China’s state-run Global Times newspaper mocked President Joe Biden on Friday, quoting his declaration, “America is back,” in a headline about his decision to bomb Syria on Thursday evening. Biden made the remark in a speech about foreign policy in early February, in which he vowed to limit American military engagement. “And they know when you speak, you speak for me,” Biden told diplomats at the State Department. “And so — so is the message I want the world to hear today: America is back. America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy.” On Thursday, 36 days into his presidency, Biden took unilateral action in Syria, ordering what the Pentagon dubbed a “defensive precision strike” on members of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), a legal wing of the Iraqi armed forces. “At President Biden’s direction, U.S. military forces earlier this evening conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in eastern … [Read more...] about China Mocks Biden Syria Bombing: ‘America Is Back’
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Pentagon, FEMA open mass vaccination sites in Texas and New York
The Pentagon and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) opened COVID-19 vaccination sites in Texas and New York on Wednesday, with more slated for Florida and Pennsylvania in the coming days. Three vaccination centers were opened in Texas this week, with two similar sites in New York. A senior military official told reporters that four sites are to be set up in Florida, and one in Philadelphia, according to multiple outlets . ADVERTISEMENT The new sites, which come on the heels of the first one in Los Angeles that has been up and running since last week, bring a total of 700 troops to U.S. cities to help vaccinate civilians at FEMA-run clinics. “We’re in the business of protecting Americans, and saving lives, and they feel really good about what they’ve been doing,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Lloyd Austin To unite America, Biden administration must brace for hate Pentagon, FEMA open mass vaccination sites in Texas and New York Senate confirms … [Read more...] about Pentagon, FEMA open mass vaccination sites in Texas and New York
The $15 Minimum-Wage Debate Clarifies the Partisan Economic Divide
Republican “populists” are on the wrong side of this fight. Photo: J Scott Applewhite/AP/Shutterstock For many left-wing pundits, America’s partisan divide in 2021 is defined by its lack of a strong material basis . After all, a voter’s income level tells you less about her political allegiances today than it has for most of our nation’s modern history . In 2020, some of the wealthiest Zip Codes in the United States backed the party of organized labor by a landslide margin, while some of the poorest broke overwhelmingly for the party of libertarian billionaires. The ties that bind blue America’s tech entrepreneurs to its nonwhite gig workers — or red America’s oil barons to its white rural poor — are those of culture , not economics. Democrats stand for a multiethnic conception of American identity, secularism, cosmopolitanism, racial justice, and gender equality; Republicans, for a normatively white and Christian America, the patriarchal family, and zero-sum nationalism. … [Read more...] about The $15 Minimum-Wage Debate Clarifies the Partisan Economic Divide
Founder Of Chinese Front Group Spoke At CIA Nominee’s Think Tank Amid Beijing Propaganda Push
William Burns, the nominee for CIA director, testified before the Senate about links between a think tank he leads and a Chinese foundation that serves as a front group for the communist party. Burns said that he cut ties with the group, the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), “not long after” he took over as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. But the founder of the foundation gave a pro-Beijing speech at a Carnegie event more than 14 months after Burns took over the think tank. CUSEF donated between $200,000 and $500,000 to Carnegie between 2015 and 2017. The founder of a front group for the Chinese Communist Party appeared at an event at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in May 2016, where he pushed a pro-Beijing argument regarding a decades-long stalemate over control of the South China Sea. The speech, by Tung Chee-hwa, the founding chairman of the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), was held more than 14 months … [Read more...] about Founder Of Chinese Front Group Spoke At CIA Nominee’s Think Tank Amid Beijing Propaganda Push
CIA Nominee Says He Cut Ties With Chinese Propaganda Group As President Of Foreign Policy Think Tank
President Joe Biden’s nominee for CIA director spoke candidly on Wednesday about the Chinese government’s authoritarian bent, and its use of front groups to influence U.S. policy towards Beijing. William Burns also faced questions about his tenure at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which had a relationship with one of the Chinese government front groups. Burns told the Senate Intelligence Committee that shortly after he took over at Carnegie in 2015, he severed ties with the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation due to “expansion of Chinese influence operations.” Despite the claim, Carnegie and the foundation maintained a relationship as late as 2017. William Burns, the nominee for CIA director, called the Chinese government a “formidable, authoritarian adversary” during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, while facing questions about his tenure as president of a foreign policy think tank that received funding from a businessman and Chinese front … [Read more...] about CIA Nominee Says He Cut Ties With Chinese Propaganda Group As President Of Foreign Policy Think Tank
