is thankful for every day
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
I certainly hope Trump had no involvement with underage girls. I think he's too smart for that.
But if that ever came to the fore, I'd be out the door.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woman-says-donald-trump-had-sex-with-many-women-in-jeffrey-epsteins-new-york-mansion/ar-AA1mEdJG
I certainly hope Trump had no involvement with underage girls. I think he's too smart for that.
But if that ever came to the fore, I'd be out the door.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/woman-says-donald-trump-had-sex-with-many-women-in-jeffrey-epsteins-new-york-mansion/ar-AA1mEdJG
Julie Brown, Miami Herald
The person who blew the cover off the sweetheart deal Epstein originally received:
From the America is Under Siege Board
NOT ONE CHILD RAPIST ON THE EPSTEIN CLIENT LIST HAS BEEN ARRESTED OR PAID FOR THEIR CRIMES
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=173651973
Maria kicked him to the curb.
That was good, Tadaaa.
Wow. That's really bad!
My pleasure, psh. Election nights are exciting!
If Trump wins big in NH, then it is essentially over. He is polling well ahead in the next primary, South Carolina.
Then the forces against him will know, it's over for them, unless some nefarious action ensues.
I plead with the Trump campaign to strengthen his security. Treat it as not if, but when.
The country absolutely cannot afford to lose Trump.
MG
Vivek did the right things, bowing out and endorsing Trump. Realistic and classy.
Vivek did the right things, bowing out and endorsing Trump. Realistic and classy.
LARRY KUDLOW: Iowa caucuses will launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history
Opinion by Larry Kudlow
I want to invite your attention to a very interesting piece in the New York Times late last week. That's right, the New York Times called "The case for Trump" – by someone who wants him to lose – written by Bret Stephens, former Wall Street Journal editorialist who is in fact a conservative and a never-Trumper.
Bret opens by saying that "too many people, especially progressives, fail to think deeply about the enduring sources of [Trump's] appeal" and Bret goes on to outline three of Mr. Trump's most important and effective issues.
First, closing the border to stop illegal immigration, as he did in the first term. Second, to restore middle-class affordability with rising real wages, as he did in his first term and third, to make another stab at draining the swamp to right the wrongs of the Center for Disease Control, the FBI, the CIA, and the justice system.
So, Mr. Stephens says: "Americans have reasons to remember the Trump years as good ones... Wages outpaced inflation. Unemployment fell to 50-year lows, stocks boomed, inflation and interest rates were low. "
Bret Stephens also gives Trump a lot of credit for a strong foreign policy and he asks, "Does the world feel safer under Biden – with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Hamas' and Hezbollah's assault on Israel, Houthi attacks on shipping, the Chinese open threat to invade Taiwan – than it did under Trump?" and Mr. Stephens noted that Trump kept our adversaries on their guard and off balance.
With all that in his fair-minded column, Bret Stephens shouldn't be a never-Trumper, but I'm not going to convince him, at least not today. Meanwhile, I'm going to argue that these important issues are exactly why Mr. Trump is so far ahead in Republican primary polling, including tonight's Iowa caucuses.
Grow the economy, close the border, drain the swamp, stand up to our world enemies – the 45th president did so much of it in his first term, he has so much experience now to take on the rest of it in a second term, and no one has messaged it better than he has.
The other night in the Fox News town hall, he showed presidential temperament as he skillfully launched what is likely to be a major turning point with this. Take a listen:
DONALD TRUMP: "I'm not going to have time for retribution. We're going to make this country so successful again. I'm not going to have time for retribution and remember this, our ultimate retribution is success."
In other words, success is the best revenge and tonight's Iowa caucus vote is likely to launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history.
Original article source: LARRY KUDLOW: Iowa caucuses will launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/larry-kudlow-iowa-caucuses-will-launch-one-of-the-greatest-comebacks-in-american-political-history/ar-AA1n1htO?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=725afa59fcaf4cfba3bdbc5bed20d3b7&ei=15
LARRY KUDLOW: Iowa caucuses will launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history
Opinion by Larry Kudlow
I want to invite your attention to a very interesting piece in the New York Times late last week. That's right, the New York Times called "The case for Trump" – by someone who wants him to lose – written by Bret Stephens, former Wall Street Journal editorialist who is in fact a conservative and a never-Trumper.
Bret opens by saying that "too many people, especially progressives, fail to think deeply about the enduring sources of [Trump's] appeal" and Bret goes on to outline three of Mr. Trump's most important and effective issues.
First, closing the border to stop illegal immigration, as he did in the first term. Second, to restore middle-class affordability with rising real wages, as he did in his first term and third, to make another stab at draining the swamp to right the wrongs of the Center for Disease Control, the FBI, the CIA, and the justice system.
So, Mr. Stephens says: "Americans have reasons to remember the Trump years as good ones... Wages outpaced inflation. Unemployment fell to 50-year lows, stocks boomed, inflation and interest rates were low. "
Bret Stephens also gives Trump a lot of credit for a strong foreign policy and he asks, "Does the world feel safer under Biden – with Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Hamas' and Hezbollah's assault on Israel, Houthi attacks on shipping, the Chinese open threat to invade Taiwan – than it did under Trump?" and Mr. Stephens noted that Trump kept our adversaries on their guard and off balance.
With all that in his fair-minded column, Bret Stephens shouldn't be a never-Trumper, but I'm not going to convince him, at least not today. Meanwhile, I'm going to argue that these important issues are exactly why Mr. Trump is so far ahead in Republican primary polling, including tonight's Iowa caucuses.
Grow the economy, close the border, drain the swamp, stand up to our world enemies – the 45th president did so much of it in his first term, he has so much experience now to take on the rest of it in a second term, and no one has messaged it better than he has.
The other night in the Fox News town hall, he showed presidential temperament as he skillfully launched what is likely to be a major turning point with this. Take a listen:
DONALD TRUMP: "I'm not going to have time for retribution. We're going to make this country so successful again. I'm not going to have time for retribution and remember this, our ultimate retribution is success."
In other words, success is the best revenge and tonight's Iowa caucus vote is likely to launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history.
Original article source: LARRY KUDLOW: Iowa caucuses will launch one of the greatest comebacks in American political history
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/larry-kudlow-iowa-caucuses-will-launch-one-of-the-greatest-comebacks-in-american-political-history/ar-AA1n1htO?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=725afa59fcaf4cfba3bdbc5bed20d3b7&ei=15
In Johnson County, Haley is ahead by one vote with all precincts in. Trump is now on track to win 98 of 99 counties
NYTimes
Tadaaa called it!
In Johnson County, Haley is ahead by one vote with all precincts in. Trump is now on track to win 98 of 99 counties
NYTimes
WINNER Donald J. Trump wins the Iowa Republican caucus.
NY Times
Interesting metrics/stats here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/15/us/elections/results-iowa-caucus.html
WINNER Donald J. Trump wins the Iowa Republican caucus.
NY Times
Interesting metrics/stats here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/01/15/us/elections/results-iowa-caucus.html
Vivek Ramaswamy Suspends Presidential Campaign After Finishing Fourth in Iowa
By Catherine Lucey
The Wall Street Journal
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy announced he is suspending his Republican primary campaign after finishing a distant fourth in the Iowa caucuses. Ramaswamy said Monday night: “we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight.” With most of the results in, he had 7.7% of the vote. A biotech company founder who spent heavily from his own fortune to finance his Republican presidential bid, he had failed to sell himself as a next-generation of Trump. Ramaswamy endorsed Trump in his remarks.
Ramaswamy’s plan had been essentially to wait it out to take over the former president’s voter base, should the former president become ineligible to run due to his many legal challenges. Trump and his team went after Vivek in recent days, with Trump posting on social media: “A VOTE FOR VIVEK IS A WASTED VOTE.” Responding on X, Ramaswamy said he would not attack Trump, but said he was asking for votes “because I believe it’s the right thing for our country.”
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iowa-caucus-republican-primary-2024/card/vivek-ramaswamy-suspends-presidential-campaign-after-finish-fourth-in-iowa-I2EgJnIGjygl9mfrjwiP?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=1
Vivek Ramaswamy Suspends Presidential Campaign After Finishing Fourth in Iowa
By Catherine Lucey
The Wall Street Journal
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy announced he is suspending his Republican primary campaign after finishing a distant fourth in the Iowa caucuses. Ramaswamy said Monday night: “we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight.” With most of the results in, he had 7.7% of the vote. A biotech company founder who spent heavily from his own fortune to finance his Republican presidential bid, he had failed to sell himself as a next-generation of Trump. Ramaswamy endorsed Trump in his remarks.
Ramaswamy’s plan had been essentially to wait it out to take over the former president’s voter base, should the former president become ineligible to run due to his many legal challenges. Trump and his team went after Vivek in recent days, with Trump posting on social media: “A VOTE FOR VIVEK IS A WASTED VOTE.” Responding on X, Ramaswamy said he would not attack Trump, but said he was asking for votes “because I believe it’s the right thing for our country.”
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iowa-caucus-republican-primary-2024/card/vivek-ramaswamy-suspends-presidential-campaign-after-finish-fourth-in-iowa-I2EgJnIGjygl9mfrjwiP?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=1
Donald Trump Wins Iowa Caucuses
Results of first Republican presidential nominating contest will signal whether Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have path forward in 2024 race
By John McCormick, Alex Leary and Eliza Collins
The Wall Street Journal
Updated Jan. 15, 2024 11:15 pm ET
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa—Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses Monday night with the largest margin in the history of the first Republican presidential nominating contest, cementing an early victory in his defiant bid to return to the White House.
The Associated Press declared Trump the winner roughly a half hour after the caucuses convened. The call came so quickly that at some caucus locations, attendees had not even finished making speeches of support for the various candidates.
With 87% of the vote reported, the AP said Trump had 51%. He was followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 21%, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at 19% and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%. Turnout was well below levels recorded in 2016, when the state last held competitive GOP caucuses.
Trump’s dominance carries him to New Hampshire, where he is expected to face a stronger challenge in a Jan. 23 primary that will include more independent voters. The outcome also underscores the resilience he has shown despite a barrage of criminal prosecutions that could still upend his trajectory toward a rematch with President Biden.
“We want to thank the great people of Iowa,” Trump said during a victory celebration in Des Moines. “I really think this is time now for everybody, our country to come together.”
The tight battle between Haley and DeSantis for second place left unclear who would claim the runner-up position, fueling that candidate’s quest to become the only Trump alternative as a long-shot challenger to the front-runner.
The results, on a night that saw the coldest temperatures on record for the caucuses, gave the first tangible indication that the party remains overwhelmingly committed to restoring Trump’s power, instead of turning the page on the man who remade the GOP in his image when he won in 2016. Analysts are closely watching whether Trump gets a majority of the vote as a metric of his fortitude in the party.
The DeSantis campaign complained after news outlets quickly declared Trump the winner.
“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote,” DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement. “The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet.”
A second-place finish for DeSantis—who centered his bid in the state with visits to all 99 Iowa counties—could salvage his ability to tell donors and supporters that he has a path forward.
A third-place finish for Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, would force her to expend resources battling DeSantis, when she was instead hoping to capitalize on a strong position for the next nominating contest in New Hampshire, where the electorate is more centrist and has a history of bucking Iowa.
ELECTION 2024
Presidential, Senate and House Election Forecasts
DeSantis promised to appear Tuesday in South Carolina, another key early primary state, and he had scheduled events later that day in New Hampshire. Trump and Haley both had rallies planned Tuesday in New Hampshire.
A clear path to the GOP nomination for Trump would set the stage for a 2024 contest few voters seem to want: a rematch between Trump and Biden. Both men suffer from poor general-election poll ratings, and many voters have said they are eager for alternatives.
The candidates challenging the former president had hoped to find enough dissatisfaction with him to build their own voter coalitions. Haley had shown signs in polling of consolidating college-educated Republicans, such as those in the suburbs or college towns of Iowa, as well as voters less committed to conservative causes. DeSantis had moved aggressively to win voters who fear a liberal takeover of schools, businesses and academia.
But Trump romped among all those groups, according to preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a survey of people who said they would participate in the caucuses. He carried 35% of college graduates to Haley’s 31%, while dominating among those without a four-year college degree. He beat Haley 44% to 31% among self-identified moderates. And he won the largest share of voters who said they lived in urban or suburban communities.
The caucuses punctuated a yearlong battle to wrest the party away from Trump, one that consumed tens of millions of dollars in advertising and other campaign expenditures and transfixed voters on both sides of the aisle. More than a dozen challengers at one point competed for the Republican nomination.
The former president looked beatable when he announced his candidacy shortly after the 2022 midterm elections, when he was blamed for party losses after endorsing candidates in some key races. As calls grew for him to step aside, attention focused on DeSantis, who won re-election as governor in a landslide.
But Trump’s supporters remained steadfast, and his candidacy grew stronger amid a cascade of criminal prosecutions. He faces 91 criminal charges for matters including his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He cast himself as a victim of political persecution and government overreach, positions top rivals largely endorsed.
That helped win over voters like Kellie Doty, a stay at home mother, 56, who backed Trump at a caucus in Urbandale. Doty liked DeSantis and felt he was the future of the Republican Party, but said that “because of the persecution of Trump and everything he’s gone through,” she needed to back him this time around. Her caucus hadn’t even started by the time the race was called for Trump.
ADVERTISEMENT
The contest saw established Republicans—such as former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina—flame out and vaulted Ramaswamy momentarily into the spotlight. Through it all, Trump refused to play by traditional rules, eschewing debates and spending little time on the ground in Iowa. He continually ratcheted up incendiary rhetoric.
Mark Imm, Rachael Imm, Julie Kuhlers and Kraig Kuhlers talk while they and others participate in a caucus at Walnut Hills Elementary School in Urbandale, Iowa. Ballots are counted after the caucus.
KC MCGINNIS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)
A Trump victory in line with early results would surpass the 12.8 percentage point margin Sen. Bob Dole scored over his nearest rival in 1988, setting a record for a competitive year. Trump hopes to secure the delegates needed for the Republican nomination by March.
“I looked at all of them and I came to the conclusion that Trump is the man that can lead our country into the next generation for my grandkids,” Marcia Cooper, 69, a retired nurse from suburban Des Moines, said Monday afternoon.
Unlike in 2016, when Trump had little organization in Iowa and ended up placing second to Sen. Ted Cruz, his campaign this time emphasized generating turnout by training volunteers and targeting supporters who hadn’t caucused before.
Trump also prevented DeSantis from consolidating support from the state’s influential evangelicals, who represented about two-thirds of the 2016 GOP caucuses electorate. In recent days, he warned against complacency, telling crowds to ignore polls showing him with a huge lead.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy greets supporters during a campaign event in Urbandale, Iowa, on Monday. PHOTO: KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
Snow and cold in the closing days of the campaign caused candidates to limit or cancel some final-weekend efforts to win over voters, with some events moving online. Temperatures dipped below zero, with wind chills in the double digits below, when people headed to precinct meetings.
Road conditions, following two major snow storms in the past week, were improving in urban and suburban areas where Haley was expected to find her strongest support. But in rural areas, where Trump and DeSantis were likely to find theirs, there were still travel challenges.
The Iowa GOP said they expected total turnout to be around 100,000, well below the roughly 186,000 who participated in 2016, when the GOP last held competitive caucuses.
ADVERTISEMENT
The only contest of consequence in Iowa was on the Republican side, after the Democratic National Committee demoted the state in favor of South Carolina going first on its nomination calendar. Iowa Democrats, who met Monday night to conduct party business, have started to vote by mail for their nomination preferences. Those results won’t be announced until March.
The Iowa Republican electorate hasn’t been a natural fit for Haley, who is viewed as more moderate than Trump or DeSantis. One reason her prospects look better in New Hampshire is that large numbers of independents typically vote in that state’s GOP primary, widening her base of support. Some Democrats in Iowa said they planned to caucus for her, viewing her as the strongest candidate to block Trump from winning the nomination.
Marcia Cooper of Johnston, Iowa, and others await an appearance by Donald Trump, Jr. in Ankeny, Iowa, on Monday PHOTO: KC MCGINNIS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Crossover Democrats could also be a factor in New Hampshire’s primary, particularly because the Democratic contest isn’t sanctioned by the national party after South Carolina was given the leadoff spot on the party’s calendar. That could motivate some New Hampshire Democrats to register as independents, so they can vote for Haley in an effort to weaken Trump.
Rachael Imm, 53, who works with animals, also attended the caucus in Urbandale and backed Haley because she felt she was the most moderate candidate. But Imm wasn’t optimistic Haley would be able to defeat Trump.
“I don’t know why they think he can win because he didn’t,” she said, referring to his prospects in the general election. “The last time we had a head-to-head between him and Biden he didn’t win,” she said. She said she would likely vote for Biden if it was a Trump-Biden rematch.
Aaron Zitner and Jack Gillum contributed to this article.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/iowa-caucus-2024-republican-primary-d55c152a?mod=politics_lead_story
Donald Trump Wins Iowa Caucuses
Results of first Republican presidential nominating contest will signal whether Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis have path forward in 2024 race
By John McCormick, Alex Leary and Eliza Collins
The Wall Street Journal
Updated Jan. 15, 2024 11:15 pm ET
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa—Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses Monday night with the largest margin in the history of the first Republican presidential nominating contest, cementing an early victory in his defiant bid to return to the White House.
The Associated Press declared Trump the winner roughly a half hour after the caucuses convened. The call came so quickly that at some caucus locations, attendees had not even finished making speeches of support for the various candidates.
With 87% of the vote reported, the AP said Trump had 51%. He was followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 21%, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at 19% and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%. Turnout was well below levels recorded in 2016, when the state last held competitive GOP caucuses.
Trump’s dominance carries him to New Hampshire, where he is expected to face a stronger challenge in a Jan. 23 primary that will include more independent voters. The outcome also underscores the resilience he has shown despite a barrage of criminal prosecutions that could still upend his trajectory toward a rematch with President Biden.
“We want to thank the great people of Iowa,” Trump said during a victory celebration in Des Moines. “I really think this is time now for everybody, our country to come together.”
The tight battle between Haley and DeSantis for second place left unclear who would claim the runner-up position, fueling that candidate’s quest to become the only Trump alternative as a long-shot challenger to the front-runner.
The results, on a night that saw the coldest temperatures on record for the caucuses, gave the first tangible indication that the party remains overwhelmingly committed to restoring Trump’s power, instead of turning the page on the man who remade the GOP in his image when he won in 2016. Analysts are closely watching whether Trump gets a majority of the vote as a metric of his fortitude in the party.
The DeSantis campaign complained after news outlets quickly declared Trump the winner.
“It is absolutely outrageous that the media would participate in election interference by calling the race before tens of thousands of Iowans even had a chance to vote,” DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement. “The media is in the tank for Trump and this is the most egregious example yet.”
A second-place finish for DeSantis—who centered his bid in the state with visits to all 99 Iowa counties—could salvage his ability to tell donors and supporters that he has a path forward.
A third-place finish for Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, would force her to expend resources battling DeSantis, when she was instead hoping to capitalize on a strong position for the next nominating contest in New Hampshire, where the electorate is more centrist and has a history of bucking Iowa.
ELECTION 2024
Presidential, Senate and House Election Forecasts
DeSantis promised to appear Tuesday in South Carolina, another key early primary state, and he had scheduled events later that day in New Hampshire. Trump and Haley both had rallies planned Tuesday in New Hampshire.
A clear path to the GOP nomination for Trump would set the stage for a 2024 contest few voters seem to want: a rematch between Trump and Biden. Both men suffer from poor general-election poll ratings, and many voters have said they are eager for alternatives.
The candidates challenging the former president had hoped to find enough dissatisfaction with him to build their own voter coalitions. Haley had shown signs in polling of consolidating college-educated Republicans, such as those in the suburbs or college towns of Iowa, as well as voters less committed to conservative causes. DeSantis had moved aggressively to win voters who fear a liberal takeover of schools, businesses and academia.
But Trump romped among all those groups, according to preliminary results from AP VoteCast, a survey of people who said they would participate in the caucuses. He carried 35% of college graduates to Haley’s 31%, while dominating among those without a four-year college degree. He beat Haley 44% to 31% among self-identified moderates. And he won the largest share of voters who said they lived in urban or suburban communities.
The caucuses punctuated a yearlong battle to wrest the party away from Trump, one that consumed tens of millions of dollars in advertising and other campaign expenditures and transfixed voters on both sides of the aisle. More than a dozen challengers at one point competed for the Republican nomination.
The former president looked beatable when he announced his candidacy shortly after the 2022 midterm elections, when he was blamed for party losses after endorsing candidates in some key races. As calls grew for him to step aside, attention focused on DeSantis, who won re-election as governor in a landslide.
But Trump’s supporters remained steadfast, and his candidacy grew stronger amid a cascade of criminal prosecutions. He faces 91 criminal charges for matters including his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. He cast himself as a victim of political persecution and government overreach, positions top rivals largely endorsed.
That helped win over voters like Kellie Doty, a stay at home mother, 56, who backed Trump at a caucus in Urbandale. Doty liked DeSantis and felt he was the future of the Republican Party, but said that “because of the persecution of Trump and everything he’s gone through,” she needed to back him this time around. Her caucus hadn’t even started by the time the race was called for Trump.
ADVERTISEMENT
The contest saw established Republicans—such as former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina—flame out and vaulted Ramaswamy momentarily into the spotlight. Through it all, Trump refused to play by traditional rules, eschewing debates and spending little time on the ground in Iowa. He continually ratcheted up incendiary rhetoric.
Mark Imm, Rachael Imm, Julie Kuhlers and Kraig Kuhlers talk while they and others participate in a caucus at Walnut Hills Elementary School in Urbandale, Iowa. Ballots are counted after the caucus.
KC MCGINNIS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (2)
A Trump victory in line with early results would surpass the 12.8 percentage point margin Sen. Bob Dole scored over his nearest rival in 1988, setting a record for a competitive year. Trump hopes to secure the delegates needed for the Republican nomination by March.
“I looked at all of them and I came to the conclusion that Trump is the man that can lead our country into the next generation for my grandkids,” Marcia Cooper, 69, a retired nurse from suburban Des Moines, said Monday afternoon.
Unlike in 2016, when Trump had little organization in Iowa and ended up placing second to Sen. Ted Cruz, his campaign this time emphasized generating turnout by training volunteers and targeting supporters who hadn’t caucused before.
Trump also prevented DeSantis from consolidating support from the state’s influential evangelicals, who represented about two-thirds of the 2016 GOP caucuses electorate. In recent days, he warned against complacency, telling crowds to ignore polls showing him with a huge lead.
Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy greets supporters during a campaign event in Urbandale, Iowa, on Monday. PHOTO: KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
Snow and cold in the closing days of the campaign caused candidates to limit or cancel some final-weekend efforts to win over voters, with some events moving online. Temperatures dipped below zero, with wind chills in the double digits below, when people headed to precinct meetings.
Road conditions, following two major snow storms in the past week, were improving in urban and suburban areas where Haley was expected to find her strongest support. But in rural areas, where Trump and DeSantis were likely to find theirs, there were still travel challenges.
The Iowa GOP said they expected total turnout to be around 100,000, well below the roughly 186,000 who participated in 2016, when the GOP last held competitive caucuses.
ADVERTISEMENT
The only contest of consequence in Iowa was on the Republican side, after the Democratic National Committee demoted the state in favor of South Carolina going first on its nomination calendar. Iowa Democrats, who met Monday night to conduct party business, have started to vote by mail for their nomination preferences. Those results won’t be announced until March.
The Iowa Republican electorate hasn’t been a natural fit for Haley, who is viewed as more moderate than Trump or DeSantis. One reason her prospects look better in New Hampshire is that large numbers of independents typically vote in that state’s GOP primary, widening her base of support. Some Democrats in Iowa said they planned to caucus for her, viewing her as the strongest candidate to block Trump from winning the nomination.
Marcia Cooper of Johnston, Iowa, and others await an appearance by Donald Trump, Jr. in Ankeny, Iowa, on Monday PHOTO: KC MCGINNIS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Crossover Democrats could also be a factor in New Hampshire’s primary, particularly because the Democratic contest isn’t sanctioned by the national party after South Carolina was given the leadoff spot on the party’s calendar. That could motivate some New Hampshire Democrats to register as independents, so they can vote for Haley in an effort to weaken Trump.
Rachael Imm, 53, who works with animals, also attended the caucus in Urbandale and backed Haley because she felt she was the most moderate candidate. But Imm wasn’t optimistic Haley would be able to defeat Trump.
“I don’t know why they think he can win because he didn’t,” she said, referring to his prospects in the general election. “The last time we had a head-to-head between him and Biden he didn’t win,” she said. She said she would likely vote for Biden if it was a Trump-Biden rematch.
Aaron Zitner and Jack Gillum contributed to this article.
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/iowa-caucus-2024-republican-primary-d55c152a?mod=politics_lead_story
Trump wins Iowa Caucus in just 30 minutes, as Haley edges ahead of DeSantis
Story by Jeremiah Hassel
The Mirror US
The first votes of the evening have been released as the Iowa Caucus, and to no one's surprise, former President Donald Trump is slated to win most of the state's delegates, bringing him one step closer to earning the coveted Republican nomination for the presidency.
The Iowa Caucus, which was scheduled for 7 p.m. Central Time on Monday, is the first event of the presidential primary season, and it will provide the public with a first glimpse into voter opinions on this year's Republican candidates — which include the businessman, former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
The former president's lead remained a steady 50 points ahead of Haley for the first hour or so before slowly shrinking. Haley has been slowly edging ahead of DeSantis. As of about 7:45 p.m. Central Time, Trump has just under 60% of the vote, while Haley has just over 17% and DeSantis has about 16.5%, according to numbers reported by CNN. Fox News shows DeSantis edging Haley, by around 0.3%. The numbers are constantly fluctuating.
Trump's lead was evident after the first 30 minutes of the caucuses, though Haley's took a while to manifest. Both she and DeSantis are well ahead of Ramaswamy, who only boasts just over 7% of support. Hutchinson has not received any votes.
The next primary event is scheduled in New Hampshire on Jan. 23, and that one, along with the South Carolina primaries on Feb. 3, will likely predict who will win the party's nomination overall. Haley has the chance to pull ahead of Trump in New Hampshire, as her campaign has largely been focused on the mostly liberal state, flexing her status as one of the more moderate members of the Republican party.
Related video: Iowa caucuses: Litmus test for GOP candidates, Haley & DeSantis in close battle for second place (WION)
Voting has begun in Iowa caucuses.
WION
Iowa caucuses: Litmus test for GOP candidates, Haley & DeSantis in close battle for second place
Click here to follow the Mirror US on Google News to stay up to date with all the latest news, sport and entertainment stories.
Regardless, whoever wins second place in Iowa has a much higher chance of edging Trump in future caucus and primary events, though he is projected to win them all and eventually become the Republican presidential nominee. Polls have revealed that many of his supporters believe he should have won the 2020 election despite the clear victory for incumbent Democrat President Joe Biden, and others have said his pending criminal indictments and federal charges don't disqualify him or wouldn't make him a bad president.
The caucus took place amid brutal cold and snowy conditions, with slick roads slippery from ice conjured from a massive snowstorm and arctic blast over the weekend. Temperatures dipped well below zero, hovering around negative 7 degrees Fahrenheit in many places, with wind chills bringing temperatures down to the negative 20s.
Trump supporters were largely unphased, however, lining up to take part in the voting process hours and even days before the caucuses were set to begin. Trump's campaign brought buses for heat where those in line could go to warm up for a bit, pictures and video taken at multiple caucus locations that went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter, reveal.
Records show Epstein’s requests for multiple passports, travels
ABC News
More formally sealed documents have now been released
In June 2011, the U.S. Department of State received an urgent request from an American businessman who sought a second U.S passport for impending trips to Europe and multiple African nations.
"I am frequently required on extremely short notice to schedule international trips with itineraries to multiple destinations requiring me to obtain multiple visas at the same time, which is simply not possible on such short notice without a second passport," the letter said.
The applicant, who identified himself as the president of an international financial consulting firm, said he had business trips scheduled in the coming weeks to France, Sierra Leone, Mali and Gabon.
"Please issue me a second passport so I may have the 3 visas issued for Africa while I am using my current passport in France," he wrote.
The businessman's name: Jeffrey Edward Epstein.
Three years earlier, Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to solicitation of an underaged girl, a felony that required him to register as a sex offender for life.
The letter is found among several passport applications and renewal forms submitted over three decades by Epstein, whose staggering wealth and proximity to power have long defied ready explanation.
More than 50 pages from Epstein's files were obtained by ABC News in a public records request to the State Department. The records span from the early 1980s, when Epstein was an unknown bushy-haired broker from Brooklyn, to 2019, when his indictment in New York for alleged sex-trafficking of children made him notorious worldwide.
The documents reveal Epstein's penchant for reporting lost passports and his intentions to travel to far-flung destinations, including several countries -- Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, and Senegal -- that have not appeared in other accounts of Epstein's travel.
The earliest application is from April 1983 when Epstein sought to replace a lost passport in time for an upcoming trip to London. In barely legible handwriting, then 30-year-old Epstein lists his occupation as "banker" and his address as an apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The stapled color photograph depicts Epstein, who in later years favored loose-fitting track suits, in a crisp black suit and glossy tie.
In the mid-1980s, Epstein was a college dropout who taught math at an exclusive Manhattan private school and later worked for five years as a self-described "financial strategist" on Wall Street. After an abrupt exit from Bear Stearns, he claimed to have launched a career as a self-employed investment adviser for the uber-rich.
Epstein twice more in the 1980s reported his U.S. passport lost or stolen; once left behind in a London black taxi, and once stolen "out of [his] jacket pocket" as he dined at a restaurant, according to his explanations in the files.
In an application to replace his passport on Feb. 26, 1985, Epstein reported he was then residing in London. The address he provided, which has not previously been associated with Epstein, is in an area surrounded by foreign embassies.
In his affidavit of loss, Epstein indicated he had a flight booked the next day to Sweden. Less than a week later, former Miss Sweden Eva Andersson was the host of a televised musical contest in the country. Video of the event, unearthed by YouTube user "Green Clown2021," shows Epstein in the audience, clapping half-heartedly between musical acts. Andersson would later testify, in Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal trial in 2021, that she and Epstein dated on and off in the 1980's.
Epstein's 1993 passport application shows his hair graying and his fortunes improving. His listed address on East 69th in New York City was the former residence of the Iranian ambassador which had been taken over by the State Department before Epstein rented the property. The government later terminated Epstein's lease after he sublet the townhouse, without permission, and jacked up the rent.
The records obtained by ABC News also contain multiple instances in which Epstein applied for a second passport "in order to avoid conflicting visa stamps" when traveling to Israel and certain Arab states, including Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Epstein had long-standing connections to Ehud Barak, a former prime minister of Israel. Barak publicly acknowledged visiting Epstein "more than ten but much less than a hundred" times, including one visit to Epstein's private estate in the U.S. Virgin Islands. He told The Daily Beast in 2019 that he had "never attended a party" with Epstein and had never met with him "in the company of women or girls."
MORE: Court documents naming Jeffrey Epstein's associates unsealed
A New York Times columnist reported in 2019 that Epstein had boasted, without evidence, of speaking often with Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia.
"For both safety and business reasons, it is imperative that Mr. Epstein have the necessary flexibility of a second passport," one of his corporate representatives wrote in 2003.
State Department policies permit certain frequent international travelers to carry a second passport, particularly in cases where a visa stamp from one country might prohibit entry into another.
The issue arose again two years later, when Epstein reported a scheduled trip to Israel and Afghanistan.
As part of a request for an additional passport, Epstein submitted travel itineraries indicating he had booked two first-class trips in the spring of 2005.
The first was from London to Tel Aviv on March 29 that year. Epstein also provided details of a journey that would take him on April 7, 2005, to Istanbul, where he would connect through Baku, Azerbaijan, to Kabul. The records do not indicate whether he actually made the trip. On the day of Epstein's scheduled departure from Kabul, the late former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made an unannounced visit to the Afghan capital for a joint press conference with President Hamid Karzai. There is no evidence that Rumsfeld and Epstein's visits were connected.
While Epstein was apparently traveling in southern Asia, police officers in southern Florida were hunting for evidence in trash cans outside his Palm Beach mansion. Three weeks earlier, the parents of a 14-year-old girl had reported to police that their daughter had been molested by a white-haired man who went by the name "Jeff." The police investigation that followed would turn up dozens of alleged underage minor victims and begin a saga that would ultimately lead to Epstein's permanent status as a sex offender.
But that designation would have little impact on Epstein's ability to obtain a U.S. passport or to travel internationally, until Congress passed the "International Megan's Law" in 2016. That legislation allowed the government to revoke the passports of sex offenders, who must re-apply for a special passport carrying a notice inside that reads, "The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender," according to the State Department. It also strengthened a requirement that registered sex offenders provide advance notice of all intended international travel.
Epstein's files indicate that a passport issued to him in 2016, and valid for ten years, was revoked. A second passport valid until 2020 was also revoked. His final application in the state department files indicates his last US passport was issued in March of 2019.
ABC News has previously obtained records of the United States Marshals Service that show the agency was looking into Epstein's foreign trips. "Investigation reveals EPSTEIN travels Internationally quite frequently using private planes and may have failed to report all his International travel," a January 2019 report stated.
Six months later, he was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, after his private Gulfstream Jet touched down from Paris. A federal indictment charged him with conspiracy and child sex-trafficking.
When FBI agents executed a search warrant at Epstein's New York home later that day, they found a locked safe that contained 48 loose diamonds and $70,000 in cash.
Also recovered were three U.S. passports and one Austrian passport with Epstein's picture, but with someone else's name and an address in Saudi Arabia.
Epstein's defense attorneys, seeking to secure bail for their client, said that two of the US passports were expired. The foreign passport, they claimed, was given to Epstein "by a friend," and he had never used it to travel. They argued he received it in the 1980s for personal protection when traveling in the Middle East.
"Some Jewish-Americans were informally advised at the time to carry identification bearing a non-Jewish name when traveling internationally in case of hijacking," his attorney said.
Partly because of that foreign passport and Epstein's history of international travel, a judge determined Epstein was a flight risk and refused to grant bail. Three weeks later, Epstein was dead. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
Following his death, the Marshals service investigation into his travel was dropped.
Thomas Volscho, a contributor to ABC News, is a professor of sociology at City University of New York, Staten Island. He is writing a book about the tactics of wealthy sex-traffickers.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/records-show-epstein-s-requests-for-multiple-passports-travels/ar-AA1mZcuC?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=4a65447a864c4da684b5e61a33fb06c4&ei=21
How bad is inflation? I'll tell ya how bad!
I just received a pre-declined credit card application in the mail.
And ExxonMobil just laid off 25 congressman.
It's terrible out here..
With the cold weather cancelling events, President Trump had time to catch up with the AMERICA IS Under Siege board. Here, we see he caught up with my early ramy is scamy alert.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/14/president-trump-calls-out-vivek-ramaswamy-very-sly-but-vivek-is-not-maga/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=president-trump-calls-out-vivek-ramaswamy-very-sly-but-vivek-is-not-maga&lctg=160932261
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Ramaswamy
With the cold weather cancelling events, President Trump had time to catch up with the Liberal Free Chat Zone board. Here, we see he caught up with my early ramy is scamy alert.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/01/14/president-trump-calls-out-vivek-ramaswamy-very-sly-but-vivek-is-not-maga/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=president-trump-calls-out-vivek-ramaswamy-very-sly-but-vivek-is-not-maga&lctg=160932261
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivek_Ramaswamy
Day trading led to a very dark place. A reminder for us to always trade easy. Never put ourselves in crazy binds...
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/texas-jeweler-killed-in-targeted-hit-involving-son-daughter-in-law/ar-AA1mVZYF?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=c38c95a941734d669ccfea73c2d08a60&ei=42
It's an ill wind that blows no good at all.
It revealed the medical profession as frauds.
It enhanced our election prospects.
It coalesced Magas.
I'll be travelling the next ten days. Today I drove through central Virginia. Saw a sign for the Thomas Jefferson Museum. Got off, parked my truck and walked up Monticello Mountain. The same mountain Thomas Jeffersson trod.
Near the top of the hill, in a clearing, I said aloud, "Sorry Thomas, we're flaccid, pleasure seeking, know-nothings." As I walked down the hill, I added, "Please help us'"
It was really cool walking across his hill. There is a big museum, but I didn't have time for that. Had to get back on the road.
For those who follow my daily stock runner pick, check back in about ten days. I'll be in the free State of Florida, then
Won't have time to post during my travels but I always look forward to reading the political boards at night. Last thing I do before falling horizonal. Gets my blood boiling, increasing my chances of waking up :) The latest is this Fulton County Prosecutor. Taking lavish vacations on the money she pays her boyfriend, the Special Prosecutor she hired to go after Trump. Can you believe it?!
MG
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/trump-blasts-fulton-county-prosecutor-fani-willis-after-romantic-partner-allegations-totally-compromised/ar-AA1mKxI8
https://www.ajc.com/politics/breaking-filing-alleges-improper-relationship-between-fulton-da-top-trump-prosecutor/A2N2OWCM7FFWJBQH2ORAK2BKMQ/
Wow! I just viewed 90% of this video.
One indisputable thing is, we are being played.
What a world.
The Founding Fathers have been defiled.
Documents name alleged Epstein associates previously identified by accuser
ABC News
Another batch of documents pertaining to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed Tuesday.
More are expected to come out next week.
The seven documents unsealed Tuesday total 1,482 pages. They're the last set to be made public pursuant to the court's order authorizing the release last month. Over 215 documents have been released since last week.
The unsealed documents include several depositions from Ghislaine Maxwell, one from Epstein, one from alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre and another from Sarah Ransome, an alleged adult victim of Epstein, who was referenced throughout Monday's unsealing.
The records are part of a defamation lawsuit brought by Giuffre against Maxwell, Epstein's longtime companion, that the two settled in 2017. Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The Giuffre deposition included in the new batch comes from her testimony in a related defamation case filed by her lawyers against former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz in a Florida state court. In that deposition, she names billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner as "one of the powerful business executives" that she was trafficked to.
Wexner, who in 1991 granted Epstein power-of-attorney over his personal finances, has never been charged with a crime. After Epstein's arrest in 2019, ABC News obtained a message Wexner issued to employees at L Brands that said, "When Mr. Epstein was my personal money manager, he was involved in many aspects of my financial life. But let me assure you that I was NEVER aware of the illegal activity charged in the indictment."
Following Epstein's death in August 2019, Wexner accused Epstein of misappropriating "vast sums" of his personal fortune more than a decade earlier.
Wexner stepped down from his executive role at L Brands – the conglomerate behind retail staples Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works and Pink – in February 2020.
Wexner's charitable foundation did not immediately respond to ABC News' messages seeking comment on the filings released Tuesday.
The deposition also contains the names of men Giuffre has previously claimed she had been trafficked to, including Britain's Prince Andrew, Hyatt Hotel chief Thomas Pritzker, the late artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky and the late New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
Pritzker and Richardson previously issued statements denying the allegations.
Minsky died in 2016, before Giuffre's allegations naming him were released in 2019 by the 2nd Circuit.
MORE: Court documents naming Jeffrey Epstein's associates to be unsealed: What to know
Giuffre's 2016 deposition also includes her claim that she met former President Bill Clinton not once but twice on Jeffrey Epstein's private Caribbean island toward the end of her time in Epstein's orbit in September 2002 – something he has denied.
Giuffre said she met Clinton "On Little Saint Jeff's," referring to the island properly known as Little Saint James
She claimed to have been at a dinner with Clinton and two girls: "Young, beautiful like every girl that's generally around Jeffrey."
The second meeting was also on the island and also involved a dinner, she said. "Very similar, I mean, there was a dinner, lots of laughing, lots of joking, it was just a dinner and then I didn't have to do anything with Bill Clinton, he was never sexually involved with me. I've never witnessed him sexually involved with anybody else. Jeffrey asked me for a massage after dinner and I went off to Jeffrey's cabana," she said.
Clinton, through a spokesman, denied in 2019 ever being on Epstein's island and said he was not aware of Epstein's criminal behavior.
No documentary evidence has been presented that Clinton was on the island.
Personal flight logs kept by one of Epstein's pilots -- which surfaced in separate lawsuits against Epstein -- showed that Clinton and his entourage had flown extensively on Epstein's jumbo-jet to international destinations such as Paris, Bangkok and Brunei in 2002 and 2003. But none of the available records included the former president on a trip to Epstein's island.
Maxwell also denied Clinton was ever on the island and Giuffre's efforts to depose the former president to ask him whether he had been on the island were rejected by a judge in June 2016.
In a January 2016 email to Maxwell, Epstein encouraged her to focus her effort to discredit Giuffre on Giuffre's version of "the clinton story" which he said could be "easily dsiporived," an apparent typo for "disproved."
Many of the documents released Tuesday have been unsealed and publicly available in various forms. The court is republishing them now with new portions unredacted.
The 134-page Epstein deposition had not been previously released but he was known to have invoked his Fifth Amendment right hundreds of times.
The records unsealed Monday included photos from Ransome and an exhibit that mentions discredited allegations Ransome made about Clinton, former President Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson. She later admitted the claims were false.
Neither Clinton, nor Trump, nor Branson was accused by Giuffre, or anyone else besides Ransome, of any wrongdoing in the course of Giuffre's defamation lawsuit against Maxwell. Trump has said he cut-off contact with Epstein many years ago.
In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, the Virgin Group, on behalf of Branson, said Ransome's allegations against him are "false, baseless, and unfounded."
Prince Andrew has long denied allegations that he had sex with Giuffre on three occasions, as she has claimed in court records and interviews. In 2022, Andrew settled a case Giuffre brought against him.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of aiding Epstein's sex trafficking of young women and girls. Her appeal will be heard in March.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/documents-name-alleged-epstein-associates-previously-identified-by-accuser/ar-AA1mHUVY?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=8f4d75c7c31543b4a1a0025ebff9c43f&ei=34
(Our God must be an angry God!- MG)
Abortion killed 44.6 million people worldwide in 2023, more than any other cause of death
The overturn of Roe v. Wade put a dent in the numbers, but the overall death toll is still overwhelming.
By Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews
Tue Jan 9, 2024 - 4:12 pm EST
(LifeSiteNews) – Abortion remained the world’s leading cause of death for the fifth consecutive year in 2023, despite the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade putting a dent in the United States’ contribution to those totals.
More than 44.6 million abortions were committed across the planet last year, according to Worldometer, a nonpartisan resource that tracks and estimates statistics in real time on a wide variety of subjects, based on data from sources such as the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and more.
That total is greater than the number of deaths attributed to the next seven causes of death – communicable disease, cancer, smoking, alcohol use, HIV/AIDS, road accidents, and suicide – combined.
“The Worldometer measured the total deaths in 2023 as more than 60.6 million,” the Christian Post notes. “However, that figure does not include abortion as a form of death. If abortions were counted as deaths in the statistics, the fatalities last year would have exceeded 100 million, and abortions would have accounted for more than 40% of them.”
In the U.S., 14 states currently ban all or most abortions, with available data so far indicating that now-enforceable pro-life laws could effectively wipe out an estimated 200,000 abortions a year.
In response, abortion allies pursue a variety of tactics to preserve abortion “access,” such as enshrining “rights” to abortion in state constitutions, easy access to abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors.
MAP: Most abortions are banned in 14 states, more states to follow
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws. The 2024 elections will determine whether Democrats retain the White House and keep or gain enough seats in Congress to make that happen.
In the U.S., getting an exact handle on the scale and details of abortion use has long been limited by a lack of uniform standards from state to state. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) acknowledges that it only collects abortion data voluntarily submitted by states, whose reporting requirements (if they have any) vary significantly. California, Maryland, and New Hampshire – three states that are populous as well as significantly pro-abortion– have historically submitted no data whatsoever, further limiting the public’s understanding of the frequency of things such as late-term abortion and abortion complications.
As of January 9, the world has already seen more than a million abortions in 2024, according to Worldometer.
Our God must be an angry God!
Abortion killed 44.6 million people worldwide in 2023, more than any other cause of death
The overturn of Roe v. Wade put a dent in the numbers, but the overall death toll is still overwhelming.
By Calvin Freiburger for LifeSiteNews
Tue Jan 9, 2024 - 4:12 pm EST
(LifeSiteNews) – Abortion remained the world’s leading cause of death for the fifth consecutive year in 2023, despite the 2022 overturn of Roe v. Wade putting a dent in the United States’ contribution to those totals.
More than 44.6 million abortions were committed across the planet last year, according to Worldometer, a nonpartisan resource that tracks and estimates statistics in real time on a wide variety of subjects, based on data from sources such as the United Nations, World Health Organization (WHO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), and more.
That total is greater than the number of deaths attributed to the next seven causes of death – communicable disease, cancer, smoking, alcohol use, HIV/AIDS, road accidents, and suicide – combined.
“The Worldometer measured the total deaths in 2023 as more than 60.6 million,” the Christian Post notes. “However, that figure does not include abortion as a form of death. If abortions were counted as deaths in the statistics, the fatalities last year would have exceeded 100 million, and abortions would have accounted for more than 40% of them.”
In the U.S., 14 states currently ban all or most abortions, with available data so far indicating that now-enforceable pro-life laws could effectively wipe out an estimated 200,000 abortions a year.
In response, abortion allies pursue a variety of tactics to preserve abortion “access,” such as enshrining “rights” to abortion in state constitutions, easy access to abortion pills, legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors.
MAP: Most abortions are banned in 14 states, more states to follow
President Joe Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws. The 2024 elections will determine whether Democrats retain the White House and keep or gain enough seats in Congress to make that happen.
In the U.S., getting an exact handle on the scale and details of abortion use has long been limited by a lack of uniform standards from state to state. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) acknowledges that it only collects abortion data voluntarily submitted by states, whose reporting requirements (if they have any) vary significantly. California, Maryland, and New Hampshire – three states that are populous as well as significantly pro-abortion– have historically submitted no data whatsoever, further limiting the public’s understanding of the frequency of things such as late-term abortion and abortion complications.
As of January 9, the world has already seen more than a million abortions in 2024, according to Worldometer.
Forbes: New Names Appear On Epstein List: What To Know About Latest Unsealed Documents
Story by Zachary Folk, Forbes Staff
Topline
Tuesday’s release of unredacted files from Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell included full transcripts of depositions with Maxwell and Epstein himself, and sworn testimony from Sarah Ransome, another alleged victim of the financier’s sex trafficking ring, revealing new allegations against high-profile figures from across society (all listed have denied any suggestion of wrongdoing).
The most recent tranches of documents released by the Southern District of New York include mentions of supermodel Heidi Klum, billionaire former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner and billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, along with Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
The most recent tranches of documents released by the Southern District of New York include mentions of supermodel Heidi Klum, billionaire former Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner and billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, along with Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Key Facts
The following mentions are from documents unsealed Tuesday, which previously had much information, including the names of Epstein’s alleged victims and associates, redacted. Those accused of associating with Epstein have denied wrongdoing.
Former President Bill Clinton
“Q: Have you ever flown President Clinton on your helicopter? A: That is another one of Virginia’s lies. Q: The question is have you ever done that? A: I have never flown President Clinton at any time ever, in any helicopter, in any place, any time, in any state, in any country, at any time anywhere.” (Attachment 1335-1, Maxwell’s deposition)
“Q: Have you ever had dinner with President Clinton at Jeffrey's home, at any of Jeffrey's homes? A: No, I don’t believe so.” (Attachment 1335-1, Maxwell’s deposition)
“Q: Have you traveled on Jeffrey's planes with President Clinton? A: Yes, I have.” (Attachment 1335-1, Maxwell’s deposition)
“Q: Do you remember being in Thailand with President Clinton? A: I do. Q: Do you remember what the purpose of that trip was? A: I don’t. Q: Do you know whether — do you recall, did you stay the night in Thailand? A: I don’t recall.” (Attachment 1335-1, Maxwell’s deposition)
(con't).
read all:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/new-names-appear-on-epstein-list-what-to-know-about-latest-unsealed-documents/ar-AA1mIH7b?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=4630eb7360b24031a86b9929f6e407ad&ei=24
Me too. There are two who have appealed to the judge to keep their names from the public. The judge has about a week more to decide,