US politics

4 Things To Know Today

Published on November 13, 2017 in Investing by Olivia

Trump defends Putin’s “I didn’t meddle, swear,” the dems have several notable election victories, Bitcoin Cash is gaining in momentum against Bitcoin Classic, the latest on the AT&T / Time Warner deal, and more.

Putin “Means It”

On Saturday, November 11th, President Trump flew Air Force One to Hanoi, Vietnam from Danang where the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit was taking place. On the flight he told reporters of his recent meeting with President Putin at the summit: “he said he didn’t meddle — I asked him again.”

Allegations (and FBI confirmation of those allegations), of Russia’s interference with the federal 2016 election have been nagging the Trump presidency since day 1. And since becoming President-elect, Trump has consistently denied that Putin had any involvement in his victory.

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An Argument For Bi-Partisanship, Healthy Debate, and Empathy

Published on March 13, 2017 in Investing by Olivia

Published today on the Huffington Post Canada, thoughts on politics today, relevant to global politics, US politics, and Canadian politics.

Read the article below, or on the Huffington Post here. Keep Reading

President Can’t Delete His Tweets

Published on March 10, 2017 in Investing by Olivia

Did you know the President can’t delete his tweets?! It could be a matter of federal record keeping, and is certainly news to me.

Two congressmen (one a democrat and the other a republican), sent a letter to the White House this week “expressing concerns about the Trump administration’s record keeping habits and its nontransparent use of social media and other forms of electronic communication.” Keep Reading

USA Quits TPP & NAFTA Up For Negotiation

Published on January 24, 2017 in Investing by Olivia

Well, it’s already been a hell of a week for international trade. Trump formally withdrew the US from the Trans-Pacific Partnership today, and says that he’ll renegotiate NAFTA “at the appropriate time.” Keep Reading

How Does US Government Work?

Published on November 6, 2016 in Investing by Olivia

With all of the US election coverage we’ve been watching, there has been consistant mention of the Senate and the House of Representatives, among other things, but who are these groups and what exactly is their relation to the President? These two bodies themselves actually make up one of the three bodies (the legislative branch), of power that make up the government: the executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch. And to add a little colour, photos of each branch’s HQ are included, care of me and my recent tour of Washington, D.C.

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The Press & Their Political Narratives That Tell the Faux Story

Published on September 16, 2016 in Investing by Olivia

The article this post stems from is an opinion piece by a New York Times journalist who covers women’s rights, human rights, health and global affairs. Clearly, he is a democrat. This being said, his point is extremely valid regardless of what party he affiliates himself with: the media has a responsibility not to portray candidates within a shallow narrative, as they consistently and frustratingly do. (Billionaire businessman Mark Cuban has recently spoken out about this as well.) Not only is this not fair to the candidates, but it isn’t fair to the audience, the population, who trust journalists and the media to give them a full picture of what is going on in an election cycle.

The media has a responsibility not to portray candidates within a shallow narrative, as they consistently and frustratingly do.

All of that being said, the title of the article is: “When a Crackpot Runs for President.” But, I mean, he has a point.

Here is an excerpt:

On the PolitiFact website, 13 percent of Clinton’s statements that were checked were rated “false” or “pants on fire,” compared with 53 percent of Trump’s. Conversely, half of Clinton’s are rated “true” or “mostly true” compared to 15 percent of Trump statements.

Clearly, Clinton shades the truth — yet there’s no comparison with Trump.

I’m not sure that journalism bears responsibility, but this does raise the thorny issue of false equivalence, which has been hotly debated among journalists this campaign. Here’s the question: Is it journalistic malpractice to quote each side and leave it to readers to reach their own conclusions, even if one side seems to fabricate facts or make ludicrous comments?

President Obama weighed in this week, saying that “we can’t afford to act as if there’s some equivalence here.”

Read the full article by Nicholas Kristof published in The New York Times Opinion Pages on Sept. 15 2016, here.

Feature image via Newsday.com

Opinion: I Think This is Important to Watch

Published on September 14, 2016 in Blog by Olivia

I’d like to make it clear that my intention for this site is to write unbiased articles, even when it comes to politics. However, when it comes to the 2016 US presidential election, I can’t help but feel strongly biased for the simple fact that the US has one candidate who is strongly experienced and suited for the role of president and one who is not based on everything I have read in what I consider to be intelligent publications, including both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. It is unfathomable to me that someone like Donald Trump, and to be clear, just because I believe he would make an utterly disastrous buffoon of a president does not mean that I don’t like him – I just don’t like him for this job, is being held to the same standard as her in terms of presidential potential.

I’ve been a Hillary fan for years and as I’ve shared publicly before, spent my 26th birthday on March 5th at a speech she gave here in Vancouver. I didn’t know anybody else who would willingly purchase a ticket to attend the event and so went on my own, and it was a marvellous evening. Hillary is without a doubt one of the most fascinating people I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. And seeing her in person, listening to her be surprisingly frank and candid about her experiences as Secretary of State and her thoughts on various global leaders was incredibly endearing. But as with many things, you had to be there to understand what I am talking about. This Vox video, from Ezra Klein speaks directly to this.

I am not saying Hillary is perfect. She has certainly screwed up as a politician (hello private server debacle), and humans do and as a proponent of hers, I readily admit this. But let’s be rational in our criticism, those who have claimed the White House as theirs for a term or two (or less), have all screwed up, and for the most part, far, far worse. My bottom line here is while I do not get to partake in the election, I do believe she would, and will, make a fantastic president. And one of my favourite publications, Wired, boldly feels the same way.

Lastly, I find this June 12th read from Michael Arnovitz to be very worthwhile, as is his lengthy and well written (IMHO), June 30th follow up piece (because if you write a piece about HRC, you gonna get some unreasonable hate, and boy, his first piece sure did).

Thoughts? What do you think?

US to Allow Victims of Terror to Sue Foreign Governments?

Published on September 9, 2016 in Investing by Olivia

Today, 15 years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the US House of Representatives (here is a chart that explains where the House sits in US government), has passed a bill that would allow victims of terrorist attacks to sue other countries for their alleged involvement. The bill stems from families of 9/11 victims wanting to sue Saudi Arabia on the basis that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi.

Historically, the US has barred lawsuits against foreign governments, and for good reason. According to the various documentaries out there, we can’t be certain who is in fact responsible for the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and certainly allowing US citizens to sue other nations would open up the floodgates for other countries to sue the United States for their significant and often fatal involvement in international conflicts.

While the bill does have broad bipartisan support from both sides of the House, Obama has said he will veto the bill. Then Congress has said they will veto his veto, or look to override it with the needed support from two-thirds of the lawmakers in the House, as well as in the Senate.

Read the original article by Kristina Peterson, published in The Wall Street Journal on September 9, 2016.

Feature image of the US House of Representatives via thinkinghighways.com

A Timeline: The Many Republicans Who Won’t Support Their Nominee

Published on September 9, 2016 in Investing by Olivia

Editor’s note: this article may border on an op-ed as there may be some personal opinions present…

On Sunday The New York Times published a timeline of all the outrageous, mean, stupid, even stupider, and plain ignorant things that good ‘ol Trump has said. Out loud. On tv and at conventions. The whole thing is unbelievable. Last summer a former colleague and I were in San Francisco watching the initial republican candidate debates and couldn’t believe that Trump had actually put himself in the race. We concluded that it was most certainly a stunt and that he likely had a new tv show premiering and was interested in ratings. Funny enough, yesterday I was listening to Hillary Clinton’s podcast and she said that she had had the exact same thoughts about Trump. But sweet jesus, no, this is a not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill. This is real life and it is kind of terrifying that there are people want such a crazed, lying, loon for president, even if they don’t like Clinton. Clearly I am biased here. There have been and are many republican leaders I had felt support for and admired, but this guy deserves neither for all of the same reasons that we wouldn’t like a human in real life – there’s not much to respect. But, I digress.

This timeline is very important because it not only highlights a ton of stupidity, it also shows you at what point the republicans started abandoning The Donald in favour of my girl Hillary. It’s also the first time in history that a party has so publicly denounced its own candidate, as well as the first time that prominent republicans are choosing to vote for the democratic candidate. Without further ado, here is the timeline and all of the GOP people who say No, Trump, just no, sit down (or f*ck off).

Feature image via Salon.com

Putin “Means It”

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