Tuesday, June 26, 2018
Monday, June 25, 2018
The Trump administration doesn't get it that the Chinese trade system is a strategic threat
And neither does the Politico story excerpted below. China faces an unpredictable foe in Trump and his tariff threats, but China is playing the long game of imperial expansion and domination and only seeks a path navigating through what it knows is the temporary and incoherent threat Trump represents. Trump does not bring a fundamental rethinking of China. Once he is gone the US trade stance will return, unfortunately, to the status quo ante, continuing the hollowing out of the West by enriching a few who sell these communist liars and thieves the rope they'll use to hang the rest of us.
From the story here:
The administration in May said it wanted China to commit to reducing the trade deficit by $200 billion by 2020. It also asked China to stop subsidizing high-tech sectors like robotics and alternative energy vehicles identified in its China’s strategic economic plan, cut tariffs on “all products in non-critical sectors” to levels at or below U.S. duties and assure that it would not challenge U.S. actions taken in intellectual property disputes.
Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s chief [trade] negotiator, said at the time that it wasn’t his goal to “change the Chinese system,” despite his long list of criticisms of that system.
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Friday, June 22, 2018
GitHub and Medium take down ICE database and story, Wikileaks publishes it
From the story here:
In this case, WikiLeaks appears to have reproduced a project created by a New York-based artist and programmer named Sam Lavigne, who has taught as an adjunct instructor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and The New School's Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.
Poster child for "separations" on cover of TIME never separated from her mother, came to US against the will of Honduran father
From the story here:
He revealed that his wife had previously mentioned her wish to go to the United States for a 'better future' but did not tell him nor any of their family members that she was planning to make the trek.
'I didn't support it. I asked her, why? Why would she want to put our little girl through that? But it was her decision at the end of the day.'
He said that Sandra had always wanted to experience 'the American dream' and hoped to find a good job in the States.
Denis, who works as a captain at a port on the coast of Puerto Cortes, explained that things back home were fine but not great, and that his wife was seeking political asylum.
He said that Sandra set out on the 1,800-mile journey with the baby girl on June 3, at 6am, and he has not heard from her since.
'I never got the chance to say goodbye to my daughter and now all I can do is wait', he said, adding that he hopes they are either granted political asylum or are sent back home.
'I don't have any resentment for my wife, but I do think it was irresponsible of her to take the baby with her in her arms because we don't know what could happen.'
The couple has three other children, son Wesly, 14, and daughters Cindy, 11, and Brianna, six.
'The kids see what's happening. They're a little worried but I don't try to bring it up that much. They know their mother and sister are safe now.'
Denis said that he believes the journey across the border is only worth it to some degree, and admits that it's not something he would ever consider.
He said he heard from friends that his wife paid $6,000 for a coyote - a term for someone who smuggles people across the border.
'I wouldn't risk my life for it. It's hard to find a good job here and that's why many people choose to leave. But I thank God that I have a good job here. And I would never risk my life making that journey.'
Congressional threats to DOJ for 1.2 million documents subpoenaed three months ago yield materials this week
From the story here:
"A small cache of documents was given to intelligence panel staff on Tuesday, followed by another tranche on Wednesday, a congressional source told the Washington Examiner."
Expect more excuses for why everything hasn't been provided by today.
The DOJ under Trump has been slow-walking and stonewalling just like every department under Obama did during his administration's attempts to thwart Congressional oversight.
The Swamp.
Michael Daniel testimony to Senate: Obama administration (Susan Rice) ordered him to stand down in Russian hacking investigation in summer 2016
The story here says
"The view that the Obama administration failed to adequately piece together intelligence about the Russian campaign and develop a forceful response has clearly gained traction with the intelligence committee."
No shit.
Thursday, June 21, 2018
Flashback: There's government indifference to your problems, and then there's Obama's indifference to your problems
The New York Times, March 8, 2009, just as Mr. Market was tanking, the discount window was lending trillion$, and millions of Americans were losing their homes, here:
"Well, I just think it’s clear by the time we got here, there already had been an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system. And the thing I constantly try to emphasize to people if that coming in, the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. I have more than enough to do without having to worry the financial system. The fact that we’ve had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis."
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Separating families is nothing new, has been policy since the Bush administration in 2005
From the Senate Judiciary Committee, here:
As a matter of procedure and policy, border agents routinely separate family members, including intentionally, as punishment—or “consequences”—through what DHS calls its Consequence Delivery System (CDS). These consequences are meant to deter future migration, often regardless of international protection or other humanitarian concerns. The CDS has been implemented systematically since 2005. ... [M]any parents and children arriving at the border and seeking asylum are subject to CDS to punish them for their flight to the United States. Deterring future migration is prioritized over concern for protection, access to justice, and family unity.
JP Morgan: US tariffs on China to have only modest impact on US economy
From the story here:
Investment bank JPMorgan estimated in a report on Tuesday that Trump’s tariffs on China would have only modest effects on the broader U.S. economy. It based its analysis on a 12 percent average U.S. tariff on $450 billion of imports from China, estimating that this would add just 0.4 percentage points to U.S. consumer price inflation if the additional costs of the duties were passed on to consumers in their entirety.
IG report did say there was bias while testimony of Horowitz and FBI's Wray contort this to no bias
But we live in an age where characterization matters more, saying something is such and so when it isn't.
Documented here by Sharyl Attkisson:
The IG report is rife with examples of bias, even if Horowitz hadn't explicitly said so. (But he did.)
Andrew McCarthy: IG report simply ignored the offence of the Hillary private server set up
Here:
[T]heir analysis left out the best intent evidence, namely, Clinton’s willful setting up of a private, non-secure server system for all official business.
Manufactured crisis of child separations: Both Bush and Obama separated families by the hundreds of thousands
And there are lots of photos, here.
The "crisis" is being used to move poor legislation, and the president is its easy mark:
Representative Mark Meadows said Trump told Republican members of the House at a meeting on Capitol Hill that they needed to get something done on immigration "right away."
This is why conservative temperament matters: It isn't manipulated easily or hastily. Unfortunately Trump has no such temperament.
Tuesday, June 19, 2018
Hillary in 2014: "Just because your child gets across the border that doesn't mean your child gets to stay"
YouTube, here.
But now:
If it's a central tenet, you would think she could quote it correctly. Hillary means this about as much as she meant what she said four years ago.
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