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    How Trump's trade war could be his own undoing

    Dana Kennedy, DCReport @ RawStory
    August 28, 2019

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    Trump said he was ready for a "historic" deal with China as the leaders kicked off their meeting and Xi told him "dialogue" was better than confrontation AFP / Brendan Smialowski

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Dana Kennedy, DCReport @ RawStory

    How to explain the last hours of the G7 summit in Biarritz, France? Let’s just say it was like being trapped in that infamous episode of “Friends” where Ross keeps screaming “PIVOT!” to his increasingly vexed pals as they try to haul a heavy sofa up a twisty flight of stairs.


    Much was made of the collective “whiplash” the other leaders endured given Trump’s patented unpredictability at his third G7 summit. Even when France’s President Emmanuel Macron attempted some French farce-like antics of his own–like unexpectedly whisking in Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif almost on the sly for a few hours–he was overshadowed by all things Trump. Especially when it came to the trade war with China.

    Was China’s President Xi Jianping the “enemy” and should American companies get the hell out of China? Absolutely, according to President Trump just before the summit.

    The Chinese don’t have to surrender; they’re in this for the long haul, even if Trump’s tariffs hurt their economy.

    But just 72 hours later, Xi was a “great leader,” a “brilliant man” and U.S. firms should stay put and “do a great job.”  Trump claimed China called at the end of the summit and wanted to get back to the table.

    That was unlikely according to experts who said China would have been shocked at Trump’s vitriolic tweets last week.

    “This is incredible language. The word ‘enemy’ really takes it to a new level,” Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told the Washington Post. “The Chinese will be quite startled by the fact that the president could even raise the fact that China could be an enemy.”

    China begged to differ, saying they had made no such call to Trump at the end of the G7 summit.

    Who do you believe?

    “China did not and will not surrender,” the Xinhua state-run press agency said Tuesday. “Playing the old tricks of bullying and maximum pressure, the U.S. administration has escalated the trade tensions repeatedly and tried to coerce China into accepting its irrational demands.”

    Therein lies the rub. What China said was key to what was missing from the many sober analyses of the diplomatic layup that is the G7. The Chinese don’t have to surrender; they’re in this for the long haul even if Trump’s tariffs hurt their economy. Trump only has another year and change unless he is re-elected.

    Trump plans to impose new tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods into the U.S. starting Sept. 1. Beijing has struck back and plans to hit $75 billion worth of U.S. goods with new duties and tariff increases next month.

    Everything Is Long Game

    “What people seem to forget is that everything is the long game to them,” said a Beijing-based friend in the doctoral program at Columbia University. “Xi doesn’t have to worry about re-election. And the Communist Party isn’t going anywhere. China is not invulnerable to Trump’s tariffs but they are also okay with letting their people suffer for a couple of years if it means waiting Trump out. Who else in the world has this big an economy and this big an advantage?”

    CNN, like many other outlets, correctly intoned that “it’s not clear if Trump accomplished anything at G7” – meaning that Trump remains a stubborn party of one when it comes to abandoning the nuclear deal with Iran and the Paris climate change agreement, bringing back Vladimir Putin to the summit and amping up trade wars with China and Europe.

    'Second Thoughts'

    But what was not emphasized was Trump’s relative restraint at this year’s G7. Waffling, gaslighting, contradicting what he said seemingly moments before, are classic Trump moves. But walking back remarks, as he did when he admitted he had “second thoughts” about some of his actions, particularly when it came to China, was something new.

    Last year, Trump stormed out of the G7, slamming Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being “dishonest and weak” after a clash over the U.S. slapping tariffs on metal imports from Canada, Mexico and the European Union.

    This year he could be said to be positively subdued – for him. Why? Because some economic analysts say, he knows that the U.S. companies—from IBM to General Motors—will postpone capital expenditures if they think the trade wars with China will continue—or escalate. That could virtually assure the already predicted fall recession.

    “The trade war, all the political uncertainty -- it’s like you’ve got a twig and you’re bending it and it’s just bending, bending, bending,” Lori Calvasina, head of U.S. equity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, told Bloomberg. “We all know what happens if we bend the stick too long. Eventually, it just snaps and it just goes.”

    “Everyone thought Russian collusion would bring down Trump,” said the Columbia student. “What if it turns out to be China playing hardball with Trump in the trade war instead?”

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

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    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.


    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    Survey: Will Melania leave Trump now that he's out of office ?

    Mark Meadows lands a new job -- and will start looking for the next Josh Hawley or Ted Cruz

    Travis Gettys
    January 27, 2021

    Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows won't have to end up working for the Trump Organization, after all.

    The former Republican lawmaker is joining the Conservative Partnership Institute, a "networking hub" for conservatives run by former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, according to sources who spoke to Axios.

    Meadows has been advising Trump on his upcoming impeachment trial, but will serve behind the scenes in his new role to cultivate new firebrand lawmakers like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Jim Jordan.

    DeMint started the CPT to help conservatives become more effective legislators once they were elected, and Meadows will start immediately to build grassroots support to oppose President Joe Biden's nominees in policies in his first 100 days in office.

    Tucker Carlson completely loses it over the idea that the FBI should target white nationalist terrorists

    Cody Fenwick, AlterNet
    January 27, 2021

    Fox News' Tucker Carlson unleashed a furious screed on Tuesday night in response to California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff's argument that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security focus their efforts on white nationalist terrorism.

    "Listen to America's new grand inquisitor," Carlson said on air, introducing a clip of Schiff speaking.

    In the clip, Schiff, who is Jewish, explained to CNN that the concern is not new.

    "We have been urging for some time that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security raise the priority to domestic terrorism, to white nationalism, as it threatens the country," he said. "And we're going to continue sounding the alarm, and make sure that they're devoting the time, the resources, the attention. Just as we did after 9/11 to the threat of international terrorism, we need to give the same priority and urgency to domestic terrorism."

    They weren't surprising remarks, coming just weeks after the U.S. Capitol was stormed by a violent and deadly mob, filled with racists and white supremacists, trying to overthrow the constitutional order. As the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, it's Schiff's job to oversee the conduct of the agencies in question.

    But for Carlson, the remarks were completely outrageous. To convey that message to his audience, he had to completely distort what Schiff said. The way Carlson chose to misinterpret the remarks was quite telling.

    "Got that?" Carlson said after playing the Schiff clip. "Vote the wrong way, and you are a jihadi. You thought you were an American citizen with rights and just a different view. But no, you're a jihadi. And we're going to treat you like we treated those radicals after 9/11. Like we treated bin Laden. Get in line, pal. This is a war on terror. Keep in mind, as you listen to people talk like this — and Adam Schiff is far from the only one — they're talking about American citizens here. They're talking about you. But nobody seems to notice or care."

    It was a remarkable reaction. In the clip — the clip Carlson specifically chose because he thought it best illustrated his point — Schiff was explicitly talking about white nationalist domestic terrorists. This is indisputably a crime, not First Amendment-protected activity, and it's a threat that the Trump-appointed FBI Director Christopher Wray recently warned about as an increasing peril.

    "Within the domestic terrorism bucket, the category as a whole, racially motivated violent extremism is, I think, the biggest bucket within that larger group. And within the racially motivated violent extremist bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that," Wray said last September. "Lately we've been having about 1,000 domestic terrorism cases each year. It is higher this year."

    The attack on the Capitol only highlighted this danger. It's fair to worry that the new administration might overreact to this threat and that civil liberties might be at risk, as they were after 9/11. Those are concerns worth taking seriously.

    But that's not what Carlson said. Instead, he told his audience that Schiff is arguing that people should be treated like terrorists if they "vote the wrong way." In fact, he even said that "you" will be treated like Osama bin Laden — that is, hunted down and killed — because of who "you" vote for. That's not within the same ballpark of what Schiff or anyone else has said. This a QAnon-level conspiracy theory that Carlson is spouting on primetime cable news.

    Carlson also showed his own prejudice and bigotry, directly implying that "jihadis" couldn't be American citizens with all the rights that entitles them to. That's false, of course — some terrorists who commit jihadist-inspired acts of terrorism are Americans. Even foreign jihadi terrorists have many rights that ought to be recognized. But it's been people like Carlson and his allies who have consistently argued against the rights of terrorists when they happen to be Muslim. Despite his posturing now against the war on terror, he previously supported it. In fact, Carlson one called Iraqis "semiliterate primitive monkeys" who should "just shut the fuck up and obey."

    So it shouldn't be much of a surprise that while overreacting to the idea that white nationalist terrorism should be targeted by law enforcement, Carlson also made clear that he thinks terrorists who are Muslim should not have any rights. He's being perfectly clear about who he stands with and who he stands against.

    Napoleon's account of legendary Battle of Austerlitz goes on sale

    Agence France-Presse
    January 27, 2021

    Napoleon Bonaparte's account of his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz, dictated during his exile on the island of Saint Helena, went on sale Wednesday in Paris for one million euros ($1.2 million).

    The account of the 1805 "three-emperors clash" with Russo-Austrian forces, which is considered Napoleon's greatest military victory, takes readers through preparations for battle, the fighting itself and is completed by a battle plan drawn by his loyal aide-de-camp General Henri-Gatien on tracing paper.

    The densely packed 74-page manuscript, dictated to Bertrand, contains several corrections by the exiled emperor, who crossed out words and added remarks in the margins in tiny writing.

    Napoleon does not refer to himself in the first person, instead prefacing his remarks with "the emperor says".

    The sale comes at the start of a year marking the bicentenary of Napoleon's death.

    Gallery owner Jean-Emmanuel Raux, a collector of French imperial memorabilia, found the manuscript in a trove of documents belonging to Bertrand's heirs.

    "It's the most fabulous document about French history that you could find in a private collection," he told AFP.

    His daughter Alizee, who studied the manuscript in detail, said it was an "embellished account of the battle".

    Within around nine hours on December 2, 1805, some 75,000 soldiers of Napoleon's "Grande Armee" outmanoeuvred a larger Russian-Austrian force at Austerlitz, in what was then the Austrian empire.

    It helped to end the coalition between Francois I of Austria and Tsar Alexander I of Russia that had been financed by Britain -- and is a battle studied in French military schools to this day.

    Napoleon details all the tactics he deployed to dupe his opponents into believing that French forces were weak -- including earlier retreats and negotiations that disguised the fact he had already chosen the site of the battle.

    His exalted account trumpets the heroism of the French, from trooper to officer, and claims even wounded soldiers hailed the emperor.

    "I will lose a good number of brave men," he said on the eve of the battle. "I feel bad that they really feel like my children, and, in truth, I reproach myself sometimes over this sentiment since I fear that it will leave me unqualified for war."

    The manuscript will be exhibited until the end of the month at the Paris gallery Arts et Autographes, as well as online for potential foreign buyers.

    The sale is part of the "BRAFA in the Galleries" art fair taking place in 126 galleries in 13 countries from January 27 to 31.

    Collectors can arrange to view the manuscript in person or over the internet.

    © 2021 AFP

     
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