Category Archive for "Chinese Economy" | Zip Dialog

ZipDialog Roundup for Wednesday, November 8

By Charles Lipson
Wednesday, November 8, 2017 0 China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Elections, Hillary Clinton, Kim Jong Un, Mass Shooting, North Korea, Republican Party, Russian Interference in US Politics, Trump Administration, Trump-Russia Investigation, US foreign policy, Xi Jinping, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page No tags Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Democrats win big in off-year elections. The most important: a surprisingly large victory in the Virginia Governor’s race

Comment: NJ returning to a Democratic governor is not surprising. In Virginia, which is shifting from purple to a blue state because of the DC suburbs, the surprise is not Ralph Northam’s win but his 9-point margin over a good Republican candidate, Ed Gillespie.

Northam’s margin tells me Democrats are motivated, even after a divisive primary. Hillary won Virginia by 5 points. Down-ballot Democrats are also doing very well.

◆ President Trump’s begins his biggest stop: Beijing

There are three major issues on the table: North Korea, China’s expansion in the South China Sea, and China’s asymmetrical trade relations with the US.

Comment: More on this stop as news emerges.

◆ Texas Mass Killing: “Botched Air Force handling of Texas shooter’s criminal history may be ‘systemic’ issue” (Fox News)

The 2015 Department of Defense Inspector General report analyzed a sample of 1,102 convictions, including felonies, handled in the military court system and found the Navy, Air Force and Marines failed to send criminal history or fingerprint data to the FBI in about 30 percent of them. –Fox News

◆ Ratcheting up the financial sanctions on Chinese banks doing business with North Korea (Reuters)

Senate Finance Committee votes unanimously on these sanctions, just as Pres. Trump lands in Beijing.

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee unanimously backed new sanctions targeting Chinese banks that do business with North Korea on Tuesday, just before President Donald Trump visits Beijing for the first time since taking office….

Washington so far has largely held off on imposing new sanctions against Chinese banks and companies doing business with North Korea, given fears of retaliation by Beijing and possibly far-reaching effects on the world economy.–Reuters

◆ Curiouser and Curiouser: Russian lawyer who met with Trump Jr also met with FusionGPS before and after the Trump Tower meeting (Fox News)

The story about Fusion GPS’s Glenn Simpson and Russian attorney, Natalia Veselnitskaya, comes from one of our best investigative reporters, Catherine Herridge.

The co-founder of Fusion GPS, the firm behind the unverified Trump dossier, met with a Russian lawyer before and after a key meeting she had last year with Trump’s son, Fox News has learned. The contacts shed new light on how closely tied the firm was to Russian interests, at a time when it was financing research to discredit then-candidate Donald Trump….

Simpson and Fusion GPS were hired by BakerHostetler, which represented Russian firm Prevezon through Veselnitskaya. –Catherine Herridge for Fox News

Comment: So, Fusion GPS was simultaneously working for this Russian firm and the Clinton campaign. That could be an innocent coincidence . . . or it could lead to some “synergies.” So far, Fusion GPS has taken the 5th before Congressional investigative committees and fiercely resisted subpoenas for any records of their financial transactions.

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave . . . ”

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ZipDialog Roundup for Monday, November 6

By Charles Lipson
Monday, November 6, 2017 2comments Bad News in Higher Education, Campus Crazies, Chicago, Chicago Crime, China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Corruption, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Free Speech, Free Speech Advocates in Higher Ed, Higher education, Hillary Clinton, Iran, Japan, Mass Shooting, Mike Flynn, North Korea, Nuclear Proliferation, PC Language Police, Protectionism and trade barriers, Putin, Robert Mueller, Russia, Russian Interference in US Politics, Shinzo Abe, South Korea, Trade, Troubles on Campus, Trump Administration, Trump-Russia Investigation, World Economy, Xi Jinping, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Fusion GPS, Vassar, William Jacobson Permalink
Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Trump in Asia: What Matters about the Trip (a comment)

The trip has three main goals, all important but in tension with each other

Contain or eliminate North Korean nuclear threat to US and US allies (depends on China’s cooperation)

Reduce China’s trade surplus with US, ideally by opening China’s domestic market to US exports

Deter an expanding Chinese threat in South China Sea (reinforce America’s partnership with nations surrounding China)

Trump is also likely to meet with Putin, with North Korea, Syria, and Iran as major topics

◆ Texas church shooting: A crazed, well-armed guy furious with his former in-laws, who worshipped at the church he attacked

That’s the report from local news outlets in the San Antonio area (KSAT in San Antonio)

Comment: Some commentators will stress his beliefs (“he was an atheist”). That is not what drove him. Anger and crazed impulsiveness, not ideology, are the drivers here.

◆ Mueller Leaking: NBC reports he has enough evidence to charge Mike Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Adviser

Special ZipDialog commentary here

◆ Another college attack on free-speech: Vassar students smear Wm. Jacobson (of Legal Insurrection blog) because he supports free speech (USA Today)

Comment: Vassar, like so many small, elite colleges, is suffused with hard-left ideology.

They should call these schools “Illiberal Arts Colleges.”

◆ Chicago nearing 600 homicides, most since 2003 (Chicago Tribune)

How bad is it? The city has instituted a new program to show people how to stop bleeding from gunshot wounds (Chicago Tribune)

Comment: N

◆ Investigators suspect US journalists were paid to spread materials from the Clinton/FusionGPS/Russian Dossier (Washington Times)

In U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Fusion GPS, the dossier’s financier via the Democratic Party and the Hillary Clinton campaign money, is fighting a House committee chairman’s bid to find out if the opposition research firm paid journalists.

In U.S. District Court in Florida, a self-described dossier victim wants a judge to order the news website BuzzFeed, which published the dossier in full, to disclose who gave it to them. –Washington Times

Comment: Fusion GPS is fighting so tenacious to prevent any disclosures of their receipts and expenditures, you can’t help but think they might have something to hide.

Pleading the 5th Amendment before Congress was also a hint.

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Hat Tip to

◆ Tim Favero for the Vassar, William Jacobson story
ZipDialog Roundup for Tuesday, October 17

By Charles Lipson
Tuesday, October 17, 2017 0 Bill Clinton, China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Clinton, Clinton Foundation Scandal, Congress, Corruption, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Kim Jong Un, Mitch McConnell, North Korea, Obama Administration, Opioids, Putin, Republican Party, Russia, Senate, The Hill, Trump Administration, Washington Post, Xi Jinping, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Austria, Sebastian Kurz, Tom Marino Permalink
Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Biggest story of the week is just under the radar: China’s Xi is consolidating his power to become most powerful leader since Mao

Comment: This week’s Party Congress, held every five years, is the moment when Xi will try to push aside many of the constraints installed after Mao to prevent one-man rule. He has already done a lot of that, installing his people in the military and using the anti-corruption campaign to remove adversaries (and leave political friends and family untouched).

By the end of the week, we’ll know if Xi has succeeded since some rule-breaking will be obvious by then (particularly waiving a rule that would require his political enforcer to retire because of age).

◆ No Cigar for the Drug Czar: Nominee Tom Marino Withdraws after news reports he weakened an anti-opioid bill (Washington Post)

The Washington Post/CBS 60 Minutes piece showed he not only weakened the bill, his office was very close to big pharma companies with interest in the legislation.

Comment: The swift move by Trump was inevitable after the report, given Trump’s focus on the Washington Swamp and the importance of opioid issues to the country and especially to his base.

◆ FBI Uncovered Russian Bribery Plot Before Obama Administration Approved Controversial Nuclear Deal with Moscow (The Hill)

Clintons were involved

The FBI kept it all under wraps

Before the deal was approved

The FBI had gathered substantial evidence that Russian nuclear industry officials were engaged in bribery, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering designed to grow Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the United States, according to government documents and interviews.

Federal agents used a confidential U.S. witness working inside the Russian nuclear industry to gather extensive financial records, make secret recordings and intercept emails as early as 2009 that showed Moscow had compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, FBI and court documents show.

They also obtained an eyewitness account — backed by documents — indicating Russian nuclear officials had routed millions of dollars to the U.S. designed to benefit former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation during the time Secretary of State Hillary Clinton served on a government body that provided a favorable decision to Moscow, sources told The Hill. –John Solomon and Alison Spann in The Hill

◆ Austria’s new leader: very young (31), very opposed to floods of new immigrants (x)

NYT headline: Austria Shifts Right as Refashioned Conservatives Win. Socialists finished third, slightly behind nationalist-populist “Freedom Party”

Under Mr. Kurz, the staid, traditionally conservative People’s Party was refashioned into a social-media-savvy political movement that attracted hundreds of thousands of new supporters in a campaign focused on limiting immigration and strengthening the country’s social welfare system.

Kurz will need to form a coalition government.

The most likely coalition partner appeared to be the nationalist, populist Freedom Party, which initial results showed winning 27.1 percent of the vote. The party complained during the election campaign that Mr. Kurz had stolen its playbook, seizing on issues like limits to immigration and the threat posed to Austrian identity by Islam.–New York Times

◆ North Korea warns that “nuclear war could break out at any moment” (Bloomberg)

Comment: Kim Jong Un’s desire for a deliverable nuclear arsenal is comprehensible as a defense for his regime. These kinds of threats are not comprehensible–or are badly misjudged. Presumably, they are trying to move the US off any military option. But Kim’s statements do highlight the very real danger of accident or inadvertent escalation.

◆ Trump and McConnell show unity . . . at least for now

The New York Times story is here.

Comment: It is all tactical, and it’s all about the tax reform bill, which is essential politically for Republicans on the Hill.

They will also look for other areas to notch some wins, including judicial nominees, which have moved far too slowly through the Senate, as conservatives see it. Democrats have used every delaying tactic on the nominees and Republicans have let them get away with it.

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Hat Tip to

◆ Clarice Feldman for the FBI-Russia story
ZipDialog Roundup for Friday, September 22

By Charles Lipson
Friday, September 22, 2017 3comments Barack Obama, Chicago, Chicago and Illinois, China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Donald Trump, Hyde Park, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear Proliferation, Obituaries, Progressive Activism, Race Relations, Science, Sports, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page No tags Permalink
Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ North Korea was sufficiently flummoxed by Trump’s speech that it postponed its own UN speech til Saturday

The official NK media called Trump names normally heard only at Antifa rallies: “Mentally Deranged U.S. Dotard” (New York Times).

The word itself is sufficiently odd that the Washington Post had to run an article explaining it. (Link here) Short definition: A person in his dotage.

His latest threat is an H-Bomb test over the Pacific (Wall Street Journal, subscription)

Comment: Expect fire and brimstone from the North Koreans at the UN on Saturday.

This is not going to end well.

◆ The really big news is that China’s Central Bank has told all the country’s banks to stop all dealings with North Korea. That’s a major step, one Trump himself called unexpected (Reuters)

It does not mean all banks will comply, but the penalty (from the US and perhaps China) will be severe for cheating.

North Korea will undoubtedly try to utilize other currency streams: British Pounds, Euros, Gold, Bitcoins, whatever, but I expect London and Frankfurt will follow Washington’s lead on this.

Comments:

North Korea is very canny in finding and hiding new sources of financing. The US and others will have to monitor transactions very carefully and punish violators harshly.

It is quite likely that Pres. Trump’s very strong speech to the UN and the credibility of US military threats moved China to take measures against North Korea it clearly did not wish to take and has avoided for two decades.

◆ Raging Bull Jake LaMotta dead at 95. Champion fighter in the early post-war years was subject of Scorsese movie(New York Times)

◆ Obama Presidential Library getting lots of pushback from black neighborhood (Chicago Tribune)

Now that Obama is about to build his presidential center in Woodlawn’s Jackson Park, some residents are wary of his ability to transform neighborhoods without doing harm to longtime residents who could end up displaced by gentrification.

A nasty fight over a community benefits agreement with the Obama Foundation has exposed an unexpected rift between the former president and some of the South Side residents who helped lift him to prominence. –Chicago Tribune

Comment: Part of the issue is “rent seeking.” Locals want a cut of the action, and Obama won’t sign an agreement with them.

Another part is that the whole complex, including a fancy golf course, is an upscale project on the lakefront. Pres. Obama had a chance to build it two miles away, in an area with much better transportation and a neighborhood that really needed it. He preferred the more prestigious site instead. Finally, a lot of the pushback is that activists claim his presidency “didn’t do enough for black people.”

According to the Tribune:

At a community forum Wednesday night, a discussion about the proposed agreement morphed into a shouting match over whether Obama actually loves black people. One man in the audience yelled, “No,” while others said he wasn’t necessarily “their brother.” –Chicago Tribune

◆ Paging Alex Haley

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ZipDialog Roundup for Thursday, September 21

By Charles Lipson
Thursday, September 21, 2017 0 China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Democratic Party, Disasters, Health Insurance, Healthcare, Kim Jong Un, Mexico, North Korea, Nuclear Proliferation, Obamacare and Repeal-Replace, Single Payer, South Korea, US foreign policy, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Earthquake, Hurricane, Puerto Rico Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Puerto Rico: direct hit by Cat 4 hurricane. Massive damage, whole Island without power

An overview of the impact (New York Times)

The NYT is providing live updates here.

◆ Mexico’s massive 7.1 earthquake. Death total already 245, likely to rise (Washington Post)

The saddest stories are coming from K-12 schools, where parents await the fate of children. A lot of interest is focused on one hope story of a child trapped alive.

◆ As the Democratic party shifts left and makes Bernie Sanders’ single-payer healthcare a vital issue, centrist Dems face 2018 problems (Fox News)

If Democrats in purple or red states go with single-payer, they will pay the price in the general election.

If they reject it, though, they could face a primary opponent from the left (mirroring the Tea Party attacks on centrist Republicans).

Comment: There is one piece of good news for Democrats, however. Their general election opponents are Republicans, who have a woeful record on Capitol Hill this session.

◆ Big Deal: Chinese banks reportedly cut ties to North Korea (Fox News)

This is huge since China is the conduit for all North Korea’s international trade.

The bad news is that South Korea is providing a small “humanitarian” gift to North Korea at the same time.

Comment: Good as humanitarian aid sounds, it always gives leverage to dictatorships, which use the money for themselves and their favorites.

I assume that North Korea will turn to Russia and Iran for financing, but they would face financial peril themselves if they provide it.

◆ Trump praises China’s new sanctions against North Korea and ratchets up US sanctions (CNN)

Comment: The US measures show it has not run out of “non-kinetic” options.

China’s measures show both that it is frustrated with North Korea’s reckless, autonomous actions and that it fears what the US might do.

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ZipDialog Roundup for Monday, September 11

By Charles Lipson
Monday, September 11, 2017 2comments Al Qaeda and affiliates, Batteries and Energy Storage, Chinese Economy, Crime, Criminal Gangs, Cybersecurity, Disasters, Donald Trump, Election 2016, Environment and Pollution, Hillary Clinton, Identity Politics, Islamic terrorism, Obituaries, Race Relations, Renewable, Robotics, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Equifax, Ft Lauderale Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Remembering those who died in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Those in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, the airplanes, and the selfless first responders.

As the prayer says, “May their memory be for a blessing.”

◆ Florida’s massive cleanup begins

Miami Airport closed Monday because of “significant water damage.” Fears for Florida Keys and southwest FL

Updated coverage in Miami Herald

◆ Gangs loot in Ft Lauderdale. Smash windows, grab boxes of shoes and clothes from stores (NBC Miami)

Comment: They will claim to be victims, not the perps, in 3, 2, 1 . . .

Btw, Houston and south Texas maintained law and order after their disaster. Let’s hope other cities in Florida can, too.

◆ Speaking of crime, the creator of McGruff, the Crime-Fighting Dog, dies. Jack Keil was 94. (New York Times)

Comment: He was 650 in dog years.

◆ Yawn: Hillary criticizes Donald as she rolls out her book. Upset about identity politics . . . when used by others.

That’s a shocker. She says Trump “used race to win the election” (Washington Post)

She adds that his inaugural speech was a white-nationalist cry from the gut.

Comment: Mrs. Clinton is shocked, shocked to discover identity politics is being practiced in America.

She plans to search high and low to find the political party that relies on it and on divisive ethnic- and racial-mobilization.

We wish her the best of luck.

◆ China pushing for lots more electric cars. Global manufacturers rush in, despite risks (New York Times)

Comment: The main risk is to intellectual property.

To gain access to their market, the Chinese demand outsiders give away their proprietary technology to local firms.

◆ First, robot vacuum cleaners. Now, lawnmowers.

The best ones, by Husqvarna, currently run $2,000 to $3,500. They rely on GPS and advanced electronics, mow 1.25 acres, and have anti-theft devices. (Link to story here)

Comment: As with all electronics, expect the prices to drop steadily.

Once manufactures produce really heavy-duty machines, the robots should save enormous $$$ maintaining highways and parks.

Expect autonomous snow-plows and more over the next few years.

◆ Equifax: Still neck-deep in trouble after the hack. Their site to see if you have been hacked is returning random results (Slashdot TechCrunch)

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Hat Tip to

◆ Michael Lipson for the Equifax story

◆ Ed Vidal for Ft. Lauderdale
ZipDialog Roundup for Tuesday, August 22

By Charles Lipson
Tuesday, August 22, 2017 2comments Afghanistan, Bad News in Higher Education, Barack Obama, Black Lives Matter, Campus Crazies, China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Donald Trump, Good News in Higher Ed, Higher education, Middle East, North Korea, Obama Administration, PC Language Police, Political Correctness, Race Relations, Russia, Safe Spaces, Social Justice Warriors, Trade, War, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Mizzou, University of Missouri, US Navy Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Trump speech on Afghanistan

A full analysis in a separate ZipDialog post (link here)

◆ US Navy’s deadline collision at sea leads to temporary pause of naval ops in Pacific

Senior commanders have ordered a general reevaluation of “basic blocking and tackling” for these ships’ commanders

Comment: What the hell is going on? This has been happening far too frequently. Even if these collisions are purely accidental (we don’t know that yet about the latest one), the Islamists and other enemies will be watching and learning.

I’m sure more heads will roll for this.

◆ Univ. of Missouri is paying a very heavy price for gutlessly caving to radical racial demands a couple of years ago.

Fewer students matriculating. Fewer fans coming to sporting events. Alumni furious (WSJ)

As classes begin this week, freshmen enrollment is down 35% since the protests, according to the latest numbers the university has publicly released. Mizzou is beginning the year with the smallest incoming class since 1999. Overall enrollment is down by more than 2,000 students, to 33,200. The campus has taken seven dormitories out of service.

The plummeting support has also cost jobs. In May, Mizzou announced it would lay off as many as 100 people and eliminate 300 more positions through retirement and attrition. Last year the university reduced its library staff and cut 50 cleaning and maintenance jobs.

Mizzou’s 2016 football season drew almost 13,000 fewer attendees than in 2015, local media reported. During basketball games, one-third of the seats in the Mizzou Arena sat empty. –Wall Street Journal

Comment: Punishments can be thought of as “extrinsic” (if you don’t eat your veggies, you cannot have dessert) or “intrinsic” (if you don’t eat fruits, you will get scurvy as an inevitable consequence). What’s happening at Missouri are the intrinsic consequences of parents, prospective students, and alumni looking at the University’s actions and saying, we don’t approve, and we are so turned off we won’t associate with you.

◆ More sanctions re: North Korea, this time against Chinese and Russian companies doing business with them (Washington Post)

The news is just breaking. The Treasury’s own announcement is here. It focuses on companies aiding in Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction programs, as well as buying coal from the regime, a major source of its foreign-currency earnings.

Comment: Expect to see more and more of these sanctions.

◆ Most millennial job ever? “Talent and Vibe Manager” That’s the actual job title (New York Post)

Actual description:

You need to be plugged in enough to find us the right venues, connected to the right people at the right hotels and basically able to leverage the very best of what Brooklyn and San Francisco have to offer. –Fred Bateman, in NY Post

No one could handle such heavy lifting alone, of course. There’s a 10-person vibe team.

Comment: Actually, the job is “vibe and switch.” They do some party planning, yes, but they also do lots of administrative trivia for the company.

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Hat Tip to

◆ Tom Elia for good vibrations
ZipDialog Roundup for Tuesday, August 15

By Charles Lipson
Tuesday, August 15, 2017 0 Anti-Semitism, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Humor, Iran, K-12 Education, Kim Jong Un, Nancy Pelosi, North Korea, Race Relations, US foreign policy, US-Iran multilateral nuclear agreement, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Henry Kissinger Permalink

Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ The aftershocks of Charlottesville continue

The main story is the fallout from Pres. Trump’s initial failure to single out the instigators of the fatal attack. He has since issued a full-throated condemnation of the white nationalists, but not until he incurred serious political damage.

The Washington Post makes an important point: “Turmoil in Virginia touches a nerve across the country”

◆ Kim Jong Un backs down from his threat to Guam. (Story here)

Comment: The Chinese probably told him he went too far, but we don’t know the next shoe to fall. Kim has not been seen recently, which may indicate another test is near. In any case, the main problem remains, and there is no indication yet that China intends to resolve it.

Henry Kissinger, writing an op-ed in the WSJ over the weekend, says the only solution lies in the US and China working out a joint plan to deal with North Korea. The incentive for China is that North Korea’s provocative behavior could lead to nuclear proliferation in the region, which would be very bad for China. (Op-ed in WSJ, subscription)

◆ Iran announces that it could restart its nuclear program within hours if the US pulls out of the agreement (BBC)

Comment: Another problem with pulling out: Obama front-loaded all the benefits–ace negotiators, eh?–so the Iranians have already received them.

◆ Democratic Party flailing: Four-state tour to reconnect with workers (New York Times)

The need for the Democratic Party and the labor movement to take stock of their historically close alliance became clear after November’s election when Hillary Clinton’s support among union voters declined by 7 percentage points from 2012 when former President Barack Obama was re-elected.

For months, Democrats have been grappling with how to reconnect with the union and working class vote they once considered their base, prompting former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to lament after the election that “my party did not talk about what it always stood for.” –New York Times

Comment: For the party of Nancy Pelosi, Tom Steyer, and Keith Ellison to connect with workers, they will need to hire an anthropologist.

◆ China’s economy continues to cool as Trump Administration looks into its unfair trade practices (US News and World Report)

Comment: The investigation could lead to tariffs or other punishment. As for Chinese economic performance, it is hard to assess because no serious economist trusts Beijing’s official data.

◆ Today in teaching

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ZipDialog Roundup for Monday, August 14

By Charles Lipson
Monday, August 14, 2017 0 Anti-Semitism, China, Chinese Economy, Chinese security and military, Crime, Donald Trump, Homeland Security, Identity Politics, Islamic terrorism, Kim Jong Un, North Korea, Nuclear Proliferation, Political Correctness, Race Relations, Technology, US foreign policy, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Burkino-Faso, Charlottesville, Google, Virginia Permalink
Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ Quick Update on Charlottesville, which remains the top story.

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are now facing a federal investigation for violating civil rights.

The driver of the deadly car, to be arraigned today, will be looked at closely to see if he was part of a conspiracy

Pres. Trump still being excoriated (across the political spectrum) for his failure to single out the neo-Nazis and supremacists in his statement condemning the violence

National Security Adviser McMaster calls the act “terrorism,” and Ivanka Trump condemns the supremacists in clear language, at the outset

More attention is now focusing on the failure of the police to intervene and stand between the opposing groups. They appear to have “stood down,” much like the police in Baltimore.

We need to know why

We need to have a clear set of “best practices” for police in these dangerous confrontations

Comment: It is shameful that the President did not speak out as clearly as his daughter. Yes, the left-wing and anarchist Antifada was there and did fight, but the main responsibility for violence belongs to the extreme right in this case. In other cases, when the responsibility belongs elsewhere, the President should condemn that, too, and do so in clear language.

◆ Today in Islamic terror: 18 killed in attack in West African state of Burkino-Faso, at restaurant frequented by foreigners (CNN)

◆ As part of UN sanctions, China bans North Korea iron, lead, coal imports (Washington Post)

But China also warned the US:

In an editorial, the state-owned China Daily newspaper said Trump was asking too much of China over North Korea….

Trump’s “transactional approach to foreign affairs” was unhelpful, it said, while “politicizing trade will only exacerbate the country’s economic woes, and poison the overall China-U.S. relationship.” –Washington Post

Comment: China is doing the minimum to avoid becoming the focus of international pressure, but not enough to really change North Korean policy.

◆ Ooooops! Next shoe drops in Google’s controversy over women in tech, and that shoe is polished with irony:

Google’s international competition for computer coders–“Google Code Jam”–has all-male finalists for 14th year in row (Daily Caller)

Google uses the event to identify candidates for potential employment, recruiting tech wizards from all over the world—from the Philippines and Japan, all the way over to Russia, Sweden, and across the ocean to Latin America and the United States….

Every year, tens of thousands of would-be programming masters sign up for the competition—solving programming puzzles in record time. Only the best of the best make it to the final stage…..

Based on merit alone, the Code Jam does not make any considerations to contestants’ race, gender, political affiliation, or social status. It’s a test of pure skill. –Daily Caller

Comment: One of the great achievements of the Enlightenment was the shift in how people are selected for top jobs and prizes–away from status and caste (are you an aristocrat? a member of the dominant race or religion?) and toward merit-based selection.

That achievement is now being challenged without intellectual clarity. That is, some favor affirmative action because it will “level the playing field” and so allow true merit to shine. Others think of it as a benefit that is owed to groups formerly discriminated again; that approach is inherently opposed to merit-based selection. So is retaining preferences well into a person’s career, by which time merit should have already been apparent.

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ZipDialog Roundup for Wednesday, August 2

By Charles Lipson
Wednesday, August 2, 2017 0 China, Chinese Economy, Israel, Obama Administration, Odd Crime, Palestinians, Race Relations, Trade, US foreign policy, ZipDialog Roundup of News Beyond the Front Page Ben Rhodes Permalink
Articles chosen with care. Your comments welcomed.
Linked articles in bold purple

◆ US investigating China’s unfair trade practices and theft of intellectual property (New York Times)

This is a broad effort, supported by Pres. Trump and led by the office of the US Trade Representative

Comments:

China does have unfair trade practices; their economy is suffused with them

China steals intellectual property on a massive scale–and everyone knows it

Trump made China’s discriminatory trade practices a central campaign issue, with a focus on the harm these practices do to US workers

He held off any hardline against China in the hope Xi would get tough with North Korea. He probably knew it was a long shot, but he had to try. Once it was clear Beijing would not help in a serious way on North Korea, there was no reason to withhold a reassessment of bilateral economic relations with China.

Corporate leaders will fear a trade war, understandably. They would prefer a bad-but-stable arrangement with Beijing, providing access to the Chinese market. Trump undoubtedly thinks he can get a better deal, with a focus on US jobs, and he understands how vulnerable China is. Its entire economy is based on open access to world markets without letting those market participants have equal access to China.

◆ Former Obama Aide Ben Rhodes now a person of interest in unmasking investigation (Circa)

This adds Rhodes to the growing list of top Obama government officials who may have improperly unmasked Americans in communications intercepted overseas by the NSA, Circa has confirmed.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, Rice and former CIA Director John Brennan have all been named in the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into the unmasking of Americans. A letter sent last week from Nunes to Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, suggested that top Obama aides made hundreds of unmasking requests during the 2016 presidential elections. –Sara Carter at Circa

Comment: This investigation deserves a lot more media attention–and some serious investigative reporting. If the unmasking was unnecessary, that would be a problem but merely another example of power corrupting. If, however, the unmasking had partisan political aims, that would be a much more serious issue since it would be illegally transforming our foreign intelligence operations into a political instrument for one US administration to use against domestic opponents. If that is proven, it would be a fundamental blow to our constitutional governance.

◆ DOJ to sue universities that use affirmative action to discriminate against white applicants (New York Times)

An internal announcement to the [DOJ’s] civil rights division seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.” –New York Times

Comment: The latest Supreme Court decision narrowly approved the continued use of race as one factor in admissions, but there are several other cases pending, so the weighting of the racial factor is still being litigated. Indeed, as the composition of the Court changes, the overall status of race-based admissions may change.

◆ Can this marriage be saved? Bride arrested after pulling gun from wedding dress and pointing it at the groom (New York Post)

Comment: In a shocker, police report alcohol may have been involved.

◆ Today in Irony: Palestinian Authority chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who has opposed Israel at every turn, has asked to be put on Jewish State’s list for a lung transplant–and will, of course, be put on the list. (Jerusalem Post)

Comment: Meanwhile, the PA continues to pay terrorists for killing Israelis.

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Thanks to Clarice Feldman and Eduardo Vidal for the story on Affirmative Action

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