U.S. Lobster Exports to China Freefalling Amid Trade Dispute

Lobster exports out of Maine are free-falling this year as a result of trade hostilities between the United States and lobster-hungry China, the Associated Press reports. The country, which has become a huge customer for the U.S. lobster industry, issued tariffs on many food products in July 2018, including American lobsters. The higher cost has pushed Chinese customers to look farther north for the coveted crustacean. Now, lobstermen in Canada, who catch the same species of lobster as American suppliers, are profiting off the slack. Canada’s lobster exports neared $200 million through June, while America’s exports through June were valued at less than $19 million—over $70 million less than the previous year. Despite sustained domestic demand, the Chinese tariffs have taken a toll on lobster businesses in Maine, forcing some to lay off workers working in wholesale. “China is so large that you have to look at a number of new markets to replace that business,” said Marianne LaCroix, Executive Director of the Maine Lobster Marketing Collaborative.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-lobster-exports-to-china-freefalling-amid-trade-dispute?ref=home

Why was KAC photographed with Jeffrey Epstein's chief pilot in 2016?

This was taken just after the 2016 election. Hmmm...

https://twitter.com/soychicka/status/1150943271566397442?s=21

Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke About Migrant Deaths and Post Sexis

Source: ProPublica

by A.C. Thompson July 1, 10:55 a.m. EDT

Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.

In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, “Oh well.” Another responded with an image and the words “If he dies, he dies.”

Created in August 2016, the Facebook group is called “I’m 10-15” and boasts roughly 9,500 members from across the country. (10-15 is Border Patrol code for “aliens in custody.”) The group described itself, in an online introduction, as a forum for “funny” and “serious” discussion about work with the patrol. “Remember you are never alone in this family,” the introduction said.

Responsible for policing the nation’s southern and northern boundaries, the Border Patrol has come under intense scrutiny as the Trump administration takes new, more aggressive measures to halt the influx of undocumented migrants across the United States-Mexico border. The patrol’s approximately 20,000 agents serve under the broader U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, which has been faulted for allegedly mistreating children and adults in its custody. The agency’s leadership has been in turmoil, with its most recent acting chief, John Sanders, resigning last week.

Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes

Boeing's 737 Max Software Outsourced to $9-an-Hour Engineers

It remains the mystery at the heart of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max crisis: how a company renowned for meticulous design made seemingly basic software mistakes leading to a pair of deadly crashes. Longtime Boeing engineers say the effort was complicated by a push to outsource work to lower-paid contractors.

The Max software -- plagued by issues that could keep the planes grounded months longer after U.S. regulators this week revealed a new flaw -- was developed at a time Boeing was laying off experienced engineers and pressing suppliers to cut costs.

Increasingly, the iconic American planemaker and its subcontractors have relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour to develop and test software, often from countries lacking a deep background in aerospace -- notably India.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/boeing-s-737-max-software-outsourced-to-9-an-hour-engineers

The Mueller Report - Available on Amazon March 26?

GOP Congressman Spent His Week Harassing Muslim Colleague On Twitter

Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) spent his first week at work since the government reopened harassing a Muslim colleague on Twitter with baseless suggestions that she hates Jewish people.

It started on Tuesday, when he found out he had been chosen as the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Exciting! But he couldn’t fully rejoice in the honor of being the second-most-powerful member of a House subcommittee because he also learned that he would have to work on the panel alongside freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

“Crazy to watch what House Dems are empowering/elevating,” Zeldin tweeted.

Was just selected as Ranking Member of the @HouseForeign Subcommittee on Oversight & Investigations! Just learned Freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar was also put on this committee w oversight of US foreign policy. Crazy to watch what House Dems are empowering/elevating.
— Lee Zeldin (@RepLeeZeldin) January 29, 2019

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lee-zeldin-ilhan-omar-racist-dog-whistle_us_5c54d2b5e4b0871047537f47

Does Individual No.1 even know where he is?

Tax Change Helps Executives Afford Pricier Planes

By Rachel Feintzeig
Sept. 12, 2018 10:51 a.m. ET

The recent changes to the tax code are giving business executives a new perk: the opportunity to deduct the entirety of a corporate-jet purchase.

President Trump signed more than 100 changes to the U.S. tax code into law at the end of last year. Among them: The price of a new or used airplane purchased by a company can be a 100% write-off against its earnings.

That is a major change. Before, buyers of new planes could generally deduct at least 50% of the cost of an aircraft in the first year. Buyers of used airplanes had to take those deductions more slowly.

Marcus Adolfsson, chief executive of online technology publisher Mobile Nations, bought a used Embraer Phenom 100 for just under $2 million at the end of December, right as the new tax law was going into effect. The rule allowing owners to deduct 100% on used equipment was retroactive to late September.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/tax-change-helps-executives-afford-pricier-planes-1536763868

This tweet didn't age well...

Of Course Trump Wants His Personal Pilot to Run the FAA

Margaret Carlson
08.06.18 4:54 AM ET

It’s not easy to get Donald Trump off one of his tears: ripping up treaties, hating his attorney general, insulting black athletes.

But Democrats with the tacit agreement of Republicans have quietly delayed one of Trump’s more reckless ideas to the point where it is all but dead: appointing his pilot, John Dunkin, who hasn’t had much to do since Trump started flying Air Force One, to run the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA isn’t a task force created to reward Trump’s cronies. The friendly skies would be less so if it weren’t for the FAA with its 45,000 employees regulating millions of flights moving 756 million passengers annually without an airline crash in nearly a decade.

Trump put Dunkin’s name on the table in a meeting at the White House with members of the pertinent aviation committees from Capitol Hill on February 14. Dunkin is a fine pilot. He and Trump agree on inconsequential aviation matters: that jets should not be allowed to fly over Mar a Lago; no plane should be grounded for not having the right paperwork, and that it was wrong of the FAA to remove Trump’s name from navigational points in Florida.

And they see eye-to-eye on consequential ones: Trump said Dunkin agreed with him that the the FAA was bungling NextGen, the multi-billion dollar overhaul of air traffic control and on splitting the agency into two pieces with air traffic control going private.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/of-course-trump-wants-his-personal-pilot-to-run-the-faa