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McConnell asked if he has reaction to Trump's attack on wife Elaine Chao: 'No'

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said he does not have a reaction to former President Trump’s statement over the weekend that labeled his wife, former Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, “crazy.”

Asked in Kentucky if had any reaction to Trump’s statement, McConnell responded simply “no.”

In a statement posted to Truth Social on Saturday, Trump criticized McConnell for a statement he made that week about the current crop of GOP Senate hopefuls, before making a dig at Chao, his wife of 29 years, calling her “crazy.”

“Why do Republicans Senators allow a broken down hack politician, Mitch McConnell, to openly disparage hard working Republican candidates for the United States Senate. This is such an affront to honor and to leadership,” Trump wrote. “He should spend more time (and money!) helping them get elected, and less time helping his crazy wife and family get rich on China!”

Chao served as Transportation secretary during the Trump administration for nearly four years, resigning one day after the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. In a letter to Transportation Department staff, she called the riot “entirely avoidable” and said she was “deeply troubled” by the event.

Chao previously served eight years as Labor secretary under former President George W. Bush.

The mention of Chao’s family was likely a reference to the shipping company Foremost Group, which was founded by Chao’s father and is currently run by her sister.

The Department of Transportation inspector general previously discovered that Chao used department staff to assist the family business. The watchdog referred the facts to the Justice Department, which declined to investigate the then-secretary.

Trump’s statement bashing the couple came days after McConnell said the House had a better chance of flipping red than the Senate in the November midterm elections, citing “candidate quality” — a referenced to Trump-backed candidates in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona and Georgia who have lagged behind their Democratic opponents in recent polls.

“I think there’s probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Senate races are just different — they’re statewide, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome,” McConnell told reporters in Kentucky when asked about his midterm expectations.

Trump’s attack on McConnell was the latest in the duo’s year-plus feud, which ramped up after the GOP leader slammed the then-president following the Jan. 6 riot. Since then, Trump has frequently criticized McConnell, calling him disloyal, an “Old Crow,” and earlier this month, taking a swipe at him after the Senate passed a sweeping climate, tax and health care bill.

But this weekend’s attack comes as Republicans are struggling in their fight to take control of the Senate come November. McConnell had earlier said this year’s midterm elections would be “very good” for Republicans, but he has since changed his tone, warning that the breakdown of the upper chamber following the races will be “extremely close.”

“Right now, we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we’re likely to have an extremely close Senate, either our side up slightly or their side up slightly,” he said last week.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Democrats are favored to keep control of the Senate over Republicans, 64 percent to 36 percent.

Source: TEST FEED1

Here's how a $10K student loan forgiveness plan would affect millions

President Biden is expected to cancel up to $10,000 in student loan debt per federal borrower earning less than $125,000 annually on Wednesday, holding true to a campaign promise and relieving millions of their student debt burdens. 

If the president’s plan moves forward, he could potentially eliminate loan balances for around 15 million people, which accounts for about one-third of all U.S. student loan borrowers. These Americans will see their monthly payments go away and the U.S. will simultaneously lower its $1.7 trillion outstanding student loan balance. 

The decision will still leave 30 million borrowers on the hook for the remainder of their balances, some potentially seeing little movement in their monthly payments when the moratorium reaches its expected end. 

That’s because data shows the average student borrower owes more than $37,000 to be paid off over 20 years. 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. 

However, issuing some debt forgiveness would still have a major impact, especially for student loan delinquencies, which reached close to 10 million in 2020 before the payments were first paused by the Trump administration, Kevin Miller, associate director of higher education at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told Changing America. 

“The 15 million with debts under $10,000 who would see complete forgiveness include around 5 million borrowers who were in default or delinquent on payments before 2020, so it would wipe out about half of the approximate 10 million defaults/delinquencies that existed before 2020,” Miller wrote. 

Miller explained that borrowers with lower balances have been more likely to default than borrowers with higher balances, in part because many didn’t end up completing a higher education degree. These borrowers end up being unable to repay because many don’t end up with a higher-earning career before becoming entangled in decades-long repayment plans with growing interest. 

Although the administration’s plan would mark the largest individual forgiveness effort to date, borrowers whose loans exceed the $10,000 forgiveness threshold could see little impact initially, especially those on income driven repayment plans. 

“For borrowers in income-driven repayment, monthly payments depend on income, not amount owed. So many borrowers whose debt is not entirely erased will not see an immediate impact,” experts at the Urban Institute told Changing America. 

But lowering the borrowers’ balances by $10,000, even if it fails to reduce monthly payments drastically, could still lead borrowers to pay off their loans earlier than expected. 

Though the Biden administration appears poised to issue $10,000 in loan forgiveness, advocates alongside progressive lawmakers have pushed the administration to cancel up to $50,000 per borrower, arguing it would help narrow the racial wealth gap, provide immediate relief to millions during a recession and become a massive consumer-driven stimulus to the economy.  

Loan forgiveness could also have a decisive political impact with midterm elections only months away. Polling data shows widespread support for largescale loan forgiveness, which could prove to be sticky for the administration as it works on potential limitations on who qualifies for forgiveness. 

“But any limitation on who receives forgiveness — for instance, confirming borrower income — could delay when borrowers see relief, which might change the political impact,” Miller said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden’s legacy will be transforming the Rust Belt into the EV Belt

In the years to come, July and August of 2022 will be remembered as the months that changed the course of America’s place in the 21st century. 

The months witnessed three events: The Biden administration signed into law the CHIPS and Science Act, followed by the climate-driven Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made a historic visit to Taiwan, ignoring the People’s Republic of China’s warnings against such a trip. All three events are interconnected and will help to revive the soul of America by creating employment in the manufacturing sector, addressing climate goals and transforming the Rust Belt into the EV Belt — while simultaneously committing to allies and partners around the globe.  

Over the past five years, former President Trump’s rhetoric and hyperbole created the impression that America could not revive its manufacturing prowess or fix its society’s ills without turning the clock back to the 1950s — not just for manufacturing but for the nation as a whole — by being less diverse and less progressive. President Biden has proven otherwise.  

While Trump often used immigrants, minorities and women as his whipping boys, creating fissures and limiting the scope of social cohesion, President Biden has proven that you can have your cake and eat it too. Biden’s administration is the most diverse in history and he has signed into law legislation that will revive American manufacturing in the Rust Belt and beyond. 

The new EV ecosystem is primarily being created in states such as Ohio, Michigan and Missouri. At Rouge Center in Dearborn, Mich., Ford plans to invest $2 billion to increase the production of the new F-150 Lightning electric truck to 150,000 per year and in Avon Lake, Ohio, the automakers plan to invest another $1.5 billion, creating over 1,800 union jobs to build the electric commercial vans. 

Further south, in small town Commerce, Ga., SK America, a subsidiary of the Korean battery maker, is manufacturing batteries for the F-150 Lightning. In a town where the most available employment is at warehouses making $9 or $10/hr, a base wage of $18/hr lives up to the promise of the American dream — economic mobility.    

The CHIPS ACT and the IRA will also create jobs and revive semiconductor chip manufacturing in Arizona, Texas and Ohio and bring high-paying technology jobs to Pennsylvania and Georgia, which have yet to recover their manufacturing prowess of the past.

Semiconductor chips are symbolic of the dwindling state of American manufacturing. In the 1990s, 37 percent of chips were manufactured in the states. Fast-forward 25 years and less than 12 percent of chips are manufactured in America. This abysmal statistic can be attributed to bipartisan public policy that supported cost efficiencies for American corporations over workers and middle-class well-being. Furthermore, the idealistic notion that China would democratize or liberalize with an increase in trade has been debunked over the last 20 years, proving the lawmakers who brought China into the fold of the World Trade Organization wrong. 

With these lessons in mind, U.S. administrations starting with Trump’s have worked toward redrawing the trade architecture. Biden has championed both competition with China and measures addressing climate change, proving that it does not have to be one or the other. The IRA is a case in point. As President Biden forecasts in a tweet, going forward, when Americans pop the hoods of their cars, they will see “Made in America” on their batteries. Vehicles will be electric and be made in America. The IRA will also assist in almost quadrupling the number of solar panels in America from 240 million to over 1 billion over the span of the next eight years.  

There’s little doubt that Biden’s domestic measures are also a product of global events such as China’s coercive actions toward Taiwan and its control of several renewable energy supply chains. Pelosi’s trip was more than a grandstanding gesture. The threat of Chinese annexation looms over American industries that rely on chips created in Taiwan. Given that over 90 percent of the most advanced chips are manufactured in Taiwan, over the long term, the CHIPS Act will secure the supply chain in the increasingly likely event of China invading Taiwan. Thanks to the act, chips manufacturing will be revived in Arizona, Texas and Ohio. Small town Johnstown, Ohio has a good problem — finding 7,000 workers for the state’s largest economic development project — Intel’s chip plant.   

The rise of populism in America can be partially attributed to the hollowing out of manufacturing devastating towns in Ohio, Pennsylvania, upstate New York and several Southern states. Not surprisingly, over the past 20 years, citizens have witnessed an opioid epidemic, soaring crimes, hate crimes in particular, with immigrants and people of color becoming the easy scapegoats for all the peril. Furthermore, as we witnessed with former President Trump’s rise to victory with anti-establishment rhetoric, there was increasing distrust in Washington to represent the interests of middle America.  

With manufacturing jobs returning to towns such as Commerce and Johnston, American manufacturing may be undergoing a renaissance. This will revive not just manufacturing in America, but the soul and spirit of the nation by steering residents toward shared prosperity. 

In a highly polarized and clamorous society, President Biden’s transformation of the Rust Belt could just be what the doctor ordered.

Akhil Ramesh is a fellow with the Pacific Forum. He has worked with governments, risk consulting firms and think tanks in the United States and India. Follow him on Twitter: Akhil_oldsoul.   

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Paul Pelosi sentenced to 5 days in jail for DUI

A state judge on Tuesday sentenced Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) husband, Paul Pelosi, to five days in jail for driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury, the Napa County District Attorney’s Office announced.

A Napa County Superior Court judge also dismissed a second charge of driving with .08 percent blood-alcohol level or higher causing injury after Paul Pelosi pleaded guilty to the first charge.

Police in California arrested Paul Pelosi in late May after responding to a car accident. The state’s highway patrol said at the time his vehicle was struck by another car as he was attempting to cross State Route 29.

The judge also sentenced Paul Pelosi to three years probation and required him to complete a three-month DUI program and pay roughly $5,000 in restitution for medical bills and lost wages. He can continue driving within the next year only if the vehicle is equipped with an ignition device that takes and analyzes a breath sample before the engine can be started.

Paul Pelosi will not actually have to spend five days in jail for his sentence, as the hours he spent in custody immediately following the crash will count as two days, and two additional days were counted for good conduct, The New York Times reported. His final day will involve court-approved community service.

A spokesman for the Speaker did not immediately return a request for comment. She was not with her husband during the accident.

A representative for Paul Pelosi said previously that the accident occurred as he was driving a “short distance” home from a dinner party by himself. The representative added that the Speaker’s husband was “fully cooperative” with authorities.

Source: TEST FEED1

Possible damage to Trump popularity could hurt Truth Social, firm warns

Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), which formed to merge with the parent company of former President Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, expressed concern in a Monday security filing that a decline in Trump’s popularity could negatively impact the business.

In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, DWAC said the success of Truth Social hinges on the “reputation and popularity” of Trump, the chairman of Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), which owns and operates the social media platform.

“In order to be successful, TMTG will need millions of those people to register and regularly use TMTG’s platform,” the filing reads. “If President Trump becomes less popular or there are further controversies that damage his credibility or the desire of people to use a platform associated with him … [the merger] could be adversely affected.”

CNBC first reported the news.

DWAC is a special acquisition group formed to raise capital and merge with TMTG, a media and technology company established by Trump last year.

Monday’s security filing sets a special shareholder meeting on Sept. 6 to discuss the extension of a Sept. 8 deadline on completing the merger with TMTG.

If an extension is not approved, DWAC will dissolve. The firm is looking to extend the merger deadline to Sept. 8, 2023.

Trump faces multiple investigations, including the Aug. 9 FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in connection to an investigation into his possession of classified documents.

The DWAC filing warns of a potential financial impact on the company if he were to decline in popularity amid his political and legal woes.

The firm cited a poll from The Hill last year that showed only one-third of voters would use a social media platform backed by Trump, and it shared separate data indicating that only 60 percent of Republicans are interested in such a social media site.

Trump created Truth Social after he was banned from Twitter following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, with the former president promising to create a social media platform centered on free speech.

The app went live over the winter and Trump wrote his first post in February. Truth Social originally launched with a rocky start, with users waiting in backlogs to create and use an account.

The social media platform now has somewhere around 4 million users based on Trump’s follower count, although its rival, Twitter, has more than 300 million users.

After the FBI raid on his home, Truth Social was downloaded more than 88,000 times, according to The Washington Times.

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Nancy Pelosi's husband pleads guilty to DUI, faces jail time

NAPA, Calif. (KRON) — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband pleaded guilty to DUI causing injury Tuesday morning in Northern California.

Paul Pelosi was sentenced by Napa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga to serve five days in jail, pay more than $6,000 in fines, and enroll in a three-month-long DUI class. Paul Pelosi did not appear in the courtroom. His defense attorney, Amanda Bevins, appeared in court for him and submitted his plea in writing.

Nancy Pelosi was traveling on the East Coast when her husband was arrested May 28.

Paul Pelosi, 82, was driving on Highway 29 near Oakville Cross Road when his Porsche was hit by a Jeep. California Highway Patrol officers blamed Pelosi for causing the crash, saying he was under the influence of alcohol.

“His eyes appeared red/watery, he was unsteady on his feet, his speech was slurred, and he had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath. CHP determined Mr. Pelosi was the proximate cause of the collision,” the officer wrote in an arrest report.

The Jeep driver was injured in the wreck.

When the CHP officer asked Paul Pelosi for his driver’s license, he handed the officer his license and an 11-99 Foundation membership card, according to the arrest report. The 11-99 Foundation is a scholarship fund that provided more than $42 million in support of CHP families, according to its website. 11-99 is a radio code used by CHP officers and dispatchers that means “officer needs assistance.”

A blood sample was taken from Paul Pelosi two hours after the crash.

“Mr. Pelosi’s blood sample had a .082% blood alcohol content,” prosecutors wrote. It is illegal to drive in California with a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08% or more.

Paul Pelosi was booked into jail after the crash and was released just a few hours later. It’s unclear when he will begin serving his five-day jail sentence.

Source: TEST FEED1

The CHIPS are on the table — but semis are only part of the story

The “CHIPS and Science Act” President Biden signed into law last week was widely hailed as a refreshing bipartisan triumph, but the measure’s impact can be even broader than many recognize. 

Washington rightly celebrated the benefits of the “CHIPS” side of the new law, which includes funds that can be invested in semiconductor technology right away — a victory for U.S. national security and competitiveness. However, the “Science” part of the bill also deserves our applause: It authorizes funding that can provide a powerful boost for technological innovation that could transform every industry, business and sector. 

We urge Congress to capitalize on this bipartisan momentum and appropriate the funds that the bill authorizes. Our future competitiveness, prosperity and security all rely on technological leadership. To sustain its strength in the long term, the U.S. needs to invent and manufacture the next new technologies.

The good news is that a range of future breakthroughs — and the new start-ups, new industries and new growth they can inspire —will likely emerge from a suite of rapidly evolving technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing, 6G communications, energy, biomedicine and more. By investigating the science behind these and other novel technologies through what’s known as “use-inspired basic research” — research at the very frontiers of science yet targeted at overcoming specific technical obstacles that stand in the way of new innovations — we can increase the odds that such breakthroughs will spring from US labs.

In fact, we owe the semiconductor itself to exactly this kind of research. Scientists at Bell Labs set out in the 1940s to push the limits of physics, in hopes of replacing the dominant electronics technology at the time — the bulky, breakable vacuum tube. They wound up inventing the semiconductor transistor, precursor to everything that’s part of the “digital economy” today, including the phone you may be reading this on and the car you drove to work this morning.

Researchers have only started to unlock the full potential of today’s emerging technologies, but initial discoveries hold great promise. Examples could include artificial intelligence that can “learn” without enormous datasets, which could address privacy concerns and accelerate solutions from pinpointing cancer treatments to match each patient’s biology to precisely predicting local threats from climate change. Or quantum computers that can rapidly “invent” novel compounds for potential new drugs. Or inexpensive grid-scale batteries that don’t depend on rare materials from other nations. Or the life-changing ability to regenerate tissues damaged by injury, disease or aging.

And just as the semiconductor accelerated America’s postwar economic growth and secured our leadership on the global stage, these new technologies can do the same in the coming decades. PWC estimates that AI alone will contribute $15.7 trillion to the global economy.

However, the workforce needed to capture this opportunity does not exist today. Even technology companies struggle to find qualified candidates. Seventy-five percent of leaders at these companies say they have a hard time sourcing talent. STEM education — also authorized in the “Science” part of the bill — can help close the skills gap and prepare U.S. workers for jobs these next generation technologies will help create.

By bringing the “CHIPS and Science Act” this far, the White House and Congress have redoubled their commitment to ingenuity in America. Failing to pass it would have amounted to sitting down by the side of the road in the race for tomorrow’s technologies; with this legislation, our leaders have kept America in the running. Amid so much polarization, the law is both an overdue investment in homegrown innovation and a welcome reminder of what’s possible when leaders reach across the aisle.

To win the race, we must back the researchers working to unleash the transformative power of these technologies. Let’s lean into this bipartisan moment to carry the “Science” success over the funding finish line.

Stephen A Schwarzman is chairman, CEO & co-founder of Blackstone. L. Rafael Reif is President of MIT.

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One-in-three veterans say they’ve been arrested: research

About one-third of veterans have reported being arrested at least once in their lives, according to a criminal justice think tank. 

The Council on Criminal Justice said in a release on Tuesday that the most recent national survey revealed that U.S. prisons and jails contained 180,000 veterans were in U.S. prisons and jails. Data shows a significant disparity between the percentage of veterans and non-veterans who have been arrested in their lifetimes, with fewer than one-fifth of non-veterans reporting ever having been arrested. 

The release states that most of the 200,000 active-duty service members who leave the military every year successfully transition back to civilian life, but some struggle with mental health challenges, substance abuse, homelessness and criminality. 

The think tank stated that combat-related risk factors, inconsistent diversion mechanisms and ineffective procedures to identify veterans upon arrest contribute to former service members incarceration.

Veterans who did not receive an honorable discharge may be prevented from receiving benefits like access to mental health care and substance abuse treatment and are more likely to have interactions with the criminal justice system.

The release states that many veterans do not receive the care and support they need to address their circumstances after they leave the system, reducing the chances of successfully reentering society. 

The council announced Tuesday that it is forming a national commission to investigate incarcerated veterans and create recommendations for policy changes that promote safety, health and justice. 

The commission will be chaired by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and includes former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, two formerly incarcerated veterans and other military, veteran and criminal justice leaders. 

The commission will conduct research and gather testimony to evaluate the extent of veterans’ involvement in the criminal justice system, risk factors and what strategies could prevent veterans from becoming involved in the system.

“Service-related trauma and other legacies of deployment push too many veterans on a path toward incarceration,” Hagel said in the release. “We can and must do more to understand and interrupt that trajectory.”

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The urgent need for climate change bipartisanship

The climate change legislation signed by President Joe Biden this month was a historic political accomplishment and a big step forward in America’s capacity to help stop the warming of the Earth. Climate change threatens our security, our prosperity and even our freedom as much as terrorism did after 9/11. But like climate change bills I worked on in the Senate for years, it did not win bipartisan support. This needs to change. Until it does, the responsible and sensible course is to try to pass legislation with the votes of one party, which is what congressional Democrats just did.

Based on my experience as a U.S. Senator, I believe that the new law, the Inflation Reduction Act, was adopted along party lines not because Democrats refused to reach out to Republicans but because Republicans were not willing to get involved. Climate change is not a partisan problem so legislation to solve the problem should not be partisan. On every climate bill I introduced in the 1990s right up through early 2013 when I retired from the Senate, I sought and found an important Republican cosponsor, from Sens. John Chafee (R-R.I.) to John McCain (R-Ariz.) to John Warner (R-Va.) to Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). But each time one of our proposals came to a vote, almost all Senate Democrats voted for it and almost all Senate Republicans voted against it. And so, after almost 15 years of trying, we never got anything done. Not much has changed in the years since 2013. Democratic senators like Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) continued to work very hard to build bipartisan support for climate change action, and never get any.

The partisan split about such an urgent national and global crisis must stop. The fears of global warming are no longer based on scientific modeling but can be seen and felt by all of us in extreme weather, greater heat, more wildfires, stronger and more frequent storms, visibly melting polar ice and mountain snow, animal life moving to stay alive, crops threatened in their traditional ground, as well as sea levels rising.

I appeal to Republicans to see climate change not as a contest between different scientists or ideologies or interest groups, but as a clear and present threat to our way of life, just as terrorism threatened us after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The contrast between the partisan congressional response to the climate change threat and its non-partisan response to the terrorist attacks is sharp and hopefully instructive to Republicans in Congress.

In the work of Congress after 9/11 to create the Department of Homeland Security and enact the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission to reform our intelligence agencies, there were many disagreements but almost none of them were partisan. That meant that we were able to discuss our differences (sometimes in passionate disagreements) and find a way to compromise so we could get something done to prevent another terrorist attack like 9/11.

And we did.

That is exactly what Republicans and Democrats must now do about climate change. The threat is real. The law that just passed will help a lot, but there is much more that our government will need to do to avoid future climate-caused disasters. This will be done best if members of both parties are working together to find solutions.

Former Sen. Joe Lieberman represented Connecticut in the U.S. Senate from 1989 to 2013.

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National Archives says at least 700 pages of classified materials seized from Trump’s home

The Justice Department seized at least 700 pages of classified materials when it first recovered documents from former President Trump’s Florida home in January, according to a letter released by the National Archives on Tuesday.

An exchange between the custodians for presidential records and Trump’s attorneys, released after it was first obtained by a conservative news outlet, indicates the former president’s legal team spent months attempting to block the FBI and the intelligence community from reviewing the documents to assess the potential national security fallout.

It also reveals that among the materials were those at “the highest levels of classification, including Special Access Program (SAP) materials.”

The May letter from Archives also reiterates a warning first relayed by the Justice Department (DOJ) the month before.

“Access to the materials is not only necessary for purposes of our ongoing criminal investigation, but the Executive Branch must also conduct an assessment of the potential damage resulting from the apparent manner in which these materials were stored and transported and take any necessary remedial steps,” Debra Steidel Wall, acting archivist of the United States, wrote in relaying a message from DOJ’s National Security Division.

Source: TEST FEED1