What’s Newt Reading: May 1, 2020

What Newt’s Reading Battling China in international courts won't work, but there are alternative strategies for punishing China for negligence with the coronavirus. – Newt How to Make China Pay for COVID-19 By John Yoo and Robert Delahunty Hoover Institution The Chinese government not only shut down scientists’ efforts to research the coronavirus and notify the world about it, but also permitted large gatherings and foreign travel, spreading the virus globally. The US and the rest of the world must hold China accountable and make it pay “in order to create incentives that will force it to improve its behavior. Without such incentives, China may “inflict this kind of tragedy on the world again.” International law and courts will not work here, however. “Legal remedies will only succeed if the United States and its allies consider aggressive measures that do not rely upon international courts and organizations or Chinese compliance.” First steps could include economic sanctions or general tariffs. More aggressive steps could be expropriating Chinese property in the US or canceling Chinese-held treasury debt, using the proceeds to compensate Americans harmed by the pandemic. The US and its allies could also pay for their companies to repatriate their business activities and assets from China. The key is to limit these measures solely to forcing China to pay for the coronavirus. From an ER doctor in the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic: it’s time to start opening up. – Newt I’ve Worked the Coronavirus Front Line — and I Say It’s Time to Start Opening Up By Daniel G. Murphy New York Post The author, an emergency physician at St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx, has been in the ER every day for several weeks, supervising or providing care. Because of the lasting impact of the coronavirus pandemic, “we should end the lockdown and rapidly get back to work.” Most importantly, “the wave has crested,” with the number of patients arriving with the coronavirus dropping below the number discharged, transferred, or deceased — even in poorer communities. The “ebb and flow had more to do with the natural course of the outbreak than it did with the lockdown.” Another major concern is care for people without the virus. People are not coming in for other forms of emergency care who need it. “Everyone seems to be avoiding the health system — an important and unfortunate consequence of the stay-at-home strategy.” Furthermore, the virus is more prevalent than we think, and fear of it is over-amplified. “Distancing works, but I am skeptical that it is playing as predominant a role as many think.” Clifford D. May: As nations are fighting against the global pandemic, hostile regimes’ conduct has been as belligerent and oppressive as ever. – Newt China, Iran and North Korea Stay Focused on Hostile Agendas During Pandemic By Clifford D. May Washington Times Amid the coronavirus, with so many countries focused on the pandemic, nations “ruled by regimes hostile to democratic societies” have continued to be belligerent and oppressive, pursuing their nefarious priorities. In fact, with much of the world distracted, some of these regimes have grown bolder. China, for example, has cracked down on Hong Kong, arresting pro-democracy activists. Iran, meanwhile, continues to enrich uranium for its nuclear program. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has also harassed American naval ships and launched a military satellite. North Korea, for its part, tested several ballistic missiles, while Russia tested an anti-satellite missile and a Russian fighter jet intercepted and buzzed a Navy reconnaissance aircraft. Terrorist groups, including ISIS, have also been on the march. These regimes consider life and death no big deal. Instead, they want to stay “focused on increasing their power at the expense of enemies whose morality and sentimentality they regard as weaknesses. Their goal is a new international order, one that will be illiberal, unfree, undemocratic, and intolerant.” Newly released documents show the FBI was trying to entrap General Mike Flynn and turn him against President Trump (didn't work). Pardon Flynn now. – Newt FBI Discussed Interviewing Michael Flynn 'To Get Him to Lie' and 'Get Him Fired,' Handwritten Notes Show By Gregg Re Fox News Top FBI officials discussed their motivations for interviewing then-national security adviser Michael Flynn in the White House in January 2017, according to internal bureau documents unsealed this week. Then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe were among the officials who wrote the notes. The documents show that the officials openly questioned if their "goal" was "to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired." The agents also planned to get Flynn “to admit to breaking the Logan Act” when he spoke to then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period. The notes suggest the officials weren’t concerned about Flynn's intercepted contacts with Kislyak except as a pretext to target him. Flynn pled guilty to a single charge of lying to federal authorities but has since sought to withdraw his guilty plea and seek exoneration, accusing the FBI of “egregious misconduct.” According to Fox News, “even more exculpatory documents are forthcoming, as Attorney General Bill Barr continues to oversee the [Department of Justice’s investigation into the handling of the Flynn case.” Time for Democrats to support the US oil industry for energy independence (& economic recovery) and keep global control from falling back into the hands of Russia and Saudi Arabia. – Newt Democrats Should Support America’s Oil Industry By Walter Russell Mead Wall Street Journal American politicians from both parties need to remember that oil is not just another commodity. Oil has played a major, driving role in some of the most important geopolitical events and trends of the last 100 years — from Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor to America’s military policy toward the Middle East. For much of this period, other countries, especially Russia and the Middle Eastern states, had control of the global energy market. Recently, however, a surge in domestic American production reduced the power of these other countries, leading to lower, more stable energy prices. But, “the collapse in global demand due to the coronavirus turbocharged an OPEC-plus-Russia effort already under way to cripple US shale by cutting prices temporarily before presumably jacking prices back up when shale producers were dead on the floor. Thus, OPEC and Russia continued to pump oil as demand dried up, until we reached the present situation in which virtually any facility capable of storing petroleum is filled to the brim.” This upheaval threatens to undo the progress of increased American production. Many shale producers in the US are now hurting, a fact that many Democrats cheered out of concern for climate change. Do Democrats “want to see Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman in control of world energy markets? Do they want a deeper American entanglement in the Middle East?” America can take several steps to address this problem, but Washington must have a bipartisan message: “The American people will not let control of our energy future slip out of our hands.”