Tag: news

The UN has resorted to blaming big tech for failing to crack down on human traffickers who use their platforms to lure migrants “to their deaths” with false promises of safe passage into Europe, according to the Independent. 

Companies such as Facebook and WhatsApp are “enabling criminal activity” by traffickers who entrap victims who are unaware of the dangers they face, according to the UN’s migration agency.

The warning comes amid a surge in migrants attempting to reach the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats, with almost 100 people intercepted by both British and French authorities while attempting to reach the UK from France since Christmas Day. –Independent

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid has declared the migrant crossings a “major incident,” cutting short his family holiday to meet with his French counterpart and officials from Britain’s Border Force, as well as the National Crime Agency, in order to take “personal control” of the situation, according to immigration minister Caroline Nokes. 

There have been over 17,700 deaths recorded in the Mediterranean Sea in just under five years. And that’s apparently been enabled by Facebook and other tech firms which provide the ability to communicate. 

Leonard Doyle, spokesperson for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said migrants were being “lured to Calais” over the internet as smugglers operate via social networks “without any real oversight” from the companies controlling them.  

He said that while tech firms had taken measures to curb other exploitative activities such as child pornography, efforts to prevent people-smuggling has been “microscopic” compared with the damage it causes. –Independent

Charities call BS

Charities operating on the ground in Northern France disagree with the notion that social media firms have enabled human trafficking, and instead blame “the persecution faced by migrants in their home countries.” Also enabling criminal human traffickers, according to the Independent are European governments which have failed to inform refugees of their rights to asylum – and how to do so. 

Clare Moseley, founder of charity Care4Calais, disputed the focus on social media, saying: “It’s deeply upsetting to see people taking the risk of crossing the Channel. We never expected to see them resort to something so desperate. 

“But this isn’t happening because of social media; it’s happening because they are being persecuted and killed and tortured in the places that they’re coming from.”

Josh Hallam, field manager for Calais-based charity Help Refugees, said smugglers were able to take control of the information flow because government bodies were not providing it. 

“The reason so many people are risking their lives is because of the lack of state-funded information – knowledge of their asylum rights and so on – so they cannot make informed decisions,” he said.

“People are not coming because they think it will be an ‘opportunity’. People are fleeing army conscription in Eritrea, war in Syria and Afghanistan, all of the political issue in Ethiopia. –Independent

According to Doyle, however – “People like to point fingers over the migration crisis, but a big part of it must be that the guy or the girl in the village with nothing but a cracked smartphone can actually meet a smuggler in a heartbeat. This person will often have no prior knowledge, no sense that this is a trap, no sense that this is going to end up in their prostitution, their slavery, their murder, their drowning. But the tech companies that have done so much to bring technology to its current place are not investing in civic communication to help counter-balance the nonsense people get from social media. If someone does a search right now anywhere in the world for child pornography, up immediately will come a flag saying this is illegal, don’t go any further, you’re committing an illegal act. But they won’t do that for migration. It’s our technology companies that are luring them to their deaths, and luring them to Calais. It’s not the companies that are doing it, but they’re enabling this criminal activity to happen, almost without any real oversight.”

According to Europol’s Migrant Smuggling Center, 90% of migrants arriving in the EU were brought there by human traffickers belonging to a criminal organization – while the IOM pegs human trafficking as the third largest business for international criminals.

While the IOM says they have been in discussions with social media providers about the smuggling of people, Doyle has his doubts. 

“They claim they’re doing something, but they’re not. Why? Because they depend on shareholder value, so anything that interferes with that is affecting the stock price, which is already in trouble,” said Doyle. “Facebook has people working on this but it’s nothing compared with the impact. The amount of attention this gets compared with the damage it does is microscopic.”

Describing the process smugglers use to gain clients online, Mr Doyle said the first step were usually to “herd people like sheep” to a carefully protected WhatsApp group that tells them “when to move, what to do, what to say and how to deal with the authorities”.

Maybe it’s a combination of both? 

via RSS http://bit.ly/2EXZwar Tyler Durden

China’s practice of “disappearing” political dissidents, corrupt public officials and virtually anybody deemed a threat to Communist Rule has been widely documented in the Western media (but not so well-documented in state-controlled mainland media). But in 2018, the regime of President Xi Jinping widened its dragnet to include a broader mix of high-profile figures, including a movie star, foreign nationals and even the head of the an international law enforcement organization.

Even prominent Marxists weren’t spared the most terrifying of judicial punishments – a clandestine rendition to a Chinese “reeducation camp” (where most of the missing presumably ended up). This year more than any other in recent memory laid bare the lengths to which the Communist Party will go to quash any perceived threats, be they activists and dissidents, or senior level bureaucrats.

With this in mind, we present the Associated Press’s “Disappeared List” for 2018 (text courtesy of the AP):

Foreign Pawns:

China threatened “grave consequences” if Canada did not release hi-tech executive Meng Wanzhou, shortly after the Huawei chief financial officer was detained in Vancouver in December for possible extradition to the US.

The apparent consequences materialised within days, when two Canadian men went missing in China. Both turned up in the hands of state security on suspicion of endangering national security, a nebulous category of crimes that has been levied against foreigners in recent years.

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig was taken by authorities from a Beijing street late in the evening, a person familiar with his case said. He is allowed one consular visit a month and has not been granted access to a lawyer, as is standard for state security cases.

Also detained is Michael Spavor, who organises tours to North Korea from the border city of Dandong.

Tax-Evading Actress

Fan Bingbing was living every starlet’s dream. Since a breakthrough role at the age of 17, Fan has headlined dozens of movies and TV series, and parlayed her success into modelling, fashion design and other ventures that have made her one of the highest-paid celebrities in the world.

All this made her a potent icon of China’s economic success, until authorities reminded Fan – and her legion of admirers – that even she was not untouchable.

For about four months, Fan vanished from public view. Her Weibo social media account, which has more than 63 million followers, fell silent. Her management office in Beijing was vacated. Her birthday on September 16 came and went with only a handful of greetings from entertainment notables.

When she finally resurfaced, it was to apologise.

“I sincerely apologise to society, to the friends who love and care for me, to the people, and to the country’s tax bureau,” Fan said in a letter posted on Weibo on October 3.

She admitted to tax evasion. State news agency Xinhua reported that Fan and the companies she represents had been ordered to pay taxes and penalties totalling 900 million yuan (US$130 million).

“Without the party and the country’s great policies, without the people’s loving care, there would be no Fan Bingbing,” she wrote. It was a cautionary tale for other Chinese celebrities.

Xinhua concurred in a commentary on her case: “Everyone is equal before the law, there are no ‘superstars’ or ‘big shots.’ No one can despise the law and hope to be lucky.”

Security insider

Unlike most swallowed up by China’s opaque security apparatus, Meng Hongwei knew exactly what to expect.

Meng (no relation to the Huawei executive), a vice-minister of public security, was serving as head of Interpol, the France-based organisation that facilitates police cooperation across borders.

When he was appointed to the international post, human rights groups expressed concern that China would use Interpol as a tool to rein in political enemies around the world.

Instead, he was captured by the same security forces he represented.

In September, Meng became the latest high-ranking official caught in Xi’s banner anti-corruption campaign. The initiative is a major reason for the Chinese leader’s broad popularity, but he has been accused of using it to eliminate political rivals.

Xi pledged to confront both high-level “tigers” and low-level “flies” in his crackdown on corruption – a promise he has fulfilled by ensnaring prominent officials.

Meng was missing for weeks, before Chinese authorities said he was being investigated for taking bribes and other crimes. A Chinese delegation delivered a resignation letter from Meng to Interpol headquarters.

His wife Grace Meng said she did not believe the charges against her husband. The last message he sent to her was an emoji of a knife.

Daring photographer

Lu Guang made his mark photographing the everyday lives of HIV patients in central China. They were poor villagers who had contracted the virus after selling their own blood to eke out a living – at a going rate of $7 a pint, they told Lu.

A former factory worker, Lu traversed China’s vast reaches to capture reality at its margins. He explored environmental degradation, industrial pollution and other gritty topics generally avoided by Chinese journalists, who risk punishment if they pursue stories considered to be sensitive or overly critical.

His work won him major accolades such as the World Press Photo prize, but his prominence likely also put him on the government’s radar.

This November, Lu was travelling through Xinjiang, the far west region that has deployed a vast security network in the name of fighting terrorism. He was participating in an exchange with other photographers, after which he was to meet a friend in nearby Sichuan province. He never showed up.

More than a month after he disappeared, his family was notified that he had been arrested in Xinjiang, according to his wife Xu Xiaoli. She declined to elaborate on the nature of the charges.

Student Marxists

In the past, political activists jailed in China were primarily those who fought for democracy and an end to one-party rule. They posed a direct ideological threat to the Communist Party.

This year, the party locked in on a surprising new target: young Marxists.

About 50 students and recent graduates of the country’s most prestigious universities convened in August in Shenzhen, an electronics manufacturing hub, to rally for factory workers attempting to form a union.

Among them was Yue Xin, a 20-something fresh out of Peking University. Earlier this year, she made headlines by calling for the elite school to release the results of its investigation into a decades-old rape case.

This time, she was one of the most vocal leaders of the labour rights group, appearing in photographs with her fist raised in a Marxist salute and wearing a T-shirt that said “Unity is strength” – the name of a patriotic Chinese Communist song.

Yue, a passionate student of Marx and Mao Zedong, espoused the same values as the party. She wrote an open letter to Xi and the party’s central leadership saying all the students wanted was justice for the workers at Jasic Technology.

Her letter quoted Xi’s own remarks: “We must adhere to the guiding position of Marxism”.

Yue called Marx “our mentor” and likened the ideas of him and Mao to spiritual sustenance.

Nonetheless, she ended up among those rounded up in a raid on the flat the activists were staying at in Shenzhen. While most have been released, Yue remains unaccounted for. She has been missing for four months.

Some of these individuals might resurface in 2019 (particularly the foreigners whom the Canadian government has demanded be released). But most of those who are disappeared by Beijing are never seen or heard from again.

via RSS http://bit.ly/2StSLAD Tyler Durden

A recent Philly.com article noted that, despite the supposed economic “boom”, professionals like real estate agents, farmers, business executives and even computer programmers are all still living paycheck to paycheck. Responding to a Washington Post inquiry on Twitter, millennials, Generation Xers and baby boomers that work in a range of geographic areas claim that they have simply been unable to save as rent, childcare and student loans have all gotten in the way.

Americans living paycheck to paycheck were highlighted in a recent report from the Federal Reserve that showed four in ten adults say they couldn’t produce $400 in an emergency without going into debt or selling something. And now a partial government shutdown that is seeing nearly 800,000 federal workers not getting paid has fueled the discussion on Twitter about how brief income lapses can be disastrous for some households.

My husband is a Park Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and he had to sign his furlough papers. We have a 4 yr old and a 4 month old, and we don’t know when his next check will come. Mortgage is due, Christmas 2 days away. #ShutdownStories

— Taylor Futch (@TaylorFutch1) December 24, 2018

Another Twitter user wrote: “Broke my lease to accept new fed job for which I have to attend 7 months of training in another state. Training canceled with shutdown. Homeless. Can’t afford short(?)-term housing/have to work full-time for no pay/returning Christmas presents.”

Those involved in the conversation on Twitter have been using the hashtag #ShutdownStories in response to Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who asked reporters last week: “Who’s living that they’re not going to make it to the next paycheck?”

Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist at the Department of Labor, has the answer: “It’s astronomical what people need just to make it month to month. Given the high cost of transportation, housing, health care. … There is often no wriggle room.”

This holiday season, about 2,000 employees working basic government jobs like housekeeping and security are all not getting paid as a result of the shutdown: “My supervisor told me we won’t be getting paid, so my bills won’t be getting paid,” one State Department cleaner said matter of factly.

And even outside of the government shutdown, professionals across the nation are having trouble making ends meet. The chairman of liberal arts at a southern California college, Sol Smith, said that he’s simply unable to save with four daughters and higher healthcare costs.

“I see no way out. I am 40, have built a strong career, have 17 years experience, and if something were to happen to me, my wife and kids would be homeless within a year when my life insurance ran out,” he said.

Lani Harrison says she has trouble buying groceries after paying her $2,249 rent on her LA apartment she shares with her husband, who is a software engineer. They are raising three kids. She earns $40 per appointment as a certified car seat installer.

She said: “Each month, we have to stretch his paycheck to make things work. We really don’t have any savings. Many months we go under.”

When she confides in friends about her financial situation, she’s “often surprised” that their stories are similar. Dillon Holt, who works as a housekeeping assistant in Nashville, said he’s down to one piece of chicken in his freezer. He says his checking account often sits around $0 and that he’s unable to put away any money for the future or for an emergency. “I make $12.50, work 40-50 hours a week. I still don’t have a savings account,” he said.

Finally, for Emily Webb, who works as an arts administrator in Columbus, Ohio and as a waitress on the side, it is “a precarious dance” to stay afloat each month.

Webb has a master’s degree but can’t keep up with her student loans. She said: “It’s a scramble at the end of a paycheck to deposit my tips and make sure none of my automatic payments bounce.” 

Her one piece of good fortune? She’s finally been able to pay off her nine-year-old car. 

“The plastic part of the back bumper was slowly sliding off the back of it. I got rear-ended by an uninsured driver two years ago, so I reattached it with zip ties,” she said.

via RSS http://bit.ly/2EYDd3B Tyler Durden

If it was Trump’s intention to spike futures with his Saturday tweet updating on the current state of US-China trade negotiations, he succeeded (at least for now).

Recall that on Saturday morning, Trump tweeted that he “Just had a long and very good call with President Xi of China. Deal is moving along very well. If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas and points of dispute. Big progress being made!”

Just had a long and very good call with President Xi of China. Deal is moving along very well. If made, it will be very comprehensive, covering all subjects, areas and points of dispute. Big progress being made!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2018

A subsequent report by the WSJ cautioned to take Trump’s tweet with a grain of salt, especially since given the market volatility Trump is liable to be exaggerating the chances of a deal, especially since trade optimism is expected to boost markets, Trump’s favorite “barometer” of his administration.

… people familiar with the state of negotiations said the president may be overstating how close the two sides are to an agreement. They note Mr. Trump has looked to calm markets, which have gyrated in recent days, in part, because of concern that the trade fight between the US and China could spin out of control.

The tweet also followed a Friday CNBC report that the White House had spoken with a prominent hedge fund investor how to halt the market rout, who responded that the president should end his criticism of Powell on Twitter, stop administration turnover and reach a trade deal with China in order to help markets.

And while there is a long way to go before a deal is reached, the algos will certainly not be blamed for crashing the market this time because with the open for S&P futures for trading at 6pm, the Emini future spike, as much as 20 point, and was last trading 0.7% higher, just above 2,500 (which incidentally is exactly where SocGen predicted in November 2017 the S&P will close 2018). Then again, with the S&P so far failing to rise above Friday’s high of 2,520 it would not be at all surprising to see the entire kneejerk reaction higher fade once algos realize that this is just Trump doing everything in his power to prop up stocks on the last day of the year, especially with the offshore yuan trading largely unchanged on the Trump prnouncement.

via RSS http://bit.ly/2EWmCgU Tyler Durden

A former Kremlin spy and state-linked arms dealer claims he acted on behalf of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska to chase down a $19 million debt owed by former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, according to a “months-long investigation” by TIME magazine. 

The ex-spy, Victor Boyarkin, says he was tasked with pressuring Manafort to repay the debt, stemming from a 2014 lawsuit in the Cayman Islands claiming Manafort disappeared with the money.  The Russian oligarch said earlier this year from New York that Manafort was part of a group that disappeared with $26 million a decade ago. 

“He owed us a lot of money… and he was offering ways to pay it back,” Boyarkin told TIME after the magazine ambushed him at an early October conference in Greece organized by former KGB agent and state railway boss Vladimir Yakunin (“How did you find me here?” Boyarkin repeatedly asked). 

And while Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign less than 48 hours after Donald Trump received his first national security briefing as a candidate, TIME is essentially implying that Manafort – indebted to a Russian billionaire – would have promoted a pro-Kremlin agenda from within the Trump camp. What this months-long TIME investigation boils down to is innuendo, as special counsel Robert Mueller – who has approached Boyarkin – has not charged Manafort with anything related to his alleged outstanding debt to Deripaska.

“I told them to go dig a ditch,” Boyarkin said of Mueller’s contact.

But those connections could be potentially important to the Special Counsel’s inquiry. They would mark some of the clearest evidence of the leverage that powerful Russians had over Trump’s campaign chairman. And they may shed light on why Manafort discussed going right back to work for pro-Russian interests in Eastern Europe after he crashed out of the Trump campaign in August 2016, according to numerous sources in the TIME investigation. –TIME

According to the TIME report, Boyarkin was the “friend” referred to 2017 reports by the Washington Post and The Atlantic as “our friend V,” which was initially suspected to be Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Emails sent just two weeks before Trump accepted the GOP nomination revealed that Manafort attempted to offer “private briefings” about the US presidential race to Deripaska – as one of the emails reads to “get whole.” 

Boyarkin’s history with Manafort goes back to 2006, according to the former Kremlin operative, who said that Deripaska asked the two of them to “redraw the map of Eastern Europe” according to TIME. 

Montenegro, a tiny Balkan nation on the Adriatic Sea, was an important testing ground for Manafort’s relationship with Deripaska. The oligarch had invested heavily in that country, buying control of a vast aluminum smelter in 2005 that accounted for roughly half of Montenegro’s exports and a sixth of its entire economy. The following year, he decided to support the Montenegrins’ drive to become an independent country. That meant breaking away from its more powerful neighbor, Serbia – and convincing the world to recognize Montenegro as an independent state.

To get this done, Deripaska offered the help of several of his advisers, including Manafort. “They were a good team,” says a senior official in Montenegro who was involved in that vote. “They helped get the support we needed from our international partners,” both in Russia and the West, says the official, who spoke to TIME on condition of anonymity. After the people of Montenegro voted by a margin slightly above 55% to declare independence from Serbia in May 2006, all the world’s major powers recognized the results. –TIME

In short, Manafort – who was convicted in August on eight charges of bank and tax fraud connected to his lobbying work in Ukraine – helped steer Montenegro towards independence – a move which was likely supported by the Kremlin. “There was never any real resistance from Moscow [to the independence vote],” said a senior official in the tiny country, who added “Better the Russians come here with suitcases of money than with columns of tanks.”  

Unfortunately for Deripaska, the deal unraveled after Montenegro seized the aluminum plant he controlled – leading to a massive 2014 lawsuit by the billionaire – after which the country sped up its plans to join the NATO military alliance and seek protection under the West’s wing. 

So what did Manafort do? Deeply in debt to the Russian billionaire, Manafort allegedly leveraged his old connections in Montenegro – reconnecting with anti-NATO politician Nebojsa Medojevic to try and scuttle Montenegro’s NATO ambitions. 

At first the tip seemed implausible. Why would one of the world’s most prominent political advisers – still fresh from the chairmanship of the Republican presidential campaign – consider working with a group seen as pro-Russian upstarts in a Balkan nation of 600,000 people?

The senior Montenegrin official suggested an answer. “If Manafort got involved here in 2016, it would only be through the Russians,” he said.

At the time, Russian money was indeed flowing into Montenegrin politics. According to the sanctions list posted Dec. 19, Deripaska and Boyarkin were “involved in providing Russian financial support to a Montenegrin political party ahead of Montenegro’s 2016 elections.” –TIME

Unfortunately for Medojevic and the Anti-NATO faction, “the meeting [with Manafort] was a disappointment, and that no deal came out of it.” 

For Medojevic and the rest of the opposition, the elections in Montenegro did not go smoothly. The day before the vote, a group of men was arrested and charged with plotting to overthrow the government of Montenegro, assassinate its leader and seize power by force – all with abundant help from Moscow. The Montenegrin authorities later charged two agents of Russia’s military intelligence service with masterminding the alleged coup. Several of the leaders of the opposition in that country, including Medojevic, are currently on trial for charges that stem from the alleged coup attempt. –TIME

The next year, Montenegro’s parliament ratified its membership in NATO, while pro-Russian demonstrators protested outside. According to Russia’s foreign ministry, lawmakers were “trampling all democratic norms and principles.” 

TIME closes by noting that “it remains unclear whether Manafort actually provided any services in Montenegro in 2016. His lawyers deny he did any work for any Montenegrin politicians that year. Nor is it clear whether Manafort owes debts to Deripaska and, if so, how much.” 

via RSS http://bit.ly/2QdlcR9 Tyler Durden

In a world where pesky drones are becoming an increasingly greater nuisance – see the embarrassment that was last week’s Gatwick airport shutdown– the NYPD is taking the other side and is ramping up security for the city’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square with more than 1,200 cameras — some installed on high-flying drones — to protect the nearly 2 million expected revelers, police officials said Friday.

One of the camera-equipped drones will be tethered to the top of a building to prevent potential attacks on the party below, Police Commissioner James O’Neill said at a press conference quoted by the NY Post.

“This is the first time we’re going to be using it at a large-scale event,” he said. “It’s just going to give us an additional view of the crowd.”

Bloomberg reports that the drones are being put in place in an attempt to prevent another incident like the shooting in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, in which 59 people who were attending an outdoor concert were killed by a sniper located in a hotel room overlooking the Vegas strip.

What about bystanders who decide to bring one of their own drones? That would be a bad idea because counter-terrorism cops will also deploy counter-drone technology to protect against attackers, or anyone else for that matter, with anyone caught flying a drone likely to be arrested.

“Don’t fly a drone that night… There’s no need to fly a drone,” O’Neill said. “And if you do fly one, there’s a good chance you’ll end up getting arrested.”

In a press briefing, Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said that in addition to the drones, the police will be using other technology for security including the use of 1,225 portable and stationary cameras. Miller described the drones as supporting devices that will give “visual aid and flexibility” from being able to move a camera around a large crowd and being able to move quickly to any required spot.

The precautions come with the NYPD reporting that so far there have been no credible threats directed at the ball-dropping bash or toward New York City in general. But O’Neill warned, “If anyone sees something that doesn’t look right … we need to know about it.”

Thousands of New York’s 37,000-officer police force, including hundreds of rookies sworn in Friday, will flood the area. No one will be more than 10 feet away from a uniformed or undercover plain clothes officer, O’Neill said. Participants in the celebration will be cordoned off in sections, or pens, in an area from 37th Street to 59th Street and between Sixth and Eighth Avenues.

In addition to the flying cameras, police will also set up 235 vehicles to block areas where revelers gather in Times Square, while 50 canine teams will be present to sniff out explosives.

“You will see a lot of officers with a lot of gear and long guns,” said O’Neill. “There will be much security that people see and much that they don’t see.”

Officers will also install more than 200 cement blocks in addition to metal bollards that already exist, according to the station.

Entry to the party starts at 11 a.m. and the square closes at 4 a.m. As usual, no backpacks, coolers, umbrellas or alcohol are allowed.

via RSS http://bit.ly/2SumoS4 Tyler Durden

NBC host Chuck Todd kicked off a full hour of discussion about Climate change on Sunday by telling “Meet the Press” viewers that there would be no debate over the topic – as the “science is settled.” 

“We’re not going to debate climate change, the existence of it. The Earth is getting hotter. And human activity is a major cause, period,” said Todd. “We’re not going to give time to climate deniers. The science is settled, even if political opinion is not.”

Meanwhile, outgoing Democratic California Governor Jerry Brown was on the show to discuss global warming – calling it a serious threat akin to what Americans faced at the beginning of WWII, and that the United States is not doing enough to address the problem. 

“[N]ot even close, and not close in California, and we’re doing more than anybody else, and not close in America or the rest of the world,” said Brown, adding “We’ve got to get off this idea, ‘it’s the economy, stupid.’ No, it’s the environment.”

Brown also knocked President Trump over his skepticism regarding climate change. 

“[Trump] is very convinced of his position,” said Brown. “And his position is that there’s nothing abnormal about the fires in California or the rising sea level or all the other incidents of climate change.”

Former New York City Mayor and potential 2020 presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg echoed Brown’s sentiment, telling Todd “I will be out there demanding that anybody that’s running has a plan. And I want to hear the plan, and I want everybody to look at it and say whether it’s doable,” said the billionaire philanthropist. 

As the Daily Caller’s Chris White notes: 

congressional Democrats are wrestling with a new flock of activist lawmakers who are pushing the party further to the left on climate policies. One of the ideas comingfrom Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York is the Green New Deal.

Sanders, a self-avowed socialist, and Ocasio-Cortez want to move the U.S. to 100-percent green energy, federal job guarantees for workers forced out of their fossil fuel jobs, guaranteed minimum income and universal health care. Analysts warn the Green New Deal could come with a monster price tag.

Eliminating fossil fuels and transitioning to a 100-percent renewable electric grid could cost as much as $5.2 trillion over two decades, according to a 2010 study by the conservative Heritage Foundation. That’s about $218 billion to move the grid away from coal and natural gas. –Daily Caller

Last month Todd was criticized after “Meet the Press” hosted a panelist who denied the existence of climate change. 

via RSS http://bit.ly/2ThaGKA Tyler Durden

More auto dealers are implementing Amazon-style purchase options, allowing customers to buy their vehicles online and have them delivered to their home or business.

One of the most consistent complaints about car buying is visiting the dealership. Customers dislike the obligatory haggling over price and pushy sales tactics that can sometimes be used to close a purchase. Online selling takes away much of that aggravation, making terms clear for buyers without the hassle, although in most cases they won’t get to take their vehicles out for a test drive.

A shift to online sales could allow dealers to expand geographic reach and make it easier for customers to compare prices and shop competitively. For now, used cars are leading the charge in online sales as they don’t need to be sold through franchised car dealers, which allows for more of a free market for buyers and sellers. After customers select a vehicle they like, they can arrange to have them delivered to their home or business in “many markets across the US” according to a recent Wall Street Journal report.

One such company is Carvana, which was founded in 2012, and which delivers cars to 85 United States markets. The company is based in Phoenix and sold about 66,400 vehicles this year through the third quarter, up from about 44,000 vehicles last year.

And as customers become familiar with this type of purchasing, more dealers are jumping on board. Some deliver a car anywhere for free and others can charge by the mile for delivery. Still, statistics on how many cars are being sold online are difficult to find, because the definition of online sales hasn’t been defined across the industry and because the market is so young.

Despite the relative obscurity of the online auto market, it is increasingly finding fans: Brendan Harrington, COO of Penske Motor Group told the Wall Street Journal: “Everyone loves Amazon and it’s pushing us to do more. People now expect the same thing from the car business.”

Two years ago Harrington launched an online store that lets buyers finish most of a purchase transaction online before arranging for home delivery. The buyer then only signs the final paperwork when the car is received. Direct delivery sales, which include online purchases where the buyer never walks into a dealership, account for about 25% of the 2500 cars he sells each month. The delivery service adds on costs, he has said, but he keeps offering the service because LA traffic makes his stores difficult to reach.

But this model isn’t always a prime example of efficiency. While the Wall Street Journal article claims that Tesla has had “success” selling directly to customers, auto club forums and social media sites have been flooded with complaints by customers waiting longer than promised for delivery of their vehicles – a problem Elon Musk has referred to as “delivery hell”.

However, what Tesla has proven is that people will purchase items costing $75,000 or more online, and that has caught the eye of the industry.

For example, customer Robert Rivers was enticed by how simple it was to order online and embraced Carvana’s no questions asked return policy. He ordered a 2017 Kia Forte off of the website, which was dropped off at his home three days later. After he changed his mind and decided he wanted a higher end model, Carvana came by and swapped the car out for him.

“I didn’t have to deal with the sales guys. I filled out everything online,” he proudly proclaimed.

And the internet is familiar territory for car buyers. The average consumer spends about 13 hours researching vehicles online before making a purchase. This compares to about 3 1/2 hours that they would generally spend at a dealership. Another dealership that has implemented online car buying is Earl Stewart Toyota in North Palm Beach, Florida. The general manager has said that he introduced service because he saw that customers wanted to “maintain control throughout the entire transaction”. 

Still, going to the dealership will likely still be the primary way that cars are sold, due to the expenses associated with delivering them. But it doesn’t mean that in-roads haven’t been made into embracing this potentially new sales model. While Amazon allows people to research vehicles by models and year on its website, people can’t purchase cars directly from the retailer – yet, although it is only a matter of time before the fledgling monopoly changes that.

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Federal and state investigators are reportedly analyzing employment documents of illegal immigrants who allegedly worked at President Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf club, according to their attorney, Anibal Romero. 

Anibal Romero, a Newark attorney who represents five undocumented immigrants who say they worked at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, said in an interview Saturday that he met with investigators from the New Jersey state attorney general’s office and two FBI agents in November, before the workers began to go public with their stories. –SF Gate

Romero says he turned over fake green cards and Social Security numbers “that supervisors at the golf club allegedly gave one of his clients,” a 44-year-old Guatemalan national named Victorina Morales. Romero also produced pay stubs for Costa Rican native Sandra Diaz who now has legal status, but says she was undocumented during her three years of employment at the club. 

Romero says he reached out to special counsel Robert Mueller’s office since he was afraid to loop in the Justice Department – then headed by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. 

“I wasn’t sure, one, if they’d take me seriously and, two, if this could backfire on my clients,” Romero told the NY Daily News. 

Mueller’s office, which is separately investigating Trump’s campaign for possible collusion with Russians during the 2016 election, made contact and informed Romero the matter was not within their jurisdiction. –NY Daily News

Mueller’s office referred the matter to the FBI, after which an agent in New Jersey called Romero.

“He said to me that he had received a referral from Robert Mueller’s office and that he already knew the specifics and that he wanted to meet with me in person,” Romero said, adding that he then met with two agents at a Branchburg, NJ federal office where he outlined the same evidence he had already given the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. FBI agents said they would “coordinate” with the New Jersey AG. 

“I’m confident that federal and state authorities will conduct a complete and thorough investigation,” said Romero. 

Morales and Diaz first came forward with their allegations in interviews with The New York Times earlier this month.

Both women allege management at the Trump club knew they were undocumented and set them up with fake work documents.

In Morales’ case, Romero said a supervisor compiled all of her information and then took her photo in the laundry room of the club.

A few days later, the boss — who’s not being named by The News — told Morales he had received her fake documents and said he would hold on to them.

“This was a practice and pattern,” Romero said. “My clients felt like they were trapped and they felt like the fake documents could be used against them.” –NY Daily News

According to Harry Sandick, a former assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York, the undocumented workers may have committed immigration fraud if they knowingly used fake documents – a federal offense which carries prison time, heavy fines and deportation. 

Sandick added that the supervisor who allegedly procured the fake documents, and/or anyone else involved in the matter, are subject to being charged with the same crime. 

“Immigration crimes are hard to prosecute so the government may see something like this as a possible deterrent case,” said Sandick. “To show that even someone who works at the President’s golf club is under the microscope is very impressive and tells you that anyone can be charged.”

Romero said that while his clients have not been given any assurances, “They are the victims here.” 

“Any attempt at charging them would ignore the real problem.” 

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It is the same depressing story to which Illinoisans have grown accustomed: Population is collapsing and it’s only getting worse.

Illinois had one of the largest population busts in the nation this year according to new data published Dec. 19 from the US Census Bureau. Illinois is the sixth-largest state, with a population estimated at 12,741,080. Since 2013, the state had seen more than 100,000 residents leave, when the population was 12.9 million. 

“Illinois suffered the second-largest numeric loss (45,116) of any state, following only New York, which was down 48,510 residents but has a much larger overall population of more than 19.5 million,” said the Chicago Tribune.

The population bust was also evident in other “high tax” states such as West Virginia, Louisiana, Hawaii, Mississippi, Alaska, Connecticut, and Wyoming. No other states in the Midwest had declines like Illinois.

“I think in a way Illinois is kind of standing out in the Midwest,” William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., a not-for-profit public policy organization, told the Chicago Tribune.

“Illinois actually has a population loss, which means immigration and fertility isn’t enough to make up for the domestic outmigration. It says something about the relative pull of the economy of other states compared to Illinois,” Frey added.

In the quarters before July 2017 dating back to the 2008 recession, Illinois experienced a job growth rate of 1.7%, in line with many other states. Data from the next twelve months that coincide to the day with census data, showed job growth in the state rapidly declined to .97%, 44th in the nation. 

The reason why residents are fleeing the state is not entirely clear, but there are many other factors, including migration patterns. Some of those factors are the state’s weather, cost-of-living, high taxes, out of control crime, and more significant economic opportunity in other regions across the country.

“Our economic recovery has been a lot more sluggish,” said Brian Harger, a research associate with Northern Illinois University’s Center for Governmental Studies.

Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings said Illinois’ population decline has accelerated since the recession, there has been a large outflow of migration that has been uninterrupted since the mid-1920s. It is only in the last decade that the state’s birthrate and immigration rates have not kept up with the increasing outflow of residents 

“The factors that have buffered this loss in the past, the birthrate and the level of foreign migration, have cooled off,” Harger said.

“The biggest concern isn’t just the loss of people, but it’s the aging population and that most of those leaving are of working age,” he said.

As a result of the population bust, Illinois is expected to lose one member of Congress after the apportionment process in 2021. This, accompanied with fewer electoral votes in presidential elections, leaves the state with a smaller voice in federal affairs.

With a population bust currently underway and an economic outlook that is stagnating, this is a perfect setup for the upcoming financial storm: America’s public pension system is at a breaking point, and the first shoe to drop will likely be Illinois, where the shortfall for the five state-run pension plans – for teachers, state workers, university employees, judges and lawmakers – in 2018 recently hit a record $134 billion despite strong markets…

… and even as Illinoisans contributed $8 billion dollars to the pension funds in 2018, $6 billion more than what they contributed in 2008.

As Wirepoints recently noted, “It just shows how unmanageable Illinois pensions have become. Billions in taxpayers contributions and above expected investment returns didn’t even make a dent in Illinois’ accumulated pension debt. In fact, the situation worsened for taxpayers and pensioners alike over the year. The pension hole is now larger by more than $4 billion.”

Addiong insult to demographic injury, Illinois’ pension funds have collapsed – putting both state workers and taxpayers at risk – during one of the longest bull markets in history. Since the end of the Great Recession, the S&P 500 index has recovered and grown by 200 percent. During that same time, Illinois’ pension shortfall worsened by 72 percent, or $56 billion. In fiscal year 2009, the unfunded liability was “just” $78 billion. Today, it’s nearly $134 billion.

 

Some of the growth in debt was due to the pension funds changing their actuarial assumptions, including SURS dropping its assumed rate of return in 2018. Regardless, the systems’ overall downward trend is clear. And the warning this trend provides is even more stark: if the state’s pension debts continue to worsen during a period of remarkable market returns, imagine how those funds will fare when the next recession inevitably hits.

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