The Autocrat’s Guide to Power. Trump’s Generals and TV Pundits. Fire and Fury over Facebook.

“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion […] but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” ― Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order

As expected, Congress passes a 1.3 trillion spending bill that averts a government shutdown. The bill repudiates Trump’s and many Republicans’ notions of smaller government and includes “beefing up the military and providing much-needed funding for priorities like battling the opioid crisis and rebuilding crumbling infrastructure.” Some congressmen admitted that “none of us know what is actually in this bill.” (NYT)

The Autocrat’s Guide to Power: First Control the State, Then Control the Media: Russian president Vladimir Putin has nothing on Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey is already the world’s leading jailer of journalists, and a new law is extending the reach of the country’s aggressive censorship of radio, TV, and the web. A group of Erdogan loyalists is in talks with 81-year-old billionaire Aydin Dogan about purchasing Turkey’s largest private media company, which will effectively quash what little independence is left of its battered media.

Dogan is negotiating to sell CNN’s Turkish affiliate, the country’s leading daily, Hurriyet, and the tabloid Potsa. The new law just passed by Turkey’s parliament allows the state’s media watchdog, RTUK, to oversee online broadcasts and block content of both paid and free streaming services such as Netflix and YouTube. Owners and the editorial leadership of opposition newspapers Cumhuriyet, Sozcu, OdaTV, Evrensel, and Birgun have all been jailed, detained, or are facing trial. Kurdish media outlets have been ordered shuttered by the dozens.

Erdogan has been in power for 15 years, and like China’s president Xi Jinping did, he’s preparing to cement his control with elections next year that will abolish the post of prime minister and codify what is essentially one-man rule. For the first time, the global rights group Freedom House has changed this year’s ranking for Turkey from “Partly Free” to “Not Free.”

Let’s Get Ready to (Trade War) Rumble!: President Trump announced Thursday he intends to impose tariffs on upwards of $50 billion in Chinese goods.Furthermore, in retaliation for years of alleged intellectual property theft, China’s investment in the US will be limited. The announcement confirms Beijing’s worry that Trump might impose trade restrictions on the country over its huge trade surplus with the US.

The White House said such precarious action was necessary because years of talk had failed to change the trade imbalance caused by unfair competition from China’s state-led economy.  Beijing announced it was ready to retaliate with “necessary measures,” and the US stock market took an immediate downturn.

Trump had ordered a review of Chinese policies last August. The review found a range of “unfair” practices in China, including restrictions on foreign ownership that pressured foreign companies into transferring technology. America’s top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, standing alongside the president, said protecting American technology was critical to the US’ economic future. Additionally, the review found evidence that China imposes unfair terms on American companies, steers investments in the US to strategic industries, and conducts and supports cyber attacks. The White House has a list of more than 1,000 products that could be targeted by tariffs, but businesses will have the opportunity to comment before the final list goes into effect.

– President Trump’s lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, has resigned.  Dowd’s strategy for cooperating with the inquiry was at odds with his client’s desire to take a more aggressive stance. (NYT)

– One of the best ways to serving President Trump is either being a military general (McMaster, Flynn, Allen, Mattis) or being a Fox television pundit (Anthony Scaramucci, Joseph E. diGenova, Larry Kudlow, John Bolton). And one of the best ways to ensure you have very little to no job security is to work in his administration. John Bolton, a Fox News pundit and former US Ambassador to the UN who supported the 2003 Iraq invasion, is replacing H.R. McMaster as national security adviser. (Politico)

– Speaking of military generals and television pundits, General Barry McCaffrey, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran and West Point instructor, noted that “putting Jared Kushner, a 30-something person with no foreign policy or defense policy experience, as a leading representative of the United States is simply outrageous.” He also warned “that Kushner’s portfolio shows the ‘personalization of a family business dealing with U.S. policy.’” (The Hill)

– Speaking of Prince Kushner, the Saudi Crown Prince has purportedly been saying he has Jared Kushner in his pocket because “Kushner had discussed the names of Saudis disloyal to the crown prince, according to three sources who have been in contact with members of the Saudi and Emirati royal families since the [Saudi Arabia royal] crackdown.” Totally unconfirmed is whether or not the Crown Prince sings Alanis Morissette during karaoke. First starting with “You Oughta Know [about how Kushner is my DC informant]” and then followed up by “[Kushner] In My Pocket.” (Intercept)

– The US-backed President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned after just 19 months in office, one day before the Peruvian congress was going to fire him over allegations of corruption and vote-buying. (NPR)

– In a country where starvation is rampant and society near virtual collapse, Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is using hunger as a political weapon to cling to power in the May 20 presidential election. With only a 22% approval rating, the socialist administration intends to prevail by using dirty tricks, fear tactics, and the lure of food to obtain votes. (WSJ)

– A Palestinian teenager and her mother have been held in an Israeli jail for three months and will stay for another five. Ahed Tamimi was 16 last December when she confronted Israeli soldiers outside her home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A video was taken of her slapping and kicking a soldier. Her mother put it on Facebook and afterward Ahed, now a “provocateur,” was charged with 12 counts of assault. (NPR)

– A widely-read Chinese state-run newspaper declared that China should prepare for military action over self-ruled Taiwan and pressure Washington over cooperation on North Korea, after President Trump signed legislation last week aimed at boosting ties between the US and Taiwan. Trump’s announcement Thursday that he intended to impose stiff tariffs on Chinese goods probably really made President Xi Jinping’s head explode. (Reuters)

Fire and Fury over Facebook: The US House Energy and Commerce Committee formally requested Thursday that Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg appear and testify at an upcoming hearing. The committee wants to ask Zuckerberg about reports that in 2015 the data analysis firm Cambridge Analytica (CA) improperly accessed personal information from 50 million Facebook users. The panel’s chairman, Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), said: “The latest revelations regarding Facebook’s use and security of user data raises many serious consumer protection concern (sic).

Multiple state attorneys general have opened investigations of Facebook amid allegations it had learned about the breach and did nothing afterward. Facebook previously said it changed its developer policies in 2015 and had received assurances CA had deleted the data the firm was using to build psychological profiles of voters, which in turn was used to aid Republican political candidates, including Donald Trump. The Federal Trade Commission is also looking into whether the CA incident means that Facebook violated a 2011 settlement with the federal government that was supposed to improve the company’s privacy practices.

At least five other panels of lawmakers advised they have spoken to the tech giantconcerning its role in the CA controversy. “They say ‘trust us,’” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), “but Mark Zuckerberg needs to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about what Facebook knew about misusing data from 50 million Americans in order to target political advertising and manipulate voters.”

Please consider making a one-time donation to Daily Pnut, an independently operated and bootstrapped publication, via PayPal. Many thanks to everyone who already supports us!