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MAY 27, 2022

LET US NOT FORGET WHAT OUR ENEMIES ARE PLANNING – OVERNIGHT:  We have had news overload recently.  It is virtually impossible for the average reader or viewer to process the flood of information, and misinformation, that has come our way, and there is a tendency to forget that, outside the headlines, there are people doing very serious things that can have very serious consequences here at home.  From Reuters:   

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on two Russian banks, a North Korean company and a person it accused of supporting North Korea's weapons of mass destruction program, increasing pressure on Pyongyang over its renewed ballistic missile launches.

The latest American move came a day after China and Russia vetoed a US-led push to impose more United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the UN Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006.

The vetoes came despite what the United States says was a sixth test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by North Korea this year and signs that Pyongyang is preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.

The US Treasury Department in a statement said it targeted Air Koryo Trading Corp as well as Russian financial institutions the Far Eastern Bank and Bank Sputnik for contributing to procurement and revenue generation for North Korean organizations.

Washington also designated Jong Yong Nam, a Belarus-based representative of an organization subordinate to the North Korea Second Academy of Natural Sciences (SANS), who Washington said has supported North Korean organizations linked to the development of ballistic missiles.

North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"The United States will continue to implement and enforce existing sanctions while urging the DPRK (North Korea) to return to a diplomatic path and abandon its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles," the Treasury's Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Brian Nelson, said in the statement.

China has been urging the United States to take action - including lifting some unilateral sanctions - to entice Pyongyang to resume talks stalled since 2019, after three failed summits between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and then-US President Donald Trump. The United States has said Pyongyang should not be rewarded.

COMMENT:  As the Russian invasion of Ukraine showed us, a decision by one man in a foreign capital can upend our plans and our priorities.  Today it is land war in Europe, something many believed could never happen again.  Tomorrow it could be a North Korean move against South Korea or Japan.  Or it could be a Chinese attempt to take Taiwan, which is the likeliest scenario. 

Some American administrations come to office hoping to avoid foreign threats so as to enact their domestic agendas.  Then there comes the morning surprise, and a new and frightening world.

May 27, 2022       Permalink 

MAY 26, 2022

THE WISH OF SOME PEOPLE TO DESTROY EVERYTHING – OVERNIGHT:  It didn't take long for the horror of the Texas massacre to turn into the familiar exploitation of the tragedy by politicians, TV personalities, and journalists.   It takes about 48 hours for jerks to become jerks again. 

Even Congress refused to behave itself and show some reverence.   Someone looked at his watch and decided it was time to get petty once more, and to vote the way the party expected you to vote.  From Fox:

Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son was killed during the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, said he’s heartbroken after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blocked a school safety bill named after his son Wednesday.

After the horrific mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., asked for the Luke and Alex School Safety Act to be passed by unanimous consent. Schumer objected to Johnson’s request, claiming on Twitter that the bill "could see more guns in schools."

The bill, named after Alex Schachter and Luke Hoyer, another Parkland, Florida, shooting victim, would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish a "Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Best Practices" for use by state and local educational and law-enforcement agencies, institutions of higher education, health professionals, and the public. And it would require DHS to "collect clearinghouse data analytics, user feedback on the implementation of best practices and recommendations identified by the clearinghouse, and any evaluations conducted on these best practices and recommendations."

The clearinghouse, which is already available at SchoolSafety.gov, would be codified into law with the bill’s passage.

Multiple Republicans, including Johnson, have accused Schumer of lying about the contents of bill.

Schachter, whose son was one of 17 people murdered more than four years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said Schumer’s tweet is "completely false."

"How does a website put guns in schools? It's ridiculous," Schachter told Fox News Digital in an interview. "It has nothing to do with guns. It's just a website of best practices. It doesn't mandate anything."

"I thought that after 19 children and two teachers were just murdered in Uvalde, Texas, partisan politics will be put aside and that families might at least have some positive news out of Congress from their elected leaders," he said. "I was naive to think that a horrible mass shooting would make people do the right thing. And unfortunately, you know, he didn't. He blocked it."

"It’s heartbreaking," he added.

In his tweet, Schumer said "real solutions" are needed after the Uvalde shooting, citing the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, which passed the House last week after the Buffalo mass shooting that killed 10 people.

On the Senate floor Wednesday, Schumer said the school safety bill could be considered if Republicans agreed to debate on the domestic terrorism bill. A vote on the domestic terrorism bill failed along party lines Thursday, with all Republicans voting against.
Schachter accused Schumer of holding the school safety bill "hostage" so he could use it as "leverage" on the domestic terrorism bill.

"Everybody and their brother would have told you that the GOP was going to block it, which they did today. And so now where are we?" Schachter said.

COMMENT:  Welcome to the real world.  Once again we see confirmation of the old, cynical idea that kids just don't mean much in politics.  Kids, you know, don't vote and they don't write checks.

Common sense tells us that hardening schools, building their defenses so no active shooter can get near a student, would be a worthwhile strategy.  Right now we protect shopping malls better than we protect children.  But hardening schools doesn't fit the Democratic Party narrative that only guns are at fault.  Nobody, apparently, actually fires them. 

Somewhere, another shooter is planning.  And he's likely to attack the most undefended school he can find.

May 26, 2022     Permalink