Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Donald Trump Jr. Makes Last Minute Deal With Senate Committee
Donald Trump Jr. has reached an agreement with the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee for the panel’s senators to interview him in mid-June, a congressional source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The closed-door appearance could cover a broad array of topics, the source said. These could include what Trump Jr. knows about a Trump Tower project in Moscow and about a June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Trump Jr., Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and a Russian lawyer, the source said.
The agreement for Trump Jr.’s appearance was first reported by the New York Times.
NEWS - A deal was struck between the senate committee subpoeaning @DonaldJTrumpJr for limited appearance, between 2-4 hours, in mid-June, after an intense campaign by his allies against Burr and McConnell. story via @npfandos and me coming soon.
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The source disputed news reports suggesting the questioning would be limited to five or six topics pertaining to Trump Jr.’s communications with Russian officials.
A committee spokesperson declined to comment. A lawyer for Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The panel had subpoenaed Trump Jr. to appear before the committee, two congressional sources said last week.
Senators want to question him about testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2017 which was subsequently contradicted by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer who started his prison sentence this month in part for...
Exposing The Cannes to Hollywood sex trafficking pipeline
WTF MSM!? is a newsletter that puts a dose of sunlight on the mainstream media and exposes how the media twist facts, selectively report, and outright lie to advance their left-wing agenda. You can signup for the WTF MSM!?
Even after Weinstein … Next week the yearly Cannes Film Festival begins on the French Riviera. It's one of Hollywood's most important industry events, where films are screened, deals are cut, and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, human trafficking victims are identified and lured into a trap using the promise of film roles as bait. Even after Harvey Weinstein was outed, THR says, this is happening.
Here's how THR reports what happens:
Another form of sex trafficking that is bubbling under the radar on the Riviera but obvious to most producers in the know is one in which non-U.S. citizens meet film industry connectors on the Cannes yacht circuit. The go-betweens help the would-be actresses, often still in their teens and hailing from countries ranging from Britain to former Soviet bloc states, gain legal entry into the U.S. and land a small or nonspeaking role in an American movie. The unspoken quid pro quo is that once in the U.S., they are lent out — sexually — to other powerful industry men. With the threat of her H-1 visa being revoked, the actress effectively can't say no or go to the police …Remember it's these degenerate Hollywood types, who prey on...
… In fact, the producer says it should raise a red flag any time you see a foreign-born actress with no credits suddenly make her way into a U.S.-shot movie. "No one would legitimately pay for the H-1 visa for that kind of role. No way. It costs four or five thousand bucks," he says. "As a producer, there's no chance that there's this one-liner that should be a local hire [and] that we're going to go with a first-timer from Ukraine and get a work visa for her."
The 90 Miles Mystery Box: Episode #622
You have come across a mystery box. But what is inside?
It could be literally anything from the serene to the horrific,
from the beautiful to the repugnant,
from the mysterious to the familiar.
If you decide to open it, you could be disappointed,
you could be inspired, you could be appalled.
This is not for the faint of heart or the easily offended.
You have been warned.
Tuesday, May 14, 2019
Why free traders and all Americans should back Trump on China policy
I’m a free trader and I hate tariffs — which are consumer taxes — but if ever there were a right time to impose punitive tariffs, it is now, and it is against China. President Trump is on the side of the angels on this one, and this is the right moment to shut down China’s abusive trade practices forever.
Start with the basic facts: The average tariff that we imposed on China when Trump entered the White House was about 4 percent. China’s tariffs on us were about 10 percent and, even when including the 10 percent tariff that Trump first imposed on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports in 2018, our tariffs were still lower than theirs. So the playing field is not level and is especially tilted against us, given that Beijing’s nontariff barriers in China can make it prohibitively expensive to do business there. We have an open market competing against the world’s second-largest economy whose doors are slammed shut.
Doctrinaire free traders should understand that this status quo is economically and politically untenable going forward. Trade can’t be a one-way street, and something has to give here. That means immediate reforms in China’s mercantilist economic behavior — on tariffs, on other trade barriers, on theft of intellectual property and on cyber espionage against America. We aren’t dealing with a friendly power here but with an increasingly hostile one that has become an existential threat.
Trump’s strategy is to hit their vulnerable economy hard with tariffs and strong arm Beijing into giving American companies and products greater access to Chinese markets. There is not one demand that Trump is making of China’s President Xi that is unreasonable. The free traders should recognize that If the Trump tariffs work — and this is a dangerous game, admittedly — we will have freer trade at the end of the day.
Sure, the risk here is a ramped-up trade war that makes everyone poorer. This is a gamble worth taking. Trump is leveraging America’s strategic advantage over China today. China is an export-based economy that has been nurtured on near-unfettered access to America’s multitrillion dollar consumer market. By failing to negotiate in good faith, they are putting at risk more than a half-trillion dollars of annual sales and a crash in its economy and stock market.
Even the widespread complaint that the cost of these tariffs will be borne by American consumers may be exaggerated. The last round of tariffs at 10 percent had minimal impact on import prices — suggesting that Chinese companies absorbed the tariffs out of their profits rather than raising prices on goods sold at Walmart. The Chinese swallowed much of the cost themselves.
Trump’s timing for this confrontation could hardly be shrewder. The American economy is riding high, as has the stock market, so we are in good shape to ride this out. Meanwhile, Beijing miscalculated, big time, in thumbing its nose at Trump’s demands. They underestimated Trump’s resolve on this issue. I know Trump: He will not back down on this, and China has only dug itself a deeper hole to climb out of.
China also miscalculated the resolve of Americans and our increased antipathy toward China. I have observed a refreshing rally-around-the-flag on this one. Sen. Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) pro-Trump tweet on China (!) is indicative of the frustration Americans feel about China’s misbehavior, economically and militarily. Several other Democrats, including Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), also are supportive of the tariffs. We have a rare bipartisan consensus that America has to stand up to China.
What free traders should be doing — if they want to be constructive — is to help Trump pass the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, which would further isolate China and advance international trade. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) should do her patriotic duty and bring the North America free trade deal into the 21st century. At least she should allow an...
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