Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Does America's Protection need Protection? FEMA Withdrawals from North Carolina after Threat of Gun Violence and Militia Involvement

As Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton continue to terrorize the US South, FEMA continues to push federal aid to relief efforts. However, there have been reports of armed militia out to stop FEMA from their relief efforts. 


This past weekend, on Saturday, October 12th, North Carolina FEMA officials relocated after a perceived threat of a 44 year old North Carolinian after he was found with a loaded handgun and a rifle and was making threats to hurt FEMA employees. He was charged with “going armed to the terror of the public.” 

But this isn’t the only reason FEMA chose to withdraw from North Carolina.

While not directly related to Parsons, a Forest Service official says that FEMA had advised them to relocate workers, saying that US military personnel “had come across… trucks of armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA.” This ended up being false and Parsons was the only active person they found trying to hurt FEMA. In the following days, FEMA will be returning to going door to door to help the hurricane effort. 

This is just one of many Republican conspiracy theories perpetuated by their party less than 30 days before the election. US Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia started the conspiracy theory that the government controls the weather. This has been perpetuated by other Republicans who claim that democrats have been manipulating the weather in the South to prevent Republicans from voting for Trump. They also claim that Democrats are trying to make themselves look better with how they are handling a hurricane like this, while also claiming that FEMA isn’t doing anything. Trump has personally claimed that FEMA is broken and isn’t actually helping hurricane victims because, as he claims, the Biden-Harris administration redirected funds for FEMA to handle the surge of migrants from the southern border. 

“They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank.” Meanwhile if they actually did this it would be illegal. FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program, which gives grants to local governments and nonprofits to take care of undocumented immigrants and has no relation to FEMA’s disaster relief authorities or funding. Grants can’t just be taken back, or redirected by the Federal Government without the consent of the states.


The reason he made this claim was because FEMA began making claims that they wouldn’t have enough money to last out the storm if it continued. This is true but not because they weren’t given enough money, because Biden continues to send money into FEMA as recently . He has not taken from it. Trump meanwhile has. In 2019, Trump actually took between 155 million to 271 million dollars to pay for immigration detention space and hearing locations for asylum seekers in Mexico.


As we head closer and closer to the primary election, the question still stands how this will affect the vote. Have Republicans lost all trust that Democrats have their states in mind? Will the rhetoric pushed by Trump continue to spread throughout all the parties? 

Interestingly, Harris has actually gone down in the polls recently, making the election closer than ever, with 50 percent likely voters for Harris and 48 for Trump. As this question is phrased by likely, people are more likely to be honest but there is definitely a possibility for change in opinion within the next 3 weeks. It is unclear what caused Harris to drop in the polls but media speculation suggests that her recent interviews weren’t as favorable to her image.


Hurricane recovery officials in N.C. relocated amid report of ‘armed militia,’ email shows - The Washington Post

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/threats-fema-workers-north-carolina-sheriff/story?id=114776904

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/10/13/hurricanes-fema-funding-republicans-ignore-democrats-election/75614382007/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/04/no-biden-didnt-take-fema-relief-money-use-migrants-trump-did/

https://www.fema.gov/press-release/20241012/biden-harris-administration-assisting-seven-major-disaster-declarations

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/dead-heat-trump-pulls-even-harris-nbc-news-poll-rcna174201

  

Sunday, October 13, 2024

Man Armed with Firearms Arrested Outside Donald Trump’s Coachella Rally

            On Saturday, October 12, 2024, Donald Trump appears to have faced another threat to his life. Trump was visiting California for a rally in Coachella, CA. An event that is a gathering to demonstrate support involved a man with firearms. Fortunately, this incident did not result in the harm of the former president or the attendees of the event. 



The suspect was identified as 49 year old Las Vegas resident Vem Miller. Miller was caught at a checkpoint with fake VIP passes to the rally and fake press passes along with the illegal possession of a shotgun, a loaded handgun, and a high-capacity magazine. The idea that the pass to the rally is for VIPs indicates that Miller probably wanted to get close up with Trump. It appears that if that did not work, the fake press passes would have allowed Miller to get another close up angle on Trump. Additionally, he did not have a valid ID when he was stopped at the rally checkpoint. No valid ID heavily implies that someone is trying to stay secretive. 


Deputies at Trump’s rally detained Miller after he was found to have unregistered firearms. Riverside County Sheriff Bianco stated, “[they] probably stopped another assassination attempt” (Los Angeles Daily News).


Police records show that Miller was released after a $5,000 bail and as of Sunday, is no longer in custody. In this case, money got a suspicious person out of serving potential jail time or a form of punishment. He is set to have a court appearance on January 2nd. For some background on his personal life, he has a master’s degree from UCLA and in 2022, he ran for Nevada State Assembly. Based on this information, Miller can be identified as someone engaged with politics. Miller is a registered Republican and is believed to be a member of a right-leaning anti-government group. The FBI calls the group “anti-government extremist” (New York Post). By labeling the group as extremist, Miller is a clear example of the lengths one might go to achieve what one wants, even when those actions are to resort to violence. 


The political scene now includes violence. What is the state of our political environment that makes people feel the need to bring loaded firearms to rallies? California is a state that is filled with Democrats, a strong blue state. Surprisingly, the person who tried to assassinate Trump was a Republican and not a California resident. Though Miller is a registered Republican, he still dislikes the government. He appears to resemble the traits of an anarchist, someone who rebels against government authority. 



Trump has already faced two previous assassination attempts. One in Butler, Pennsylvania, and another in Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club. This first attempt in Butler is the most extreme as Trump’s ear was struck by a bullet. In the West Palm Beach golf club, the gunman was caught hiding in the bushes. Even though the man did not fire directly at the former president, he was charged with attempting to assassinate Trump. 


Though Miller’s true intentions may never be known. A man bringing loaded firearms and a fake entry pass implies something wrong is going to happen. This brings up the question, what could a man with a loaded firearm near a presidential rally do? 


Sources:

https://nypost.com/2024/10/13/us-news/third-trump-assassination-attempt-thwarted-when-armed-man-arrested-outside-coachella-rally-sheriff-says/ 

https://www.dailynews.com/2024/10/13/las-vegas-man-found-with-loaded-firearm-high-capacity-magazine-near-trump-rally-in-coachella-valley/ 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13955435/Donald-trump-assassination-attempt-gunman-arrested-coachella.html 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/man-possession-firearms-arrested-outside-trump-rally-coachella-valley 







Saturday, October 12, 2024

Donald Trump visiting California, a Democratic state for the past decade

Even though rallies often take place in swing states where no one political party dominates the state, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is visiting California, a state with a supermajority of democrats for the past decade, this weekend. Specifically, the rally is at Coachella, a music festival venue, and will be around 100 degrees Fahrenheit during his rally. Despite all of this, why is Trump still holding a rally in California?



It turns out, Trump rallying at a non-swing state is nothing new. In the last election, Trump visited California, and although a landslide win by Joe Biden, because California is so populated, the “portion” of Trump supporters equated to more than 6 million votes (most votes received by a republican presidential candidate from California). His goal is not to win California and get the electoral votes, but get the considerably high amount of popular votes compared to other states with smaller populations. Moreover, Coachella is the only competitive congressional district that he won in the 2020 election. This district’s representative was GOP Rep. Ken Calvert who barely won. Trump hopes to be able to help out Calvert again with this weekend's rally (which will ultimately help him if he gets the presidential position).


Fundraising is another reason, with California producing one of the most fundraisers for both political parties. Seats that come with an opportunity to take photos with Trump were priced at $25,000 for two people, and $5,000 for a “VIP experience” seat. 


Gaining support from the republicans within California, Trump takes advantage of the fact that California is still predominantly democratic by blaming all the current negative status of California to the Democrats. For example, California’s high housing, gas, and other inflations; he refers this as California Dream into a Nightmare. Trump is able to blame it all on the democrats and make himself appeal by claiming that all will be solved under his term.


On the other hand, from the community’s perspective there are some oppositions. Coachella Mayor Steven Hernandez disagrees with Trump’s claim and said that “Trump’s attacks on immigrants, women, the LGBTQ community and the most vulnerable among us don’t align with the values of our community.”


California is not the only democratic state he plans to visit. Trump plans to visit Chicago and New York later on. Although the claims Trump makes at the rallies are questionable, his rallies identify a clear sign of support from these democratic states.


Sources:


https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/12/politics/trump-coachella-rally/index.html


https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/11/trump-coachella-rally-00183392


https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4920478-trump-to-hold-rare-california-rally-on-saturday/





Friday, October 11, 2024

Deloitte Takes a Major Hit Over an Employee’s Decision to Leak JD Vance’s Messages

    Deloitte has come under fire as JD Vance has had his messages from 2020 leaked by a Deloitte employee. Donald Trump and his Republican allies are threatening Deloitte because of the actions of the one employee. Even Donald Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., mentioned, “Maybe it’s time for the GOP to end Deloitte’s taxpayer funded gravy train?” (CNN). This statement is a powerful message of what the federal government may do. 


For some context, Deloitte is a large consultancy firm with about $3 billion in contracts with the federal government. This $3 billion in contracts includes major agencies such as the Department of Defense, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. Most of the money, if not all, is from taxpayers, the American people. 


The Republican Party wants Deloitte to take responsibility for what the employee did and address the situation. Yet, Deloitte noted that the employee “shared private personal messages on his own volition without the knowledge of Deloitte” (The Hill). That employee is Kevin Gallagher, an executive at Deloitte. For his actions, he is being accused of conspiring and trying to interfere with the election by Donald Trump and his Republican allies. As a result of him sharing such messages, he is now going to be actively involved in politics. 


This brings up the idea of cyber security and the question of why Gallagher did what he did. Where did this information come from? Why was this information in the hands of Gallagher in the first place? The actions of Gallagher may appear as a simple demonstration of the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press. For Gallagher, he may have not realized what could happen from his actions but sharing messages from a political candidate, now could bring a lot of controversy. The truth is that these messages were private but the First Amendment implies that those messages can be shared. In this situation, it appears the right to privacy may overtake the values of the First Amendment. Consideration has to be taken that Deloitte, a large American company also has access to tons of government information. The messages of Vance were with a private consultant, so it is not surprising that these messages would be expected to be kept private. Scandals can come from the misuse of information, especially government information that is leaked. 



Interestingly enough, Vance, the running mate of Donald Trump had previously criticized the former president and even admitted it, another example of the demonstration of the First Amendment. In February 2020, Vance wrote, “I think Trump will probably lose” (The Guardian). Though Vance had previously shared his disapproval of the former president, he currently supports and is impressed by Trump’s performance as president. 


Well, though there may be many questions about the situation as a whole, the federal government has yet to cut contracts with Deloitte. It is hard to hold people accountable for what they said in the past. People in the federal government hold positions of power. Vance is a candidate for vice president and therefore it is not surprising that he may want more security to prevent another situation like this. Thus, this situation involves the federal government and a major American company with federal government contracts, so it now brings the question of what the federal government can do against a company. 


Sources: 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/business/deloitte-trump-leaked-jd-vance-messages/index.html 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/07/trump-vance-deloitte-contracts 

https://thehill.com/business/4919910-deloitte-employee-trump-criticism/ 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-allies-threaten-deloittes-3b-171532977.html 


Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Hurricanes all the way from Florida obstructing your internet service? Politics too.

As Hurricane Milton is predicted to approach Florida in a few days, with previous hurricanes like Hurricane Helene affecting internet service for users all the way across in California, some fear for their lives while others see them as opportunities.



Regarding the previous hurricane, Hurricane Helene, former president Donald Trump has made many claims that were misleading or certainly not true. For example, Trump claimed that FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency, a type of categorical grant for things like natural disasters, not giving the state much freedom to use the grant in variety of things, and instead in this case for the hurricane) ran out of money to aid for the hurricane disaster because they instead used to support undocumented immigrants. This has been fact-checked, as the FEMA themselves stated that it has funds for “immediate response and recovery efforts.” Trump continues on to mislead the population by stating that storm victims are only receiving $750. $750 is from the “Serious Needs Assistance” program which is part of the FEMA, and is just a federal aid for immediate relief, like groceries, water, and medications. I think this is an example of a broad grant because although this aid may have stronger purposes for some than others, the people who receive them have the ability to even save it, contrasting from categorical. In total, FEMA has said that the federal aid had gone over 21 million dollars. 


For Trump, it does not matter for him if it is nonsense or not. These false claims still catch attention because of the scale of the natural disaster at the moment, contributing to the political campaign especially in the battleground states that were influenced by the hurricanes. 


For vice president Kamala Harris, this may be a moment to make the aiding process effective and showcase her commanding capacity at uncertain times. Although this is true, Harris points out Trump's focus, calling his misinformation as “...extraordinarily irresponsible. It’s about him; it’s not about you.” She criticizes the fact that Trump is taking advantage of the event for his political campaign when people’s lives are on the line. 


Whether aiding the community, or utilizing it to attack political figures, politics around storms are nothing new. With incidents like President George W. Bush’s poor response to Hurricane Katrina destroying his second term in 2005; and President Barack Obama gaining a sense of trust with his effective management of Superstorm Sandy in 2012. As Harris criticizes Trump’s association of the storm with an effective political campaign, Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis argues against her. He claims that Harris is the one trying to “politicize the storm…just because of her campaign.” While, President Joe Biden had described DeSantis as “cooperative” and “doing a great job…”


Sources:




The VP Debate: Fresh Voices on Old Topics

     On October 1st, 2024, Ohio Senator J.D Vance and Minnesota Senator Tim Walz took the stage as the Vice Presidential running mate for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris respectively. As Election Day is just a couple weeks away with no more debates scheduled, this debate proved to be a component of their campaign success.



What we saw from the Vance/Walz debate was rather different from what we saw between the Trump/Harris debate just a month prior. During Trump/Harris, Trump was harsh on his words, calling Harris’ father a Marxist, along with the two candidates sparring back and forth on heated debates over topics such as abortion, immigration, and the war in the Middle East. However, Vance and Walz took a more respectful approach, with the two debating but also finding themselves agreeing with each other. For example, Vance found himself united with Walz when talking about the Springfield, Ohio border, stating that “I agree with [Walz about the border issue]. I think you want to solve this problem, but I don't think that Kamala Harris does.” Additionally, Vance took the time to offer condolences to Walz who stated that his 17 year old son witnessed a shooting. Likewise for Walz, he agreed with Vance on the current state of abortions in the U.S, stating that “I agree with a lot of what Senator Vance said about what's happening. His running mate, though, does not. And that's the problem.”

The questions that were asked also were more centered around their role as the Vice President. These questions included if they agree with their respective running mates about certain policies. Walz did not have as many questions aimed towards Harris, but rather Vance had many questions centering around Trump’s previous decisions. During Vance’s response about his stance on January 6th and Trump’s belief that he was cheated out of winning the 2020 election, he dodged the question stating that he was worried about the future.

The question is now, how would this debate change public opinion about either of their campaigns? The answer is that it essentially didn’t except for the stance on the Vice Presidents. Vice Presidential debates rarely change much of the voters, as many will use the debate as a form of confirmation on their candidates’ stance. This doesn’t mean that the view on the candidates didn’t change. CBS News ran many polls on the new opinions on the two Vice Presidential candidates after the debate. Previously, these two have not had much airtime on TV, but being centerstage now bolstered their popularity, with both now having an over 50% vote that they would fit to be president if needed when before the percentages were 45% or less. The debate watchers’ opinions on Vance and Walz increased in the “favorable” category by roughly 8-9% as well.

With a mainly respectful debate between the two, this is the final time that these voices will be heard on a primetime event like a debate. The election, being just weeks away, made this unassuming debate all the more important. With early polling results being so close between the two presidential candidates, an additional voice could bring a couple extra voters to one side that will make all the difference in the 2024 election.


Sources:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/full-vp-debate-transcript-walz-vance-2024/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news-vp-debate-poll-2024/

https://apnews.com/article/debate-takeaways-vance-walz-harris-trump-5b6f219b555416ff579764048ac238a1

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/politics/vp-debate-takeaways-vance-walz/index.html


Sunday, October 6, 2024

Michael Jordan Fighting New Battles, and it’s Not the Utah Jazz

    Retired NBA Basketball Player Michael Jordan is known as one of the greatest players of all time, from his countless accolades to his hour long highlight tapes, Jordan did it all in his illustrious NBA career. Ever since retiring however, Jordan has found himself investing in the sports business. Jordan has taken ownership of the NBA team Charlotte Hornets, as well as having a stake in sports betting app DraftKings. Another one of Jordan’s investments is his NASCAR team, 23XI, as he became a part owner of the team in 2021. In 2024, Jordan was unhappy with the way that NASCAR had been treating its teams, thus he sued NASCAR and CEO of NASCAR, Jim France, filing an antitrust lawsuit against the company through evidence of monopolistic practices.



    NASCAR, even before the lawsuit, had been on thin ice with its teams ever since the founding of the sport in 1948. Before 2016, NASCAR teams were never guaranteed entry into races or prize money. Teams had to individually look for sponsors which was unsustainable for owners unless they owned some portion of another business that would sponsor it. This led to NASCAR creating a charter system, where all teams will share revenue and business sponsors while all being guaranteed a spot in the Cup Series, the top racing series in NASCAR.

    Although this deal sounded profitable for both sides, in reality it wasn’t. Teams were not generating a profit at all, including 2021 Daytona 500 winning team owner Bob Jenkins of Front Row Motorsports, stating in an Associated Press article that he has never profited from NASCAR, and in fact lost money during the championship year. NASCAR is also clearly seen to be gaining money compared to the teams, as they signed a new 7.7 billion dollar TV deal with companies like Amazon and NBC just last November. These angers have boiled over into Jordan’s case, in which he stated in his suit that “I love the sport of racing and the passion of our fans, but the way NASCAR is run today is unfair to teams, drivers, sponsors, and fans.”

    Jordan is mainly suing over the fact that NASCAR is employing monopolistic practices for their own gain over the teams, stated by Jordan in the lawsuit that NASCAR “used anti-competitive practices to prevent fair competition in the sport.” Teams are forced to buy car parts from specific vendors that are considered “NASCAR approved.” NASCAR tracks are also owned by NASCAR, alongside a detail in the charter stating that NASCAR cars cannot be driven on other competitive racing tracks. This was coupled with the fact that many teams felt pressured to sign the new agreement charter like Richard Childress, the owner of Richard Childress Racing, who stated in an interview with The Athletic that “We didn’t have a choice to sign [the charters],” Childress said. “It was just, ‘You sign it or you lose your charters.’ I couldn’t take that gamble, period. And I know a lot of owners I talked to felt the same way.” The deadline in fact was “a take it or leave it, one-hour deadline offer on Sept. 6.” This was the basis for Jordan’s lawsuit, a continuous stream of negative profit, and being the puppet for the hand that is NASCAR.

    So where does this case go from here? Jordan has hired Jeffrey Kessler, one of the top sports lawyers to file a preliminary injunction that would allow Jordan’s 23XI team to continue racing during the calendar year, yet still allow the antitrust lawsuit to continue. 23XI as a team has also not signed the new charter with an agreement that no team is allowed to file an antitrust lawsuit against France or NASCAR, meaning that Jordan will be able to have 23XI race until the end of his charter on December 31st, 2024.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/nascar-antitrust-lawsuit-jordan-bded312b0330122249824cbc059dabf5

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/02/michael-jordan-23xi-racing-team-sues-nascar-jim-france.html

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/nba-legend-michael-jordan-just-sued-nascar-the-sport-and-the-business-of-the-sport-will-never-be-the-same/90984670

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5820663/2024/10/05/nascar-michael-jordan-lawsuit-denny-hamlin-garage-reaction/