Tornado Alley (PROG)

[B402]

Problem with politics and dems in general is emotion..... Never taking the time to go further than talking points....Climate is a good example of it......What are the facts, what can we really do, what can't we do, what innovations do we need, how much effort are we actually putting forth....

One would hope people take the time to look at things from perspectives other than their own......More people do it than don't but loud mouths tend to rule the day

Your Canada and CA. Are.examples of liberalism gone to the extreme........ I fully expect you all to surrender peacefully and maybe we can add Greenland to the new state ;) Since Canada is a white extremist state we may have to bus some of you all down around the borders of the Gulf of America and replace them with some of the excessive migrants we have....Gotta get those DEI demographics balanced out...Lol

Anyhoot, keep up your diplomatic ways, stand on a desk from time to time ;), people have more in common than they don't.....Good old petty politics and self righteousness is our biggest problem past greed itself....The media is 1984, politicians are for themselves and people don't get that they really have the power.......


https://thehill.com/business/5072670-dozens-of-lawmakers-beat-stock-market-in-2024-report/


The stock portfolios of more than two dozen lawmakers once again outperformed the market as bans on congressional stock trading stalled, according to a new report from the trading trackers at Unusual Whales.

Democratic lawmakers were up 31 percent and Republicans 26 percent while the S&P 500 was up 24.9 percent, according to the report, which also identified a number of conflicts between lawmakers’ stock holdings and their committee and legislative work.

“The idea of lawmakers trading stocks while legislating is inherently problematic. Congress members shape policies that can directly impact markets. Whether or not they act on insider knowledge, the appearance of potential abuse undermines public trust,” Unusual Whales wrote in the fifth edition of the report.

Stocks owned by the husband of Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who has faced significant blowback for her opposition to bipartisan stock trading bans as she consistently reports above-average stock gains, were up nearly 71 percent in 2024, the report found. Pelosi has previously defended congressional stock trading, saying members should be able to participate in a “free market economy.”

Nine other lawmakers outperformed Pelosi last year, according to the report, with Rep. David Rouzer’s (R-N.C.) portfolio posting the largest gains — 149 percent, mainly due to Nvidia shares he purchased years earlier. Rouzer “made these buys years ago” and is “not an active trader,” Unusual Whales notes.

“Congressman Rouzer has not purchased or sold a single stock asset since 2022. Members of Congress have not even filed their 2024 reports yet,” said Rouzer’s chief of staff Anna McCormack, adding that the congressman “adheres to all House ethics rules and all financial reporting regulations.”

Members have filed transaction reports for most of 2024. Since Rouzer is not an active trader, however, his last personal financial disclosure was filed in 2023.

“Using a methodology that predicts unrealized gains creates a deceptive view of reality, leading to misinformation instead of transparency. After all, we’re talking about a guy who drives a 2004 Tahoe with 585,000 miles on it,” McCormack added.

Other members are more active, and several have made what Unusual Whales called “numerous unusual trades.”

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), whose portfolio posted the second-biggest gain after Rouzer, purchased shares of the satellite operator Viasat in October while ranking member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on military construction. Viasat has received more than $2.7 billion in government contracts since fiscal 2020, primarily from the Department of Defense, according to federal contract data.

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on Homeland Security, purchased shares of RTX, previously known as Raytheon, in April, the report found. RTX is one of the government’s biggest contractors and receives billions of dollars each year from the federal government.

Spokespersons for Pelosi, Wasserman Schultz and Newhouse did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Members of Congress have been barred from trading on information they learn in their official capacity and required to file frequent financial disclosures for more than a decade under the 2012 STOCK Act. But lawmakers can still trade on the public stock market, and reporting delays and nonexistent enforcement actions have raised questions about these guardrails.

No member of Congress has ever been charged for violating the act, even amid reports of lawmakers dumping stocks at the onset of the pandemic. And since 2020, none of the 10 bills proposed to beef up guardrails on or outright ban congressional stock trading have reached the floor for a vote in either a Republican- or Democrat-controlled House.

President Biden called for a congressional stock trading ban last month, taking a stance on the issue for the first time in his political career.

“I don’t know how you look your constituents in the eye and know because the job they gave you, it gave you the inside track to make more money,” Biden said during an interview with the progressive nonprofit newsroom More Perfect Union.