Weekly CEO Buys Highlight

The Independent
Republican lawmaker calls for Kyle Rittenhouse, who is on trial for murder, to be elected to Congress
Anthony Sabatini’s comment sparks demands for his resignation
5h ago
The Week
There's a very simple, extremely plausible reason Trump won't admit Biden won
President Trump lost his bid for re-election by 6 million votes and counting, and 74 electoral votes, and his legal team is consistently losing its court battles to disqualify President-elect Joe Biden's voters. And yet he persists, even as a growing number of Republicans are urging him to concede — or at least allow the Biden team to start its transition. So why does Trump keep slogging on? One theory being pushed by some of his supporters and allies is revenge."Trump told an ally that he knows he lost, but that he is delaying the transition process and is aggressively trying to sow doubt about the election results in order to get back at Democrats for questioning the legitimacy of his own election in 2016, especially with the Russia investigation," CNN reports, citing a source familiar with Trump's thinking. Pointing to "those who he claims undercut his election by pointing to Russian interference efforts," Trump "has suggested it is fair game to not recognize Joe Biden as the president-elect.""Will anyone be honest enough to acknowledge that most of what is happening right now has more to do with payback for how the Democrats behaved after 2016 then [sic] about legitimate claims of fraud in the election?" asked Erick Erickson, a sometime Trump critic on the right. Washington Post columnist Daniel Drezner responded by efficiently dismantling this "false equivalence between 2016 and 2020."The simpler explanation is that Trump always alleges fraud when he loses — and even when he wins — and that's just who he is: a sore loser.> Not just the 2016 Iowa caucuses, but popular vote in 2016, Arizona Senate race in 2018, and the results in 2012, when Trump was tweeting from the sidelines. It's not "revenge for the Russia investigation," Trump just says everything he loses was stolen. https://t.co/ZpViWOCpKh> > — Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 21, 2020The Washington Post complied a highlight reel of Trump's fraud claims.One piece of evidence bolstering this theory comes from Trump himself, who told CNN's Chris Cuomo in August 2015 that National Review's Rich Lowry is "probably right. I am the most fabulous whiner. I do whine because I want to win. And I'm not happy if I'm not winning. And I am a whiner. And I'm a whiner and I keep whining and whining until I win."More stories from theweek.com Reporter Carl Bernstein names 21 GOP senators who 'repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump' Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it. 5 bruisingly funny cartoons about Rudy Giuliani's dubious legal strategy
4h ago
Associated Press
AP Explains: The FBI is investigating Texas AG Ken Paxton
The FBI recently opened a criminal investigation into claims that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton abused his office to benefit a wealthy donor. The probe, which was confirmed to The Associated Press by two people with knowledge of it who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, marks an escalation in the latest controversy to surround the high-profile Republican, who has spent years under indictment on unrelated state securities fraud charges. The FBI's interest in Texas' top law enforcement official arose from a rebellion by Paxton's top deputies, who accused him of breaking the law by using his office to help a wealthy donor with a troubled real estate empire who also hired a woman with whom the married Paxton allegedly had an affair.
2d ago
The Conversation
China beat the coronavirus with science and strong public health measures, not just with authoritarianism
I live in a democracy. But as Thanksgiving approaches, I find myself longing for the type of freedom I am seeing in China. People in China are able to move around freely right now. Many Americans may believe that the Chinese are able to enjoy this freedom because of China’s authoritarian regime. As a scholar of public health in China, I think the answers go beyond that.My research suggests that the control of the virus in China is not the result of authoritarian policy, but of a national prioritization of health. China learned a tough lesson with SARS, the first coronavirus pandemic of the 21st century. How China flattened its curveBarely less than a year ago, a novel coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, with 80,000 cases identified within three months, killing 3,000 people. In late January 2020, the Chinese government decided to lock down this city of 11 million people. All transportation to and from the city was stopped. Officials further locked down several other cities in Hubei Province, eventually quarantining over 50 million people.By the beginning of April, the Chinese government limited the spread of the virus to the point where they felt comfortable opening up Wuhan once again. Seven months later, China has confirmed 9,100 additional cases and recorded 1,407 more deaths due to the coronavirus. People in China travel, eat in restaurants and go into theaters, and kids go to school without much concern for their health. Juxtapose that to what we are experiencing in the U.S. To date, we have confirmed over 11 million cases, with the last 1 million recorded in just the last one week alone. In September and October, friends from China sent me pictures of food from all over the country as they traveled around to visit friends and family for the mid-autumn festival and then the seven-day National Day vacation week. I envied them then and envy them even more now as Americans prepare and wonder how we will celebrate Thanksgiving this year. What China learned from SARSWe Americans are told that the freedoms Chinese now enjoy come at the expense of being subject to a set of draconian public health policies that can be instituted only by an authoritarian government. But they also have the experience of living through a similar epidemic.SARS broke out in November of 2002 and ended in May of 2003, and China was anything but prepared for its emergence. It didn’t have the public health infrastructure in place to detect or control such a disease, and initially decided to prioritize politics and economy over health by covering up the epidemic. This didn’t work with such a virulent disease that started spreading around the world. After being forced to come to terms with SARS, China’s leaders eventually did enforce quarantine in Beijing and canceled the week-long May Day holiday of 2003. This helped to end the pandemic within a few short months, with minimal impact. SARS infected approximately 8,000 worldwide and killed about 800, 65% of which occurred in China and Hong Kong. The Chinese government learned from SARS the important role public health plays in protecting the nation. Following SARS, the government improved training of public health professionals and developed one of the most sophisticated disease surveillance systems in the world. While caught off guard for this next big coronavirus outbreak in December 2019, the country quickly mobilized its resources to bring the epidemic almost to a halt inside its borders within three months. What can the US learn from China?Knowing that there were no safe or proven treatments or an effective vaccine, China relied on proven nonpharmaceutical interventions to conquer the epidemic. First and foremost was containing the virus through controlling the sources of infection and blocking transmission. This was accomplished through early detection (testing), isolation, treatment and tracing the close contacts of any infected individual. This strategy was aided by the three field hospitals (fancang) the government built to isolate patients with mild to moderate symptoms from their families. Strict quarantine measures were also central to preventing the spread of this epidemic, as it was with the SARS epidemic in 2003. This was paired with compulsory mask-wearing, promotion of personal hygiene (hand-washing, home disinfection, ventilation), self-monitoring of body temperature, universal compulsory stay-at-home orders for all residents, and universal symptom surveys conducted by community workers and volunteers. What else could the US have done to be prepared?SARS exposed serious weaknesses in China’s public health system and prompted its government to reinvent its public health system. COVID-19 has exposed similar shortcomings in the U.S. public health system. To date, however, the current administration has taken the exact opposite approach, devastating our public health system. The Trump administration made major cuts to the budgets of the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last budget submitted by the Trump administration in February 2020, as the pandemic was beginning, called for an additional reduction of US$693 million to the CDC budget. This affected our ability to prepare for a pandemic outbreak. In the past, this preparation included international partnerships to help detect disease before it reached our shores. For example, the CDC built up partnerships with China following the SARS epidemic, to help contain the emergence of infectious disease coming from the region. At one point the CDC had 10 American experts working on the ground in China and 40 local Chinese staff, who mostly concentrated on infectious disease. Trump started slashing these positions shortly after taking office, and by the time COVID-19 broke out, those programs were whittled down to a skeleton staff of one or two. [Research into coronavirus and other news from science Subscribe to The Conversation’s new science newsletter.]The Declaration of Alma Ata guaranteed health for all, and not just health for people governed under a specific type of bureaucratic system. The U.S. has been, and can be, just as dedicated to protecting the health of its people as China under its authoritarian government. We demonstrated this during the Ebola epidemic, with the launch of a whole government effort coordinated by Ron Klain, who has been appointed White House chief of staff under President-elect Biden.This effort, which included a coordinated response with both African nations and China, improved preparedness within the U.S. and ultimately helped to save hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. A reduction in funding for our public health infrastructure, under the Trump administration, was a divestment in the health of the American people and should not have happened. A new administration that places public health at the helm, once again, will I hope prove to us that health is not just something that can be protected under an authoritarian government, but is in fact a right for all.This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Elanah Uretsky, Brandeis University.Read more: * Poor US pandemic response will reverberate in health care politics for years, health scholars warn * Experts agree that Trump’s coronavirus response was poor, but the US was ill-prepared in the first placeElanah Uretsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
2h ago
Business Insider
Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a candidate in the Georgia runoff, tested positive for COVID-19 and is quarantining
Loeffler is currently campaigning in a high-stakes race that could determine control of the Senate at the start of President-elect Joe Biden's term.
1d ago
The Independent
Iowa congressman notorious for racist remarks asks Kamala Harris if she was descended from slave owners
Outgoing Republican Steve King has long history of offensive remarks
17h ago
The Week
Biden has reportedly chosen his U.N. ambassador, national security adviser
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to announce Linda Thomas-Greenfield as his nominee for ambassador to the United Nations and Jake Sullivan as his national security adviser, several people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post. Thomas-Greenfield spent 35 years in the Foreign Service, retiring in 2017. She served as assistant secretary of state for African affairs and was ambassador to Liberia during the Obama administration. She is now a senior counselor with the Albright Stonebridge advisory firm.Sullivan was one of Biden's national security advisers during his time as vice president and was also a deputy chief of staff to Hillary Clinton when she was secretary of state. Antony Blinken, Biden's reported pick to be his secretary of state nominee, also served as one of Biden's national security advisers while vice president.More stories from theweek.com Reporter Carl Bernstein names 21 GOP senators who 'repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump' Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it. There's a very simple, extremely plausible reason Trump won't admit Biden won
11h ago
The Telegraph
Trump campaign demands second Georgia recount after judge's dismissal of Pennsylvania challenge
Undaunted by a Pennsylvania judge's withering dismissal of a plea to discount millions of mail-in votes, the Trump campaign turned its attention to another battleground state and demanded a second recount in Georgia. The move was the latest shot in a salvo of legal cases with Donald Trump still showing no sign of accepting that he lost the election. On Monday Michigan's four-member Elections board is due to meet to ratify their results, with one of the two Republicans indicating he could vote against doing so. The demand for a Georgia recount came hours after Judge Matthew Brann described the challenge to the Pennsylvania result as without merit. Alleging irregularities in the way ballots were treated across the state, the Trump campaign had asked the court to prevent millions of mail-in ballots being counted.
21h ago
Associated Press
Turkey protests German search of Libya-bound Turkish ship
Turkey and Germany were at loggerheads on Monday after a German frigate enforcing an arms embargo against Libya intercepted a Turkish freighter in the Mediterranean sea and carried out what a senior Turkish official dismissed as an “illegal" search. Turkey said personnel from the German frigate Hamburg were flown by helicopter aboard the Libya-bound freighter Rosaline-A on Sunday to carry out an hours-long search without the captain or the Turkish government's permission to board. The captain and crew were forcibly searched and held in one part of the vessel as the German team searched the ship “by force,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
2h ago
INSIDER
AOC calls out Kyle Rittenhouse's $2 million bail release as 'protection of white supremacy'
"Does anyone believe Rittenhouse would be released if he were Muslim," AOC wrote on Twitter.
19h ago
USA TODAY
Wisconsin police arrest 15-year-old boy for Mayfair Mall shooting, say 'bullets started flying' during altercation
While witnesses described the shooter as a white man in his 20s or 30s, Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber said the suspect is an Hispanic teenager.
16h ago
The Week
Republicans launch Pennsylvania lawsuit that argues GOP-backed bill allowing universal mail voting is unconstitutional
A group of Republicans, including Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) are launching a lawsuit -- in the hopes of blocking the certification of Pennsylvania's election results -- that claims a state law passed in 2019 allowing for universal mail-in voting is unconstitutional. If that were the case, mail-in ballots would be invalidated, likely swinging the state back to President Trump.> Here is the complaint introduction from the Commonwealth Court filing /5 pic.twitter.com/OdF3hdUpwS> > -- Matt Maisel (@Matt_Maisel) November 21, 2020The lawsuit quickly drew heated criticism, including accusations that Kelly (who was just re-elected himself) and the other plaintiffs are "openly rejecting democracy and the rule of law," but many observers were simply perplexed. For starters, the bill was passed over a year ago, raising questions as to why its constitutionality wasn't brought up between then and now. Plus, it was pushed through thanks to a majority GOP state legislature, with only one Republican member of the state House voting against it, while GOP senators backed it unanimously. > In the lawsuit, filed this morning in Commonwealth Court, plaintiffs say Act 77 is "unconstitutional," and "implemented illegally." They argue it's an illegal attempt to override limitations on absentee voting, and needed to go through a constitutional amendment first /3> > -- Matt Maisel (@Matt_Maisel) November 21, 2020More stories from theweek.com Reporter Carl Bernstein names 21 GOP senators who 'repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump' Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it. There's a very simple, extremely plausible reason Trump won't admit Biden won
2d ago
Associated Press
Thousands march in Taiwan against US pork imports
Thousands of people marched in Taipei's streets on Sunday demanding the reversal of a decision to allow U.S. pork imports into Taiwan, alleging food safety issues. President Tsai Ing-wen's administration lifted a long-standing ban on U.S. pork and beef imports in August, in a move seen as one of the first steps toward possibly negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. The ban is due to be lifted in January. The new policy allows imports of pork with acceptable residues of ractopamine, a drug added into animal feed that promotes the growth of lean meat that some farmers use in pigs.
1d ago
Reuters Videos
The transition begins…for the @POTUS Twitter handle
When Joe Biden is sworn in as president on January 20th, he'll gain access not only to the country's nuclear codes, but to another formidable weapon -- the official POTUS social media accounts. While Donald Trump still refuses to accept the election outcome, Twitter and Facebook are working on their own presidential transition. The social media companies said on Saturday that they would transfer control of their respective POTUS accounts to Joe Biden on Inauguration Day, just as they did in 2017 when they transferred control of the account from the Obama to the Trump administration. In a statement to Reuters Twitter confirmed that the handover was being done in close consultation with the National Archives and Records. The @POTUS account on each platform is the official account of the President of the United States. The social media giants will also hand over other institutional handles - for the White House, vice president and first lady of the United States - on inauguration day. Politico reported that Twitter will meet transition officials of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the coming months to discuss the particulars of how the new administration will use Twitter.
2d ago
The Independent
Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler quarantining following inconclusive coronavirus test results
Vice president Mike Pence pictured at two campaign events with her on Friday
1d ago
USA TODAY
Nebraska man arrested for allegedly shooting 4 people, killing 2, at a Sonic Drive-In restaurant, police say
Roberto Carlos Silva Jr., 23, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson, authorities said on Sunday.
12h ago
National Review
Here Comes the Biden Blame Game
During the eight years that President Obama and his team managed the economy, Americans were regularly assured that the president’s Keynesian policies would deliver striking growth in the years ahead. The growth repeatedly failed to materialize, and what followed was a master class in blamesmanship. No matter how far into the Obama term we were, the disappointing growth was a “new normal”- not the result of President Obama’s high tax and heavy regulatory policies. It was all the fault of the Bush administration. In some sense, Bush was portrayed for the entire eight years as a comic book villain. His policies were so terrible that they were able to overwhelm the economy for years.Watching Vice President Biden prepare to be president gives one a strong feeling of déjà vu. Last week he called on Congress to pass Nancy Pelosi’s large and untargeted stimulus bill, chock-full of candy that is poison to Senate Republicans, such as a massive bailout for blue states. He added that it is going to be a “long dark winter” with the emphasis on long, and promised to return to his “Build Back Better” agenda of tax hikes and regulatory crackdowns as soon as possible.Before they storm the castle, perhaps the Biden team should make a list of their assets. The first asset is a strong economy. The COVID-19 pandemic recession likely ended in the third quarter of this year, when real GDP advanced a whopping 33.1 percent. The Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate for the fourth quarter suggests it will post growth around six percentage points. Combining the two, that means that the economy will about return to the level of GDP it posted right before the pandemic began, back when we had the strongest economy in generations. So the “back” part of the Biden slogan is superfluous, as the economy will likely be back before he takes office. As has been discussed at length in this space, that agenda doesn’t build at all, but rather subtracts from economic activity. So it doesn’t build, we are already back, and it’s worse than the status quo.The second asset is a vaccine. We are very close to the widespread availability of two enormously successful vaccines. More could well be on the way. Most Americans should be able to receive them by the spring. This means that the acceleration in the economy that is currently underway should, if we leave it alone, pick up steam as things head back to a post-pandemic normal.The third asset is a likely Republican-controlled Senate that has already shown that it is able to pass significant stimulus legislation. But it is not going to hand out cash to blue states willy nilly as the House Democrats have proposed.Which completes the setting. The economy is carrying enormous positive momentum into next year. Since the case load is spiking now, there is some chance that lockdowns will get worse before they get better. Firms around the country need to tread water for a few more months, after which they can return to normal. The risk is that there is a wave of bankruptcies between now and the late spring, that is set off by a return to widespread shutdowns. To face this risk, the administration needs to show it is serious about finding a compromise stimulus package, and cognizant that a promise of massive tax hikes next year is a negative for business sentiment. Businesses that are just hanging on with hope of a brighter future could well give up if that future includes a government that taxes away all their profits.Unfortunately, Vice President Biden has come out with exactly the opposite of this message. By sticking to the Pelosi bill, he fails to signal a willingness to compromise, suggesting to those holding out for another round of stimulus that they have little to hope for. And the future is dark as well, since the administration’s tax hikes are coming. In other words, he seems poised to fritter away all of the economic gains that the U.S. has achieved in the second half of this year. If the double-dip recession hits next year, Biden will remind us over and over that its Donald Trump’s fault. My guess is that he will find a way to mention Bush as well.
4h ago
Business Insider
Trump supporter charged with assault after breathing forcefully on protesters at the Virginia golf course where Trump was playing
Loudoun County Sheriff's Office charged Raymond Deskins after the incident outside Trump's Virginia golf course on Saturday.
4h ago
Associated Press
Libya’s rivals meet to discuss transitional government
Libya’s rivals on Monday began a second round of talks on a mechanism to choose a transitional government that would lead the conflict-stricken country to elections in December next year, the United Nations said. U.N. acting envoy for Libya Stephanie Williams headed the online meeting of the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum a week after the first round of the talks in Tunisia failed to name an executive authority. The 75-member forum reached an agreement to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on Dec. 24, 2021.
5h ago
The Week
Gavin Newsom and family quarantine following COVID-19 exposure
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and his family will quarantine for 14 days following an exposure to COVID-19. Newsom on Twitter said that three of his children were recently "exposed to an officer from the California Highway Patrol who had tested positive for COVID-19." The California Highway Patrol provides the governor and his family with security, according to the Los Angeles Times.Newsom said he and his wife had "no direct interaction with the officer" who tested positive for COVID-19, and his "entire family tested negative" for the coronavirus on Sunday. "However, consistent with local guidance, we will be quarantining for 14 days," Newsom said.The governor's office previously announced on Friday that one of Newsom's children would be quarantining after a classmate tested positive for COVID-19, the Los Angeles Times reports.News of Newsom's COVID-19 quarantine comes after the governor recently received criticism for attending a birthday party amid the pandemic. He apologized and called his decision to attend the party a "bad mistake," admitting, "The spirit of what I'm preaching all the time was contradicted. I need to preach and practice, not just preach." More stories from theweek.com Reporter Carl Bernstein names 21 GOP senators who 'repeatedly expressed extreme contempt for Trump' Biden is stealing the spotlight. Trump can't stand it. There's a very simple, extremely plausible reason Trump won't admit Biden won
2h ago

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