Nobody likes to admit going along with the consensus. It sounds better to be contrarian, and in markets there is far more money to be made when you latch on to an unpopular notion that turns out to be correct. That is how you get to buy things cheap. But sometimes the herd gets it right, even if it gets overexcited and “overshoots” its target. On balance, […]
When Donald Trump comes to Washington on January 20, his YouTube supporters Diamond and Silk will be travelling to the capital with him. Then, they will turn round and go home. Over the course of the tycoon’s campaign, Diamond and Silk served as two of the president-elect’s biggest surrogates to the African-American community, talking him up on their hit video blogs, speaking alongside him at rallies and […]
A prominent Republican lawmaker is taking another shot at tightening U.S. rules for high-skilled worker visas ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president later this month. Rep. Darrell Issa, one of the highest-profile Republicans in Congress and a supporter of Mr. Trump, said Wednesday in a statement on his website that he is reintroducing a bill designed to “stop the outsourcing of American jobs” and ensure laws are not […]
By Mark Hosenball and Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON There is disagreement within President-elect Donald Trump’s camp about the structure of the top U.S. intelligence agency when he takes office and it is unclear whether his national security adviser will prevail in advocating a reorganization, sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. At issue is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), which Congress […]
Law Blog rounds up the morning’s legal news: Obamacare repeal: The Republican-controlled Senate took its first step toward dismantling the 2010 Affordable Care Act, using its initial day in office to introduce a measure that sets an aggressive timeline for developing plans to repeal much of President Barack Obama’s signature health law. [WSJ] Holder hired: […] (via WSJ)
By Steve Holland | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday picked former U.S. Senator Dan Coats as his director of national intelligence, two senior transition officials said, as he puts his own stamp on a U.S. intelligence community that he frequently criticizes. The official announcement was expected this week as Trump makes decisions on some of the remaining major positions he must fill as he prepares […]
By Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Senate Democrats on Thursday demanded an ethics probe into Tom Price, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. health secretary, following a report that the fierce Obamacare critic traded in healthcare company stocks while pushing legislation in Congress that could affect those shares. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and others made their comments as congressional Republicans moved ahead with […]
By Dustin Volz and Patricia Zengerle | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The top U.S. intelligence official told Congress on Thursday he was “even more resolute” in his belief that Russia staged cyber attacks on Democrats in the 2016 election campaign, rebuking persistent scepticism from Republican President-elect Donald Trump about whether Moscow was involved. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he had a very high level of confidence that […]
NEW YORK Donald Trump’s spokesman on Thursday rejected media reports that said the Republican president-elect was planning to restructure the nation’s intelligence agencies, calling the reports “100 percent false.” “There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure,” Trump spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters in a conference call. “All transition activities are for information gathering purposes and all discussions are tentative.” (Reporting by […]
January 5, 2017 by: David J Lynch in Washington and Jessica Dye in New York Senator John McCain joined three top US intelligence officials on Thursday in blaming Russia for election-related cyber attacks which the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee called an “unprecedented attack on our democracy”. At an extraordinary Senate hearing called to hear the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in November’s presidential […]
President-elect Donald Trump has begun nominating the people who he wants to represent U.S. interests abroad. But even Trump, who despite his “drain the swamp” mantra has been rewarding major campaign donors with prime positions in his cabinet, will find it difficult to match President Barack Obama’s legacy of sending top political patrons to the world’s poshest capital cities, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis. […]
Good morning. Here’s our morning roundup of all the media news you need to know. Want to get this briefing in your inbox every morning? Subscribe here. Embedded plentifully during the presidential campaign, the press may now leave most consumers in the cold. I’d been talking to Merrill Brown, director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair, New Jersey State University, about Megyn Kelly’s big […]
Submitted by Finian Cunningham via Strategic-Culture.org, The dark, infamous days of American lynch-mob rule and burning witches at stakes are back as never before. But not in backwater enclaves of benighted bigotry. Oh no, the modern lynch mobs are running amok in Washington’s seat of government, across prime TV and on the editorial pages of its supposed finest newspapers. It is the effete, self-regarding ruling US elite […]
Police in Alabama arrested six African-American civil rights activists staging a sit-in at Senator Jeff Sessions’ office on Tuesday to protest his nomination for U.S. Attorney General, criticizing his record on voting rights and race relations. Sessions, 70, has a history of controversial positions on race, immigration and criminal justice reform. Members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) had vowed to occupy […]
The following people are mentioned as contenders for senior roles as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump assembles his administration before taking office on Jan. 20, according to Reuters sources and other media reports. Trump already has named a number of people for other top jobs in his administration. AGRICULTURE SECRETARY * Sonny Perdue, former Georgia governor * Elsa Murano, undersecretary of agriculture for food safety under President George […]
By David Brunnstrom and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON In three words of a tweet this week, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed North Korea would never test an intercontinental ballistic missile. “It won’t happen!” Trump wrote after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday his nuclear-capable country was close to testing an ICBM of a kind that could someday hit the United States. Preventing such […]
After seven years of stock markets climbing ever upwards, investors found a new reason to buy in November: the shock election of Donald Trump. One oft-repeated anecdote is how the billionaire investor Carl Icahn left Mr Trump’s victory party to buy US stocks. A few days later Stanley Druckenmiller, who earlier in the year told a conference for fellow hedge fund managers to “get out of the […]
By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The Republican-led U.S. Congress had a rough start to its first session of the Donald Trump era on Tuesday when a public outcry that included a dressing-down from the president-elect prompted the House of Representatives to backtrack on its plans to defang an ethics watchdog. It was supposed to have been a ceremonious beginning in which lawmakers set […]
Megyn Kelly is to leave Fox News for rival NBC, ending months of speculation over the future of one of the biggest stars in television news. As part of a multiyear deal, Ms Kelly will anchor a new weekday daytime show, a Sunday night news show, and contribute to breaking news and special events coverage, NBC said. The company did not disclose her new salary, although 21st […]
WASHINGTON Republican U.S. Senator Mike Enzi introduced on Tuesday a resolution allowing for the repeal of President Barack Obama’s signature health insurance programme, which provides coverage to millions of Americans, Enzi’s office said in a statement. The move by the Senate’s budget committee chairman on the first day of the new Congress set in motion the Republican majority’s promise to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known […]
By Bernie Woodall and David Shepardson | FLAT ROCK, Mich./WASHINGTON FLAT ROCK, Mich./WASHINGTON Ford Motor Co (F.N) said Tuesday it will cancel a planned $1.6 billion factory in Mexico and will invest $700 million at a Michigan factory, after President-elect Donald Trump had harshly criticized the Mexico investment plan. The second largest U.S. automaker said it would build new electric, hybrid and autonomous vehicles at the Flat […]
|By Matein Khalid|“Few individuals alter the course of history. Fewer still change the map of the world. Hardly anyone creates a nation state. Mohammed Ali Jinnah did all three”. Dr. Stanley Wolpert’s words still give me goose pimples two decades after I first read his book. Mr. Jinnah founded Pakistan and was also my ancestral kinsman. I too was born in Karachi, the city by the sea, […]
PICKS are stories from many sources, selected by our editors or recommended by our readers because they are important, surprising, troubling, enlightening, inspiring, or amusing. They appear on our site and in our daily newsletter. Please send suggested articles, videos, podcasts, etc. to [email protected]. Western Economist Fingers Russia as “Panama Papers” Source (Gerry) The hackers who released the huge cache of files known as the Panama Papers […]
WASHINGTON U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized a congressional move to weaken a nonpartisan ethics watchdog, giving lawmakers greater control over an independent body charged with investigating their behavior. “With all that Congress has to work on, do they really have to make the weakening of the Independent Ethics Watchdog, as unfair as it … may be, their number one act and priority. Focus on tax […]
