Tag: President Trump

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President Trump Bans Social Media Apps TikTok and WeChat

CREDIT: Kon Karampelas

Kon Karampelas

Late Thursday evening, President Donald Trump issued two executive orders banning social media apps TikTok and WeChat from operating in the United States in 45 days.

President Trump Bans Social Media Apps TikTok and WeChat

Under the ban, transactions between American companies and citizens and the Chinese tech giant Tencent would be prohibited if they are not sold to American companies under the allotted time.

The executive orders do not state what ownership percentage or global markets would have to be given to American companies to pause the ban. The Trump administration has also stated that any deal would have to include a “substantial amount of money” coming to the U.S. Treasury.

The Trump administration had been critical of the apps, stating that their data collection process could put Americans at risk despite numerous experts citing their data collection practices were on par with the industry standard.

Nonetheless, in his executive orders, President Trump stated that the apps could “allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”

President Trump had initially set a deadline of Sept. 15 for when ByteDance, owner of TikTok, would need to sell the social media app to an American-owned company. Microsoft has been in talks of acquiring TikTok’s business in certain markets, specifically the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but has shown little interest in their other markets.

The move leaves a lot in the air as Tencent is also the owner of some of the largest U.S.-based game developers in the world. The company retains full ownership of Riot Games, developers of popular games League of Legends, Legends of Runeterra, and Valorant; 40 percent ownership of Epic Games, developers of the popular shooter Fortnite; and 5 percent ownership of Activision Blizzard, the parent company of the developers of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Destiny 2.

Though White House officials confirmed that the initial wave of bans will not affect video game companies owned by Tencent, potential Chinese retaliation and subsequent executive orders could put them at risk.

President Trump Bans Social Media Apps TikTok and WeChat (2)

TikTok released a statement following the announcement where it expressed confusion and shock at the decision.

“For nearly a year, we have sought to engage with the US government in good faith to provide a constructive solution to the concerns that have been expressed. What we encountered instead was that the Administration paid no attention to facts, dictated terms of an agreement without going through standard legal processes, and tried to insert itself into negotiations between private businesses.”

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Time For Another TEA Party?

Do you remember Rick Santelli? No? Let me refresh your memory. On February 9, 2009, Santelli, a CNBC commentator, went on an epic rant and called for the American people to rise up and hold “tea party” rallies to protest the then-recent $700 billion federal bailouts of banks and automakers, the $800 billion economic stimulus package of President Barack Obama, and the resultant government deficits and debt. 

A couple of months later, on April 15th (tax day) of that year, rallies were held in cities all around the country. Thousands of protesters, many dressed in colonial wigs and revolutionary war garb, showed up with protest signs to listen to speeches lambasting the Obama administration’s “tax-and-spend” policies.

The protestors chanted “Give me liberty, not debt,” “Our kids can’t afford you,” and other righteous sentiments. “I have two little kids, and I know we are mortgaging their futures away,” said a protester at a rally in Austin, Texas. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”

Rick Santelli

A lot of people were sick to their stomachs, apparently. You may or may not recall that the “TEA” in TEA Party stood for “Taxed Enough Already.” These Americans were so damned angry that the country’s deficit was so big, they started a movement. And it caught on, bigly. Hundreds of TEA Partiers won political office locally, statewide, and nationally. They were mad as hell, and they weren’t going to take it. Change was coming!

So where are the TEA Partiers today? Well, Michael Pence is vice president of the United States. Marsha Blackburn is a U.S. senator, as are Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Mike Lee (R-Utah). In the House of Representatives, there are currently 23 members of the TEA Party Caucus, down from 60 members just five years ago.

Oddly enough, despite all the TEA Party’s passion about “taxing and spending,” the current national deficit is $22 trillion — the highest it has ever been — according to Treasury Department data released in February. The reason is not rocket science. Tax revenue has fallen, and federal spending has continued to rise. The new debt level reflects an increase of more than $2 trillion since President Trump took office in 2017.

Further, according to the Congressional Budget Office: “Despite being in the second-longest economic expansion since the post-World War II boom, the U.S. is projected to rack up annual deficits and incur national debt at rates not seen since the 1940s [$1.2 trillion annually over the next 10 years]. … Other than the period immediately after World War II, the only other time the average deficit has been so large over so many years was after the 2007-2009 recession.”

Hmmm. Seems we are in familiar territory, no? So where are all the angry protests? Where are the thousands of people taking to the streets because the government is “mortgaging the future”? Why aren’t Marsha Blackburn, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Congressional TEA Party Republicans demanding fiscal accountability?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest it’s because the TEA Party was never really about taxes and spending. It was about getting President Obama and other Democrats out of office. The fact that Obama was president was a feature of the TEA Party movement, not a bug. The deficit just gave protesters more fuel for their anti-Obama fire. It was all about raw power, with a bonus dollop of racism. (If you doubt that latter statement, just google some of the images and signs from TEA Party protests.)

Now Donald Trump is president, and to say the least, he is an economic pinball, careening from one policy pronouncement to another, tossing tariffs like darts at a wall map, sticking longtime allies and traditional foes alike, making deals (and faking deals), and declaring that “trade wars are easy to win.” He freely criticizes publicly traded American companies he doesn’t like, affecting stock prices with a tweet or a public pronouncement.

On Monday, for example, the president called in to CNBC’s Squawk Box to accuse Google and Facebook and other high-tech corporations of “discriminating” against him and suggested possible anti-monopoly actions could be considered. This is hardly behavior for an American president. But we should be used to that by now, I suppose.

Which leaves one question: Where’s Rick Santelli when we really need him?

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Just Shoot Me

CREDIT: REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert

Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump has admitted to shooting Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross during a tumultuous cabinet meeting on Monday. Ross, 81, is in a Washington, D.C., hospital, where his condition is listed as critical. Trump tweeted Monday night that Ross “had it coming.” Trump went on to tweet that Ross had “fallen asleep” while the president was speaking about the border wall, and that he wanted to “send a message” to other cabinet members. He then tweeted “NO COLLUSION!” and “HAPPY EARTH DAY!”

Since the Justice Department has issued an opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Trump appears to be in no danger of being prosecuted for the shooting.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a briefing Tuesday morning that “the president has been very clear on what he will put up with from his cabinet members. While the president wishes the commerce secretary a speedy recovery, he reiterates that he was well within his rights to shoot Mr. Ross under Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president cannot be indicted. He hopes that Mr. Ross has ‘learned his lesson.'”

On Tuesday evening, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was interviewed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “All right, Kellyanne Conway, what’s your take on this bizarre shooting in the White House yesterday?”

“Well, Wolf, the mainstream media is reporting that a bullet struck Secretary Ross in a cabinet meeting. The president takes full responsibility for being in that meeting, but beyond that, what do we really know? Did you hear the gunshot, Wolf? I don’t think so. Do you know for a fact that Mr. Ross didn’t assault the president? Maybe it was self-defense. For all we know, it could have been a drive-by shooting. We just don’t have all the facts at this point, Wolf, but I remain confident in this president and his policies, which are supported by the majority of the American people.”

“Kellyanne, the president has tweeted that he shot Wilbur Ross. That seems pretty definitive …”

“The president was possibly being sarcastic, Wolf. Or it may have been a retweet.”

“[sighs] All right, let’s go to our panel. …  Rudy Giuliani, what’s your response to this surprising bit of news?”

“It’s simple, Wolf. It’s not illegal for the president to shoot someone. In fact, it’s not illegal for him to do anything, if you think about it. If you can’t be indicted, then you can’t be proven guilty, and if you can’t be proven guilty, then you’re not guilty. Simple as that. I’m not saying he did it, but if he did, that’s well within his rights as president.”

Sean Hannity, speaking on his Fox News show later Tuesday night, also defended the president: “I commend the president for taking this bold stand against incompetence. He’s merely doing what he promised he’d do — draining the swamp! When the president speaks, cabinet members should be listening, not sleeping. Do you think President Obama would have had the courage to shoot a cabinet member? Or Crazy Bernie? Don’t make me laugh.”

On Wednesday morning, Attorney General William Barr issued a statement: “The president’s actions — if he took any actions — regarding the shooting of Commerce Secretary Ross were well within the jurisdiction of the president’s powers. We suspect some of the negative reports regarding this incident that have come out in the press are a result of illegal leaks from FBI spies. We also must bear in mind that the president has been very frustrated lately, which has caused him undue stress and may have contributed to this unfortunate but justifiable incident of a stray bullet striking Secretary Ross.”

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on Friday: “The House Judiciary, Oversight, Ways and Means, Budget, and Homeland Security Committees will begin hearings on the recent incident concerning President Trump and the late Wilbur Ross (RIP) on Thursday next week. While Mr. Trump’s actions have brought dishonor to the presidency — and are possibly murderous — our hands are tied by the Justice Department’s ruling that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Further, we do not feel at this time these actions warrant impeachment, which would only rile up Mr. Trump’s supporters and divide the country. We think it’s better to leave it to the American people to decide. The 2020 election is only 18 months away.”

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Where the Truth Goes to Die

CREDIT: Reuters | Joshua Roberts

Have we ever lived through an era when more lies were being foisted on the American public by their own government than now? Sure, we had Watergate, and the Vietnam years were filled with lies from several administrations. And, sure, governments have always covered up things they didn’t want the public to know. But I don’t believe there’s ever been a time in our history like what’s happening now, where we are told bold-faced, easily disprovable prevarications by our own president and his enablers on a daily basis.

Trump lies so brazenly and so frequently that The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Politico, and several other media organizations have set up webpages to track them. Trump’s tweets are in a class by themselves, filled with falsehoods, exaggerations, bluster, and (increasingly) transparent fear, as Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation begins to out the collaborators in his administration.

But it goes beyond the president. Way beyond. Trump, in fact, has created a thriving growth industry of prevaricators who are paid to reiterate and/or explain his many falsehoods and misstatements.

It began in the first week of his presidency, when the president sent out press secretary Sean Spicer, who proclaimed that Trump’s Inaugural crowd was the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” It wasn’t, of course, not even close, but Spicer persisted, even berating reporters who dared point out the obvious evidence to the contrary. “Who you gonna believe,” Spicer seemed to be saying, “the facts or President Trump?” That moment set the tone for Trump’s entire presidency, thus far.

In the ensuing weeks, Spicer’s daily press briefings became a sideshow, as the beleagured spokesman attempted to spin his boss’ misinformed tweets and daily blather into some semblance of reality. He eventually became a running joke on Saturday Night Live.

But Spicer was only the first of many to sell his soul — or, at least, his integrity — for Donald Trump. Since then, the list has become a lengthy one, and is growing each week, as the Russian plotlines unfold.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who took over Spicer’s role as chief presidential explainer and apologist, is a much better liar. Not that she’s more believable; she’s just more comfortable at spewing bullshit with conviction and attitude. Spicer at least tried to be likeable.

The truth is, anyone in this administration who wants to keep their job has to be willing to lie for their boss. For example, at Trump’s direction, Vice President Mike Pence spent tax-payer money to fly across country to a football game just so he could walk out during the national anthem. Pence’s soul (such as it is) has long been sold.

And let’s not forget Kellyanne Conway, perhaps the most enthusiastic liar ever to appear on the national stage. Or Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who’s lied to Congress twice to protect his boss (and his own butt). And there’s Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly — once perceived as a beacon of truth and integrity in this administration — who’s now been outed as someone willing to make up lies for his boss, and defend them, even after they’ve been disproven.

It’s gotten to the point where it’s difficult to name someone in this adminstration who hasn’t been caught in a lie. Go ahead, see if you can think of someone. Tom Price? Betsy DeVos? Steve Mnuchin? Scott Pruitt? Ryan Zinke? Wilbur Ross? All cabinet members who’ve been outed as liars. Steve Bannon? Jared Kushner? Mike Flynn? The list is seemingly endless.

This is the biggest crowd of liars ever assembled in any single administration. And that’s not counting media sycophants like Sean Hannity — and Fox News, which has morphed into some sort of crazed branch of state media.

It’s been said that the truth will out. And I have enough faith in the American system to think that it will eventually, even with this bunch. But if I said I was confident it would happen soon, I’d be lying.