🇺🇸 Taiwan Tapdance

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📉 President Biden Job Approval: Approve 44, Disapprove 54 (Rasmussen Reports)

🐘 General Election: Trump v. Biden: Republicans 44, Democrats 54 (Rasmussen Reports)

🐴 Generic Congressional Vote: Republicans 40, Democrats 44 (USA Today/Suffolk)

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Right: Magazine says Kamala Harris has 'reached an unparalleled low point' (Fox News)

Right: Six years later, Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign gravy train is almost dried up (Washington Examiner)

Right: Republicans say Biden spending bill raises taxes on average Americans — and offer evidence to prove it (The Blaze)

Left: Do Senate Republicans have a candidate problem? (CNN)

Left: Pat Toomey Defends GOP For Blocking Veterans Bill, Calls Jon Stewart 'Pseudo-Celebrity' (Huffington Post)

Left: Why the New York Times’ Post-Roe Abortion Coverage Has Felt a Little Off (Slate)

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QUICK CLICKS

President Still Positive, Sandy Hook Testimony, Grain Shipments Resume

US: WH physician: Biden 'unsurprisingly' still testing positive for COVID-19 (ABC)

US: Sandy Hook parents keep a gun near the bed because they're afraid of being killed by one of Alex Jones' followers: psychiatrist (Insider)

World: First ship with Ukrainian grain leaves Odesa after Russia's monthslong blockade (NPR)

US: Joe Rogan: Jeffrey Epstein may have been CIA or Mossad spy (NY Post)

World: US takes out Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahiri in 'successful' Afghanistan counterterrorism operation (Fox News)

US: 'Go to hell,' journalist tells Iran after a man with a loaded rifle was arrested near her Brooklyn home (CNN)

US: Many Dems voted to limit TikTok. Now they're using it. (The Hill)

US: Georgia’s Gun Laws Are Forcing Atlanta’s Midtown Music Festival to Cancel This Year (Rolling Stone)

US: Cities face crisis as fewer kids enroll and schools shrink (AP)

US: Bill Russell dead: The Boston Celtics legend and civil rights hero was the greatest ever. (Slate)

Sports: Deshaun Watson suspended - What does it mean? And what's next for the QB and the Cleveland Browns? (ESPN)

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Taiwan Tapdance

Today House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is scheduled to visit Taiwan as part of a trip to several Asian nations. China has warned it could take military action in response because Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province.

News Coverage from the Left: Pelosi expected to visit Taiwan, Taiwanese and US officials say (CNN)

News Coverage from the Right: China’s military posts ominous missile strike video (NY Post)

From The Flag: For decades the US has attempted to navigate a “middle ground” in regards to Taiwan, which is independently governed. In May, we covered comments from President Biden in which he asserted the US would use military force to defend Taiwan from Chinese invasion. Here’s the latest from both sides.

RIGHT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Pelosi Backed the US and China Into a Corner and the Risk Level Is High

• Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich recalls his own trip to China and says it's needed now to convey strength.

• This is now a lose-lose situation because China will feel forced to respond and has already made threats.

• Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and other challenges, this is a bad time to risk escalating tensions with China.

“Speaker Pelosi Must Go to Taiwan” Newt Gingrich, Newsweek Op-ed: “The American position … (is) that Taiwan could not be conquered by the communists, but the United States wouldn't openly recognize its independence. For the last half century, this formula of deliberate ambiguity has worked to keep Taiwan effectively free and avoid a major war. … It has a robust news media, a competitive political system, and a dynamic economy. Taiwan dominates the microchip industry with 48 percent of the world's foundry market and 61 percent of the advanced chip manufacturing capacity. Were Taiwan to be cut off from the world economy, the crisis in virtually every product that uses microchips would be enormous. Now that Speaker Pelosi's potential visit to Taiwan has become public, she simply must go through with it. As in 1997, America must remain strong and clear about our values and strategies. To back down now would convince the Chinese Communist dictatorship that America is growing weak and cowardly.”

“Pelosi's Provocative Trip” The Editors, The American Conservative: “China is promising serious retaliation if the highest US official since Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997 flies to Taiwan. … If Pelosi postpones or cancels the visit, it will be seen as a US climb-down in the face of Chinese indignation and protest, and an affront to our friends in Taiwan. Around the Asia-Pacific Rim, the word will be, ‘The Americans, faced with China's firmness, backed down.’ But if the visit goes forward, China is publicly committed to respond. Either way, relations between our countries will likely suffer, and perhaps seriously, if the Chinese opt for a military response to a Pelosi visit. However this collision plays out, the US is paying the price for having adopted, decades ago, a policy of building up China in the hope and expectation that Beijing would evolve into a benign and friendly rival and competitor of the United States.”

One more opinion piece from the Right: Why Nancy Pelosi should not visit Taiwan Lyle Goldstein, Unherd

LEFT-LEANING SENTIMENT

Alarm Bells Ringing Amid Pelosi’s Poorly Timed Trip

• Right now China-US relations via Taiwan are a powder keg and something like Pelosi visiting could cause the whole thing to explode.

• It is definitely Speaker Pelosi’s right and maybe even her duty to visit Taiwan, but the timing and optics are terrible.

• Given the dangerous foreign policy implications it's stunning that President Biden hasn’t stopped Pelosi’s Asian jaunt.

“Nancy Pelosi’s Trip to Taiwan Is Too Dangerous” Bonnie S. Glaser and Zack Cooper, New York Times Op-ed: “The United States and China are on a collision course in the Taiwan Strait. China’s ambitions have risen along with its military power and it may soon be capable of seizing democratically ruled Taiwan — even in a fight with the United States. … At the same time, longstanding US ‘strategic ambiguity’ has given way to strategic confusion. President Biden’s misstatements on Taiwan are undermining the carefully devised policy that has kept the peace for decades. He has repeatedly said that the United States has a commitment to defend Taiwan. Last November, Mr. Biden remarked that Taiwan is ‘independent.’ US-Taiwan official exchanges, military cooperation and US warship transits of the Taiwan Strait that were once kept under wraps are being made public. A single spark could ignite this combustible situation into a crisis that escalates to military conflict. Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan could provide it.”

“Pelosi should go to Taiwan — when the time is right” Editorial Board, Washington Post: “Now, the United States faces a dilemma. Ms. Pelosi not only has a right but an obligation to express solidarity with democratic Taiwan as she sees fit, including by visiting the island, even if no speaker has done so since Republican Newt Gingrich 25 years ago. To cancel such a trip, which would have occurred as part of a broader swing through Asian nations, after Chinese threats would be to concede Beijing an implicit veto over US relations with the island. That can never be allowed. And yet, China has been taking a more aggressive military posture in the Taiwan Strait. With war in Ukraine still raging — indeed, likely to escalate soon — the United States, and the world, can ill afford an avoidable military showdown with China, much less one that might begin with Chinese planes forcing down a US plane carrying Ms. Pelosi.”

One more opinion piece from the Left: Nancy Pelosi's reckless trip to Taiwan: A decision that could get us all killed Norman Solomon, Salon

FLAG THIS

Many Unsure How To Feel About Taiwan and China

In May, Americans were asked how they felt about a potential armed conflict between China and Taiwan.

The bulk of respondents said they didn’t know enough about the situation to make a decision (42%). Meanwhile 37% said the US should use military force to protect Taiwan, while 21% indicated that would be the wrong move (YouGov).

FLAG FINDS

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Declaration Signed, Job Hopping, Love in the Air

On August 2, 1776, members of Congress affixed their signatures to an enlarged copy of the Declaration of Independence. 56 congressional delegates in total signed the document, including some who were not present at the vote approving the declaration. Above are the 56 signatures.

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