Written by Econintersect
Early Bird Headlines 03 December 2016
Econintersect: Here are some of the headlines we found to help you start your day. For more headlines see our afternoon feature for GEI members, What We Read Today, which has many more headlines and a number of article discussions to keep you abreast of what we have found interesting.
U.S.
Trump ‘Thank-You Tour’ Revives His Campaign Rallies’ Scariest Hits (The Huffington Post) The HuffPo won’t leave ‘The Donald’ alone:
President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday appeared as if he never ended his campaign, attacking “the extremely dishonest media,” boasting about his “landslide” victory, and dashing speculation he might pivot and start acting like a president.
At a rally in Ohio billed as the beginning of a “thank-you tour,” Trump repeatedly pledged to unite the country and “find common ground.” But his rhetoric, almost word for word, matched the raucous and incendiary rallies of his campaign.
We checked Trump’s allegations of voter fraud. We found no evidence at all. (The WaPo) It turns out that Trump’s vote had wider variation from statistical variations than did Clinton. The analysis shown below for non-citizens voting shows “little relationship between the percent of non-citizens of voting age and unexpectedly high or low Trump support or Democratic turnout“. Similar results were obtained for analysis of “dead people voting” and for election officials tampering with results. In all cases the data would only support that deviations would have favored Trump, but those deviations may not have been significant.
Our findings do strongly suggest, however, that voter fraud concerns fomented by the Trump campaign are not grounded in any observable features of the 2016 presidential election. There is no evidence of millions of fraudulent votes.
The North Carolina GOP Has a New Suppression Tactic: Voter Defamation (New Republic) This article says that North Carolina Republicans are laying the groundwork for “a Trump-era assault on voting rights“. The tactic is to challenge only voters of the opposing party for legitimacy after the election. If a selected sample, say of 10,000 voters from the opposition, can produce 210 invalid votes that would be enough to wipe out the opponent’s 10,704 vote margin of victory when pro-rated over the 2.309 million votes he received. The key word here is “selected” which makes the sampling non-random and pro-rating against a much larger population meaningless. This case will likely go to the Supreme Court. Will the essential factors of random sampling be recognized by the SCOTUS? Or by the other justices in the lower courts?
Trump Supporters Move To Block Vote Recounts In 3 States (The Huffington Post) Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump moved on Friday to halt the Green Party’s requests for long-shot recounts of the presidential votes in three states where Trump, a Republican, won with narrow victories. Lawsuits were pending in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, three “Rust Belt” states which bucked their history of supporting Democrats and gave Trump thin wins in the Nov. 8 election. The Green Party has said its requests for recounts in those states are focused on ensuring the integrity of the U.S. voting system and not on changing the result of the election.
U.S. Journalists and Professors Appearing on RT America Get Blacklisted (Pam and Russ Martens, Wall Street on Parade) The Martens have contributed to GEI. Some independent journalists and university professors in the United States who have appeared on RT television to criticize either runaway corruption on Wall Street or in Washington, have landed on two newly created blacklists. RT is a Russian state-financed news network formerly known as Russia Today. Its English-language RT America unit broadcasts from Washington, D.C. A shadowy group called PropOrNot, that has not disclosed either its funders or its principals, has created a blacklist of 200 independent media web sites that it is calling tools of Russia. On the list are some of the most popular and widely read alternative media outlets like Naked Capitalism, Truthout and Truthdig, which regularly carry articles by some of the most knowledgeable and informed voices in America. More from this article:
Another popular site, CounterPunch, was originally on the list but has now been removed following what PropOrNot calls a “constructive conversation.” Reporter Craig Timberg of the Washington Post has come under withering criticism for amplifying the McCarthyite blacklist in a Thanksgiving Day article.
Equally disturbing, 200 university and college professors have been placed on a new Professor Watchlist being operated by Turning Point USA, a right-wing nonprofit run by 23-year old Charlie Kirk who spoke this year at the Republican National Convention. Kirk has raised well over $1 million from conservatives to spread the “free markets/small government” mantra at high school and university campuses (never mind that Wall Street’s “free markets” are just as corrupt today as they were heading into the 2008 epic financial crash).
In 2012, Kirk wrote an opinion piece for Breitbart News suggesting that Paul Krugman’s ideas should be replaced in high school classrooms by those of the Cato Institute – a nonprofit secretly owned in part by the Koch brothers for decades. (Such ideas will land one on the fast-track to big money from the right wing in America.) Steve Bannon, the former Executive Chairman of Breitbart News Network and anti-liberal propaganda filmmaker extraordinaire, has been named by Donald Trump as his Senior Counselor and Chief Strategist in the White House.
Italy
Italy’s referendum explained: What you need to know (CNBC) Italian citizens will vote on constitutional reform on Sunday in what is seen by many analysts as the most significant European political event of 2016. Yes, even bigger than Brexit. The result could lead to Italy leaving the euro area, triggering a global financial crisis and leading to the dissolution of the EU.
Italy Referendum: What to Watch Into the Night on Sunday (Bloomberg) Here is your program guide to what could be a momentous evening and overnight Sunday into Monday. For an in depth review and analysis, see Big Mess in Italy.
Turkey
Erdogan Demands Turks Exchange Their Dollars To Gold, Lira (Alternative Economics) During a televised speech in Ankara, President Recep Erdogan urged Turks to convert dollars to gold and Turkish Lira. The national currency has been in freefall since last summer’s failed coup attempt, down about 20% against the U.S. dollar. See Borsa Istanbul converts all cash assets into lira after ErdoÄŸan’s remarks (Hurriyet Daily News)
India
Government’s demonetisation move faces legal challenge (The Hindu) The November 8 circular issued by the Finance Ministry announcing the Government of India’s decision to pull out high value currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 from circulation, with immediate effect, is being challenged for its legal validity. Petitions challenging the move were in line to be heard before the Supreme Court on Friday, and are pending before various High Courts.
Rs. 152 cr. unearthed in 3 days; two Karnataka officials suspended (The Hindu) The Anti-Corruption Bureau will seek details from Income Tax Department on the disproportionate assets found in the possession of the two PWD chief engineers. A whopping Rs. 152 crore ($2.4 million) unaccounted income, including a huge stash of new notes, bullion, jewellery, and documents pertaining to property ownership, have been seized on the premises of two chief engineers of the PWD and contractors, by the I-T officials over the last three days.
Gujarat realtor who declared huge cash stash goes missing (The Hindu) A little-known businessman from Ahmedabad, Mahesh Shah (67), who declared Rs. 13,860 crore ($2.2 billion) under the Centre’s Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS), has disappeared after Income Tax raids on his premises and those of his chartered accountant. The businessman, who was accompanied by his accountant Tehmul Sethna, told the I-T authorities that he had Rs. 13,860 crore in cash lying at several places in Gujarat and elsewhere.
