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Light Sabers

SOTT Focus: How US-China Trade War is Spreading From Goods to Services

Dan Steinbock
Sott.net
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 14:43 UTC
china us trade war
Trump tariff wars are entering a new, far more dangerous phase. As the White House is expanding its tariff wars, collateral damage is about to spread from goods to services - much of it in the U.S.

After months of trade threats, the Trump administration announced its 25% tariff on $34 billion of Chinese imports effective in early July, while threatening levies on another $16 billion of imports. To defend its sovereign interest, China responded with 25% tariffs on $34 billion of US imports and recently imposed an additional tariff of 25% on $16 billion of US imports effective on August 23.

As Trump is escalating his tariff war, a total of $50 billion of goods on each side will be taxed as of Thursday.
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Candle

Trudy Stevenson, Zimbabwe's ambassador to Senegal dies at age 73


African News Agency
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 00:00 UTC
Trudy Stevenson
Zimbabwe's ambassador to Senegal and The Gambia, Trudy Stevenson, has been found dead in Dakar on Friday.

The 73-year-old diplomat was reportedly discovered at her residence by her chauffeur when he reported for duty.

The Zimbabwean foreign affairs and international trade ministry confirmed the death of the diplomat, but could not shed more light, saying government was yet to talk to the family.

"It is true Ms Stevenson has passed, but we are yet to get in contact with all the relatives," an official in the ministry said.

"We will announce officially once we get in touch with them."
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USA

New York Times alleges that Betsy DeVos plans to buy guns for teachers


RT
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 12:51 UTC
Betsy DeVos
© Joshua Roberts/ReutersBetsy DeVos talks to some school children
In a bid to make US schools safer, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is reportedly considering using federal funds reserved for the country's poorest schools to buy guns for teachers instead.

While it has been a long-standing federal government position to not use federal funds to arm schools or staff, DeVos's department are eyeing the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSEA) grant, an aspect of federal education law that makes no mention of prohibiting weapons purchases with the funding, according to a New York Times report this week.

In March, a bill funding school safety programs, the Stop School Violence Act, saw Congress explicitly forbid using the funds for purchasing weapons for schools.

Comment: Also see: A quick summary of President Trump's school safety plan

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Cards

Juan Cole: 'Trump joke about Israeli one-state solution reveals his ignorance'

Juan Cole
TruthDig
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 12:21 UTC
trump netanyahu
In a conversation earlier this summer with Jordan's King Abdullah II, the king told Donald Trump about the possibility of a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, which Abdullah said younger Palestinians increasingly favor. Trump is said by French and other diplomats present to have replied, "What you say makes sense. [In a one-state scenario,] the prime minister of Israel in a few years will be called Mohammed."

The remark was made in jest, but it is a bad joke and displays complete ignorance of the lengths that Israel's far-right Likud government goes to make sure no such thing happens. It is called apartheid. Trump's expectation is like suggesting that in the Jim Crow South, an African-American could have been elected governor.

Israel effectively rules over 13.3 million people.

8.3 million are Israelis proper. Of these, 75 percent, or 6.2 million, are Jews, and the other quarter, about 2.1 million, are mostly Palestinian-Israelis and predominantly Muslim, though there are Christians and Druze.

Comment: The author's last paragraph is the most interesting: of course a one-state solution delivers Palestinians to Israelis on a totalitarian platter... TODAY.

But just as that 'Jim Crow South' later delivered the US its first black president, so the long-term is the only horizon in which Palestinians stand a chance of transforming their situation.

It's brutal, and it's easy for us to say from a safe distance, but there it is. As long as the Adelsons rule, your only way out is to change facts on the ground, under their noses.

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Card - MC

Why China's payment apps give US bankers nightmares

Jennifer Surane & Christopher Cannon
Bloomberg
Wed, 23 May 2018 11:39 UTC
china qr codes payments
Wandering the streets of Shanghai to admire the architecture, the head of one of the largest U.S. consumer banks recently found himself surrounded by a gaggle of teenagers.

Entranced by their phones, they hardly made way for the banker. The teens were messaging, shopping and sending money back and forth, all without cash. Instead, they were using Alipay and WeChat.

The scary thing for the American: Banks never got a cut.

The future of consumer payments may not be designed in New York or London but in China. There, money flows mainly through a pair of digital ecosystems that blend social media, commerce and banking - all run by two of the world's most valuable companies. That contrasts with the U.S., where numerous firms feast on fees from handling and processing payments. Western bankers and credit-card executives who travel to China keep returning with the same anxiety: Payments can happen cheaply and easily without them.

Comment: When Visa's CEO is wishing for an "even playing field," you know the financiers' fears that the positions they have held at the apex to date are under threat.

Substituting one oligarchy (financial) for another (technological) doesn't of course change the fundamental fact that there is a hierarchy, but if the new one is 'better for the market' in terms of efficiency and reducing leaks into the 'parasitic economy', maybe it heralds progress of a sort.

Again it's interesting to note that China, by forging ahead on its own course of modernization, is compelling 'the developed world' to ape it. It may not be long before Sinofication is now competing with Westernization.

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Card - VISA

Best of the Web: How China's Mobile Ecosystems Are Making Banks Obsolete

Ellen Brown
TruthDig
Wed, 22 Aug 2018 10:28 UTC
alipay advert
© Ged Carroll / FlickrAlibaba's proprietary payment platform, Alipay, has shown up in advertisements overseas, such as this one in London's Tottenham Court subway station
The U.S. credit card system siphons off excessive amounts of money from merchants. In a typical $100 credit card purchase, only $97.25 goes to the seller. The rest goes to banks and processors. But who can compete with Visa and MasterCard?

It seems China's new mobile payment ecosystems can. According to a May 2018 article in Bloomberg titled Why China's Payment Apps Give U.S. Bankers Nightmares:
The future of consumer payments may not be designed in New York or London but in China. There, money flows mainly through a pair of digital ecosystems that blend social media, commerce and banking-all run by two of the world's most valuable companies. That contrasts with the U.S., where numerous firms feast on fees from handling and processing payments. Western bankers and credit-card executives who travel to China keep returning with the same anxiety: Payments can happen cheaply and easily without them.
The nightmare for the U.S. financial industry is that a major technology company - whether one from China or a U.S. giant such as Amazon or Facebook - might replicate the success of the Chinese mobile payment systems, cutting banks out.

Comment: An interesting trend, that's for sure.

It's the One World digitized credits system 'conspiracy theorists' warned about decades ago.

The trade-off seems to be: the popular dream of cutting out banksters as middlemen is realized... in exchange for super-sized conglomerates that are part-monopolies, part-governments-unto-themselves.

The incredible thing about it is that China, which has yet to complete its transition to a modern economy, is 'forcing' this development in the West by the act of forging ahead with it.

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Attention

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will appear before House committee to testify over 'shadow banning' & bias claims


RT
Fri, 24 Aug 2018 22:35 UTC
Jack Dorsey
© Teresa Kroeger / AFP
Twitter's chief executive Jack Dorsey will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 5 to testify about the company's algorithms that have repeatedly raised suspicions of judgment bias and stealth censorship.

The panel plans to grill Dorsey about "the complex processes behind the company's algorithms and content judgment calls," and expects him to be "forthright and transparent" in his testimony, chairman Greg Walden said in a statement.

Citing the social media giant's "incredibly powerful" ability to "change the national conversation," the committee's Republican head stated that Americans have a full right to raise concerns when "decisions about data and content are made using opaque processes."


On the same day, Dorsey, along with Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, are scheduled to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee, to be once again questioned about alleged interference in the US elections, after their previous briefings failed to expose any significant 'Russian meddling' and were thus deemed "inadequate."

Comment: See also:

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Arrow Down

Ready to sink: Reactivated US 2nd fleet returns to North Atlantic 'ready to fight'... guess who?


RT
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 10:35 UTC
US 2nd Fleet
© Aaron B. Hicks/US Navy/Handout via / Reuters
Just seven years after shutting down operations, the US 2nd Fleet has been officially reactivated, with its admiral seeking to turn it into a menacing force "ready to fight" any "bad actor" it may sail into in the North Atlantic.

Fearing that "some bad actors" on the world stage "threaten the very birthright freedoms that we hold sacred" and are looking to "undermine and rewrite" the US-established world order, Vice Adm. Andrew Lewis, promised to "build a fleet that is ready to fight" along a stretch that extends from the East Coast of the US all the way to the Barents Sea, just off the coast of Norway and Russia, near the Arctic Circle.

"We are going to aggressively and quickly rebuild this command into an operational warfighting organization," Lewis announced, as he took charge of the Second Fleet at the establishment ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
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Megaphone

SOTT Focus: Bolton Calls on Al-Qaeda to Stage More Chemical Attacks in Syria

Eva Bartlett
RT
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 09:25 UTC
National Security Advisor John Bolton
© Global Look PressNational Security Advisor John Bolton
In a move that was entirely predictable, the US administration is once again threatening to bomb Syria if there is a "chemical weapons attack".

This was entirely predictable because that chemical attack script has been read out, with salty crocodile tears, fake concern, and mocked indignation by US talking heads over the years - since 2012, in fact, when former US President Obama himself drew his red line on Syria.

The latest script-reader to toe the chemical hoax line is President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, who on August 22, stated: "...if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time."

Beyond the tattered veil of moral superiority that is US war propaganda, Bolton's words were clearly a very public command to Al-Qaeda and co-extremists to stage yet another fake chemical attack.

Comment: 'Russiagate', 'Syrian regime using chemical weapons'... schemes that exist only in the Western reality-creators' sick minds.

These cowboys, politicians, businessmen, war hawks - who would prolong the war in Syria when peace is within reach and the country is beginning to rebuild and heal - should all be tried for crimes against humanity.

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Gear

Best of the Web: Russian MoD: Terrorists readying chemical attack to frame Damascus & provide pretext for US airstrikes


RT
Sat, 25 Aug 2018 09:10 UTC
A US Air Force B-1B Lancer
© AFPA US Air Force B-1B Lancer
Terrorists are preparing a chemical weapons attack to frame Damascus and provoke an international reaction, the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that it would be used as a pretext for the US and its allies to strike Syria.

The attack would be used as a pretext for US, UK and French airstrikes on Syrian targets, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov said. USS 'The Sullivans,' an Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer, was already deployed to the Persian Gulf a couple of days ago, he added.


Comment: The Russian Defense Ministry has accused the United States, the United Kingdom and France of preparing to carry out new strikes against Syria under the pretext of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government forces.
"The Western countries' actions in spite of their public statements are aimed at another sharp deterioration of the situation in the Middle East region and the disruption of the peace process on the territory of Syria," ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov noted.



The destroyer has 56 cruise missiles on board, according to data from the Russian Defence Ministry. A US Rockwell B-1 Lancer, a supersonic bomber equipped with 24 cruise missiles, has also been deployed at the Qatari Al Udeid Airbase.

Comment: See also: White Helmets coordinating with al-Nusra to stage chemical attack in Idlib, aiming to accuse Syrian army

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