The wave of border policies flowing from the White House offers a clear signal that President Trump’s re-election bid is likely to focus on immigration more than any other topic — a cause that animates his base but also highlights his failure to contain the flow of Central American migrants coming to the United States in record numbers.
Then he will be focusing on a broken campaign promise and failure of his administration, as well as the betrayal of his base that has them furious.
‘‘He certainly believes that immigration is a key issue that got him elected and, looking at the 2020 election, he’s trying to show that he’s trying to do something,’’ said Theresa Brown, a former policy official at the Department of Homeland Security who works at the Bipartisan Policy Center. ‘‘He knows that the situation that people are seeing every day shows that he’s not been successful. He has not secured the border.’’
Funny how the pre$$ flipped sides on the issue, claiming no border crisis before but now claiming there is one. All it does for his base is tell them he failed.
For a president who won an electoral college victory in 2016 based on a hard-line immigration message and a promise to make the Mexican government fund construction of a border wall, Trump’s latest gambit is an attempt to cover for the lack of progress, Brown said.
The president’s allies say he is taking action to address an emergency that Congress has ignored. They blame Democrats and the Mexican government for not stepping up to solve the problem.
‘‘Americans understand the crisis we face and the necessity of putting America First in addressing this crisis.’’ Trump spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.....
Uh-huh -- except he isn't putting us first anymore.
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Will this latest gambit stave off impeachment?
"The threat of impeachment hangs over the White House, but it also vexes House Democrats wary of taking next steps against President Trump without broader public support. Leading Democrats provided a snapshot Sunday of the party wrestling with the impeachment questions posed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings in the Russia investigation. One top leader, Representative Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic whip, said the president may well face an impeachment inquiry in the House. Another, Representative Adam Schiff of California, on ABC’s ‘‘This Week,’’ suggested it’s not likely soon, if at all. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stopped short of pursuing an impeachment inquiry against Trump despite an increasing number of lawmakers, including some 2020 presidential contenders, clamoring to do so. She is wary of embarking on a politically divisive debate that she worries would all but drown out the House’s policy agenda and campaign promises. Lawmakers heard mixed views during a recess week back home and Pelosi faced those favoring impeachment during the weekend California Democrats’ party meeting. Instead, six House committees are probing deeply into Trump’s business dealings, his running of the government, and whether or not the president obstructed Mueller’s investigation. ‘‘What I have said time and time again is, Mueller has developed the grounds for impeachment. The House has to determine the timing for impeachment. There’s a big difference,’’ Clyburn said on CNN’s ‘‘State of the Union.’’ ‘‘We are trying to take our time and do this right,’’ Clyburn said. ‘‘So I don’t see this as being out of whack with what the people’s aspirations are.’’ Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, signaled that the House may ultimately decline to pursue impeachment....."
That was so last week!
As long as he toes Israel's line, he's fine.
Related:
"On Sunday, local activists began a grass-roots effort to introduce voters to the account of Mueller’s two-year investigation, gathering on the steps of the Cambridge Public Library to read selected passages aloud. Belmont resident Gail Erdos, a member of Cambridge Area Stronger Together, or CAST, organized the reading. Cofounder Nancy Alach, a Cambridge resident of about 40 years, said the organization came together in the wake of the 2016 election, and fellow CAST members Gail Epstein and Maura Pensak decided to organize a reading of the report a month ago over dinner, long before Mueller made his public statement pointing attention back to the document. Epstein, 66, a Cambridge resident and cofounder of CAST, said that despite the report’s length, its many redactions and repeated facts make it less daunting than it might seem. Still, her first reading took about a week, and then there were many more days of whittling it down to the short program of passages for Sunday’s event. “Volume two really lays out a crystal-clear case for tons of obstruction,” she said, “and at the same time, Mueller makes very clear why they did not charge the president and why it’s Congress’s responsibility to take over.” Sunday’s orators ranged in age from their teens to their 70s and in style from stentorian to droll. The first was Mayor Marc McGovern of Cambridge, and at an intermission, CAST member Sonya Coleman asked those present to call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler — whose office phone numbers were posted on large signs — to voice their views on whether Congress should impeach President Trump. Women and men pulled out their cellphones and began to leave voice mails (it was Sunday, after all). “We need you to hold them accountable,” Erdos said into her phone, while a nearby woman said, “Hello, Speaker Pelosi. I urge you to keep fighting.” Coleman, 55, of Arlington, said she’s politically engaged and tries to stay informed, but she still struggled with the full Mueller document....."
They were “ahead of the game.”
The next investigation to be opened up:
"The Pentagon doesn’t need to investigate a White House directive for the Navy to move the warship USS John S. McCain from view before President Trump’s recent trip to Japan, acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said Sunday. The White House military office requested that the Seventh Fleet keep the warship ‘‘hidden from view,’’ Shanahan told reporters en route to South Korea, but the directive wasn’t carried out, and ‘‘all ships remained in normal configuration during the visit,’’ he said. ‘‘No, I am not planning any IG investigation,’’ Shanahan said when asked if the inspector-general would investigate. No investigation was needed ‘‘because there was nothing really carried out,’’ he said. Trump said on Thursday that a ‘‘well-meaning’’ person appears to have made the request, but said he personally would not have done so. The ship carries the name of the late senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona who was a frequent critic of Trump, as well as his father and grandfather. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, on ‘‘Fox News Sunday,’’ called the USS McCain incident ‘‘much ado about nothing.’’ The unidentified staff member behind the request wouldn’t be disciplined for asking if the ship should be visible given the president’s ‘‘well known’’ feelings about the late senator, he said."
Mulvaney is the acting chief of staff because Kushner is the de facto chief of staff.
Maybe Trump will give them a medal:
"President Trump says that Jerry West, the pro basketball great, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. ‘‘The Great Jerry West will be receiving our Nation’s highest civilian honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom, for his outstanding career, both on and off the court,’’ according to the Trump Saturday night tweet. West, a member of the basketball Hall of Fame, played guard for the Los Angeles Lakers and played college basketball at West Virginia University. No date was announced for the award for the 81-year-old West."
Related:
Former Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi dies at 81
Senator Reed to help open Newport business and technology hub
Like two war-profiteering peas in a pork pod, and in Reed's case they have converted an elementary school into a Naval Undersea Warfare Center.
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
Trump is probably glad he is getting out of town:
"Trump state visit to UK faces turbulence amid Brexit chaos" by Mark Landler and Maggie Haberman New York Times, June 2, 2019
LONDON — President Trump prides himself on being the great disrupter, but when he arrives in London on Monday for a state visit, it’s not clear how much more he can shake up a country that is already convulsed, divided, and utterly exhausted by the long debate over its departure from the European Union.
Still, Trump’s penchant for uncensored opinions and unsolicited advice is likely to capture as many headlines, if history is any guide, as the visit’s stately rituals: a banquet with Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace and afternoon tea with the Prince of Wales at his official residence, Clarence House.
Trump got an early start, telling The Sunday Times in an interview published before his arrival that Britain’s next leader should “walk away” from Brexit negotiations with Brussels to extract a better deal, and should make Nigel Farage, the fiery populist who was one of the leaders of the Brexit movement, the country’s chief negotiator.
The president proposed Boris Johnson, the pro-Brexit former foreign secretary and onetime mayor of London, as a good candidate to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May, who will step down as leader of her party on Friday. Her meeting with Trump on Tuesday will be one of the last acts of her star-crossed residency at 10 Downing St.
Isn't Trump interfering in British politics there?
May worked for months to arrange this visit, the first stop of a five-day tour for Trump that will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion with solemn ceremonies in Britain and France. Trump is most likely to also squeeze in a round of golf at his club in Doonbeg, Ireland.
British and US officials said the White House had been deferential to 10 Downing St. in planning the trip, letting the British government set the program and avoiding demands, such as a presidential address to Parliament, which the hosts would have found difficult to grant.
“The ‘special relationship’ is in worse shape than either side will admit,” said Thomas Wright, a specialist on Europe at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, a think tank. “The combination of Brexit, Farage, and Huawei makes it particularly fraught,” he added, referring also to the Trump administration’s targeting of the Chinese telecommunications company. “This could be the tipping point where the problems become more public.”
Still, Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s foreign secretary says Britain and America have done more to defend and advance liberty and democracy than any two nations on earth.
I'm sure there are many others (the Indians and the Irish, for starters) that see things differently.
Trump remains unpopular in Britain, not least with the newest member of the royal family, the Duchess of Sussex, formerly known as Meghan Markle. She told a television interviewer in 2016 that if Trump were elected president, she would consider staying in Canada, where her television series was filmed.
Asked about her comments in an Oval Office interview published Friday by The Sun tabloid, Trump said: “What can I say?”
Don't say yachting skank, whatever you do.
The duchess, who is married to Prince Harry and who is recovering after the birth of their first child, is not expected to meet the president, but the rest of the royal family will be on hand — including Harry’s brother, Prince William, and his wife, Catherine, the duchess of Cambridge. All four of Trump’s adult children are expected to accompany the president and the first lady, Melania Trump.
Despite May’s lame-duck status, administration officials said that she and Trump would have a full list of issues to discuss, including Brexit, a trade deal with the United States, and the threats posed by China and Iran.
The problem is that several of those issues are potentially divisive.
The White House did not reveal a detailed policy agenda for the visit, and some officials have questioned the utility of having Trump meet May three days before she relinquishes power. That has put more focus on whether he would meet Farage or Johnson, something that is not on the formal schedule but that could happen during Trump’s ample downtime.
Figureheads have a lot of that, yeah.
For all the potential static in London, Trump’s meetings here might be the most congenial of his trip. On his layover in Ireland, the president will meet with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who has spoken out passionately against Brexit, and while in Normandy for the D-Day commemoration, Trump will meet with President Emmanuel Macron of France, with whom his once-warm relationship has chilled.
“They still have a functioning relationship, even if the romance is gone,” Wright of the Brookings Institution said of the US and French leaders.....
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Time to cross the Channel:
"D-Day veterans look forward to this Channel crossing" by Danica Kirka Associated Press, June 2, 2019
DOVER, England — The events of June 6, 1944, still mark the lives of the men who fought that day. The emotions are even more pronounced this year, as the dwindling cadre of aging D-day veterans prepare to honor their lost comrades in what may be the last major commemoration that involves significant numbers of the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who took part in the invasion.
‘‘The younger generations don’t realize enough what sacrifices those men and women made for our freedom. The world would have been a much different place if that war was won by Germany,’’ said Annie Riley, a singer dressed in a World War II-era uniform of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, or WAAFs. ‘‘I do sometimes feel they don’t get the recognition they deserve, and then you come to something like this and it is just so humbling to just see how loved they are and how respected they are.’’
The veterans and the families crowded onto the decks. A few pulled a few pints. The mood was festive.
This time, everyone is looking forward to landing in France.....
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Also see: Remembering D-Day, 75 years later
Had already started their way up Italy before getting bogged down:
"Cruise ship rams into tourist boat and dock in Venice, injuring at least 4" by Elisabetta Povoledo New York Times, June 2, 2019
ROME — A colossal cruise liner plowed into a smaller tour ship and a wharf on a canal in Venice on Sunday morning, injuring four people and reigniting arguments about the dangers of allowing the huge vessels to pass through the fragile lagoon city.
Footage of the crash showed the approximately 900-foot-long MSC Opera cruise liner blaring its horn as it hit the wharf and crashed into the tour ship, the River Countess, which was docked at the San Basilio Terminal on the Giudecca Canal, where passengers often disembark from smaller vessels.
The accident occurred around 8:30 a.m. Videos taken from the dock showed the ship heading straight for the wharf, unable to stop, while people on the quay ran away in panic.
The collision came four days after a river cruise ship collided with a sightseeing boat on the Danube in Hungary.
The ships operator, MSC, said in a statement [that] investigations were underway to “understand the exact dynamic of the facts,” adding that the company was cooperating fully.....
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The Italians never did have much of a Navy.
On to Germany:
"The leader of Germany’s Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, announced her resignation Sunday, raising new questions about the government’s future, a week after the parties lost support in the elections for the European Parliament. Political observers noted that party leader, Andrea Nahles’s departure could strengthen the left wing of the Social Democrats, spelling doom for the party’s willingness to remain in the unloved coalition government. Merkel and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who took over as leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union in December, both pledged to continue the governing coalition with the Social Democrats despite Nahles’s plans to quit....."
Related:
"Nahles, 48, was elected to lead the center-left party in April 2018, after being coaxed into a third coalition government with the Christian Democrats. She is the first woman to lead the Social Democrats and had vowed to rebuild and reunite the party after it suffered its worst showing in 155 years in the 2017 general election, but after more than a year of her leadership, the Social Democrats’ popularity plunged further, earning only 15.8% of support nationwide during the balloting for the European Parliament a week ago....."
Spain was neutral:
"Filling Oreo with toothpaste earns YouTube prankster a jail sentence" by Raphael Minder New York Times, June 2, 2019
MADRID — It was a humiliating video that fueled outrage on social media. A YouTube prankster filmed himself offering a homeless man in Barcelona an Oreo cookie filled with toothpaste rather than cream.
Now the prankster, known as ReSet to his followers on YouTube but whose real name is Kanghua Ren, has been handed a 15-month prison sentence and must pay 20,000 euros (about $22,300) compensation to his victim.
Ren was found guilty of violating the moral integrity of the homeless man. He is unlikely to serve any time behind bars; however, the Barcelona court, in a verdict published Friday in the Spanish news media, ordered Ren’s YouTube and other social media channels to be shut down for five years.
That might as well be a lifetime, and while I do not in any way approve of the prank, what a slippery slope Spain has opened up as they advance the cause for censorship. Franco would have been so proud.
Ren, who was 19 at the time, filmed himself in early 2017 replacing the cream inside the cookies with toothpaste after being challenged by one of his 1.2 million followers. He gave them to the homeless man outside a supermarket, along with a 20 euro bill. The man vomited after eating the cookie.....
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At least he didn't fill it with bulls!t!
{@@##$$%%^^&&}
"Pompeo says US ready to talk to Iran with ‘no preconditions’" by Matthew Lee Associated Press, June 2, 2019
BELLINZONA, Switzerland — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday that the Trump administration is ready for unconditional discussions with Iran in an effort to ease rising tensions that have sparked fears of conflict, but the United States will not relent in trying to pressure the Islamic Republic to change its behavior in the Middle East, America’s top diplomat said.
HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!
Just who does he think he is fooling?
Pompeo repeated longstanding US accusations that Iran is bent on destabilizing the region, but he also held out the possibility of talks as President Trump has suggested. Trump himself had raised the idea of talks ‘‘without preconditions’’ in July 2018, although that was well before tensions had reached their current point.
That's an Israeli tactic meant to stall negotiations with Palestinians, and it shows you who is really running the White House.
In the 11 months since then, the United States has imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, first in November and then again last month, targeting the most lucrative sectors of its economy. The action has drawn Iran’s ire and strong words of threatened retaliation.
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said the United States must return to the historic 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump withdrew from in May 2018. He was quoted by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency as saying that if the United States ‘‘realizes that the way it chose was incorrect, then we can sit at the negotiating table and solve any problem.’’ Otherwise, he said, Iran has no choice but resistance.
While the latest offer may not pan out, Pompeo made it during a visit to Switzerland, the country that long has represented American interests in Iran, as part of a European trip aimed at assuring wary leaders that the United States is not eager for war.
‘‘We’re prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions,’’ Pompeo told reporters at a news conference with his Swiss counterpart. ‘‘We’re ready to sit down with them, but the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue.’’
Iran’s foreign minister dismissed Trump’s invitation for Iranian officials to contact him about possible talks.
‘‘It’s not very likely because talking is the continuation of the process of pressure. He is imposing pressure. This may work in a real estate market. It does not work in dealing with Iran,’’ Javad Zarif told ABC’s ‘‘This Week.’’
Separate from Pompeo’s remarks about Iran, The Washington Post reported Sunday that the American secretary of state recently told a private gathering of Jewish leaders in New York that the administration’s long-awaited Mideast peace plan might be argued to be ‘‘unexecutable’’ and might not ‘‘gain traction.’’ Citing an audio recording of the remarks delivered Tuesday, the Post reported that Pompeo expressed his hope that the peace deal isn’t simply dismissed out of hand.
Have you seen the map he was waving?
I suppose I could be forgiven for seeing more than a few bad apples, huh?
The plan that Trump has called ‘‘the deal of the century’’ has been delayed several times, as Pompeo noted to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Downplaying expectations for finding the key to an agreement ending the conflict, he told the group there are ‘‘no guarantees that we’re the ones that unlock it.’’
In Switzerland, Pompeo’s meeting with Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis in the southern Swiss town of Bellinzona came amid concerns about the potential for escalation and miscalculation with Iran — a situation that has many in Europe and the Middle East on edge.....
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Btw, today is a sad day in Iran, for in 1989, Iran’s spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, died.
Related:
"Thousands of Israeli religious nationalists paraded through the streets of Jerusalem and into the main entrance of the Old City’s Muslim Quarter to mark Jerusalem Day, an Israeli holiday celebrating Israel’s capture of the area in the 1967 Mideast war. Israeli police mobilized thousands of officers and deployed them along the parade route, which runs through the heart of Palestinian east Jerusalem on its way to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray. Police said forces were on high alert to prevent possible violence. The annual parade often stokes tensions between Israeli nationalists and Palestinian residents. Further complicating matters, this year was the first time since 1988 that the parade coincided with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is based on a lunar calendar and is celebrated at a different time each year. The parade made its way through the Damascus Gate just before sundown, when Muslim faithful readied to break their daylong fast. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it, a move unrecognized by most of the international community. The city and its sites holy to Muslims, Christians, and Jews are the emotional epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Last year President Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital....."
Strange spectacle.
Imagine, for instance, if the Germans had won the war and were celebrating things like the invasion of Poland.
Time to get back to Amerika's wars:
"Four explosions struck the Afghan capital on Sunday, killing at least two people and wounding 27 others, officials said. Among the injured were two Afghan journalists, according to a local nongovernmental media organization. The first bomb hit a bus carrying university students in a residential area of western Kabul. It was followed 20 minutes later by two further detonations at the same location, said Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman for the interior ministry. Wahidullah Mayar, a spokesman for the public health ministry, said the three successive attacks injured 24 people, including four women. The first blast killed at least one person. Mayar added it was not immediately clear which explosion had caused the second death. A wave of attacks has rocked the Afghan capital in the last week, where both the Islamic State group and Taliban insurgents are active. Attacks by the Taliban have continued unabated despite peace talks with the United States as well as a fresh round of talks with Afghan notables last week in the Russian capital, Moscow."
I would invite any reader to scroll through my recent May and June posts to see if they can find any mention of such things, and I no longer take peace talk in a war paper seriously, sorry.
Also see:
"Islamic State group bombings have seemingly targeted journalists before. In April 2018, nine journalists were killed and half a dozen wounded in a double suicide bombing in Kabul. In that attack, it appeared the journalists were intentionally targeted by a bomber who hid among members of the media rushing to cover the first explosion. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bombings, but didn’t say that journalists were specifically targeted. In a separate attack late Saturday in eastern Ghazni province, a Taliban suicide bomber was able to enter a police compound using a stolen Humvee packed with explosives. The blast killed at least seven police reserve unit personnel and wounded eight others, said Naser Ahmad Faqeri, head of Ghazni’s provincial council. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid took responsibility for the attack in Ghazni. In western Farah province, at least six members of the border security forces were killed Saturday night in an attack on their checkpoint by Taliban insurgents. Abdul Samad Salehi, a provincial council member, said eight other members of the security forces were wounded. The Taliban offered no comment on the attack in Farah....."
Oh, that is why the article suddenly appeared in my self-centered and self-serving pre$$.
"Acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan said Sunday that he did not see a need to restore the large-scale joint military exercises that the United States and South Korea suspended over the past year as a concession to North Korea. US and South Korean troops have continued low-key, smaller-scale exercises during the suspension, but the two countries are expected to keep holding off on the big, publicly advertised war games that can include thousands of ground, naval, air, and Special Operations troops. North Korea has long viewed the high-profile exercises as provocative, and President Trump announced last year that he was suspending them as he pursued nuclear negotiations with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un. US military officials have long cautioned that suspending exercises can hamper readiness, so Shanahan is walking a tightrope as he tries to placate his boss, who has taken a more benign approach toward Kim in the past year, while reassuring commanders that they will have the tools they need to keep troops prepared. In June last year, without consulting the Pentagon, the president suspended major military exercises with South Korea after meeting Kim for the first time, in Singapore. Two months later, Trump rebuked Jim Mattis, then the defense secretary, for opening the door to resuming the exercises. Mattis has since resigned....."
You cross Kushner, you are gone.
Looks like a rush for the border while the future of retail is on the move:
"‘Everything is stalling’: inside a troubled Trump project in Uruguay" by Jesse Drucker and Manuela Andreoni New York Times June 2, 2019
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay — The cylindrical high-rise is turning into the latest debacle in the Trump Organization’s far-flung property portfolio — featuring a little-known Argentine real estate firm in a gaudy, hard-partying town that has been a destination for money launderers and tax evaders.
If all goes perfectly, Trump Tower Punta del Este will be completed at the end of 2020, about four years behind schedule, but people involved in the project said they are not sure if or when it will be finished.
Construction is barely proceeding, in part because less than one-quarter of the necessary workers are on the job. The Miami-based broker handling the sales of condos has sued Trump’s local developer. Some purchasers are now seeking to sell their units, potentially driving down the prices just as the project needs to drum up cash via the sale of new units. The tower is uninhabited.
“Of course not,” said Richard Sampallo, a director of the union that represents the construction crew, when asked if it will be finished by the end-of-2020 target. At the current pace, he estimates it may take another four years, at which point it will have been roughly a decade since it got underway.
As with its other international developments, the Trump Organization is not actually building the Punta del Este tower. Instead, it licensed the “Trump” name and takes a cut of the revenue from selling units.
The problems in Uruguay are a microcosm of the challenges facing the president’s company as it stakes its future on projects outside the United States. In February, the Trump Organization announced that it would discontinue any new hotel projects in the United States. As a result, the company is more reliant than ever on long-running international projects, such as the ones in Uruguay, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates.
For a company largely owned by the US president, this international-focused strategy carries risks.
It's literally a “joke.”
Punta del Este — Spanish for Point of the East — is arguably Latin America’s capital of conspicuous consumption. During the peak summer season, about 400,000 people descend on the town, whose year-round population hovers near 20,000. They come mostly from Buenos Aires, 30 minutes away by private jet. The beachfront waters are crowded with yachts. Celebrities like Mark Zuckerberg and Naomi Campbell have vacationed there.
A small forest of white high-rises has sprouted in recent years, and the once-sleepy city resembles a miniature version of Miami circa 1970. More towers are rising, including high-end projects by the luxury brands Fendi Chateau and Cipriani. Some apartments sell for more than $5 million.
Punta del Este also has another claim to fame: For decades, wealthy Argentines and others have moved money out of their country and into real estate in Punta del Este to hide it from the tax authorities. Last year, Uruguay overhauled its anti-money-laundering laws, prompted by high-profile incidents including a Mexican drug gang washing money through Punta del Este homes.
The Trump Organization has not been accused of wrongdoing in the Punta del Este project.
But?
In 2007, the company was dipping its toes into Latin America, including trying to build a golf course and villa development in the Dominican Republic. Local real estate officials said a developer involved in that project — which was derailed by financial problems — introduced the Trumps to two Argentine real estate developers, Moisés Yellati and Felipe Yaryura, to discuss a development in Punta del Este.
By late 2011, Yellati and Yaryura had assembled a group of investors and bought the land in Punta del Este, according to people familiar with the deal. They paid about $18 million.
Another figure central to the project’s early stages was Yellati’s brother-in-law, Dujovne, Argentina’s future economics minister.
The Trump Organization unveiled the deal in 2012, saying the tower would be finished by 2016. President Trump’s son Eric and daughter Ivanka Trump traveled to Punta del Este in early 2013 for a ceremonial groundbreaking. Two years later, Eric was back, this time with his wife, Lara, to celebrate the beginning of construction with a party featuring Uruguay’s national red wine, Tannat.
The building’s construction was to be paid for with money raised by selling condos. That meant it was crucial for the developers to quickly find buyers. YY Development Group relied on the Trump brand to market the project, plastering its website with references to the Trump Organization.
Then the problems started.
YY had used the project’s land as collateral to take out at least two loans, including one for about $5 million, but it had not disclosed the second loan to some of the early condo buyers, according to court papers. When the soon-to-be-owners learned that the developers’ finances were more precarious than they had realized, some canceled their contracts, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Next, a dispute erupted with the broker that had been hired to sell units. The broker, Fortune Realty of Miami, sued YY for $3.3 million in allegedly unpaid commissions and damages.
The lawsuit is pending in Uruguay. One possibility is that Fortune Realty will seek “un embargo” of the property, which could prevent YY from selling some units until the litigation is resolved.
Meanwhile, the involvement of Dujovne in the project’s early stages has taken on new significance with Trump in the White House. In 2016, after Trump was elected, Argentina’s president appointed Dujovne as economics minister.
At a news conference days later, Dujovne was asked about his relationship to the Trump family. He mentioned his father and brother-in-law’s work on the Punta del Este project, but he did not detail his own role.
“My relationship took place many years ago, when the current president of the United States hadn’t yet began a political career,” he said. “And it’s been many years since I have had any contact.”
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Did you know they are planning to build a ‘bridge’ to China?
"China blames US for trade dispute, says it won’t back down" by Christopher Bodeen Associated Press, June 2, 2019
BEIJING — China issued a report Sunday blaming the United States for the countries’ trade dispute and said it won’t back down on ‘‘major issues of principle,’’ but offered no clarification about what additional steps it might take to up the ante.
The report from the Cabinet spokesman’s office said China has kept its word throughout 11 rounds of talks and will honor its commitments if a trade agreement is reached. It accused the United States of backtracking three times over the course of the talks by introducing new tariffs and other conditions beyond what was agreed on.
‘‘But the more the US government is offered, the more it wants,’’ it said.
Been hanging out with Israel too much.
The report, delivered at a Sunday morning news conference, appears to be a bid to shore up China’s arguments and justify its position in the face of what looks to be a protracted dispute. Over recent days, China has been mobilizing its representatives abroad to sell its position with foreign audiences, while the domestic propaganda apparatus has been working overtime to convince the public of the righteousness of the government’s stance.
I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of pot-hollering kettle propaganda coming from MY media!
I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of pot-hollering kettle propaganda coming from MY media!
Linda Lim, a professor at Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, said the report does not represent an escalation on China’s part, but rather reiterates the government’s position in a clear and measured way that leaves the door open for negotiations.
‘‘They threw the ball back into the US court,’’ she said.
She said the report is a public relations win for China’s government at a time when US President Trump’s trade policy is antagonizing other US trading partners, most recently Mexico.
Wang Shouwen, China’s vice commerce minister and deputy international trade representative, also repeated suggestions that China could restrict the export of exotic minerals known as rare earths that are widely used in electric cars and cellphones. Foremost among them is lithium, the main component in modern batteries.
The threat to use China’s rich supply of rare earths as leverage in the conflict has contributed to sharp losses in US stocks and sliding long-term bond yields.
‘‘If some countries use China’s rare earth metals to produce products to contain China’s development, this is unacceptable by standards of both minds and hearts,’’ Wang said.
Yeah, they could really give the war-driven economy a one-two gut punch by withholding precious material while dumping all their US treasuries.
Yeah, they could really give the war-driven economy a one-two gut punch by withholding precious material while dumping all their US treasuries.
Sunday’s report lays out China’s argument for blaming Washington for the frictions as well as the costs to both sides, and said China has room for fiscal policy changes to maintain the health of its economy amid the dispute.
Wang said China had been forced to ‘‘take forceful measures in response’’ to US actions and denied China had backtracked on its earlier commitments.
He said the United States had made unacceptable demands, including on tariffs and compulsory requirements that infringed on Chinese sovereignty. ‘‘You give them an inch, they take a yard,’’ he said.
Trump has touted the tariff increases as a way of reducing China’s trade surplus with the United States, which hit a staggering $379 billion last year. However, Wang questioned how much China was actually benefiting from its surplus, saying a joint Chinese-US study showed the US figure could be inflated by as much as 20 percent.
He also said many of those exports were produced by foreign companies operating in China and that Chinese firms often pocketed only a relatively meager fee for assembling. Subtracting the US surplus in the services trade with China, the actual surplus came to just $152.6 billion last year, Wang said.
The US deficit with China has actually been worsening since tariffs were first imposed, Wang said, pointing to a 50 percent decline in soy bean exports to China and a drop-off in US auto sales in the country. The average US family, meanwhile, will pay an additional $831 for consumer items over the year due to the higher tariffs, he said, while the dispute’s impact on businesses could end up costing 2.23 million US jobs overall.....
Prices are already on the rise here.
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Fortunately, I have it on good assurance that it won't affect anything:
"White House: Trump ‘deadly serious’ about Mexico tariffs" by Lisa Mascaro and Hope Yen Associated Press, June 2, 2019
WASHINGTON — A top White House official said Sunday that President Trump is ‘‘deadly serious’’ about imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico, but acknowledged, ‘‘We intentionally left the declaration sort of ad hoc,’’ Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said on ‘‘Fox News Sunday.’’
Acting is right!
On Monday, top officials from the two countries will start meetings in Washington, but Trump played down the effort. ‘‘Mexico is sending a big delegation to talk about the Border,’’ the president tweeted Sunday. ‘‘Problem is, they’ve been ‘talking’ for 25 years. We want action, not talk.’’
Trump claims Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades but that the abuse will end when he slaps tariffs on Mexican imports next week in a dispute over illegal immigration.
‘‘America has had enough,’’ he tweeted, but the president has been here before, issuing high-stakes threats over his frustration with the flow of migrants only to later back off. They include his threat earlier this year to seal the border with Mexico.
Republicans on Capitol Hill and allies in the business community have signaled serious unease with the tariffs that they warn will raise prices for consumers and hurt the economy. Some see this latest threat as a play for leverage and doubt Trump will follow through.
GOP Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, on CBS’s ‘‘Face the Nation,’’ said the president ‘‘has been known to play with fire, but not live hand grenades.’’
‘‘It’s going to tank the American economy,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t think the president’s going to impose these tariffs.’’
Mexican officials are due to meet later this week with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a bid to come to a resolution.
Mulvaney, who also appeared on NBC’s ‘‘Meet the Press,’’ suggested the Mexican government could seal its southern border with Guatemala, crack down on domestic terrorist organizations, and make Mexico a safe place for migrants seeking to apply for asylum.
‘‘There are specific things that the Mexicans can do,’’ he said.
Mulvaney insisted that Trump’s threat is real. ‘‘He’s absolutely, deadly serious,’’ Mulvaney said.
Economists and business groups are sounding alarms over the tariffs, warning they will hike the costs of many Mexican goods that Americans have come to rely on and impair trade, but Mulvaney played down those fears, saying he doubts business will pass on the costs to shoppers. ‘‘American consumers will not pay the burden of these tariffs,’’ he said.....
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