Tag: China

PGA Tour agrees to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf

This is disturbing to say the least.

The PGA Tour is merging with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf, following months of tensions and mounting lawsuits between the competitors.

The two entities signed an agreement that would combine the PGA Tour’s and LIV Golf’s commercial businesses and rights into a new, yet-to-be-named for-profit company. The agreement includes DP World Tour, also known as the PGA European Tour.

IV Golf is backed by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, an entity controlled by the Saudi crown prince and has been embroiled in antitrust lawsuits with the PGA Tour in the last year. The deal announced Tuesday would end all pending litigation.

PIF is prepared to invest billions of new capital into the new entity, CNBC’s David Faber reported Tuesday. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The agreement — the second stunning sports deal in just months, following World Wrestling Entertainment’s merger with Endeavor Group’s UFC — will require the approval of the PGA Tour policy board, Commissioner Jay Monahan said in a memo to players that was obtained by CNBC.

Source: CNBC: PGA Tour agrees to merge with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf

Let us not forget 9/11 and Osama Bin Ladin’s backers, who were, in fact, some of the Saudi princes. If I were a professional golfer, I would resign from the PGA and find something else to do. Let’s not forget about the Saudi’s cozy relationship with China too.

This stinks like a rat.

Others: PGATOUR.COM, Politico, The Daily Beast, ABC News, Breitbart, Quartz, Mediaite, 24/7 Wall St., New York Post, RedState, Associated Press, Forbes, Fox News, NPR, The US Sun, Awful Announcing, CBS News, The Daily Caller, Just The News. Political Wire, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, The Daily Beast, Fox News, ESPN, The Hill, TMZ.com, New York Post, Mediaite, Awful Announcing, The Hollywood Reporter, Sportico.com, The Gateway Pundit, The Spectator World, NBC 7 San Diego, Next Impulse Sports, UPI, The Daily Caller, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera, Ad Age, CNN, MLive.com, Oregonian, National Review, Financial Times, Forbes, al.com, Deadline, Reuters, Golfweek, The US Sun, Joe.My.God., The Messenger, WGN-TV, PGATOUR.COM and CBS News, more at Mediagazer »

Mary Elizabeth Taylor, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs resigns in protest of Trump’s actions

This is not going to be good for the President at all.

Mary Elizabeth Taylor approaches the lectern before Supreme Court Justice Neil M. Gorsuch makes a keynote appearance at Trump International Hotel in September 2017 in Washington. (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post)

A senior State Department official who has served in the Trump administration since its first day is resigning over President Trump’s recent handling of racial tensions across the country — saying that the president’s actions “cut sharply against my core values and convictions.”

Mary Elizabeth Taylor, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, submitted her resignation Thursday. Taylor’s five-paragraph resignation letter, obtained by The Washington Post, serves as an indictment of Trump’s stewardship at a time of national unrest from one of the administration’s highest-ranking African Americans and an aide who was viewed as loyal and effective in serving his presidency.“

Moments of upheaval can change you, shift the trajectory of your life, and mold your character. The President’s comments and actions surrounding racial injustice and Black Americans cut sharply against my core values and convictions,” Taylor wrote in her resignation letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I must follow the dictates of my conscience and resign as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.” — Source: Top State Department official Mary Elizabeth Taylor resigns in protest of Trump?s response to racial tensions in the country – The Washington

I believe that is quite obvious, that this woman; who by the way, is a lifelong Republican, is basically beginning to feel the same way, that a lot of conservatives probably are feeling or Republicans are feeling about this president… that he is not a Lincoln Republican. But rather someone who has taken the stance of the alt right.

Between this and what John Bolton has published, I believe the president of the United States is going to be soundly defeated in the November election.

It is sad to too, because I honestly thought that this president really had good potential. I thought maybe that his whole ego thing would be shoved aside and the good of the country would be put first and it started out that way; he did promise to get tough on trade, which he did. However, he ended up reneging on the promise and turns out, he was doing it simply for his reelection chances.

So truthfully, the only thing that Donald J trump was honestly interested in doing and that was making himself look good. Which is what happened after the George Boyd protests began. This is why he did the photo op and this is why the peaceful protests in front of the White House were basically gassed, because Donald Trump tried to put an appearance on of being tough to try and salvage his reelection in November.

Of course, this is turned out to be nothing but a futile mistake.

I hope everyone who is a conservative or Republican has enjoyed, especially the trump loyalists — what we got in the past 4 years. But. sadly I think it’s all going to end and it’s going to be sad to watch.

Because, I believe what’s going to happen at the convention is going to be a sad display and it could be like what happened with Richard Nixon or what happened in 1968 at the Democrat party convention

Others: Associated Press, TheGrio, Axios, New York Post, KEYT-TV, The Hill, Raw Story and The Week

WSJ: Bolton Book says Trump pleaded with China’s Xi Jinping for domestic political help

Not going to quote much of this, but this part.

Via WSJ (warning paywall):

One highlight came when Xi said he wanted to work with Trump for six more years, and Trump replied that people were saying that the two-term constitutional limit on presidents should be repealed for him. Xi said the U.S. had too many elections, because he didn’t want to switch away from Trump, who nodded approvingly.

Wow. Just….Wow.

Trump came close, unilaterally offering that U.S. tariffs would remain at 10% rather than rise to 25%, as he had previously threatened. In exchange, Trump asked merely for some increases in Chinese farm-product purchases, to help with the crucial farm-state vote. If that could be agreed, all the U.S. tariffs would be reduced. It was breathtaking.

Then, This:

Trump then, stunningly, turned the conversation to the coming U.S. presidential election, alluding to China’s economic capability and pleading with Xi to ensure he’d win. He stressed the importance of farmers and increased Chinese purchases of soybeans and wheat in the electoral outcome. I would print Trump’s exact words, but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise.

I would advise you to go read the rest of this. It is a truly amazing read. This man is going to lose and I mean BAD in November. Subscription to WSJ is required, or there’s always this for firefox and chrome.

Others: The Cook Political Report, New York Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, NBC News, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera, The Stranger, The Guardian, The Nation, Washington Post, The Hill, Foreign Policy, Just The News, Redstate, The Last Refuge, Mother Jones, New York Post, Politico, POLITICUSUSA, Breitbart, Raw Story, Mediaite, National Review, Axios, Fox News and KEYT-TV, more at Techmeme »

Video: Idiots React to Coronavirus

This….is….excellent: via Paul Joseph Watson on YouTube:

 

Why Libertarians never win elections

Here is a perfect example:

Philippines to be formally occupied again, as part of US aggression against China.

via USG To Return To Viciously Abused Former Colony – LewRockwell.com.

So, basically, Lew, you are saying that you support communist China? Tragic. Mr. Rockwell might be spot on, when it comes to economics. But, if he supports a communist Country, he’s a bit more off than I thought. China’s form of Government is diametrically opposed to values that this Country represents. Not only this, I have not forgotten what those bastards did to John Birch.

How anyone could utter a single word in a positive way, about those treacherous bastards, is beyond my ability to comprehend. It is anti-Americanism at it’s finest. 😡

Not to worry, however; I will not be removing his blog and website from my blogroll. I just don’t like his tongue-bathing of China, that’s all.

Is the collapse of China’s economy beginning?

I have written and posted videos of the situation of China’s economy.

Now, it seems that the real estate bubble in China is finally starting to pop.

Gordon Chang over at Forbes reports the following:

Nothing is going right for Hangzhou at this moment.  Walmart will be closing its Zhaohui store in that city on April 23 as a part of its overall plan to dump marginal locations—about 9% of the total—in China.

Thanks to the world’s largest retailer, another large block of space in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, will go on the market at a time when there is generally too much supply.  The problem is especially pronounced in the city’s premium office market. Hangzhou’s Grade A office buildings at the end of 2013 had, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, an average occupancy rate of 30%.

The real weakness, however, is Hangzhou’s residential sector.  The cause is simple: massive overbuilding. Sara Hsu of the State University of New York at New Paltz writes that Hangzhou faces “burgeoning swaths of empty apartment units.”

Hangzhou’s market has not yet collapsed.  There are still secondary sales, for instance.  Singapore’s Straits Timesreports Allen Zhao, a businessman, has been looking to sell his two-bedroom flat in Hangzhou for 2 million yuan.  His neighbor just let go a similar unit for 1.7 million.  If Zhao also sells for that amount, he will make a profit, but he will be disappointed.  “That is not much more than the price I paid in 2012,” Zhao told the paper.  “Now I’m regretting not selling earlier—more bad news about the property market keeps coming in every day.

[…]

The People’s Republic in the “reform era” has not suffered a nationwide property crash.  Analysts say the problems in Hangzhou are “regional,” but now fundamentals and market sentiment either are or will be pushing markets down across the People’s Republic.

“The banking system and the shadow banking system are becoming concerned about exposure,” says David Cui of Bank of AmericaBAC +1.46%.  “Once people refuse to provide credit to developers, their balance sheets will be under pressure, forcing them to cut prices.  Once enough of them cut prices, fewer people would buy because most people buy property only when they think the price is going up.  If this persists, it will turn into a vicious loop.”

Premier Li Keqiang has a few tools at his disposal, but they look insufficient to stop a general collapse of property prices across the country.  The problems, deferred from late 2008 with massive state spending, have simply become too large.  And we must remember that he works inside a complex, collective political system that is generally unable to meet challenges swiftly.

But that does not matter.  There is little any leader can do.  Collapses occur when people lose confidence.  That is now happening in China.

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not; China’s economy is directly tied to ours. If their economy tanks, so will ours. You think 2008 was bad? China’s collapse will trigger a Worldwide panic and a massive, and I mean MASSIVE Worldwide economic meltdown that has never been seen in the history of mankind. As of 2012, we were borrowing 3.4 Million from China, a day.

Could you imagine, if China saw that things were getting rough and decided to sell off all of their bonds of ours that they hold? The so-called “experts” say that it would not happen; personally, I would not want to tempt fate.

There is but one solution to this — well, actually a few. We need to do away with these free trade agreements and put back into place tariffs on all imports from overseas. Then penalize any and all businesses who continue to manufacture products overseas. Then we need to elect a President that will stand up to the Federal Reserve and order them under full congressional oversight; and then order them to cease all printing of money; until further notice.  This would help pay down our debt and fund our social safety net.

Then we need to do away with this idiotic progressive tax system that we have in this Country, which basically punishes those who are successful in business. We then need to replace it with a flat tax or a consumption tax system. This would free up the hands of entrepreneurs to create businesses and also create more jobs in this Country.

However, if what this report above that I quoted is true; we are not going to have time to do all of this. Because if China is about to crash; we are going to find ourselves in massive rock and a hard place. We are going to have massive social safety net and no way to pay the people in the net. For the record, Patrick J. Buchanan and Ron Paul; and some very other well known Conservatives have been warning that this was going to happen. Now, it seems that their warnings are about to come true.

I believe it would be a good time, for all of God’s children to pray; because things are about to get interesting….very interesting.

Quote of the Day

Does America fear facing down China because a political and economic collision with Beijing would entail an admission by the United States that our vision of a world of democratic nations all engaged in peaceful free trade under a rules-based regime was a willful act of self-delusion?

What China is about is as old as the history of man. She is a rising ethno-national state doing what such powers have always done: put their own interests ahead of all others, suppress ethnic minorities like Tibetans and Uighurs, and crush religious dissenters like Christians and Falun Gong.

There is no New World Order. Never was. The old demons—chauvinism and ethno-nationalism—are not ancient history. They are not extinct. They are with us forever. And America is not going to be able to deny reality much longer or put off facing up to what China is all about.

Given her current size and disposition, one day soon we are going to have to stop feeding the tiger. And start sanctioning it.

 

This is because China supports their actions

Sometimes the woefully obvious is just too much for the media:

Hong Kong (CNN) — North Korea’s neighbors have condemned the secretive nation’s launch of a long-range rocket, with Seoul calling the launch a “challenge and threat” to stability on the Korean peninsula and the world at large.

The rocket passed close to the territory of Japan and South Korea but both have refrained from any retaliation.

Japan said it did not take any action to destroy what it termed “a missile,” which passed over its territory near the island if Okinawa, and had not seen any signs of damage.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said the launch was “extremely regrettable.”

Beijing, North Korea’s main ally in the region, took a softer line.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei expressed regret at North Korea’s decision to launch despite the concerns of the international community.

via China’s reaction key as neighbors decry North Korea rocket launch – CNN.com.

Anyone that believes that China does not support what the Norks are doing — is crazy. They give the stuff needed to fire those missiles, and so, they obviously must support the actions. Besides, China is a communist nation, as is North Korea; so, why wouldn’t they support them?

Like I said, the obvious is as plain as the nose on the end of ones face. Too bad CNN and rest are just too dumb to figure this out.

Max Boot makes a very good point

I must be slipping. Silly

I am actually sitting here and agreeing with something that Max Boot wrote in Commentary Magazine. Surprise

Quote:

Today the U.S. Navy must prepare for two major wars–one against Iran in the Persian Gulf, the other against China in the Western Pacific–while also combating piracy off the coast of Africa, dealing with unexpected wars such as the one in Libya last year, supporting ground operations in Afghanistan and other theaters, combating drug runners in the Caribbean, and showing the flag in the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and other seas. The operational tempo dictated by these requirements is terrific, as I have seen for myself in the last few years in visits to the 5th Fleet in the Persian Gulf and the 7th Fleet in Japan.

The ships we have are, when not retrofitting in port, almost constantly at sea and they are struggling to keep up with threats ranging from Chinese “aircraft-killer” ballistic missiles and submarines to Iranian mines and cruise missiles–not to mention the ever-present threat of cyberattack and terrorism (of the kind which crippled the USS Cole). Yes, the capabilities of each naval ship are greater today–but so are its range of potential missions and so are the capabilities of our potential foes. China is expanding its maritime capabilities at a rapid clip; the U.S. Navy is struggling to keep up and the balance of power in the Western Pacific is shifting against us.

That is in large part why the bipartisan Hadley-Perry Commission concluded in 2010 that the Navy should have 346 ships. Yet today it has only 282 ships–and falling. As former Navy Secretary (and Romney adviser) John Lehman noted in April: “The latest budget the administration has advanced proposes buying just 41 ships over five years. It is anything but certain that the administration’s budgets will sustain even that rate of only eight ships per year, but even if they do, the United States is headed for a Navy of 240-250 ships at best.”

That is a looming strategic disaster–and one that no amount of quips about horses and bayonets can wish away. If we don’t build more ships, our global maritime dominance–the basic underpinning of the world’s strategic and economic stability–is in real danger of slipping away.

The only thing that I have a quibble with, is that he actually forgot Russia. If Max thinks that Russia is not a threat to our National Security; he is nuts. As long as Putin has his hands in the Government in Russia, the United States should be very worried. Putin is a holdover from the communist era in Russia and he would just love to take Russia back to the old Communist era. So, they are a threat, as a matter of face they were just testing missiles yesterday.

Reagan always said, when it came to Russia; “Trust, But Verify” and Reagan always did try and independently verify anything that the Russians were saying or doing. All of the Presidents since then have not been so careful, as far as I know. As much as I know that it is going to make me sound like a conspiracy theory kook; I really do not believe that Russia is to be trusted at all. Communism never quite dies, it just takes on new shapes and names. Sort of like what we have here in America, as it is called —- imperfect Marxism.

However, over in Russia, I believe it to be a bit more sinister and complex; those who would want to bring back old soviet-style communism, have plenty of funding, as many in the Russian Business and underworld, would stand to make a good deal of money, if the old Communist Party came back to power. So, that is a threat and I believe our Military should always be on the ready, for when the Russians decided to show muscle.

I hate to be the one to say it; but, anyone who thinks that there are not threats to the security of this Country and others in the region, is at the very least highly uninformed. This is why I always had a quibble with Ron Paul’s foreign policy. As Paul’s foreign policy was just simply not rooted in the realities of the time. Ron Paul seems to be stuck in a utopian era, before World War 2. Truth is, times have changed, and we must be responsible as a Nation to protect this great Republic of ours, from those who wish to cause it harm. This is not a “Neo-Con” foreign policy, that is a reality based, Pro-American foreign policy.

Sadly, Ron Paul refuses to accept that argument and that is why I always had trouble taking him seriously, except maybe on matters of fiscal policy. Even then, some of his ideas are just not rooted in reality. Nice ideas, but a bit out of step for the realities of today.