Tag: UN

  • Straightening up the UN

    Straightening up the UN

    Straightening up the UN

    By: Bill Hansmann @American Thinker

    recent story brought to mind a neighbor from the small Wisconsin village where I grew up. Because of our age difference, I did not know him well. I wish I had, for he had a lot of valuable things to say.

    Richard B. was nearly a decade older than me and, therefore, not in my circle of friends. I remember that after college, he worked somewhere out of town but also ran a gun shop next door to his home. He was obviously a Second Amendment advocate. He drove a foreign car, something rarely seen in our little town. It was, in fact, the first Mercedes Benz I ever laid eyes on. It notably sported a bumper sticker calling for the U.S. to get out of the United Nations.

    That was a sentiment that few subscribed to at the time and certainly did not represent the feelings of a high-school student who had been taught that the UN was an organization that would prevent more wars like WWII. My father and the dads of many friends had survived that conflict, but they had lost friends and brothers. The prospect of another world war was daunting. How could anyone be opposed to an organization dedicated to preventing just such a conflagration?

    In the decades since, the UN has shown itself to be no friend to the United States, and it most certainly is no friend of our greatest Mid-east ally, Israel.

    Jealousy of the U.S. accomplishments and riches on the part of many nations has caused an organization that once seemed a source of hope for world peace to become a den of anti-U.S. and anti-democratic nations. Religious fanaticism on the part of many Muslim nations has made the UN into an anti-Semitic body with little or no regard for history or truth. It is an organization that now intends to devote itself to more globalism plus the stupidity of ‘climate crisis and gender identity and equality.’ That’s in addition to its already established anti-U.S. and anti-Israel programs.

    Promoting the so-called ‘climate crisis’ is a socialist method of wealth distribution, nothing more and nothing less. Promising rising tides that will destroy cities is a scare tactic designed to frighten populations into succumbing to the stupidity of adopting alternative energy sources that are nowhere near capable of powering our world. It would place draconian restrictions on the U.S. but would allow other countries to continue high usage of fossil fuels in the interest of their ‘catching up’ to us. Of course, we would be the ones to foot the bill rather than the majority of nations in the UN that are demanding this nonsense.

    Arguments regarding gender identity and equality are no more than the result of a pendulum swing too far in the direction of idiocy and away from common sense. It has allowed the LGBTQ+ groups a relevancy not in keeping with logic and right-headed thinking. LGBTQ+ individuals deserve the right to live their lives as they choose, provided it does not harm others. However, mutilating children in the interest of gender identity selection is barbaric and should be labeled as such. If an adult wants to sever their sexual body parts, it’s their choice. They can suffer the costs and the likely surgical remorse to come.

    By adopting these wrongheaded measures during the upcoming UN summit of September 22-23, the organization would render itself even less aligned with our national interests. Richard B. had it right over sixty years ago. Remaining in this organization while providing the majority of its funding is foolhardy. If they proceed with their proposed changes, losing the U.S. as a member would be their just desserts. It’s time for the U.S. to flex its muscles and demand that common sense rule. Of course, with the morons now running our country, this seems unlikely. It is one more reason to vote for Donald Trump and restore sanity to our country and the world. We should have paid more attention to Richard’s bumper sticker.

  • UN Ambassador’s Acting Chief of Staff ….

    UN Ambassador’s Acting Chief of Staff ….

    UN Ambassador’s Acting Chief of Staff Has Her Security Clearance Revoked

    In a little-noticed story that broke on Friday night, it was reported that Jennifer Davis, Chief of Staff to UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield (pictured above), has been reassigned because her security clearance was revoked.

    According to the Politico article, Davis is a career foreign service officer, having worked for 18 years in the State Department with previous assignments in Mexico, Turkey, and Colombia.

    The decision to revoke Davis’s clearance came after a three-year administrative investigation conducted by the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which conducts security background investigations to assess whether an individual should have access to classified information.

    Davis “strongly contests the determination” and is “going to aggressively appeal this decision as quickly as possible,” a person close to her said.

    According to Politico, the issue involves an interview Davis gave to a reporter, Amberin Zaman of the Middle Eastern-focused news outlet Al-Monitor.  At the time Davis was serving as General Counsel in the US Embassy in Istanbul, and one subject in the interview involved questions about US officials in Turkey being “hassled and detained” by Turkish government authorities.  In his article, Zaman called it a pressure campaign that would likely cause the United States to prevent Turkish government officials from visiting the U.S. in the future.  Zaman reported that a list of officials likely to be affected had already been drafted, and in doing so he cited “sources close to the Donald Trump administration.”

    Davis has apparently acknowledged that the reference is to her, as she has claimed through a third party speaking on her behalf that the information given to Zaman was not at all sensitive at the time, and was declassified soon after her discussion with the reporter.

    Unfortunately, that acknowledgment contains two subjective judgments that were not her’s to make — as to the level of “sensitivity” about the information given to a reporter, and that there was no harm in sharing it because it was thereafter declassified.

    It was either “sensitive” or “not sensitive”, and that was not a judgment for her to make. And by her own admission, it was classified at the time she disclosed it to the reporter.

    The fact that it was later declassified is irrelevant.  The only relevant consideration is that she cannot be trusted with knowledge of classified information because she has demonstrated a willingness to substitute her judgment on disclosure for the judgment of the classifying authority which classified in the information to begin with.  That is a red-line over which persons with security clearances are to not cross.

    Davis had been serving in the position informally as Acting Chief of Staff, but Politico’s story says she has been doing so without a security clearance which had been revoked at some point earlier.  Without the clearance, Davis has not been able to work in the Ambassador’s Office and has been working from her home instead.  The existence of the security investigation against her had prevented her from formally being hired into the position until the matter was resolved and her security clearance restored.  But it appears now that the revocation is final — subject to her right to appeal — and that finality led her to stop working for the Ambassador even in a limited role early last week.

    The Politico story notes that Davis is not the first Cabinet Officer Chief of Staff to be reassigned — less than 100 days into the Biden Administration.

    Jennifer Van der Heide, who was the chief of staff to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, was removed by the White House last week after she planned a 50-person indoor party that the White House cancelled after concerns that a party she had planned to celebrate Haaland’s confirmation would become a superspreader event. She remains as a senior counselor at the department.

    I can’t really fault Davis for being an idiot — she just broke a rule that someone in her position could not break, and the penalty was the loss of her security clearance.

    Van der Heide, on the other hand, is an idiot.

    “Senior Counselor” seems to be the title under which Biden Administration idiots are stashed until they can be sent back to George Soros to feed and care for.
    By: Shipwreckedcrew – April 11, 2021 https://redstate.com/shipwreckedcrew/2021/04/11/un-ambassadors-acting-chief-of-staff-has-her-security-clearance-revoked-n358835

    Comment: LOL – final statement: “Senior Counselor” seems to be the title under which Biden Administration idiots are stashed until they can be sent back to George Soros to feed and care for.

  • US officially cuts ties with WHO

    US officially cuts ties with WHO

    The Trump administration announced today that the US was cutting ties with the World Health Organization. The administration submitted a notice of withdrawal from the World Health Organization to the United Nations secretary-general, according to an official source. The White House also notified congressional lawmakers Tuesday of the official removal, effective July 2021.

    https://twitter.com/ChloeSalsameda/status/1280569997660569601?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1280569997660569601%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Freaganmccarthy%2F2020%2F07%2F07%2Fwho-withdrawal-n2572044

    President Trump previously announced in May that the United States would be taking steps to “terminate” our relationship with the WHO.

    See also: Hello World. . .

    The U.S. repeatedly raised concerns about WHO officials’  praise of Chinese “transparency,”  its ignoring of warnings about the virus from Taiwan, and its repetition of Chinese claims that COVID-19 could not be spread from person-to-person. Trump has also pointed to opposition from WHO officials to his decision to place a travel ban on China in the initial days of the crisis.