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Remember when Donald Trump told reporters in Vietnam that Kim Jong Un said he “didn’t know” about the death of Otto Warmbier—the American student who was imprisoned in North Korea, and died days after being sent back to the U.S. with brain damage? And that he, Trump, had chosen to believe him? You should, because it just happened yesterday. Also, it was recorded on camera, and it pissed off a whole bunch of people, who saw it as yet another instance of Trump taking a murderous dictator at his word. “He gave cover . . . to a leader who knew very well what was going on with Otto Warmbier,” Republican Rick Santorum lamented on CNN, calling the move “reprehensible,” while House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff labeled it “detestable,” and even good-old Ben Shapiro called it “F**king pathetic.” Yet, if you ask the president, that feedback is totally unwarranted! According to Trump, his comments—which, again, were captured on tape—were totally misinterpreted:
Trump’s frantic backpedaling was presumably in response to Warmbier’s parents releasing a statement saying, “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son Otto. Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity. No excuses or lavish praise can change that.” Not only is this not the first time the ex-real-estate developer has sided with a sadistic despot over his own people, it’s also not the first time he’s tried to claim that the media “misinterpreted” something stated clearly, unambiguously, and in public, because he thinks we’re as dumb as he is. Incredibly, even as he claims he never said the thing we all heard him say, Trump can’t actually bring himself to blame Kim for what happened to Warmbier, which—earth to Donny—is what people are pissed about. Of course, that probably has something to do with the fact that nobody comes between Trump and his favorite authoritarian, who is giving Vladimir Putin and Mohammed bin Salman a real run for their money these days.
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Trump official breaks the first rule of the Trump administration
Actually, it’s more like the third or first rule (the first being whatever Javanka wants, Javanka gets and the second: do not approach the president until he’s been nursed and changed) but it’s an important one nevertheless: never, ever admit that climate change is a real thing that should be taken seriously:
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Friday that he believes climate change could threaten economic growth. It’s a position that puts him at odds with the Trump administration and the President himself, who has openly questioned whether the climate is warming at all.
Last year, a 1,600-page report on the potential effects of climate change written by scientists from 13 different government agencies estimated that climate change could result in the American economy losing hundreds of billions of dollars, or, at worst, more than 10 percent of its GDP by 2100. “I don’t believe it,” Trump said after the report’s release.
At present, the White House is said to be assembling a crack team of climate deniers to rebut the 1,600-page report released in November—a group that includes a guy who thinks carbon dioxide is “not a pollutant at all” and is “actually a benefit to the earth.” As for Hassett, we just pray he’s banked enough brownie points during various TV appearances in which he’s called Democrats “economically illiterate” and explained why Trump’s shutdown was actually awesome to weather the coming shitstorm.
Some people are taking the Amazon jilting better than others
Last month, a number of New Yorkers were treated to a deeply unpleasant Valentine’s Day surprise when Amazon announced it was pulling the plug on a second headquarters in Long Island City, Queens, on account of all the attitude it had received for the $3 billion in taxpayer subsidies that came with the deal. To be clear, a lot of New Yorkers were extremely happy about this turn events, namely the ones who had protested Amazon moving into the neighborhood, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and State Senator Michael Gianaris. For others, though, having Jeff Bezos walk away represented the worst thing that had ever happened to New York City including, literally, 9/11. But rather than accept reality and move on, a vocal group of people is still in the denial phase of the grief process, and apparently believe they can and will win Amazon back:
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who was staggered by Amazon’s decision to pull out of its plans to come to New York City, is working intensely behind the scenes to lure the company back, even connecting with Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, to make a personal pitch.
The push to get Amazon to reconsider also included an open letter that ran as a full-page ad in The New York Times on Friday, urging Mr. Bezos, the company’s chief executive, to reverse course and build the campus in Long Island City, Queens.
The letter was signed by more than 70 supportive unions including the AFL-CIO, local businesses and business leaders, community groups and elected officials including Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn, a top Democrat, Max Rose, a first-term Democrat from Staten Island, and Carolyn Maloney, whose district encompasses the Amazon site, and the former mayor David N. Dinkins.
Unfortunately for Andy Amazon, so far the begging does not appear to have swayed anyone in Seattle, which even he acknowledged on Friday. “I have no reason to believe that Amazon is reconsidering,” the governor told WNYC’s Brian Lehrer. “Would I like them to? Certainly. But I have no reason to believe that.”
In other Amazon news . . .
The destroyer of worlds is coming for your grocery stores:
Amazon is planning to open dozens of grocery stores in several major U.S. cities, according to people familiar with the matter, as the retail giant looks to broaden its reach in the food business.
The company plans to open its first grocery store in Los Angeles as early as the end of the year, one person said. . . . The new stores aren’t intended to compete directly with Whole Foods and will offer products at a lower price point, these people said. The new chain would offer a different variety of products than what is on the shelves at the more upscale Whole Foods stores.
Not surprisingly, shares of Walmart, Kroger, Target, BJs, and Costco all fell sharply on the news, which is probably just a taste of the pain they can expect in the coming weeks/month/years, if they stay in business that long.
Tax evasion sounds exhausting
We’re not going to say Swiss banks are happy that global authorities are cracking down on the business of hiding assets to help clients avoid paying taxes, given such activity has long been Swiss banks’ thing. But we do wonder if some small part of them is relieved to no longer have to do all this:
The manual told employees not to keep clients’ names on them, to get rid of sensitive data if needed or when crossing the border, to use different hotels to other UBS employees, and to be unpredictable in their movements, including which taxis they took and restaurants they ate in.
In order to keep track of the money raised by the bankers, prosecutors say a “double accounting system”—called “carnets du lait,” or milk tickets—was used. According to former employees, “the ‘carnets du lait’ were in the form of hand-written notes on a Clairefontaine type grid paper” which were eventually centralized in an excel file called the “vache,” or cow.
UBS, which was fined $5.1 billion last month after being found guilty of helping French clients evade taxes, has denied ever engaging in such unsavory business and said it plans to appeal the conviction.
Wells Fargo will never not be paying fines
The most recent being $240 million to settle a lawsuit brought by shareholders who alleged officials breached their fiduciary duties by “knowing about or consciously disregarding” the bank’s little sham accounts scandal, wherein millions of fake accounts were made in customers’ names without said customers’ knowledge. (Wells Fargo, which has denied wrongdoing, declined to comment.) The $240 million follows a $480 million settlement last May by shareholders who raised similar claims, and likely contributed to the bank’s announcement on Wednesday that it expects to pay up to $2.7 billion more than it had set aside as of December 31 “to resolve legal matters.”
Elsewhere!
House Democrats prepare case to request Trump tax returns (NBC News)
Elon Musk Will Have to Contend with Tesla Short Sellers Again (N.Y.T.)
How the World’s Cleanest Banks Became a Haven for Russian Crooks (Bloomberg)
Martha Stewart had some help on her CBD deal with weed grower Canopy: Snoop Dogg (CNBC)
The Bill Gross You Didn’t Know: Taxes, Deficits and Asperger’s (Bloomberg)
More than 1,000 T.S.A. employees still owed back pay from shutdown (CNN)
Why America Is Obsessed with Theranos, Fyre Fest, and Other Scams (Barron’s)
Canada allows U.S. extradition of Huawei C.F.O. to proceed (CNBC)
Lyft’s I.P.O. Filing Shows It Lost Almost $1 Billion Last Year (Bloomberg)
World’s Top Bridge Player Suspended for Doping (Deadspin)
This story was originally published by Vanity Fair
via USAHint.com
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