Friday, July 12, 2019

Trumpist Tab-Clearing

Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said Friday he is resigning following renewed scrutiny of his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Esptein , who is accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.

President Donald Trump, with Acosta at his side, made the announcement as he left the White House for a trip to Wisconsin and Ohio. The president said Acosta had been a “great” labor secretary.

“I hate to see this happen,” Trump said. He said he did not ask Acosta to leave the Cabinet.
Trump may be telling the truth to some extent. He hates the idea that those who have protected the rich and powerful from paying the full price for their peccadilloes are being held to account for their toadyism.
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President Donald Trump is arguing he didn’t retreat when he abandoned his effort to insert a citizenship question into next year’s census and insists his fallback will prove a more accurate option.

“Not only didn’t I back down, I backed up because anybody else would have given this up a long time ago,” Trump told reporters Friday, one day after directing federal agencies to try to compile the citizenship information using existing databases.
Right, and a retreat is "attacking in a backwards direction"? Trump picked this fight on tinkering with the census and he lost. Only his most-loyal base is going to accept Trump's line of whimpering bullshit.
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A Koch Industries executive was told he could not leave China. An ex-diplomat who helped organize a technology forum in Beijing was hassled by authorities who wanted to question him. An industry group developed contingency plans, in case its offices were raided and computer servers were seized.

Business executives, Washington officials and other frequent visitors to China who were interviewed by The New York Times expressed increasing alarm about the Chinese authorities’ harassment of Americans by holding them for questioning and preventing them from leaving the country.
...
“In a very not-so-subtle manner, the Chinese government has upped the ante by detaining Americans at the borders and at their hotels, and with the obvious intent to send a message to the Trump administration that they can engage in hostage diplomacy if push comes to shove,” said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of the law firm Perkins Coie, which works with American companies in China.
Apparently the Chinese are not convinced that trade wars are easy to win. They intend to make it difficult.

6 comments:

  1. He's a narcissist and can't ever admit that he lost anything.
    That makes him a bad politician, because no politician wins everything all the time, and dealing with losses is a skill required to do the job.

    -Doug in Oakland

    ReplyDelete
  2. Canada has a Hauwei executive under house arrest because of an extradition request from the US .
    When she was detained the Chinese threw two Canadian business men in jail . They have also stopped shipments of canola and have threatened to stop pork shipment but I doubt that will happen as their pork industry has health issues and they need the product .

    At the economic summit the Chinese were snubbing Trudeau but he managed to get a couple minutes with the Chinese leader and there appeared to be a thaw in the situation .

    My guess is that Trudeau pointed out that we were following treaty obligations with the US and that the quickest way to end the situation is to have the US withdraw the extradition request .

    Maybe it's your turn to take some heat .

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was a bit disappointed that Canada didn’t allow her to surrender her Passport and bail out, followed by quickly leaving Canada via a private flight, and a whoops, our bad...that was my thought.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nobody is upset with the PRC for practicing hostage diplomacy?

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's what dictatorial regimes do. Trump's probably asking how he can do the same.

    ReplyDelete
  6. CP88,
    I would have been highly disappointed in my govt if they had done that . She was treated like everyone else as she should have been .

    ReplyDelete

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