北朝鮮問題。アメリカとの戦争交戦への可能性や緊迫度は周りが心配するほどに実際の両陣営の動きから大きくない。トランプは外交での解決が先で、中国への期待が大きいというニューヨークタイムズ記事。ちょっとガッカリ、笑。
*****
Asia Pacific
The Drumbeats Don’t Add Up to Imminent War With North Korea
By MARK LANDLERAPRIL 26, 2017 New York Times
Photo=The aircraft carrier Carl Vinson in the Philippine Sea on Wednesday. President Trump recently deployed it near North Korea. Credit Sean M. Castellano/U.S. Navy
WASHINGTON ― President Trump summoned all 100 members of the Senate for a briefing by his war cabinet on the mounting tensions with North Korea. An American submarine loaded with Tomahawk missiles surfaced in a port in South Korea. Gas stations in the North shut down amid rumors that the government was stockpiling fuel.
Americans could be forgiven for thinking that war is about to break out. But it is not.
The drumbeat of bellicose threats and military muscle-flexing on both sides overstates the danger of a clash between the United States and North Korea, senior Trump administration officials and experts who have followed the Korean crisis for decades said. While Mr. Trump regards the rogue government in the North as his most pressing international problem, he told the senators he was pursuing a strategy that relied heavily on using China’s economic leverage to curb its neighbor’s provocative behavior.
Recent American military moves ― like deploying the submarine Michigan and the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to the waters off the Korean Peninsula ― were aimed less at preparing for a pre-emptive strike, officials said, than at discouraging the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, from conducting further nuclear or ballistic missile tests.
“In confronting the reckless North Korean regime, it’s critical that we’re guided by a strong sense of resolve, both privately and publicly, both diplomatically and militarily,” Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the Pentagon’s top commander in the Pacific, told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.
“We want to bring Kim Jong-un to his senses,” he said, “not to his knees.”
There are other signs that the tensions fall short of war. Mr. Kim continues to appear in public, most recently at a pig farm last weekend. South Koreans are not flooding supermarkets to stock up on food. There is no talk of evacuating cities and no sign the United States is deploying additional forces to South Korea. Nor is the American Embassy in Seoul advising diplomats’ families to leave the country.
All those things happened in the spring of 1994, when President Bill Clinton was considering a pre-emptive strike on a North Korean reactor to prevent the North from extracting plutonium that it could use to make a bomb. That is the closest the United States has come to a military clash with North Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
“The reality is not as tense as the rhetoric on both sides would lead you to believe,” said Joel S. Wit, an expert on North Korea at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
None of this is to say there is no risk of miscalculation that could escalate into hostilities. Mr. Trump’s penchant for provocative statements introduced an element of unpredictability to a relationship in which the uncertainty has historically been on the North Korean side. How Mr. Kim reacts is the major variable in a complicated equation.
North Korea is also steadily adding to its nuclear arsenal and edging closer to testing an intercontinental ballistic missile, tipped with a warhead, that could hit the United States. Intelligence estimates vary on how quickly that could happen, but some say within three years: a timetable that would put a successful test within Mr. Trump’s term in office.
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“No previous president has ever been in that situation,” said Victor D. Cha, director of the Asian studies program at Georgetown University, who advised the administration of George W. Bush on North Korea. “I don’t think we’re going to war, but we’re in a different phase.”
Mr. Cha said he viewed the briefing for senators as part of an effort by the White House to signal the seriousness of North Korea to an American public that regards it as a distant, complicated issue. But others criticized the president for being theatrical, with some saying he was using the senators as a prop to burnish his 100-day record.
“There was very little, if anything, new,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It is still unclear what our strategy and policy is.”
Even some Republican senators complained afterward that they had learned little and wondered why they needed to pile into buses for the trip from Capitol Hill to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, where they were seated in an auditorium.
“I’m not sure I would have done it,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He said he was not sure why the briefing had been timed for this week and begged off further comment, adding, “All I can say is, it was fine.”
White House officials said they had been responding to a request from Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and that Mr. Trump had proposed moving the site of the briefing. He spoke to the senators for less than three minutes, mainly promoting his efforts to persuade President Xi Jinping of China to put more economic pressure on North Korea.
Mr. Trump then turned the briefing over to Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson; Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis; the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats; and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr.
Analysts said it was too early to assess Mr. Trump’s claim that the Chinese were finally cooperating with the United States. Previous presidents believed they had made headway with Beijing, only to have China’s actions fall short of expectations.
The reports of closed gas stations in North Korea were intriguing, analysts said, because they suggested that the North was bracing for a suspension of fuel shipments from China. The Chinese have yet to take such a step, though they have curtailed purchases of North Korean coal.
In a separate briefing for reporters, the White House said Mr. Trump had decided on a strategy that would include diplomacy to persuade China to keep up pressure on its neighbor, as well as military preparations.
A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, declined to discuss the nature of the military preparations or the timetable for seeing a change in North Korea’s behavior. He also said the administration was considering returning North Korea to the government’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.
On Thursday morning, the National Security Council will hold a principals committee meeting to weigh economic and military options.
Admiral Harris told lawmakers that North Korea’s recent setbacks in its missile launches would not slow the country’s efforts to achieve its nuclear goals.
“With every test, Kim Jong-un moves closer to his stated goal of a pre-emptive nuclear strike capability against American cities, and he’s not afraid to fail in public,” he told the House Armed Services Committee in a hearing on security challenges in the region.
Admiral Harris welcomed China’s role in influencing the North, but also singled it out for criticism. “While recent actions by Beijing are encouraging and welcome, the fact remains that China is as responsible for where North Korea is today as North Korea itself,” he said.
Reporting was contributed by Eric Schmitt, Jonathan Martin, Matt Flegenheimer and David E. Sanger.
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アメリカの草の根活動を社会的にも政治的にも支えている活動家たちの層の厚さはアメリカを語るときに無視できない。エリートずらした自称・活動家が新聞・雑誌・テレビで著作物の宣伝に駆け巡っているのが日本の風景である。アメリカと日本-人生とは、あるいは生きがいとは何か？大学教育を含めた教育の究極の目的をも考えさせられる記事である。
***
When weary L.A. activists need relief from Trump, this is where they go
May29, 2017 Esmeralda Bermudez Contact Reporter / Los Angles Times
There are nights when Bryon Alvarez can’t get the stories of the immigrants he works with out of his head.
Dozens of men, women and children who have been physically or sexually abused are relying on his aid to get legal status. Now they’re panicked that instead they’ll be sent home.
“You want to help everyone,” said the legal assistant at the Central American Resource Center in Westlake. “But no matter how hard you work, it’s impossible.”
There are days when his colleague Susana Zamorano comes home so frustrated, she feels she’s going to break down.
“It’s like I’m in the middle of an endless ocean. I have to find strength,” said Zamorano, a program coordinator at the center, also called Carecen.
Many activists in Los Angeles have been in the trenches for years, fighting for immigrant rights and social justice. They know strategy. They know crisis.
But five months into the Trump presidency, they’ve never had their endurance so tested.
So, in need of relief themselves, they go to a longtime community organizer for help.
In his workshops and webinars, Victor Narro tells them to unplug, garden, hike, dance, volunteer, build altars at their cubicles and look at photos that bring them joy. They’re in it for the long haul, after all. President Trump still has nearly 200 more weeks in office.
Pic=Susana Zamorano, parent coordinator and organizer for the immigrants right organization Carecen, wipes away a tear during a workshop held by Victor Narro. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
He teaches them how to slow down and breathe deeply. He gets them to stretch, to close their eyes and meditate.
He also tells them to be vigilant.
“He wants to make you angry. He wants you to lose focus,” he says of Trump. “But we’re not going to let that happen.”
The project director at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, who has organized immigrants on the front lines for decades, lately has dedicated himself to spreading the gospel of self-care to legions of overextended protesters, lawyers and outreach workers.
“If you’re going to be at your best for the people you’re trying to help,” Narro tells them, “you have to take care of yourself.”
As activists stand up again and again to Trump, a local organizer tries to prevent burnout
Four months into fighting the actions of President Trump, activits are learning how to relax. Video by Irfan Khan.
Other organizers ― fighting for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, the environment and education policy ― have been sharing a similar message.
Days after the election, some began to field calls from people doing similar work, who wondered how they would be able to sustain their efforts ― much less keep motivating their troops ― for four years.
“It was such a blow to so many people who had dedicated themselves to this lifetime struggle,” said Roberto Vargas, with New World Associates, a firm that provides leadership support for advocacy groups. “It left them feeling like, ‘Now what? How do I get up from here and how will I lift others with me?’”
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Vargas began hosting activist gatherings at his home in Ventura. Some nights, people talk until midnight.
Pic=A circle of friends ceramic piece from Peru is placed inside a reflection and healing circle during a workshop for members of the immigrants right organization Carecen in Los Angeles. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
At his workshops, Narro tries to offer practical tips.
At a recent one at Carecen, nearly 20 immigration lawyers and legal assistants sought his advice.
Founded in the 1980s by Salvadoran refugees, Carecen runs a youth center and a parent center, teaches immigrants English and organizes marches and protests.
Its legal team handles a mix of cases ― children who have crossed the border alone, persecuted immigrants in need of asylum, mixed-status families trying to stay together in America.
Fear of deportation runs deep now, even though there hasn’t been an increase in mass raids since Trump took over. Every arrest sends waves of anxiety through immigrant communities. Stories spread about individuals being picked up even though they’ve committed no serious crimes.
On its website Carecen declares in capital letters: “We will not allow a Trump administration to attack our communities.”
But living up to that promise is wearying.
As those at the workshop formed a circle, Narro arranged a small altar on the floor of Guatemalan serapes and a Peruvian clay statue of figures embracing. He beat a ceremonial drum and invited each participant to speak.
Alvarez, the legal assistant, said his caseload continues to grow. His phone starts to ring early in the morning. He hears panic in clients’ voices. They ask him to please speed up the process to get them visas; they want him to promise he can help.
“I tell them I can’t guarantee anything,” he said.
He told Narro he used to find joy in his work. Now, when the stress mounts, he seeks comfort in television.
“Lately I’m feeling less motivated, more powerless,” he said.
His co-workers complained of sore necks, clenched jaws, mood swings and bottled-up emotions. They said they struggled with feelings of defeat, anger and helplessness.
“I try to be strong because I have to,” said Zamorano, the coordinator of the parent program. “But I get home most days and I feel like my head is going to explode.”
The families she works with tell her that, because of deportation worries, their children may decide not to pursue college anymore.
“When they ask me, ‘What do I do?’ I struggle to encourage them,” Zamorano said.
Pic=Community members and activist go through some exercise and relaxing session held UCLA Labor Center so they not to burn out and relax and stay focused. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Narro listened to everything the group had to say. He told them their feelings were justified, but that they had more control than they thought. He told them about a dream he had a few weeks earlier.
In it, Trump attacked his older brother, Max, so Narro began to pummel the president.
“Then suddenly, I realized, I’m beating up a 70-year-old man,” he said. “And what did it do for me? Nothing.
“Send him positive energy,” Narro said as the group laughed. “You never know, it might make a difference.”
In recent weeks, through his webinars and social media, Narro has reached a mix of people nationwide ― a Bangladeshi organizer defending women’s rights in New Jersey, an Oregon law student fighting for the environment and Native Americans, a writer promoting Muslim social justice in Washington, D.C.
In January, he partnered with Law at the Margins, an attorney-led media group, to launch #faithjustice, an effort to remind activists to make time for some self care.
Narro could have used that advice himself a few years back. Instead, he hurtled toward a breakdown.
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Trained as a lawyer, he’s spent more than 30 years mobilizing vulnerable communities ― gardeners, garment workers, domestic workers ― mostly behind the scenes. He organizes marches, proposes legislation, coordinates policy campaigns.
Back in the mid-1990s, when Proposition 187 tried to cut off services to immigrants in the country illegally, day laborers were being harassed on street corners and some restaurants refused to serve them. Narro helped launch an organization to protect them.
He held workshops to groom day laborers into leaders who could safeguard and mobilize their work corners. He had them form soccer teams to build solidarity and connected them to the greater immigrant rights movement.
In 1999, when Narro found out that many carwash workers were getting paid only tips or below minimum wage, he helped them unionize. He pushed them to picket and confront their employers. Those who got fired, he turned into full-time labor organizers.
In 2003, Narro’s efforts helped pass a law regulating all carwashes.
He used to work 10 to 12 hours a day.
“I felt all this pressure to keep going all the time,” he said.
In 2012, he started having terrible headaches and losing weight. He wound up in the hospital.
“I knew then I had to change,” he said. “I had to find balance.”
So he slowly began to teach himself what he is now teaching others.
On a recent Saturday, he joined about two dozen activists in a movement workshop at the labor center across the street from MacArthur Park.
Malia Gallegos with TeAda Productions, a performance group that promotes social justice, asked everyone to breathe into their bellies and begin an exercise used in Butoh, a Japanese form of improvised dance.
“We’re going to go on a journey,” she told them.
And so they leaned back, let the weight of their bodies fall forward and began to move rhythmically from side to side, meditating, concentrating on their breaths.
Among the participants were 10 labor union organizers, including one named Cesar Chavez who had driven nearly four hours from Pismo Beach.
The union Chavez works for, United Domestic Workers, represents about 90,000 home health caretakers whose livelihoods could be hurt by some of Trump’s proposed healthcare changes. If clients lose access to Medicaid, caretakers could lose work hours.
So Chavez constantly reminds his members via email and social media to call elected officials and try to hold back Trump and his fellow Republicans. He and other organizers are also working to develop more union leaders and encourage them to engage politically.
“We’ve worked so hard to get here,” Chavez said. “And now it feels like we’ve got this huge John Deere bulldozer coming our way.”
When he comes home after a stressful day, Chavez said, he tries to unplug from the news. So does his girlfriend, who works for a congressman and spends hours fielding calls from constituents upset about Trump. She unwinds with yoga. The two joke a lot.
“We’ve learned that the best thing to do at the end of each day is to keep it light,” Chavez said. “And to leave all those worries at the door.”
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North Korea Tests a Ballistic Missile That Experts Say Could Hit California
By DAVID E. SANGER, CHOE SANG-HUN and WILLIAM J. BROAD JULY 28, 2017 The NewYork Times
Photo＝Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, in April. Credit Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on Friday that, for the first time, appeared capable of reaching the West Coast of the United States, according to experts ― a milestone that American presidents have long declared the United States could not tolerate.
The launching, the second of an intercontinental missile in 24 days, did not answer the question of whether the North has mastered all the technologies needed to deliver a nuclear weapon to targets in the United States. But just a few days ago, the Defense Intelligence Agency warned the Trump administration the North would probably be able to do so within a year, and Friday’s test left little doubt that Kim Jung-un, the North Korean leader, is speeding toward that goal.
The missile launched on Friday remained aloft for roughly 47 minutes, according to American, South Korean and Japanese officials, following a sharp trajectory that took it roughly 2,300 miles into space. It then turned and arced steeply down into the sea near the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido.
If that trajectory were flattened out ― a step the North may have avoided for fear of an American military response ― the missile could have put a number of major American cities at risk, experts say. The Pentagon was quick to declare that the “North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) determined the missile launch from North Korea did not pose a threat to North America,” a statement that was true in the immediate moment, but ignored the potential longer-term implications.
“Depending on how heavy a warhead it carries, this latest North Korean missile would easily reach the West Coast of the United States with a range of 9,000 to 10,000 kilometers,” or 5,600 to 6,200 miles, said Kim Dong-yub, a defense analyst at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul. “With this missile, North Korea leaves no doubt that its missile has a range that covers most of the United States.”
The United States has gone to extraordinary lengths to slow North Korea’s missile testing program ― feeding flawed parts into the North Korean production system and attacking the missile program in cyberspace to cause test failures. Just a few hours before the test, Congress passed the latest round of sanctions aimed at squeezing the North.
While there have been some tactical successes that slowed the North Koreans, though, they ultimately have not stopped the weapons program. And Mr. Kim, determined to show the United States that he would not waver from his goal, has stepped up the pace of testing.
The White House had no immediate comment.
For President Trump, the launch poses one of the biggest challenges of his new presidency. Like Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama before him, Mr. Trump has declared that the North would not succeed in obtaining a missile that could put American cities at risk. “It won’t happen,” he declared in a Jan. 2 tweet, not long after Mr. Obama warned him that the North would probably pose the most urgent national security threat he would face.
American officials, led by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, have been careful not to threaten a pre-emptive strike on the North’s nuclear and missile capabilities, which Mr. Mattis has warned could reignite the Korean War. Cyber attacks, while more politically palatable, are of uncertain effectiveness. And sanctions have done little.
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Now, outside experts said, it has happened. David C. Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private anti-proliferation group in Cambridge, Mass., said in a blog post on Friday that the missile appeared to have an effective range of at least 6,500 miles ― putting Los Angeles, Denver and Chicago well within range. He wrote that Boston and New York “may be just within range, and Washington “may be just out of range.”
But such estimates are always subject to interpretation. North Korea’s aim is famously poor. It is unclear how long it would take the country to build a workable nuclear warhead that can survive re-entry into the atmosphere.
And Dr. Wright cautioned that Western analysts have no idea of how much the payload on the missile weighed. “If it was lighter than the actual warhead the missile would carry,” he noted, the calculated ranges for a real warhead would be shorter.
The Pentagon confirmed that it had detected the missile launching from North Korea, but gave no estimates of how far it flew into space or what its actual range might be.
North Korea conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-14, on July 4, calling it a “gift package for the Yankees.” South Korean officials have said that the July 4 test demonstrated that the missile was capable of reaching Alaska, but that it remained unclear whether the North had mastered all technologies needed to deliver a nuclear warhead to targets in the continental United States.
On Saturday in Seoul, the South Korean military said in a statement that the latest test “is a more advanced ICBM-class missile” than the one launched July 4.
The South Korean military said that Friday’s missile was launched from a site in Jagang Province, a mountainous north-central area of North Korea bordering on China, at 11:41 p.m. local time on Friday.
South Korea’s new president, Moon Jae-in, called an emergency meeting of his National Security Council and ordered his military to conduct joint ballistic missile tests with the United States military in a “strong show of power,” his office said. Similar missile exercises were held following the North’s July 4 launching.
The growing North Korean threat also prompted Mr. Moon to reverse his decision to halt deployment of an advanced United States missile defense system known as Thaad. In a statement issued early Saturday, he told his military to push ahead with the Thaad system.
North Korea is a closed society, and the secrecy of its government makes it difficult to tell exactly how far its weapons programs have advanced. But experts believe it is not yet capable of making nuclear warheads suitable for mounting on ICBMs.
South Korean defense officials have said since the July 4 test that it was too early to determine whether North Korea had mastered long-range missile technology, especially re-entry, when a warhead section must survive intense heat and the destruction of its outer shell as it plunges from space through the earth’s atmosphere.
The North Korean missile test came a day after the United States Senate passed sanctions aimed at deterring North Korea’s missile and nuclear development, as part of a package that also targets Russia and Iran. It is unclear whether Mr. Trump will sign it into law.
The bill authorizes strong sanctions against those providing North Korea with crude oil and other related products. The bill prohibits ships owned by North Korea or by countries that refuse to comply with United Nations resolutions against North Korea from operating in American waters or docking at American ports. Goods produced by forced labor in North Korea would be not be allowed to enter the United States, according to the bill.
民主主義が機能している国・英国の乳飲み子の’生きる権利’での医師と両親との意見の対立解決。裁判所や大学の教授の意見とか、その社会的責任や役割が垣間見えて面白い。民主主義を裁判所は法律の面で、大学は知の面で支えているのである。それに比べると高崎経済大学の歴史から、大学経営陣の知のレベルや社会的責任はゼロに等しい。
*****
Charlie Gard Dies, Leaving a Legacy of Thorny Ethics Questions
By DAN BILEFSKYJULY 28, 2017 The New York Times
Photo=Charlie Gard at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. Credit Family of Charlie Gard, via Associated Press
LONDON ― Charlie Gard, the incurably ill British infant who died on Friday, could not hear, see or even cry. But his case captured the attention of the pope and the United States president, and raised difficult ethical issues that reverberated around the world.
He died with his parents by his side a day after a court ruled that he could be moved to a hospice and that his life support could be withdrawn. His death was confirmed by a family spokesman.
In an emotional statement before the court this week, Charlie’s mother, Connie Yates, noted that her son had “had a greater impact on and touched more people in this world in his 11 months than many people do in a lifetime.”
On Thursday, the British High Court said the infant, who had a rare and debilitating genetic condition known as mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, could be moved to a hospice, where his life support was removed. Charlie, who would have turned a year old on Aug. 4, was not able to peer at his parents’ faces because he could not see. He also could not hear or swallow.
The child’s final moments were not as his parents had hoped. They fought a long and often tense battle in court to control his fate, to take him to the United States for experimental treatment and, finally, to move him to their home in West London to die.
Continue reading the main story
▽‘Our final wish’
They lost their fight. On Thursday, Ms. Yates, who works as a caregiver, said in statement that the hospital had “denied us our final wish.”
“Most people won’t ever have to go through what we have been through,” she said. “We’ve had no control over our son’s life and no control over our son’s death.”
But the doctors treating Charlie at Great Ormond Street Hospital in central London countered that the “risk of an unplanned and chaotic end to Charlie’s life” at home was “unthinkable.” For months, the hospital had argued that he had irreversible brain damage, that the life support should be removed and that he should be allowed the right to die with dignity.
“We deeply regret that profound and heartfelt differences between Charlie’s doctors and his parents have played out in court over such a protracted period,” the hospital said in a statement. “We will never do anything that could cause our patients unnecessary and prolonged suffering.”
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▽Questions of ethics
The case laid bare several issues, among them: Should parents or doctors or the courts have the final say in irreconcilable disputes over the treatment of sick children? And at what point should the limits of medicine be recognized and the parents of an infant be compelled to let go?
Biomedical ethicists said the case offered a cautionary tale of how a legal battle, scrutiny by the global news media and intractable differences between parents and doctors can spiral out of control in the social media age. Both the hospital and the parents in the Gard case dug in, their arguments playing out on Facebook and Twitter and capturing the attention of world figures including President Trump and Pope Francis.
Photo=Charlie’s parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, outside the High Court in central London on Monday. They abandoned their legal fight for Charlie to undergo experimental therapy. Credit Will Oliver/European Pressphoto Agency
The pope posted a message on his personal Twitter account shortly after news broke of the infant’s death. “I entrust little Charlie to the Father and pray for his parents and all those who loved him,” the tweet said.
Dr. Robert D. Truog, a physician at the pediatric intensive-care unit at Boston Children’s Hospital and the director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, said that “Charlie’s parents were like parents all over the world ― they were willing to do absolutely anything to save the life of their child.”
He added: “They were the victims, not the cause, of this tragic situation.”
The parents’ raw emotions played out in the courtroom, where Ms. Yates broke down in tears of frustration, at one point shouting, “What if it was your child?” before fleeing the room. At another moment, Mr. Gard, a mailroom worker, cried out, “Evil” after a hospital lawyer spoke.
On several occasions, both parents stormed out of the courtroom. Some of the lawyers and journalists covering the case were reduced to tears.
The case went through several courts, including Britain’s Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights, which backed the hospital’s views, in part because experts said Charlie could be suffering. His parents insisted he was not.
▽Protests and threats
Some American conservatives seized on the case as a warning of the pitfalls of socialized medicine and the abrogation of parental rights, even as the High Court judge presiding over the case, Nicholas Francis, countered that to make a scapegoat out of Britain’s National Health Service was “nonsensical.”
In most cases, medical experts say, doctors decide when to remove life support from an incurably ill child, in consultation with parents, and these cases rarely wind up in court. But in Britain, the courts are the final arbiter when irreconcilable disputes arise.
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Charlie also became a powerful symbol for anti-abortion groups the world over. Protesters picketed outside Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Judge Francis denounced death threats against hospital staff members.
The case also spurred questions about the wisdom of offering parents the hope of experimental treatment when faced with an incurable disease. That debate took center stage after Dr. Michio Hirano, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, offered Charlie’s parents a ray of hope that an experimental treatment known as nucleoside therapy could improve Charlie’s condition.
The treatment had been tested on mice and on 18 people with a mutation in a gene known as TK2. But it had never been tried on someone with Charlie’s particularly debilitating form of mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which is caused by a different genetic mutation.
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During an often-acrimonious and emotional High Court hearing this month, Charlie’s parents argued that he should be allowed to receive the experimental treatment. But lawyers for Great Ormond Street Hospital countered that Dr. Hirano had held out hope without even examining the child or reviewing his full medical charts.
Photo=Supporters of Charlie reacted in London after hearing that his parents had dropped their legal battle to send him to the United States for experimental treatment. Credit Matt Dunham/Associated Press
(Dr. Hirano said in a statement he had been contacted by the parents and agreed to speak with Charlie’s doctors to determine whether the experimental therapy he was developing could help improve the child’s condition).
When Dr. Hirano traveled to London this month to examine Charlie, about six months after he had first been invited, a series of scans showed that the boy had suffered muscular atrophy, that the damage was irreversible and that treatment would be futile.
Ms. Yates criticized the hospital, saying it had dragged its feet about the treatment until it was too late.
The hospital consistently stood by its contention that treatment would have been useless and that Charlie had irreversible brain damage.
“If Charlie has had a relationship with the world around him since his best interests were determined, it has been one of suffering,” it said in a statement.
▽‘Enough is enough’
Dominic Wilkinson, a neonatologist and professor of medical ethics at Oxford University, said the case offered a tragic lesson about the risks of doctors’ offering uncertain hope to desperate parents. At the same time, he said, the case underscored the importance of mediation during a dispute about treatment, noting that the communication breakdown in the Gard case had all the attributes of a “messy divorce.”
“To let a child go is incredibly difficult, but it is also incredibly important,” he said. “It is heartbreaking, but we have to know when to say enough is enough.”
Dr. Truog of Harvard Medical School said the parents’ legal battle had tapped into the health care debate in the United States, and was being seized upon by some to affirm a money-driven system in which patients who have the means can pursue experimental treatments, even if the chances of success are slim. But he said experimental treatments must be weighed against the benefits for society as a whole.
In the United States, “no one can demand nonbeneficial treatments simply by claiming they are paying out of pocket,” he wrote in a recent article on the Gard case in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
“It would be extremely rare for a hospital in the United States to admit patients for the exclusive purpose of receiving homeopathic therapy or unproven stem cell infusions,” he wrote, “regardless of how much the patient paid.”
The parents now face coming to terms with Charlie’s death. Addressing the court this past week, Ms. Yates acknowledged that this would not be easy.
“We are struggling to find any comfort or peace with all this,” she said. “But one thing that does give us the slightest bit of comfort is that we truly believe that Charlie may have been too special for this cruel world.”
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Haley is 'done talking' about North Korea as U.S. shows force
BY Jason Silverstein NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, July 30, 2017, 3:31 PM
A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber flies with South Korean jets over the Korean Peninsula. (Handout/Getty Images)
As the U.S. ramped up its military might Sunday to combat North Korea’s latest missile test, President Trump’s United Nations Ambassador had her own weapon: A broken English tweet.
Nikki Haley said she’s “done talking” about North Korea in a linguistically challenged tweet calling on China and South Korea to put pressure on the paranoid empire after its latest threat of destruction.
“Done talking about NKorea.China is aware they must act.Japan & SKorea must inc pressure.Not only a US problem.It will req an intl solution,” she wrote.
Her tweet came the same day the U.S. flew two B-1 supersonic bomber planes over South Korea as a warning to its menacing northern neighbor. The South Korean and Japanese militaries also ran bomber jet drills over the Korean Peninsula.
The U.S. said Sunday it also conducted a successful missile defense test in Alaska.
The show of force followed North Korea running its second successful test launch in July of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The first missile, which was tested July 4, flew far enough to reach Alaska or Hawaii.
The second missile, tested Friday, could travel far enough to reach the West Coast or even the Midwest, U.S. defense officials and analysts said. It landed only 88 nautical miles from Japan.
After the test, President Trump raged at China on Twitter, telling it to crack down on Kim Jong Un.
Nikki Haley (right) said she is "done talking" about North Korea in a broken English tweet on Sunday. (Bebeto Matthews/AP)
“I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet......they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!” Trump wrote in two tweets.
Trump has consistently urged China, which lends essential economic and trade support to North Korea, to be the country that leads the global opposition to it. He has not articulated a U.S. military response to North Korea’s growing threats, but Congress last week approved a bill ordering sanctions on North Korea, as well as Iran and Russia.
Haley said in July that the U.S. will launch military action against North Korea "if we must."
日本は単一民族国家ではない！
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Japan’s government to stipulate Ainu as ‘indigenous people’ for first time
Aug 28, 2017 Kyodo
The central government is likely to stipulate for the first time in law that the Ainu are an “indigenous people” of Japan, according to sources.
Putting the word “indigenous people” in law would be an additional step by the government to clarify its stance on Ainu, as it issued a statement in 2008 recognizing them as an “indigenous people that have their own language, religious and cultural identity.”
The sources said Monday that the reference is likely to be made in a new law the government is considering to improve Ainu living standards and education.
The Ainu people have lived for centuries in Hokkaido and nearby areas, including Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
They have struggled to pass down their language and culture after the government implemented an assimilation policy beginning in the Meiji Era (1868-1912) as Japan was modernizing.
In 1997, a law was enacted aimed at preserving Ainu culture and guaranteeing their human rights, about 100 years after the government introduced the assimilation policy.
It was the nation’s first legislation acknowledging the existence of an ethnic minority, but it stopped short of saying that the Ainu are an indigenous people.
In 2007, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, asking each country to take legislative steps to protect their rights. Japan was among the countries that supported the declaration.
In addition to the new Ainu law, the government is planning to open facilities to promote Ainu culture in Hokkaido in 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympics.
In the past, politicians made remarks drawing flak from the Ainu, including when Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone said in 1986 that “Japan is a homogeneous nation.”
「日本兵は強く戦い、忍耐深く、戦い方が非常に紳士的だった」。日本のマスコミはよく親日外国人の意見を報道や掲載し、日本のよさや素晴らしさを日本国内にいる日本人向けに喧伝することをよくやる。日本人のイメージを悪くする反日意見は取り上げてもとても稀であることは知っている。産経新聞のこの記事はその代表。ジャーナリズムを標榜する一流新聞ではなくて、購読者数を増やすことが目的の商業新聞であることには間違いない。とくに旧日本兵に対して「戦い方が非常に紳士的だった」なんて考えている外国人がどれだけいるか疑わしい。それは＊ハワイの奇襲（本当なら騙し打ち）攻撃をひとつとっても、大多数が反対する見解を示すだろうと予想されるからだ。最近観たハリウッド映画『Hacksaw Ridge』（2016）ではアメリカ兵が戦場での日本兵を指して"sneaky"と言っているし、戦闘場面では白旗を振って穴から出てくる日本兵の小グループが、それを見て近寄ってくるアメリカ兵たちに向かって手榴弾を投げつける場面があるが、とても紳士的とは思えないのである。その向かってくる手榴弾を他のアメリカ兵の命を救うために蹴飛ばしたが、その爆発で自分が怪我をしてしまうのが、その映画の主役。それで彼のHacksaw Ridgeでの救助する役が終り、映画も終る。これはハリウッドが生み出した嘘か。この映画は真実に基づくとある。笑。＊Takeo Iguchi, a professor of law and international relations at International Christian University in Tokyo, discovered documents that pointed to a vigorous debate inside the government over how, and indeed whether, to notify Washington of Japan's intention to break off negotiations and start a war, including a December 7 entry in the war diary saying, "our deceptive diplomacy is steadily proceeding toward success." Of this, Iguchi said, "The diary shows that the army and navy did not want to give any proper declaration of war, or indeed prior notice even of the termination of negotiations ... and they clearly prevailed. 英語のＷｉｋｉと違って、日本語のＷｉｋｉにはかなり日本に都合よく美化した戦争物語が書かれていることに凡人は気付く。真実を語る教育的な世界的運動のＷｉｋｉのはずだが、すでに日本のＷｉｋｉは日本の学校教科書化していることにはとても残念である。
*****
【戦後７２年】
「日本兵は強く、紳士的だった」 寄せ書き日の丸返還の９３歳元米兵ストロンボさんの“日本愛”に称賛・感動
2017.9.2 17:00 産経
北朝鮮の今回のＩＣＢＭの発射成功はＵＮサンクションで禁止されている筈のロケット技術や部品を北朝鮮が秘密裏に入手した結果であって、自国で開発したロケット技術ではないことを明らかにしている。またＵＮサンクションがまったく穴だらけで、期待する効果がない事実も明らかにしている。
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North Korea’s Missile Success Is Linked to Ukrainian Plant, Investigators Say
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGERAUG. 14, 2017 The New York Times
Photo＝A photo released by North Korea’s state news agency in July purported to show a test of a Hwasong-14, thought to be capable of reaching the mainland United States. Credit Korean Central News Agency, via Reuters
North Korea’s success in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile that appears able to reach the United States was made possible by black-market purchases of powerful rocket engines probably from a Ukrainian factory with historical ties to Russia’s missile program, according to an expert analysis being published Monday and classified assessments by American intelligence agencies.
The studies may solve the mystery of how North Korea began succeeding so suddenly after a string of fiery missile failures, some of which may have been caused by American sabotage of its supply chains and cyberattacks on its launches. After those failures, the North changed designs and suppliers in the past two years, according to a new study by Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Such a degree of aid to North Korea from afar would be notable because President Trump has singled out only China as the North’s main source of economic and technological support. He has never blamed Ukraine or Russia, though his secretary of state, Rex W. Tillerson, made an oblique reference to both China and Russia as the nation’s “principal economic enablers” after the North’s most recent ICBM launch last month.
Analysts who studied photographs of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, inspecting the new rocket motors concluded that they derive from designs that once powered the Soviet Union’s missile fleet. The engines were so powerful that a single missile could hurl 10 thermonuclear warheads between continents.
Those engines were linked to only a few former Soviet sites. Government investigators and experts have focused their inquiries on a missile factory in Dnipro, Ukraine, on the edge of the territory where Russia is fighting a low-level war to break off part of Ukraine. During the Cold War, the factory made the deadliest missiles in the Soviet arsenal, including the giant SS-18. It remained one of Russia’s primary producers of missiles even after Ukraine gained independence.
But since Ukraine’s pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was removed from power in 2014, the state-owned factory, known as Yuzhmash, has fallen on hard times. The Russians canceled upgrades of their nuclear fleet. The factory is underused, awash in unpaid bills and low morale. Experts believe it is the most likely source of the engines that in July powered the two ICBM tests, which were the first to suggest that North Korea has the range, if not necessarily the accuracy or warhead technology, to threaten American cities.
“It’s likely that these engines came from Ukraine ― probably illicitly,” Mr. Elleman said in an interview. “The big question is how many they have and whether the Ukrainians are helping them now. I’m very worried.”
Bolstering his conclusion, he added, was a finding by United Nations investigators that North Korea tried six years ago to steal missile secrets from the Ukrainian complex. Two North Koreans were caught, and a U.N. report said the information they tried to steal was focused on advanced “missile systems, liquid-propellant engines, spacecraft and missile fuel supply systems.”
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Investigators now believe that, amid the chaos of post-revolutionary Ukraine, Pyongyang tried again.
Mr. Elleman’s detailed analysis is public confirmation of what intelligence officials have been saying privately for some time: The new missiles are based on a technology so complex that it would have been impossible for the North Koreans to have switched gears so quickly themselves. They apparently fired up the new engine for the first time in September ― meaning that it took only 10 months to go from that basic milestone to firing an ICBM, a short time unless they were able to buy designs, hardware and expertise on the black market.
The White House had no comment when asked about the intelligence assessments.
Last month, Yuzhmash denied reports that the factory complex was struggling for survival and selling its technologies abroad, in particular to China. Its website says the company does not, has not and will not participate in “the transfer of potentially dangerous technologies outside Ukraine.”
American investigators do not believe that denial, though they say there is no evidence that the government of President Petro O. Poroshenko, who recently visited the White House, had any knowledge or control over what was happening inside the complex.
On Monday, after this story was published, Oleksandr Turchynov, a top national security official in the government of Mr. Poroshenko, denied any Ukrainian involvement.
“This information is not based on any grounds, provocative by its content, and most likely provoked by Russian secret services to cover their own crimes,” Mr. Turchynov said. He said the Ukrainian government views North Korea as “totalitarian, dangerous and unpredictable, and supports all sanctions against this country.”
How the Russian-designed engines, called the RD-250, got to North Korea is still a mystery.
Mr. Elleman was unable to rule out the possibility that a large Russian missile enterprise, Energomash, which has strong ties to the Ukrainian complex, had a role in the transfer of the RD-250 engine technology to North Korea. He said leftover RD-250 engines might also be stored in Russian warehouses.
But the fact that the powerful engines did get to North Korea, despite a raft of United Nations sanctions, suggests a broad intelligence failure involving the many nations that monitor Pyongyang.
Since President Barack Obama ordered a step-up in sabotage against the North’s missile systems in 2014, American officials have closely monitored their success. They appeared to have won a major victory last fall, when Mr. Kim ordered an end to flight tests of the Musudan, an intermediate-range missile that was a focus of the American sabotage effort.
But no sooner had Mr. Kim ordered a stand-down of that system than the North rolled out engines of a different design. And those tests were more successful.
American officials will not say when they caught on to the North’s change of direction. But there is considerable evidence they came to it late.
Photo＝North Korean soldiers massed in Kim Il-sung Square in Pyongyang in July after the test launch of their country’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. Credit Jon Chol Jin/Associated Press
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Leon Panetta, the former C.I.A. director, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday that the North Korean drive to get workable ICBMs that could be integrated with nuclear weapons moved more quickly than the intelligence community had expected.
“The rapid nature of how they’ve been able to come to that capability is something, frankly, that has surprised both the United States and the world,” he said.
It is unclear who is responsible for selling the rockets and the design knowledge, and intelligence officials have differing theories about the details. But Mr. Elleman makes a strong circumstantial case that would implicate the deteriorating factory complex and its underemployed engineers.
“I feel for those guys,” said Mr. Elleman, who visited the factory repeatedly a decade ago while working on federal projects to curb weapon threats. “They don’t want to do bad things.”
Dnipro has been called the world’s fastest-shrinking city. The sprawling factory, southeast of Kiev and once a dynamo of the Cold War, is having a hard time finding customers.
American intelligence officials note that North Korea has exploited the black market in missile technology for decades, and built an infrastructure of universities, design centers and factories of its own.
It has also recruited help: In 1992, officials at a Moscow airport stopped a team of missile experts from traveling to Pyongyang.
That was only a temporary setback for North Korea. It obtained the design for the R-27, a compact missile made for Soviet submarines, created by the Makeyev Design Bureau, an industrial complex in the Ural Mountains that employed the rogue experts apprehended at the Moscow airport.
But the R-27 was complicated, and the design was difficult for the North to copy and fly successfully.
Photo＝President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine visiting the Yuzhmash plant in Dnipro in 2014. Credit Pool photo by Mykhailo Markiv
Eventually, the North turned to an alternative font of engine secrets ― the Yuzhmash plant in Ukraine, as well as its design bureau, Yuzhnoye. The team’s engines were potentially easier to copy because they were designed not for cramped submarines but roomier land-based missiles. That simplified the engineering.
Economically, the plant and design bureau faced new headwinds after Russia in early 2014 invaded and annexed Crimea, a part of Ukraine. Relations between the two nations turned icy, and Moscow withdrew plans to have Yuzhmash make new versions of the SS-18 missile.
In July 2014, a report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace warned that such economic upset could put Ukrainian missile and atomic experts “out of work and could expose their crucial know-how to rogue regimes and proliferators.”
The first clues that a Ukrainian engine had fallen into North Korean hands came in September when Mr. Kim supervised a ground test of a new rocket engine that analysts called the biggest and most powerful to date.
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Norbert Brügge, a German analyst, reported that photos of the engine firing revealed strong similarities between it and the RD-250, a Yuzhmash model.
◎Spotting the Similarities◎
How a German scientist found evidence that the engine on a North Korean missile was most likely made in a Ukrainian factory.
1 North Korea releases a propaganda video of a missile inspection featuring Kim Jong-un. The video gives a glimpse of the weapon’s engines.
2 Norbert Brügge maps the missile’s base to highlight the shapes and sizes of the main engine and its four steering engines.
3 The diagram is then used as an overlay atop the missile photo to determine main component sizes.
4 The inferred size of the main engine matches that of a Ukrainian rocket engine suspected of being sold illegally to North Korea.
Source: Norbert Brügge By The New York Times
Alarms rang louder after a second ground firing of the North’s new engine, in March, and its powering of the flight in May of a new intermediate-range missile, the Hwasong-12. It broke the North’s record for missile distance. Its high trajectory, if leveled out, translated into about 2,800 miles, or far enough to fly beyond the American military base at Guam.
On June 1, Mr. Elleman struck an apprehensive note. He argued that the potent engine clearly hailed from “a different manufacturer than all the other engines that we’ve seen.”
Mr. Elleman said the North’s diversification into a new line of missile engines was important because it undermined the West’s assumptions about the nation’s missile prowess: “We could be in for surprises.”
That is exactly what happened. The first of the North’s two tests in July of a new missile, the Hwasong-14, went a distance sufficient to threaten Alaska, surprising the intelligence community. The second went far enough to reach the West Coast, and perhaps Denver or Chicago.
Last week, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists featured a detailed analysis of the new engine, also concluding that it was derived from the RD-250. The finding, the analysts said, “raises new and potentially ominous questions.”
The emerging clues suggest not only new threats from North Korea, analysts say, but new dangers of global missile proliferation because the Ukrainian factory remains financially beleaguered. It now makes trolley buses and tractors, while seeking new rocket contracts to help regain some of its past glory.
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女性とデモクラシー。彼女の元大統領に対する訴えがまともに世間で受けられるか否かは別として、つまり彼の年齢が９０歳だし、しかもワイフが側にいての出来事で普通、冗談で済まされてしまうこと。アソールト（Sexual Assault）とはちょっと言葉が強すぎる。そんなことをマスコミで責める女優の彼女の方がギスギスしていて、冗談がわからない偏屈者とみられる。それは日本でも同じだろう。それはさておき、そんなことを言いたくて、この記事を載せたのではない。彼女が述べているデモクラシーに注目して欲しい。デモクラシーなくして、彼女の述べる社会を良くしたり、男性からのセクハラを取り除いたり、女性の社会進出はありえないということ。デモクラシーは女性の味方であることを、彼女の言葉がら推し量ることができてとても面白い。
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Actress Heather Lind accuses former President George H.W. Bush of sexual assault
Pic=Actress Heather Lind claims President George H.W. Bush sexually assaulted her during a 2014 screening for her show “Turn.” (Aaron M.
BY Kate Feldman NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Tuesday, October 24, 2017, 10:28 PM
An AMC actress claims that former President George H.W. Bush groped her from his wheelchair during a screening.
Heather Lind, who starred in “Turn: Washington’s Spies,” detailed her accusations in a lengthy Instagram post Tuesday, when she said she was “disturbed” after seeing a photo of President Obama with the 41st president.
“I found it disturbing because I recognize the respect ex-presidents are given for having served. And I feel pride and reverence toward many of the men in the photo. But when I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo,” Lind, 34, wrote.
“He didn’t shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again. Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say ‘not again.’ His security guard told me I shouldn’t have stood next to him for the photo.”
Lind, who played Anna Strong on the drama about “America’s first spy ring,” met the former President, 93, during a special screening of the show in 2014, a week before its premiere.
“We were instructed to call him Mr. President. It seems to me a President’s power is in his or her capacity to enact positive change, actually help people, and serve as a symbol of our democracy. He relinquished that power when he used it against me and, judging from the comments of those around him, countless other women before me,” Lind wrote.
“What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn’t so different from a President really. I can enact positive change. I can actually help people. I can be a symbol of my democracy. I can refuse to call him President, and call out other abuses of power when I see them. I can vote for a President, in part, by the nature of his or her character, knowing that his or her political decisions must necessarily stem from that character.”
Pic=Lind played Anna Strong in the AMC show. (Antony Platt/AMC)
Lind went on to say that she told her castmates about the alleged assault and that she decided to come forward because of “the bravery of other women who have spoken up and written about their experiences.”
In the past several weeks, dozens of women have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and harassment, as well as similar claims against other actors, producers, directors, photographers and musicians.
“I thank President Barack Obama for the gesture of respect he made toward George H. W. Bush for the sake of our country, but I do not respect him.”
"He touched me from behind from his wheelchair," Lind said of the former President. (Aaron M. Sprecher/Invision for AMC)
In a statement to the Daily News, the former President did not deny the allegations.
"President Bush would never ― under any circumstance ― intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind," his spokesman said.
Hulton Archive via Getty Images
7th December 1941: The USS Arizona sinking in a cloud of smoke after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II, Hawaii. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
トランプ大統領の能力/適性/功績と反トランプのエリート・メディア
President Trump vs. the anti-Trump elite media - ABC, NBC, CBS, New York Times, Los Angeles Times so forth.
*****
Newt Gingrich: Underestimate Trump at your peril
By Newt Gingrich | Fox News 12/29/2017
Would you believe that during his first year as commander in chief, President Trump hosted 43 world leaders at the White House. In total, he engaged or met with 149 world leaders in 2017. In 183 calls, the president spoke with leaders from 51 countries. Not exactly the lack of connectivity his critics expected a year ago.
When Trump won the election, his critics expressed great concern about his apparent lack of preparation and experience in foreign policy and national security.
Even Republicans in the foreign policy and national security establishment were deeply opposed to the Trump presidency because they believed he lacked sufficient knowledge to lead.
As I pointed out in my #1 New York Times best seller “Understanding Trump,” it is easy to underestimate the speed at which Trump learns. He listens constantly (I tell folks he always listens, but he doesn't always obey). He is endlessly curious about virtually everything. He built a worldwide corporate system, which includes hotels, office buildings, golf courses, books, wine, and a successful reality show. That took constant curiosity as he stretched again and again beyond the real estate skills his father taught him back in Queens.
It is easy to underestimate the speed at which Trump learns. He listens constantly (I tell folks he always listens, but he doesn't always obey).
One of the keys to the Trump learning system is his intuition about personnel. He has hired a lot of people in his life, and he has a pretty good instinct for defining what he needs. For his national security team, he brought in Marine four-star General James Mattis to be Secretary of Defense, Army three-star Lieutenant General H. R. McMaster to be National Security Adviser, and Marine four-star General John Kelly to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Kelly proved so effective, the president brought him in to be White House Chief of Staff. It would be hard to suggest that Trump has lacked competent professional military advice.
That may also explain why after years of the Obama team's failure to defeat ISIS, the new Trump team calmly and professionally destroyed its territorial base in less than a year. In fact, the Trump team was so efficient and competent, the victory has been virtually unnoticed in the anti-Trump elite media.
According to the Daily Caller, “ISIS retains historically low numbers of fighters, controls little territory and has lost much of its command and control facilities in Iraq and Syria. The vast majority of the military progress against the group occurred in 2017.”
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Part of his success has been due to Trump’s ability and willingness to listen to leaders who host him when he travels. During the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, not only did the king of Saudi Arabia meet Trump at the airport, but he was at his side any time Trump was in public during his stay. The amount of time in which they had to compare notes and discuss Iran, terrorism, and Israel was significant and historic.
At the State Department, Trump wanted a major leader as Secretary of State, and as the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson seemed the central casting vision of a global leader. He had routinely made billion-dollar deals, and he was comfortable and experienced in dealing with world leaders. In the first six months of the new administration, Tillerson played an important role in calming fears until people around the world got to know Trump.
When the president made his controversial decision to move the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem, he had been talking with every major American ally in the region for weeks. No one was surprised, and their approving reactions have been muted by the elite media.
Trump's growth as a foreign policy and national security leader is something which deserves major acknowledgment in every year-end review of 2017. Donald Trump is not the president his critics feared. He is adroitly learning the trade of presidential leadership at a rapid pace.
P.S. On Wednesday, I wrote about how dishonest the media has been about Trump’s achievements. On Thursday, I found more confirmation. The elite media has written endlessly about the president’s supposedly low approval ratings, yet a recent Rasmussen poll shows that Trump’s approval rating was nearly identical to Obama’s on December 28, 2009.
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Newt Gingrich is a Fox News contributor. A Republican, he was speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Follow him on Twitter @NewtGingrich. His latest book is "Understanding Trump."
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日本国憲法と違ってアメリカの憲法は日常生活に生きている。それを証明するかように最高法規が保障する言論や発言の自由がオスカーの授賞式でもみられる。それは映画産業に限ったことではない。さまざまな公式の場でも公然と、政権の批判を含んだ政治的な発言が飛び交う。その発言内容により人間の価値が決まるかのように。
*****
Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel makes anti-GOP jabs after first professing positivity
By Tyler McCarthy | Fox News
The Academy Awards get political: A look at the jabs
From President Trump to Dreamers, the Academy Awards didn't shy away from going political. Here is a roundup of host Jimmy Kimmel's and other presenters' controversial comments.
The unique monster movie "The Shape of Water" took home the award for best picture at the 2018 Academy Awards on Sunday, as host Jimmy Kimmel and some stars brought things to a political place during Hollywood’s biggest award show of the year with jabs at President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and even Fox News viewers.
Despite calling for a show filled with positivity, both the host and stars like Common, Kumail Nanjiani and Lupita Nyong'o made the movie-centric show political.
Kimmel began with an old-timey announcement in which he listed the stars in attendance, making his first political jab with “Black Panther” actress Lupita Nyong’o.
The Academy Awards tend to go a little long. In order to keep the telecast moving, host Jimmy Kimmel offered a unique prize to the winners, a jetski. Watch the funny moment.
“The stunning Lupita Nyong’o, she was born in Mexico and raised in Kenya,” Kimmel said at the top of the show. “Let the tweetstorm from the president's toilet begin!”
From there, the host launched into a positive monologue that poked fun at the whirlwind year in Hollywood, which saw the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements dominate the headlines and previous award shows. In commenting on the year’s diversity, he highlighted “Get Out” helmer, Jordan Peele.
“Jordan is only the first person in 90 years to be nominated for directing, writing and best picture for his debut film,” he said. “What a debut it was. None other than President Trump called ‘Get Out’ the best first three quarters of a movie this year.”
The final political jab came when discussing the gay romance film “Call Me By Your Name.” The host noted that the film, despite being an Oscar-nominated feature, did not score big at the box office.
“We don’t make films like ‘Call Me By Your Name’ for money,” he quipped. “We make them to upset Mike Pence.”
He lauded the actual Oscar statue, noting its age of 90 and taking a swipe at Fox News viewers in the process: "Oscar is 90 years old tonight, which means he’s probably at home tonight watching Fox News."
(In fact, according to Nielsen Media Research, the median age of Fox News is 65, meanwhile MSNBC is 66 and CNN is 59.)
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Sam Rockwell accepts the award for best performance by an actor in a supporting role for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" at the Oscars on Sunday, March 4, 2018, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
Pic=Sam Rockwell took home the Oscar for best supporting role for his part in “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.” (AP)
He also said the Oscar, "Keeps his hands where you can see them, never says a rude word, and most importantly no penis at all. He is literally a statue of limitations."
The host ended his opening monologue by explaining that winners are allowed to say whatever they want in their acceptance speech, encouraging people to comment on the recent shooting in Parkland, Fla. as well as other activism with regards to the #MeToo movement.
From there, the show launched into its first trophy of the evening, with Sam Rockwell taking home the Oscar for best supporting role for his part in “Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri.”
In later quips, the host commented on the recent departure of Hope Hicks from the White House, joking there was now a lack of hope at the White House.
Later, after the best documentary feature award went to “Icarus,” a film that portrays an unflattering look at doping in sports, particularly with regards to the recent scandal in Russia, Kimmel made another jab at the current political climate.
"I did it all by myself," Janney joked before launching into her speech, in which she thanked a bird.
“Now at least we know Putin didn’t rig this competition, Right?”
Kimmel wasn't the only one getting political throughout the night. Stars Kumail Nanjiani and Nyong'o took the stage to share a message of support to Dreamers ahead of announcing "Shape of Water" as the winner of best production design.
“Like everyone in this room and everyone watching at home, we are dreamers. We grew up dreaming of one day being in the movies. Dreams are the foundation of Hollywood and dreams are the foundation of America,” Nyong’o said.
“To all the dreamers out there,” Nanjiani continued. “We stand with you."
The next major award of the evening went to Allison Janney, who took home the Oscar for best actress in a supporting role for her work on "I, Tonya."
"I did it all by myself," she joked before launching into her real speech, which included a thanks to her bird co-star from the hit ice skating biopic.
In the biggest stunt of the evening, Kimmel wanted to thank moviegoers for their contribution to the industry. He enlisted the help of celebrity volunteers from the crowd to surprise a group of unsuspecting people at a nearby theater who thought they were seeing “A Wrinkle in Time.”
The starpower for the stunt included Ansel Elgort, Mark Hamill, Guillermo del Torro, Gal Gadot, Lupita Nyong’o, Emily Blunt, Armie Hammer, Lin Manuel Miranda and Margot Robbie
Kimmel and Gadot entered first before inviting the others in, armed with candy, a hot dog cannon and sandwiches.
“This is so much better than the Oscars,” Gadot said, before Kimmel noted that the theater had a stench of marijuana.
“It’s true,” she said. “Not that I would know.”
From there, Kimmel asked a random audience member to introduce Tiffany Haddish and Maya Rudolph to introduce the next category.
Dave Chappelle took the stage soon after to introduce a musical performance from Common and Andra Day to perform “Stand Up for Something” as an ode to American activism with politically charged lyrics about topics like the NRA, the Parkland shooting, immigration, feminism and Puerto Rico.
Pic=Common and Andra Day performed a song accompanied by activists at the 2018 Oscars. (Reuters)
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