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Second Miami bank severs ties with Donald Trump -- 4 banks are now shunning him: report
January 22, 2021
Former president Donald Trump continues to be publicly shunned by banks even after leaving office on Wednesday.
"On Friday, Miami Lakes-based BankUnited announced it was ending its relationship with the former president. New financial records show Trump maintained two money-market accounts there that held a total of more than $5.1 million," Rob Wile of the Miami Herald reports.
<p>"Last week, Professional Bank also said it would no longer do business with Trump. The Coral Gables-based firm loaned $11.2 million to Trump's family in 2018 to purchase a property adjacent to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, and also held a money-market account in Trump's name valued between $5 million and $25 million."</p><p>The two Miami banks aren't the only ones distancing themselves from Trump following the fatal January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.</p><p>Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank have also <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-organization/" target="_blank">cut ties with Trump</a>.</p><p>Trump's banking crisis occurs against the backdrop of <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/trump-new-york/" target="_blank">his tax firm ending their representation</a>.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="be7f3d380e0f308ccbb6678d230dac27" id="31552"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-partner="rebelmouse" data-twitter-tweet-id="1352703472320327681"><div style="margin:1em 0">Two Miami-area banks have now severed ties with Donald Trump
https://t.co/8Gq9gUy4m3</div> — Rob Wile (@Rob Wile)<a href="https://twitter.com/rjwile/statuses/1352703472320327681">1611344614.0</a></blockquote></div><p><br/></p>
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The GOP’s ‘budget hawks’ suddenly reappear – and get slammed for hypocrisy by a fellow conservative
January 22, 2021
After former Vice President Joe Biden defeated then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, countless liberal pundits — including the New York Times' Paul Krugman — predicted that the GOP "budget hawks" who couldn't have cared less about the federal deficit under Trump's presidency would suddenly rediscover fiscal conservatism. And Washington Post opinion writer Catherine Rampell, in a January 21 column, stresses that sure enough, Republican "budget hawks" are back with a vengeance now that Biden is president.
"It's almost like clockwork," the liberal columnist explains. "As soon as a Democrat enters the White House, Republicans pretend to care about deficits again."Rampell cites Sen. John Thune of South Dakota as a perfect example. At a confirmation hearing for President Biden's nominee for treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, Thune said, "The one thing that concerns me that nobody seems to be talking about anymore is the massive amount of debt that we continue to rack up as a nation. For me, that is a huge warning sign on the horizon —
<p>the fact that we have an ever-growing deficit, an ever-growing debt and no apparent interest in taking the steps that are necessary to address it."</p><p>The columnist notes that another Senate Republican, Ohio's Rob Portman, described the United States' federal deficit levels as "frightening."</p><p>Of course, such dire warnings from Republicans in Congress were nowhere to be found during Trump's four years as president. Many of the people on the right who slammed Trump over the federal deficit weren't Republicans, but members of the Libertarian Party, which has a long history of complaining that Republicans talk a good game where fiscal conservatism is concerned but don't practice what they preach.</p><p>Rampell says of the Republicans who have suddenly rediscovered fiscal conservatism, "These foul-weather fiscal hawks neglect to mention, of course, that the GOP's prized 2017 tax cuts added nearly $2 trillion to deficits — back when the economy was doing okay. Nor did they note that — again, <em>before</em> the coronavirus pandemic — the Republican-controlled Senate passed and President Donald Trump signed spending bills that added another $2 trillion to deficits. That was on top of what the country had already been expected to borrow over a decade, according to estimates from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget."</p><p>However, Rampell isn't totally unsympathetic to the long-term concerns of "budget hawks," but she argues that during a deadly pandemic, some federal spending is necessary.</p><p>"The nation does indeed face long-term structural budgetary problems," Rampell notes. "Exactly when those problems will become painful remains a matter of ongoing debate. But the time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining, as budget-watchers and economists repeatedly reminded developed countries in the years between the last recession and the current one…. Now, the U.S. economy actually needs more federal spending, and President Biden has proposed a $1.9 trillion plan to provide it. Biden has asked Congress for more money for vaccines; child-care facilities; state and local aid; unemployment benefit extensions; food stamps; and other aid for the needy, hungry and near-homeless."</p><p>History, as Rampell points out in her column, repeats itself when it comes to the GOP's double standard on the federal deficit.</p><p>"After years of spilling red ink on George W. Bush's tax cuts," Rampell recalls, "Republicans suddenly demanded to turn off fiscal and monetary spigots once Barack Obama was elected."</p><p>Rampell wraps up her column by saying that Yellen is exactly right about the need for economic stimulus in 2021.</p><p>The columnist explains, "Yellen told senators, 'The smartest thing we can do is act big.' If Republicans have genuinely relocated their fiscal consciences, they'll listen."</p>
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Joe Biden vows to confront domestic violent extremism – orders DNI, FBI, DHS to conduct comprehensive threat assessment
January 22, 2021
On its second full day in office the Biden administration is vowing to confront the "serious and growing national security threat" of domestic violent extremism, in the wake of the deadly January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, incited by President Donald Trump and his allies.
President Joe Biden has ordered the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to task the FBI and Dept. of Homeland Security with conducting a joint comprehensive threat assessment on domestic violence extremism (DV), White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Friday afternoon.
<p>"The January 6 assault on the Capitol and the tragic deaths and destruction that occurred underscored what we have long known: the rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat," Psaki said, promising the administration "will confront this threat with the necessary resources and resolve" by "developing policies and strategies based on facts on objective and rigorous analysis."</p><p>The Biden administration wants "fact based analysis, upon which we can shape policy," Psaki said.</p><p>She also promised the National Security Council will "focus on countering domestic violent extremism," and said the administration will "focus on addressing evolving threats, radicalization, the role of social media, opportunities to improve information sharing, operational responses, and more."</p><p>In 2009, during the Obama administration a senior analyst for domestic terrorism at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security authored a report that warned of the threat of right wing extremist domestic violence. Outraged Republicans forced then-DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano to scrap the report. In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/08/21/i-warned-of-right-wing-violence-in-2009-it-caused-an-uproar-i-was-right/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a 2017 op-ed</a> he wrote that white nationalists have become even more emboldened as a result.</p><p>Watch Press Secretary Jen Psaki announce the Biden initiative to combat domestic violent extremism:</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
JUST IN: Pres. Biden asks Director of National Intelligence to prepare "comprehensive threat assessment," in coordination with FBI and DHS, on domestic violent extremism following deadly Capitol siege, press sec. Jen Psaki says. <a href="https://t.co/g8lOCVhvFm">https://t.co/g8lOCVhvFm</a> <a href="https://t.co/V4CMBQRrty">pic.twitter.com/V4CMBQRrty</a><br/>
— ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1352687914724032513?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 22, 2021</a></blockquote><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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