RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Oct. 20 to Oct. 26, 2019 Most media have treated Rudolph Giuliani's "shadow foreign policy" as sneaky and suspect, but the efforts of Donald Trump's personal lawyer are part of a long presidential tradition, EricFeltenreports for RealClearInvestigations. Highlights: - Democrat Bill Richardson, who dubbed himself the "informal undersecretary for thugs," is hardly the only recent example of personal presidential diplomacy.
- Colonel Edward M. House was Woodrow Wilson's go-to envoy during World War I because Wilson was at odds with his secretary of state, William Jennings Bryan.
- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt relied on Harry Hopkins as envoy to Joseph Stalin because FDR thought the State Department too hostile to the Soviets to focus on defeating Hitler.
- Hopkins was accused of using his relationship with the president as a vehicle for collecting boodle abroad -- including a $500,000 emerald necklace for his wife.
- Coca-Cola boss J. Paul Austinwas JimmyCarter's personal envoy to Cubaeven though he had a personal business interest there: opening a bottling plant.
- The tradition began with George Washington, whoenlistedGouverneurMorris as a "private agent" in Europe.
Bottom line: President Trump has strong historical precedents behind him in going outside normal channels to pursue diplomacy. And Giuliani wouldn't be the first personal presidential envoy accused of profiting from the experience. Read Full Article The Trump Investigations: Top Articles Quid Pro Quo and Other Allegations by Envoy to Ukraine, New York Times
Five Reasons, Not Just One, Behind Trump's Action on Ukraine, Washington Examiner
Trump Disputed: Ukraine Knew of Aid Hold, New York Times
The Revenge of the State Department, Politico
What Hunter Biden Did atBurisma(He Never Went to Ukraine), Reuters
Hunter Biden's Work in Romania Raises Questions, NBC
How Pair Hustled to Profit Off Giuliani, Trump Ties, CNN
Durham's FBI Probe Is Now a Criminal Investigation: Sources, Fox
Likely Outcry: TrumpMade Durham Probe Political, New York Times
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
How American Schools Spy on Millions of Kids
Guardian
Tech companies are now monitoring the emails and documents of millions of American students, across thousands of school districts, looking for signs of suicidal thoughts, bullying or plans for a school shooting. This article reports that the new school surveillance technology doesn't turn off when the school day is over: Anythingstudentstype in official school email accounts, chats or documents is monitored 24 hours a day, whether students are in their classrooms or their bedrooms. Tech companies are also working with schools to monitor students' web searches and internet usage, and, in some cases, to track what they are writing on public social media accounts. Parents and students are still largely unaware of the scope and intensity of school surveillance, and there is still no independent evaluation of whether this kind of surveillance technology actually works to reduce violence and self-harm. Drug, Device Firms Paid $1 Million Each to 700+ Doctors
ProPublica
Does investigative journalism always make a difference? Back in 2013,ProPublicadetailed what seemed a stunning development in the pharmaceutical industry's drive to win the prescription pads of the nation's doctors: In just four years, one doctor had earned $1 million giving promotional talks and consulting for drug companies; 21 others had made more than $500,000. Six years later - despite often damning scrutiny from prosecutors and academics - such high earnings have become commonplace. More than 700 doctors have received at least $1 million and 2,500 physicians have received at least half a million dollars apiece fromdrugmakersand medical device companies in the past five years alone, a newProPublicaanalysis of payment data shows. And that doesn't include money for research or royalties from inventions. One caveat: the totalnumber of doctors paid by industry (about 600,000) remained flat between2014 and 2018as did the amount of money drug and medical device companiespaid doctorsfor speaking and consulting(between $2.1 billion and $2.2 billion per year) indicatingthat more ofthe moneyis going to high-end stars. The Collapse of America's Emergency Medical Services
NBC News
Here's another reason you can't keep 'em down on the farm: There is no guarantee help will arrive if you call 911 with a health emergency in rural communities across the country. Because there are so few hospitals, this article reports, many small-town ambulance services run on altruism alone. And those ambulance services are closing in record numbers, putting around 60 million Americans at risk of being stranded in a medical emergency. NYC Students Can Graduate Without Attending School
New York Post
Going to class is not required to receive a diploma from New York City high schools. While city schools must take attendance, kids can still pass or be promoted even if chronically absent, which means missing more than 10 percent of days. Instead, students who "meet class expectations" must receive credit, and "are not required to make up the exact hours of missed class time," the education department says. Maspeth High School - which touts a 99 percent graduation rate - is currently under investigation by the Queens District Attorney's office and the Department of Education for allegedly exploited this loophole by giving "worksheets" to teens who have missed months of classes. "If students hand in anything, whether it's correct or not, you have to pass them," said one of multiple Maspeth whistleblowers. El Salvador: Disappearances Are Back
Washington Post
The official murder rate has fallen sharply in El Salvador in recent years, but that doesn't mean the killing has stopped. Insteadcriminals are more careful. Three decades after a brutal civil war characterized by never-explained, never-resolved disappearances, Salvadorans are again vanishing. National police say at least 2,457 people were reported disappeared in 2018, the most in a dozen years. The attorney general's office puts the figure at 3,437 — more than the total number of homicides. How GM Food Foes Killed a Super-Rice to Feed Millions
Foreign Policy
A million poor children die each year and another half a million go blind because of Vitamin A deficiency. Two decadesago it seemed this calamity could be addressedthrough a modern miracle called Golden Rice. But in the 20 years since it was created, Golden Rice has not been made widely available to those for whom it was intended. So what happened? This article reports: ... Golden Rice is a genetically modified organism, and as such is weighed down with all the political, ideological, and emotional baggage that has come to be associated with GMOs—stultifying government overregulation, fear and hostility, and criticism (much of it unfounded) from environmentalist and other activist organizations and individuals. Greenpeace, for one, was especially vocal in its condemnation of genetically engineered foods, Golden Rice in particular. Informant Tells of FBI Power to Spy On Rightist Extremists
Intercept
In 1975 the country was shocked to learn of abuses by the CIA, NSA, IRA and FBI exposed by the Church Committee - including persistent efforts to spy on Americans because of their political beliefs. This article reports that it is still happening. But instead of civil rights workers, war protesters and alleged communists, today's targets are alleged white supremacist and members of other groups defined as far-right. It tells the story through the experiences of an Army veteran recruited by the FBI to monitor militia groups in California. "I was just a human recording machine paid by the government to go into people's lives and befriend them and find out what they were thinking," he said. "After doing that time and time again, there was just nothing actionable, and I would think,Why after a year or so of me doing that didn't they stop it?" With Men Adrift, the End of Men's Magazines
City Journal
This fascinating article uses the decline of men's magazines such as Esquire, Playboy and GQ to explore the problems men face - including higher rates of opioid abuse and suicidethan women while earning fewer college degrees. Traditionally such magazines had twomissions: to turn men into consumers while telling them how men should act and think.As privileged and problematic as that project might seem now, it served a purpose.In more recent years, as masculinity has been attacked as toxic, some men are adrift in a land of confusion. "To be clear," Brian PatrickEhawrites, "this decline is nothing to celebrate. Without mass-market men's magazines to serve as ‘the common denominator of masculine interests,' in [Esquire foundingeditorArnold] Gingrich's words, their would-be readers will seek other, sometimes darker, outlets. ... One doesn't have to look hard online before stumbling across volcanic geysers of male rage and self-loathing." |
