Browse Month

October 2018

The Caravan(s) — What to do? Elmer says, “Honduras is Hell!”

By Dr. Larry Fedewa (October 27,2018)

Elmer and I were talking about the Caravan from Honduras. Elmer knows a lot about Honduras. His family migrated from Honduras to the United States when he was fifteen, and went through all the steps to citizenship, which was granted a few years later. Elmer now has his own business, employing three/four licensed plumbers, his wife (who runs the office), and a couple of apprentices. All are from Latin America, either citizens or on the way. Elmer voted for President Trump and intends to do so next time as well. But he doesn’t know what to do about the Caravan.        Keep Reading

The Khashoggi Matter — Was he really a “bad guy’?

President Donald Trump holds a sword and sways with traditional dancers during a welcome ceremony at Murabba Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

By Dr. Larry Fedewa (October 21,2018)

British Journalist Melanie Phillips provides a different narrative of the final hours of Jamal Khashoggi in her Jewish News Service column (October 18, 2018).Far from being the liberal Washington Post opponent of revisionist Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (called MBS for short) because MBS’ reforms are too little too late, Phillips asserts that he was in reality a double agent with ties to both the radical Muslim Brotherhood and the Saudi intelligence service.

Of late, he had been straying off the beaten path by connecting with the Turkey/Qatar faction which opposes the Saudi/US/ Israel triad for leadership of Sunni Islam. In fact, he visited the Saudi embassy on that fateful day to secure Saudi government permission to marry his Turkish fiancé, who is a Turkish diplomat and daughter of a former advisor to Turkish President Erdogan.  Keep Reading

Guest Column: A/O Global Intelligence Weekly: The State of American Foreign Policy

The National Security Strategy as a Blueprint for the New Direction for America

By James S. Gilmore III, President and CEO, American Opportunity Foundation.   

As we have stated in previous essays, America today is in a world-wide conflict to determine how mankind will live in the years ahead.  This conflict engages all aspects of national power: military, economic, diplomatic, and the competition of values. Parts 1-5 of this series of essays can be accessed on online at American Opportunity.

Often we think of economics, defense, and diplomacy in separate categories or stovepipes. The truth is that all elements of national power work together to further the goal and mission of any national policy.  The Trump administration is seeking to align all parts of government activity toward one unified mission: the security and prosperity of the American people.

The new National Security Strategy (NSS) announced in December 2017 emphasizes the role of all parts of our country’s national policy working together.  The NSS reaches beyond traditional concepts of military preparedness, and combines all levels of the nation for national security. When the NSS is read, the initiatives of the Trump administration come into focus as a unified whole.  Keep Reading

The Kavanaugh Case: Food for Thought

       It’s all about the the Constitution

                                                                                                                                                      Blind Justice                                                                  

 

 

By Dr. Larry Fedewa (October 7, 2018)

A couple of things from the Kavanaugh case stand out: 1) Judge Brett Kavanaugh is a supremely well qualified candidate for the Supreme Court – Irish temper notwithstanding, and 2) the Democrats have not changed tactics in challenging Supreme Court nominations in thirty years.

“Borked” in 1987

On July 1, 1987, President Ronald Reagan nominated highly regarded Circuit Judge Robert Bork of the U.S. District of Columbia Court of Appeals for the vacant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. forty-five minutes later, Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy took to the floor of the U.S. Senate and delivered a scathing condemnation of the nominee. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the Democrat majority was Joseph Biden (D-Delaware) who presided over a grueling and lengthy questioning of the nominee against a backdrop of  a highly personal and insulting news and advertising campaign. The nomination eventually lost both the committee and the full Senate votes. It was the first time in modern history that a nomination to the Supreme Court was treated in such a partisan and heated manner.

Thomas in 1991

The Bork nomination battle was dwarfed in intensity and insult, however, in 1991 when President George H. W. Bush nominated Judge Clarence Thomas to replace retiring Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court. Thomas was in his 16th month as a federal judge and not as well-known or experienced as some other candidates had been. He was, however, known for his conservative interpretation of the law.                 Keep Reading