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The greatest economy in the world has benefited immeasurably from a kaleidoscope of hard-working people of varied ethnicities, a rich mixture of languages and cultures. “We the people” should demand an immigration policy worthy of such lofty stature, one that pushes back against the demagogic forces of today’s Republican Party.Will Riley's 19 points in the 2nd half leads No. 25 Illinois past Maryland Eastern Shore 87-40
By BILL BARROW, Associated Press PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. Less than a decade later, the death of his father and namesake, a merchant farmer and local politician who went by “Mr. Earl,” prompted the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn, to return to the rural life of Plains, Georgia, they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant never would be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. Years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, he would add a Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for his White House accomplishments but “for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” The life of James Earl Carter Jr., the 39th and longest-lived U.S. president, ended Sunday at the age of 100 where it began: Plains, the town of 600 that fueled his political rise, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service that redefined what it means to be a former president. With the stubborn confidence of an engineer and an optimism rooted in his Baptist faith, Carter described his motivations in politics and beyond in the same way: an almost missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. Carter was raised amid racism, abject poverty and hard rural living — realities that shaped both his deliberate politics and emphasis on human rights. “He always felt a responsibility to help people,” said Jill Stuckey, a longtime friend of Carter’s in Plains. “And when he couldn’t make change wherever he was, he decided he had to go higher.” Carter’s path, a mix of happenstance and calculation , pitted moral imperatives against political pragmatism; and it defied typical labels of American politics, especially caricatures of one-term presidents as failures. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day. That’s a very narrow way of assessing them,” Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told the Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Later in life, Carter conceded that many Americans, even those too young to remember his tenure, judged him ineffective for failing to contain inflation or interest rates, end the energy crisis or quickly bring home American hostages in Iran. He gained admirers instead for his work at The Carter Center — advocating globally for public health, human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the decades he and Rosalynn wore hardhats and swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity. Yet the common view that he was better after the Oval Office than in it annoyed Carter, and his allies relished him living long enough to see historians reassess his presidency. “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who visited the former president multiple times during his own White House bid. At various points in his political career, Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative” — sometimes both at once. His most ambitious health care bill failed — perhaps one of his biggest legislative disappointments — because it didn’t go far enough to suit liberals. Republicans, especially after his 1980 defeat, cast him as a left-wing cartoon. It would be easiest to classify Carter as a centrist, Buttigieg said, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Indeed, Carter’s legacy is stitched with complexities, contradictions and evolutions — personal and political. The self-styled peacemaker was a war-trained Naval Academy graduate who promised Democratic challenger Ted Kennedy that he’d “kick his ass.” But he campaigned with a call to treat everyone with “respect and compassion and with love.” Carter vowed to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate, and his technocratic, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who tagged government itself as the problem. It also sometimes put Carter at odds with fellow Democrats. The result still was a notable legislative record, with wins on the environment, education, and mental health care. He dramatically expanded federally protected lands, began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking, and he put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy. As a fiscal hawk, Carter added a relative pittance to the national debt, unlike successors from both parties. Carter nonetheless struggled to make his achievements resonate with the electorate he charmed in 1976. Quoting Bob Dylan and grinning enthusiastically, he had promised voters he would “never tell a lie.” Once in Washington, though, he led like a joyless engineer, insisting his ideas would become reality and he’d be rewarded politically if only he could convince enough people with facts and logic. This served him well at Camp David, where he brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Epypt’s Anwar Sadat, an experience that later sparked the idea of The Carter Center in Atlanta. Carter’s tenacity helped the center grow to a global force that monitored elections across five continents, enabled his freelance diplomacy and sent public health experts across the developing world. The center’s wins were personal for Carter, who hoped to outlive the last Guinea worm parasite, and nearly did. As president, though, the approach fell short when he urged consumers beleaguered by energy costs to turn down their thermostats. Or when he tried to be the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to overcome a collective “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone with a belittling quip in their lone 1980 debate. “There you go again,” the former Hollywood actor said in response to a wonky answer from the sitting president. “The Great Communicator” outpaced Carter in all but six states. Carter later suggested he “tried to do too much, too soon” and mused that he was incompatible with Washington culture: media figures, lobbyists and Georgetown social elites who looked down on the Georgians and their inner circle as “country come to town.” Carter carefully navigated divides on race and class on his way to the Oval Office. Born Oct. 1, 1924 , Carter was raised in the mostly Black community of Archery, just outside Plains, by a progressive mother and white supremacist father. Their home had no running water or electricity but the future president still grew up with the relative advantages of a locally prominent, land-owning family in a system of Jim Crow segregation. He wrote of President Franklin Roosevelt’s towering presence and his family’s Democratic Party roots, but his father soured on FDR, and Jimmy Carter never campaigned or governed as a New Deal liberal. He offered himself as a small-town peanut farmer with an understated style, carrying his own luggage, bunking with supporters during his first presidential campaign and always using his nickname. And he began his political career in a whites-only Democratic Party. As private citizens, he and Rosalynn supported integration as early as the 1950s and believed it inevitable. Carter refused to join the White Citizens Council in Plains and spoke out in his Baptist church against denying Black people access to worship services. “This is not my house; this is not your house,” he said in a churchwide meeting, reminding fellow parishioners their sanctuary belonged to God. Yet as the appointed chairman of Sumter County schools he never pushed to desegregate, thinking it impractical after the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board decision. And while presidential candidate Carter would hail the 1965 Voting Rights Act, signed by fellow Democrat Lyndon Johnson when Carter was a state senator, there is no record of Carter publicly supporting it at the time. Carter overcame a ballot-stuffing opponent to win his legislative seat, then lost the 1966 governor’s race to an arch-segregationist. He won four years later by avoiding explicit mentions of race and campaigning to the right of his rival, who he mocked as “Cufflinks Carl” — the insult of an ascendant politician who never saw himself as part the establishment. Carter’s rural and small-town coalition in 1970 would match any victorious Republican electoral map in 2024. Once elected, though, Carter shocked his white conservative supporters — and landed on the cover of Time magazine — by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Before making the jump to Washington, Carter befriended the family of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., whom he’d never sought out as he eyed the governor’s office. Carter lamented his foot-dragging on school integration as a “mistake.” But he also met, conspicuously, with Alabama’s segregationist Gov. George Wallace to accept his primary rival’s endorsement ahead of the 1976 Democratic convention. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southerness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor and expert on Carter’s campaigns. A coalition of Black voters and white moderate Democrats ultimately made Carter the last Democratic presidential nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, just as he did in Georgia, he used his power in office to appoint more non-whites than all his predecessors had, combined. He once acknowledged “the secret shame” of white Americans who didn’t fight segregation. But he also told Alter that doing more would have sacrificed his political viability – and thus everything he accomplished in office and after. King’s daughter, Bernice King, described Carter as wisely “strategic” in winning higher offices to enact change. “He was a leader of conscience,” she said in an interview. Rosalynn Carter, who died on Nov. 19 at the age of 96, was identified by both husband and wife as the “more political” of the pair; she sat in on Cabinet meetings and urged him to postpone certain priorities, like pressing the Senate to relinquish control of the Panama Canal. “Let that go until the second term,” she would sometimes say. The president, recalled her former aide Kathy Cade, retorted that he was “going to do what’s right” even if “it might cut short the time I have.” Rosalynn held firm, Cade said: “She’d remind him you have to win to govern.” Carter also was the first president to appoint multiple women as Cabinet officers. Yet by his own telling, his career sprouted from chauvinism in the Carters’ early marriage: He did not consult Rosalynn when deciding to move back to Plains in 1953 or before launching his state Senate bid a decade later. Many years later, he called it “inconceivable” that he didn’t confer with the woman he described as his “full partner,” at home, in government and at The Carter Center. “We developed a partnership when we were working in the farm supply business, and it continued when Jimmy got involved in politics,” Rosalynn Carter told AP in 2021. So deep was their trust that when Carter remained tethered to the White House in 1980 as 52 Americans were held hostage in Tehran, it was Rosalynn who campaigned on her husband’s behalf. “I just loved it,” she said, despite the bitterness of defeat. Fair or not, the label of a disastrous presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance, at least publicly, for many years, but Carter managed to remain relevant, writing books and weighing in on societal challenges. He lamented widening wealth gaps and the influence of money in politics. He voted for democratic socialist Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton in 2016, and later declared that America had devolved from fully functioning democracy to “oligarchy.” Related Articles Yet looking ahead to 2020, with Sanders running again, Carter warned Democrats not to “move to a very liberal program,” lest they help re-elect President Donald Trump. Carter scolded the Republican for his serial lies and threats to democracy, and chided the U.S. establishment for misunderstanding Trump’s populist appeal. He delighted in yearly convocations with Emory University freshmen, often asking them to guess how much he’d raised in his two general election campaigns. “Zero,” he’d gesture with a smile, explaining the public financing system candidates now avoid so they can raise billions. Carter still remained quite practical in partnering with wealthy corporations and foundations to advance Carter Center programs. Carter recognized that economic woes and the Iran crisis doomed his presidency, but offered no apologies for appointing Paul Volcker as the Federal Reserve chairman whose interest rate hikes would not curb inflation until Reagan’s presidency. He was proud of getting all the hostages home without starting a shooting war, even though Tehran would not free them until Reagan’s Inauguration Day. “Carter didn’t look at it” as a failure, Alter emphasized. “He said, ‘They came home safely.’ And that’s what he wanted.” Well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he taught Sunday School and where he will have his last funeral before being buried on family property alongside Rosalynn . Carter, who made the congregation’s collection plates in his woodworking shop, still garnered headlines there, calling for women’s rights within religious institutions, many of which, he said, “subjugate” women in church and society. Carter was not one to dwell on regrets. “I am at peace with the accomplishments, regret the unrealized goals and utilize my former political position to enhance everything we do,” he wrote around his 90th birthday. The politician who had supposedly hated Washington politics also enjoyed hosting Democratic presidential contenders as public pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again. Carter sat with Buttigieg for the final time March 1, 2020, hours before the Indiana mayor ended his campaign and endorsed eventual winner Joe Biden. “He asked me how I thought the campaign was going,” Buttigieg said, recalling that Carter flashed his signature grin and nodded along as the young candidate, born a year after Carter left office, “put the best face” on the walloping he endured the day before in South Carolina. Never breaking his smile, the 95-year-old host fired back, “I think you ought to drop out.” “So matter of fact,” Buttigieg said with a laugh. “It was somehow encouraging.” Carter had lived enough, won plenty and lost enough to take the long view. “He talked a lot about coming from nowhere,” Buttigieg said, not just to attain the presidency but to leverage “all of the instruments you have in life” and “make the world more peaceful.” In his farewell address as president, Carter said as much to the country that had embraced and rejected him. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged with and for them as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” home to Plains, where that young lieutenant had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.” —- Bill Barrow, based in Atlanta, has covered national politics including multiple presidential campaigns for the AP since 2012.Author's new book "Your Words Your Love" receives a warm literary welcome 12-09-2024 11:28 PM CET | Leisure, Entertainment, Miscellaneous Press release from: Getnews / PR Agency: Kjprnews Image: https://www.getnews.info/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1733638046.jpg Readers' Favorite announces the review of the Poetry - Inspirational book "Your Words Your Love" by Louise Belanger, currently available at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DM2R13G4 . Readers' Favorite is one of the largest book review and award contest sites on the Internet. They have earned the respect of renowned publishers like Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Harper Collins, and have received the "Best Websites for Authors" and "Honoring Excellence" awards from the Association of Independent Authors. They are also fully accredited by the BBB (A+ rating), which is a rarity among Book Review and Book Award Contest companies. Image: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51f8-b0AKuL._SL400_.jpg "Reviewed By Eric Ferrar for Readers' Favorite Your Words Your Love is an inspirational poetry collection penned by Louise Belanger. This poetic treasure trove is filled with emotive and enlightening poetry that explores topics like love, adoration, obedience, life, faith, hope, peace, joy, and blessings. Each poem offers a captivating short story depicting God's power, grace, and beauty. Breathtaking photographs of flowers, nature, and stunning sceneries accompany each poem, adding splendor to Belanger's poignant narrative. Each photo will fill you with awe and humility as you meditate on the profound spiritual messages linked to them. Belanger's words will linger in your mind and compel you to reflect on the magnificence behind God's many acts of creation. This intriguing collection perfectly captures God's majesty in every way. Read it and embrace his love. If you love poems that touch on the deeper aspects of spirituality, Your Words Your Love is the perfect book. Be prepared to reignite your passion for God. Louise Belanger's poems are visceral, refreshing, thought-provoking, and praiseworthy. Her poetry collection is well-portrayed and covers a broad range of emotions. I have enjoyed endless hours of inner peace, comfort, and kinship reading (and re-reading) each remarkable verse. Each poem has order, structure, and spiritual radiance. I enjoyed poring over Belanger's unique and deeply personal perspective on God, life, and spiritual nature. She layers her work with beautifully expressed metaphors and imagery. I find her writings on spiritual matters highly uplifting and divinely inspired. If you are having a stressful and chaotic day, read Belanger's comforting words to calm your mind and soothe your soul." You can learn more about Louise Belanger and "Your Words Your Love" at https://readersfavorite.com/book-review/your-words-your-love where you can read reviews and the author's biography, as well as connect with the author directly or through their website and social media pages. Media Contact Company Name: Readers' Favorite LLC Contact Person: Media Relations Email: Send Email [ http://www.universalpressrelease.com/?pr=authors-new-book-your-words-your-love-receives-a-warm-literary-welcome ] Phone: 800-RF-REVIEW City: Louisville State: KY 40202 Country: United States Website: https://readersfavorite.com This release was published on openPR.Jimmy Carter: Many evolutions for a centenarian ‘citizen of the world’
President-elect Donald Trump's repeated support for TikTok has sparked speculation about potential solutions to prevent the app's impending ban in the United States, though the path forward remains unclear. "We got to keep this sucker around for a little while," Trump told supporters on Sunday, just days after meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in Florida. Trump, who credits the wildly popular platform with delivering him a large young user base, opposes banning TikTok partly because he believes it would primarily benefit Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-led company behind Instagram and Facebook. The situation is complex, according to University of Richmond School of Law professor Carl Tobias, given the various potential solutions and Trump's unpredictable nature. Congress overwhelmingly passed legislation, signed by President Joe Biden in April, that would block TikTok from US app stores and web hosting services unless Beijing-based ByteDance sells its stake by January 19. US officials and lawmakers grew wary of the potential for the Chinese government to influence ByteDance or access the data of TikTok's American users. Even with Trump's decisive election victory and incoming Republican-led Congress, acquiescing to the president-elect's desire and preventing the ban faces significant hurdles. The law enjoyed rare bipartisan support in a divided Washington, making its outright repeal through a vote in Congress politically unlikely even with Trump's influence over Republicans. The Supreme Court may offer the clearest path forward. TikTok has appealed to the nation's highest court, arguing the law violates First Amendment rights to free speech. The court, which is dominated by Trump-aligned conservatives, will hear the case on January 10, just nine days before the ban takes effect. This follows a lower appeals court's unanimous decision to uphold the law in December. Another possibility, according to Tobias, is that a Trump-led Department of Justice could determine ByteDance has addressed the law's national security concerns. However, such a move would likely be seen as caving to China by Congress and others. The final option is ByteDance selling to a non-Chinese buyer, though the company has consistently refused this possibility. With 170 million monthly active users, acquiring TikTok's US operations would require substantial resources. As president, Trump could extend the ban deadline by 90 days to facilitate a transaction. Few potential buyers have emerged, with major tech companies likely deterred by antitrust concerns. Former Trump Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, who runs a private equity fund backed by Japan's SoftBank Group and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala sovereign wealth fund, has expressed interest. During a recent event with Trump, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son pledged to invest $100 billion in the US economy, though specific investments weren't detailed. Other contenders include US real estate billionaire Frank McCourt, who aims to make social media safer through his Project Liberty organization. Elon Musk, given his proximity to Trump and ownership of X, could also have a role to play, as he has expressed plans to transform the text-focused platform into something more like TikTok. A senior Republican lawmaker recently suggested Trump might orchestrate a "deal of the century" satisfying both US concerns and ByteDance's interests. The chairman of the US House committee on China, John Moolenaar, told Fox News Digital that once ByteDance accepts it must comply with US law, the situation could progress rapidly. Any agreement would need Beijing's approval, with US-China relations expected to remain tense during Trump's upcoming term. This isn't the first attempt to resolve TikTok's US status. In 2020, Trump also threatened a ban unless ByteDance sold its US operations. While Oracle and Walmart reached a preliminary agreement with ByteDance for ownership stakes, legal challenges and the transition to the Biden administration prevented the deal's completion. arp/mlmFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Republican senators pushed back on Sunday against criticism from Democrats that Tulsi Gabbard , Donald Trump's pick to lead U.S. intelligence services , is “compromised” by her comments supportive of Russia and secret meetings , as a congresswoman, with Syria’s president, a close ally of the Kremlin and Iran. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and veteran of combat missions in Iraq, said she had concerns about Tulsi Gabbard, Trump's choice to be director of national intelligence . “I think she’s compromised," Duckworth said on CNN’s “State of the Union," citing Gabbard's 2017 trip to Syria, where she held talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Gabbard was a Democratic House member from Hawaii at the time. “The U.S. intelligence community has identified her as having troubling relationships with America’s foes. And so my worry is that she couldn’t pass a background check,” Duckworth said. Gabbard, who said last month she is joining the Republican Party, has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades. She was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait and, according to the Hawaii National Guard, received a Combat Medical Badge in 2005 for “participation in combat operations under enemy hostile fire in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III." Duckworth's comments drew immediate backlash from Republicans. “For her to say ridiculous and outright dangerous words like that is wrong," Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, said on CNN, challenging Duckworth to retract her words. “That’s the most dangerous thing she could say — is that a United States lieutenant colonel in the United States Army is compromised and is an asset of Russia.” In recent days, other Democrats have accused Gabbard without evidence of being a “Russian asset.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, has claimed, without offering details, that Gabbard is in Russian President Vladimir “Putin’s pocket.” Mullin and others say the criticism from Democrats is rooted in the fact that Gabbard left their party and has become a Trump ally. Democrats say they worry that Gabbard's selection as national intelligence chief endangers ties with allies and gives Russia a win. Rep. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat just elected to the Senate, said he would not describe Gabbard as a Russian asset, but said she had “very questionable judgment.” “The problem is if our foreign allies don’t trust the head of our intelligence agencies, they’ll stop sharing information with us,” Schiff said on NBC's “Meet the Press.” Gabbard in 2022 endorsed one of Russia’s justifications for invading Ukraine : the existence of dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs working on some of the world’s nastiest pathogens. The labs are part of an international effort to control outbreaks and stop bioweapons, but Moscow claimed Ukraine was using them to create deadly bioweapons. Gabbard said she just voiced concerns about protecting the labs. Gabbard also has suggested that Russia had legitimate security concerns in deciding to invade Ukraine, given its desire to join NATO. Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri said he thought it was “totally ridiculous” that Gabbard was being cast as a Russian asset for having different political views. “It’s insulting. It’s a slur, quite frankly. There’s no evidence that she’s a asset of another country,” he said on NBC. Sen. James Lankford, another Oklahoma Republican, acknowledged having “lots of questions” for Gabbard as the Senate considers her nomination to lead the intelligence services. Lankford said on NBC that he wants to ask Gabbard about her meeting with Assad and some of her past comments about Russia. “We want to know what the purpose was and what the direction for that was. As a member of Congress, we want to get a chance to talk about past comments that she’s made and get them into full context,” Lankford said.
Washington: In the heat of the 2000 presidential campaign, Vice President Al Gore took a break from barnstorming battleground states to attend a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee in East Hampton, New York. Standing behind Gore onstage was Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager and — at the time — a major donor to Democrats who cohosted the event at his home. On Saturday AEDT, Bessent was tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to be his Treasury secretary. Having won the trust of Trump and his inner circle, Bessent would lead a Republican economic agenda of cutting taxes, culling federal regulations and enacting sweeping tariffs. As Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent would help Donald Trump as he attempts to remake the US economy. Credit: AP The selection caps an extraordinary career arc for an investor who was once a protege of liberal billionaire philanthropist George Soros and gave money to top Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Barack Obama. “He was very supportive of the causes and the people that we supported,” said Will Trinkle, a Democrat who cohosted the event with Gore. He noted that Bessent, who would be the first openly gay Treasury secretary, was a strong advocate for gay rights and marriage equality. If confirmed by the Senate, Bessent would help Trump as he attempts to remake the US economy. As Treasury secretary, Bessent would work to steer tax cuts through Congress, lead trade negotiations with China and help cull federal regulations that Trump believes are stifling the economy. Bessent, 62, declined to be interviewed. But friends and former colleagues described him as driven by data and as intellectually curious, with an ability to work with people from across the ideological and political spectrum. Raised in a fishing village in South Carolina, Bessent is the son of a real estate developer who experienced several of his own financial booms and busts. He went on to Yale University, where he was class treasurer, wrote for The Yale Daily News and wanted to become a journalist. In college, Bessent reflected on the challenges of being a Southerner in New England, writing in the paper in 1981: “I was the only one in the dorm who was heartbroken when George Wallace decided not to run for president.” Bessent studied political science but ended up working in finance after getting an internship with Jim Rogers, an investor and business partner of Soros’. In the 1990s, he worked as a partner at Soros Fund Management, gaining notoriety by betting against the British pound and earning the firm $US1 billion. After leaving to start his own fund, Bessent returned in 2011 to become Soros’ chief investment officer. By then, Bessent had become a major donor to Republican candidates. According to a summary of his donations provided by his office, Bessent has given about $US15 million ($23 million) to political causes over the years and all but $US300,000 has gone to Republicans. He gave $US1 million to Trump’s inauguration in 2016. Scott Bessent has described tariffs as a useful tool for achieving foreign policy objectives. Credit: Bloomberg Bessent was not part of Trump’s political orbit during his first campaign or term as president, but has known the Trump family for decades and was close friends with the president-elect’s late brother, Robert. This past spring, when many business leaders were hesitant to back Trump publicly as his legal troubles mounted, Bessent took a different view. He saw Trump as a “stock that goes up on bad news”, as he explained it to political analyst Mark Halperin last month, because every apparent setback appeared to strengthen his candidacy. Concerned about the exploding national debt and the need to change the international trading system, Bessent set up a meeting with Trump and started exchanging economic policy ideas. In recent months, Bessent has pitched a “3-3-3” plan that would aim for 3 per cent economic growth, reduce the budget deficit to 3 per cent of gross domestic product and increase domestic oil production by 3 million barrels per day. He also came up with an idea that would allow the president to essentially sideline the chair of the Federal Reserve, although he has backed down from that proposal in the face of opposition. In some policy areas, Bessent has demonstrated an inclination to temper Trump’s economic impulses. He suggested that Trump’s idea of assigning a 15 per cent tax rate to companies that produce their products in the US could run afoul of international trade laws. And he has described Trump’s plan for blanket tariffs as a “maximalist” negotiating strategy, suggesting that tariffs should be phased in to give markets time to adjust. Bessent was chosen after an internal tussle among Trump’s aides over the job. Howard Lutnick, Trump’s transition team co-chair and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, made a late pitch to secure the Treasury secretary role for himself. As Trump was deciding, sceptics of Bessent raised concerns about his ties to Soros and suggested he was not a true believer in tariffs. However, he won the public support of key advisers to Trump such as Larry Kudlow and Steve Bannon, who viewed him as the best choice. For Bessent, the challenge now will be remaining in Trump’s good graces as the president-elect once again looks to upend the international trading system and rewrite the tax code. Trump’s first Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, often tried to dissuade Trump from imposing new tariffs and would attempt to calm markets as trade tensions flared. Still, he managed to maintain Trump’s trust. Stanley Druckenmiller, a hedge fund investor who worked with Bessent at Soros Fund Management, said that although Bessent is soft-spoken, he can also be “tough and persuasive” and that he has the right temperament to work for a demanding boss such as Trump. “If anybody can handle it, it’s Scott,” Druckenmiller said. This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
Iowa QB Cade McNamara slams 'ridiculous' rumorsNicaragua's President Daniel Ortega and his wife are set to assume absolute power after loyalist lawmakers Friday approved a constitutional amendment elevating her to the position of "co-president" and boosting the pair's joint control over the state. Under sanctions for human rights abuses, Ortega himself had proposed the change, which also increases the Central American country's presidential term from five to six years. Nicaragua's National Assembly is under control of Ortega's ruling FSLN party, and parliament chief Gustavo Porras said Friday the measure was approved "unanimously." It is all but guaranteed to pass a second reading in January. Ortega, 79, has engaged in increasingly authoritarian practices, tightening control of all sectors of the state with the aid of his powerful wife, 73-year-old Vice President Rosario Murillo in what critics describe as a nepotistic dictatorship. The ex-guerrilla had first served as president from 1985 to 1990, returning to power in 2007. Nicaragua has jailed hundreds of opponents, real and perceived, since then. Ortega's government has targeted critics, shutting down more than 5,000 NGOs since 2018 mass protests in which the United Nations estimates more than 300 people died. Thousands of Nicaraguans have fled into exile, and the regime is under US and EU sanctions. Most independent and opposition media now operate from abroad. The constitutional amendment stipulates that "traitors to the homeland" can be stripped of their citizenship, as the Ortega government has already done with hundreds of politicians, journalists, intellectuals and activists, among others perceived as critical. Ortega and Murillo accuse the Church, journalists and NGOs of having supported an attempted coup d'etat, as they describe the 2018 protests. The change also allows for stricter control over the media and the Church, so they are not subject to "foreign interests." And it gives the co-presidents the power to coordinate all "legislative, judicial, electoral, control and supervisory bodies, regional and municipal" -- formerly independent under the constitution. Manuel Orozco, a Nicaraguan analyst for the Inter-American Dialogue, told AFP the reform "guarantees the presidential succession" of Murillo and the pair's son, Laureano Ortega. The Geneva-based UN human rights office (OHCHR) in its annual report on Nicaragua warned in September of a "serious" deterioration in human rights under Ortega. The report cited violations such as arbitrary arrests of opponents, torture, ill-treatment in detention, increased violence against Indigenous people and attacks on religious freedom. The revised constitution will define Nicaragua as a "revolutionary" and socialist state and include the red-and-black flag of the FSLN -- a guerrilla group-turned political party that overthrew a US-backed dictator in 1979 -- among its national symbols. Constitutional law expert Azahalea Solis said this change excludes other political ideologies, while Salvador Marenco, a human rights lawyer exiled in Costa Rica, said it will end political pluralism and the doctrine of separation of powers. "Everything in the reform is what has actually been happening in Nicaragua: a de facto dictatorship," Dora Maria Tellez, a former comrade in arms of Ortega turned critic, told AFP from exile in the United States. When it was proposed by Ortega earlier this week, Organization of American States secretary general Luis Almagro described the amendment as "an aberrant form of institutionalizing the marital dictatorship." He also labeled the initiative an "aggression against the democratic rule of law." mis-mlr/dw
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