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Campaign committee cash in hand end of January 2024, according to this report in WSJ- for Biden $56 million, Trump $30.5 million, Haley $13 million. Haley says she will stay in the race after Saturday South Carolina primary and into the rest of the primaries and has donor support.

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Hillary Clinton makes a strong finish in the third Democratic presidential debate in Dec. 2015, leaving rivals Bernie Sanders and Martin Malloy way behind with her command of the issues. Some political experts ask why Clinton wanted to limit the number of debates when she does so well in them. Clinton questioned the huge cost of Sanders proposals. Malloy failed to make an impact. Sanders apologized for a breach of DNC Clinton data.

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In the third Democratic presidential debate in Dec. 2013 Hillary Clinton came out looking much stronger than Sanders and Malloy. She described the Sanders government programs to make helath care and college free as too expensive requiring a 40% increase in federal spending, or $18 trillion-$20 trillion. Clinton said "we have to be really thoughtful about how we're going to afford what we propose." And said she would not increase taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year. On foreign policy issues she differed with Sanders and Malloy on the Assad regime and civilian deaths in Syria, saying Sanders had supported the removal of the Qaddafi regime in Libya. She used her long experience as Secretary of State to display a better command of the issues. On Hillary Clinton's comment about Donald Trump's statement for barring Muslims from entry into the U.S., that it was becoming a recruiting tool for ISIS videos, a NYT fact check shows no proof of this. Clinton said she preferred not to turn the issue of terrorism into a clash of civilizations with Islam, as her Republican opponents have done....

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The title may not reflect the content of this report on Admiral Giroir who heads the U.S. coronavirus testing effort. He is a pediatrician who worked for hospitals in Texas before heading a vaccine project at Texas A&M University.  Internal politics led to his resigning from the effort to build a vaccine development capability with pharmaceutical companies at Texas A&M. Most of the rest of this report shows a physician who is determined to pursue big projects such as the one he is tackling today. President Trump appointed him to lead FDA, and to be the Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. With the missteps of Secretary Azar testing suffered in the early months of the crisis as reported in the WSJ. Adm. Giroir has taken a leading role since  this period. He also heads the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps of 6200 staff playing a vital role. On March 13 he was asked to lead the effort in testing.  He comes to this role with experience in the field of vaccines realizing that "the challenges are not just biological but engineering." New technology would be needed to make massive amounts of vaccine. His idea is that transformational efforts are needed. His idea for a billion dose per month facility in Texas did not work, yet he worked on it for about 5 years from 2010 to 2015 at Texas A&M University, at one point being the vice chancellor. He was selected by Texas Governor Perry as chairman of the task force in Texas in 2014 to oversee the effort to fight the Ebola virus. He now is in a position to bring all his experience and aspirations to tackle the coronavirus, cutting through much of the red tape and bureaucracy, and pulling together the effort combining science of pharmaceutical companies with the technology of manufacturing billions of vaccine doses in a record time. Today he sees capacity for testing reaching 40-50 million tests a month by September 2020.   ...

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The bottom half of all U.S. households have only recently recovered the wealth lost in the 2009 financial crisis. They still have 32% less wealth than in 2003 when inflation is taken into account. The top 1% of households have more than twice as much as they did in 2003. Wealth is defined as net worth that includes houses , savings and stocks minus any debt. The wealthy have 85% of their wealth in stocks and bonds. For the bottom 50% half of the assets are in the house or family home. Economic and regulatory trends have happened in ways that favored the people investing in stocks, and rescued people investing in stocks with policies designed with this purpose by central banks and the U.S. government. By contrast for the bottom 50% buying a home is more difficult today. The problem this WSJ report points out is that the next recession would most hurt the bottom 50%, even before they have recovered from the last one which was a result of shaky practices of banks in financial lending and not some cyclical swing in the economy. Policy was then geared to provide a recovery first for stock markets as a way to economic recovery. The bottom 50% have little stake in the stock market, the top 1% have most of their gains from the stock market. Much of the popular anger comes from the way policies by both Democrats and Republicans differed little in past administrations in the way they approached this in shaping economic policy. As a result infrastructure building and investments in public services took less priority in this period of 30 years with trade imbalances with China building up on the external front, in another side to this development. The shift to Trump and to right wing populists in Europe is only the first phase in the corrective action that has to take place to return to a fairer distribution of wealth that existed before the last 3 decades. Eventually it is not right wing or left wing factions or parties, but healthy policies, that matter to create a better balance for society.  ...

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After the 2008 election of president Obama rural whites left the Democratic Party, Following the election of president Trump educated suburbanites left the Republican Party. These two trends have accelerated as seen in the 2018 U.S. Congressional elections. Democrats won in and around major cities, and Republicans won in rural and small town America. Democrats won 27 GOP Republican COngressional seats to win the majority. Republicans added 2 seats to their Senate majority.  The electorate is sharply divided in terms of education in a way that is regressive and not good for America, and in a way that has never happened before. Republicans share of of House districts with lowest shares of college education bachelors degrees increased from 44% in 1998 to 60% in 2018. Democrats share of House districts with the highest share of Bachelors degrees went up from 50% in 1998 to 81% in 2018. Much of the Democrats support from educated suburbanites comes from lopsided support from educated women. The result is that the Republican Party is trading faster growing counties for slower growing smaller counties and now has a base of older voters. The Democrats have to find a leader who can rally support from this new combination of educated suburbanites, younger voters, and minorities. And big issues are at stake. About 77% of people in recent polls now support a national health care insurance like than in the UK and Canada. Poor reading skills and reading comprehension in school tests show a need for greater investment  in education. Infrastructure investment is a big priority for a decade that has yet to be tackled directly. Of the 50 new Democrats in the House of Representatives 24 campaigned on a promise for a national health insurance like that in Canada or UK. The focus on economic issues would move the Democratic Party back to where it was in all the post war years till the distractions from cultural issues  in the last decade shifted its focus from its historical base support of working class voters. ...

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The U.S. trade agreement with Mexico is for 16 years, to provide business with a stable rules environment to operate in. It includes a clause for review after 6 years. The content made in the U.S. is increased to 70% from 62.5%. This has to be made by workers earning at least $16  an hour. Aluminium and steel going into the cars has to come from the U.S. helping push U.S. steel plant capacity utilization to 80%. Labor collective bargaining is strengthened in Mexico through new provisions, a provision supported by new Mexican socialist president Obrador. Free trade in agricultural products is maintained. $4.7 billion was added in help to U.S. farmers as aid for the effects of China's tariff retaliation. New rules are set for textiles, chemicals, and steel intensive products that set requirements to qualify for tariff free import into the U.S. This is intended to help bring more jobs and investment in these industries in the U.S.     ...

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This article in the Guardian points out that Britain did not just wake up one morning and find itself in a strange predicament of leaving the European Union. This was happening over two decades as leaders appealed to immigration fears on the right to win voters and the leaders of the Labor party failed to protect their traditional working class base. Voter turnout declined and it points out that Cameron of the Conservative party won the election in 2015 with only 24 percent of the eligible voters, as the hold of the Conservatives and Labor parties declined with each successive election on their voter base as they desperately tried to shore up support by appealing to voters fears even as they literally abandoned their traditional voter base and appeared elitist to less educated, poor workers. The economic crisis and austerity policies created a new voter group of disaffected voters who turned to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Scottish National Party (SNP). The referendum offered by Cameron in 2015 on the EU against the advice of coalition partner Vince Cable and the Liberal Party, without an understanding of the situation in the country after years of austerity policies was only one of a long series of developments that unfolded over two decades unraveling years of work building a better Britain following 1945. ...

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The earlier interactions between US and Iran have turned into an Iranian effort to develop its nuclear capabilities bringing the situation faced today, and showing the failure to find solutions of everything tried before and not helping the people of the Arab World and the Gulf regions.During the Reagan period American involvement under Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to support the Iraqi invasion of Iran in a balancing act. And just a year earlier the Democrat Carter's efforts to look at the Islamic revolution as a response to the CIA's intervention in Iran's internal affairs under Eisenhower's Foreign minister Dulles to secure oil supplies, and efforts to find a way to good relations with Iran. This was followed by the Democrat Obama negotiating with Iran, normalizing relations and Democrat Biden handing over Iranian assets  of hundreds of billions of dollars that were used DJT says to build its military that had suffered badly under the earlier western sanctions under Republican Trump.  It has led to some of the migration from Syria after Russian involvement that flooded Germany with millions of migrants and destabilized European countries democratic processes.  ...

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DJT's 32% reciprocal tariff on Taiwanese goods including chips is working. When reports under president Biden showed TSMC investing in Arizona it was still a slow process with much foot dragging including articles by TSMC executives about how difficult it was to make in US. Lyrarc commented specifically on this as TSMC founders got their education and training in the US and it sounded a bit too condescending. Now that the Trump administration has its tariffs in place this WSJ report says the factory in Arizona is advancing production by several quarters, and it has started production late in 2024 with quality comparable to TSMC plants in Taiwan. How quickly DJT's approach with tariffs to level playing field and letting Taiwan know it owes defense and its education in semiconductors to the US is working, is shown by this example like others. And the $65 billion investment is now up to $165 billion in the US that TSMC is planning. The extra $100 billion is a commitment made to DJT. TSMC revenue growth is higher now at 30% than 20% it had previously with AI and robotic demand in 2025 so that it needs to make more chips quickly. ...

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After the Phase 1 trade deal with China led to cancellation of new tariffs on computers, mobile phones and the remaining products imported from China, tariffs are still in place on $370 billion of imports from China. President Trump says China agreed to import $32 billion of agricultural goods, with the figures reaching $50 billion in 2020. The prior high was $26 billion in 2012. This comes as a big relief for the agricultural farm sector which had 24% more bankruptcies in 2019. Farmers are now more likely to vote for president Trump as they did in the last election. In addition China agreed to buy $200 billion more of American goods over the next 2 years. This combined with the USMCA agreement to replace NAFTA, for North American trade, is good news for president Trump and for the U.S. economy for 2% annual growth. The S&P stock index went up by 29% in 2019. The big concession by China is its agreement to agree to penalties if it does not keep up its part of the bargain.  Intellectual property protection remains a challenge and Mr. Trump may have decided to take a tactical success and shore up his base of farmers and small business people before taking up these issues in the future. China for its part may have decided to make a tactical move of its own as it has nothing to lose in importing more farm products from the U.S. in exchange for being able to continue to make the computers, iPhones and tech products it manufactures, just like before. China has not conceded much in terms of its goals set  in "Made in China 2025." Both sides are taking a much needed pause to consolidate their positions, as the fundamental differences remain to be tackled. Huawei and Chinese technology issue remains as before with the U.S. wary of China's technological gains in 5G telecom equipment and keen on building and protecting America's technological advantage in future trade relations. ...

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Issues raised by the huge mismatch between revenues and investment for AI. $400 billion estimated investment by 5 Tech firms in 2025 alone with revenue of about $40 billion and huge uncertainty about when AI will produce returns. Articles seen this week of November 17 in the WSJ and NYT on this issue, podcasts, discussions in other media outlets. Could this lead to a dot com bubble type economic crisis? Could that lead to a recession? Alongside these articles another article in the WSJ on Nov 17 shows the benefits small firms get by using AI, benefits which are on the fringes of their business, not essential but with some experimenting firm owners/managers able to tweak AI information for use in business. Nothing significant which firms will pay much money for. The uncertainty is a major factor. Should geopolitics trump all these concerns? Is the competition with China require this scale of investment, and is China following a more utilitarian approach as reported in a WSJ article this month, of investing in AI in a utilitarian way targeting its use in improving manufacturing, improving infrastructure, and not wildly throwing money at experimental uses that are unlikely to yield much result. In geopolitical sense would the country that not only promoted AI but used it efficiently and cost effectively, used it in ways that promote the overall public good, get the WIN. In short it behooves everyone of us to ask hard questions of AI, to dehype the hype, to look for the public good that comes out of this from it's efficient use. To ask the tough questions when $400 billion generates only $40 billion in 2025 and the $3 trillion planned investment over 5 years is half unfunded, is it going to crowd out energy needs for homes and business, push renewable energy targets back, crowd out essential investments in the crumbling aging infrastructure of the US and Europe, crowd out essential investments in education, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and manufacturing, that hold better promise for our People. Will it also put retirees at risk when corporate bonds from retirees money fund the unfunded portion of AI? This means making the political dimension not about migration, settling the illegal migration issue that was meant to be settled a long time back, or about cultural issues that have little day to day impact on our lives which are about groceries, childcare, housing that are non ideological. Making the political dimension not about remote countries that one knows little about except when it affects public safety and health as with fentanyl. Capital allocation decisions to the vital needs of America can then be free of politically induced error, so that it can be subjected to the test of how best it serves the public interest and the people of the Nation. ...

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The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a U.S. administration request staying the effect of a lower court ruling, giving the government the $3.6 billion in U.S. Defense Department funds to build a border wall. This money goes towards the goal of building 500 miles of the wall by the end of 2020. In a 2-1 decision the court majority cited a Supreme Court order from July 2019 that gave the Trump administration the go ahead to use military funds for border wall construction.

The $3.6 billion is part of a $6.7 billion plan of spending under an emergency declaration by president Trump on grounds of border security. So far 100 miles of border wall have replaced flimsier construction barriers that existed. The government now needs to convince private land owners along large stretches of the border along the Rio Grande and other areas to give up their land for the wall. 

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In a new first China's Chang'e-4 probe is about to touch down Jan 3rd on the dark side of the moon, and dispatch a rover in a vast crater to explore the moon. China is using this as the first step in setting up a planned lunar base by 2030. This happens as president Trump revives the U.S. space program after it languished under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations restricting to unmanned space exploration.

China National Space Administration is the best funded space agency in the world after U.S.'s NASA. Some experts say NASA has lost its focus falling victim to shifting political agendas. An earlier funded program to return astronauts to the moon by NASA was cancelled in 2010 during the Obama administration. This is now jolting the Trump administration into action to revive the programs whose goals are now harder to achieve for the moon program dates in 2023.

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This exceptional report from rural areas in France by Roger Cohen shows why the support is growing for the far right and the far left in rural areas and smaller towns outside the large cities which have suffered from high unemployment and neglected as technology and capital moved to other areas. Cohen talks to Nicholas Bay, secretary general of the National Front, who says this election is about patriotism, the nation state vs globalization, as the National Front tries to portray its opposition as being less pro-France, and less pro French culture. The centrist candidate Macron stands in front of a statue of Alexandre Dumas in Picardy, an hour northeast of Paris, and says he is for an "open patriotism" that embraces people of different origins and embraces refugees. Cohen attends a Le Pen rally in Metz, Lorraine, talks to a National Front mayor in Picardy and left party supporters in the town, talks to foreigners in the banlieu of Sevran. Cohen says a National Front victory is possible if enough voters who support the far left party of Melenchon do not vote for centrist candidate Macron, and enough voters of centre right Fillon supporting French culture and nationalism drift to Le Pen. As in the Dutch election with Moroccans derided by the far right the immigrant issue is a factor. Against this background is how events play out in the last weeks of the election. In March and April the events in the U.S. show a Trump administration moving to the centre, adopting a quieter and more constructive tone towards Mexico and immigrants. Relations with Russia have worsened after the U.S. response to the chemical attack in Syria, and the French public may now see this as a common threat to NATO and the European Union. As in the Dutch election a lot depends on the last weeks of the election and how well the centrist parties, the centre right and the centre left get their message across about what is to be gained by building anew on the foundations of the past without risking a lot on an uncertain path of referendums and exit from the European Union.   ...

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Speaker Johnson says "all of us 100 percent support the principle behind it." 100% support means killing the key part of the Kids bill on protecting mental health. Republican Senator from Tennessee Marsha Blackburn is leading the fight for the Kids Online Safety Act. It passed the US Senate in a 91-3 vote.  Donald Trump Jr. says  “It's time for House Republicans  to pass the Kids Online Safety Act ASAP.” House Republicans are trying to water down a bill on social media (Facebook and others) by taking out duty of care language that social media companies want taken out. Lobbying by social media companies means Speaker Johnson is holding out even when DJT and Elon Musk, have joined 35 states Attorney Generals, and the Biden Administration's Surgeon General in a bipartisan effort to get the House to pass the social media legislation. Speaker Johnson says "all of us 100 percent support the principle behind it." 100% support means killing the key part of the Kids bill on protecting mental health. Limiting it to physical harm defeats the purpose of the legislation as the WSJ did an extensive investigative report series documenting the harm to mental health and mental health is what needs protecting.   ...

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Steven Ford reads an eulogy written by his father Gerald Ford for the funeral of Jimmy Carter. Likewise Jimmy Carter read the eulogy he wrote for Gerald Ford who passed away in 2002. Both families grew to become very close, so close that it is difficult to describe in words. How was this even possible one may ask considering the harsh rhetoric of the Ford-Carter debates and the pardoning of Richard Nixon for Watergate after impeachment of a Republican president by Congress who had served as Vice President for 8 years under Eisenhower 1952-1960 and lost only to Kennedy in 1960.  Today we think of "fascist," "stupid," and "criminal" as ugly DJT and the Harris Clinton rhetoric.  How about "improper"  "ill-advised," "incompetent," and "morally, politically, and intellectually bankrupt," in the Carter Ford rhetoric. Does this mean there is still hope? After all president Biden said he had invited president Trump DJT to the White House on the morning of Jan 20 and will be there at the Inauguration on the same day. That is one way to make America great again. Already Senator Thune who grew up in a small town in Montana in a two room home has embraced Carter's humble beginnings in the heartland. ...