Author: leeheidhues

I am a Green Party member, legal worker, walker, cyclist who follows politics, world events, 🌎 the literary world and đŸŽ„ film

China’s Huawei finance chief arrested in Canada, faces extradition to US

So Much for Trump Wanting to Improve Trade Relations with China

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.6.2018

The chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested in Vancouver on December 1 and faces extradition to the United States, Canada’s Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

Meng’s arrest is related to alleged violations of US sanctions, according to Reuters news agency. A bail hearing for her extradition is set for Friday.

Huawei issued a statement saying Meng, also the company’s deputy chairman and the daughter of company founder Ren Zhengfei, was detained while changing flights in Canada, in order to face “unspecified charges” in New York. The tech company said it complies with all laws and rules where it operates.

The company also said it was “not aware of any wrongdoing” by Meng.

 

Amazon Reader Review of George HW Bush Biography

The following by an Amazon reader echo my thoughts exactly.

I decided to take a look at the book after recently seeing Meacham promote the paperback edition on Charlie Rose’s show. Meacham fawningly spoke about how Bush believed in “fair play” and how military service was “a defining element” for Bush. 

If we judge Meacham’s book solely as a look into the insights of former president George H.W. Bush, then the book is an okay read. However, if the reader is expecting the book to be a thoughtful analysis of Bush’s elitist attitudes, then the book is a miserable failure. One part of the book in which thoughtful analysis is conspicuously lacking is the part in which Meacham discusses George H W Bush’s views about Bill Clinton and the Vietnam War. This part of the book provides a window in which the reader can witness Bush’s self-pitying sense of entitlement.

During the 1992 campaign, it infuriated Bush that he was trailing Bill Clinton, who had opposed the Vietnam War and avoided the draft. Meacham writes, “To Bush, the question about Clinton that overshadowed nearly all the others was the draft. ‘I’m tired of the guy lying and ducking on the draft and not coming clean,’ Bush dictated [9-9-92].” In the same dictation, Bush emphasized—without a hint of irony or self-reflection—how service during the Vietnam War was “a question of truth”; Bush dictates, “ . . . I think it’s very bad not wanting [to participate] when your country is at war.” Particularly revealing is Bush’s response to his defeat on election night; Meacham writes, “[Bush] says to his tape-recorded diary, by himself, sitting in a Hotel: ‘Duty, honor, country, I always thought that’s what Americans were made of, but, quite plainly, it’s not.’” Talk out blaming America first!

The Bush family’s experience with the Vietnam War was uncannily similar. Like the Quayle family, members of the Bush family were strong supporters of the war. George H.W. Bush voted for and supported the war. George W. Bush also supported the war and was such a fervent anti-Communist that he sneeringly referred to New Deal relief efforts as “socialism.” However, despite his swagger, George W Bush, like Quayle, drew the line at personally facing the Viet Cong on the battlefield. As was the case with Quayle, the fix was in: Bush the Elder used his pull to keep Dubya out of harm’s way and pushed him to the front of the very long line to get into the Texas Air National Guard, a notorious safe space for the coddled sons of the Texas elite during the war (the practice of fortunate sons like Bush and Quayle cutting to the front of the line was a clear violation of Department of Defense regulations). Like Quayle, Bush the Elder lamely tried to cover up this inconvenient truth, claiming falsely in his 1987 autobiography that “ ‘little’ George [had been] flying jets in the Air Force.” (Bush certainly knew the difference between the Air Force and the Texas Air National Guard). That sounds a lot like lying and ducking on the draft and not coming clean about it.

The Bush family’s sense of duty, evident during both World Wars, sadly evaporated during the Vietnam War. The Bush family held the view, popular in elite cold war circles, that dying in Vietnam was for Those People (e.g., inner-city minorities and Appalachians). I live near the coal-mining village in Appalachia with the highest Vietnam War fatality rate. The fact that Appalachia had a fatality rate many times the national average is a testament to how the wealthy and connected shamelessly gamed the system and made a mockery out of the long-cherished American value of shared sacrifice. Bush wants Americans to feel ashamed for not supporting him and his pampered protĂ©gĂ© in their quest for reelection; I apologize for nothing. It is Bush who should apologize to every American for voting for a war and then using his influence to get his son into a champagne unit, and then trying to pass his son off as a military veteran. It’s shameful that Meacham didn’t point these things out.

Dowd Recalls HW Bush Cursing, Throwing Shoe At TV When Trump Came On

Excerpted from TPM 12.5.2018

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd elaborated on her memories of the late-President George H.W. Bush from a recent column on Wednesday morning, telling MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts that while Bush was known for his civility, he wasn’t a fan of President Trump.

When Dowd interviewed Bush in 2011, when Trump was leading the birther campaign against former President Barack Obama, Bush called Trump an “ass” at the “mere mention” of his name, Dowd said, though she didn’t repeat the explicative on air.

“He said, in essence, you know, ‘he’s a jerk,’ with a different word,” she told “Morning Joe.” “I heard later that he was throwing a shoe at the television set when Trump came on and he was a man of enormous civility and I don’t think he could understand this.”

Marriott’s Starwood Missed Chance to Detect Huge Data Breach Years Earlier, Cybersecurity Specialists Say

 

My Thoughts:

Marriott deserves grief, abuse, scrutiny and penalties for not settling with the workers who have been On Strike for nearly two months. This worldwide corporate hotel chain needs to agree to the workers fair demands for a decent wage, health care and related benefits.  It’s the karma backlash. You just can’t treat workers in this shabby manner and not expect to pay the price in the court of public opinion and the court room, too.

Excerpted from Wall Street Journal 12.2.2018

Marriott as of Sunday was still sorting through the attack’s cause and impact. It said it first received a security alert on Sept. 8, and moved quickly to notify customers and regulators after determining on Nov. 19 that the hackers acquired information in the Starwood reservation database.

For about 327 million customers, the hackers may have gained access to passport numbers, travel details and, in some cases, credit-card information, as well as names and addresses, it said. Investigators also found a file of about 170 million customers created by the hackers that contains much less information, the company said Sunday.

Marriott began sending out emails to customers on Friday, a process that will take weeks. Some customers complained that they couldn’t get clear information from Marriott on whether or not they had been affected. Marriott said Sunday it was still identifying duplicate information in the second data file to determine exactly who was affected.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it is tracking the Marriott situation and attorneys general in New York, Illinois and Massachusetts have opened investigations.

Is History Being Too Kind to George H.W. Bush? The 41st president put self-interest over principle time and time again

Excerpted from Politico by David Greenberg

During his own bid for the presidency , Bush remained under parole from the right. To placate his party’s die-hards that year, he chose as vice president Indiana Senator Dan Quayle, who was pro-life, hawkish and opposed to new civil rights measures. (I have never seen Bush admit this, but I’ve always thought that the handsome, affable, preppy and somewhat happy-go-lucky Quayle reminded the elder Bush, consciously or unconsciously, of his own first-born son.) Quayle’s unreadiness for the presidency soon became evident, and, much like John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running-mate two decades later, it was judged to be a short-sighted, irresponsible move.

Bush continued to put politics ahead of the national good in many of his appointments. Most notably, in 1991, when Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, announced his retirement, Bush could have honored his legacy by naming a respected African-American judge or legal scholar such as Amalya Kearse or Leon Higginbotham. But he selected a staunch conservative in Clarence Thomas—served up with the implausible assertion that he was the most qualified person for the job. Given that Bush had appointed David Souter to the Court, expecting him to name a more moderate black justice is hardly unreasonable.

Many of the encomiums published today dwell on the president’s grace and magnanimity, but his campaigns showed a less attractive side of his personality. Bush’s 1988 presidential bid has been widely deemed the ugliest in modern times. Under the tutelage of hardballers Roger Ailes, James Baker and Lee Atwater, Bush impugned the Americanism of his opponent, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis, the son of Greek immigrants, and pandered to prejudice in making hay of Dukakis’ honorable decision to accept a Massachusetts Supreme Court judgment that deemed mandatory pledge-of-allegiance recitals in public schools to be unconstitutional. “What is it about the Pledge of Allegiance that upsets him so much?” Bush taunted. Then came the “Willie Horton” ads that hyped the scare-story of an African-American criminal, released on furlough from a Massachusetts prison, who raped a woman and assaulted her husband. Never mind that Reagan, as governor of California, had signed a similar furlough bill.

Man in the High Castle

I encourage everyone to watch Amazon Prime’s The Man in the High Castle.  Season Three is now streaming.  Philip K. Dick’s 1962 novel is worth reading and I am sure he would appreciate the cinema adaptation. It is a very intense and deep story and should cause the viewers to think about the current state of affairs. He also wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?  This novel was the basis of the now cult classic 1982 Blade Runner, more recently adapted into Blade Runner 2049 late last year.

‘White supremacy’ is really about white degeneracy.’

Excerpted from The Guardian. 11.28.2018

Today’s far-right populists relish the idea that they can be morally contemptible, yet still prevail.

The concept of “white supremacy” is having a moment right now, and understandably so. White resentment, entitlement and bigotry never went away, but it is closer to the political mainstream now than it has been for decades.

The rhetoric of the likes of Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Steve Bannon and other figures in the ascendant populist right might not openly embrace “white power”, but there is no doubt that open white racists have been emboldened by them. Trump may have not wanted Richard Spencer (who coined the term “alt right”) to gleefully exclaim: “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory” just after the 2016 US election, but he was not particularly bothered by it either.

Trump’s railing against GM can’t change car-market realities.

Excerpted from Wall Street Journal Editorial.  November 27, 2018

President Trump believes he can command markets like King Canute thought he could the tides. But General Motors has again exposed the inability of any politician to arrest the changes in technology and consumer tastes roiling the auto industry.

The President reacted like a spurned suitor.

Mr. Trump thinks his trade machinations can overrule the realities of the marketplace. Fine with us if he wants to end subsidies for all car companies. But if he intervenes to make GM less competitive, Mr. Trump will merely hurt more workers.

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The Secret of Pelosi’s Success: Democratic opposition melts away as the left gets behind her.

“Look for the Pelosi Democrats to push a $15 national minimum wage, price controls on pharmaceuticals, taxpayer-paid family leave, tax increases on business and high earners to pay for more tax credits or social spending, a “public option” as part of Obama Care and Medicare for pre-retirees. ”  Sounds good to me. I hope the WSJ editorial is correct in its prediction.

Trump at bay: failure looms as Democrats load ‘subpoena cannon’

Sunday News from The Guardian (London)

Trump is approaching the midway point in his presidency and, some argue, a point of no return. The recent midterm elections left him wounded, House Democrats are said to be aiming a “subpoena cannon” at every aspect of his life and special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation appears to be nearing its endgame.

“There’s no doubt we’re entering new territory and Donald Trump is in big trouble,” said Larry Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “The election results, no matter what he says, were devastating to him. The coalition he put together is clearly strained and he seems incapable of creating consensus.”