Trump Fans Flooded Iowa Caucus Hotline, Democrats Say

Source: Bloomberg

Supporters of President Donald Trump flooded a hotline used by Iowa precinct chairs to report Democratic caucus results after the telephone number was posted online, worsening delays in the statewide tally, a top state Democrat told party leaders on a conference call Wednesday night.

According to two participants on the call, Ken Sagar, a state Democratic central committee member, was among those answering the hotline on caucus night and said people called in and expressed support for Trump.

The phone number became public after people posted photos of caucus paperwork that included the hotline number, one of the people on the call said.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-06/trump-fans-flooded-iowa-caucus-hotline-top-democrat-says

Caucus precinct chairs input results during Tuesday's Iowa vote.

The accidental public posting of the hotline number led to GOP efforts to flood phone lines, thereby further delaying reporting of results.

Viewership down sharply for Trump's State of the Union

Source: ABC News

Viewership was sharply down for President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on most of the top television networks — except for Fox News Channel.

The Nielsen company estimated that 37.2 million people watched Trump's speech live across 12 TV networks Tuesday night. That's down from 46.8 million people who saw his speech last year, and the smallest audience for his presidency.

Fox News had by far the biggest audience for a speech that was widely viewed as a kickoff to the president's reelection campaign. Nielsen said 11.6 million people watched on Fox, up 2% from last year's State of the Union.

But there were big viewership tumbles for other networks — 41% down from last year on MSNBC, 33% down on NBC and 30% each on CBS and ABC, Nielsen said.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/viewership-sharply-trumps-state-union-68787069

Argentine Congress approves debt restructuring bill

The Argentine Senate unanimously passed a bill this afternoon to restructure the nation's $195 billion public foreign debt, which officials say is unpayable under current terms.

The bill declares debt sustainability a “priority” and authorizes President Alberto Fernández to carry out a “restructuring of interest maturity services and capital amortization of public securities issued under foreign law.”

Under Fernández's predecessor, Mauricio Macri, Argentina's public foreign debt doubled and annual foreign interest payments ballooned from $5 billion in 2015 to $18 billion last year - with most new debt going to finance record capital flight.

The bill also gives the executive branch the authority to apply reductions in principal, or “haircuts” on over $100 billion in bondholder foreign debt.

“I cannot conceive of any reasonable model (without) significant haircuts,” Columbia professor and Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently noted. “It would be fantasy to think otherwise.”

Most Argentine bonds are, moreover, currently trading at around half their face value - a discount that dwarfs the likely proposed haircut (rumored at 20%).

Economy Minister Martín Guzmán is also currently in talks with the IMF, which lent Argentina $45 billion between June 2018 and August 2019.

Guzmán is reportedly seeking a repayment grace period of up to 4 years.

The loan, which the IMF's own board of advisers recommended against, was reportedly granted under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump - who sought to shore up Macri's electoral chances.

Amid the deepest recession in two decades, Macri instead became the first president in Argentine history to be defeated for re-election.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&tab=wT&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F245935-el-senado-aprobo-la-reestructuracion-de-la-deuda

IMF Director Kristalina Georgieva greets Pope Francis as Argentine Economy Minister Martín Guzmán applauds at right.

Georgieva, Guzmán, and Pope Francis discussed Argentina's debt crisis at today's Vatican Conference on Economic Solidarity.

President Trump acquitted on both impeachment charges, avoids removal

Source: USA Today

The Senate acquitted President Donald Trump for his dealings with Ukraine on Wednesday, culminating months of bitter partisan clashes over accusations he tried to cheat in the 2020 election by pressuring the U.S. ally to investigate political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden..

The Republican-led Senate voted to acquit Trump on two articles of impeachment - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only senator to cross party lines by voting to convict for abuse of power.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/02/05/trump-impeachment-trial-senate-poised-vote-acquittal/4655192002/

Trump: "not guilty"

Claudio Bonadio, Argentina's "Ken Starr," dead at 64

Argentine Federal Judge Claudio Bonadío, known for overseeing many of the cases involving former President Cristina Kirchner or her cabinet, has died of a brain tumor; he was 64.

Bonadío was widely known as former President Mauricio Macri's "napkin" (pocket) judge - a nickname he first earned in 1996 when a top official under then-President Carlos Menem wrote his name on a café napkin as one of nine judges Menem could count on as cronies.

Amid an economic and debt crisis, the right-wing Macri recently became the first president in Argentine history to lose re-election.

Bonadío oversaw 11 of 13 federal cases against Mrs. Kirchner - despite requirements that federal cases be randomly assigned by lot.

His handling of these cases became known for a refusal to allow defendants access to evidence and case files, as well as for admitting unverified evidence (found to be forged in at least one case) and unrecorded "confessions" of witnesses who later alleged being pressured by the judge.

A raid ordered by the judge on Kirchner's home in August 2018 led to the poisoning of her housekeeper and two others by what the attending physician described as a "contact toxin."

Bonadío, on the other hand, routinely dismissed charges against Macri or his officials - notably the "Panama Papers" case, in which Macri's name was found on at least 50 undeclared offshore accounts.

Napkin judge

Appointed Chief Counsel to President Menem in 1992, at the height of the "Yomagate" scandal involving alleged money laundering by Menem's in-laws, Bonadío was named to the federal bench a year later despite having graduated from law school only five years earlier.

He was promoted in 1994 (at 38) as head of the powerful 11th Circuit Criminal Court - and remained in the post despite 75 formal complaints before the Council of Magistrates for malfeasance, abuse of power, illicit enrichment, and other charges.

A finding of "partiality" in favor of defendants led to his 2005 removal as presiding judge in the case involving the cover-up of the 1994 AMIA bombing - which left 85 dead in a Buenos Aires Jewish community center, and remains unsolved.

The AMIA prosecutor at the time, Alberto Nisman, later accused Bonadío of threats against his life and his family. Nisman was found dead in 2015.

Bonadío's own death comes a year after recordings of indicted extortionist Marcelo d'Alessio, an intelligence (AFI) agent, showed d'Alessio boasting of a shakedown scheme that had netted $12 million since August 2018, and that the scheme was run by a close Bonadío collaborator - the now-indicted Federal Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli.

"Stornelli is Macri," d'Alessio said in the recordings. "Claudio (Bonadío) will want a cut too."

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&tab=wT&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pagina12.com.ar%2F245613-murio-el-juez-federal-claudio-bonadio

Claudio Bonadío, 1956-2020.

The public face of former President Macri's weaponized judiciary against opponents, Bonadío remained on the federal bench despite - and perhaps because - of his practice of denying defendants access to evidence and case files, while granting others an immediate dismissal of charges.

Evidence emerging a year ago of a large-scale extortion scheme by a close associate - in which Bonadío was named - led to renewed calls for his removal and prosecution.

It's official: Trump's tax cuts were an economic bust

US GDP grew by 2.3% in 2019 - well below President Trump's promise of 3% growth.

The most recent GDP number also proved that the tax cuts championed by Trump and the GOP did nothing to substantially boost the economy.

Anyone who looked at history or has some knowledge about economics knew this would be the case.

The administration's bullish forecast was based on the belief that the tax cut passed by Trump and the Republicans at the end of 2017 would increase the economy's trend growth rate.

Trump and his economic team have long argued that the tax cuts — especially the big drop in the corporate rate from 35% to 21% would kick off a virtuous cycle delivering lasting growth above the roughly 2% that has prevailed for the past two decades.

GDP growth has instead averaged 2.6% since Trump took office. While slightly above the 2.3% average during President Obama's second term, real GDP growth reached 3% only in the middle two quarters of last year.

Thus far, moreover, none of the links on the supply-side chain are anywhere to be seen. To the contrary, real business investment has declined for three quarters in a row - the worst such stretch since the last recession.

The federal budget deficit meanwhile reached $984 billion - 26% higher than the 2018 deficit and 48% above 2017 levels.

At: https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-tax-cuts-no-boost-us-economy-gdp-2020-1

First Look At Bloomberg's Super Bowl Ad - Morning Joe

Sunday's date is a rare, extra-special palindrome

How’s this for a calendrical trifecta: Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday. And it’s Groundhog Day. And it’s a rare eight-digit palindrome when written as 02/02/2020 — the only one of its kind this century.

A palindrome, as you might know, is a sequence that reads the same forward as it does backward. Aziz Inan, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Portland, collects dates that are palindromes the way other people might collect coins or chase solar eclipses.

Inan’s website chronicles 500 years’ worth of palindromes, from the 19th century to the 23rd. He’s been waiting for this Sunday since at least Nov. 2, 2011, he said, which was an eight-digit palindrome, too (11/02/2011).

The previous eight-digit palindrome like this was 11/11/1111, 909 years ago. We’ll only have to wait another 101 years for 12/12/2121, but the next one after that comes on March 3, 3030.

At: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/01/31/sundays-date-is-rare-extra-special-palindrome/

Period depiction of Henry I - who was king of England the last time a date fell on an eight-digit palindrome like this Sunday's.

Pope Francis, a son of Argentina, welcomes its new president to the Vatican

A smiling Pope Francis welcomed the new president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, to the Vatican Friday morning and then spoke with him in a private audience for 45 minutes.

“Holy Father, what a pleasure to see you again,” the Argentine president said as they shook hands. Their private conversation lasted twice as long as that of Mr. Fernández’s predecessor, Mauricio Macri, with Francis in 2016.

It was clear from the beginning that their discussion would focus on the dire economic situation in Argentina today, where the president has had to take immediate action to deal with the problem of widespread hunger.

Fernández, 60, inherited twin economic and debt crises from Macri.

His six-week old administration faces a $195 billion public foreign debt - much of which has been in default since September - 54% inflation, 41% income poverty, and a 7% fall in GDP since the current “Macrisis” began in April 2018.

Fernández said the debt owed by Argentina to the IMF (some $44 billion) was one of the main topics he discussed with Pope Francis and that they “also spoke much about poverty.”

“I asked that he do what he could to help us, and he will do that.”

At: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/01/31/pope-francis-son-argentina-welcomes-its-new-president-vatican

Pope Francis reads from a book of poetry he presented to Argentine President Alberto Fernández as a gift during their meeting on Friday, as First Lady Fabiola Yáñez looks on.

Francis, who is Argentine, is largely supportive of the center-left Fernández as the latter struggles with socio-economic and debt crises inherited from his right-wing predecessor.

Author Mary Higgins Clark, 'Queen of Suspense,' Dies at 92

Mary Higgins Clark, the tireless and long-reigning “Queen of Suspense” whose tales of women beating the odds made her one of the world’s most popular writers, died Friday at age 92.

Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, announced that she died of natural causes in Naples, Florida.

“Nobody ever bonded more completely with her readers than Mary did,” her longtime editor Michael Korda said in statement. “She understood them as if they were members of her own family.

She was always absolutely sure of what they wanted to read — and, perhaps more important, what they didn’t want to read — and yet she managed to surprise them with every book.”

Widowed in her late 30s with five children, she became a perennial bestseller over the second half of her life, writing or co-writing “A Stranger Is Watching,” “Daddy’s Little Girl” and more than 50 other favorites.

Sales topped 100 million copies and honors came from all over, including a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from France or a Grand Master statuette back home from the Mystery Writers of America.

At: https://time.com/5775950/mary-higgins-clark-obituary/

Mary Higgins Clark, 1927-2020.