One slide offered the withering perspective that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not even an asset class in the first place, and that they offer neither cash flow nor a hedge against inflation."We believe that a security whose appreciation is primarily dependent on whether someone else is willing to pay a higher price for it is not a suitable investment for our clients," the slide concluded.That wasn't the worst of it. A follow-up slide suggested the other most notable feature of cryptocurrency is as a "conduit for illegal activity," including Ponzi schemes and ransomware, while another invoked the Dutch tulip mania. Ouch.
The poll was sponsored by pro-Trump activist Jack Posobiec of the far-right One American News Network.Trump has frequently praised Rasmussen's polls, calling the company "one of the most accurate in predicting the 2016 Election" and lauding the company for its "honest polling." As recently as February 25, he tweeted that he had reached "52% in the new Rasmussen Poll."Rasmussen itself has a distinct pro-GOP bias. After the 2016 elections, polling analyst Nate Silver noted that "the Republican lean in its polls ran pretty much wire to wire.""It had a significant Republican house effect early in the election cycle and a significant Republican house effect late in the election, and it would up turning into a significant Republican bias on Election Day," he wrote.In September 2018, Ipsos Public Affairs research director Mallory Newall told Hill.TV that Rasmussen's adjustment of data based on party identification tends "to be more along the partisan angle, leaning toward the Republicans."Rasmussen has consistently shown better numbers for Trump and his allies than other major polling firms. CNN analyst Harry Enten noted after the 2018 midterms that Rasmussen's polling had been the least accurate of any firm, actually showing Republicans ahead nationally by one point before the blue wave. "The midterm elections prove that at least for now Rasmussen is dead wrong and traditional pollsters are correct," he argued.
A protester who participated in hanging an effigy of Kentucky's governor at an armed rally on the State Capitol grounds has been fired from his job at an auto dealer.Neil Huffman Auto Group said it terminated the unidentified employee after an internal review, saying it "does not condone threats of violence in any form.""There is no place for hate or intolerance at any of our dealerships," Shannon Huffman, the auto dealer's human resources manager, said on social media Tuesday evening.
In the POLITICO/Morning Consult poll, out Tuesday, only 23 percent of registered voters said they support using hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus, down from 29 percent who supported the therapy in April. And only 11 percent said they are likely to take the drug themselves.
The African-American community has bailed out the Democratic party again and again at the voting booths. So the surprise wasn't that key voices in the community from Symone Sanders to Reggie Hudlin seemed largely willing to contextualize the remark, accept the apology, and move on. The surprise was that many white allies generally intent on chest-beating and virtue signaling were willing to listen.Absolutism apparently no longer holds water.Not when the temporary occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue waxes poetic about Henry Ford's "good bloodlines." Not when African-Americans and Hispanics wait nearly twice as long to vote because thousands of polling stations in minority communities have been closed since the Supreme Court weakened voting discrimination laws in 2013. Not when nearly 100,000 Americans have died from a mismanaged crisis and (according to the Guardian) 1 out of every 2,000 African-Americans in the entire country has already died of COVID-19.Maybe now, with Americans perishing, unemployment skyrocketing, our economy shut down, and our Democratic institutions under assault from an administration and attorney general sworn to protect them, it seems we might be--might be--waking up to the fact that we can no longer brandish our political positions with religious fanaticism. We have to look at a dangerous world as it is, not as we wish it could be, and make complex, nuanced, and--gasp--adult decisions.The Tara Reade debacle also illustrates the need for nuance. One of the rallying cries of #MeToo has been "Believe all women." But all women are not to be believed any more than all men are. To suggest that females are magical truth-telling creatures isn't just insulting; it's objectifying.And of course the leaders of #MeToo knew that.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday evening that wearing a mask to protect against coronavirus is "about loving your fellow human being," saying he tells Ohioans to wear the face coverings even as they have become a political flashpoint amid the pandemic."This is an instruction as old as the Bible. You are supposed to love your fellow man and woman, and that is what we are doing," DeWine told CNN's Anderson Cooper on "AC360.""I think that's the message. You are not wearing it so much for yourself as you are wearing it for that person that you will come in contact with."
The abrupt collapse of FISA talks was exacerbated by a late-developing rift among Democrats as well. The House reached an apparent breakthrough last week when Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) secured a vote on an amendment intended to ban the government from accessing the web browsing history of Ameircans using a provision of FISA. Lofgren's amendment, introduced with Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), closely mirrored language that failed by a single vote in the Senate earlier this month, offered by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).But a change negotiated by Lofgren and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff appeared to rankle Wyden. Just hours after he praised the apparent agreement in the House, Wyden lashed out at Schiff in a statement, accusing him of undermining the original language of his proposal and calling on lawmakers to reject it -- as well as the entire FISA reauthorization. It's unclear why Wyden viewed Schiff's changes as a non-starter."It is now clear that there is no agreement with the House Intelligence Committee to enact true protections for Americans' rights against dragnet collection of online activity," Wyden said in a statement.Schiff indicated in an earlier statement that his talks with Lofgren produced "an agreement on modifications" to the Wyden proposal, which was also bipartisan. The language limited Wyden's proposed protections to "U.S. persons," which aides indicated would ensure the FBI could continue to collect web browsing information from foreign targets, such as terrorists or intelligence agents.The FISA debate has also created a rift in the GOP conference -- and those divisions were on full display during a private call between Republican leaders and ranking committee members on Tuesday.Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who helped negotiate the initial FISA deal, voiced his support for the bill and pointed out that the president wants reforms, according to sources on the call. Trump and his allies allege that the FBI used the law to improperly monitor figures in his campaign amid an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.But GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) pushed back, saying she disagreed with Jordan, and outlined her reasons why. She argued that the amended bill would undermine national security, create red tape at the FISA courts and wouldn't have protected the president.
"We are investigating whether Ms. McCabe gave false testimony under oath," Berkley Brannon, chief assistant district attorney, told POLITICO. Brannon added that it is not immediately clear how many court cases Reade testified as an expert."We have no database or search engine to use to determine in how many cases she testified," Brannon told Politico. "However, that effort is ongoing."Reade claimed she had earned her bachelor's degree from Antioch University in Seattle under a "protected program." But university officials told Politico that Reade only attended for three academic quarters and did not graduate, and denied that she had a special arrangement to earn her degree."Alexandra McCabe attended but did not graduate from Antioch University," Karen Hamilton, an Antioch University spokesperson told CNN. "She was never a faculty member. She did provide several hours of administrative work."Reade went on to Seattle University Law School, where officials confirmed she earned her law degree. However, she would not have been able to earn her law degree without a valid undergraduate degree, per the school's admission standards. Officials refused to confirm the validity of her degree under the circumstances, Politico reported.
Democracies might be among the worst performers in the COVID-19 crisis, but they are also among the best, especially when they are led not by populist leaders, but by those who can draw on a high level of public trust. This has been the case with Germany, Taiwan, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and South Korea - the first five of which are led by women, whose leadership style tends to be inclusive rather than top-down.Democracies have also revealed their innate resilience and adaptability. Centralized systems like that of Britain have had to cede more political control to the regional governments; Taiwan is showing how its commitment to protecting individual democratic rights can be applied successfully to voluntary health surveillance; and Germany has drawn on the strength of its federal governance system. Even the more politically divided democracies, such as U.S. and Britain, have rapidly rolled out massive macroeconomic stimulus packages with bipartisan support.At the same time, democracies have shown the power and value of their diverse and independent civil societies, which have the freedom to mobilize to confront a crisis of this sort. Corporations, universities, foundations and nonprofit organizations are cooperating and innovating with local authorities and internationally, whether to deliver medical relief and social support or to secure a vaccine.In contrast, authoritarian states look brittle. When there is only one, permanent leader - party or individual - failure cannot be admitted, and mistakes must be concealed. This was clearly the dynamic in China, where the Communist Party in Wuhan sought to hide the extent of the virus's outbreak from December 2019 into early January. Sensing the risk to its reputation, the Chinese leadership has since moved into over-drive to try to control the narrative on the outbreak, creating greater international distrust of China in the process.Other authoritarian states are faring worse. Russia is now coping with its own full-blown COVID crisis, while Iran has nearly 130,000 confirmed infections and a high death rate. President Putin's focus on recovering Russia's position as a great power has been at the expense of socio-economic investment, leaving the country's health system struggling to manage the crisis. His popularity has fallen to the lowest level since he first became president in 2000.The Iranian regime's efforts to underplay the risks of the virus have backfired, leaving it vulnerable to a resumption of the violent popular protests that rocked the country following the government's cover-up of its downing of a Ukrainian airliner on January 8.The fact is that authoritarian leaders can cope relatively well with geopolitical instability and opportunity, as Russia and Iran have demonstrated in the Middle East. Similarly, they can launch large-scale investment projects with geo-economic goals, as China has done with its Belt and Road Initiative, with little concern about their long-term sustainability.But in the face of an amorphous, cross-border virus that cannot be deterred, coerced or denied, authoritarian leadership reveals the shallowness of its power, as well as the bluff and bluster of its imitators, from Turkey to Brazil. By suppressing the power of civil society and independent media, these governments hear bad news late and must then rely on rigid bureaucracies to deliver complex responses.