Tag: Taiwan

…meanwhile…

(Defense Secretaries Lloyd Austin (U.S.) and Carlito Galvez (The Philippines) sign agreement in Manila Thursday.)

THURSDAY 2/2/23

New U.S. Military Bases in The Philippines – The United States has reached agreement with The Philippines to add four new military bases there, where American troops will be allowed to build facilities and “preposition defense assets” nearly nine years after the two nations signed the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), Rappler reports. 

This is “a really big deal,” U.S. Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin said from Manila, where the agreement was signed Thursday (per NPR). The agreement gives the U.S. access to a total of nine bases in The Philippines. 

Definition: “Preposition defense assets” are military arms and equipment that “reduce deployment time,” according to Tactical Defense media. 

Context: The deal is meant to check Chinese military presence in the region, especially in support of Taiwan. The EDCA was signed in 2014 between the Obama administration and the Aquino administration, but Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte pivoted the country toward Beijing when he took over in 2016. 

Thursday’s agreement was signed under the administration of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. – son of the late dictator Ferdinand Sr. and famous shoe-collector Imelda – who was elected president of The Philippines last year. 

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Record Profits for Oil’s Big Three – The oil industry’s “three big majors” posted $134 billion in record profits for 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic’s global hibernation caused skyrocketing prices at the pump in the U.S. and elsewhere. Shell was the latest to post its record profit Wednesday, of $41.6 billion, up from its previous record of $31.4 billion in 2021, The Wall Street Journal reports. The other two of the “big three” are …

•ExxonMobil: $55.7 billion.

•Chevron: $36.5 billion.

For Comparison Purposes: General Motors and Tesla both have posted record net income for 2022; $14.5 billion for GM and $13.7 billion for Tesla, Autoweek reports.

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Powell on the Rate Hike – Chairman Jerome Powell said this about the Federal Reserve’s eighth consecutive interest rate hike Wednesday: “We can now say I think for the first time that the disinflationary process has started.” (Per Fortune.)

What This Means: The Fed is satisfied with improvements in the Consumer Price Index and after raising its interest rate from near-zero to more than 4% over the last year, passed an 0.25% increase Wednesday (to the 4.5% to 4.75% range). Though Powell warned of further increases this year, Wall Street took his comments as indication the hikes are over, with the tech-heavy NASDAQ up 2.2% and the New York Stock Exchange composite up 0.53% Wednesday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(TUE 9/20/22)

Mortgage Rates Hit 6% -- The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee is expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points (0.75%), when it meets Tuesday and Wednesday, Punchbowl News reports. The Fed has been imposing big increases in the interest rate since inflation hit 40-year record highs, and Chairman Jerome Powell (pictured above) will likely signal more big increases until inflation comes down significantly from its current 8.3% annual rate. The mortgage rate is running at 6% for the first time since the inauspicious year 2008. 

Note: Warnings of a coming recession among some economists (and most Republicans, looking to save their prospects in the midterms) are offset by other economists (and the Biden White House) who point to record-low unemployment and high job growth. The economic anomaly is that we’re still suffering the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic (despite Biden’s claim on 60 Minutes that it’s over) as well as the effects of the cutoff of Russian oil to Europe, where Germany and the United Kingdom in particular, are suffering higher inflation rates and face almost certain recession and a cold winter. 

This is not to downplay the economic suffering of the American working- and middle-classes, but if Vladimir Putin has had any personal success in his brutal attack on Ukraine, it’s that he has hijacked potential economic recovery in the West following shutdowns from the pandemic. 

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Texas Sheriff Investigates DeSantis’ Flights – Bexar County, Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar (D) has opened an investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) political stunt he played out on Fox News in which 50 Venezuelan migrants were flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last week. The migrants had turned them in to U.S. Border Patrol after crossing from Mexico and were granted “temporary protected status,” and Salazar is looking into whether they were “lured from the Migrant Resource Center” under “false promises” for work and assistance, according to The Washington Post.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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This Week in NYC and DC (MON 9/19/22)

(United Nations HQ, New York City)

The White House – Joe and Jill Biden attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London Monday as the United States had a chance to react to the president’s comments on CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday night that U.S. troops would defend Taiwan if China conducted an “unprecedented attack.” 

“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the case of a Chinese invasion?” 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley asked.

“Yes,” Biden replied.

Chinese spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a series of tweets that Biden’s remarks “sends wrong signals to Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and severely jeopardizes China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” CBS News reports. 

Biden also told Pelley that he hasn’t decided whether to run for re-election in 2024, and said that he was not briefed about the top-secret documents found at Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, nor was he aware of the FBI’s search warrant ahead of time.

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This Week – The United Nations 77th General Assembly begins Monday at its New York City headquarters, the first in-person meeting since 2019. President Biden is expected to give his speech Wednesday on the war in Ukraine and on climate change, a day later than the U.S. president’s usual place on the schedule, because of his attendance at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

The House of Representatives and Senate are in-session Monday through Thursday; the Senate only is in session on Friday.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile... (FRI-SUN 9/16-18/22)

(Judge Cannon)

Judge Picks Dearie -- This all seems to have gone to Donald J. Trump’s plans, with a federal judge he appointed after losing the 2020 election refusing to allow the Justice Department to review documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home August 8 until a special master requested – demanded – by the ex-president’s attorneys has examined them first. That special master appointed by Judge Aileen Cannon Thursday, senior New York Federal Judge Raymond Dearie, was proposed by Trump’s attorneys and deemed acceptable by the Justice Department. 

The Justice Department is not allowed to use the sensitive documents in its investigation while Dearie reviews them and is expected to appeal Cannon’s ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th District, in Atlanta, The Washington Post reports. 

DOJ had argued that the special master should not be allowed to review the classified documents seized, but Cannon in her ruling said that it is a “matter of dispute” whether the documents marked classified are, in fact, classified. Trump’s attorneys have suggested that the documents may not be classified, but have not asserted that Trump personally declassified them, WaPo says. Trump also has not given any indication why he kept the papers.

Timing is key: Cannon has given Dearie to November 30 to complete his review, which pushes the case well into next year, when the GOP hopes to have majorities in both chambers of Congress and can begin some counter-investigations of its own. By then, too, Trump may very well have announced his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and will continue to accuse the DOJ under the Biden White House of conducting yet another “witch hunt.”

ICYMT1/6CD (In Case You Missed This 1/6 Committee Development): Ex-President Trump’s ultimate chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has agreed to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

(FRI 8/5/22)

528,000 more jobs in July…That’s about twice the number economists had predicted for last month, NPR reports. The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics says the unemployment rate dropped by 0.1 points, to 3.5% and marks the return of the unemployment rate and nonfarm employment numbers to pre-pandemic, February 2020 levels. Widespread employment gains came in leisure and hospitality, and professional and business services, and health care, BLS reports. 

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China censures Pelosi … The Chinese government has censured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her direct family members, over her visit to Taiwan as part of a five-nation diplomatic trip to Asia this week, NPR reports. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly noted Pelosi and her delegation have a right to visit the breakaway island nation and accused Beijing of overreacting, and Pelosi told a Tokyo press conference, “They will not isolate Taiwan by preventing us from traveling there.”

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Sinema signs on … The Senate will begin procedural votes today on the $739-billion Schumer-Manchin Inflation Reduction Act, with a Vote-o-Rama of unlimited amendments expected by the middle of next week. Sen. Krysten Sinema’s (D-AZ) crucial vote on the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation (subject to Senate parliamentarian approval) was secured late Thursday when Democratic leaders agreed to tweak the 15% minimum corporate tax by removing accelerated depreciation, according to Politico, and swap out killing the carried interest tax provision in favor of taxing large corporate buybacks, according to our fellow news aggregates at The Recount. 

Upshot: Sitting in the Catbird seat since Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) signed on with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last week, Sinema could have made these negotiations much worse for her fellow Senate Democrats. But we find the specificity of her demands, particularly restoration of the carried interest tax provision for wealthy hedge fund managers, curious at the very least.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Pelosi Doctrine v. One China

(THU 8/4/22)

After Pelosi’s departure from Taiwan … Five Chinese ballistic missiles that were fired into the seas near Taiwan landed within the Japan’s exclusive economic zone, NPR reports Thursday. China conducted “military exercises” in the waters surrounding Taiwan after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) departed Wednesday from her visit in which she said her delegation was in Taipei to make it “unequivocally clear” the U.S. would not “abandon” Taiwan, the BBC reports. Pelosi met with Taiwan's female president, Tsai Ing-wen.

Meanwhile: “As the outside world debated war risks, Taiwanese tourists flocked to glimpse China’s most provocative military drills in decades,” according to Bloomberg Politics, citing local media reports that ferries to Little Liuqiu Island, less than 6.2 miles from the nearest point to the mainland where the ballistic missiles were expected, were busy.

White House message: While the State Department’s official response to Pelosi’s visit prior to her arrival was that our third-ranking elected official has the right to visit Taiwan, the White House assessed it “not a good idea,” according to the BBC. 

One China policy: There seems almost a casual attitude toward U.S. adherence to Beijing’s intense interest in taking back the nation of 23 million people that broke off after Mao Zedong’s communists captured the Mainland in 1949. But Taipei also has had to watch what the People’s Republic of China has done to self-determination in Hong Kong in recent years despite the agreement that Beijing had with Great Britain to retake that special region in 1999.

Upshot: Democratic and Republican administrations over the decades have quietly and vaguely agreed to the One China Policy despite Taiwan’s democratic values and vibrant free market economy, though Pelosi, who first unfurled a pro-democracy banner in Tiananmen Square, as a young Congress member two years after the PRC’s 1989 massacre there. As has been widely noted, Pelosi’s Taiwan visit this week is the first by a House speaker only since Newt Gingrich in 1997. 

In those 25 years, China’s military has grown much larger and stronger. Only very recently, the U.S. has begun to make moves (see the CHIP Act) to try and reduce our economic dependency on China. Could that lead to closer consideration of the Pelosi doctrine, to never abandon Taiwan?

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Car crash kills Rep. Walorski… Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN) died in a head-on collision when a vehicle crossed the median into the path of the congresswoman’s SUV in Northern Indiana. The six-term congresswoman’s aides, Zachery Potts, 27, and Emma Thomson, 28, as well as the driver of the other vehicle were also killed (The Hill). 

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENT: editors@thehustings.news