Aug. 12 - Donald Trump and his campaign wasted no time attacking Joe Biden’s choice for Vice President, Senator Kamala Harris. During a news conference, Trump fell back on a term he often uses when referring to strong women, “nasty.” He said (watch above)... more
President Donald Trump was briefly escorted from his press conference A Secret Service agent came in the room, whispered to him and led him out President said there was shooting outside White House
Aug. 11 - President Donald Trump was abruptly escorted from his press conference on Monday less than five minutes after it began and returned to say law enforcement shot an armed suspect outside the White House.
'There was a shooting outside of the White House and it seems to be very well under control,' President Trump said after he returned to briefing room a few minutes after his exit.
The president, who proceeded to take questions from reporters on a variety of topics for nearly an hour, said he was fine after being pulled from the room.
Aug. 09 - TikTok isn't the only app from a Chinese company that is the subject of an executive order from President Donald Trump that affects U.S. mobile device users. Trump has banned American companies from doing business with WeChat. For those of you unfamiliar with it, WeChat is a messaging, social media, and mobile payment app that was launched by Tencent in 2011. Seven years later it became the most widely used standalone app with more than 1 billion people relying on the "super app."
Executive Order against WeChat could backfire to hurt Apple, help Huawei
WeChat shares its user data with the Chinese government and censors certain topics of a political nature. And while the order would prevent transactions made by WeChat with U.S. corporations, it may have an unintended effect; the order prevents Apple from distributing WeChat through the App Store. This could result in lower iPhone sales in China where the app is used for many things such as email, browsing, shopping, and making payments.
Companies and consumers use WeChat to get in touch with businesses, friends, and family. WeChat is such an integral part of life in China that if it were to be removed from the App Store, an uproar would ensue. For example, an online forum used by investors in China asked subscribers whether they would give up WeChat or their iPhone if Apple were forced to remove the app from the App Store. By a margin of 20 to 1, the forum's users said that they would drop the iPhone. Noting that China accounts for 20% of global iPhone sales, Anand Srinivasan, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, said removing WeChat from the App Store "would be a serious hindrance" to Apple. more
Aug 9 - Having failed toestablish a detentethat would keep relations calm through the November elections, China is warning that the Trump administration's policy toward Beijing might lead to war.
Take what Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China's preeminent western-focus propaganda outlet, had to say on Friday. Writing in theGlobal Times, Huobservedthat "the US should be reminded to distance itself from China's core interests. Don't play with fire off China's coast, don't really stir up conflict over Taiwan question, and don't overdo it in the South China Sea. If the Trump administration just wants to create China-U.S. tensions to help his re-election campaign, and is not really ready for a military showdown, then be careful for the next few months, and don't go too far."
Aug. 9 - (CNN)President Donald Trump signed four executive actions Saturday, one of which will provide as much as $400 in enhanced unemployment benefits -- 25% of which states are being asked to cover -- after Democrats and the White House were unable to reach an agreement on a coronavirus stimulus relief bill this week.
The other three actions he signed include a payroll tax holiday for Americans earning less than $100,000 a year, as well as extending an eviction moratorium and deferring student loan payments.
"I'm taking action to provide an additional or extra $400 a week and expanded benefits, $400. That's generous but we want to take care of our people," Trump said at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.Trump said $300 (75%) of the enhanced aid will come from the federal government, and $100 (25%) will therefore have to come from the states. Since governors would have to pay that $100 for people to get the full benefit, it is not clear how many of those unemployed would be able to receive the full $400 benefit... more
July 29 - The U.S. economy crashed in historic fashion this year — shrinking at a nearly 33 percent annualized pace in the second quarter — as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged businesses and sent joblessness soaring. The question now for President Donald Trump, trailing in the polls and facing a daunting reelection effort, is just how much conditions can snap back in the months leading up to Election Day.
At least for the moment, the spike in Covid-19 cases, the potential for fresh trouble this fall and a bitter fight over how to pump more federal money into the ailing economy suggest the sharp bounce-back Trump is counting on may not show up in a way he envisions.
And the potential for another leg of the downturn hangs over a president who once counted the economy as by far his strongest selling point to voters.
“This is obviously the ugliest quarter we’ve ever seen in our history,” Edward Moya, senior analyst at currency trading firm OANDA, said of the Commerce Department’s initial estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product, which showed the economycontracting 32.9 percenton an annualized basis, the biggest drop in more than seven decades of records.
“A couple of weeks ago there was a lot more optimism that we would see a strong V-shaped recovery,” Moya said. But right now “there is a lot of bad news about how some areas are handling the virus. And every day we don’t have a new stimulus agreement in place is hurting the economy.”... more
AUGUST 7, 2020 Larry Kudlow Comments to Reporters at White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow speaks with reporters in the White House driveway about the state of the economy, saying that he expects the unemployment numbers to drop back into single digits before November.
Aug. 7 - President Donald Trump's visit to Clyde, Ohio, marks the first time a president will visit Sandusky County since 1912. This is also the first time Trump visits Ohio since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. His last visit was for a rally in Toledo. Trump is scheduled to arrive at the Whirlpool Corp. manufacturing plant in Clyde around 2:45 p.m. where he will deliver remarks about revamping the U.S. manufacturing industry in support of buying American-made products. He will then attend a fundraiser in Bratenahl later Thursday evening. source
Aug. 6 - Twitter says it will require Donald Trump to remove a post containing misinformation about coronavirus. And until he does so, he’s banned from tweeting. From The Washington Post:
Aug. 5 - WASHINGTON, Reuters – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United States had made progress with Russia on nuclear arms control recently and hopes China will decide to join the discussions.
“In the last handful of months, we’ve been working diligently to get the three nations that have the largest nuclear capabilities – the United States, Russia and China – to have strategic dialogue about how we move forward together to decrease the risk to the world,” Pompeo told reporters.
“We’ve made progress with the Russians; we’ve had two good gatherings. I hope we’ll have one before too long, and we’re hopeful that the Chinese will choose to participate,” he added.
(Reporting By Matt Spetalnick, David Brunnstrom and Humeyra Pamuk) source
Aug. 4 - As the smoke clears over Beirut, and rescuers struggle to aid survivors of a massive explosion that killed at least 78 people and wounded more than 4,000, an ominous question hangs in the air:
Was Israel responsible?
Israel denies any involvement. Lebanon’s government and Hezbollah militants – never shy about blaming their arch-enemy Israel for any misfortune – say the disaster was an accident caused by volatile explosive material in a warehouse. If Israel were in fact responsible, the result could be a war with Hezbollah and Hezbollah’s patron Iran that could even embroil the United States and other nations in a vast Middle East conflagration.
Complicating matters is that U.S. President Donald Trump quickly asserted that the explosion was the result of an attack.
Aug. 5 - A massive explosion in the Lebanese capital of Beirut has killed at least 73 people, left thousands more injured and wreaked devastation on the city. The country's health minister said more than 3,700 have been wounded following the blast at the city's industrial port, where hazardous chemicals are stored in warehouses. Dramatic footage from around 6pm local time yesterday shows smoke billowing from the harbour area shortly before an enormous fireball explodes into the sky and blankets the city in a thick mushroom cloud. .. more
August 3, 2020 President Trump "Hiring American" Executive Order Signing President Trump met with U.S. tech workers and signed an executive order on hiring Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic. President Trump announced the removal of Tennessee Valley Authority’s chair James Thompson and board member Richard Howoth and called for the removal of their CEO Bill Johnson. This was in response to the company laying off employees and hiring H-1B visa holders. During the round table discussion, it was announced the company is willing to reverse course and rehire previously laid off employees. The president also said he would not ban the Ticktock app if Microsoft or another company bought it before September 15th.
I’ll also be taking firm, disciplinary action against the leadership of the Tennessee Valley Authority, which has sadly and cruelly betrayed American workers. And we have some of those great American workers with us at the table. This is the Cabinet Room, and it’s an honor to have you in the Cabinet Room and at the Oval Office.
Aug. 3 - The White House has no plans to try to delay the US presidential election this year, its chief of staff says, even as he defends a tweet from US President Donald Trump raising the possibility . “We're going to hold an election on November 3, and the president is going to win,” Mark Meadows told CBS News.
Trump's tweet on Thursday (local time), which set off alarm bells throughout Washington, was merely meant to raise questions about whether a major expansion of mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic could produce fraud or lead to untenable delays in counting votes, Meadows insisted.
NPR's David Folkenflik speaks with former White House economic advisor Tomas Philipson. He was the acting chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers until he resigned in June.
Aug 1 - WASHINGTON — Lawmakers reported progress on a huge coronavirus relief bill Saturday, as political pressure mounts to restore an expired $600-per-week supplemental unemployment benefit and send funding to help schools reopen. “This was the longest meeting we've had and it was more productive than the other meetings,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who was part of the rare weekend session. “We're not close yet, but it was a productive discussion — now each side knows where they’re at."
Democratic Party lawyer Marc Elias says states and Congress need to act now to ensure all votes count during the general election. These changes are overdue. (Joy Sharon Yi, Danielle Kunitz/The Washington Post)
July 30 - Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States, delivered a eulogy at the funeral for John Lewis in Atlanta on Thursday
that traced the long arc of history that ran through the great man's
life. He spoke of Lewis's bravery at Selma—and in the Freedom Rides, and
in the Nashville sit-ins—and how the Alabama state troopers, some of
whom nearly beat Lewis to death at the Edmund Pettus Bridge, might have
thought they'd won at the end of the first day. That they'd pushed back
the tide of history and preserved for themselves the order of things.
But then another day came. It seemed an allegory for our times, when, as
ever, the relentless movement to make this country live up to its
founding values is "hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed."
But
Obama's grasp also tightened on what might be called more concrete
concerns. He demanded that those many politicians calling John Lewis a
hero could best honor him "by revitalizing the law that he was willing
to die for"—the Voting Rights Act, which Senate Republicans have refused
to renew. The Supreme Court's gutting of the Act
under John Roberts precipitated a wave of voter suppression,
particularly in the very same former Jim Crow states that the Act had
originally targeted for the most stringent oversight. Obama demanded the
Act's revitalization, but he went further: he called for the
destruction of the Senate filibuster if it's necessary to do so—that is,
if Republicans lose control of the chamber and abuse the filibuster to
block legislation. In the process, he classified the filibuster itself
as a "Jim Crow relic."... more
