‘There Is Always a Way’: Black Market Network Evading Biden Admin Sanctions to Deliver High-Tech Chips to China

High tech computer processing chip

A black market network is evading Biden administration sanctions and delivering high-tech chips to China, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation released Wednesday.

Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip systems are highly prized by China in the country’s ongoing race to rival the American technology industry, and the Biden administration has imposed sanctions and export controls to prevent Beijing from getting its hands on them. Chinese companies and organizations are still obtaining these chips — specifically Nvidia AI chips — through a black market network made up of buyers and sellers spanning multiple countries, according to a WSJ investigation of records of the distributors involved.

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Commentary: A July 4th Address for the Ages

John Quincy Adams

Two years before he formulated the ideas for the Monroe Doctrine, then-Secretary of State John Quincy Adams was asked to give the annual Independence Day address in the United States Capitol. It became what historian Samuel Flagg Bemis called a landmark document in the history of American foreign policy. Its message continues to resonate in modern debates about U.S. foreign policy.

Before getting into the details of Adams’ address, some background about Adams and 1821 (the year he delivered the speech) is necessary. John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams, one of the driving forces behind America’s independence and the nation’s second president. Young John Quincy accompanied his father in diplomatic posts in France, and later served as private secretary to Francis Dana in Russia. Young Adams also had served as his father’s private secretary during the negotiations of the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the War of Independence. He was appointed by President George Washington as U.S. Minister Resident to the Netherlands in 1794. He served in that same position in Prussia during his father’s presidency. President Madison named John Quincy U.S. Minister to Russia in 1809, and he served in that position until 1814, as the Napoleonic Wars were coming to a close. He chaired the U.S. delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent which ended the War of 1812 with Great Britain, and later served as U.S. Minister to Great Britain in the aftermath of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. President James Monroe appointed John Quincy as Secretary of State. In 1824, Adams won the disputed presidential election in the House of Representatives, where he bested military hero Andrew Jackson. (Jackson would later claim that Adams won the presidency in a “corrupt bargain” with Henry Clay, whom Adams appointed as Secretary of State).

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Commentary: My Favorite Patriotic Recipes for Independence Day

Pancakes

Independence Day is just around the corner! I’m planning to celebrate with a feast. What better things to cook than classic American recipes?

Much of what we think of as “American food” actually comes from Western Europe where the majority of immigration to our country originated. Most of the immigrants were poor, simple, and hardy, and the dietary traditions they carried across the Atlantic reflected this nature.

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ICE Nabs Illegal Migrant Wanted on Child Rape Charges After He Was Released into U.S. Years Earlier

ICE law enforcement officers arresting an illegal migrant

Federal immigration authorities arrested an illegal migrant wanted in his home country on child rape charges and hiding out in the United States.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents apprehended a Ecuadorian national, who remains unidentified, in western Massachusetts last month, the agency announced on Tuesday. The individual entered the U.S. unlawfully in 2021 and is wanted in his home country for allegedly raping a child.

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Music Spotlight: Remembering the Rose Garden Marines

Country music legend Lynn Anderson became the U.S. Marines’ unofficial ambassador 50 years ago when they used her award-winning song, “I Beg Your Pardon (I Never Promised You a Rose Garden),” in a recruitment ad campaign.

The term “rose garden” is an ironic reference that led to one of the most memorable recruitment campaigns in the Marine Corps history, forever linking country music superstar Anderson with the Marines.

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Commentary: Of Death Squads, Dementia, and Desperation

Supreme Court Justices

It all started with what might be the dumbest hypothetical ever presented during any court proceeding in the history of ever.

Barely a minute into oral arguments last January related to the question of presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, a judge on the D.C. federal appellate court interrupted the lawyer representing Donald Trump to ask if such immunity would cover an attempt to kill an opponent. “Could a president order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival?” Judge Florence Pan, appointed to the court by Joe Biden in 2021, inquired.

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Commentary: Murthy v. Missouri Goes Down as One of Supreme Court’s Worst Speech Decision

Supreme Court

Last week, in Murthy v. Missouri, the Supreme Court hammered home the distressing conclusion that, under the court’s doctrines, the First Amendment is, for all practical purposes, unenforceable against large-scale government censorship. The decision is a strong contender to be the worst speech decision in the court’s history.

(I must confess a personal interest in all of this: My civil rights organization, the New Civil Liberties Alliance, represented individual plaintiffs in Murthy.)

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