Sep 08

Today’s News 8th September 2018

  • How Cory Booker's Failed "Spartacus" Moment Made Brett Kavanaugh Look Like A Star

    During Thursday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker held the proceedings hostage with a dramatic display over the release a 12-page email conversation between Kavanaugh and several other people with the subject “racial profiling.” 

    The email in question was part of a massive Monday night document dump from a Bush administration lawyer, hours before Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings began. 

    The Democratic Senator huffed and puffed and blew hot air all over the chamber – claiming “this is the closest I’ll get to an “I am Spartacus’ moment” – adding “I am right now before your process is finished, I am going to release the email about racial profiling and I understand the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate.”

    Booker’s bloviating frustrated other Senators – as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked him: “How many times you going to tell us that?” 

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    Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) admonished Booker as well, telling Booker – a 2020 Democratic hopeful: “Running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate,” adding “This is no different from the senator deciding to release classified information. … That is irresponsible and outrageous.”

    This was Booker’s moment, where he would reveal Judge Kavanaugh as a conservative racist… except Booker apparently didn’t read, or understand the email.

    After Booker released the emails, pundits and politicians alike rushed to digest the 12-page “bombshell” – only to discover that booker chose an incredibly stupid hill to die on.

    In the 2002 email discussing airline security after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Kavanaugh wrote that he “generally favored” race-neutral security measures, adding that his colleagues would need to “grapple” with “the interim question of what to do before a truly effective and comprehensive race-neutral system is developed and implemented” in order to prevent another terrorist attack. 

    Kavanaugh wrote that the “interim question” is of “critical importance to the security of the airlines and American people in the next 6 months or so, especially given Al Qaeda’s track record of timing between terrorist incidents.”

    As the Washington Examiner noted Thursday, the emails were a “total dud,” as they “don’t show Kavanaugh cheerleading racist tactics. Quite the opposite, actually.”

    As Booker considers his 2020 run for President, he might consider having competent attorneys review and translate any complicated emails with dog-whistle titles before he cuts off his nose to spite his face.

  • Mattis To Spicer: "I’ve Killed People For A Living. Call Me Again, I’m Going To F**king Send You To Afghanistan"

    We previously chronicled a number of the more explosive of Washington Post editor Bob Woodward’s strategically “leaked” excerpts from his upcoming book about the Trump administration earlier this week. 

    In response to the allegations, Trump unleashed a string of tweets Tuesday and Wednesday slamming the allegations as false and libelous. Woodward’s book – titled “Fear” – includes a number of wild and seemingly tailor-made to fit the headlines type anecdotes. 

    But amidst some of the more bombshell claims currently driving national media attention are some hidden and “minor” nuggets which nevertheless reveal hilarious interactions between current and former administration officials and staffers. 

    A notable one that stands out is now subject of this hilarious viral tweet: Mattis to Spicer: “I’ve killed people for a living. If you call me again, I’m going to fucking send you to Afghanistan”.

    The passage was revealed by White House Associated Press journalist Zeke Miller, who got an early glimpse of the book. 

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    The passage details a particular moment in which Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis unleashed on former White House press secretary Sean Spicer after the latter badgered the general to appear on more television shows. 

    Mattis is said to have an aversion to TV appearances, and has only made a single appearance on a network show since Trump took the oval.

    That one appearance, in a May 2017 Face the Nation segment resulted in prior Mattis one-liners such as when he told the host John Dickerson that nothing kept him awake at night, but that “I keep other people awake at night.”

    Perhaps Mattis did manage to scare a somewhat pesky Spicer who apparently kept urging him to go on Sunday morning talk shows. Mattis said “no” a number of times prior to the moment his patience wore thin. 

    “Sean,” Mattis said, according to the excerpt of the book, Fear, “I’ve killed people for a living. If you call me again, I’m going to fucking send you to Afghanistan. Are we clear?”

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    Meanwhile Mattis has adamantly denied some of the more scandalous alleged incidents detailed in the book: “The idea I ever called the president an idiot is not true,” said Kelly, who stated further that Woodward’s book is “another pathetic attempt to smear people close to President Trump and distract from the administration’s many successes.”

    While it could be that much of the book will be subject of thorough debunking, especially when the public gets their hands on copies, the Mattis “I’m going to fucking send you to Afghanistan” is definitely a keeper. 

  • Chick-Fil-A Employee Fired After Savagely Beating Belligerent Customer

    A brawl broke out at a Chick-Fil-A in Northwest Washington, DC when an angry customer attacked an employee who proceeded to savagely beat him down in front of a crowd of horrified customers.

    The customer – who was caught on camera throwing the first punch – was arrested and charged with simple assault. The Chick-Fil-A employee wasn’t charged with a crime, but was fired by Chick-Fil-A. The incident unfolded at a restaurant in on Wisconsin Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood, according to Fox.

    According to the police report, the 55-year-old customer was shouting at customers and causing a scene at the restaurant before he went behind the counter and threw a punch at a 27-year-old employee who had asked him to leave. The video shows the employee repeatedly punching the customer before the fight was broken up by other employees. The customer was then taken to a hospital and treated for minor injuries.

    In a statement, Chick-Fil-A apologized for the incident, adding that it urges employees to treat all customers with “dignity and respect.” The company added that it has launched an investigation of the situation.

    “There is a viral video circulating of an altercation that took place Sept. 4 between a restaurant team member and an individual in a franchised restaurant outside of Washington, DC. This video is incredibly disturbing to watch, and we do not condone violence or the team member’s response to the situation in any way. Our franchise restaurant Operators and their team members strive to create a safe and welcoming environment and to treat all guests with dignity and respect. This situation does not live up to our brand’s commitment to hospitality, and for that, we are very sorry.”

    “According to the franchise Operator, the team member involved in the altercation is no longer working in the restaurant. We are continuing to investigate this situation, including what happened before the video was taken and how it escalated so quickly.”

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  • Trump Organization Executives Face Federal Campaign-Finance Probe

    Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are probing whether anyone within the Trump organization violated campaign-finance laws in connection with the Michael Cohen case, according to Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter. 

    The Federal prosecutors are operating on a “parallel track” to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has been referring various aspects of his investigation to appropriate counterparts within the Department of Justice. 

    Among other crimes, Cohen admitted to violating campaign finance laws. He acknowledged that he paid off a woman who claimed to have had an affair with the president, saying he did it at the direction of the candidate himself and that Trump’s company then repaid him. Notably, the president said the next day that Cohen’s acts weren’t a crime. Whether others in Trump’s orbit were complicit — steering money to benefit his campaign without making proper disclosures or by exceeding federal limits — is not yet clear. No one else has been charged. –Bloomberg

    Trump’s organization consists of several private companies heavily invested in real estate – run by the President’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. since he took office. 

    Central to the investigation is thought to be longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg, who was granted “limited” immunity by US prosecutors, and who has already provided “narrow cooperation” with federal authorities regarding Cohen’s activities and hush agreements, according to Bloomberg’s source. 

    During Cohen’s indictment, prosecutors claimed that two Trump company executives – one of whom is thought to be Weisselberg – approved improper payments in violation of campaign-finance laws. 

    According to the Wall Street Journal, Weisselberg coordinated the Trump Organization’s reimbursement of Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford). Weisselberg didn’t know what the payment was for, according to the Journal, citing “a person familiar with the CFO’s thinking,” when he agreed in January 2017 to pay Cohen $35,000 per month “pursuant to retainer agreement.” 

    That month, according to charging documents filed Tuesday, Mr. Cohen gave executives at the Trump Organization a copy of the bank statement from his bank account for Essential Consultants LLC, the company he used to pay Ms. Clifford the previous fall. The statement reflected Mr. Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Ms. Clifford, as well as an additional $50,000 that Mr. Cohen added in handwriting was for “tech services.”

    Executives at the Trump Organization “ ‘grossed up’ for tax purposes” Mr. Cohen’s requested reimbursement, doubling it to $360,000, and added a $60,000 bonus, the document said. The next month, one executive at the company asked another executive to pay Mr. Cohen’s monthly retainer “from the trust” and to “post to legal expenses.” –WSJ

    Weisselberg was called to testify earlier this year before a federal grand jury, according to the Journal‘s previous reporting. 

    Weisselberg has already been interviewed by the New York Attorney General’s office as part of the state’s investigation of alleged improprieties at Trump’s charitable foundation. The attorney general filed a civil suit against Trump and three of his children in June claiming that they treated the charity like a “piggy bank” and that at least $2.8 million in charitable funds was directed to the 2016 campaign. The Foundation has denied the allegations and said the suit was politically motivated. –Bloomberg

    Cohen faces five years in prison for five counts of tax evasion and one count of bank fraud unrelated to Trump or the 2016 campaign. He also faces two counts of campaign finance violations involving payments to Stephanie Clifford (Stormy Daniels) and former Playboy model Karen McDougal. 

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  • The World's Ultra-Wealthy Population, In One Chart

    Reaching the status of “millionaire” used to be a big deal.

    But, as Visual Capitalist’s Jeff Desjardins notes, with rising inflation, a higher cost of living in cities, and changing perceptions around wealth, the six zero milestone doesn’t mean as much anymore.

    Heck, there are over 16 million millionaires globally, and 4.3 million in the United States alone. Therefore, to really get a sense of the makeup of the world’s ultra-wealthy population, we need a more exclusive and finely-tuned indicator.

    THE $50 MILLION BENCHMARK

    Today’s infographic comes to us from the Knight Frank Wealth Report 2018, which you should absolutely check out if global wealth is a topic of interest to you.

    Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

    The visualization breaks down the world’s 129,730 people that have fortunes of US$50 million and above. It’s a much narrower measure, representing just the upper echelon (top 1%) of the world’s millionaire population.

    The graphic sorts these ultra-wealthy people by country and region, but also breaks down the change in population between 2016 (Q4) and 2017 (Q4).

    THE ULTRA-WEALTHY BY REGION

    Here’s the $50 million and above population sorted by region:

    North America still reigns supreme, but Asia is fast catching up and has already surpassed Europe in this measure of wealth. It’s worth noting that in the one-year span between 2016 (Q4) and 2017 (Q4), the ultra-wealthy population for Asia grew a solid 15%.

    It’s also surprising to see that Latin America and Russia & CIS are experiencing such high rates of growth in their >$50 million populations, as well.

    TOP 10 ULTRA-WEALTHY COUNTRIES

    By absolute population, here are the top 10 countries for the ultra-wealthy, based on the above data:

    The U.S. holds about 30% of the world’s ultra-wealthy population, while China adds up to nearly 11% when including both Mainland China and Hong Kong in the calculations.

    Switzerland (8.4 million people) punches above its weight class, hitting the #9 spot globally, while Canada takes the #5 spot despite having fewer people (36 million) than the majority of the countries on the list.

  • UNC Prof Charged With Assault At Confederate Statue Toppling

    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill police charged a professor with simple assault during the toppling of a Confederate statue on campus, the school told Campus Reform on Wednesday.

    Dwayne Dixon, a University of North Carolina anthropology professor and leader of the armed Antifa group Redneck Revolt

    According to the arrest report obtained by Campus Reform, Dr. Dwayne Dixon, Teaching Assistant Professor at UNC’s Asian Studies Department, received a criminal summons for simple assault and warning of trespass on August 30 after the “Silent Sam” Confederate statue toppling on August 20. Dixon is due in court on Sept. 27.

    Patrick Howley, editor-in-chief at conservative BigLeaguePolitics.com alleged in a tweet that the professor assaulted him, directing readers to a video showcasing the alleged attack. The video was uploaded to YouTube by Big League Politics Reporter Peter D’Abrosca.

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    According to the UNC Police incident report, which Campus Reform also obtained, Dixon struck Howley in the face and head.

    The Durham County Sheriff’s Office had arrested Dixon on Aug. 18, two days before the UNC rally, charging the professor with going armed to the terror of the people and carrying a weapon at a public gathering, both misdemeanors, reported The Herald Sun. Dixon was carrying a semi-automatic rifle with at least three 30-round magazines, according to the police. The professor was released on $5,000 bail.

    UNC police charged 18 individuals in connection with the “Silent Sam” protests on Monday, Aug. 20, Saturday, Aug. 25, and Thursday, Aug. 30, UNC spokesman Randy B. Young told Campus Reform. The school termed Dixon’s involvement a “personnel matter” and did not respond to additional inquiries regarding whether Dixon has tenure, whether he still teaches, or is on paid leave.

    The police charged five protesters with resisting, delaying, or obstructing an officer, four protesters with simple assault, and three individuals with misdemeanor defacing of a public monument and misdemeanor riot, among other charges.

  • Iran, Russia, Turkey Leaders Urge "Negotiated Political Process" On Idlib As Putin And Erdogan Clash

    Amidst extreme tensions ratcheting up over the past days as Russian and Syrian forces have initiated their final assault on al-Qaeda held Idlib, the presidents of Iran, Russia, and Turkey are meeting in what’s broadly described as a “high stakes summit” in Tehran on Friday. 

    Pressure is high after Thursday evening statements by a top State Department envoy on Syria, who told reporters, “There is lots of evidence that chemical weapons are being prepared.” The envoy, Jim Jeffrey, doubled down on prior promises that “Assad would be guilty” for any future chemical attack in Syria. 

    But it seems what appears to be a coordinated White House effort at calculated pressure to deter the Syria-Russia operation in Idlib is having an effect. An early statement from the summit carried in Iran state media says Iran, Russia, and Turkey have agreed that the Syria conflict can only end through “negotiated political process” and not through military means. 

    Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reportedly pushed for a cease-fire plan at the summit, warning that the massive Idlib battle would be “a bloodbath” and will be a serious national security threat to his country, and further warned of a “humanitarian catastrophe” unfolding.

    Friday’s summit in Tehran, via AFP

    However Russian President Vladimir Putin underscored Syrian sovereignty and Assad’s “right” to regian control over territory currently held by terrorists. This, in line with President Assad’s prior promises to “regain every inch” of Syrian national territory before the war. 

    “Idlib isn’t just important for Syria’s future, it is of importance for our national security and for the future of the region,” Erdogan said during formal statements at the Friday summit. “Any attack on Idlib would result in a catastrophe. Any fight against terrorists requires methods based on time and patience,” he added, saying “we don’t want Idlib to turn into a bloodbath.” He concluded “We must find a reasonable way out for Idlib.”

    Putin responded, “We should think together over all aspects of this complicated issue,” while asserting, “We should solve this issue together and (we should) all realize that the legitimate Syrian government has the right and eventually should be able to regain control of all of its territory.”

    Putin hinted at being open to a ceasefire, nothing “a cease-fire would be good” but suggested that it ultimately wouldn’t hold. He also warned that according to Russian intelligence insurgents in Idlib are planning “provocations,” possibly including chemical weapons. 

    Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani demanded an immediate withdrawal of US troops, telling his Russian and Turkish counterparts, “we have to force the United States to leave,” but didn’t detail exactly how this would be done. 

    “The fires of war and bloodshed in Syria are reaching their end,” Rouhani said, and reaffirmed alongside Putin that terrorism must “be uprooted in Syria, particularly in Idlib.”

  • R.I.P. Chinese Exceptionalism?

    Authored by Arvind Subramanian and Josh Felman via Project Syndicate,

    After decades of strong and steady growth, China has developed a reputation for economic resiliency, even as it piles up ever more domestic debt. But the prospect of declining exports, alongside a weakening currency, could derail its debt-defying trajectory.

    From Argentina to Turkey and from South Africa to Indonesia, emerging markets are once again being roiled by financial turbulence. But let us not lose sight of the biggest and potentially most problematic of them all: China.

    Over the past few decades, China’s growth has appeared to violate certain fundamental laws of economics. For example, Stein’s Law holds that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. Yet China’s debt keeps on rising.

    Indeed, according to the International Monetary Fund, Chinese corporate, government, and household debt has increased by about $23 trillion in the last decade alone, and its debt-to-GDP ratio has risen by around 100 percentage points, to more than 250%. That is orders of magnitude above the level at which financial crises normally occur.

    To be sure, some of China’s debt has been used to expand its industrial base and infrastructure. But much of it has also gone toward sustaining money-losing public enterprises and endless investments in superfluous public facilities and housing.

    China’s domestic imbalances point to another economic law that it has managed to break. For any normal country, the build-up of extensive surplus capacity would lead to sharp declines in investment and GDP growth. And that, in turn, would produce financial distress, followed by a crisis if the warning signs were ignored. But China has had a different experience. Its GDP growth has slowed, but investment remains robust, and there is no strain on its banking system.

    A common explanation for China’s apparent invulnerability is that it has large pools of domestic savings and enormous foreign-exchange reserves (over $3 trillion), which can be spent down to head off financial panics. And because the government’s balance sheet is still strong enough to bail out unviable financial firms, it can address any emerging sources of stress in that crucial sector.

    Another common explanation for China’s resilience is political. Highly centralized decision-making allows for swift, concerted action, such as official clampdowns on foreign-exchange outflows. And in such a uniquely controlled – and controllable – society, the normal social stresses that arise from economic disruptions are eminently manageable.

    Plausible as these arguments are, it is time to revisit them. China’s economic exceptionalism is now being threatened by a perfect storm of existing stresses – namely, the domestic debt build-up – and new complications, including US trade barriers, the geopolitical pushback against China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and tightening monetary conditions, particularly in the United States.

    After the 2008 financial crisis, China shifted its economic model away from exports and toward internal sources of growth. But such a rebalancing requires ever more debt and investment, thus creating greater risks of collapse. As a result, the government has had to tread carefully, providing only moderate dollops of stimulus to the economy as needed. There is no how-to manual for managing this balancing act. Policy interventions that seem moderate in the moment could turn out to have been excessive. At some point, Stein’s Law will assert itself.

    First among the emerging threats to Chinese growth is US trade policy. So far, only about $50 billion worth of Chinese exports have been affected by the Trump administration’s tariffs. But in July, Trump announced a new round of tariffs targeting an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, representing about 15% of total exports to the US. Reflecting its growing vulnerability, China’s reactions to Trump’s continued threats have been notably accommodative.

    A second threat to external demand comes from the exhaustion of China’s mercantilist policies. In the 1990s and 2000s, China developed an exceptionally large export industry in part by allowing its currency to become undervalued. More recently, however, it has perpetuated this approach through other means, namely the BRI, with which it finances other countries’ purchases of Chinese goods and services. Call this Chinese Mercantilism 2.0.

    The problem is that Mercantilism 2.0 is now under attack, both politically and economically. Politically, recipients of Chinese loans – from Sri Lanka to Malaysia to Myanmar – have been expressing objections to the BRI and its odor of neo-imperialism. Economically, the onerous terms of BRI financing have resulted in alarming debt build-ups in at least eight countries, according to the Center for Global Development.

    Malaysia, for example, has already had to cancel $22 billion worth of Chinese-backed projects. Sri Lanka has had to turn to the IMF for help, owing to the impact of excessive Chinese imports on its external accounts. And Pakistan may soon be forced to do the same. As more countries become wary of the BRI, they will borrow and import less from China.

    Meanwhile, the steady rise in US interest rates is creating a third shock. As US rates exceed Chinese rates, capital will flow out of China, as it has from other emerging markets this year. China’s leaders will thus be faced with the classic emerging-market dilemma. If they allow the renminbi to weaken, they could aggravate capital flight in the short term and invite accusations of currency manipulation from the US. But if they want to prop up the currency, they may have to spend down another trillion dollars in reserves, as happened in 2015.

    Alternatively, the government could reimpose draconian capital controls. But that would stifle external demand, undermine economic management more broadly, and discredit the country’s claim to global economic leadership (including internationalization of the renminbi).

    Amid this perfect storm of economic challenges, there are also growing questions about whether Chinese President Xi Jinping has as strong a grip on events as he would like everyone to think.

    Xi would do well to remember not just Stein’s Law, but also Rüdiger Dornbusch’s Law, which holdsthat, “The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”

    Sooner or later, Chinese exceptionalism will give way to the laws of economics.

    The world should prepare itself. The consequences could be severe – and unlike anything experienced in recent history.

  • Trade War Could Affect 11 Million US Blue-Collar Workers

    President Trump’s trade war with China is expected to last much longer than initially thought — extending into the second half of 2019, experts state. The Main reason: neither Washington nor Beijing want to appear politically weak at home, and both are prepared to absorb economic pain; furthermore, Trump is convinced he is winning the trade war and will keep pushing until he is forced to reverse by the stock market.

    According to an Axios report, President Trump’s trade war could affect companies employing some 11 million blue-collar workers, as the threat of an imminent trade escalation could strike by the end of the week.

    The chart below depicts companies affected by Trump’s dangerous trade policies are mostly concentrated in rural, deeply red, deindustrialized regions of the country, with political consequences for the Trump administration in 2018 and beyond. Axios said the map tracks the geographical impact of both current and threatened retaliation. The darker a region, the higher the concentration of affected industries there.

    Tit-for-tat has become the norm for China, as both countries dig in for a deepening trade war that is already causing many experts to warn about a global slowdown. To date, Beijing has imposed a 25 percent tariffs on $50 billion of American products. It has also threatened to respond to the newest round of US tariffs with a proposed tax on $60 billion of US goods, by strategically targeting Trump’s base in rural America just in time for the US midterm elections.

    As for the 11-million blue-collar workers, employment in rural, deindustrialized regions in the US can be exceptionally vulnerable to shifts in the global economy, said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “In a small county, a single meat packing establishment can provide hundreds of jobs and make up a large share of that county’s total employment.”

    The question then is whether the pain threshold of those 11 million workers affected will be triggered and, more importantly, how they will vote in November.

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