Really Wish You Were Here
September 19, 2019
“Anybody can become angry — that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” – Aristotle
They Better Have Kept The Receipt For Their Anti-Missile System
Saturday’s attack on Saudi Arabian oil fields begs the question that the kingdom is benefitting from the billions it has spent on US-made missile defense systems. Then again, some experts say the attack was so flawless that most well-prepared countries would have had difficulty detecting and neutralizing it. One Middle East scholar who has followed Saudi air defense systems for decades said the evidence suggests only one of 20 missiles may have missed its target. “That’s astonishing,” he said.
The operation was able to circumvent all Saudi military defenses, including the six battalions of Patriot missile defense systems produced by US defense contractor Raytheon. Each of those systems can cost around $1 billion.
Houthi insurgents in Yemen have claimed responsibility for the attack. It is believed at the very least Iran was a sponsor, but it is still not certain where the launch site was, and whether Iran actually launched part of the attack.
Saturday’s blitzkrieg presented an opportunity for Russian president Vladimir Putin to mock the US systems failure. At an event in Turkey Monday, Putin suggested the kingdom should have bought the Russian-made S-300 or S-400 missile defense system, as Iran and Turkey had done. “They will reliably protect all infrastructure objects of Saudi Arabia,” Putin said sarcastically.
The S-400 system costs less and has technical features that on paper look to be an improvement over the Patriot system. The royal family considered buying the S-400 system but apparently chose the Patriot to reinforce relations with the Trump administration.
- Attacks On Saudi Oil Facilities Pose Quandary For Trump Administration (NPR)
- Trump sees many options short of war with Iran after attacks on Saudis (Reuters)
- Trump’s communications with foreign leader are part of whistleblower complaint that spurred standoff between spy chief and Congress, former officials say (WaPo, $)
We In Fact Started The Fire, It Is Always Burning And We’re Never Learning
- Thousands of wildfires are burning in Indonesia. Some 80 percent are deliberately set to clear land for plantations that make palm oil. The fires, which produced thick clouds of smoke that disrupted air travel, forced schools to close, and sickened thousands of people, tore through sensitive rainforests where dozens of endangered animals live, and immediately drew comparisons to wildfires in the Amazon basin that have destroyed more than 2 million acres.
- US policy in the mid 2000s mandated that vegetable oil be used for biofuels. That policy has led to industrial-scale deforestation and a huge increase in carbon emissions. (NYT)
Really Wish You Were Here
- Hurricane Dorian obliterated Great Abaco Island and flooded a good part of Grand Bahama in early September. The country of 700 islands is in mourning after the category 5 disaster that killed 51 people.
- But the storm, as terrible as it was, occurred 100 miles from Nassau, the nation’s top tourist destination. The Bahamas depends on tourism, and what the travel industry says it needs most right now is for tourists to come back. (NYT)
Indivisible With Disdain And Protest For China
- President Trump has remained noncommittal on the nearly four month long pro-democracy protest raging in the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong. But antipathy toward China is one of the few sources of bipartisan agreement in the rest of Washington.
- At a hearing Tuesday of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, the notable Hong Kong activists and scholars on the panel, and lawmakers in attendance, stressed their commitment to Hong Kong’s democracy struggle and distaste for Chinese authoritarianism.
- Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), co-chair of the commission and a prominent Beijing critic, said: “China’s leaders must respect Hong Kong’s autonomy or know that their escalating actions will lead them to face real consequences…[from all] the free world.” (WaPo)
- China Used Twitter To Disrupt Hong Kong Protests, But Efforts Began Years Earlier (NPR)
- As China sway grows, U.S. to confront it on Uighur issue at U.N. (Reuters)
- Hong Kong’s Protests Could Be Another Social Media Revolution That Ends in Failure: Building a movement was easier than finding a way to negotiate a compromise without leaders. (NYT, $)
- Trapped, alone and ‘desperate to come home.’ American siblings barred from leaving China (USA Today)
Additional World News
- India Announces Widespread Ban Of E-Cigarettes (NPR)
- Gates Foundation’s Humanitarian Award To India’s Modi Is Sparking Outrage (NPR)
- A Mosaic of Groups Competes in Israel’s Election (NYT, $) and ‘Our relations are with Israel’: Trump appears to give embattled Netanyahu the cold shoulder (WaPo, $) With friends like these …
- Justin Trudeau brownface: Canada PM apologises after image emerges (Guardian)
- Taliban Make Good on Pledge to Strike Afghan Election Campaign (NYT, $)
- 3 Million Women Say Their First Sexual Encounter Was Rape — But That Number Is Most Likely Higher: Had the sample included women over the age of 45, the numbers would “probably be at least twice as high,” says the author of the study (Rolling Stone)
- Hurricanes May Kill Some Birds, but Humans Are the Real Threat (NYT, $)
Hit The Road Jack, And Don’t Ya Come Back No More, Okay?
- Recently President Trump has made disparaging remarks about cities with large homeless populations, seemingly criticizing them for not doing enough to get homeless people off their streets.
- One program with that goal started more than a decade ago in San Francisco. The program, called “Homeward Bound,” involved the city furnishing homeless people with a one way bus ticket so they could return to where they were from or where they had family or friends who could be their support system. Homeward Bound still transports hundreds of people annually, and recently smaller cities around the country like Myrtle Beach, SC and Medford, Ore. are committing funding for a similar project.
- It’s far from a fool-proof solution. San Francisco’s follow up has shown that within a year, one in eight bus ticket recipients had returned to the city and were again seeking services.
- Portland sent hundreds of homeless people around the country, but found that within three months of their departures, nearly half had lost their promised housing.
- One advocate for the homeless said: “Just shipping someone out of town to experience homelessness somewhere else is furthering the trauma…[and] this crisis that we have all over the country.” (NYT)
- He was a Yale graduate, Wall Street banker and entrepreneur. Today he’s homeless in Los Angeles (CNN)
- Additional quote: ““The line between failure and success is so fine. . . that we are often on the line and do not know it.” – Elbert Hubbard
Additional USA News
- California Governor Signs Law Protecting Gig Economy Workers (NPR)
- Once A ‘Rocket Ship,’ National Security Council Now Avoided By Government Pros (NPR)
- Obama says presidents should avoid social media in apparent Trump jab (Guardian) This advice should apply to not just president but probably all of us.
- Something Special Is Happening in Rural America: There is a “brain gain” afoot that suggests a national homecoming to less bustling spaces. (NYT, $)
- Mitch McConnell: The Man Who Sold America: After 40 years of scorched-earth politics and bowing to special interests, will Mitch McConnell finally pay the price? (Rolling Stone)
- ‘The Personification Of Human Decency’: Nina Totenberg Remembers Cokie Roberts (NPR)
- Lawmakers Urge Aggressive Action From Regulators on Big Tech (NYT, $)
Your Package Is Half Empty
- Everywhere signs are showing a slowdown in the global economy. Shares of FedEx plunged about 14 percent on Wednesday after the company blamed the US-China trade war and the loss of Amazon as a customer for its quarterly earnings and revenue misses.
- FedEx Chairman and CEO Fred Smith expressed extreme pessimism about the global economy on the delivery giant’s post-earnings conference call with analysts.
- CNBC’s Jim Cramer said Smith is “basically implying that we’re going to import” a global showdown. “This is the most dispiriting call about the economy I’ve heard in a very long time,” Cramer said.
- AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson expressed similar sentiments on Tuesday. “U.S. business is so dependent upon exports and trade. And when you have your two biggest trading partners kind of frozen between the NAFTA rewrite and China trade, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody that business investment starts slowing down,” Stephenson said. “You can’t have that kind of slowdown in business investment and not find its way into the consumer ultimately.” (CNBC)
- A crack just emerged in the financial markets: The NY Fed spends $53 billion to rescue the overnight lending market (CNN)
LAST MORSELS
“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” – Aristotle