MILITARY.COM - Japan's Aircraft Carrier

"With a Wink and a Nod, Japan Has an Aircraft Carrier Again" by Konstantin Toropin, Military.com 11/27/2021

When Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro returned from his trip to Japan, he fired off a tweet that touted his tour of that country's "Aircraft Carrier Izumo."  It was a short comment that recognized an important new naval reality for the longtime ally.

Japan's pacifist constitution meant its naval forces have relied on ships carrying helicopters for self-defense, not fighter jets -- and it avoided using the term aircraft carrier -- since the end of World War II.

Del Toro, whether intentionally or not, gave a public U.S. acknowledgment of a historic shift by Tokyo toward its past as a carrier power.  Late in 2018, the Japanese announced plans to refit two helicopter carriers including the Izumo for U.S.-built F-35B Lightning II fighters, part of an increasingly urgent effort to counter growing Chinese sea power.

A Navy spokesman said, "The tweet does not signal a change in how the U.S. officially recognizes the ship."

Japan has a self-defense force, what most outsiders would recognize as a military, but its constitution proclaims that "land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained," meaning that it has historically avoided any military action or buildup considered offensive.

"Governments have argued that Japan has the right to maintain capabilities and use the 'minimum necessary level of self-defense,'" explained Jeffrey Hornung, a scholar on Japan at Rand Corp.  "Historically, anything that exceeds that is considered war potential, and therefore it violates the [Japanese] Constitution."

Traditionally, there were four things that undisputedly fell into that category, Hornung explained: intercontinental and intermediate-range ballistic missiles, long-range bombers, and aircraft carriers.

However, in recent years, Tokyo has increasingly debated more robust military capabilities, such as the fixed-wing aircraft carriers, as fears over the rise of China grow.

The Izumo is a helicopter destroyer that at 27,000 tons fully-loaded is larger than Italy's aircraft carrier, the Garibaldi.

The ship is small compared to the U.S. Navy's 90,000-ton Nimitz-class carriers or even China's 58,000-ton Liaoning carrier.  But it is the largest Japan has put to sea since World War II.

Hornung said China's growing power in the region and its recent moves around the disputed Senkaku Islands are a major factor in the drive to refit the Izumo and her sister ship, the Kaga, to effectively function as small aircraft carriers.

"They want to be able to have that capability [to launch planes] at sea, because there's an expectation that the runways will be destroyed within the first launch," Hornung said.

The move gives another platform for a U.S. ally to fly the most advanced fighter jet in the world.

On Oct. 3, a pair of Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter jets successfully did a takeoff and landing off the Izumo's deck.  The Marine Corps released a statement announcing the accomplishment, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force publicly released a video.

This exercise was the first time fighters had flown from a Japanese carrier since World War II.

The decision to refit the Izumo prompted Chinese state-run media to attack Japan's wartime past.

"Japan must not forget its infamous history of invading countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region during the WWII, as making an aggressive move like this may drive the country to repeat its militaristic history," a 2018 Global Times article said.

TALIBAN - The Clueless Do Not Know How to Govern Afghanistan

"Taliban face growing problems running Afghanistan as talks begin with the U.S." PBS NewsHour 10/10/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  U.S. and Taliban representatives met in Doha, Qatar, this weekend for the first direct talks since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.  The talks will reportedly focus on terrorism, evacuations and a growing humanitarian crisis as winter approaches.  Wall Street Journal reporter Saeed Shah joins from Kabul.

CLEVELAND - Research On the Run

"Research on the run: How a Cleveland city planner is mapping his city" PBS NewsHour 10/10/2021

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SUMMARY:  Phil Kidd moved to Cleveland two years ago to work as a city planner.  In the midst of the pandemic, he decided to start an ambitious project to better understand his adopted city.  Kidd has started a project to run all 3,000 street miles in Cleveland, and he researches, and writes about each run on his blog, "Every Street Cleveland."  Special Correspondent Karla Murthy reports from Cleveland.

IRAQI POLITICS - 2021 Elections

Hay, Iraq has gerrymandering too.

"Iraqi protesters allege election corruption, vow to boycott polls" PBS NewsHour 10/9/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Iraq’s elections will be held on Sunday, but members of the country’s protest movement are already planning on boycotting the event.  They say that the election process is corrupt, with paramilitary wings of incumbent parties attacking opposition supporters.  With low turnout, the Shi’ite Cleric Moqtada Al Sadr’s party is expected to win a large share of seats and possibly control of the government.  Special Correspondent Simona Foltyn reports.

RACE IN AMERICA - Talking With Kids

"How to talk to kids about race and racism" PBS NewsHour 10/9/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As schools across the nation resumed in-person classes, teachers and students faced increased pressure from local school boards and organizations over how to teach and talk about race in the classroom.  Dana Crawford, a pediatric and clinical psychologist in New York who has developed approaches to reducing bias, prejudice, and racism, joins to share tips on how to talk to kids about race.

Diana Crawford:  ...racism is a socially transmitted disease.

OPINION - Brooks and Tumulty 10/8/2021

"Brooks and Tumulty on debt, social spending, Jan. 6 investigation, Supreme Court" PBS NewsHour 10/8/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including debt ceiling negotiations in Congress, debate over President Joe Biden’s social spending bills, new revelations about former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and what's expected from the Supreme Court this term.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  It has been a whirlwind of a week here in Washington, with the U.S. Supreme Court kicking off its October session, a new report on election interference being issued by the Senate, and a temporary deal reached on the federal debt ceiling.

To help us make sense of it all, we are joined by Brooks and Tumulty.  That is New York Times columnist David Brooks and Karen Tumulty, columnist for The Washington Post.

Very good to have you both with us.  Jonathan Capehart is away tonight.  Happy to see you both on this Friday night.

But let's talk first, David, about what they have done in the Congress, in the Senate.  They have kicked the can down the road.  Enough Republicans gave the Democrats the votes they needed to go ahead and move the debt ceiling decision to December.  Is it going to be any easier then?

David Brooks, New York Times:  No.

And this is what happens when politicians play hand grenade with the nation's solvency.  But it's as if the political campaign is running all year around now or all lifelong, because it's all about positioning for the next election.

So, the Republicans would love to see the Democrats on a straight party-line basis expand the debt ceiling, and then they could blame them for all the spending.  And Mitch McConnell was sort of backing them up to do it.  And then he sort of blinked.

And I think there are two main reasons he blinked.  One, there was some threat that the Democrats were so panicked by this they were going to change the filibuster, which the Republicans desperately do not want them to do.  [Two] There was some possibility they were just trying to ease some pressure on Joe Manchin, look after their buddy Joe Manchin, who is taking a lot of heat from more progressive Democrats, and then some possibility that Schumer didn't have 50 votes to raise the debt ceiling, in which case we would have gone into insolvency.

So we're going to go through all this again in December.

Judy Woodruff:  It — is December going to be different?

Karen Tumulty, Washington Post:  December is going to be different because they will also, in that same little window, have to vote on the continuing resolution.  This is the bill that keeps the government operating.

So we may have within a few days of each other these two difficult votes, one to keep spending and the other to keep borrowing.

Judy Woodruff:  And, Karen, what about — I mean, David mentioned this, that some people are saying, including former President Trump, saying Mitch McConnell folded.

What happened here?

Karen Tumulty:  I all along was a little skeptical that Mitch McConnell was going to be willing to take the fall for making the — essentially the entire world economy collapse.

He had some leverage.  As too often happens in Washington [DC], there's a deal right before the deadline.  But I do think we ought to think about whether we ought to even have this whole exercise of raising the debt ceiling.  It is something that is meaningless in the context of controlling spending, because you're basically paying bills for spending you have already done.

There's a budget process.  There's an appropriations process.  If you want to have fiscal discipline, that's where to do it.  I think they ought to just suspend the debt ceiling indefinitely.

Judy Woodruff:  And which is, I guess, an argument that the Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has been making.

But, David, I mean, are there clear winners and losers coming out of this?  Or has it just muddied — is the picture just muddied even more?

David Brooks:  I'd say muddied.

I think each party got a little of what they wanted.  The Democrats got the Republicans to actually have a vote and produce some votes.  And the Republicans got the idea that we're just going to go through this again.

Everyone's a hypocrite on matters of procedure.  So whether you're for the filibuster or the debt limit, it all depends on whether you're in the majority or the minority.  The Democrats, I think, in 2006, it wasn't quite the same circumstance, a very similar circumstance.  They were very happy to let the Republicans take the fall and be the ones to pass the debt limit, including Joe Biden.

And now that shoe is on the other foot, so they have all 180-degree changed their positions.  And this is the way it always is on these procedural game-playing things, that you do what's in your best interests at this moment.  There are no actually principled players in any of this.

Judy Woodruff:  Does one side come out stronger or not in this?

Karen Tumulty:  No.

It is really a situation of — people seem to think this debt ceiling vote is some kind of political liability.  I have never heard any campaign where it becomes an issue or the subject of an ad.  The size of the social spending package that the Democrats are talking about, that is likely to be — figure in the 2022 campaign.

But I — this is just this Kabuki theater that they do over and over and over again.

Judy Woodruff:  All right, moving on to something.

We just heard Fiona Hill, the — who has written a book about her experiences, David.  And that is a number of developments this week about election interference in 2020.  You had this disturbing report come out from the Senate Judiciary Committee about the lengths former President Trump went to try to get the Justice Department to overturn the election result.

Then you have more — watching state after state say they want to reform the way they count votes, the way they run their elections.  How worried should the American people be right now about all of this?

David Brooks:  Pretty worried, on a scale of one to 10, seven-and-a-half or so.  That's pretty worried.

I'm not a worrying kind of guy, but I think worried about two things.  One, we keep learning more and more that Trump really wanted to overturn the election.  He wanted to take away the election.  And we also [two] learned that, throughout the administration, throughout some of the Republican secretaries of state, there were honest people that were not going to let him do it.

And so we have learned from the Senate report that he was threatening to fire the Attorney General.  And there were enough people in the Justice Department who said, we will all quit at once if you do this, and so he didn't really have a chance.

But the more dangerous thing is what's happening in the states now, is that we're setting ourselves up for this all to happen in 2024 if he runs again, and if he's anywhere close.  And, this time, he will have had not a couple of weeks to prepare to take the election away.  He will have had years.

And the party seems to be extremely focused on this process.  And so that's the things we're worried about.

Judy Woodruff:  Where should the concern be focused in all of — that there's so many moving parts to this.

Karen Tumulty:  Well, the pattern of the Trump Presidency is, with these revelations, you will always hear something else happened that is both shocking and unsurprising and even predictable about Donald Trump.

And there were a few people that stood in the way.  Dan Quayle, who talked to Mike Pence about his lack of powers to overturn the election on January 6, was not on my bingo card for the savior of democracy.

(LAUGHTER)

Karen Tumulty:  But, next year, we're going to have the midterms, and these races in the states where governors may be replaced by governors who would be fine with letting partisan hacks control elections, secretaries of state, election officials.

I think the danger in 2024 is going to be a lot higher even than it was in 2020.  And we may once again have Donald Trump back on the scene.

Judy Woodruff:  And I was going to say whether he's on the ballot.

I mean, David, you read that portion of the Senate report where it — for hour after hour, there was an argument inside the White House with then-President Trump, saying, we need to replace the Acting Attorney General in order to overturn the election.  I mean, they had to argue him down from this.

Karen Tumulty:  The most chilling quote — and that was Jeffrey Rosen, the Acting Attorney General.

"One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren't going to do anything to overturn the election."

That is what the President of the United States [Trump] said to his acting Attorney General.

David Brooks:  Right.

And so the good news is there were enough.  I guess what strikes me — and this is the underlying problem — is that any time Rudy Giuliani or anybody could come up with a crackpot rationale to do this, they seized on it without any evidence.  There was never a moment when people in Trump world said, that one, that theory is a little wacky.

They seized on absolutely everything.  And that is what happens when you're in a post-truth world.

Judy Woodruff:  And if President Trump is not on the ballot, Karen, there's still concern that people who espouse his philosophy and who deny the election result in 2020 could be pushing some of the same…

Karen Tumulty:  Exactly.

I mean, these are people running up and down the ballot.  It has become practically an article of faith in the Republican Party that, if you want to have a shot at elective office, that you have to say these things that really undermine the integrity of the electoral system.

David Brooks:  Fifty-nine percent of Republicans in one poll said that believing the election was stolen was an important part about being a Republican.  It's central to the identity.

It's not belief in free markets or being socially conservative.  From philosophical and principled positions has gotten to Trump positions.  And so the identity of the party has fundamentally changed from a conservative party to a Trump party, at least among, say, half of the Republican…

Judy Woodruff:  Last thing I want to make time for, Karen, and that is the Supreme Court reconvening this week, a lot of eyes watching this institution because they are taking up hot-button issues, abortion, gun rights, and others, maybe affirmative action.

What are you looking for from this term?  And people are starting to say, if the court does what we think it could do, this is going to look like a partisan court.

Karen Tumulty:  It certainly — I think this is the term in which the heavily conservative Supreme Court is going to truly show us who they are and what they think.

And I think the biggest issue on the plate is whether or not they overturn Roe vs. Wade, either with this case that is coming their way from Mississippi, or the new Texas abortion law is likely to land in their lap again pretty soon.

Judy Woodruff:  I mean, there's always — we're always watching the Supreme Court, David, but is this time different that way?

David Brooks:  I think it is a little.

There has been a 5-4 conservative majority, but John Roberts, the Chief Justice, really cares about the court and the dignity of the court and the legitimacy of the court.  He could now be in the minority in a lot of these cases, and he could be on the left side, because he is not — he's been hesitant to turn over precedents.

And there seems to be five at least who are much more willing.  And so he [Roberts] might turn out into be the minority player.  And there will be nobody to try to keep precedents just for the legitimacy of the court.

Public opinion polls on the court are not in freefall, but they're in serious decline.  The number of people who think it's a legitimate and trustworthy institution is at a low.  And the Supreme Court justices are all out on the road saying, no, we're not partisan hacks.

They're not.  But they're conservatives and progressives, and they vote like partisan hacks, so that — on the big cases, not on most cases, but on the big ideological cases, their votes are entirely predictable by who nominated them.

Judy Woodruff:  And at a time, Karen, when the country is so divided politically, it — I mean, it matters whether the court is seen as partisan or not.

Karen Tumulty:  Absolutely.  Absolutely.

And, again, I mean, the fact that the — these justices are feeling that need to go out and say publicly that they are not partisans is — that, in and of itself, is extraordinary.  But we will see how these big cases on not just abortion, but some other hot-button issues, like guns.

And again, this is a relatively young court.  And this is the court that we're going to see basically for a generation potentially.

David Brooks:  It used to be people had faith in government and the governing institutions.

And when that faith goes away, everything is up for grabs.  And whether we're talking about the budget, the election or the court, they all grow out of the fact that people have lost faith in the legitimacy of their institutions.

Judy Woodruff:  That's a grim note to…

David Brooks:  Sorry.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:  A really grim note for us…

(CROSSTALK)

David Brooks:  Just facing reality here.

(LAUGHTER)

Judy Woodruff:  On this Friday night.

David Brooks, Karen Tumulty, thank you both.

Karen Tumulty:  Thank you.

CLIMATE CHANGE - Uneven Impact on Communities

"Climate change’s uneven impact on communities of color compounded by uneven flow of aid" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Hurricane Ida survivors are still facing a difficult road ahead, nearly six weeks after it battered Louisiana as a Category 4 storm.  And in Lake Charles, Louisiana, thousands are still waiting for relief from a string of natural disasters that began more than a year ago.  Some say it shows the climate change's disproportionate toll on low-income communities.  Community reporter Roby Chavez reports.

ABORTION BATTLE - Texas Clinics

"Texas clinics resume abortions past 6-week mark, but women fear access may be temporary" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

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SUMMARY:  In his 113- page order blocking the enforcement of Texas' six week abortion ban law, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman called the law “an unprecedented and aggressive scheme to deprive its citizens of a significant and well-established constitutional right.”  But with the state of Texas appealing the order, long term abortion access remains in question.  Stephanie Sy reports from Austin, Texas.

AMERICAN POLITICS - The False Fraudulent Election Claims

Championed by Lier-n-Chief Donald Trump and supported by his GOP worshipers.

"As Senate examines Trump’s bid to overturn 2020 loss, GOP voters still buy fraud claims" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  It’s been nearly a year since voters cast their ballots in the 2020 presidential election, but its results — and the violent aftermath — are still at the center of investigation and debate in Washington, D.C.  Amna Nawaz reports.

 

 

"How false fraud claims are eroding integrity of American election system" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

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SUMMARY:  For a deeper look at the efforts to undermine election integrity in the United States — and what can be done to stop it — Judy Woodruff is joined by Rick Hasen, professor at the University of California Irvine, and author of the book "Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy."

A MAINE ARTIST - Robert Indiana

"The complicated life and legacy of Robert Indiana, artist behind iconic ‘LOVE’ sculpture" PBS NewsHour 10/6/2021

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SUMMARY:  When most people think of the artist Robert Indiana, they think of the iconic “LOVE” sculpture with a tilted “O.”  While his art endures, a new book also paints a portrait of him as a troubled, isolated artist.  Maine Public’s Jennifer Rooks has a look for our arts and culture series, CANVAS.

ETHIOPIA IN CRISIS - Attempted Eradication of the People of Tigray

"Ethiopia’s ‘sophisticated campaign’ to withhold food, fuel and other aid from Tigray" PBS NewsHour 10/6/2021

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SUMMARY:  Wednesday in the United Nations Security Council, the Secretary-General criticized the Ethiopian government for recently kicking out UN aid workers.  He urged the government to allow aid to flow into the northern region of Tigray, where for nearly the last year, Ethiopia and its allies have been fighting an ethnic, regional force.  Nick Schifrin reports.

BRIEF BUT SPECTACULAR - Priti Krishtel

"A Brief But Spectacular take on the importance of creating a global health system" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

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SUMMARY:  Priti Krishtel started her career working with low-income communities in India where she saw her clients suffering, and even dying, because they couldn't afford the lifesaving medicines they needed.  Now, she is advocating for a more equitable healthcare system in the U.S. and around the world.  She gives us her Brief But Spectacular take on the importance of building a system that works for all.

POLITICS OF COVID - Vaccine, Masks, Health Care, Jobs

"Politics of vaccine, mask mandates complicate return to normal on college campuses" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Millions of students returned to campus this fall for the in-person college experience, as the delta variant continues to impact parts of the U.S.  Some schools have strict mandates for vaccination, testing and masking.  In other places, that’s not an option.  Hari Sreenivasan begins the latest in our “Rethinking College” series at two of America’s flagship universities.

 

 

"New book shows how failure to implement quick, accurate testing compounded COVID’s spread" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

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SUMMARY:  The United States has now passed yet another tragic pandemic milestone.  COVID-19 has now claimed the lives of more than 700,000 Americans.  William Brangham talks to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA Commissioner and author of new book "Uncontrolled Spread: Why COVID-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic" about where the U.S. response failed and how it can do better next time.

 

 

"Overwhelmed by COVID patients, Alaska’s health care workers also face harassment" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  New COVID-19 cases continue to fall around the United States — down nearly 25% over the past two weeks, with deaths dropping by more than 10%.  But there are still far too many losing their lives, especially in Alaska where just 58% of the population is fully vaccinated and hospitals are implementing “crisis standards of care" because of a shortage of beds and staff.  William Brangham reports.

 

 

"The pandemic pushed millions of U.S. workers to join the ‘Great Resignation.’ Here’s why" PBS NewsHour 10/8/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The September jobs report shows that the unemployment rate fell to 4.8% and job openings are at a record high with wages increased again last month, as companies tried to attract new employees.  But more than 25 million people quit their jobs in the first seven months of this year.  And it's now called “the great resignation.”  Business and economics correspondent Paul Solman explains.

CALIFORNIA - Governor Newsom

From the governor that Republicans tried and failed to remove.....

"Gov. Newsom on $123B California schools plan, oil spill clean up and climate change" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A key focus of President Joe Biden's spending plan centers around addressing climate change and expanding universal pre-K.  California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday signed a $123 billion bill that would, among other things, expand pre-K and provide an extra year of kindergarten for some children.  Judy Woodruff speaks with Newsom about these issues and how the California law plans to address them.

PRESIDENT BIDEN - Pitching Infrastructure Bill in Michigan

"Why Biden pitched infrastructure bill in Michigan amid congressional stalemate" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Joe Biden spoke in Michigan Tuesday on the need for his infrastructure and social spending plans, as negotiations over both bills are underway on Capitol Hill.  Yamiche Alcindor talks to two leaders in the state about what Michiganders need and the potential impact of the Biden agenda.

SOCIAL MEDIA - Facebook in the Spotlight

"What caused the Facebook outage and how it affected global users, businesses" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Facebook and its group of apps and social media platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram were down most of Monday.  The outages come on the eve of another difficult congressional hearing for the social media giant.  The cause of the outages still has not been explained.  Sheera Frenkel of The New York Times reports on Facebook extensively and joins William Brangham to discuss.

 

 

"Facebook whistleblower asks Congress to regulate tech giant’s influence on users" PBS NewsHour 10/5/2021

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SUMMARY:  Facebook is under fire Tuesday following testimony by a former employee before a U.S. Senate committee.  Frances Haugen alleged the company too frequently turns a blind eye to potential harm for the sake of profit.  Facebook denied that in statements to the PBS NewsHour and said it is working to make its platforms safer.  William Brangham has our report.

 

WATCH LIVE:  Facebook whistleblower testifies to Senate on children and social media

U.S. SUPREME COURT - The First Monday in October

"Supreme Court resumes in-person arguments with abortion, guns, religious freedom on agenda" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Supreme Court returned to the courtroom Monday morning to hear its first oral arguments of the new term in-person.  The cases set for argument this term could make it one of the most contentious in many years.  Marcia Coyle, chief Washington [DC] correspondent for The National Law Journal, was one of the two dozen reporters in the courtroom and joins John Yang with more.

JOURNALISM - The "Pandora Papers"

"‘Pandora Papers’ expose how world leaders and the ultra-rich move their money" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

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SUMMARY:  The “Pandora Papers," written by a worldwide consortium of journalists, reveal how world leaders and the mega-rich can hide billions of dollars in secret offshore accounts, which investigators say drain money from government treasuries and can undermine national security.  Nick Schifrin talks to Drew Sullivan, co-founder and editor of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP.

CALIFORNIA - The Oil Spill

"Southern California oil spill could be ‘ecological disaster,’ take weeks to clean up" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

Personal note, my nephew and his wife own a home blocks away from Huntington Beach and have verified to the damage.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Federal and state investigators are focusing on a 41-year-old pipeline as the cause of a massive oil spill off the Southern California coast.  The 126,000 gallon oil spill is threatening wildlife and prompting a robust cleanup effort in the Pacific Ocean.  But as Stephanie Sy reports, the scale and scope of the damage remains unclear.

U.S. TRADE - China

"Biden officials to enforce Trump trade deal with China, work toward ‘durable coexistence’" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

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SUMMARY:  The Biden administration on Monday unveiled its long awaited approach to trade relations with China.  U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said she would restart trade talks with Beijing, but maintain most Trump-era tariffs on China.  Nick Schifrin explains.

AMERICAN POLITICS - America's Debt Ceiling

Debt Ceiling:  "The United States debt ceiling or debt limit is a legislative limit on the amount of national debt that can be incurred by the U.S. Treasury, thus limiting how much money the federal government may pay on the debt they already borrowed.  The debt ceiling is an aggregate figure that applies to the gross debt, which includes debt in the hands of the public and in intra-government accounts.  About 0.5% of debt is not covered by the ceiling." - Wikipedia"  Which means today's Debt Ceiling has to do with Trump era spending and nothing to do with Biden's spending requests.

"Biden accuses GOP of playing ‘Russian roulette’ with economy in debt ceiling standoff" PBS NewsHour 10/4/2021

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SUMMARY:  A high stakes standoff between President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans is unfolding in Washington over the country's debt limit.  It comes just two weeks before the United States is set to default on its debt, which could trigger damaging economic consequences for the entire country.  Biden on Monday called Republicans' position "dangerous."  Yamiche Alcindor joins Judy Woodruff with more.

 

 

"Congress should raise debt ceiling for the long term, White House economic adviser says" PBS NewsHour 10/6/2021

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SUMMARY:  With a new but possibly temporary deal providing a potential pathway out of the impasse between congressional Democrats and Republicans over raising the federal debt limit, Judy Woodruff gets more on the state of play and what's at stake with Jared Bernstein, a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers.

 

 

"After public barbs, Schumer and McConnell on brink of agreement in private debt talks" PBS NewsHour 10/6/2021

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SUMMARY:  There is a new offer on the table in Congress tonight — a potential pathway out of the impasse between Democrats and Republicans over raising the federal debt limit.  The consequences of a default would be severe.  Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports on the new offer and the possibility of it gaining traction.

 

 

"Some in GOP unhappy with McConnell over short-term debt deal with Dems" PBS NewsHour 10/7/2021

Comment: Read title as "Trump worshiping GOP unhappy....."

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After weeks of stalemate, Senators have reached agreement to temporarily raise the debt ceiling, shortly before Republicans prepared to block legislation to suspend the debt limit until December of next year.  The agreement averts a possible economic crisis — for now.  Congressional correspondent Lisa Desjardins explains the details of the agreement and what lies ahead.

AMERICAN POLITICS - The Hijack (a must watch)

America's Political System Has Been Hijacked

by Micheal Douglas

A WARNING - The Slow-Moving Coup

Real Time with Bill Maher

The 2024 Presidential Election prediction

ETHNIC MUSIC - Olena UUTAi

"Blessing of Nature" by Olena UUTAi

Hear the voice of Mother Nature and feel it’s healing love.

 

 

Olena UUTAi "The Call of Shaman"

U.S. MILITARY - Next Afghanistan?

"Our Next War in Afghanistan Is Already Looming.  And It May Be Even Harder." by Travis Tritten and Stephen Losey, Military.com 9/30/2021

The dangers that kept the U.S. in Afghanistan for so long are already accumulating again, little more than a month after the last troops left in a chaotic withdrawal.

The al-Qaida terrorist group that drew America into the country two decades ago is poised to come back under the ruling Taliban regime, or it never left at all, depending on whom you ask.

It may be only one to two years before the group could again threaten the U.S. homeland, according to a conservative estimate the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA disclosed in September.  Then, there was the last spasm of violence before the complete pullout of U.S. forces in Afghanistan -- a suicide bombing that killed 13 troops that was attributed to a competing terrorist group, the Islamic State-Khorasan [ISIS-K].

Under that looming terrorism threat, former defense officials, lawmakers and experts believe a new U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan is likely, maybe even inevitable, in what could be an echo of the withdrawal a decade ago from Iraq that cleared the way for the rise of the Islamic State and years of horrific attacks, killings and more war.

"We are going to have to send U.S. military forces back in some form to Afghanistan," said Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies think tank.  "I don't have a crystal ball -- I don't know if that is six months or six years -- but the disaster in Iraq took three years to unfold."

Then-President Barack Obama declared the Iraq war over in 2011.  Over the next three years, the Islamic State group grew into a Mideast regional power with control of Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.  It sponsored attacks in the U.S. and around the world, slaughtered ethnic minorities, and released videos of the beheadings of aid workers, tourists and journalists, including American James Foley, in a display of barbarity that swiftly drew recruits to form a pseudo-state before American forces returned.

Afghanistan, where more than 800,000 U.S. troops fought over four presidencies to ensure it wasn't a terrorist plotting ground, could be the site of the next war on terrorism.  But this time, the military may face even tougher conditions, with the region's remote geography, a lack of bases on the ground, a Taliban regime in control of government, and allies who led a quick initial invasion victory 20 years ago either missing or in exile.

The Pentagon insists it can take out terrorist threats with "over the horizon capabilities," or long-distance surgical strikes.  But there is skepticism over the effectiveness of such strikes, which would be carried out by troops and aircraft stationed more than a thousand miles away.  A botched drone strike on Aug. 29 as the U.S. evacuated Kabul showed how such strikes can go wrong -- 10 civilians, including seven children, killed by mistake due to bad intelligence collected from the air.

"I would love to say we have this magic ability to reach in and kill any bad guy, and maybe we'll kill a few of them," Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an Air Force veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan, said in an interview.  "But man, we run the real risk of just creating more enemies than we do killing them."

New World or Old Safe Haven

The White House sought to turn the page on the war and shift focus as the dust settled in Kabul, even as concerns grew.

President Joe Biden gave an address Aug. 31, telling the country that he "ended 20 years of war" and that the terrorist threat held at bay for so many years by a U.S. military presence had moved elsewhere.  It was an effort to explain a military-led withdrawal and evacuation that saw desperate Afghans clinging to a plane departing Kabul, the deadly suicide bombing, and finally the tragic U.S. airstrike that killed only civilians.

"This is a new world.  The terror threat has metastasized across the world, well beyond Afghanistan," said Biden, pointing to Syria, the Arabian Peninsula and Africa.

Biden's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Frank McKenzie would later testify on Sept. 28 to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they recommended maintaining troops in the country.

But the Pentagon would instead keep an eye on the region from afar, Biden said in his address.  Afghanistan was a priority, but no longer a top priority.

On the same day as Biden's address, al-Qaida released a statement praising what it called a Taliban victory over the "filth of the Americans," according to a translation posted by the Long War Journal, a publication of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The United Nations Security Council had reported in June that large numbers of al-Qaida fighters and other extremists aligned with the Taliban remained in Afghanistan.  The group was present in 15 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces but was laying low and minimizing communication with Taliban leaders to avoid international attention, the U.N. reported.

"In many ways, we're in the exact same place we were 20 years ago, and that is with a Taliban-al-Qaida safe haven in Afghanistan," Bowman said.

Top Pentagon officials acknowledged the terror group, which plotted the 9/11 attacks, still had a presence in Afghanistan during hours of questioning from the Senate committee on Sept. 28.  The group's original leader, Osama bin Laden, was killed in a U.S. special operations raid on a Pakistan compound in 2011.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said there were still "remnants" in the Taliban-ruled country, and Milley told the committee al-Qaida exists and wants to regroup from there to strike the U.S.

"Folks, we are going to pay for what we just did," Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said during the hearing.  "I got young kids, y'all got kids and grandkids, and we're going to be back in there fighting."

Few Levers Left to Pull

Any U.S. military return to Afghanistan would likely require a major emergency, something akin to the Islamic State group's surge through Syria and northern Iraq in 2014, said retired Gen. Joe Votel, who served as head of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Special Operations Command, and also led Army Rangers in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

Public horror and outrage fueled a years-long U.S. air campaign, which was assisted by a small number of ground troops working with local Syrian and Iraqi forces.  A military presence remains in Iraq, but Biden ordered the combat mission to end this year.

"I could definitely see us responding to a threat [in Afghanistan], and I would certainly hope that we would," Votel said in an interview.

But he said any military operations are likely to focus more narrowly on specific targets there, rather than trying to solve conditions in the country that created them.  The U.S. poured $2.3 trillion into rebuilding Afghanistan over the 20-year war in hopes of creating a functioning democratic government, according to Brown University's Cost of War project, though that government and its security forces crumbled within days during the Taliban advance over the summer.

Over-the-horizon capabilities, the airstrikes carried out from distant bases, are now the first line of defense, mainly because military options are otherwise limited following the withdrawal.

"We have very few levers in Afghanistan right now because we've completely pulled out," McKenzie said in his Senate testimony.

The U.S. military lost its ground base in Kabul, the partnership with elite Afghan commandos who were the most effective of the U.S.-trained troops, and much of its intelligence feed, making what was set to be a difficult mission over a remote, landlocked country even harder, said William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.

"Whether we like it or not, we are now in a race, and the race is between the Salafi jihadists' predictable efforts to build external attack capacities and our efforts to establish an acceptably effective over-the-horizon counter-terrorism capability," said Wechsler, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations and combating terrorism during the Obama administration.

Lack of Intel and Hard Geography

Austin told the Senate that the military's use of over-the-horizon strikes is fairly common and effective.  He pointed to a September airstrike in Syria that the Pentagon said killed an al-Qaida terrorist leader.

"Over-the-horizon operations are difficult but absolutely possible, and the intelligence that supports them comes from a variety of sources and not just U.S. boots on the ground," Austin told the Senate committee on Sept. 28.

But Retired Gen. John Allen, now the president of the Brookings Institution, said that type of intelligence is crucial for such operations.  Allen was the NATO International Security Assistance Force commander in Afghanistan, and also served as special presidential envoy to the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL, the U.S.-led group of nations that fought the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

"Over-the-horizon targeting implies that you have eyes on the target, you've got some form of boots on the ground or intelligence development capability that's on the ground," Allen said in a Middle East Institute discussion Sept. 16.  "We have none, we've basically given it up."

The last U.S. airstrike [video] of the Afghanistan war, which mistakenly killed 10 civilians in a home near the Kabul airport, illustrated how horribly wrong operations overseen from abroad can go.

After receiving conflicting intelligence about the home being used by ISIS-K for a planned attack drawn from video captured by six Reaper drones watching from above, a strike team located abroad launched a Hellfire missile that killed an aid worker as well as seven children.

"I would reject a parallel between this operation and an over-the-horizon strike against an ISIS-K target, again, because we will have an opportunity to further develop the target and time to look at pattern of life," meaning long-term monitoring of targets, McKenzie said in a Sept. 17 briefing admitting the botched strike.  "That time was not available to us because this was an imminent threat to our forces."

During the war against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, the presence of special operators on the ground was key to targeting the enemy.

But the withdrawal and the loss of the Kabul airport and Bagram airport, one of the most capable and advanced in the region, has hobbled the ability to insert troops if needed and has put any U.S. aerial operations up against the difficult geography of the country.

"The distances here are considerable, and it's hard to cover the distances and sustain these efforts when you have a dynamic threat on the ground," Votel said.

Iran airspace is a no-go for the military, and Allen said Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely try to block any attempts by the U.S. to set up operating bases in the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan that box in Afghanistan in the north.

U.S. military strikes could then be dependent on Pakistan giving clearance to fly through its territory.  But Islamabad may feel pressure to ally with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, leaving access an open and troubling question as its relationship with the U.S. evolves post-withdrawal, according to Allen.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to say whether arrangements have been made with Pakistan for the U.S. to use its airspace for over-the-horizon strikes.

As intelligence and access have grown harder, the U.S. also faces a third challenge: the loss of local partners.  Indigenous forces were key in both the early days of the Afghanistan war and the operations against the Islamic State in the Middle East.

Afghanistan's Northern Alliance opposition in the Panjshir Valley proved capable in 2001 and gave the U.S. military a toehold.  A fledgling anti-Taliban resistance in Panjshir has now been snuffed out as would-be opposition leaders fled into neighboring countries.

The strategic difficulties with continuing military operations in Afghanistan, and the grim terrorism assessments, came as Congress and the Pentagon wrestled with the legacy of the 20-year war.

"I don't think it's pre-ordained that we're going to have to go back," Austin told senators.

The question is what would prompt the military to go back in, and whether it would take another attack on the U.S. homeland, Kinzinger said.  Or would it require a steady drumbeat of attacks and atrocities like those committed by the Islamic State in the vacuum left in northern Iraq and war-torn Syria during the last decade?

"I think it's one thing to reintroduce troops into Iraq like we did, but Afghanistan is a whole different thing," Kinzinger said.  "That's a frightening idea."