Kevin McCarthy Slams Democrats’ Protection for Child-Smuggling by Cartels Video
Huawei Technologies loses trade secrets theft case against U.S. chip designer
(Reuters) - A U.S. jury on Wednesday cleared California semiconductor designer CNEX Labs Inc of stealing trade secrets from Chinese electronics giant Huawei Technologies. Huawei had sued CNEX in U.S. District Court, Sherman, Texas, for misappropriation of trade secrets involving a memory control technology and for poaching its employees. A Huawei spokesman said the company was considering its next steps.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-tech-usa-verdict/huawei-technologies-loses-trade-secrets-theft-case-against-u-s-chip-designer-idUSKCN1TR2YH?il=0
3 steps to a winning G-20 for Trump and Japan's Abe
This month’s Group of 20 (G-20) meeting in Osaka, Japan could be a welcome turning point for President Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Abe. Having failed to strike an agreement at their recent summit, both leaders face intense pressure to deliver a “win.” Compromise and accommodation may be quaint notions nowadays, but to Trump and Abe, they represent the best opportunities for leaving the G-20 meeting with something worthwhile to show for it.
Japan was an economic juggernaut 30 years ago. Having suffered from decades of stagnation, economic growth under Abe remains tepid despite the prime minister’s well-designed regulatory reforms and other long-overdue measures to reinvigorate the Japanese economy. Much of Japan’s problem is demographic; it’s difficult to produce strong and sustained economic growth with an elderly and shrinking population. That said, Japan can do more to grow its economy. Economic growth results when a country expands its labor force and provides that labor with the training and tools to be productive. Government policies that inhibit labor supply growth, or that undermine productivity, are detrimental to economic growth. Accordingly, repealing those policies would boost growth.
Step 1: Trump and Abe can boost long-term economic growth for both the U.S. and Japan by radically lowering tariff and non-tariff trade barriers. Publicly committing at the G-20 to the ratification of a U.S.-Japan Free Trade Agreement within two years would give both Trump and Abe unambiguous wins and, perhaps more importantly, provide additional leverage to both countries in their trade dealings with the rest of the world. For that to happen, both countries need to be more accommodating than ever before. The Japanese agricultural and U.S. automotive sectors, long sticking points in trade negotiations, are ripe for a healthy dose of competition. Call it the “zero solution:” zero tariffs on U.S. agriculture and autos paired with zero tariffs on Japanese agriculture and autos.
Step 2: Prime Minister Abe should announce a fundamental shift in Japan’s approach to economic growth: Less government planning, more private innovation;
less regulation and fewer subsidies;
more freedom to hire and fire employees as needed;
less government spending;
lower taxes on everything; and
most importantly, far more emphasis on policies to coax workers into the labor force and to arm them with the training and tools to be productive.
Japanese governments spent decades chasing economic growth with deficit spending on infrastructure and public-sector projects. The results have been worse than disappointing. Since 1992, Japan’s economy has grown by less than 1 percent per year on average. Consequently, Japanese economic growth rates lagged the United States for all but two years since 1992. Because Japan’s debt has grown while its economy has not, Japan’s gross debt has exploded to more than 250 percent of GDP. By comparison, gross U.S. federal debt — while still too high — totals only somewhat more than 100 percent of GDP.
Step 3: President Trump is (rightly) encouraging America’s international allies to shoulder more of the burden of our common defense. Were Prime Minister Abe to commit to accelerating Japan’s planned increase in defense spending — from 0.9 percent of GDP in 2017 to 1.3 percent or more by 2024 — and were President Trump to reiterate the centrality of the U.S.-Japanese alliance to international security, both leaders could leave the G-20 as undeniable winners. It is said a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But, with three single steps, President Trump and Prime Minister Abe can dominate the news coming out of the upcoming G-20 summit and demonstrate to the world that the U.S. and Japan are great together again.
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/450407-trump-japans-abe-are-both-in-dire-need-of-a-win-at-g20
Trump goes after Democrats over photo of drowned migrants
President Trump on Wednesday said he hated to see the photograph of a father and his young daughter who drowned trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border but blamed the situation on congressional Democrats. “I hate it, and I know it could stop immediately if the Democrats change the law,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the photo. “They have to change the laws. And then that father, who probably was this wonderful guy, with his daughter — things like that wouldn’t happen.” The grim image of the man and his 23-month-old daughter lying face down in the Rio Grande inflamed the debate in Washington over the president’s hard-line immigration policies. According to the Mexican journalist who took the photo, the father attempted to cross the border illegally with his daughter after they were unable to present themselves to U.S. immigration authorities to request asylum. They had made the journey north from El Salvador.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) displayed the photo on the Senate floor today to chastise the president. “President Trump, I want you to look at this photo. These are not drug dealers or vagrants or criminals. They are people simply fleeing a horrible situation in their home country for a better life,” Schumer said.
Asked later if his policies were responsible, Trump responded, “The asylum policy of the Democrats is responsible.” “That’s like I’ve been saying. If they fixed the laws you wouldn't have that,” he said. “If we had the right laws that the Democrats are not letting us have, those people, they wouldn’t be coming up. They wouldn’t be trying.” Democrats have pressed for policies that would make it easier for migrants from Central America to apply for asylum, while Trump has tightened existing rules.
The administration’s “metering” policy has dramatically limited the number of migrants who are allowed to request asylum each day at legal ports of entry, creating a backlog of migrants forced to wait on the Mexican side of the southern border. Rather than wait in makeshift camps that can be overcrowded and dangerous, many have attempted to cross the border illegally — a journey that can be deadly.
The Trump administration is also seeking an agreement with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras that would require migrants to apply for asylum in the first foreign country they set foot in after leaving home.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/450470-trump-goes-after-democrats-over-photo-of-drowned-migrants
Agreed, the bag pipes always remind me of strength..the amount of wind needed to expel to create the beautiful sound exudes the power of strength in itself. Not to mention the power of the Scotch people historically, the spent years fighting for independence from the Queen.
House approves bill increasing federal worker pay
The House on Wednesday approved the $24.6 billion financial services and general government bill, the 10th of 12 appropriations bills, which included a provision to raise federal pay by 3.1 percent. The measure passed by 224-196, largely along party lines. “House Democrats are fighting to ensure that America is safe, strong, and moving forward. The investments in this bill to fund financial regulators and small businesses improve the financial security of every family,” House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said.
On Tuesday, the House passed a 5-bill appropriations package covering $383 billion, and a week earlier passed a 4-bill package amounting to nearly $1 trillion. Along with the pay raise, the bill includes provisions for top Democratic priorities. It would allow the federal government to hire DACA recipients and clear the way for financial institutions to service recreational and medical cannabis businesses in states where they are legal. It budgeted $16.2 million for improving election security, and stripped away restrictions on the District of Columbia spending local money on issues such as abortion, legalizing marijuana, and needle exchange programs. Almost half the bill was devoted to the Internal Revenue Service, which Democrats say need more resources to enforce tax law and bring in revenue.
Democrats have two more spending bills in the docket. The first, which covers the legislative branch, is being held up over disagreements on whether to raise pay for members of Congress, who have not received a pay increase in over a decade, and which limits top pay for Congressional staff. The second is the Homeland Security bill, which deals with the politically explosive issue of immigration. Clashes over funding for President Trump’s proposed border wall in the Homeland Security bill led to a 35-day shutdown earlier in the year.
The financial services bill that passed on Tuesday included a provision that would block Trump from reprogramming funds from the Treasury toward building the wall, an approach he sought as part of his emergency declaration for the southern border. The Senate has yet to pass any appropriations bills, but is expected to begin moving ahead in July.
Republicans objected to both the provisions in the bill and the overall spending level. “The Financial Services bill continues the themes seen throughout the FY20 appropriations bills: increase spending, encourage illegal immigration, and limit the Administration’s authority,” said Rep. Kay Granger (R-Texas), the top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/450454-house-approves-bill-increasing-federal-worker-pay
'Unmasker in Chief' Samantha Power spewed anti-Trump bias in government emails
Former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power may share an unflattering stage with a text-loving FBI agent and his Donald Trump-hating paramour from the bureau. Fired agent Peter Strzok and ex-FBI lawyer Lisa Page are infamous today for texting on FBI phones their anti-Trump sentiments while allegedly having an affair. They played key roles in the now-debunked Russia collusion investigation.
It turns out that Power — the diplomat whose authority inexplicably was used to unmask hundreds of Americans’ names in secret intelligence reports during the 2016 election — engaged in similar Trump-bashing on her official government email, according to documents unearthed by an American Center for Law and Justice lawsuit. The conservative legal group is run by Trump defense attorney Jay Sekulow. The discovery could add a new dimension — a question of political bias — to a long-running congressional investigation into why Power's authority was used to unmask hundreds of Americans' names in secret National Security Agency intercepts during the 2016 election. That practice of unmasking continues to grow today.
Power’s barbs toward Trump started as early as the GOP primaries, when she used her email to connect Oskar Eustis, the artistic director at the Public Theater in New York, with oft-quoted think tank scholar Norman Ornstein, the memos show. “Oskar, Norm will explain our political system, in a way that will fleetingly make it seem rational, though maybe not after Trump and Sanders win NH,” she wrote, predicting the future president and upstart socialist senator, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), would win the esteemed New Hampshire primary.
After Trump stunned the world with his general election win over Hillary Clinton, the observations of Power and those emailing her on her official government account turned more vitriolic. “I am discouraged and frightened. Electing a right-wing president is something, but such a morally repugnant bully!” read a Nov. 14, 2016, email to Power from a sender whose name the State Department redacted for privacy reasons. The email referred to former Trump strategist Steve Bannon as “an avowed racist” and predicted, “The worst is coming.”
There is no evidence in the released documents that Power responded or chastised the sender for using government email for such political animosity. But there is ample evidence she engaged in similar Trump-bashing. In December 2016, for example, when sent a news story about Trump’s effort to communicate a new policy direction for the U.N., Power snarkily replied: “This reflects the lack of understanding of history.” When Trump announced his intent to withdraw the U.S. from a global climate deal, Power emailed a colleague: “Lord help us all.” And when a routine diplomatic issue with Japan arose in late November 2016, Power emailed another colleague: “It is unreal how the Trump dynamic has changed things.” Perhaps most telling are Power’s efforts to arrange media interviews and speeches during her final days in office, clearly aiming to counter the incoming president’s agenda and fan the narrative that Trump might be dangerously soft on matters involving Russia and mercilessly hard on immigrants.
When Jorge Ramos, news anchor for the Spanish-language network Univision, floated an idea for an exit interview, Power suggested her anguish at seeing Democrats lose the election was receding the more she watched Trump in action. “If we do something, we will make it good,” Power wrote Ramos. “PTSD in retreat — Trump has vanquished it.”
Power and her staff spent time brainstorming a possible CBS “60 Minutes” interview as Trump’s transition period began. The idea was to parlay Power’s remarks at an upcoming citizenship event and the TV news magazine interview into forums to shame the president-elect on immigration. “Ambassador: Have a draft for your remarks for the naturalization ceremony on Tuesday, which has proven a useful and somewhat cathartic vessel to channel some post-Trump messages about who we are,” fellow State Department official Nikolaus Steinberg wrote on Nov. 11, 2016. Power responded: “Need to move out on 60 mins idea to seek maximum amplif.”
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/450490-unmasker-in-chief-samantha-power-spewed-anti-trump-bias-in-government