DML Morning Briefing, Nov. 17

Today is November 17. Below are some of the stories grabbing headlines this morning. I hope you share this briefing as doing so will make you the smartest person in the room.

1.Nancy Pelosi, 82, will announce decision on her future TODAY: Anti-Squad Hakeem Jeffries tipped to take Dem House leadership – amid rumors she will step down from Congress and hand seat to daughter
DailyMail–With Republicans set to take over the House of Representatives and Democrats slated for leadership elections at the end of the month, outgoing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s will tell people her plans on Thursday.

Pelosi, 82, announced through a spokesperson that she’ll ‘address her future plans’ later today with speculation already having begun as to whether she’ll remain the leader of the Democrats.

Rumors have suggested that Pelosi would step down from Congress entirely, potentially leaving her extremely left-leaning district in San Francisco to her daughter Christine.

Ryan Lynch: Today is a sweet sweet day. Crooked Pelosi is expected to announce her future plans of which I hope is the code word for her leaving congress. Next step, how about we look into Pelosi using her position to conduct insider trading?

2.Clinton-linked dark money group targeted Twitter advertisers amid Elon Musk’s takeover
FoxNews–A Hillary Clinton-linked dark money group set its sights on Twitter advertisers amid Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media platform, Fox Business has learned.

Accountable Tech spearheaded a letter to top Twitter advertisers as part of a larger pressure campaign demanding “non-negotiable” requirements for their business, saying that Musk’s takeover will further “toxify” the social media giant and directly threaten public safety.

“Twitter has outsized influence in shaping both public discourse and industry-wide platform governance standards,” the letter states. “While the company is hardly a poster-child for healthy social media, it has taken welcome steps in recent years to mitigate systemic risks, ratcheting up pressure on the likes of Facebook and YouTube to follow suit.”

“Musk intends to steamroll those safeguards and provide a megaphone to extremists who traffic in disinformation, hate, and harassment,” it continues. “Under the guise of ‘free speech,’ his vision will silence and endanger marginalized communities, and tear at the fraying fabric of democracy.”

Ryan Lynch: Musk is creating a ripple effect. I hope people have the intuition to realize when a group of elites starts attacking a company for not censoring the “wrong information” they’ll maybe ask why. It’s great watching the left deteriorate over Twitter and it’s even better knowing now that they won’t have another censored platform. Once one platform falls the other censoring platforms lose their effect. Everyone uses Twitter and the information otherwise suppressed on say Facebook or Google will be readily available on Twitter.

3.Analysis: Unmasked and in charge, China’s Xi puts personal diplomacy back in play
Reuters–President Xi Jinping, conspicuously absent from the main stage of diplomacy during China’s COVID isolation, has been mostly smiles and handshakes on his return this week with a flurry of meetings that Beijing hopes will begin to mend frayed relations.

But in an exchange that went viral, a mask-less Xi was also captured on-camera giving Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a dressing-down at the Group of 20 (G20) summit over media leaks, apparently from their bilateral meeting a day previously. It was a rare, candid glimpse of the Chinese leader and a reminder of Beijing’s testy relations with the West.

China’s absence from face-to-face interactions during the pandemic has been costly, diplomats and other experts say, as ties with the United States and some Asian neighbours have badly deteriorated over a range of disputes.

Ryan Lynch: While Chinese citizens are being caged and locked in their homes or places of work. Xi is walking around maskless and shaking hands with foreign nations. I don’t trust China and no one should ever trust China. Also, Justin Trudeau is no better.

4.The global stock market rally could be about to meet recession reality
CNBC–Global stock markets have rallied on hopes that central banks will soon begin to slow their aggressive interest rate hikes as inflation shows signs of peaking, but strategists are not yet convinced the bounce has legs.

Markets were buoyed last week after U.S. inflation came in below expectations for October, prompting investors to bet that Federal Reserve policymakers would soon have to slow or stop the monetary policy tightening measures they have deployed to try to bring down inflation. The S&P 500 notched its largest single-day gain since the early 2020 pandemic rebound rally.

However, Fed Governor Chris Waller said Monday that markets had overestimated the significance of a single data point, and that the U.S. central bank still has “a ways to go” on interest rate hikes.

Ryan Lynch: With inflation continuously constricting the worlds economies I don’t see the markets remaining in any bull run. I believe we are entering a bull trap and soon we will see a red week in the markets.

5.Fears grow that a North Korea nuclear test is imminent as Kim Jong Un fires latest ballistic missile in a blitz of launches after warning of a ‘fiercer’ response to the US
DailyMail–North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missile Thursday, as fears grow that the reclusive regime will soon carry out its seventh nuclear test.

The launch is the latest in a record blitz from Pyongyang after it warned today of a ‘fiercer’ military response to the United States and its allies.

Washington has been seeking to boost regional security cooperation and ramp up joint military drills in response to increasing provocations from the nuclear-armed North, which views all such moves as evidence of US aggression.

The drills are in response to increasing provocations from the nuclear-armed North, which views all such moves as evidence of US aggression.

Ryan Lynch: Rocket Man has increased his missile testing. North Korea should be handled immediately they aren’t a nation you just let do what it wants. Biden needs to show strength and de-escalate the situation. Hopefully, Biden won’t fall asleep during those meetings.