Gary Cohn, architect of tax reforms, differed with President on trade policies
WASHINGTON (TIP): Gary Cohn, the top economic adviser to US President Donald Trump and a voice for Wall Street in the White House, resigned on March 7, in yet another jolt to the embattled White House that has seen a series of high-profile departures.
Cohn, 57, who is a former Goldman Sach executive, resigned as the White House National Economic Council director over differences with the Trump’s trade policies, including a move to impose a hefty 25 per cent tariff on the import of steel and 10 per cent on aluminium.
White House officials said the tariffs dispute contributed to Cohn’s decision to leave but that it was not the sole reason. For several weeks, Cohn had been discussing with the President that it was nearing time for him to transition out. His departure date is to be determined but will be a few weeks from now, a White House official said.
“Gary has been my chief economic adviser and did a superb job in driving our agenda, helping to deliver historic tax cuts and reforms and unleashing the American economy once again. He is a rare talent, and I thank him for his dedicated service to the American people,” Trump said. He tweeted that he “will be making a decision soon” on replacing Cohn. Administration officials said Peter Navarro, director of the White House National Trade Council, and conservative commentator Larry Kudlow were the “top two candidates” for the job.
During his stay at the White House, Cohn led coordination of Trump’s pro-growth domestic and global economic policy agenda, including the passage of historic tax cuts and reforms in December 2017. “It has been an honor to serve my country and enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the Americans. I am grateful to the President for giving me this opportunity,” Cohn said. — Agencies
Trump threatens to tax European cars
Donald Trump on Tuesday, March 6, threatened to slap a 25% tax on import of cars from Europe if the EU retaliated on its decision to impose import tariffs on steel and aluminium
Swedish PM Stefan Lofven during his meeting with Trump had conveyed the message of the EU president that if the US put tariffs on steel and aluminum, they will slap back with punitive tariffs on bourbon, jeans and motorcycles
They can do whatever they’d like, but if they do that, we put 25% tax on their cars, and believe me, they won’t be doing it long, Trump said.
WASHINGTON (TIP): Republicans on Capitol Hill reacted angrily to President Donald Trump’s announcement Thursday, March 8, that he is going forward with new tariffs on steel and aluminum, arguing that the move will harm the economy and that it threatens to start a broader trade war.
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Capitol Hill reacted angrily to President Donald Trump’s announcement Thursday that he is going forward with new tariffs on steel and aluminum, arguing that the move will harm the economy and that it threatens to start a broader trade war.
And while there are limits to what they can do to stop it, members are contemplating measures that could block the president from fully implementing his proposal.
“I don’t think Republicans will put up with this, and I personally believe that we may be able to stop it in the Congress,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said.
Sen. Hatch: Trump has ‘been misled’ over tariffs 1:07
The president announced a 10 percent tax on imported aluminum and a 25 percent tax on imported steel, carving out exceptions for imports from Canada and Mexico. But those exemptions weren’t enough to placate congressional Republicans who have traditionally opposed protectionist action on trade.
GOP leaders had lobbied the White House from moving forward, writing letters, speaking out in the media and through outreach to the president and his advisers.
During a conference call between White House officials and GOP Hill staffers Thursday, administration representatives requested favorable comments from members on the president’s plan, a suggestion that the staff in one office laughed at, according to a Republican aide.
In a rare rebuke of the president, Republicans are vowing to continue challenging him in ways that could result in either new legislation or support for expected legal challenges to the move.
“I disagree with this action and fear its unintended consequences,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said. “There are unquestionably bad trade practices by nations like China, but the better approach is targeted enforcement against those practices.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the exemptions for Canada and Mexico are not enough.
“Members of the Senate, myself included, are concerned about the scope of the proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum and their impact on American citizens and businesses, including many I represent in Kentucky,” McConnell said.
And, outside, EU talked tough. “If Donald Trump puts in place the measures this evening, we have a whole arsenal at our disposal with which to respond,” European Financial Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said.
Counter-measures would include European tariffs on US oranges, tobacco and bourbon, he said, adding that some products under consideration for an EU riposte were largely produced in constituencies controlled by Trump’s Republicans. “We want Congress to understand that this would be a lose-lose situation,” Moscovici told BFM TV.
The EU is by far the biggest trading partner of the United States by value and, after China, member states have together the biggest trade surplus with the country. Once approved by Trump, the tariffs would go into effect after two months.
In Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said history showed that trade wars were not the correct way to resolve problems. “Especially given today’s globalization, choosing a trade war is a mistaken prescription. The outcome will only be harmful,” he said on the sidelines of an annual meeting of China’s Parliament.
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un by May, a top South Korean official announced on Friday, March 9, even as the White House said the two leaders would meet “at a place and time to be determined”.
South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-Yong, who led his country’s delegation to Pyongyang for talks with the North Korean leaders, made the announcement at the White House hours after he briefed Trump and his national security team.
Reading from a prepared statement, Chung said the North Korean leader has expressed his “eagerness to meet with President Trump as soon as possible.”
Chung attributed the North Korean turnaround to Trump’s leadership and his maximum pressure policy together with international solidarity.
In his meeting with the North Korean leader, Chung said Trump is committed to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
“Kim pledged that North Korea will refrain from any further nuclear or missile tests. He understands that the routine joint military exercises between the Republic of Korea and the United States must continue. He expressed his eagerness to meet President Trump as soon as possible,” he said.
“President Trump appreciated the briefing and said he would meet Kim Jong-un by May to achieve permanent denuclearization. The Republic of Korea, along with the United States, Japan, and our many partners around the world, remain fully and resolutely committed to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Chung said.
“Along with Trump, we are optimistic about continuing a diplomatic process to test the possibility of a peaceful resolution,” he said.
“The Republic of Korea, the United States, and our partners stand together in insisting that we not repeat the mistakes of the past, and that the pressure will continue until North Korea matches its words with concrete actions,” the South Korean national security adviser said.
Reacting to the announcement White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said, “President Trump greatly appreciates the nice words of the South Korean delegation and President Moon. He will accept the invitation to meet with Kim Jong Un at a place and time to be determined.”She added that the sanctions on the reclusive nation must remain.
“We look forward to the denuclearization of North Korea. In the meantime, all sanctions and maximum pressure must remain,” Sanders said.
According to a senior administration official, Trump may meet the North Korean leader in couple of months.
Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Kim’s desire to talk shows sanctions the administration has implemented are starting to work.
“We can pursue more diplomacy, as we keep applying pressure ounce by ounce. Remember, North Korean regimes have repeatedly used talks and empty promises to extract concessions and buy time,” he said.
“North Korea uses this to advance its nuclear and missile programs. We’ve got to break this cycle. The United States and South Korea must stand shoulder-to-shoulder in applying the sustained pressure needed to peacefully end this threat. And Beijing must do its part,” Royce said.
US President Donald Trump appeared to be at his wits’ end when he made a rash comment after his chief economic adviser Gary Cohn put in his papers: “Will be making a decision soon on the appointment of new chief economic advisor. Many people wanting the job — will choose wisely!” It is both a confession of his poor judgment and a desire to have a yes-man. This is an ominous sign of rising protectionism that threatens to disrupt global trade. Although, China appears to be in the President Trump’s direct firing line, India needs to be prepared for collateral damage. The signs are there when the US President in an emotional outburst hauled up India for high import duties on the iconic Harley-Davidson motorbike despite its “insignificant” contribution in the total bilateral trade. Indeed, jingoism in any form is irrational.
President Trump’s protectionism may, however, hamper the American economy the most. In a last-ditch effort, adviser Cohn tried to make Trump understand that undue tariff protection to domestic steel and aluminum makers would hurt upstream manufacturers like cars and cans. It is unfortunate that the US, which once championed free trade ring-fenced by WTO, is resorting to unilateral trading barriers instead of sharpening the competitiveness of the domestic industry. Apparently under pressure, India has already started importing energy all the way from America, which makes little commercial sense, especially when such resources are freely available in the neighborhood. Indian airlines have placed orders worth several billions of dollars to purchase more than 300 American aircraft.
President Trump’s decision to impose steep tariffs on steel and aluminum imports is primarily targeted at Canada and China but the impact will be felt by steel and aluminum producers across the world. The decision has the seeds to unleash a global trade war as the US imports steel from more than 100 countries. China has already communicated that it would retaliate if its interests were harmed. For Indian manufacturers, it is the time to become more competitive. Once the US market gets closed, Chinese exporters would turn towards India in a big way.
Hope Hicks’s first association with the Trump family was working with President Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, on her personal apparel and licensing brand about six years ago.
Hicks had no political experience when she joined Trump’s tumultuous campaign for the White House. She initially served as a press secretary within the White House, before taking on the role of communications director
Hicks led strategic messaging for administration priorities such as the historic passage of tax reform and worked with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to stabilize the press and communications teams after initial phases of transition
WASHINGTON (TIP): Hope Hicks, one of Donald Trump’s longest-serving and trusted aides, on March 1, announced her resignation as the powerful communications director, in a major blow to the US President and the embattled White House amidst the intensifying inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
The 29-year-old former model, though considered a political novice, was known as one of the few aides of Trump who understood his style and could influence his views. Her surprise resignation came a day after she testified before the House Intelligence Committee she testified for eight hours on allegations related to the Russian interference during the presidential campaign.
During her testimony, Hicks told the panel that in her job, she had occasionally been required to tell white lies but had never lied about anything connected to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the election, US media reported.
Although Hicks maintained an unusually low profile over the past three years, she recently attracted scrutiny after Special Counsel Robert Mueller escalated his probe into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
She is leaving the White House after serving Trump for three years in various capacities. This included being his campaign spokesperson and Director of Strategic Communication when Trump was sworn in as the President.
“There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump,” Hicks said in a statement. President Trump praised Hicks for her outstanding work. The White House did not announce the exact day of her departure but said it could be sometime in the next few weeks.
In a little over 13 months of the Trump administration, Hicks is the fourth individual to resign as the White House Director of Communications. The other three being Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke and Anthony Scaramucci.
WASHINGTON (TIP): President Donald Trump called for speedy and substantial changes to the nation’s gun laws, criticizing lawmakers in a White House meeting for being too fearful of the National Rifle Association to take action.
In a freewheeling, televised session on Wednesday, February 28, that stretched for an hour, Trump rejected both his party’s incremental approach and its legislative strategy that has stalled action in Congress. Giving hope to Democrats, he said he favored a “comprehensive” approach to addressing violence like the shooting at Florida school earlier this month, although he offered no specific details.
Instead, Trump appeared to support expanded background checks. He endorsed increased school security and mental health resources, and he reaffirmed his support for raising the age to 21 for purchasing some firearms.
Trump also mentioned arming teachers, and said his administration, not Congress, would ban bump-stock devices that enable guns to fire like automatic weapons.
“We can’t wait and play games, and nothing gets done,” Trump said as he opened the session with 17 House and Senate lawmakers.
“We want to stop the problems.”
The president has previously backed ideas popular with Democrats, only to back away when faced with opposition from his conservative base and his GOP (Grand Old Party) allies in Congress. It was not clear whether he would continue to push for swift and significant changes to gun laws, when confronted with the inevitable resistance from his party.
Still, the televised discussion allowed Trump to play the role of potential dealmaker, a favorite for the president. Democratic lawmakers made a point of appealing to the president to use his political power to persuade his party to take action.
“It is going to have to be you,” Senator Chris Murphy told Trump.
Trump’s call for stronger background checks, which are popular among Americans, has been resisted by Republicans in Congress and the NRA.
Republicans have instead been leaning toward modest legislation designed to improve the background system already in place. Trump made clear he was looking for more and accused lawmakers of being “petrified” of the gun lobby.
“Hey, I’m the biggest fan of the Second Amendment,” Trump said, adding that he told NRA officials it’s time to act.
“We have to stop this nonsense.”
The White House meeting came amid fresh public debate over gun laws, fueled by student survivors of the massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who have been meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The school reopened yesterday for the first time since a Valentine’s Day assault killed 17.
Gun legislation has lost momentum in Congress as Republican leaders showed little interest in pursuing stricter gun control laws.
Democrats said they were concerned Trump’s interest may fade quickly. After the meeting, Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters: “I’m worried that this was the beginning and the end of the president’s advocacy on this issue. The White House has to put some meat on the bones. The White House has to send a proposal to Congress.” The White House is expected to reveal more on the president’s plans for school safety this week, though it has not announced any plans.
That announcement will likely include goals for background checks and bump stocks, though whether age restrictions will be specifically addressed remains unclear, according to an administration official who sought anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump rejected the way Republican leaders in Congress have framed the debate, saying the House-backed bill linking a background check measure with a bill to expand gun rights by allowing gun owners to carry concealed weapons across state lines was not the right approach.
The concealed carry measure is the gun lobby’s top legislative priority. But “you’ll never get it passed,” Trump told lawmakers, reminding them that Democratic senators, including some in the room, strongly oppose it.
Instead, he suggested Republicans should focus on the background check bill, then load it up with other gun control and safety measures.
Ever the marketer, Trump suggested that the leading bill adjusting the National Instant Criminal Background Check System—now known as “Fix NICS”—could use a new name. “Maybe you change the title, all right? The US Background Check Bill, or whatever,” Trump said.
The hour-long meeting with lawmakers was reminiscent of one in January on immigration, when he told lawmakers to come up with a good bill and he would take the “heat” from critics.
That effort, however, ended in failure in Congress amid Trump’s shifting views and priorities in the debate.
Among those at the White House yesterday were Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who are pushing their bill—which failed twice in the Senate after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting—to broaden background checks to include pre-purchase reviews at online and gun show sales.
Trump asked Toomey if his plan to expand background checks included raising the minimum age for young people to buy an assault weapon. Toomey told the president it did not.
“You know why,” Trump scoffed.
“Because you’re afraid of the NRA.”
The meeting came after one major retailer, Dick’s Sporting Goods, announced it was halting sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and banning the sale.
Meanwhile, US retail giant Walmart announced on Thursday that it was raising to 21 its minimum age to buy firearms and ammunition, the latest US company to recalibrate its stance on weapons after a deadly Florida school shooting.
“In light of recent events, we’ve taken an opportunity to review our policy on firearm sales. Going forward, we are raising the age restriction for purchase of firearms and ammunition to 21 years of age,” it said in a statement.
WASHINGTON (TIP): Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed, February 22, new fraud and money-laundering charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates.
In the 37-page indictment, prosecutors describe a “scheme” in which the two longtime business partners allegedly laundered $30 million, failed to pay taxes for almost 10 years and used real estate they owned to fraudulently secure more than $20 million in loans.
The indictments show increasing pressure from Mueller on the former top Trump campaign officials and highlight his aggressive effort to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any related matters uncovered during the investigation.
Last Friday, the special counsel produced grand jury indictments for 13 Russian nationals, accusing them of operating a misinformation campaign to hurt Hillary Clinton’s presidential effort.
In the indictment released Thursday, prosecutors allege Manafort and Gates “hid the existence and ownership of the foreign companies and bank accounts” they oversaw and laundered more than $30 million in income.
Some of the fraud was possible because the men disguised their income as “loans” from shell corporations they ran, the prosecutors said.
More than $75 million dollars flowed through offshore accounts the men had set up in foreign countries, including Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles, the indictment alleges. These are small island nations where local laws make it easy to park money.
Manafort used some of the money to buy real estate in the US, and they both used the money on home improvement and to refinance their mortgages, the indictment alleges. They also allegedly used money from their offshore accounts to pay for luxury goods, and, in Gates’ case, for his mortgage and children’s tuition.
They were able to defraud banks because of the tens of millions of dollars they earned doing Ukrainian political work and lobbying from 2006 until 2015, the prosecutors allege.
Manafort faces 18 new charges in Virginia, while Gates faces 23 new charges.
Already, the pair face a combined 12 criminal charges in federal court in Washington for alleged money laundering and failing to disclose banking information and foreign lobbying work they did prior to 2015. Those charges are also connected to the offshore accounts in the new indictment.
Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to those charges in October.
Thursday’s indictment adds more pressure on Manafort and Gates as their Washington trial approaches this year. With mounting legal expenses and the potential for lengthy prison sentences, Manafort and Gates might reconsider cutting a deal with Mueller’s team.
But they can only make a deal if they have valuable information that Mueller can use in other prosecutions. Gates could testify against Manafort, and Manafort could testify about any potential crimes he witnessed during Trump’s presidential campaign — if any occurred.
Trump mulls arming teachers, increasing age for gun purchases
WASHINGTON (TIP): A week after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland in which 17 students were killed, President Donald Trump hosted a listening session with a group of survivors, parents and teachers. On hand were Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Trump held an emotional, hour-long meeting with students who survived the Florida shooting and a parent whose child did not. He said arming teachers and other school staff could help prevent future mass shootings, voicing support for an idea backed by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby.
Trump sat in the middle of a semi-circle in the White House State Dining Room. Photographers captured images of his handwritten note card with questions and responses such as: “What would you most want me to know about your experience?” and “I hear you.” Trump said he wants to hear suggestions for addressing the issue, saying, “After I listen, we’re going to get things done.”
Trump listened intently to ideas from about 40 people, including those from six students who survived the Florida shooting.
The students, many weeping, described the trauma of the shootings and pleaded that the government bring an end to gun violence.
The Republican president, who has championed gun rights and was endorsed by the NRA during the 2016 campaign, said he would move quickly to tighten background checks for gun buyers and would consider raising the age for buying certain types of guns.
He said he had “many ideas” and promised, “We’re going to be very strong on background checks.”
Trump spoke at length during the televised White House “listening session.
“If you had a teacher … who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,” he said, while acknowledging the proposal was controversial. Some of the meeting participants indicated support. Others were opposed.
Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, said his wife, Jackie, a teacher “will tell you that school teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life.”
“I don’t understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war,” said Sam Zeif, 18, sobbing after he described texting his family members during the attack. “Let’s never let this happen again, please, please.”
“Do you see a correlation in getting the innocent Hindus to develop anti-Muslims sentiments through the communal riots, leading into to complete takeover of the Uttar Pradesh? The likes of which were done here in the United States. Did Russia pay for those riots through the Sangh Parivar organizations to weaken the Indian Democracy? Both Modi and Trump have a special affection for Putin; and both of them want to emulate Putin”, says the author.
Deepa Seetharam, a reporter from Wall Street Journal called me and asked if I spoke in a rally at White House in September 2016? I said no, and then she reminded me that my name was a listed as a speaker.
Seetharam wrote in WSJ’s October 30, 2017, publication, “Representatives from the Facebook page “United Muslims of America” asked Mike Ghouse, an interfaith activist, to speak at a Sept. 3, 2016, event in Washington, D.C. billed as “a peaceful rally, to make mosques and their neighborhood safe!”
The group sent Mr. Ghouse placards they intended to use that included anti-Trump messages, causing him to back out, he said. “I said they should be more pluralistic, more inclusive because there’s no need to attack Trump,” Mr. Ghouse said. “They wouldn’t, so I didn’t go.” Obviously, I did not speak there either.
“Some events stoked public discord. At the rally in front of the Islamic center in Houston, about a dozen protesters gathered, some waving confederate flags or holding a sign that said “#WhiteLivesMatter,” according to video footage.”
Russians had an elaborate plan of pitting one American against the other, their end goal was to weaken democracies and create discord within each nation – their logic was; for Russia to shine, other countries have to be weakened, and Russia will stand out as the strongest nation in the world with a strong man running the nation. Putin is the Czar under his skin.
CNN reports that “80 times Trump talked about Putin.” Indeed, “Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump consistently broke from political orthodoxy in his effusive praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin. His glowing statements on Putin have become central in stoking the suspicion that he and his campaign were somehow connected to Russian interference in the election.”
Narendra Modi in Russia praises President Vladimir Putin’s family for sacrificing lives for the country. Modi praises Putin’s effort in convening 1st Tiger conservation Summit.
Both Modi and Trump think Putin is awesome, someone to be modeled after, as they want to dictate to the public.
Senator John McCain said in an interview that Putin is determined to prove to the world that Democracies don’t work. Indeed, that is what the fascists think about democracies – they get their devoted slaves to do whatever they want – attacking others as Sikularist and calling the news that goes against them as fake news. It’s amazing how many people buy that stuff in India and the United States.
Both Modi and Trump have resorted to divide and rule policies; they are determined to pit one Indian against the other in case of Modi, and one American against the other by Trump.
Russians staged “Anti-Trump rallies’ in the name of American Muslims. Perhaps, that may be the reason Trump is so anti-Muslim. Some of the rallies were held against Hillary to give the impression that it is the work of public, and some were devised against Trump just to make it look real.
What happens in India? Manohar Joshi writes in the Wire, “The fact that communal violence is rising in India is not hidden. Even the government acknowledges that there has been a steady uptick in communal incidents. In response to a question in parliament on Tuesday (February 6), minister of state Hansraj Ahir disclosed that as many as 111 people were killed and nearly 2,500 injured in 822 communal incidents in 2017, as compared to 751 incidents in 2016 that took the life of 97 people and 703 in 2016 when 86 were killed.”
Did the Russians stage these events? Did they pay these men to stage communal riots and murder people?
The fake encounters set up by the Gujarat police earned further support for BJP from an average innocent Hindu. Of course, Musharraf’s Kargil invasion strengthened the hold of BJP in power.
Putin failed in France and Germany but succeeded in Austria, India,United States and other nations.
Most Indians will resist the idea of an investigation; they simply do not want to believe that the Indian Elections may have been rigged. They are afraid of even exploring the possibilities. If they have lost their loved ones, they would want to know if Russia is paying the goons to create chaos. Is Yogi Adityanath paid agent of Russia? The purpose of the investigation is to find the truths if they are clean, that would be good news. What if they were not? Should they continue in governing India and continue to pit one Indian against the other?
Do you see a correlation in getting the innocent Hindus to develop anti-Muslims sentiments through the communal riots, leading into to complete takeover of the Uttar Pradesh? The likes of which were done here in the United States. Did Russia pay for those riots through the Sangh Parivar organizations to weaken the Indian Democracy? Both Modi and Trump have a special affection for Putin; both of them want to emulate Putin.
Neither Trump nor Modi was expecting to win; all the surveys, reports and polls indicated the win for Congress in India and Democrats in America. Both the men were surprised with the win, let alone land-slide wins.
The Russians publicized or financed at least 60 events – on all sides of most polarizing issues – before and after the 2016 election. What about India’s 2014 election?
Is it worth investigating Russian hand in the mess that is created in India? Should we save the nation from divisive men? These men will come and go in one or two terms, but it is the common men and women in India that will bear the brunt of their karma.
(The author is an Indian-American committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. As we learn to respect the “otherness” of others and accept the God-given uniqueness of each one of us, conflicts will fade and solutions emerge. He is the president of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC.)
COMMENTS
Dr. Ghouse’s article invited a quick reaction from a reader. Here is the unedited comment of Desh D Kapoor (desh.kapoor@gmail.com) received at 11.07 A.M., a few minutes after the article was published.
“This is just a piece of trashy writing based on nothing but conjectures and hyperbole! Amazed. In fact, if at all, with Cambridge Analytics (firm that helped Trump) working for Congress, 2019 will be where Foreign meddling (Mani Shankar Aiyar’s home meeting with Pakistani officials – a Trump Tower moment?!) will be tested.
“In fact, Modi has NEVER appealed on religious basis. Even the honest Pakistani commentators say that clearly (check Najam Sethi’s analysis post 2014). But how do you stop the ideologically compromised Indian Muslim commentators who would rather use religion for their own purpose than for the good of the community! Reminded of the Tata Nano move, where Mamata created issues and Modi brought that in to Gujarat. The villages near the plant were predominantly Muslim. And within 4-5 years, their land prices went up 25 times making everyone a millionaire. When indiscriminate development happens – there is no color. But who can explain to the ideologically compromised who still hold Mamata as the paragon of virtues as she keeps everyone poor.
So excuse me, but this Machiavellian piece is not even worth the paper it was probably published on.”
********
We received a rejoinder from Dr. Ghouse at 12.30 P.M. nearly an hour and a half after Mr. Desh D. Kapoor’s comment, which is being published here, without being edited.
Desh,
“I wrote the essay as an Indian, and not as a Muslim. I wish you learn to hold on to your communalism and see the validity of the argument.
“Thank God, none of your relatives or mine were killed by the extremists in Muzaffar Nagar and other riots, but you should be human enough to have empathy for those whose families have suffered. If Russia had paid the goons to lynch and harass fellow Indians, then don’t you think it should be investigated? Are you against finding the truth?
“The success of a nation hinges on its two solid feet; economic prosperity which brings sab ka Vikas, not just mitron ka Vikas, and the other is sab ka saath, every Indian should feel included – that is a cohesive India, where no Indian feels excluded or lives in apprehension. Both the economy and social fabric must remain intact, one will not happen without the other, otherwise what we will witness would a langda India and ultimately everyone will suffer. Injustice to one is injustice to all.
“Mani Shankar Aiyar’s meeting at his home has been clarified, you still give it a religious color to it and Modi was too eager to paint it for electoral gains.
“A true patriot is the one who criticizes the government incessantly to keep them on the toes, on the other hand, if you toe the line of the government and kiss-ass of the leaders, you are not serving the nation.
“We need to rise about the pettiness and start looking to every Indian as an Indian and be patriotic Indians who think of making India and all her people successful and included.”
Mike Ghouse
Mr. Desh D Kapoor commented at1.04 P.M. 02/19/ 2018. (Unedited)
“Mike, excuse me, but I don’t give you the right to create your own Halos and abuse others. From where I see, you are always talking as a Muslim and not as an Indian. Further, I don’t see you as a secular at all. I think this self-congratulatory stuff should end if you even want to hold any dialog. Just like ‘Allah is the ONLY God…” Or “Jesus is the ONLY Savior..” are a non-starter to any useful discussion and inherently Supremacist in ethos – your fetish for constructing your own halo and calling other communal is damning for any dialog and shows your real self. So, time to stop the tricks!
“Like I said, I have never ever seen Modi say anything even remotely communal. If you have any evidence, then talk. On the other hand, AIMIM, Congress, Samajwadi and Trinamool folks are rabidly communal.
“And that leads me to another point – criticizing someone’s Muslim appeasement is not communal. To be an apologist for Jihad and acting as apologist for communal people in India is inherently Hinduphobic.
“It is this realization that has led to the awakening in India. What you see in the US, is also something similar. Where the rabid apologists for Islamism in the US left are being trashed all over. The problem in the US is a little different – because the challenge to Islamic Supremacism (which is what you represent however you may try to camouflage) is actually now coming from the White Supremacists, because left has chosen to back one end of Supremacism (between White/Christian Supremacism and Islamic Supremacism).
“In India, most folks who feign Secularism like John Dayal and Taslim Rehmani – are either Christian fanatics (check his hinduphobic testimonies in US) or Islamic fanatics (check how Rehmani declares “We ruled over Hindus for 1000 years”). And, most common laymen who were not into any religious debate are now waking up to the war of boiling the frog slowly.
“So, nice try, Mike. but you cannot construct your own Halo and wear it.”
Dr. Mike Ghouse at 2.27 P.M. 02/19/2018 replied to Mr.Deepak. (Unedited)
“Desh,
“Here you go again, you are “assuming’ this, ” Just like ‘Allah is the ONLY God…” Or “Jesus is the ONLY Savior.”
“You also made an assumption I support ” AIMIM, Congress, Samajwadi and Trinamool folks are rabidly communal.” I don’t, they are indeed communal, except the Congress which has a few rats in it, but the party as such is secular.
“BJP, on the other hand, is very communal – of the 400 plus candidates they gave tickets to run as their member, there may be one or two Muslims. They found a way to dupe innocent Indians – play the religion card, they fooled once, but could not do it again, but they staged communal riots, ghar wapasi and other tricks to pit one Indian against the other. You are a journalist, track down the history – the communal riots have occurred with the clear presence of RSS in the town, where they are not, there are fewer clashes.
“Let me be clear – the problem is not with Hinduism or Islam, Hindus or Muslims, it is the extremist positions that BJP has taken with their fascist political ideology – they want to force what you eat and what you believe down the throats.
“Modi’s fake reference to Pakistan collusion was communal politics, he generated ill-will among Hindus by the way he presented Mani Shankar Aiyar’s meeting
Modi wore every headgear wherever he went but clearly refused to wear a cap given by a Muslim.
“Would you agree that a cohesive India is what we need to work for – that requires that everyone minds his own business, and every Indian would be free to breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever he or she wants to. Is that the India you want?
“Mike Ghouse”
Mr. Desh D. Kapoor countered at 2.47 P.M. 02/19/2018 . (Unedited)
“Mike, Again – lots of assumptions and lots of “I am Good- You are bad” attitude.
I never said that you support those parties. I said they are communal because they practice appeasement and their politics is purely casteist and communal.
There is no reason to believe that BJP is communal. Looking at candidates purely from religious angle is a sickness and something that plays along with Jinnah’s idea of Equal representation which caused partition. So, not looking at representatives from their religious affiliation is the right and secular way.
Ghar Wapasi is Communal and Conversions / Evangelism is Secular? Really?!! like i said stop the tricks, please.
RSS and riots: I have read about the riots pretty carefully and I don’t know of a single evidence to say that RSS started any riot.
ban on Beef is a law that BJP did NOT create. It was and you are trying to say that someone should not follow the law? Are you for lawlessness? I think you need to clear your stand please.
Reference to Pakistan for Collusion by Congress – was “Communal politics”?!! Wow, Really?!! So you equate Pakistani with Indian Muslims? From how I and most people saw it was – Pakistan means PAKISTAN.. the COUNTRY! Period! You see how your slip shows through? :)
“I want a cohesive India. But like MLK Jr said “I want White man to be my brother, not Brother in law”. From where most Hindus see now – Kalma and the Creed are at the root of Communal violence in India and around the world. Change the supremacism and peace will follow. if you try to hood-wink and play such tricks and play vote bank politics (how many Muslims candidate type), then the vote bank of today will go against that politics.
“I want an India where development is indiscriminate and blind to the religion or caste. Where transformation is at the grass root. And that is where Modi is working on. So, I will back him to back the India that is the future of the world. Not one of Congress or pseudo-Seculars who see Muslim communalism in references to Pakistan. Amazed honestly!!!”
The Indian Panorama invites readers to participate in the debate.
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President Donald Trump has threatened China with sanctions for trade imbalance and policies that are hurting the American industry, a move that could result in increasing chances of a trade war between two of the world’s largest economies.
Warning China, Trump said Beijing has decimated the American steel and aluminium industry and he is “considering all options”.
“My administration is now reviewing the reports and considering all options. And part of the options would be tariffs coming in,” Trump said.
“As they dump steel, they pay tariffs — substantial tariffs — which means the US would actually make a lot of money, and probably steel industry and aluminum industry would come back into our country. Right now, it’s decimated,” Trump told lawmakers and members of his Cabinet during a White House meeting.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, he said, submitted the result of the investigations to him this month. “It’ll make a decision, and I will make a decision that reflects the best interests of the US, including the need to address overproduction in China and other countries. You have countries that are so overproducing, and what they’re doing is they are dumping it on us. And you look at empty factories, steel factories, and plants, and it’s a very sad thing to look at,” Trump said.
Trump said the US has a trade deficit with China which is now $504 billion.
“We’re not going to allow that.We’re talking to them right now, very strongly. It’s a big percentage of our deficits. And the money that we’ve lost and the jobs that we’ve lost to China, it’s unthinkable that people allowed.
DON’T DISRUPT GLOBAL ECONOMY, WARNS CHINA
BEIJING (TIP): US trade sanctions will hit the world economy, Beijing warned on Feb 14, after President Donald Trump threatened to impose fresh tariffs on imports from China.
Trump said he was “considering all options,” including tariffs and quotas, after he accused China of decimating the American steel and aluminium industries. Washington has already imposed a range of tariffs on Chinesemade goods, sparking fears of a tit-fortat trade war between the world’s top two economies as China also threatens to take action.
Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said “any sign of unilateralism or protectionism will … worsen global trade issues and will hurt the recovering momentum of the world economy”.
WASHINGTON (TIP): US President Donald Trump on Feb 14 slammed India for a high import tariff on Harley- Davidson motorcycle, calling it “unfair”, even as New Delhi slashed customs duty on imported motorcycles from highend brands to 50%.
Trump, during a discussion with members of the Congress over steel industry, also threatened to increase the tariff on import of Indian motorcycles to the US.
He said the recent decision of the Indian government to reduce the tariff from 75% to 50% was not enough and asked that it should be reciprocal, as the US imposes “zero tax” on the import of motorcycles.
“We have so many countries where we made a product, they make a product, …We pay a tremendous tax to get into their countries — motorcycles, Harley Davidson — it goes into a certain country. I won’t mention the fact that it happens to be India, in this case,” Trump said amid laughter from the audience.
In fact, he also indirectly referred to the recent conversation he had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
“And a great gentleman called me from India and he said, we have just reduced the tariff on motorcycles, reduced it down to 50% from 75, and even 100%,” Trump said in an apparent reference to his last week’s conversation with Prime Minister Modi.
“We have — if you are Harley Davidson, you have 50 to 75% tax, tariff to get your motorcycle, your product in. And yet they sell thousands and thousands of motorcycles, which a lot of people don’t know, from India into the United States.
You know what our tax is? Nothing,” he told the lawmakers and his other Cabinet colleagues.
Trump once again pitched for a “reciprocal tax” on countries that he says abuse their trade relationships with the US. “So, I say, we should have reciprocal taxes for a case like that. I’m not blaming India. I think it’s great that they can get away with it. I don’t know why people allowed them to get away with it. But there’s an example that’s very unfair. I think we should have a reciprocal tax,” he said.
US needs to come out of its primitive view on guns
Another carnage, followed by a spate of condolences and condemnations. President of USA tweets he was sorry for the “terrible” shooting. ‘My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. …. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.’ Easier said, Mr. President.
But, Mr. President, it is precisely what is happening. Have a look at the sheer number of shootings -18 school shootings in 45 days. Florida massacre is one of the many tragedies in 2018. Wednesday’s attack in Broward County which killed 17 and wounded 14 was the deadliest school shooting since the 2012 rampage that killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
Obviously, Americans are worried. They want safety of their children, not the condolences of POTUS or other lawmakers. They are rightly accusing their President of being soft on gun control. They see their President on the side of NRA, not on the side of the helpless people. And they understand well why a lawmaker will be on the side of NRA.
People want sensible gun laws in line with the 2nd Amendment. They do not want to see anybody and everybody carrying a gun which they believe and, rightly so, will be a weapon of offense, at any given point of time. They wonder why congress is not even talking about stepping up to prevent attacks like this.
More than the border wall and the security from illegally entering aliens, Americans need security from their own people who can easily lay their hands-on guns because the law permits them to have them, which they may use to mow down innocent people.
How long will the lawmakers remain silent spectators to the butchery by gun wielding madmen? They were elected to protect, not to be instruments of torture and death. Wake up friends in the Congress and know what for you are there at the Capitol.
4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond concluded that it ‘second-guesses our nation’s dedication to religious freedom and tolerance’
RICHMOND (TIP): President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries is “unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam,” a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, Feb 15, delivering another blow to the policy.
In a 9-4 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said it examined statements made by Mr. Trump and other administration officials, as well as the presidential proclamation imposing the ban, and concluded that it “second-guesses our nation’s dedication to religious freedom and tolerance”.
The 4th Circuit is the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban. In December, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Mr. Trump exceeded the scope of his authority with the latest ban.
The 4th Circuit court upheld a ruling by a federal judge in Maryland who issued an injunction barring enforcement of the ban against people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen who have bona fide relationships with people in the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court has already agreed to hear the travel ban case in April. In December, the high court said the ban could be fully enforced while appeals made their way through the courts.
In its ruling, the 4th Circuit said the ban has a “much broader deleterious effect” than banning certain foreign nationals. The ban, the court said, “denies the possibility of a complete, intact family to tens of thousands of Americans”.
“On a fundamental level, the Proclamation second-guesses our nation’s dedication to religious freedom and tolerance,” Chief Justice Roger Gregory wrote for the court in the majority opinion.
American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang, who argued the case before the court, said she was not surprised by the ruling.
“The Constitution prohibits government actions hostile to a religion,” Ms. Wang said.
The International Refugee Assistance Project, one of the groups challenging the ban, said the policy has had a “devastating impact” on U.S. families waiting to reunite with their family members and foreign students seeking educational opportunities in the U.S.
“Today’s ruling affirms that they are being unjustly targeted by this ban,” said Mariko Hirose, the group’s litigation director.
The administration has said the ban is a legitimate measure to protect national security.
During a hearing before the 4th Circuit in December, Deputy U.S. Assistant Attorney General Hashim Mooppan told the judges that the President has broad authority to bar foreign nationals he believes would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. He said the latest restrictions were the product of a global, multiagency review that found the specified countries do not share enough security-related information with the U.S. He said the ban is designed to protect the nation from terrorism and other threats.
In a dissenting opinion, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the 4th Circuit’s ruling was an attempt to “second-guess U.S. foreign policy, in particular, the president’s discretionary decisions on immigration, implicating matters of national security”.
Mr. Niemeyer said the majority should have based its decision on the text of the presidential proclamation alone and not considered statements Trump made on the campaign trial and after he became president.
“At bottom, the danger of this new rule is that it will enable a court to justify its decision to strike down any executive action with which it disagrees. It need only find one statement that contradicts the official reasons given for a subsequent executive action and thereby pronounce that the official reasons were a pretext,” Mr. Niemeyer wrote.
The ruling was the second time the 4th Circuit has rejected a travel ban. In May, the court cited Mr. Trump’s remarks on Muslim travelers while rejecting an earlier version of the ban, finding it “drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination”.
Mr. Trump announced his initial travel ban on citizens of certain Muslim-majority nations shortly after taking office in January, bringing havoc and protests to airports around the United States. A federal judge in Seattle soon blocked it, and courts since then have wrestled with the restrictions as the administration has rewritten them.
The latest version blocks travelers from the listed countries to varying degrees, allowing for students from some, while blocking other business travelers and tourists, and allowing for admissions on a case-by-case basis.
WASHINGTON (TIP): People are both baffled and amused to hear President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer claim, February 13 that he paid $130,000 of his own money to a porn star who allegedly had a sexual encounter with the President before his time in the White House.
Michael Cohen, personal lawyer of Trump said, in a statement: “In a private transaction in 2016, I used my own personal funds to facilitate a payment of $130,000 to Ms. Stephanie Clifford. Neither the Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign was a party to the transaction with Ms. Clifford, and neither reimbursed me for the payment, either directly or indirectly.”
Just weeks before the 2016 election, Cohen reportedly created a private LLC to pay Clifford, otherwise known as Stormy Daniels, following an alleged July 2006 encounter with Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported in January.
The New York Times first reported that Cohen had said he made the payment himself.
Following initial reports last month that Cohen had made the payment, he said in a statement that Trump “vehemently denies” any encounter between the two.
In January, the organization Common Cause filed complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department, alleging that the reported payment to Clifford constituted a campaign finance violation. But on Tuesday, Cohen’s statement denied that accusation and said the monetary exchange was “lawful” and “not a campaign contribution.”
“The payment to Ms. Clifford was lawful and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen said.
Cohen also said he filed a reply with the FEC, but that filing will not be public until the agency has resolved the matter.
When asked why he made the payment, Cohen told CNN: “Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean that it can’t cause you harm or damage. I will always protect Mr. Trump.”
WASHINGTON DC (TIP) : Democratic National Committee Vice Chair Grace Meng, Washington State Senator Manka Dhingra, and DACA recipient Parthiv Patel held a press call to discuss President Trump’s immigration policies and the destructive effects they have on Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.
“I’m the daughter of immigrants. The first one in my family to come to the US was my grandmother,” said Meng. “ She worked for years as a nanny and was eventually able to sponsor my mom.”
She said that without family-sponsored immigration, she would not have been able to be here today representing communities and the country in Congress.
“Contrary to what this administration says, (Dreamers are) the hardest working Americans that you will see,” she said.
Washington State Senator Dhingra said that she has been involved in addressing hate crimes in King County since after 9/11.
“The area that I represent—45th LD is home to many tech employees—some of whom are here on a H1B visa—it is taking them decades to convert that visa into a green card. Decades,” said Dhingra. “The question that people forget to ask, is what happens to their children when they turn 18. These kids come here at a young age with their parents, but when they become adults, they suddenly have no legal status. We are a country of immigrants. Immigrants enrich and contribute to the success of America every single day.”
DACA recipient Patel, the first DREAMER admitted to the Pennsylvania and New Jersey State bars, said he did not what to do.
“All I thought was – was all of my hard work for nothing? Was I ever going to be admitted to the bar? Was I ever going to be able to fulfill my dreams of becoming an attorney? But I decided to do what Dreamers do best; I decided to preserve,” Patel said. “I was never really big about speaking out and showcasing my status. But that kind of changed for me over the course of the last six months. Realizing that Dreamers have a lot on the line. There are nights where Dreamers toss and turn in bed not knowing what’s going to happen.”
Patel said that he felt like this was a time where Dreamers who can lend their voice, and speak out.
“That’s why I began to speak out. Also, another reason that I began to speak out was because I realized that especially in the Asian community, there is this notion that nobody speaks about their status,” Patel said. “I think it’s important that we begin to speak out, because this is not just a Latino issue… this is a global issue.”
WASHINGTON DC (TIP): At least 800 Indian Americans participated in a march outside the White House on Saturday, February 3rd , raising slogans in support of U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to implement a “merit-based” immigration system in the country and demanding discontinuation of country quotas for Green Card approvals.
Marchers in front of the White House said the President’s declared preference for “merit-based” immigration would tilt the balance in their favor.
“Trump loves Hindus,” “Trump loves India,” “Trump bringing Ram Rajya,” “Indians love Trump,” said the slogans at the march organized under the banner of the Republican Hindu Coalition (RHC), an organization led by Chicago-based businessman Shalabh Kumar who is believed to be close to Trump. The marchers were all Indian technology workers who had come from all over the U.S. — California, Texas, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Illinois and New York.
Krishna Bansal, National Policy and Political Director of RHC, said Trump’s proposal to end family unification immigration would open up more space for Indian skilled workers. Nearly half of the one million Green Cards issued every year goes to close relatives of American citizens regardless of their skills and the Trump administration wants to restrict this practice.
“Thirty per cent of the country’s skilled immigrants come from India, but they have to wait several decades before being eligible for Green Cards. These are aspirants who are already here, contributing to the economy, paying their taxes and raising their families,” he said. He said the group supported the proposal for building a wall on the U.S. southern border with Mexico and ending the diversity lottery program for Green Card allotment. The marchers supported the ending of what the administration calls ‘chain migration.’
Krishna Mullakuri, whose application for Green Card is pending for five years, agreed with the view. He said the emphasis on merit as the primary criteria for allowing new entrants into the country would work to India’s advantage.
The march on Saturday, while endorsing. Trump’s approach to immigration, was to highlight the issues concerning the legal residents who are already in the country. “While the current discussion is primarily focusing on those who illegally entered the country, we are working with the lawmakers to get some attention on this group that reached this country legally but face uncertainty now,” said Mr. Bansal.
The marchers supported this policy. “Dreamers pay for the wall,” and “Make American strong again,” they shouted. Bansal said the President’s proposals were generous and those being offered a path to citizenship would be happy to pay a fee that would fund the wall.
An issue of particular concern for several of the marchers was the future of their children, who will lose their dependency status when they turn 21. “These are legal dreamers. Colleges are reluctant to admit them as their visa status has to be changed midway through the course. And once they are graduates, they go back to the end of the queue, again starting with an H-1B application,” said Ramesh Ramanath, who grew up in Chennai. “While they address the issue of dreamers, this question also should get priority,” he said.
American State of the Union address to the Congress has conventionally been designed to enable the President to spell out his grand agenda for audience at home and abroad. Donald Trump’s State of the Union performance on Wednesday turned out, mostly, to be a sum total of all the tweets and other verbal fusillades he had fired. He declared, in a self-satisfying manner, that there was a “new American moment” and that he had restored American “greatness” and “strength.” In particular, he was uncompromising in what he calls “America first” stance, which turns out to be a call to return to protectionist policies as well as a litany of complaints about unfair and unequal global trade practices and deals. Like an accomplished demagogue, he invokes the American farmer, the American taxpayer and the American consumer. His implicit message was that the world must reorient itself to his understanding of fairness and reciprocity.
On the domestic front, President Trump largely stood his ground on immigration, hinting broadly at tweaking some rules, without diluting his rant against the “illegal” immigrant. He reiterated his solution of building a wall to keep the undesirable and the unwanted immigrant out. He chanted the mantra of homeland security, declared that Guantanamo Bay base would not be closed down, and that the United States would “annihilate” terrorism and was more than ready to deal with pinpricks from North Korea or the ISIS.
In this longish State of the Union, President Donald Trump failed in his endeavor to sound presidential; he remains miles away from gravitas. And, given the fact that he is an addictive Twitter-junkie, the quasi-sobriety of the Union address will evaporate next week. And, though Donald Trump tried to suggest that as the President of the United States he was committed to the “citizens of every background, color and creed”, his first year in the White House has left America a deeply fault-lined country. There is lesson for demagogues all over the world: it is easy to divide but very difficult to heal; it is easier to be partisan than to elicit cooperation and bi-partisanship.
“With his constant tirades against immigrants, particularly from what he calls “shithole countries”, Donald Trump is giving many countries the greatest gift of all: causing the trickle of returning talent to become a flood”.
By Vivek Wadhwa
“At the same time, I also realized that protectionist demands by nativists were causing American political leaders to advocate immigration policies that were (and are) choking US innovation and economic growth. The government would constantly expand the number of H1-B visas in response to the demands of businesses but never the number of green cards, which were limited to 140,000 for the so-called key employment categories. The result? The queues kept increasing. I estimate that today there are around 1.5 million skilled workers and their families stuck in immigration limbo, and that more than a third of these are Indians”, says the author.
“Thank you for what you are doing for America; your successes have put India in very positive light and shown us what is possible in India” said Atal Behari Vajpayee to me in a one-on-one meeting during his visit to the White House in September 2000. He added that he would love to see Indian-American entrepreneurs return home to help build India’s nascent technology industry.
Bill Clinton and George W. Bush granted him his wish with their flawed immigration policies. The U.S. admitted hundreds of thousands of foreign students and engineers on temporary visas but did not have the fortitude to expand the numbers of green cards. The result was that the waiting time for permanent resident visas began to exceed 10 years for Indian and Chinese immigrants. Some began returning home.
Now with his constant tirades against immigrants, particularly from what he calls “shithole countries”, Donald Trump is giving many countries the greatest gift of all: causing the trickle of returning talent to become a flood.
For India, the timing could not be better. With hundreds of millions of people now gaining access to the Internet through inexpensive smartphones, India is about to experience a technology boom that will transform the country itself. And with the influx of capital and talent, it will be able to challenge Silicon Valley—just as China is doing.
This is the irony of America’s rising nativism and protectionism.
When I met Prime Minister Vajpayee, I was the CEO of a technology startup in North Carolina. Later, I became an academic and started researching why Silicon Valley was the most innovative place on this planet.
I learnt that it was diversity and openness that gave Silicon Valley its global advantage; foreign-born people were dominating its entrepreneurial ecosystem and fueling innovation and job growth. My research teams at Duke, the University of California at Berkeley, New York University, and Harvard documented that between 1995 and 2005, immigrants founded 52% of Silicon Valley’s technology companies. The founders came from almost every nation in the world: Australia to Zimbabwe. Immigrants also contributed to the majority of patents filed by leading US companies in that period: 72% of the total at Qualcomm, 65% at Merck, 64% at General Electric, and 60% at Cisco Systems. Surprisingly, 40% of the international patent applications filed by the US government also had foreign-national authors.
Indians have achieved the most extraordinary success in Silicon Valley. They have founded more start-ups than the next four immigrant groups, from Britain, China, Taiwan, and Japan, combined. Despite comprising only 6% of the Valley’s population and 1% of the nations, Indians founded 15.5% of Silicon Valley startups and contributed to 14% of US global patents.
At the same time, I also realized that protectionist demands by nativists were causing American political leaders to advocate immigration policies that were (and are) choking US innovation and economic growth. The government would constantly expand the number of H1-B visas in response to the demands of businesses but never the number of green cards, which were limited to 140,000 for the so-called key employment categories. The result? The queues kept increasing. I estimate that today there are around 1.5 million skilled workers and their families stuck in immigration limbo, and that more than a third of these are Indians.
Meanwhile, I have witnessed a rapid change in the aspirations among international students. The norm would be for students from China and India to stay in the US permanently because there were hardly any opportunities back home. This changed.
My engineering students began to seek short-term employment in the US to gain experience after they graduated but their ultimate goal was to return home to their families and friends. Human resource directors of companies in India and China increasingly reported that they were flooded with resumés from US graduates.
For students, the prospect of returning home and working for a hot company such as Baidu, Alibaba, Paytm, or Flipkart is far more enticing than working for an American company. You cannot blame them, especially given that delays in visa processing will lock them into a menial position for at least a decade during the most productive parts of their careers.
This has been an incredible boon for China. One measure of the globalization of innovation is the number of technology start-ups with post-money valuations of $1 billion or higher. These companies are commonly called “unicorns”. As recently as 2000, nearly all of these were in the US; countries such as China and India could only dream of being home to a Google, Amazon, or Facebook.
Now, according to South China Morning Post, China has 98 unicorns, which is 39% of the world’s 252 unicorns. In comparison, America has 106, or 42%, and India has 10 unicorns, 4%. An analysis by the National Foundation for American Policy revealed that 51% of the unicorns in the US have at least one immigrant founder. It is clear how shortsighted the US government has been.
With the clouds of nativism circling the White House, things will only get worse. America’s share of successful technology startups will continue to shrink and Silicon Valley will see competition like never before.
America’s loss is India’s gain.
(The author is a Distinguished Fellow at Carnegie Mellon University at Silicon Valley and author of The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future)
Immigration, border wall, infrastructure, strong military among priorities
WASHINGTON DC (TIP): In his lengthy State of the Union address on January 30 night, Trump doubled down on themes which he has embraced since his campaign for the presidency. He again pushed for stricter immigration laws and the building of a “great wall” along the U.S. border with Mexico. He also repeated his call for an end to family-based immigration, connecting immigration to crime, saying that “loopholes” in the immigration system had allowed gangs to proliferate. Democrats and many in his own party may not agree with this view though.
But in a marked departure from his earlier rhetoric, Trump also tried to sound enthusiastic about working with Democrats. At times, the speech even took on the feel of a pep rally for America, with Republicans briefly chanting “USA!” as the president spoke.
“To every citizen watching at home tonight — no matter where you have been, or where you come from, this is your time,” Trump said. “If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.”
At the top of the speech, Trump celebrated the booming economy, attributing the bullish stock market of recent months to his policies. He also took time to advertise the recent tax cuts championed by his administration, arguing that it would soon pay dividends for working Americans.
“And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history,” Trump said. “Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses. A typical family of four making $75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by $2,000 — slashing their tax bill in half. This April will be the last time you ever file under the old broken system — and millions of Americans will have more take-home pay starting next month.”
As expected, the president also called for a massive infrastructure package, which he said he hopes will attract bipartisan support.
“America is a nation of builders,” Trump said. “We built the Empire State Building in just one year – isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a minor permit approved for the building of a simple road?”
“I am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure that our economy needs, and our people deserve.”
The tail end of the speech, which lasted over an hour, was devoted to military issues, with Trump calling for an end to spending caps for the military and the modernization of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He also promised the final defeat of ISIS.
“We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated,” Trump said after touting recent victories in the war with the terror group.
Trump also discussed North Korea’s nuclear provocations and its treatment of both its own citizens and Otto Warmbier, an American student who was arrested in the country. Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for allegedly taking a political sign from a hotel and died shortly after he was released from captivity.
Various polls post the address indicated that Trump’s speech was well received by Americans. 72% Americans who watched the speech said they approved of it, with just over a quarter saying they did not.
The days ahead are quite crucial. The DACA issue, the impending release of Republican Memo on FBI and Department of Justice, the budget approval, Mueller investigation -are some of the knotty issues to be tackled. Given the tough postures adopted by both the Republicans and the Democrats, the coming days indicate some interesting fireworks.
DAVOS, SWITZERLAND (TIP): Two Indian American CEOs were among the delegation of business leaders who attended a dinner hosted by President Donald Trump in Davos, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum, on Thursday, January 25th.
Vas Narasimhan, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer for Novartis, and Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte, were among the 15-member European business delegation that attended the dinner.
Narasimhan has been Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer for Novartis since February 2016. He is a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis. One February 1, 2018, he will become Chief Executive Officer of the company.
Narasimhan previously was Global Head of Development for Novartis Pharmaceuticals, overseeing the entire general medicines pipeline.
He has also served as Global Head of the Sandoz Biopharmaceuticals and Oncology Injectables business unit, Global Head of Development for Novartis Vaccines, North America Region Head for Novartis Vaccines, and United States Country President for Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. Before joining Novartis in 2005, he worked at McKinsey & Company.
Renjen is in his 31st year with the Deloitte organization and became the CEO of Deloitte Global in June 2015. He is also a member of the Deloitte Global Board of Directors. He has also served as Chairman of Deloitte LLP (US member firm) from 2011-2015.
Outside of Deloitte, Punit is a member of the boards of directors at United Way Worldwide (chairman), U.S.-India Business Council (vice chairman), and Japan Society; and is a founding member of the Lincoln Center India Advisory Council.
Rajeev Suri, who is the CEO of Nokia, was also present at the dinner.
The US delegation was attended by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council.
Trump thanked all the business leaders and urged them to invest in the US. The guests praised Trump for passing the GOP tax cut bill.
WASHINGTON (TIP): President Donald Trump said he will support a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, according to a telephone briefing by the White House for Republican congressional staff members. His remarks could move negotiations on an immigration deal that is stalled in Congress, but Democrats have signaled that his proposal is a non-starter.
The call, hosted by White House adviser Stephen Miller, outlined the demands for any deal on DACA, which includes a $25 billion “trust fund” for a border wall, an end to family reunification, also called “chain migration” by conservatives, and an end to the diversity visa lottery.
But in a more detailed outline of the proposal released by the White House later on Thursday, January 25, it calls for a massive increase in border security and a massive decrease in legal immigration by aiming to “protect the nuclear family migration” by only allowing family immigration sponsorships to include spouses or children, rather than extended family members.
In addition to $25 billion in border security, it would appropriate funds to add new enforcement officers, immigration judges and prosecutors – efforts to more quickly deport people who are in the country without legal papers.
The path to citizenship would be provided to DACA recipients via a “10-12 year path” that includes “requirements for work, education and good moral character.”
A path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers is a significant concession for Democrats, most of whom say they will not support any deal that does not provide for citizenship. It’s similar to a bipartisan proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., also includes a path to citizenship for Dreamers.
But Democrats say that the massive increase in border security, elimination of most family migration and the end to the diversity visa lottery is a lopsided deal.
“Dreamers should not be held hostage to President Trump’s crusade to tear families apart and waste billions of American tax dollars on an ineffective wall,” Durbin said in a statement. “This plan would put the administration’s entire hard-line immigration agenda — including massive cuts to legal immigration — on the backs of these young people.”
Trump told reporters Wednesday night before leaving for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he’d support legalization that would “morph” into citizenship.
Some Republicans, especially those with more hard-line views on immigration, praised the plan.
“The president’s framework is generous and humane, while also being responsible,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said.
Immigration activists, however, blasted the plan for ending family reunification, and vowed to oppose it.
“They think that by offering up a spoonful of sugar — relief for Dreamers — they can get Congress and the American people to swallow the bitter medicine of radical nativism,” Frank Sharry, founder of America’s Voice, an immigration rights group. “We are going to fight this tooth and nail.”
United We Dream Advocacy Director Greisa Martínez Rosas, who would be a DACA beneficiary, went further in a statement.
“Let’s call this proposal for what it is: a white supremacist ransom note,” she said. “Trump and Stephen Miller killed DACA and created the crisis that immigrant youths are facing. They have taken immigrant youth hostage, pitting us against our own parents, Black immigrants and our communities in exchange for our dignity.”
The ACLU also did not pull any punches, saying that “the only community that benefits from this supposed generosity are white supremacists.”
The nonprofit advocacy organization added that the “proposal is clearly an effort to sabotage bipartisan talks on the issue by continuing to put issues on the table that are non-starters.”
Rep. Luis Gutiérrez, D-Ill., chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Immigration Task Force, said in a tweet that Trump’s proposal didn’t “pass the laugh test.”
And Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Michelle Lujan Grisham, D-N.M., excoriated the bill in a statement.
“We cannot allow the lives of young people who have done everything right to be used as bargaining chips for sweeping anti-immigrant policies,” she said. “The White House is using Dreamers to mask their underlying xenophobic, isolationist, and un-American policies, which will harm millions of immigrants living in the United States and millions of others who want to legally immigrate and contribute to our country.”
Meanwhile, other Democrats in the House and Senate — as well as liberal advocates — shared their continued displeasure with Trump’s proposal on social media.
WASHINGTON (TIP): President Trump frequently mimics Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s accent, according to a report.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday, January 21, citing senior administration officials that Trump “has been known to affect an Indian accent and imitate” the Indian leader.
Modi reportedly told the US president during their Oval Office meeting that “Never has a country given so much away for so little in return” as the United States in Afghanistan.
According to the report, Trump views Modi’s statement as “proof that the rest of the world viewed the United States as being duped and taken advantage of in Afghanistan.”
It is not clear from the report whether Trump’s mimicking was to drive home a point on the US involvement in Afghanistan or to ridicule Modi.
Indian American Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-IL, criticized Trump for mimicking Modi
“I was appalled to read that President Trump reportedly affected an Indian accent to imitate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said in a statement issued Monday, January 22. “In the wake of the President’s recent comments disparaging entire regions of the world while we still face such division at home, behavior that belittles our allies and ‘otherizes’ entire communities of Americans is one of the last things we need. Americans are not defined by their accents, but by their commitment to this nation’s values and ideals.”
The president is known for mimicking others often to make fun of others. During the 2016 campaign, he mocked a disabled reporter during a speech in South Carolina. The reporter, New York Times’ Serge Kovaleski, has a chronic condition that affects the movement of arms.
Later he denied that he was mocking the reporter’s appearance.
Earlier this month, Trump was widely criticized for allegedly calling Haiti, El Salvador and African nations “Shithole” countries during a White House meeting on immigration.
“As a society, it is our responsibility to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. Pluralism is a development of an attitude of respecting the otherness of others and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us. You are who you are, and I am who I am; let’s figure it out how to make life easy for both of us”, says the author.
President Trump does not care about anyone but himself; he is reckless and insensitive with his words which cause unwanted social hostility between people and nations. He will be gone when his term ends, but we the people will have to live with the consequences of his words and actions.
I stumbled across an article in Times of Israel with the actual title, “When Jews came from ‘shithole’ countries.” What caught my attention was the following sentence, “Sarna and Diner both said that similar fears animated the nativism of the 1920’s and today. In both cases, they said, these derogatory comments were based on a few of the other from a foreign culture, who will disrupt white American society.”
Teresa May, the Prime Minister of United Kingdom expressed the same fear in her speech in Philadelphia to Republicans upon her visit a year ago. She said, “I believe it is in our national interest to do so. Because the world is increasingly marked by instability and threats that threaten to undermine our way of life and the very things that we hold dear.”
Times of Israel wrote, “While congressmen in the 1920s may not have used Trump’s language, they were also opposed to letting in people from so-called undesirable countries — like Italians, Slavs and Jews from Eastern Europe. Chinese immigrants were banned altogether. Senator David Reed, for whom the 1924 law was named, also wanted to let in more immigrants from “Nordic” countries.”
“This prejudice had been around for decades before the 1924 law. A report from 1891 prepared by Senator Henry Cabot Lodge lumped Jews, Italians, Poles, and others into “races most alien to the body of the American people.” Times of Israel.
Recognizing this inherent phobia of a group of people from among the majority of the population, any population for that matter, we wrote at the Center for Pluralism, “The Center is committed to reassuring each other, including the disconnected ones among the White Americans, that together as Americans, we are committed to safeguarding the American way of life. No American needs to worry about losing his or her way of life. As Americans, we uphold, protect, defend and celebrate the values enshrined in our Constitution.
Although no minorities have made any attempt to change the way of life of the majorities, they need to make extra efforts to reassure the concerned group within the majority that they live their lives, and have not, and will not make any attempt to change the Majoritarian lives. Together let’s preserve America’s greatness that we all cherish.
The following speech was written for Hillary Clinton hoping she would deliver it; the full speech is at Huffington Post dated November 6, 2016, two days before the elections.
My priority is to reach out to my fellow Americans who had it good until the disaster from wars brought misery to them; the white Americans. We are going to find ways and means for them to recover from the difficult times they have endured while other Americans have prospered.
You have two stark choices in front of you; one makes the decisions from the seat of his pants. He does not listen to anyone, does not have the support of a single former President nor does he have the advisement of the sane voices. He can bankrupt the nation and walk away with no consequences, but you may be the one who gets stiffed. Your job and your life is an experiment to him, and the safety of our nation will be subjected to his whims.
Believe me, the Black Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, immigrant Americans, and all other Americans want each one of us to prosper, particularly the disaffected White Americans. Our prosperity hinges on the prosperity of people around us and prosperity of nations around us. None of us will succeed if some of us are left behind.
I am committed to restoring justice to my fellow Americans who lost their jobs in manufacturing, Americans who live on farms, Americans who do not have an education or technical skills, men and women who are plumbers, electricians, repairmen, drivers, janitors and small business owners, and taking care of them is a priority of my administration. We will restore our glory days, and in the end, no American will be left out.
Pluralism is the panacea
As a society, it is our responsibility to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our duty to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. Pluralism is a development of an attitude of respecting the otherness of others and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us. You are who you are, and I am who I am; let’s figure it out how to make life easy for both of us.
The Center for Pluralism will become the energy to give a solid cohesive social structure to our nation. By the year 2025, there will not be an office, school, playground, college, restaurant, theater, train, bus or a workplace where people of different faiths, races, ethnicities, and national origins do not work, interact, play, live and marry together. This is bound to create conflicts in airports, public spaces, boardrooms, and in bedrooms as well as places of worship, workplaces, politics, eateries, and schools.
We have a responsibility to shape the future of our society, and we will continue to focus our energies on ensuring a safe America, where no one including your kids, grandkids or yourselves has to worry about his/her faith, ethnicity, race, gender or other God-given uniqueness and live his or her life without apprehensions.
The Center for Pluralism will be an antidote to Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Racism, Homophobia, Hindu phobia, Xenophobia, Misogyny and other phobias. Through research and activism, we are establishing a respectful space for the ideals of pluralism with the policymakers, interfaith groups, Republicans and Democrats and of course the media and you!
(The Washington based author is an Indian American, committed to building cohesive work places, societies and communities and offers pluralistic solutions. He is the founder and president of the Center for Pluralism. He can be reached at mikeghouse@gmail.com)
WASHINGTON (TIP): The House, on Thursday, January 18 night, approved, 230 to 197, a stopgap spending bill to keep the government open past Friday, but “Senate Democrats — angered by President Trump’s vulgar aspersions and a lack of progress on a broader budget and immigration deal — appeared ready to block the measure”, said a New York Times report.
In the Senate, at least about a dozen Democratic votes would be needed to approve the measure, and there was little chance that those would materialize. Democrats are intent on securing concessions that would, among other things, protect from deportation young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children, increase domestic spending, aid Puerto Rico and bolster the government’s response to the opioid crisis.
The Senate held only a procedural vote on the stopgap bill late Thursday night, leaving for Friday a more consequential vote when Democrats are expected to block the measure.
CNN, ABC News, New York Times, Washington Post, Time among the awardees
WASHINGTON (TIP): Announcing the much-awaited Fake News Awards, US President Donald Trump declared ‘The New York Times’ as the winner of the ‘Fake News Award’. Others in Trump’s unique award were ‘ABC News’, ‘CNN’, ‘Time’ and ‘The Washington Post’. Trump announced the award in a tweet January 17 night.
The website GOP.Com where the winners were listed crashed soon after Trump announced the awards.
“2017 was a year of unrelenting bias, unfair news coverage, and even downright fake news. Studies have shown that over 90 per cent of the media’s coverage of President Trump is negative,” it said.
Topping the list was The New York Times’ Paul Krugman story which claimed on the day of Trump’s historic, landslide victory that the economy would never recover.
ABC News’ Brian Ross was positioned second. It “CHOKES and sends markets in a downward spiral with false report,” the website said.
‘CNN’ received the third prize for reporting that candidate Donald Trump and his son Donald J Trump Jr had access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks.
Time was placed fourth for reporting that Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office.
The Washington Post was laced last for reporting Trump’s massive sold-out rally in Pensacola, Florida was empty.
Below is the full list of winners of the 2017 Fake News Awards.
1) The New York Times’ Paul Krugman claiming markets would ‘never’ recover from a Trump presidency
2) ABC News’ Brian Ross’ bungled report on former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn
3) CNN falsely reporting the Trump campaign had early access to hacked documents from WikiLeaks
4) TIME report that Trump removed a bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office
5) The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel tweeting that Trump’s December rally in Pensacola, Fla., wasn’t packed with supporters
6) CNN’s video suggesting Trump overfed fish during a visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
7) CNN’s retracted report claiming Anthony Scaramucci-Russia ties
8) Newsweek report that Polish First Lady Agata Kornhauser-Duda did not shake Trump’s hand
9) CNN report that former FBI Director James Comey would dispute President Trump’s claim he was told he was not under investigation
10) The New York Times report that the Trump administration had hidden a climate-change study
11) In Trump’s words, “‘RUSSIA COLLUSION!’ Russian collusion is perhaps the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American people. THERE IS NO COLLUSION.
(Source: GOP Website/ PTI)
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