California officials reject subsidies for Musk"s SpaceX over Tesla spat

In Dramatic Escalation, European Nat Gas Prices Soar After Gazprom Warns Ukraine Flows At Risk In a day of constant news surrounding European gas flows, including the potential sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, moments ago, Russia state-owned gas giant Gazprom PJSC warned that another major source of gas flows to Europe was at risk, just hours after three massive gas pipelines were hit by suspected sabotage. As Bloomberg reports, in a dramatic escalation of the energy standoff between Russia and Europe in little over 24 hours, the Nord Stream pipeline was knocked out by what German officials said looked like sabotage. Gazprom then said that one of two remaining routes bringing gas to Europe - via Ukraine - was at risk because of a legal spat. Specifically, as Reuters notes, Gazprom rejected all claims from Ukraine's energy firm Naftogaz in arbitration proceedings over Russian gas transit, and had notified the arbitration court. It also said that Russia may introduce sanctions against Naftogaz in case it further pursues the arbitration case, meaning Gazprom would be prohibited by the sanctions from paying Ukraine the transit fees. Naftogaz had initiated a new arbitration proceeding against Gazprom earlier this month, saying the Russian company did not pay for the rendered service of gas transportation through Ukraine. The company had said "funds were not paid by Gazprom, neither on time nor in full" for the gas transit. Gazprom said on Tuesday that Naftogaz had no "appropriate reasons" to reject its obligations on transit via the Sokhranovka point, a key route for Russian gas exports to Europe. In May, Ukraine suspended the flow of gas through Sokhranovka, which it said delivers almost a third of the fuel piped from Russia to Europe through Ukraine, blaming Moscow for the move and saying it would move the flows elsewhere. Following the report that Russia may soon halt natgas transit via Ukraine, gas prices quickly jumped almost 20% as traders factored in the prospect that Europe will have to live without Russian gas this winter - and beyond. Gazprom said that a legal dispute risks prompting Moscow to sanction Ukraine’s Naftogaz. If that happened, then Gazprom would be unable to pay transit fees, the company said on Telegram, putting at risk flows. “In practice, this will mean a ban on Gazprom from fulfilling obligations to sanctioned bodies under completed transactions, including financial transactions,” the company said. If, or rather when, supplies through Ukraine are shut down, it would leave Gazprom sending gas only via the TurkStream pipeline to Turkey and a handful of European countries that haven't severed business ties with Russia.   Tyler Durden Tue, 09/27/2022 - 12:19.....»»

Former President Donald Trump once called Elon Musk "one of our great geniuses." Now he's turned on the Tesla billionaire. Donald Trump (right) on Tuesday escalated his feud with Elon Musk in a Truth Social post belittling the billionaire.Andrew Kelly and Gaelen Morse/Reuters Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump are going at it online.  Musk said Trump should "sail away into the sunset." Trump called Musk a "bullshit artist." Their relationship wasn't always so rocky. Here's how it's evolved over time.  Former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world's richest person, are in the midst of a fiery online feud.Most recently, Musk said Trump shouldn't run for president again in 2024. In response, the former president bashed what he called Musk's "electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere."But their history goes back farther than this latest spat. November 2016: Musk says Trump is 'not the right guy' for the jobYasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesJust before the 2016 presidential election, Musk told CNBC he didn't think Trump should be president. "I feel a bit stronger that he is not the right guy. He doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States," Musk said. The billionaire added that Hillary Clinton's economic and environmental policies were the "right ones."December 2016: Musk appointed to Trump's advisory councilsDonald Trump on Tuesday escalated his feud with Elon Musk in a series of Truth Social posts belittling the billionaire.Evan Vucci/AP PhotoAfter he won the presidency, Trump appointed Musk to two economic advisory councils, along with other business leaders like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Musk got flack for working with the controversial president, but defended his choice by saying he was using the position to lobby for better environmental and immigration policies. —Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 3, 2017June 2017: Musk cut ties with the White House in protest of Trump's environmental policiesTesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and former President Donald TrumpAP Photo/Alex BrandonOn June 1, 2017, after Trump announced the US would pull out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Musk resigned from his roles on presidential advisory boards. "Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world," Musk said in a tweet announcing his departure.—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2017Musk's goal for Tesla is to curb dependence on fossil fuels through electric vehicles, solar power, and stationary energy storage. January 2020: 'One of our great geniuses'Former President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America" rally in Anchorage, Alaska, on July 9, 2022.Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesDuring a January 2020 interview with CNBC, Trump praised Musk's accomplishments and intelligence. "You have to give him credit," the former president said, referring to Tesla becoming more valuable than Ford and General Motors. "He's also doing the rockets. He likes rockets. And he's doing good at rockets too, by the way." Trump went on to call Musk "one of our great geniuses" and likened him to Thomas Edison. May 2020: Trump backs up Musk in feud with California covid rulesElon Musk meets Donald Trump at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S. May 30, 2020.REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstAs the pandemic gripped the US in early 2020, Musk clashed with California public-health officials who forced Tesla to temporarily shut down its factory there. Trump voiced his support for Musk. "California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW," Trump tweeted in May 2020. "It can be done Fast & Safely!""Thank you!," Musk replied. May 2022: Musk said he would reinstate Trump's Twitter accountTesla CEO Elon Musk.Chris Saucedo/Getty Images for SXSWIn May, before Musk pulled out of his deal to buy Twitter, he said he would unban Trump as the social network's new owner. Musk called the ban a "morally bad decision" and "foolish to the extreme" in an interview with the Financial Times. Twitter kicked Trump off of its platform following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. The Tesla billionaire has called himself a "free speech absolutist," and one of his key goals for taking Twitter private was to loosen content moderation. July 2022: Trump calls Musk a 'bullshit artist'Former US President Donald Trump speaks during a "Save America" in Anchorage, Alaska on July 9, 2022Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty ImagesLast week, Trump took aim at Musk, claiming the businessman voted for him but later denied it. "You know [Musk] said the other day 'Oh, I've never voted for a Republican,'" Trump said during a Saturday rally in Anchorage, Alaska. "I said 'I didn't know that.' He told me he voted for me. So he's another bullshit artist."On Monday, Musk tweeted that Trump's claim was "not true."July 2022: Musk says Trump shouldn't run againElon Musk.Alexi Rosenfeld / Contributor / gettyOn Monday, Musk stopped short of attacking Trump personally, but said he shouldn't run for president again. "I don't hate the man, but it's time for Trump to hang up his hat & sail into the sunset. Dems should also call off the attack – don't make it so that Trump's only way to survive is to regain the Presidency," he tweeted. He continued: "Do we really want a bull in a china shop situation every single day!? Also, I think the legal maximum age for start of Presidential term should be 69." Trump is 76 years old. July 2022: Trump lashes outFormer President Donald Trump gives the keynote address at the Faith and Freedom Coalition during their annual conference on June 17, 2022, in Nashville, Tennessee.Seth Herald/Getty ImagesTrump went on the offensive on Tuesday, posting a lengthy attack on Musk on Truth Social, the social media company he founded. "When Elon Musk came to the White House asking me for help on all of his many subsidized projects, whether it's electric cars that don't drive long enough, driverless cars that crash, or rocketships to nowhere, without which subsidies he'd be worthless, and telling me how he was a big Trump fan and Republican, I could have said, 'drop to your knees and beg,' and he would have done it," Trump said in a post that criticized two of Musk's ventures, Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. "Lmaooo," Musk responded on Twitter. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Even With 'Defund The Police' Discredited, Some Schools May Still Shun The Police Authored by Vince Bielski via RealClearInvestigations (emphasis ours), Des Moines this week suffered its first fatal school shooting – reigniting a controversy in the city after the district removed police officers from its schools last year. Police say a group of teenagers in vehicles outside Des Moines' East High School fired multiple rounds onto school property on Monday, killing a 15-year-old boy and critically wounding two female students who were bystanders. Six teenagers, some of them current Des Moines students, have been charged with first-degree murder. The deadly drive-by shooting now hovers over the decision by Des Moines officials, along with about 30 districts across the country, to exile cops from schools. These moves were part of the "defund the police" movement that erupted after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. It’s a movement now reeling in the face of violent crime surging nationwide, punctuated by President Biden’s State of the Union vow last week to “fund the police.” But in schools, at least, a decision to bring back cops -- or “school resource officers,” as they are called -- isn’t a slam dunk in places where students of color had been arrested at higher rates than whites. Des Moines (population: 214,000) provides a case in point. So far its district, half of whose students are black or Latino, has not followed schools from Maryland to California heeding pleas to restore the SROs. Instead, Iowa’s capital city is rolling out a new community-engagement safety plan to replace the cops. And that infuriates parents alarmed by school mayhem long before Floyd’s death moved racial justice to the front burner -- parents like Lindsay LaGrange. The Des Moines mom reached her breaking point in November after a student in her son’s middle school was found with an airsoft pellet gun on campus. “My son turned in this boy to the front office, and then later this boy beats up my son after school,” she said. “Almost every day he said there’s another fight at school. The kids are not safe.” Police investigating after Monday's fatal shooting outside Des Moines' East High School. (Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register via AP) The Policing of America’s Schools Des Moines joined the wave of districts that hired SROs after the rash of school shootings in the 1990s, a decade capped by the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado. The killing of Sandy Hook elementary school children in Connecticut in 2012 spurred more districts to follow suit. As many as 25,000 law enforcement officers are working today in all types of schools, from rural to suburban to urban, said Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO). In Des Moines, SRO was a coveted job. Cops went through a competitive hiring process, which vetted them for the patience and savvy to communicate with teenagers, said Sergeant Paul Parizek of the Des Moines Police Department. Not every officer was a good fit. Those tapped went through training at NASRO, a crash course in seeing the world through the eyes of a teenager. Des Moines started its SRO program about two decades ago. The district would eventually hire 10 SROs and a supervisor – one cop for each high school and four that were shared by the middle schools. Seventy percent of SROs were white men and women. Black men made up 30%. Parizek said the public has harbored misconceptions about the approach. SROs weren’t placed in schools to jack up kids with a dime bag. Although an average of 287 Des Moines students were arrested annually in the years before the pandemic, the goal was prevention: to build relationships with students to deter them from trouble and to hear chatter about what’s going down in the schools. Who’s going to fight? Who has a gun? “The guns we recovered in 2019, we recovered them before they made it inside the school door,” Parizek said. “And this was because of the relationships that SROs had with students who provided them with information.” School resource officer Deb Vanvelzen: “Sometimes kids talked to me to keep their friends safe.” A Cop’s Story at Lincoln High Officer Deb Vanvelzen fit the SRO mold. She was a school teacher with a passion for working with students before becoming a cop and then an SRO from 2005 to 2019, mostly at Lincoln High. In addition to performing typical police duties, such as breaking up fights and disposing of drugs, Vanvelzen aimed to be part of the Lincoln community. She advised teachers on how to keep classrooms safe. She spoke with parents about how to address problems with their children. She gave students lunch money and clothing her own kids outgrew. A former high school athlete, the white cop played hoops in the gym (and in uniform) with students and ate lunch in the cafeteria with kids of color to break the ice. They talked about clothing styles. For a few years she sent every student a birthday card. At graduation, Vanvelzen shook everyone’s hand. The payoff? “Once the students saw me as trustworthy, they started talking to me and I found out things before they happened and exploded,” she said. “Sometimes kids talked to me to keep their friends safe.” A few years ago, a Lincoln student approached Vanvelzen with a tip about a weapon. The day before, a teen from a different school involved in a fight across the street from Lincoln had a gun. Vanzelzen then relayed the tip to the SRO at that student’s school. “So that SRO sees the kid in the hallway, gets him into his office, and lo and behold, he still has the gun,” she said. Portilda Sayon, a junior at Lincoln, said some students felt safer because of the SROs. Sayon got to know Dusty Chapline, Vanvelzen’s replacement, after Sayon had a verbal spat with other girls. The two talked a lot about Sayon’s emotional problems and issues at home. “Chappie helped me tremendously,” Sayon said.    Some students, however, never took to the SROs. “They don’t like cops because they had a bad experience with them before,” Sayon said. Vanvelzen said that she, in collaboration with the Lincoln staff, “absolutely” made the school safer. But she notes the challenge in assessing the effectiveness of SROs. There’s no way to count the number of incidents that did not happen because of her presence at Lincoln. The statistics are hard to interpret: there were 1,652 reported acts of physical aggression in the Des Moines middle and high schools in fiscal 2019. That number was fairly steady in the few years before SROs were removed. So perhaps the cops were keeping a lid on violence but not significantly reducing it. When officials examined the data, they couldn’t come to a definitive conclusion about SROs. “That’s the essential question, but we really couldn’t answer it with confidence that SROs were or weren’t making schools safer,” said Jake Troja, the district director of school climate transformation. How Two Students Expelled the SROs The campaign to remove the police was led by two Des Moines students at East High School, Endi Montalvo-Martinez and Lyric Sellers. While researching racial equity for a leadership class, Montalvo-Martinez, then a junior, learned about the controversy surrounding SROs in other cities. It meshed with the experience of some of his friends who believed racism had led SROs to stop them and search their bags.   So Montalvo-Martinez and Sellers, then a sophomore, wrote a sweeping anti-racist proposal in early 2020 to compel the district to remove the police, redesign its Eurocentric curriculum and hire more teachers of color. Jake Troja, school official: Statistics didn't answer whether "SROs were or weren’t making schools safer.”  When the duo met with Superintendent Thomas Ahart, he said no. “He made excuses like there’s no funding, we can’t invest in these things,” said Montalvo-Martinez. Soon after that rejection, Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis ignited protests, even in quiet Des Moines, where demonstrators clashed with cops, exchanging bricks and bottles for tear gas in May of 2020. The following month, Ahart sent a letter to families, titled “We ALL Must Be Actively ANTI-Racist.” Montalvo-Martinez said the district’s new anti-racist pledge gave the two students more political leverage, but they still needed tactical advice on how to sway administrators and board members. Jaylen Cavil, a defund the police advocate with the Black Liberation Movement and candidate for the Iowa House, became a key adviser. Montalvo-Martinez and Sellers gathered arrest data from the Des Moines human rights department and student testimonials about being traumatized by SROs before making presentations to principals, teachers and school board members individually. They encountered some resistance from school staff, but in their second meeting with the superintendent, Ahart agreed that the SROs must go. "Ahart did a 180," Montalvo-Martinez said. Thomas Ahart, superintendent: After Floyd's murder, “We ALL Must Be Actively ANTI-Racist.” But Ahart knew that most parents probably wouldn’t back his decision. In a survey by the district, a majority of parents (66%) and students (53%) had said they supported having police in schools. In the heated racial politics of the moment, the arrest data – blacks students were twice as likely to be involved with a SRO than whites – became a rallying point. Montalvo-Martinez and other activists said it showed that the cops were biased and targeted blacks for arrest. The cops, however, generally didn’t patrol the halls and playgrounds looking to make arrests. The vast majority of arrests started with calls for help to SROs from school administrators, who were identifying the incidents and misbehaving students that they wanted the cops to handle, district officials say. “I want to make clear that SROs were not the problem even though it comes off in the media that way,” Troja said. “They were summoned” to the scene. In February 2021, the school board voted unanimously to end the SRO program. “Kudos to these two students for really being intentional around the process and information and lining up support on this issue,” said Teree Caldwell-Johnson, vice chair of the school board.  Schools Take On Violence Control Following the lead of other districts, Des Moines developed a SRO replacement plan for schools to handle most of the behavior problems, other than serious crimes such as possession of a weapon. This way, students would avoid the taint of a police record that could harm their job prospects after graduation. Officials also argued that they could improve school safety if the $900,000 spent on SROs was redeployed in support of a new, community-based approach. That included bringing community organizations like Dads on a Mission – a group of local fathers who want to have a positive influence on students – into the schools. Hall monitors were hired so high schools now have five of them rather than one SRO. And the district has been rolling out a restorative justice program, where students hash out their conflicts in discussion groups in hopes of overcoming them – a practice that has had mixed results in other districts around the country. “We were calling the SROs for many incidents, like physical fights in the hallways, that we could have handled ourselves,” Troja said. “Now we are approaching safety differently by allocating funds to different resources to try to get better results.” The new approach didn’t get off to a good start. Last fall, after 16,000 middle and high school students returned to classrooms full-time in Des Moines, officials were caught off guard by the spike in fighting and disruptive behavior. The removal of the SROs didn’t cause the surge in violence, but nor were the cops readily available to tamp it down. Last September, there were 83 referrals for fighting in Des Moines’ six high schools compared with 59 in the same month in 2019 – a pattern of monthly increases that continued through December. Students posted numerous disturbing videos on Snapchat of boys and girls aggressively attacking each other at different schools, with punches to the head, kicks to the stomach and stomps on the chest. Then there’s the matter of guns. Last year, a student brought a loaded 9mm pistol into Lincoln High, alarming parents but not surprising them. From 2016 to 2020, the staff and SROs confiscated 20 lethal weapons from students, mostly loaded guns, in this school district of 32,000 students. Des Moines police say a number of gun shots have been fired near schools that have been linked to students, but without any fatalities. In addition to guns, students have access to a wide arsenal of weapons. In December, a Lincoln student who had been bullied brought a taser to school and used it when he was attacked by others bearing brass knuckles and pepper spray. Backlash at the School Board Aveantai Smith moved from Arlington, Texas, to Des Moines, where she had lived about 17 years ago, assuming the schools were as safe as she remembered. Instead, she has been horrified by the brutality that her son and daughter have encountered at Lincoln High. Smith met with the principal, who said he’s doing everything he can to control the surge in violence. But that didn’t inspire a lot of confidence. She pulled her daughter out of Lincoln and sent her back to Texas to live with her grandmother. Her son, a football player who isn’t easily intimidated, remains at the school. “It’s literally outrageous,” said Smith, herself a college nursing student. “The school is not safe and secure. The fighting is on a whole different level. I’m scared to send my kids to school every single day.” By December a backlash was underway, with Des Moines parents calling for a return of the SROs in media interviews. The controversy came to a head at a Dec. 7 school board meeting. LaGrange, whose son Jeremiah was attacked by another student, has been organizing other parents on social media behind the SRO cause. She bluntly told board members during the meeting to “wake up” to the reality of the rise in violence and restore the police program to protect students. Critics of SROs also spoke up at the meeting, repeating the story line about racist police practices. A public school employee told the board that the police were removed for “targeting black children” and that the racist practice would return with the SROs. An activist with the Young Women’s Resource Center urged the officials to reject the “dangerous narrative” pushed by local TV station KCCI in its “campaign against black children, framing them as sources of violence within our schools.” But KCCI hasn’t singled out black students in its coverage. Ten days later, Superintendent Ahart was forced to crack down on students, announcing a tougher suspension policy for fighting in a letter to families. After a first fight, students can stay in school and try to resolve the conflict. After a second, they shift to 30 school days of remote virtual learning with counseling to get to the root of the problem. A third fight means two months of virtual instruction. With the return of some old school discipline, the number of reported high school fights dropped to 47 in January compared with 67 in the same month of 2020. But Ahart, who announced his resignation on Feb. 28, was silent on the question of bringing back SROs. Would having cops on-site who can quickly respond to incidents like the brawl outside of Lincoln High in September also make a difference? “Yes, without SROs we lose that immediate access to an officer,” Troja said. “Does that have benefits? It does. But do those benefits outweigh the benefits that we gain now with our new approach? I don’t think so, or we wouldn’t have gone down this path.” Tyler Durden Thu, 03/10/2022 - 21:20.....»»

China Shadow Banking Defaults Surge By Charlie Zhu, Bloomberg Markets Live reporter and analyst Three things we learned last week: 1. A town builder’s last-minute bond repayment reignited fears over a potential default by such issuers. Investors are watching out for the first missed payment by a local government financing vehicle, something regional authorities are trying hard to avoid. The possibility has recently increased, as a weakening fiscal situation means authorities are less able to provide support. Research from GF Securities Co. shows there were 73 cases of shadow-banking defaults in the first four months, already a full-year record since data became available in 2018. “Missing payments in shadow banking are a signal that debt risks in a certain region have become more prominent,” GF analysts led by Liu Yu wrote in a report. Yields on Kunming Dianchi Investment Co.’s note due in December surged to over 20% last week, as two holders said they didn’t receive payments until after business hours for a note due this month. Premiums of three-year AA rated LGFV bonds widened to the most since March, and investors cited local-debt worries as one of the reasons behind a decline in Chinese stocks. China’s LGFVs had 13.5 trillion yuan ($1.9 trillion) of bonds in total outstanding as of end-2022, or almost half of the nation’s non-financial corporate notes, data from Moody’s Investors Service show. Steps by authorities “to lower LGFV debt risks will not fully resolve long-term issues,” and their refinancing ability depends on investors’ confidence in government support, especially in weaker provinces, Moody’s analysts led by Ivan Chung wrote in a report. 2. With the financial strength of both town builders and their sponsors deteriorating, investors became more pessimistic about China’s demand for raw materials. Copper dived below $8,000 a ton while iron ore breached $100, unwinding gains since Beijing ended its Covid Zero policies late last year. At the London Metal Exchange’s annual Asian event in Hong Kong, participants reported lackluster activity and said that any market optimism from the National People’s Congress in March had evaporated. The selloff in Chinese stocks also extended, with the benchmark CSI 300 Index erasing all of its gains for the year. Now, even bulls are rethinking their calls, with Citigroup Inc.’s global allocation team cutting its overweight rating on China to neutral. 3. Luckily, positive developments on China-US bilateral relations helped to alleviate some of the pessimism. Soon after President Joe Biden said he expected ties with China to improve “very shortly” after a spat over an alleged spy balloon earlier this year, top commerce officials from the two countries agreed to strengthen communications. The meeting served as a sign that Beijing and Washington are trying to prevent their relations from worsening further. It remains to be seen though if China’s decision to bar Micron Technology Inc. from supplying critical infrastructure leads to another round of tension. Some analysts see this as an opening shot by Beijing to retaliate, while US lawmakers want to react with putting more Chinese firms on a blacklist. Tyler Durden Sun, 05/28/2023 - 23:30.....»»

'The Official Truth': The End Of Free Speech That Will End America Authored by J.B.Shurk via The Gatestone Institute, If legacy news corporations fail to report that large majorities of the American public now view their journalistic product as straight-up propaganda, does that make it any less true? According to a survey by Rasmussen Reports, 59% of likely voters in the United States view the corporate news media as "truly the enemy of the people." This is a majority view, held regardless of race: "58% of whites, 51% of black voters, and 68% of other minorities" — all agree that the mainstream media has become their "enemy." This scorching indictment of the Fourth Estate piggybacks similar polling from Harvard-Harris showing that Americans hold almost diametrically opposing viewpoints from those that news corporations predominantly broadcast as the official "truth." Drawing attention to the divergence between the public's perceived reality and the news media's prevailing "narratives," independent journalist Glenn Greenwald dissected the Harvard-Harris poll to highlight just how differently some of the most important issues of the last few years have been understood. While corporate news fixated on purported Trump-Russia collusion since 2016, majorities of Americans now see this story "as a hoax and a fraud." While the news media hid behind the Intelligence Community's claims that Hunter Biden's potentially incriminating laptop (allegedly containing evidence of his family's influence-peddling) was a product of "Russian disinformation" and consequently enforced an information blackout on the explosive story during the final weeks of the 2020 presidential election, strong majorities of Americans currently believe the laptop's contents are "real." In other words, Americans have correctly concluded that journalists and spies advanced a "fraud" on voters as part of an effort to censor a damaging story and "help Biden win." Nevertheless, The New York Times and The Washington Post have yet to return the Pulitzer Prizes they received for reporting totally discredited "fake news." Similarly, majorities of Americans suspect that President Joe Biden has used the powers of his various offices to profit from influence-peddling schemes and that the FBI has intentionally refrained from investigating any possible Biden crimes. Huge majorities of Americans, in fact, seem not at all surprised to learn that the FBI has been caught abusing its own powers to influence elections, and are strongly convinced that "sweeping reform" is needed. Likewise, large majorities of Americans have "serious doubts about Biden's mental fitness to be president" and suspect that others behind the scenes are "puppeteers" running the nation. Few, if any, of these poll results have been widely reported. In a seemingly-authoritarian disconnect with the American people, corporate news media continue to ignore the public's majority opinion and instead "relentlessly advocate" those viewpoints that Americans "reject." When journalists fail to investigate facts and deliberately distort stories so that they fit snugly within preconceived worldviews, reporters act as propagandists. Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley recently asked, "Do we have a de facto state media?" In answering his own question, he notes that the news blackout surrounding congressional investigations into Biden family members who have allegedly received more than ten million dollars in suspicious payments from foreign entities "fits the past standards used to denounce Russian propaganda patterns and practices." After Republican members of Congress traced funds to nine Biden family members "from corrupt figures in Romania, China, and other countries," Turley writes, "The New Republic quickly ran a story headlined 'Republicans Finally Admit They Have No Incriminating Evidence on Joe Biden.'" Excoriating the news media's penchant for mindlessly embracing stories that hurt former President Donald Trump while simultaneously ignoring stories that might damage President Biden, Turley concludes: "Under the current approach to journalism, it is the New York Times that receives a Pulitzer for a now debunked Russian collusion story rather than the New York Post for a now proven Hunter Biden laptop story." Americans now evidently view the major sources for their news and information as part of a larger political machine pushing particular points of view, unconstrained by any ethical obligation to report facts objectively or dispassionately seek truth. That Americans now see the news media in their country as serving a similar role as Pravda did for the Soviet Union's Communist Party is a significant departure from the country's historic embrace of free speech and traditional fondness for a skeptical, adversarial press. Rather than taking a step back to consider the implications such a shift in public perception will have for America's future stability, some officials appear even more committed to expanding government control over what can be said and debated online. After the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in the wake of public backlash over First Amendment concerns, halted its efforts to construct an official "disinformation governance board" last year, the question remained whether other government attempts to silence or shape online information would rear their head. The wait for that answer did not take long. The government apparently took the public's censorship concerns so seriously that it quietly moved on from the collapse of its plans for a "disinformation governance board" within the DHS and proceeded within the space of a month to create a new "disinformation" office known as the Foreign Malign Influence Center, which now operates from within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Although ostensibly geared toward countering information warfare arising from "foreign" threats, one of its principal objectives is to monitor and control "public opinion and behaviors." As independent journalist Matt Taibbi concludes of the government's resurrected Ministry of Truth: "It's the basic rhetorical trick of the censorship age: raise a fuss about a foreign threat, using it as a battering ram to get everyone from Congress to the tech companies to submit to increased regulation and surveillance. Then, slowly, adjust your aim to domestic targets." If it were not jarring enough to learn that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has picked up the government's speech police baton right where the DHS set it down, there is ample evidence to suggest that officials are eager to go much further in the near future. Democrat Senator Michael Bennet has already proposed a bill that would create a Federal Digital Platform Commission with "the authority to promulgate rules, impose civil penalties, hold hearings, conduct investigations, and support research." Filled with "disinformation" specialists empowered to create "enforceable behavioral codes" for online communication — and generously paid for by the Biden Administration with taxpayers' money — the special commission would also "designate 'systemically important digital platforms' subject to extra oversight, reporting, and regulation" requirements. Effectively, a small number of unelected commissioners would have de facto power to monitor and police online communication. Should any particular website or platform run afoul of the government's First Amendment Star Chamber, it would immediately place itself within the commission's crosshairs for greater oversight, regulation, and punishment. Will this new creation become an American KGB, Stasi or CCP — empowered to target half the population for disagreeing with current government policies, promoting "wrongthink," or merely going to church? Will a small secretive body decide which Americans are actually "domestic terrorists" in the making? US Attorney General Merrick Garland has gone after traditional Catholics who attend Latin mass, but why would government suspicions end with the Latin language? When small commissions exist to decide which Americans are the "enemy," there is no telling who will be designated as a "threat" and punished next. It is not difficult to see the dangers that lie ahead. Now that the government has fully inserted itself into the news and information industry, the criminalization of free speech is a very real threat. This has always been a chief complaint against international institutions such as the World Economic Forum that spend a great deal of time, power, and money promoting the thoughts and opinions of an insular cabal of global leaders, while showing negligible respect for the personal rights and liberties of the billions of ordinary citizens they claim to represent. WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab has gone so far as to hire hundreds of thousands of "information warriors" whose mission is to "control the Internet" by "policing social media," eliminating dissent, disrupting the public square, and "covertly seed[ing] support" for the WEF's "Great Reset." If Schwab's online army were not execrable enough, advocates for free speech must also gird themselves for the repercussions of Elon Musk's appointment of Linda Yaccarino, reportedly a "neo-liberal wokeist" with strong WEF affiliations, as the new CEO of Twitter. Throughout much of the West, unfortunately, free speech has been only weakly protected when those with power find its defense inconvenient or messages a nuisance. It is therefore of little surprise to learn that French authorities are now prosecuting government protesters for "flipping-off" President Emmanuel Macron. It does not seem particularly astonishing that a German man has been sentenced to three years in prison for engaging in "pro-Russian" political speech regarding the war in Ukraine. It also no longer appears shocking to read that UK Technology and Science Secretary Michelle Donelan reportedly seeks to imprison social media executives who fail to censor online speech that the government might subjectively adjudge "harmful." Sadly, as Ireland continues to find new ways to punish citizens for expressing certain points of view, its movement toward criminalizing not just speech but also "hateful" thoughts should have been predictable. From an American's perspective, these overseas encroachments against free speech — especially within the borders of closely-allied lands — have seemed sinister yet entirely foreign. Now, however, what was once observed from some distance has made its way home; it feels as if a faraway communist enemy has finally stormed America's beaches and come ashore in force. Not a day seems to go by without some new battlefront opening up in the war on free speech and free thought. The Richard Stengel of the Council on Foreign Relations has been increasingly vocal about the importance of journalists and think tanks to act as "primary provocateurs" and "propagandists" who "have to" manipulate the American population and shape the public's perception of world events. Senator Rand Paul has alleged that the DHS uses at least 12 separate programs to "track what Americans say online," as well as to engage in social media censorship. As part of its efforts to silence dissenting arguments, the Biden administration is pursuing a policy that would make it unlawful to use data and datasets that reflect accurate information yet lead to "discriminatory outcomes" for "protected classes." In other words, if the data is perceived to be "racist," it must be expunged. At the same time, the Department of Justice has indicted four radical black leftists for having somehow "weaponized" their free speech rights in support of Russian "disinformation." So, objective datasets can be deemed "discriminatory" against minorities, while actual discrimination against minorities' free speech is excused when that speech contradicts official government policy. Meanwhile, the DHS has been exposed for paying tens of millions of dollars to third-party "anti-terrorism" programs that have not so coincidentally equated Christians, Republicans, and philosophical conservatives to Germany's Nazi Party. Similarly, California Governor Gavin Newsom has set up a Soviet-style "snitch line" that encourages neighbors to report on each other's public or private displays of "hate." Finally, ABC News proudly admits that it has censored parts of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s interviews because some of his answers include "false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines." Essentially, the corporate news media have deemed Kennedy's viewpoints unworthy of being transmitted and heard, even though the 2024 presidential candidate is running a strong second behind Joe Biden in the Democrat primary, with around 20% support from the electorate. Taken all together, it is clear that not only has the war on free speech come to America, but also that it is clobbering Americans in a relentless campaign of "shock and awe." And why not? In a litigation battle presently being waged over the federal government's extensive censorship programs, the Biden administration has defended its inherent authority to control Americans' thoughts as an instrumental component of "government infrastructure." What Americans think and believe is openly referred to as part of the nation's "cognitive infrastructure" — as if the Matrix movies were simply reflecting real life. Today, America's mainstream news corporations are already viewed as processing plants that manufacture political propaganda. That is an unbelievably searing indictment of a once-vibrant free press in the United States. It is also, unfortunately, only the first heavy shoe to drop in the war against free speech. Many Chinese-Americans who survived the Cultural Revolution look around the country today and see similarities everywhere. During that totalitarian "reign of terror," everything a person did was monitored, including what was said while asleep. In an America now plagued with the stench of official "snitch lines," censorship of certain presidential candidates, widespread online surveillance, a resurrected "disinformation governance board," and increasingly frequent criminal prosecutions targeting Americans who exercise their free speech, the question is not whether what we inaudibly think or say in our sleep will someday be used against us, but rather how soon that day will come unless we stop it. After all, with smartphones, smart TVs, "smart" appliances, video-recording doorbells, and the rise of artificial intelligence, somebody, somewhere is always listening. Tyler Durden Sun, 05/28/2023 - 23:00.....»»

An unidentified man picked up the bison calf after it was separated from its mother as the herd crossed the Lamar River in Yellowstone National Park. Unidentified man disturbing bison calf in Lamar Valley near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone Park.Hellen Jack/National Parks Service A baby bison was killed after a Yellowstone visitor "intentionally disturbed" it. Park rangers were forced to euthanize the animal after its herd rejected it, officials said.  Human interference with wild animals can "drastically affect their well-being," they added. A newborn bison was euthanized by park rangers after a Yellowstone visitor "intentionally disturbed" it, causing its herd to reject it, the national park said in a statement earlier this week. A photograph released by Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday appeared to show an unidentified man lifting the bison calf from the Lamar River, Wyoming, after it was separated from its mother as the herd crossed the river last weekend. Visitors later reported seeing the calf follow cars and other people, the park service said. "Park rangers tried repeatedly to reunite the calf with the herd. These efforts failed," the service said. Officials made the decision to euthanize the calf after it became clear that the herd had abandoned it and it began "causing a hazardous situation" on the road. Park officials defended their decision to kill the baby bison on Twitter, writing in a statement: "We made the choice we did not because we are lazy, uncaring, or inexpert in our understanding of bison biology. We made the choice we did because national parks preserve natural processes." The statement added that the newborn calf was not a good candidate for quarantine, as it would not have been able to care for itself. Human interference with wild animals can "drastically affect their well-being," the park service said, reiterating the importance of giving them space. Yellowstone Park regulations require that people stay at least 25 yards away from wildlife — including bison, elk, and deer — and at least 100 yards away from bears and wolves, the statement said. Ignoring these regulations may result in "fines, injury, and even death," the statement said, adding that the safety of both animals and humans depends on following these "simple rules" and using "good judgment."The calf's body was left in the ecosystem, as would typically happen with the other 25% of newborn bison that die this spring, the Twitter statement added."Those deaths will benefit other animals by feeding everything from bears and wolves to birds and insects. Allowing this cycle of life to play out aligns most closely with the stewardship responsibility entrusted to us by the American people," it said.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Seven Republicans, including Trump, have made a White House run official, others are considering jumping in, and some have dropped out. Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an event at Mar-a-Lago on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty Images Trump, Haley, Ramaswamy, Hutchinson, Elder, Tim Scott, and DeSantis are running for president. Others have been floating the possibility of entering the GOP contest — and some are dropping out. From Pence to Cruz, here's how Republicans are laying the groundwork for presidential runs. Seven Republicans are now running for president in 2024 — at least officially. Embattled former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, conservative commentator Larry Elder, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are the candidates who have so far formally announced a 2024 presidential bid.But plenty of others appear to be toying with the same idea.They're doing all the things they're supposed to do to test their chances: Visiting early primary states, writing books, showing up on the Sunday shows, and weighing in publicly on President Joe Biden's policies — and even Trump's latest controversies. The next step will be hiring teams in Iowa and New Hampshire, Doug Heye, a longtime GOP aide and strategist, told Insider."You have got a stable of people who are essentially putting themselves all in the starting gates and all have their own timetable about when and if they decide to run," he said. Over the next few weeks and months, candidates would be floating what Kristin Davison, vice president and general consultant at Axiom Strategies, called "trial balloons" — in which they publicly raise the prospect of a run to see how donors and the press will react. Whoever seizes the nomination will likely face Biden, who made a run official on April 25. But, Heye said, "it's a real possibility" that the GOP lineup will large.The stakes for losing the nomination aren't all bad, even if Republicans might come out of it with an unforgettable Trump nickname. After all, one of the people running for president could get chosen as the running mate or get a seat on the new president's Cabinet.And there are other perks to formally seeking the White House, such as raising one's profile and having a better shot at the presidency during a future cycle. Candidates could also sell a lot more books or leave politics to get a prime TV or radio show. "It's a long, difficult process," Heye said, "and you're more likely to lose than not."Trump's legal, political, and personal liabilities have been piling up for several months, leading many in the GOP to say the party needs not just a fresh face but to be led by a candidate who can actually win. Insider identified 15 people who have or could seek the Republican nomination in 2024. Each will have to effectively answer the "why I'm running for president" question and find their lane in the party, which will inevitably include defining — or redefining — their relationship with Trump. "I don't think you can discount any of them at this point," Heye said. "It's too early to determine who outside of Trump is a frontrunner." And others, like newly minted GOP star Glenn Youngkin, 56, are already bowing out of consideration, with Youngkin telling attendees on May 1 at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California that he still had work to do in Virginia. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also officially declared he's not seeking the nomination, despite releasing a book and rumblings he was considering a run.Scroll through to see the politicians who have either already declared or are potentially gearing up for run — and who has officially decided not to move forward:Gov. Ron DeSantis of FloridaRepublican gubernatorial candidate for Florida Ron DeSantis speaks during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, on November 8, 2022.Giorgio VIERA / AFP via Getty ImagesDeSantis, 44, made his long-anticipated run official on May 24. The two-term governor of Florida launched his bid to wrest control of the party from Trump in a glitchy interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk that was quickly dubbed a #DeSaster on the now right-leaning platform. DeSantis campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin tried to spin the online debacle — which purportedly attracted roughly half-a-million participants before technical difficulties thinned the audience to around 300,000 — as a groundbreaking achievement. "There was so much enthusiasm for Governor DeSantis' vision for our Great American Comeback that he literally busted up the internet," Griffin boasted on Twitter. Trump, who's been raring to rip his former ally apart, was having none of it. "Tim Scott's Presidential launch, even with the broken microphone (don't pay the contractor, Tim!), was by far the best Presidential launch of the week. Robs was a catastrophe!" the combative former president gloated on his own social media channel. DeSantis deliberately avoided mentioning Trump on Wednesday night, sticking with the talking points about the gubernatorial agenda that's gotten him this far. He famously and unapologetically reopened Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, before federal health officials said he should. He banned certain teachings on race in workplaces and schools, and flew unsuspecting migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.DeSantis also signed a contentious parental involvement and sex ed bill into law that critics call "Don't Say Gay." Instead of backing down over the outcry, he worked to punish Disney for threatening to repeal it and then expanded the law. Then there were the historic tax cuts in Florida with promises of more as well as viral videos bashing what he calls the "corporate media." All of these actions have portrayed the governor as a fighter. That's not the only part of his public persona on display. Often in tow is his beautiful, young family. His former newscaster wife, Florida's first lady Casey DeSantis, has been instrumental in his rise. To the New York Post, pictures of the DeSantis family on Election Night was "DeFuture." Others see a conservative JFK. But the politician DeSantis most often gets compared to is Trump. Numerous news profiles have described DeSantis as "Trump without the baggage," or as a more disciplined Trump. Yet after leaning on Trump during his first gubernatorial victory in 2018, DeSantis showed he could win big on his own, scoring a historic, 20-point victory in Florida in November without Trump's endorsement.DeSantis also released his first memoir in February: "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival." During the midterms, he extended goodwill to other Republicans by campaigning with them. Back at home, he raked in a record amount of cash for a gubernatorial race. If the GOP primary were decided today, numerous polls show, DeSantis is the only person that gets close to Trump. Trump has nicknamed DeSantis "Ron DeSanctimonious" and threatened to release damaging information about the governor. Sen. Tim Scott of South CarolinaSen. Tim Scott, a Republican of South Carolkina, speaks at a fundraiser in Anderson, South Carolina on August 22, 2022.Meg Kinnard/AP Photo, FileScott, 57, made his run official on May 22. "I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression," he said during his formal campaign launch in North Charleston, South Carolina. He'd hinted at a presidential bid during his midterms victory speech, even though he previously said he wouldn't run against Trump. "My grandfather voted for the first man of color to be elected as president of the United States," he said on November 8, referring to the vote his grandfather cast for Obama. "I wish he had lived long enough to see perhaps another man of color elected president of the United States. But this time, let it be a Republican and not just a Democrat. So just know: All things are possible in America."Scott, who previously served in the US House, is the only Black Republican in the Senate. He said his six-year term in the Senate beginning in January would be his last, but he didn't rule out a presidential run. He also released a memoir, "America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity" and is one of the top fundraisers in the Senate — which includes support from small and online donors — even though he defended a safe seat this cycle.Major donors have contributed to Opportunity Matters Fun, a pro-Scott super PAC. In February, he launched a listening tour. Scott was among those leading the push for the successful passage of the bipartisan First Step Act and his measure to create Opportunity Zones that bring private investments into economically distressed communities was part of the 2017 tax reform law. He garnered national interest after delivering the GOP response to Biden's address to Congress in 2021. Afterward, McConnell said the senator represented "the future of the Republican Party." Scott has been open about the racism he has faced over the course of his life. "I get called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives, by liberals," he said in response to Biden's address. He has shared that police have pulled him over numerous times, despite him not violating any traffic laws. He sat down with Trump at the White House to discuss systemic racism and publicly called on Trump to call back certain statements he made on race. Haley, who was South Carolina governor at the time, appointed Scott to the Senate in 2013 after the seat opened up. Former UN Ambassador Nikki HaleyFormer UN Ambassador Nikki Haley during a news conference in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.Matt Rourke/AP PhotoHaley, 51, made a run official on February 15. During her campaign launch in Charleston, South Carolina, she portrayed herself as a young leader who could win elections. "If you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation," she said. Her experiences in public office give her the coveted pairing of having both executive and foreign policy chops, which are often viewed as crucial to the presidency. Aside from Trump and Pence, few other contenders would have such a profile. As a woman of Indian descent, she could also help bring in suburban women voters who graduated from college and expand the GOP coalition among people of color. She embraced her unique background during her campaign kickoff, wearing suffragette white and and calling herself "a brown girl growing up in a black-and-white world." Haley has had a turnaround from last year, when she said she wouldn't run for president if Trump were to seek the White House in 2024. She started our her career working in the private sector, joining her family's clothing business before leading the National Association of Women Business Owners.She served in the South Carolina House for three terms then was the state's governor for six years. In that time Haley delivered the GOP response to Obama's 2016 State of the Union Address.She pushed for the removal of the confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol after a gunman killed nine Black people at Emanuel Church in Charleston. Also as governor, Haley would not support a bill requiring transgender people to use the restroom that corresponded with the gender on their birth certificate. But in 2021 she wrote a commentary in the National Review saying transgender inclusion in sports was an "attack on women's rights."Haley was UN Ambassador under Trump for two years, and successfully pushed for the US to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem and defended Trump's decision to do so.In 2019 she published a memoir, "With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace." Haley campaigned and fundraised in high-profile races during the 2022 midterms, including in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Haley told the National Republican Committee the day after the January 6 riot that Trump was "badly wrong" in his speech to supporters and that his "actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history." Tech entrepreneur Vivek RamaswamyRamaswamy founded the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences.Fox NewsRamaswamy, 37, made his run official on February 22. Ramaswamy is an Indian-American tech entrepreneur who co-founded Strive Asset Management and serves as its executive chairman. He also founded the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences."We're in the midst of a national identity crisis. Faith, patriotism & family are disappearing. We embrace one secular religion after another — from wokeism to climatism — to satisfy our deeper need for meaning," he said in a video announcing his campaign. "Yet we cannot even answer what it means to be an American." —Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023 Ramaswamy wrote "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam" and "Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence."The New Yorker nicknamed Ramaswamy the "CEO of Anti-Woke Inc." for his stance against environmental, social, and governance investing.In February, he delivered a speech about ESG at Trump National Doral, near Miami, before the exclusive and influential Council for National Policy at Trump Doral, where DeSantis was also a key speaker. Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of ArkansasArkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson attends the National Governors Association summer meeting, Friday, July 15, 2022, in Portland, Maine.Robert F. Bukaty/AP PhotoHutchinson, 72, threw his hat into the ring on April 2. He told ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl there would be a full-scale rollout later on in his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, but that his mind was made up. "I've traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country," Hutchinson said Sunday. "I'm convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts."He also weighed in on Trump's indictment in New York, calling it a "great distraction" that voters need to get past. "We can't set aside what our Constitution requires — which is electing a new leader for our country — just because we have this side controversy and criminal charges that are pending," Hutchinson said, adding, "And so we've got to press on, and the American people are gonna have to separate what the ideas are for our future."Hutchinson hasn't been shy about criticizing Biden or Trump. After Trump's 2024 announcement, he said the former president's "self-indulging message promoting anger has not changed," and also disavowed the Fuentes and Ye meeting at Mar-a-Lago.Hutchinson has taken at least five trips to Iowa through America Strong & Free, the nonprofit of which he's the honorary chairman and spokesperson."I am seriously looking at a run in 2024 because America and the Republican Party are not in the best place," he said in a statement provided to Insider. "I know how to get us back on track both in terms of leadership and facing the challenging issues of border security, increased violent crime, and energy inflation." As governor of Arkansas for eight years, Hutchinson has pushed to make the state a leader in computer science, and signed several tax cuts into law, including lowering the state income tax rate from 7% to 4.9%. Hutchinson also signed bills into law blocking businesses from requiring customers and workers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and blocked state and local officials from obligating masks — a move he later said he regretted. He asked state lawmakers to create a carve-out for schools, but the Arkansas House rejected the proposal. While he signed an abortion ban into law in 2019 that took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, he said on CNN that he personally believes in exceptions for rape and incest."Many out there appreciate a 'consistent conservative,' even one they don't agree with all the time," Hutchinson told Insider. "I am not interested in the 'outrage of the day,' and I am committed to using my consistent conservative principles to guide me and our nation on important policy decisions." Hutchinson began his government career as a US attorney for the Western District of Arkansas under President Ronald Reagan, then went on to serve in the US House for three terms. President George W. Bush tapped him to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, after which he served as undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security. He has criticized Biden on illegal immigration, inflation, and student-loan forgiveness. He said on CNN that the president's September speech about "MAGA Republicans" and democracy "singled out a segment of Americans and said basically they're our enemy."Hutchinson also has the distinction of being especially press friendly at a time when numerous Republicans have copied Trump's style of lashing out against journalists. "The media plays an important role in our democracy," Hutchinson told Insider. "I've never shied away from tough questions, and I have always been willing to defend my positions and conservative principles with the hard questions coming from the press."Conservative commentator Larry ElderGOP presidential hopeful Larry Elder speaks to guests at the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition Spring Kick-Off on April 22, 2023 in Clive, Iowa.Scott Olson/Getty ImagesLarry Elder, 71, made his first presidential bid official on April 20. A conservative talk show personality who led the field of nearly four dozen candidates attempting to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a 2021 recall effort, Elder entered the fray with a "we've got a country to save!" pitch.—Larry Elder (@larryelder) April 21, 2023 "We can enter a new American Golden Age, but we must choose a leader who can bring us there. That's why I'm running for President," Elder said during the rollout of his long shot campaign. A lawyer turned Fox News fixture, Elder's platform mirrors many MAGA grievances: condemning critical race theory and the idea that systemic racism exists, bemoaning immigration at the southern border, demanding school choice to "break the monopoly" of public schools, and branding Democrats as "soft on crime." He also takes frequent swipes at President Joe Biden and routinely engages in "woke" culture war fights on social media. The budding politician, who wrote about his surprise gubernatorial run in "As Goes California: My Mission to Rescue the Golden State and Save the Nation," is no stranger to controversy. His ex-fiancee, Alexandra Datig, accused Elder of flashing a gun at her during an argument while he was under the influence of marijuana. Elder denied it ever happened in a Twitter thread. CNN reported that Elder was accused of sexual harassment twice — allegations Elder also waved off. Former Rep. Liz Cheney of WyomingRep. Liz Cheney, a Republican of Wyoming, campaigned with Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat of Michigan, at an Evening for Patriotism and Bipartisanship event on November 1, 2022 in East Lansing, Michigan.Bill Pugliano/Getty ImagesCheney, 56, is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and one of Trump's toughest Republican critics.She voted to impeach Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and served as vice chair of the House select committee investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Cheney's actions have come at a cost under the heavy weight of Trump's ire. House Republicans punished her by stripping her of her leadership post, and she lost her US House seat to Trump-backed GOP challenger Harriet Hageman during the state's August primary.But she hasn't been deterred. Cheney said on NBC's "Today" that she would do "whatever it takes" to keep Trump out of the White House in 2024, including "thinking about" running for president herself. "I wouldn't be surprised to see her run for president," Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told Insider in August. Cheney voted with Trump on policy when he was in office, and remains a conservative, telling the Reagan Foundation and Institute in June 2022 that she believes "deeply in the policies of limited government, of low taxes, of a strong national defense." But Cheney said she sees a breaking point with the Republican Party, telling the Texas Tribune Festival in September that she would leave the GOP if Trump became the 2024 nominee.This could mean she'd run for president as an Independent. Already, she has shown she's willing to campaign against Republicans who falsely deny that Biden won the 2020 presidential election.In 2022, Cheney converted her House campaign finance committee into an anti-election denier leadership PAC called The Great Task. The PAC spent $500,000 on a TV ad in Arizona that urged voters to reject Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, who were running for governor and secretary of state, respectively. During the 2022 midterms, Cheney endorsed incumbent Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. Both won their races. "We had to make sure that we prevented election deniers from taking power," she told The Washington Post's Global Women's Summit in November. Many outsiders see long odds for Cheney, though a poll conducted in Utah found she could be a top contender there. Sen. Ted Cruz of TexasSen. Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, speaks at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker on November 10, 2022 in Canton, Georgia.Megan Varner/Getty ImagesCruz, 52, was the last Republican standing against Trump during the 2016 presidential nomination and had even announced that he'd pick former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate. But Cruz — whom Trump nicknamed "Lyin' Ted" — lost following a nasty primary in which Trump levied highly personal attacks against the senator, including disparaging his wife's looks and falsely suggesting that Cruz's father had something to do with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Once Trump was in office, however, Cruz was one of the president's  biggest defenders. He voted to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania and helped to secure Trump's acquittal in his second impeachment trial. In recent months, Cruz has been spending time in New Hampshire and during the midterms campaigned with retired football star Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff. While in the Senate, Cruz led the successful effort to zero out the unpopular fine on the uninsured created by the Affordable Care Act.More recently, Cruz used Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing to score points for a potential 2024 run, questioning her about school curriculum on race. Before coming to Congress, Cruz was solicitor general in Texas, a role that involves arguing cases before the Supreme Court. When Insider asked whether Trump's latest missteps had provided an opening for him to jump into the 2024 presidential race, Cruz chuckled a bit before laying out what sounded like a near-term agenda. "I think the Senate is the battleground … and I'm going to do everything I can to lead the fight right here," Cruz told Insider before launching into a tirade about his mounting frustration with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision making. He made no specific mention of 2024, but also didn't work in the word "no" anywhere.Cruz told the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas that he'll seek reelection in Texas in 2024 when his term is up, though state law allows him to run for both offices at the same time.Former Gov. Chris Christie of New JerseyFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition Saturday, November 19, 2022, in Las Vegas.John Locher/AP PhotoChristie, 60, is famously said to have missed his moment for the White House because he didn't run for president when he was getting a lot of attention as New Jersey's governor in 2012, and instead fizzled out in 2016 when faced with Trump and numerous other contenders. But that hasn't stopped him from weighing another go at it. In October, during an appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher," Christie confirmed that he was considering a 2024 run. Now, New Hampshire Today says an announcement is imminent.Christie wrote a book in 2021, titled "Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden." He served two terms as a Republican governor in a blue state where Democrats controlled the legislature. In that role, he expanded Medicaid under Obamacare and passed bail reform.But he got flak over a handshake with then-President Barack Obama during Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, and was hurt politically after members of his administration created traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge.Christie became a lobbyist in 2020, when he had several healthcare clients but cut ties a year later, according to the lobbying disclosure database, in what could be a sign that he's lining up for a run.   Today, Christie blames Trump for the GOP's losses the last three election cycles and spent months saying Republicans "have to be the party of tomorrow, not the party of yesterday" if they ever want to win another election. His tone on Trump is a stunning turnaround for a man who was one of Trump's closest outside advisors when he was in the White House and was even on the shortlist to be Trump's chief of staff. Christie turned on Trump after January 6, saying the president violated his oath of office. He told The New York Times that Trump's candidacy was "untenable" and that the former president had had "poor judgement" after he dined at Mar-a-Lago with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He also told the Washington Examiner that Republicans "fail the leadership test" when they don't call out Trump. South Dakota Gov. Kristi NoemSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, on July 11, 2021.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesNoem, 51, has been on a Trump-related roller coaster ride as of late. In January 2021, the embattled former president tried to get her to primary fellow South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a lawmaker Trump took to calling a RINO (which stands for "Republican in name only") after Thune balked at his baseless claims of election fraud. Noem bowed out of joining Trump's revenge campaign, opting to focus on her own re-election plans. Once 2022 rolled around, she leaned hard into the GOP culture wars, promising voters that she'd bar transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, stamp out any "critical race theory" instruction in local schools, and decimate any "radical political ideologies" that annoyed her evangelical Christian base.Come July, Noem told CNN she'd be "shocked" if Trump tapped her to be his 2024 running mate. But she didn't rule out sliding into the VP slot — or mounting a challenge of her own. Since winning a second term in November, Noem has started taking on bigger foes, including the People's Republic of China. —Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) November 30, 2022 Her state government-wide ban against the use of social media app TikTok scored her fawning interviews on conservative outlets including Fox News and Newsmax, beaming her into the homes of potential admirers who don't happen to reside in the Mount Rushmore State. Noem seems far less enthusiastic about Trump these days, telling reporters that the twice-impeached, scandal-plagued former president isn't Republicans' "best chance" at retaking the White House in 2024. She issued this prediction just days after Trump announced he was running again.  Former Vice President Mike PenceFormer Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Friday, November 18, 2022, in Las Vegas.John Locher/AP PhotoPence, 63, has been distancing himself from his former boss, while also promoting his new book, "So Help Me God." He told ABC's "World News Tonight" that Trump "decided to be part of the problem" by not immediately calling off the insurrectionists during the January 6 riot, after he declined to help invalidate Biden's lawful win. Pence also pushed back against Trump on WVOC in South Carolina after he called for terminating the Constitution, and came out forcefully after Trump had dinner with Fuentes."President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an anti-Semite, and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table," he said on November 28. An adviser to the former vice president told Insider that, should Pence decide to run, the team has discussed several policy areas to differentiate himself, including Trump's bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, the First Step Act, and that he'll continue to be "very outspoken on the issue of life."Pence wouldn't have to worry about name ID during a presidential run. Still, his new book and a campaign would allow him to reintroduce himself to voters by talking about his work in the US House and then as governor of Indiana. He already has made numerous trips to early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina. Further, he'll be able to amplify policies that carried his fingerprints during the Trump administration, including his oversight of the US's pandemic response.Pence was a sought-after midterm surrogate, traveling to dozens of states. In May, he went to Georgia to help incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp beat Trump-backed primary challenger David Perdue.Pence's vision for the future of the party is laid out in his Freedom Agenda and Advancing American Freedom, the nonprofit aligned with him that serves as a type of campaign in waiting. The policies include reducing mail-in voting and implementing universal school choice, which allows public education funds to pay for K-12 students to select alternatives to public schools. While Pence didn't testify before the January 6 select committee, his senior aides including former chief of staff Marc Short and legal advisor J. Michael Luttig walked investigators through some of the scenarios that led up to the attack. In November, Pence said on Fox's "Hannity" that he would make a 2024 decision after discussing it with his family during the holidays. Sen. Marco Rubio of FloridaWilfredo Lee/AP PhotoRubio, 51, has come out hot after cruising to a third term in November, castigating GOP leaders for totally blowing the midterms. "We have a historically unpopular Dem President, record inflation, a violent crime wave & total chaos at the border & not only did we fail to win a majority, we lost a seat. And the Senate GOP response is going to be to make no changes?" Rubio fumed in a December 7 Twitter post. His anger hadn't abated when Insider caught up with him at the US Capitol. "I don't know how you come back from what we have just encountered and conclude that the status quo and business as usual is how we want to proceed," Rubio said of the need for drastic changes within the GOP. While conceding that he doesn't have "all those answers," Rubio suggested that Senate Republicans take a hard look at "the mechanics of elections, policy, the legislative agenda, and all of that." "I think that's something we should all be involved in talking about," Rubio said of the sorely needed soul searching. Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, was speaker of the Florida House before heading to Washington. He has sponsored numerous bills that have become law, including doubling the child tax credit and co-authoring the Paycheck Protection Program that helped keep small businesses afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.On top of that, he's got a powerful perch as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. Political operatives have credited him with helping the GOP grow its influence with Hispanic voters, NBC News reported. Asked by Insider whether he had it in him to take another run at the former president after getting clobbered by the insult-flinging Trump in 2016, Rubio said he just really needs to take a breath. "We'll have time over the holidays and into the new year to sort of focus on everything going on in my life and here in the Senate," Rubio told Insider, adding that he hasn't "really focused in on" returning to the presidential proving grounds at the moment. Perhaps voters will learn more about future plans in his forthcoming book, "Decades of Decadence." Miami Mayor Francis SuarezTaylor Hill / Contributor Getty ImagesSuarez, 45, confirmed in October that he's considering a presidential run. By March, he was still deciding, he told the Miami Herald. "It's something that I would consider given the right circumstances and given the right mood of the country," Suarez said at a Punchbowl News event in October. Miami has been getting a lot of attention given the surge of people moving to Florida — and tech companies and crypto startups in particular headed to Miami under Suarez's encouragement. He even told Twitter CEO Elon Musk that he should consider relocating the company's headquarters from San Francisco.Suarez's office sent over a list of accomplishments for the mayor, saying the city was No. 1 in job and wage growth, and had 1.4% unemployment. The Financial Times called Miami "the most important city in America." The mayor made historic increases to the city's police department, increased funding on climate-resistant infrastructure, and passed a rental tax credit for seniors. Suarez didn't vote for Trump during the 2020 election and in the 2018 gubernatorial race in Florida he voted for Democrat Andrew Gillum over DeSantis. He did flip in 2022, voting for DeSantis for reelection, he told Insider. Suarez said Trump has been kind to him. The two spoke at a wedding recently, he said, and Trump told him he was the "hottest politician in America after him.""I don't know if he meant physically hot or if he meant I was getting a lot of buzz," Suarez said. "But he was very nice." Suarez is of Cuban descent and leads the National Conference of Mayors. When asked about how he might stand out in a presidential race, Suarez said he might be able to speak to "a variety of minority communities that are going to be important if Republicans want to grow their base for a generation." Gov. Chris Sununu of New HampshireGov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.Jon Cherry/Getty Images for ConcordiaSununu, 48, was just reelected to a fourth term in New Hampshire, where governors are reelected every two years and there are no term limits. There's a "61 percent chance" he runs for president, he told Puck last week. Sununu is a centrist Republican who has the distinction of being in favor of abortion rights, at a time when many states are banning abortion. He came close to running for the US Senate in 2022, but told the Washington Examiner that other senators told him their main job was to be a "roadblock" in office — and he wasn't interested in that.Sununu also called Trump "fucking crazy" at the Gridiron dinner, a journalism event. "Let's stop supporting crazy, unelectable candidates in our primaries and start getting behind winners that can close the deal in November," Sununu said in November at Republican Jewish Coalition meeting.He told the Washington Examiner after the midterms that there should be new GOP leadership — not just in the White House but inside the Republican National Committee."Did they achieve on the level of results that we all thought we were going to get?" he asked. "No. So, why would we stick with the same team assuming we're going to get a better result?"Sununu is part of a political dynasty. His father was governor of New Hampshire who then went on to work in the George H.W. Bush administration as chief of staff. His brother was in the US House and US Senate. Out of the Running: Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of IllinoisRep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks as the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol holds a hearing in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteLike Cheney, Kinzinger, 45, spent much of 2022 focused on the January 6 committee and drawing Trump's ire. He was the only other Republican on the House committee investigating the riot, and retired from his seat at the end of the last Congress, after six terms. Kinzinger told HuffPost in April 2022 that he "would love" to run against Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, but more for the fun of it than to actually win."Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is," he said. "I think it'd be fun."But by January 2023, Kinzinger told CNN's "State of the Union" that he had no intention of running for president. Kinzinger in early 2021 launched his anti-election denier leadership PAC, called Country First. The group launched a nationwide campaign urging voters to reject "extreme" candidates in 2024. Kinzinger sponsored several bills that became law, including measures to prevent opioid addiction and a bill to help veterans with medic training transition to EMT work as civilians. Kinzinger served in the Air Force and remains a pilot in the Air National Guard. Out of the Running: Sen. Josh Hawley of MissouriSenator Josh Hawley (R-MO) speaks during the confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on March 22, 2022.JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)Hawley, 43, won't be seeking the presidency in 2024, he told NBC News in November. But the senator has reached for the spotlight whenever possible while Congress is in session.From famously saluting the January 6 protestors on the day of the violent siege at the Capitol to holding Brown Jackson's feet to the fire as she raced to join the Supreme Court, the first-term lawmaker works to portray himself as the perennial outsider who's only here to shake things up. He's played up the part by voting to overturn the 2020 election results on behalf of MAGA vote-magnet Trump, butting heads with McConnell on the way the upper chamber is run, and blaming short-sighted leaders for running the party into the ground. "When your 'agenda' is cave to Big Pharma on insulin, cave to Schumer on gun control & Green New Deal ('infrastructure'), and tease changes to Social Security and Medicare, you lose," Hawley, bemoaned on Twitter following a demoralizing midterms performance by flawed GOP candidates, which he blamed on "Washington Republicanism." The potential 2024 contender followed up with some suggestions, floating an alternative vision he said would help "unrig the system."   "What are Republicans actually going to do for working people? How about, to start: tougher tariffs on China, reshore American jobs, open up American energy full throttle, 100k new cops on the street," Hawley, who was also Missouri's former attorney general, tossed out on his social media feed. Out of the Running: Former Gov. Larry Hogan of MarylandGov. Larry Hogan of Maryland.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesEven before the bruising 2022 midterms, Hogan, 66, was warning that Republicans couldn't continue down the path they are on. "I am not about to give up on the Republican party or America," he wrote on Twitter in early December. "None of us can. It's too important."The two-term governor who survived a 2015 cancer scare has been fired up about plotting his next act. But that next act won't be seeking the presidency. "The stakes are too high for me to risk being part of another multicar pileup that could potentially help Mr. Trump recapture the nomination," Hogan wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times. He elaborated about his thinking in a March 5 interview with CBS News, signaling he wouldn't support Trump or DeSantis — the only Republican who polls near Trump. "Right now, you have Trump and DeSantis at the top of the field, soaking up all the oxygen, getting all the attention, and then a whole lot of the rest of us in single digits," Hogan said on CBS. "And the more of them you have, the less chance you have for somebody rising up."Hogan, a centrist Republican, did explore the possibility of running for president, making the rounds in early primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Hogan also scored some face time with GOP mega donors at this year's Republican Jewish Coalition leadership meeting — mentioning to political reporters covering the event that he and other potential 2024 hopefuls were there because "maybe there's a little blood in the water." As governor, Hogan signed a gun control bill into law and has said that while he opposed abortion, he wouldn't move to gut the state's guarantee on reproductive rights. During the COVID-19 pandemic he instituted a statewide mask mandate, then lifted restrictions in May 2021. He billed himself as a "commonsense conservative" who GOP voters sick of losing may want to consider."I think there are 10 people who want to be the next Donald Trump, and I think there may be a different lane," Hogan said while stumping in Manchester, New Hampshire, adding, "I'm going to do everything I can to get the country back on track." He cast a write-in vote for Reagan in the 2020 election and called for Trump to be impeached or resign after January 6. Out of the Running: Former Secretary of State Mike PompeoFormer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Friday, November 18, 2022, in Las Vegas.John Locher/AP PhotoPompeo, 59, bowed out of contention on April 14, telling his social media followers that putting it all on the line now didn't seem prudent. "The time is not right for me and my family," Pompeo wrote in a formal statement. The former Trump administration official turned critic of the embattled former president did, however, leave the door open to giving public service another go in the future. "There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary," he teased. Despite his stature as a former Secretary of State and longtime GOP power player, Pompeo barely registered in 2024 polling while out promoting his book "Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love." In April, he polled at 1% in two separate Morning Consult tracking polls, at 1% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll, and at 2% in a Leger/Canadian Press Poll, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. He consistently polled in sixth-place or lower in the field.Pompeo represented Kansas in the US Congress and was also a former CIA director under Trump. After the end of the administration, he lost weight, which sparked speculation that he was interested in a White House run.He has openly criticized Biden, including after the president's September speech on protecting democracy. "He essentially said if you're pro-life or you're opposed to a certain set of policies, you're a threat," Pompeo told the New England Council's "Politics and Eggs" breakfast.  Biden, he said at the event, could be summed up as having "woke ideas, weak resolve, and waffling leadership."Trump should not have taken classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, he said, but added that the "raid on Mar-a-Lago was indecent and improper." Pompeo told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in November that Trump's announcement wouldn't affect whether he decides to run for president, adding that he'd make a determination in the spring. "We need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward," Pompeo said, "not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood." Out of the Running: Gov. Glenn Youngkin of VirginiaGov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.AP Photo/Steve Helber, FileYoungkin, 56, bowed out of the 2024 presidential race on May 1, telling attendees at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California that he still had work to do in the Old Dominion. When the Wall Street Journal's Gerard Baker asked Youngkin whether a White House run was in his immediate future, the newly-minted Republican said "No." He added that his near-term goals include preserving GOP control of Virginia's House of Delegates and flipping the state's Democratic-led Senate.  Sticking close to home in the battleground state will give Youngkin a chance to work on playing defense. He tried playing kingmaker in over a dozen 2022 gubernatorial contests and mostly came up short.Youngkin rocketed to stardom in late 2021 by keeping Virginia purplish with his electrifying win over Democratic fixture Terry McAuliffe tried to work that same Trump-light magic into contests all around the country. The result: only four of the 15 Republican gubernatorial candidates Youngkin got involved with won their races. It's unclear whether Youngkin had any effect on the reelection bids of blowout winners like Kemp or Noem.By the same token, it's debatable whether he could have dragged Lake, Michigan's Tudor Dixon, or any of the other 2020 election deniers across the finish line given their full-on embrace of Trumpism. While he remains reluctant to badmouth the embattled former president, Youngkin clinched his 2021 win by keeping Trump at bay while still reaching out to the MAGA base. Trump, on the other hand, has tried to take full credit for Youngkin's win and lashed out at the newcomer for not being more appreciative. Trump's already working on trying to clip a Youngkin presidential bid from ever taking wing, panning him and DeSantis as ingrates who have no chance of beating him. Trump also reverted to his old tricks after the politically damaging 2022 midterms flop, hitting Youngkin with a bizarre, racist rant on Truth Social. Given that Virginia only allows governors to serve non-consecutive terms, it makes sense for Youngkin to seek opportunities elsewhere.The Washington Post reported that Youngkin spent part of his summer huddling with Republican mega donors in New York. And while he remains mum on any official plans for 2024, Politico said Youngkin's putting in place the types of fundraising groups a presidential candidate would want to have at the ready.Youngkin is a former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group. As governor, his first official action was to sign an executive order prohibiting Virginia schools from teaching "critical race theory." More recently, he's been pushing to reimburse individuals and businesses who paid fines for violating state COVID-19 restrictions under his Democratic predecessor.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Republicans have rejected Democratic proposals to lower the deficit. Democrats will blame them if the US defaults on the debt. U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), speaks at a news conference on banning stock trades for members of Congress, on Capitol Hill, April 07, 2022.Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Republicans have refused to raise the debt ceiling without reducing the deficit. The US could default on its debt in less than a week unless Congress raises the debt ceiling. House Democrats blame this "reckless hostage taking" on Republicans. Republicans say Democrats are unwilling to negotiate spending cuts. House Democrats have flipped the switch.The US could have only until June 1 to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default that would rock the global economy, Republicans have refused to raise the debt limit unless they can cut spending. House Democrats are blaming their Republican colleagues for rejecting Democratic proposals to reduce the deficit."The Republicans rejected $3 trillion worth of policies that could have gone towards deficit reduction," Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the House Progressive Caucus, said at a Wednesday press conference after speaking with President Biden Tuesday night. On Tuesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz of the Freedom Caucus told Joseph Zeballos-Roig, a Semafor reporter, that he and his conservative colleagues "don't feel like we should negotiate with our hostage.""Who exactly is that hostage?" Jayapal asked. "It's the American economy. It's seniors, parents, kids, veterans, people with disabilities, teachers, the poorest Americans." "We will continue to reject and call out this reckless hostage-taking from extreme MAGA Republicans," she emphasized.The proposals the GOP rejected included ending oil subsidies, closing tax loopholes, negotiating down more Medicare drug prices a billionaire minimum tax, a corporate global minimum tax, and "raising taxes on large corporations from the outrageous cut that Trump instituted — all together $3 trillion in savings," Jayapal said.The GOP-controlled House narrowly passed a bill in late April that would raise the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion, slash $4.5 trillion from the federal budget, increase work requirements on social welfare programs, ban student loan-forgiveness programs, and roll back earmarked pandemic spending. President Joe Biden has vowed to veto the bill, and McCarthy has refused any short-term debt-limit increase to give negotiations more time. Despite so-called "productive" meetings, the two have failed to negotiate deficit reductions that would satisfy Republicans.If they can't come to an agreement about how to lower the deficit and get Republicans to raise the debt ceiling, 2.6 million Americans could lose their jobs. Americans could each lose $20,000 in retirement savings and see their mortgage, small business, and private student-loan payments surge."Republicans want you to believe that there are only two choices: their extreme bill that would make you pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest, or default that pushes our economy into catastrophe," Jayapal added."Don't buy it. There are other options," she insisted, from Republicans joining Democrats in a discharge petition to force a vote to raise the debt ceiling, Biden invoking the 14th Amendment to override the debt ceiling, to Republicans agreeing to "any—any—revenue-raising policies so that it's the wealthiest and big corporations reducing the deficit by paying their fair share."With Republicans rejecting Democratic proposals, Jayapal said, "If we default and if we crash the economy, there is only one person to blame and that is the Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

"My conservative colleagues... don't feel like we should negotiate with our hostage," GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz said. A default could be eight days away. Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas (L) and Matt Gaetz of Florida (R) attend a press conference outside the US Capitol Building on March 8, 2022 in Washington, DC.Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images Some GOP lawmakers don't want McCarthy to budge on any of their demands in a debt ceiling deal. Rep. Chip Roy said banning student-debt relief and strengthening work requirements should make it into an agreement. The US could default on its debt as soon as June 1, and the parties have yet to reach a deal. Some conservative lawmakers don't want Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to make any compromises with President Joe Biden on the debt ceiling — even with a default potentially eight days away.McCarthy and Biden met on Monday evening to once again attempt to reach a deal on raising the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned McCarthy that same day that the US could run out of money to pay its bills as early as June 1, and even with the severe time crunch to pass legislation before that deadline, both parties have yet to reach an agreement.And even with an economically catastrophic default looming, some GOP lawmakers don't want McCarthy to budge on Republican demands to reach a deal. At the end of April, the House passed the Limit, Save Grow Act of 2023, which would raise the debt ceiling through the end of March 2024 accompanied with $4.5 trillion in spending cuts — including banning student-loan forgiveness and strengthening work requirements on federal programs like SNAP.GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz told Semafor on Tuesday that he thinks the cuts proposed in that legislation should not change, saying that "my conservative colleagues for the most part support Limit, Save, Grow, and they don't feel like we should negotiate with our hostage."And on Wednesday, GOP Rep. Chip Roy sent a four-page memo to his Republican colleagues urging them to hold the line on spending cut demands in a potential debt ceiling deal. "While House Republicans are fighting for hard-working American families facing a woke, weaponized government at odds with our way of life, President Biden and Democrats have been dragging their feet for weeks to fight for rich liberal elitists who want more spending, more government, more corporate subsidies, and less freedom," Roy wrote in the memo.—Emily Brooks (@emilybrooksnews) May 24, 2023 He wrote that Republicans should not budge on the bill's proposals to freeze spending at fiscal year 2022 levels, repeal energy tax credits, ban student-debt relief, and strengthen work requirements on federal programs, among other things. Many progressive lawmakers have criticized compromising with Republicans on the debt ceiling, reinforcing Biden's repeated statements that raising the debt ceiling should be a bipartisan and clean process, without any spending cuts attached.In response to Gaetz's comments on Tuesday, Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar wrote on Twitter: "Maybe he could also tell us who their hostages are? The American people? Our economy? VA benefits? Social security checks? Matt and the GOP are playing a dangerous game and like every hostage situation someone is likely going to be hurt. We have to rescue the American people."House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, however, suggested on Monday to reporters that Democrats could be open to capping spending levels. "That's an inherently reasonable position many in our party might even be uncomfortable with, but President Biden recognizes we're in a divided government situation," he said.McCarthy and Biden are set to continue negotiations this week, but the clock continues to tick for Congress to find a way to address the debt ceiling before Americans experience the first default in the nation's history.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

The announcement comes amid U.S. efforts to reduce American companies’ reliance on foreign chipmakers. Apple announced a multibillion dollar deal with the U.S. chipmaker Broadcom to use chips manufactured in the United States, as part of its 2021 plan to invest $430 billion in the U.S. economy over five years. The move comes as the U.S. seeks to reduce its reliance on foreign chip manufacturers. As part of the multi-year deal, Broadcom will collaborate with Apple to develop 5G radio frequency and wireless connectivity components. According to Apple, the technology will be designed and built in facilities across the country, including in Fort Collins, Colorado, where Broadcom has a major facility. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “Apple already helps support more than 1,100 jobs in Broadcom’s Fort Collins FBAR filter manufacturing facility, and the partnership will enable Broadcom to continue to invest in critical automation projects and upskilling with technicians and engineers,” Apple said in a statement on Tuesday. The announcement comes as the U.S. continues to turn its attention towards domestic semiconductor production in an effort to reduce American companies’ reliance on foreign chipmakers. Last summer, President Biden signed the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, one of the biggest federal investments in a private industry, which includes $52 billion in subsidies for domestic chip manufacturers, $24 billion to fund a tax credit for new semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and more than $170 billion over five years to boost U.S. scientific research. The vast majority of advanced semiconductors are manufactured in China and Taiwan, which many U.S. officials viewed as a national security concern. Pandemic-spurred supply chain shocks that triggered a semiconductor shortage also exposed global reliance on a few key players for chips that are essential in the electronics and automotive industries, in particular. “All of Apple’s products depend on technology engineered and built here in the United States, and we’ll continue to deepen our investments in the U.S. economy because we have an unshakable belief in America’s future,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. The U.S. isn’t the only country seeking to reduce its dependence on Asian chipmakers. Member states of the European Union agreed their own €43 billion ($46 billion) Chips Act to boost semiconductor production in the bloc, while the U.K. also unveiled its £1 billion ($1.2 billion) semiconductor strategy in recent days......»»

Four Republicans, including Trump, have made a White House run official, others are considering jumping in, and some have dropped out. Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an event at Mar-a-Lago on November 15, 2022 in Palm Beach, Florida.Joe Raedle/Getty Images Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, and Tim Scott made a '24 GOP run official. Others have been floating the possibility of entering the GOP contest — and some are dropping out. From Pence to DeSantis, here's how Republicans are laying the groundwork for presidential runs. Five Republicans are now running for president in 2024 — at least officially. Embattled former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina are the candidates who have so far formally announced a 2024 presidential bid.But plenty of others appear to be toying with the same idea.They're doing all the things they're supposed to do to test their chances: Visiting early primary states, writing books, showing up on the Sunday shows, and weighing in publicly on President Joe Biden's policies — and even Trump's latest controversies. The next step will be hiring teams in Iowa and New Hampshire, Doug Heye, a longtime GOP aide and strategist, told Insider."You have got a stable of people who are essentially putting themselves all in the starting gates and all have their own timetable about when and if they decide to run," he said. Over the next few weeks and months, candidates would be floating what Kristin Davison, vice president and general consultant at Axiom Strategies, called "trial balloons" — in which they publicly raise the prospect of a run to see how donors and the press will react. Whoever seizes the nomination will likely face Biden, who made a run official on April 25. But, Heye said, "it's a real possibility" that the GOP lineup will large.The stakes for losing the nomination aren't all bad, even if Republicans might come out of it with an unforgettable Trump nickname. After all, one of the people running for president could get chosen as the running mate or get a seat on the new president's Cabinet.And there are other perks to formally seeking the White House, such as raising one's profile and having a better shot at the presidency during a future cycle. Candidates could also sell a lot more books or leave politics to get a prime TV or radio show. "It's a long, difficult process," Heye said, "and you're more likely to lose than not."Trump's legal, political, and personal liabilities have been piling up in the last month, leading many in the GOP to say the party needs not just a fresh face but to be led by a candidate who can actually win. Insider identified 15 people who have or could seek the Republican nomination in 2024. Each will have to effectively answer the "why I'm running for president" question and find their lane in the party, which will inevitably include defining — or redefining — their relationship with Trump. "I don't think you can discount any of them at this point," Heye said. "It's too early to determine who outside of Trump is a frontrunner." And others, like newly minted GOP star Glenn Youngkin, 56, are already bowing out of consideration, with Youngkin telling attendees on May 1 at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California that he still had work to do in Virginia. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has also officially declared he's not seeking the nomination, despite releasing a book and rumblings he was considering a run.Scroll through to see the politicians who have either already declared or are potentially gearing up for run — and who has officially decided not to move forward:Sen. Tim Scott of South CarolinaSen. Tim Scott, a Republican of South Carolkina, speaks at a fundraiser in Anderson, South Carolina on August 22, 2022.Meg Kinnard/AP Photo, FileScott, 57, made his run official on May 22. "I am living proof that America is the land of opportunity, not a land of oppression," he said during his formal campaign launch in North Charleston, South Carolina. He'd hinted at a presidential bid during his midterms victory speech, even though he previously said he wouldn't run against Trump. "My grandfather voted for the first man of color to be elected as president of the United States," he said on November 8, referring to the vote his grandfather cast for Obama. "I wish he had lived long enough to see perhaps another man of color elected president of the United States. But this time, let it be a Republican and not just a Democrat. So just know: All things are possible in America."Scott, who previously served in the US House, is the only Black Republican in the Senate. He said his six-year term in the Senate beginning in January would be his last, but he didn't rule out a presidential run. He also released a memoir, "America, a Redemption Story: Choosing Hope, Creating Unity" and is one of the top fundraisers in the Senate — which includes support from small and online donors — even though he defended a safe seat this cycle.Major donors have contributed to Opportunity Matters Fun, a pro-Scott super PAC. In February, he launched a listening tour. Scott was among those leading the push for the successful passage of the bipartisan First Step Act and his measure to create Opportunity Zones that bring private investments into economically distressed communities was part of the 2017 tax reform law. He garnered national interest after delivering the GOP response to Biden's address to Congress in 2021. Afterward, McConnell said the senator represented "the future of the Republican Party." Scott has been open about the racism he has faced over the course of his life. "I get called Uncle Tom and the n-word by progressives, by liberals," he said in response to Biden's address. He has shared that police have pulled him over numerous times, despite him not violating any traffic laws. He sat down with Trump at the White House to discuss systemic racism and publicly called on Trump to call back certain statements he made on race. Haley, who was South Carolina governor at the time, appointed Scott to the Senate in 2013 after the seat opened up. Former UN Ambassador Nikki HaleyFormer UN Ambassador Nikki Haley during a news conference in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 26, 2022.Matt Rourke/AP PhotoHaley, 51, made a run official on February 15. During her campaign launch in Charleston, South Carolina, she portrayed herself as a young leader who could win elections. "If you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation," she said. Her experiences in public office give her the coveted pairing of having both executive and foreign policy chops, which are often viewed as crucial to the presidency. Aside from Trump and Pence, few other contenders would have such a profile. As a woman of Indian descent, she could also help bring in suburban women voters who graduated from college and expand the GOP coalition among people of color. She embraced her unique background during her campaign kickoff, wearing suffragette white and and calling herself "a brown girl growing up in a black-and-white world." Haley has had a turnaround from last year, when she said she wouldn't run for president if Trump were to seek the White House in 2024. She started our her career working in the private sector, joining her family's clothing business before leading the National Association of Women Business Owners.She served in the South Carolina House for three terms then was the state's governor for six years. In that time Haley delivered the GOP response to Obama's 2016 State of the Union Address.She pushed for the removal of the confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol after a gunman killed nine Black people at Emanuel Church in Charleston. Also as governor, Haley would not support a bill requiring transgender people to use the restroom that corresponded with the gender on their birth certificate. But in 2021 she wrote a commentary in the National Review saying transgender inclusion in sports was an "attack on women's rights."Haley was UN Ambassador under Trump for two years, and successfully pushed for the US to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem and defended Trump's decision to do so.In 2019 she published a memoir, "With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace." Haley campaigned and fundraised in high-profile races during the 2022 midterms, including in Pennsylvania and Georgia. Haley told the National Republican Committee the day after the January 6 riot that Trump was "badly wrong" in his speech to supporters and that his "actions since Election Day will be judged harshly by history." Tech entrepreneur Vivek RamaswamyRamaswamy founded the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences.Fox NewsRamaswamy, 37, made his run official on February 22. Ramaswamy is an Indian-American tech entrepreneur who co-founded Strive Asset Management and serves as its executive chairman. He also founded the biopharmaceutical company Roivant Sciences."We're in the midst of a national identity crisis. Faith, patriotism & family are disappearing. We embrace one secular religion after another — from wokeism to climatism — to satisfy our deeper need for meaning," he said in a video announcing his campaign. "Yet we cannot even answer what it means to be an American." —Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023 Ramaswamy wrote "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam" and "Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence."The New Yorker nicknamed Ramaswamy the "CEO of Anti-Woke Inc." for his stance against environmental, social, and governance investing.In February, he delivered a speech about ESG at Trump National Doral, near Miami, before the exclusive and influential Council for National Policy at Trump Doral, where DeSantis was also a key speaker. Former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of ArkansasArkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson attends the National Governors Association summer meeting, Friday, July 15, 2022, in Portland, Maine.Robert F. Bukaty/AP PhotoHutchinson, 72, threw his hat into the ring on April 2. He told ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl there would be a full-scale rollout later on in his hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas, but that his mind was made up. "I've traveled the country for six months, I hear people talk about the leadership of our country," Hutchinson said Sunday. "I'm convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts."He also weighed in on Trump's indictment in New York, calling it a "great distraction" that voters need to get past. "We can't set aside what our Constitution requires — which is electing a new leader for our country — just because we have this side controversy and criminal charges that are pending," Hutchinson said, adding, "And so we've got to press on, and the American people are gonna have to separate what the ideas are for our future."Hutchinson hasn't been shy about criticizing Biden or Trump. After Trump's 2024 announcement, he said the former president's "self-indulging message promoting anger has not changed," and also disavowed the Fuentes and Ye meeting at Mar-a-Lago.Hutchinson has taken at least five trips to Iowa through America Strong & Free, the nonprofit of which he's the honorary chairman and spokesperson."I am seriously looking at a run in 2024 because America and the Republican Party are not in the best place," he said in a statement provided to Insider. "I know how to get us back on track both in terms of leadership and facing the challenging issues of border security, increased violent crime, and energy inflation." As governor of Arkansas for eight years, Hutchinson has pushed to make the state a leader in computer science, and signed several tax cuts into law, including lowering the state income tax rate from 7% to 4.9%. Hutchinson also signed bills into law blocking businesses from requiring customers and workers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination and blocked state and local officials from obligating masks — a move he later said he regretted. He asked state lawmakers to create a carve-out for schools, but the Arkansas House rejected the proposal. While he signed an abortion ban into law in 2019 that took effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, he said on CNN that he personally believes in exceptions for rape and incest."Many out there appreciate a 'consistent conservative,' even one they don't agree with all the time," Hutchinson told Insider. "I am not interested in the 'outrage of the day,' and I am committed to using my consistent conservative principles to guide me and our nation on important policy decisions." Hutchinson began his government career as a US attorney for the Western District of Arkansas under President Ronald Reagan, then went on to serve in the US House for three terms. President George W. Bush tapped him to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, after which he served as undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security. He has criticized Biden on illegal immigration, inflation, and student-loan forgiveness. He said on CNN that the president's September speech about "MAGA Republicans" and democracy "singled out a segment of Americans and said basically they're our enemy."Hutchinson also has the distinction of being especially press friendly at a time when numerous Republicans have copied Trump's style of lashing out against journalists. "The media plays an important role in our democracy," Hutchinson told Insider. "I've never shied away from tough questions, and I have always been willing to defend my positions and conservative principles with the hard questions coming from the press."Former Rep. Liz Cheney of WyomingRep. Liz Cheney, a Republican of Wyoming, campaigned with Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat of Michigan, at an Evening for Patriotism and Bipartisanship event on November 1, 2022 in East Lansing, Michigan.Bill Pugliano/Getty ImagesCheney, 56, is the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and one of Trump's toughest Republican critics.She voted to impeach Trump after the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and served as vice chair of the House select committee investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Cheney's actions have come at a cost under the heavy weight of Trump's ire. House Republicans punished her by stripping her of her leadership post, and she lost her US House seat to Trump-backed GOP challenger Harriet Hageman during the state's August primary.But she hasn't been deterred. Cheney said on NBC's "Today" that she would do "whatever it takes" to keep Trump out of the White House in 2024, including "thinking about" running for president herself. "I wouldn't be surprised to see her run for president," Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah told Insider in August. Cheney voted with Trump on policy when he was in office, and remains a conservative, telling the Reagan Foundation and Institute in June 2022 that she believes "deeply in the policies of limited government, of low taxes, of a strong national defense." But Cheney said she sees a breaking point with the Republican Party, telling the Texas Tribune Festival in September that she would leave the GOP if Trump became the 2024 nominee.This could mean she'd run for president as an Independent. Already, she has shown she's willing to campaign against Republicans who falsely deny that Biden won the 2020 presidential election.In 2022, Cheney converted her House campaign finance committee into an anti-election denier leadership PAC called The Great Task. The PAC spent $500,000 on a TV ad in Arizona that urged voters to reject Republicans Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, who were running for governor and secretary of state, respectively. During the 2022 midterms, Cheney endorsed incumbent Democratic Reps. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. Both won their races. "We had to make sure that we prevented election deniers from taking power," she told The Washington Post's Global Women's Summit in November. Many outsiders see long odds for Cheney, though a poll conducted in Utah found she could be a top contender there. Sen. Ted Cruz of TexasSen. Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, speaks at a rally for Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker on November 10, 2022 in Canton, Georgia.Megan Varner/Getty ImagesCruz, 52, was the last Republican standing against Trump during the 2016 presidential nomination and had even announced that he'd pick former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate. But Cruz — whom Trump nicknamed "Lyin' Ted" — lost following a nasty primary in which Trump levied highly personal attacks against the senator, including disparaging his wife's looks and falsely suggesting that Cruz's father had something to do with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Once Trump was in office, however, Cruz was one of the president's  biggest defenders. He voted to overturn the 2020 election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania and helped to secure Trump's acquittal in his second impeachment trial. In recent months, Cruz has been spending time in New Hampshire and during the midterms campaigned with retired football star Herschel Walker in the Georgia Senate runoff. While in the Senate, Cruz led the successful effort to zero out the unpopular fine on the uninsured created by the Affordable Care Act.More recently, Cruz used Ketanji Brown Jackson's Supreme Court confirmation hearing to score points for a potential 2024 run, questioning her about school curriculum on race. Before coming to Congress, Cruz was solicitor general in Texas, a role that involves arguing cases before the Supreme Court. When Insider asked whether Trump's latest missteps had provided an opening for him to jump into the 2024 presidential race, Cruz chuckled a bit before laying out what sounded like a near-term agenda. "I think the Senate is the battleground … and I'm going to do everything I can to lead the fight right here," Cruz told Insider before launching into a tirade about his mounting frustration with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's decision making. He made no specific mention of 2024, but also didn't work in the word "no" anywhere.Cruz told the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas that he'll seek reelection in Texas in 2024 when his term is up, though state law allows him to run for both offices at the same time.Former Gov. Chris Christie of New JerseyFormer New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at an annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition Saturday, November 19, 2022, in Las Vegas.John Locher/AP PhotoChristie, 60, is famously said to have missed his moment for the White House because he didn't run for president when he was getting a lot of attention as New Jersey's governor in 2012, and instead fizzled out in 2016 when faced with Trump and numerous other contenders. But that hasn't stopped him from weighing another go at it. In October, during an appearance on "Real Time with Bill Maher," Christie confirmed that he was considering a 2024 run. Now, New Hampshire Today says an announcement is imminent.Christie wrote a book in 2021, titled "Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden." He served two terms as a Republican governor in a blue state where Democrats controlled the legislature. In that role, he expanded Medicaid under Obamacare and passed bail reform.But he got flak over a handshake with then-President Barack Obama during Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, and was hurt politically after members of his administration created traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge.Christie became a lobbyist in 2020, when he had several healthcare clients but cut ties a year later, according to the lobbying disclosure database, in what could be a sign that he's lining up for a run.   Today, Christie blames Trump for the GOP's losses the last three election cycles and spent months saying Republicans "have to be the party of tomorrow, not the party of yesterday" if they ever want to win another election. His tone on Trump is a stunning turnaround for a man who was one of Trump's closest outside advisors when he was in the White House and was even on the shortlist to be Trump's chief of staff. Christie turned on Trump after January 6, saying the president violated his oath of office. He told The New York Times that Trump's candidacy was "untenable" and that the former president had had "poor judgement" after he dined at Mar-a-Lago with white supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. He also told the Washington Examiner that Republicans "fail the leadership test" when they don't call out Trump. Gov. Ron DeSantis of FloridaRepublican gubernatorial candidate for Florida Ron DeSantis speaks during an election night watch party at the Convention Center in Tampa, Florida, on November 8, 2022.Giorgio VIERA / AFP via Getty ImagesDeSantis, 44, has an enviable mantle for the presidency in the Florida governor's office — and he's making the most of it. He famously and unapologetically reopened Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, before federal health officials said he should. He banned certain teachings on race in workplaces and schools, and flew unsuspecting migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. DeSantis also signed a contentious parental involvement and sex ed bill into law that critics call "Don't Say Gay." Instead of backing down over the outcry, he worked to punish Disney for threatening to repeal it and then expanded the law. Then there were the historic tax cuts in Florida with promises of more as well as viral videos bashing what he calls the "corporate media." All of these actions have portrayed the governor as a fighter. That's not the only part of his public persona on display. Often in tow is his beautiful, young family. His former newscaster wife, Florida's first lady Casey DeSantis, has been instrumental in his rise. To the New York Post, pictures of the DeSantis family on Election Night was "DeFuture." Others see a conservative JFK. But the politician DeSantis most often gets compared to is Trump. Numerous news profiles have described DeSantis as "Trump without the baggage," or as a more disciplined Trump. Yet after leaning on Trump during his first gubernatorial victory in 2018, DeSantis showed he could win big on his own, scoring a historic, 20-point victory in Florida in November without Trump's endorsement.DeSantis was also out with his first memoir in February: "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival." During the midterms, he extended goodwill to other Republicans by campaigning with them. Back at home, he raked in a record amount of cash for a gubernatorial race. If the GOP primary were decided today, numerous polls show, DeSantis is the only person that gets close to Trump. He's expected to launch his bid this week. Through it all, Trump has nicknamed DeSantis "Ron DeSanctimonious" and threatened to release damaging information about the governor. South Dakota Gov. Kristi NoemSouth Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Dallas, Texas, on July 11, 2021.Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesNoem, 51, has been on a Trump-related roller coaster ride as of late. In January 2021, the embattled former president tried to get her to primary fellow South Dakota Sen. John Thune, a lawmaker Trump took to calling a RINO (which stands for "Republican in name only") after Thune balked at his baseless claims of election fraud. Noem bowed out of joining Trump's revenge campaign, opting to focus on her own re-election plans. Once 2022 rolled around, she leaned hard into the GOP culture wars, promising voters that she'd bar transgender athletes from participating in women's sports, stamp out any "critical race theory" instruction in local schools, and decimate any "radical political ideologies" that annoyed her evangelical Christian base.Come July, Noem told CNN she'd be "shocked" if Trump tapped her to be his 2024 running mate. But she didn't rule out sliding into the VP slot — or mounting a challenge of her own. Since winning a second term in November, Noem has started taking on bigger foes, including the People's Republic of China. —Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) November 30, 2022 Her state government-wide ban against the use of social media app TikTok scored her fawning interviews on conservative outlets including Fox News and Newsmax, beaming her into the homes of potential admirers who don't happen to reside in the Mount Rushmore State. Noem seems far less enthusiastic about Trump these days, telling reporters that the twice-impeached, scandal-plagued former president isn't Republicans' "best chance" at retaking the White House in 2024. She issued this prediction just days after Trump announced he was running again.  Former Vice President Mike PenceFormer Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Friday, November 18, 2022, in Las Vegas.John Locher/AP PhotoPence, 63, has been distancing himself from his former boss, while also promoting his new book, "So Help Me God." He told ABC's "World News Tonight" that Trump "decided to be part of the problem" by not immediately calling off the insurrectionists during the January 6 riot, after he declined to help invalidate Biden's lawful win. Pence also pushed back against Trump on WVOC in South Carolina after he called for terminating the Constitution, and came out forcefully after Trump had dinner with Fuentes."President Trump was wrong to give a white nationalist, an anti-Semite, and a Holocaust denier a seat at the table," he said on November 28. An adviser to the former vice president told Insider that, should Pence decide to run, the team has discussed several policy areas to differentiate himself, including Trump's bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, the First Step Act, and that he'll continue to be "very outspoken on the issue of life."Pence wouldn't have to worry about name ID during a presidential run. Still, his new book and a campaign would allow him to reintroduce himself to voters by talking about his work in the US House and then as governor of Indiana. He already has made numerous trips to early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina. Further, he'll be able to amplify policies that carried his fingerprints during the Trump administration, including his oversight of the US's pandemic response.Pence was a sought-after midterm surrogate, traveling to dozens of states. In May, he went to Georgia to help incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp beat Trump-backed primary challenger David Perdue.Pence's vision for the future of the party is laid out in his Freedom Agenda and Advancing American Freedom, the nonprofit aligned with him that serves as a type of campaign in waiting. The policies include reducing mail-in voting and implementing universal school choice, which allows public education funds to pay for K-12 students to select alternatives to public schools. While Pence didn't testify before the January 6 select committee, his senior aides including former chief of staff Marc Short and legal advisor J. Michael Luttig walked investigators through some of the scenarios that led up to the attack. In November, Pence said on Fox's "Hannity" that he would make a 2024 decision after discussing it with his family during the holidays. Sen. Marco Rubio of FloridaWilfredo Lee/AP PhotoRubio, 51, has come out hot after cruising to a third term in November, castigating GOP leaders for totally blowing the midterms. "We have a historically unpopular Dem President, record inflation, a violent crime wave & total chaos at the border & not only did we fail to win a majority, we lost a seat. And the Senate GOP response is going to be to make no changes?" Rubio fumed in a December 7 Twitter post. His anger hadn't abated when Insider caught up with him at the US Capitol. "I don't know how you come back from what we have just encountered and conclude that the status quo and business as usual is how we want to proceed," Rubio said of the need for drastic changes within the GOP. While conceding that he doesn't have "all those answers," Rubio suggested that Senate Republicans take a hard look at "the mechanics of elections, policy, the legislative agenda, and all of that." "I think that's something we should all be involved in talking about," Rubio said of the sorely needed soul searching. Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, was speaker of the Florida House before heading to Washington. He has sponsored numerous bills that have become law, including doubling the child tax credit and co-authoring the Paycheck Protection Program that helped keep small businesses afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.On top of that, he's got a powerful perch as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee. Political operatives have credited him with helping the GOP grow its influence with Hispanic voters, NBC News reported. Asked by Insider whether he had it in him to take another run at the former president after getting clobbered by the insult-flinging Trump in 2016, Rubio said he just really needs to take a breath. "We'll have time over the holidays and into the new year to sort of focus on everything going on in my life and here in the Senate," Rubio told Insider, adding that he hasn't "really focused in on" returning to the presidential proving grounds at the moment. Perhaps voters will learn more about future plans in his forthcoming book, "Decades of Decadence." Miami Mayor Francis SuarezTaylor Hill / Contributor Getty ImagesSuarez, 45, confirmed in October that he's considering a presidential run. By March, he was still deciding, he told the Miami Herald. "It's something that I would consider given the right circumstances and given the right mood of the country," Suarez said at a Punchbowl News event in October. Miami has been getting a lot of attention given the surge of people moving to Florida — and tech companies and crypto startups in particular headed to Miami under Suarez's encouragement. He even told Twitter CEO Elon Musk that he should consider relocating the company's headquarters from San Francisco.Suarez's office sent over a list of accomplishments for the mayor, saying the city was No. 1 in job and wage growth, and had 1.4% unemployment. The Financial Times called Miami "the most important city in America." The mayor made historic increases to the city's police department, increased funding on climate-resistant infrastructure, and passed a rental tax credit for seniors. Suarez didn't vote for Trump during the 2020 election and in the 2018 gubernatorial race in Florida he voted for Democrat Andrew Gillum over DeSantis. He did flip in 2022, voting for DeSantis for reelection, he told Insider. Suarez said Trump has been kind to him. The two spoke at a wedding recently, he said, and Trump told him he was the "hottest politician in America after him.""I don't know if he meant physically hot or if he meant I was getting a lot of buzz," Suarez said. "But he was very nice." Suarez is of Cuban descent and leads the National Conference of Mayors. When asked about how he might stand out in a presidential race, Suarez said he might be able to speak to "a variety of minority communities that are going to be important if Republicans want to grow their base for a generation." Gov. Chris Sununu of New HampshireGov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire.Jon Cherry/Getty Images for ConcordiaSununu, 48, was just reelected to a fourth term in New Hampshire, where governors are reelected every two years and there are no term limits. There's a "61 percent chance" he runs for president, he told Puck last week. Sununu is a centrist Republican who has the distinction of being in favor of abortion rights, at a time when many states are banning abortion. He came close to running for the US Senate in 2022, but told the Washington Examiner that other senators told him their main job was to be a "roadblock" in office — and he wasn't interested in that.Sununu also called Trump "fucking crazy" at the Gridiron dinner, a journalism event. "Let's stop supporting crazy, unelectable candidates in our primaries and start getting behind winners that can close the deal in November," Sununu said in November at Republican Jewish Coalition meeting.He told the Washington Examiner after the midterms that there should be new GOP leadership — not just in the White House but inside the Republican National Committee."Did they achieve on the level of results that we all thought we were going to get?" he asked. "No. So, why would we stick with the same team assuming we're going to get a better result?"Sununu is part of a political dynasty. His father was governor of New Hampshire who then went on to work in the George H.W. Bush administration as chief of staff. His brother was in the US House and US Senate. Out of the Running: Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of IllinoisRep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., speaks as the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol holds a hearing in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2022.AP Photo/J. Scott ApplewhiteLike Cheney, Kinzinger, 45, spent much of 2022 focused on the January 6 committee and drawing Trump's ire. He was the only other Republican on the House committee investigating the riot, and retired from his seat at the end of the last Congress, after six terms. Kinzinger told HuffPost in April 2022 that he "would love" to run against Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, but more for the fun of it than to actually win."Even if he crushed me, like in a primary, to be able to stand up and call out the garbage is just a necessary thing, regardless of who it is," he said. "I think it'd be fun."But by January 2023, Kinzinger told CNN's "State of the Union" that he had no intention of running for president. Kinzinger in early 2021 launched his anti-election denier leadership PAC, called Country First. The group launched a nationwide campaign urging voters to reject "extreme" candidates in 2024. Kinzinger sponsored several bills that became law, including measures to prevent opioid addiction and a bill to help veterans with medic training transition to EMT work as civilians. Kinzinger served in the Air Force and remains a pilot in the Air National Guard. Out of the Running: Sen. Josh Hawley of MissouriSenator Josh Hawley (R-MO) speaks during the confirmation hearing for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson on March 22, 2022.JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)Hawley, 43, won't be seeking the presidency in 2024, he told NBC News in November. But the senator has reached for the spotlight whenever possible while Congress is in session.From famously saluting the January 6 protestors on the day of the violent siege at the Capitol to holding Brown Jackson's feet to the fire as she raced to join the Supreme Court, the first-term lawmaker works to portray himself as the perennial outsider who's only here to shake things up. He's played up the part by voting to overturn the 2020 election results on behalf of MAGA vote-magnet Trump, butting heads with McConnell on the way the upper chamber is run, and blaming short-sighted leaders for running the party into the ground. "When your 'agenda' is cave to Big Pharma on insulin, cave to Schumer on gun control & Green New Deal ('infrastructure'), and tease changes to Social Security and Medicare, you lose," Hawley, bemoaned on Twitter following a demoralizing midterms performance by flawed GOP candidates, which he blamed on "Washington Republicanism." The potential 2024 contender followed up with some suggestions, floating an alternative vision he said would help "unrig the system."   "What are Republicans actually going to do for working people? How about, to start: tougher tariffs on China, reshore American jobs, open up American energy full throttle, 100k new cops on the street," Hawley, who was also Missouri's former attorney general, tossed out on his social media feed. Out of the Running: Former Gov. Larry Hogan of MarylandGov. Larry Hogan of Maryland.Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesEven before the bruising 2022 midterms, Hogan, 66, was warning that Republicans couldn't continue down the path they are on. "I am not about to give up on the Republican party or America," he wrote on Twitter in early December. "None of us can. It's too important."The two-term governor who survived a 2015 cancer scare has been fired up about plotting his next act. But that next act won't be seeking the presidency. "The stakes are too high for me to risk being part of another multicar pileup that could potentially help Mr. Trump recapture the nomination," Hogan wrote in a guest essay for The New York Times. He elaborated about his thinking in a March 5 interview with CBS News, signaling he wouldn't support Trump or DeSantis — the only Republican who polls near Trump. "Right now, you have Trump and DeSantis at the top of the field, soaking up all the oxygen, getting all the attention, and then a whole lot of the rest of us in single digits," Hogan said on CBS. "And the more of them you have, the less chance you have for somebody rising up."Hogan, a centrist Republican, did explore the possibility of running for president, making the rounds in early primary states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. Hogan also scored some face time with GOP mega donors at this year's Republican Jewish Coalition leadership meeting — mentioning to political reporters covering the event that he and other potential 2024 hopefuls were there because "maybe there's a little blood in the water." As governor, Hogan signed a gun control bill into law and has said that while he opposed abortion, he wouldn't move to gut the state's guarantee on reproductive rights. During the COVID-19 pandemic he instituted a statewide mask mandate, then lifted restrictions in May 2021. He billed himself as a "commonsense conservative" who GOP voters sick of losing may want to consider."I think there are 10 people who want to be the next Donald Trump, and I think there may be a different lane," Hogan said while stumping in Manchester, New Hampshire, adding, "I'm going to do everything I can to get the country back on track." He cast a write-in vote for Reagan in the 2020 election and called for Trump to be impeached or resign after January 6. Out of the Running: Former Secretary of State Mike PompeoFormer Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the annual leadership meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition, Friday, November 18, 2022, in Las Vegas.John Locher/AP PhotoPompeo, 59, bowed out of contention on April 14, telling his social media followers that putting it all on the line now didn't seem prudent. "The time is not right for me and my family," Pompeo wrote in a formal statement. The former Trump administration official turned critic of the embattled former president did, however, leave the door open to giving public service another go in the future. "There remain many more opportunities for which the timing might be more fitting as presidential leadership becomes even more necessary," he teased. Despite his stature as a former Secretary of State and longtime GOP power player, Pompeo barely registered in 2024 polling while out promoting his book "Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love." In April, he polled at 1% in two separate Morning Consult tracking polls, at 1% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll, and at 2% in a Leger/Canadian Press Poll, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight. He consistently polled in sixth-place or lower in the field.Pompeo represented Kansas in the US Congress and was also a former CIA director under Trump. After the end of the administration, he lost weight, which sparked speculation that he was interested in a White House run.He has openly criticized Biden, including after the president's September speech on protecting democracy. "He essentially said if you're pro-life or you're opposed to a certain set of policies, you're a threat," Pompeo told the New England Council's "Politics and Eggs" breakfast.  Biden, he said at the event, could be summed up as having "woke ideas, weak resolve, and waffling leadership."Trump should not have taken classified documents to Mar-a-Lago, he said, but added that the "raid on Mar-a-Lago was indecent and improper." Pompeo told conservative radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in November that Trump's announcement wouldn't affect whether he decides to run for president, adding that he'd make a determination in the spring. "We need more seriousness, less noise, and leaders who are looking forward," Pompeo said, "not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood." Out of the Running: Gov. Glenn Youngkin of VirginiaGov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia.AP Photo/Steve Helber, FileYoungkin, 56, bowed out of the 2024 presidential race on May 1, telling attendees at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California that he still had work to do in the Old Dominion. When the Wall Street Journal's Gerard Baker asked Youngkin whether a White House run was in his immediate future, the newly-minted Republican said "No." He added that his near-term goals include preserving GOP control of Virginia's House of Delegates and flipping the state's Democratic-led Senate.  Sticking close to home in the battleground state will give Youngkin a chance to work on playing defense. He tried playing kingmaker in over a dozen 2022 gubernatorial contests and mostly came up short.Youngkin rocketed to stardom in late 2021 by keeping Virginia purplish with his electrifying win over Democratic fixture Terry McAuliffe tried to work that same Trump-light magic into contests all around the country. The result: only four of the 15 Republican gubernatorial candidates Youngkin got involved with won their races. It's unclear whether Youngkin had any effect on the reelection bids of blowout winners like Kemp or Noem.By the same token, it's debatable whether he could have dragged Lake, Michigan's Tudor Dixon, or any of the other 2020 election deniers across the finish line given their full-on embrace of Trumpism. While he remains reluctant to badmouth the embattled former president, Youngkin clinched his 2021 win by keeping Trump at bay while still reaching out to the MAGA base. Trump, on the other hand, has tried to take full credit for Youngkin's win and lashed out at the newcomer for not being more appreciative. Trump's already working on trying to clip a Youngkin presidential bid from ever taking wing, panning him and DeSantis as ingrates who have no chance of beating him. Trump also reverted to his old tricks after the politically damaging 2022 midterms flop, hitting Youngkin with a bizarre, racist rant on Truth Social. Given that Virginia only allows governors to serve non-consecutive terms, it makes sense for Youngkin to seek opportunities elsewhere.The Washington Post reported that Youngkin spent part of his summer huddling with Republican mega donors in New York. And while he remains mum on any official plans for 2024, Politico said Youngkin's putting in place the types of fundraising groups a presidential candidate would want to have at the ready.Youngkin is a former co-CEO of the Carlyle Group. As governor, his first official action was to sign an executive order prohibiting Virginia schools from teaching "critical race theory." More recently, he's been pushing to reimburse individuals and businesses who paid fines for violating state COVID-19 restrictions under his Democratic predecessor.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

"It's Criminal": Central Wisconsin Communities Unite To Stave Off Looming Wind Turbine Industry Authored by Matt McGregor via The Epoch Times, Central Wisconsin communities are coordinating efforts to shine a light into the flickering shadow cast by a looming wind turbine industry. “There is a revolt happening here,” attorney Marti Machtan told The Epoch Times. “I’ve never seen our communities engage like this in my life.” Machtan is a member of Farmland First, an organization that aims to facilitate discussion among community members concerned about reported coercive, predatory tactics used by industrial wind companies to manipulate landowners into signing their property rights away in the name of green energy. “These companies are sneaky about it,” Tom Wilcox— also a member of Farmland First and chairman of the Town of Green Grove in Owen, Wisconsin—told The Epoch Times. “They don’t want to come right out and say how this will work. In fact, part of the reason why people don’t know this is happening is farmers have to agree to keep their mouth shut on the details of the contract.” Wilcox is also on the Clark County Board of Supervisors and chairman of the Clark County Planning and Zoning. Marti Machtan and Tom Wilcox at a farm free of wind turbines in Wisconsin in 2023. (Courtesy of Tom Wilcox) This month, at least 13 central Wisconsin towns have passed health and safety ordinances setting the ground rules for companies seeking to build wind turbines up to 600 feet tall as close as 1,250 feet from their homes. The resolutions are written to mitigate the harm wind turbines have been reported to cause to people, their land, and their natural environment, including wildlife. Word spread after some community members openly discussed rejecting alluring offers with payoffs of over $1 million over 30 years to have a wind turbine built on their farm. However, Machtan argued that because turbine companies can exit the contract for any reason, the possibility of actually getting that amount wouldn’t be a safe bet. For Wilcox, there are too many unanswered questions, like how it works and what it does to property values. Initially, Wilcox said he held the attitude that people can do whatever they want with their farm. “But as I got further into this, I realized that these wind turbines aren’t at all good for the farming community,” Wilcox said. “As I got deeper, I realized just what kind of a sham this really is.” ‘Imbalanced, Unfair, One-Sided’ Machtan has reviewed, negotiated, and drafted over a billion dollars worth of contracts with companies of various sizes. His assessment of the contracts between farmers and wind turbine companies like RWE Clean Energy, which has advanced into central Wisconsin, is as bad as he’s ever read. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that was more imbalanced, unfair, or one-sided to the benefit of the company and to the detriment of the farmer,” Machtan said. Many provisions in these contracts give more power to the wind company over the land than the property owner. The wind company can get out of the contract at any time for any reason, while the farmer must commit to a decade’s worth of encumbrances, Machtan said. “There are liability shifting provisions for the big multi-billion-dollar multinational companies that shift risks onto these farmers,” he said. There are also inadequate decommissioning standards, he added. “One of the things people are worried about is, because this type of energy production really doesn’t make sense over the long term, there’s the risk that farmers are going to be left holding the bag,” Machtan said. There’s no mutual sharing of opportunity and risk, Machtan said, leaving him to conclude that these aren’t green-energy projects. “This is financial engineering designed to shift risk on the farmers and our communities while providing large stable returns to private equity,” Machtan said. “What’s actually driving them is pension funds and other investors trying to get a stable return for their shareholders with as little risk as possible with the support of our federal and state government.” Cows stand in a field with wind turbines near Eldorado, Texas, on April 16, 2021. (Sergio Flores/AFP via Getty Images) The ESG Framework Electricity derived from wind is advertised as a clean departure from dependence on fossil fuels, the burning of which is argued to be the source of what some believe to be global warming. In 2021, President Joe Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act, both of which incentivize federal and corporate investment in creating a renewable energy industry, a component of the environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) framework. Despite Biden’s proclamation that green energy companies would be domestically sourced, foreign shareholders and big banks are set to profit the most from these companies headquartered in the United States. The largest shareholder of RWE Clean Energy—a subsidiary of the German parent company RWE—is Qatar Holding LLC, headquartered in Qatar. “The maddening thing is that politicians can say, ‘American companies are investing in clean energy,’ and technically be telling the truth, but the parent companies or major investors or both are foreign,” Machtan said. A Health Hazard Just three years after wind turbines were installed in northeast Wisconsin in Brown County, they were declared a human health hazard by the county board of health in a unanimous vote in 2014, according to the Brown County Citizens for Responsible Wind Energy (BCCRWE). To date, the declaration hasn’t been rescinded. In 2015, former Brown County Health Director Chua Xiong ruled that there was insufficient evidence to link wind turbines to the illnesses reported by people who lived near the Shirley Wind Power, owned by Duke Energy. BCCRWE called for her resignation, alleging she based her conclusion on a “very flawed process by which submitted evidence was selectively reviewed and inconsistently weighed, or ignored altogether.” “The document demonstrates that Xiong’s evidence-review process was fraught with a multitude of failures of due diligence and that her resulting conclusion is without merit,” BCCRWE said. She resigned three months after her decision, according to a 2016 news report, to take another job. In a documentary produced by BCCRWE, Kevin Aschenbrenner, a former farmer, discussed how the wind turbines affected his livestock. Aschenbrenner lost all his cattle, he said, to injury and eventually death. Before that, they ceased producing milk. “It just got to the point where we just couldn’t survive anymore on the cattle, and we didn’t want to put the cattle through all of the effects they were getting off the turbines,” Aschenbrenner said. William Acker, an energy engineer, said in the documentary that those effects are caused by the pressure pulsations in the infrasound range, “which is basically inaudible noise.” “Infrasound is a very low hertz level noise—you can probably hear it in kids’ car stereos nowadays with a very loud booming noise that’s in the infrasound range,” he said. “Infrasound can be audible if the noise level is very high, but what we’re recording from the wind turbines is showing it to be, for the most part, in the inaudible range.” Families reported sleep disturbances, ear pain, headaches, dizziness, and chest pain. “There’s just a litany of symptoms that are universal; for example, they’re not just here in Shirley Wind, they’re all over the world,” said Jay Tibbetts, a now-deceased medical physician. BCCRWE spokesperson Steve Deslauriers told The Epoch Times that landowners—in being distracted by the money—miss the details of the contract that essentially robs them of their property rights and their community’s health. “Once you sign up your property, you lose control, not only of the exact placement of the turbines, but you also lose your ability to build, plant trees, and make decisions about the land you still own, but no longer control,” Deslauriers said. The companies feed on ignorance and greed, he said, using deceitful tactics. “Every time they go into a new community, they walk up to homes and say, ‘Hey, look, your neighbors are already signed up, and since you’re going to get the impacts anyway, you might as well sign up and get paid for it, too,” Deslauriers said. “They use that same playbook ever since they started in Wisconsin, signing up town officials and running over the townspeople.” What Deslauriers has seen in the past is companies offering proactive payments in which farmers could sign up their whole property, giving them monthly payments. “When the turbines are built, they get X number of dollars per turbine,” Deslauriers said. Now, at least from what he’s seen, landowners are being offered payment per megawatt. “To put it in perspective, the eight turbines at Duke Energy’s Shirley Wind Power are two-and-a-half megawatt turbines,” he said. “At the time, they were the largest turbines in the country in close proximity to homes. This led to three families being forced from their homes due to conditions in and around their homes. Now the payments look more attractive to landowners but have no doubt; this will lead to even more home abandonment in densely populated communities like ours.” The companies suggest that there’s such a good community presence that they’ve decided to minimize the risks and maximize the payments to landowners by putting up five- to six-megawatt turbines on their property, Deslauriers explained. “If you do the math on the money, what they throw at these farmers is just peanuts compared to what the companies make,” Deslauriers said. “No Invenergy executives live around a turbine. They sacrifice our families’ health for their wealth. These are the most horribly one-sided contracts you’ve ever seen.” In response to The Epoch Times’ request for comment, a spokesperson for Duke Energy said there’s no evidence that Shirly Wind Power is negligent about causing harm to its neighbors. “To the contrary of these allegations, court decisions over the past few years continue to support Duke Energy’s position on this issue,” the spokesperson said. “Duke Energy continues to be an important part of Brown County and Town of Glenmore communities endeavoring to work cooperatively as a contributor in a major way to support the residents in their furtherance of various community initiatives and acting consistently and responsibly as we progress towards our clean energy efforts.” Cows grazing near a wind turbine in Livermore, California, on May 16, 2007. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) The Starbucks Rule In these rural areas where the wind turbines are targeted to be constructed, Machtan and others have pointed out that farmers lack adequate legal representation and understanding of the deceptive nature of the contracts. Farmers can be even more clouded by the money if they are struggling to stay afloat. In a “Tucker Carlson Originals” documentary, Kevon Martis, a Michigan-based zoning administrator who advocates against the building of wind turbines, explained “The Starbucks Rule.” “Never try and site a wind project within 30 miles of a Starbucks coffee shop,” Martis explained. “The demographic that’s willing to pay a premium price for quality coffee is the same demographic that typically has the education and financial wherewithal to organize and resist irresponsible wind projects.” Companies see these rural areas like Wilcox’s township as an easy target because they are low-income, which translates to them as people desperate for revenue. Wilcox said he discovered northeastern Clark County was labeled as an economically depressed area when looking for federal grants for broadband. “There are extra subsidies involved if companies build these projects in those regions,” Wilcox said. However, when wind turbine projects are proposed in wealthy areas such as Nantucket Sound, politicians with homes in that area quickly shut the project down. “People who look at some of these wind proposals figure out quickly that one of the reasons their community is being targeted is it’s poor, and they’re perceived as being desperate for revenue,” Martis said in the documentary. “They just think we’re a bunch of rubes and hicks out here.” ‘It Only Gets Worse’ Different people have different objections to what potentially might take place if the turbines are built in Wilcox’s township, he said. For many with whom he’s spoken, the destruction of the endangered bald eagle and other birdlife concerns them, he said. Clean energy companies like RWE have been granted what’s called an incidental take permit, which is used under the U.S. Endangered Species Act to protect these companies from liability when endangered wildlife is harmed. “They have an incidental take permit that basically says, ‘When an eagle flies into the turbine and gets killed, we’re sorry, but we’re not liable,’” Wilcox said. “It always interests me that some people latch on to this portion of it.” Though there aren’t a lot of eagles in the area, Wilcox said they’d like to keep the ones they have. “But to have an industrial wind complex come in and kill more eagles than I’ve seen in a year, that’s really troubling for us,” he said. An eagle’s nest found in a Central Wisconsin township in 2023. (Courtesy of Tom Wilcox) For others, it’s about the aesthetics, he said. “We have beautiful sunsets here in central Wisconsin, and occasionally you can see the northern lights,” Wilcox said. “But if you have a spinning wind turbine with that flashing red light, it’s going to detract from that aspect of life.” Others latch onto the complaint about decreased property values caused by the turbines, he said. If given a choice between a farm with a turbine and a farm without, buyers prefer going without, he said. People look at the cost benefits—how much the company is potentially going to make compared to how much the landowner will make. Then there is the shadow flicker, the movement of the shadow from the turbine passing through people’s homes in a steady but dizzying rhythm. “People say you can pull the blinds, but why should you pull the blinds in your home for something you didn’t even want in the first place and aren’t getting any benefit from?” Wilcox asked. “And, of course, when you go outside, it only gets worse.”   A sunset over a central Wisconsin township in 2023. (Courtesy of Tom Wilcox) ‘It’s Criminal’ According to Deslauriers, because of state legislation lobbied for by the turbine companies, municipalities have been stripped of the power to prohibit the construction of wind turbines in their townships through zoning regulations. “The legislature took the power away, and the state of Wisconsin promulgated rules that said towns could not make rules any stricter,” he said. “Now, if you’re a village or city, you can exercise home rule and say no, but rural towns cannot.” That authority is with the state through the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC), Deslauriers said, which writes the rules allowing turbine companies to ignore property rights and the health of families. “This leaves communities to focus their fight on the devastating health and safety impacts,” Deslauriers said. Townships pay a heavy price just to fight the projects, Deslauriers said. “The money that we went through locally to stop it last time was an incredible expense for blue-collar families,” Deslauriers said. Still, they keep fighting, with little sign of relief from lawmakers on either side of the aisle. “The rules that have been put in place are the worst statewide rules in the country,” he said. “It’s the small individual communities that are bearing the massive cost to fight these international wind companies.” Lawmakers—both Republican and Democrat—refuse to return the power to regulate wind development to the communities where impacts are felt, he said. “These communities have been left to use their very limited resources to fight these guys with all their might, and it’s bankrupting people,” Deslauriers said. “Wind developers leave families split, neighbors fighting, and communities broken. It’s criminal.” The Epoch Times contacted RWE Clean Energy, Invenergy, and PSC of Wisconsin for comment. Tyler Durden Sat, 05/20/2023 - 20:30.....»»

"It's a beautiful night," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in Des Moines after Trump canceled his own event in the area over weather concerns. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a fundraising picnic for US Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican of Iowa, on Saturday, May 13, 2023, in Sioux Center, Iowa.Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo DeSantis and Trump were both set to appear in Iowa on Saturday. But Trump had to postpone his event, citing bad weather.  DeSantis found ways to highlight Trump's absence.  Despite much anticipation, there were no dueling rallies between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and former president Donald Trump this weekend in Iowa. Trump canceled his event in Des Moines, blaming tornado warnings.Trump's postponement meant there was no chance for the media (or the politician's teams) to compare enthusiasm and crowd size at the two political events in a key primary state. DeSantis, however, capitalized on Trump's no-show to make a subtle dig at the former president.After headlining two events in Iowa, DeSantis made an unscheduled stop at Jethro's BBQ Southside, a barbeque joint in Des Moines near where Trump had been scheduled to speak. "It's a beautiful night," DeSantis remarked in Des Moines, according to the New York Times. A tornado never materialized in the area, though Politico reported that rain had drenched Trump supporters lining up early for the former president's rally. Trump, for his part, stayed at his Mar-a-Lago private club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Earlier in the day, DeSantis spoke at two events, one in Sioux Center and the other in Cedar Rapids, which was about a two-hour drive from his surprise Des Moines stop. "We must reject the culture of losing that has impacted our party in recent years. The time for excuses is over," DeSantis said during his speech. "If we get distracted, if we focus the election on the past or on other side issues, then I think the Democrats are going to beat us again."DeSantis has had to carefully calibrate how he attacks Trump, and how he responds to Trump's attacks. He learned recently that attacking Trump outright can rally his MAGA base, so he has more often opted for understated jabs instead.In February, for instance, DeSantis held an event on defamation laws in which he praised a conservative lawyer who represented Dominion Voting Machines in its defamation lawsuit against Trump ally and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. And shortly after his 2022 reelection victory, when he won by nearly 20 points in Florida, a state that was considered to be the largest swing state in the country, DeSantis brushed off reporter questions about Trump but told them to "check out the scoreboard." Republicans running for Congress, many of whom Trump backed, had not achieved the "red wave" they expected. During the Sioux Center event on Saturday, DeSantis appeared onstage alongside his wife, Florida first lady Casey DeSantis. That, too, offered a subtle contrast against Trump, whose own wife, Melania Trump, has yet to appear at a campaign rally with her husband.DeSantis learned a hard lesson about how to campaign against Trump in March.During a press conference and a follow-up interview with British TV personality Piers Morgan just before Trump's indictment in Manhattan, DeSantis eschewed his strategy of subtle digs and directly attacked Trump. He ridiculed the ex-president for the salacious details revealed in the investigation, which centered on a $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, and then decried Trump's "drama" and losing record. "I mean you can call me whatever you want, just as long as you also call me a winner," DeSantis said of Trump's "Desanctimonious" nickname for him.Shortly after, DeSantis dropped in the polls. Though other factors were at play, Trump seemed to benefit as his base rallied around him. For weeks, Trump relentlessly attacked DeSantis and gained a pile of endorsements in Florida. Even big donors told reporters on the record that they were concerned DeSantis was too right-wing. How DeSantis handles Trump's attacks, meanwhile, could help or hurt him in the polls.DeSantis has made "never, ever back down from a fight" a big part of his political brand. He has gone after Walt Disney World and other big corporations, fought federal public health officials and President Joe Biden over COVID-19 restrictions, moved to punish facilities over hosting drag shows where minors were present, and removed a progressive prosecutor. But Trump is seen as the most formidable opponent of them all because he also does not back down from a fight, and he's not afraid to drag his opponents through the mud and make ferocious accusations, whether true or untrue. Trump has conceded that DeSantis is his biggest rival, and has demonstrated he'll mock the governor over everything from his looks to how he says his name to his policy record. DeSantis has been holding what many consider to be a "soft campaign" under the auspices of promoting his book at events across the United States.But as Trump remains the frontrunner, DeSantis has played coy over whether he will actually run for president. He is widely expected to make an announcement after signing more Florida bills into law and passing the state's budget. On Thursday, he quietly signed a bill that will shield his travel records and visitors to the governor's mansion, both past and future, from the public.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

The Great Left-Wing Disinformation Operation Against The Supreme Court Authored by Josh Hammer via The Epoch Times, The past five weeks has seen a flurry of media activity, clearly coordinated, against the right-of-center U.S. Supreme Court. First, the outlet ProPublica began publishing a series of pieces “exposing” the well-known fact of Justice Clarence Thomas’ long-running friendship with billionaire real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, and alleging ethical improprieties pertaining to the justice’s purported failure to disclose certain information. Second, Politico alleged a conflict of interest for Justice Neil Gorsuch in an old real estate transaction in his native Colorado that involved the CEO of a major law firm. Third, Business Insider relied on a “whistleblower” to allege corruption on the part of Jane Roberts, the wife of Chief Justice John G. Roberts, due to her being a well-compensated legal recruiter. Fourth, The New York Times ran a lengthy and meandering front-page story about the at-times coziness between George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and some of the Court’s right-of-center justices. Each and every one of these collusive “gotcha” pieces is left-wing disinformation at worst, and grossly misleading at best. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a Supreme Court justice having a long-running friendship with a wealthy political activist—and Justice Thomas did not actually fail to disclose anything for which extant canons of judicial ethics mandate disclosure, as The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto and others have painstakingly detailed. As for Justice Gorsuch, his stake in the underlying Colorado property was via a LLC, so he too did not skirt any mandatory disclosure rules. As for Jane Roberts, it is not exactly a state secret that prominent legal recruiters, and headhunters more broadly, can rake in lucrative commissions. And the Times’ polemic against Scalia Law is little more than a pitiful lament that the Left does not unilaterally control every single top-50 law school in America (although it is perilously close to doing so). Nonetheless, despite these glaring factual omissions, misrepresentations and the misleading natures of these hit pieces, the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee still deemed it necessary to hold a hearing last week on “ethics reform.” To any reasonable observer not inebriated from that most potent stew of MSNBC chyrons and New York Times editorial headlines, it should be clear that Democratic elected officials are working hand in glove with the Beltway journalist establishment. That particular revolving door, after all, has a long and inglorious history. It is incumbent upon sober elected officials, and the American people at large, to reject this obtuse, sprawling Democrat-media disinformation operation. The operation, for all its pompous bluster and ginned up faux hysteria, has one goal and one goal only: to delegitimize the U.S. Supreme Court, and to pave the way for ruinous policies that would irreparably damage, and ultimately destroy, that venerable institution. In the year 2023, the Left has nearly completed its century-plus-long “march through the institutions”: The forces of wokeism and civilizational arson are now firmly ensconced in the corridors of power in Fortune 500 boardrooms, K-12 public school classrooms, Hollywood, Silicon Valley, academia, and myriad other traditional centers of American cultural clout. The last remaining bulwark for the Right, and for the forces of civilizational sanity more broadly, is the political arena: Republicans currently occupy 26 out of the 50 governor mansions, and have 22 state-level “trifectas” of consolidated gubernatorial/state legislative control (compared with only 17 for Democrats). At the federal level, Republicans retain a slim majority in the House of Representatives and, most important, conservatives control the Supreme Court. In 2022, moreover, the Court had an impressively conservative term, most prominently including its ruling to devolve to the democratic process all regulation of the Left’s favored pagan sacrament, abortion. The current disinformation operation thus amounts to one big, crass intimidation tactic—a flexing of muscle by what the late Andrew Breitbart famously called the “Democrat-media complex.” The goal is to browbeat the justices into ruling the Left’s way in this term’s marquee cases—including the potentially imminent end of America’s sordid affirmative action regime in the twin pending cases out of Harvard and the University of North Carolina—or else feel Democrats’ political wrath. That wrath could come in numerous forms, including judicial impeachment, jurisdiction-stripping legislation, or, perhaps most harrowing, the ever-looming threat of court-packing. Let us be clear: That is the end goal here. “Ethics reform” is simply a convenient smokescreen—and not a particularly clever one, at that. Supreme Court justices do not typically make a habit of speaking for themselves, Justice Samuel Alito’s recent electric interview with the Journal notwithstanding. It is thus necessary for those of us who can speak up to do so, and to defend the integrity, independence and institutional durability of what Alexander Hamilton famously called, in The Federalist No. 78, the “least dangerous” branch of the federal government. With any luck, the Democrat-media complex’s disinformation operation will fail miserably. Tyler Durden Fri, 05/12/2023 - 13:40.....»»

Futures Rise As Luxury Blowout Lifts European Markets; Dollar, Yields Higher US equity futures advanced to end the week as traders remained fixated on the path of monetary policy while assessing stronger than expected corporate earnings as the season nears its end. Contracts on the S&P 500 rose 0.3% at 8:00 a.m. ET while those on the Nasdaq 100 advanced 0.2%. Swiss luxury-goods maker Richemont soared 7.8% to a record on "spectacular sales growth", fueling a broad rally across European luxury stocks. Risk-on sentiment pushed Treasury yields higher. The Bloomberg dollar index was poised for its biggest weekly gain since March while oil prices declined again, set for their fourth weekly loss. Meanwhile, gold is also on course to end the week lower. Iron ore futures are falling sharply for a second day, but still on track for a weekly gain. In premarket trading, Tesla rose 2% after the electric-car maker raised prices of its Model X and Model S cars in the US, the third change in less than a month, while Musk announced that Twitter would have a new CEO in 6 weeks. Amylyx Pharmaceuticals shares gain 7.5% after the drugmaker’s sales of its amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug topped analyst estimates. ARS Pharmaceuticals surges 65% after saying an FDA panel voted to  to support a favorable benefit-risk assessment for Neffy to treat severe allergic reaction. Blue Bird Corp. soars 31% after the company boosted its revenue and adjusted Ebitda forecast for the full year. Cidara Therapeutics rises 11% as Cantor Fitzgerald flagged multiple catalysts. Fox Corp. falls 1.8% as Wells Fargo cut the recommendation on the media company’s stock to equal-weight, saying there’s some strategic uncertainty ahead. IonQ drops 10% after the software company posted first-quarter results. Sarepta Therapeutics stock is halted for pending news, while the company’s drug candidate for Duchenne muscular dystrophy is set to face an FDA advisory committee meeting on Friday. SiriusPoint Ltd. falls 15% after Dan Loeb said he’s no longer exploring an acquisition of the company. CuriosityStream shares advanced in extended trading on Thursday, after the entertainment company reported its first-quarter results and gave an outlook. S&P 500 futures traded higher after President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy postponed a meeting on the debt ceiling that was planned for Friday. The delay reflects headway in staff-level discussions, Bloomberg reported citing people familiar with the talks, however a more realistic take came from Punchbowl which said that "the two sides haven’t narrowed down the policies they might want to include in a debt-limit or spending-cut package." “We believe that they will find a deal — we need to remember negotiations have only just started,” said Marie Jacot-Cardoen, chief executive officer of Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management France, on Bloomberg Television. “It is likely political antagonism will increase before deal is reached, but we believe a compromise will be found.” US equities have been mainly trading in a very tight range all month after climbing over the past two amid concerns of a recession and uncertainty surrounding the path of interest rates. Earnings have been better than expected but did little to lift the S&P 500 after they rallied ahead of the season. Investors are also worried about the US debt-ceiling and stability of the banking industry, though efforts to repair ties between Washington and Beijing have been supportive. “The breadth of the US equity market has fallen to multi-decade lows, masking the weaker performance and lower investor conviction in smaller constituents,” said Mark Haefele, chief investment officer of UBS Global Wealth Management. “This suggests crowding and vulnerability, as narrow equity market breadth historically happens in the later stages of a bull market.” Meanwhile, BofA's Michael Hartnett said a prolonged period of economic decline in the US will roil technology stocks at a time when they are attracting a weight of investor money. They expect a recession “to crack credit and tech” just as it did in 2008. Elsewhere, investors remained focused on what major central banks will do next in their rate-hiking campaigns to quell inflation. US data Thursday showed initial jobless claims reached the highest since October 2021 while producer prices rose less than economists expected, suggesting Federal Reserve policy tightening may finally be having an effect. “There’s a chink of light — inflation is beginning to show some signs of easing, boosting hopes the Fed’s rate hiking cycle is near an end and this means companies can start prioritizing growth, rather than servicing debt,” said Angeline Ong, a financial analyst at IG Group. Luxury goods maker Richemont gained 7.8% to a record, fueling a broad rally across European luxury stocks. Europeans stocks are ahead and on course to finish the week in the green as investors welcome signs of easing strains between the US and China and tentative progress in the debt-ceiling negotiations. The Stoxx 600 is up 0.6% with consumer products, financial services and retailers the strongest-performing sectors while retail and autos fall. Here are the most notable European movers: Richemont shares rise as much as 5.6%, hitting a record high, after reporting forecast-beating sales growth and operating profit. Its jewelery division showed “spectacular sales growth,” driving significant improvement in profitability, Vontobel said. Other luxury stocks also gained, with LVMH rising 1.5% Scor shares rose as much as 11% after a strong set of results, with a significant net income beat driven by better performance in both L&H and P&C GSK shares rise as much as 1.7% after the UK pharma group £804 million sells a stake in Haleon, the consumer health- care division it spun off as a separate company last year. It also welcomed Zantac class action dismissal in British Columbia. Beazley shares rise as much as 6.5%, hitting the highest since March 31, after the British insurer’s quarterly results topped expectations for premium growth, while investment income also increased. THG shares drop as much as 23%, after the UK online retailer ended talks with Apollo about an indicative takeover proposal. Soitec shares tumble as much as 9.8%, after JPMorgan downgraded the stock to underweight from neutral and almost halved its price target, noting the wafer maker’s fiscal 2024 outlook was at risk of a slow recovery in demand for chips used in smartphones. Accor falls as much as 3.2% in Paris after an offering of 7m shares priced at €31.81 apiece by holder Qatar Holding via BofA Securities, according to terms seen by Bloomberg. Nordex shares drop as much as 5.6% after the German wind turbine maker reported results that analysts said were disappointing, noting a larger-than-expected loss driven by liquidated damages and extra catch-up costs from the delays in the winter. Earlier in the session, Asian stocks headed for a fourth day of decline, as Chinese shares pulled back further after the nation’s weak inflation and borrowing data showed the economic recovery is waning, adding to growth concerns globally. The MSCI Asia Pacific dropped as much as 0.3% Friday, led lower by material and energy shares. Chinese and Hong Kong benchmarks led declines in the region as traders fret over the slew of worse-than-expected economic data, which underscores ongoing problems in the housing market and sluggish domestic demand after Covid reopening. Chinese tech stocks bucked the broader market’s trend after e-commerce firm JD.com reported better-than-expected results, and geopolitical concerns eased on the news of a meeting between Biden and Xi. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also met with China’s top diplomat Wang Yi. Meanwhile, Japanese shares outperformed the region as investors welcomed another wave of quarterly results from domestic companies. Companies including Honda and KDDI that announced buybacks along with earnings were among the biggest boosts. The Topix rose 0.6% to close at 2,096.39, while the Nikkei advanced 0.9% to 29,388.30.  Keyence Corp. contributed the most to the Topix gain, increasing 2.7%. Out of 2,159 stocks in the index, 1,197 rose and 867 fell, while 95 were unchanged. In addition to the decline in U.S. long-term Treasury yields overnight, “the Japanese market is also benefiting from the sense of undervaluation of Japanese stocks,” said Ayako Sera, market strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank The Asian stock benchmark was poised for a weekly drop amid weaker global growth and a resurgence of banking sector worries. Still, a cooling US job market and softening producer prices added confidence that the Federal Reserve may soon end its tightening campaign.  “The Fed is easily positioned to hold rates at the June meeting and if we see further softening of labor conditions, that will continue to drive this market into pricing in easing before the end of the year,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Indian stocks closed the week as one of Asia’s best performers, aided by strong buying from overseas investors. Foreign investors bought net $1.1 billion of local equities this week through Thursday, NSDL data showed. The buying comes amid economic resilience and signs that the central bank will stay on hold as inflation moderates. For the week, the BSE-Sensex climbed 1.6% compared to MSCI Asia-Pacific index’s 0.4% loss. Sensex outperformed markets in China, Japan, Australia during the week. On Friday, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.2% to 62,027.90 in Mumbai, while the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.1% to 18,314.80. Australian stocks edged higher sending the S&P/ASX 200 index up 0.1% to close at 7,256.70, boosted by banks and health shares. The benchmark gained 0.5% for the week, snapping three weeks of declines. Asian stocks were mixed and Treasuries held gains as investors weighed signs of cooling in the American jobs market and efforts to repair ties between Washington and Beijing. Treasuries are lower with the US 10-year yield rising 2bps to 3.41% Bunds and Gilts have also declined with 10-year borrowing costs in Germany and the UK rising by 1bps and 2bps respectively. In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index is up 0.1% and was set to rise 0.5% this week, the most since the week ended March 10 even as traders weigh the likelihood of a Federal Reserve policy pivot following a soft US inflation report. The Kiwi dollar is the clear underperformer, falling 1% versus the greenback after New Zealand inflation expectations fell. “For the dollar, we are not quite at the tipping point where markets can plausibly expect that the Fed will weigh up steady versus rate cut,” said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. “That probably means ranges on BBDXY hold for now, even if we prefer selling rallies than buying dips” EUR/USD slips 0.1% to 1.0907; it is set to lose 1% this week, its worst performance in nearly two months after a broad rally in the dollar on Thursday knocked most G10 currencies and boosted the dollar GBP/USD edges up 0.2% to 1.2532; the pound brushes off a weaker-than-expected reading of UK GDP USD/JPY rises 0.2% to 134.76 NZD/USD fell 1.1% to 0.6232, extending losses after the nation’s two-year inflation expectations eased to within the Reserve Bank’s target band AUD/USD dropped 0.2% to 0.6688, weighed in part by kiwi sales In rates, treasuries drifted lower during the London session, after Fed’s Bowman said more hikes will be needed if inflation stays too high. Treasuries cheaper by up to 4bp across long-end of the curve with 2s10s spread steeper by ~2bp on the day; 10-year yields around 3.42%. Stronger S&P 500 futures also added to cheapening pressure on Treasury yields. Bunds were also lower after European Central Bank policymaker Luis de Guindos said more hikes may be possible.  IG issuance slate empty so far; two names priced deals Thursday while at least three issuers were said to have stood down due to market conditions. In commodities, crude futures decline with WTI falling 0.6% to trade near $70.45. Spot gold drops 0.4% to around $2,006. Bitcoin is softer on the session and nearing the USD 26k mark with newsflow generally light after a busy macro week ahead of a relatively busy US session. Action which keeps Bitcoin just above the earlier WTD trough. To the day ahead now, and data releases include the UK GDP reading for Q1, along with the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for May. Otherwise, central bank speakers include ECB Vice President de Guindos, BoE Chief Economist Pill and the Fed’s Daly, Bullard and Jefferson. Market Snapshot S&P 500 futures up 0.4% to 4,160.00 MXAP down 0.2% to 161.24 MXAPJ down 0.6% to 511.37 Nikkei up 0.9% to 29,388.30 Topix up 0.6% to 2,096.39 Hang Seng Index down 0.6% to 19,627.24 Shanghai Composite down 1.1% to 3,272.36 Sensex up 0.3% to 62,098.69 Australia S&P/ASX 200 little changed at 7,256.65 Kospi down 0.6% to 2,475.42 STOXX Europe 600 up 0.6% to 466.41 German 10Y yield little changed at 2.24% Euro little changed at $1.0911 Brent Futures down 0.3% to $74.76/bbl Gold spot down 0.4% to $2,007.55 U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 102.08 Top Overnight News from Bloomberg China will send a special envoy on a trip to Ukraine, Russia, Poland, France, and Germany as of Mon as the gov’t works to help foster a peace agreement. SCMP Turkish presidential candidate Ince drops out of the race, raising the odds of Erdogan being voted out of office this Sunday . FT The European Central Bank may have to continue raising borrowing costs beyond the summer, according to Governing Council member Joachim Nagel. BBG UK economic data for March is mixed, with soft GDP but better-than-anticipated industrial and manufacturing production. RTRS Janet Yellen reiterated the only good outcome in the debt standoff is for Congress to raise the ceiling. Global markets and US households and businesses need to see "we have a Congress that is committed to paying the bills. . . . That we're not a deadbeat country," she told Bloomberg at a G-7 meeting in Japan. BBG Fed’s Bowman warns the central bank should be prepared to continue hiking rates as employment and inflation are still too hot. WSJ If the U.S. defaults on its debt and is unable to pay all its bills this summer, the pain will fall squarely on the defense industry. National security is by far the largest category of discretionary federal spending, with budgets rising over the past two years to counter China’s military expansion and tackle the conflict in Ukraine. WSJ NBCUniversal’s head of advertising, Linda Yaccarino, is in talks to become the new CEO of Twitter, according to people familiar with the situation. WSJ Tesla raised prices of its vehicles in the US, the third change in less than a month, adding $1,000 to Model X and Model S base and plaid cars. It also recalled some 1.1 million cars in China — almost every EV it's ever sold there — over a defect with their acceleration systems. BBG A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk APAC stocks were mostly lower amid a busy slate of earnings releases and after the subdued performance stateside where regional bank fears resurfaced and initial jobless claims disappointed. ASX 200 was lacklustre with the index constrained by weakness in the energy and mining-related sectors after the recent pressure in underlying commodity prices. Nikkei 225 outperformed and rose to its highest since November 2021 with price action largely driven by earnings results including various blue-chip stocks. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp. were indecisive as talks between US National Security Adviser Sullivan and China's top diplomat Wang Yi provided some encouragement towards a potential Biden-Xi call, although participants also digested weaker-than-expected Chinese loans and financing data. Top Asian News Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang is to visit Australia in July for a reciprocal visit as ties between Australia and China ease, according to SCMP. EU Economic Commissioner Gentiloni said we cannot be too dependent on foreign powers and noted that decoupling would be a dangerous risk for the global economy, while he added that he is not talking about closing the trade with China but is instead talking about making supply chains more secure. European bourses are firmer across the board, Euro Stoxx 50 +0.5%, with the Stoxx 600 set to end the week roughly where it commenced it. Sectors are primarily in the green with Consumer Products/Services outperforming post-Richemont's (+5.0%) FY update while Real Estate/Autos lag. The APAC handover was a mixed one with sentiment inching higher since though with no clear driver/firm narrative behind this. Stateside, ES +0.2%, futures are bid but only modestly so as we await data and more Fed speak after Bowman's early-doors commentary while Yellen provided familiar lines on the debt ceiling. Tesla (TSLA) to recall a total of 1,104,622 of imported Model S, Model X, Model 3 and domestic Model 3 and Model Y, according to Chinese market regulator. Elsewhere, WSJ said NBCUniversal's head of advertising Linda Yaccarino was the candidate in talks to become the new CEO of Twitter. Top European News Riksbank's Thedeen says he is surprised as their rate increases have not "bitten" as he expected, the impact on the economy has not been that great, via SvD Näringsliv. "every time we have presented a new interest rate forecast; we have later revised it upwards... It is a sign that monetary policy may not have the desired effect as we have thought." One explanation for why household consumption continues to be above expectations is their belief that rates will soon decrease rapidly. On QE, says he is somewhat "more sceptical" than perhaps some others have been, should be a "relatively high" threshold for implementing it. Northvolt investment within Germany reportedly to be circa. EUR 3-5bln with hundreds of millions expected in subsidies, via Reuters citing sources. *Follows earlier source reports in the FT and commentary from German officials who suggested that no details have been decided on yet. FX Buck broadly underpinned as DXY fastens grip on 102.000 handle and Fed's Bowman says recent CPI and NFP reports do not provide persistent evidence of disinflation. Kiwi undermined by much cooler NZ inflation expectations, NZD/USD sub-0.6250 from just above 0.6300, AUD/NZD cross tops 1.0700 vs 1.0640 low. Yen and Loonie soft against Greenback, but eyeing decent option expiry interest at 135.00 and 1.3500 for support. Pound retains 1.2500+ status despite monthly UK GDP contraction pre-BoE's Pill and Euro treading water near 1.0900 irrespective of more hawkish ECB commentary. PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 6.9481 vs exp. 6.9472 (prev. 6.9101) Fixed Income Bonds chop and churn after extending recovery gains to new w-t-d highs on Thursday. Bunds pivot 136.50 and 2.25% yield, Gilt veer towards base of 101.14-68 range and T-note hovers just under 116-00 within 116-07/115-28 confines ahead of more Central Bank speakers, US import/export prices and UoM sentiment Commodities Crude benchmarks are flat after spending the morning slightly softer and only picking up incrementally most recently with no fresh driver behind the move at the time and action overall in familiar ranges. Iraqi oil minister says Iraq didn't get a reply from Turkish Botas on the request to resume oil flow, expects Northern Oil exports to restart on Saturday with pumping of 500,000 barrels per day. Spot gold resides around this week’s lows, and just above the USD 2,000/oz level following yesterday's advances in the Dollar index, whilst fresh macro new flows remain light; base metals mixed, overall. Turkish Defence Minister says parties to the Black Sea grain deal are approaching an agreement on an extension. Subsequently, Russian Kremlin says nothing new to report, for now, after Black Sea grain deal talks in Istanbul; potential conversation with Turkey's Erdogan and Russia's Putin won't help achieve a deal. Geopolitics China's foreign ministry says China representative of Eurasian affairs to visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from May 15th to promote peace. Israeli PM Netanyahu will hold a security consultation session shortly with senior security chiefs, according to Al Jazeera. From the EU-China strategy paper, WSJ's Norman highlights that "EU-China relations will not develop if China does not push Russia to withdraw from Ukraine..." US Event Calendar 08:30: April Import Price Index YoY, est. -4.8%, prior -4.6%; MoM, est. 0.3%, prior -0.6% April Export Price Index YoY, est. -5.5%, prior -4.8%; MoM, est. 0.2%, prior -0.3% 10:00: May U. of Mich. Expectations, est. 60.8, prior 60.5 May U. of Mich. Sentiment, est. 63.0, prior 63.5 May U. of Mich. Current Conditions, est. 67.5, prior 68.2 May U. of Mich. 1 Yr Inflation, est. 4.4%, prior 4.6% May U. of Mich. 5-10 Yr Inflation, est. 2.9%, prior 3.0% 14:20: Fed’s Daly Gives Commencement Speech 19:45: Fed’s Bullard and Jefferson Take Part in Panel Discussion DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap Today is an important one, since at lunchtime I have a slot to purchase tickets for the Paris Olympics in 2024. I honestly don't know what will still be available by the time I'm allowed to log on, but last night my wife and I held a strategy meeting to decide what to aim for. First choice is the 100m final, followed by other nights of athletics. Other events were then suggested, but if they're also taken we're then into the danger zone where I've been instructed to use 'common sense' among the alternatives. I can only hope we're still on speaking terms by this evening. Check back with me this time next year to find out my new favorite sport. Markets failed to race away yesterday, as renewed fears of a slowdown led to a decent risk-off move, with investors growing concerned about weak data releases, the US debt ceiling, as well as the ongoing situation with regional banks. That meant the S&P 500 (-0.17%) lost ground, whilst sovereign bonds benefited from the flight to safety as speculation mounted about central bank rate cuts in response. These moves were evident across several asset classes, and the jitters also saw the US Dollar Index (+0.58%) record its best daily performance in six weeks. Starting with the data, there was disappointment in the US from the weekly initial jobless claims, which came in at 264k (vs. 245k expected) in the week ending May 6. That’s their highest level since October 2021, and whilst we should add the usual caveats about not over-interpreting a single data point, it’s worth noting that claims have been on a broadly upward trend since late January. So that adds to the signs that the labour market has been softening in recent months, such as the decline in the number of job openings as well as the quits rate. Alongside jobless claims, yesterday also saw the release of the US PPI release for April. That came in slightly beneath expectations, with headline PPI only up by a monthly +0.2% (vs. +0.3% expected), which took the annual measure down to +2.3% (vs. +2.5% expected). That added to the sense from the previous day’s CPI release that inflation might durably be heading lower, which could support a pivot towards rate cuts later in the year. Those data releases supported a sovereign bond rally yesterday, with yields on 10yr Treasuries down -5.8bps to 3.375%. The 1m T-bill yield was just lower than unchanged at -0.08bps at 5.450%, but intraday the rate rose as high as 5.48% at one point and continues to see a good deal of intraday volatility. That maturity is exposed to potential debt ceiling default risk, which demonstrates how investors are positioning in case there are issues ahead. In terms of the latest on the debt ceiling, last night it was announced that President Biden and congressional leaders had postponed their planned meeting today until early next week. According to a Bloomberg report last night, the delay was due to conversations on government spending and energy permit reform gaining traction, so at first glance it signals that progress is being made. Our credit team put out a note yesterday (link here) that outlines the potential impact the debt ceiling can have on credit market and our spread forecast. For equities, the generally downbeat newsflow meant that the major indices lost ground, with the S&P 500 ending the session -0.17% lower. The main outperformer were the megacap tech stocks, which benefited from the prospect of lower interest rates. In fact, the FANG+ index advanced another +0.90% to a fresh one-year high, which brings its YTD gains to a sizeable +44.52% already. On the other hand, banks continued to struggle and the KBW Banks Index fell a further -1.25%, closing less than 2% above its low from last week. Here in the UK, the focus was on the Bank of England yesterday, who announced another 25bp hike that took Bank Rate up to a post-2008 high of 4.5%. Seven of the nine committee members voted for the move, and the minutes said that for those members, “there had been repeated surprises about the resilience of demand, while the labour market had remained tight.” There were also significant upward revisions to the BoE’s growth projections, and unlike in February they are no longer forecasting a recession. Nevertheless, growth was still expected to be weak by historic standards, at just ¼% in 2023, and then ¾% in 2024 and 2025. Looking forward, our UK economist writes in his recap note (link here) that another hike in June is more likely than not. That’s in line with current market expectations, and this morning investors are pricing in a 78% chance of a 25bp hike in June. Staying on central banks, there was an interesting release yesterday as the ECB published their Consumer Expectations Survey for March. That showed inflation expectations were moving higher again after their recent decline, with the 1yr expectation up to +5.0%, and the 3yr expectation up to +2.9%. We also heard from Bundesbank President Nagel, who held the door open to the prospect that the ECB might still be hiking in September, by saying that “there’s nothing off the table” for that meeting. And President Lagarde herself reiterated that the ECB’s fight against inflation “is not over”. Despite of the hawkish tones from ECB officials however, European markets traded in line with the US for the most part, with yields on 10yr bunds (-6.3bps) coming down, and the STOXX 600 closing unchanged. See our German economists’ latest chartbook as well yesterday for more on the economic situation there (link here). Overnight in Asia, equities have put in a mixed performance this morning amidst competing signals on the state of the global economy. On the one hand, the CSI (-0.59%), the Shanghai Composite (-0.39%), the KOSPI (-0.32%) and the Hang Seng (-0.13%) are trading lower. However, the Nikkei (+0.86%) has posted a decent advance that’s taken the index to its highest level since November 2021. One factor helping to support sentiment has been the meeting between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi in Vienna. That was seen as a positive sign that the two sides were trying to ease tensions, and US-listed Chinese stocks on the NASDAQ Golden Dragon China Index (+3.82%) saw their biggest advance in three months yesterday. Looking forward, US equity futures are also in positive territory, with those on the S&P 500 (+0.20%) and NASDAQ 100 (+0.30%) pointing higher. Since this is the last edition before the weekend, one thing to keep an eye on will be the Turkish election that’s taking place on Sunday. Our EM strategists have published a comprehensive preview of the election (link here), where they examine the process, along with what it could mean for the economy, markets, monetary policy and geopolitics. Yesterday saw some further developments in the contest, with presidential candidate Muharrem İnce withdrawing from the election. Finally, another thing we’ve been watching out for is the prospect of an El Niño this year, which is a warming of sea surface temperatures in the eastern pacific, and is unfortunately correlated with a higher frequency of natural disasters like flooding. Yesterday saw the latest monthly update in the US National Weather Service’s forecast, which now sees a more than 90% chance of an El Niño occurring this winter, as well as a 54% chance of that it will be a strong El Niño (up from 41% last month). If there is an El Niño, then that could have important effects on food prices, as well as many emerging-market economies that would be most impacted by potential changes in weather patterns. To the day ahead now, and data releases include the UK GDP reading for Q1, along with the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for May. Otherwise, central bank speakers include ECB Vice President de Guindos, BoE Chief Economist Pill and the Fed’s Daly, Bullard and Jefferson. Tyler Durden Fri, 05/12/2023 - 08:15.....»»

Chicago Residents Throw Fit Over New Migrants As Dem Cities Clash With Biden Admin Over Finances Much like New York and DC, Chicago residents our in an uproar over the arrival of thousands of migrants arrive in their city after being bused north from Texas, a surge which is expected to accelerate as a pandemic-era measure, Title 42, is set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. Photo via @endwokeness According to city officials, there has been a 10-fold increase in migrant arrivals - putting a strain on Chicago's financial resources, and leading concerned residents of the Democratic stronghold to voice their opposition at during a Thursday evening meeting with city leaders in South Shore. "All of a sudden we have deep pockets for people who don't pay taxes," said one attendee. "I understand helping people, but you start with your own home." Photos captured from the event pic.twitter.com/mp3946xI3L — End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) May 11, 2023 "I think it would be fair for every homeless immigrant that you bring in, that you scoop up a homeless here," said another attendee, ABC7 Chicago reports. A plan is also in place to move some of them into Park District fieldhouses, like one at Brands Park in the 3200-block of North Elston Avenue. The problem is that the families that use fieldhouse services, like for daycare and summer programs, were not informed. And what's the first stop for new arrivals? Police stations and school buildings. "The staff here was given virtually no notice. They were told at like 1 o'clock to clear your stuff, we are sending migrants to your facility," said one pissed off parent, Michael Busking. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has taken the emergency measures to respond to a "surge of new arrivals since last month." Trouble all around As Bloomberg notes, while El Paso, Texas has declared a state of emergency to open temporary shelters as hundreds of migrants sleep on the sidewalks, New York Mayor Eric Adams has slammed the Biden administration amid the arrival of migrants to the Big Apple - "putting pressure on his city's already-strained budget." The New York mayor has urged the administration to better coordinate response efforts and speed up federal financial assistance and work permissions for migrants. He’s said the city is receiving around 500 migrants per day from border states, and his office expects those numbers could double with the end of Title 42.  Adams was not included on a list of Biden campaign surrogates released Wednesday, even though the Washington Post reported in March he would be included. The omission was reported earlier by Politico. -Bloomberg According to the report, the tensions with fellow Democrats come at a difficult time for President Biden, as he embarks on his reelection campaign. "The Biden administration had two years to prepare for this and did not do so. And our state is going to bear the brunt," said Dem-turned-independent Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema. Late Wednesday, the Biden administration attempted to turn the tide with a set of new rules that would quickly reject asylum claims for most people crossing the border who hadn't previously applied for asylum in another country first. What's more, nearly 1,500 military personnel are being sent to the Southwest border to help local authorities deal with an expected influx of migrants. Well this is interesting Footage from the San Ysidro Port of Entry (located on the border San Diego/Mexico border) shows officers from the Department of Homeland Security in riot gear conducting a training exercise before Title 42 is set to expire. This comes as US officials in… pic.twitter.com/0rK3aY4W2M — BowTiedPassport (@BowTiedPassport) May 11, 2023 The Department of Homeland Security, meanwhile, says it will award $290 million to communities taking in migrants, on top of $135 million already allotted, Bloomberg reports. On Wednesday afternoon, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that the administration has been hamstrung by "outdated" and "broken" immigration laws (and totally not the open-door invitation virtually extended to migrants since Biden took office). "I cannot overstate how much of a challenge it is going to be and how we all have to deal with it as one administration and one country. Fundamentally, we need Congress to act," Mayorkas said on Thursday, effectively blaming Congress. [A] fresh wave of migrants at the southern border could also renew pressure on small towns in the region. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs this week announced her own “preparedness plan” to help shelter and transport migrants. -Bloomberg "Without much more robust action from the federal government, the current situation will only get worse," said Hobbs. "As of today, we have not received an adequate response." Tyler Durden Thu, 05/11/2023 - 22:00.....»»

The world is awaiting Ukraine's next strike. The stakes of the coming assault are bigger than just ensuring continued aid, military experts said. Ukrainian armored vehicles maneuver and fire their 30mm guns, as Ukrainian Armed Forces brigades train for a critical and imminent spring counteroffensive against Russian troopsPhoto by Scott Peterson/Getty Images Global expectations for Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive are high. But a former Army general told Insider that too much Western pressure could tank the attack. "I would reject the talk that Ukraine's only got one shot," said Ben Hodges, a retired Army general. As the world awaits Ukraine's next military move, pressure is mounting for the war-torn country to deliver a quantifiable victory. But global expectations of a triumph could torpedo the offensive before it even begins, a former Army general told Insider.While the exact timing of Ukraine's much-anticipated counteroffensive is still unknown, military experts told Insider earlier this month that the assault could start as soon as the coming weeks. Following months of brutal fighting in the country's eastern region, expectations of what Ukraine can — and should — accomplish during the impending assault are rising among the country's Western supporters. "Regardless of what happens on the ground, this has to be seen as a success to the Ukrainian people and US and European politicians," Mick Ryan, a retired Major General in the Australian Army and a military strategist, told Insider earlier this month.The idea that this coming offensive is critical to an eventual Ukrainian victory is an increasingly popular one in the lead-up to its launch."There are many in the US and NATO who are concerned this is going to be a forever war, that it will go on for years and the West will continue to pour money into it without much progress," said Mark Cancian, a retired US Marine Corps colonel and a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies' security program.The US alone has poured tens of billions of dollars into Ukraine's cause since the conflict began more than a year ago, while other Western countries have similarly donated essential equipment. A massive Ukrainian land grab or the reclamation of a key region from Russia could assuage the US and other NATO allies that there is an end in sight to this war, military experts told Insider. Some Ukrainian defense officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, have even expressed fears that the counteroffensive may not live up to global expectations, telling The Washington Post this week that predictions of a consequential turning of the tides may be overhyped.But framing this offensive as make-or-break for Ukraine sets a dangerous precedent, said Ben Hodges, a retired lieutenant general and former commander of US Army Europe. Ukrainian soldiers from the 28th Brigade practice using Soviet-made AGS-17 automatic grenade launchers.Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty ImagesThe stakes of Ukraine's plight are bigger than just defeating Russia "I would reject the talk that Ukraine's only got one shot, that if it doesn't achieve a knockout blow then that's it and everyone will say 'too bad,' and stop supporting them," Hodges told Insider. The idea that aid to Ukraine will disappear should this offensive underperform, he said, is a narrative put forth by politicians and players who "don't want to see Ukraine win," or those who are increasingly eager to bring the war to a quick end."We've spent billions of dollars, supposedly because we believed in what Ukraine was fighting for," Hodges said. The war in Ukraine is about more than two fighting countries, he argued, and Western countries should be assisting Ukraine in order to preserve international rules-based order, and respect for sovereignty, transparency, and human rights on a global level. "If we're not willing to stick together and help Ukraine defeat Russia, then truly we don't actually value those things," Hodges said. He attributed growing Western apprehension about the war to several possible factors, including an inability to believe that Russia really could lose, as well as misplaced fears about the country using a nuclear weapon, the chances of which, he said, remain low. "I think the administration has a lot of people in very high places that are not committed to Ukraine absolutely winning," Hodges said, chiding the Biden administration for failing thus far to clearly define what the US' strategic objective is in aiding Ukraine. But even in spite of the monumental pressure Ukraine faces in the weeks ahead, military experts told Insider they were cautiously optimistic about the country's prospects heading into its counteroffensive, especially given Russia's weakened, disorganized forces and Ukraine's "superior" willpower."The only thing I think that can screw this up is if the west exerts so much pressure on Ukraine and it causes them to stop short of a total victory," Hodges said.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Billionaires’ success stories are always fascinating. Want to know how the world’s most popular Billionaire, Elon Musk is making money? ... Read more Billionaires’ success stories are always fascinating. Want to know how the world’s most popular Billionaire, Elon Musk is making money? If so, this article has got you all covered. According to Forbes, Elon Musk is one of the richest men in the world. Let’s see, how did Elon reach these heights?  Elon Musk is the founder of famous companies like Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, and OpenAi. Unlike Jeff Bezos or others, he is currently making money through different companies and businesses. In addition, he co-founded a Boring Company that aims to reduce traffic. Elon also co-founded PayPal, the “Payoneer of Digital Payment.” Elon started his journey long ago and never looked back. We will uncover everything related to this Tech Freak in this detailed guide. Keep reading for expert business and life tips to help you learn from this exceptional talent. Let’s start with his profile and education in his business life. Elon Musk’s Profile Elon Musk is a South African-born American business magnate, industrial designer, and engineer. He is the son of Errol Musk. He is currently living in Taxes. This profile section will answer some of the most common questions about Elon Musk’s personality. These questions include his height, zodiac sign, Elon Musk’s net worth, and religion. Let’s uncover them one by one. How Tall Is Elon? Elon Musk is 6 feet and 2 inches tall, 188 cm. He is tall, and in 2014, he also claimed it in a tweet about his height. The Billionaire doesn’t seem this tall in the pictures, but people who know him in real life told he has a broad physique. What Is Elon Musk’s Zodiac Sign? Musk’s birth date is 28th June 1971, meaning his zodiac sign is Cancer. Musk has a Cancer sun with an analytical Virgo Moon. In addition, his moon sign is Leo which brings a certain fearlessness in him when making tough decisions. Cancers are solid leaders; people follow them, and we can find all these qualities in Elon. Elon Musk’s Current Net Worth Elon musk is currently the 2nd wealthiest person behind Bernard Arnault. His real-time net worth is around $151.8 billion. It is growing speedily daily due to his extremely successful tech projects considered as future.  Religion Musk was brought up as a Christian, but he is an Atheist. He stated that he doesn’t believe in God or any religion. He praises Jesus but still doesn’t believe in any religion. In an interview, he also said he wouldn’t stand in Jesus’ way. How Did Elon Musk Start Out Making His Money? Musk’s story of earning starts by selling a video game. In his college Elon, alongside his fellow students, also rented a house and then converted it into a nightclub in his college days to pay the rent. He tried his fortune in many businesses and startups.  After he dropped out of Stanford University, he founded two technology startup companies in 1990. From a video game to Tesla and SpaceX, Elon has come a long way. Let’s see how Mr. Musk reached these heights.  Were Elon Musk’s Parents Rich? Although Elon’s parents were not Billionaires like him, they were not poor. His father, Errol Musk, was an electro-mechanical Engineer, pilot, and sailor. His mother, Maye Musk, was a model and dietitian. While they were not wealthy, they were relatively well-off and able to provide for their family’s needs. Elon denied a Twitter thread where he was responding to Berkeley professor Robert Reich who said that Musk’s father was a millionaire, so that’s why Musk is a billionaire now. Only the children of the rich get richer. So, we can say that Musk’s parents weren’t rich enough to make him a millionaire. Take a Look at The Wealth Of Elon Musk’s Family: Elon Musk As A Teenager Musk’s teenage life was more challenging as he used to live on $1 a day when he moved to Canada. He moved from his native home in South Africa to North America to start college studies. Elon Musk has been fascinated by technology and science since his childhood. He started reading the encyclopedia at a young age.  His aptitude for computer programming was recognized early on, and he began taking computer classes at a young age. At 12, he created and sold the code for his first video game, “Blastar.” He and his brother, Tosha, had plans to open their arcade, but their parents did not approve of the idea. Educational Background Musk started his education at Waterkloof House Preparatory School. He graduated from Pretoria Boys High School. He attended the University of Pretoria for 5 months. After that, he moved to Canada, where in 1990, he entered Queens University in Kingston. He also found his first wife, Justine, there. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of science in economics from Wharton school. Musk says that he completed his degree in 1995, but on the records of UPenn, it was awarded in 1997. In 1995 he was accepted for a Ph.D. program at Stanford University, but after 2 days, he dropped the degree. After University He dropped out of the Ph.D. program offered by Stanford University. Musk, with his brother Kimbal Musk, co-founded the software company Zip2. Compaq then bought Zip2 for $307 million. Musk then co-founded X.com, which was an online bank. X.com, later in 2000, merged with Cofinity to become PayPal, which was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion. First Company Musk’s first company was Zip2 in 1995, an online city guide. Musk, with his brother, co-founded this company. According to multiple reports, his father gave him $28000 to start the project. This company changed Musk’s fortune and made him a millionaire. Later, many big newspaper companies like The New York Times and Hearst started using Zip2. The company grew rapidly, and many big companies like Compaq and CitySearch tried to merge with them.  After successfully selling Zip2, Musk invested in Xcom(Experimental.com), which later became Paypal. It was the first largest online payment succession. It was later sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 Billion.  First Million Elon Musk made his first Million by starting a software company called Zip 2. He built this company to help people get directions to businesses. Zip2 was a corporation that provided online city guide software to newspapers.  Zip2 allowed communications to take place among users and advertisers. One of the products of Zip2 was called Auto Guide. The purpose of AutoGuide was to connect online newspaper users with local dealerships. Up to 200 newspapers started using their platform in 1998. Still, Musk was far from the mark of 1 million. In 1996 Mohr Davidow Ventures invested $3 million in Zip2, but this investment made Musk hand over his CEO position to someone else. He was demoted to the CTO of the company.  In 1998 the CEO of Zip2 tried to merge the company with CitySearch, but Musk started a coup, and as a result, he took over the company again. Later on, Zip2 was sold to Compaq in 1999. Musk got $22 million as his share from the company. That’s how he made his first million. Starting Tesla and SpaceX Musk later invested the money earned from PayPal in Tesla and SpaceX. Although SpaceX initially failed in many experiments, both companies are highly successful these days. As electric vehicles are the future, their sales are increasing massively, and following the success of SpaceX, NASA has also shaken hands with them.  These two projects have been the key to reaching these heights. Tesla is ranked as the most valued automotive company in the world, with a brand value of $75.93 Bn in 2022. According to CNBC, SpaceX is valued at around $137 Bn as of 2023. Twitter Purchase Elon’s latest major purchase has been the famous social media application Twitter. Musk took over Twitter in October 2022 with a record $44 Billion price. He paid $54.20 per share of Twitter. He has bought it with ambitions of free speech for everyone. Activating Donald Trump’s Twitter account is one of its prime examples. Elon aims to make the brand revenue 4 times than now and have its user base by 2028. Since the takeover, he has been talking about improving this platform, like his concerns regarding fake accounts and spam on Twitter. Elon plans to make this platform free from bots acting as fake followers. Is Elon Musk Self-Made? Elon Musk is often referred to as a “self-made” billionaire, meaning that he built his wealth and success through his efforts rather than inheriting it from others. He was not born into a Billionaire or Millionaire family. He made his fortune through hard work. The journey from selling a video game to being the CEO of SpaceX is living proof.  Elon Musk has certainly achieved a great deal of success through his efforts. He has been involved in several successful business ventures, including PayPal, SpaceX, and Tesla. Elon is widely considered a visionary entrepreneur and inventor known for his ambitious plans and innovative ideas. That’s why the tech genius is referred to as a self-made Billionaire.  List Of What Elon Musk Invent Elon has been inventing since his teenage years, and his early ideas revolved around software and companies in this field. As his vision evolved, he focused on mass transportation and consumer products. Most of his ideas have proven to be huge successes. Let’s have a look at his amazing inventions till now. Blaster Video Game Elon Musk has been a fan of video games since childhood, and at 12, he created his own video game and sold it to a computer magazine for $500. This early experience in creating and selling his own video game demonstrates his entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen, even at a young age. Web Calls Elon Musk had an idea about allowing computers to make phone calls to landlines by clicking on a company’s contact information online. The calls would then be routed to the company via a call center. He secured a patent for this technology in 2001. This concept is known as click-to-call.  It allows users to initiate a phone call to a business directly from a website or online advertisement by clicking a button or link. This feature uses a technology called Voice over IP (VoIP) to make the call through the internet instead of traditional phone lines. Click-to-call is commonly used by businesses to provide convenient customer service and support.  Zip2 Zip2 is Elon’s first very successful project. He initially ran the company out of a small apartment in Silicon Valley. It provided online business directories and maps to newspapers. He played an important role in developing the company’s technology, including the mapping and navigation software used to power the directories. Paypal (Electronic Payments) Elon Musk was one of the co-founders of PayPal, an online payment system that eBay later acquired. He was part of the board of directors and a significant shareholder in the company.  Musk was one of the company’s largest shareholders when eBay acquired it in 2002 for $1.5 billion. He played a key role in developing PayPal’s business strategy and was instrumental in securing funding for the company during its early stages. Tesla (Electric Vehicles) Electric cars company Tesla is the most important creation of Elon Musk. Although he is not the one who invented electric cars, he set the foundation of the first working marketplace for electronic vehicles. 65% of electric vehicles being used in the US in 2022 were manufactured by Tesla motors. Its current net worth is $146B. Elon Musk’s goal for the company is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy through producing and selling electric vehicles, solar products, and energy storage systems. It is to address the CO2 emissions and climate change with an entire ecosystem. SpaceX (Falcon rocket) Falcon rocket is an invention of SpaceX. Elon Musk is the CEO of SpaceX. He led its foundation in 2002 with Tom Mueller with the main objective of reducing travel costs to space. Falcon 9 is its major invention which is a medium-lift launch vehicle. It can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit and is partially reusable.  The rocket is two-staged, with the first stage reusable and the second stage expendable. The reusable first stage is intended to return to the launch site or a drone ship for recovery, enabling multiple launches with the same vehicle. SpaceX is currently valued at around $137 Bn. NASA has also awarded contracts to SpaceX and is working together on some projects.  Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, has stated that his goal for the company is to make life multi-planetary by developing the technology needed to establish a permanent, self-sustaining human presence on Mars. He also aims to reduce the cost of space launches, making it possible for more companies and individuals to access space. Solar City Elon Musk played a central role in the formation and development of SolarCity, a solar energy services company. Musk had the idea to start SolarCity to address the need for clean, sustainable energy and help combat climate change. He believed that by making solar power more affordable and accessible, more people and businesses would adopt it as an energy source. Musk was actively involved in the company’s strategy, funding, and operations.  How Does Elon Musk Spend His Money? Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is known for investing a significant portion of his wealth into his companies and other ventures. He has also made significant charitable donations to renewable energy and education. Let’s take a look at some of his prominent spending ways.  Reinvestments Elon Musk is known for reinvesting a significant portion of his wealth into his companies, particularly Tesla and SpaceX. He has used his wealth to help fund the development and production of electric cars, solar energy systems, and space exploration technology. Like Elon, after selling Zip2, reinvested $10 million in Xcom, which later became PayPal. He made $180 million from Paypal shares sale but reinvested $100 Million in SpaceX, $70 Million in Tesla, and the remaining $10 Million in his SolarCity project.  Donations Elon Musk has made many significant donations, primarily to education and renewable energy. Elon believes in giving or contributing back to society, so he has made several donations over the years. In 2015, he donated $10 million to the Future of Life Institute to support research to ensure that artificial intelligence is developed safely and efficiently.  In 2018, he donated $100 million to the global non-profit organization OpenAI, which aims to promote friendly AI and advance digital intelligence for the betterment of humanity. In addition, in 2020, he pledged $100 million to plant 100 million trees via a campaign named TeamTrees. Real Estate Elon Musk has a history of making high-profile real estate purchases. In 2012, he purchased a 20,248-square-foot mansion in Bel-Air, California, for $17 million. In 2016, he purchased four adjacent properties in the same neighborhood for $24.25 million. Also, in 2018, he purchased a $6.4 million ranch in Texas that includes a main house, a guesthouse, a pool, and a barn.  In addition to these personal properties, Musk’s companies, such as SpaceX, also own and operate several properties, including a launch facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida and a rocket development and testing facility in McGregor, Texas. Business & Life Tips From Elon Musk Elon Musk has had some really difficult challenges in business and life. He always overcomes those challenges. There’s a saying of Socrates, “Smart people learn from everything and everyone”. We have gathered some amazing tips from Elon to help you achieve your business and life goals.  Keep Investing Elon has been making money since his childhood. He was business minded and always looked forward to ways of reinvesting his earned money. Elon successfully sold Zip2 for $22 Million but chose to reinvest it rather than spend. Then he made $180 Million from the sale of shares in PayPal but again went on to invest in projects like SpaceX etc. This habit has been a key factor in his success till now.. Work On Your Strengths Elon and other Entrepreneurs always advise you to work on your strengths. Once Elon said, “Forcing yourself to do anything or be anyone you do not want to always ends up in disappointment. Play to your strengths, and you’ll succeed.” It means you should work in those fields you love to work in. If you are forcefully working in any place, you will never be able to get the best out of yourself. There’s a famous saying: You succeed when your passion and profession are the same. Elon has always been a tech guy since his childhood. He has always worked in relevant companies and places. Tesla, SpaceX, and Paypal are proof of it.  Take Risks There is no surety in business. Elon once said, “Take risks and do something bold.” We can also see this from his personal decisions. He made huge money from selling some companies to invest in new companies he never knew would succeed. SpaceX also failed in many major experiments, primarily Elon Musk decided to continue investing. When Musk was asked about bankruptcy, Musk replied, “My kids might have to go to a sort of government school. I mean big deal, I went to a government school.” So Elon never feared taking risks while making decisions. Even SpaceX nearly got bankrupt after the continuous failure of experiments. Work On Communication Skills Communication skills are very important ,no matter your profession. He advises, “Talk to people from different walks of life and industries, professions and skills”. To improve your communication skills. Communication skills are key, especially in a department like sales. Spend Wisely One more thing we learned from Elon’s life is to spend wisely. Usually, when people start earning, they start to spend more on luxuries and extravagance. Elon strictly opposes the idea. According to him, you must enjoy and spend too, within your domains.  We can see this idea in his personal life. Elon lives in a two-bedroom house within walking distance of his SpaceX facility, but he spent $78 Million to buy a private jet. So what matters is spending where it’s needed.  Stay Focused Focus is a key lesson if you want to succeed in any field. Whether you are getting results is only sometimes staying disciplined and focused on your goal. Stay focused like Elon has been through his whole journey; even as a Billionaire, he is working 80 to 100 hours a week. Affordable Hobbies Another thing to learn from Elon is always to have affordable hobbies. It helps you save a lot of money. Surely Billionaires don’t have time for hobbies, but Elon’s hobbies are inspiring. These are affordable hobbies, from spending time with family, listening to music in the car, and hanging out with friends to playing video games like Halo Infinite. Contribute To Society Elon musk believes in contributing to society. He has contributed a lot to charities. Its prime example is the donation of shares of Tesla worth $5.7 Billion. Elon once told Fridman, “Try to have a positive net contribution to society.” His company’s motto is living proof of it.  Tesla is the largest electronic vehicle-producing company aiming to reduce CO2 emissions. SpaceX is finding ways for humans to live on other planets. Musk once said during a podcast, “A lot of respect for someone who puts in an honest day’s work.” Think Big Businesses run by Elon Musk are known for their daring and forward-thinking outlook. As Elon says, work on “stuff that’s going to matter.” Getting away from fossil fuels and ensuring humanity’s long-term existence by populating Mars, are what drive him.  He believes that low ambition is baked into most companies’ incentive structures. Many companies focus on making small improvements to their existing products rather than daring to imagine completely new ones. Ignore the Critics Elon is known for his ambition and bold vision, which has led to some criticism and skepticism from others. He doesn’t let the opinions of others affect his decisions and instead focuses on his problems. As he refused, “I think it would be arrogant if we said we were definitely going to do it, as opposed to we’re aspiring to do it, and we’re going to give it our best shot.” He doesn’t worry about the potential for failure or looking foolish, as his passion for pursuing important ideas drives him. He believes that success should be measured by the problems solved rather than the money made. This mindset allows him to make decisions more easily and stay focused on what he believes is important.  Timeline Of Elon Musk  1971: Elon Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa.  1989: Musk moved to Canada to attend Queen’s University.  1992: Musk moved to the University of Pennsylvania, receiving dual undergraduate degrees in economics and physics.  1995: Musk co-founded web software company Zip2 with his brother, which provided online business directories and maps to newspapers.  1999: Zip2 was sold to Compaq for $307 million, providing the initial funding for Musk to start X.com, an online payment company.  2002: X.com was renamed PayPal and was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion. Musk founded SpaceX to reduce the cost of space exploration and make it possible for humans to live on other planets.  2004: Musk joined the board of directors of Tesla, an electric car company.  2006: Musk became CEO of Tesla, leading the company to launch its first car, the Roadster, in 2008.  2008: Musk founded SolarCity, a solar energy services company.  2015: SpaceX landed the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket, a major milestone in reusable rocket technology.  2016: Tesla acquired SolarCity, furthering Musk’s goal of creating a sustainable energy ecosystem. 2018: SpaceX launched its first Falcon Heavy rocket, which carried a Tesla Roadster into orbit around the sun.  2020: SpaceX sent its first crewed spacecraft, the Crew Dragon, to the International Space Station, marking a major milestone in commercial spaceflight. 2022: Elon Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion.  FAQs Did Elon Musk Get Saved? Elon musk, in an interview, shared his thoughts about religion and Jesus Christ. He mentioned that he agrees with the principles of Jesus and that if Jesus is saving people, he won’t stay in his way. Musk also said he has a lot of questions about God, Faith, and religion. But he says he accepts “God as his savior.” How Much Does Elon Make A Minute? The co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, makes $29,200 per minute and $1.75 million per hour. These figures are not fixed because a lot of his money comes from the stocks of his companies, including Tesla, Space x, and others. How To Contact Elon Musk For Money? You can’t contact Elon Musk directly for money, but you can contact the company through emails and they may get you in touch with him. Here’s an email where you can contact him NAsales@teslamotors.com. If you are a resident of North America, you can contact Tesla by this email Press@tesla.com. Is Elon Buying Country Music? Yes there are rumors that Elon Musk plans to buy Country Music for $89 billion. The deal will include all music labels of the company. This deal aims to bring the genre to its past greatness. Country music is one of the oldest music institutions in America.  Did Tesla Buy KTM? Neither Musk nor his company Tesla has partnered with or bought the KTM. Musk clearly said that Tesla would never make an electric two-wheeler. He also recalled an event of his teenage years where he was nearly killed while riding a bike. Hence Tesla is not interested in any Bike projects. What Kind Of Phone Does Elon Musk Have? Musk stated that he uses both iPhone and Samsung phones, but Musk has been often seen using iPhone since 2012. The tech genius also mentioned iPhones in some of his interviews. However, he has yet to collaborate with any smartphone brands.  Final Thoughts That was all about the inspiring journey of Elon Musk. Now that you know how Elon Musk makes his money, you can follow in his footsteps to have a bright future. You may not be the world’s most influential Billionaire, but following Elon’s business and life tips will certainly help you a lot in achieving your goals. Elon Musk has always been a technology fan; it was his passion. You can also follow your passion and reach the heights in your field like Elon became the CEO of companies like Tesla and SpaceX. You have also learned about his money-making and spending ways and complete profile. Keep learning and following all these things if you idolize him. .....»»

Disney filing its lawsuit is just the beginning: the discovery process lets Disney request relevant emails from Florida officials to bolster its case. Disney's lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a good start to its case, legal experts said.Joe Raedle/Getty Images and AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images Disney's lawsuit accused Florida officials of infringing on its constitutional rights. It cited a state legislator who'd suggested political disagreements had "kicked the hornet's nest." Disney can use its suit to look for more of that type of evidence to build a retaliation case, experts said. Disney's long-brewing struggle with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis culminated in a stunning lawsuit on Wednesday, where the entertainment giant said state officials retaliated against it, citing a lawmaker who said "You kick the hornet's nest, things come up." Those remarks, along with those of other Florida officials whom Disney cited as denouncing its purported "woke ideology," can help the company lay the groundwork for a retaliation case, legal experts told Insider."If it was unequivocally clear that the whole purpose of a law was to retaliate against Disney for its executives' statements, that's a First Amendment violation," said David Schultz, a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota law school, who has taught constitutional law. "The government is not supposed to punish you for the views you express," he said.  Still, Disney also has the burden to show that it's more likely than not that Florida officials' intent behind the legislation at issue was to retaliate against the company, he added.That's where the discovery mechanisms of the lawsuit may come in handy for Disney — the company can seek, for instance, more information about telephone conversations and email exchanges by Florida officials from when they were crafting efforts to dissolve Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District, that is the subject of controversy in the state. Schultz said Disney could even seek in the lawsuit to depose DeSantis, who is widely expected to run for president.Disney's lawsuit also evokes the US Constitution in its other claims, arguing that Florida officials have been infringing on its various constitutional rights, said James Ely Jr., a professor of law emeritus at Vanderbilt University. For instance, it evokes the Constitution's Takings clause, which restrains the government from commandeering private property for public use without paying for it in some way. Here, Disney is arguing that its contracts in Florida are private property, and that the legislation amounts to "taking" it away, Ely told Insider."If the value of the contracts are destroyed by the Florida legislation, you could plausibly argue that there would be a taking," he said.  Disney's lawsuit followed a long-simmering conflict with Florida officials In its 77-page lawsuit in Florida federal court, Disney laid out its side of a story whose beats may be familiar by now: In March 2022, DeSantis ushered through the "Parental Rights in Education Act," a measure restricting how schools can discuss gender identity and sexual orientation, which Democrats and LGBTQ+ activists have called the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Disney's then-CEO Bob Chapek said at the time that the company opposed the measure, and would be broaching it with DeSantis. In April 2022, Florida legislators sent through a bill to undo a handful of special districts in the state, including Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District in Florida, where it had self-governing powers.At the time, Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who advanced the bill, said, according to the Associated Press: "You kick the hornet's nest, things come up. And I will say this: You got me on one thing — this bill does target one company. It targets The Walt Disney Company."Disney cited that quote in its complaint, arguing that "the campaign against Disney raced forward."In remarks to other legislators last year in April, Fine also said the bill didn't single out Disney. "I would simply say that I reject the premise of the question that this bill is targeting one company and punishing one company," he said at a Florida House State Affairs Committee hearing at the time. "This bill deals with six special districts." Fine also told Insider that the measure would end special treatment for Disney not available to other companies in the state, though he also included a barb against "woke" stances. "To equate being treated the same way as your competitors to punishment shows a stunning level of arrogance that will not stand in Florida," he said in an email to Insider. "Disney is a guest in our state, and in Florida, Floridians set the rules, not woke Hollywood elites."    A representative for the Florida Governor's office echoed a similar message in a statement to Insider. "We are unaware of any legal right that a company has to operate its own government or maintain special privileges not held by other businesses in the state," said Jeremy T. Redfern, the representative. "This lawsuit is yet another unfortunate example of their hope to undermine the will of the Florida voters and operate outside the bounds of the law," he said.  Representatives and attorneys for Disney did not respond to Insider's emailed requests for comment ahead of publication.The position articulated by state officials — including that the bill's focus extends beyond Disney — shows Disney will likely keep drawing on more pointed material to support its retaliation claims, said Schutz."The state can come up with some neutral reasoning," he said. "It's going to be a question of what evidence does Disney marshal to make their case out there."Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Republican lawmakers have been feuding with Disney since the company denounced the Parental Rights in Education Act. Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney have been in a yearlong feud since the company denounced Florida's controversial Parental Rights in Education Act last March.Marta Lavandier and John Raoux/AP Disney spoke out against a Florida law that critics have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Since then, Gov. Ron DeSantis has targeted Disney's special self-governing powers in Florida. In his latest parry, the governor floated building a state prison next to Walt Disney World. When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida officially stripped Disney World of its self-governing status in February, he punctuated a long-simmering feud that has come to define his governorship in the Sunshine State with the declaration, "There's a new sheriff in town."But Disney hasn't exactly abided.The feud began after the entertainment giant spoke out last March against a controversial piece of legislation critics have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill.The Parental Rights in Education Act was signed in March 2022 and restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida's K-3 public schools. The state Board of Education voted on Wednesday to expand that law to cover grades four to 12.In response to Disney's criticism, DeSantis called to remove Disney World's self-governing status, which allowed the company to call much of its own shots for the past six decades, most notably when it came to development processes. This has helped Disney World expand with less friction to the 25,000-acre theme-park resort it is today.Here's a timeline of the events in the increasingly heated battle. Representatives for DeSantis and Disney did not respond to requests for comment.January 2022: Parental Rights in Education Act introducedThe Parental Rights in Education Act was first introduced to the state senate by Rep. Joe Harding in January 2022.Under the bill, "a school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels." The bill targets K-3 classrooms, but state officials recently moved to expand the scope of the law to cover grades 4-12.March 2022: Disney respondsDisney initially refrained from taking a public stance on the issue until after employees and critics demanded the company denounce the bill.Part of critics' qualms with Disney was that it had previously donated to the bill's sponsors, Harding and Sen. Dennis Baxley.On March 11, Disney CEO Bob Chapek apologized for not speaking out sooner and said the company would pause all political donations in the state."Speaking to you, reading your messages, and meeting with you have helped me better understand how painful our silence was," Chapek said in the statement. "It is clear that this is not just an issue about a bill in Florida, but instead yet another challenge to basic human rights."Disney released another statement on March 28, saying it would have the law "repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.""Florida's HB 1557, also known as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law," the company said.March 2022: DeSantis and Republican lawmakers plotDeSantis swiftly responded and said the company "crossed the line" after Disney announced it would work to repeal the law."For Disney to come out and put a statement and say that the bill should have never passed and that they are going to actively work to repeal it, I think, one, was fundamentally dishonest but, two, I think that crossed the line," the governor said at a press conference.Some Republican state lawmakers also began looking into the Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which passed in 1967 and granted Walt Disney World the power to essentially act like its own county government. The establishment of the Reedy Creek Improvement District gave Disney flexibility as it expanded its theme park.Rep. Spencer Roach said on Twitter that lawmakers began meeting to discuss repealing the act."Yesterday was the 2nd meeting in a week w/ fellow legislators to discuss a repeal of the 1967 Reedy Creek Improvement Act, which allows Disney to act as its own government," Roach wrote. "If Disney wants to embrace woke ideology, it seems fitting that they should be regulated by Orange County."April 2022: DeSantis moves to strip Disney of its self-governing statusRepublican lawmakers and the governor moved swiftly to revoke Disney's self-governing status.On April 22, 2022, DeSantis signed a bill that would eliminate the Reedy Creek district and its special governing jurisdiction.But dissolving the board potentially meant leaving the burden of taxes that maintained roads and services such as the resort's own fire department to taxpayers in the adjacent Orange and Osceola counties. The district also had a massive $1 billion debt.February 2023: DeSantis adjusts, renames the district, and appoints new board membersRather than outright eliminating Reedy Creek, Florida lawmakers approved a bill that gave DeSantis control of the special district and allowed the governor to appoint new members to the five-seat board. The district would also be renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.DeSantis' nominations included Bridget Ziegler, the cofounder of the conservative Moms for Liberty group, and Martin Garcia, an attorney whose investment firm donated to DeSantis' election, as chair of the new board.The Florida House passed a bill on February 9 that the Senate approved the next day. DeSantis signed the bill on February 27.February 2023: Disney's stealth power grabOn February 8, the outgoing Reedy Creek board members signed an agreement with Disney that essentially gave the company full rein over any development plans or alterations. Garcia, the chairman, also said at a public meeting on Thursday that the board had found another "11th-hour deal" that'd allow a Disney subsidiary to set its own utilities rates until 2032.The Declaration of Restrictive Covenants was signed with little notice and just a day before the Florida House voted to give the state the power to take over the district.Newly appointed board members of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District decried the move more than a month after the agreement was signed."This essentially makes Disney the government," Ron Peri, a board member, said during a meeting on March 29. "This board loses, for practical purposes, the majority of its ability to do anything beyond maintain the roads and maintain basic infrastructure."March and April 2023: DeSantis mulls over a new plan of attackThe Florida governor has since floated a wide range of proposals in response to Disney's quiet power grab.DeSantis has threatened to build a competing state theme park or a prison. He suggested taxing Disney hotels and placing road tolls around the amusement park. The new district board also is considering more inspection regulations, building workforce affordable housing on land that borders the resort and theme park, and selling the district-owned utilities."Who knows? I just think that the possibilities are endless," DeSantis said in a press conference Monday.In addition, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District hired four law firms in hopes to nullify the agreement between Disney and the previous board while they find a legal path forward for their own plans.April 2023: Allies on the new board and in the legislature move to claw back control from DisneyFlorida Republican lawmakers came to DeSantis' aid on April 18 to make the last-minute deal between the outgoing board and Disney void.Sen. Blaise Ingoglia filed an amendment saying the new district couldn't comply with any development agreement that was "executed within 3 months" before the new board was installed. It's unclear whether the move will work.The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District also met April 19 to make the legal case that the board can legally move forward with its own plans for the district despite Disney's power grab maneuver.April 2023: Disney publicizes pride event and announced affordable-housing plansShortly after DeSantis threatened to build a state prison next to Disney World, the company publicized its first LGBTQ event at Disneyland."The first-ever Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite is coming to Disneyland during Pride Month in June," the company tweeted Monday afternoon.The two-night event is scheduled to be held June 13 and 15 at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.Disney also announced affordable-housing development plans on 80 acres of the district land on the same day board members met on April 19. It was the first time the board met since the revelation of the agreement between the prior district board members and Disney.According to a blog post, Disney plans to build about 1,400 units of affordable housing with a goal completion date of 2026. The number of units goes beyond the initial plans of 1,300 affordable homes.April 2023: Florida Expands 'Don't Say Gay' lawIn the midst of the spat between Disney and DeSantis, the Florida Board of Education moved to expand the controversial law that lies at the center of the feud.On April 19, the state board approved a ban on classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity for all grades, including grades four through 12.DeSantis previously endorsed the proposal in March.Correction: April 21, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the Florida lawmaker who filed an amendment in reference to the Reedy Creek Improvement District. It is Sen. Blaise Ingoglia.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»