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Thursday, June 15, 2023

Donald Trump Raises $7 Million After Indictment Proceedings During Fundraiser

National Review: Former president Donald Trump is putting his fast-multiplying legal troubles to good use, raising $7 million and counting since he was indicted in Jack Smith’s classified-documents probe. Trump has decried the prosecution as a persecution, and that message appears to be making waves with his supporters. The former president held the first major fundraiser of his campaign on Tuesday, the same day as his Miami arraignment. The former president has found particular success in turning his indictments to his advantage, making campaign-style appearances after each arraignment and putting fundraising into overdrive. Trump also raked in $7 million in three days after Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg indicted him on charges of falsifying business records (National Review). Reuters: Trump’s nearest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, has a roughly $85 million political war chest, currently held in a state account (Reuters).

Shortly After Firing of Chris Licht, CNN Reverts Back to Ultra-Partisan Coverage

Jake Tapper on Trump footage: “I don’t need to see any more of that” (Real Clear Politics). Fox News: CNN’s approach to covering the historic federal indictment Tuesday of former President Donald Trump appeared to show the network leaning back into the earlier Jeff Zucker era not long after the firing of CEO Chris Licht. Licht said he wanted to dial back the more partisan approach that defined his predecessor Zucker, but he faced internal dissension throughout his tenure, which came to a head when he offered Trump a chance to appear in a CNN town hall last month. Licht was fired last week after a little more than a year on the job. Since Licht was shown the door last week, the network has reminded viewers of the Zucker-era programming that appealed to anti-Trump liberals. Jake Tapper, who reportedly complained about Licht to corporate overlords, told CNN audiences on Tuesday night that it would be “dangerous” to carry a Trump speech live. Earlier in the day, Tapper rebuked CNN producers for showing Trump with supporters at a Miami restaurant (Fox News).

Fed Agrees to Maintain Interest Rates, Projects Two More Hikes Before the Year Ends

Wall Street Journal: Federal Reserve officials agreed to hold interest rates steady after 10 consecutive increases, but signaled they are leaning toward raising them next month if the economy and inflation don’t cool more. Most of them penciled in two more rate increases this year and lifted their expectations for growth and inflation in projections released Wednesday after their two-day policy meeting. In a statement, the Fed said the decision to maintain the benchmark federal-funds rate in a range between 5% and 5.25%, a 16-year high, might be short-lived (Wall Street Journal). Just the News: The bank also expressed confidence in the banking system after three major U.S. bank collapses this year (Just the News).

ESG Deems Tobacco Company More Ethical Than Tesla

HotAir: ESG–Environmental, Social, and Governance investing principles–are measured by scores given to companies that are supposed to measure how progressive companies are in promoting a better world. A world where the environment is cherished, social justice is achieved, and companies are governed ethically. So it should be no surprise to anybody that tobacco companies have some of the highest ESG scores in the world. Far higher than Tesla, which makes electric cars that environmentalists so desperately want to replace internal combustion engines (HotAir). Reporter Aaron Sibarium: From S&P Global to the London Stock Exchange, tobacco companies are crushing Tesla in the ESG ratings. How could cigarettes, which kill over 8 million a year, be deemed a more ethical investment than electric cars? One answer: Tobacco’s gone woke (Twitter).

Majority of Americans Believe Biden Received Bribery Payments to Influence Policy While VP

Daily Caller: Over half of American voters believe that the Biden family has accepted payments from foreign nationals in order to influence politics in Washington D.C., according to a new poll from the Convention of States Action and the Trafalgar Group. President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is currently the subject of a House Oversight Committee investigation which is looking into his conduct and business transactions while overseas during his time on the board of the Ukrainian company Burisma (Daily Caller). Trafalgar Group: New poll reveals majority (53.3%) of Americans believe the Biden family received payments from foreign nationals to influence policy in DC. By Party: 11.2% Dems. 89.8% GOP. 50.7% Inds (Twitter).

Poll Shows Governor Kristi Noem Frontrunner for South Dakota Senate Seat Should She Run in 2026

Just the News: South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has a significant lead in the 2026 Republican Senate primary, if she decides to enter the race, according to a new poll of Republican voters in the state. Noem is the most well-liked politician among South Dakota Republican voters, with a 78% favorable rating, per a Kaplan Strategies poll, Dakota News Now reported Tuesday. No candidate has entered the 2026 U.S. Senate election for the South Dakota seat currently held by Sen. Mike Rounds (R). A potential primary between Rounds and Noem showed Noem in the lead with 53% of the support while Rounds had 26% (Just the News). Dakota News: Kaplan Strategies notes that Noem’s lead was consistent across all age groups, as well as among both men and women (Dakota News).

Chinese Marriage Rates Drop in 2022 to Lowest in a Decade

Reuters: Marriages in China dropped in 2022 to their lowest since records began continuing a steady decline over the past decade although the matrimonial total may have been affected by stringent COVID lockdowns. Just 6.83 million couples completed their marriage registrations last year, data published on the website of the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed, down about 800,000 from the previous year (Reuters). CNN: The data represents marriage during what was an unusually challenging year for people in China, as the government’s stringent Covid-19 controls saw multiple cities and districts across the country locked down and daily life disrupted by a host of restrictions (CNN).

Former Marine Daniel Penny Indicted by Manhattan Grand Jury

New York Post: Former Marine Daniel Penny has been indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold killing of Jordan Neely last month. A grand jury sitting in Manhattan reached its decision Wednesday, weeks after Neely’s death sparked a national firestorm over Penny’s actions and scrutiny over a mental health system that failed the tragic victim. The 24-year-old, who is free on $100,000 bail and faces up to 15 years, first surrendered himself to cops on May 12 — nearly two weeks after he laced his arms around the disturbed homeless man’s neck during a chaotic confrontation on an F train in Manhattan. Penny’s lawyers have said their client acted in self-defense — Neely was allegedly yelling, screaming, and threatening other passengers, according to eyewitnesses (New York Post). Benny Johnson: New York grand jury indicts Daniel Penny in the case of the death of Jordan Neely (Twitter).

EU Makes Major Push to Regulate AI

Washington Post: European Union lawmakers on Wednesday took a key step toward passing a landmark artificial intelligence bill, putting Brussels on a collision course with American tech giants funneling billions of dollars into the burgeoning technology. The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved the E.U. AI Act, a sweeping package that aims to protect consumers from potentially dangerous applications of artificial intelligence — reacting to concerns that recent advances in the technology could be used to nefarious ends, ushering in surveillance, algorithmically driven discrimination and prolific misinformation that could upend democracy. It would ban tools that European lawmakers deem “unacceptable,” such as systems allowing law enforcement to predict criminal behavior using analytics. It would introduce new limits on technologies simply deemed “high risk,” like tools that could sway voters to influence elections or recommendation algorithms, which suggest what posts, photos and videos people see on social networks (Washington Post). CNBC: The next stage is for negotiators at EU institutions, such as the EU executive body and 27 member states. It comes as countries around the world are looking to bring in rules and standards for AI (CNBC).

10.

Citigroup Looks to Cut 5,000 Jobs

Financial Times: Citigroup will have cut 5,000 jobs by the end of the month, mostly in investment banking and trading, after a prolonged slump in dealmaking. The bank, which is still struggling to regain its footing more than a decade after the financial crisis, has already dismissed thousands of employees since the start of the year. The cuts, which represent 2 percent of the bank’s overall staff, were announced by chief financial officer Mark Mason at an investor conference on Wednesday. He warned that severance costs related to 1,600 of the dismissals would crimp second-quarter earnings (Financial Times). Reuters: The bank has already exited seven of the 14 markets it plans to divest from. Mason also warned investors about a fall in revenues in investment banking and trading. He said markets revenues fell 20% so far this quarter from a year earlier. On investment banking, he expects revenues to be down 25% year over year (Reuters).