Putting teeth in the anti dumping laws

Tires Made in Southeast Asia Will Be More Expensive

By Jason R. Sakurai on December 31, 2020 

 

Tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam are about to get more pricey, as the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced yesterday preliminary duties in the antidumping duty (AD) investigations of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from those countries.

The DOC issued a preliminary decision that passenger and light truck tires imported from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value, or dumped. The dumping margins were calculated at 14.24 to 38.07 percent for South Korea, 52.42 to 98.44 percent for Taiwan, 13.25 to 22.21 percent for Thailand, and 0 to 22.30 percent for Vietnam. The DOC instructed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect deposits from tire importers based on those preliminary rates.

 

The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC, also known as the United Steelworkers Union, petitioned the DOC to investigate alleged dumping and subsidies for the tires. The DOC had already issued a preliminary ruling that Vietnamese tire producers received unfair subsidies associated with their undervalued currency.  The DOC calculated duty rates ranging from 6.23 percent to 10.08 percent, with final anti-dumping and countervailing duty decisions by mid-March 2021. The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has already made a determination that the industry in the U.S. is being harmed by alleged dumping and subsidies.

Gardena, California-based Tireco, Inc., is one of the nation’s largest distributors of private-brand wheels and tires, which includes Forté wheels, Sendel wheels, Milestar tires, WestLake tires, and Nankang tires. Taiwan-based Nankang would be among those impacted by a 98.44 percent dumping rate, the highest of any cited.

To date, the DOC maintains 542 AD and countervailing duty decision (CVD) orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.

Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, the DOC has initiated 306 new AD investigations, a 278 percent increase from a comparable period in the Obama Administration. A strange alliance, the AFL-CIO Steelworkers Union and the Trump Administration, or is it?

[Images: Tireco, U.S. Dept. of Commerce]

Teaching violence...teacher of the year.

‘National Teacher Of The Year’: McConnell’s Neighbors Should Attack Him Like Rand Paul’s Neighbor Attacked Him

"Rand Paul’s neighbor did what a true Kentucky hero should do. It’s your turn to step up.”

By  Hank Berrien

•

Dec 31, 2020   

On Wednesday, a man who was named “National Teacher of the Year” in 2019 by the Council of Chief State School Officers tweeted that the neighbors of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should act like a “true Kentucky hero” the way that the neighbor of Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) violently attacked Paul in 2017, leaving him with six broken ribs and necessitating the removal of part of his lung.

Rodney Robinson tweeted, “Who are Mitch McConnell’s neighbors? I’m just saying Rand Paul’s neighbor did what a true Kentucky hero should do. It’s your turn to step up.”

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Vote fraud: This is rather remarkable. In real time, during live testimony before a Georgia Senate

“We’re In” – Witness Testifies Dominion Voting Equipment, and Internal Data, Hacked Live During Georgia Senate Hearing

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Sundance

This is rather remarkable.  In real time, during live testimony before a Georgia Senate Committee, a witness testifies to using Wifi capbility to enter the Fulton County voting system via the internet while the hearing was ongoing.  WATCH:

Little confessed to 93 murders committed in a 35 year span between 1970 and 2005

Man dubbed the 'most prolific serial killer in the history of the US' by the FBI dies in prison

"They walked right into my spider web"

Image Source: YouTube screenshot

Heart-wrenching

A 3-year-old was abandoned along with his dog at an Ohio cemetery two days before Christmas. The community rallied.

The little boy was seen chasing after a car purportedly driven by whoever left him behind

Image source: NewsNation New YouTube video screenshot

 BRECK DUMAS

Two days before Christmas, a 3-year-old little boy and his dog were dropped off and abandoned at a cemetery in Hinckley, Ohio. A witness who called 911 said they saw the toddler — who wasn't wearing shoes — chasing after the car apparently driven by whoever left the child and pup behind.

But once the word got out, calls, gifts, and offers of adoption poured in for the tyke, who the town's police chief described as "a pretty happy little fella" even when they first took him into protective custody.

What are the details?

The witness, who discovered the child at Hope Memorial Gardens Cemetery, stayed with the boy to keep him safe until authorities arrived. The youngster was able to relay that his name is Tony, and he knew the first names of both his parents but not his last name.

The Hinckley Police Department responded and provided the boy with a change of clothes since his clothes were wet when he arrived, and bought him some lunch. Then they posted a picture of Tony on their Facebook page, asking for help identifying him and explaining how he was found.

The community rallied. People wanted to know if they could buy presents for Tony, and others offered to adopt him outright. During an interview with local station WEWS-TV, police Chief David Centner even offered to care for the boy himself, saying, "My wife and I have already told children's services...we will welcome him into our home. We've got 14 grandkids and a big house and plenty of room and love for him."

The department informed people that they could send gifts to Tony and provided his clothing size. A day later, they posted a picture showing the presents that had been brought, and Chief Centner wrote:

"From all of us at HPD we want to thank everyone for your kindness, thoughts, prayers and overwhelming love. Our lobby is full from the gifts that have been dropped off. I reached out to my friend Santa and tomorrow morning after he has finished his deliveries he is going to stop at HPD. We are going to load the sleigh and make on final stop to see our little friend."

The Daily Mail reported that "a relative of the boy recognized the photo of him published in local media and contacted Tony's father," whom authorities have described as "very cooperative." The father called police Wednesday, and indicated that Tony's mother had custody of the child when he was abandoned, "NewsNation reported. 

The father and officers also returned to where Tony was abandoned, and found the boy's dog, who was still running around the cemetery.

de Blasio's boys at work in broad daylight on 5th Ave in Manhattan...future murderers and homicide victims

Group of NYC bicyclists attack BMW in broad daylight, wild video shows

A pack of young bicyclists attacked a BMW in broad daylight in Manhattan, terrorizing the man and woman inside in a terrifying ambush caught on video.

Several assailants surrounded the luxury ride at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, with some pounding the vehicle with their fists and feet, and another smashing a bike down on top of it, video posted to Instagram by Breaking911 shows.

One attacker got a running start, vaulted up on the hood of the BMW and jumped on top of the windshield, causing it to partly cave in, the video shows.

“This was an animalistic attack in broad daylight,“ said one Manhattan cop, noting that the vehicle’s occupants, a man and woman in their 50s, were scared for their lives. “It shows how far the city has deteriorated and the politicians better get their heads out of the sand and start to deal with these problems before there is nothing left.”

The same group similarly attacked a cab a short time later, the source said.

Both incidents are being probed.

It was not immediately clear what preceded the wild incident, or if any arrests had been made.

Twitter

America is being intentionally demoralized to accept corruption

9, 2020

Ukraine press conference explicitly ties Hunter and Joe Biden to corruption

By Andrea Widburg

A video from a press conference in Ukraine is going viral.  It is the follow-up to a video press conference that Ukraine released over a year ago, in which members of the Ukraine Parliament demanded that President Zelensky and President Trump investigate billions of dollars of corruption in Ukraine that is tied to the U.S.  The newly released video is meant to provide documentary and eyewitness information about the corruption — and the Biden family figures prominently in the story.

The video is long — over an hour — and not all of it involves the Biden family. This post quotes those portions of the press conference that address Biden family corruption.  The gist of it is that, while Democrats obsess about Trump's purported criminality, despite the absence of any evidence, their chosen standard-bearer is extraordinarily corrupt.

Indeed, I would argue that Biden is one of the most corrupt politicians ever in America.  In the past, corrupt politicians have confined themselves to playing dirty in their own backyard, making money from deals with fellow Americans.

I believe that Biden is the first person ever to serve in the highest reaches of government — the Senate and the vice presidency — who sold his country out to the highest foreign bidders.  It's an insult to everything America has stood for since its inception that massive election fraud might allow this person to set foot in the Oval Office.

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Do lockdowns increase crime?

NYC records most murders since 2011 as killings surge 41% this year compared to 2019 and police commissioner says: 'I can´t imagine a darker period'

• New York City recorded 447 killings as of Tuesday, the highest since 2011
• The number of killings represents a 41 per cent increase over those seen in 2019 
• The people shot more than doubled the 2019's total and nears a 14-year high
• The 2020 murders marked the third consecutive year of rising homicides 
• Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said: 'I can´t imagine a darker period'

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Are America's intelligence agencies pro Communism?

Biden CIA Appointee Worked With CCP Propaganda Org Conducting ‘Undercover Intel Ops’, Appears On China State Media

Michael O’Hanlon — an appointee to the Central Intelligence Agency External Advisory Board under the Obama-Biden administration — visited a Chinese Communist Party-run think tank identified by the U.S. government as conducting “undercover intelligence gathering” operations and seeking to coerce foreign actors into backing the Chinese Communist Party’s “preferred policies.”

Also the Director of the Brooking Institute’s Foreign Policy Research Team and adjunct professor at Georgetown and Columbia Universities, O’Hanlon visited the China Association for International Friendly Contact (CAIFC) on August 23rd, 2012 – the same year his Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) External Advisory Board stint ended.

Under President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden,  O’Hanlon served on CIA External Advisory Board, the brainchild of then-CIA Director Leon Panetta. It counted O’Hanlon as an advisor from 2011 to 2012.

Specifically, he paid a visit to the CAIFC’s Peace and Development Research Center, whose summary of O’Hanlon’s appearance noted he praised the center as one of the “most famous in China” and was “attracted by its reputation.”

“He came and hoped to hear opinions on Sino-U.S. relations and regional hot-spot issues from scholars of the center. The opinions he got may provide references for his book about Sino-U.S. relations which he was writing with Steinberg, former U.S. Deputy Secretary,” the summary added.O’Hanlon’s praise and open ears, however, were deeply misguided. The U.S. government now identifies the CAIFC as an integral component of China’s United Work Front, which aims “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition to the policies and authority of its ruling Chinese Communist Party.”

“The United Front strategy uses a range of methods to influence overseas Chinese communities, foreign governments, and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies,” the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review commission’s report added.

The report singled out CAIFC, noting it is a “front” for the Chinese military:

“CAIFC is a front for the former PLA GPD which may now report directly to the PLA Central Military Commission’s Political Work Department.”

“CAIFC has additional ties to the Ministries of State Security, Civil Affairs, and Foreign Affairs, and it is a platform for deploying undercover intelligence gatherers,” the commission adds.

While the organization’s website describes its goals to establish “close ties with [foreign] government agencies, political parties, and prominent political and military figures” to “promote China’s policies, achievements, and goals,” John Garnaut—a former journalist and adviser to Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull—argues is intended to outsource the CCP’s messaging to “self-interested or naïve intermediaries.”O’Hanlon has also appeared on Chinese state-run media outlets designated as foreign missions by the Trump administration to criticize his approach to China.

This unearthed connection follows reports that Chinese intelligence operatives targeted high-profile Democratic politicians such as Eric Swalwell.

There is simply too much money in government hands

Senate Investigation Finds Obama Admin Knowingly Funded al-Qaeda Affiliate

on-profit humanitarian agency World Vision United States improperly transacted with the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA) in 2014 with approval from the Obama administration, sending government funds to an organization that had been sanctioned over its ties to terrorism, according to a new report.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) recently released a report detailing the findings of an investigation his staff began in February 2019 into the relationship between World Vision and ISRA.

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Chicago: Defund the police

Chicago police union boss slams defund-the-police cuts as city faces 'historic levels' of homicide

At least eight people were killed and 30 more injured by gun violence over Christmas weekend

 CHRIS PANDOLFO

The president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spoke out against the mayor's decision to cut more than 600 police jobs after several people were killed over Christmas weekend as violent crime continues to ravage the city. 

At least eight people were killed and 30 more were wounded in citywide shootings over the extended holiday weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday. Three people were shot and killed on Christmas Day. 

"We're over 700 homicides by gun in Chicago this year and close to 800 total homicides for the year," Chicago FOP President John Catanzara told Fox News Tuesday. "It's reaching historic levels, and this when the city council and the mayor's budget just cut over 600 jobs from the police department's budget when crime is soaring. It's ridiculous." 

"Literally, just two days ago, we had a kid who just turned 13-years-old go into the store to get batteries for a Christmas toy at 9 am in one of the peacefullest parts of the city, who was gunned down," he continued.

 CHRIS PANDOLFO

The president of the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police spoke out against the mayor's decision to cut more than 600 police jobs after several people were killed over Christmas weekend as violent crime continues to ravage the city. 

POLL: Will you be spending Christmas with your family or social distancing?

At least eight people were killed and 30 more were wounded in citywide shootings over the extended holiday weekend, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday. Three people were shot and killed on Christmas Day. 

"We're over 700 homicides by gun in Chicago this year and close to 800 total homicides for the year," Chicago FOP President John Catanzara told Fox News Tuesday. "It's reaching historic levels, and this when the city council and the mayor's budget just cut over 600 jobs from the police department's budget when crime is soaring. It's ridiculous." 

"Literally, just two days ago, we had a kid who just turned 13-years-old go into the store to get batteries for a Christmas toy at 9 am in one of the peacefullest parts of the city, who was gunned down," he continued.

In October, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced cuts to the police department's budget in response to demands from Black Lives Matter activists to defund the police and reduce the department's $1.6 billion budget. 

Lightfoot announced that the city would eliminate 618 police jobs, even as disgruntled police officers are leaving the job or retiring, creating staffing issues for the department. In her remarks on the budget cuts, Lightfoot said that police departments have played a "complicit role" in "brutally enforcing racist, Jim Crow laws, depriving Black and Brown people" of their "full rights as citizens." 

"These are not just ancient times, but recent history, right here in Chicago. And so, in breaking down these barriers, we must also continue to closely scrutinize all policing practices and policies to eliminate any and all bias," she added.

Catanzara accused the mayor and other city officials of giving in to violent Antifa rioters who have "hijacked" efforts by peaceful protesters to call for police reform. 

"We had many examples this summer in Chicago where peaceful protests were hijacked by anarchists," Catanzara said. "Specifically, everybody's seen the video footage from the Columbus statue assault where 52 of our officers were injured in that assault by violent anarchists. They have absolutely hijacked the movement and the narrative." 

"If the goal is to have a lawless, non-police society, mission accomplished," he added. "Because the politicians in this city and state are actually falling for it." 

Terrorism in Colorado; bereft of humanity

Thousands of Colorado residents have no heat after 'intentional attack' on gas services

Tuesday night's temperature is expected to dip to 2 degrees

 SARAH TAYLOR

Thousands of residents in Aspen, Colorado, are without heat after what authorities say was an "intentional attack" on local gas service. 

According to a Tuesday report from ABC News, the temperature in Aspen is expected to fall to just 2 degrees Tuesday night. 

What are the details? 

Authorities say that the attack — "coordinated acts of vandalism" — took place Saturday night and impacted at least three area Black Hills Energy locations. 

The outlet reported, "At one of the targeted sites, police said they found the words 'Earth first' scrawled, and investigators were looking into whether the self-described 'radical environmental group' Earth First! was involved."

As work crews continued to restore gas service across the city, authorities began handing out electric-powered space heaters to residents without heat service on Tuesday as a storm is expected to roll in this week and dump an additional eight inches of snow on the region. 

Work crews were forced to visit each gas meter on an individual basis, manually turn them off, and relight pilot lights in order to restore services. It wasn't just homes impacted by the attack — authorities said that businesses including area hotels and restaurants were forced to close their doors following the apparent sabotage.

 In a statement, Aspen Assistant Police Chief Bill Linn said that the vandals appear to have had "some familiarity" with the natural gas line system. 

"They tampered with the flow lines," he revealed. "They turned off gas lines." 

Linn — who is also working with the FBI as it investigates the attack — added that physical evidence recovered at the three scenes included footprints. The three locations did not have security cameras, Linn said.

What else?

About 3,500 customers were impacted by the outage. It remains unclear how long it will take crews to restore service to all customers. 

In a statement, Pitkin County Commissioner Patti Clapper added, "It's almost, to me, an act of terrorism. It's trying to destroy a mountain community at the height of the holiday season. This wasn't a national gas glitch. This was a purposeful act. Someone is looking to make a statement of some kind."