Morning Canary: ICYMI News – Weekend Edition

Canary. Photo by 4028mdk09.

Ryder Cup 2018 officially kicked off Friday morning at 1:10 a.m. Texas time, or if you are in Paris, France, that would have been 8:10 a.m. 

Le Golf National is hosting this year’s match on their championship Albatros course.

This year Jim Furyk is captain and will lead team USA players: Bryson Dechambeau, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Patrick Reed, Webb Simpson, Jordon Spieth, Justin Thomas, Bubba Watson, and Tiger Woods.

Captain of the European team is Thomas Bjorn and will lead the European players: Paul Casey, Tommy Fleetwood, Sergio Garcia, Tyrrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy; Francesco Molinari, Alex Noren, Thorbjorn Olesen, Ian Poulter, Jon, Rahm, Justin Rose, and Henrik Stenson.

One of the underlying stories to watch this year is the USA has not won the Ryder Cup while playing on European soil in 25 years. That was in 1993, “when the Tom Watson-led Americans rallied for a 15-13 victory over Europe at the Belfry in England.”

PGS TOUR
Twitter
September 28, 2018
PGA TOUR
Twitter
September 28, 2018

At the end of Friday the score was USA – 3; EUR – 5.


This one comes to us via a Rick Wilson retweet to The Guardian’s ‘the long read’ story, ‘This guy doesn’t know anything’: the inside story of Trump’s shambolic transition team, which is an excerpt from writer Michael Lewis’ The Fifth Risk which will be published by Penguin and released October 2nd. A story that “reveals how Trump’s bungled presidential transition set the template for his time in the White House.”

While this is indeed a “long read,” you may want to take the time to click on over when you get a chance and read this one. Here is a teaser from The Guardian’s teaser.

The first time Trump paid attention to any of this was when he read about it in the newspaper. The story revealed that Trump’s very own transition team had raised several million dollars to pay the staff. The moment he saw it, Trump called Steve Bannon, the chief executive of his campaign, from his office on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, and told him to come immediately to his residence, many floors above. Bannon stepped off the elevator to find Christie seated on a sofa, being hollered at. Trump was apoplectic, yelling: You’re stealing my money! You’re stealing my fucking money! What the fuck is this?

Seeing Bannon, Trump turned on him and screamed: Why are you letting him steal my fucking money? Bannon and Christie together set out to explain to Trump federal law. Months before the election, the law said, the nominees of the two major parties were expected to prepare to take control of the government. The government supplied them with office space in downtown DC, along with computers and rubbish bins and so on, but the campaigns paid their people. To which Trump replied: Fuck the law. I don’t give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money. Bannon and Christie tried to explain that Trump couldn’t have both his money and a transition.

Shut it down, said Trump. Shut down the transition.

The Guardian; September 27, 2018

Update

There is a update to the story about this administration’s DOJ ramping up attacks on the private social media companies when Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey were called in to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee on September 5th.

“Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey told lawmakers on Wednesday that they are better prepared to combat foreign interference on their platforms, even as Democrats and Republicans alike expressed doubts that the social media giants had fully cleaned them up ahead of the midterm elections.”

Later in the afternoon Jack Dorsey appeared in another hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee as Republicans alleged “Twitter unfairly targets conservative-leaning posts and accounts,” echoing the same allegations President Trump made last Tuesday when he targeted Google and “Fake News Media,”

TNB; September 13, 2018

Before this hearing plans had be rumored Sessions was planning to meet with state attorneys general to discuss supposed ‘concerns’ that social media platform companies “may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms,” however, Democrat state attorneys general for several key bigTech states, or any for that matter, said they had not been invited.

Sessions confirmed September 5th there would be a meeting and it was scheduled ‘tentatively’ for September 25, brushing aside Democrat state AG’s concerns saying it was only “in the early stages of planning” even though at least one Republican AG, Texas’ Ken Paxton, had sent in his letter confirming his plans to attend.

According to Courthouse News, via an AP report, the meeting did take place on September 25th. Attorneys general from “Alabama, California, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington, D.C.” attended, along with ‘senior deputy’ representatives from five other states as well.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A meeting between top state law enforcement officials and Attorney General Jeff Sessions about how the government can safeguard the privacy of social media users ended without a decision on whether to investigate.

Tuesday’s gathering at the Justice Department was scheduled to discuss whether tech giants are “stifling the free exchange of ideas” and examine whether they “may be hurting competition.”

But California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says the one-hour meeting mainly focused on consumer protection and data privacy issues.

Courthouse News; September 25, 2018

The ‘insights” will be reviewed, the DOJ said, and they “expect conversations on the topic to continue.”


On A Side Note (Opinion)

We’ve got a couple more updates to get to, but I’ll save those for tomorrow’s ICYMI News Weekend Edition.

I’ll just add this. First. Funny how Texas’ Paxton confirmed he would attend. Either he’s one who sent a deputy rep or he flaked, actually he flaked either way. A one-hour meeting? Right. Boy, that sure was a serious effort, and how much did this cost states and the DOJ? Oh, I’m sorry, how much did this double-dip on tax payer money? In my opinion, Sessions is playing games. My bet? He’s colluding with Republican AGs under the radar. Watch your states for news about this and we’ll continue to keep an eye on things as well.

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