This company is laying off almost all its workers because of tariffs
Element Electronics, which assembles televisions, notified the state of the expected job cuts earlier this week.
The company also plans to close its plant in the town of Winnsboro.
The company said the layoffs and plant closure were a direct result of US tariffs on goods imported from China, including important parts that Element uses to put together TVs.
The layoffs will begin in October. By the end of the year, a skeleton crew of eight people will be left, the company said.
Element said on Twitter that it is working to have the parts removed from the tariff list, and hopes it can avoid closing the plant. In its notice, it also said it could reopen in three to six months.
China to put 25% tariffs on $16 billion worth of US products
The Chinese government said in a statement Wednesday that the taxes would be imposed on August 23.
The US products in line for tariffs include chemical items and diesel fuel.
The world's top two economies have repeatedly sparred over trade in recent months, in what experts warn may become a devastating cycle of retaliation.
Related: The US-China trade war is about to get real
On Tuesday, the Trump administration unveiled its own list of roughly $16 billion worth of imports from China that will be hit with 25% tariffs.
The latest US tariffs on 279 products, including motorcycles, speedometers and antennas, will also take effect August 23.
. . . .
In July, the administration imposed 25% tariffs on $34 billion in Chinese imports. Beijing, accusing the United States of trade bullying, has retaliated by imposing tariffs on an equal measure of American goods.
The United States and China trade goods and services worth about $650 billion each year, the largest trading relationship in the world between two countries.
But China exports far more to the United States than the other way round, making it more challenging for the country to hit back against US tariffs.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
A pardon would be sheer cronyism and an impeachable abuse of power
From reporting on MSNBC this morning, they have so got this guy, him and his wife, son, daughter in law, and her parents are all so cooked.
He was Bozo's first and biggest supporter in the House when everybody else was still saying No to the Duce.
Chris Collins indicted on insider trading charges
Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday charged New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, his son and another man with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and false statements stemming from an alleged insider trading scheme centered on an Australian pharmaceutical company.
Collins, who was the first sitting member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump's presidential bid, surrendered Wednesday morning at his attorney's office in Manhattan, according to the FBI.
Prosecutors at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alleged in an indictment that Collins and the other defendants used nonpublic information about the results of a drug trial to trade on the stock of the pharmaceutical company, Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited, of which Collins was a board member.
That allowed them, prosecutors allege, to avoid more than $768,000 in losses they would have incurred if they had traded the stock after the drug trial results became public.
Collins "placed his family and friends above the public good," said US Attorney Geoffrey Berman at a news conference Wednesday in New York City.
Berman also stated Collins "cheated our markets and our justice system."
. . . .
The House Ethics Committee last October disclosed that it was investigating Collins for potentially violating federal law and House rules regarding insider trading.
The outside, non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics began a review of Collins' activity in March 2017 and voted to send its findings to the House ethics panel that July, which can formally launch investigations and recommend any sanctions against any lawmaker it determines has broken any rules.
The ethics committee announced in the release of the report that it would start a review of Collins.
The report details how Collins met with officials at the National Institutes of Health to discuss the development of a drug made by Innate, a company whose board he served on.
"There is a substantial reason to believe that Representative Collins shared material nonpublic information in the purchase of Innate stock, in violation of House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law," according to the report by the non-partisan ethics office, released by the Ethics Committee last fall.
The House Ethics Committee declined to comment on the indictment Wednesday.
He was Bozo's first and biggest supporter in the House when everybody else was still saying No to the Duce.
Chris Collins indicted on insider trading charges
Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday charged New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, his son and another man with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and false statements stemming from an alleged insider trading scheme centered on an Australian pharmaceutical company.
Collins, who was the first sitting member of Congress to endorse Donald Trump's presidential bid, surrendered Wednesday morning at his attorney's office in Manhattan, according to the FBI.
Prosecutors at the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York alleged in an indictment that Collins and the other defendants used nonpublic information about the results of a drug trial to trade on the stock of the pharmaceutical company, Innate Immunotherapeutics Limited, of which Collins was a board member.
That allowed them, prosecutors allege, to avoid more than $768,000 in losses they would have incurred if they had traded the stock after the drug trial results became public.
Collins "placed his family and friends above the public good," said US Attorney Geoffrey Berman at a news conference Wednesday in New York City.
Berman also stated Collins "cheated our markets and our justice system."
. . . .
The House Ethics Committee last October disclosed that it was investigating Collins for potentially violating federal law and House rules regarding insider trading.
The outside, non-partisan Office of Congressional Ethics began a review of Collins' activity in March 2017 and voted to send its findings to the House ethics panel that July, which can formally launch investigations and recommend any sanctions against any lawmaker it determines has broken any rules.
The ethics committee announced in the release of the report that it would start a review of Collins.
The report details how Collins met with officials at the National Institutes of Health to discuss the development of a drug made by Innate, a company whose board he served on.
"There is a substantial reason to believe that Representative Collins shared material nonpublic information in the purchase of Innate stock, in violation of House rules, standards of conduct, and federal law," according to the report by the non-partisan ethics office, released by the Ethics Committee last fall.
The House Ethics Committee declined to comment on the indictment Wednesday.
Cops and robbers
I have watched dozens of foreign procedurals on Netflix and Amazon in the past few years, Swedish, Danish, Russian, Finnish, French, Spanish, and many others, and never have the cops lied under oath or planted evidence or beat information or a confession out of anyone.
They work within the law to find and convict violators of the law.
But in American cop shows the police lie, torture, plant evidence, take bribes, commit murders, and otherwise almost always behave disgracefully and shamefully.
Why is that?
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
No live coverage for White House press briefings
WAPO conservative columnist and despiser of Bozo, Jennifer Rubin, calls for Sarah Huckabee Sanders to be shunned, not harassed.
Sanders should be shunned after White House job
“Sarah Huckabee Sanders is so concerned that people aren’t nice to her,” Rubin told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on "AM Joy."
“And people like me think that — not that she should be harassed — but that she should be shunned. The reason is that she lies.”
“She attacks our free press and no respectable employer should hire her after this term,” Rubin continued.
“Also, no university and no news outlet. She has lied and she has endangered the lives of reporters and that’s why she should be shunned. Not harassed — shunned.”
. . . .
“We don’t have to put it [the press briefing] on television, we don’t have to put it on television live,” Rubin suggested on Sunday.
“If by some chance she utters some morsel of accurate information it could be fact-checked and related to the audience. The same thing with the rallies — no reason to put them on live television.”
Rubin frequently criticizes the GOP and Trump in her “Right Turn” blog for the Post, previously calling Trump an "arrogant fool" and a "flat-out racist."
Earlier this week, the columnist declared in a scathing editorial that the GOP “isn’t fit to govern.”
Sanders should be shunned after White House job
“Sarah Huckabee Sanders is so concerned that people aren’t nice to her,” Rubin told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on "AM Joy."
“And people like me think that — not that she should be harassed — but that she should be shunned. The reason is that she lies.”
“She attacks our free press and no respectable employer should hire her after this term,” Rubin continued.
“Also, no university and no news outlet. She has lied and she has endangered the lives of reporters and that’s why she should be shunned. Not harassed — shunned.”
. . . .
“We don’t have to put it [the press briefing] on television, we don’t have to put it on television live,” Rubin suggested on Sunday.
“If by some chance she utters some morsel of accurate information it could be fact-checked and related to the audience. The same thing with the rallies — no reason to put them on live television.”
Rubin frequently criticizes the GOP and Trump in her “Right Turn” blog for the Post, previously calling Trump an "arrogant fool" and a "flat-out racist."
Earlier this week, the columnist declared in a scathing editorial that the GOP “isn’t fit to govern.”
Nobody does it better
Saw MI6, yesterday.
Absolutely the best chase scenes, fight scenes, scenic settings, beautiful photography, and amusing dialogue, with heroes and villains as stark as comic books.
Or real life, for that matter.
Absolutely the best chase scenes, fight scenes, scenic settings, beautiful photography, and amusing dialogue, with heroes and villains as stark as comic books.
Or real life, for that matter.
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Fool me once
Start with Francis Gary Powers, and think of all the times the government was proved to be lying to cover up, sometimes, horrific violations of the human rights of our own citizens.
And ask why, today, tens of millions believe Trump and his crazies rather than representatives of the government, the "deep state".
Those fucking assholes earned this utter distrust, all on their own.
Chickens.
Roost.
Friday, August 3, 2018
Is the brain the I in I think?
An aggregate cannot be the ego or account for the unity of apperception.
The ego must be a substantial continuant.
But must it be immaterial?
What if the cogito, and much else besides, belongs to the brain, not as aggregate, but as a thinking thing, a substantive ego?
All the functions of the platonic, augustinian, cartesian soul and more, ascribed to the brain, the organ of thought, and other functions, too.
This is not a materialism or physicalism.
But it is not a spiritualism, either.
Update, 8/5.
Nor is it Thomism.
There is no suggestion here of a separable intellectual part of the soul.
The cogito is ascribed to the composite.
And mortality is as built in as it is with materialism.
Update, 8/7.
And yet, l don't believe this for a second.
The brain is no more a substance than the entire living human body.
The brain and body are mere aggregates.
And the thinking think, the Ego, is a substance.
Back to Descartes, Augustine, and Aquinas.
Thursday, August 2, 2018
People who belong in prison.
Just got a call from 973 645 3730, showing the name "US Courts".
Figured it was a scam so I didn't answer.
Then I called the number and got the New Jersey US District Court.
Probably this.
Here's more.
More.
In the past we have gotten fake IRS calls leaving messages demanding we call back and pay up.
Knew that was bullshit as soon as we heard the message.
Figured it was a scam so I didn't answer.
Then I called the number and got the New Jersey US District Court.
Probably this.
Here's more.
More.
In the past we have gotten fake IRS calls leaving messages demanding we call back and pay up.
Knew that was bullshit as soon as we heard the message.
They're right. Doesn't mean they'll win.
And he - the Duce, I mean - bitched - and still bitches - about Obama usurping legislative powers.
At the border his zero tolerance policy violated actual US law and international treaty obligations concerning people lawfully applying for asylum, whom he arrested and whose families he broke up with the knowledge of the horrific trauma this would do - for him, the trauma was a feature, not a bug.
Four cities sue Trump saying ObamaCare 'sabotage' violates Constitution
Four cities on Thursday sued President Trump, arguing that he is violating his constitutional duty to enforce the law by “sabotaging” ObamaCare.
The cities of Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus and Cincinnati filed the lawsuit in federal court in Maryland, arguing that Trump’s actions against the Affordable Care Act violate the Constitution’s provision that the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
The lawsuit states that Trump’s actions are “an affront to the rule of law: to our constitutional system, under which Congress enacts laws and the President faithfully implements them.”
The lawsuit points to a range of administration actions in arguing its case, including that it expanded insurance options that do not comply with the health-care law's rules, that it cut funding for outreach to help people sign up for coverage, and that it shortened the sign-up period for ObamaCare.
Democrats have long criticized those moves and say they have resulted in higher premiums. They are making this argument a centerpiece of their strategy for winning the midterm elections.
The lawsuit cites Trump’s own words against ObamaCare. “President Trump and his Administration have been remarkably transparent about their intent and their approach,” it states.
It cites Trump statements like “we are getting rid of ObamaCare,” and “essentially, we have gotten rid of it” to argue that Trump has sabotaged the law.
At the border his zero tolerance policy violated actual US law and international treaty obligations concerning people lawfully applying for asylum, whom he arrested and whose families he broke up with the knowledge of the horrific trauma this would do - for him, the trauma was a feature, not a bug.
Four cities sue Trump saying ObamaCare 'sabotage' violates Constitution
Four cities on Thursday sued President Trump, arguing that he is violating his constitutional duty to enforce the law by “sabotaging” ObamaCare.
The cities of Baltimore, Chicago, Columbus and Cincinnati filed the lawsuit in federal court in Maryland, arguing that Trump’s actions against the Affordable Care Act violate the Constitution’s provision that the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
The lawsuit states that Trump’s actions are “an affront to the rule of law: to our constitutional system, under which Congress enacts laws and the President faithfully implements them.”
The lawsuit points to a range of administration actions in arguing its case, including that it expanded insurance options that do not comply with the health-care law's rules, that it cut funding for outreach to help people sign up for coverage, and that it shortened the sign-up period for ObamaCare.
Democrats have long criticized those moves and say they have resulted in higher premiums. They are making this argument a centerpiece of their strategy for winning the midterm elections.
The lawsuit cites Trump’s own words against ObamaCare. “President Trump and his Administration have been remarkably transparent about their intent and their approach,” it states.
It cites Trump statements like “we are getting rid of ObamaCare,” and “essentially, we have gotten rid of it” to argue that Trump has sabotaged the law.
Bolton a liar, again, as Bozo pretends leadership in the effort to deal with Russian inteference
He's telling the White House press corps that Bozo has exercised strong leadership since he took office in the effort to prevent Russian or other meddling in our elections.
The same guy who, less than a month ago, was still publicly taking Vlad's word that it never happened.
Bill Kristol today angrily and loudly insisted that not only is Trump guilty both of criminally conspiring with the Russians and manifest and public obstruction of justice, and that he is perfectly well aware of his guilt and the guilt of others in his White House and campaign.
Kristol was rejecting with disdain any suggestion Trump sincerely believes he has done nothing wrong, nothing illegal, nothing criminal, at any time before or since the election.
A parade of national security officials are in vague terms describing what they have been doing since the election period under Obama and since on their own initiative for the many months during which Trump denied there was Russian interference, in public thanking Bozo for his wonderful leadership and all of them promising to everything possible to prevent or deal with ongoing Russian interference.
As soon as they left Sanders went into attack the press mode, lying in all directions about unfair coverage, Democrats, and previous administrations.
She repeatedly refused to contradict the president and say the press is not the enemy of the people, though his own daughter has done so, and went off on the press with sincere anger, blaming the press for the escalating mutual hostility between Trump and his supporters and the greater part of the press.
She said she is likely the first press secretary to need full time secret service protection.
From the conferences I have seen, it seems like every White House press conference includes such displays of hostility and even personal hatred by the press secretary, and by some of the press right back at her and the White House and the president.
The same guy who, less than a month ago, was still publicly taking Vlad's word that it never happened.
Bill Kristol today angrily and loudly insisted that not only is Trump guilty both of criminally conspiring with the Russians and manifest and public obstruction of justice, and that he is perfectly well aware of his guilt and the guilt of others in his White House and campaign.
Kristol was rejecting with disdain any suggestion Trump sincerely believes he has done nothing wrong, nothing illegal, nothing criminal, at any time before or since the election.
A parade of national security officials are in vague terms describing what they have been doing since the election period under Obama and since on their own initiative for the many months during which Trump denied there was Russian interference, in public thanking Bozo for his wonderful leadership and all of them promising to everything possible to prevent or deal with ongoing Russian interference.
As soon as they left Sanders went into attack the press mode, lying in all directions about unfair coverage, Democrats, and previous administrations.
She repeatedly refused to contradict the president and say the press is not the enemy of the people, though his own daughter has done so, and went off on the press with sincere anger, blaming the press for the escalating mutual hostility between Trump and his supporters and the greater part of the press.
She said she is likely the first press secretary to need full time secret service protection.
From the conferences I have seen, it seems like every White House press conference includes such displays of hostility and even personal hatred by the press secretary, and by some of the press right back at her and the White House and the president.
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