Iran Hearts Nukes, SCOTUS vs. Cheerleader vs. Snapchat?!, Portland Mayor Finally Pushes Back on "White Antifa," UK Protects Wikileaks Founder, Congress to Carrry Guns? (The Five for 01/04/21)
Hey,
Happy 2021…I’m excited about where The Five is going this year. And I’m excited that you keep showing up to read!
Thanks for taking time to explore news that matters. Let’s get into it.
[one]
Well, that didn’t take long. Iran seized a South Korean oil tanker with billions of dollars of oil on board, and started down the path to nuclear weapons again.
The Associated Press reports:
Iran on Monday began enriching uranium up to 20% at an underground facility and seized a South Korean-flagged oil tanker in the crucial Strait of Hormuz, further escalating tensions in the Middle East between Tehran and the West.
The announcement of enrichment at Fordo came as fears rose that Tehran had seized the MT Hankuk Chemi. Iran later acknowledged the seizure, alleging the vessel’s “oil pollution” sparked the move. However, hours earlier, Tehran said a South Korean diplomat was expected to visit in the coming days to negotiate the release of billions of dollars in its assets now frozen in Seoul.
I’m not suprised that the incoming President Biden is a signal for Iran to get back to their old ways.
Nations first behave badly at sea these days, it seems. China has been messing around off the coast of multiple Central and South American nations, smuggling oil for Venezula and illegally fishing in Ecuadorian waters (and likely causing local ecological disaster from over-harvesting).
South Korea should be pissed, but South Korean President Moon Jae-In was elected on a promise to return to the “Sunshine Policy” which basically means that Jae In believes if he gives the bully’s on the back of the school bus his lunch money every day, maybe they won’t hit him quite as hard on the playground and maybe he’ll even get invited to a party one day.
Yeah, good luck with that. Apparently Jae In has never heard of Neville Chamberlin or WWII.
To continue the schoolyard analogy, the Iran bully will likely back down to a bigger bully—the U.S.S. Nimitz (what a terrible name for a boat). The New York Times reports the aircraft carrier is headed back to international waters in the Middle East to remind Iran who really runs this schoolyard called earth.
I know this is the longest story in the five for awhile, but Iran is also getting close to nukes again.
Iran’s decision to begin enriching to 20% purity a decade ago nearly triggered an Israeli strike targeting its nuclear facilities, tensions that only abated with the 2015 atomic deal. A resumption of 20% enrichment could see that brinksmanship return as that level of purity is only a technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
From Israel, which has its own undeclared nuclear weapons program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized Iran’s enrichment decision, saying it “cannot be explained in any way other than the continuation of realizing its goal to develop a military nuclear program.”
“Israel will not allow Iran to manufacture a nuclear weapon,” he added.
Whatever you think of Trump, his record in the Middle East is like no other President since WWI, with a number of Middle Eastern and African nations normalizing relations with Israel, including Chad, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morrocco.
The Obama adminstration sent $1.8 billion on cash to Iran in exchange for them dropping their nuclear enrichment program. A 2016 Brookings Institute report concluded that it’s likely at least part of that money was spent financing terrorists. The program clearly didn’t end Iran’s ambitions to become a nuclear power.
The Trump/Biden handoff seems to be the Carter/Reagan handoff in reverse, in which Tehran held 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days during the Carter administration, and then we’re freed on the day Reagan took office, as the Gipper put the fear of God (or at least military might) in the hearts of the Dictatorship.
I criticize Iran not because I hate it, but beause I love what it once was and could be again. When the Shah’s (kings) ruled Iran before the 1979 revolution, the country was essentially a second Paris. (More pics via the UK Daily Mail).
And here it is today, under radical Islamic rule.
The hangmen who strung up those dissidents may well have been paid in American greenbacks, provided by the U.S. government.
[two]
OK, that was long. The rest of these need to be brief, for time’s sake.
To continue the last story’s theme of strength vs. passivity when dealing with terrorists, Mayor Ted Wheeler, who was chased out of his home and moved to another part of the city after Antifa harrassed him earlier this year, has finally discovered the bully’s can’t get enough lunch money to be appeased.
The local CBS affiliate reports:
Wheeler laid out the “who, what, when, where and why” of what happened Thursday.
“The who: violent antifa and anarchists,” the mayor said. They rampaged through downtown Portland causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage with spray painting, window breaking, fires and fireworks.
“Why? This is the hardest question of all to answer,” Wheeler said. “Why would a group of largely white, young and some middle age men destroy the livelihood of others who are struggling to get by?”
Good question, Teddy. And one I asked when white kids in expensive SUV’s showed up from out of state and burned black-owned businesses in Fergesun, MO this summer, just miles from my house.
[three]
Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange will remain in the UK for now. USA Today reports:
A British judge ruled Monday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should not be extradited to the U.S. on espionage charges because he is a suicide risk, in a move that touches on press freedoms and the international reach of the U.S. justice system.
The ruling ostensibly brings to an end a legal saga that has dragged on for almost a decade and has been full of controversies that pitted Washington against rights campaigners who say the U.S. government tried to redefine what journalists can publish.
U.S. prosecutors said they would appeal the ruling.
Assange was indicted in 2019 by the Department of Justice on 18 counts, alleging 17 forms of espionage and one instance of computer misuse crimes connected to WikiLeaks' dissemination of secret U.S. military documents provided to him by ex-U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning. Assange denied the charges and claimed the documents exposed war crimes and abuses by the U.S. military in Iraq.
Support for Assange has gradually shifted from the left wing to the right wing of American politics, with many anti-foreign-intervention conservatives calling for Assange to be pardoned during Trump’s lame duck period.
The Trump Administration hasn’t signaled that pardoning Assange is on the table.
[four]
A Colorado Congresswoman wants to bring her gun to work. The Daily Mail reports:
A new firearms-toting congresswoman will be allowed to take her gun to work after Nancy Pelosi did not change a rule from 1967 which exempts lawmakers from a Capitol weapons ban.
Republican Lauren Boebert, 33, sent a letter with the signatures of 83 current and incoming GOP Congress members, which urged House leadership to keep the rule after 21 Democrats urged a change.
And on Saturday, new rules revealed by Pelosi did not appear to include a weapons ban.
The 1967 regulation says no federal or District of Columbia laws restricting firearms 'shall prohibit any Member of Congress from maintaining firearms within the confines of his office' or 'from transporting within Capitol grounds firearms unloaded and securely wrapped'.
Lawmakers may not bring weapons into the House chamber and other nearby areas, the regulations say, according to a letter Rep Jared Huffman, wrote in 2018. Aides can carry lawmakers' weapons for them on the Capitol complex, he wrote.
Considering a man shot Congressman Steve Scalise along with a police officer and two aids at a baseball game in 2017, it seems reasonable to allow legislatures to carry to protect themselves.
Even the most left-leaning states allow those who’s lives have been directly threatened get concealed carry permits, and there’s little doubt that at least some members of Congress receive death threats every year.
[five]
This is a small, but very important story. The Daily Mail reports:
A father drowned in front of his wife at a California beach while trying to save their two young children who got swept by large waves into the water and are still missing.
The tragic incident began unfolding just after 2pm on Sunday at Blind Beach in Jenner, California, as a six-year-old girl and her four-year-old brother were playing in the sand by the water's edge under the supervision of their parents.
A high surf advisory was in effect along the coast at the time due to strong rip currents and swells of up to 24 feet.
At one point in my life, it’s safe to say I was one of the top 1% of swimmers in the world (when training for the Ironman, I could regulary knock out 3 miles in open water). And even I couldn’t have survived those waves. I have no doubt I would have died trying to save my child.
This continues a tragic narrative that’s all too common in the modern age…people raised in town who don’t know how to keep themselves safe in the great outdoors. 3/4 of a family is dead because the parents didn’t know how to read the weather.
I hope EVERY READER of The Five can do each of these by the end of 2021:
swim at least a half mile, tread water for half an hour
Use a first aid kit.
Splint a broken bone.
Safely handle a gun. (Even if you hate guns, you should go to the range once with a friend…you never know when you might need to pick up a found firearm and safely unload it).
Get the poison out of a snake bit, if you live in an area with poisonous snakes (I do, and I can’t…yet).
Build and use a winter kit for your vehicle, in case you get stranded.
That’s all for now…but let’s talk more later about not getting yourself killed.-sth