We’ve spent so much time on domestic issues, charges and media bias. Today we want to focus on foreign affairs and the mess that failed leadership has created.
We’ll make one reference to current news. We don’t know where the Russian/Donald Trump Jr. meeting is going. Did he meet because he thought he could get some dirt on Hillary? It certainly appears so. Does that mean that the Trump campaign was willing to work with Russia to beat Hillary? It could. Did they? There is no evidence yet. Does it appear one or more votes were impacted? No. Will the story run for weeks or longer? Yes. Does anyone (in the MSM) care that Bill Clinton got paid $500K for a speech in Russia after Hillary signed off on a deal that gave Russia 20% of U.S.uranium mining? No, they don’t care. Why? You answer that.
Here’s a link to a NYT story in April 2015 that reported all that:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/24/us/cash-flowed-to-clinton-foundation-as-russians-pressed-for-control-of-uranium-company.html
The Foreign Mess:
You want to know why North Korea is such a problem now? The answer is failed leadership. Very simply since the armistice agreement in 1953 that divided the country it has been a disaster waiting to happen. The leadership from past Presidents, especially the last 24 years, has done nothing except kick the issue forward. In that time, Clinton, Bush and Obama have sought phony compromises and pushed the real problems forward to the next administration. Finally, North Korea has the capability to do major damage and we are left with no good options. If you remember Bush called North Korea one of the three axis of evils.
So now what?
Our best options, short of military action, is to get N. Korea’s best trading partners to stand with us. That would be China and Japan. It seems clear that Japan is willing to step up, but China is not. We cannot succeed in applying pressure without China. We would suggest some hardball here. By that we mean:
For supporting us, and applying economic sanctions, we should sign a pact similar to NATO rule 5 with those surrounding countries. That says an attack on one (from N. Korea) is attack on us all. Then we should initiate a protective anti missile shield on their borders to protect them. Let North Korea know we mean business and this is going to hurt economically immediately and be deadly if any missile goes awry. It will also send a message to China that they are alone if they continue to support North Korea and have no protections. In fact, should N. Korea attack them they are on their own.
From there we tighten things. If after some time this doesn’t work we begin to apply trade restrictions on China. That would be from us and those aligned with us. China has to feel supporting N. Korea is worse for them than not supporting them.
In the end it may not work and it may require action, but that’s the price of passing the buck. It only gets harder.
Now think about the above and consider Iran (also identified by Bush as one of the three). Have you noticed how quiet they have been? You know why? They are smarter than Kim Jong Un the leader of N. Korea. The Iranians know Trump is no Obama, Bush or Clinton. They know he would act. So they quiet down now, fully realizing that if they stay within the agreement they signed with Obama they can develop their weapons over time and outlast Trump. Failed leadership on our part just pushed the problem down the road. Our children and grandchildren will have to deal with it because we wouldn’t. Just as we are dealing with all the conflicts that arose out the 1978 uprising in Iran that President Carter failed to act upon. You remember how they got smart in 1980 and released our hostages the minute Reagan raised his hand? They were quiet until later. They are doing the same now.
Speaking of Reagan, one more thing on the missiles we are deploying today that are defensive and work to destroy incoming attacks are from his vision back in the 80’s. Some of you may remember how liberals fought against them and mocked the idea calling it Star Wars. They were wrong and he had enough votes to get it done. Today it is the key piece of our protection shield.
We can’t discuss foreign policy without talking about radical islam and ISIS in particular. They are on the run. Out of Mosul as of yesterday and retreating to an ever smaller area of control. They are being chased and surrounded. Their future is bleak. Leadership and commitment to win make a difference.
One key player in the area that sooner or later needs to be addressed is Pakistan. They have walked a fine line since 2001. Remember Bin Laden was hiding there. The Taliban strike in Afghanistan and flee to sanctuary in Pakistan. Yet we give them hundreds of millions of aid each year because they located in a region we need access. In addition they are a nuclear power. It is time to expect more from them.
Here’s an interesting perspective from the Washington Times if you want to read it.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jul/10/pakistan-shows-long-history-of-duplicity/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWVRjek9URXlOakV3T1dVeCIsInQiOiJPb0VpYTVxWHhMc3NLNGRKOTYyRzBYRnl6YmxlS1wvWlVIMDlqbmsxQkt2ZlwvRnBiQkdHcWNKakJlRW9BSHFaQmZlRmNZYTZZdzd2MUtuTjVraTRDa2o3NWw4NFlsMUpmNUp0NkdGSDk5MGJJcEZEck1RT3R2WUU2YjhMRGlxbXB0In0%3D
So what will Europe do now? They’ve been banged around, attacked and battered. Their are signs that some of the countries are awakening and know their future needs change of direction. Keep a watch on England as they begin to plan their exit from the EU. Let’s see what France, Germany and Belgium do in light of recent attacks. They make take a cue from Trump before it’s over and toughen up.
Finally Russia. We can never trust Putin, that’s for sure. But he is smart enough to know an alliance with us can do him some good, too and he can’t attack a Ukraine or Crimea with this President as he did the last. So how do we use him and his country to advance joint goals? He can’t want a nuclear N. Korea, since he is closer to them than us. So with open eyes and at arms length, we should negotiate what is in our best interests.
The key to everything above is strength. Peace through strength was the term 30 years ago. It works today. We don’t get into fights and wars because the enemy thinks we are too strong. It is when they conceive we are weak. Weak either in spirit, commitment or strength. Trump and Mattis will deal from strength, and outside of N. Korea and their nut job of a leader the world should be a quieter place for a while. But in his case we need to fix what failed leadership has not done.
That’s our view of the world today.
The Ratings:
Fox dominated Saturday night and won Sunday. ABC won the Morning show and evening news ratings for last week (Week of July 3). See below.
Total Viewers (Live +SD)….. SATURDAY
- Total day: FNC: 1.346 | CNN: 576 | MSNBC: 524 | HLN: 272
- Prime time: FNC: 1.765 | CNN: 526 | MSNBC: 448 | HLN: 298
| 4p: | 5p: | 6p: | 7p: | 8p: | 9p: | 10p: | 11p: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FNC | NwsHQ: 951 |
NewsHQ: 1.097 |
NewsHQ: 1.159 |
Report: 1.225 |
Watters: 1.864 |
Pirro: 1.984 |
Gutfeld: 1.447 |
Watters: 1.190 |
| CNN | Nwsrm: 567 |
Nwsrm: 513 |
Smerc: 503 |
Nwsrm: 563 |
Nwsrm: 535 |
80s: 457 |
80s: 587 |
80s: 487 |
| MSNBC | News: 503 |
News: 518 |
AMJoy: 448 |
Maddow: 454 |
O’Donnell: 499 |
11thHour: 524 |
Lockup: 320 |
Lockup: 334 |
| HLN | Files: 266 |
Files: 259 |
Files: 231 |
Files: 254 |
Files: 283 |
Files: 254 |
Files: 355 |
Files: 432 |
Total Viewers (Live +SD) SUNDAY
- Total day: FNC: 1.109 | CNN: 713 | MSNBC: 489 | HLN: 319
- Primetime: FNC: 1.252 | CNN: 1.021 | MSNBC: 426 | HLN: 397
| 4p: | 5p: | 6p: | 7p: | 8p: | 9p: | 10p: | 11p: | |
| FNC | NewsHQ: 855 |
Gutfeld: 894 |
NewsHQ: 1.075 |
Report: 1.160 |
Watters: 1.333 |
Hilton: 1.310 |
FNSunday: 1.112 |
Watters: 883 |
| CNN | Nwsrm: 516 |
Nwsrm: 637 |
Nwsrm: 647 |
Nwsrm: 729 |
Nwsrm: 779 |
90s: 1.122 |
90s: 1.163 |
80s: 740 |
| MSNBC | News: 490 |
News: 584 |
News: 580 |
MTP: 623 |
EngelSpcl: 504 |
DtelineXtra: 496 |
Lockup: 278 |
Lockup: 376 |
| HLN | Files: 296 |
Files: 357 |
Files: 324 |
Files: 379 |
RsnbleDbt: 449 |
DthRow: 354 |
DthRow: 389 |
RsnbleDbt: 412 |
The Morning Show Rating Week of July 3.
The averages for the week of July 3, 2017:
Total Viewers: ABC: 3.837 M / NBC: 3.605 M / CBS: 3.101 M
The Evening News Week of July 3.
Numbers for the week of July 3:
| ABC | NBC | CBS | |
|---|---|---|---|
| • Total Viewers: | 7,418,000 | 7,162,000 | 5,711,000 |
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