Ed's Blogue
Ya. Another blog…. I know…. But why not……
A semi-quieter Trump this week after 100 days
Of 38 specific promises Donald Trump made in his 100-day "contract" with voters, he's accomplished 10, mostly through executive orders that don't require legislation. He hasn't started on 15 of his 100-day promises, which include several immigration laws, college affordability, infrastructure incentives and punishment for companies that move jobs overseas.
While Trump claims he doesn't seem to care about the 100-day mark of his administration, he plans a whirlwind of activities seeking to highlight accomplishments. What those are, few know. Bombing Syria twice. After that? He claims job creation but how many were already in place prior to his election? Pipeline? Debatable. Trade?
Exiting TPP may or may not be a positive thing. Regulation cuts? Again. Debatable as some will make things easy to be done with little approval. He claims ethics. He should look in his own backyard. He claims travel restrictions but other than the electronics ban, it's been a dismal failure. He claims constructing the wall but not an inch has been built. He claims new hires for immigration enforcement but he can't find people to hire for border security. He claims helping women but he is killing planned parenthood.
On the 100th day – same day as a possible government shutdown – he will be in Atlanta for a National Rifle Association event as well as sign more executive orders while aides fan out around the country to promote the administration. There he said the second amendment was under "assault" for 8 years.
Trump, not surprising, is fuming over the less than stellar reviews of his first 100 days. Add to his tarnishing of the office [claiming that Obama tapping phones, illegal voters voted for Hillary Clinton, insulting allies] and failure to pass some executive orders [travel ban twice ]or to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Many campaign initiatives have been changed, failed or just ignored. Others such as comments about NATO, China and Russia have changed. He also has lost quite a few people he hired after the election like Michael Flynn and a few others aren't doing well either.
Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, did not disclose foreign payments, despite a warning from the Pentagon in 2014. Spicer blamed the Obama administration, saying Flynn got top security clearance last year [they vetted him]. Spicer said Trump's White House didn't review Flynn's security clearance, but rather relied on previous clearance from the Obama administration. Yup. Put the blame on someone else.
Trump said that he will move forward with terminating NAFTA if negotiations don't success. For now, however, he is focused on reworking the agreement with Mexico and Canada. This even though he spoke to the Mexican President and Canadian Prime Minister and said he wouldn't. Sounds a bit like a spoiled brat.
Trump hosed Canada's softwood lumber industry when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said the tariffs, or taxes, were being imposed after trade talks on dairy products fell through. The tariffs — also called duties — ranged from 3% to 24% on five specific Canadian lumber companies. For all other Canadian lumber companies, there's a nearly 20% tariff on exports to the US. Of course why lumber when dairy products negotiations failed? It was in early February when trump met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that NAFTA would only be "tweaked" with Canada.
Canada is expected to file a complaint with the trade dispute court. They did in 2004 after a similar huge tariff imposed and the US lost. They also filed 4 other times and Canada won all of them.
The lumber tax is expected to hike the price of lumber used in home building by an average of 6% [$3,000], according to the National Association of Home Builders, the trade group for the U.S. industry. Builders argue that higher prices will translate into a slowdown of construction activity that could cost 8,000 U.S. jobs and $500 million in lost wages. With the possible lack of lumber, it will drive up prices across the US.
So the Trump administration is "helping" the lumber industry at the expense of new home owners and builders. An executive for the U.S. Lumber Association says that $3,000 is nothing if the average home is $225,000 [where?]. But that is about 1.5%, not 6%. 6% would be about $13,500. He's dropping the increased cost so it doesn't look as bad.
World Trade Organization ruled in Mexico's favor, allowing it to impose trade sanctions worth $163 million a year against the US. The WTO says that's how much money Mexico has lost from the US unfairly penalizing Mexican tuna. Mexican officials insisted for years that US laws discriminated against their tuna, and that other countries didn't face the same level of enforcement.
In more fibbing from Trump, he claimed that after he threatened to do the preliminary work to kill NAFTA [even though he always said he would "tweak" it], he said that the Canadian Prime Minister and Mexican President called him to work on fixing NAFTA but at least the Canadian Prime Minister said Trump initiated the call. Who would you believe?
The killing of NAFTA would cause major havoc with the economies of the 3 countries that could affect other economies. It may not be as complicated as Brexit but it would be complicated and would need approval from Congress [which trump has issues right now]. At least 33 states trade heavily with Canada – many voted for Trump.
Trump plans on announcing tax reform which would drop the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 15 per cent and drop the personal tax as well. But some experts doubt that by dropping the tax rate can the current deficit [about $560 billion] not increase even if it helps the economy to improve as it would need a big jolt to do so. Also whether or not the Automatic Minimum Tax will be changed or removed . This tax is applied to the wealthy as the minimum they must pay, no matter what they deducted in charities, loopholes, etc. In one year Trump could of saved over $30 million if AMT wasn't around.
With a higher deficit, the Trump plan could damage the credibility of Republican lawmakers who spent years railing against the rising national debt under former President Barack Obama. Could be harder to pass lasting tax reform, since any policy that increases the debt above its baseline either requires Democratic support or — if passed by a slim majority of Republicans in the Senate — would expire in a decade.
Republicans who slammed the growing national debt under President Barack Obama have said they are open to Trump's tax plan, even though it could add trillions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade. Republicans argue the cuts would spur economic growth, reducing or even eliminating any drop in tax revenue. But some had a change of heart after they saw the changes. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation said a big cut in corporate taxes, even if temporary, would add to long-term budget deficits.
In the brief outline for tax reform, it will slash the business tax rate on pass-through entities to 15% from 39.6%. [Pass-throughs' profits flow through to the owners, partners and shareholders, who then report and pay tax on them through their individual tax returns.] All Trump family holdings are pass-throughs. So for every $1 million earned, Trump would pay $150,000 under his own plan instead of $396,000 today. From his leaked 2005 tax return, he would of saved $27 million.
Trump brought the complete Senate to his shack for a meeting to discuss North Korea. But "We learned nothing you couldn't read in the newspaper," Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley. Trump himself was only there for 14 minutes of the 60 minute briefing.
Trump claimed again that he was directly responsible for helping save $700 million on a February order of 90 F-35s — adding that costs will continue to shrink as more planes are delivered despite warnings from a non-partisan federal watchdog agency that testing delays could increase costs by more than a billion dollars. The program itself is worth $400 billion. So that's a savings of 0.175%. He doesn't explain what he did. Maybe he got had them remove the landing gear or something else less vital.
Trump tweeted "The Democrats don't want money from budget going to border wall despite the fact that it will stop drugs and very bad MS 13 gang members" Not quite. More like the cost [estimated over $15 billion] is too much. As of this time, nothing yet built even though Trump had promised in his campaign. He also said that Mexico would pay but that won't happen.
Bidders for the wall must have designs able to repel pickaxes and sledgehammers for at least an hour and be esthetically pleasing from the north side. One bidder suggested adding solar panels which would generate 2 megawatts of electricity an hour. Another bid suggests building a wall large enough for a deck that would offer tourists scenic views of the desert.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a threat to take away funds from sanctuary cities — the latest blow from the federal judiciary to Trump's immigration agenda.
"First the Ninth Circuit rules against the ban & now it hits again on sanctuary cities-both ridiculous rulings. See you in the Supreme Court!" Trump tweeted. Of course he wants to send everything to the Supreme Court [especially since he has his new lackey appointed]. But the judge who handed the ruling is not on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit would hear the case next if appealed.
Democrats and Republicans voted overwhelmingly on a bill to keep the federal government open through next week, averting a shutdown while negotiators hammer out a broader deal to fund agencies through September. Trump's wall building request wasn't included.
After a gunman killed a police officer on the Champs-Elysees, an attack the Islamic State has claimed responsibility for, Trump tweeted: "Another terrorist attack in Paris. The people of France will not take much more of this. Will have a big effect on presidential election!" Some suggest he was referencing far-right Marine Le Pen and her party [known in the past to be anti-Semitic, anti-immigration, anti-EU].
So Ivanka was whining on the Today Show recently saying that it is a human crisis regarding the Syrian refugees. Meanwhile what has her father done? Banned them. Maybe they should do some coordinating.
The US economy only grew at an annual pace of 0.7% in the first three months of the year under Trump, according to the Commerce Department's report on the GDP. It was the slowest quarter of growth since the first quarter of 2014.
"Our rights are under attack like never before," the NRA says on its website. But from where? They have a supposedly conservative "president". The gun industry grew from 166,000 employees in 2008, the year Obama was elected, to 301,000 last year. But since Trump has been in charge, gun sales have dropped.
In a recent poll, 32% still believe that Obama spied on Trump and it jumps to 52% when Republicans are asked. This considering that there is no evidence to support this.
A new CNN/ORC poll finds Trump reaches this milestone holding on to the lowest approval rating of any newly-elected president after 100 days. Overall, 44% say they approve of Trump's handling of the presidency, 54% disapprove.
In an AP poll, eighty-six per cent of Democrats and 57 per cent of independents oppose new spending for a border wall with Mexico. Republicans break about 2-1 in favour of the wall, but that's more narrow support than on other priorities. By a 64 per cent to 19 per cent margin, most oppose decreasing spending on scientific and medical research. Most Americans also oppose cuts to spending on the environment and on climate change, by a 52 per cent to 28 per cent margin. Finally, Americans are more likely to oppose than favour cutting spending for public television, radio and the arts, 44 per cent to 32 per cent.
Only 32 percent of millennials approve of his performance so far, according to a poll released by the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics. About 40% said they would give Trump an "F" on his first 100 days, and only a third said they support his handling of ISIS and Obamacare. Nearly 70% of young people, regardless of political ideology, said Trump's tweeting is "not appropriate" and expressed reservations about cracking down too hard on immigration and jettisoning Obamacare.
Filed under Politics Tagged with 100 dats, democrats, donald trump, lumber, nafta, republicans, softwood, tax reform
Warning before installing Windows 10 Creators Update
Microsoft have issued a warning for those thinking of manually upgrading Windows 10 to the Creators Update [a.k.a. v1703, a.k.a. Redstone 2, a.k.a. build 15063]: Don't.
The big update has already run into problems with some types of Broadcom Bluetooth LE radios: the code was killing connections with accessories, apparently. So Microsoft stopped pushing automatic downloads to computers carrying that hardware. There may also be others hardware issues.
When an issue such as this happens, they issue a "block" which will stop the computer from getting the update. It doesn't stop, however, a person from upgrading manually on their own with an ISO or other ways. Once the issue has been corrected, the block is removed.
That's why Microsoft started with newer hardware first. It will give them time to correct the problem.
So far maybe 10 per cent of Windows machines are running the Creators Update. Microsoft's own recent hardware are leading the pack in upgrades.
Unsure how they release CU with this issue – except maybe because they gave themselves a deadline. But this is v1703. At one point, it looked like it would be called v1704. An extra month [or at least a week or so] wouldn't have caused these problems.
Filed under Technologies Tagged with bluetooth, creators update, microsoft, restone 2, v1703, windows 10
Trump and immigration
Businesses run and owned by Donald Trump and his adult children have been certified to legally hire 1,371 foreign visa workers since 2001. In addition, Trump-branded real estate has raised at least $50 million in foreign investor money through a program that gives foreign investors access to green cards, according to the company that did the development of the real estate. The Trump enterprise has made use of low-skilled permits for vineyard seasonal workers, for example, and has used high-skilled visas to bring in models for its modeling agency.
Trumps' businesses have received 283 H-1B visas since 2001. The high-skilled visas have been used for Trump's modeling venture, Trump Model Management, Mar-A-Lago, the Trump Corporation and businesses associated with his hotels and resorts. Yes, the H-1B visa is to be used for scientists, doctors and the like – not for models, cooks and accountants [all which can be found quite easily].
Trump businesses have received 1,024 H-2B visas since 2000, according to Labor records. Those visas have gone to Mar-A-Lago, Jupiter Gold Club, Lamington Farm and the Trump National Golf Club for jobs like cooks, waiters and waitresses and housekeepers. Trump Vineyards has received 64 H-2A permits since 2006 for agricultural work.
Melania Trump is Slovenian, but began modeling in the US with H-1B visas and was given a green card in 2001, before she married Trump. Trump self-sponsored herself for residency, according to a letter by her attorney released during the campaign. She became a US citizen in 2006. [She also had some run-ins with others claiming she was an escort while at Trump Model Management.]
Trump's first wife, Ivana, was also an immigrant, coming to the US via Canada from Czechoslovakia. Ivana became a US citizen in 1988, 11 years after she married Trump.
Trump faced a lawsuit in the 1980s that accused him and business partners of withholding wages from undocumented Polish immigrants and union workers hired by a contracting company called Kaszycki & Sons to demolish the building that would make room for Trump Tower.
A judge ruled in 1991 that Trump and his associates owed the workers more than $300,000 plus interest. The ruling was appealed, and the case was eventually settled under a sealed agreement, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.
The Washington Post reported in 2015 that it interviewed workers on the construction of Trump's hotel in the nation's capital who said they entered the country illegally, several of whom were still lacking authorization to live and work in the US.
Ever notice that the only Trump business that didn't fit the same area of ownership is the Trump Model Management which would have little to do with the other businesses unless the models need a room to stay or take a vacation at Mar-A-Lago.
Filed under Politics Tagged with donald trump, H-1B, H-2B, Immigration, Mar-A-Lago, Model, Visa
Something is wrong. Trump was a bit quiet this week.
Donald Trump is claiming he cannot be sued now that he has won the White House — a defense in a lawsuit that alleges Trump incited rally-goers to violence when they allegedly assaulted protesters during the 2016 campaign. The lawsuit also names Trump for allegedly inciting the men's actions, pointing to Trump telling the crowd, "Get them out of here" with regard to protesters during the rally. Trump's lawyers contended that Trump was speaking to security and not the crowd. The judge said no. But in Clinton v. Jones, judges ruled that Bill Clinton's "actions" against Paula Jones occurred before he was president. We'll see who foots the bill for the legal stuff…. Ya. The taxpayer I'm sure.
Trump had no intention of making his public. Democrats have seized on that decision, uniting around a pledge not to cooperate on any rewriting of the tax code unless they know specifically how that revision would benefit the billionaire president and his family. The Trump administration's tax plan, promised in February, has yet to materialize. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the administration's goal of getting a tax plan signed by August was "not realistic at this point." The potential repeal of the estate tax or elimination of the alternative minimum tax as provisions would enrich Trump. More than a dozen Republicans have agreed that Mr. Trump should release his returns.
Allan Lichtman, a distinguished professor of history at American University, has stated there are 8 reasons why Trump could be impeached. On top of the list is if Trump knew about or participated in Russia's role in the elections last year. Second on the list is if Trump has received any foreign money or gifts while being president. The latter is because of his supposedly dealings in Russia and elsewhere. "Donald Trump is the president most vulnerable to impeachment among all first-time elected American presidents."
Trump will sign an executive order that will stop short of the one- to two-year moratorium on new skilled worker visas that Trump called for during the campaign. It comes too late to have a direct effect on this year's visa season, which opened April 3. Trump has accused mostly information technology companies of "importing low-wage workers on H-1B visas to take jobs from young college-trained Americans" except few companies give H-1B visa employees "low-wage" salaries for them.
At an executive order signing this week, Trump went after the Canadian dairy industry saying Canada's supply-managed dairy industry is "very unfair" to U.S. farmers and "another typical one-sided deal against the United States." Once again he doesn't know the facts. United States "heavily subsidizes" their agricultural sector. Imports of U.S. milk products have increased since 199, and now account for three-quarters of milk products in Canada. U.S. farmers have claimed they are losing up the US$150 million per year because of heavy import tariffs on ultra-filtered milk used to produce cheese. Obviously not from Canada.
In a special election to replace new Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price in Georgia's 6th District — long a reliable Republican stronghold Trump tweeted "The super Liberal Democrat in the Georgia Congressioal [it is how Trump typed it] race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes!" Standard propaganda from the right. Meanwhile he urged Republicans to vote for any Republican. But that would split the vote instead of selecting a single candidate. Expect Trump to take credit if the Republicans win the seat claiming it is the voters who are approving his policies.
In the end, in the special election, in a conservative stronghold, the Democrat ultimately fell just short of the percent needed to avoid a runoff. There will be a June 20th runoff between the Democrat and a Republican. The Democrat fell 1.9% short. Combined with the votes of the four other Democrats that ran [assuming roughly the same number of people vote and vote by party], the Democrats could pull off a big victory. Mitt Romney won by 23 points in 2012. Tom Price won 62% of the vote in 2016 before being named health and human services secretary.
Laughingly Trump tweeted after "Dems failed in Kansas and are now failing in Georgia. Great job Karen Handel!" Doesn't he know there is a runoff? Doesn't he know how many voters the GOP lost in just 5 months?
He also tweeted "Despite major outside money, FAKE media support & eleven Republican candidates, BIG "R" win with runoff in Georgia. Glad to be of help!" Yup. He helped in almost costing the GOP the election.
Karen Handel will make residency the central issue of the runoff since the Democrat contender doesn't live in the district. He use to and said he'd move back there. That's the only thing she could think of?
Residency? Federal laws says Members of Congress only need to live in the state they represent but he doesn't represent them…. Yet. The law says nothing about living in the district.
The US government could shut down at the end of April [or early/mid-May if an extension] if the parties don't agree on spending issues. Already Trump's wall, Obamacare, military spending, research and other aspects could affect things. On top of that the GOP's Freedom Caucus is against any extra spending. So Trump's people may have to try and get some Democrats on their side. Good luck. You know who Trump will blame if there is a shut down – and it won't be the Freedom Caucus.
Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, was hammered recently during a town hall while defending President Donald Trump's refusal to release his tax returns.
Funny how Trump called China a currency manipulator during the election campaign and now doesn't because China is supposedly helping in trying to straighten out North Korea. So when you help Trump, everything Trump previously said about you goes out the door.
A new Gallup poll shows that only 45% of people surveyed trust President Trump to keep his promises, a 17% decrease from February.
Trump has become the first Western leader to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for winning a controversial referendum that grants him far-reaching, largely unchecked powers. So one dictator-wanna-be congratulates the latest dictator. No western governments have congratulated Erdpgan in is power grab.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was not disrespecting Hawaii or a judge in the state when he said he was "amazed" that the official was able to block President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban halting immigration from several majority Muslim countries. I guess Sessions doesn't believe in democracy.
Trump had Kid Rock, Sarah "There's Russia" Palin and Ted "Motor City Madman" [a.k.a. nut ball] Nugent over for dinner [see here]. What a motley crew. Palin and the others also were in the Oval office. I guess Palin finally got to go in there. The background picture is a portrait of Hillary Clinton, which hangs in the White House basement along with paintings of other first ladies. The basement? [Palin recently said that the women in former Fox News' Bill O'Reilly scandal should of resigned. Why should they resign when he is guilty.]
Ivanka Trump's company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world's second-largest economy. That night, the first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, sat next to the president of China and his wife for a steak and Dover sole dinner at Mar-a-Lago. Coincidence? Meanwhile, even with some boycotting [and her father's Twitter tirades about them], U.S. imports, almost all of them from China, shot up an estimated 166 per cent last year, while sales hit record levels in 2017. Ivanka Trump Marks LLC applied for at least nine new trademarks in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Canada and the U.S. after the election.
Super Bowl winners, the New England Patriots, visited the White House. Absent were at least 7 members including Tom Brady who cited "family matters". Trump is supposedly a big fan and friend of Brady, Patriots owner Bob Kraft and head coach Bill Belichick. During the election Brady never publicly endorsed Trump even though Trump claimed [hmmm] that he did.
Emirates, the Middle East's biggest airline, said that it is cutting flights to the United States because of a drop in demand caused by heightened U.S. security measures and Trump administration attempts to ban travelers from Muslim-majority nations.
Interesting to note that at this time into the first term for George W. Bush, he visited roughly have the states in America. Barack Obama had visited a bunch of states plus 3 visits elsewhere. Trump? He has visited his Mar-a-Lago compound/resort more times than the number of states he visited [seven] and visits elsewhere [none] during the same period as the other two. Trump does seem to like receiving dignitaries [sounds like something a king would do].
Filed under Politics Tagged with donald trump, erdogan, executive order, georgia, h-1b visa, impeachment, patriots, sarah palin
Windows Vista [support] is dead…
Miss it yet?
For anyone still using it, there will be no further support. No updates. whatever is in Microsoft's web site will be come static.
Most if not all software developers and those supporting peripherals [such as printers] have probably already stopped supporting Vista long ago.
If you still have it, good luck!
[Windows Server 2008 support ends in January 2020.]
Filed under Technologies Tagged with microsoft, support, windows vista
Trump was quietish this week – wow
Within hours, Donald Trump backtracked on various campaign issues. NATO, he said, is "no longer obsolete." He backed down a threat to brand China a currency manipulator [was guilty of "rape" against the US economy]. Trump praised Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, whom he had previously pledged to replace when her term expires, and once accused of holding interest rates low as a political boost for former President Barack Obama.
White House press secretary Sean "Garlic" Spicer pointed to an interview with the Secretary General, where he indicated that NATO countries have been performing better in terms of their financial commitments. So it's just about the money.
Paul Manafort's [Trump's former campaign chairman] finances and consulting work are drawing attention as Ukrainian officials try to determine whether he received improper payments as part of a corruption case into ex-President Victor Yanukovych—Manafort's former client. US authorities also are investigating possible Ukrainian corruption and any role Manafort may have played in Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
For example, from 2006 to 2012, records show, Manafort and his wife Kathleen spent $12 million on four residential units in New York City, including a $3.7-million apartment in Trump Tower. They also bought a $2.7-million condominium in Alexandria, Va., and a $1.5-million house home in Palm Beach, Fla.
Trump is threatening not to reimburse health insurers for covering low income people as a way of forcing Democrats to the negotiating table on health care. "I don't want people to get hurt," Trump said in an interview. Sure. This will hurt people. It is unfair to do this to low incomers when it is a political issue. Meanwhile, cowardly, the Trump administration this time is negotiating without doing it in the public's view.
Garlic was widely condemned for claiming that Adolf Hitler, who gassed millions of Jews during the Holocaust, did not use chemical weapons. Comparing the Nazi leader with Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Garlic told journalists during his regular press briefing at the White House: "We didn't use chemical weapons in World War Two. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn't even sink to using chemical weapons." He later apologized.
Trump tweeted in 2013 "What will we get for bombing Syria besides more debt and a possible long term conflict? Obama needs Congressional approval." Yet he bombed Syria twice in a week. No Congressional approval.
Moody's Investor Service said earlier this year that the number of "distressed" retailers –those with cash problems and lots of debt that are facing strong competition — is at the highest rate since 2009. Some of the problems could be attributed to the economy or the administration. In addition Staples [in the US at least] wants a new owner.
Trump claims he was "the best baseball player in New York when I was young" in a book. Of course, this is Trump – the guy who exaggerates everything. In his narcissist ways, "he always wanted to hit the ball through people. He wanted to overpower them" even if they gave him the option to hit to the opposite field.
The surprisingly close results of a special election for a House seat in deep-red Kansas should serve as "a warning sign" to the GOP, Sen. Ted Cruz said. Trump had carried the Kansas district by 27 percentage points but on Tuesday, Republican Ron Estes only bested Democrat Jim Thompson for the seat previously represented by new CIA Director Mike Pompeo by 7 points.
Trump declared April to be National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month. Tina Fey, who was hosting a telethon for the ACLU at the end of March, commented: "Earlier tonight, in what is surely an April Fools' joke, the president proclaimed that next month (April) will be National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, so now we know what he gave up for Lent."
In the 14 weeks since his inauguration, Trump has been at his Mar-a-Lago estate seven times.
The Trump administration said it will not release logs of White House visitors, breaking with a precedent set by the Obama administration and shrouding Trump's activities in the West Wing in secrecy. The decision was made in light of the "grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually," according to White House Communications Director Michael Dubke. Funny how the Obama and previous administrations had no issues. Maybe they don't want to show "visitors" that have entered the White House but shouldn't.
The Trump administration was sued this week by several watchdog groups seeking access to the records, which have not been released since Trump took office, insisting the records are actually the property of the Secret Service, which is subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
Meanwhile, the Democrats in Congress have also introduced legislation that would require the Trump administration to maintain and disclose the names of visitors at places aside the White House where he conducts business, including his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The stock market had been on a nearly nonstop rip higher since Election Day on the belief that Trump and a Republican-led Congress will cut income taxes, loosen regulations for companies and institute other business-friendly policies. But now there are worries that the Trump White House may not be able to help businesses as much as once thought.
Sears and Kmart are just the latest U.S. retailers to jump ship on some Trump brand products.
Lawyers for Trump have sent not one, but two cease-and-desist letters to a website featuring his face being pawed by kittens, it is claimed. The person behind trumpscratch.com (be warned, not safe for work), a San Francisco teenager named Lucy, says she set the site up for a laugh, but was amazed to receive the letters from The Trump Organization informing her she was infringing the Trump trademark. Lucy has sold the domain to a UK organization, which has redirected it to another website featuring the name "Trump" – trumptytrump.com – a porn site. Lucy changed the name of the site to KittenFeed.com "But after changing, they still came at me," she said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to Washington to visit Trump. Seems the Commander in Chief still likes to cozy up to dictators and thugs who ignore democracy or human rights.
Trump slipped 220 spots in Forbes magazine list of the world's richest billionaires to number 544 with an estimated $3.5 billion. Forbes attributed Trump's drop to sluggishness in the Manhattan real estate market which is responsible for a disproportionate amount of his wealth.
The heavily pro-Trump Drudge Report is the third most-visited media site on the Internet (behind only ESPN and MSN [the automatic homepage for many PCs]), and is one of a small handful of sites to have broken the 1 billion hits per month mark.
Trump's job approval rating has dropped to 37%, while 58% of Americans disapprove of his performance so far as president, new Gallup figures show.
Fox News anchor Shepard Smith said, "We really don't quote [Conway] much anymore because, well, history," as he reported on her explanation of "microwaves that turn into cameras."
UPS announced that it will add Saturday delivery in the US, creating an estimated 6,000 new lower paying jobs in mostly delivery and distribution. I'm expecting to see Trump take credit for this.
Trump Hotels has planned to develop a $50 million property in downtown Dallas, using the organization's new brand, Scion. The project is currently being developed with international investors and a Turkish businessman, Mukemmel "Mike" Sarimsakci, despite Sarimsakci's history of lawsuits and tax trouble. Trump Organization had no signed agreement with Sarimsakci.
Yikes. The private account used by US Vice President Mike Pence when he was governor that was hacked was an AOL account. People still use AOL?
A White House statement congratulating ExxonMobil for increasing investment in Texas and Louisiana cribbed multiple lines from the oil giant's statement as well as from ExxonMobil's CEO without citation.
After the electronics ban for some Muslim countries, Royal Jordanian have they tweeted, "Stay tuned for more fun…" and "Every week a new ban".
The Union for Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club and Earthjustice plan to jointly file a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by fossil fuel groups in March that asks the Environmental Protection Agency to delay or reconsider a rule that places more regulations on chemical plants. tHis was ordered by the Trump administration.
Filed under Politics Tagged with manafort, sean spicer
Google's Chrome browser isn't secure
A word of warning when you use the Google Chrome web browser. The browser uses a misleading notification system.
When you see the "Secure" notification in the browser location bar, this means that the connection between the browser and the website you went to is encrypted. But this does not mean that the you should fully trust the web site. It isn't guaranteed that the web site is safe from phishing, malware, etc.
This is [as I said] because the "Secure" notification only means that there is encryption between your computer's browser and that site. You can encrypt anything.
If the encryption certificate for the site has been revoked, the Chrome browser will still show it as "Secure". Google knows about the issue but hasn't corrected the issue.
In addition, according to year end reports [2016, 2017], Google's Chrome browser continues to lead all browsers in vulnerabilities making it less secure.
[Note: Both links above may be technical for some. The results appear on page 20 for both reviews and the comparison of web browsers are on page 21. As well, they are external links. View at your own risk.]
Some vulnerabilities are more critical than others. But with the Chrome browser picking up users over the past few years, some vulnerabilities have been aimed at the browsers. Others are from sloppy programming.
This doesn't mean you should stop using the Chrome web browser. More like you should understand that the browser isn't 100% secure and Google's claim that it is, is misleading. But no web browser is secure.
Filed under Technologies Tagged with chrome, encryption, google, secure
The calm before the next storm
Iran drove him nuts this week
Even on vacation, he causes trouble
Finally, a quiet week
Impeached but will live on
He's impeached
This was really a busy week
It is a historic day
The circus continues to implode
Trump throws Giuliani under the bus
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