vast stretches of water reaching past the “first chain” of islands, but also those well into international blue water. China has intensified its harassment of foreign ships traveling in the South China Sea and invaded the territorial waters of countries across the region. Its PLAAF jets fly dangerous close to those of other nations flying in international air space.

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Commercially, China’s predatory lending practices in the developing world have led to foreclosures on major infrastructure projects and bankruptcies. Typically, these projects have some level of national security significance for Beijing. In Sri Lanka, for example, Chinese foreclosure of one port project will provide it the potential of basing rights for its submarines if/when China takes over the port. In 2014, China sent a submarine to Sri Lanka but didn’t obtain basing rights. If it takes over the port, it will use it to monitor the US naval base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and patrol and monitor international shipping lanes there. 

China is weaponizing the Himalayas with massive dam projects that can control the flow of water for almost the entire Indian subcontinent. Release too much and the cities downstream are flooded. Release too little and the populations suffer from drought. China released Covid on the world – intentionally at first or not. It has not cooperated with scientists investigating the virus. Beijing is weaponizing space with lasers that can take out communications satellites and, perhaps, do other damage. Hong Kong is gone. Taiwan is threatened. China is courting dangerous partners, including Russia and Iran. The list is long and varied and covers the globe.

What the West, and Washington in particular, needs to ascertain is what injury China’s leadership is willing and capable of inflicting on the non-communist world, according its own moral code of behavior. We can no longer afford to assume falsely that China will behave by western standards of human decency and rationality or comport themselves according to the values expressed in the UN’s Universal  Declaration of Human Rights.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.

Illustration: Pixabay

As great power rivalry among Russia, China, and the United States heats up it is important not to overlook Russian intra-regional competition along that country’s border areas in the Central Asian states. New trade routes, including rail, road, and air are being developed by Russia in was once part of its internal transport infrastructure. Today the smaller nation-states in the region are intensifying competition among themselves to gain benefits from Russia, China, Turkey, Iran and the other major powers now active in the area. According to Paul Goble, of the Jamestown Foundation, Russia controlled much of the region until 1991. It built the rail system to benefit Moscow’s needs. With the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan almost complete, the regional situation is exposing differences among the Central Asian crossroads states and raising the potential risk level for conflict in the area. 

Not all the Central Asian states are benefitting equally from renewed interest. The result is that each state is competing with the others for largess from Russia and the other major powers investing in regional infrastructure projects. There are new rail and shipping lines near the Caspian Sea in places such as Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and in the port of Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s Republic of Dagestan. The names may not be familiar, but they are significant in that Iran and others are competing with Russia for influence in these littoral states. Four years ago, Goble wrote that “In Soviet times, Moscow and Tehran divided the Caspian into two unequal zones, a division that even then had important implications because of the oil and natural gas reserves discovered on the seafloor as well as due to the rising trade between the Soviet Union and Iran. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the number of littoral states increased from two to five: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan thus become involved in talks about delimitation and trade on the Caspian alongside the Russian Federation and Iran.” It raises the specter of regional economic conflict morphing into a major military confrontation in the future.

For 23 years, ending in May 2020 due to the COVID pandemic, Russian transshipment of goods rose annually in all the Federation’s seaports except for the Caspian region, where the volume decreased by 12.2%.  A TASS interview with Vadim Yakovenko, head of the Russian Federal Property Management Agency, said that Makhachkala Commercial Sea Port is the only non-freezing and deep-water port of Russia in the Caspian Sea, which accepts ships up to 150 meters in length. To improve the level of Russia’s cargo transshipment there, Moscow is developing new routes in an attempt to increase its level of trade while also constraining expansion by other states. Russia and China, according to Goble, are working together to press for a region-wide approach to ensure they benefit most in the wake of recent Taliban victories in Afghanistan.

Infrastructure projects once posited as unifying are now intensifying competition among the Central Asian states and between the major powers. Russia is working hard to maintain its dominance in the region. It is building railways that connect to and support its maritime commerce. The now sovereign railways, second only in importance to maritime infrastructure, often suffered from lack of local funding for maintenance and improvements in the past. Russia is attempting to fix the funding issue. According to the World Bank, the level of transport connectivity in Central Asia makes it one of the least connected areas of the world. Russia intends to boost its regional influence by improving the transportation sector and is willing to do so at the expense of other states.

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According to the publication, Eurasian Integration, “Each of the Central Asian states has adopted transport development strategies that are linked with international projects of trans-Eurasian transport corridors, including those within the EAEU, SCO, the Chinese One Belt – One Road project and the North-South corridor… the problems of connectivity of communications, coverage of territories, the degree of coverage by the railway network, access to the largest international markets remain significant.” 

Last year the volume of freight rail traffic from China to Europe increased by 50%, which is seven times that from 2016. According to a December 2021 article by  Fyodor Koloskov in Eurasian Integration, P. Sevostyanov, a State Advisor of the Russian Federation, said “the transportation of goods by the new railway will reduce transport costs between Russia and Pakistan by 17-20%, and between the countries of Central Asia and Pakistan by 35%.” Those numbers are too good for Russia or China to step aside and allow the smaller countries in the region to develop their own transportation hubs more suited to their needs.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Thursday, she presents key updates on China.

Illustration: Russian rail car (Pixabay)

Taking a wide look at what America has descended into, particularly since the last election, reveals a deeply disturbing picture.

Journalistic outlets, whether in print, online, or through television are designed to examine just one topic at a time.  That fails to provide an overall picture of how radically America has changed, a movement that began to gain steam following Barack Obama’s pledge to “Fundamentally Transform” the nation and accelerated since Biden’s inauguration.

Consider:

Democrat-run cities have experienced a massive surge in violent crime, a result of policies such as letting violent offenders out of jail early, not allowing bail for violent criminal defendants, defunding and hampering police forces, and ignoring the offenses of protestors who burn and loot.

Inflation has risen to 5.4%, the highest in 13 years.

Government giveaways are discouraging workers from returning to their jobs, threatening the existence of small businesses throughout the United States. The Labor Force Participation Rate has plummeted.

Our educational system has been taken over by those who disparage and seek to eliminate much of western culture.  One example: Virginia’s Loudoun County’s teacher training material supports “discouraging heterosexualism and parental authority over their own children.” Blatant falsehoods about U.S. History are being taught.

The U.S. military, faced with its greatest challenge since the British burned the White House in the war of 1812, has had its buying power reduced by the Biden Administration. However, military funds are being used for transgender surgery and drag shows on an Air Force base. The formally dominant U.S. Navy is now smaller and less modern than China’s. Russia’s nuclear deterrent is now larger.

The Arctic is now dominated by Russia, with vast military bases and 42 icebreaker vessels. (The U.S. has only one.)

A prominent lawyer has had his law license suspended for his statements while representing someone the current President doesn’t like.

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Individuals and organizations that don’t kowtow to Progressive Democrats are widely censored. It’s about to get worse. The Biden Department of Justice is encouraging private companies to spy on the private texts of their customers.  In addition, individuals are encouraged to spy on family members. Senate Leader Charles Schumer had previously introduced legislation specifically designed to limit the application of the First Amendment.

Prominent Democrats are reluctant to criticize the despicable acts of Communist tyrants in Cuba and Venezuela.

The White House refuses to acknowledge their destruction of the southern border and reverse their policies that caused the dilemma.

There has been no substantive response to the repeated cyberattacks on American infrastructure and commercial activity.

The abortion debate has changed substantially, from whether the procedure is legitimate in the early stages of pregnancy to a growing acceptance of infanticide, the killing of fully viable infants.

Law enforcement has become increasingly selective.  Prominent leftist figures have escaped prosecution or even, in some cases, investigation for wrongdoing.  The Durham report has all but vanished.  There are no signs of examining the influence peddling the Chinese have engaged in with the Biden family. In the nation’s largest city, New York, $850 million given to Mayor de Blasio’s wife for a program designed to assist the mentally ill has vanished. No investigation has been conducted.

Outright racism is being perpetrated in many quarters.  The Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, refuses to be interviewed by white journalists.  A proposed federal agricultural program is specifically designed to provide funds based on skin color, in order to exclude white farmers.

Attacks on religion by government authorities have become commonplace, including attempts to exclude religious institutions from government contracts and demands by one mayor to “review” the sermons pastors plan to give. Anti-Semitism has become commonplace.  One state’s Attorney General has openly affiliated with Louis Farrakhan. Several members of Congress continuously spout anti-Jewish rhetoric.

These trends, individually and collectively, indicate a nation in deep distress, and drastically imperil the Constitutional paradigm that had made America the greatest nation on Earth.

Illustration: Pixabay

“Whose side are you on?” sounds like a schoolyard challenge. Increasingly, however, it’s a valid question Americans have been asking about the nation’s political, cultural and educational elites.

The unease is unlike the usual controversies arising from differences in opinion about specific issues. The leadership in Washington, Hollywood, and university campuses are overtly eager to repudiate much of the founding principles upon which the U.S. was originated, and to intentionally miscast the past history and current character of the country.

Much of the citizenry sees the nation in a realistic light. They know that, against all odds, its founders established a nation that provided more freedom, prosperity, and opportunity than anything that ever existed before. The citizenry also acknowledges that being human, the founders had flaws, which were endemic to the times in which they lived. Since the dawn of recorded history, the horrors of slavery, inequality in the treatment of women, and other wrongdoings were not just prevalent but universal. America moved to attack these vices, and for the most part succeeded, despite the propaganda of those who see political profit in race baiting and similar misdeeds.

Diminishing a successful constitutional form of government that has endured wars and depressions and continues to champion the rights of the individual is not easy, so Progressives have adopted a divide and conquer strategy. They pit blacks against white, women against men, young against the old. They Cast aspersions on the institutions of protection, such as the police and the military. They weaken the structure of the Supreme Court and subject it to political threats. They assault religion and ensure its absence from the public square.

Even propagating falsehoods about the past and emphasizing every prior flaw while hiding every accomplishment is not likely to succeed in an environment of economic satisfaction. The prior four years produced more jobs for minorities than any other period in recent memory, and more economic benefits for the middle class and poor. Crucially, energy independence was achieved. Therefore, the Progressive goal of conquest by division was truly threatened, and the 45^th President came under relentless attack, which eventually proved successful in preventing his re-election.

Since the onset of the current Administration, the historically successful capitalist economy has been under attack, with numerous vast proposals to institute a government-centered milieu based on deficit spending.  The reality that these proposals have clearly led to financial ruin and political repression in numerous, and just about all, examples whenever enacted anywhere throughout the globe is largely ignored by key influencers.

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The brilliance of an independent judiciary in preventing a loss of freedom and the maintenance of integrity in government does not fit in well with Progressive plans, so the concept of stacking the Supreme Court with partisan judges has become a leftist battle cry.

The demonstrable past success over the past of rights-based, limited government and capitalist economics is inconvenient, as are the facts about powerful, centralized authority’s threat to personal rights. Therefore, discussion must be censored. At one time, freedom of speech was cherished by almost all. Currently, it is suppressed online and on campus.  

Propaganda in education is not restricted to colleges. It is prevalent as early as the initial years of grammar school, where indoctrination into progressive ideology increases at the expense of basic subjects, even as American students fall behind their global peers.

For Progressives, the institution of a new political paradigm takes precedence over all else. The White House’s budget will include trillions for social welfare programs designed to buy votes, some thinly disguised as “human infrastructure,” but nothing additional for crucial items such as defense even as Russia and China prepare for military adventures on two continents.  Raising taxes takes precedence over creating jobs and increased prosperity.

Constitutionalism or arbitrary government? Whose side are they on?

Illustration: Pixabay

Two vital studies, one to update America’s National Defense Strategy and the other to review the nation’s nuclear defenses, will soon be completed.

The two analyses come at a time when the U.S. faces unprecedented threat levels from China and Russia.  These dangers are significantly different than anything faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and require entirely different approaches.

For about three decades, the Pentagon was significantly superior in technology and raw power than its opponents. That era has come to a dramatic end. It now faces China, which has a larger navy than the U.S., and a Russia with a superior nuclear arsenal.

The new National Defense Strategy is expected to be completed early next year. When delivered, it will provide a new set of goals and priorities for America’s defense, according to Colin H. Kahl, the undersecretary of defense for policy.  He Notes that the documents will spell out, among other things, priorities for modernizing the U.S. nuclear triad and ensure that the United States has the right capabilities matched with the national nuclear strategy. The review will also examine how the United States can take steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy while ensuring the strategic deterrent remains safe, secure and effective and that the extended deterrence commitments to its allies remain strong and credible. 

That may be a vain hope.  Vladimir Putin has emphasized increased use of small, “battlefield” nuclear weapons. China is expected to potentially quadruple its nuclear weapons within this decade.

Budgetary decisions will have to be made that recognize the dramatically heightened threats. While America’s adversaries have invested heavily in both conventional and nuclear weaponry, the Pentagon faces reduced funding, when accounting for inflation, at a time when it must replace aging strategic forces and conventional weaponry that has been depleted and overused in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Especially important to the FY 2023 budget will be decisions Washingrton must make about modernizing and replacing the aging systems of the nuclear triad, which includes ground-launched, submarine-launched and air-launched nuclear weapons. Modernization also involves new submarines, such as the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines; new intercontinental ballistic missiles as part of the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent program; and new bomber aircraft, such as the B-21 Raider.

“I do think we need to have a modernized triad as a hedge against an uncertain technological future, but one where we expect our adversaries to be quite competitive and building up their own capabilities,” Kahl said, adding that, in addition to triad modernization, related nuclear command and control systems must also be upgraded.

While Kahl said he can’t predict exactly how the NPR will look when it’s complete, he did say the U.S. remains committed to its nuclear deterrent and its extended deterrence commitments.

“I don’t know exactly where we’re going to land on numbers on all of this, but what I can guarantee you is that we are committed to having a safe, secure and reliable deterrent, and one that is credible — not just to our adversaries, but to our allies, over which we have extended our deterrence commitments,” he said.

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The U.S. nuclear deterrent is expected to protect the U.S. and its allies in a rapidly-changing nuclear environment, Kahl said.

“As we look at the strategic environment … I think we see a couple of things,” Kahl said. “First, obviously, I think it’s widely recognized that we’re in a period of accelerating great power competition. But it’s more than that. We’re also increasingly in a multipolar nuclear world.”

Russia, he said, continues to develop new kinds of nuclear weapons and also continues to expand its arsenal of non-strategic nuclear weapons — typically smaller, lower-yield “tactical”-style nuclear weapons designed to attack troops or facilities, rather than entire nations.

“We also see that … the role that nuclear weapons play in Russia’s doctrine is quite elevated in the sense that, I think, Russia sees much higher utility for nuclear weapons than any other state,” he said.

Nearby, China wants to grow its own nuclear arsenal both in numbers and technological capacity, he said.

“… they’re …developing new kinds of nuclear weapons…”

Kahl said anxiety among America’s traditional allies has been high.

Photo: An aging B-52 (DoD)

CHINA

“The United States is deeply concerned with the increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of US and other foreign journalists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including foreign journalists covering the devastation and loss of life caused by recent floods in Henan,” according to a written statement from Ned Price, State Department Spokesperson. The confrontational actions of the Chinese government and its harsh rhetoric toward any news it perceives to be critical of PRC policies, has provoked negative public sentiment leading to tense, in-person confrontations and harassment, including online verbal abuse and death threats of journalists simply doing their jobs, he added. The increasingly intolerant policies enacted toward foreign journalists who are increasingly refused visas to enter or remain in the PRC severely limits the quantity and quality of independent reporting. It does not bode well for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.  

AFGHANISTAN

In response to criticism over the handling of securing the safety of Afghan interpreters who assisted the US during the war, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that at the State Department, “we’ve activated an Afghanistan Coordination Task Force that is working on this… [and] coordinating our efforts to take SIV applicants out of harm’s way and, if qualified, bring them to the United States once their vetting is complete… We put significant resources into this effort.  We are talking to a number of countries about the possibility of temporarily relocating these applicants as the process is complete.  It takes some time to work through the process.  The first group of interpreters arrived at Fort Lee near Richmond, Virginia earlier in the week. They are expected to be shipped out around the country within the next seven days, according to a US Army spokesperson at Fort Lee.

RUSSIA

The Russian government announced that beginning in August it has decided to curb interactions with the US Embassy in Moscow by refusing to allow the US to retain or hire locally employed staff and contractors. Mission Russia for decades has engaged local individuals to assist with consular and other operations in country. The announcement means that the US Government must let 182 local employees go at diplomatic facilities in Moscow, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg. The only locals allowed to remain are those physically guarding US facilities. “These unfortunate measures will severely impact the US mission to Russia’s operations, potentially including the safety of our personnel as well as our ability to engage in diplomacy with the Russian government,” according to Secretary of State Blinken.

IRAN

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The Secretary of State said Thursday that “we are determined that Iran not acquire a nuclear weapon.”  Whether Iran comes back into compliance with the JCPOA nuclear agreement depends on Iran making the decision to do so, according to Blinken. He stated that Iran has not yet made that decision. Blinken suggested that Iran is continuing to advance its nuclear program in “very dangerous ways, and at some point those advances will be such that returning to compliance with the nuclear agreement won’t solve the problem.”

Protests that started outside of Tehran in recent days have entered the capital city. Blinken said that, at first, they were about people’s deep frustration with the failure of government to meet their basic needs, including water, mismanagement of the economy.  Now, he says, “we’ve seen them move to people expressing their larger aspirations for freedom and for a government that respects them and respects their rights.”  He urged the Iranian government not to use violence and repression to silence those voices.

SOMALIA

The US is providing nearly $199 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Somalia who have faced decades of chronic food insecurity, violence, and cycles of drought and flooding—the impacts of which have all been compounded by desert locusts and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the State Department. This additional funding, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department, brings the total humanitarian assistance to more than $408 million for Fiscal Year 2021. The money is intended to assist the nearly six million Somalians in need of humanitarian aid, including three million displaced people inside Somalia as well as nearly 500,000 Somali refugees in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

Four years ago, the US Army told Congress that to address emerging threats to our national security it needed to evolve new advanced methods and weaponry that could outpace the speed of any persistent great power competitor. The Pentagon also announced it needed the ability to operate in a multi-domain [air, land, water, space, cyber, information] environment. The Multi-Domain Task Force (MDTF) concept, the Army decided in 2017, would require complete integration across the joint forces and entail new operational concepts, technologies, weapons, and units to win a war with China. Pentagon estimates are that China will be on par with the US militarily by 2040 – the latest. It appears that China will meet its projected deadline sooner than expected. Next month the US Army is activating its first overseas MDTF in Europe. Time may not be on the United States’ side when it comes to a potential war in the Indo-Pacific region if Beijing continues to intensify its efforts.

A US Army White paper, released in an unclassified version earlier this spring reported that “By 2040, China and Russia will have weaponized all instruments of national power to undermine the collective wills of the United States, Allies and partners, while simultaneously cultivating their own security partnerships. This will lead to an unstructured international environment where the line between conflict and peace is blurred,” the white paper added. “As China and Russia continue to modernize their militaries, the Joint Force will find it increasingly difficult to deter their illicit and aggressive actions.”

Beijing is not sitting idle while Washington develops new MDTF’s or other military advances to counter China’s long-term, global ambitions. Satellite imagery recently released indicates that China is building not one, but a network of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silo fields in the western regions of the country. Each site is located beyond the reach of conventional missile capabilities. A foreign response would encompass a high cost to the US or any nation countering Chinese aggression. The first site discovered in February indicates there are well over 100 silos under construction near Yuman, in Gansu province. Each individual silo is spaced less than two miles apart from the next. The dome-covered field is a large and impressive site with support facilities built around it.

The more recent discovery by the American Federation of Scientists (FAS) identified a second location near Hami city in northwest China, which is about 240 miles from the Yuman ICBM location. Estimates are that silo work there began in March. “Since then, however, the telltale dome-like shelters, that analysts have identified as being associated with the building of silos, have appeared over at least 14 individual sites at Hami, with preparations noted at 19 others,” according to Thomas Newdick, writing in The Drive. In total over 250 new silos have been identified as completed or under construction. China also operates 100 road mobile ICBM launch units. The FAS estimates that China has 350 nuclear warheads. The US military estimates that the actual number of operational units is closer to the low 200’s. If China fills the new silos with ICBM’s, the potential is for a total over 515 operational warheads under the command of the Chinese government. It could represent the greatest threat ever faced by the United States.

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The Chinese site plan may require Washington to play an ICBM-enhanced version of the “Whack-A-Mole” game in response to an attack if the silos are partially filled with operational missiles. That type of contest creates a targeting nightmare for any adversary. The United States must develop plans now to address all contingencies and not simply hope that it chooses the correct target in response to an attack on the US or one of its allies. The MDFT concept for future warfare is a move in the right direction but more needs to be done to hold China accountable. Washington cannot overlook that President Xi Jinping intends his legacy to be to that he restored China to global greatness while forcing the West to cower to his demands. A Chinese nuclear first strike capability, and the ability to survive it, is a prestigious position for Xi to occupy when it comes to hard power prowess. 

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government.  Each Friday, she presents key updates on China.

Photo: China Defence Ministry