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Protesters wearing giant puppet heads resembling Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australian Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are seen during a Stop Adani protest outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, February 12, 2019. Picture taken February 12, 2019. AAP Image/Lukas Coch/via REUTERS
April 16, 2019
By Sonali Paul and Melanie Burton
TOWNSVILLE, Australia (Reuters) – On the main shopping street in the tropical north Australian city of Townsville, dotted with “For Lease” signs, Chrissa Alexion is adamant a planned $4 billion coal mine should be shelved because of its contribution to climate change.
“It’s madness,” she told Reuters, on holiday from the Queensland state capital. “Jobs are really important but… where I come from in Brisbane, no one wants the mine to go ahead.”
Some 380 km (235 miles) into the remote Outback, Ben Houlihan, who runs the pub in Einasleigh (population 37), is in favor of the Carmichael mine in the undeveloped Galilee basin, proposed by India’s Adani Enterprises.
“We need the jobs and the royalties… They’re playing a political game with people’s livelihoods,” he said.
The mine has become a lightning rod for voters ahead of next month’s general election, dividing the country as well as Australia’s major political parties – the conservative Liberal-National coalition government and the opposition Labor Party.
Both Labour and the Coalition constituents on either side of the issue of climate change, which has rocketed up the agenda after a summer of debilitating drought, devastating bushfires and a once-in-a-hundred year flood.
While opinion polls point to a victory for Labor, the acrimonious debate over coal and climate has driven some voters towards a growing number of independent candidates.
“I think this is going to be a tight race,” said Michael McMillan, strategy director for Townsville Enterprise Ltd, a group promoting investment in the biggest town in north Queensland.
“I think what we’ve seen play out in relation to the Adani mine will have an influence through the election process. Every job counts. When you have potential parties opposed to mining, that will be considered come polling day.”
Queensland is set to be a major battleground in the election, with nearly half its seats on a knife’s edge. Labor won Townsville’s seat at the last election by just 37 votes.
Unemployment in the city, a stepping off point for the Great Barrier Reef, is at 10 percent and youth unemployment is running at more than 20 percent.
“We’re beginning to join the dots between activity like mining and burning coal and the impacts on climate,” said Peter Jones, a social work lecturer leading a Stop Adani campaign in Townsville, which was ravaged by floods in February.
“Jobs shouldn’t be coming at the expense of the environment.”
MAJOR PARTIES UNDER FIRE
Far to the south, in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the ruling conservative Coalition is under fire for failing to do enough to curb carbon emissions.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison famously brandished a lump of coal, Australia’s second largest export earner, in parliament when he was treasurer, taunting the opposition over its renewable energy push.
The Liberals last year lost the long-held seat of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to an independent who campaigned strongly on climate policies.
Another ex-prime minister, Tony Abbott, also faces an independent looking to oust him from a seat he has held for 25 years, while Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is battling not one but two independents, both pushing for urgent climate action.
Labor, the traditional workers’ party, has its own issues.
It is being torn between its allegiance to the mining union and losing votes to the Greens.
“Tell me what my workers are going to do that pays the same wages and conditions and offers for their family?,” trade union spokesman Stephen Smyth, a third generation coal miner, of the Construction, Forestry, Martime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU)told Reuters.
UPHILL BATTLE
The Carmichael mine, led by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade, delayed by a long string of legal action from green groups and now held up by regulations under the federal Coalition government and state Labor government.
“We just need the state government to stop shifting the goal posts and get behind us,” Adani Mining Chief Executive Lucas Dow said.
“What we are focused on is jobs for people here and in central Queensland. We are tremendously excited and our resolve has hardened if anything,” he told Reuters.
But the longer the delay, the more difficult the task for Adani. Worried about a backlash from customers and investors, all of Australia’s major banks have declined to fund the project, which has been whittled down to a sixth of its original size.
Both Labor and the Coalition have said the mine needs to stack up on its economic merits and have declined to offer government support.
Last month, one of Australia’s top insurers said it would not back any new thermal coal mines, and a judge ruled another coal mine could not go ahead, partly due to emissions targets under the Paris climate agreement.
Meanwhile, Australian coal prices have slumped to $70 from $120 a tonne over the past seven months, raising further questions about whether the project can turn a profit.
This week, Australia’s environment minister gave the greenlight to Adani’s groundwater management plan, but said the mine still needed nine more approvals.
The lack of support from the capital could trigger a protest vote by those who feel Canberra’s decisions do not take their needs into account, said McMillan of Townsville Enterprise.
“We are seeing ourselves again in a two-speed economy. It’s Melbourne and Sydney, and the rest of Australia. And I think you’re going to see that come into play in this next general election.”
($1 = 1.7320 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Melanie Burton and Sonali Paul. Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Supporters throw balloons as they attend a campaign rally of Indonesia’s presidential candidate for the next general election Joko Widodo at a stadium in Serang, Banten province, Indonesia, March 24, 2019. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/File Photo
April 16, 2019
JAKARTA (Reuters) –
More than 192 million Indonesians are eligible to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections on Wednesday after campaigns focused on the economy, but with political Islam looming large over the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation.
President Joko Widodo, a former furniture salesman who launched his political career as a small-city mayor, is standing for re-election in a contest with ex-general Prabowo Subianto, whom he narrowly defeated in 2014.
As conservative Islam gains traction, politicians including Widodo have taken pains to appear more Islamic. The worry for investors is that the appeal for conservative votes will translate into populist policy.
Most opinion polls give Widodo a double-digit lead but the opposition has disputed survey findings. Some recent surveys have shown Prabowo catching up.
The opposition has also said it has uncovered data irregularities affecting millions on the electoral rolls and has vowed to take legal action or use “people power” if its complaints are not resolved.
(Graphic: Indonesia election by the numbers – https://tmsnrt.rs/2V4DCqq)
The election is a huge logistical operation in the world’s third-largest democracy with 245,000 candidates vying for votes in what is described as the world’s biggest single-day election.
Nearly 350,000 police and military personnel, in addition to 1.6 million paramilitary officers, will fan out across the archipelago of 17,000 islands to safeguard the vote.
Polling stations will open at 7 a.m. (2200 GMT on Tuesday) in the east and close at 1 p.m. (0600 GMT) in the west.
Unofficial “quick counts” will be released hours after polling ends and the winning presidential candidate is expected to be apparent by late Wednesday.
The General Election Commission is expected to announce an official result in May.
THE “NEW FACE” IN POLITICS, WIDODO SEEKS A SECOND TERM
When Widodo was elected five years ago he offered a break from the military and political elite that had clung to power since the fall of strongman ruler Suharto in 1998.
Now, Widodo, 57, is running on his own record for a second term.
With his easy smile and signature “blusukan”, or impromptu walkabouts, he came to power on a wave of support for a clean, can-do image he cultivated as a small-city mayor, and then as governor of the capital, Jakarta.
Still, during his political rise, Widodo, a moderate Muslim from the city of Solo in Java island, has had to fend off smear campaigns suggesting he was anti-Islam, a communist or in debt to China. On Sunday, he made a pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest site, Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
As president, Widodo was saddled with expectations he could fix a host of problems, from human rights abuses to pervasive graft. Jokowi, as he is popularly known, also inherited an economy coming off a commodities boom, and faced an obstructive parliament.
He stitched together a majority in parliament and while unable to hit an economic growth target of 7 percent, led a push to build ports, roads and airports.
THE CHALLENGER – FORMER SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDER
Challenger Prabowo Subianto, 67, has long harbored ambitions for the top job and has cultivated a strongman image and ties with hardline Islamist groups in the hope of boosting his chances.
In the last election, in 2014, Prabowo, the head of the Great Indonesia Movement party, came within 6 percentage points of beating Widodo.
A former special forces commander, Prabowo comes from an elite political family. His father was one of Indonesia’s most prominent economists, serving in the cabinets of both presidents Sukarno and Suharto. The latter was his father-in-law.
Prabowo has fired up his rallies with warnings the country is at the mercy of unspecified foreign powers and on the verge of fragmentation.
CLAWING BACK VOTER SUPPORT IN MUSLIM HEARTLAND
Since taking office, Widodo has made efforts to bring religious parties into his coalition, and to secure the backing of the conservative voters he failed to win over in 2014.
His decision to pick Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin, 76, as his running mate was part of a strategy to enhance his ticket’s appeal among conservatives but it disappointed some of his moderate and progressive supporters, who say the president is pandering to conservatives and fear the erosion of Indonesia’s reputation for religious tolerance and pluralism.
Widodo’s aides say the mobilization of grassroots support and canvassing of thousands of Islamic schools in conservative provinces is crucial to prevent a repeat of 2014, when the opposition attacks cost him votes.
(Graphic: Widodo’s achievements – https://tmsnrt.rs/2CRgHYC)
DISGRUNTLED RURAL VOTERS WEIGH OPTIONS
Economic growth has hovered at about 5 percent over Widodo’s first term, but there has been a drop in real income for its nearly 40 million farmers, who account for a third of the labor force.
Widodo has sought to tame inflation with a cap on prices of staples such as rice and shallots, and to import more food. He remains popular in many rural areas though some farmers are considering the opposition even though Widodo has led an infrastructure drive that has improved access to markets.
Prabowo has said some of Widodo’s infrastructure projects have failed to help ordinary people.
THE FRONT LINE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA ELECTION BATTLE
This election has been fought out over social media as never before. So-called buzzer teams have proliferated, named for the buzz they aim to create, to spread propaganda on behalf of both Widodo and Prabowo, sometimes with fake accounts.
Under Indonesia’s broad internet defamation law, creating and spreading fake news is illegal, but holding social media accounts in false names is not, unless a real person is being impersonated. Both campaign teams deny using buzzers or spreading fake news.
Misinformation is rampant on Facebook, which counts Indonesia as its third-largest market globally with an estimated 130 million accounts, as well as on its Instagram and WhatsApp affiliates and rival service Twitter.
The companies say they are working with the government and fighting false content.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE IN INDONESIA’S MONEY POLITICS
Indonesia has some of the worst money politics in Southeast Asia, according to researchers. Handouts of cash and gifts, anti-graft advocates and politicians say, lead to rampant corruption as successful candidates recoup election expenses, and more, once elected.
Envelopes, usually stuffed with cash ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 rupiah ($1.42 to $7.08), are commonly doled out to voters. Though small amounts, the overall cost can be huge over a six-month campaign.
The going rate for a serious run for one of 560 seats in the national legislature is about 10 billion rupiah, or $708,000, according to the former deputy chief of the Corruption Eradication Commission.
Those aged between 17-35 account for over one third of Indonesia’s 193 million voters. Both Widodo and Prabowo ramped up efforts to appeal to them, deploying everything from holograms, campaign messaging in comic strips, and breakdancing.
PALM OIL CENTRAL TO ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENCY PLEDGES
Both candidates have pledged to achieve energy self-sufficiency by boosting the use of bioenergy, particularly from palm oil. Indonesia opposes a European Union plan to curb the use of palm oil over deforestation concerns.
(Editing by Robert Birsel)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The GM logo is seen at the General Motors Assembly Plant in Ramos Arizpe, in Coahuila state, Mexico November 25, 2017. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril
April 16, 2019
By Nick Carey and Joseph White
DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co has spent five years re-writing its playbook for making money in Latin America and the interior of China. Now, it’s show time for the first results of a project code-named GEM, for Global Emerging Market.
At events this week ahead of the Shanghai Auto Show, the No. 1 U.S. automaker plans to unveil two small SUVs that will be part of a new family of sedans and SUVs the automaker forecasts will make up one in five of its global vehicle sales by 2023.
This is just the opening salvo in a nearly $5-billion bet by GM to sell up to 2 million technology-laden, modern-looking vehicles annually to consumers who today cannot afford GM vehicles designed for the United States, but may someday as their incomes rise.
GM has struggled for years to crack the code for growing profitably outside rich markets, in part because vehicles designed for the U.S. or China’s wealthy coastal cities cost too much for developing world consumers. The company has abandoned some Southeast Asian countries and pulled back from Africa because it could not compete.
This time around, GM says, through disciplined cost-control it has finally found a way to make affordable vehicles in bulk for emerging markets, loaded with the technology that consumers want and still make a profit.
The Chevrolet Tracker and the Buick Encore – not be confused with its American cousin of the same name – are the first tests of a new strategy for engineering vehicles to appeal to buyers in around 40 nations of the world’s middle class such as Brazil and Mexico, and the huge developing market that exists within China’s heartland.
The GEM project involved an unprecedented level of cooperation with GM’s Chinese joint venture partner SAIC Motor Corp Ltd. GM and SAIC shared engineering costs and collaborated on purchasing, GM executives said.
What potential customers will see are vehicles that include amenities such as touchscreens, mobile phone connectivity, rear-view cameras, and safety features like automatic emergency braking and airbags.
What GM is counting on them not to notice is that the number of options is limited, to reduce complexity in purchasing and manufacturing, or that touches such as fully-carpeted trunks are absent. “We may not be the absolute lowest price point in China,” GM president Mark Reuss told Reuters at the automaker’s downtown Detroit headquarters. “But we’re going to be right in that segment where this is a pretty good-sized car… (with) a huge value for what you pay for it.”
FEWER PARTS, LESS COST
The team that set out to build GM’s new vehicle family included engineers and designers from 14 different countries, meeting at the automaker’s technical center in the Detroit suburb of Warren to hammer out details that were then executed in China and elsewhere, GM executives said.
As the basic design of the GEM vehicles took shape, the strategy for where they would be sold changed. GM pulled out of some markets like India and Vietnam that were originally slated to be among the target markets.
The challenge GEM project chief engineer Doug Houlihan faced was how to deliver low-cost vehicles that did not look cheap or lack key safety features.
Sometimes, that meant spending more. Houlihan gave the green light to spend extra on machines that could weld on the tops of car doors rather than stamping the door in one piece. The extra investment delivered a door that fit smoothly into the roof of the car for a sleeker look.
“This gives the customer more than they would expect,” Houlihan said.
To offset that cost, Houlihan and his colleagues dug into logistics and the supply chain.
Shipping some vehicles by sea between Brazilian ports saved money in a market where moving goods by road can be a logistics nightmare.
Houlihan said that Brazilian logistics savings more than paid for the extra $2 per vehicle GM invested for a rear axle five times stronger than its predecessor in South America.One GM plant in Brazil took over some work on engines and bumpers that had previously been outsourced, saving $120 per vehicle – a significant figure for a low-cost vehicle.
Integrating the head-rest on the front seat for some models saved $7 per vehicle.
Chinese suppliers are key to the new GM vehicle line, but the automaker is shifting away from relying on Chinese production.
GM has tried to localize costs for these vehicles as much as possible which can help offset currency fluctuations that hit markets like Brazil. That can also mitigate the impact of tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated trade tensions with China and has threatened a broad tariff on U.S. autos and parts.
“You try and tariff-proof yourself and get it as local as you can,” GM’s Reuss said.
GM’s new emerging market lineup will face plenty of competition. Chinese automakers are pushing into some of the same countries GM has targeted.
Jeff Schuster, a senior executive at auto forecaster LMC Automotive, said GM’s advantage could last just a few years if rivals follow with their own low-cost models that offer modern amenities to match those in new Chevrolets and Buicks.
Internally, a key test will be how GM applies the cost-saving strategies used in the global emerging market project to other vehicle programs.
Houlihan has been named to lead efforts to apply the cost lessons learned from this project to GM’s global lineup of crossovers for the Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet and GMC brands.
(Reporting By Nick Carey; Additional reporting by Ben Klayman; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
Source: OANN
Congressional Democrats issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank AG and other banks to obtain long-sought documents indicating whether foreign nations tried to influence U.S. politics, signaling an escalation of their probes into President Donald Trump’s finances and any dealings with Russians.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said his panel made the requests Monday in coordination with the House Financial Services Committee, according to a statement.
Both panels have been seeking Trump-related material from Deutsche Bank since Democrats took over the House majority in January. Schiff said the Frankfurt-based bank has been cooperative with the probe and Monday’s request was a “friendly subpoena.” Such a subpoena is typically submitted when a firm is willing to hand over documents but wants a formal request first.
“Deutsche Bank is engaged in a productive dialogue with the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees,” Deutsche Bank spokeswoman Kerrie McHugh said Monday. “We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorized investigations in a manner consistent with our legal obligations. If you have questions concerning the investigative activities of the committees, we would refer you to the committees themselves.”
Spokesmen for the six largest U.S. banks — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley — either declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment outside normal business hours. The Trump Organization didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The House Financial Services Committee has long been in talks with Deutsche Bank about Trump-related records, including any tied to Russia. Maxine Waters, the California Democrat who leads the panel, signaled last week that her interest in Russia extended to other lenders as well. At an April 10 hearing where the chief executive officers of the biggest U.S. banks testified, she asked them about customer accounts linked to that country.
‘Very Serious’
While a few of the CEOs acknowledged internal reviews, they revealed little about client activity. Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman said he didn’t know of any suspicious accounts tied to Russians, and Bank of America’s Brian Moynihan said he wasn’t aware of any action related to such accounts. Citigroup’s Michael Corbat was most cryptic, saying he couldn’t comment on any ongoing investigation.
“The potential use of the U.S. financial system for illicit purposes is a very serious concern,” Waters said in a statement Monday. “The Financial Services Committee is exploring these matters, including as they may involve the president and his associates, as thoroughly as possible pursuant to its oversight authority, and will follow the facts wherever they may lead us.”
The Intelligence Committee is more focused on aspects of financial connections or dealings that could suggest potential leverage by foreign entities over Trump, his family or his business. Trump has some $340 million in loans from Deutsche Bank, according to his most recent financial disclosures.
Possible financial leverage wasn’t mentioned in Attorney General William Barr’s four-page summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings from his 22-month probe of Russian election interference.
Schiff has frequently noted that Trump was pursuing a Trump Tower project in Moscow during the presidential campaign.
“That’s a different form of collusion, but it is equally compromising to the country because it means the president of the United States is looking out for his bank account and not for the United States of America,’ Schiff said in an interview on NBC in February.
Schiff and other committee Democrats had sought to pursue Trump’s financial connections ever since he became president. But it was only after Democrats won control of the House in 2018 that they gained subpoena power.
Deutsche Bank had been Trump’s go-to lender for decades, even as other commercial banks stopped doing business with him because of multiple bankruptcies.
Source: NewsMax Politics
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., warned Monday, if Democrats focus on an attack strategy against President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election, “we lose.”
In a wide-ranging town hall sponsored by Fox News and held in Bethlehem, Pa. — a state that helped Trump win in 2016 — an energetic and confident Sanders hit some of the hot-button issues likely to be part of his second run at the White House, including political strategy, taxing the rich, and a single-payer healthcare system.
“I don’t think the American people are proud that we have a president who is a pathological liar,” he said. “It does not give me pleasure to say that. I disagreed with George W. Bush on almost everything. Bush was not a pathological liar. . . . It’s hard to believe anything that he says.”
But, he added, “if we spend all of our time attacking . . . Democrats are going to lose. Our job is to lay out a vision that makes sense to the working families of this country, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Sanders also was grilled on his taxes, which were released Tuesday — and he was unapologetic for being a millionaire, emphasizing he voted against a 2017 tax bill from which he admittedly benefited.
“You raised the issue I’m a millionaire,” he said, adding: “It came from a book that I wrote, pretty good book, you might want to read it . . . and we made money. If anyone thinks that I should apologize for writing a best-selling book, I’m sorry, I’m not going to do it.
“But let me reiterate, I voted against [the tax cut bill].”
He also took a sharp slap at Trump’s refusal to release his taxes.
“The president watches your network a bit, right?” he asked hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, which triggered laughs from the audience and smiles of the hosts.
Then, looking at the camera, Sanders said: “Hey, President Trump, my wife and I just released 10 years of our taxes. Please do the same.”
There were brief boos from an otherwise supportive audience when the subject of terminating a pregnancy at birth was was raised.
“I think that that happens very, very rarely,” he said, adding “it’s being made into a political issue, but at the end of the day, I believe that the decision over abortion belongs to a woman and her physician, not the federal government, not the state government.”
Sanders also promoted a single-payer healthcare system.
“We are not talking about government-run healthcare,” he said. “The Veterans Administration and most veterans think that that’s a pretty good healthcare system . . . What we are talking about is simply a single-payer insurance program, which means that you will have a card which says Medicare on it, you will go to any doctor that you want, you will go to any hospital that you want.”
Sanders also addressed outspoken criticism by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of Israel.
“I think that she has got to do a better job in speaking to the Jewish community, but if your question to me is do I think she’s anti-Semitic, no, I don’t,” he said.
“Here is the point, also, I’m Jewish. I lost my father’s family, devastated by Hitler, so this is an issue of some sensitivity to me. I will do everything in my power, and I hope every member of Congress will fight not only anti-Semitism, but racism and anti-Muslim activity, so we create a nondiscriminatory society.
“But it is not anti-Semitic to be critical of a right wing government in Israel. It is not anti-Semitic.”
Source: NewsMax America
Sen. Bernie Sanders warned Monday that if Democrats focus on an attack strategy against President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 election, “we lose.”
In a wide-ranging town hall sponsored by Fox News and held in Bethlehem, Pa. — a state that helped Trump win in 2016 — an energetic and confident Sanders hit some of the hot-button issues likely to be part of his second run at the White House, including political strategy, taxing the rich and a single-payer healthcare system.
“I don’t think the American people are proud that we have a president who is a pathological liar,” he said. “It does not give me pleasure to say that. I disagreed with George W. Bush on almost everything. Bush was not a pathological liar. … It’s hard to believe anything that he says.”
But, he added, “if we spend all of our time attacking… Democrats are going to lose. Our job is to lay out a vision that makes sense to the working families of this country, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Sanders also was grilled on his taxes, which were released Tuesday — and he was unapologetic for being a millionaire, emphasizing he voted against a 2017 tax bill from which he admittedly benefited.
“You raised the issue I’m a millionaire,” he said, adding: “It came from a book that I wrote, pretty good book, you might want to read it… and we made money. If anyone thinks that I should apologize for writing a best-selling book, I’m sorry, I’m not going to do it.
“But let me reiterate, I voted against [the tax cut bill].”
He also took a sharp slap at Trump’s refusal to release his taxes.
“The president watches your network a bit, right?” he asked hosts Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, which triggered laughs from the audience and smiles of the hosts.
Then looking at the camera, Sanders said: “Hey President Trump, my wife and I just released 10 years of our taxes. Please do the same.”
There were brief boos from an otherwise supportive audience when the subject of terminating a pregnancy at birth was was raised.
“I think that that happens very, very rarely,” he said, adding “it’s being made into a political issue but at the end of the day, I believe that the decision over abortion belongs to a woman and her physician, not the federal government, not the state government.”
Sanders also promoted a single-payer healthcare system.
“We are not talking about government-run healthcare,” he said. “The Veterans Administration and most veterans think that that’s a pretty good healthcare system… What we are talking about is simply a single-payer insurance program, which means that you will have a card which says Medicare on it, you will go to any doctor that you want, you will go to any hospital that you want.”
Sanders also addressed outspoken criticism by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., of Israel. “I think that she has got to do a better job in speaking to the Jewish community, but if your question to me is do I think she’s anti-Semitic, no, I don’t.
“Here is the point, also, I’m Jewish. I lost my father’s family, devastated by Hitler, so this is an issue of some sensitivity to me. I will do everything in my power, and I hope every member of Congress will fight not only anti-Semitism, but racism and anti-Muslim activity so we create a nondiscriminatory society. But it is not anti-Semitic to be critical of a right wing government in Israel. It is not anti-Semitic.”
Source: NewsMax Politics
Aretha Franklin received an honorary Pulitzer Prize on Monday, as judges praised the Queen of Soul “for her indelible contribution to American music and culture.” Competitive Pulitzers were awarded to books about two other giants of American history: Frederick Douglass and Alain Locke.
David W. Blight’s 900-page “Frederick Douglass” was named the best work of history, while the biography prize went to Jeffrey C. Stewart’s “The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke.” Richard Powers’ innovative novel “The Overstory,” which shows us the world through the perspective of nature, won for fiction. The drama prize went to “Fairview,” by Jackie Sibblies Drury, and Eliza Griswold’s “Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America” won for general nonfiction. Ellen Reid’s opera “p r i s m,” which tackles sexual and emotional abuse, was given the music award, and Forrest Gander’s elegiac “Be With” the poetry prize.
Franklin, who died last summer, was the first woman singled out for an honorary Pulitzer, which has been given to Bob Dylan and John Coltrane among others. The lives of Franklin, Douglass and Locke spanned and helped define more than a century of political and social change: Douglass was the country’s leading abolitionist of the 19th century, Locke the so-called “Dean” of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s and Franklin a transcendent and inspiring voice of the civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.
“I think one of the through-lines of those three lives is music,” says Stewart, whose Locke biography also won a National Book Award.
“Frederick Douglass was one of the first people to provide an intellectual portrait of the spirituals, to show they were not just religious music, but statements of humanity and longing for freedom among the slaves. For Locke, spirituals were his favorite musical forms because they had that religious-philosophical dimension of the black experience, culled into a unique aesthetic form. And then you think of Aretha Franklin, who came out of gospel and brought into it popular music. So you can see a real continuum.”
Drury’s “Fairview” brings the story of African-Americans into the present, skewering white people’s obsession with black stereotypes. It begins as a contemporary domestic comedy involving a well-off black family and ends with the invisible fourth wall destroyed and the audience pulled down a rabbit hole of race and identity. The Pulitzer board called it a “hard-hitting drama that examines race in a highly conceptual, layered structure, ultimately bringing audiences into the actors’ community to face deep-seated prejudices.”
Powers, 61, has long been praised by critics and fellow writers for his blend of science, literature and technology; Margaret Atwood has likened his gifts and ambitions to Herman Melville’s. The Pulitzer for fiction could well bring commercial success to the author, whose previous works include “The Echo Maker,” winner of the National Book Award.
“The Overstory,” shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, is a case of an author’s life changing a book and a book changing his life. The author was teaching at Stanford University when he began the novel, six years ago, with the idea of telling a story through non-human protagonists. For research, he visited the Smoky Mountains and was so overwhelmed he ended up moving to a home on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
“I’ve been itinerant for much of my life, and this was the first time I really felt I belonged to one place,” he said. “From here on out, I can’t imagine writing anything that isn’t under the spell of this book.”
Source: NewsMax America
Former First Lady Michelle Obama compared President Donald Trump to a “divorced dad” in a new interview.
Obama sat down with “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert in London as part of her book tour to promote her memoir “Becoming.”
“We come from a broken family, we are a little unsettled,” Obama told the crowd, according to The Independent. “Sometimes you spend the weekend with a divorced dad. That feels like fun but then you get sick. That is what America is going through. We are living with divorced dad.”
Obama added that the United States is enduring a “dark chapter” under the current administration.
“This may feel like a dark chapter but any story has its highs and lows but it continues,” she said. “Yes, we are in a low but we have been lower. We have had tougher times, we have had more to fear. We have lived through slavery, the Holocaust and segregation.
“We have always come out at the other end — better and stronger. We are moving in a direction of diversity and inclusion. No one ever said it would be easy. We are just in the throes of the uneasy path of change.”
It was announced in March that Obama’s book had sold nearly 10 million copies.
“We believe this could be the most successful memoir in history,” Penguin Random House’s Thomas Rabe said.
Source: NewsMax America
FILE PHOTO: Democratic U.S. 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders holds an evening public rally along the waterfront in downtown San Diego, California, U.S., March 22, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake
April 15, 2019
By John Whitesides
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders released 10 years of tax returns on Monday, providing details of his growing status as a millionaire fueled by a sharp jump in income from book royalties since his losing 2016 White House run.
Sanders, a U.S. senator who routinely rails against the “millionaires and billionaires” he says have rigged the system to protect their wealth and power, had an adjusted gross income of $561,293 in 2018, $1,131,925 in 2017 and $1,062,626 in 2016, the returns showed.
Sanders augmented his Senate salary with book royalties in each of those years, particularly in 2016 and 2017 when he made more than $800,000 each year in royalties. Sanders has published three books since the start of his first White House run, including bestsellers “Our Revolution” and “Where We Go From Here.”
In 2009, the first year of returns Sanders released on Monday, he had an adjusted gross income of $314,742.
Sanders had faced mounting pressure to release his taxes, with critics saying the democratic socialist’s millionaire status undercut his populist economic message. He made no apologies for his financial well-being, telling the New York Times recently that “if you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”
On Monday, Sanders took a more measured tone in releasing his returns, making reference to his upbringing in a Brooklyn family of limited financial resources.
“These tax returns show that our family has been fortunate. I am very grateful for that, as I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck and I know the stress of economic insecurity,” Sanders said in a statement accompanying the returns.
‘TRANSPARENCY’
The interest in presidential contenders and their taxes has jumped since Republican President Donald Trump shattered decades of tradition during the 2016 campaign by refusing to release his returns – a stance he has continued since entering the White House.
Several in the growing field of Democratic 2020 contenders, including Senators Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren, and Governor Jay Inslee of Washington, have released their 2018 returns in recent weeks. Most other Democratic contenders have pledged to do the same soon.
But the question had become more pressing for Sanders, who only released one year of returns during his 2016 campaign, as he moved into a strong early position in polls and fundraising among Democrats seeking the 2020 nomination to challenge Trump.
“As a strong proponent of transparency, the senator hopes President Trump and all Democratic primary candidates will disclose their tax returns,” Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a statement.
Sanders faced criticism for only releasing his 2014 returns during his 2016 Democratic primary battle with Hillary Clinton, a millionaire whom he often derided for giving paid speeches to Wall Street.
The tax returns released on Monday showed Sanders paid a 26 percent effective tax rate on his adjusted gross income in 2018. His effective tax rates in 2016 and 2017, his other high-earning years, were 35 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
As part of his policy agenda, Sanders has proposed a big expansion of the estate tax, lowering the threshold where it kicks in to $3.5 million from $11 million, and placing a 77 percent tax rate on the portion of estates worth more than $1 billion.
(Reporting by John Whitesides; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Source: OANN
With the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris engulfed in flames Monday, Catholic politicians reacted to the devastating live video with shock and sadness.
Here’s a sampling of their reactions:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.:
“.@NotreDameParis has stood as a beating heart of religion & culture for centuries, inspiring all who have visited her. The footage of today’s fire is nothing short of heartbreaking. To the people of Paris & France: know that America stands with you.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie:
“So fortunate to have visited Notre Dame with my entire family and a dear friend a few years ago. So heartbreaking to imagine the destruction and the loss of history that will never be able to be replaced. What an enormous and unthinkable tragedy.”
Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal:
“Our hearts are breaking to see Notre Dame burning – especially during Holy Week. Let us pray nobody was hurt, and that the rebuilding can begin as soon as the flames are out.”
“Heartbreaking. My thoughts are with the people of Paris today. Praying for everyone’s safety.”
“What a terrible tragedy. Lisa & I visited many years ago & were in awe. #NotreDame is an incredible place for Catholics, people of faith & indeed all people. Our prayers are with the people of Paris & @franceintheus.”
“It’s absolutely devastating to watch Notre Dame burn in real time. America’s hearts are with France. #NotreDameFire”
“Tragic to see burning and destruction of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.”
Former President Barack Obama, who is a Christian but does not follow the Catholic religion, also weighed in:
“Notre Dame is one of the world’s great treasures, and we’re thinking of the people of France in your time of grief. It’s in our nature to mourn when we see history lost – but it’s also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can.”
Source: NewsMax Politics
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