(A)Political Newsletter - Volume 30

(A)Political Newsletter - Volume 30

Author

Alexander Korfiatis
February 09, 2024

Good morning everyone,

Good Morning Everyone! We have just hit 30 volumes of the (A)Political Newsletter, let us hope for 30 more! Thank you to everyone who has stuck by us as we continue to grow this into Onto business, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments over whether former President Trump should be allowed on the ballot for allegedly inciting an “insurrection” over the Jan. 6 riots. We then turn to RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, who will step down after pushback from Trump. We then move over to Congress, where the much-hyped Border-Ukraine package was shelved by Senate Republicans. Finally, the House Select Committee on China is planning a hearing on China’s emerging completion in the biotech field.

In today’s edition:

  • Quiver Quantitative’s Stock Watcher

  • Supreme Court Deliberating On Trump’s Eligibility

  • Senate Republicans Shelve Border-Ukraine Bill They Championed

  • Ronna McDaniel to Step Down as RNC Chair

  • House Select Committee on China Planning Hearing over Biotech

CONGRESSIONAL STOCK WATCHER

  • BREAKING: The Senate is moving ahead with a proposal by Senator Ted Cruz to require the TSA to privately screen politicians.

    • The stated purpose is to protect from security threats.

    • Worth noting that Cruz was infamously photographed heading to Cancun during a winter storm.

  • BREAKING: Representative Mark DeSaulnier just cosponsored the TRUST in Congress Act.

    • This bill would ban congressional stock trading. We have not seen DeSaulnier trade any stock while in office.

  • Representative Cory Mills has told us that he stands against elected officials and their spouses trading stocks.

    • He said that all politicians should divest before being sworn in. Mills is a cosponsor of the TRUST in Congress Act, which would ban congressional stock trading.

  • Representative Anna Paulina Luna recently sold Lineage Cell Therapeutics stock, $LCTX.

    • This was the only stock in her portfolio. It is the first trade we have seen from Representative Luna.

    • Luna sits on the House Oversight Subcommittee on Health Care and Financial Services.

  • We BREAKING: Representative Barbara Lee just cosponsored the TRUST in Congress Act.

    • This bill would ban congressional stock trading. We have not seen Lee trade any stock while in office.

Supreme Court Deliberating on Trump’s Eligibility

(Photo - Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Month Day, Year - The U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating on whether Colorado and other sates can unilaterally prevent former President Trump from running for office. Most of the Supreme Court justices from across the political aisle seem to be pushing against the group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which brought the suit to court by supporting people who wanted to remove Trump from the ballot by using the 14th Amendment. As Axios writes, justices such as Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, appointed by former President Obama and President Biden, respectively, have called into the question the merit of the case.

.The case is being decided on whether Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was written in response to large numbers of Civil War soldiers and politicians fighting for the Confederacy, should be allowed to hold office in government. CREW is using the “Insurrection Clause” to say that because Trump allegedly incited an insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, he should be prevented from holding or running from office. Legal experts before the case was heard viewed the Supreme Court as most likely siding with Trump because they would not want to wade into politics. So far, the Justices have questioned whether a state can unilaterally remove a Presidential candidate from the ballot without the action of Congress. They then asked the lawyers representing CREW if a heavily Republican state should be able to remove President Biden from the ballot.

.The case follows another important case Trump is defending in the Supreme Court. Trump is trying to prevent the fast-tracking of his election interference case. He is either trying to prevent the case from happening or delay it to where it would have no impact on his most likely general election campaign against President Biden. The hearings to determine that case will be heard in a few weeks.

Senate Republicans Shelve Border-Ukraine Bill They Championed

(Photo - J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

February 7, 2024 - U.S. Senate Republicans have soundly rejected a border-national security package, which they had negotiated for months. Former President Trump came out against the bill before the language was officially released because of the belief that it would allow many more migrants to enter the U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell effectively changed course on the bill in a private Republican caucus meeting. While later reports stated he did not change course, but did go over the difficulties of going against Trump. Republicans understand that Trump does not want the border bill to be passed because that to be passed because he would not be able to use the border against President Biden in the 2024 election.

The other problem associated was the loss of funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific. Republicans, who had been strong supporters of Ukraine, have decreased their support. They now were only going to give it in exchange for a border deal, which they could sell to their constituents at home. The bill would have allocated $118.2 Billion in funding, with $60 Billion to Ukraine, and fourteen billion dollars to Israel, among other funding. Both McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson are bruised from this reversal, both again not being able to pass a substantive bill for Ukraine or the border.

Ronna McDaniel to Step Down as RNC Chair

(Photo - Sophie Park/New York Times)

Month Day, Year - Ronna McDaniel, the Chairwoman of the RNC, will step down as Chiar after the South Carolina Primaries, reports say. Many conservatives have pushed her to resign, and former President Trump has joined that chorus. While she has not made her resignation official through a press release, she has informed other members of the RNC that she will step down. McDaniel was appointed to teh position with Trump’s endorsement in 2017, however, he has since soured on her capability. The RNC in general views her as incapable of winning elections, where, the RNC at her stead, had Republicans lose the House in 2018, the Senate and White House in 2020, and barely win back the House in 2022, while failing to win back the Senate.

McDaniel has come under increased scrutiny in teh last few months. Along with the electoral losses, she is seen as not conservative enough by right-wing organizations, such as Turning Point USA. She beat back a leadership challenge by right-wing member of the RNC, Harmeet Dhillon. Trump supported McDaniel in that leadership challenge, which she ended up winning. However, her conservative detractors would not stop fighting with her, and pushed back before an RNC meeting in Las Vegas. McDaniel is also seen as not supporting the most likely nominee, Trump, enough, by holding debates that Trump did not attend, and trying to remain as neutral as possible. RNC fundraising and overall funds are lower this year, compared to the DNC.

House Select Committee on China Planning Hearing over Biotech

Double Helix Motion Graphics GIF by Butlerm

(Photo - Giphy)

February 6, 2024 - The House Select Committee, which was formed to investigate China in many different ways, will investigate competition from Chinese companies which are backed by the Chinese government, Axios reports. The hearings will take place in Boston, a biotech Mecca and the North American headquarters of government-linked Chinese company BGI Group. While the topics of discussion are not known, there is some speculation that the campaigning of banning BGI and other biotech companies. Other potential topics of discussion are raising import/export taxes to push buyers toward American companies, or pushing for more strategic investment in American companies to make them more competitive.

The field is increasingly undergoing scrutiny from governments over Chinese companies’ connections to the Chinese government. The Senate has taken up a bill to cut off all funding for Chinese government-linked firms. The leaders of the Committee also announce a bipartisan bill that would ban federal agencies from using products from BGI Group and other Chinese biotechnology companies. Other industries, such as wireless technology and computer chips, are also undergoing a review to keep American companies competitive.

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