Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten

Rep. Mike Gallagher (@RepGallagher) (R-WI) is a leading China hawk in Congress, where he serves on the Armed Services Committee, with a background in U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence and as a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

I had Rep. Gallagher on the podcast to discuss his views on what China really wants, to the parallels between the CCP and the Soviet Union, and the relevance of the Cold War paradigm, to ideological warfare and the challenges America faces in waging it, countering Chinese influence across all sectors of American life, Huawei and whether America needs a national industrial policy, Taiwan, and much more.

• The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) ultimate goals, and the relevance of its Communist ideology to them
• Why China poses a greater threat to the U.S. than the Soviet Union during the Cold War
• The imperative to wage ideological warfare against the CCP, and the challenge America faces in its arguable lack of moral clarity about its mission
• Countering CHina's influence over U.S. corporations, academic institutions, our media, etc.
• How to triumph in 5G, and more broadly in strategically significant technological areas against the CCP, and whether we need a national industrial policy
• Rep. Gallagher's assessment of China's military might
• Whether America should recognize Taiwan
• The aims of the new congressional China Task Force

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Rep. Brad Wenstrup (@RepBradWenstrup) (R-OH) is a doctor, Army Reserve officer, and Iraq War veteran who sits on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

I had Rep. Wenstrup on the podcast to discuss his views on what he describes as an emerging new cold war with Communist China, and the weaponization and hyper-politicization of our national security and intelligence apparatus.

• The CCP's tightening of the noose on Hong Kong
• Whether America should ditch the One-China Policy and recognize Taiwan
• Long-term fiscal dangers as a consequence of the coronavirus
• The railroading of General Flynn and Russiagate/Spygate
• Weaponization and hyper-politicization of the national security and intelligence apparatus, and whether it should be reformed
• The state of the FISA court and FBI

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Kyle Bass (@Jkylebass) is the Chief Investment Officer of Hayman Capital Management, and arguably the most outspoken China hawk on Wall Street.

I had Bass on the podcast to discuss his views on the U.S.-China economic competition, what a U.S. grand strategy with respect to China might look like, and much more.

• Why Bass believes China is a paper tiger
• China's ignored Achilles' heel
• The Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) effort to set up a competing global reserve currency
• How the CCP has ensured a predominant pro-Beijing narrative in the U.S., through developing relationships with our political class, titans of financial services and other powerful sectors of the economy, and Hollywood--to our great detriment
• How America can use capital market reforms to end the CCP's unfair trade practices
• What Bass would do if he was advising the Trump administration on trade vis-à-vis China
• Whether America can decouple from China, and what the consequences would be
• The economic viability of China's Belt and Road Initiative
• The stakes of the competition with Huawei in 5G telecommunications technology
• Making China pay for its culpability in the coronavirus crisis
• China's biggest Achilles heel
• Bass's three major recommendations for a U.S. grand strategy with respect to China

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Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) is an investigative reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation where he broke arguably one of the biggest scandals in the history of the federal government -- one the media refused to cover and the prosecutors refused to prosecute.

This is the story of Awangate, which proved no match for Russiagate -- but should have on its merits.

It is the subject of Rosiak's Obstruction of Justice: How the Deep State Risked National Security to Protect the Democrats, a book that has taken on new significance as the treasonous Russian collusion narrative collapses.

I had Luke Rosiak on the podcast to reflect on the story of the Awans, and its far broader significance for our nation.

• How the Awans amassed so much power on Capitol Hill
• The breathtaking litany of criminality of the Awan conspiracy
• Why and how House Democrats and the Department of Justice covered up Awangate – and House Republicans enabled it
• Why Rosiak is confident members of Congress were blackmailed and are still susceptible to blackmail by the Awans, how deep the blackmail threat runs and why Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's behavior proves it
• How politicians and bureaucrats put self-interest above national security
• The inextricably intertwined relationship between Russiagate and Awangate, and what both "investigations" say about the Deep State
• The Democrat-Media-Deep State collusion over Awangate
• Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her underlings' role in rigging the Awan case for the Democrats' benefit
• The government's failure to do anything to prevent future Awans from infiltrating Congress

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Robert Spencer (@jihadwatchRS) is the director of the invaluable counterjihadist website, Jihad Watch, and a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He is the author of eighteen books, including the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is The History of Jihad From Muhammad to ISIS.

Mr. Spencer's work sits at the nexus of a number of seminal issues, from national security and foreign policy, to identity politics and free speech, and theology and political philosophy. The battle being waged by Islamic supremacism against the West implicates all of these matters, and Mr. Spencer's insights make him uniquely qualified to discuss them.

I had him on the Big Ideas podcast to touch on everything from Islamic supremacist ideology and the goals, tactics and strategies its adherents use to impose it, to free speech and the deplatforming of counterjihadists like Spencer himself to the Sunni v. Shia battle in the Middle East and how we can actually triumph in the global jihad being waged against the West.

• Why the story of Muhammad is so integral to understanding Islamic supremacism, jihad and the Middle East today
• Mecca vs. Medina in Islamic history, and its practical consequences
• How Islam defines peace
• Spencer's view on the prospects of Islamic reformation, and separating political Islam from individual practice
• Why former CIA Director John Brennan was wrong in his definition of "jihad"
• Enforcement of Sharia speech codes in the West
• Jihad Watch's experience getting deplatformed from PayPal
• The state of the Middle East and what U.S. national interest in the region requires from a policy perspective
• What Spencer would advocate if he were named counterjihad czar
• How to vet for Sharia supremacy
• Defeating jihad, and much more

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Richard Grenell is the U.S. Ambassador to Germany, and the longest serving UN spokesman and political appointee in American history, where he served from 2001 to 2008.

Amb. Grenell occupies one of the most critical positions in American diplomacy in Berlin, not only because Germany represents the EU's largest economy and has disproportionate influence on the continent, but because of its pivotal role with respect to both Iran's efforts to evade U.S. snapback sanctions, and Russia's efforts to provide energy to and thus leverage over European nations.

During our discussion we touched on the ambassador's efforts to persuade the Germans to cease trade with Iran and comply with the U.S. sanctions regime – and how those who resist can justify their stated intolerance of Jew-haters while seeking to do business with a regime dedicated to Israel's destruction -- Germany's place in an America First foreign policy, energy, Nord Stream 2 and America's efforts to counter Russia through selling liquefied natural gas to Germany, Chancellor Merkel and German politics and Amb. Grenell's dogged efforts to deport a Nazi officer who had been living in the United States for decades.

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Rich Higgins is an expert on the nexus between theological doctrines and information age unconventional warfare, and has spent 20 years combating terrorism in a variety of senior positions within the Department of Defenses.

Higgins, an early supporter of President Trump, served as director for strategic planning in President Trump's National Security Council (NSC).

That all changed when a memo that he had produced for President Trump on the political warfare that he was to face internally from the Deep State, and externally from the media and like-minded interest groups in collusion with the administrative state, leaked out to the public.

Higgins' memo was dismissed as conspiratorial, and he was fired from the NSC.

What he foretold has risen to the forefront again in the wake of the unsigned New York Times op-ed detailing measures taken by Trump administration officials to "Resist" the president, and seek to sabotage his agenda.

I had Higgins on the podcast to discuss the "Deep State's" efforts to subvert the president's agenda, whether there was an effort to purge like-minded individuals from Trump's national security and foreign policy team -- and why, what can be done to reform the administrative state, the ramifications of the politicization and weaponization of our national security and intelligence apparatus and much more.

• Higgins' reaction to the anonymous New York Times op-ed about the brazen Resistance within the Trump White House which seemed to confirm precisely what he warned of in his memo
• How the litany of allegations being raised against Judge Brett Kavanaugh in his Supreme Court confirmation hearings plays into Higgins' thesis
• Whether there was a concerted effort to purge national security and foreign policy officials in the Trump administration who sought to advance Trump's agenda, and what Higgins believes the establishment felt so threatened by that it would require such a purging
• Why Higgins believes it isn't the Deep State or Obama holdovers that are to blame for the sabotage of President Trump's policies, but rather the Republican Party itself
• Higgins' believe that Resistance to Trump was largely driven by vested financial interests -- specifically centered on China -- and the belief Trump would upend the major investments of the last 30 years in restructuring the global financial architecture and economy, hurting said vested interests
• How to reform the "Deep State"
• The "whiff of tyranny" in the air over the ability for the intelligence community to use its surveillance powers against American citizens, up to and including spying on and seeking to undermine and bring down the president
• Higgins' view on protecting liberty in the face of powerful surveillance tools and the need to counter our adversaries
• The imperative to bring back civics and reunite the country on the basis of shared values, principles and knowledge of and reverence for our Founding
• What Higgins would add to his memo to the president if he had the chance today

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Sean Bigley (@smb_JD) is a national security attorney who prosecutes intelligence community whistleblower retaliation cases. His firm represents approximately 200 U.S. intelligence officers, diplomats, armed forces members and other security clearance holders each year.

But in Mr. Bigley's vast experience as a litigator and former federal background investigator, one case of alleged brazen political retaliation has topped them all.

This is the case of former distinguished Pentagon Office of Net Assessment analyst and Trump National Security Council Director Adam Lovinger. In defending Lovinger as a whistleblower of malfeasance involving contracts provided to not only a close confidante of the Clinton family, but the now-infamous informant in the Trump campaign, Stefan Halper, Bigley has witnessed a case of alleged political retribution by Obama administration holdovers the likes of which should chill any American.

I had Bigley on the podcast to tell this story -- illustrative of the bipartisan deep rot and corruption within our federal bureaucracy -- and to discuss much more regarding politicization and weaponization of security clearances and how to reform the administrative state and protect its whistleblowers.

• The historical politicization and weaponization of national security clearances
• How the politicization and weaponization of national security clearances by holdovers meant to block President Trump's nominees and appointees from coming into the administration is an entirely new pernicious tactic
• The story of how the highly rated 12-plus year Pentagon analyst Adam Lovinger has had his career destroyed after blowing the whistle on malfeasance within the Department of Defense's in-house think-tank, the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), including:
  • The issues Lovinger blew the whistle on to his superior, ONA Director James Baker, a holdover from the Obama administration, which touched on improper contracts being doled out to among others a close friend of Chelsea Clinton and Stefan Halper, the informant the U.S. government sicced on the Trump campaign to make contact with officials vis-a-vis Russia
  • The original probe into Lovinger, for which he was exonerated, that arose shortly after he started writing about malfeasance within his office -- the first such probe in Lovinger's career
  • The subsequent investigations into Lovinger contemporaneous with his being detailed to a prestigious role within the Trump National Security Council -- run by investigators allegedly wholly unequipped to do the investigating and tied to Lovinger's old boss Mr. Baker, which would ultimately lead to the suspension and revocation of Lovinger's security clearance and his losing his job and pay
  • The allegedly rigged process by which these investigations took place, violating Lovinger's right to due process by not providing the accused with basic information on the charges against him, documentation, leaking of defamatory information on Lovinger to the media, etc.
  • Why Lovinger's attorney believes the charges raised against Lovinger were "a total farce," "trial balloon charges" leaked in an attempt to "figure out what would stick"
  • How the adjudication process for action taken against Lovinger ultimately may result in him having to make his case to a "panel of unaccountable bureaucrats who report directly to the same woman who has been leading the charge against him from Day One"
  • Why Lovinger's attorney believes there is a political motivation behind the pursuit of Lovinger, based in no small part on his raising issues with contracts again doled out to a close confidante of the Clintons -- for whom Hillary Clinton allegedly lobbied -- and the informant into the Trump campaign Stefan Halper
• Lovinger's message to President Trump
• What reforms Lovinger's attorney would recommend in order to protect whistleblowers in the face of an intransigent administrative state

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Charles Sam Faddis (@RealSamFaddis) is a retired CIA operative, where he spent decades serving abroad in the Middle East, South Asia and Europe, culminating in his heading CIA's Counter Terrorism Center's Weapons of Mass Destructions (WMD) unit, which was charged with pursuing terrorist WMD programs worldwide. It was Faddis who was responsible for leading the first CIA team into Iraq, in advance of the 2003 invasion.

Faddis left the CIA when he had the chance to continue advancing up its senior ranks because he saw a bureaucracy that like much of our administrative state had grown sclerotic, heavily politicized, politically correct and thus subversive of its main objectives.

He wrote about his experience in a simply breathtaking 2009 book titled Beyond Repair: The Decline and Fall of the CIA, in which Faddis called for recasting CIA in the mold of the more dynamic, risk-oriented, and arguably effective Office of Strategic Services (OSS), CIA's predecessor.

That book has only become more relevant in a time now when vital areas from law enforcement to the intelligence community and the national security apparatus more broadly are daily being exposed at their highest levels as nakedly political.

Faddis has been one of the few longtime CIA officials to condemn those such as former CIA Director John Brennan for their words and actions, citing a massive disconnect between rank-and-file analysts and operatives in the field, versus intelligence leaders in Washington D.C.

In light of the outcry over the revocation of former Director Brennan's security clearance and Faddis' contrarian position, his deep knowledge of and solutions to the rot in our national security apparatus – which has real-world consequences for our safety – and his keen, clear-eyed vision as to the threats facing us, I had Faddis on the Big Ideas with Ben Weingarten podcast to touch on all of these areas, and many more.

• Why Faddis supports revoking John Brennan's security clearance -- and the bureaucratization and politicization of the leadership of the intelligence community versus the rank-and-file analysts and operatives in the field
• Whether politics dominates over merit in the ranks of intelligence and the national security apparatus more broadly
• What members of the national security establishment really mean when they talk about "protecting the institutions"
• Why President Trump has been deemed a threat to the power of the political leaders within the national security establishment in a qualitatively different way than any of his predecessors -- and that's a positive thing
• What Faddis would do to reform intelligence
• The poor state of America's counterintelligence capabilities
• The lessons of Iraq regarding U.S. intervention and the national interest
• Whether America has the capability to use intelligence to engage in ideological warfare and bring down Iran's Khomeinist regime
• How China's liquidation of our spy network reflects the problems plaguing America's intelligence apparatus
• The long-term ramifications of China's OPM hack
• The implications of China's attempt to infiltrate Senator Dianne Feinstein's office
• The threat to the U.S. homeland of a collapsing Venezuela and Mexico, combined with drug cartels, organized crime groups and Hezbollah in our hemisphere
• Faddis' optimistic assessment of the Trump administration's North Korea policy
• Why China poses the greatest long-term threat to America of all, and our willful blindness towards it

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Jonathan Neumann has written perhaps the seminal book on how modern Jewry has supplanted its traditional values and principles with Leftism, based on a perverse, sophistic reading of the concept of tikkun olam, "healing the world," that demands devotion to social justice as the highest good and organizing principle of the Jewish religion.

By way of background, Neumann is a graduate of Cambridge University and the London School of Economics. He has written for various American, British, and Israeli publications, was the Tikvah Fellow at Commentary magazine, and has served as assistant editor at Jewish Ideas Daily

I had Neumann on the podcast to discuss the triumph of tikkun olam-based Leftism as central to modern non-Orthodox Judaism, why Jewish social justice renders Jews qua Jews meaningless, the systematic debunking of this ideology, the ramifications for Israel and U.S. politics and much more.

• Defining tikkun olam, and its link to social justice, leftism and Kantian ethics
• How tikkun olam became the predominant ethos of non-Orthodox Jewry in the U.S. in a mere 40 year period -- and its radical roots
• The inextricable link between tikkun olam theology and the evolution of the Reform Jewish movement and its relation to the Social Gospel
• The perversion of Jewish values and principles by those who have supplanted the religion with Leftism -- based in a textually unsupported, fabricated concept of tikkun olam that Neumann systematically debunks
• Why Neumann argues that "Jewish social justice effectively has no need for Jews qua Jews"
• The correlation between tikkun olam ideology and anti-Zionism, in contrast to American Jewish leftism's historical affinity towards Israel
• Why and how Israel in U.S. politics has become effectively a one-party, Republican, issue -- and the conflicting trends of the growing Orthodox Jewish community and the declining non-Orthodox Jewish community
• Why Jews have historically gravitated toward the political Left

Further Reading

• Show Notes & Transcript

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