Month: November 2024

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

If The U.S. Falls into Recession, It Will Be From Years of Government Excess

Overheating the economy with a massive increase in government spending, disguising employment with public sector jobs, and soaring federal debt. The foundation of Neokeynesian economics always rests on the idea that an economy must prioritize government spending, leading to full blown socialism. When the economy is growing, government spending rises because, allegedly, it is time to borrow and grow. When the economy overheats and enters the inevitable recession, government spending must rise again because it needs to support growth. See? The size of government in the economy increases both during and after a recession. Taxes constantly rise, but debt rises faster. Upside-down economics.

The Biden-Harris administration has followed exactly the policies of the Greek, Spanish, and French socialists into an election year prior to their countries’ crises. The strategy involves inflating the GDP through excessive government spending, creating an uncontrollable deficit during a period of economic recovery, and masking employment through government jobs financed by increased debt. In the process, the printing of money results in the highest inflation in decades.

Why would a government do this?

• Firstly, it serves to present inflated headline GDP and employment figures.

• Secondly, they can attempt to attribute inflation to supermarkets, corporations, and anyone else besides the government, which prints currency without any control.

• Thirdly, they can attribute the debt bubble’s burst to the upcoming administration’s efforts to rein in spending and debt levels.

• Fourth, if they had emerged victorious in the elections and the recession erupted, they would pledge to increase spending, increase taxes, and justify even higher public debt, claiming “extraordinary” circumstances.

Of course, now that the Harris-Waltz team has lost the elections, Democrats can blame Trump and Vance for the recession they have engineered. If Trump falls into the trap of maintaining elevated government spending and high taxes, he will be blamed for the new debt and the deficit. If he does not, he will be blamed for the deterioration of the public sector and the economic contraction.

One of the most common mistakes of center-right governments in developed economies is their lack of courage to really cut spending and taxes and restore economic logic, putting the private sector and productive investment at the forefront of the economy. It is more comfortable to keep increasing government spending, maintain high taxes, and pass the bill to the next. In doing so, these center-right parties, even if they are in power, lose. See the example of the United Kingdom when Conservatives decided to adopt social democratic policies.

The United States must defend the US dollar and prioritize private sector growth to implement real pro-growth policies. After three decades of demand-side policies that have only left more debt, it is time for supply-side and pro-growth policies.

Increased government spending leads to the issuance of more currency units and an artificial increase in money velocity. Keynesian interventionists propose higher taxes to reduce the excess of money in the system. Therefore, government size in the economy rises in periods of expansion and rises as well in periods of slowdown, eroding the investment and saving capability of the economy. The road to stagnation. This leads to persistent inflation, lower real wages, and economic stagnation.

As such, a recession resulting from the control of government spending and debt is not a negative event. It is simply the manifestation of a previous excess. Reducing taxes and cutting the excesses of past years in government jobs and expenditures will only make the GDP healthier.

In the past four years, federal debt growth has exceeded even nominal GDP growth, and by a significant margin. Curbing that path to ruin is an essential policy.

It is better to have a short and healthy recession if it comes from lower government spending and more attractive taxes than to maintain GDP growth with debt and unproductive expenditure.

A short recession can be positive. It is like the process of losing weight and doing exercise following a sugar and alcohol binge. The economy will be stronger by making the private sector more robust, and subsequent growth will be more productive and sustainable.

It is essential that the next Treasury secretary talks about the essential adjustments required by the economy and the reality of the time bomb inherited from the Biden administration. Bidenomics was an upside-down approach to economics, and the United States requires supply-side strategies to restore productivity, wealth, and genuine prosperity.

Reducing deficits and debt with higher taxes is an unacceptable option. On the one hand, there is no revenue measure that can eliminate the current $2 trillion deficit. However, tax receipts follow a cyclical pattern, while public spending is a yearly and consolidated process. Therefore, using taxes to reduce debt always fails.

Sound money and a responsible government budget, supported by lower taxes and reduced bureaucratic expenditures, are the only options to strengthen America’s economy. Socialism would be disastrous. Conservative Keynesianism would be useless. The U.S. must learn the lesson of the UK and the EU countries’ recent examples and avoid the convenient trap of right-wing socialism.

The only way in which the United States will escape the seemingly inevitable debt and currency crisis will be to cut spending, reduce taxes, pump growth driven by private investment and rising real wages, and strengthen the US dollar by reducing indebtedness and conducting a sound monetary policy.

As we’ve been writing for the better part of the past year, the focus of the next AI trade remains all about energy and ‘powering up America’ through an upgraded grid to ensure AI infrastructure can support power-hungry chatbots. 

However, the conversation appears to be shifting as Goldman President of Global Affairs and Co-Head of the Global Institute Jared Cohen published a new article discussing the geopolitics of AI infrastructure and a data center diplomacy strategy. 

Cohen penned an article in Foreign Policy titled “The Next AI Debate Is About Geopolitics,” in which he explores the geopolitical importance of AI infrastructure, particularly the global race to establish data centers. 

On Monday, Cohen provided clients with an executive summary of the note that explained data might be the “new oil,” but nations – not nature –  will determine where data enters are built.

Here’s more:

The United States is home to the plurality of the world’s data centers, yet America’s aging energy grid is under enormous strain. Energy demand in the U.S. has been flat for two decades, data center vacancy rates are near record lows, and the shortage of powered land with the connectivity required to support large-scale data centers, combined with supply chain challenges and lengthy permitting timelines for new infrastructure present challenges to realizing both the public and private sectors’ AI ambitions. Goldman Sachs Research estimates that data centers used three percent of U.S. power in 2022, a number that could reach eight percent by 2030 – estimates by regulatory and industry groups, as well as the International Energy Agency, all point in the same direction.

AI could solve some of these problems, and innovation could improve the U.S.’s domestic outlook. AI could improve grid planning, grid resilience, and materials discovery for clean energy technologies. Increased efficiency of chips, with denser circuits and new architectures are already reducing semiconductor energy needs at remarkable scale. The U.S. produces more oil than any nation in history, and natural gas production has boomed since the shale gas revolution of the early 2000s. A more robust power grid that embraces diverse energy resources—including nuclear power, small modular reactors, and reactivated nuclear plants—could change the market calculations in America’s favor.

But to win, the United States will need to enlist its asymmetric advantage of global alliances and partnerships, both in the public and private sectors. This would be a commercial and public sector strategy for data center diplomacy—proactively identifying able, willing, and trusted international partners; pooling public and private capital; identifying and addressing security and privacy risks; and incentivizing innovation across the technology stack. This task is growing more urgent, and more promising. Leaders need to develop a list of locations that satisfy all or even most of these criteria for data centers.

Key players include:

• Canada: The United States’ top trading partner with vast amounts of powered, networked land close to abundant natural resources and energy. Leading hyperscalers and data center developers have recently announced major projects in Canada totaling tens of billions of dollars, including investments in the energy-rich province of Alberta. A U.S. ally through NATO, the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, and potential future AUKUS technology partnerships.

• The Nordic countries: Leaders in green energy and now all members of NATO. They have exceptional technology companies of their own, including telecommunications giants. Their connectivity, energy sustainability, and access to power have long made them data center hubs for hyperscalers. Their cool climates also help prevent overheating in data centers, potentially allowing better performance levels and lower costs over the long term.

• Japan and South Korea: Home to world-leading technology ecosystems. Tokyo is investing 0.71 percent of its gross domestic product on semiconductors through 2025—a much higher figure than most industrial economies, including the United States.

• The Arab Gulf countries of the Middle East: These countries aim not just to export oil, but also AI. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have some of the highest internet penetration rates worldwide. Qatar’s AI market has grown substantially, and Doha has the capacity for significant infrastructure buildouts, as demonstrated by its investments around energy and transportation. The subsea fiber optic cables that are the backbone of the modern internet have critical nodes in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, where 90 percent of Europe-Asia data traffic is carried. The region connects Europe to the global south. They are all moving their petrodollars toward investments in the energy transition and domestic industries, from life sciences to telecommunications to manufacturing, and AI will accelerate that trend. The U.S. has a chance to pull these countries closer to its technology ecosystem rather than China’s, but will have to make prudent risk assessments as it does so.

For those who missed it, in our note “The Next AI Trade” from April of this year, we outlined various investment opportunities for powering up America, most of which have dramatically outperformed the market.

The takeaway is that US must leverage its global alliances to maintain an AI competitive edge. 

In this infographic, Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu details four of the biggest corporate fines handed out in 2024 (as of October 2024).

Companies from different industries are included here, from banks to engine manufacturers.

Multi-Billion Dollar Fines

2024 has been a standout year when it comes to government crackdowns on businesses, especially in the U.S.

TD Bank

First is TD Bank, which was hit with a record-breaking $3 billion fine for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and committing money laundering. Part of this fine includes $1.3 billion to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

TD Bank admitted to allowing three separate money-laundering networks to transfer over $670 million over a six-year period. In addition to its monetary fines, the bank will be subject to three years of monitoring and five years of probation.

Cummins

The next multi-billion dollar fine was handed out to Cummins, an American manufacturer of diesel engines. Similar to Volkswagen’s Dieselgate scandal, Cummins was found guilty of installing devices that tricked emissions control systems.

Cummins was hit with a $1.675 billion fine, the largest civil penalty in the history of America’s Clean Air Act. It must also fund a recall program at an estimated cost of $330 million.

Apple

In third spot is Apple, which was fined nearly $2 billion in the EU for anticompetitive practices. The iPhone maker was found guilty of restricting app developers from informing users about cheaper alternatives to its Apple Music streaming platform.

This fine is the result of a complaint filed by Spotify, which noted that competitors were required to pay a 30% fee on purchases made through Apple’s in-app payment system (this fee did not apply to Apple’s own music service).

During the investigation, it was determined that European consumers did not have “a free choice as to where, how and at what prices to buy music streaming subscriptions.”

If you enjoyed this post, check out the latest data on EU data protection fines on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Authored by Autumn Spredemann via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Formally identified as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a group of manmade chemicals known as PFAS are found in everything from soil and food to common household items and water. An overabundance of these compounds has been detected in U.S. drinking water and that of other industrialized nations, sparking discussion on control and mitigation among experts.

Exposure to PFAS has been linked to serious chronic health issues such as increased risk of certain cancers, fertility problems, and immune system challenges.

Unlike some industrial chemicals, PFAS don’t break down and are difficult to destroy, thus earning the moniker “forever chemicals.”

Since the 1940s, PFAS compounds have been used in everyday items such as nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothes, stain-resistant fabrics, cosmetics, and firefighting foams, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Able to resist water, grease, oil, and heat, PFAS compounds quickly became popular. More than half a century later, these forever chemicals have become a growing health and environmental concern.

This year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it has observed forever chemicals in America’s groundwater at alarming levels, prompting the first-ever national, enforceable standard for drinking water, meant to protect communities from dangerous amounts of PFAS exposure.

“I believe this is a serious public health concern. From what I’ve seen in my work, chemical exposure—even at low levels—can affect communities long-term. And PFAS isn’t something that just disappears,” Previn Pillay, CEO of Pyromin Consulting, told The Epoch Times by email.

Pillay has dealt with complex water contamination issues including waste treatment and government compliance. He said forever chemicals can build up in people and the environment over time, causing a domino effect of negative consequences.

“Studies suggest that PFAS exposure can increase the risk of metabolic diseases, which is already becoming a growing issue in affected areas. I’ve seen how industrial contaminants, when not controlled, can cause health problems down the line. It’s something we just can’t ignore,” Pillay said.

Probable links between consumption of forever chemicals and negative health outcomes have been studied for years and the results paint a grim picture.

“First, the structure of PFAS means they resist breakdown in the environment and in our bodies. Second, they move relatively quickly through the environment, making their contamination hard to contain. Third, for some PFAS, even extremely low levels of exposure can negatively impact our health,” the senior strategic director of health and food for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Erik D. Olson, said in April.

On its website, the EPA states its new regulations are meant to “reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses. EPA concurrently announced a further $1 billion to help states and territories implement PFAS testing and treatment at public water systems and to help owners of private wells address PFAS contamination.”

EPA data show it has detected PFAS in 7,237 U.S. public water systems.

Among the contaminants observed is lithium, a subclass of the forever chemicals group that’s a growing concern, according to the Pratt School of Engineering.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Science states that nearly 15,000 synthetic substances fall into the forever chemicals category.

This year, at hundreds of drinking water sites across the country, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group reported PFAS levels higher than the EPA’s proposed limits of 4 and 10 parts per trillion. Coastal states have the highest concentrations of above-regulation forever chemical contamination.

In October, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said PFAS may be America’s “biggest water problem since lead.”

Life Cycle Consideration

“As someone deeply embedded in the water filtration business for decades, I can affirm that the presence of PFAS in drinking water is a pressing public health concern,” Brian McCowin told The Epoch Times.

McCowin is the service manager at McCowin Water, the business his father started.

“To manage PFAS better, collaboration between private sectors like ours and regulatory bodies is key,”  McCowin said.

“We’ve successfully steered complex water issues by prioritizing ethical practices and transparency with clients. This approach could inspire improved standards and accountability across the board.”

Pillay also thinks cooperation is the fastest way to mitigate PFAS in American water.

“I think partnerships between private companies and government bodies can speed up solutions. Public-private partnerships would bring together the resources and expertise needed to drive faster water treatment innovations,” he said.

“If we’re going to manage this PFAS contamination better, we need both sectors working together, sharing knowledge, and accelerating the development of advanced filtration systems.”

Although filtration has always been the go-to solution for removing PFAS in water, some researchers believe the scope of the contamination requires a new approach.

An environmental engineering team at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) published a study in July that discovered a special bacteria that can destroy certain types of forever chemicals. The microbes are already prevalent in wastewater.

In their observations, researchers noted the bacteria attack the previously impenetrable carbon-fluorine bond in PFAS compounds. This is a critical step towards removing the “forever” part of the chemicals.

Read the rest here…

While the US may wind down its record-setting constant stream of defense aid to Ukraine in the opening months of the Trump administration, American-made high tech weapon systems flowing to Taiwan look to increase.

That’s according to a new Financial Times report, which says Taiwan is mulling signing onto a new US weapons package worth over $15 billion. It’s being seen as a way for the self-ruled island to send an unmistakable message to the Trump administration that it’s serious about defending itself from a potential Chinese invasion.

Such a massive package is said to include 60 F-35 fighter jets and 400 Patriot missiles, along with ten retired warships, and four Advanced Hawkeyes – which is a sophisticated surveillance and reconnaissance plane equipped with the most advanced airborne radar in the world.

“Taiwan is thinking about a package to show that they are serious,” a former Trump admin official described to the FT.

“Assuming they follow through, they will go to the US national security advisor when they are named and present a very aggressive package of American hardware,” the person added.

A top official representing Taiwan’s military has said that informal discussions with Trump’s transition team are already underway about the huge arms sale.

The same Taiwanese official confirmed to FT, “There are quite a few big platforms and other items that our armed forces have had their eyes on for a long time but have not been able to acquire, so there’s a lot to choose from.”

A second Taiwan official was quoted as saying, “There is strong bipartisan backing for Taiwan, as you can see from the steady flow of legislation and resolutions aimed at bolstering support for Taiwan.” The statement highlighted that “The first Trump administration oversaw more frequent and higher-level visits and it unblocked arms sales to our country.”

And a statement trump by Trump transition team spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has said, “The American people re-elected President Trump because they trust him to lead our country and restore peace through strength around the world.”

She vowed in relation to major global US rivals and ‘enemies’ like China that “When he returns to the White House, he will take the necessary action to do just that.”

Just last month, China’s PLA military had launched another round of large military drills that encircled Taiwan, which Taipei had blasted as an “unreasonable provocation”. The PLA military deployed warships and fighter jets to send a “stern warning” against “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces”.

The first big foreign policy action by #Trump might be a big middle finger to #China, as #Taiwan is in ‘informal discussions’ with him on a potential mega arms deal, including Aegis destroyers, E-2D AEW&C planes, Patriot AD systems, and F-35 Lightning IIs.https://t.co/oJ1fZFJQQc

— The STRATCOM Bureau (@OSPSF) November 11, 2024

In a series of recent exercises, China’s military has practiced blockading key Taiwanese ports and areas, and assaults on maritime and ground targets, according the October words of an eastern theatre command’s spokesman.

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly denied US claims that Iran was involved in an alleged plot to kill President-elect Donald Trump, dismissing the charge as a way to “complicate matters” between the US and Iran.

On Friday, the US Justice Department announced charges over the alleged plot, claiming that Iranian officials asked an Afghan national who currently resides in Tehran to surveil and ultimately assassinate Trump. “Who can in their right mind believe that a supposed assassin SITS IN IRAN and talks online to the FBI?!” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.

Araghci said that Iran respects the choice the American people made in the presidential election. “The American people have made their decision. And Iran respects their right to elect the President of their choice. The path forward is also a choice. It begins with respect,” he said.

Araghchi also reiterated that Iran doesn’t seek nuclear weapons and signaled Iran is willing to talk with the US about its nuclear program.

“Iran is NOT after nuclear weapons, period. This is a policy based on Islamic teachings and our security calculations. Confidence-building is needed from both sides. It is not a one-way street,” he said.

Also on Saturday, Javad Zarif, Iran’s vice president for strategic affairs, called on Trump not to continue the “maximum pressure” policy against Iran. “Trump must show that he is not following the wrong policies of the past,” said Zarif, a veteran diplomat who served as Iran’s foreign minister during Trump’s previous time in office.

The previous Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” policy against Iran involved withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, imposing crippling economic sanctions, and assassinating Iranian Quds Force Commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani.

Republicans have accused President Biden of being soft on Iran, but he has essentially followed the same policies. The problem for the US is that Iran found oil markets in Asia that aren’t afraid of US sanctions, a result of the US sanctioning so many different countries.

This is a quote from one of the Iranian agents that the DOJ claims was recruited to lead an assassination plot against Trump pic.twitter.com/icaKZ5hkVO

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 10, 2024

The Wall Street Journal reported that the next Trump administration is expected to “renew” the maximum pressure on Iran. Brian Hook, who oversaw Iran policy in the first Trump administration, is reportedly in charge of the transition for the State Department.

Authored by Timothy C. Hemmis via RealClearHistory,

In the United States, November 11th has been known as Veterans Day since 1954 (before that, it was known as Armistice Day). Originally, Veterans Day commemorated the Allies’ victory in World War I. However, after the Second World War, veterans of that conflict including Dwight Eisenhower pushed to expand the holiday to honor all veterans. In many ways, this holiday is about giving thanks to those who have served in wars to protect the United States of America. In that sense it is as much a day of thanksgiving, if not more so, than the one at the end of the November.

The Thanksgiving we all know and love, which we celebrate with turkey, mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing/stuffing, cranberry sauce, and a multitude of pies, began as a solemn day of prayer and remembrance. Churches and political bodies often declared a day of thanksgiving after major events. These “holidays” could take place any time of the year. So why November?

President George Washington issued the first national day of thanksgiving on November 26th, 1789 as a day for prayer and giving thanks to God “for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation.” But Washington’s declaration was not the start of an annual holiday.

President Abraham Lincoln, from the prompting of writer Sarah Josepha Hale, officially set a national holiday on the final Thursday of November in 1863. Established during the Civil War, the new holiday encouraged Americans to remember and give thanks for blessings and military successes of the United States of America. Lincoln and Hale both thought a holiday could help heal the divided nation.

By the 20th century, Thanksgiving morphed into the feast we know today. The modern holiday is loosely based on the “First Thanksgiving” that the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony had in 1621, which was a harvest feast and a solemn day.

The rise of American consumerism during the late 19th century led to the growth of holiday meals and celebrations. During Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, the holiday was moved to the third Thursday of November, which allowed for a few extra days of Christmas shopping to help boost an economy that had been limping along during the Great Depression. One could say that the holiday creep started with FDR.

As both Veterans Day and Thanksgiving are sandwiched between Halloween and Christmas, these November holidays have unfortunately been relegated to a secondary status.

Despite the origins of both these days of thanksgiving, we often forget the history and get swept up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. There is nothing wrong with putting up your Christmas tree early, but hopefully you and your family can pause and celebrate the two days of thanksgiving this November.

Timothy C. Hemmis is Associate Professor of History with a specialization in Early American History at Texas A&M University – Central Texas in Killeen, Texas. His research focuses on empire, national identity, war and society in Revolutionary America (1750-1815). He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2015. He is a fellow with the Jack Miller Center.

Authored by Eva Fu via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Florida’s Palm Beach County police on Nov. 8 arrested a Chinese national after he tried, again, to enter President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, according to court records.

Li Zijie, a 39-year-old living in suburban Los Angeles on a student visa, allegedly arrived at the Trump property in an Uber on the afternoon of Nov. 7—the latest in a number of attempts he has made to get into the resort in the past few weeks.

He made the trip hours after getting out of a mental hospital, where he had spent the previous week after a similar effort made in late October, according to a police affidavit.

Li now faces two counts of trespassing, according to the county’s jail records. He’s being held in the Palm Beach County Main Detention Center, with bail set at $100,000.

The arrest has heightened security concerns around Trump, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July during a Pennsylvania rally. In September, the Secret Service identified a man pointing a rifle through a fence at Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach while Trump was playing golf. The Justice Department said on Nov. 8 that it had stopped an Iranian plot to kill Trump and charged three men allegedly involved in a murder-for-hire network.

Li first tried to gain entry into Mar-a-Lago on July 19, six days after the Pennsylvania rally shooting, according to court documents viewed by The Epoch Times.

Li pulled up in a gray Toyota and told Secret Service agents he had information implicating China in the assassination attempt and wished to give them the documents. The Palm Beach police issued a trespass warning and told him not to return.

In the following days, Li drove into the town of Palm Beach at least four times but didn’t try to enter Mar-a-Lago, according to court records.

On July 30, officers observed Li driving toward the Mar-a-Lago checkpoint and placing paperwork about Trump on vehicles. He was arrested the next day for allegedly trespassing on the premises. A local court ordered him to stay 500 feet away from the resort and from Trump.

Li’s next attempt was on Oct. 30, when he tried to enlist help from a resident who lives nearby, according to court documents.

The woman had a Trump 2024 political sign in her yard. Li asked if she was a Mar-a-Lago club member and whether she could drive him inside. The woman refused, and after seeing him enter a white Toyota, she called the police, who placed Li in a mental hospital.

He returned to Mar-a-Lago on the day of his release.

In the affidavit regarding the latest intrusion effort, Palm Beach Police said that because of the “increased attempts by Li to gain entrance into Mar-a-Lago” to make contact with the president-elect, a future attempt could lead to an escalation of enforcement.

The Trump resort has faced repeated intrusion efforts, including two from Chinese nationals.

During Trump’s first term as president, a Chinese businesswoman carried four cellphones, a computer, and an external hard drive past the security checkpoint, telling a Secret Service agent that she was there to use the pool, then later presenting herself to reception as an attendee of an already-canceled event.

The woman, Zhang Yujing, was sentenced to eight months in prison for illegally entering the site. She was deported to China two years later, in November 2021.

After that incident, another Chinese national, Lu Jing, was arrested in December 2019 after she entered the property and began taking pictures. A judge later acquitted her of trespassing charges but issued a six-month sentence on a separate charge of resisting arrest.

During Trump’s 2018 Thanksgiving visit to the resort, a University of Wisconsin student sneaked into the Palm Beach club by standing with a group entering Mar-a-Lago. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and apologized for the act.

The Epoch Times has contacted Li’s lawyer for comment.

Authored by Julianna Frieman via Headline USA,

Jamal Simmons, the former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, elicited audible reactions from CNN panelists Sunday when he called for Democrats to disrupt President-elect Donald Trump’s transition.

Simmons suggested President Joe Biden resign before Trump’s inauguration and make Harris the first woman president on CNN State of the Union.

“There’s one promise left that he could fulfill: being a transitional figure. He could resign the presidency in the next 30 days, make Kamala Harris President of the United States,” he said, prompting CNN’s Scott Jennings to laugh, “woah,” and host Dana Bash to say “wow.”

Former VP Harris Comms Director says on CNN that Biden should resign and make Kamala the first woman president to “disrupt” the Trump transition.

“It would dominate the news.”

“Democrats have the learn drama and transparency and doing things that the public wants to see…” pic.twitter.com/fb60u8xZuD

— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 10, 2024

Harris becoming president would absolve her from having to oversee the transfer of power from Biden to Trump, Simmons said.

If Biden resigns, Harris’s ascension to the Oval Office would leave the role of vice president vacant.

Harris would then have to appoint a vice president that must be confirmed by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress, according to the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

“Democrats have to learn drama and transparency and doing things that the public will want to see,” Simmons said. “This is the moment to change the entire perspective of how Democrats operate.”

“Okay, this has now jumped from an Internet meme to a Sunday morning show,” Bash quipped.

Jennings joked that Simmons was writing the next season of hit political drama series House of Cards.

Bash brought up a potential vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, referencing reports that some Democrats want to pressure Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 70, to retire.

Simmons cast doubt on the idea of a Harris nomination to the Supreme Court but reiterated that the possibility is at the behest of Biden.

What ever could VP Kamala Harris do after losing the presidency to Trump?

CNN commentator suggests Harris should be appointed to the Supreme Court.

“Not only am I floating it, but I want to stir up everything. I want people’s heads to explode…”pic.twitter.com/F47XAD2A5X

— Julianna Frieman (@JuliannaFrieman) November 8, 2024

“If he did it, again, it would fulfill his promise, his last promise, it would give Kamala Harris the chance to be the 47th President of the United States of America. It would disrupt all of Donald Trump’s paraphernalia,” he laughed. “Right? He’d have to rebrand everything.”

“It would be easier for the next woman to run for president to not have to worry about historical weight,” Simmons said.

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

An exit poll released by Democratic polling firm Blueprint outlined the top three reasons voters nationwide gave for not supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, in her 2024 bid for U.S. president.

The leading issue for voters was that inflation is too high. This was followed by the Biden–Harris administration allowing in too many illegal immigrants, and that Harris focused too much on cultural topics like transgender issues rather than the middle class.

The poll asked 3,262 national and swing state voters in the two days following the 2024 election to rate the importance of potential reasons for their decision to vote for President-elect Donald Trump instead of Harris.

In addition to inflation, illegal immigration, and Harris’s focus on transgender issues, the next three factors named by all voters were that debt rose too high under the Biden–Harris administration, that Harris is too similar to President Joe Biden, and that Harris would let in even more illegal immigrants. One choice that scored high among swing state voters in particular was that “Democrats did a bad job running the country.”

“In the end, Harris couldn’t outrun her past or her party—perhaps it was a lack of time, but it was certainly a vice grip that proved impossible to escape,” the polling report’s authors wrote.

The factors of least concern to voters were that Harris was too pro-Israel, too conservative, or not similar enough to Biden.

The poll’s findings were published as top Democrats reel from Tuesday’s election results, point fingers, and assign blame for who’s responsible for Trump’s sweep of the seven battleground states.

“In this election, Americans have made their voice clear: Democrats need to focus more on issues Americans care about, like wages and benefits, and less on being politically correct … Democrats have been too intimidated to speak up for the same values that many of us hold dear—the American Dream, public safety, and a common sense of right and wrong among them,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) wrote in a Nov. 7 post on X.

“We cannot get wrapped around the axle by our base and resistance politics.”

Democrats farther to the left than Suozzi disagree. During a community organizing video call on Nov. 8, progressive leaders defended their coalition and its focus on “marginalized communities” amid attacks from their party’s center.

“Maybe you’re a leftist who feels deep frustration at the many calls to move the Democrats to the center at the expense of targeted and marginalized communities, the expense of suffering people and normal times,” Ash-Lee Woodard-Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research & Education Center, told the virtual attendees.

Progressive congresswoman Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wa.), also dismissed calls to blame the party’s left-wing coalitions, and their messaging on cultural issues, for Harris’s loss.

“The blame game, you’ve seen it, it’s already started with a lot of cheap shots at our progressive movement, and it’s easy to finger-point even for us, but we need to resist it,” Jayapal said.

“I imagine we share a lot of theories about this election and what led us here, but I think we actually need to look at the [exit polling] data.”

Blueprint’s exit polling data seems to validate the concerns of the party’s more moderate members such as Suozzi.

Another Democratic polling firm, GQR, logged similar sentiment among voters in a Nov. 6 poll. Taken with a smaller sample size of 800 national voters between Oct. 31 and Nov. 5, the poll found that voters ranked opposition to transgender surgeries and transgender kids in sports as the least important issue affecting their vote this year, at 4 percent.

Roughly 64 percent of respondents said they had seen Trump campaign ads highlighting Harris’s previous support for taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for prisoners and illegal immigrants.

In an exit poll by Fox News, 54 percent of voters—among a sample size of more than 30,000—said they believed “support for transgender rights in government and society” had gone too far. Twenty-two percent said it had “been about right,” and another 22 percent said it had “not gone far enough.”

Voters were roughly split on the topic of gender-related procedures, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for minors under the age of 18 who identify as transgender. Forty-seven percent said they “strongly/somewhat favor” medical and surgical treatment for minors, while 52 percent said they “strongly/somewhat oppose” the procedures.