SEOUL — When North Korea said Friday that it had tested a new, more advanced missile, it pointed the finger of blame at one man: Moon Jae-in, the South Korean president, who just last year embraced Kim Jong Un at their countries’ border.
The North said Kim, its leader, had personally arranged the missile test Thursday to counter what it called Moon’s “double-dealing”: talking peace with North Korea even as he bought state-of-the-art F-35 stealth jets and planned joint military drills with the United States.
Some analysts said Kim, in singling out Moon, was venting anger over his failure to win relief from crippling economic sanctions over his nuclear program, with talks between his government and the United States having stalled. On the day the North made its announcement, bad economic news arrived: South Korea’s central bank said the North’s economy had shrunk by 4.1 percent last year, its worst contraction since 1997.
“Kim Jong Un is clearly frustrated,” said Ko Yu-hwan, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, the South’s capital. “He had hoped that President Moon would be able to help persuade Washington to ease sanctions. He now seems to have concluded that South Korea is really at Washington’s beck and call.”
So South Korea is, at bottom, another vassal state much like those in Europe.
We are the 21st-century Rome, folks.
North Korea has been hit hard by a series of United Nations sanctions imposed since 2016, aimed at blocking all its key exports — like coal, textiles, and fisheries — and drastically reducing its oil imports as well. Its economy shrank by 3.5 percent in 2017, according to the South’s central bank.
If those figures are to be believed, then since Trump came into office the North Koreans have had a major contraction. I know this is a bargaining and negotiating tactic and all that, but the flip side of the purely for defensive nuclear weaponry -- the North Koreans saw what happened to Saddam and Ghadafi, and what Iran is going through right now. Their nuclear weapons arsenal is probably the only reason the U.S. hasn't already done a regime change -- is that, intended or not coming from the beacon of human rights and freedom (can you eat those things) is immense suffering on the part of ordinary North Koreans, who must be impoverished and hungry if these numbers are to be believed.
Perhaps that is minimized on purpose by the pre$$, for it would expose the iron hand of the United States and the suffering it causes, much like in Venezuela (can't even remember the last time I saw them in print).
The bank’s statement Friday also said that North Korea’s external trade declined 48.8 percent last year, with its exports plummeting by as much as 86.3 percent. Unsurprisingly, it attributed the North’s woes to the international sanctions.
Kim’s diplomatic outreach early last year to South Korea and the United States, after years of missile and nuclear tests and bombastic threats, was widely seen as driven by an urgent need to end the sanctions, but three meetings with President Trump and several with Moon have failed to win Kim the economic relief he has promised his people.
What will Trump do when the house of cards falls, if it ever will?
I'm not so sure anymore. The money managers have turned it all into a $cience with a ma$$ media apparatus to $pread the word.
Since then, his indignation has been mostly directed toward South Korea and Moon, but Moon has agreed with the Trump administration’s position that ambitious inter-Korean economic projects that he and Moon agreed to pursue in meetings last year must wait until sanctions are eased as part of a nuclear disarmament deal.
And now his fighter jets are firing on Russian and Chinese war game patrols, great.
What, Moon surface in one of Epstein's flight logs?
Moon was beset with serious foreign policy problems when the North launched its latest projectile, which the South said was a new type of short-range ballistic missile, potentially harder to track and intercept.
This is something new to me.
What problems could they possibly be talking about?
South Korea’s relations with Japan are at their lowest point in decades, in part over Japanese export restrictions on chemicals needed to produce some of the South’s most lucrative exports. On Tuesday, a Russian-Chinese air patrol through nearby waters resulted in South Korean jets firing hundreds of warning shots to drive off a Russian plane, an unprecedented event, but the North’s latest missile test has done more than anything to highlight Moon’s quickly shrinking reputation as a regional peacemaker.
That whole plane incident is shrouded in vagueness, with no real context being provided by the pre$$ here. One is beginning to wonder if it happened at all, and was nothing more than a ruse to bring key vassals Japan and South Korea back into line.
Moon won global accolades last year for brokering the first summit meeting between the United States and the North, tirelessly preaching that Kim and Trump could end the decades-old crisis over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program.
But no Peace Prize. Maybe he will win one this year.
At that June 2018 meeting in Singapore, Kim and Trump produced a vaguely worded agreement in which the North Korean leader promised to work toward denuclearization in return for “new” relations with Washington, but when the two met again in February in Hanoi, they parted with no agreement on how to implement the Singapore deal. Since then, the North has rained scorn on Moon.
The Hanoi talks broke down after Kim demanded that the most biting sanctions be dropped, in return for the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear complex in Yongbyon, north of Pyongyang. Washington says the sanctions must stay in place until North Korea agrees to a more comprehensive breakup of its nuclear facilities and arsenal.
Trump seemed unfazed by the North’s latest missile test.....
Maybe he is demented, as some bloggers have suggested.
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Turns out he wasn't phased because it was a Russian missile:
"North Korea Tested New Ballistic Missile, South Says, Flouting U.N. Ban" by Choe Sang-Hun New York Times, July 25, 2019
SEOUL — The two projectiles North Korea launched off its east coast Thursday were a new type of short-range ballistic missile, the South Korean government said, acknowledging that the North was expanding its ability to deliver nuclear warheads as President Trump’s efforts to bring the country to the negotiating table remain stalled.
Now I'm scared, so why sit here and keep typing?
The assessment — the South’s first formal declaration that North Korea is testing a new missile — accused the North of violating United Nations resolutions that ban it from developing and testing ballistic missile technologies.
Israel has been doing it for decades so what's the big deal?
If validated, it also appears to undercut what Trump has repeatedly touted as his biggest diplomatic achievement in dealing with North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un. The South Korea National Security Council, in a statement on Thursday, expressed strong concerns. A technical analysis is still underway with US officials.
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said the door remains open for diplomacy with North Korea even after the missile launches, and said he hopes working-level talks between the two countries will begin in the next month or so.
Pompeo described the missile launches as more a negotiating tactic than a move that would create a rupture or lead Trump to reverse his commitment to talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“Everybody tries to get ready for negotiations and create leverage and create risk for the other side,” Pompeo said in an interview Thursday with Bloomberg Television. “We remain convinced that there’s a diplomatic way forward, a negotiated solution to this.”
I don't even know where to begin with that rotund repugnancy that represents the United States. The North Koreans despise him, but he's convinced there can be a negotiated solution (sometimes delusional people are convinced of things, right?) and that Trump won't reverse his commitments -- despite the massive evidence that he won't keep any.
Analysts in South Korea said the North appears to have been testing a new solid-fuel, short-range ballistic missile during weapons tests May 4, May 9, and Thursday. After the North’s tests in May, South Korean and US officials shied away from publicly identifying the projectiles as a new ballistic missile, an apparent attempt not to give the North the attention it seeks through short-range missile tests.
Or they were concealing it for whatever purpose.
One of the two missiles launched Thursday traveled 428 miles, indicating that the North was making quick progress on the new missile, yet it was not the range of the missile but its looks that alarmed analysts in the region.
After studying the photos North Korea released from the tests in May, South Korean and US analysts said the missile looked like a copy of Russia’s Iskander short-range ballistic missile. An Iskander-like missile would be a potent new addition to the North’s growing fleet of ballistic missiles.
Are those what were on that fishing boat?
Solid-fuel and road-mobile missiles such as the Iskander are easier to transport and hide, and they take less time to prepare for launching. The Iskander is capable of carrying nuclear warheads — the North is believed to have 30 to 60 — and can also be maneuvered during its ballistic trajectory.....
The next thing they will be telling us is Kim has mobile biological weapons labs and drones that can attack in 45 minutes, although it looks like the battle lines of WWIII are being nicely drawn.
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Maybe this will faze Trump:
"Iran fired a Shahab-3 medium-range missile Wednesday, a US military official said, playing it down by saying that it did not pose a threat to US or other Western shipping or military bases in the region. The missile was launched from the southern coast of Iran and landed east of Tehran, the official said Thursday, adding that it flew about 680 miles and stayed inside Iran for the entire flight. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence analyses, said that US officials had been closely monitoring the test site as Iran prepared the missile for launch. Despite the Pentagon’s effort to minimize the strategic importance of the launch Wednesday, it appears to be a political statement by Iran, acting both as a carefully calibrated effort at escalation — and as a message to Europe. Missile launches are not forbidden under the 2015 nuclear accord reached between Washington and Tehran, which is one of President Trump’s complaints about the agreement he abandoned last year, but a UN Security Council resolution, passed as the agreement was reached, says that “Iran is called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has demanded that Iran cease all missile launches and testing and give up its arsenal of the weapons. Iran says it is under no obligation to do so and notes that because it has no interest in nuclear weapons, it is not violating the wording of the UN prohibition....."
Leaving them defenseless and as easy prey, like Iraq and Libya, and I was further told that "the test Wednesday seemed meant to drive home the point that Iran had no intention of giving up its own missile fleet, and the missile launch in Iran came within hours of North Korea’s launching of two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast Thursday."
I knew they were in cahoots, and the heat is now on Europe:
"Heat, then hail: Weather and travel woes hit Britain, France" by Natasha Livingstone Associated Press, July 26, 2019
LONDON — The temperature is dropping but Europe’s troubles aren’t over: A record-busting heat wave gave way Friday to thunderstorms and hailstorms, bringing the Tour de France to a dramatic halt and causing trouble at British airports and beyond on one of the most hectic travel days of the year.
In addition, travelers at London’s Heathrow and Gatwick airports faced delays because air traffic controllers grounded flights over a technical problem.
It marked the second day of travel disruptions in European capitals after one of the hottest days in memory, when many places in Western Europe saw temperatures soar beyond 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Compounding that, the weekend is a big travel moment across Europe as families head off for their summer holidays now that schools have breaked for the academic year.
I don't want to be picky, but isn't it supposed to be broke for the academic year?
I know it's a simple point of grammar, but it's basic and shows you the sloppiness of the journali$t and the lack of editing by the managers.
Of course, if I mistype something it shows how unqualified I am and renders any commentary or questions moot.
After several hours of flight restrictions over British airspace Friday, the national air traffic controller NATS said it had fixed the technical issue and would be able to safely increase traffic flow.
‘‘Weather is continuing to cause significant unrelated disruption across the country and more widely across Europe, which has further complicated today’s operation,’’ NATS said in a statement.
In France, suffocating heat turned into slippery storms Friday — including a hailstorm on the Tour de France route in the Alps that was so sudden and violent that organizers ordered a stop to the world’s premier cycling event.
As riders careened down hairpin turns after mounting a 9,000-foot peak, a storm lashed the valley below. A snowplow worked desperately to clear the route of slush, but organizers deemed it too dangerous to continue.
Weather almost never stops the three-week race, and the decision came on a day of high-drama in which race leader Julian Alaphilippe lost his top spot and accompanying yellow jersey just ahead of Sunday’s finale.
I know you are going to think I'm pedaling too hard; however, the last three paragraphs raise suspicions of geo-engineering or some type of weather weapon, and given France's softness on issues like Iran and Palestine, one really has to wonder.
France also faced a spike in fires in forests and farm fields that left a dozen firefighters injured, and a rise in drownings. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner linked the country’s 60 drowning deaths so far this month indirectly to the current heat wave, noting a rise in people drowning in unguarded bodies of water as they seek relief from high temperatures, some of whom suffer thermal shock when they jump from hot air into cold water.
I don't know what is in the water over there in France, but that last, lame excuse for whatever is going on over there is a jump-the-shark type of thing. Simple arson could explain the spike in fires.
Better get across the Channel to Britain:
British rail commuters were also facing delays after the heat wave prompted Network Rail to impose speed restrictions in case the tracks buckled. Engineers from the company have been working to get the network back to normal after the track temperatures soared to up to 20 C (68 F) more than the air temperature.
‘‘With the railway being made of metal and moving parts, the sustained high temperatures took their toll in places,’’ said Phil James of Network Rail. ‘‘Everything was done to keep trains moving where possible, and last night hundreds of staff were out fixing the damage and repairing the railway ready for today.’’
What was it, cheap 9/11 steel from China, and if not, why are tracks not buckling everywhere?
I mean, here the T sucks because of decrepitness and negligence, and each year is hotter than the last (or so I have been told; I know it's anecdotal, but that doesn't seem to be the case based on memory or even this blog).
Passengers using Eurostar services to and from Paris were also facing ‘‘severe disruption’’ due to overhead power line problems in the French capital, which on Thursday recorded its hottest day ever with the temperature rising to 42.6 C (108.7 F).
Are you sure they are not just using the heat to explain crappy service?
Britain, along with much of Western Europe, endured potentially its highest temperature ever on Thursday.....
What do you mean "potentially?"
Was it or wasn't it?
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Related:
400 chickens die of heatstroke at N.H. farm after extreme temperatures last weekend
Those chicken carcasses must have reeked after the Globe waited an entire week before reporting (and on a Slow Saturday, no less), but at least the power has been restored to almost all customers on Cape Cod after the tornadoes.
Also see:
"Libya’s coast guard recovered dozens of bodies of Europe-bound migrants who perished at sea as search operations continued Friday, a day after up to 150 people, including women and children, went missing and were feared drowned when their boats capsized in the Mediterranean Sea. A top UN official described Thursday’s shipwreck as ‘‘the worst Mediterranean tragedy’’ so far this year. One of the survivors, from Eritrea, said his vessel started to capsize after an hour of sailing. Most of the migrants on board were women, he said, and most of them drowned. ‘‘All of them [who drowned] were ladies. . . only two girls rescued themselves,’’ he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fears for his safety....."
It tops the one earlier this month, and how is that war in Libya going anyway?
Rescued migrants gathered in Khoms, Libya, on Friday.(AFP/Getty Images)
Looks like the dozen of the survivors at the hospital, one of whom is reported to have said that he ‘‘saw lots of bodies, dozens, in the water, and most of them were children and women who were not able to swim.’’
I hate to say this, but they all look like they could be ISIS™ or Al-CIA-Duh that are being evacuated and resettled in the West after the loss of some conflicts.
Related:
"A female suicide bomber who carried out the deadly al-Shabab attack in the office of Mogadishu’s mayor was aiming for the American who is the new UN envoy to Somalia and had left the office just minutes earlier, the extremist group and officials said. The new UN envoy, James Swan, was the bomber’s intended target, Abdiaziz Abu Musab, al-Shabab’s military spokesman, told local media. Captain Mohamed Hussein, a senior police officer, said the female bomber walked into a security meeting and blew herself up a few yards away from the mayor. It was just the fourth time the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab had used a female suicide bomber. Swan had paid the Somali capital’s mayor a brief visit and left the compound less than an hour before the bombing, an official at the mayor’s office said....."
Swan just escaped, huh, and the article seemed intent on emphasizing the female suicide bomber.
That raises suspicion right from the beginning, but the printed article also came with this photograph:
Medical workers help civilian on stretcher who was wounded in suicide bomb, at Madina hospital, Mogadishu, Wednesday, July 24, 2019. A suicide bomber walked into the office of Mogadishu's mayor and detonated explosives strapped to his waist, killing several people and badly wounding the mayor, Somali police said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
I looked at the photo very closely, and I must confess it has all the hallmarks of a crisis drill. The alleged civilian who is wounded -- with a cast on the foot -- has nice, brightly colored clothing on without a whisp of soot, dirt, or dust. Then I noticed how clean the medical first-responders looked, right down to the immaculate white coats. Finally, who is that figure dressed all in black that is exiting the crime scene in the background?
"The Australian parliament on Thursday passed laws that enable the government to prevent suspected extremists from returning home for up to two years despite concerns it could be unconstitutional. The Senate passed the laws with the center-left Labor Party supporting the conservative government’s bill even though it worried Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton would have too much discretion to decide who was banished. The law will take effect in about two weeks. Dutton has said repatriations would be decided case by case, particularly where young children are involved. Aid groups estimate at least 50 Australian women and children are stranded in crowded Syrian refugee camps following the loss of Islamic State’s territory in the Middle East. The Law Council of Australia, the nation’s leading advocacy for lawyers, urged senators to refer the bill to committee rather than vote for it. The council said it was disappointed that a law that was open to constitutional challenge had been passed....."
At least they shut up the reporters down there.
Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, eh?
"Enraged villagers in northern India used sticks, spears, and machetes to beat a tiger to death after it attacked several people in a national tiger reserve, authorities said Friday. A crowd encircled the tiger in a jungle clearing and hit it in the face as it lay on its back, groaning. The world has only about 4,000 tigers left in the wild, and most of them live in India. After a video of the incident spread on social media, many Indians expressed outrage, questioning how anyone could kill such an iconic and endangered animal. The tiger, a 5- to 6-year-old female, attacked a man who had entered the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve to fish....."
I wasn't outraged, I was saddened when I read that the "tiger slowly moved its paws in a futile attempt to block the blows," and she was only protecting her cubs:
Ten-month-old cubs at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra State, India, in 2018. Enraged villagers in northern India used sticks, spears and machetes to beat a tiger to death after it attacked several people in the Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, authorities said. (Bryan Denton/The New York Times)
"UK’s new prime minister promises a ‘golden age’ — and a Brexit resolution" by William Booth and Karla Adam Washington Post, July 25, 2019
LONDON — Boris Johnson, on his first full day as the British prime minister, went to the House of Commons Thursday and pronounced ‘‘the beginning of a new golden age,’’ promising to make the United Kingdom ‘‘the greatest place on Earth.’’
It isn't already?
Punching the air with his fist and shoving his other hand in his coat jacket, just as his hero Winston Churchill did, Johnson vowed to slash knife crime, hire 20,000 more police, make home ownership affordable, protect Scottish fishing grounds, shrink school class sizes, cut taxes, care for grandparents, build railways, cut carbon emissions, provide high-speed 5G mobile to all, and bring the ‘‘best and brightest’’ to Britain, with ‘‘a radical rewriting of our immigration system.’’
If Churchill is hero, then Zionist Israel has nothing to worry about.
Johnson said Britain would host ‘‘a bioscience sector liberated from anti-genetic-modification rules’’ free of the shackles of Europe, launch its own galaxy of satellites, and soon be home to ‘‘electric planes’’ powered by British battery technology. ‘‘Our future clean, green, prosperous, united, confident, ambitious,’’ he said. ‘‘This, my friends, is the prize.’’
In Parliament, Johnson’s opponents nipped at the new prime minister’s ankles. They said it was ‘‘all mouth no trousers,’’ and ‘‘fantasyland.’’ Johnson swatted away the criticisms as the moans of ‘‘defeatists’’ and ‘‘gloomsters.’’ Taking a page from the Trump playbook, he asked why his critics did not believe in Britain as much as he did.
Britain is trying to figure out which Johnson has just became leader. Is it the liberal Conservative mayor of London who joined gay pride parades and talked up the benefits of immigration? Or the controversial newspaper columnist who has a loose relationship with the truth? Or the hardcore Brexiteer who aligns himself with those on the far right? Does Boris Johnson himself even know?
Does it even matter?
Some first answers were revealed with the shake-up of the Cabinet. Seventeen ministers were pushed or jumped from the government. Johnson reassembled much of the old gang that fought for ‘‘leave’’ in the June 2016 Brexit referendum. The appointment of political strategist Dominic Cummings especially raised eyebrows. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch in the HBO film ‘‘Brexit: The Uncivil War,’’ Cummings is credited as the evil genius running the Vote Leave campaign and coming up with its incredibly effective ‘‘take back control’’ slogan.
Other prominent figures from that campaign who got top jobs include Michael Gove, who is effectively the minister for preparing for a no-deal Brexit, Dominic Raab, the new foreign secretary, and Priti Patel, the new home secretary. Patel was forced to resign from the government less than two years ago after she held unauthorized meetings with top Israelis.....
That's obscene, but it tells you all you need to know regarding the direction Boris will take them.
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As his first act of business, he said he is going to take Gibraltar back:
"Prime minister Pedro Sánchez fo Spain lost a bid to form a government Thursday after failing to form a multiparty alliance, raising the chances that the country will be forced to hold another national election to try to break the political deadlock. Sánchez and his Socialist Party won a national election in April that was hailed as a victory for Europe’s embattled left but fell well short of an absolute majority in parliament at a time of deepening fragmentation and polarization in Spanish politics. While leading a caretaker administration, Sánchez has sought the support of some smaller parties, but the most recent talks with the other major left-wing party, Unidas Podemos, broke down overnight....."
He will then thrust up through Bulgaria to Russia, where "once a local low-key affair, the September vote for Moscow’s city council has shaken up Russia’s political scene as the Kremlin struggles with how to deal with strongly opposing views in its own sprawling capital as authorities ramped up the pressure on the opposition ahead of a major rally on Saturday."
I'm sure that protest will be featured somewhere in tomorrow's Sunday Globe, although they will take a while to catch up with those in Hong Kong:
"Hong Kong protests spread to airport as city fears more unrest" by Austin Ramzy New York Times, July 26, 2019
HONG KONG — Black-clad demonstrators rallied in Hong Kong’s airport on Friday, filling the arrivals hall of one of the world’s busiest terminals as the city braced for another weekend of potentially combustible protests.
Activists also signaled that despite objections from the police, they would continue with plans for a Saturday rally against mob violence in Yuen Long, a district near the mainland Chinese border where last weekend a group of men attacked people in a train station and on nearby streets.
So the mob violence that was initially implied to be Chinese government goons has now turned into an excuse to rally. Hmmmm. Cui bono?
That attack on Sunday, which left at least 45 people injured, was apparently meant to intimidate the protesters who have been holding demonstrations in the city for weeks, but the men, many of whom were masked and dressed in white T-shirts, also lashed out at train passengers who had no apparent connection to the demonstrations.
That is what you do because in either case, the police are blamed for not keeping order.
The police — who failed to stop the mob, and initially made no arrests — have since detained 12 people in connection with the train station attacks, including some accused of having connections to the criminal gangs known as triads. The authorities have said they object to the Yuen Long rally on Saturday because of the risk of clashes, with tensions running high between pro-democracy protesters and residents of the district’s villages, who are more conservative and supportive of the establishment.
The agenda-pushing pre$$ just tipped their hand with the pro-democracy description, and it's like I just said. The thugs were an attempt to weaken support for the government, and if they had to club a few of their own it was worth it.
The prospect of more violence this weekend poses another challenge for Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, who is under pressure from Beijing to restore order in the semiautonomous Chinese city.
Lam is also facing growing calls from civil servants sympathetic to the protesters, who have urged her to heed the demonstrators’ calls to set up an independent commission to investigate police conduct during the unrest. Several police unions released a letter Friday urging Lam to oppose such a move.
The protests in Hong Kong began weeks ago, over a now-suspended government proposal that would allow extraditions to mainland China. They have since expanded to include other issues, like accusations that the police have used excessive force, as well as demands that direct elections be held for chief executive and for more seats in the local legislature.
During the rally at the airport Friday, protesters, including some airline employees, chanted slogans and distributed leaflets listing demands, including a full withdrawal of the extradition bill. They also set up another of the many so-called Lennon Walls that have gone up around the city (named after one that sprung up in Prague under Communist rule), consisting of slogans and messages of support for the protest movement, most on Post-It notes.
A Post-It note revolution!
To promote the airport rally, protesters created a video modeled on in-flight safety instructions telling visitors to beware of mob attacks in Hong Kong. It referred to the police’s failure to protect the train passengers in Yuen Long on Sunday: “It is a safety requirement that you remain alert and vigilant at all times, because the police will no longer answer your calls,” it said.
Yeah, if you see something, say something, and this thing gets stinkier by the paragraph. Now the propaganda is admitting the thug attack was meant to sway support for the government, and the mob could very well be the protesters who broke into the legislature and defaced Chinese government offices.
Jeremy Tam, a lawmaker and former pilot, posted on Facebook an unsigned letter attributed to a group of air traffic controllers that warned of a “noncooperation movement” unless the government responded to the protesters’ demands. “As we hear the people cry and witness the city descend into chaos, we feel that it is not right to continue to perform our duties silently as if nothing has happened and let the abusers get away with their evil deeds,” it said.
Where is that in AmeriKa, and I don't mean the controlled-opposition re$i$tance?
Yeah, he says go the Gandhi route, and you need to preach the nonviolence to the protesters first!
Concerns about Saturday’s protest were running high. Matthew Cheung, the second-ranking official in Hong Kong, warned that a rally held despite the police’s formal objection would be unlawful, but in a news conference Friday, he acknowledged that people were still likely to attend, and he called on them to be “peaceful and rational” and not enter villages in Yuen Long where clashes might occur. Cheung also apologized for the government’s handling of the violence in Yuen Long, where many have accused the police of being slow to respond.
Here is the thing: why would the police want to hurry and respond to people who are disparaging their every move?
A week before the attack at the train station, a representative of the Chinese government’s office in Hong Kong, known as the liaison office, had urged Yuen Long residents to drive activists away, Reuters reported Friday, citing a recording of his remarks.
“We won’t allow them to come to Yuen Long to cause trouble,” Li Jiyi, the director of the liaison office’s local district office, said at a community banquet, according to the report.
The liaison office dismissed any reports linking it to the Yuen Long violence as “malicious rumors,” according to a report carried on the liaison office’s website.
Started by who?
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Related:
"Trump escalates feud with Apple over offshore factories" by Jim Tankersley and Jack Nicas New York Times, July 26, 2019
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Friday his administration would deny a request by electronics giant Apple to avoid stiff tariffs his administration had placed on Chinese imports, the latest attempt by the president to force a multinational company to move its manufacturing to the United States.
The comments underscore how Trump, who has imposed tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, is using levies to punish not only China, which he considers a top economic rival, but also US companies that manufacture goods there.
To help cushion the blow, the administration established a process that allows companies to apply for an exemption from the tariffs. Companies must demonstrate that the import cannot be obtained domestically. Administration officials have insisted the process is apolitical. Some of those requests have been approved.....
Meaning this is all bluster and when no one is looking he will back down.
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"Sprint, T-Mobile receive merger approval from Department of Justice" by Tony Romm Washington Post, July 26, 2019
WASHINGTON — T-Mobile, which is operated by Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, and Sprint, which is owned by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, announced their $26.5 billion merger last April, describing the deal as necessary to deploy 5G, the next generation of ultra-fast wireless broadband service. Absent such a combination, T-Mobile and Sprint said they could not muster the necessary investments individually, putting them at a major disadvantage against AT&T and Verizon.
How ironic that Germany and Japan are combining forces in the 5G fight, 'eh?
The two wireless carriers commenced their campaign to pitch the deal to the FCC, which reviews mergers to see if they benefit the public, and DOJ, which studies competition, at a moment when Democrats and Republicans alike in Washington had started sounding new alarms about the dangers of corporate consolidation. In recent months, the merger attracted heightened attention from a trio of Democratic contenders for the White House in 2020 — Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — who said it would result in ‘‘unacceptably high levels of concentration in an already consolidated wireless industry.’’
All of a $udden, they care!
Related:
"The drivers have been picketing daily since they walked off the job June 28, and on Wednesday they held a rally at the State House calling for a state audit and investigation of the VTA. They attracted support from a number of politicians, including senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. The strike was the latest in a string of work stoppages in the state over the past year. Last fall, Marriott hotel workers in Boston joined a national action against the hotel chain, picketing for six weeks and emerging with a contract that pioneered a number of significant protections for employees. In April, 31,000 Stop & Shop workers walked out and didn’t come back for 11 days, crippling the grocery store chain as it struggled to maintain food deliveries — and customers. Buses have continued to run on the island during the strike, including over the busy Fourth of July holiday, with replacement drivers running reduced schedules on some routes....."
What is odd is I just asked about their status, and this was the Vineyard drivers’ second attempt to get a contract since TCI took over the island bus service 16 years ago and the agreement would increase wages significantly for drivers but not the expanded health plan that would have covered spouses and children.
Consumer groups such as Public Knowledge echoed those concerns, arguing that a combined T-Mobile and Sprint would result in higher prices and fewer options for consumers. Many critics pointed to the fact that T-Mobile already had become a fierce competitor — offering more customer-friendly contracts, for example — precisely because the government had warded off a merger by the two companies in the past, but T-Mobile and Sprint offered concessions to reshape their deal in recent months in a bid to win over federal regulators.....
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So much for breaking up big tech.
"US economy slows in spring but remains healthy with little sign of a recession" by Heather Long Washington Post, July 26, 2019
The US economy slowed in the spring but continues to grow at a healthy pace that shows little sign of a recession, though many economists predict this year will be solid but not extraordinary.
‘‘Last year was a fiscal sugar rush. This year it’s starting to fade,’’ said Michael Feroli, chief US economist at J.P. Morgan.
Business spending dried up, however, turning negative for the first time since early 2016. Many executives blame uncertainty around Trump’s trade war for their hesitancy to spend as much as they did a year ago. Trump has increased military and domestic spending, scaled back regulations, and enacted the largest corporate tax cut in the country’s history.
The tax cut for businesses was supposed to spur companies to invest in new properties, equipment, and products, but after a bounce early last year, businesses have pulled back on spending. The White House argues that Trump’s policies have enabled millions more Americans to get jobs and receive higher pay through tax cuts and a strong labor market that has forced companies to boost wages. That, in turn, has helped raise consumer spending, said Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic adviser.
Kudlow called consumers ‘‘heroes’’ on Friday and blamed the slowing economic momentum on the Federal Reserve. ‘‘We had to suffer through severe monetary tightening,’’ Kudlow said on CNBC, but he predicted a strong second half of the year. ‘‘We are the hottest economy in the world, and I expect us to stay that way.’’
As long as the dollar is the reserve currency.
Kudlow’s remarks echoed Trump’s tweet that growth was ‘‘not bad considering we had the very heavy weight of the Federal Reserve anchor wrapped around our neck.’’
The Fed is almost certain to lower interest rates at the conclusion of its meeting next week, but the central bank has been hinting since early June that the cut is coming, which many say is a key reason that stocks hit record highs again and business sentiment has rebounded somewhat.
‘‘In many ways, we’ve already reaped the benefits of a Fed cut,’’ said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Grant Thornton. She pointed to record stock prices, more mortgage refinancing, and a rebound in spending as evidence that the Fed’s more ‘‘dovish’’ stance has had an impact.
Few are predicting a recession anytime soon. The nation is in the midst of the longest expansion in US history, growing for more than a decade and exceeding even the 1990s boom, although some have questioned how much longer the expansion can last, it is showing little sign of weakness so far. Most experts say it will take a major event of some sort to knock the economy off course.
Like what, a false flag terror attack or some sort of cyberattack against the $y$tem, you know, “a major incident that may well occur at any time and that will galvanize public opinion?”
It's almost as if they are warning you beforehand!
‘‘Expansions don’t die of old age. I like to say they get murdered,’’ said Ben Bernanke, an economist and former Federal Reserve chair, earlier this year.
I've always believed the crashes were designed and engineered so that the elite could consolidate more wealth and property on the cheap before the market rises again.
Newly released data from the Commerce Department shows it is likely that growth peaked in the middle of last year and then momentum cooled heading into 2019. The White House has discussed ways to potentially boost the economy further, including possibly trying to devalue the US dollar to make American goods more competitive overseas, but Kudlow said that was ruled out.....
Yeah, it means yours would be worth less, American.
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Related:
"U.S. stocks pushed to record heights Friday following strong profit reports from Google’s parent company, Twitter and other big corporations. Companies are nearly midway through earnings reporting season, and results have generally been better than the dismal expectations that analysts had coming into it. All the reports are emblematic of an economy that’s strengthening but still shadowed by a pile of concerns. “Any time you hit a record high, you ask: Is this justified?” said David Joy, chief market strategist at Ameriprise. “Well, it’s justified based on the easing cycle that central banks are on, and the absolute level of earnings helps, but growth is sluggish and moderating, earnings are flattish and we’ve got this overhang of, let’s call it geopolitical uncertainty.”
He says be a little cautious because a one-day stock hit wiped out some $200 million in market value. Fortunately, it was Chinese investors that took most of the hit.
And at the bottom of it all:
"Former PM Barak, others join forces before Israeli elections" by Aron Heller Associated Press, July 25, 2019
JERUSALEM — A trio of forces on the Israeli left — including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak — united on Thursday ahead of the country’s upcoming elections, looking to pose a powerful contrast to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative ruling Likud party.
The newly formed ‘‘Democratic Union’’ said in a joint statement it would be made up of Barak’s ‘‘Democratic Israel’’ faction, the dovish Meretz party, and senior Labor Party official Stav Shaffir.
With just a week left to present the final lists for the September balloting, all sides were concerned they might not get enough votes by themselves to cross the electoral threshold.
The move comes amid a flurry of machinations ahead of the ‘‘do-over’’ election in September, after Netanyahu failed to form a parliamentary majority following his victory in April’s vote. To avoid giving his opponents a chance to build an alternative government, he dissolved parliament and forced an unprecedented new election campaign.
Netanyahu’s various rivals have been seeking to seize on the rare opportunity to unseat him by putting their own differences aside. Barak, who in 1999 became prime minister by becoming the only person to date to defeat Netanyahu in a head-on showdown, dramatically came out of retirement last month with the stated ambition of toppling Netanyahu again by helping opposition forces create a large enough bloc to unseat Likud; however, his new faction has so far failed to make much of a splash in the polls. The former military chief’s main contribution seemed to be getting under the skin of Netanyahu and his family. Though Barak is headlining the maneuver, the 77-year-old will not lead the new list and does not appear to be a candidate to replace Netanyahu.
Not since his name turned up in Epstein's flight logs.
The joint list will be headed by Nitzan Horowitz, the newly elected, openly gay leader of Meretz. Shaffir, a rising star in Labor, bolted from the venerable party to be second on the new list, while Barak will be placed in the 10th slot.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv with Shaffir and Barak, Horowitz said the party aimed to ‘‘create significant political power the likes of which the left hasn’t seen in years.’’ The three leaders all spoke of ‘‘regime change’’ and ousting Netanyahu from office.
Wow, those are charged words!
With Labor announcing a joint run focused on social and economic issues with the small Gesher party, ‘‘Democratic Israel’’ looks to have seized the mantle of peacemaking with the Palestinians.
What are they going to do, help rebuild their houses and give them the land back?
Zionism with a human face?
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Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak (L) attends the launch of the Democratic Union list, which he formed with newly elected Meretz head Nitzan Horowitz (R) and Stav Shaffir (C) of the Labour party (AFP Photo/JACK GUEZ)
Do they look like winners to you?
NEXT DAY UPDATES
"Hong Kong protest hit by police tear gas as thousands gather in Yuen Long" by Austin Ramzy New York Times, July 27, 2019
HONG KONG — Across the masses of demonstrators, a chorus of banging could be heard as the crowd used sticks and umbrellas to strike road dividers and other metallic surfaces. The police said some demonstrators were throwing bricks and other hard objects at officers.
Most businesses along the protest route and in Yuen Long’s otherwise bustling malls shut down as the demonstrators marched through the area. Many protesters gathered around the town’s police station, throwing “ghost money” — a type of fake money usually meant for the dead — at the building.
The Hong Kong police have been criticized for their slow response to the mob attack last Sunday, and for not detaining anyone in Yuen Long that night. They have since arrested 12 men in connection with the attack, including some accused of having connections with the gangs known as triads.
Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung, the No. 2 official in Hong Kong, apologized on Friday for the police response, but in an unusually public sign of divisions between the police and the government, some officers posted images online late Friday saying that Cheung did not speak for them, and that his words undermined their work. A letter from the Junior Police Officers’ Association “severely condemned” Cheung’s comments.
“Hong Kong people have to unite and stand up for Hong Kong,” says Rita Tang, a 56-year-old health consultant who joined Saturday’s protest in Yuen Long. “We have neglected our rights. We must fight for our future generation for their rights that they deserve.”
Protesters started filling the main street of Yuen Long in the afternoon and marched peacefully for about two hours.
“We have come here because we still support all the actions of the people here today,” said Cary Lo, a 37-year-old compliance officer and community officer for the Democratic Party of Hong Kong. He held a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the pro-democracy protest movement.....
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At least others see the same things I do, and as predicted above:
"Moscow police arrest more than 1,300 at election protest" by Ivan Nechepurenko New York Times, July 27, 2019
MOSCOW — The protest in central Moscow, which was not authorized by the government, was the latest in a series of street demonstrations staged as President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings have dipped amid economic hardship.
While the near-weekly demonstrations in the capital and other cities have pierced the image of unified support for Putin, the scale of support for such rallies is unclear.
“We love Russia! They love money!” protesters chanted, a reference to widespread anger over government corruption. Others sat in the streets, awaiting arrest and reading copies of the constitution.
The spark for Saturday’s protest was a decision by election authorities to bar several opposition candidates from running for Moscow’s City Council, asserting that they had falsified signatures on petitions to run — a charge the candidates denied.
Even before the election dispute, protests had broken out in provincial cities as Russia’s economy swoons under Western sanctions. Street actions began over bread-and-butter issues such as the placement of garbage dumps and the dismal wages of medical workers, which highlight growing frustration over gloomy standards of living.....
Wow, are they ever RIPE for an INVASION, 'eh?
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Like the Russians, we “will have nobody to choose from on Election Day.”
Time to pick up the trash:
"Less waste and more schools, one plastic brick at a time" by Anemona Hartocollis New York Times, July 27, 2019
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — A legion of women in Abidjan who make their living picking up plastic waste on the city streets and selling it for recycling. Now they are lead players in a project that turns trash into plastic bricks to build schools across the country.
They are working with a Colombian company to convert plastic waste — a scourge of modern life — into an asset that will help women earn a decent living while cleaning up the environment and improving education.
It's of Globe concern.
The project was the brainchild of Aboubacar Kampo, a medical doctor, who just ended a term as Ivory Coast representative for UNICEF. Mariam Coulibaly sees it as a chance to better her life, maybe even to rise into the middle class.....
That's funny, because in San Francisco it is a signpost of the extremes of US capitalism.
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Women gather and sell plastic castoffs in the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan, Ivory Coast.(Yagazie Emezi/The New York Times)
Arguing already, 'eh?
They then cut down the trees:
"Brazil’s far-right leader slashes Amazon protections, and forest begins to fall" by Letícia Casado and Ernesto Londoño New York Times, July 28, 2019
BRASÍLIA, Brazil — The destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation’s new far-right president took over and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching, and mining.
That was back in October after the runoff, and Brazil’s main stock index staged its biggest rally in 2½ years, because business leaders and financial markets approved of his choice of an esteemed banker as head of his economic team, and they are opposed to the left-leaning policies of the Workers’ Party. Even gave him a medal for exposing the corruption of General Electric, and you will never guess who is his best friend.
Protecting the Amazon was at the heart of Brazil’s environmental policy for much of the past two decades. At one point, Brazil’s success in slowing the deforestation rate made it an international example of conservation and the effort to fight climate change, but with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, a populist who has been fined personally for violating environmental regulations, Brazil has changed course substantially, retreating from efforts it made to slow global warming by preserving the world’s largest rainforest.
Obviously, cutting down the trees increases the carbon dioxide in the air with less being absorbed, and I am advocating for it; however, success in slowing the deforestation rate still means water is accumulating in the boat.
While campaigning for president last year, Bolsonaro declared that Brazil’s vast protected lands were an obstacle to economic growth and promised to open them up to commercial exploitation.
Seven months into his term, that is already happening.
Brazil’s part of the Amazon has lost more than 1,330 square miles of forest cover since Bolsonaro took office in January, a 39 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the government agency that tracks deforestation.
In June alone, when the cooler, drier season began and cutting trees became easier, the deforestation rate rose drastically, with roughly 80 percent more forest cover lost than in June of last year.
The deforestation of the Amazon is spiking as Bolsonaro’s government pulls back on enforcement measures such as fines, warnings, and the seizure or destruction of illegal equipment in protected areas.
A New York Times analysis of public records found that such enforcement actions by Brazil’s main environmental agency fell by 20 percent during the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2018. The drop means that vast stretches of the rainforest can be torn down with less resistance from the nation’s authorities.
The two trends — the increase in deforestation and the government’s increasing reluctance to confront illegal activity — are alarming researchers, environmentalists, and former officials who contend that Bolsonaro’s tenure could lead to staggering losses of one of the world’s most important resources.
“We’re facing the risk of runaway deforestation in the Amazon,” eight former environment ministers in Brazil wrote in a joint letter in May, arguing that Brazil needed to strengthen its environmental protection measures, not weaken them.
At least there will be more hamburgers to eat.
Bolsonaro has dismissed the new data on deforestation, calling his own government’s figures “lies” — an assertion experts called baseless. During a gathering with international journalists last week, the president called the preoccupation with the Amazon a form of “environmental psychosis” and argued that its use should not concern outsiders.
“The Amazon is ours, not yours,” he told a European journalist.
The Bolsonaro government’s stance has drawn sharp criticism from European leaders, injecting an irritant to a trade deal struck last month between the European Union and a bloc of four South American countries, including Brazil.
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At least it is not like Honduras or Nicaragua under Ortega, although "in 1986, the International Court of Justice at The Hague ruled the United States had broken international law and violated the sovereignty of Nicaragua by aiding the contras. (The United States had said it would not consider itself bound by the World Court decision.) The U.S. was the lead advocate for the key figure, Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, when he began his long-awaited public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing, telling Congress that he had ‘‘never carried out a single act, not one,’’ without authorization (one was missed).
That was before peace came to Guatemala and Colombia, and the embargo was lifted on Cuba.
Meanwhile, Mexico went in the opposite direction before he started backtracking in his rises to power in the wake of Trump, the new sheriff in town (it's a good thing MS-13 is a myth).
You might want to judge for yourself whether secret courts don’t have to be so secret or whether district attorneys have to turn over records of the cases they prosecuted, but in either case the judge should be pulled from the bench and is it just me, or do you detect a sense of supremacism in Newton?
Time to bang the gavel down in order:
"Britain’s new Commons leader issues very strict rules. Oops" by Palko Karasz New York Times, July 27, 2019
LONDON — His side-parted hair, his languid speaking style, and his baggy double-breasted suits give leader of Britain’s House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a longtime lawmaker, an incongruously prewar air, observers say. His studied eccentricities have inspired memes, online quizzes, and T-shirts. For many on the left, however, his highly conservative views on topics including welfare, climate change, and abortion are beyond a joke, and in the years since Britain voted to withdraw from the European Union, Rees-Mogg, chairman of a caucus of euroskeptic legislators, has become a force to be reckoned with. His name even came up among possible successors to Theresa May, when the previous prime minister’s Brexit plan began to unravel in Parliament.
In November, after Rees-Mogg called for May to resign, the prospect of his moving closer to power prompted Twitter users to shower him with very British insults. This spring, he capitalized on his growing fame by publishing a volume of history, “The Victorians,” to savage reviews.
Rees-Mogg has told The New York Times that journalists typically write about him when they have nothing else to report. That may soon change.....
Or not.
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