Replies to post #324434 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[PegnVA]

BINGO!...
So what were farmers thinking? My guess is that they let the will to believe override their judgment. Trump seemed like their kind of guy. He certainly seemed to share their dislike for urban elites who, they imagined, looked down on people like them. So they convinced themselves that he knew what he was doing, that he would win his trade war and that they would be among the victors sharing the spoils.

[fuagf]

Cheese, Scotch and coffee: A big win for Trump on tariffs

"The Frauding of America’s Farmers
"The month a shadow fell on Trump’s economy
AP fact check: Trump’s fog of misinformation on trade" "


Imports of various types of alcohol will also be slapped with 25 percent duties. | Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for NONIE

By DOUG PALMER and JAKOB HANKE
10/02/2019 11:49 AM EDT
Updated: 10/02/2019 07:09 PM EDT

President Donald Trump plans to slap punitive tariffs on about $7.5 billion worth of European aircraft, agricultural and industrial goods later this month after the United States won an important victory in a ruling before the global trade body that handles trade disputes.

The action brings a 15-year-old case one step closer to resolution while allowing Trump to impose tariffs with the official blessing of the World Trade Organization. That's in contrast to his earlier actions that unilaterally set duties on steel and aluminum imports, which other countries believe violate global trade rules.

"It was a big win for the United States," Trump said during a joint press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, who was in Washington for bilateral talks.

The WTO authorized the Trump administration to impose duties after it decided that the EU failed to completely end illegal loan subsidy programs for Airbus. The EU argues it has taken meaningful steps to comply and expects the WTO to validate that in a separate ruling.

The decision is the highest penalty ever granted by a WTO arbitrator. American officials said the United States would use the authority to impose a 10 percent tariff on Airbus aircraft and a 25 percent duty on various European agricultural and industrial goods effective Oct. 18.

That’s short of the 100 percent tariffs the United States could have imposed under the WTO’s ruling. U.S. officials emphasized they could increase the duties, or even change which products are hit, if efforts to reach a negotiated settlement with the EU fail.

Cheese and dairy products figure prominently on the retaliation of list to the delight of U.S. dairy producers who face substantial sales barriers in the EU.

Imports of single-malt Scotch, Irish whiskey, liqueurs, French wines, sweaters, coffee, pipe cutters, various tools, sweet biscuits, olives and pork will also be slapped with 25 percent duties.

"For years, Europe has been providing massive subsidies to Airbus that have seriously injured the U.S. aerospace industry and our workers," U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said in a statement. “We expect to enter into negotiations with the European Union aimed at resolving this issue in a way that will benefit American workers.”

The Distilled Spirits Council, whose members sell alcoholic products on both sides of the Atlantic, called the new tariffs "a devastating blow" to an industry already facing a 25 percent EU retaliatory duty on American whiskey in response to Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs last year.

A verdict on a parallel case .. https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds353_e.htm .. by the EU against U.S. subsidies for Airbus' arch-rival Boeing is expected in about eight months.

While Brussels' stated preference is to negotiate a settled resolution covering both cases, the European Commission is considering options to retaliate quickly, should Washington act on the ruling, EU trade chief Cecilia Malmström said before Wednesday's WTO announcement.

Even if the EU wins the right to retaliate on a similar amount of American exports in the Boeing case, the U.S. still has an important time advantage. The EU is therefore looking at prior WTO cases where it has already won the right to impose tariffs on Washington so it can hit back faster.

"Our readiness to find a fair settlement remains unchanged. But if the U.S. decides to impose WTO authorized countermeasures, it will be pushing the EU into a situation where we will have no other option than do the same," Malmström said in a statement acknowledging the WTO ruling on Wednesday.

Brussels "has consistently communicated to the United States that the European Union is ready to work with them on a fair and balanced solution for our respective aircraft industries," she added. "So far the U.S. has not reacted."

U.S. officials said the EU has no right under global trade rules to retaliate against sanctions approved by the WTO. They also strongly reject the EU’s assertion that both sides are equally guilty of subsidizing their aircraft producers.

“There is no equivalence between these two disputes,” an American trade official told reporters during a briefing. “The nature and the size of the subsidies provided by the EU dwarf anything provided by the U.S.”

Trump administration officials said the EU would be acting in “bad faith” if it imposed retaliation by tapping potentially billions of dollars of unused authority from an old trade dispute that the United States believes was resolved 13 years ago. That case involved illegal export subsidies for Boeing, which EU officials said was resolved in 2006 after Congress repealed the offending provisions.

American officials also accused the EU of not making a meaningful effort to resolve the dispute through negotiations.

“The reality is that we have only heard from the EU in the last month as this arbitration neared completion. That is disappointing and the EU ideas to date are not sufficient to stop the subsidies to Airbus and to stop the harm to the U.S.,” a senior U.S. trade official said during the briefing call.

U.S. ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland previously told POLITICO .. https://www.politico.eu/article/us-envoy-gordon-sondland-takes-aim-at-european-commission-next-trade-chief-phil-hogan/ .. that the U.S. was not only seeking an end to EU subsidies but also "recovery of those damages" already created.

For its part, Boeing had urged USTR to focus all of the retaliation at Airbus planes, helicopters, fuselages and wings.

“Europe is facing tariffs today because Airbus has refused for years to comply with WTO rulings," a Boeing spokesperson said. "Unfortunately, Airbus’s non-compliance will negatively impact European member-states, industries, and businesses completely unrelated to Airbus’s actions, as well as Airbus’s airline customers.”

Boeing suggested that compromise can be reached if Airbus comes into “full compliance with its obligations. We hope it will finally do that.”

EU officials have rejected the idea of paying Washington compensation for any damages, arguing Boeing has benefited from similar subsidies.

"Both the EU and the U.S. have been found at fault by the WTO dispute settlement system for continuing to provide certain unlawful subsidies to their aircraft manufacturers," said Malmström.

Reacting to today's announcement, Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said U.S. tariffs "would have a negative impact on not only the U.S. airlines but also U.S. jobs, suppliers, and air travelers."

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said the EU preferred an "amicable solution" to the dispute. However, "if the United States chooses to impose sanctions, it would be an economic and political mistake. We will be ready with our European partners to respond firmly to them."

The WTO's penalty ruling comes without a time limit. That means the U.S. can levy the new tariffs indefinitely unless it strikes an agreement with Brussels to cancel the tariffs — or until the WTO issues a new ruling that the EU is no longer in breach of subsidy limits.

Such a new ruling, however, is highly unlikely, because the United States is blocking the WTO's court of appeal .. https://www.politico.eu/article/wto-gatt-trade-tariffs-dispute-back-to-gatt-law-of-the-jungle-returns-to-tradeland/ , called the Appellate Body. The panel will be down to just one judge in December when the terms of two more judges expire. It needs at least three sitting members to issue rulings.

Therefore unless Trump changes course, the WTO will not be able to confirm whether Europe has lifted its Airbus subsidies. In other words, Trump could, in theory, maintain these tariffs perpetually.

This report first appeared on politico.eu on Oct. 2, 2019.

https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/02/trump-eu-tariffs-020272

[fuagf]

Conservatives push false claims of voter fraud on Twitter as Iowans prepare to caucus

"The Frauding of America’s Farmers"

There is no excuse for the assholes who retweet unthinkingly without a proper respect for truth. No justifiable excuse at all.

The episode showcases social media’s hands-off approach and the possible perils ahead for a divisive election season


People hold signs at a Bernie Sanders rally Jan. 26 in Sioux City, Iowa. (John Locher/AP)

By Isaac Stanley-Becker and Tony Romm
Feb. 4, 2020 at 6:06 a.m. GMT+11

DES MOINES — The claims of voter fraud were false, proved untrue by public data and the state’s top election official.

That didn’t stop them from going viral, as right-wing activists took to Twitter over the weekend to spread specious allegations of trickery in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses .. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/iowa-caucuses-2020-latest-updates/2020/02/03/10e69dd0-463b-11ea-ab15-b5df3261b710_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_ticker-825am%3Aprime-time%2Fpromo&itid=hp_hp-top-table-main_ticker-825am%3Aprime-time%2Fpromo&tid=lk_inline_manual_3 .

The episode showcased the perils of conducting elections in the age of social media, where volume is more important than veracity.

The Iowa Democratic Party, in partnership with national Democratic officials, has labored to make the caucuses more transparent and to fend off the sort of confusion and conspiracy theories that marred the process in 2016. The Democratic National Committee has its own unit tracking viral disinformation and flagging falsehoods to campaigns, as well as to technology companies that have pledged to clean up their platforms after they were enlisted by Russian actors to boost Donald Trump in his campaign against Hillary Clinton.

But their efforts falter in the face of falsehoods pushed by users with massive online audiences, which social media platforms often refuse to remove, arguing they should not serve as the Web’s arbiters of truth. On Monday, Twitter affirmed its mostly hands-off approach, maintaining the false claims about Iowa’s voter rolls did not qualify as a form of voter suppression.

“The tweet you referenced is not in violation of our election integrity policy .. https://tinyurl.com/tbkpqwv .. as it does not suppress voter turnout or mislead people about when, where, or how to vote," said spokeswoman Katie Rosborough.

[ Inside the quest by Iowa Democrats to protect their caucuses from disinformation and hacks
https://tinyurl.com/w5hy878 ]

The claims on the eve of the caucuses came from a pair conservative activists.

Tom Fitton, the president of the conservative activist group Judicial Watch, wrote Sunday morning that “eight Iowa counties have more voter registrations than citizens old enough to register.”

That notion, based on a Judicial Watch report purporting to find similar irregularities in hundreds of counties across the country, is false, according to state officials and a Washington Post review of the most up-to-date data.

Of the eight Iowa counties listed by Judicial Watch, a single one — Lyon County — has more registered voters than adult residents, based on five-year estimates released by the Census Bureau in 2018. The estimates, however, do not account for population growth over the past two years. And the total number registered comprises active and inactive voters.

“Their data is flawed, and it’s unfortunate that they’ve chosen caucus day to put out this deeply flawed data,” said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Iowa secretary of state.

Flaws in the data did not stop other conservative activists from pushing the misleading conclusion. Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, a group mobilizing young conservatives, followed up Sunday afternoon to proclaim that, “One day before the Iowa Caucus, it’s been revealed that EIGHT Iowa counties have more adults registered to vote than voting-aged adults living there.” He asked users to retweet to show their support for a national voter-identification law.
AD

And retweet they did. By Monday, the two tweets together had more than 100,000 interactions, meaning retweets, likes and replies. Among the users amplifying the falsehood were Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, and Mimi Walters, a Republican former congresswoman from California. Analysis by VineSight .. https://www.vinesight.com/ , a group tracking online falsehoods, said that some of the amplification came from accounts exhibiting signs of automation and that few of the users appeared to be from Iowa.

Presented with figures that contradicted his findings, Fitton stood his ground.

“It’s all very interesting and curious, but the fact is our data shows eight counties over 100 percent,” the Judicial Watch president said in an interview.

A clearer picture will emerge once new analysis is available from the Election Assistance Commission, he added. “Things may have changed, and certainly things will get better or worse over the next two years, but that’s the data we’re relying on," he said, even though the state’s month-by-month reporting undercuts his assertions. He called his organization’s efforts to raise alarm about voter rolls a “public service.”

Turning Point USA declined to provide an on-the-record statement.

Early Monday, Iowa’s secretary of state, Republican Paul Pate, weighed in to debunk the allegation.

“False claim,” he wrote ..

False claim. Here is a link to the actual county-by-county voter registration totals. They are updated monthly and available online for everyone to see. #FakeNews https://t.co/bM1bj51eKA

— Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (@IowaSOS) February 3, 2020

. “Here is a link to the actual county-by-county voter registration totals. They are updated monthly and available online for everyone to see.”

He included a link .. https://t.co/bM1bj51eKA?amp=1 .. to his office’s website, as well as the hashtag #FakeNews.

Pate’s post gained virtually no amplification.

“The truth actually gets retweeted almost never, and the things that are the most inflammatory get the most play,” said Ann Ravel, the director of the Digital Deception project at MapLight .. https://maplight.org/ , which tracks money in politics. She previously served on the Federal Election Commission.

Ravel accused tech companies of failing to grapple with what she says is a form of voter suppression. She said such tweets have the effect of casting doubt on the legitimacy of the political process.

“People do not have trust in institutions anymore,” she said. “This augments that.”

[ Iowa caucuses updates: First votes will be cast tonight
https://tinyurl.com/tr4dy8s ]

Top tech companies have maintained they are not “arbiters of truth,” in the words of Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, adopting a hands-off approach to most speech, even outright lies. But the companies have sought to stake out a more aggressive approach to content considered to be voter suppression. Generally, Facebook, Google and Twitter prohibit users from misrepresenting how, when and where to vote, or from sharing posts, photos and videos designed to discourage people from turning out on Election Day.

Under Twitter’s rules, updated in April, the company also bans tweets that include “misleading claims about voting procedures or techniques which could dissuade voters from participating in an election.” Those who run afoul of its standards are locked out of their accounts until they delete their tweets and risk permanent suspension if they do not change their behavior.

279 comments - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/02/03/conservatives-push-false-claims-voter-fraud-twitter-iowans-prepare-caucus/