Breaking: ZeroHedge trash-talking article about Google outage is 404'd.
Do you know how many people are ready to line up for this vaccine?
Seriously, my mother has been in the hospital for two weeks and her doctor tells me every chance he gets, "I'm looking forward to getting that vaccine." It's all I can do to simply nod and smile without opening my mouth to spout my incredulity.
If Trump didn't support the vaccine in totality, the media and Democrats would have shredded him for it. This has been a coup on his part, to keep them placated.
He has already stated that he will not make it mandatory. I encourage you to rest on that while the show plays out.
OOPS: Elaine Chao Caught Pimping Her Family Business with China
The transportation secretary thought itâd be cool to bring family members to government meetings in which they had a financial interest.
In a normal presidential administrationâhell, in a normal professional setting of any kindâit would be considered inappropriate to bring oneâs family members to official work meetings and/or on business trips. But of course, the Trump administration is not normal. Rather, itâs a family affair, the primary goal of which is to enrich Donald Trump and the people who surround himâwho, among others, include his not-very-bright son-in-law. That M.O. starts at the top with the grifter-in-chief, but it also extends to dozens of current and former cabinet members whoâve seen no issue with taking their wives on taxpayer-funded European vacations, using a government plane to get a better shot of the solar eclipse, plunking down $31,000 on dining-room sets, and allegedly planning work travel based on a âdesire to visit particular cities or countries.â So itâs not entirely surprising that Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao thought it would be no big deal to bring her relativesâwho happen to have major business interests in Beijingâto meetings with government officials during a visit to China in the fall of 2017, but unfortunately for Chao, not everyone in government has adopted Team Trumpâs way of thinking.
The New York Times reports that in October 2017, an alarmed official at the American Embassy in Beijing wrote an urgent email seeking advice concerning âa series of unorthodox requestsâ made by Chaoâs office related to her first visit to China as a Trump cabinet member. According to the Times, Chaoâwho is married to Senate leader Mitch McConnellâwanted federal officials to âcoordinate travel arrangements for at least one family member and include relatives in meetings with government officials.â Such requests would be wildly inappropriate for any secretaryâs relatives, but were even more so given the Chao familyâs business: her father, James Chao, founded Foremost Group, a shipping, trading, and finance company now run by Elaineâs sister Angela Chao. While the company is based in New York, its fleet is, per the Times, âoverwhelmingly focused on China,â with roughly 72% of the raw materials it has shipped since early 2018 going to China, cargo that âhelps feedâ Beijingâs âindustrial machine, which manufactures steel products that are a point of dispute in the deepening trade war betweenâ China and the U.S. The company reportedly constructs almost all its vessels in state-owned shipyards in China, some with loans from the Chinese government.
Though Chao has not worked for the company since the 1970s, it is the (ongoing) source of her wealth and the political wealth of her husband. In 2008 her father gave the couple a gift of as much as $25 million, while 13 members of the Chao family, including Foremost CEO Angela Chao, have given more than $1 million to McConnellâs campaigns and to PACs tied to him. âShe had these relatives who were fairly wealthy and connected to the shipping industry,â a State Department official who was involved in deliberations over the visit told the Times. âTheir business interests were potentially affected by meetings.â Per the Times, the email from the official at the American Embassy in Beijing wasnât a case of an overly skittish bureaucrat. âThey would not have raised a question like this about a cabinet secretary unless it was something really serious,â said David Rank, a former State Department deputy chief of mission in Beijing, adding that the requests were âalarmingly inappropriate.â After the matter was raised to officials in the State and Transportation Departmentsâand after the paper of record started asking questionsâthe trip was abruptly canceled.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/06/elaine-chao-china-trip-foremost