RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17109/nuclear-inspectors-iran

In the latest example of Iran’s increasingly reckless approach to the nuclear issue, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, just below the 90 percent threshold required to produce weapons grade material.

Thus, while IAEA director general Rafael Grossi claimed the talks had been a success, the IAEA now finds itself in the invidious position whereby it will not be able to ascertain whether Iran is actively working to produce nuclear weapons until after the event.

Even Mr Grossi has been forced to concede that, as a result of Iran’s decision to withdraw access to inspection teams, the IAEA’s ability to monitor Iran’s activities will be reduced by 70 percent.

In the latest blow to the IAEA’s credibility, within hours of Mr Grossi concluding his compromise deal, Mr Khamenei exposed the futility of this approach with his threat that Iran was prepared to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, a move that would make any attempt to revive the JCPOA utterly doomed.

As Iran continues to maintain its defiance over its controversial nuclear programme, the failure of the UN-body responsible for monitoring Iran’s activities is only lending further encouragement to the ayatollahs to indulge in further acts of dangerous brinkmanship.

In the latest example of Iran’s increasingly reckless approach to the nuclear issue, the country’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has threatened to increase uranium enrichment to 60 percent, just below the 90 percent threshold required to produce weapons grade material.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/if_nobodys_home_who_called_out_the_syria_airstrike.html

Seven weeks into his presidency, senile Joe Biden surprised many by calling in a Syria air strike.

It was puzzling, given that there seemed to be no immediate threat.  And that’s just for starters.

It was billed as a strike on pro-Iran militants stationed in the region, and in retaliation for an earlier strike of theirs against a U.S. installation.  That seems a little eyebrow-raising, given Biden’s eagerness to make nice with the mullahs.  Even that explanation has skeptics who call the whole thing laughable.

There are also those who think Biden is finishing up what President Obama started.  You know, for the legacy thing.  Favor to a pal.

What’s vivid is that questions are being raised about whether Joe really made the call.

First, note that his vice president, Kamala Harris, was kept out of the loop.  According to a report citing a White House official, she’s said to be steaming that nobody told her before it happened.  And she’s probably more steamed to learn that that news got out, advertising for everyone that her giggly round-heeled self is viewed, even in the Biden White House, as a lightweight.

But we already knew that.

What’s also news is that on more than one occasion, she’s publicly opposed attacking Syria.  Here’s her famous tweet everyone’s retweeting, exposing her supposed (in this case) hypocrisy:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-mixed-iran-messages-11614382234?mod=opinion_lead_pos1

Friday morning’s airstrike against Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria sends a clear message: President Biden will use force to defend American lives. But this welcome development is an exception to the rest of Mr. Biden’s emerging Iran policy.

The President authorized the mission Thursday as a response to deadly rocket attacks against American and allied personnel in Iraq this month. The strikes, meant to target the Iranian proxies Kataib Hezbollah and Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada, destroyed several weapons storage facilities.

The Pentagon didn’t confirm casualty numbers, but media reports suggest well over a dozen pro-Iranian fighters were killed as the U.S. also struck trucks loaded with weapons. The message will be heard in Tehran and by other U.S. adversaries.

On the other hand, there’s Mr. Biden’s seemingly eager desire to return to the flawed 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. After announcing that Washington couldn’t “snap back” United Nations sanctions, the new Administration is consulting with South Korea about releasing at least $1 billion in frozen Iranian assets. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this week the U.S. wants to “lengthen and strengthen” the accord—good—but then said President Trump’s sanctions on Iran had failed.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/help-wanted-america-must-resume-its-postwar-role-promoting-freedom-178830

“We’re at an inflection point,” President Joe Biden told the Munich Security Conference the other day, “between those who argue that . . . autocracy is the best way forward” and “those who understand that democracy is essential” to meeting the world’s economic, health, and other challenges.

A month into his presidency, Biden seems deeply committed to restoring America’s moral voice, to resurrecting its traditional postwar role of promoting freedom and democracy around the world.

“We must start,” he told State Department employees, “with diplomacy rooted in America’s most cherished democratic values: defending freedom, championing opportunity, upholding universal rights, respecting the rule of law, and treating every person with dignity.” At a CNN town hall, he spoke passionately about rebuilding the U.S. refugee program that former President Donald Trump severely curtailed, describing “people piled up in camps, kids dying, no way out, refugees fleeing from persecution” – and about an America that “used to do our part” in accepting refugees in far greater number.

Biden recognizes that America promotes freedom and democracy for reasons of not just morality but self-interest – that a freer, more democratic world will be a safer, more prosperous one for us; and that we can best meet the challenge of what he calls “advancing authoritarianism” by highlighting the advantages of U.S.-led freedom over its authoritarian alternatives in Beijing, Moscow, and elsewhere.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17054/us-arming-china

China’s greatest financial weakness remains its continued dependence on Western capital markets, crucial for a growing economy…. To grow, China depends on massive inflows of capital that surge through the capital markets based in the U.S. The Trump administration made several moves during its term to delist Chinese companies that are not forthcoming about who really owns them and what businesses they are really engaged in.

[S]ince 2013, Chinese state-owned enterprises have enjoyed exemptions from Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory requirements that also force greater transparency from these companies. They were the only ones granted these exemptions while still being listed on New York stock markets. What if those exemptions were removed?

The only relevant screening in the US happens through the same government body that approved the sale of Uranium One to Russian government-backed investors, called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

Yet, U.S. capital markets currently have no such insulation. So we have capital markets which freely trade the shares of companies that have violated international sanctions, sold America’s adversaries advanced ballistic missiles, armed the PLA, and helped militarize the fabricated new islands in the South China Sea. These companies freely receive investment dollars from ordinary Americans saving for their retirement, unaware of their real activities and ownership.

This January, the New York Stock Exchange began the process of delisting three Chinese telecom companies…. The administration said the three firms are owned or controlled by China’s military.

No one wants to damage the investment portfolios of American retirement savers. But the dark side of this exposure is what may become of U.S. resolve to stand up to Beijing if 180 million Americans realize that up to 20% of their retirement funds are locked into Chinese securities. These Americans would suddenly have a personal, vested interest in opposing any future sanctions or other penalties against China, regardless of the geopolitical sense or national security implications. That prospect should encourage Congress to move sooner rather than later.

President Ronald Reagan knew the weaknesses of the Soviet Union. Unlike his predecessors, he did not focus on countering their strengths, but by exploiting those problems of life under a Marxist-Leninist regime that were impossible for them to fix. Reagan’s policies targeted many weaknesses – religious, political, military, and cultural among them – but his focus on Russia’s economic problems exposed those other weaknesses by choking the regime’s ability even to throw money at other problems.

Today, the most pressing threats do not come from Russia. They come from the growing power exerted by China. So, the question becomes: Can we apply these today lessons to China? With the massive, worldwide reach of China, its economic power and military build-up combine to pose strategic threats to the U.S. and the free world. Reagan’s strategy, however, can counter these threats and reduce others posed by the Chinese dragon.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/02/why_did_the_biden_administration_approve_a_pipeline_for_russia_to_germany_but_not_from_canada_to_the_us.html

President Biden blocked the Keystone pipeline from Canada to the U.S., ostensibly due to environmental concerns and claims about global warming, even though the long planned project had cleared all environmental hurdles.

Yet the Biden State department just effectively approved an energy pipeline from Russia to Germany.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

The State Department in a report to Congress didn’t name new companies as targets for sanctions related to an $11 billion pipeline designed to transmit Russian natural gas to Germany, allowing work on the pipeline to continue unabated for now.

Some Republican lawmakers criticized the State Department over the Nord Stream 2 report, which was required by Congress, and both Republicans and a key Democrat requested an explanation of the administration’s position.

Count that as a win for pipelines — for others, just not us.  The rest of the press is focusing on Biden making his “decisions,” but with this news, the direction of this administration is clear.

It is clear that jobs in Europe and Russia are more important to Biden than jobs in the United States.  Energy from fossil fuels is also OK in Europe, just not here.