Transcript

3.24.25 · Washington Post

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Speaker 1: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to the reading of the
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Washington Post for this Monday, March twenty fourth. As a reminder,
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Radio I as a reading service intended for people who
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are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult
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to read print material. Your reader for today is Rod Brotherton,
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and as you know, on Monday, we begin by reading
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Paul Prether's weekly column from the Lexington Herald Leader, and
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this week's article is entitled deal with Scary Headlines by
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Living in the Moment.
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Speaker 2: Every March.
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Speaker 1: First, I pause and take stock of the year I've
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just come through, where I am now and what might
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lie ahead, and how I might feel about it, the past,
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the present, and the future. This is my birthday month.
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I'm turning sixty nine, which puts me on the cusp
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of the ominous seven zero. Every year when I write
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my birthday column, I get emails from readers telling me
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to buck up, that they're ninety five and still running
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marathons backwards, and I'm a whiny little pop while I'm
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practically a teenager. So let me acknowledge up front that
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I am lucky to be any age. Life is a gift,
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even sixty nine, or even seventy eight ancient. I'm able
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to get around fine under my own power. I still
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got my mind more or less. I got a wife
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and family I love, and I'm remarkably blessed. I know, yeah,
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age is just a number, but these aren't auspicious numbers.
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I'd rather be twenty nine or thirty nine than sixty nine.
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Can I say that at least I've really enjoyed my youth,
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and I like to have a big chunk of it back, Sir,
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May I have some more of that?
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Speaker 2: Please?
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Speaker 1: Anyway, as I take stock this year, I feel a
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foreboding of apocalypse, maybe my own apocalypse, or maybe this countries,
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or maybe the war rolls. I think of Yeats the
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Second Coming, which in part reads things fall apart, the
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center cannot hold maa anarchy is loosed upon the world,
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the blood dimmed toide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony
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of innocence is drowned. The best lack of all conviction,
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while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
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Speaker 2: I could be wrong. As I age, I.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes see apocalypses pending that even where they aren't. Recently,
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I had a medical issue and it wasn't an emergency.
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Speaker 2: I wasn't spurring blood.
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Speaker 1: I had to wait a couple of weeks to get
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in and see the doctor. Meanwhile, I doom scrolled the
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internet trying to diagnose myself. By the time my appointment arrived,
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I was ninety percent sure I was in the last
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stages of an incurable illness. My doctor listened to a
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recitation my symptoms, nodded, gave me a careful going over,
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then assured me my problem amounted to well, nothing abnormal
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for a guy my age. When I got home from
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his office, my symptoms had already vanished, grabbed the radio.
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Speaker 2: And shout, hallelujah.
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Speaker 1: I was healed. So, in addition to everything else, age
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seems to be turning me into a hypochondriac, something I've
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never been before. Still, even allowing for my neurosis, I
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think we do seem to be in the middle of
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some major shifts and the cosmos. There's a dangerous war
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in Ukraine and even more dangerous one in the Middle East,
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and everything but warm with China. The balance of power
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inside the United States has been flipped on its head,
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and nobody knows where that's going.
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Speaker 2: To or how it will end. Well, not well.
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Speaker 1: In my guess, as Ai is reading our minds. The
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next pandemic lurks silently in some petri dish of chicken
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soup or the chicken coop. The stock market's dropping like
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a stone, and wildfires are burning wildly. Plus I'm another
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year older and my hip hurts, and I have to
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get up twice at night to pee. Things are falling apart.
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The scenta cannot hold. Maybe you feel the same way.
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If so, here's the upside. You can choose to think
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of all this bad news as great news in a
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counterintuitive way. If the world is spiraling out of control,
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you don't have to control it anymore, do you. You're scott free.
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You can ease away from the craziness and find a radical,
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rebellious delight right now despite my neurotic isms, and itises
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That's what I'm trying, mainly with success, to do a
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snows the future. I may be running marathons backwards when
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I'm ninety five, or I might drop dead before this.
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Speaker 2: Week is out. The United States.
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Speaker 1: May rise to unprecedented glory in the coming years, or
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it may collapse in a smoldering heap. Stock market might rebound,
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or it might free frawl into a worldwide depression and
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take my health.
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Speaker 2: Care with it. Sure, there are little.
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Speaker 1: Things I can do, perhaps to mitigate the damage, and
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I'll do those mainly, though the future will bring what
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it brings. There are spiritual forces beyond our control at
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work here.
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Speaker 2: What each of us does.
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Speaker 1: Control is how we will face the moment in front
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of us right now, and right now we're probably doing okay.
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So why not milk that. Why not eat your favorite
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at your favorite restaurant, or take out your grandkids shopping,
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or watch White Lotus with your wife, Sleep in whenever
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you feel like it, praising the Lord, go out of
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your way to help others, and practice kindness, and so joy.
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Samuel Johnson said of literary friend who had accomplished the
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best writing of his career while under a death sentence.
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Depend on it, sir. When a man knows he is
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to be hanged in a fortnight, he concentrates his mind wonderfully.
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What I know at sixty nine is right, whether it's
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in a fortnight or in twenty years, whether it's as
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individuals or a plague takes us out by the millions,
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we're all facing the gallows. Nobody gets out of here alive.
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Instead of letting that an inescapable fate drive us to despair, bitterness,
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or terror, we can let it concentrate our minds wonderfully,
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every God breathed moment along the way.
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Speaker 2: The destination might be the same.
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Speaker 1: But the journey will be immeasurably sweeter. And as you know,
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Paul Prayther is pastor of the Bethesda Church near Mount Sterling,
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and you can email him at prtpd at yahoo dot com. Now,
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let's look at the headlines from the Washington Post for
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today and our first story for the day. Trump turbulence
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leads allies to rethink reliance on US weapons. From Brussels.
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As President Trump upends US foreign policy, negotiating aiding closer
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relations with Russia, threatening NATO allies, and pausing cooperation with Ukraine,
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Washington's traditional partners and best customers are rethinking their dependence
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on American weapons systems. From Canada to Europe. Calls are
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growing to steer future defense spending away from US equipment
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and towards their own industries, even as we can see
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there is no quick fix after decades of dependence. The
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US pause of intelligence sharing with Ukraine this month and
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Trump's threats to annexed Canada and Greenland have laid bare
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the risks of counting on the United States and raised
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concerns about whether Washington could ground jets or turn off
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launchers remotely as a pressure tactic. Even if such a
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kill switch as a myth, officials and analysts say advanced
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US systems such as fighter jets, are so reliant on
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US bare parts, software updates, or data sharing that cutting
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across could effectively render some unusable. Nearly two thirds of
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European arm imports in recent years came from the United States.
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Several European countries have launched reviews of their US made
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equipment to assess how vulnerable they would be in a
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conflict with Russia if Trump cut off support. According to
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for senior European policymakers who spoke on the condition of
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anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, Canada and Portugal say
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they're reconsidering future orders of F thirty five fighter jets
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from Lockheed Martin and the European Union is largely freezing
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the United States out of new loan financing as the
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block scrambles to find hundreds of billions of euros for
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a military build up in the next five years. Canada
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is in the talks with the EU about plans to
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expand manufacturing.
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Speaker 2: Officials say as.
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Speaker 1: America's oldest and closest allies joined forces in an attempt
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to shield themselves from Trump's whims. Given the scale of
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the US defense industry, which is the world's largest arms exporter,
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European officials acknowledge they'll keep buying off the shelf US
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weapons as they build their own lagging capabilities, but the
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Trump administration's unpredictability has sharpened their focus on upgrading their
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arsenals and developing their own production, and announcing that Boeing
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would produce the F forty seven, the next generation fighter jet.
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Trump said Friday that the version sold allies would have
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reduced capabilities because someday maybe they're not our allies. Previous
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administrations have at times withheld military equipment from erstwhile customers.
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When the Islamic Revolution of the Ayatola Rula Kamani overthrew
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Shah Mohammed rese Pallavi in nineteen seventy nine, the Carter
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administration cut off maintenance and spare parts for the US
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made planes flown by Iran's air force, and after the
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Egyptian military ousted President Mohammed Morsei in twenty thirteen, the
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Obama administration froze shipments of jets, attack helicopters, and other equipment.
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The whole was eventually lifted, but the experience propelled Cairo
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to diversify its sourcing from eighty percent investment in the
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US equipment to thirty percent today. Yet Washington has taken
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such actions against Alliance partners only rarely. The first Trump
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administration suspended Turkey from the F thirty five fighter jet
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program over in Kara's acquisition of a Russian air defense system.
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European policymakers worry that the US assistance required to run
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the complex weaponry they are already using, including anti missile systems,
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early warning aircraft, and combat drones, could degrade over time.
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Rules on some systems require that maintenance and updates be
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performed by US citizens, and equipment produced by European manufacturers
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that include US components can also be subject to restrictions.
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It's not as if President Trump could just push a
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button and all aircraft would fall out of the sky,
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one European official said, but there is an issue of dependency,
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particularly on intelligence sharing and communication links. The US industry's
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pitch that American weapons are implicitly backed up by American
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guarantees is becoming a tough sell. Some policymakers involved in
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decisions to purchase F thirty fives has said they would
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now choose differently. As one of the decision makers behind
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Denmark's purchase of F thirty fives, I regret it. Erasmus Jarlov,
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chair of the Danish Parliament's Defense committee, posted on social media.
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Did MARKUS boosting military spending as as Trump says Greenland
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needs better defenses and is vowed to get the island
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one way or the other. Yarlov called avoiding American weapons
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if at all possible going forward. I can easily imagine
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a situation where the USA will demand Greenland from Denmark
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and will threaten to deactivate our weapons and let Russia
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attack US when we refuse. He added, Buying American weapons
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is a security risk that we cannot run. When Trump
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was elected, European officials expected more pressure to raise spending.
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Many figured that placing orders for US military hardware would
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meet demands, while handing him trade wins as kind of
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prizes that he relishes, but now his gyrations on Russia
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policy have some reconsidering that approach. Anxiety piqued when Trump
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halted military aid and targeting intelligence to Ukraine to help
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fight off Russia after his oval office clash with President
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Vladimir Zelensky. The administration resumed the assistance within days, but
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that didn't quash concerns. That's the whole point, said retired
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Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, a former Army commander of US Europe.
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People immediately said, oh, oh, wait a second here, you
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mean they could just turn it off and on like that.
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Nations will be thinking they are vulnerable to US polities
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decision that will cause them to have uncertainty about parks
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or networking. As Germany approved a mammoth spending bill this month,
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billboards from the German Aerospace Industries Association popped up in
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rail stations boasting defense made in Germany. For Germany's independents.
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European arms makers, eyeing a bump from the extra money
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being redirected to defense, have called on the EU to
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spend more on EU manufacturers. The EU Executive Branch has
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unveiled plans for a one hundred and sixty three.
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Speaker 2: Billion dollar loan program to.
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Speaker 1: Help FastTrack the military spending spree and joint procurement. EU
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members can spend their national resources as they please, but
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the EU is prioritizing weapons made of the Block. To
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qualify for this financing, at least sixty five percent of
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the product's cost would have to be made and spent
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in the EU, Norway or Ukraine. The loans would be
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limited to defense companies headquartered in the Block or countries
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that sign defense agreements with it, at least in a
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list that doesn't include the US. Complex weapon systems in
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which a supplier has design authority that restricts how it's
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used and whether certain components can be substituted. For example,
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the US Patriot Air Defense missile system by Raytheon would
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be ineligible. Explaining the rationale, an EU official said it
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would be a real problem if whatever equipment acquired by
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the member states cannot be used for their own defense
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because somebody will object. EU Foreign Policy chief Kaha Kalis
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pointed to limitations on Ukraine's use of weapons made abroad.
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We have this opportunity window to really build up the
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European defense industry, she told reporters in times of crisis,
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your military needs to really have hands free. It's a
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boost for France, a major European arms exporter, which has
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long sought to limit new defense spending to EU companies,
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an approach opposed by countries such as the Netherlands, Germany
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and Sweden, where industries are closely interlinked with manufacturers outside
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of the Block. While some continue to extol the virtues
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of the trans Atlantic arms partnership and hope it persists,
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many also want to diversify and work more closely with others,
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such as Britain, Norway. In Turkey, Swedish Minister Ulf Kirstensen
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told reporters Thursday that he didn't see US weapons purchases
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as a security risk. Still, he said European nations would
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do well from being a little less dependent on the
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US defense industry. An EU diplomat said some policymakers believe
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the Block should, partially, if necessary, keep new defense funding
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initiatives open to US companies. We are still very much dependent,
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whatever people say, for the next ten years for our
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security on American presence in Europe, he said, be at
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their intelligence capabilities, their strategic heavy airlifts. While Europe makes
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alternatives for equipment such as combat aircraft. The defense sector
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is largely fragmented across the continent and doesn't match the
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capacity of Americans behemoth industry. Building up key capabilities can
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take years. We're in a very unconventional moment in history,
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said Keith Webster, a former Pentagon official who has the
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Defense and Aerospace Council of the US Chamber of Commerce.
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So I can understand where any nation buying from the
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United States would begin to think about the possibilities of
18:17
being denied the ability.
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Speaker 2: To sustain a program.
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Speaker 1: Still, officials and analysts say there are other reasons to
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expect that Europe won't be too quick to move away
18:28
from American hardware. Large US defense firms, which have broad
18:34
supporting Congress and influence with the White House, will lobby
18:38
to maintain their domination of global markets. US arms sales
18:42
reached a record high in twenty twenty four. Government to
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government sales total one hundred and eighteen billion dollars, up
18:51
forty six percent from the year before, and direct commercial
18:55
sales hit two hundred and one billion, With a dipp
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in Russians. France now ranks second. The widespread sale of
19:05
US arms poses another challenge. It's difficult for NATO allies
19:10
to wean themselves if they want to maintain interoperability. Many
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Eastern European nations are only slowly phasing out their Soviet
19:20
era arsenals. It's also tricky for countries that are rushing
19:24
to buy off the shelf systems to beef up quickly,
19:27
such as Poland and the Baltic states bordering Russia. So
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if they're serious about equipping Ukraine, if they're serious about
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equipping themselves in a way that they haven't today, they're
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going to have to buy the US, Webster said. And
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the next story, how Israel plans to escalate its war
19:50
on Hamas in Gaza. As Israel's forces push back into
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Gaza after a two month cease fire with Hamas, It's
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and military leaders are considering plans for a fresh ground
20:04
campaign that could include a military occupation of the entire
20:08
enclave for months or more. The new and more aggressive tactics,
20:13
according to current and former Israeli officials and others briefed,
20:17
will probably also include direct military control of humanitarian aid,
20:23
targeting more of hamasa's civilian leadership, and evacuating women, children,
20:28
and vetted non combatants from neighborhoods to humanitarian bubbles and
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laying siege to those who remain, a more intense version
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of attactic employed last.
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Speaker 2: Year in northern Gaza.
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Speaker 1: Israeli officials say they are still waiting for the outcome
20:45
of ceasefire talks and that no decisions have been made
20:48
on whether and how to escalate the current phase of
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the offensive, which has so far consisted of mostly aerial bombardment.
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But if the maximum millist taxtics are implemented, they would
21:03
represent an escalation of a seventeen month operation that the
21:07
Gaza Health Ministry says has killed more than fifty thousand Palestinians,
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more than half of them women and children. The wars
21:16
also killed more than four hundred Israeli soldiers, and they
21:20
would mark a significant departure for the military industry, whose
21:24
previous leaders feared becoming mired in the Gaza strip. A
21:29
full scale invasion and occupation would require up to five
21:34
army divisions, people familiar with the planning said, and the
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israel Defense forces could become stretched given that reservist or
21:43
increasingly voicing skepticism about fighting an open ended war, But
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some officials say that only a full scale invasion, now
21:53
followed by a lengthy counterinsurgency and deradicalization effort, would accomplish
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stated aim of eradicating Hamas after
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the group launched the murderous attack on October seventh, twenty
22:09
twenty three, that murdered at about twelve hundred Israelis and
22:12
sparked the war. Amir Aviv, a former deputy commander of
22:18
military's Gaza's Division, said the IDF's campaign last year was
22:23
constrained by disagreements between political and military leaders over tactics
22:28
and strategy, and by the Biden administration's concerns about harm
22:33
to Palestinian civilians, But the arrival of the Trump administration
22:38
in the United States and changes in the Israeli defense
22:41
establishment have loosened those constraints.
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Speaker 2: Aviv said.
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Speaker 1: Now there is new IDEF leadership, There is the backing
22:49
from the US, There is the fact that we have
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enough munitions, and the fact that we finish our main
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missions in the North and can concentrate on Gaza. Aviv said,
23:00
the plans are decisive. There will be a full scale
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attack and they will not stop until Hamas is eradicated. Completely.
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Speaker 2: We'll see.
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Speaker 1: Israeli officials say they are still willing to negotiate with
23:15
Hamas through mediators before launching any large scale invasion. Before
23:20
dawn Tuesday, Israel carried out a devastating aerial attack targeting
23:26
dozens of Hamas leaders and fighters, and conducted limited raids
23:30
on the ground. Hamas launched rockets at Tel Aviv in retaliation,
23:36
and Israeli official deny that Israel broke the ceasefire agreement
23:41
and said that Israeli officials had laid out on the
23:44
sixteenth day of the Truces their conditions.
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Speaker 2: For entering the second phase of the.
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Speaker 1: Agreement, but they were rejected by Hamas. Hamas then declined
23:55
a bridge proposed by President Donald Trump's Special Invoice Steve
24:00
whit Cough to extend the ceasefire by forty days in
24:04
exchange for eleven living hostages, and offered instead to release
24:09
one American Israeli hostage, the official said, adding that Israel
24:14
then decided to resume hostilities, which the officials claim was
24:18
permitted under the clause of the ceasefire agreement if talks.
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Speaker 2: Were deemed to a broken down. That proposal is still
24:26
on the table.
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Speaker 1: According to the Israeli official, who, like others in this report,
24:31
spoke on the pervasive condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks.
24:37
But we're back to negotiating by different means under fire.
24:43
Hamas wanted to immediately open talks for the second phase,
24:47
which would entail a full Israeli withdrawal from Gossa and
24:50
Hamas releasing the remaining living hostages. Hamas said Saturday it
24:55
was still considering Whitkoff's proposal. Is destroyed nearly all of
25:01
Hamas's twenty four fighting battalions, it says, leaving a few
25:05
thousand Gaza fighters in the area, But to fully eradicate
25:10
the remnants, it would have to hold the territory, which
25:13
some officers and analysts say carries high risks for Israel.
25:19
If you look at the French and Al Xageria, the
25:22
US Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Americans in Afghanistan, the history
25:27
of counterinsurgency attempts to teach us that even if the
25:31
Israelis will fail, says Sashka Dominic Dov Bachmann, an expert
25:36
on warfare at the University of Canberra, it would undermine
25:39
the moral and ethical basis of Israel. But more Supporters
25:44
of a higher intense and link the operation in Gaza
25:49
argue that the campaign lasts only year only resulted in
25:53
Hamas re emerging from its tunnels and crisp uniforms in January,
25:58
and that political conditions are right now out to further
26:00
ratchet up military pressure and hold Gaza if necessary. Last year,
26:07
the Biden administration refused to send a shipment of two
26:11
thousand pound bombs to Israel unless it allowed more humanitarian
26:15
aid into Gaza. It did more to prevent civilian casualties,
26:20
but Trump, who took office in January, has approved the
26:23
sale of the heavy bombs, and officials have said Israel
26:26
consulted with the Trump administration before cutting off all aid
26:30
to Gaza earlier this month. A leadership change within the
26:35
Israeli military establishment, meanwhile, has produced a hawkish shift, and
26:40
lys say Defense Minister Israel katz an IDF chief of
26:45
staff Elil Zamir, replaced officials who sometimes clashed with Netanyahu
26:52
nets Now, who last year asked the IDEA to consider
26:55
taking control of distributing humanitarian aid in Gaza to prevent
26:59
Hamas from siphoning off supplies and profiting from their sale
27:05
Israeli assessments have estimated that Hamas made one billion dollars
27:10
in profits from skimming. Then Defense Minister Joav Gallant and
27:16
then IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi resisted the idea,
27:22
arguing it would expose soldiers to unnecessary risk, an amount
27:27
to mission creep for the IDF. Current and former Israeli
27:31
official said by February the prevailing thinking had changed. Israeli
27:37
officials informed international and aid agencies that future humanitarian assistants
27:43
would be screened and directed to new logistic hubs established
27:47
by Israeli authorities. Agency officials told The Washington Post another
27:52
point of contention, Gallant on Halevi favored striking Hamas's military
27:57
capabilities netignan who wanted also to target the organization's civilian officials,
28:03
who dominate the Enclaves government post. After Gallant was dismissed
28:08
in November, he told the families of hostages held in
28:11
Gaza that Israel had achieved all its military objectives. The
28:15
media here reported. He also cautioned against trying to take
28:19
control of the Gaza strip. Last week, Israel appeared to
28:23
be taking a new approach, launching air strikes that Kats,
28:27
Gallant's replacement, liking to opening the gates of hell. The strikes,
28:31
which killed more than four hundred people, targeted not only
28:35
members of amasa's armed wing, the Izidine al Coosam Brigades,
28:40
but also the director general of Gaza's Interior Ministry, the
28:44
director general of the Justice Ministry, and members of the
28:48
Hamas political bureau as they gathered at home for pre
28:51
dawn meals before the daytime fast of Ramadan.
28:57
Speaker 2: On Friday.
28:58
Speaker 1: Katz threatened not only to temper very occupy Gazan territory,
29:01
but to annexit if Jimas did not make concessions with hostages.
29:06
The more Hamas persists in its refusal, the more territory
29:10
it will lose, which will be annexed to Israel. Katz
29:14
said in a statement, there is less opposition now with
29:17
Zamarian Kats. They are more ready for a more aggressive approach,
29:20
said Yosir Cooper Wasser, a former senior IDF intelligence official
29:24
in the head of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic and
29:27
Security think tank. The government was committed to removing Hamas
29:33
from power. Cooper Wasser said the security establishment was not
29:37
happy with this idea. They were trying to focus more
29:40
on the military assets and less on civilian assets, because
29:45
once you would remove Hamas from Gaza, the IDF would
29:50
have to rule Gaza. And now Republicans independents crave answers
29:58
from GOP congressmen in Alabama. From Huntsville, she didn't want
30:04
to be dismissed as a left wing liberal, So Melanie
30:08
Kolowski slipped on a floral sundress, jeans jacket and four
30:13
inch wedge heels before heading to her congressman's church. Representative
30:19
Dale W. Strong, the Republican, had been attending Mount Zion
30:23
Baptist Sin's boyhood according to his website, so Kolowski, the
30:28
daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher, figured this Sunday service
30:31
was her best chance to find him. The forty five
30:35
year old portrait photographer had questions. He said the man
30:39
meant to represent her hadn't answered her calls, emails or postcards,
30:43
nor had he agreed to schedule an in person town
30:46
hall here since outrage sword over Elon Musk's chainsaw approach
30:51
to government downsizing, citing risk of disruption from what he
30:55
called left wing liberals that incense. Kolowski is an Amendment fan
31:01
and proud owner of a Glock forty seven. She the
31:04
self described dance mom, army wife, and Jesus lover, identifies
31:10
as politically independent, and she'd been watching friends on both sides.
31:14
Speaker 2: Of the islel agonized.
31:16
Speaker 1: Alabama's fifth congressional district is awash with federal money and
31:22
home to one of the nation's largest shares of public servants.
31:26
They worked for NASA, the FBI, and the Department of Defense.
31:30
Some have lost their jobs the agencies hadn't provided itally,
31:35
and many dreaded being next. When is he going to
31:39
speak up for us? Kawalsky muttered, instead of Elon Musk.
31:43
Her pulse quickened as she pulled into Mount Zion's parking lot.
31:47
Tucked in her jeans jacket was a laminated sign featuring
31:51
the congressman's head shot missing Dale Strong. Republican lawmakers have
31:58
blamed paid agitator years after town halls across the country
32:02
erupted in anger. Some have scrapped public appearances to dodge
32:06
what they characterize as professional ambushes. Strong, a volunteer firefighter
32:12
elected in twenty twenty two, says George Soros headed provocateurs
32:17
were stoking dust ups in Alabama yad in Huntsville, the
32:22
bustling seat of a county Trump won by a healthy margin.
32:26
Residents across the political spectrum said no one is goading
32:30
them to Needlestrong. Interviews with dozens of voters showed an
32:35
organic irritation with MAGA policies, some have interpreted as anti democratic,
32:41
rough for the economy, or destabilizing to.
32:44
Speaker 2: The world order. Every day this week.
32:48
Speaker 1: While members of Congress were home on recess, Alabamians gathered
32:52
to air grievances at rallies organized by Democrats Yes, but
32:56
also separately, they waived signs outside Strong's Huntsville office that
33:01
blaired Dale said, doge cuts to Feds are okay, WTF
33:08
and don't usually protest, but geez, and where's Dale do?
33:16
It's cowardly, said Michael Bonnaker, a sixty six year old
33:20
registered Republican substitute teacher who driven from a rural town
33:25
irked by his education cuts he's hiding. Other Conservatives opted
33:31
to skip what they saw as confrontational mayhem, hoping to
33:35
engage Strong at GOP meetups they'd long attended, but the
33:40
congressman had pulled out in an interview with The Washington Post,
33:44
Strong described himself as very available, hosting telephone town halls
33:50
and longing busy days of public appearances this week. The
33:54
protesters are wrong, he said, to label him as missing,
33:58
even if his events are often unadvertised or announced with
34:02
little notice. If they're frustrated at Donald Trump and Elon
34:06
Muski said there's another election coming up in four years.
34:11
Kowalski was disappointed that Strong hadn't attended the nine forty
34:15
five or eleven am church service. He'd gone at eight thirty,
34:19
she'd heard later, should I order a pizza to his house?
34:23
She moves aloud and see if he opens the door. No,
34:27
she answered herself, that would be too much. She didn't
34:30
want to scare anybody. But she'd heard Strong was slanted
34:34
to a slated to attend a ribbons cutting for a
34:37
defense contractor maybe she could.
34:39
Speaker 2: Meet him there.
34:41
Speaker 1: The morning before, the Madison County Republicans Men Club was
34:44
supposed to meet with Strong until the congressman's staff called
34:47
to counsel. I do not know what the reason was,
34:51
the group's president, Matt Clark, told the Post. But I
34:54
suspect that President Trump asked them not the whole town
34:58
halls they'd hosted Strong before. Virtually everyone in the group
35:04
supported him. There was no allowance made for a rowdy
35:08
Q and a anyway other than Strong. Only Clark would
35:12
have held a microphone, mainly to run through routine announcements.
35:16
The club's monthly meetings stayed calm, he said. Usually they
35:20
gathered for a potluck meal at a Huntsville church, discussing
35:23
their families in perhaps sports. There's no debate, he said,
35:27
about gas prices or a gay bishop. No one wants
35:30
to hear that yamering. Clark, who's seventy two, remarked personally,
35:36
he wasn't thrilled with all of the administration's actions either,
35:39
and Clark hasn't voted for a Democrat since nineteen seventy two.
35:43
That municipal race, he recalled a Republican hadn't been on
35:46
the ballot. A deficit hawk, he commended the Doge slashing.
35:53
It's not going to be pretty, he said. You're going
35:55
to make mistakes, but it must be done. Trump's tariffs
35:59
and Ukraine bashed disturbed him. Though as a retired management consultant,
36:03
he foresaw prices ballooning at Walmart bootin Meanwhile, as a
36:08
dictator threatening global stability, he said, Still Clark wouldn't have
36:14
veiled these concerns. Rather, at some point he might seek
36:18
out a private conversation. Was strong and keep it respectful, That,
36:21
he said, is how you're going to get anything done.
36:26
Across town. At the Redstone Arsenal, an army base where
36:29
about forty five thousand civilians and contractor employees work, Lynn
36:34
had been hoping to run into Strong two, an account
36:38
for the Defense Department. She just observed a brunch of
36:41
a bunch of colleagues get laid off or placed on leave.
36:45
Speaker 2: Important people, she said.
36:47
Speaker 1: Lynn, a Huntsville resident in her fifties, spoke on the
36:51
condition that only part of her name be published because
36:55
she's not authorized to talk to the press and fearce
36:57
for retaliation, and the Post has independently verified her identity.
37:03
A lifelong Republican, had voted for Strong. She liked that
37:07
he is a volunteer firefighter who offered a comforting presence
37:11
during tornado cleanups. Doge's seemingly indiscriminate firings, however, have rattled her.
37:18
The way Musk hacked away, she said, seemed illegal. A
37:22
few judges had agreed with her, and why hadn't Strong
37:26
these jobs? While we may lose a couple, we will
37:29
gain many of them in the end, he'd reasoned last
37:32
month to a manufacturing association. That sounded odd to Lynn
37:37
given the massive growth that federal investment seeded here. The
37:41
Marshall Space Flight Center, aerospace businesses, and related research projects
37:47
had lured tens of thousands of engineers to Rocket City
37:52
new construction of bounds. So before a Republican Women's meeting
37:57
in late February, she prepared a list of questions for
38:00
strong Hood she'd seen.
38:01
Speaker 2: On the guest lineup.
38:03
Speaker 1: Why are federal government agencies being dismantled with no Congressional oversight?
38:09
Lynn had typed in her iPhone notes app why has
38:14
Congress remained silent with all the firings?
38:17
Speaker 2: She never got answers. Strong didn't show up. That's settle it.
38:22
Lynn said she won't vote for him again.
38:25
Speaker 1: Instead, she said, she headed to a rally where people
38:28
chanted where is Dale. Strolling up to the ribbon cutting ceremony,
38:34
Kulowski spotted the mayor chatting with men in suits. Plenty
38:39
of official looking people masked below a white tent in
38:43
an office park sipping soda and nibbling on ham sandwiches.
38:47
News crews rolled in for the unveiling of the defense
38:51
contractor's new facility. So did spy Rock Sprocket, the furry
38:55
minor league baseball mascot of the rocket Seed trash pandas
39:00
I wore a jumpsuit just in case I get thrown
39:02
to the ground. Kolowski equipped new to activism, she was
39:06
joking mostly. Five days after the Trump inauguration, she'd created
39:12
a Facebook group called Purple People Resistance Alabama, aiming to
39:17
connect with others like her, Kolowski explained, who don't fit
39:21
into the red and blue binary. Two months later, the
39:25
pagent attracted a thousand followers. She'd caught the flight the
39:29
fight back bug after clashing with conservative Moms for Liberty
39:33
loyalists at the Huntsville library. Anyone trying to ban books
39:38
alarmed her. Still, Kolowski wanted to strike strategically. No yelling
39:44
and that's a turnoff. Just come out in peace, she
39:47
told people. Now, she and three other Purple People organizers,
39:52
a real estate agent, an aerospace procurement agent, and a
39:56
stay at home dad, were zeroing in on their target.
40:00
Klowski spied his chestnut hair from one hundred yards away.
40:05
Speaker 2: It's a new day.
40:06
Speaker 1: Strong was proclaiming on a pop up stage, Donald Trump
40:10
is leading this country in the right direction. The Purple
40:13
people stood silently in the back. They unfurled an American
40:18
flag and turned it upside down to signify the stress.
40:22
Then Kulawski lifted her missing poster toward the sky. Could
40:27
Strong see it if you wasn't sure? Others were certainly staring.
40:33
One of the company's staffers came over to offer them cochs,
40:36
smiling as he said, we live in a democracy. Strong
40:41
meanwhile wrapped up to applause. Then he walked off in
40:45
the opposite direction, and next Tony Chins, a DC China
40:53
mainstay for decades, fights for survival. The rows of frame
40:58
photographs on the wall are remnants of a fated Washington
41:02
when mayor's and congressmen and presidents hunger for crispy wantons
41:07
and maybe a serving of spare ribs or jumbo shrimp
41:09
inevitably found their way to Tony Ching's in Chinatown. At
41:14
lunch on a recent day, the restaurant's one hundred and
41:17
sixty seat dining room was empty except for Chen, his
41:21
wife Julie, a water tank populated by five lobsters, and
41:25
all those ghostly grip and grand photos, Tony and Mayor
41:29
Marion Barry, Tony and Anthony Williams, Tony and Jimmy Carter.
41:35
The phone rang, The phone rang again and again. The
41:40
Chins made no move. I just don't want to answer.
41:43
Speaker 2: It, Julie Ching said.
41:45
Speaker 1: Everyone wants to know when are you open, and I
41:47
don't know what to say. The DC government shut down
41:52
Tony Ching's late last month, slapping several red lettered suspended
41:57
notices across the entrance. DC officials, in a court filing
42:02
say the restaurant owes the city more than five hundred
42:05
thousand dollars in back taxes, a debt the Chings acknowledged
42:10
they must pay if they hope.
42:11
Speaker 2: To reopen.
42:14
Speaker 1: After a faltering restaurant. It's hardly remarkable in an industry
42:18
where failure is more common than success, but the potential
42:22
demise of Tony Ching's Seafood is distinct, not just as
42:26
further evidence of the economic pain wrought by the pandemic,
42:30
but also because the restaurant, a few steps from the
42:33
Chinatown arch on h Street Northwest, has been a mainstay
42:38
for nearly forty years, a regular stop for generations of
42:43
office workers, tourists, and Washington wizards and capital fans before
42:49
and after games. Where else could you find a menu
42:54
with as many entries as a phone book and setting
42:56
replete with Chinese pagodas and those photos their time capsule
43:02
of players from another world, George H. W.
43:05
Speaker 2: Bush, Bill Clinton, Janet.
43:07
Speaker 1: Reno, Ron Brown, Tom Dashel, and NBA star Yao Ming.
43:13
It's a Washington that no longer exists, said Tom Sherwood,
43:17
a wam U political analyst who has been covering the
43:20
ever evolving shape of DC power since the mid seventies.
43:25
It was a place where Democrats and Republicans and lobbyists
43:28
got together after work, when Washington was a small town.
43:33
It's a throwback. The force behind the restaurant's longevity has
43:37
been Cheng, who is seventy seven, who immigrated from Hong
43:41
Kong in the nineteen sixties and found soaring success serving
43:46
the city's political class. Barry was a regular whose favorite
43:51
order was lobster with ginger and scallions. Carter enjoyed his
43:55
meal so much at another Ching owned establishment that he
43:58
invited the restron tour to cater Awha White House dinner
44:01
nine days before he left office. He had the reputation
44:05
for having the best Chinese food in Chinatown, and President
44:09
Carter love Chinese food, said Stuart E. Eisenstadt, Carter's domestic
44:15
policy advisor, who attended both dinners and along with his boss,
44:20
autographed Chen's White House menu, which included Shark Fin soup
44:24
and Beijing Duck yum signed thirteen year old Amy Carter.
44:30
Ching also had less glowing moments over the years, including
44:34
a bribe bury scandal that implicated him and his son
44:37
just over a decade ago. More recently, a mess of
44:41
financial troubles forced five businesses he owns to file for bankruptcy,
44:47
his restaurant and an Asian pear orchard in Virginia among them.
44:52
Speaker 2: He lost the.
44:52
Speaker 1: Three story building on H Street that houses Tony Ching's
44:56
in a foreclosure sale last year, though he still rent
45:00
the space, his large red sign bearing his name out front.
45:05
Although his financial difficulties predate the pandemic, Cheng said he
45:09
could not recover after the city shuttered downtown in twenty
45:13
twenty and legions of office workers retreated to their homes.
45:18
No one came in for lunch, he said. No one
45:20
came for dinner, no tourists. He hopes to reopen, but
45:25
it's not.
45:25
Speaker 2: Sure when that will be.
45:27
Speaker 1: No bank will lend him money, he said in an interview,
45:31
and whatever he earns goes to his creditors. I want
45:34
to pay the city, he said. I love my restaurant,
45:36
I love DC. My whole life is here. The Chings
45:40
have retained attorney Frederick Cook to represent them in d
45:44
C's Superior Court, where the Office of the Attorney General,
45:48
after initiating legal proceedings in twenty twenty three, filed an
45:52
amended complaint in February to collect on a debt of
45:56
five hundred and eighteen thousand dollars mix of unpaid sales
46:01
and wage related taxes from twenty seventeen to twenty twenty,
46:05
interest and penalties. Julie Chang said their tax debt deepened
46:11
as their business's financial position grew more tenuous, an erosion
46:16
she attributed to a general business slowed down in Chinatown,
46:20
as well as mounting attorney's fees associated with the bribery
46:24
case and other metals. We spent a lot of money,
46:27
she said. Cook did not respond to a phone message
46:31
and text seeking comment. Mediation is scheduled for April second.
46:38
DC's Chinatown has been a downtown staple for more than
46:41
a century, though its footprint, population, and power shifted over
46:45
the decades as it migrated in the nineteen thirties from
46:49
its original Pennsylvania Avenue location to the area around h
46:53
Street Northwest between Fifth and eighth Streets. After the nineteen
46:58
sixty eight riots, any Chinese residents and business owners left
47:02
the neighborhood for the suburbs. The nineteen ninety seven opening
47:07
of what is now known as Capital One Arena transformed downtown,
47:12
catalyzing new businesses and restaurants and turning the area into
47:15
a regional draw. At the same time, escalating real estate
47:19
prices drove many Chinese owned businesses and residents from the neighborhood,
47:24
sapping much of its Asian culture through it all, Chiang
47:28
has been a constant, beginning in the nineteen seventies when
47:32
he opened the Sejuan Restaurant on Ey Street Northwest, where
47:36
Carter dined. In the mid nineteen eighties, he moved to
47:39
his current location, where he opened two eateries. Tony Ching's
47:43
Mongolian Restaurant which closed during the pandemic, and on the
47:47
second floor Tony Ching's Seafood, which opened in nineteen eighty six,
47:52
in which the city recently shuddered. His building is big
47:56
enough to accommodate large scale functions, including Republican and Democratic
48:00
fundraisers and luncheons sponsored by the Conservative Federalist Society, though
48:06
not without an occasional side order of controversy. A twenty
48:10
sixteen appearance by Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, was
48:15
interrupted when a group protesters, angry that Republicans were blocking
48:19
President Obama from filing a Supreme Court vacancy, shouted him down.
48:25
Chang also hosted an annual lunar New Year celebration that
48:29
draws local officials, including in early February, just weeks before
48:33
the city shut him down. Or Chang posed for a
48:36
photo with d C Council Chairman Phil Mendelssohn, the Democrat
48:40
Council member Book Pino Democrat Ward II, and DC Attorney
48:44
General Brian Schwab, Democrat, as well. Ted Gong, executive director
48:50
of the eighteen eighty two Project Foundation and Chinatown based
48:54
nonprofit that promotes Chinese culture, said Chang's closing, if it
48:58
comes to that, would dignify a final changeover from the
49:03
old Chinatown. It doesn't mean that Chinatown will disappear, Gong said,
49:08
But you can't substitute a Tony Ching's with a noodle shop.
49:12
Whether or not he closes, Ching has proved himself resilient.
49:17
Just over a decade ago, federal prosecutors charged him and
49:21
his son with bribery after an FBI sting operation caught
49:25
them trying to pay off a city official in exchange
49:28
for helping procuring a taxi cab license and.
49:31
Speaker 2: Opening a towing business.
49:34
Speaker 1: Ching pled guilty to a misdemeter, admitting that he offered
49:38
the city official a share of the profit if the
49:40
official helped him establish the towing company. His son, Anthony
49:45
Ching Junior, pleaded guilty to a felony for paying two
49:49
hundred and fifty dollars to the official to secure a
49:51
taxi cab license despite a city moratorium on new licenses.
49:57
Ching and his son reached sentenced twenty four months probation,
50:01
a five thousand dollars fine, and one hundred hours.
50:04
Speaker 2: Of community service.
50:06
Speaker 1: The elder Ching recalled the scandal, said he believes he
50:09
did nothing wrong. He said he agreed to plead guilty
50:12
because he wanted to help his son avoid his different sentence.
50:16
Ching also said he refused an FBI request to wear
50:19
a wire to catch Barry taking a payoff. A second
50:23
request about Mayor Vincent C. Gray, the Democrat who was
50:26
the focus of a federal investigation in the illegal campaign fundraising,
50:32
and Gray was never charged. I said I cannot do that,
50:35
Ching said, why do I want to hurt another person?
50:38
I said, if you want to do this, do it yourself.
50:41
The bribery case dented Ching's reputation, at least for a time.
50:46
His current problem is a threat to his livelihood and
50:49
every day he remains closed, he said, he loses three
50:52
to five thousand dollars in gross earnings. In the meantime,
50:55
Julie Ching said, there is still rent to be paid,
50:59
along with electricity and water bills. We still want to
51:03
keep going, Tony Ching said, as long as we can.
51:07
His wife added, and next Second Lady Usha Vance to
51:13
visit Greenland as Trump continues threats. Second Lady ushevants and
51:19
one of her sons will travel to Greenland on Thursday
51:21
with the United States delegation. The trip comes amid President
51:25
Trump's aggressive push and threats to acquire.
51:28
Speaker 2: The island one way or the other.
51:30
Speaker 1: But in the announcement on Sunday, the White House made
51:33
no mention of Trump's ambitions or rhetoric, instead highlighting some
51:37
of the soft power that.
51:38
Speaker 2: Ushavants will focus on. During the trip.
51:42
Speaker 1: The Second Lady will visit historical sites, learn about Greenlandic heritage,
51:47
and attend the Avanata Kisumeri, Greenland's national dog sled race.
51:52
The announcement read the US delegation is expected to return
51:56
from the island, which is part of Denmark, on Saturday.
52:00
MISSUS Vance and the delegation are excited to witness this
52:03
monumental race and celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity, the statement said.
52:10
Trump's National Security advisor Michael Waltz will also travel to
52:14
Greenland with the delegation. According to two Danish news outlets,
52:19
Benningsak and Jivitz Posten that prospect trumpted Greenland's leader to
52:26
criticize the visit as an aggressive trip. We are now
52:30
at a level where it can in no way be
52:33
characterized as a harmless visit from a politician's wife. Prime
52:37
Minister Muti Igidi said to simisquat the news outlet in Greenland,
52:42
according to a translation, because what is the security advisor
52:46
doing in Greenland? The only purpose is to show a
52:50
demonstration of us, of power to us. The White House
52:55
did not immediately respond to request to confirm that Waltz
52:58
was part of the trip. Spokespeople for the Danish and
53:01
Greenlandic governments did not respond to her request for comment
53:06
on Usha Vance's visit. In a video shared Sunday on Instagram,
53:11
the second lady, who was a lawyer for a prominent
53:13
firm until her husband was picked as Trump's running maid,
53:17
said she's looking forward to visiting Greenland with one of
53:20
her sons to appreciate Greenlandic heritage and traditions. She specifically
53:25
highlighted her in her child's excitement to witness the dog
53:28
sled race, which she noted the US helped sponsor. It's
53:33
unclear which of the two Vans's sons, who are seven
53:36
and five, will participate in the trip. The couple also
53:40
have a three.
53:40
Speaker 2: Year old daughter.
53:43
Speaker 1: I've been reading about it with my children, and I'm
53:45
amazed by the incredible skill and teamwork that it takes
53:48
to participate in this race, She said in the Instagram post,
53:52
I'm also coming to celebrate the long history of mutual
53:55
respect and cooperation between our nations and to express hope
53:59
that our relationship will only grow stronger in the coming years.
54:04
The second Lady's husband, Vice President J. D. Vance, has
54:08
repeatedly praised Greenland's incredible natural resources. The island territory possesses
54:14
critical rare metals needed to build electric vehicles, smartphones, medical
54:20
imaging equipment, computer chips, and wind turbines. Though mining Greenland
54:26
has so far proved notoriously difficult, its leaders say the
54:30
territory is open for business to US companies with the
54:34
money and guts to explore. Trump has repeatedly threatened to
54:40
annex Greenland, which has a population of about fifty seven thousand,
54:45
threats that are sparked both on ease and dismissal along
54:48
Danish and European authorities. Trump has even suggested that the
54:52
US itself could take Greenland by force, though the White
54:55
House and Pentagon quickly backtracked, claiming that was not what
55:01
he meant. We need Greenland for national security and even
55:06
international security, Trump said this month during an address to
55:11
a joint session of Congress, and I think we're going
55:14
to get it one way or the other. During an
55:16
Oval Office meeting this month with NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump,
55:22
when asked about annexing Greenland, said I think it will happen,
55:27
but officials in both Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly pushed back,
55:32
noting that the territory is not for sale.
55:35
Speaker 2: Again.
55:35
Speaker 1: Ave responded to Trump's remarks to Congress saying we are
55:39
not for sale and cannot simply be taken, and Danish
55:44
Prime Minister Mette Fredrickson has also said that Greenland is
55:47
not for sale. As The Washington Post reported on Sunday,
55:52
Trump is prompting Denmark to bolster its defenses in Greenland,
55:55
and the US military assets on the island have degraded,
55:59
and the Rush are refurbishing their own Arctic ports. Who
56:04
Chauvance has traveled to Paris in February and India earlier
56:07
in March as part of her role as Second Lady,
56:12
and now finally, Trump continues attacks on federal judge overseeing
56:16
deportation's case. President Trump early Monday continued his attacks on
56:21
social media on a federal judge who has halted the
56:24
Trump administration's use of a wartime power to deport alleged
56:29
Venezuelan gang members. It was Trump's latest salvo directed at
56:33
District Court Judge James E. Boasburg, whom Trump has said
56:38
should be impeached and called a constitutional disaster. Over the weekend,
56:43
an appeals court panel is scheduled to hear oral arguments
56:47
Monday afternoon in the Trump administration's challenge of Bosburg's temporary
56:52
restraining order. In the case, Trump has two public appearances
56:56
scheduled Monday at the White House, remarks with Louisian and
57:00
Governor Jeff Landry, the Republican and a Greek Independence Day celebration,
57:06
And lastly, why DOGE is struggling to find fraud in
57:09
Social Security? Elon Musk a big target on the Social
57:14
Security Administration in the first weeks of the Trump administration,
57:17
claiming it is plagued by immense waste, and promising audits
57:21
to root out the extreme.
57:22
Speaker 2: Levels of fraud.
57:24
Speaker 1: President Trump said during his Joint Address to Congress this
57:27
month that if Musk's US DOGE Service was already identifying
57:31
shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud at the agency,
57:38
and this concludes the reading of the Washington Post for today, Monday,
57:41
March twenty fourth. Your reader for today has been Rod Brotherton.
57:46
If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions concerning the program,
57:49
please feel free to call us at eight five nine
57:52
four two two sixty three ninety. Thank you for listening,
57:56
and now please stay tuned for continued programming right here
58:01
on Radio I