October 15, 2020

As Virus Spread, Reports of Trump Administration's Private Briefings Fueled Sell-Off

Source: N.Y. Times

On the afternoon of Feb. 24, President Trump declared on Twitter that the coronavirus was “very much under control” in the United States, one of numerous rosy statements that he and his advisers made at the time about the worsening epidemic. He even added an observation for investors: “Stock market starting to look very good to me!”

But hours earlier, senior members of the president’s economic team, privately addressing board members of the conservative Hoover Institution, were less confident. Tomas J. Philipson, a senior economic adviser to the president, told the group he could not yet estimate the effects of the virus on the American economy. To some in the group, the implication was that an outbreak could prove worse than Mr. Philipson and other Trump administration advisers were signaling in public at the time.

The next day, board members — many of them Republican donors — got another taste of government uncertainty from Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Hours after he had boasted on CNBC that the virus was contained in the United States and “it’s pretty close to airtight,” Mr. Kudlow delivered a more ambiguous private message. He asserted that the virus was “contained in the U.S., to date, but now we just don’t know,” according to a document describing the sessions obtained by The New York Times.

The document, written by a hedge fund consultant who attended the three-day gathering of Hoover’s board, was stark. “What struck me,” the consultant wrote, was that nearly every official he heard from raised the virus “as a point of concern, totally unprovoked.”



Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/14/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-investors.html

October 14, 2020

Georgetown University report finds Joe Biden's free public college plan would pay off within 10 year

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/13/report-finds-bidens-free-college-play-would-pay-off-within-10-years.html

1980s, when the Reagan Administration cut higher education funding and student aid. Over the past 10 years alone, college costs have increased by more than 25% and today, some 44 million Americans collectively hold over $1.6 trillion in student debt.

To address such concerns, Democratic nominees former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris have proposed a lengthy education plan that includes an eye-catching proposal: tuition-free public college for all families with incomes below $125,000.

According to an analysis by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, the policy, which also proposes tuition-free community college, would pay for itself within 10 years.

October 2, 2020

This Tweet made me laugh out loud

https://twitter.com/roberth97868240/status/1312037968501264385?s=21

October 1, 2020

First Post-Debate Poll, Biden +13

https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1311706202364088320?s=20

September 29, 2020

NYT Trump Taxes Part 2 dropped tonight

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/28/us/donald-trump-taxes-apprentice.html

September 29, 2020

Grand Juror in Breonna Taylor case wants all evidence made public

https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1310725296174309377?s=21

September 27, 2020

Twitter blowing up

With the NYT story about Trump’s tax returns. Boom!!!

September 12, 2020

Lindsey Graham and Mick Mulvaney begged Trump not to kill Iran's top general

'This is over the top': Lindsey Graham and Mick Mulvaney begged Trump not to kill Iran's top general, but 4 days later he did it anyway, according to Woodward's new book

Two of President Donald Trump's top advisers desperately tried to stop him from ordering the assassination of Iran's highest-ranking military official, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in the days leading up to the strike on January 3, according to the veteran journalist Bob Woodward's upcoming book, "Rage."

Insider obtained an early copy of the book, which is set to be released next Tuesday.

Woodward reported that on December 30, Trump told South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, "I'm thinking of hitting Soleimani," the leader of Iran's hardline paramilitary force that supports militants that attack US troops.

Trump and Graham were playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, when Trump floated the idea.

https://www.businessinsider.com/lindsey-graham-mick-mulvaney-begged-trump-not-kill-soleimani-woodward-2020-9

September 10, 2020

DHS spokeswoman pushed NBC News to retract accurate story about terrorists at the border

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — A new whistleblower complaint alleges that in late 2018 and early 2019 former senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security sought to inflate the publicly reported number of known or suspected terrorists crossing the border, in a move to increase support for a border wall.

In early 2019, a DHS spokeswoman pushed NBC News to retract an article based on accurate figures the agency had disclosed in a document to Congress in the months prior that were far lower than the nearly 4,000 in a year the administration had been citing publicly.

The January 2019 NBC News article reported that, contrary to those public statements by Trump administration officials, only six immigrants who were known or suspected terrorists had been encountered at the southern border in the first half of fiscal year 2018.

At the time, administration officials were repeating the 4,000 figure in an effort to justify the government shutdown over Trump's border wall, and the lower, more accurate figure undercut their argument.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/dhs-spokeswoman-pushed-nbc-news-retract-accurate-story-about-terrorists-n1239702

September 3, 2020

China has successfully kneecapped Trump's TikTok ban as sale talks hit a speed bump

Beijing has successfully thrown a spanner into the acquisition talks between TikTok and various prospective American buyers according to multiple reports from Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg.

Late last week China introduced a set of new export restrictions on 23 categories of technology. Included among these was any content-recommendation technology, meaning TikTok's parent company ByteDance would have to seek government permission if it was going to include TikTok's recommendation algorithm, which decides what videos to show users, in any deal. TikTok's recommendation algorithm is considered the secret sauce that makes the app both highly addictive and valuable.

Currently, TikTok's Chinese parent firm ByteDance is in talks with prospective acquirers about selling off parts of the app to a US buyer, including its US operations.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the prospect of having to strip TikTok of its recommendation algorithm had stalled acquisition talks. A source close to the talks told the Journal that buying TikTok without its recommendation algorithm would be like buying a fancy car with a cheap engine.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktoks-us-sale-talks-hit-speed-bump-reports-2020-9