Author Archive: Stephen Green
August 20, 2018
THE ME ME ME ME ME SHOW: Leaked Transcript Sheds Light on Obama Netflix Series.
TALES FROM THE MYSTERIOUS EAST: China Now Drinks More Budweiser than America, Report Says.
JOHN ZMIRAK: The Fences Are Closing In. “Will America stay free? Or are powerful forces eating away at our freedoms? I won’t say nibbling, because they’re tearing off great big chunks of it at a time. Our freedom of speech, of religion, our right to back political candidates and stand up for what we believe in. All that’s now threatened. I think you know that.”
Read the whole thing.
WINNING: German firms in line with U.S. Iran sanctions. “Several European companies have suspended plans to invest in Iran in light of the US sanctions.”
I’m old enough to remember when Trump’s bullying was going to cause us to lose our allies and force them to side with Tehran.
UNEXPECTED HEADLINES: Cybersex toy industry heats up as infamous “teledildonics” patent climaxes.
THE CHICAGO WAY: At least 60 shot, 8 killed in another deadly Chicago weekend.
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Money to help the mentally ill is left unspent. “When California voters passed a tax on high-income residents in 2004, backers said it would make good on the state’s “failed promise” to help counties pay for the treatment of the mentally ill. After nearly 15 years, Proposition 63 has steered billions of dollars to the counties across the state. But huge sums remain unspent at a time when mental illness has become an epidemic among the homeless population. The Times found more nearly $1 billion in unspent funds in L.A. County alone.”
As I keep reminding people: We have far more government than we need, but far less than we actually pay for.
TONI AIRAKSINEN: College Offers Class on ‘Consequences’ of Whiteness.
YOU CAN TRUST THEM THIS TIME: Gmail’s ‘Confidential Mode’ arrives on mobile devices.
Once you’ve turned on confidential mode for a specific email, you can set an expiration date and passcode so that you can restrict access to the email either in the web interface or via SMS. Recipients of these confidential emails won’t be able to copy, paste, download, print or forward the message, and attachments will be disabled.
That doesn’t stop anyone from taking a screenshot of your message, however. As Google notes, “Although confidential mode helps prevent the recipients from accidentally sharing your email, it doesn’t prevent recipients from taking screenshots or photos of your messages or attachments. Recipients who have malicious programs on their computer may still be able to copy or download your messages or attachments. This feature isn’t available for G Suite customers at this time.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) digital privacy advocacy group thinks that this new mode isn’t secure at all, and might even lend users a false sense of security.
Now why would Google want to do that?
SCRAPPLEFACE: Police Reach Deal with NFL Anthem Protestors. “‘Until recently, most police officers, regardless of color, felt it was acceptable to shoot black people whether they posed a threat or not,’ said a police spokesman.”
EVERYTHING IS PROBLEMATICAL: We’re rich enough to be picky about our food, and that’s wrong.
IT’S GREAT AGAIN: What Truckers & Railroads Just Said about the US Economy.
The transportation sector is a reflection of the goods-based economy in the US. Demand has been blistering across all modes of transportation. Freight shipment volume (not pricing… we’ll get to pricing in a moment) by truck, rail, air, and barge, according to the Cass Freight Index jumped 10.6% in July compared to a year earlier. This pushed the index, which is not seasonally adjusted, to its highest level for July since 2007.
The dynamics in the transportation sector are “clearly signaling that the US economy, at least for now, is ignoring all of the angst coming out of Washington D.C. about the trade wars,” the report by Cass said.
Plus, ripple effects: “Trucking companies are responding to the capacity squeeze: In July, their orders for Class 8 trucks soared 187% from a year ago, to 52,250 units, the highest number of monthly orders ever.”
OUCH: Kevin Spacey’s ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ Earns Abysmal $126 on Opening Day.
You’d think that with Spacey starring, they’d have at least changed the title.
CHANGE: Year-over-year we saw a 400% increase in the number of African-American owned small businesses.
The GOP ought to make an ongoing, public effort to recruit these entrepreneurs, but we’ll see.
LIZ SHELD’S MORNING BRIEF: The Brennan Pageant Continues and Much, Much More. “John Brennan, former CIA Director and cable news sweetheart, dominated the Sunday spin show chatter after President Trump yanked his security clearance last week. Just to recap, Brennan most likely orchestrated the entire fake RUSSIA collusion operation which publicly kicked-off when he told Twitter personality James Comey to brief Trump on the salacious and unverified dossier and then leaked the briefing to his media pals.”
AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: A Milestone in Afghanistan. “Sometime late next year, possibly as early as September, news crews will gather in Afghanistan for a unique event: To interview an American serviceman or woman who was not born when the war they are fighting began.”
Good grief.
I SUSPECT THERE’S A VAST DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHAT IRAN SAYS AND WHAT OPEC WILL DO: Iran says no OPEC member can take over its share of oil exports.
TREATING THE SYMPTOMS: Maduro orders 96 percent devaluation in hyperinflation-stricken Venezuela.
In one of the biggest economic overhauls of Maduro’s five-year government, the former bus driver and union leader also said he would hike the minimum wage by over 3,000 percent, boost the corporate tax rate, and increase highly-subsidized gas prices in coming weeks.
“I want the country to recover and I have the formula. Trust me,” Maduro said in a nighttime speech broadcast on state television.
But economists expressed doubts that Venezuela’s cash-strapped government, which faces U.S. sanctions and has defaulted on its bondholders, would succeed.
If Maduro truly wants to overhaul the economy, he needs to start firing cronies and repealing laws and returning and restoring private property — and then exile himself.
Anything less is just Atlas Shrugged in action.
SINO-RUSSIAN FAR EAST: Russia Offers 2.5 Million Acres Of Farmland To China, Amid Worsening Trade War.
Earlier this week, Russia offered to bail out China from the trade war with Washington. Moscow offered 1 million hectares (2.5 million acres) of arable land available to Chinese farmers to meet its large-scale demand for soybeans — and of course, prevent a massive soybean shortage that would lead to political/social upheavals across the country.
Nevertheless, some analyst and experts are skeptical about the quality of the plots available. As reported by South China Morning Post, several Chinese investment firms have shown a keen interest in solidifying an agreement with Moscow.
Valery Dubrovskiy, director of investment for the Far East Investment and Export Agency, a non-profit organization, said on Tuesday that Chinese, Russian, and other surrounding countries have already expressed tremendous interest in the farmland. “We expect most of the investment to come from China,” he said. “We expect 50 percent from China, 25 percent from Russia and 25 percent from other countries, like Japan and Korea.”
Dubrovskiy said that all of the 3 million hectares of farmland in Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District is now available to farmers, adding that the region could become a hotspot for dairy farming or the growing of crops, such as soybeans, wheat, and potatoes.
Given historial Chinese claims to the area and Russia’s declining population, Moscow might be inviting in a houseguest they can’t make leave.
Flashback: Will China Colonize and Incorporate Siberia?
A floating population of tens of thousands Chinese traders and seasonal workers continually moves back and forth across the border, one of the longest in the world. The immigrants settle not only in border areas but increasingly deeper into Russian territory, and some backlash is imminent. These developments raise several questions for Russia as to the migration’s impact, China’s long-term plans for Siberia, and potential Chinese dominance in the region. And yet, diplomatic relations between China and Russia have never been better. China and Russia enjoy mutual cooperation in the spheres of defense, technology, energy and bilateral trade. Why would China take any steps which would destroy such mutually rewarding relations?
Today it wouldn’t make much sense for China to make such a bold move. Tomorrow might be different.
HMM: Afghan President Offers Taliban Conditional Three-Month Cease-Fire.
Mr. Ghani said government forces would observe a truce in fighting with the Taliban to coincide with the start on Monday of the three-day Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha and continue it through the commemoration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday on Nov. 19 if the insurgents reciprocated.
Mr. Ghani’s announcement, during a televised speech marking Afghanistan’s independence day, came on the heels of an unusually deadly wave of violence across the country, most of it carried out by the Taliban, that has left at least 325 soldiers, police and civilians dead in the past 10 days.
“We call on the leadership of the Taliban to welcome the wishes of the Afghan people for a long lasting and real peace, and we urge them to prepare for peace talks based on Islamic values and principles,” he said. “The Afghan government has removed all obstacles for a long-lasting peace through these unprecedented steps.”
One tiny little obstacle remains: The Taliban wants power, not peace.
NEW ZIMBABWE: Record Number of White South African Farms for Sale But No One is Buying. “The government’s plan to seize white farmland without compensation is becoming a nightmare reality.”
Unexpectedly.