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HP Pavilion x360 (13-inch) Review
By Andrew E. Freedman published 25 August 16
Editor's Note: We generally don't recommend laptops older than 2 years. For our top picks, check out the Best Laptops, or answer a few simple questions in our Laptop Finder to get personalized recommendations
The HP Pavilion x360 is a solid performer with strong speakers, but it has a dim display and too much preloaded junk.
Solid performance
Strong speakers
Dim display
Lots of bloatware
Laptop Mag Verdict
These days, you can get a capable 2-in-1 for under $500 and one with formerly expensive features such as an SSD and a 1080p display for under $700. However, even those specs and a shiny exterior won't get you a premium product in this price range. Starting at $450 ($650 as reviewed), the Pavilion x360 has the fancy-looking gold chassis and solid performance you'd expect from a high-end device, but it also has the dim display and heaps of bloatware that you find on midrange laptops. In the end, HP's 2-in-1 is a reasonable choice for consumers with modest budgets, but it doesn't do much to stand out from the pack.
The Pavilion x360 took its design cues from HP's flagship notebook Spectre, but reversed the color scheme. The shiny gold plastic lid, with its reflective HP logo, is rather ostentatious. Opening the laptop reveals a black plastic deck with a wood-grain pattern, an island-style keyboard with gold keys and a 13.3-inch, 1080p display surrounded by a thick bezel. I found the combination to be a bit loud (I find the Spectre to be more refined), while a few of my colleagues found it less offensive, and one absolutely loved it.
At 3.6 pounds and 12.9 x 8.8 x 0.9 inches, the Pavilion is portable, but slightly larger than the competition. The Dell Inspiron 13 5000 is also 3.6 pounds, but it's more svelte at 12.8 x 8.9 x 0.77 inches. The Acer Aspire R 15 (14.6 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches) and the detachable Acer Switch Alpha 12 (11.5 x 7.9 x 0.6 inches) are significantly lighter at 2.82 pounds.
The Pavilion's 360-degree hinges allow it to be used in four modes: laptop, tablet (by folding the screen all the way around), tent (an upside-down "V") and stand (with the keyboard face down and the screen pointing up).
The Pavilion has a fairly standard assortment of ports that should suffice for most of today's peripherals. The left side of the notebook is home to the lock slot, a USB 2.0 port and headphone jack. On the right side, you'll find an SD card reader, a pair of USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output and power jack. Unfortunately, there's no USB Type-C port.
The 13-inch, 1080p display on the Pavilion produces sharp images, but it's dim and not as vivid as I would have liked. When I watched the trailer for Doctor Strange, the picture was crisp enough for me to see all the cracks around Kaecilius' eyes. The yellow in a wizard's cloak and Strange's burgundy cape were true to life, but they didn't exactly pop.The Pavilion's panel reproduced just 62 percent of the sRGB color gamut, the same amount as the Inspiron 13, but less than the ultraportable average of 92 percent. The Switch and Aspire were far more vivid at 101 and 109 percent, respectively.
The screen on the Pavilion has a Delta-E color accuracy score of 1.1 (the closer to zero, the better). That's better than the average of 2.21, but the Inspiron 13 was the best of the bunch with a score of 0.7. The Switch (3.6) and Aspire (4) were far less precise.The screen isn't terribly luminous, with an average brightness of 245 nits and viewing angles of roughly 45 degrees. It beat the Inspiron 13 by one nit (244 nits) but was lower than the category average of 301 nits. Both the Aspire (310 nits) and Switch (at a far brighter 432 nits) outshone the competition.
MORE: Best HP Laptops
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard and touchpad on the Pavilion x360 are responsive, but a tad mushy. The keys have 1.4 millimeters (we prefer at least 1.5 mm) of vertical travel, and they require 58 grams of force to press. I managed to type at 107 words per minute (about average for me) with my usual 2 percent error rate.
While the touchpad was accurate when I navigated Windows 10 and performed gestures like swiping three fingers to see all of my open tabs, I didn't love clicking on it. It felt spongy, especially toward the bottom (where I tend to click) and the sides.
HP and Bang & Olufsen's speaker partnership has led to a number of great speakers, and the Pavilion x360s are among them. When I listened to Kanye West's "Jesus Walks," the vocals were loud and clear over the rhythmic chanting and sharp drums. The music easily filled our lab with sound way before the laptop reached maximum volume.
The B&O Play Audio Controls app offers three audio presets, though I would recommend leaving it in music mode. You can also address the bass, treble and vocals with corresponding sliders.
Our Pavilion x360 configuration came with a 2.3-GHz Intel Core i5-6200U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. I had 27 tabs open in Google Chrome (one of which was streaming a 1080p episode of Last Week Tonight from YouTube) before I noticed lag when switching between them.
On the Geekbench 3 overall performance test, the Pavilion notched a score of 6,024, surpassing the ultraportable notebook average of 5,288. Out of the competition (all of which also use Core i5-6200U CPUs), only the Switch Alpha 12 (6,398) had a higher score. The Inspiron 13 (5,961) and Aspire (5,318) earned lower scores.
It took the Pavilion 45 seconds to copy 4.97GB of mixed-media files -- a transfer rate of 113.1 megabytes per second, which is slower than the category average of 148 MBps. The Inspiron (82.1 MBps with a slow SSD) and Aspire (30 MBps with a traditional HDD) were both far slower, while the Switch (152.4 MBps with an SSD) beat the average.
On our OpenOffice spreadsheet macro test, the Pavilion paired 20,000 names and addresses in 4 minutes and 37 seconds. The average time is far longer (6:49), and the Inspiron (4:28), Switch (4:32) and Aspire (4:59) all beat it.
The Pavilion and its integrated Intel HD Graphics 520 GPU earned a score of 58,478 on the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited benchmark, which is higher than the average of 48,404. But that's still not enough to play demanding games like Doom, Overwatch or Metro: Last Light. Equipped with their own HD Graphics 520 GPUs, the Switch notched a higher score of 64,550, while the Inspiron 13 and Aspire obtained 45,012 and 49,995, respectively.
The Pavilion is further proof that most 2-in-1s still haven't reached battery life parity with regular ultraportables. The Pavilion lasted 6 hours and 35 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery test, which consists of surfing the web continuously over Wi-Fi. That's lower than the 7:53 ultraportable average, which only the Inspiron 13 (7:46) came close to matching. The Aspire (5:20) and Switch (4:49) didn't last nearly as long.
MORE: Laptops with the Longest Battery Life
The 720p webcam on the Pavilion takes color-accurate, but blurry, photos. While it captured the color of my red shirt exactly, my beard looked like it was penciled on. It's passable enough for some casual Skyping, but I wouldn't use this webcam for anything more important.
The Pavilion got somewhat steamy in our tests. After streaming 15 minutes of video from Hulu, the bottom of the laptop hit 96 degrees Fahrenheit, just breaking our 95-degree comfort threshold. The touchpad was cooler at 80.5 degrees, as was the keyboard at 87 degrees.
Software and Warranty
The Pavilion is filled with bloatware and comes with very little useful software. The junk includes Simple Solitaire, Snapfish, TripAdvisor, Amazon, Avast SecureLine, WIldTangent Games, Flipboard, Twitter and Candy Crush Soda Saga.CyberLink PowerDirector is useful for light video editing, and it's hard to argue with 25GB of free space in Dropbox for 12 months. HP's only major contribution is its Recovery Manager, which creates backups of your system in case of a crash.
HP offers a one-year warranty on the Pavilion x360. See how the company did on our Best and Worst Brands ranking and Tech Support Showdown.
The Pavilion we reviewed came with an Intel Core i5-6200U CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 28GB SSD and a 13.3-inch, 1080p display. It costs $650 and is sold exclusively at Best Buy.Another configuration costs $450, comes in silver instead of black and gold and has a Core i3-6100U CPU, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB HDD.
The HP Pavilion x360 looks like a premium product from afar, but up close, it's your average, everyday 2-in-1. Its performance is better than other midrange convertibles, and its speakers are loud and clear, but the display is dim, and you'll spend a ton of time uninstalling bloatware.
Depending on what is most important to you, each of the Pavilion's competitors is worth considering. The Dell Inspiron 13 5000 (starting at $549) offers the longest battery life of the bunch by far, though it's still under the ultraportable average, while the Acer Switch Alpha 12 (starting at $650) is a detachable 2-in-1 with a beautiful screen and more power, but its battery life is quite poor.That leaves the HP Pavilion x360, which is a middle-of-the-road choice for a decent price. It's a compromise between power and endurance, but for some, that may be a safe choice.
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HP Pavilion x360 (13-inch) Specs
Brand HP
CPU 2.3-GHz Intel Core i5-6200U
Card Slots SD/SDHC Card reader
Company Website hp.com
Display Size 13.3
Graphics Card Intel HD Graphics 520
Hard Drive Size 128GB SSD
Hard Drive Type SSD
Native Resolution 1920x1080
Operating System Windows 10 Home
Ports (excluding USB) HDMI, Headphone/Mic, SD card slot, security lock slot, USB 3.0, USB 2.0
Size 12.89 x 8.8 x 0.89 in
Touchpad Size 3.7 x 2.5
USB Ports 3
Warranty/Support 1 year limited hardware warranty
Wi-Fi 802.11ac
Wi-Fi Model Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165
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Road to the Oval Office Podcast: Trump Transition Update
Mark Alderman, Blake Rutherford and Howard Schweitzer of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies discussed the Trump transition, cabinet appointments and some of President-elect Trump's key policy areas.
Blake: Thanks to everyone who is dialed in today. My name is Blake Rutherford and I'm joined as always by Mark Alderman, the Chairman of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies, and Howard Schweitzer, the Managing Partner of Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies. Mark, Howard, great to be with you guys.
Howard: Thanks, Blake.
Mark: Blake.
Blake: Happy Holidays to you and to everyone. We are continuing our discussion of the incoming administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, but before we get to some of the more key developments over the course of the last few weeks since we were altogether, I want to take stock, Mark, and I want to begin with you and the state of transition from an outgoing administration perspective. We will, and a bulk of this call will, be dedicated to the incoming administration, but you have known and been connected and served this administration and it is coming to its end. I thought I would just get your thoughts and perspectives on what's going on in the White House these days.
Mark: Other than packing, I think what's going on is that the transition is taking place, Blake and Howard, really on three levels and in at least two different places. You have the transition taking place in Washington D.C. That's the presidential transition team that is largely led by Mike Pence and people that he has put in place there, of course with the president-elect. They are looking at 4,000 positions to be filled. It's that level of transition that is interacting to a degree with the outgoing administration.
I think the headlines there are two-fold. One is that the degree of interaction is not especially intense and that is of concern to some members of the outgoing administration. Headline number two is that there is clearly going to be a clean sweep through these political appointments. Witness the questionnaire that went through the Department of Energy asking for names of people who were involved in climate change conferences. There is the D.C. level.
The second level is the Trump Tower level where cabinet positions, agency heads are being vetted. I don't think the White House has a lot to do with that, but then you get to the actual presidential transition between President Obama and President-elect Trump. I am told by people who know that there is a lot of communication between the two of them and that they are getting along in a way that, I think, wasn't predictable, just as the entire election wasn't predictable. The president is on a tightrope because just as he is trying to work with the president-elect, he is also trying to leave him some corners that he can't get out of, most especially the intelligence report on Russia. That's the big picture from the outgoing administration.
Howard: Still politics.
Blake: Yeah, Howard, let's talk about the incoming administration. I want to get to a point certainly in a minute, but just on a macro level, what's happening at Trump Tower, what's happening at the Trump transition office? Just give us a since of the dynamic. We know what we see in television, but from an insider point of view.
Howard: Yeah, it's slow, Blake, for one thing. We're seeing the potential nominees and very high-level and impressive people circulate through Trump Tower. As we predicted, it would be during our call series running up to the election, they weren't really prepared for the transition. As compared to a more traditional candidate and candidacy, you didn't have the apparatus, the transition apparatus, being built up alongside the campaign that you'd expect to see in other times. It's slow to develop.
While I think that the vetting and nomination process at the top of the agencies is taking shape nicely and moving apace, as Mark said, there are thousands of jobs to fill and they're key. I would say it's slow. I think New York and D.C., Mark, you're absolutely right: two transitions. Not the world's greatest communication between the two. Trump Tower is the center of the transition, not the transition office. It's the center of the key decision-making and that's going to remain the case until he's inaugurated and perhaps beyond.
Blake: From that perspective, Howard, how do you sense that, because we'll certainly talk about some policy directives here in a minute, but just from you've seen transitions from the inside out, how would you rate this one so far?
Howard: Again, I think it's going slowly, but they're taking it seriously. They've got the landing team showing up at the different agencies. I know Mark alluded to that report coming out of the Department of Energy. They're taking it seriously.
In my experience having done this three times, until the administration is in power, has the reins of power, has their feet planted on the ground, they're not really governing. They call it a transition for a reason. It's a change. It's a movement into power. I think we've seen some pretty extraordinary things from the president-elect, like the Carrier move and the One China issue and the call with the leader of Taiwan - things that were pretty extraordinary. In general, I think notwithstanding the fact that they're behind the curve because they started slowly, it's going fine.
Mark: It's proceeding I think, Blake, in a very Trump-like fashion. It is a little slow down below because he didn't pay as much attention to that as-
Howard: Because they didn't think he was going to win.
Mark: Of course, of course, but at the same time, you have a very active president-elect. He is not simply waiting his turn to take the reins of power. As Howard said, you have the Carrier deal, you had the Boeing tweet, you had him showing up at the Army/Navy game and acting like the president of the United States. I think he himself is stepping very strongly and very publicly into the role. I think that's what you would expect from Donald Trump.
Howard: He's going to continue to do that as president.
Mark: Yeah.
Blake: One of the things that we've seen, and Mark you touched on a few key developments during this transition, one I wanted to get your take on, Howard, was the fact that Trump over the weekend said, "Look, I don't need a daily intelligence briefing." How much weight should we give at this stage of the process to the necessity of any president-elect ... Mark, I'm going to get your perspective. You certainly had some insight when a young president-elect Barack Obama came into office. How much weight should we give to the fact that Trump is not taking a daily intelligence briefing?
Howard: Not much.
Blake: Really?
Howard: In my opinion, he's got the responsibility. The buck stops with him. He owns this and he can't shed that ownership. I think he's going to figure out what he needs to do to be president. I'm not particularly concerned about the fact that he's making judgments about not getting an intelligence briefing everyday.
Look, I'll tell you, having been in government a long time, that it is not a bad thing for somebody to be questioning, for the president-elect to be questioning, the necessity of doing things the way they've always been done. The worst thing you can hear in government when you ask a question about why something is being done a certain way is, "That's the way we've always done it." Whenever I heard that in government, that was my signal to go deeper. He's going to ask tough questions. He's going to challenge conventional norms and that's okay.
Mark: That's okay and I think you're half-right, but I think there's half of this that is of great concern. The half-right part, I think, is the daily briefing is not constitutionally required so long as the president-elect is set up with those around him informed and available. Whether he himself receives the daily briefing or not I think, Howard, you're right. It's of less concern than the other dimension of this which is that the president-elect is very publicly and very extremely rejecting the intelligence community as a reliable source of important information. That is of concern, whether it's daily or however often he's briefed.
This whole controversy over the CIA assessment of the Russian hacking, I find it, and I think a number of prominent Republicans have said that they find it to be the same. I find it very troubling that the president-elect is calling the CIA ridiculous. I will give him points. The line about it's the same organization that said that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, that was a great line. He gets points for that line. The content of his rejection of the intelligence community as a source of reliable information is something that is beyond not just doing things the same way they've always done.
Howard: I've transitioned between three administrations. There's a huge difference between running in transition and governing. When he's the president of the United States and he own the responsibility, he's not going to reject the United States' intelligence apparatus. He's going to rely upon it heavily. I'm not concerned about that.
Blake: Let's talk about-
Mark: Well, his guy will be in charge, so presumably he will be getting intelligence that is more agreeable.
Howard: No. Mark, that's not the way it works.
Mark: I think his point about the Bush Administration was fair, but this isn't about history. This is about the future.
Blake: Let's talk appointments because this is certainly the thing that has been driving headlines over the last several weeks. Certainly don't want to run down a laundry list of whom the president-elect has identified as his candidates for certain positions, but Howard, I wanted to give you a chance. What appointments just generally have stood out to you?
Howard: Wilbur Ross for Commerce and Mattis for Secretary. Blake, they've all stood out in the sense that none of these people have experience running the civilian side of government. They all stand out from that point of view. Trump knows that and he's going to account for that at the second layer of appointees.
Look, I think you've got some really accomplished business people and accomplished people from other walks of life. Wilbur Ross has an incredible track record of restructuring companies and investing. General Mattis, although there's this issue around civilian control of the military, is highly respected and widely regarded as a thoughtful individual. Elaine Chao, Secretary of Transportation designee and the wife of the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, served in the Bush Administration. Highly regarded by people on both sides of the aisle. I should also mention the Treasury Secretary - Mnuchin. Yes, Trump's campaign chairman, finance chairman, but a banker. Somebody that knows financial markets. Gary Cohn from Goldman Sachs, apparently going to head the NEC. Certainly knows the economy and knows the financial markets.
I could keep going. You've got people like Betsy DeVos at the Department of Education, Secretary of Labor Puzder, and Tom Price for HHS that are more further along the ideological spectrum. Look, by and large it's been a good process that they're running. I think he's taking a look at people across the political spectrum and he's coming up with a pretty darn good cabinet.
Blake: Mark, what stands out to you?
Mark: What stands out most to me as an overview of his appointments is that to a man and woman, these people are all part of the government-business complex that has run the country throughout all administrations. This is not a populist cabinet. These are people who are very conservative, who have very definite views about government, about the limitation in most cases about government. These are not people from the populist movement that put Trump in the White House.
Obviously, his senior strategist may or may not be an exception to that. He's as much an enigma as he is an exception. Everyone else is from the aristocracy, if you will: billionaires, generals, CEOs. I think to Howard's point that shows a certain level of responsibility that the president-elect is looking for in these appointments, but no one should mistake their political ideology. These are people who, while not populists, are most certainly not coming to Washington with a Democratic agenda, although some of them have been Democrats.
Howard: Some of them are Democrats including, by-the-way, the president-elect. Mnuchin, Wilbur Ross, Gary Cohn - that's the economic team, but they're not ideological conservatives. They're not even Republicans. I don't agree that it's a very conservative ... There are some strong conservatives on the list, but I think it's across the ideological spectrum much more than I expected.
Mark: That's fair, but they are certainly not the populists that the movement that put him in office I think might have expected.
Howard: No, they're not.
Mark: The swamp is hardly drained.
Howard: Fair.
Blake: Howard, in terms of the nominees, which ones at this stage would you anticipate experiencing the biggest challenge during confirmation?
Howard: Tom Price and Scott Pruitt for EPA. I think those are the two. If Tillerson gets the nod for Secretary of State, as it looks like he will, put him in that mix, too. I think Price because of his conservatism and Pruitt because of his opposition to the agency. He's being entrusted to run the EPA and just on climate change. Those are the two.
Mark: I agree with that.
Blake: Yeah, I was going to say, Mark, do you agree with that?
Howard: By-the-way, can I say one more? There will be a sacrificial lamb or two.
Blake: That's where I'm going. If you're in Trump Tower and you're looking at the landscape, what's your strategy at this point? Because looking at it optically, it's easy to see how Democrats could align to want to stop one or two of these. You're starting to see some Republicans, for example, Senator Rand Paul's comments that Ambassador John Bolton is, in his words, not getting confirmed for anything. Senator Marco Rubio, Senator John McCain expressing concern about Tillerson at State already. How do you deal with that, Mark?
Mark: Let's note that the arithmetic has actually changed just a little bit since we last talked. There was a Senate election in Louisiana. There's now a Senator Kennedy from Louisiana who is a Republican. The headcount in the Senate is 52-48. If two Republicans lined up with all the Democrats - footnote: you have to have all the Democrats in line for this arithmetic - then you're at 50-50 and Vice President Pence breaks the tie. It will take three Republican Senators and all the Democrats lined up to deny a confirmation.
I agree with Howard. At least one will be denied. I think the strategy on the Democratic side is which one do you throw everything you've got at? I think the strategy in Trump Tower is whether you're prepared to lose one and who's the backup if so? I'm not sure Tillerson's going to be appointed. As Howard said, I think Price and Pruitt are the most vulnerable in a confirmation today. I think if the CEO of ExxonMobile becomes the nominee for Secretary of State, he becomes the most vulnerable. I don't think he gets confirmed.
Maybe that's okay with the president-elect because maybe his number two choice is okay with him, too. Maybe he doesn't make the appointment if he sees that it can't be confirmed. That's something that's happening in Trump Tower. You can imagine what the various advisors are saying. I don't know what the president-elect thinks about that.
Blake: Howard, there has been a lot of attention on this particular appointment. We've seen a number of names circulate through, a number of dinners involving candidates.
Howard: Yeah, it reminds me of a TV show I watched once.
Blake: Yeah. Right. What do you expect in terms of rounding out the cabinet? There's that appointment left and then a few others. Where do you think this goes as we head into the new year?
Howard: There's also a Supreme Court nomination to come. That may be the mother of all battles. We'll see who he puts forward. Look I think, by and large, there are a couple of positions left to be filled. By and large, it's taking shape. A couple may fall by the wayside. I don't think he's sitting there playing games so much. I think he's sitting there trying to for a variety of reasons - loyalty, policy, trust, capability - making these picks and I think he intends to get every single one of them confirmed. They just won't be.
Blake: Yeah. Obviously, to be watched and followed. I want to pivot now to the policy agenda, which is beginning to take shape. Howard, I thought I would start with you. A lot going on in the world. From a big-picture perspective, what do you think the key forces at play are that are guiding the policy agenda and what we'll see in the all-important first 100 days?
Howard: I think the economy and globalization are the key forces guiding the policy choices that are being made. I think when you step back and look at the election, those were the key drivers of the outcome: the impact of globalization and the state of the economy. In Trump's picks, I think while some of them seem perhaps counterintuitive like the Goldman presence in the Cabinet, he is picking people that he believes can get the economy moving. I think he's also accounting for the need to address the forces of globalization, which I think primarily means trade and consolidating the power for trade-related policy in commerce. Wilbur Ross as the incoming Secretary of Commerce may be relegating the U.S. TR to a less-significant role than it's normally had.
To me, Blake, he's got to get the people that voted for him. If they expect anything from this guy, they expect jobs, they expect economic opportunity, and they expect him to deal with the forces out there that they believe had denied them that. That's where this is headed.
Mark: Now comes the hard part. As hard as it was for Donald Trump to get nominated, as hard as it was for him to get elected, as you were saying earlier, Howard, very soon he will own it all and he will have to govern. That is the hard part. He has to make some very hard policy decisions about what to pursue and what not to pursue. He has to decide which of his campaign promises to abandon, which of his campaign promises to take some action on and make it look good, and which he has to actually try to get down.
For example, his campaign was defined in my mind, in the minds of many I think, by as much as any other issue, he was going to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. Well, that's not happening. We haven't even heard any talk about that happening. He hasn't even appointed anybody who is going to try to do that. That one is just going to go.
He campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act. He's going to do that on day one. Congress is going to do that on day one. That will be delivered, but the way in which it will be done will be hollow to a degree because it will be delayed three years, is the current talk, while they try to figure out what to replace it with.
All of these campaign promises, and yes, the economy is at the absolute core, are now colliding with the reality that he's got to govern. He's got to work with Congress to get anything done. Even when Congress and the president-elect agree and can just roll the Democrats and make it happen - witness the Affordable Care Act - it's really hard to figure out what to do.
Blake: With that in mind, Howard, what do you sense? Because we talk often about the benefits to an incoming president getting a couple of early wins, moving the needle. Mark talked about repealing the Affordable Care Act on day one, right? From a policy-positioning perspective, what would you anticipate? Or I guess we could flip it around a different way: what would you advise this president to tackle first?
Howard: I would advise him to stop the process of regulating on day one. I think if you're focused on what's the one thing that speaks to the American people broadly, it's over-regulation by the government. I would just freeze everything that's going on on day one. You can't just snap your fingers and roll back existing regulations. That takes time. That takes a regulatory process. We're going to see that play itself out in a number of areas. He's got to do some things out of the gate to just shut down the process, stall the process of putting government resources into regulating and ratchet that back.
Blake: What's the consequence of that in terms of certainly the regulatory climate touches all agencies, it touches all sectors? What do you sense the effect of that is? Certainly, it has optical value, no question, but as you talked about, too, scaling back regulations is not an overnight process. It's complicated and involved.
Howard: No. The devil's in the details.
Blake: Right. That will certainly be interesting to see. Mark, the Democrats are looking at their own position now as a minority party across the country, but certainly minorities in both the House and the Senate. The Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, and the House Minority Leader, Nancy Pelosi, still, as you talked about, wield a great deal of power and influence in Washington. What do you sense from a Democratic perspective they're focused on policy-wise?
Mark: The Democratic minorities in both houses, especially in the Senate where the 60-vote filibuster breaker still applies to legislation, will have a voice in what comes out of Congress. I think what they are wrestling with is whether to take the McConnell approach that the Republicans did on day one, literally, as the president was being inaugurated. Mitch McConnell was advising Senate Republicans to oppose anything and everything that the Obama Administration did. They were very true to that injunction. Whether to do that, whether to try to get some things done, and if so what, and where this party is at this point.
I think that what you will see is not the McConnell approach. I don't think that that is politically where the Senate minority is, anyway, because too many of those members are up for election in red states. The McConnell approach would not be popular. I think you're going to see the Senate Minority Leader work with the White House on the infrastructure bill.
If I were advising the president-elect, which through this morning no one has suggested I should do, I would tell him to sit down with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and especially Chuck Schumer, and figure out how to get this infrastructure package that he has promised passed. It's not easy. Again, devil's in the details. Republicans want to pay for it with taxes. Democrats want actual spending. If he can deliver an infrastructure program in 100 days, I think that is the most realistic and meaningful win that the Trump Administration can aspire to. I think the Democrats would help him with that.
Howard: There is no Democratic strategy. There is no cohesiveness among the Democrats in Congress. You've got, as Mark said, 10 Democratic senators up for reelection in red states in 2018. They're not on the same page as Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. Chuck needs them to get reelected. He's acutely aware of that. I think that is probably his overwhelming priority, but there is no cohesiveness among the Democratic Party. See the House of Representatives, which over the objection of some members, reelected Nancy Pelosi their leader which is-
Mark: Completely concur-
Howard: Completely counterproductive.
Mark: That there is no coherent strategy, but nor is there on the other side of the aisle. One of the things that is so interesting as a political science matter is that you have a division between the White House and the Republican majority in Congress. You have a division within the Republican majority in Congress, especially in the House. You have however many Democrats you have with nobody agreeing on anything.
Howard: Let's be clear. These are still institutions. I don't care who is in these jobs, under what administration, the House and the Senate always hate each other more than they hate the president. It doesn't matter if they're all the same party or not. The president still is going to exert executive power and it's going to irk the heck out of the United States Congress. The "Republican Party," you have a non-Republican that got elected as a Republican president of the United States.
Mark, to your point, which I agree with, if I was Chuck Schumer, what I would try to do is line up with Trump on things like infrastructure that the Republicans will not line up with him on. I would try to take advantage of the division, as you're saying.
Mark: Exactly right.
Howard: The division between the Congressional Republicans and the White House, which will intensify, in my opinion, over time.
Mark: Paul Ryan-
Howard: I'd try to be on the Trump side of that and cross your fingers with one hand behind your back and hope that you can do something in two years.
Blake: Yeah, the politics of that get particularly interesting depending on where there is alignment. Howard, we've heard a lot about whether that comes in the form of tax reform, whether it is in financial services. I want to stay domestically before we look abroad, but I wanted to get your comments. Even health care. What are you general comments on those key policy issues? Let's start with tax reform, just because we have heard, whether it ends up being, certainly it's a priority of the Speaker. I thought you might just comment on what you see going forward for tax reform.
Howard: I see it getting done. It is a priority. Ryan has his "A Better Way" agenda, which Trump has been moving toward in the area of taxation. Again, the devil's in the details, but everybody believes the tax code needs to be reformed. Depends whether they can do enough and do it broadly enough so they can get the 60 votes, get the culture vote, and get this thing done. I believe they can.
I think we're going to see corporate tax rates come down dramatically and we're going to see a repatriation of this multi-trillion-dollar pot of money that's sitting overseas that companies like Apple haven't been willing to bring back to the United States because corporate tax rates are so high. I think we're going to see a package that gets that done. There's going to be a big push from the Ways and Means Committee and the White House early in the year. It probably gets done in the back-half of 2017.
Blake: Let's talk about financial services, too, because certainly Dodd-Frank is and has been a big issue to the business community at large, particularly the banking sector. What do you sense happens in financial services generally, but then more specifically to Dodd-Frank?
Howard: They pick their spots. I think there are changes that need to be made. Trump said in the campaign, "Repeal and replace Dodd-Frank." That isn't going to happen. It's not on his priority list. See his Cabinet. It isn't going to happen.
There are things that are going to happen piecemeal. The banking community knows that they have their pet items like the Volcker Rule, for example, that they may go after the CFPB. Actually, at this point, the banking community doesn't want a repeal en masse. They've spent so much money on compliance, so much money getting geared up to deal with it, that I don't even think they could deal with a repeal right now. They want to pick their spots, like the CFPB. The CFPB, which by-the-way is not being done away with, but which will be reformed and it needs to be, that's the kind of thing that can get done in this political climate and will get done over the strenuous objection of one of the senators from Massachusetts, but it's going to get done.
They're going to pick their spots, Blake. It's the community. The reforms that Jeff Hensarling, Chairman of Financial Services, that the Republicans really want are more at the community bank level. They're freeing up capital to small businesses less than they are wanting to relieve the money-centered banks of the pressure they're under.
Blake: Mark, we talked about health care and we talked about the repeal and replace agenda, but that it may take three years in trying to figure it out. Any health care dynamics you sense we'll be talking about over the course of the next six months?
Mark: Well, I think we're going to be talking about the replace part of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, if in fact it gets repealed. This is really complicated because now you're into the weeds in parliamentary procedure in Congress. The Republicans can not break the filibuster on the Affordable Care Act. They're going to have to use the reconciliation process, which is how the act came into being. That process is supposed to be a budgetary and tax matter.
It's very unclear how, for example, on day one they're going to repeal the Affordable Care Act, yet not do away with the ban on preexisting conditions and not do away with the requirement that kids be allowed to stay on their parent's policies until 26, two things that the president-elect has said he's keeping. How all of that gets done in the sausage making of legislation is very, very unclear. Not to mention the fact that there are 20 million people who have insurance under this act and sometime between now and the effective date, they're going to have to figure out what to do with all of that.
The other issue, though, that I will just quickly note in health care, is Medicare and Medicaid. Medicaid is going to get block granted. That, again, is in the weeds on government administration, but it fundamentally means turning the power for the Medicaid program over to the states. You give the states a bunch of money and they figure out what to do with it. That is a big deal. That is a revolution in the Medicaid program from how it's been run since 1965.
I think with Medicare, you have a Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee who is in favor of privatizing Medicare. You have a Speaker of the House who has a version of that with a voucher program. We're going to see how close to that proverbial third rail the Republicans are prepared to go. I doubt they actually get there, but those two programs are going to be where all the health care action is along with the Affordable Care Act.
Blake: Howard, we spent a lot of time talking about the Secretary of State nominee and what might happen there. We've got some foreign policy considerations that this administration will have to address. Most notably, what to do about Cuba and certainly the relationship with China, which we've already seen as presented its own interesting dynamic. I wanted to, before we wrap up the call, get your thoughts generally on what you anticipate early as it pertains to issues abroad.
Howard: I think people are over-interpreting some of what Trump is doing. By that I mean they're looking very superficially at the call with the Taiwanese leader, his tweet on Cuba. They are assuming that he is going in a dramatic direction and taking a dramatic departure from past policy and President Obama's policy in the case of Cuba.
He's doing what he told us what he would do, which is posturing for negotiating purposes. He is no dummy. He knows he can't pull the rug out from American Airlines, which just started flying to Cuba a couple of weeks ago. He knows it's not in the United States' best interest to re-alienate our neighbor off the coast of Florida, but he wants to cut a better deal. That's what he told us he was going to do. When he tweets that the deal is open for rollback, that's what he's doing. He's negotiating.
On China there, too. He knows he needs China to bring North Korea into line. He knows he has to make good on his promise to the American people that he's going to do something about Chinese trade issues. Again, he is telegraphing to the Chinese. He's telegraphing to the American public. No sacred cows. Everything's open for revisiting. "I'm going to do what I told you I was going to do, which is negotiate," and that's what we're seeing.
Blake: Mark?
Mark: I think in that regard there was a very interesting appointment last week that has attracted very little attention. That was the appointment of Terry Branstad, the governor of Iowa, as Ambassador to China. I think the Branstad appointment, and the probably Tillerson appointment, tell you a lot about the way that Donald Trump views the relations between our country and the two most important countries on the planet to us. He views these relations as personal.
He appointed Terry Branstad because Terry Branstad a lot of years ago went to college with the president of China and has maintained a personal relationship. Other than that, Governor Branstad, the longest-serving governor in the country, would himself tell you he hasn't had that much experience with China. Tillerson, obviously, has had a lot of experience around the world, but his relationship with Putin, which is going to cause him a confirmation issue, is I think an attraction to the president-elect and just confirms, as you were saying, Howard, that what he intends to do is posture and leverage and renegotiate these relationships in a very personal way. It's him and maybe Tillerson against Putin. It's him and Branstad against the president of China. I think you can see how he intends to govern those two ultra-critical international relations from the appointments that he's making.
Howard: The danger is trying to do too much here. I mean, look, I think as I said at the beginning, the worst words you can ever hear in government are, "This is the way it's always been done." Anywhere, but especially in government. Trump was fundamentally elected president because people believe he is not going to do things the way they've always been done because he called into question institutionalism. We're going to see that play out. That's really, really healthy.
Even the bureaucracy inside these agencies that he will soon be running, the doers inside these agencies are happy for that breath of fresh air, Mark, but gosh, I know. You cannot try to do too much and that is what will crush this guy if he's not careful.
Blake: Yeah, and certainly you've seen that from the inside. Both of you have. I think we have come to the end of this call. I did want to let everyone who is listening know that we're going to be rolling out an in-depth policy piece very soon and we're going to have a series of updates to compliment these calls as the transition continues to unfold. I would certainly encourage you to not only stay tuned, but to stay in touch with us. We will be in touch with you.
Mark, Howard, as always, fun to talk to you about everything that's going on inside the transition of President-elect Donald J. Trump. I suspect when we are back together, there will be more interesting things to talk about and I'm looking forward to that discussion as well. Thanks to everyone for listening.
Mark L. Alderman
malderman@cozen.com
Howard Schweitzer
hschweitzer@cozen.com
Government & Regulatory
Government Relations - Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dry and remote this newly designated national park once a station offers steep escarpments, gorges, dry vegetation and open woodland.
Camping is by permit only please contact the Ranger in Charge for details. Access to the park is by 4WD only, no visitor facilities are provided at this stage. Temperatures can be extreme in this park, hot during the day and very cool at night. The best time to visit is during the cooler months of the year.


For the most part, ignoring a problem just makes it worse. Sure, you might have a story about some time at work when a problem went away on its own. But when it comes to your teeth and gums, ignoring things is a sure way to make them worse. They also tend to get more painful and expensive to fix.
That's why you need to call our Nashua, NH dental office today at 603-546-7460 and make an appointment for a dental crown. This restorative dentistry treatment does just that — it restores your tooth to how it should be. After a dental crown procedure, your damaged tooth will look healthy and great again.
Dental crowns are caps for your teeth. They're made for one of your teeth individually, shaped and colored to look like that tooth only healthy. Our Nashua dentists will expertly bond the dental crown over your damaged tooth, adding protection while it hides imperfections.
The dental crown procedure is straight-forwards for highly trained and experience Nashua dentists like ours. After the dental crown has been made, a small amount of enamel is gently removed from the tooth. This helps the crown look the right size when placed in your smile. Then the crown is bonded in place, and you're done.
A dental crown is amazing because it can do so much for your smile. Here are some of the benefits you get from getting a dental crown procedure at our Nashua, NH dental office.
When a dental exam shows you have a cavity, a tooth-colored filling is the normal treatment. However, fillings only work when there's enough healthy enamel to bond with. Otherwise, it will just fall out.
Thankfully, you can also repair a tooth with a big cavity with a dental crown. Instead of filling in the cavity, a dental crown wraps around it snugly. This makes sure it doesn't get any worse, but it also makes the tooth stronger.
Getting into an accident of some kind can leave you with teeth that are chipped or cracked. A rough tackle, falling from a bike, or even a car accident can damage your teeth. Not only does this make your whole smile look worse, it leaves you with weak teeth that can get re-injured more easily.
By getting a dental crown put over a damaged tooth, you are adding a layer of protection to it. This strengthens a tooth weakened by damage. And of course, the dental crown also makes that tooth look much better.
You don't have to get a damaged tooth before there's a cosmetic problem with it. Some people are born with teeth that are a bit irregular. Other times, you end up grinding your teeth so much that you make the biting edge look crooked. Then there are stains, both on the surface and so deep that teeth whitening cannot help.
A dental crown covers up the entire visible part of the tooth. Since it's made to look like a healthy tooth, that means all those imperfections are covered and hidden from view.
Although your teeth are technically designed to last a lifetime, there are cases when you end up losing one early. Gum disease, accidents, and infections can all mean you end up with an empty space in your smile. You need all your teeth to chew, talk, and even look normal, so you need a replacement.
Thanks to dental bridges and dental implants, that replacement can be a dental crown. Both of those treatments use a dental crown in different ways, but they give you back a complete smile.
Call Nashua Family Dentistry today at 603-546-7460 or use our convenient online form to schedule your next appointment for a dental crown. Our Nashua dentists have helped many people's smiles get stronger, healthier, and better looking with these restorative dentistry treatments.


The first unusual thing is that there are two photos of sax players, and both of them were taken on the same night, when Stone Foundation supported The Blow Monkeys at Under the Bridge. It's a lovely venue and the team there pay a lot of attention to detail in their presentation which means that the sound and light are spot on. The lighting on the shots of Gary Rollins (Stone Foundation) and Neville Henry (Blow Monkeys) is very different; one's very warm and the other's quite cool, but they both work.
The Glenn Alexander shot (from a Southside Johnny gig at Shepherds Bush Empire) works because it has all the rock guitarist elements, but you can see him watching centre stage because he's playing with Southside and anything can happen. As for Pete Kennedy (taken at a Kennedys show at Green Note), I loved the concentration, but how often do you see photos of an Ovation ukulele?
The shot of Nick Bowden and Paul Bowe of Federal Charm was another one from the Empire, when the band supported Ian Hunter on the final night of his UK tour. The band only had a thirty minute support set but they threw everything at it and I think this shot captures the energy they poured in to that set. I wish I could say that the shot of Keisuke Nishikawa (at a Vera Lynch gig) was carefully planned, but the downward look and the atmospheric lighting just happened to coincide with the click of the shutter.


Wind-swept and full of sweet undertones, the Spring Warrior features an adaptable neckline that can be worn on or off the shoulder, depending on your mood. The floral print dress features long sleeves that gather at the wrist and a relaxed shape for an effortless feel.
Sleeves can be worn on or off the shoulder.
Elastic at neckline and sleeve hems.


Have you heard of this killer called Inflation ? Everybody is talking of price rise and how things are becoming so difficult to sustain for the common man.
1st let us understand what do we mean by inflation ?
You may say it means everything is expensive or the price of goods and services are increasing.
It may be caused by an increase in the volume of paper money issued or when the supply of goods fails to meet the demand.
For example : if you had Rs 100 and you could buy 5 kilos of tomatoes then after a certain period ,let's say about 2 years later with the same Rs 100 you would be able to buy about 3-4 kilos of tomatoes.
So what has happened in 2 years ? The value of the rupee has diminished.
This will happen year on year and would mean you would have to spend more on the same goods and services which you bought 2 years ago.
Definition: Wholesale Price Index (WPI) represents the price of goods at a wholesale stage i.e. goods that are sold in bulk and traded between organizations instead of consumers. WPI is used as a measure of inflation in some economies.
WPI is an easy and convenient method to calculate inflation. Inflation rate is the difference between WPI calculated at the beginning and the end of a year. The percentage increase in WPI over a year gives the rate of inflation for that year.
Definition: A comprehensive measure used for estimation of price changes in a basket of goods and services representative of consumption expenditure in an economy is called consumer price index.
Inflation is measured using CPI. The percentage change in this index over a period of time gives the amount of inflation over that specific period, i.e. the increase in prices of a representative basket of goods consumed.
We are affected as consumers so if the CPI keeps on increasing it directly affects us at various levels – as investors, as employees and employers and finally as citizens who are tax payers in some form or the other.
We will see next time what has been the trend in the last 2 years or in the recent past….so on that basis we can see what the near future holds for us and our next generation.


Geologist Paul Fitzgerald, professor of Earth sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences, is co-editor of a new book, "Fission-Track Thermochronology and Its Application to Geology" (Springer, 2018), the first major book on the subject in 20 years.
Photo credit: Gregory Wissink G'16, Ph.D.
An international team of Earth scientists has linked the establishment of the Mekong River to a period of major intensification of the Asian monsoon during the middle Miocene, about 17 million years ago, findings that supplant the assumption that the river incised in response to tectonic causes. Their findings are the subject of a paper published in Nature Geoscience on Oct. 15.
Through a new collaboration between the Earth Science and Geography departments, both undergrad and grad students are able to take a new class that explores how to use drones and aerial photography in their research projects.
Syracuse University earth sciences professor C.A. Scholz's research group conducts sediment coring operations on Walker Lake, Nevada.
The Department of Earth Sciences at Syracuse University is seeking applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the field of Global Water Science. This recruitment is part of an ambitious Invest Syracuse Cluster Hire Initiative in the broad area of Energy and Environment. As an integral part of this investment, Syracuse University will recruit multiple candidates for faculty positions for a research cluster in the focus area of Global Environmental Change. Faculty hired into these positions will build on our existing strengths in water, energy, and climate, and will participate in an organized research cluster that spans multiple departments in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, the College of Architecture, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and the College of Engineering and Computer Science. "This job is not yet posted, please check back soon!"


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Health Inclusion Team
The Health Inclusion Team is a specialist team of Health Visitors, Nurses and a Family Support Worker who provide health support to children and families in Sheffield.
Due to the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak we have made changes to the way this service is delivered.
We are continuing to support our service users and remain open for referrals. With social distancing measures in place we are primarily offering support via telephone, but our team can carry out home visits if necessary and safe to do so.
To find out more about the changes we've made to our services during the pandemic please visit shsc.nhs.uk/coronavirus
We work with families with children aged 0 to 19 who are living in temporary accommodation, gypsies and travellers, victims of domestic abuse and trafficking, asylum seekers and refugees.
We also offer advice to other professionals who are working with asylum seekers.
When you first meet with us we will carry out an assessment of your family's health and social care needs, and together we will create a plan to support you to move forward.
We can offer practical support with the day-to-day things that most of us take for granted such as food, clothing and personal items. We also offer emotional support for families who we often find are going through experiences which can be traumatic, especially for children.
We give a welcome pack to everyone we meet which contains information about facilities and other services in the area. For people who are new to the city we ensure that you have a friendly face you can turn to for any questions about Sheffield and give you information that you can trust.
If English is not your first language we also offer the use of face-to-face and telephone interpreters.
We work closely with Phoenix Futures and Abbeyfield Family Centres as well as other housing and charitable organisations in Sheffield.
Our main aim is to support the health needs of you and your family.
We can signpost you to other services that can help you, such as getting you registered with a GP, dentist, nursery and school.
How is the service accessed?
You can refer yourself to our service if you are already in temporary accommodation, a hostel or refuge.
We also accept referrals from other charitable and voluntary organisations, as well as health and social care professionals working in the city.
Asylum seeking families who need support must be registered at the Mulberry Practice to be eligible for our support.
You can take a look at our service eligibility and selection criteria in more detail by clicking here.
We'll be there to support you in any way we can until you have secured and settled in to permanent accommodation.
You can find out more about how the Health Inclusion Team are using feedback from services users on the Care Opinion website by clicking here.
Team Manager: Carol Moore
sct-ctr.healthinclusionteam@nhs.net
Lightwood House
1 Lightwood Lane
Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.


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In this curious graphic document, His Majesty King Don Alfonso XIII poses next to the Mysore marajá before an old and huge male tiger, in a hunt in India in 1933. Today there are very few tigers in that country. They were poisoned, tricked, cepeados and annihilated by the infamous poachers until almost extinction. The […]
via The tragedy of the tiger in the last century: hunting, part of the problem or solution — archyde
NewsPressNow.com Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest officials say eight horses have been found fatally shot in the Heber-Overgaard area. They say the horses were found Friday with gunshot wounds by Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests Law Enforcement investigators on the Black Mesa Ranger District along State Route 260 between Payson and Show Low. Forest law enforcement and the Navajo […]
via Update: 8 Wild Horses found fatally shot in the Heber-Overgaard area — Straight from the Horse's Heart
For Immediate Release: December 18, 2019 Massachusetts outlaws destructive wildlife killing contests Regulation abolishes competitive killing of wild animals for prizes and entertainment Boston, MA – A coalition of leading wildlife protection organizations is applauding MassWildlife staff and the Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife Board for their vote today to ban wildlife killing contests in the Commonwealth. […]
via USA: Massachusetts outlaws destructive wildlife killing contests. — World Animals Voice
ProPublica reports During a summer 2019 hunting trip, Donald Trump Jr. killed a rare argali sheep. The Mongolian government issued him a hunting permit retroactively and he met with the country's president. Read more Donald Trump Jr. Went to Mongolia, Got Special Treatment From the Government and Killed an Endangered Sheep — ProPublica
via Donald Trump Jr. Went to Mongolia, Got Special Treatment From the Government and Killed an Endangered Sheep — Natural History Wanderings
As many as 100 puffins — an endangered species — are slaughtered in each deadly trip British trophy hunters make to Iceland. The merciless hunters are paying as much as £3,000 ($3,650) per tour to shoot the birds — which are protected in the UK, but not in Iceland — and take their dead bodies […]
via British Trophy Hunters Slaughter Up to 100 Endangered Puffins Per 'Tour' — Lady Freethinker
By LOUIS SAHAGUN as published on The LATimes.com "It is one of the largest killings of its kind on public land managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management…" More than 40 wild burros have been found shot and killed along the Interstate 15 near the Nevada state line, Federal officials said on Friday, and they've offered […]
via More than 40 wild burros slaughtered in the Southern California desert; reward offered — Straight from the Horse's Heart


The straightforward "Performance-Oriented Rating Methodology" used to judge Nominees makes the 2015 Litigator Awards™ perhaps the most rigorous and openly judged Trial-Law Competition in the nation. Reflecting a firm's experience, skill and ability within specific areas of expertise, the Awards provide prospective clientele, as well as referring professionals and their trusted clientele, an objective means of evaluating Trial Lawyers – enabling a more informed hiring or referral decision.
The Nomination & Certification process is conducted annually on a rolling basis across a range of core Practice Specialties. Independent audit and research teams undertake an exhaustive vetting process to screen and evaluate Nominees based on their demonstrated litigation achievement in Jury Trials, Trials before the Court, and/or Appellate Practice. This proprietary performance-based approach is reliable and unbiased, as it relies strictly on actual, verified Verdict & Settlement dollar outcome data.
To ensure a constant adherence to the exacting standards of the Board, the selection of Award Recipients is designed to be dynamic and to change annually to reflect the latest "Verdicts & Settlements".


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Malaysia B.S."Reality Sucks..!!"
Many would take the acronym of B.S.literally.However in this context we take it as Malaysia-Betting and Subsidies. There has been so much protests and anger from all walks of life pertaining to these two" BIG ONES"
Either one could see the beginning of an end to the ruling government in any other country except in Malaysia.
The prophesy of R.A.H.M.A.N. was also received through an email to audie61 plus a hosts of other emails and smses. One of them included that Idris Jala should go back to his corporate life instead of mixing politics and economics just to blind the people.
How can Malaysia be a developed nation by 2020 when our Minister In PM's department says,"WE will be BANKRUPT by 2019..??"This shocking declaration goes against the grain of past announcements of economic health and growth.
Does this make sense..?? Has he given the death kneel to the BN government and read the last rites..?? He is obviously not a politician and he should not be in the PMs department as he has drove FEAR INTO EVERY WALKING AND LIVING MALAYSIANS." Of course we know very well that the TRUTH HURTS and REALITY SUCKS.
Even a staunch BN supporter was feeling aggrieved not only with the subsidies but also the betting issue. This is truly giving the Opposition an extra card and a GOLDEN JOKER to push the BN to the brink of surrendering.
We have to contain with the Betting issue and the Football licensing given to the Berjaya Group. The truth of the matter is that Islam together with other religions forbids gambling and here we are Malaysia an Islamic country giving away a football betting license where even China,Thailand and Vietnam doesnt issue such licenses. Where is the logic..?? Please for goodness sake, do not compare with Singapore as it is an Advanced nation already.
Do they care about the Barisan National Government?
http://www.malaysiakini.tv/video/19405/thousands-rally-against-sports-betting.html
They only care for the short term profits and if BN falls they will already make their billions and even moved on to another country. Is it fair for the rests of the country?
Your God Given Conscience will even make you come out to protests on the street if the law allows you to do conduct a PEACEFUL PROTESTS.
These companies only care for their own BARISAN POCKETS and not Barisan National as a whole.
The cut in subsidies to save RM103 billiuon in 5 years is a noble idea but surely it is in the ruling Governments Hands to deliberate such measures before making it public. Would Foreign Investments jump the queue to Malaysia when there is a Statement of Malaysia going to be Bankrupt by 2019. REALITY SUCKS but it is absolutely bad economic publicity for the country.This could also go down as one of the worst calls the ruling BN government has ever made.
Now it so much easier for the Opposition to engage and get to the people and voters. Just an example would be,"TIME TO CHANGE THIS GOVERNMENT BEFORE YOU AND ME AND THE COUNTRY GOES BANKRUPT" and also "GAMBLING IS FORBIDDEN IN ISLAM"
These captions posted and distributed everyway will be so much a problem for the BN grassroots/echelon leaders to address. Its a good 50%/50% left or right swing depending on the mindset of the people. The People Power will be too strong for even the BN machinery to overcome and it will play right into the arms of the Pakatan.
Reality Sucks and the present BN Government must be able to look at ways to overcome these hurdles. There are so many ways to put the country back to its glory days when everyone was going about doing their own business and minding politics. BN must get the FEEL GOOD FACTOR back before they look at short term gains to bail the country out the DOLDRUMS.
The people will surely have their final say in the ballot boxes come GE13. Honestly,it will take a herculean tasks for the present BN government to be still in power if the issues at hand are not strategically dealt with.
The signs are already bad as it is and the RURAL folks are the first to suffer if the oil prices continue to rise. Food and commodities prices hardly comes down when it goes up and the ordinary middle class citizens will have to bear the consequences. Football betting will hit hard on many families as compulsive gambling and losses will surely give rise to more unwanted and unnecessary crimes.
Pakatan will exploit it to the fullest on these two BIG ISSUES and its already up to the BN Government to stamp it out or COOL MATTERS DOWN by informing the MALAYSIAN PUBLIC that the country will not go BANKRUPT by 2019 and also that the Football betting license has been revoked. The BN Government will be rests assured that it will not face a greater tsunami than 308 if all other pressing issues besides these two BIG ONES are carefully and meticulously looked into.
If not the whole country will say back to BN..REALITY SUCKS……………
Posted in: Barisan, Blogs, Blogsphere, BN, Facebook, Football, Government, Journalism, Malaysia, malaysiakini, Najib razak, Pakatan, Politics, Prime Minister Of Malaysia, Spin Doctors | Tagged: Blogs, BN, Malaysian Politics, mt.m2day.org, Najib razak, Pakatan
SPDP "Mawans Perfect Gawai.."
Gawai 2010″Sharing and Time For Reflections"
15 thoughts on "Malaysia B.S."Reality Sucks..!!""
Ho Ho Ho says:
Ho :oops: Ho :oops: Ho :oops:
:oops: This I'BRA'Him Katak still greedy for more n he can come to my hometown Jalan Pengemis to take all our peoples left-over foods if he is so HUNGRY n GREEDY for more :oops:
:oops: Malaysia will go BANKRUPT for sure if we have more of this sick SHITx3 katak goons :oops:
:oops: Well for that Idris Jala :oops: he can just go eat 'Roti Jala' daily if he go Bankrupt too :oops:
:?: cut cost :?:
Right on cue and BN seems to have run out of ideas on how to get the country out of this predicament.
sarawakiana says:
Its spelt out already.Message very clear and its up to the people to think what they should do.
johanssmKhunPana says:
No , no and no
Do not blame Idris Jala.
He is actually doing all of us a favor.
He is trying to get his message to all of us. An extremely blunt and forward message.
Idris cannot directly tell us that umno is milking the country dry.
It is his way of telling the bn voters are suckers.
Dont blame him for such a blunt message and for telling the truth behind the scenes.
Bujang belelang says:
Ur right my friend I agree with u. His master will sack him, event now the master allready consider that unless jala have no balls. Just spread the whole news to our longhouse people so that all knows what to do come next states election.
I'm Malaysian says:
We are the future..
francis ngu says:
Like another reader here, we have to credit IJala for presenting the stark reality to the nation.
The Reformasi people said over 10 years ago that we are heading for bankruptcy with the massive bailouts, pumping KLSE with public funds, mega-projects, corruption and cronyism, profligate and wasteful spending, glory-vain-seeking, mismanagement, you can name dozens of specific big ticket items.
The oppositionists were and are still being branded as 'Bad-mouthing" the nation, thus scaring away the foreign investors. One reads in the recent "cornered" DUN, that there is "no corruption and cronyism in Sarawak "! You would be considered unpatriotic if you criticized the BN Government for poor governance. Now, surely a hand-picked IJala is patriotic !
Any nation facing the prospect of Bankruptcy would face political uncertainty, government has to account to the people. The nation will have to tighten belt, political reforms become Urgent Big U, Austerity Big time may be on the way, any funds left for 10th MPlan ?
The rakyat are staring down a dark long hall of misery: Subsidies withdrawn, user-pays, GST, cut in government operational and development expenditure, pay freezes, all possible !
Thus a high cost- of- living -economy first, and high income (read inflated) economy last, trust the PM !
Mata Kuching says:
Certainly there are more questions than answers to the mysteries surrounding the UMNO controlled BN "selling " of our sovereign rights to Brunei, the sudden exchanging of six parcels of KTMB land for Singapore's 2 commercial plots and now the controversial issuance of football betting licence to Vincent Tan who has been known to be financing UMNO election expenses and buying of Opposition lawmakers for UMNO.
Our country is not only going broke, our stock market might even collapse soon with 50% the daily transactions , for a while now, dominated by KWSP, our only retirement fund. The Bank Islam fiasco in Labuan, Tabung Haji fiasco in assets management, PKFZ scandal, and Sime Darby losses are still fresh in our minds. And we havent forgotten the massive bailout of Bumiputra Finance, Bank Bumiputra, Sime Bank, MAS, and UEM.
More and more young Malays and Bumiputras in East Malaysia with income less than RM2000 are also going broke because hire purchase payment for vehicles almost make up 40% of their take home pay because our vehicles are among the most expensive in the world. Credit cards default has also bankrupted many young people every week. We are already a nation of bankrupts and yet Najib still insisted that we are on target to becoming a developed nation by 2020. Idris Jala and his high profile and professional team have been madated by the government to study our economic situation and they discovered Malaysia had already developed the symptom of Greece and is going bankrupt in 9 years or less.
Reflexology says:
Yeah but the situation will turn chaotic if a Minister says that the country will go bankrupt. Does he need to be the puppet or the voice of BN? Does he know politics?
:oops: Due to their Mis-management n over spending then now they wanna suck n make the 'RAKYAT' suffer n pay for all their wrongdoing n greedy 'katak' expenses :oops:
http://bit.ly/9oGz6H
Ho :roll: Ho :roll: Ho :roll:
:roll: They already too GREEDY and cannot manage then who can still TRUST them :?: How can this type of racist goons COME CLEAN :roll: :?: Countyr so rich n bless with so many resources still wanna cut this n that n also increase this n that for their own pocket ah :?: n also still cannot manage n going BANKRUPT by 2019 :roll:
http://bit.ly/ccHBSp
:idea: WINNER TAKES IT ALL :idea:
Nastrodamus says:
Had I not warned you so!!! Idris is speaking the truth. He didn't say "our country will go bankrupt by 2019" He said "if we continue to spend the way we did, our country will go bankrupt by 2019". The fact is the subsidies are being abused by those in power, the target group never get that help. There are too much scandals and leakages without anyone being persecuted and God is judging us for those abuse and those that are being marginalized and downtrodden. Hear therefore the voice of the Lord…repent and mend your ways. Be just and kind to the poor, the weak, the orphans and the widows or else my judgement will come upon you…….
:oops: Make sure you finish your foods first before you know WHO'S THE BOSS HERE :?: :oops:
Nah :arrow: Can see but cannot touch :oops: DANGER you know :!: :oops:
http://bit.ly/97cALX
What outsiders say of our paramount thief in Sarawak.
Alleged corruption
Accusations of deep corruption and nepotism have surrounded Taib on several occasions and the dominance of Sarawak's political elite including Taib's family in the logging industry is well documented.[17]
[edit] Logging industry
The excessive logging in Sarawak and Sarawak's forest policies has gained international attention and criticism since 1987 where various foreign governments and international organisations protested against the dramatic rise in timber production from Sarawak.[7] In 1988 and 1989, the European Community banned the hardwood imports from Sarawak. Other countries such as Germany, Netherlands, and Austria also restricted the import of tropical hardwoods. In 1989, a staff mission was sent to Sarawak by U.S. House of Representatives and a report was published which criticized the state logging policies and the treatment of natives in Sarawak. However, Primary Industries Minister, Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, warned the Austrian government in 1992 that Malaysian government could also do the same for the chocolate products from Austria for environmental reasons.[7]
The involvement of Taib and his family in logging industry is specifically mentioned in a report published by Forests Monitor. According to the report, the chief minister reserves his right to revoke timber licenses while no legal challenge is possible against the chief minister. This is to ensure that the anyone with logging interest is loyal to the chief minister. The report also notes that in general, mutually beneficial relationship between political elites and logging companies often results in corruption, bribery, and transfer pricing, where the financial details of transnational logging companies, including Malaysian ones, are difficult to track. The ultimate owners of timber concessions is surrounded with secrecy because the only information available is only a list of the local concession holders.[18]
In 2007, The Japan Times reported that nine Japanese shipping companies, which transported timber from Sarawak, had allegedly failed to report some 1.1 billion yen in income over a period of up to seven years. The report claimed the money was paid as kickbacks to Sarawak officials via a Hong Kong agent linked to Taib's family.[19] Taib, however, denied totally the Japan Times allegations by presenting a 10-page clarification in the state assembly. He said that he had no knowledge about the bribes given to Sarawak officials and the evading of the income from timber production.[20]
In 2009, the 2008 annual auditor-general's report labelled the forest management in Sarawak by state government as unsatisfactory. However, Sarawak's Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management, Awang Tengah Ali Hassan questioned the validity of the report as he claimed that the auditor-general's department did not have the expertise in forest management.[21]
The results of the logging industry under Taib is that less than 10% of Sarawak's primary forests remain, logging many of the ancestral lands of many of Sarawak's indigenous communities, despite their continued petitions and road blockades, where forceful dismantling has led to several deaths and regular violent coercion by the Malaysian army, police and logging industry enforcers.[22][23]
[edit] Nepotism
Taib's son, Dato Sri Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, was appointed as Group Executive Director of Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad (CMSB) on 23 January 1995. He is currently the Deputy Group Chairman of CMSB.[24] Abu Bekir Taib's siblings, Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib, Jamilah Hamidah Taib, Hanifah Hajar Taib and his late mother Laila Taib are substantial shareholders in the company.[25] Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib joined the board of CMSB when his brother Abu Bekir Taib, first became the Group Executive Director of CMSB. Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib was the Group Chairman of CMSB from May 2002 until June 2006, the former Non-Executive Director of CMSB[26], and the former RHB Bank chairman.[27]
In the 2008 general election, Taib's son Datuk Seri Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Taib won the Kota Samarahan seat in the Malaysian parliament previously held by his father[28] and became Deputy Tourism Minister in the new cabinet.[29] Prior to this, he did not have any political experience. On 14 December 2009, he submitted his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, due to personal reasons.[30] His position was later taken over by Datuk Dr. James Dawos Mamit.[31]
Taib's sister Roziah Mahmud is one of the most powerful businesswomen in Sarawak with extensive holdings in property and timber business.Besides than that,she is also appointed as the Hononary Consul of the Republic of Poland to Sarawak (as Taib's late wife Laila Taib was a Polish descendent).[citation needed]
Taib's brother, Mohd Tufail bin Mahmud is the co-owner of Sanyan Group, one of the Sarawak's biggest timber companies. In 2001, the Sanyan Group completed its construction of the 28-storey Wisma Sanyan in Sibu where the state government took up 8 office floors.[32]
Taib's brother-in-law, Tan Sri Datuk Amar Haji Abdul Aziz Bin Dato Haji Husain, was appointed state secretary by Mahmud in 2000 and when he retired in 2006, he was appointed as the group managing director of Sarawak Energy Berhad since 2007.[33] He also holds directorships for Eksons Corporation Berhad, Mlabs Systems Berhad, Syarikat SESCO Berhad and other companies.[34]
[edit] Economic domination
Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad, the company controlled by Taib's family, was awarded various governmental contracts including the maintenance of Sarawak's roads over 15 years, constructions of roads, supplying roofing materials for low-cost housing units, building hospitals, and upgrading airports. It also has a near monopoly of the supplies of concrete in Sarawak. In 2001, the Malaysian federal government allowed the CMS Group's banking unit Bank Utama to acquire RHB Bank to become one of Malaysia's 10 core banks.[32] The company, PPES Works (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd, which is 51% owned by CMSB, recently completed the construction of the New Sarawak State Legislative Assembly Building in 2009.[35] CMSB is currently under the joint venture with leading aluminum producer, Rio Tinto Alcan (RTA) to develop aluminum smelter in Similajau as part of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).[36]
In 2008, the Sarawak government planned to build 12 dams in Sarawak in order to meet the future energy demand of industrialisation. These dams are scheduled to be completed in 2020 although they need to be approved by environmental impact assessment. A memorandum of understanding was already signed between the Sarawak Energy Berhad and China Three Gorges Project Corporation on Murum Dam project.[37][38] A total of 51 dams may be constructed by the year 2037. This controversial hydroelectric project is receiving fierce criticism because of catastrophic disasters that they may cause and the possible displacements of native communities. The opponents of the plans cited this project as corruption and capital cronyism because CMSB is expected to be benefited indirectly by supplying concrete material for the construction of dams and building of aluminum smelter that consume much of the generated electricity.[39] In March 2009, Al Jazeera's '101 East' English programme was aired where the Sarawak's 12 dams issue and economic domination by Taib's family was discussed in great detail. Minister of land development, Dr James Masing accepted the interview on this issue but the chief minister Taib Mahmud declined the interview invitation.[40]


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