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In the animal kingdom, the rule is, eat or be eaten; in the human kingdom, define or be defined. Thomas Szasz






DAILY SPECIALS









DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

  DOD







Pro-Kremlin Media Capitalize on NATO Soldier’s Blunder

NATO’s Ukraine challenge Ukrainians want membership, but obstacles abound

Can Russia invade Europe?



NATO campaign: Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and President Duda are also developing plans to project Polish power globally, including winning U.S. support for Poland to take the position of NATO deputy secretary-general, soon to be vacated by Rose Gottemoeller. Duda will soon visit U.S President Donald Trump in Washington, and will use the visit as a NATO campaigning opportunity, Polish diplomats told Influence. [POLITICO EU Influence, June 27, 2019]
JOHN BOLTON  

National Security Advisor   
       






DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (DHS)





Firearms Groups Relocate to the Trump Hotel
A pair of leading firearms trade associations will hold an annual import and export policy conference at Donald Trump’s hotel in Washington, D.C. next month—right as the administration finalizes a controversial change to federal gun-trading rules for which both groups have pressed.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation and the Firearms & Ammunition Import/Export Roundtable will hold their annual Import/Export Conference at the Trump International Hotelbeginning on July 30. The venue is a shift from Washington’s Grand Hyatt hotel, where the confab took place last year.

The conference is just the latest in a long line of trade-association events at Trump’s hotel, just blocks from the White House. From payday lenders to seasonal immigrant labor advocates to e-cigarette manufacturers, a wide swath of industries have patronized the Old Post Office, which last year earned Trump the second-most revenue of any of his hotels, resorts, and golf courses.

Good-government groups have argued since Trump took office that his refusal to divest from his portfolio of real-estate assets would encourage those seeking favor from the administration to patronize those properties.

NSSF, for its part, says its choice of hotel has nothing to do with any of its policy work. “We’ve had this conference in DC every year we’ve had it, this year it just happens to be at the Trump Hotel,” a spokesman said.

According to NSSF’s website, topics at past conferences have included “Export Control Reform” and the “USML-CCL transition plan.” That transition plan, on which NSSF’s lobbyists have also been working, involves a shift of authority over rules governing some firearms exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department.

The seemingly obscure change, which is close to being finalized, has drawn heated criticism from gun-control groups. A coalition of those groups warned last month that the shift “will thwart congressional oversight and create new and unacceptable risks of exacerbating gun violence, human-rights abuses, and armed conflict.”

Larry Keane, the NSSF’s top lobbyist, maintains that the change will “more efficiently [accomplish] the national-security and foreign-policy objectives of the controls” and “reduce unnecessary burdens for both the government and industry.” [Daily Beast, Pay Dirt, June 13, 2019]



SPEAKING OUT


Where a Cabinet secretary is doing things that are going to help her husband get reelected, that starts to rise to the level of feeling more like corruption to the average American."
June 10, 2019 | John Hudak, Politico



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BRAZIL








AFGHANISTAN

There's a huge brouhaha roiling Australia and free press advocates worldwide: Police raids on the offices of the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and the home of a prominent journalist. The raids, during which police seized computers, e-mails, notes, documents, and other paperwork, stem from two investigative stories that used information from whistleblowers.

In the first case, the ABC published a series of stories in July 2017 that revealed allegations that Australian special forces were involved in killing unarmed men and children while serving in Afghanistan. The network received classified documents from David McBride, a former Australian defense force lawyer (and former British army captain in the Blues and Royals), who is now facing charges.

In the other case, the raid on the Canberra home of journalistAnnika Smethurst apparently was related to her 2018 article that said Australia's spy agency wanted to broaden its surveillance powers. Smethurst is national politics editor at the Sunday Telegraph and other newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

ABC and News Corp., as well as reporters, editors, and journalism groups around the world, have condemned the raid as outrageous, heavy-handed, and designed to intimidate other news organizations and whistleblowers from exposing government misconduct. The government says it needs to protect its classified secrets. [Boston Globe, Fast Forward, June 7, 2019]



RUSSIA







SOUTH AFRICA







NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as  a "community service" announcement.  These again are shared for their varying perspectives.


Any commercial or business interest information shared is purely informational, not an endorsement.  I have no connection with any such commercial or business interest.

Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post.  Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse.  They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended.
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