Today's Top Stories:
Oklahoma Republicans introduce bill to create a database for tracking women considering abortions
The GOP's war on women has entered a frightening, dystopian phase.
VIDEO OF THE DAY: Trump adviser Peter Navarro called out for his "un-American" plan to steal the election
The MAGA minion fell to pieces explaining his clearly criminal ideas about how American elections work.
BOMBSHELL: Democrats score HUGE win ahead of midterms
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen: WOW.
Trump denies report he flushed printed paper down White House toilet
Satire is dead, buried, and apparently lodged in the pipes.
Biden warns Americans in Ukraine to leave, says sending troops to evacuate would be "world war"
The president issued the warning during a wide-ranging new interview with NBC News.
Republican Senate candidate ignites outrage with new ad in which he wields a gun against President Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Mark Kelly
It must be noted that Kelly's wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, previously survived a would-be assassin's gunshot to the head. [JIM LAMON ARIZONA REPUBLICAN]
1/6 investigators find glaring "gaps" in Trump White House call logs
The logs don't reflect all the calls that investigators then-President Trump was making that day, raising obvious concerns about what's being concealed.
Lauren Boebert still refuses to "tone it down"
United Rural Democrats: She's digging her own political grave, and we need to take advantage! Could you spare $7 to fund our grassroots rural organizing project today?
Fire company suspended after alleged racist remarks, mocking of 8-year-old girl killed in police shooting
2022, y'all. PENNSYLVANIA
Judge rebukes RNC's "legitimate political discourse" language at 1/6 sentencing
The RNC may soon regret throwing their lot in so publicly with the Capitol insurrectionists.
Trump remains in contact with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un
The disturbing information was revealed in journalist Maggie Haberman's much-anticipated book about the former president.
Republican deputy attorney general resigns in Virginia after posts surface of her applauding 1/6 rioters
Monique Miles resigned from her position Thursday after Facebook posts surfaced showing she had applauded 1/6 rioters and falsely claimed that Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
Seriously?
Yes. Seriously.
Vladimir Putin's yacht Graceful left Hamburg before finishing repairs, German media reported.
It is speculated Graceful made an abrupt exit to avoid Western sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine.
The luxury superyacht is said to be worth at least $100 million.
A yacht named Graceful and said to belong to Russian President Vladimir Putin left port in Hamburg abruptly before finishing repairs, according to reports from German media.
It is unclear what prompted the move, but the $100 million yacht's relocation from German waters to Kaliningrad, part of Russian territory, came amid fears the West would impose sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine.
While Moscow has continuously denied any plans to invade its neighbor, it has gathered over 100,000 troops at positions all around Ukraine and has even sent six assault ships into the Black Sea, moving more combat power toward the former Soviet territory.
The US and UK have warned of sanctions on Russian elites, and President Joe Biden has threatened to sanction Putin personally should Russia decide to attack Ukraine. He has also deployed troops to Eastern Europe to support NATO members and has put thousands of US troops on "heightened alert" as tensions rise.
Some have speculated that sanctions could target certain luxury assets. Graceful was spotted on a public maritime-traffic-tracking site sailing for Kaliningrad.
Even on the day two years ago that the trade deal was inked, there was skepticism that China would live up to its pledge to spend $200 billion more on U.S. goods and services.
But a new study finds China didn’t even spend an additional dime on U.S. products.
Capitol Report (June 2020): Trump asked China’s Xi to buy U.S. farm products to help him win re-election, Bolton book says
Also see (June 2020): Bolton book adds urgency to Trump bid to depict himself as a China hawk and to paint Biden as a Beijing apologist
Chad Bown of the Peterson Institute for International Economics examined the so-called Phase 1 agreement inked during the administration of former President Donald Trump.
China agreed to buy at least $227.9 billion of U.S. exports in 2020 and $274.5 billion in 2021, for a total of $502.4 billion over the pact’s two years, he noted. In reality: U.S. exports of covered goods and services to China over the two years totaled $288.8 billion.
There were many reasons for this failure. The trade war that preceded the trade pact, finalized in January 2020, meant that U.S. goods exporters started in a hole, Bown said.
Another reason for the failure was the fatal crash of two Boeing BA,
Also see (January 2022): Boeing stock gains after $1.4 billion order from China Airlines
The pandemic was another big factor, as it slammed services exports, as well as travel and education. Financial-services exports and charges for intellectual property were down slightly in 2020, though Bown said they may improve over the longer term.
U.S. agricultural exports, which were politically significant, did recover from the trade war but also fell shy of commitments under the deal, Bown said.
Bown conceded that the deal wasn’t a total washout. “The deal did halt his spiraling trade war. And several of its elements should be kept, notably China’s commitments to remove technical barriers to U.S. farm exports, respect intellectual property, and open up its financial services sector,” he said. But the main lesson of the phase one agreement, according to Bown, was that different terms for the trade relationship are still needed.
Opinion: Trump negotiated a bad trade deal that Biden perplexingly continues
Hope...
