Welcome To aBlackWeb

Register

The Official World Politics Thread

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...cy-on-hurricane-related-deaths-in-puerto-rico

Brock Long Won’t Correct Trump Conspiracy On Hurricane-Related Deaths In Puerto Rico


FEMA Administrator Brock Long on Sunday refused to correct President Donald Trump’s false conspiracy theory that Democrats fabricated thousands of Hurricane Maria-related deaths in Puerto Rico.


In an interview with Long, Fox News’ Chris Wallace asked the FEMA administrator a “simple, factual question: Do you dispute this number of 3,000 hurricane-related deaths?”

“There’s several different studies out there that are all over the place when it comes to death,” Long replied, before noting: “The official stance of FEMA is, one, we don’t count deaths.”

“The only thing that would come remotely close, the data that we would have, is the funeral benefits that we push forward.” (Lawmakers have pressed FEMA for clarity on this point— the agency has denied or not responded to the vast majority of requests for Maria-related funeral assistance.)

In a separate interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Long said: “The numbers are all over the place.”

“[Trump] said Democrats did it to make him look bad,” “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked. “Do you believe any of these studies were done to make the President looked bad?”

“I don’t know know why the studies were done,” Long said, before noting the difference between direct and indirect hurricane deaths.

The administrator echoed that line on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” per a transcript of the show: “These studies are all over the place,” he said. “The Harvard study was done differently [and] studies a different period of time versus the George Washington study. There’s a big discrepancy whether it’s direct deaths or indirect deaths.”

Researchers at George Washington University, in a study commissioned by Puerto Rico’s governor, determined last year’s hurricane to have caused roughly 3,000 excess deaths.

Trump has falsely claimed, without evidence, that the number is the result a politically-motivated calculation, pointing to official death toll numbers after the hurricane that were lower (though many argued at the time that the first official numbers were far too low).

“There’s a lot of issues with numbers being all over the place,” Long added on Fox News Sunday. “It’s hard to tell what’s accurate and what’s not.”

Trump nominated Long to lead FEMA in April last year. Long led the Alabama Emergency Management Agency from 2008 to 2011, after which he worked for Evanston, Illinois Mayor Steve Hagerty’s consulting firm. He’s currently under investigation for his excessive use of government cars and drivers, among other things.
Click to expand...

 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ns-for-tariffs-on-200-billion-chinese-imports

Trump Going Ahead With Plans For New Tariffs On $200B Of Chinese Imports


WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is going ahead with plans to impose new tariffs on about $200 billion of Chinese imports, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.


Both sides were preparing to hold new talks on their tariff dispute. Last week Trump told reporters such a move could come “very soon.”

The Journal cited unnamed people familiar with the matter who said the tariff level will likely be set at about 10 percent, below the 25 percent announced earlier this year.

The two governments have already imposed 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of each other’s goods. Beijing has issued a list of another $60 billion of American products for retaliation if Trump’s next tariff hike goes ahead.

White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters declined comment on the timing of a possible announcement, but said: “The President has been clear that he and his administration will continue to take action to address China’s unfair trade practices.

We encourage China to address the long standing concerns raised by the United States.”

The Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday that it was invited to hold new talks. Envoys from the two countries last met Aug. 22 in Washington but reported no progress.

Beijing has rejected pressure from the United States to roll back plans for state-led development of Chinese global champions in robotics, artificial intelligence and other fields.

Washington, Europe and other trading partners say those plans violate China’s market-opening commitments. American officials also worry they might erode U.S. industrial leadership.

Forecasters have warned that the worsening conflict between the world’s two biggest traders could cut up to 0.5 percentage point off global economic growth through 2020 if all threatened tariff hikes go ahead.

China has tried without success to recruit Germany, France, South Korea and other governments as allies against Washington. Some of them have criticized Trump’s tactics but many echo U.S. complaints about Chinese market barriers and industrial strategy.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...trump-materials-from-his-russia-investigation

Nunes Plans To Release Likely Pro-Trump Materials From His Russia Investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House intelligence committee chairman says he plans to release the transcripts of dozens of private interviews conducted during its investigation into Russian election-meddling and would push the director of national intelligence to declassify others.


“I think full transparency is in order here, so I expect to make those (transcripts) available from our committee to the American public here in the next few weeks,” said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., months after the GOP colleague who led the investigation said such a release could have a “chilling impact” on testimony in future inquiries.

He said the committee interviewed nearly 70 people, and he estimated that about 70 percent to 80 percent of those interviews are not classified. “Those need to be published, and they need to be published, I think, before the election,” which is Nov. 6, Nunes told Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

Nunes said Sunday he hoped it would take Dan Coats, the national intelligence director, only “a matter of days” to act once Nunes made his request about the classified depositions, and “they don’t do their normal foot-dragging where they slow roll and we don’t get these before the election.”

Making the transcripts available can only be done by committee vote. Committee Democrats have said they want the transcripts made public.

The committee already has released a handful of transcripts, but only in cases where the witness insisted on a public disclosure. GOP Rep. Mike Conaway of Texas, who led the investigation, said in March, when the committee completed a draft of its final report that found no coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, that he decided against releasing the whole transcripts for fear it could hinder future probes.

Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the highest ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called upon Nunes to schedule a meeting “immediately” so members could vote on releasing the transcripts. The Schiff has favored complete disclosure so the public could make its own judgment about the witnesses.

“The American people deserve to see what we uncovered, the questions witnesses refused to answer,” Schiff said in a statement released Sunday.

That is the approach Nunes is taking, saying he wanted Americans to “see the work that we did and they can see all the people that were interviewed by us and their answers to those questions.”

Nunes said “there’s so much that’s out there that’s misinformation or disinformation on this ‘Russia-gate’ fiasco that we need this information out before the election.”

That both Republicans and Democrats want the transcripts released underscores the partisan lens through which each side has viewed the investigation.

Republicans are likely to say that the content of the interviews proves there was no evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia; Democrats probably would say they prove there was evidence.

The Senate intelligence committee is still conducting its own investigation and has interviewed far more witnesses than the shorter House probe. The chairman, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, has said he won’t release committee documents, so it is unclear whether any of those interviews will ever become public.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/feinstein-says-more-senators-do-not-know-about-kavanaugh

Feinstein Says There’s More That Senators Don’t Know About Kavanaugh


President Donald Trump’s nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is in turmoil after the woman accusing him of high school-era sexual misconduct told her story publicly for the first time.

Democrats are calling for a delay in a key committee vote set for Thursday. And a Republican on the panel, Arizona’s Jeff Flake, says he’s “not comfortable” voting on the nomination without first hearing from the accuser.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa is trying to arrange separate, follow-up calls with Kavanaugh and accuser Christine Blasey Ford before the vote, but just for aides to top members.

The panel’s ranking Democrat, California’s Dianne Feinstein, is rejecting that plan, saying there’s more that senators don’t know.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ange-tried-to-get-a-russian-visa-back-in-2010

Leaked Files Reveal Julian Assange Tried To Get A Russian Visa Back In 2010

LONDON (AP) — Julian Assange had just pulled off one of the biggest scoops in journalistic history, splaying the innards of American diplomacy across the web. But technology firms were cutting ties to his website, WikiLeaks, cable news pundits were calling for his head and a Swedish sex crime case was threatening to put him behind bars.

Caught in a vise, the silver-haired Australian wrote to the Russian Consulate in London.

“I, Julian Assange, hereby grant full authority to my friend, Israel Shamir, to both drop off and collect my passport, in order to get a visa,” said the letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Associated Press.

The Nov. 30, 2010 missive is part of a much larger trove of WikiLeaks emails, chat logs, financial records, secretly recorded footage and other documents leaked to The Associated Press. The files provide both an intimate look at the radical transparency organization and an early hint of Assange’s budding relationship with Moscow.

The ex-hacker’s links to the Kremlin would become increasingly salient before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when the FBI says Russia’s military intelligence agency directly supplied WikiLeaks with stolen emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman and other Democratic figures.

In a statement posted to Twitter, WikiLeaks said Assange never applied for the visa or authored the letter, identifying a former associate of his as the source of the document.

WikiLeaks did not return a follow-up email seeking clarification on whether Shamir applied on his behalf, or whether a lawyer or someone else at WikiLeaks might have drafted the letter. The Russian Embassy in London said it didn’t discuss the personal details of visa applicants.

WikiLeaks has repeatedly been hit by unauthorized disclosures, but the tens of thousands of files obtained by the AP may be the biggest leak yet.

The AP has confirmed the authenticity of many of the documents by running them by five former WikiLeaks associates or by verifying non-public details such as bank accounts, telephone numbers or airline tickets.

One of the former associates, an ex-employee, identified two of the names that frequently appeared in the documents’ metadata, “Jessica Longley” and “Jim Evans Mowing,” as pseudonyms assigned to two WikiLeaks laptops.

All five former associates spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, in some cases because they didn’t want their past association with WikiLeaks to become public, and in others because they feared legal retaliation or harassment from the group’s supporters.

Among other things, the documents lay out Assange’s campaign to avoid being arrested and extradited to Sweden over allegations that he sexually molested one woman and raped another during a trip to the Scandinavian country in August 2010.

Assange has always denied wrongdoing in the case, which he cast as a prelude to extradition to the U.S. The Swedish prosecution jeopardized what at the time was WikiLeaks’ biggest-ever disclosure: the publication of around 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. Swedish authorities issued a warrant for his arrest on Nov. 18, just 10 days before the cables exploded across the web, with bombshell revelations about drone strikes in Yemen, American spying at the U.N. and corruption across the Arab world.

Italy’s then-foreign minister, Franco Frattini, described the release as the “Sept. 11 of world diplomacy.” Enraged American politicians demanded that Assange be treated like a terrorist.

Metadata suggests that it was on Nov. 29, the day after the release of the first batch of U.S. State Department files, that the letter to the Russian Consulate was drafted on the Jessica Longley computer.

The AP couldn’t confirm whether or when the message was actually delivered, but the choice of Israel Shamir as a go-between was significant. Assange’s involvement with Shamir, a fringe intellectual who once said it was the duty of every Christian and Muslim to deny the Holocaust, would draw indignation when it became public.

Shamir told the AP he was plagued by memory problems and couldn’t remember delivering Assange’s letter or say whether he eventually got the visa on Assange’s behalf.

“I can’t possibly exclude that it happened,” Shamir said in a telephone interview. “I have a very vague memory of those things.”

Shamir’s memory appeared sharper during a January, 20, 2011 interview with Russian News Service radio — a Moscow-based station now known as Life Zvuk, or Life Sound. Shamir said he’d personally brokered a Russian visa for Assange, but that it had come too late to rescue him from the sex crimes investigation.

Russia “would be one of those places where he and his organization would be comfortable operating,” Shamir explained. Asked if Assange had friends in the Kremlin, Shamir smiled and said: “Let’s hope that’s the case.”

Shamir often makes eyebrow-raising claims (in the same interview he said that the U.S. offered Assange $100 million not to publish the cables), but it was true that any visa for Assange would have been moot.

On Nov. 30, 2010 — the date on the letter — Interpol issued a Red Notice seeking Assange’s arrest, making any relocation to Russia virtually impossible. With legal bills mounting, Assange turned himself in on Dec. 7 and his staff’s focus turned to getting him out of jail.

One WikiLeaks spreadsheet listed names of potential supporters arrayed by wealth and influence; a second one titled “Get Out of Jail Free” tracked proposed bail donations and pledges for surety.

As they gathered money, Assange’s allies also plotted what to do once the WikiLeaks founder was released.

One document showed Guatemalan human rights lawyer Renata Avila floating the idea of jumping bail.

“I will advise him to seek asylum abroad: we already contacted the Ministry of Justice in Brazil, there is a possibility to run out of the country in a Brazilian ship,” Avila told fellow WikiLeaks supporters in a memo. The document said Assange should “plan to escape and pay the bail money back to his supporters.”

Avila didn’t return repeated messages seeking comment. It’s not clear whether her idea went anywhere; former Brazilian Justice Minister Eduardo Cardozo, who was serving on then-President-elect Dilma Rousseff’s transition team at the time, told the AP that he’d never heard of an Assange asylum request.

Assange would eventually skip bail after exhausting his British legal campaign to block the Swedish extradition effort, darting into the Ecuadorean Embassy on June 19, 2012. The move frustrated the sex crimes prosecution, which was dropped last year, but it sparked a standoff that continues to this day, with Assange refusing to leave the embassy unless he is shielded from extradition to the U.S.

Assange’s escape left many of his guarantors in the lurch. When a group of them went to court in late 2012 to reduce their bill, the escape plan went unmentioned.

A lawyer for four of Assange’s supporters, Henry Blaxland, told the judge that Assange’s Ecuadorean asylum stunt caught everyone off guard.

“Nobody could reasonably have foreseen that’s what he would do,” Blaxland said.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckr...ment-release-officials-texts-page-application

WH: Trump Orders DOJ To Release Top Ex-Investigators’ Texts On Russia Probe

In an unprecedented move, President Trump has ordered the Justice Department and FBI to publicly release a handful of former top government officials’ unredacted texts about the Russia investigation.

The affected officials include former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, former senior FBI official Peter Strzok, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, and former Justice Department lawyer Bruce Ohr, according to a Monday statement from the White House.

Trump has attacked all of these individuals publicly, smearing them as part of a “deep state” effort to undermine his investigation by launching the “witch hunt” investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The president is not supposed to directly involve himself in ongoing federal investigations.

Trump has also directed the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Justice Department to immediately declassify a number of documents related to the Russia probe, the White House announced.

The relevant documents are the FBI’s application to obtain a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, all FBI interviews prepared about the Page surveillance applications, and all interviews the FBI conducted with Ohr about the Russia investigation.

The White House claimed Trump is making these requests “for reasons of transparency.”
Click to expand...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/nbc-rep...fying-docs-over-objections-of-intel-agencies/

NBC Reporter: Could Be ‘Huge Repercussions’ If Trump’s Declassifying Docs Over Objections of Intel Agencies

President Donald Trump has ordered the declassification of FISA documents and other materials related to the Russia probe. NBC News intelligence and national security reporter Ken Dilanian said today this is “not normal.”

“I’ve never before seen a statement from the White House ordering the declassification of something that the intelligence agencies were not ready to declassify,” he told Steve Kornacki on MTP Daily. “And that’s gonna have huge repercussions, I think.”

Dilanian noted the concern intel agencies may have about the release of sources and methods. And while Trump can “declassify anything he wants,” doing this “potentially over the objection of his own agencies is incredible.”

He also pointed to how the Carter Page FISA application––one of the key documents that Trump ordered declassified––has been the subject of much discussion on Fox News “to show that this investigation is illegitimate.”
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ls-accusations-of-racism-disgusting-and-false

State Dept. Spokesperson Calls Accusations Of Racism ‘Disgusting And False’

A State Department spokesperson argued on Twitter Sunday that “The assertion that @StateDept is ‘racist’ is disgusting and false—a brazen attempt to create division for domestic political gain,” an apparent reaction to a letter from House Democrats and a CNN editorial arguing that a senior department official had improperly worked to remove anti-racism rhetoric from a UN document.



In June, CNN reported that a Trump appointee in the State Department — former Stephen Miller adviser Andrew Veprek, the deputy assistant secretary for refugees and migration — had suggested multiple changes to a UN document softening the document’s language about combatting racism.

At one point in the usually-uncontroversial UN Human Rights Council document, on the duty of leaders to condemn hate speech, CNN reported, Veprek commented: “‘Duty to condemn’ goes too far. Our public figures can’t be obliged to police every intolerant thought out their [sic] at the risk of being condemned for intolerance themselves.”

CNN noted that the U.S. announced its departure from the Human Rights Council “shortly after” Veprek suggested the changes.

A handful of House Democrats called Veprek out in a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week, writing, “Ultimately, this latest blunder amplifies the increasingly widespread perception that some officials in the Trump administration are racist and support an anti-foreigner, anti-Muslim discriminatory agenda.”

Commentator David A. Love highlighted the letter and Veprek’s actions in an op-ed published Saturday.
Click to expand...
 
https://www.caller.com/story/news/l...-issue-ted-cruz-beto-orourke-race/1340217002/

Dallas police shooting now an issue in the Ted Cruz-Beto O'Rourke race

Ted Cruz accuses Beto O'Rourke of being "quick to blame the police" in the shooting that left an unarmed man dead in his own apartment.


The candidates for a U.S. Senate seat from Texas are a study in contrast. Wochit

The deadly shooting by a Dallas police officer of an unarmed man in his own apartment is now a focal point in the red-hot race between Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke.

The controversy began unfolding over the weekend when O'Rourke at a campaign stop in the Dallas area said the officer who said she mistakenly believed the man was in her apartment should be fired.

“I don't understand, given the actions, how anyone can come to any other conclusion," O'Rourke said in a TV interview Friday evening in response to a question on whether officer Amber Guyger should lose her job.

Cruz, speaking the next day with the Fox affiliate in Houston, called the killing of Botham Jean a murder, but also took a poke at O'Rourke in the process.

"I wish Beto O’Rourke and Democrats weren’t so quick to always blame the police officer, always attack the police officer," Cruz told Fox 26. "She may have been in the wrong and if a jury of her peers believes that she behaved wrongly then she’ll face the consequences."

Guyger, a four-year Dallas police officer, is charged with manslaughter. She has been on administrative leave since the Sept. 6 shooting, which is standard practice in such incidents.

Family and friends of Jean, 26, have denounced as a smear effort results of a search of Jean's apartment turning up a small amount of marijuana.

The political flare-up is part of a running effort by Cruz to portray O'Rourke as someone who tends to side against law enforcement officers. Earlier in the summer, the first-term Republican hammered the Democrat for his support of the "take a knee" movement by some NFL players who protest shootings by police involving blacks and Hispanics.

O'Rourke's defense of the right to make a peaceful protest gesture later became the subject of a Cruz campaign attack video.

Polls suggest an unusually close race in what for more than 20 years has been a reliably Republican state.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-shows-restraing-mcgahn-mcconnell-request

At McGahn, McConnell’s Urging, Trump Shows Restraint On Kavanaugh Allegations

In an unprecedented move for the Twitter president, President Donald Trump did not tweet once about the claims of sexual assault against his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh on Monday.

That move, coupled with nearly-scripted comments during a pool spray Monday afternoon, raised eyebrows as the president exhibited a curious amount of restraint in response to allegations against a close ally; prudence he has not demonstrated in the past.

According to a Republican close to the White House who spoke to Politico, Trump’s initially wanted to fight back when the identity of a woman who accused Kavanaugh of assault when they were in high school was revealed on Sunday. But Trump followed the advise of White House lawyer Don McGahn and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who told him to distance himself from the scandal, Politico reported.

Instead, the White House crafted a plan to send counselor Kellyanne Conway onto the airwaves to express a semblance of sympathy for the accuser, as well as propel a talking point that blamed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) for sitting on the anonymous letter she had received from the accuser in July.

According to six officials familiar with the process, the White House does not plan to withdraw Kavanaugh’s nomination unless new evidence against the Supreme Court nominee is revealed during public testimony on Monday or a new witness is able to corroborate the allegations.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/...ategy-session-to-prepare-for-kavanaugh-battle

McConnell Convenes Hours-Long Strategy Session To Prepare For Kavanaugh Battle


Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called in Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee and his leadership team Monday to devise a strategy to push through Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh despite the credible sexual assault allegation against him.

According to a Monday Politico report, McConnell never entertained the notion of pulling Kavanaugh’s nomination during the two-hour session, instead focusing on how to placate the different factions of his caucus.

Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) is one of the Republicans McConnell will have to manage, as Flake told reporters on Monday: “Obviously, these are serious charges. And if they’re true, I think they’re disqualifying.”

Per Politico, McConnell is also trying to smooth over factors like Republicans’ anger that the accusation surfaced so near to the confirmation vote, President Donald Trump’s own multitude of accusations of sexual assault and the looming fear that the midterms see a blue wave so great that it wipes out the Republican majority in the Senate.

McConnell does have some backup plans if Kavanaugh is ultimately forced to drop out. He could shove through a different nominee during a lame-duck session, or keep the seat open during the midterms as a motivator for Republican voters.
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/wh-request-needed-for-fbi-investogation-ford-accusation

Request Needed From Unwilling WH For FBI To Investigate Ford’s Accusation

For the FBI to thoroughly investigate professor Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegation of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, the agency needs the White House to request it—and the Trump administration does not seem inclined to kickstart the process.

According to a Monday Bloomberg report, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are clamoring for the investigation, but the FBI says it cannot go forward without the request.

Despite the seemingly scant evidence, the FBI is accustomed to finding information with little to go on, should they ever get the go ahead.

“You can go get yearbooks and start interviewing high school classmates,” former senior FBI agent and Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund president Ronald Hosko told Bloomberg. “For creative-minded FBI people, they can generate leads all day long.”
Click to expand...
 
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/new-china-tariffs-may-spread-pain-to-ordinary-households

Newest Tariffs On China May Spread Pain To Ordinary Households


BEIJING (AP) — China said Tuesday it will take “counter-measures” to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports and an American business group warned a “downward spiral” in their trade battle appears certain.

The Commerce Ministry gave no details of a possible response to U.S. tariffs imposed in the fight between the two biggest global economies over Beijing’s technology policy.

But China previously released a $60 billion list of American goods for retaliation.

The Trump administration announced the tariffs on some 5,000 Chinese-made goods will start at 10 percent, beginning Monday. They rise to 25 percent on Jan. 1.

“We deeply regret this,” said a Commerce Ministry statement. “China will adopt countermeasures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests and the global free trade order.”

The statement, which was unusually mild after months of angry public exchanges, didn’t say whether Beijing would back out of talks proposed last week by Washington.

It said only that the tariff hike “brings new uncertainty to the consultations.”

The United States complains Chinese industry development plans including “Made in China 2025,” which calls for creating global champions in robotics and other fields, are based on stolen technology, violate Beijing’s market-opening commitments and might erode American industrial leadership.

American companies and trading partners including the European Union and Japan have longstanding complaints about Chinese market barriers and industrial policy. But they object to Trump’s tactics and warn the dispute could chill global economic growth and undermine international trade regulation.

The American Chamber of Commerce in China warned Washington is underestimating Beijing’s determination to fight back.

“The downward spiral that we have previously warned about now seems certain to materialize,” said the chamber chairman, William Zarit, in a statement.

Trump imposed 25 percent duties on $50 billion of Chinese imports in July. Beijing retaliated with similar penalties on the same amount of American goods.

The U.S. duties targeted Chinese goods Washington says have benefited from improper industrial policies. Beijing’s penalties hit soybeans and other farm goods from states that voted for Trump in 2016.

If China retaliates for the latest U.S. duties, Trump threatened Monday to add a further $267 billion in Chinese imports to the target list. That would raise the total affected by U.S. penalties to $517 billion — covering nearly everything China sells the United States.

“Contrary to views in Washington, China can – and will – dig its heels in and we are not optimistic about the prospect for a resolution in the short term,” said Zarit of the American Chamber of Commerce. “No one will emerge victorious from this counter-productive cycle.”

The chamber appealed to both governments for “results-oriented negotiations.”

As Beijing runs out of U.S. goods for retaliation, American companies say regulators are starting to disrupt their operations.

Last week, the American Chambers of Commerce in China and in Shanghai reported 52 percent of more than 430 companies that responded to a survey said they have faced slower customs clearance and increased inspections and bureaucratic procedures.

The U.S. government withdrew some items from its preliminary list of $200 billion in Chinese imports to be taxed, including child-safety products such as bicycle helmets. And in a victory for Apple Inc., the administration removed smart watches and some other consumer electronics products.

“China has had many opportunities to fully address our concerns,” Trump said in a statement. “I urge China’s leaders to take swift action to end their country’s unfair trade practices.”

Trump has also complained about America’s gaping trade deficit — $336 billion last year — with China, its biggest trading partner.

In May, in fact, it looked briefly as if Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had brokered a truce built around a Chinese offer to buy enough American farm products and liquefied natural gas to put a dent in the trade deficit. But Trump quickly backed away from the truce.

In the first two rounds of tariffs, the Trump administration took care to try to spare American consumers from the direct impact of the import taxes. The tariffs focused on industrial products, not on things Americans buy at the mall or via Amazon.

By expanding the list to $200 billion of Chinese imports, Trump may spread the pain to ordinary households. The administration is targeting a bewildering variety of products — from sockeye salmon to baseball gloves to bamboo mats — forcing U.S. companies to scramble for suppliers outside China, absorb the import taxes or pass along the cost to their customers.

Sohn said the Trump administration is pursuing a legitimate goal of getting China to stop violating international trade rules but that it should have enlisted support from other trading partners, such as the European Union, Canada and Mexico, and presented Beijing with a united front.

Trump has strained relations with potential allies including the European Union, Canada and Mexico by raising tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. He demanded Canada and Mexico renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement to make it more favorable to the United States.
Click to expand...
 
StringerBell said:
https://www.caller.com/story/news/l...-issue-ted-cruz-beto-orourke-race/1340217002/
Click to expand...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/20...murder-but-she-shouldn-t-lose-her-job-over-it

Ted Cruz: Amber Guyger may have committed murder, but she shouldn't lose her job over it

Rep. Beto O’Rourke supports firing killer Dallas police officer Amber Guyger, and Sen. Ted Cruz sees a political opportunity. “I wish Beto O’Rourke and Democrats weren’t so quick to always blame the police officer,” Cruz said in an interview immediately after having described Botham Jean as having “found himself murdered” and having allowed for the possibility that Guyger actions were possibly “a horrifying and horrific misunderstanding” but that possibly “it may be something else.”

“That’s why we have a legal justice system to actually learn what the facts are and learn what happened,” Cruz said. That’s why “I don’t think we should jump to conclusions.”

Here’s the thing, Ted. Amber Guyger may or may not have intentionally murdered Botham Jean, but she definitely killed him while he was peaceably in his own apartment. Seeing her actions in the most favorable light, she went to the wrong apartment, failed to notice that she was not in her own apartment, and killed a man, then changed her story a couple times. Even if you think she does not deserve prison time over this—a big if, but go with me here—even if Amber Guyger does not belong in prison, there is some distance between prison and continued employment on the police force. There are intermediate positions between “she should be convicted of murder” and “she should continue on the public payroll carrying a gun to enforce laws and make arrests.” One of those positions is “perhaps this is not someone we can trust to protect public safety and enforce laws, even while the legal justice system sorts out what crimes she may have committed.”

There are basic competence issues here! Police officers have to be able to show up at the addresses they’re called to—wouldn’t a police officer who can’t tell when she’s in her own apartment be a liability when being called in a hurry to an unknown address where a crime was being committed? Even if you think Guyger would have been behaving reasonably for immediately killing an intruder in her own apartment, she wasn’t in her apartment, and we’re to believe—the sympathetic understanding of the situation is that—she couldn’t recognize that basic fact. Who cannot understand the idea that a person can be disqualified from holding a specific job for something short of criminal behavior?

But Ted Cruz knows what’s important: what white Republicans want to hear. And so “It may well be that two lives were destroyed that night.”
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top