RUTHFULLY YOURS

The former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who bridged the Bush and Obama administrations warned that the most potentially explosive security issue the incoming administration will have to deal with is North Korea and nuclear weapons.

Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, who served as chairman from 2007 to 2011 and is now a professor at Princeton University, said the presidential transition entails “leaving campaign rhetoric behind and the reality of governing, which just hits you square in the face.”

“And so focusing on, finding out and focusing on the real issues that are facing the current administration and then developing policies and strategies, if you will, to meet those challenges,” he told ABC this morning.

Mullen said he’s “encouraged, actually” by the fact that Donald Trump “is turning to people” who have adequate foreign policy experience.

“And that will really make a difference. The world is very unforgiving. And he has said, rightfully so, that he wants to focus here in the United States,” he said. “But I’ve always found, certainly in my time, that challenges that exist internationally, whether it’s North Korea or China or Russia or the Middle East, will certainly be on his desk on day one.”

Mullen singled out the Korean peninsula as “more likely than anyplace else in the world to potentially create an explosive outcome, particularly tied to the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.”

“Realize that he has nuclear weapons and the inability so far to contain him in that regard. And that’s a place where four of the five top economies in the world are centered. Stability there is critical, and at least North Korea historically has generated a surprise, if you will, for new leaders in this country,” the admiral continued, acknowledging that neither the Bush policy nor the Obama policy succeeded at reining in the regime. CONTINUE AT SITE

In a country like Italy, which has seen 63 governments since 1948, political stability is more than a campaign slogan. But it appears a real possibility that Grillo’s Five Star Party and their allies in Lega Nord may be on the cusp of once again overturning the establishment and making history.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is staking his political future on a referendum to be held next Sunday that would change the Italian constitution by weakening the upper house of parliament and strengthening the central government.

Foolishly, Renzi said he would resign if he lost the vote. This galvanized opposition parties to make the referendum a vote on Renzi’s tenure as prime minister.

Now it appears that the anti-establishment forces who successfully pushed through a British exit from the EU and elected Donald Trump president of the U.S. are ready to deal a crippling blow to Renzi’s center-left coalition by defeating the constitutional changes.

And waiting in the wings if Renzi follows through with his promise are two anti-establishment newcomers who are both committed to blowing up the EU.

Newsweek:

A defeat for Renzi will be read as a victory for Italy’s two major populist parties: the Lega Nord and the larger Five Star Movement, led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. The two parties are not allied, but both are nurtured by anti-establishment sentiment and favor “national solutions” to Italy’s problems – beginning with a return to the Italian lira.

If Renzi is defeated, Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement could join forces to support a new government and hold a new referendum – this time on the euro. If Italy – one of the world’s largest public debtors – decided to go it alone, the entire European project could be dealt a mortal blow. In the age of Donald Trump and Brexit, that outcome is far from unthinkable.

The issue at stake in the referendum is not inconsequential, but it should not decide the fate of Europe. Italians will vote on whether to strip the Senate (the parliament’s upper house) of two-thirds of its members and much of its legislative authority, making it merely a talking shop akin to the second chamber of Germany’s Bundesrat, and return some of the regions’ powers to the central government.

Changes like these have been discussed for 30 years. The lack of movement could benefit Renzi, if voters conclude that they should not waste such a rare opportunity to do something to reform their sclerotic system. President Sergio Mattarella is impartial, but he would prefer that the reforms go forward. His predecessor, Giorgio Napolitano, is also strongly in favor of the reforms, which he sayswould be “great news for Italy.”

MILAN – In the last 68 years, Italy has held 17 general elections and a few referenda. But only three times has an Italian vote claimed center stage internationally: in 1948, when the choice was between the West and communism; in 1976, when voters faced a similar choice, between the Christian Democrats and Enrico Berlinguer’s “Eurocommunism”; and now, with the upcoming referendum on constitutional reforms.

The implications of the upcoming vote are enormous. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has staked his political future on the vote, pledging to step down (though not immediately) if the reforms are rejected. Such an outcome that would irreparably weaken the center-left government coalition as well: Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) is already roiled by infighting over the reforms. In fact, the PD may not be able to avoid a split even if the vote goes the prime minister’s way.

A defeat for Renzi will be read as a victory for Italy’s two major populist parties: the Lega Nord and the larger Five Star Movement, led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. The two parties are not allied, but both are nurtured by anti-establishment sentiment and favor “national solutions” to Italy’s problems – beginning with a return to the Italian lira.

If Renzi is defeated, Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement could join forces to support a new government and hold a new referendum – this time on the euro. If Italy – one of the world’s largest public debtors – decided to go it alone, the entire European project could be dealt a mortal blow. In the age of Donald Trump and Brexit, that outcome is far from unthinkable.

The issue at stake in the referendum is not inconsequential, but it should not decide the fate of Europe. Italians will vote on whether to strip the Senate (the parliament’s upper house) of two-thirds of its members and much of its legislative authority, making it merely a talking shop akin to the second chamber of Germany’s Bundesrat, and return some of the regions’ powers to the central government.

PARIS—By choosing François Fillon as their candidate for the presidential election, the French center-right has opted for a mild-mannered conservative known for the alarm he has sounded about the country’s high public-debt levels.

The 62-year-old nominee for the center-right Républicains party emerges from the shadow of Nicolas Sarkozy, the former president who dominated the French right for over a decade with a brash and divisive leadership style.

Mr. Fillon served as Mr. Sarkozy’s prime minister, and the two men share a core policy stance that is socially conservative and favors rolling back the reach of the state. But Mr. Fillon’s calm demeanor marks a stark change in style for the French right.

An automobile and mountaineering enthusiast with a stately home in western France, Mr. Fillon at times clashed with Mr. Sarkozy, who once belittled his prime minister by describing him as an assistant. Mr. Fillon has struck back with a quietly prepared election platform that blew apart the center-right primary race in the final stretch and Mr. Sarkozy’s dreams of a presidential comeback.

“I love resisting a tenacious rival who is catching up with me or watching for an opening to jump into and overtake the person ahead of me,” Mr. Fillon said in a 2015 book describing his passion for politics and racing cars.

The son of a rural notary, Mr. Fillon boasts close ties with farming communities in the Sarthe, the region where he grew up and which he praises as “balanced, moderate and tolerant.” Unlike most French politicians who refrain from making public statements about their religious beliefs, Mr. Fillon hasn’t shied away from discussing his Catholic faith.

“I grew up in this tradition, and I kept this faith,” Mr. Fillon says in his book. CONTINUE AT SITE

It is never a sad day when a monster dies.

Fidel Castro, the mass murderer who sadistically tormented the Cuban people for nearly fifty years, died on Friday at the age of 90. Thousands of Cuban exiles understandably celebrated in the streets of Miami. Leftists around the world, meanwhile, dutifully mourned their fallen secular deity. Progressives always grieve when the vicious enforcers of class hatred die.

While leftists sob for one of the most evil tyrants of the modern era, those who cherish freedom and human rights are never sad to have one less monster walking the earth.

And so, on this significant occasion, it would do well to offer a reflection on the pain and blood that this particular monster left in his wake.

On July 13, 1994, 72 desperate Cuban citizens, including seniors and young children, floated on a wooden tugboat in a turbulent sea, trying to make their way to Florida and dreaming of the freedom that now lingered within their grasp. Their aspirations were met with a nightmarish jolt when Castro’s patrol boats suddenly rammed the back of their vessel. The frightened women held up their little children in the air to let Castro’s thugs know what the situation entailed. And the thugs returned their expected response: on the orders of the head beast in charge, they blasted the mothers with children in hand with their water cannon, mowing them — and all the other escapees on board — into the merciless waves.

Maria Garcia lost her son, Juanito, that tragic day. She also lost her husband, brother, sister, two uncles and three cousins. In all, 43 people drowned — 11 of them children. This evil murderous act became known as Castro’s Tugboat Massacre. Yisel Alvarez was 4 when she drowned. Carlos Anaya was 3. Helen Martinez was 6 months old.

Castro gave the orders for this evil massacre — and the deaths of Carlos, Yisel and Helen made him especially proud. That is why he personally decorated one of the water-cannon gunners himself.

Fidel had always derived special pleasure from sending helicopters to drop sandbags onto the rafts of would-be escapees from his prison-island, or to just gun them all down. The Tugboat Massacre, however, proved to be a special delight for him, because there were children involved. And the blood of innocent children, as Anna Geifman documents, is always a special delicacy for totalitarian death cults, whether they be of the communist or Islamist variety.

Mexico City — Fidel Castro was a remarkably lucky dictator. Unlike many — Romania’s Ceausescu and Libya’s Qaddafi come to mind — he wasn’t executed by his own people and instead died in bed at age 90. During the Cuban missile crisis, he wrung a secret promise from the U.S. that it would never invade Cuba. He then survived dozens of assassination attempts by the Kennedy administration until a Castro sympathizer named Lee Harvey Oswald put a stop to them and to the life of President Kennedy in 1963.

Castro ruled for another 45 years after that, until his retirement in 2008, persecuting dissidents, jailing gays, and murdering opponents. Even after he turned power over to his brother Raul, Fidel continued to be feted and admired by world leaders. Few dictators could have collected the kind of respectful foreign tributes that poured in from Western countries after his death last Friday.

Here in Mexico, which harbored the young revolutionary Castro and provided the launching pad for his return to Cuba in 1956, the response from government officials was pathetic. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called Castro a friend of Mexico who had promoted bilateral relationships based on “respect, dialogue, and solidarity.”

Miguel Angel Mancera, the head of government in Mexico City, also expressed solidarity with Fidel on his Twitter account: “Death of an icon of history, Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution, go with the people of Cuba in their mourning. Rest in peace #MM”

But none of the Mexican officials descended to the depths of Jill Stein, leader of America’s Green party. She took time off fundraising to launch recounts of this month’s presidential election to tweet her homage: “Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire. Presente!”

EU Leader Jean-Claude Juncker added to the encomia, tweeting, “With the death of #FidelCastro, the world has lost a man who was a hero for many.”