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Tuesday, Apr. 10, 2018
All Gave Some~Some Gave All
*****
Caution, this bird’s language is unrefined…
Upon leaving the Vilma Teague Library in Glendale, AZ we encountered a talking bird who could have been placed here by none other than Donald Trump. How do I know that? What the bird kept repeating is...rough language follows…
Obama Sucks. Over and over. I suspect this bird got his crusty language from Arizona’s senior senator John McCain.
Such language has no place in the political lexicon.
Regarding the Vilma Teague Library, our thanks go out to the very pleasant and helpful people who run the library.
Thank God I missed the Zukerberg dog and pony show in the Senate. A tip of the hat to Texas Senator Ted Cruz for grilling Zuck as he I hear he did.
Report: Facebook Donated Hundreds of Thousands to Senators Grilling Zuckerberg
by TONY LEE
Facebook and entities associated with it have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Senators who will grill CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday afternoon.
Zuckerberg will appear before a joint session of the Senate Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Today. According to a USA Today analysis, based on data from the Center for Responsive Politics, lawmakers on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee received $369,000 from Facebook and groups aligned with it since 2007. Facebook has reportedly donated $235,000 over the same period to Senators on the Judiciary Committee.
Facebook donated the most to lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee ($381,000), which will question Zuckerberg on Wednesday. In fact, just 9 out of 55 Members on this year’s House Energy and Commerce Committee have not received any contributions from Facebook.
Lawmakers on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee received the second-most Facebook contributions since 2007.
In addition to donating to influential lawmakers who had jurisdiction over the company, Facebook is also reportedly looking to hire even more lobbyists from the D.C. Swamp as the company faces intense scrutiny regarding various privacy-related scandals.
A little more than an hour into his testimony before a rare joint panel of the Senate’s Commerce and Judiciary committees, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg was hit with a question for which he did not have a ready answer.
The question was not very complex. It didn’t require a lot of details about the inner workings of the company. In fact, it was probably one of the most basic questions facing Facebook and other digital giants.
“Who is your biggest competitor?” Senator Lindsay Graham asked.
“Senator we have a lot of competitors,” Zuckerberg said.
“Who is your biggest?” Graham asked.
“Do you want just one? I’m not sure I can give one. Can I give a bunch?” Zuckerberg said.
After a nod from Graham, Zuckerberg began to layout a series of three categories of companies, the first including a list of familiar tech companies–Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft–which he said “overlap” with Facebook. The Senator from North Carolina, however, cut him off.
“Do they provide the same service you provide?” Graham said. “If I buy a Ford and it doesn’t work well, I can buy a Chevy. If I’m upset with Facebook, what’s the equivalent product that I can go sign up for?”
Graham went on to explain that “car companies face a lot of competition. If they make a defective car, and it gets out into the world, people can stop buying that car. Is there an alternative to Facebook in the private sector?”
When Zuckerberg began to argue again that various other tech companies provide services that overlap with some of what Facebook does, Graham cut him off again.
“You don’t think you have a monopoly?” Graham asked.
“It certainly doesn’t feel like that to me,” Zuckerberg said.
That last answer elicited audible laughter in the hearing room.
When you get Zuckerberg outside of his element, he’s not a clown but a greedy punk.
CC0 Creative Commons
by BEN KEW
A U.S. Navy destroyer reportedly entered waters near Syria shortly after President Donald Trump promised to make a “major decision” Monday on whether to order airstrikes against Bashar al-Assad.
The Associated Press reports that the USS Donald Cook is now closing in on Syrian shores, armed with the same Tomahawk cruise missiles the U.S. used on a Syrian airfield last year after an alleged sarin gas attack on civilians.
Trump is now mulling the possibility of additional airstrikes after Assad reportedly ordered a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus that killed dozens of people and left others in excruciating pain.
“Nothing is off the table,” said Trump, when asked the question of ordering military action on Monday. “We are making a decision with respect to what to do with the horrible attack on Syria.”
“It will be met, and it will be met forcefully. I won’t say when, as I don’t like talking about timing,” he continued. “We’re going to make a decision tonight, or very shortly after, and you’ll be hearing the decision.”
Some politicians are also urging British Prime Minister Theresa May to help the U.S. destroy Syria’s chemical weapons resources, as she is expected to chair a national security council meeting on Wednesday to discuss the United Kingdom’s response.
French president Emmanuel Macron spoke to Trump on Monday to indicate his support for military action. The Elysee Palace issued a statement claiming that both countries have “exchanged analyses confirming the use of chemical weapons” and will now “rest closely in contact and speak again within the next 48 hours.”
Russia, meanwhile, has warned of “grave repercussions” if Syria is attacked, and has denied all analyses claiming that Assad was behind the use of chemical weapons.
“Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the U.S. that armed force under mendacious pretext against Syria — where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed — could lead to grave repercussions,” said Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, on Monday.
Despite campaigning on a pledge of avoiding unnecessary military conflicts, this would be the second round of strikes against the Assad regime in response to another chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people Khan Sheikhoun.
“We can’t let atrocities happen,” Trump said on Monday. “In our world, we can’t let that happen, because of the power of the United States, the power of our country, when we can stop it.”
China's Xi Renews Pledges to Open Economy, Cut Tariffs
Chinese President Xi Jinping promised on Tuesday to open the country’s economy further and lower import tariffs on products including cars, in a speech seen as an attempt to defuse an escalating trade dispute with the United States.
While most of the pledges were reiterations of previously announced reforms, which foreign businesses complain are long overdue, Xi’s comments sent stock markets and the dollar higher on hopes of a compromise that could avert a trade war.
Xi said that China will sharply widen market access for foreign investors, a chief complaint of the country’s trading partners and a point of contention for U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which has threatened billions of dollars in tariffs on Chinese goods.
“President Xi’s speech appears to have struck a relatively positive tone and opens the door to potential negotiations with the U.S. in our view. The focus now shifts to the possible U.S. response,” economists at Nomura said.
“But of course actions speak louder than words. We will keep an eye on the progress of those opening-up measures.”
The speech at the Boao Forum for Asia in the southern province of Hainan had been widely anticipated as one of Xi’s first major addresses in a year in which the ruling Communist Party marks the 40th anniversary of its landmark economic reforms and opening up under former leader Deng Xiaoping.
Xi said China would raise the foreign ownership limit in the automobile, shipbuilding and aircraft sectors “as soon as possible”, and push previously announced measures to open the financial sector.
“This year, we will considerably reduce auto import tariffs, and at the same time reduce import tariffs on some other products,” Xi said.
He also said “Cold War mentality” and arrogance had become obsolete and would be repudiated. His speech did not specifically mention the United States or its trade policies, which have been assailed by Chinese state media in recent days.
Vice Premier Liu He had already vowed at the World Economic Forum in January that China would roll out fresh market opening moves this year, and that it would lower auto import tariffs in an “orderly way”.
Chinese officials have been promising since at least 2013 to ease restrictions on foreign joint ventures in the auto industry, which would allow foreign firms to take a majority stake. They currently are limited to a 50 percent stake in joint ventures and cannot establish their own wholly owned factories.
Tesla’s Chief Executive Elon Musk has railed against an unequal playing field in China and wants to retain full ownership over a manufacturing facility the company is in talks to build there.
“This is a very important action by China. Avoiding a trade war will benefit all countries,” Musk tweeted after Xi’s speech.
Foreign business groups welcomed Xi’s commitment to reforms, including promises to strengthen legal deterrence on intellectual property violators, but said the speech fell short on specifics.
“Ultimately U.S. industry will be looking for implementation of long-stalled economic reforms, but actions to date have greatly undermined the optimism of the U.S. business community,” said Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council.
EASING OF TENSION
Jonas Short, head of the Beijing office at Everbright Sun Hung Kai, said the market was cheered by Xi’s speech because it was framed in more positive terms which could ease trade tensions, but he voiced caution about promised reforms.
“China is opening sectors where they already have a distinct advantage, or a stranglehold over the sector,” Short said, citing its banking industry, which is dominated by domestic players.
Xi’s renewed pledges to open up the auto sector come after Trump on Monday criticized China on Twitter for maintaining 25 percent auto import tariffs compared to the United States’ 2.5 percent duties, calling such a relationship with China not free trade but “stupid trade.”
When a car is sent to the United States from China, there is a Tariff to be paid of 2 1/2%. When a car is sent to China from the United States, there is a Tariff to be paid of 25%. Does that sound like free or fair trade. No, it sounds like STUPID TRADE - going on for years!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 9, 2018
Analysts have cautioned that any Chinese concessions on autos, while welcome, would be a relatively easy win for China to offer the United States, as plans for opening that sector had been under way well before Trump took office.
But Vice Commerce Minister Qian Keming said at the forum on Tuesday that China’s economic reforms were driven by domestic factors and not due to external pressures.
Xi also said China would speed up opening up of its insurance industry, with Shanghai Securities News citing a government researcher after the speech saying foreign investors should be able to hold a controlling stake or even full ownership of an insurance company in the future.
Trump’s move last week to threaten China with tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese goods was aimed at forcing Beijing to address what Washington says is deeply entrenched theft of U.S. intellectual property and forced technology transfers from U.S. companies.
Chinese officials deny such charges, and responded within hours of Trump’s announcement of tariffs with their own proposed commensurate duties.
The move prompted Trump last week to threaten tariffs on an additional $100 billion in Chinese goods, which have yet to be identified. None of the announced duties have been implemented yet, offering room for negotiation.
Beijing charges that Washington is the aggressor and spurring global protectionism, although China’s trading partners have complained for years that it abuses World Trade Organization rules and practices unfair industrial policies that lock foreign companies out of crucial sectors with the intent of creating domestic champions.
While U.S. officials, including Trump, have recently expressed optimism that the two sides would hammer out a trade deal, Chinese officials in recent days have said negotiations would be impossible under “current circumstances”.
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Robert Kaplan, on a visit to Beijing, said he was optimistic that very few if any of the proposed tariffs by the United States and China announced in recent weeks will actually be implemented.
“I think it’s so clearly in the interest of both countries that we have a constructive trading relationship and that we have substantive talks to redress these issues.”
Ciao…….Helen and Moe LauzierThus Article
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