A Clash of the Titans Trade War | You Recuse, You Lose | Politicizing Salt Bae

“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” – Napoleon

“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” – Ibid.

The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.” – Ibid.

“China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.” – Napoleon

Brace Yourselves, A Sino-US Trade War is Here: President Trump ramped up the US trade war with China this week by imposing tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and he’s prepared to tax all imports if China retaliates. President Xi Jinping is every bit as macho as Trump, and has dug in his heels despite a softening in the Chinese economy, which Trump sees as evidence his tariff strategy is working. Few people would disagree that China has engaged in abusive practices: theft of intellectual property, forced transfer of technology from foreign companies, predatory joint venture agreements. But disagreement is rife among those who want to make a deal with China and those who want to keep piling up pressure to force a more radical change in Xi’s trade practices.

Trump is not a fan of multinational trade agreements, as seen in his abandonment of the TTP on his first day in office. But as one expert said about the US-China trade tiff: “Doing this without the EU and Japan fully on board, (treating) Chinese unfair trade practices (as) only a bilateral problem, is wrongheaded and certainly less effective.” Regardless, despite causing pain to companies and consumers on both sides of the Pacific, Trump’s hard-nosed trade tactics remain popular with his political base.

Poor Czech Working Conditions: As the Czech Republic transitions from state socialism to capitalism, an undercover reporter worked in five different manual labor low-paid jobs to learn how people are really coping. She found that while it was generally not difficult to get a job, most people couldn’t make a living from that job despite 12, 14, sometimes 17 hour days. (Guardian)

A Gold Star On the White House Fridge: President Trump’s sanctions against Iranian oil will not go into effect for nearly two months, but already Iran’s crude exports are plummeting. Surprisingly, the price of oil in the US has risen only slightly, and gasoline prices have remained flat. So far, in this instance at least, the president’s unconventional approach to diplomacy appears to be working. (NYT) Additional listen: “How Fracking Made America The World’s Largest Oil Producer: Journalist Bethany McLean discusses her book “Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It’s Changing the World.”” (Houston Public Media)

No Dems Allowed: Poland’s President Andrzej Duda wants a permanent US military base in his country, and he thinks he knows of a way to get one. In a joint news conference with President Trump at the White House Tuesday, Duda said: “I would very much like for us to set up a permanent base in Poland, which we would call Fort Trump.” (WaPo)

Paint The Walls Red: A Taiwan native has converted a historic 100-year-old Buddhist temple in Ershui,Taiwan into an extravagant Communist shrine, but only after evicting four kindly Buddhist nuns from their longtime home. The man said it was his mission to join China and Taiwan and nothing will stop it from happening. (NYT)

Rubio Is Salty: On Monday, footage was released of celebrity chef/internet sensation/spice enthusiast “Salt Bae” (ask a young person) cooking up a very expensive steak for President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. Senator Marco Rubio took to twitter to denounce the president and the chef: “He is actually the overweight dictator of a nation where 30 percent of the people eat only once a day…infants are suffering from malnutrition.” Rubio also tweeted out the phone number to Salt Bae’s Miami restaurant and asked that Americans call in and complain. (NYT)

– “‘People will die’: Obama official’s warning as Trump slashes refugee numbers: Bob Carey, the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) under the Obama administration from 2015 to 2017, told the Guardian the new limit of 30,000 refugees per year and the Trump administration’s justification for the cap was ‘a new low in our history’.” Keep in mind that 30k is the amount of refugees they allow into the country for inspection. They can still turn away and deport as many refugees as they like within that 30k. (Guardian)

Ice Scream: Morgues in Mexico don’t have room for all the bodies that keep stacking up. During the first seven months of 2018 there were just under 19,000 homicide victims, a 20 percent increase over the same period in 2017. Last year the total number of victims approached 29,000. The state of Jalisco in western Mexico has been particularly hard hit with homicides, mostly from rival drug gangs fighting over trafficking routes and markets. It’s so bad, in fact, that authorities had to come up with a temporary solution. They rented a refrigerated truck, filled it with 170 unidentified corpses, and parked it at the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences, where it had been sitting for two years before somebody drove it off the lot on September 7. For the next ten days, amid resident complaints of putrid smells and human rights denunciations of the inhumane treatment of cadavers, the truck travelled around the greater Guadalajara metropolitan area.

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You Recuse, You Lose: President Trump has lambasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions repeatedly; he did it again Tuesday, this time saying “I don’t have an Attorney General.” Trump declared that his personal loyalty clouded his judgment when selecting Sessions, because he was the first senator to endorse Trump during the campaign. The president also insisted he was unhappy with Sessions’ job performance on many fronts, but everyone knows it was really the AG’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation that made him persona non grata. (NPR)

Blue Wave’s Low Tide: Democrats are hoping to sweep the midterms in November and take over at least one of the two houses of Congress. They’re facing some tough election facts: low-turnout, voter suppression, gerrymandering, and the “every state regardless of size gets two senators” rule. (BBC)

– “Bitcoin Miners Flock to New York’s Remote Corners, but Get Chilly Reception: A region that once attracted heavy industry is coping with an influx of Bitcoin speculators, lured by an abundance of cheap electricity.” (NYT) Additional read: “Globally, bitcoin mining consumes at least as much electricity in a year as all of Ireland (about 24 TWh). Worse still … the energy use is doubling every six months and could reach the annual consumption of the Czech Republic (about 67 TWh) before the end of 2018, which would be about 0.3% of the world’s electricity consumption.” (Quartz)

– “Lagoons of Pig Waste Are Overflowing After Florence. Yes, That’s as Nasty as It Sounds.:” (NYT)

– “How Connected Is Your Community to Everywhere Else in America?” Denali Borough, Alaska is the most popular place by far. (NYT)

– “Cycling land speed: Denise Mueller-Korenek breaks world record: For most people, the idea of travelling along the ground at more than 180mph in anything other than a plane preparing for take-off is nausea-inducing.” (BBC)

– “Children’s yoghurts contain ‘shocking’ amounts of sugar, study finds” I trusted you, Danimals. (Guardian)

– “Is sugar really bad for you?: People who eat more sweets are at higher risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer… but that may not actually be sugar’s fault. BBC Future investigates the latest findings.” I forgive you, Danimals. (BBC)

– “Man who ate 100 plates of sushi banned from all-you-can-eat buffet” Is eating 100 plates of sushi at an all-you-can-eat buffet really bad for you? (WaPo)

– “Umber: The color of debauchery: The umber pigment was first made from Italian soil. Kelly Grovier looks at how a shade of brown came to depict sinfulness and shadow.” (BBC)

– “Why Jeff Bezos Should Push for Nobody to Get as Rich as Jeff Bezos” They didn’t build Rome in a Day One. (NYT & Forbes)

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