"Brent Scowcroft, a force on foreign policy for 40 years, dies at 95" by Robert D. McFadden New York Times, August 07, 2020
Brent Scowcroft, a preeminent foreign policy expert who helped shape America’s international and strategic decisions for decades as the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George H.W. Bush and as a counselor in seven administrations, died Thursday at his home in Falls Church, Va. He was 95.
General Scowcroft was a principal architect of US policy toward post-communist Russia, a leading Republican voice opposing the US-led invasion of Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and a voice in President Barack Obama’s selection of a national security team after the 2008 elections.
General Scowcroft also wrote books, taught at universities and counted among his many protégés Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, both national security experts who became secretaries of state and defense for President George W. Bush.
Most closely associated with moderate Republicans like Ford, Howard Baker, and Colin Powell, he was a self-effacing former Air Force general who did not smoke or drink. He preferred working quietly in small groups.
General Scowcroft called himself a traditionalist, who believed that the nation should work with allies and international organizations, as opposed to a “transformationalist,” like George W. Bush, who argued that America should fight terrorism by spreading democracy in the world — by force if necessary — and should be free to act swiftly without relying on overly cautious allies or a cumbersome United Nations.
He's the very definition of the Deep State.
After leaving government in 1993, General Scowcroft headed the Washington-based Scowcroft Group, a consulting firm for international businesses, and was chair of an advisory board that made policy recommendations to George W. Bush.
Nevertheless, he was among the few prominent Republicans who challenged George W. Bush in 2002 as the administration made its case to go to war in Iraq.
Obama liked General Scowcroft and his restrained foreign policy, Jeffrey Goldberg noted in The Atlantic in 2016. “Obama, unlike liberal interventionists, is an admirer of the foreign-policy realism of President George H.W. Bush and, in particular, of Bush’s national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft,” he wrote. “As Obama was writing his campaign manifesto, ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ in 2006, Susan Rice, then an informal adviser, felt it necessary to remind him to include at least one line of praise for the foreign policy of President Bill Clinton, to partially balance the praise he showered on Bush and Scowcroft.”
Long after his retirement, General Scowcroft remained a pillar of the Republican national security establishment. In the runup to the 2016 presidential election, he joined more than 120 other Republican foreign policy veterans who crossed party lines and endorsed Hillary Clinton. General Scowcroft said she possessed “truly unique experience and perspective” to “lead our country at this critical time.” He did not mention Donald Trump in his endorsement, but days after Trump’s election, the frail and ailing General Scowcroft made an emotional appeal at an off-the-record Washington luncheon in his honor, calling on fellow Republicans, and Democrats, to put country above political party and accept posts in the incoming Trump administration, if asked to do so.
“He needs you; your country needs you,” one attendee said, characterizing General Scowcroft’s message. Other accounts said he remained concerned that Trump was ill-prepared and unsuited for the presidency but said that his appeal for public service was a classic reminder of a less partisan age, when presidents often reached out to experienced talent, regardless of party loyalties.
Yeah, it's such a problem now that we are on to these globe-kickers and their evil plans.
Brent Scowcroft was born March 19, 1925, in Ogden, Utah, the son of James and Lucile (Ballantyne) Scowcroft. He accompanied President Richard Nixon on his historic trip to China to establish diplomatic relations after decades of estrangement. Fluent in Russian, General Scowcroft next went to Moscow to prepare for Nixon’s spring visit, a delicate task because America was bombing North Vietnam, a Soviet ally. Impressed, Henry Kissinger, then head of national security, chose him as his deputy in 1973. That fall, Kissinger became secretary of state, and General Scowcroft ran Security Council meetings in his absence.
In 1975, after Nixon had resigned in the Watergate scandal, General Scowcroft briefed the new president, Ford, on national security. Ford chose him to succeed Kissinger as national security adviser. To accept, he resigned his commission as a lieutenant general. As US involvement in the Vietnam War ended in 1975, General Scowcroft planned the evacuation of US personnel from Saigon.
General Scowcroft left the White House in 1977, when Jimmy Carter became president. He later went to work for Kissinger’s international consulting firm, Kissinger Associates, but he remained a member of the president’s advisory committee on arms control and helped formulate the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty II signed by Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1979. The treaty was not ratified by Congress but was honored until 1986, when the Reagan administration withdrew.
Reagan named General Scowcroft to head a commission that evaluated options for deployment of MX missiles and later to a commission headed by former senator John Tower that investigated the Iran-Contra scandal, in which money from arms sales to Iran was diverted without authorization to anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. The commission found no evidence that Reagan knew of skulduggery but criticized him for failing to monitor subordinates.
That was a huge scandal back in the day, with televised Congre$$ional hearings, but no one was ever held accountable for the high crimes and misdemeanors save for the scapegoats McFarland, Poindexter, and North.
While it is rare for officials to return to White House jobs, General Scowcroft was an early and easy choice of George H.W. Bush for national security adviser in 1989. General Scowcroft chose Gates as his deputy and Condoleezza Rice, a Soviet expert, as a council member.
In 1991 General Scowcroft was the guiding hand behind Operation Desert Storm, which Bush regarded as the triumph of his political life. General Scowcroft generally drew narrow military goals and in the Persian Gulf War urged Bush to limit operations to evicting Iraqi troops from Kuwait.....
That's nice to know since we were twice lied into wars on Iraq, although one could really consider the war, sanctions regime, and invasion by the son as one long war.
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Sorry, world, but the pre$$ in our country honors its war criminals.
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This was today's National lead, and it's pure trash propaganda with historical rewrites:
"Intel official: Russia trying to denigrate Biden while China prefers Trump not be reelected" by Shane Harris The Washington Post, August 7, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — US intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting President Trump’s reelection bid, the country’s counterintelligence chief said Friday in the most specific warning to date about the threat of foreign interference.
These are the same guys who said WMD was in Iraq before the mission changed to Scowcroft's freedom and democracy buzz tags, and here we are getting the same discredited crap we got for three+ f**king years regarding Russian collusion, blah, blah.
Of course, they overlook the overwhelming foreign interference of Zioni$t I$rael in our politics.
US officials also believe that China does not want Trump to win a second term and has accelerated its criticism of the White House, expanding its efforts to shape public policy in America and to pressure political figures seen as opposed to Beijing’s interests.
The statement from William Evanina is believed to be the most pointed declaration by the US intelligence community linking the Kremlin to efforts to get Trump reelected — a sensitive subject for a president who has rejected intelligence agency assessments that Russia tried to help him in 2016.
It also links Moscow’s disapproval of Biden to his role in shaping Obama administration policies supporting Ukraine, an important US ally, and opposing Russian leader Vladimir Putin. That assertion conflicts with the narrative advanced by Trump, who has made unsubstantiated claims that Biden’s actions in Ukraine were intended to help the business interests of his son, Hunter.
That's it, WaCompo, obfuscate the 2014 Obama coup in the Ukraine and clean up the corrupt peso Biden while your are at it.
That comment is in no way and endorsement of the current a$$hole in what is shaping up as a false choice election. We either get Democrap Communi$m or Zioni$ts and WWIII.
Evanina’s statement, three months before the election, was made amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign interference in American politics.
The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns not only about Russia but China and Iran as well, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure, interfere with the voting process, or call into question voting results. Despite those efforts, officials see it as unlikely that anyone could manipulate voting results in any meaningful way, Evanina said.
PFFFFFT!
“Many foreign actors have a preference for who wins the election, which they express through a range of overt and private statements; covert influence efforts are rarer,” said Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence Security Center. “We are primarily concerned about the ongoing and potential activity by China, Russia, and Iran.”
Didn't that war criminal Netanyahoo endorse Romney in 2012?
Isn't that election interference?
Concerns about election interference are especially acute following a wide-ranging effort by Russia to meddle in the 2016 election by hacking Democratic e-mails and a covert social media campaign aimed at sowing discord among US voters. Trump has routinely resisted the idea that the Kremlin favored him in 2016, but the intelligence assessment released Friday indicates that unnamed Kremlin-linked actors are again working to boost his candidacy on social media and Russian TV.
What do you do when the pre$$ continually lies about events, folks?
It wasn't a hack, it was a leak, and that guy was shot dead in the streets.
The White House responded to Friday’s news with a statement saying “the United States will not tolerate foreign interference in our electoral processes and will respond to malicious foreign threats that target our democratic institutions.’’
Of course, our CIA reserves the right to f**k around in other peoples elections for the last 75 years, and if they don't like the results they will organize an overthrow effort.
Democrats in Congress who have participated in recent classified briefings on the threat have expressed alarm at what they have heard. They have urged the US intelligence community to make public some of their concerns, in part to avoid a repeat of 2016, when Obama administration officials were seen as slow and overly deliberate in their public discussion of active Russian measures.
What a bull$hit paragraph is that!
Totally whitewashed the Obama spying scandal!
A bipartisan congressional report released by the Senate intelligence committee earlier this year said the Obama administration was ill-prepared to handle the interference and failed to respond effectively as officials feared getting caught up in a heavily politicized environment and undermining the election.
That last paragraph would be a laugher, especially that last phrase about fearing to get caught up in the politicized environment that they themselves created, were it not so goddamn serious.
Nixonian, only exponentially more so for Nixon only used the national security and law enforcement agencies to cover up a crime; Obama used those same agencies to initiate illegalities.
Democrats, including members of the Senate intelligence panel, have voiced concerns that an ongoing Republican probe into Hunter Biden and his work in Ukraine would parallel Russian efforts and amplify Russian disinformation.
They must protect pedo Joe at all costs!
Though US officials allege that China has its own preference, the statement Friday did not directly accuse Beijing of election interference or taking action to prop up Biden.
Instead, the statement said, China views Trump as “unpredictable” and does not want to see him win reelection, Evanina said.
On Iran, the assessment said Tehran seeks to undermine US democratic institutions as well as Trump and divide America.....
Talk about projection!
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Trump's swagger fuels anger in them as he goes on vacation.
Related:
"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the administration's point man on China policy, issues critiques of the Chinese Communist Party almost daily. His barbs over China's treatment of Uighur Muslims, its response to the coronavirus, and its Hong Kong crackdown have made him the most disliked administration official in Beijing's eyes...."
North Korea, too!
"Wall Street’s big rally let off the accelerator on Friday, despite a better-than-expected report on the U.S. job market, amid worries about worsening U.S.-China tensions and whether Washington can deliver more aid for the economy. Technology stocks fell on worries that China could retaliate for President Donald Trump’s latest escalation against Chinese tech companies. “The Chinese aren’t going to take this lightly,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. The day’s headline economic report was an encouraging one for investors: Employers added nearly 1.8 million jobs last month, about 185,000 more than economists had forecast. “Yes, future employment data will likely slow due to more COVID-19 restrictions, but for now you have to be quite impressed with how far we’ve come the last few months,” Ryan Detrick, chief investment strategist for LPL Financial, said in a statement....."
Well, the coronavirus relief talks collapsed, and according to the Globe's front page, the job market recovery continued in July, even though there are doubts about whether the growth can be sustained.
"..... It’s a rare stumble for big tech stocks, which have soared on expectations they can keep raking in profits regardless of the pandemic. Analysts said they found some encouraging trends throughout the report, such as a stronger-than-expected rise in average hourly earnings. Several areas of the market that tend to rise when investor upgrade their expectations for the economy rallied. Stocks of smaller companies climbed more than their bigger rivals, but still, the jobs report also showed that hiring slowed in July after two months of acceleration, and the job market remains far below where it was before the pandemic. Analysts said the better-than-expected jobs report may also have removed some of the urgency from talks on Capitol Hill, where Congress and White House officials have been negotiating on a hoped-for deal on more aid for the economy. They had set an informal Friday deadline to reach the outlines of an agreement, including benefits for unemployed workers, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin came out of talks Friday saying no progress was made. Mnuchin said Trump is considering executive orders to address some of the issues without Congress, but critics question how much impact they would have. Investors say Washington needs to act quickly because the economy has shown signs of improvement since the spring but is still hobbling, and concerns are rising that it could backtrack amid a resurgence in coronavirus counts. “The market clearly believes that a package is necessary to cushion the downside of the pandemic-induced slowdown in the economy,” Prudential Financial’s Krosby said, and even though last month’s jobs gains were bigger than expected, “it still suggests there’s a long way to go to heal the labor market.” The market also focused on Trump’s order for a sweeping but vague ban on dealings with the Chinese owners of popular social media apps TikTok and WeChat on security grounds. China’s government criticized the move as “political manipulation.” Tensions between the world’s two largest economies have been escalating for years, highlighted by the U.S.-China trade war that seemed to have reached at least a temporary truce early this year, but tough talk has continued to flow, with Trump keying in on TikTok in particular recently. The escalating U.S.-China tensions helped send tech stocks in the S&P 500 down 1.6% Friday, more than quintuple the loss of any of the other 10 sectors that make up the index. Even Apple, whose stock has been nearly unstoppable through the pandemic, slumped. It fell 2.3% for its first drop in eight days. Gold slipped, a rare step back following its record-setting run as investors seek safety amid a weak global economy, trade tensions and low interest rates....."
The clock is ticking, and f**k him and the wars he is trying to start.
That doesn't mean I'm a fan of Communist China, either. In fact, Pompeo's criticism rings hollow since churches here are closed due to COVID, we have a police state as well, and once you open the umbrella in Hong Kong you can clearly see the hand of the CIA.
Beyond that, all governments are in lockstep on COVID because of some agreement they signed with the U.N. for a simulated pandemic back in 2004 or 2005.
"The vaccines alliance GAVI says it has agreed to a deal with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the world’s biggest vaccine producer, India’s Serum Institute, to speed the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to developing countries in 2021. The collaboration will give upfront capital to the Serum Institute so that once any effective COVID-19 vaccine is licensed, the company can mass produce the shots at scale, as early as the first half of 2021. In a statement on Friday, GAVI CEO Dr. Seth Berkley said the deal was aimed at making sure rich countries would not be the only ones with access to coronavirus vaccines. Numerous countries including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the US have already signed multiple deals with pharmaceuticals for access to COVID-19 vaccines before they have been even licensed. Activists warn that rich countries are essentially hoarding limited vaccine supplies and that few will be left for the developing world. The Serum Institute says the vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca and Novovax, will be available for about $3 a dose, a price subsidized by investment from partners including the Gates Foundation. GAVI is heading an international plan to buy vaccines for low and middle income countries and is aiming to raise $2 billion for the effort."
Looks like the end is in $ight, huh?
Also see:
House can sue to force former White House counsel McGahn to comply with subpoena, court rules
The confidential lawyer-client privilege is now gone as we approach a communi$t dictatorship here in the U.S with two factions like in China.
Democrats call for investigation of postmaster general over mail delays
They are being led by Warren as they facilitate vote fraud.
"A crowd of about 200 people, some wielding homemade shields, clashed with police early Friday in Portland, Ore. for the third consecutive night as two other Black Lives Matter rallies proceeded peacefully elsewhere in the city, authorities said. The demonstration with unrest came hours after the city’s Democratic mayor pleaded for demonstrators to stay off the streets, saying that those who barricaded the doors to a police precinct the night before and tried to set it ablaze were not demonstrators, but criminals. Mayor Ted Wheeler said the violent protesters are also serving as political “props” for President Trump in a divisive election-season where the president is hammering on a law-and-order message. Trump has tried to painted a picture of the Portland protesters as ‘‘sick and dangerous anarchists” running wild in the city’s streets. The chaos that started Thursday night and lasted into Friday morning in a residential neighborhood about six miles from downtown marked the 70th night of unrest in Portland since May 25. The demonstrations this week, however, are noticeably smaller than the crowds of thousands who turned out every night for about two weeks in July to protest the presence of US agents sent by the Trump administration to protect a federal courthouse that had become a target of violence. This week’s clashes nevertheless ratcheted up tensions in the city after an agreement last week between state and federal officials seemed to offer a brief reprieve......"
"Some Black Lives Matter protesters in Salt Lake City could face up to life in prison if convicted of splashing red paint and smashing windows during a protest, a potential punishment that critics say doesn’t fit the crime. The felony criminal mischief charges are more serious because they carry a gang enhancement that prosecutors said is justified because the protesters worked together to cause thousands of dollars in damage, but watchdogs called the use of the 1990s-era law troubling."
Billboards in Kentucky urge justice for killing of Taylor
If that doesn't work, they will come to your door.
Bikers arrive by the thousand to S. Dakota rally
What's with the noise?
Milwaukee demotes police chief over job performance
Maybe they can run him out like the Globe did to the chief in Methuen.
Lynn man charged in July shooting of Roxbury convenience store clerk
A Brockton police photo of Stephon Samuel (Brockton Police Department)
Looks like a pleasant enough fella, even with the coke nose.
He also killed a woman while trying to get away.
Related:
"A local road commission meeting in northern Michigan on Monday started with one commissioner asking another why he wasn’t wearing a mask amid the coronavirus pandemic. The unmasked official responded with a racist slur and an angry rant against the Black Lives Matter movement. “Well, this whole thing is because of them n-----s in Detroit,” Tom Eckerle, who was elected to his position on the Leelanau County Road Commission in 2018, told his colleague at the start of the public meeting. The commission chairman, Bob Joyce, immediately rebuked his colleague, but Eckerle, who is white, continued his diatribe. The racist remark spurred widespread condemnation of Eckerle, who is a Republican, and calls from party officials for him to resign."
"A new public health emergency order requiring all residents and visitors to wear a mask or other face covering downtown and in other popular gathering spots took effect Friday, city officials said. The order also applies to the boardwalk and the Clipper City Rail Trail, Mayor Donna Holaday and Health Director Frank Giacalone in a joint statement. The order, which aims to limit the spread of COVID-19, applies to both indoor and outdoor spaces and businesses, the statement said. It will be in effect until further notice. People are also reminded to practice social distancing, by staying at least 6 feet away from others, and to wash or sanitize their hands. “The emergency order will help to keep our community and downtown businesses and employees safe,” Holaday said in the statement."
To wear or not to wear, that is the question.
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Back to Scowcroft's realm:
Lebanon president says he knew of chemicals at port in July
Then why didn't he do anything about it?
Show of solidarity after blast as Lebanon braces for protest
Related:
Beirut Blast Brings Call For Regime Change
Also see:
"Egypt is requiring noncitizens to test negative for the coronavirus before traveling to the country. The new regulation, announced by Prime Minister Mostaf Madbouly, says arrivals should have a test for the virus no more than 72 hours before traveling. Egypt confirmed more than 95,000 total cases of the coronavirus and 4,951 deaths as of Friday, according to the country’s health ministry. Deaths have declined in recent weeks. Egypt reopened its borders to tourists in July after months of an international flight ban."
I would stay out of Egypt as a rule of thumb.
