August, 2019

The partnership announcement states that TuSimple has been helping UPS understand how to get to Level 4 autonomous driving where a vehicle is fully autonomous and able to reach a particular location. At this point, the TuSimple trucks carrying packages for UPS still have an engineer and a safety driver riding along. When UPS reaches Level 4, it won’t need anyone behind the wheel...

The forensic accounant who revealed Bernie Madoff’s ponzi scheme, Harry Markopolos, published on Thursday a 175-page report that alleges accounting fraud by General Electric (GE). The report sent shares tumbling 11%, the worst single-day loss for GE since April 2008. Markopolos claims the $38 billion he says he and his team found in losses in GE’s insurance business is just the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ saying the alleged cover up is ‘far more serious than either the Enron or WorldCom accounting frauds.’ In an interview with Yahoo Finance’s The Final Round, he went on to reveal he has withheld additional information strictly for the U.S. government.

A new report from the Wall Street Journal reveals that Trump has asked his advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, during "meetings, dinners, and passing conversations" because of Greenland's "abundant resources and geopolitical importance," according to White House sources. While some of Trump's advisers support the idea as a "good economic play," others dismiss the inquiry as a "fleeting fascination that will never come to fruition." Coincidentally, the president will be making his first visit to Denmark next month, although the sources say the scheduled trip is completely unrelated.

Jeffrey Epstein’s former gal pal Ghislaine Maxwell isn’t holed up in her British manor or summering on the Massachusetts coast... The Post found the socialite hiding in plain sight in the least likely place imaginable — a fast-food joint in Los Angeles. Maxwell, 57, the alleged madam to the multimillionaire pedophile, was scarfing down a burger, fries and shake al fresco at an In-N-Out Burger on Monday while reading “The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives,” a nonfiction best seller by journalist Ted Gup.

A Jimmy Kimmel Live! bit making fun of President Donald Trump is going to cost ABC $395,000, as the FCC is cracking down on use of the emergency alert tone in entertainment. The network agreed to pay a fine to the agency after late-night host Jimmy Kimmel in October used a simulated tone three times during a sketch about the nationwide presidential wireless emergency alert test. The bit, which is posted on YouTube, featured a trailer for a fake movie called The Textening. According to the FCC filing, ABC says it was a "misunderstanding that the use of the tone was permissible."

President Trump’s approval rating has edged up, driven by long-term confidence in his economy and boosted by the lackluster performances of the two dozen Democrats trying to beat him in the 2020 election, according to the latest Zogby Analytics poll... “President Trump's job approval has continued to rise the last few months,” said pollster Jonathan Zogby in his analysis of likely voters. “It's true Trump is riding high on positive economic news,” he said. But, he added, “It's also very plausible he is benefiting from poor performances by the Democratic presidential candidates who have continued to move very far to the left with their policies..."

Comments

After the first ICE guard ran us over with his truck, the rest of them ran over & pepper-sprayed us. The police present just stood by and watched, doing nothing.

We are #JewsAgainstICE, immigrants, and allies. #NeverAgainMeans doing what it takes to #ShutDownICE. We'll be back. pic.twitter.com/56hF2sDfFA

— ✡️ Never Again Action ✡️ (@NeverAgainActn) August 15, 2019

Arguing that large scale protests have only led to injuries and escalating police brutality, Haotian believes another method could be used to severely undermine China’s influence – a good old fashioned run on the bank. He suggested that another method could be used, namely, impacting the financial system,” reports China Press.

“He called on Friday (August 16) that Hong Kong citizens take out all bank deposits. The primary goal is Chinese banks, but he said other banks should also be targeted, otherwise Chinese banks can borrow money from other banks to solve problems.”

The total of more than 6,700 pounds of cocaine seized in the two operations was worth more than $89 million, the Coast Guard said... According to the Coast Guard, one metric ton of cocaine contains 20 million individual doses in the U.S. Over the last five years, the Coast Guard has seized more than 923 tons -- 2 million pounds -- of cocaine, or about 18.4 billion doses worth more than $27 billion.

"Nearly 80 [percent] of all known illegal narcotics coming into North America are smuggled by international cartels through the Eastern Pacific corridor, an area greater in size than the entire United States," the Coast Guard said. "The profits from cocaine allow drug cartels to diversify and fund other illicit trafficking activities including the smuggling of opioids, synthetics, methamphetamines, persons and weapons."

• Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Thursday called for a national debate on whether an assault weapons ban that Congress let expire in 2004 would be effective "in keeping weapons made for war out of the hands of mass murderers."
• The retailer also released for the first time some of the data for its own gun sales: Walmart estimates it has a 2% share of the U.S. firearms market and 20% of ammunition sales.
• Walmart is declining calls for it to stop selling guns after recent shootings killed more than 20 people at two of its stores in Mississippi and Texas.

Well, Bannon hasn't been quite as active lately, though it is clear that he's thrilled the president ultimately decided to embrace his position on China. Which is why the Global Times, the Communist Party's nationalist mouthpiece, has run an editorial attacking Bannon, something that he also probably finds exceedingly thrilling.
[...]
Ultimately, the GT accused Bannon of masterminding what it called "China threat theory", and has used his influence within the West Wing, which lingers on through his loyalists and even his continuing relationship with President Trump, to vilify Beijing and encourage Washington to take a hard tack in the trade war.
The GT also accused Bannon of 'malicious smears' by asserting that Beijing has been waging "economic war" against all Western democracies.
[...]
It also accused him of creating an "anti-China" clique.

But with the Trump Administration already backpedaling by delaying tariffs that would send inflation soaring, the question is why is Beijing picking now to go after Bannon? Perhaps it intended to communicate that while Bannon's not a priority deserving of a swift rebuttal (like, say, Mike Pompeo or John Bolton), Beijing doesn't forget an unkind word. That, or it realizes that despite Bannon has been cast away from the close circle of Trump advisors - at least for public consumption - Bannon is still the main puppetmaster in the White House...

Game of Thrones actress Josephine Gillan is “heartbroken” after Israeli social services took her eight-month-old daughter Gloria away from her. The actress played Marei in eight episodes of the hit HBO series and recently moved to Israel to raise her daughter. On a GoFundMe page to pay her legal fees, Gillan says that five months after Gloria was born, Israeli social services placed the child in the care of Gillan’s friend so the mother could attend therapy for post natal depression. However, on August 4, the Israeli government took the child from the friend in the middle of the night to place the girl in the care of another family. According to Gillan, the Israeli government “kidnapped” baby Gloria.

Jeffrey Epstein's blood vessels in his eyes popped when his air supply was cut off by the bed sheet that was wrapped around his neck ... this according to law enforcement sources briefed on the case. We're told he suffered petechial hemorrhaging, caused when someone hangs himself or is strangled or smothered, but authorities are confident this was a hanging.
We're told the bed sheets were tied to the top of a bunk bed and Epstein either hurled himself off the top bunk or had his feet to the ground and leaned forward to cut off his air supply. Authorities believe the former is true, because throwing himself off the top bunk and falling violently to the ground could explain why his hyoid bone was fractured.

Montgomery County coroner Dr. Kent Harshbarger said Connor Betts, 24, had a pipe device and a baggie of cocaine with him, and cocaine, alcohol and an antidepressant in his blood. Harshbarger also reported in his preliminary autopsy findings that police stopped Betts with at least two dozen gunshots that hit him at gaps in his body armor.

.@HillaryClinton has called for support of the rioters in Hong Kong. Let's see what happened when she "supported" Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq. pic.twitter.com/dAZcuqkljO

— People's Daily, China (@PDChina) August 15, 2019

China's largest state-run newspaper group, People's Daily, has produced a viral video slamming Hillary Clinton's disastrous record of promoting regime change abroad from Libya to Syria to Iraq. It comes in response to a tweet this week where she expressed solidarity with the still raging Hong Kong protests, at a moment the Chinese military is staging outside the city possibly prepared to invade and put down the demonstrations. "May we all stand in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong as they speak out for democracy, freedom from repression, and a world they long to see," she wrote Tuesday...

Michael Matthews, 58, was told Aug. 7 he was free to leave the New York facility... Matthews' family told the New York Daily News that a counselor at MCC invited him to their office, where he was given a card to ride the subway and paperwork to sign to be released. He knew he was awaiting sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 20, but didn't speak up. Richard Donoghue, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, stated in a letter obtained by Fox News on Thursday that Matthews — who previously served time for bank robbery — was released, despite being held "pursuant to a permanent order of detention."