Two days before “Phase One” of a U.S.-China trade deal is to be signed, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that his department was removing China from its list of “currency manipulators.” This was a “condition precedent” in order to get the deal done. It was a victory for China and an indicator that much more work needs to be done in “Phase Two” and future additional agreements to rein in China’s hunger and thirst for American capital and technology, often acquired through deceit and manipulation. Its war on the West won’t be stymied in the slightest even after “Phase One” is signed.

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Adam Smith famously described the power of the free market’s “invisible hand” in his monumental tome, The Wealth of Nations. In it, Smith said that the butcher does not provide us our supper for our benefit, but in the process of acting in his own self-interest, he does provide us with our supper.

Apparently, the Oklahoma City Council — joining several such cities across the country, including Tulsa, Fort Worth, Birmingham, and DeKalb County in Georgia — has little regard for Smith’s “invisible hand” (presuming they have ever even heard of it). This week, the Oklahoma City Council passed restrictions on the establishment of “dollar stores” in areas of the city that are statistically less healthy.

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Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) says 10 Republican senators are considering voting for a resolution he is sponsoring to force the United States to stand down from any confrontation with Iran unless Congress specifically authorizes such engagement.

“The question of whether United States forces should be engaged in armed conflict against Iran should only be made following a full briefing to Congress and the American public of the issues at stake, a public debate in Congress, and a congressional vote as contemplated by the Constitution,” reads the resolution. “The absence of such a deliberative approach is deeply unfair to members of the United States Armed Forces and other Americans whose lives are at risk in the event of hostilities between the United States and Iran.”

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The 90-minute Trump campaign rally held in Toledo, Ohio, on January 9 continued a trend that had held firmly in recent months — 42.8 percent of the 22,927 people attending the event were either a Democrat or an Independent. Broken down, 21.9 percent were Democrats and 20.9 percent of attendees identified as Independents.

These figures continue a trend stretching back to last October 17, when 21.4 percent at a Trump rally in Dallas were Democrats, with 11 percent being Latino. Twenty-seven percent of those attending a Trump rally in Tupelo, Mississippi, on November 1 were Democrats, with 20 percent being black. At a November 26 Trump rally in Broward, Florida, 24 percent of attendees were Democrats, with 27 percent being Hispanic.

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In a letter to U.S. senators, tech behemoth Amazon admits that it has fired employees discovered to have been spying on customers using the company’s Ring cameras.

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The Border Patrol caught or stopped another 40,000-plus illegal aliens from entering the county in December, a slight dip from November and October and a significant decline from last December 2018.

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In less than two months since he announced his candidacy for the Democrat Party’s nomination in November, Michael “Mike” Bloomberg has spent $200 million in advertising, almost as much as his rivals spent during the same period combined. In addition, he has spent millions hiring hundreds of staffers in key states, planning on building enough success that he’ll be able to control the voting in the second ballot in Milwaukee in July.

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The demographic phenomenon of large numbers of residents fleeing from “blue” states is not new. But the exodus is continuing, and growing.

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A dozen GOP heavyweight donors are being pitched on the idea of buying the tiny One American News Network (OANN) to offset the steady leftward drift of Fox News. The Wall Street Journal first reported that Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chairman Thomas Hicks is helping his family’s investment manager Hicks Equity Partners identify and then propose the buyout to big Trump donors.

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Smartphones being given by the federal government to low-income people have Chinese spyware installed, spyware that can’t be removed and that gives agents of Beijing considerable control over those subsidized phones.

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