Donald Trump Faces Lawsuits from US Businesses

US President Donald Trump is facing mounting lawsuits from a crowded clutch of businesses over his China tariff policy. 

About 3,500 US companies including Tesla Inc., Ford Motor Co., Target Corp., Walgreen Co. and Home Depot, have sued the Trump administration in the last two weeks over the imposition of tariffs on more than $300 billion in Chinese-made goods. 

Rather than "China is paying for those tariffs," as Trump had said, it is the US side primarily bearing the costs. As early as the beginning of the year, Trump's tariffs had cost American firms $46 billion since February 2018, Reuters reported. 

And a Moody's report in September 2019 showed that Trump's trade war with China has cost an estimated 0.3 percentage point in US real GDP and almost 300,000 jobs. 

Although further progress of the lawsuits remains to be seen, Trump's boastful statement that "trade wars are good and easy to win" is clearly not the case. 

Sure, China, having the second-largest economy, is also impacted from the US-initiated trade war. However, even amidst the trade war and with risks that Trump may further escalate confrontations with China, the American Chamber of Commerce survey in Shanghai revealed that 78.6 percent of polled US companies have no intention to move investment away from China, up 5.1 percentage points from last year's survey. 

The fact of the matter is that no company can afford to not do business with China – it is too gargantuan a market to ignore.

 

On Monday, Liverpool triumphed 3-1 over Arsenal. 

The Gunners actually went ahead after 25 minutes – but within 3 minutes, Sadio Mane pounced after the Arsenal goalkeeper could only push out Mohamed Salah's shot. Six minutes later, Andy Robertson received the end of Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross to stab home. And then, Diogo Jota who made his Anfield bow following his move from Wolves, sealed the game when he volleyed from close-range into the bottom corner in the eighty-eighth minute. 

This EPL match showcased an all-conquering Liverpool team that are pressing and persisting – on this evidence, the Reds are in a class of their own, comprehensively outplaying their opponents with a masterclass of measured, quality-laden football. 

Arsenal return to Anfield on Thursday hoping to do better in the EFL Cup fourth round.

Musings on Lat & Zunar

I thought Marina Mahathir was on the nose in her “musings’ (Star, September 29, 2010, p N43) that today the powers-that-be have totally lost the plot.

She wrote about how cartoonist Lat “pokes fun at our attitudes towards driving, queuing, eating and our relationships towards each other? Or the way we interpret government policies?” – and that Lat has never gotten into trouble for his cartoons.

“It may be because we once had a better sense of humor, or our politicians were once more secure.

But it was certainly unheard of to prosecute a cartoonist for anything”, she maintained.
 
Today, we know this is not the case – I am referring to Zunar’s unhappy brush with the law, and which as Marina says, is “a sign of paranoia gone to extremes”.
 

Image credit: http://www.etawau.com/HTML/AirAsia/LatCartoon/LatCartoon/LatDrawing12.jpg 

But I do not quite agree with Marina that Lat be compared with Zunar.

About the only thing both of them have in common is the fact that they draw cartoons – but when we examine their cartoons, we can easily appreciate that Lat is a social commentator while Zunar is a political cartoonist.
 

 

 

 

Image credit: http://drzeze.files.wordpress.com/2008/02/lat-caricatures-01.jpg

Lat’s cartoons will draw knowing smiles but certainly, I don’t believe they will invite any retaliation, not even mild rebukes. They’re harmless, some may say they’re sterile even.
 

Image credit: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zDWtXrcOt0s/SCBYxDX_YdI/AAAAAAAAAVw/fNLVhO2gTQs/s400/cartoon.gif

Image credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWpCL6q5t0wRNyXY8jZJM-mNa-om27HO7A1PuGk4oiMzlJcwmXGa6GFRR-oQH0sLCDjYPqqMAlXS3xyxmHRW1IjFrGcpXMxSwLzePCS70uIInCg2bHnG07Qf8LHxvbGgwnamnBvsJ9tg/s400/cartoon.gif

Image credit: http://jameswongwingon-online.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html

Image credit: http://uppercaise.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/marina-on-lat-zunar/
 

Zunar’s cartoons bite because they sear our consciousness and strip away the phony layers of half-truths and falsehoods that we constantly wrap ourselves in, in order to hide away the many troubles afflicting our beleaguered country.

It’s like intentionally locking ourselves away in a closet of self-denial. We do not want to know because we couldn’t care less/we can’t be bothered/we’re just not interested. And we know that if we do free ourselves from this self-imprisonment, then our next step is to act!

But how many of us will take action?

Zunar already did us a favor by revealing to us an ailing Malaysia, whose raw wounds bleed and fester because of the greed-induced shenanigans of a rapacious political fossil whose sell-by date has expired long ago.

I am referring to BN – this governing coalition of disparate forces who are already disconnected from the electorate that now they seem hopelessly out-of-touch and out-of-place.

Zunar’s cartoons make us sit up and be concerned. Zunar is giving us a much-needed dose of reality.
 

Arsenal maintained their 100% start to this season's Champions League with a 3-1 win against 10-man Partizan Belgrade.
 
Andrey Arshavin fired Arsenal ahead (15) before Cleo levelled for Partizan with a penalty (33) after Denilson's handball. The Gunners produced a second goal from Marouane Chamakh’s well-placed header (71) and finally the third came also from another header – this time by Sebastien Squillaci (82).

Saying Sorry!

Lately, we are seeing a spate of apologies coming from a diverse group of people for diverse reasons.
On February 16, Anwar Ibrahim apologized for choosing unqualified candidates for Parliament and state seats – what he called "errors of misjudgment" he had made when choosing candidates for general elections in 2008.
And yesterday, the infamous Khir Toyo offered his apologies – finally admitting to making mistakes as Selangor menteri besar – but his ego could not totally deflate, and so he was still defiant. He said he should not be expected to shoulder all the blame.
And then, MCA president Ong Tee Keat also said sorry for the mistakes he had made when trying to transform his party.
Even the monthly magazine Al-Islam – their publisher Utusan Karya is a subsidiary of the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia – apologized too, saying they had “unintentionally hurt the feelings of Christians especially Catholics” because of the actions of their two journalists which involved the desecration of a religious rite.

We can of course, choose to remain silent and lie down on our own bed of self-righteousness or we can choose to admit that we have erred and offer our apologies. If we choose the latter, methinks, there is hope yet for our own self-redemption.

Arsenal drew level on points with league leaders Chelsea after making hard work of beating Burnley 3-1.
Cesc Fabregas opened the scoring when he slotted in from close range (34) but soon after he was forced off injured. Burnley equalized when David Nugent latched on to Leon Cort's header and looped the ball over Manuel Almunia (50). Theo Walcott curled in a sublime shot (60) to ease the embarrassment of Nicklas Bendtner's awful finishing before Andrey Arshavin rifled in a third (90+4).

Singing Susan

Okay, after yesterday’s posting about Susan Boyle – I thought I should showcase her singing talent.

I know more than 6 million people have already heard her sing, but it is worth to listen again. The Scottish singer became a YouTube sensation after her 2009 appearance on "Britain's Got Talent," on which she sang "I Dreamed a Dream": It was great singing, by the way.



In fact, just to set the record straight, the most famous insults directed at Susan Boyle were made by a woman, Brit music manager Sharon Osbourne.

She had in a US radio interview put down Susan Boyle by saying that she looked like “a hairy arsehole”. Plus other vicious vituperation – see the following video clip:

Ugly duckling or not – Susan Boyle’s got talent!

And in the EPL, Arsenal whipped Stoke 3-1. But it was the latter which had taken the lead in the 8th minute when Danny Pugh headed in from Rory Delap's long throw-in but Nicklas Bendtner levelled with a fine header back across goal (32). And just when we thought we had to settle for a draw, Cesc Fabregas scored a penalty (90+1) before Thomas Vermaelen tapped in (90+4), as Arsenal – still in third place – moved to only three points off Chelsea.

250 Years of Guinness

Kuala Lumpur has been selected as the sole Asian location to host the landmark Arthur’s Day celebration in conjunction with Guinness’ 250th anniversary and as a toast to brand founder Arthur Guinness. After all, the Guinness brand first came to Malaysia in 1880 while the brewery, which was the first brewery outside Ireland, was set up here in 1965. Malaysia remains one of the most important markets for Guinness stout and was ranked in the top 10 in Asia in terms of stout consumption.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I attended the 250th Anniversary Dinner at the Mines Convention Center, Kuala Lumpur. The crowd was mostly Chinese and “older” – honestly, not really my type of crowd! Still there was dinner, music and entertainment, and of course, Guinness.

The Guinness person on my right is Rachel, a HELP University College Business student. Fancy meeting her at this event.

Still on Guinness, I came across this Guinness TV ad and I loved it. So enjoy...

Back to football – there’s a match involving Arsenal tonight. It is now expected that the Gunners will be in full throttle to clinch another win against Portsmouth. No wonder they go in to the match as favorites. And the Gunners did win, defeating Portsmouth 4-1; the goals coming from Diaby (18, 21); Gallas (51); and Ramsey (68).