Missing and murdered indigenous people
If you have spent any time reading about true crime, you probably know that American Indian/ Native American women go missing from the United States and Canada at alarming rates. On some reservations, women experience violence and are victims of homicide at 10x the rate of women in other communities.
But what about men and boys? Missing and murdered Indigenous boys and men are the forgotten group of this epidemic of violence on tribal land and many families are aching to see the cases of their missing/murdered male loved ones solved. Just like with the missing women, men and boys are going missing at an alarming rate on tribal land, but race is not the only factor. Men (and women) of all ethnicities who live on the Yakama reservation are missing and murdered at disturbing rates.
Missing and murdered indigenous people is a complex issue with prejudice and jurisdictional issues playing major roles. If you want to know more about the root of these issues, I suggest “Missing and Murdered” podcast by Indigenous Canadian journalist Connie Walker, who explains the issues much better than I ever could; that podcast is linked below.
Today, I want to highlight the stories of some of these men and boys, specifically those missing from the Yakama community. Because there are so many missing people who are practically unknown, I have decided to profile the cases of ALL the men and boys missing from the reservation, regardless of race.
This is a companion piece to another write up I completed about missing women and girls from the Yakama reservation. That write up can be found here. If some sections sound similar that is probably why. https://www.reddit.com/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/htvnv6/extensive_write_up_on_missing_and_murdered/
Background
Washington state is home to the fifth largest Indian reservation in the United States, the Yakama reservation, which is home to the Klickitat, Palus, Wallawalla, Wenatchi, Whishram, Wanapum, and Yakama people. According to the US Census Bureau, only the Osage, Puyallup (also in Washington state), Navajo, and Choctaw reservations are more populous. The Yakama reservation is located in South Central Washington state, just south of the city of Yakima. Of the 31,000 people who lived on the reservation, 11,000 are enrolled tribal members. Most people who live on the reservation claim Hispanic/Latino, white, or mixed-race descent, but Hispanic is by far the most common ethnic group. There are also small Filipino, Japanese, and Korean communities nearby. The Yakama reservation is located just south of the town of Yakima, Washington, a large farming community of 100,000 people. Apples, cherries, peaches, pears, grapes, and hops are all grown in the dry surrounding region. Harvest time brings thousands of migrant workers to the area, so the population is always in flux.
Outside of Yakima is the town of Union Gap (Pop. 8000), which is partially on the reservation, and partially off it. There are two other proper towns on reservation, Toppenish (pop. 8000) and Wapato (pop. 5000). Other small communities such as Satus, Harrah, White Swan, and Granger all boast several hundred residents each. All in all, the Yakama nation consists of 2,200 square miles of sprawling, rural land stretching from south central Washington nearly to the Oregon border. But from this unassuming patch of high desert and grassland, more than 30 Native women have gone missing/were murdered. If we add Native men to the equation, the number jumps to nearly 40 unsolved disappearances, deaths, and murders. If we add the deaths and disappearances of non-native people missing from the reservation, the number grows yet again.
Although the land is vast, the tribal population is small. From my estimates over .5% of native people on the reservation are missing or murdered. Like many tribal communities, unemployment and poverty is common, appropriate housing is scare, and according to the tribal council "disregard for the rule of law and general civil unrest" as well as gun violence and substance abuse is common. In 2019 a curfew was instated after a particularly bad shooting.
According to the Washington State Patrol, the Yakama nation has the highest percentage of missing people of any Native community in the state, even though they are not the most populous. The FBI created a task force in 2009 to investigate the possibility of serial killer among the Yakama, but the investigation determined that a serial killer was unlikely, but not impossible. This was because the causes of death were so different from victim to victim. The investigation did close 2 cases on the reservation after DNA on both women linked them to a man serving life in an Oregon prison, but the man is not believed to be responsible for any other crimes in the inquiry.
Whether a serial killer is loose on tribal land or not, this issue is complex and long standing and demonstrates how much substance abuse, domestic violence, accidents, and random crime affect the native communities in this county at 10x the rate of other communities. Some progress has been made such as state bill 2951 which allows Washington state authorities to track cases and help investigate and search for missing individuals on tribal land. Because tribal lands are usually under federal jurisdiction, state authorities previously were not able to help, despite being more familiar with the area than the FBI. This is only one small step in the right direction and although awareness is growing, the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous people will not simply go away.
Many people have heard of this epidemic, but few know the names of the victims; today it is time to change that. Below are the profiles of 20 men and boys who are missing, murdered, or who have suffered mysterious deaths. For some of the individuals very little information is available. The list below is not necessarily complete. If you know of other unsolved cases let me know in the comments below.
Quick guide: Yakima- large town near, but not on, the reservation
Yakama- the tribe and people group
NOTE: all cases organized most to least recent. In order to be profiled the cases in this piece must have some connection to the Yakama Indian reservation. This could mean those who lived on the reservation, were last seen on the reservation, are believed to be missing within the confines of reservation, or are of Yakama heritage by birth. Hope that makes sense.
Missing
Bernard Schieber, 86, of Yakima has not been seen since Aug. 8, 2019, when he left his home in the 2500 block of South 84th Avenue in Yakima. His black, full-size Chevrolet pickup was found a few weeks later in a closed portion of the Yakama Nation reservation. It appears to have been parked normally and not crashed or damaged. When he left his home in the city of Yakima, Bernard had only ¼ tank of gas and no money. He suffers from dementia. Bernard is described as a white male with blue eyes and gray hair. He weighs 190 lbs. and stands 5’ 11” tall. Anyone with any information about Schieber is asked to call the Yakima County Sheriff's Office at 509-574-2500. He is still missing.
Josiah “Jo” Michael Hilderbrand aged 25 and his friend 47-year-old Jon Joseph Cleary left southern California in early June 2020 to travel to a Grateful Dead concert at The Gorge a venue in Washington state. Both men were traveling together in a light blue 2004 Honda Civic hybrid when they were last heard from on June 7th, 2019. On June 8th their abandoned burned out car was found 8 miles west of Toppenish in a deserted, rural area of the reservation. The FBI has stated they believe the men are dead but they are officially listed as missing.
Josiah Hilderbrand is described as white male, age 25, with light brown wavy hair and blue eyes. He is 5’8” and 165 lbs. He has a neck tattoo. Jon Cleary is a white male, 47 years old, and 6’3” in height weighing 230 lbs. He has brown/gray hair and beard and brown eyes. He usually wears a baseball cap.
Remains found August 5th, 2020 near Toppenish may belong to the men. The FBI is handling the case as the men were found on tribal land. The families are offering $35,000 for information that can solve the murders. Even if the remains are those of the “Dead Heads” the crimes of their deaths remain unsolved.
Strangely enough Hilderbrand and Cleary died on the same day that a mass shooting occurred in White Swan where two men, Donovan Quinn Carter Cloud and James Dean Cloud, killed five people. The shooters have been convicted in that crime and some have speculated that both crimes are related. This mass shooting was the crime that inspired that reservation-wide curfew to be put into effect.
Elias Chief Culps, 25, was last seen in White Swan on Dec. 27, 2018 and has not been heard from since. In 2015 Elias was a witness in a court case about unreasonable searches and seizures and whose jurisdiction should be involved when fugitives are found on tribal land- the outcome of that case is unknown. There is little information available about Elias’ disappearance. Those with information are asked to call the Yakama Nation Police Department at 509-865-2933, case number 19-009167. He is described as a Native American male, 5’6”-5’7” in height and 150-170 lbs. He has brown hair and eyes and a tattoo on his neck.
Jose Francisco Canales a 43-year-old father of 7 children was last heard from on July 7, 2018 in Harrah, Washington where he resided with his wife of nineteen years. He was last seen at La Guadalupana (a store in Harrah) on July 6, 2018 where he cashed his paycheck. The next day, July 7th, he called his boss to report that he would not be coming into work that day. This was the last time anyone saw or heard from Canales. He is described as a Hispanic male, 5’7” or 5’8” in height and 145 lbs. with brown hair and eyes. He has a scar on his left hand about 1” in length and a tattoo of a heart on his right arm/shoulder area. He was last seen wearing along-sleeved t-shirt (possibly green), blue jeans, brown sneakers and a blue baseball cap. He has a receding hairline and some gray hairs in his beard. Canales may be driving a gray 1994 Ford Ranger single cab pickup truck with the Washington license plate number B53351T. There may be a green 2018 Polaris 450HO four-wheeler in the bed of the truck; it has the vehicle identification number (VIN) 4XASEA509JA252860. Canales's case remains unsolved.
Rolando Gabriel "Gabby" Gutierrez, of Mabton has been missing since Sept. 16, 2017. The 44-year-old was the oldest of six siblings and was close to his family. When his family last heard from him, Gutierrez was in Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point, a Mexican fishing and resort city on the Gulf of California. He was staying in the area and had weekly phone contact with his family. Gabby was planning to come home for his niece’s birthday in October, but he never made it. One of his sisters worried that Gabby was “wrapped up” in the drug trade. In November 2019, forensic scientists in the Mexican state of Sonora announced that they had recovered 52 bodies and skeletons from a mass grave near Puerto Peñasco. Gabby’s family told an Associated Press reporter that they thought there might be a chance his body was among them, but this is not known for certain. Rolando “Gabby” Gutierrez is described as either a Hispanic or a mixed race (Caucasian/ Hispanic) male who is 5’10” in height and weights 180-260 lbs. He has black hair and brown eyes but he shaves his head. He also has a zodiac cancer symbol tattooed on his arm and has pierced nipples. There is currently a go fund me for Gabby’s family so one of his siblings can travel to Mexico to give their DNA for comparison. Mexican authorities are investigating this case.
Kristopher Fowler, 34, was last seen Oct. 12, 2016. Fowler, affectionately known as "Sherpa" and “Kris” was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and had started at the border with Mexico with a goal of completing the 2,800-mile trek to the Canadian border. He was last seen in the White Pass area only a few hundred miles from his destination. Kris was last seen at a convenience store in very rural Yakima county. Kris is described as a white male, 6’2” and 165 lbs. He has blonde hair and beard and blue eyes. He is believed to be lost in the wilderness. His step mother still hopes the body can be recovered some day. Those with information should call the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office at 509-574-2500.
Joseph Eric Miranda Jr., 24, has been missing from Granger since May 26, 2016. Reports say Joseph went to his bedroom on May 26, 2016 around 10:30 pm after talking with his father. His mother went to check on him in the morning but he was nowhere to be found. She last saw him late on the evening of May 25, 2016 and initially thought he had gone on a walk never returned. It is unclear if Miranda and his wife also lived at the house with his parents or if he was only staying there. According to one source, Miranda left his wife a note that said he “wouldn’t be seeing her for a while.” Miranda had a bank card and a cellphone with him when he disappeared, but because the cellphone was a government issued phone (a burner phone maybe?) it cannot be pinged. His bank card was last used on May 25th to buy a soda at a gas station and it has never been used again. He left his keys and his car at his parent’s home. There has been some activity on Miranda’s social security card but it is unknown if the user is Miranda or an identity thief. Joseph’s favorite movie is a 2014 film called Wild, about a girl who hikes through the wilderness of the Pacific Crest trail. His family worries he embarked on a similar journey and either got lost of met with foul play. They ask that if Joseph is out there to please contact them so that they know he is alive and well.
Joseph is described as a Hispanic male, 5’7” or 5”8 and 180-195 lbs. He has black hair and brown eyes. Miranda had long hair and a beard at the time of his disappearance and usually wore his hair long but occasionally cut it very short. He wears prescription eyeglasses with silver frames. He has a strawberry birthmark on his chest and a small mole on his upper lip. When last seen he was wearing multi colored swim trunks, a green long-sleeved shirt and superman flip flops. He often wears flip flops, his Rx glasses, and bandanas or hats on his head. If you have seen Miranda or have information please called the Granger PD at 509-854-2656.
Chad Nathan Stotz-Gomez, 36 of Union Gap, drifted between homeless camps at the time of his disappearance, but talked to his mother and other family members regularly. He was last seen on July 10th 2015. He has not been seen or heard from since. Some believe that this case is connected to the case of Cody Turner (details below). The same day Stotz-Gomez disappeared, there was shooting at a homeless camp between Yakima and Selah, Washington. The victim, a 36-year-old woman, was injured but the victim has not cooperated with law enforcement and no arrests have been made. Police found Stotz-Gomez's DNA at the shooting scene. Some have speculated that the shooting is connected to the November 2015 murder of Norma Emmerson, who was shot in the head outside East Selah, Washington. Some reports say Norma had information about a homicide committed by her ex-boyfriend, Raven Cutler. Cutler ultimately pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Cutler told Cody Turner's mother he'd seen Cody Turner (case below) and Stotz-Gomez together in downtown Yakima, but his information has not been verified. Other witnesses believe that the two men, Turner and Stotz-Gomez, knew each other casually and believe that their disappearances must be related.
In the past Stotz-Gomez has lived in New York and Montana and he may have traveled there. At the time of his disappearance, was required to check in weekly with the police. Stotz-Gomez is described as a Hispanic or mixed-race Hispanic/Caucasian male, 5’9” and 180-190 lbs. He has black hair and brown eyes and usually wears a beard. He has the following tattoos: barbed wire on his upper left arm, a skull with wings on his right arm, the letters "SUR" on one hand, the number 13 on the other hand, and a small cholo face on his chest. If you have any information please contact the Yakima County Sheriff's Office 509-574-2550.
Cody Turner, 24, was last seen July 26, 2015, in Yakima leaving the home he shared with his father and grandparents. Cody had been gone that day with his dog Ariel but arrived at the home in the evening where he ate, showered, and picked up some cigarettes before leaving the house again. He had his cellphone on him but since July 28th, 2015 the phone has gone straight to voicemail. According to some sources Cody was homeless at the time of his disappearance but according to others he lived at his grandparent’s house with his father. Cody has a history of meth usage and his family believes he was using at the time of his disappearance. Despite his drug use, Cody’s family said he usually returned home every evening and talked to his family daily. He does not have a history of dropping out of sight or being out of touch with his family.
Cody is described as a white male 5'5 - 5'7, 150 - 170 pounds. He has sandy colored hair and green eyes. He keeps his hair very short and tidy. He sometimes wears facial hair (a goatee and mustache) which he keeps short. Turner's nickname is Cooter. He has two scars, one on his left wrist and one on his abdomen. His ears and tongue are pierced, but he had stopped wearing his earrings and tongue ring prior to his disappearance. Turner has the following tattoos: the name "Natilie" with flames and barbed wire on his right bicep, three skulls with swords going through them on his left bicep, and a tribal stamp on the inside of his upper left arm. Turner has previously fractured his left foot and he smokes cigarettes. His case may be connected to Chad- Stotz Gomez’s case which is why it is included in this piece, even though he has no connection to the reservation.
Justin Lee McConville has been missing from Toppenish since sometime in January 2015. He was 24 years old at the time and was last seen on the Yakama reservation, but often travels to Oregon and fishes along the Columbia River. Some sources say he is nomadic and had no permanent address but others say he lives in Toppenish. Justin is described as a Native American male with long brown hair which he wears in a pony tail and brown eyes. McConville has a half-sleeve tattoo of a Native American man, Chief Joseph, on his upper right arm. He also has a tattoo of a tribal fishing design on his left arm and a tattoo of a Native American design on his back. He is 6’0”-6’2” and weights 165 lbs. Yakama Tribal Police are investigating. They can be reached at 509-865-2933.
Anthony “Tony” Peters, also known as Anthony Colfax Peters, 56, was last seen in October 2014 at Legends Casino in Toppenish. According to his sister, Peters was homeless at the time, living with relatives or friends or elsewhere when necessary, but he regularly talked to his family and friends. According to his sister, Alfrieda, Tony like many homeless individuals had a complicated life. His temper sometimes got him into trouble, but eventually he always came around. His sister remembers him as a natural born artist who did powwow dancing, beadwork, and drawing for fun. He was also a good singer. In the past, he has been known to travel to other nearby reservations such as the Umatilla or Warm Springs. He has also been known to travel to Seattle. He would drop out of sight from time to time, but never for more than a few weeks.
Tony is described as a Native American male with black hair and brown eyes. Peter’s nickname is Tony, and he may use the name Anthony Colfax Peters. He has an overlapped front tooth and one front tooth is missing. He is 5’6” and his weight fluctuates regularly. His missing person case remains open with the Yakama Nation Police Department, number 15-006132.
Roland Elton Woodall Sconawah a Yakama by birth was last seen in either Lyle or Dallesport Washington in November, 2013. Both communities lie on the Columbia river in Klickitat county in what was once the land of the Yakama people. Tribal members have fishing rights in the area even though it is not technically on the reservation. This is where Roland was last seen. The 23-year-old was somewhat transient. He went missing under unclear circumstances. Roland is described as a Native American male with brown eyes and black hair. He stands at 5'6 - 5'8, and weighs 140 - 160 pounds. He is sometimes referred to as Roland Sconawah Sam. Klickitat county sheriff’s office 509-773-4545, is investigating.
Ira Kennedy Yallup Sr. was last seen at the Lone Pine fishing site near The Dalles, OR. in May 2010. His family has offered a $1,000 reward for information about his whereabouts. He is a Native male in his 50s with black hair. No other vital statistics are available and he does not even have a Charley Project page. Yakama tribal police are investigating.
Francisco Javier Mendoza was 27 years old when he was last seen in the early morning hours of June 8th 1994 leaving a 7-11 convenience store in Toppenish. Francisco was with two friends at the time. Later that morning, the three friends were outside of Toppenish when their car broke down. Francisco apparently went walking in the direction of town in order to get help and vanished into the night. He has never been seen again. Few details are available and his friends’ story is considered suspicious. Francisco is described as a Hispanic male, 5’5” in height weighing 160 lbs. He has black hair and brown eyes. Mendoza may have a mustache, beard or a goatee. Some agencies may spell his first name "Franciso." He was wearing a white tank top, shorts and sneakers when he was last seen. Toppenish police are investigating, 509-865-4355.
Lawrence Jay "Larry" Riegel, 57 of Yakima worked as a carpenter and contract pilot before breaking four vertebrae, and injury that left him disabled. Right before going missing Larry had a surgery on his neck and some sources claim he was in a neck brace. Unable to work, Riegel was collecting disability. The last contact anyone had with Larry took place on Christmas day, 2009. He contacted several relatives and friends including a call to his mother to thank her for some clothes she bought him for the holiday. He was supposed to join his family in Yakima for a belated Christmas dinner on Dec. 26, 2009, but he never showed up or called. Riegel’s family described him as a “chatty Cathy” who talked to just about anyone and had daily phone contact with his friends and family. Riegel’s last phone call took place at approximately 5:30 pm on Christmas day. It is believed that the call was made to Riegel’s tenants who rented a farm from him in Union Gap, a town on the reservation. His tenants owed him $3000 in back rent.
Riegel lived with his girlfriend, Ladena Mann before he went missing. Mann claimed that the couple argued on Christmas day and Riegel left the home presumably to go see his tenants. She also claimed that Riegel assaulted her either on Christmas day or on January 4th before disappearing. When Mann tried to report this assault weeks later, she was unable because she had no injuries or proof of violence. Mann used Riegel’s money and EBT card after he disappeared as well as applied for her own EBT card claiming she still lived with Larry. Mann was charged with welfare fraud and perjury, but charges were dropped when she paid back the money and entered a diversion program. In one media interview she claimed that Larry is still alive and that he has “contacted several people” since going missing. She thinks Larry is residing in Idaho or Montana and has accused his family of knowing where he is. Ladena Mann is a person of interest in Larry’s disappearance as are his tenants, the last known people to have spoken to him. Riegel’s family is offering a $25,000 for information in the homicide investigation that leads to his remains. They have billboards all over the Yakima valley asking for information. Larry’s mother, aged 90, still drives around rural areas searching for his body.
Riegel is described as a white male with gray hair, a gray mustache, and hazel eyes. He is 6’2” and weights 200 lbs. He has surgical scars on his left knee and a prominent vertical scar on his neck from recent surgery to fix four broken vertebrae. He often wears eyeglasses and he has a limp in his left leg. He is also an alcoholic who frequented neighborhood bars. Yakima Police Department Yakima Police Department (509-576-6573) is investigating.
Donnie Sampson, 71, a well-known religious leader, had been serving for eight years on the Tribal Council’s Code of Ethics Committee when he disappeared in the fall of 1994 while hunting elk about 45 miles west of White Swan, near Mt. Adams. Donnie had a heart problem and had been prescribed nitroglycerin as a result. Right before his disappearance, he told his daughter that he (and the ethics committee) “was getting into something that’s going to make everybody mad.” He even went so far to tell her that he would be “making enemies” and that she and the community would hear about his findings soon enough. He had been investigating rumors of corruption in the tribal council and the housing authority before he went missing, but other committee members refused to elaborate on the matter.
Donnie’s truck was found Oct. 30, 1994, in the foothills of Mount Adams by volunteer searchers, but searchers found no trace of Sampson. His nitroglycerin, lunch, clothing and three rifles were found in his truck. A fourth rifle he left home with disappeared with him. Donnie’s children say tribal police has done little to investigate the disappearance, which they believe is a result of foul play. For example, his children were never interviewed and his truck was found by volunteers, not official search and rescue. Tribal authorities believe that the elderly Sampson simply got lost while hunting. There are no photos or description of Donnie Sampson available. He does not even have a Charley Project page. Tribal police are investigating.
Roland Jack Spencer III disappeared in late May 1984. He was 3 years old when last seen in the area of Knight Lane and Campbell Road in Wapato, although some sources say he was last seen in Toppenish. Roland is presumed to have been abducted by a non-family member, when he was in the yard. Curiously, Roland’s mother died under suspicious circumstances several years earlier (her case is featured in my previous write up). After her death Roland moved in with his great-aunt. Roland is described as a 3-year-old Native American male, with black hair and brown eyes. Roland has a scar on his abdomen. His nickname is Do-Boy and he may go by his middle name, Jack. Roland has some severe medical issues and disabilities. One website explains that Roland experienced brain damage in the womb which lead to his medical issues. Despite his hardships, he was a happy child who loved playing with cars. He is classified as mentally disabled, hard of hearing, and suffers from epilepsy. He takes medication to control his condition and may fall into a coma without it. He can only walk a few steps at a time and has very limited vocabulary and speaking skills. He was last seen wearing corduroy pants, a long sleeved red and white shirt, and tan boots. His was declared legally dead in 2000. Yakama tribal police are investigating, (509) 865-2933.
Murdered
Darryl Keith Celestine of Zillah, was murdered Sept. 25, 1988, in Wapato. He was found strangled outside his home. Darryl, a Yakama, was only 22 years old at the time. His murder is unsolved. Very little information is available.
What happened to these men? Why are so many people missing from such a sparsely populated area?
Sources
These sources are a good place to start.
https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/loved-ones-of-missing-and-murdered-men-and-boys-also-wait-for-answers/article_99d6a596-befe-5860-aa5d-a8fef822725f.html
https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/lower_valley/one-year-later-white-swan-quintuple-homicide-suspects-awaiting-trial-law-enforcement-targeting-crime-in/article_4ed98a29-a273-573c-8af1-031fdec6d248.html
https://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/they-need-closure-families-of-men-who-went-missing-in-yakima-county-ask-for-publics/article_11358e29-b133-5458-9f13-acf4face7abe.html
The Charley Project and NAMUS
If you are interested in this issue as a whole, I suggest this podcast by Canadian journalist Connie Walker who explains and dives deeply into the issues discussed in the piece. You can listen to the podcast Missing and Murdered here: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/findingcleo/missing-murdered-who-killed-alberta-williams-1.4556030#:~:text=Sparked%20by%20a%20chilling%20tip,in%20British%20Columbia%20in%201989.
If you are interested in the cases of other missing Native Americans, my write ups on the Teekah Lewis and Bryce Herda cases can be found here on my reddit profile. https://www.reddit.com/useQuirky-Motor

several years back evangelicals weren't comfortable at all saying trump was a christian. before and during trump's campaign conservative evangelicals were all over the map on where they stood concerning his faith:
in 2015 dobson said,'I am very wary of Donald Trump,” Dobson said in his email, citing Trump’s business in gambling. “I would never vote for a king pin within that enterprise. Trump’s tendency to shoot from the hip and attack those with whom he disagrees would be an embarrassment to the nation if he should become our Chief Executive. I don’t really believe Trump is a conservative. Finally, I would never under any circumstance vote for Hillary Clinton'. in 2016, and to this day, dobson says on his 'family institute' website, 'If anything, this man is a baby Christian who doesn’t have a clue about how believers think, talk and act.'
in 2011 franklin graham told christianity today: ' “No question, the guy’s got a lot of baggage. He owns casinos. He’s had multiple marriages. I did not endorse him.” when trump evangelical bouncer, robert jeffress, defended trump on fox news, regarding stormy daniels' announcement she had a sexual encounter with Trump and was paid to keep quiet before the election, Jeffress explained [to] Juan Williams that evangelicals 'knew they weren’t voting for an altar boy.' eric metaxas in responding to the hollywood access video of trump, [in] an email to 'RNS [... said he] rejected the characterization that he has strongly backed Trump, saying his support “has always been tepid and tremendously qualified." [...] in addition, 'James MacDonald, pastor of the Chicago-area megachurch Harvest Bible Chapel and a member of Trump’s evangelical advisory board, also withdrew his support after the video aired, calling the candidate “letcherous and worthless.' in 2016 mike huckabee tweeted: 'Trump may be a car wreck, but at least his car is pointed in the right direction. Hillary is a drunk-driver going the wrong way on the freeway'. the family research council president, tony perkins, put his support this way: 'You know what? Nations are built on calculated risk. Yeah. You could say we’re taking a calculated risk, but we’re at a point where we have to as a nation because what we have seen in the last seven and a half years has put the nation fiscally and culturally on the edge.'
of course, we can't forget jerry falwell's endorsement as early as january of 2016: [...] “In my opinion, Donald Trump lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the great commandment,” he said. “He cannot be bought, he's not a puppet on a string like many other candidates ... who have wealthy donors as their puppet masters,” he said. “And that is a key reason why so many voters are attracted to him.” at this time there's no direct evidence, nor cohen's testimony that there was a quid pro quo for falwell's endorsement. the falwell's and trump's have been friends since 2012 when trump spoke at liberty univ. it was falwell's endorsement that opened up the evangelical base to trump and ultimately cut ted cruz out of the race. but it can't go without saying that knowing the past 4 or 5 years of both trump and the falwell's lives, the entanglement is very deep, as you will see.
so, given the lack of evangelical consensus, the lack of a solid biblical argument, and the life of trump, the location of where to put him, while retaining some evangelical dignity and avoiding hypocrisy, a charismatic evangelical named lance wallnau enters the story with his best selling book, 'God's Chaos Candidate' on oct of 2016, as well as his piece in 'charisma news', 'Why I Believe Trump Is the Prophesied President'. wallnau argued trump 'is a “modern-day Cyrus,” an ancient Persian king chosen by God to “navigate in chaos.' he even added a little numerology: trump's the 45th prez and cyrus is god's anointed in isaiah 45, so trump's anointed. makes sense right? anyway, aside from us living in a democracy, the idea grew, even to the point of netanyahu comparing him to cyrus. now many evangelicals are compare him to king cyrus.
two years have now passed and it was a month before the 2018 midterms and a movie came out called, 'the trump prophecy.' the film was a partnership between 'reelworksstudios' and (-wait for it-) liberty univ's arts program, where it attempted to make the comparison of cyrus and trump. popularity grew when fox news' jeanine pirro touted the film, along with many other radio and tv hosts . while the idea of the cyrus-trump connection is still being floated it doesn't make sense now. why? due to trump openly stating he's changed his faith. more specifically, when trump himself, a couple weeks ago became a non denominationalist, it closed the personal distance between him and jesus, it, theoretically, should bring him closer to jesus, which negated the cyrus typology, which gave him distance from jesus; that's the point of changing one's faith isn't it, to get closer to god. as that distance is now gone, as cyrus was a pagan, and trump is claiming he's a reflective christian -a genius-, having deepened his faith, how can he still be compared to a pagan king? -especially with being surrounded by evangelicals for 4 years.
over the past 40 years non denominationalists have grown over 400%, and a 1/3 of all evangelicals are nondens.. who are the nondens? they're basically the largest protestant denomination, and made up many southern baptists, with provisos.. it's unusual for a very stable genius billionaire, to self identify with nondens, but paula white has a 6,000 sq ft home, former trump faith advisor in the 1950s (check out 'the family' on netfix). so, perhaps trump is an eisenhower type, having changed his faith for political profit? if he did, one thing is certain; he can't use the cyrus connection any longer, for attempting to now makes him a public con.
trump has stated, 'i'm the chosen one.' he was joking, somewhat, but like so many of his supposed jokes, they usually appear two-sided; they're like a reverse irony found under a bulimic joke, like: “Suburban women, will you please like me? - Please. Please,” he said in PA last week. his other "jokes" we have to wait several hours or a day later to discover if it really was a joke: “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please.’. again, '"And then I see the disinfectant, that knocks it out in a minute.. and is there a way you can do something like, by injection, inside, or almost to clean... It sounds interesting to me.' and again, 'russia, if you're listening, i hope you're able to find the 30k emails that are missing.'. these dormant jokes a day or so later are fairly common and have created lots of confusion. i bring this up 'cause trump uses religious language more than any other past presidents in a 100 years, more than twice as eisenhower, and figuring out what he's really saying regarding faith, in politics, isn't any better than his policy discussions, and some might say it's worse -- as he weaponizes/attacks it, too:

• when one looks at trump's photo op at st. john's church, as the clergy and protesting faithful and others were cleared with force and gas, just moments later trump took their place on the church sidewalk, standing alone, fixated on cameras, fumbling a bible, then holding it next to his head, never praying, nor mentioning god. during that time, he said two times, 'we have the greatest country in the world,' then walked to the front steps of the church, stood with his back to the steps, as the other pics must have somehow lacked his authority, called some of his staff and bill barr to stand with him while they posed for more pics, stating twice again, ' we have the greatest country' or words to that affect. here one say that trump weaponized the church equating it to a dominating power over those who disagree with trump's edicts. it was a symbol for what constitutes christian nationalism, in my view.
  
• pelosi and romney weren't avoided by trump:
  

...

• “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” the president said. “Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so.” Later, in front of dozens of members of Congress at his acquittal celebration at the White House, Trump singled out Pelosi and Romney by name, going further by accusing her of neither praying for him, nor praying at all. “She doesn’t pray. She may pray, but she prays for the opposite. But I doubt she prays at all,” the president said.

...

• trump said of ted cruz: "but I've never seen anybody that lied as much as Ted Cruz. He goes around saying he's a Christian. I don't know. You're going to have to really have to study that. yes"
  
• a trump tweet on cruz: 'How can Ted Cruz be and Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?
  
• trump in ohio:'[biden] will take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything.” [...]there will be no god is biden is elected', and biden 'will hurt the bible, hurt god,'
  
• finally: Trump responded swiftly at a campaign event in South Carolina, saying: “For a religious leader to question a person’s faith is disgraceful.” “No leader, especially a religious leader, has the right to question another man’s religion or faith,” he told a packed room at a golf course resort.
  

of course, trump's not the only person to weaponize god-talk. pastor paula white does it as well: christians will 'stand before god if they vote against trump'. of course, she's known as the most adamant evangelical that says trump is a christian. sadly, she's had her run-ins with heresy regarding the trinity, is a prosperity gospel preacher, gone off the rails publicly more than once, has been investigated by the senate, published a book in oct of 2019, that 'christiantiy today' called, disturbing, depressing, narcissistic, dishonest, materialistic, lacking self-awareness, shallow, and trumpesque. so, she's really something -- and of course she's probably trump's top spiritual adviser that works in the white house. the same failure of christian virtues can be said of jerry falwell jr, the president of one of the nation's largest christian colleges, but truly, his narrative doesn't need repeating, except the new sage of he and his wife's game of 'would you rather'.. the same also goes for pastor franklin graham, who is a xenophobe and weaponized 'opposition to President Donald Trump to “almost a demonic power”, metaxis agreed, although he didn't like the 'almost'. finally, to end our sampling, there's pastor robert jeffress statements that anti-trump 'evangelicals are morons. They are absolutely spineless morons, and they cannot admit that they were wrong.' [...] “We cannot afford to be like German Christians who, in the rise of the evil reign of Adolf Hitler, just remained neutered. They remained silent. And you saw what happened there,” Jeffress said. “I think there’s a similar wave of godlessness that is rising in our country right now, and we must push back against that tide.'
this is not an argument of guilt by association, these individuals have shown evidence of a failure to abide with the teachings of jesus and the church. their miscarriage is aligned with trump's, and perhaps more so, as they for decades have studied christianity. yet, they aren't running the country and lying daily about the covid virus as thousands die weekly; they aren't constantly attacking and damaging the usps,, mail in ballots,, the press, race, climate science, fauci, the fbi, even saying doctors are profiting off of covid deaths and inflating the dead numbers, attacking impeachment accusers, his sexual misconduct accusers, gold star families ...the list of trump attacks are almost found everywhere and everyday now.
therefore, if he's not cyrus, not a christian, is he a con? i think the evidence is abundantly clear. for much of the attacks and weaponizing of people, institutions, and things, the gop has also been silent. they are silent on race, the media, even their own institutions. i'd be something if they came out and supported him in numbers, but they don't. paul states in 1 cor: 11: Do as I do, for I am doing as Christ did. i don't see that happening much in the gop or trump's staff or trump himself, given he's the most religiously rhetorical president in over a 100 years, and that the nondens are the true believers; in fact, the evidence appears to indicate the opposite conclusion. donald trump is a con of the highest order, a chronic liar, a cheat, and devious. therefore, evangelicals should ask themselves ‘what would jesus do about this?' the answer would be, 'don't vote for trump.’

Good morning traders and investors of the wallstreetbets sub! Welcome to the new trading week and a fresh start! Here are your pre-market movers and news this AM-

Today's Top Headlines for Monday, March 23rd, 2020

• U.S. stock futures turned strongly positive Monday morning after the Federal Reserve pledged asset purchases with no limit to support markets. Dow futures hit their 5% “limit down” overnight, and were off 600-points at one stage Monday morning, as a massive coronavirus funding package failed a key Senate procedural vote Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked another 900 points or 4.5% on Friday, bringing the weekly decline to over 17% for the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. Ahead of Monday’s session, the Dow was off more than 35% from last month’s record highs. The New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor will be close starting Monday. The NYSE will go to fully electronic trading. The 10-year Treasury yield, which popped back above 1% last week, was below that level early Monday.

• Top-level White House and congressional negotiators burned the midnight oil over the now-nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package. Democrats blocked the bill in Sunday’s vote, saying it did too much to bail out companies and not enough to help workers. Several GOP senators, including Rand Paul, who tested positive for the coronavirus, were not present to vote. Others, such as Mitt Romney, were in quarantine as a precaution. The Federal Reserve and Treasury are working on financing programs that could be worth $4 trillion. Goldman Sachs upgraded shares of Boeing, which is hoping for a bailout. Boeing stock has dropped 80% from recent highs on the dual crises of the outbreak and the grounding of its 737 Max.

• The United States has the third most coronavirus cases in the world, with over 35,000 and 471 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than half the U.S. cases are in New York, where the death toll increased to 153. Washington state has the second-most cases, with nearly 2,000 confirmed and 95 deaths. New Jersey, California and Illinois round out the top five states. President Donald Trump on Sunday activated the National Guard in New York, Washington state and California in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. New York plans to run a clinical trial, beginning Tuesday, of a treatment regimen of antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin, a drug cocktail that has shown promise in fighting the coronavirus.

• Global coronavirus cases topped 343,000, with 14,789 deaths and over 98,800 recoveries. China, where the outbreak started in December, still has the most cases at over 81,400. China’s 3,274 deaths are second to Italy’s 5,476 deaths. Italy is second in total cases at over 59,100. The U.S., Spain and Germany round out the top five countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel went into quarantine over the weekend after contact with a doctor who tested positive for the virus. The German government is set to unveil major stimulus measures. Pressure mounts to cancel the Tokyo summer Olympics, set to begin at the end of July. Canada said it won’t send teams to compete. Local media reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a delay.

• Cisco Systems is committing $225 million to assist in efforts aimed at combating the coronavirus while the rest of Silicon Valley also initiates an investment blitz. 3M said it will supply New York and Seattle with a half-million N95 respirator masks to address the ongoing shortage of health-care equipment. Merck said it will supply New York City with a half-million masks. Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma sent to Africa 5.4 million face masks, over 1 million testing kits, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 protective face shields. BlackRock is committing $50 million in outbreak relief.

STOCK FUTURES CURRENTLY:

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($MU $LULU $NKE $PAYS $SIG $PAYX $GME $ONTX $CSIQ $JT $INFO $GO $WGO $LX $SCVL $SNX $HOME $BWAY $AEYE $KBH $RKDA $FDS $ERJ $PRGS $OPGN $SCS $NEOG $PUMP $HYRE $AIR $MYOS $LIQT $SAIC $SCWX $ESLT $VTSI $OCGN $QIWI $WOR $TNP $HTHT)

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THIS MORNING'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS CALENDAR:

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THIS MORNING'S MOST ACTIVE TRENDING TICKERS:

• NFLX
• MMM
• PCG
• AME
• ITCI
• GDX
• CAT
• URGN
• MYGN
• EVBG

THIS MORNING'S STOCK NEWS MOVERS:

(source: cnbc.com)

Boeing (BA) – Boeing was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” at Goldman Sachs, which said Boeing will remain a going concern and that flight travel will be as popular as ever once COVID-19 is resolved.

STOCK SYMBOL: BA

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Coca-Cola (KO) – Coca-Cola was upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan Chase, which points to rebound prospects post-COVID-19 and the idea that consensus estimates for revenue and profit are conservative.

STOCK SYMBOL: KO

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Deere (DE) – The heavy equipment maker withdrew its financial outlook for 2020 due to the virus outbreak, and is temporarily shutting down some operations. It is continuing to operate in the U.S. and globally to the extent possible.

STOCK SYMBOL: DE

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Amazon.com (AMZN) – Amazon is raising overtime pay for warehouse workers amid a surge in online shopping. Amazon’s move follows similar action from rival Walmart (WMT), which raised the minimum wage for e-commerce warehouse workers.

STOCK SYMBOL: AMZN

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Danaher (DHR) – Danaher’s Cepheid unit received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its rapid coronavirus diagnostic test, the first of its kind. The test can deliver results in about 45 minutes, compared to lab results which can take days.

STOCK SYMBOL: DHR

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Netflix (NFLX) – Netflix was upgraded to “outperform” from “neutral” at Baird, which thinks the video streaming service will benefit from at least 2 factors: more people at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, and acceleration of cord-cutting due to the lack of live sports on TV.

STOCK SYMBOL: NFLX

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Apple (AAPL) – Apple dropped a two-device limit on online iPhone purchases, just days after instituting that limit. Apple brick-and-mortar stores outside China remain closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

STOCK SYMBOL: AAPL

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Newmont (NEM) – Newmont withdrew its 2020 outlook, with the mining company planning to defer some of its production to 2021.

STOCK SYMBOL: NEM

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Occidental Petroleum (OXY) – Occidental is near a settlement with activist investor Carl Icahn, according to The Wall Street Journal. Under the proposed deal, two Icahn allies would receive seats on the Occidental board, and a third independent director would be mutually agreed upon by Icahn and Occidental.

STOCK SYMBOL: OXY

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MGM Resorts (MGM) – The casino operator named Bill Hornbuckle – the president of its international division – as acting chief executive officer. Jim Murren stepped down as chairman and CEO over the weekend, following last month’s announcement that Murren would vacate that position.

STOCK SYMBOL: MGM

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Gilead Sciences (GILD) – The drugmaker put emergency access to its experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir on hold due to overwhelming demand.

STOCK SYMBOL: GILD

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Best Buy (BBY) – The electronics retailer withdrew its financial guidance for the current quarter and the fiscal year, due to uncertainty related to the virus outbreak. It is also suspending all share buybacks and is shifting to curbside service only for its stores.

STOCK SYMBOL: BBY

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Starbucks (SBUX) – The coffee chain is closing most of its company cafes across North America for two weeks, limiting service to drive-through.

STOCK SYMBOL: SBUX

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Tiffany (TIF) – French luxury goods maker LVMH denied last week’s reports that it is mulling buying shares of Tiffany on the open market, saying it is sticking with the takeover agreement signed in late 2019. Reports last week had said LVMH was considering open market purchases of Tiffany shares, since they are now selling for less than the agreed-upon takeover price.

STOCK SYMBOL: TIF

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Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) – The housewares retailer is closing its flagship-branded stores until April 3, to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

STOCK SYMBOL: BBBY

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Marriott (MAR), (HLT) – These and other hotel companies are placing tens of thousands of workers on furlough, as travel dries up in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

STOCK SYMBOL: MAR

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DISCUSS!

What is on everyone's radar for today's trading day ahead here at wallstreetbets?

I hope you all have an excellent trading day ahead today on this Monday, March 23rd, 2020! :)

Welcome to Lost in the Sauce, keeping you caught up on political and legal news that often gets buried in distractions and theater. House-keeping:

1. How to read: Since the coronavirus was the one big story last week, I’m going to do away with the “Main Course” division this week - these are all “sides” in the sense that I have a feeling many people missed these developments.
   
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Let’s dig in!
Since the coronavirus was the one big story last week, I’m going to do away with the “Main Course” division this week - these are all “sides” in the sense that I have a feeling many people missed these developments.

Biden-probe subpoena

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) canceled a planned vote to issue a subpoena in its investigation into Hunter Biden and his work in Ukraine. Johnson informed the committee that instead of subpoenaing former consultant Andrii Telizhenko, he will issue a subpoena to the Democratic public relations firm he worked for: Blue Star Strategies.
Although Johnson said the subpoena vote was canceled to give senators time to “receive additional briefings,” a Ukrainian source (Chief editor of The Odessa Review Vladislav Davidzon) told CNN that the subject of the subpoena, Telizhenko, offered him cash to lobby Republican politicians to speak out against Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts - specifically Ukrainian lawmaker’s attempts to censure two media networks for “broadcasting Russian propaganda.”

In October 2018, the same month that lawmakers voted in favor of a resolution to sanction the two stations, Telizhenko wrote to Davidzon, asking: "Have a question do you or your father have contacts with US Senators? I really need a favour for witch (sic) I can pay up to 5k."
...After expressing concerns about how the new Ukrainian proposals could shut the broadcasters down, Telizhenko then says: “My question is is it possible to get an official comment on a Senators (Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham for example) website next week about this situation of censorship in Ukraine? Really important for me and need fast.”

Ranking member on the committee, Sen. Gary Peters, opposed subpoenaing Telizhenko because he warned that the investigation could be tainted by Russian disinformation. The revelation that Telizhenko has indeed worked for Russian interests seems to substantiate his concerns.

• Sen. Murphy’s strategy: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) formally requested the inspectors general for the State Department, the Treasury Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Archives investigate whether those agencies are selectively cooperating with Republican-led efforts to “investigate” Joe and Hunter Biden — while refusing cooperation with Democratic oversight efforts directed at Trump.

Politicizing intelligence

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence provided its first briefing to Congress since the previous DNI, Joseph Maguire, was fired by Trump for allowing his aide to tell Congress that Russia was acting to boost his re-election chances. The current acting-DNI, Ric Grenell, backed out of briefing Congress himself, reportedly because he did not want to discuss issues that make President Trump angry. Instead, his office was represented by William Evanina, the top counterintelligence official at the ODNI.
The latest briefing provided information contradictory to Maguire’s briefing, confusing and frustrating House members. Grenell’s office told Congress that the Kremlin is not “directly aiding any candidate’s re-election or any other candidates’ election.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer reportedly confronted the ODNI officials, accusing them of politicizing critical intelligence and providing insufficient and contradictory information about Russia’s interference.

Russia ramps up interference

While the Trump administration continues to hide and spin intelligence, the media reports that Russia continues to interfere in the U.S. political system. According to seven current officials, the Kremlin is increasing efforts to inflame racial tensions in America as part of its ongoing operation to influence the November elections.

...Now, Russia is also trying to influence white supremacist groups, the officials said; they gave few details, but one official said federal investigators are examining how at least one neo-Nazi organization with ties to Russia is funded. Other Russian efforts, which American intelligence agencies have tracked, involve simply prodding white nationalists to more aggressively spread hate messages and amplifying their invective. Russian operatives are also trying to push black extremist groups toward violence...

Last week, Facebook and Twitter announced they had discovered a Russian-led network of professional trolls outsourced to operatives in Ghana and Nigeria. The network’s 71 Twitter accounts, 49 Facebook accounts, and 85 Instagram accounts were removed.

“These 71 removed accounts, operating out of Ghana and Nigeria and which we can reliably associate with Russia, attempted to sow discord by engaging in conversations about social issues, like race and civil rights,” said Twitter’s safety team in a statement.

Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, sent a letter requesting that the EU introduce additional sanctions against “Putin’s Chef” Yevgeny Prighozin to deter him and the Kremlin from interfering in elections this year.

“As the presidential election in the United States draws closer, our concerns about foreign interference have intensified...The U.S. and European Union should be unified in facing this common threat and take concrete measures to isolate this malign actor and his affiliated firms. This includes sanctions, but also a joint diplomatic approach to urge that countries avoid engaging with Mr. Prigozhin, Wagner and any other organization associated with him."

Purge continues

Acting-DNI Ric Grenell imposed a hiring freeze at the ODNI starting last week, ordering a review of the agency’s personnel and mission:

Some current and former officials said they saw the effort as an attempt to oust intelligence officers who disagreed politically with Mr. Trump. Those officials questioned why Mr. Grenell, in the job temporarily, would undertake a large-scale reorganization, particularly one that previous directors had considered but put aside…Kashyap Patel, an aide in the director’s office who was transferred last month from the White House [and former aide to Representative Devin Nunes], is involved in the review…

The White House is also holding up the nomination of Kathryn Wheelbarger for one of the Pentagon’s top intelligence jobs because she is not considered sufficiently loyal to Trump. Wheelbarger, who has been serving as acting assistant secretary of Defense for international security affairs since November 2018, is nominated to become the deputy undersecretary of Defense for intelligence.

The post that Wheelbarger would fill is one of 21 senior positions at the Pentagon that are empty or filled on a temporary basis, a record high for the Trump administration.

In the middle of a global pandemic, one of the lead response agencies is losing its chief: Mark Green is set to resign from the U.S. Agency for International Development at the end of the month. Green will be replaced by USAID Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick, a Trump loyalist.

FEC nominee confirmation

Last Tuesday, the Senate held a confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to the Federal Election Commission, James “Trey” Trainor. It’s been over two years since Trainor was first nominated to fill the seat left empty by Republican Commissioner Lee Goodman in 2018. Then, last year, the commission’s vice chairman, Matthew Petersen, resigned, leaving only three members in place. The FEC needs a minimum of four members to take actions like investigating campaign finance violations, enforcing rules, and issuing fines.
Trainor is a controversial nominee with a history of advancing partisan gerrymandering and past work for Trump. After the Supreme Court invalidated a key part of the Voting Rights Act, Trainor worked with gerrymandering expert and Republican strategist Thomas Hofeller to successfully implement redistricting maps in Texas that were previously ruled to be discriminatory. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the following at Tuesday’s hearing:

“He has worked closely with Thomas Hofeller, notorious for masterminding Republican gerrymandering schemes, to redraw maps that significantly disenfranchise minority voters at the local level. Mr. Trainor’s former law firm described him as being ‘intimately involved’ in Texas’s 2003 redistricting, which the Supreme Court deemed in violation of the Voting Rights Act. Mr. Trainor has argued the Voting Rights Act has become a political tool.”

Schumer also quoted Trainor as saying in 2017 that political donations should be anonymous.

“The Republicans have nominated someone who wants to roll back Citizens United, which the overwhelming majority of the American people support, public disclosure of who’s giving,” Schumer said, adding: “It’s amazing.”

Trainor faced pressure to recuse himself from overseeing any campaign finance matters involving Trump, because he served as a legal adviser on Trump’s 2016 campaign team. Ranking Senate Rules and Administration Committee Member Amy Klobuchar pressed Trainor:

“So you’re not going to just recuse yourself from the beginning on a Trump matter?” Klobuchar asked, visibly surprised.
“No, not as a blanket recusal, and I don’t think that there is anyone at the commission currently who has a blanket recusal,” Trainor said. “I think we should all follow the same rules and guidelines.”

Judges finally speak out

U.S District Judge Lynn Adelman, of Wisconsin, published an article in the Harvard Law and Policy Review titled “The Roberts Court's Assault on Democracy.” Adelman takes Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to task for joining the court’s hard right justices in “undermining American democracy” by “carrying out a sustained assault on the right of poor people and minorities to vote” and “reinforcing the enormous imbalance in wealth and political power that has developed in recent decades.”

He described Roberts' 2005 Senate confirmation testimony as "misleading" and declared that "the Roberts Court has contributed to insuring that the political system in the United States pays little attention to ordinary Americans and responds only to the wishes of a relatively small number of powerful corporations and individuals."

Adelman also attacks President Trump for helping the Republican party continue policies that worsen wealth inequality:

Although he ran as a populist and promised to promote policies that benefited ordinary people, upon taking office Trump almost entirely reversed course. He appointed mostly wealthy far-right Republicans and their supporters to his cabinet and to key positions in his administration… Trump also supported a tax bill that provided big benefits to the country’s largest corporations and wealthiest individuals and virtually nothing to the majority of American taxpayers.
...Because Congressional Republicans depend on a relatively small number of wealthy donors to stay in power, their major public policy goal is to do whatever makes such donors happy.

Last week, another prominent member of the judicial community publicly blasted the Chief Justice: Former Hawaii District Judge for 27 years James Dannenberg submitted his resignation from the Supreme Court Bar to Roberts. In a public letter, Dannenberg criticized Roberts for “allowing the Court to become an ‘errand boy’ for an administration that has little respect for the rule of law.”
“I have been a member of the Supreme Court Bar since 1972, far longer than you have,” Dannenberg’s letter to Roberts begins.

The Court, under your leadership and with your votes, has wantonly flouted established precedent. Your “conservative” majority has cynically undermined basic freedoms by hypocritically weaponizing others… More than a score of decisions during your tenure have overturned established precedents—some more than forty years old– and you voted with the majority in most. There is nothing “conservative” about this trend. This is radical “legal activism” at its worst.
...The only constitutional freedoms ultimately recognized may soon be limited to those useful to wealthy, Republican, White, straight, Christian, and armed males— and the corporations they control. This is wrong. Period. This is not America.
...I no longer have respect for you or your majority, and I have little hope for change. I can’t vote you out of office because you have life tenure, but I can withdraw whatever insignificant support my Bar membership might seem to provide.

Important court rulings

McGahn and border wall
The full bench of the powerful D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals announced on Friday that it will rehear the House’s appeal for Don McGahn’s testimony, vacating the three-judge panel’s previous ruling that judges can’t resolve subpoena disputes between the executive branch and Congress. Arguments are set for April 28.
The same court will also take on the House’s challenge of Trump’s emergency declaration to use over $6 billion of federal funds to fund his southern border wall even though Congress only appropriated $1.375 billion. Trump-appointed judge Trevor McFadden dismissed the House’s initial lawsuit last year.
Mueller’s grand jury
In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Justice Department must allow Congress access to secret material collected by Mueller’s grand jury in its Russian interference investigation. Judges Judith Rogers and Thomas Griffith - Clinton and W. Bush appointees, respectively - found that the House’s impeachment investigation is a legal judicial process that exempts Congress from secrecy rules that typically shield grand jury materials. The Appeals Court decision can be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Trump appointee Judge Neomi Rao dissented, saying the House did have legal grounds to ask the court to enforce the subpoena since the impeachment investigation has ended. Rao has taken Trump’s side in virtually every case she’s heard.

it’s hard not to see the trap Rao has built around Congress. Her Mazars opinion claims that Congress has only one path it can use to investigate President Trump. Then, when Congress traveled down the very same path that Rao identified in Mazars, Judge Rao invents a new limit — suggesting that Congress may only get one shot at an impeachment inquiry. Moreover, as Tatel suggests in the Mazars majority opinion, Rao appears to have invented the constitutional limit she placed on congressional investigations out of thin air.
The Atlantic’s David Frum wrote that Rao’s Mazars dissent was “wild talk that would shut down almost all congressional investigations.” Maybe that’s the point — at least as long as Trump is in the White House.

Food stamp cuts
Friday evening, U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell issued an injunction preventing the Trump administration from implementing a rule change that would force nearly 700,000 Americans off food stamps.

"Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential," Howell wrote.

Trump cases

The Washington Post reported that District Court Judge Lorna Schofield ordered Trump and his three adult children to “search through 15 years of business records for materials that could inform a lawsuit alleging they profited by promoting a marketing scam targeting vulnerable investors.”

Trump is being sued by four people who say they were duped into joining the multilevel marketing company ACN years ago because of his endorsement. The suit characterizes ACN as a pyramid scheme and accuses Trump of having made misleading claims as a paid pitchman prior to his presidency. All four say they suffered financially as a result.
...In this case, unlike in others, he has not asserted presidential immunity as a defense, and his legal team has already turned over a number of documents.

Atlantic City officials announced they will soon be filing an injunction in Superior Court to demolish the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino tower because it is an “imminent hazard.” The city’s mayor, Mary Small, told the press that chunks of the building’s concrete and stucco facade are actively raining onto nearby streets.

“We could have had a fatality,” Small said. “Things will not be tolerated in the city of Atlantic City.”

The crumbling building has been owned by billionaire and Trump-ally Carl Icahn since 2016, though it has been closed since 2014.
Icahn endorsed Trump for president in 2016 and financially supported his campaign. Icahn also served as special economic adviser on financial regulation to Trump briefly in 2017, leaving amid concerns of conflicts of interest. In one of many concerning incidents, it was reported that stock for CVR Energy, in which Icahn has 82% ownership, doubled after President Trump's election, increasing $455 million in value.

• Don’t miss: Teen models, powerful men and private dinners: when Trump hosted Look of the Year. “In the early 90s, Donald Trump judged the world’s biggest modelling competition - since hit by allegations of abuse… The stories we have heard suggest that Casablancas, and some of the men in his orbit, used the contest to engage in sexual relationships with vulnerable young models. Some of these allegations amount to sexual harassment, abuse or exploitation of teenage girls; others are more accurately described as rape.”

Trump profiting off presidency: Week 164

• CNN: Hotels, clubs and restaurants owned by Trump or bearing his name have billed various federal agencies and personnel more than $1 million since he became the Republican nominee for president...About half of the documented expenses involve the U.S. Secret Service, which has been charged more than $600,000 by various Trump properties between September 2016 and August 2019.
  
• CREW: Taxpayers paid President Trump’s Doonbeg resort $15,144.94 for Secret Service lodging during Vice President Mike Pence’s September 2019 trip to Ireland… We can now say definitively that Pence’s detour not only cost taxpayers extra due to large transportation costs, but also that the bill subsidized one of Trump’s struggling businesses.
  
• CREW: On March 7, less than two weeks after President Trump returned from an official visit to India, the business he still owns and profits from made an announcement: it would now ship Trump-branded products to India. This appears to be a clear violation of the Trump family’s pledge of no new foreign business during the Trump presidency, and an invitation for corruption... India is joined on the announcement by Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scotland (which we must note is still technically part of the United Kingdom) and Germany.
  
• ProPublica: The Trump Organization paid bribes, through middlemen, to New York City tax assessors to lower its property tax bills for several Manhattan buildings in the 1980s and 1990s, according to five former tax assessors and city employees as well as a former Trump Organization employee. Two of the five city employees said they personally took bribes to lower the assessment on a Trump property; the other three said they had indirect knowledge of the payments.
  
• New York Times summarized by HuffPo: President Donald Trump’s campaign manager is quietly channeling money to Eric Trump’s wife, Lara Trump, and Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle… The family benefits are linked to a network of politically connected private companies — operating with the support and help of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner — that have charged roughly $75 million since 2017 to the Trump reelection campaign, the Republican National Committee and other Republican clients
  

States, elections, and environment

• Ecowatch: A federal judge in Alaska ruled late Wednesday against a Trump administration plan to open 1.8 million acres of America's largest national forest to logging. The Forest Service plan targeted part of the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island.
  
• Press release: The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Trump administration today for failing to decide whether 241 plants and animals across the country — from the Midwest’s golden-winged warbler to Venus flytraps in the Carolinas — should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit, filed in district court in Washington, D.C., is one of the largest ever under the Act and seeks to undo years of illegal inaction by the Trump administration.
  
• NYT: A New York man who threatened to kill Representative Ilhan Omar in a hate-filled call to her office was sentenced to a year and a day in prison… Mr. Carlineo admitted to making the threatening call, and described himself as a patriot who loved Mr. Trump and hated “radical Muslims in our government,” according to the criminal complaint.
  
• ProPublica: The Republican National Committee has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to contractors closely connected to the organization’s chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel. One contract went to her husband’s insurance company. Two others went to businesses whose executives recently donated to Ronna for Chair, a largely inactive political action committee that McDaniel controls.
  
• CNN and NYT: Infowars founder and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was arrested in Texas on a charge of driving while intoxicated… [Also,] The New York State attorney general has issued a cease-and-desist order to Alex Jones, the conservative radio host, alarmed by false claims on his website that his diet supplements and toothpaste could be used to fight the coronavirus.
  

Immigration news

• Politico: Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday he was unaware of any indication from his agency that physical barriers along America’s borders would help halt the spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. — contradicting an assertion President Donald Trump made earlier in the day.
  
• The Guardian: Doctors are concerned the spread of coronavirus to the US’s prison-like immigration detention centers is inevitable and will hit a system blighted by overcrowding and medical negligence… Dr Josiah Rich, an epidemiologist at Brown University, said one tool the US government has to prevent the spread of coronavirus is to release some of the 43,990 people in immigration detention, while their legal cases are being processed. People are held in these detention centers for civil immigration violations, not criminal charges, and the government can release them unless they are considered a danger to the community.
  
• NPR: The U.S. Supreme Court delivered the Trump administration another win on one of its signature immigration policies on Wednesday, allowing it to continue the controversial "Remain in Mexico" policy across the entire southern border. The policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols, requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their day in U.S. immigration court. That has led to roughly 60,000 migrants getting sent back across the border since MPP was first implemented in January 2019.
  
• NPR: Hundreds of asylum-seekers who reach the Texas-Mexico border aren't getting a chance to make their case in U.S. immigration court. Instead, the migrants — mostly women and children — are put on planes to Guatemala and told to ask for asylum in that country.
  
• CNN: In explosive audio obtained through the work of a leading human rights group and released by CNN, a Trump administration attorney is heard finally admitting what experts and advocates have been insisting from the start: Remain in Mexico, the administration policy forcing tens of thousands of vulnerable asylum-seekers to wait for their U.S. immigration court dates in Mexico, is in fact dangerous.
  
  • “I think what I’m hearing from the government is, and I’ll be honest, I don’t like it,” the judge said, according to the audio. “What I’m hearing is, that well everybody has to take that risk and that chance, and you get kidnapped, you get kidnapped, that’s the risk you take for being in Mexico, and wanting to apply for asylum here in the United States … I don’t think it’s humane. But we’re talking about human beings and lives. It’s not a piece of paper in my opinion. And I really don’t like what I just heard.”
• Washington Post: Pregnant woman dies after falling from border wall, a sign of migrants’ desperation… A year ago, during the height of the family migration surge, the couple probably would have tried to turn themselves in to seek asylum, he said. But an array of new restrictions imposed by the Trump administration is driving border-crossers to take more risks, migrant advocates say.
  

Good morning traders and investors of the StockMarket sub! Welcome to the new trading week and a fresh start! Here are your pre-market movers and news this AM-

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Today's Top Headlines for Monday, March 23rd, 2020

• U.S. stock futures turned strongly positive Monday morning after the Federal Reserve pledged asset purchases with no limit to support markets. Dow futures hit their 5% “limit down” overnight, and were off 600-points at one stage Monday morning, as a massive coronavirus funding package failed a key Senate procedural vote Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked another 900 points or 4.5% on Friday, bringing the weekly decline to over 17% for the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. Ahead of Monday’s session, the Dow was off more than 35% from last month’s record highs. The New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor will be close starting Monday. The NYSE will go to fully electronic trading. The 10-year Treasury yield, which popped back above 1% last week, was below that level early Monday.

• Top-level White House and congressional negotiators burned the midnight oil over the now-nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package. Democrats blocked the bill in Sunday’s vote, saying it did too much to bail out companies and not enough to help workers. Several GOP senators, including Rand Paul, who tested positive for the coronavirus, were not present to vote. Others, such as Mitt Romney, were in quarantine as a precaution. The Federal Reserve and Treasury are working on financing programs that could be worth $4 trillion. Goldman Sachs upgraded shares of Boeing, which is hoping for a bailout. Boeing stock has dropped 80% from recent highs on the dual crises of the outbreak and the grounding of its 737 Max.

• The United States has the third most coronavirus cases in the world, with over 35,000 and 471 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than half the U.S. cases are in New York, where the death toll increased to 153. Washington state has the second-most cases, with nearly 2,000 confirmed and 95 deaths. New Jersey, California and Illinois round out the top five states. President Donald Trump on Sunday activated the National Guard in New York, Washington state and California in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. New York plans to run a clinical trial, beginning Tuesday, of a treatment regimen of antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin, a drug cocktail that has shown promise in fighting the coronavirus.

• Global coronavirus cases topped 343,000, with 14,789 deaths and over 98,800 recoveries. China, where the outbreak started in December, still has the most cases at over 81,400. China’s 3,274 deaths are second to Italy’s 5,476 deaths. Italy is second in total cases at over 59,100. The U.S., Spain and Germany round out the top five countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel went into quarantine over the weekend after contact with a doctor who tested positive for the virus. The German government is set to unveil major stimulus measures. Pressure mounts to cancel the Tokyo summer Olympics, set to begin at the end of July. Canada said it won’t send teams to compete. Local media reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a delay.

• Cisco Systems is committing $225 million to assist in efforts aimed at combating the coronavirus while the rest of Silicon Valley also initiates an investment blitz. 3M said it will supply New York and Seattle with a half-million N95 respirator masks to address the ongoing shortage of health-care equipment. Merck said it will supply New York City with a half-million masks. Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma sent to Africa 5.4 million face masks, over 1 million testing kits, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 protective face shields. BlackRock is committing $50 million in outbreak relief.

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THIS WEEK'S EARNINGS CALENDAR:

($MU $LULU $NKE $PAYS $SIG $PAYX $GME $ONTX $CSIQ $JT $INFO $GO $WGO $LX $SCVL $SNX $HOME $BWAY $AEYE $KBH $RKDA $FDS $ERJ $PRGS $OPGN $SCS $NEOG $PUMP $HYRE $AIR $MYOS $LIQT $SAIC $SCWX $ESLT $VTSI $OCGN $QIWI $WOR $TNP $HTHT)

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THIS MORNING'S MOST ACTIVE TRENDING TICKERS:

• NFLX
• MMM
• PCG
• AME
• ITCI
• GDX
• CAT
• URGN
• MYGN
• EVBG

THIS MORNING'S STOCK NEWS MOVERS:

(source: cnbc.com)

Boeing (BA) – Boeing was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” at Goldman Sachs, which said Boeing will remain a going concern and that flight travel will be as popular as ever once COVID-19 is resolved.

STOCK SYMBOL: BA

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Coca-Cola (KO) – Coca-Cola was upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan Chase, which points to rebound prospects post-COVID-19 and the idea that consensus estimates for revenue and profit are conservative.

STOCK SYMBOL: KO

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Deere (DE) – The heavy equipment maker withdrew its financial outlook for 2020 due to the virus outbreak, and is temporarily shutting down some operations. It is continuing to operate in the U.S. and globally to the extent possible.

STOCK SYMBOL: DE

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Amazon.com (AMZN) – Amazon is raising overtime pay for warehouse workers amid a surge in online shopping. Amazon’s move follows similar action from rival Walmart (WMT), which raised the minimum wage for e-commerce warehouse workers.

STOCK SYMBOL: AMZN

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Danaher (DHR) – Danaher’s Cepheid unit received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its rapid coronavirus diagnostic test, the first of its kind. The test can deliver results in about 45 minutes, compared to lab results which can take days.

STOCK SYMBOL: DHR

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Netflix (NFLX) – Netflix was upgraded to “outperform” from “neutral” at Baird, which thinks the video streaming service will benefit from at least 2 factors: more people at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, and acceleration of cord-cutting due to the lack of live sports on TV.

STOCK SYMBOL: NFLX

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Apple (AAPL) – Apple dropped a two-device limit on online iPhone purchases, just days after instituting that limit. Apple brick-and-mortar stores outside China remain closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

STOCK SYMBOL: AAPL

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Newmont (NEM) – Newmont withdrew its 2020 outlook, with the mining company planning to defer some of its production to 2021.

STOCK SYMBOL: NEM

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Occidental Petroleum (OXY) – Occidental is near a settlement with activist investor Carl Icahn, according to The Wall Street Journal. Under the proposed deal, two Icahn allies would receive seats on the Occidental board, and a third independent director would be mutually agreed upon by Icahn and Occidental.

STOCK SYMBOL: OXY

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MGM Resorts (MGM) – The casino operator named Bill Hornbuckle – the president of its international division – as acting chief executive officer. Jim Murren stepped down as chairman and CEO over the weekend, following last month’s announcement that Murren would vacate that position.

STOCK SYMBOL: MGM

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Gilead Sciences (GILD) – The drugmaker put emergency access to its experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir on hold due to overwhelming demand.

STOCK SYMBOL: GILD

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Best Buy (BBY) – The electronics retailer withdrew its financial guidance for the current quarter and the fiscal year, due to uncertainty related to the virus outbreak. It is also suspending all share buybacks and is shifting to curbside service only for its stores.

STOCK SYMBOL: BBY

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Starbucks (SBUX) – The coffee chain is closing most of its company cafes across North America for two weeks, limiting service to drive-through.

STOCK SYMBOL: SBUX

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Tiffany (TIF) – French luxury goods maker LVMH denied last week’s reports that it is mulling buying shares of Tiffany on the open market, saying it is sticking with the takeover agreement signed in late 2019. Reports last week had said LVMH was considering open market purchases of Tiffany shares, since they are now selling for less than the agreed-upon takeover price.

STOCK SYMBOL: TIF

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Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) – The housewares retailer is closing its flagship-branded stores until April 3, to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

STOCK SYMBOL: BBBY

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Marriott (MAR), (HLT) – These and other hotel companies are placing tens of thousands of workers on furlough, as travel dries up in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

STOCK SYMBOL: MAR

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FULL DISCLOSURE:

bigbear0083 has no positions in any stocks mentioned. Reddit, moderators, and the author do not advise making investment decisions based on discussion in these posts. Analysis is not subject to validation and users take action at their own risk. bigbear0083 is an admin at the financial forums Stockaholics.net where this content was originally posted.

DISCUSS!

What is on everyone's radar for today's trading day ahead here at StockMarket?

I hope you all have an excellent trading day ahead today on this Monday, March 23rd, 2020! :)

Good morning traders and investors of the stocks sub! Welcome to the new trading week and a fresh start! Here are your pre-market movers and news this AM-

Today's Top Headlines for Monday, March 23rd, 2020

• U.S. stock futures turned strongly positive Monday morning after the Federal Reserve pledged asset purchases with no limit to support markets. Dow futures hit their 5% “limit down” overnight, and were off 600-points at one stage Monday morning, as a massive coronavirus funding package failed a key Senate procedural vote Sunday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tanked another 900 points or 4.5% on Friday, bringing the weekly decline to over 17% for the worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. Ahead of Monday’s session, the Dow was off more than 35% from last month’s record highs. The New York Stock Exchange’s trading floor will be close starting Monday. The NYSE will go to fully electronic trading. The 10-year Treasury yield, which popped back above 1% last week, was below that level early Monday.

• Top-level White House and congressional negotiators burned the midnight oil over the now-nearly $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package. Democrats blocked the bill in Sunday’s vote, saying it did too much to bail out companies and not enough to help workers. Several GOP senators, including Rand Paul, who tested positive for the coronavirus, were not present to vote. Others, such as Mitt Romney, were in quarantine as a precaution. The Federal Reserve and Treasury are working on financing programs that could be worth $4 trillion. Goldman Sachs upgraded shares of Boeing, which is hoping for a bailout. Boeing stock has dropped 80% from recent highs on the dual crises of the outbreak and the grounding of its 737 Max.

• The United States has the third most coronavirus cases in the world, with over 35,000 and 471 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than half the U.S. cases are in New York, where the death toll increased to 153. Washington state has the second-most cases, with nearly 2,000 confirmed and 95 deaths. New Jersey, California and Illinois round out the top five states. President Donald Trump on Sunday activated the National Guard in New York, Washington state and California in order to combat the spread of the coronavirus. New York plans to run a clinical trial, beginning Tuesday, of a treatment regimen of antimalarial hydroxychloroquine and antibiotic azithromycin, a drug cocktail that has shown promise in fighting the coronavirus.

• Global coronavirus cases topped 343,000, with 14,789 deaths and over 98,800 recoveries. China, where the outbreak started in December, still has the most cases at over 81,400. China’s 3,274 deaths are second to Italy’s 5,476 deaths. Italy is second in total cases at over 59,100. The U.S., Spain and Germany round out the top five countries. German Chancellor Angela Merkel went into quarantine over the weekend after contact with a doctor who tested positive for the virus. The German government is set to unveil major stimulus measures. Pressure mounts to cancel the Tokyo summer Olympics, set to begin at the end of July. Canada said it won’t send teams to compete. Local media reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a delay.

• Cisco Systems is committing $225 million to assist in efforts aimed at combating the coronavirus while the rest of Silicon Valley also initiates an investment blitz. 3M said it will supply New York and Seattle with a half-million N95 respirator masks to address the ongoing shortage of health-care equipment. Merck said it will supply New York City with a half-million masks. Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma sent to Africa 5.4 million face masks, over 1 million testing kits, 40,000 sets of protective clothing and 60,000 protective face shields. BlackRock is committing $50 million in outbreak relief.

STOCK FUTURES CURRENTLY:

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LAST WEEK'S MARKET MAP:

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TODAY'S S&P SECTORS:

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TODAY'S ECONOMIC CALENDAR:

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THIS WEEK'S ECONOMIC CALENDAR:

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THIS WEEK'S UPCOMING IPO'S:

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THIS WEEK'S EARNINGS CALENDAR:

($MU $LULU $NKE $PAYS $SIG $PAYX $GME $ONTX $CSIQ $JT $INFO $GO $WGO $LX $SCVL $SNX $HOME $BWAY $AEYE $KBH $RKDA $FDS $ERJ $PRGS $OPGN $SCS $NEOG $PUMP $HYRE $AIR $MYOS $LIQT $SAIC $SCWX $ESLT $VTSI $OCGN $QIWI $WOR $TNP $HTHT)

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THIS MORNING'S PRE-MARKET EARNINGS CALENDAR:

()

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EARNINGS RELEASES BEFORE THE OPEN TODAY:

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EARNINGS RELEASES AFTER THE CLOSE TODAY:

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FRIDAY'S ANALYST UPGRADES/DOWNGRADES:

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FRIDAY'S INSIDER TRADING FILINGS:

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TODAY'S DIVIDEND CALENDAR:

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THIS MORNING'S MOST ACTIVE TRENDING TICKERS:

• NFLX
• MMM
• PCG
• AME
• ITCI
• GDX
• CAT
• URGN
• MYGN
• EVBG

THIS MORNING'S STOCK NEWS MOVERS:

(source: cnbc.com)

Boeing (BA) – Boeing was upgraded to “buy” from “neutral” at Goldman Sachs, which said Boeing will remain a going concern and that flight travel will be as popular as ever once COVID-19 is resolved.

STOCK SYMBOL: BA

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Coca-Cola (KO) – Coca-Cola was upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” at JPMorgan Chase, which points to rebound prospects post-COVID-19 and the idea that consensus estimates for revenue and profit are conservative.

STOCK SYMBOL: KO

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Deere (DE) – The heavy equipment maker withdrew its financial outlook for 2020 due to the virus outbreak, and is temporarily shutting down some operations. It is continuing to operate in the U.S. and globally to the extent possible.

STOCK SYMBOL: DE

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Amazon.com (AMZN) – Amazon is raising overtime pay for warehouse workers amid a surge in online shopping. Amazon’s move follows similar action from rival Walmart (WMT), which raised the minimum wage for e-commerce warehouse workers.

STOCK SYMBOL: AMZN

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Danaher (DHR) – Danaher’s Cepheid unit received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its rapid coronavirus diagnostic test, the first of its kind. The test can deliver results in about 45 minutes, compared to lab results which can take days.

STOCK SYMBOL: DHR

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Netflix (NFLX) – Netflix was upgraded to “outperform” from “neutral” at Baird, which thinks the video streaming service will benefit from at least 2 factors: more people at home due to the coronavirus outbreak, and acceleration of cord-cutting due to the lack of live sports on TV.

STOCK SYMBOL: NFLX

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Apple (AAPL) – Apple dropped a two-device limit on online iPhone purchases, just days after instituting that limit. Apple brick-and-mortar stores outside China remain closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

STOCK SYMBOL: AAPL

• CLICK HERE FOR CHART!

(CLICK HERE FOR LIVE STOCK QUOTE!)

Newmont (NEM) – Newmont withdrew its 2020 outlook, with the mining company planning to defer some of its production to 2021.

STOCK SYMBOL: NEM

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Occidental Petroleum (OXY) – Occidental is near a settlement with activist investor Carl Icahn, according to The Wall Street Journal. Under the proposed deal, two Icahn allies would receive seats on the Occidental board, and a third independent director would be mutually agreed upon by Icahn and Occidental.

STOCK SYMBOL: OXY

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MGM Resorts (MGM) – The casino operator named Bill Hornbuckle – the president of its international division – as acting chief executive officer. Jim Murren stepped down as chairman and CEO over the weekend, following last month’s announcement that Murren would vacate that position.

STOCK SYMBOL: MGM

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Gilead Sciences (GILD) – The drugmaker put emergency access to its experimental coronavirus drug remdesivir on hold due to overwhelming demand.

STOCK SYMBOL: GILD

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Best Buy (BBY) – The electronics retailer withdrew its financial guidance for the current quarter and the fiscal year, due to uncertainty related to the virus outbreak. It is also suspending all share buybacks and is shifting to curbside service only for its stores.

STOCK SYMBOL: BBY

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Starbucks (SBUX) – The coffee chain is closing most of its company cafes across North America for two weeks, limiting service to drive-through.

STOCK SYMBOL: SBUX

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Tiffany (TIF) – French luxury goods maker LVMH denied last week’s reports that it is mulling buying shares of Tiffany on the open market, saying it is sticking with the takeover agreement signed in late 2019. Reports last week had said LVMH was considering open market purchases of Tiffany shares, since they are now selling for less than the agreed-upon takeover price.

STOCK SYMBOL: TIF

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Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY) – The housewares retailer is closing its flagship-branded stores until April 3, to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

STOCK SYMBOL: BBBY

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Marriott (MAR), (HLT) – These and other hotel companies are placing tens of thousands of workers on furlough, as travel dries up in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

STOCK SYMBOL: MAR

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DISCUSS!

What is on everyone's radar for today's trading day ahead here at stocks?

I hope you all have an excellent trading day ahead today on this Monday, March 23rd, 2020! :)

Junk bonds are bonds issued by companies with poor credit ratings, such as CCC, as opposed to investment-grade bonds that are issued by companies with a AAA credit rating.

Chronology

• 1946 = Michael Milken is born in Encino, California.
• 1957 = wrote a letter to President Eisenhower saying he wanted to lead the nation into space.
• 1968 = graduated from the University of Berkeley magna cum laude with a degree in finance.
• 1969 = gets married to his high school sweetheart.
• 1970 = receives an MBA from Wharton Business school, according to Milken he had the highest grades ever achieved at the school. Starts working for an investment firm called Drexel that would soon merge and be known as Drexel Burnham.
• 1976 = made $5 million ($23 million in 2020 dollars) from Drexel Burnham.
• 1977 = buys his current home in Encino, California that cost $587,500 (over $2.5 million in 2020 dollars). 7 bedrooms. over 7,000 square feet. Milken and the Drexel Burnham firm began to underwrite junk bonds.
• 1978 = moved his trading desk from New York to his hometown of Los Angeles, bringing about 20 traders with him. Milken stayed on the NYC schedule while in Los Angeles, waking up at 3am and working from 4:30am to 7:30pm.
• 1979 = First Predator's Ball, a financial conference hosted by Milken that continues to the present with over 3,500 people from over 50 nations attending.
• 1981 = by this time, Drexel Burnham is issuing over 60% of junk bonds in America. Milken committed to buy or sell junk bonds that Drexel Burnham had underwritten, offering liquidity and security to the market. This allowed for junk bonds to be more accurately priced and it brought new customers and their money into Milken’s junk bond market.
• 1982 = started the Milken Family Foundation with his brother Lowell Milken as a tax shelter.
• 1986 = There are more companies issuing junk bonds than investment-grade bonds. Drexel Burnham became the leading investment bank in America. Milken made $296 million ($698 million in 2020 dollars) from Drexel Burnham.
• 1987 = made $550 million ($1.25 billion in 2020 dollars) from Drexel Burnham.
• 1988 = Drexel Burnham launches an internal investigation into Milken and uncovers a shadow entity called MacPherson Partners that was engaging in suspicious financial activity. Drexel Burnham pleads guilty to 6 counts of stock parking and stock manipulation. Milken leaves Drexel Burnham to start his own firm.
• 1989 = indicted by Rudy Giuliani and charged with 98 counts of financial crimes which included insider trading, securities fraud, stock parking, and racketeering.
• 1990 = pleads guilty to 6 charges of criminal violation of securities laws and is ordered by the SEC to pay a $200 million fine plus $400 million to defrauded investors. Additional Milken has to pay a civil lawsuit settlement of $500 million to Drexel’s private investors who lost money after his crimes caused the firm to go bankrupt.
• 1992 = his jail sentence is reduced from 10 years to 2 years and Milken is released from prison after serving 22 months. After paying over $1 billion in fines, Milken still has a fortune of $2.5 billion ($4.6 billion in 2020 dollars).
• 1993 = diagnosed with prostate cancer and given 18 months to live. Milken, with the help of his money, beats the odds and his cancer has been in remission for over 25 years. Buys a vacation in Lake Tahoe for $8 million ($14.3 million in 2020 dollars) and then tears down the house and builds a new house.
• 1998 = paid $47 million to settle SEC claims he had violated his lifetime ban from the industry.
• 2009 = Milken buys his daughter an $8.75 million mansion in Beverly Hills.
• 2011 = bought a house in Malibu for $13.75 million.
• 2013 = committed another violation of his lifetime ban from the securities industry by loaning a senior executive at a financial firm $50 million.
• 2014 = George Washington University named its public health school after Milken because of his donation of $50 million.
• 2019 = bought a Beverly Hills Mansion for $19 million cash.

His Crimes

The junk bond scheme:

1. Milken controlled both sides of the deal, he controlled both the lenders and the borrowers.
2. he controlled the lenders because he controlled a huge network of federally insured Savings and Loan banks, reputable insurance companies, and junk bond funds.
3. so Milken would then raise money from his network of lenders to buy junk bonds from a junk company (borrower), with the promise that the junk company will use some of that capital to buy junk bonds from other junk companies (borrowers) in Milken’s junk bond empire. This inflated the demand for the junk bonds.
4. junk bonds yielded Milken a high commission, and Milken would also get equity in the junk companies that he had just financed with capital.

Junk bonds financed corporate raiders, and information about those takeover bids was improperly shared, creating criminal insider trading opportunities.
Milken often tried to get as much as five times the maximum markup on trades that was permitted at the time.
Milken’s friend and business associate, Ivan Boesky:

1. Ivan Boesky’s conviction of insider trading in 1986 is what lead to Milken’s downfall.
2. Milken had substantial business dealings with Boesky.
3. the first lead into Milken’s crimes was a payment of $5.3 million by Ivan Boesky to Drexel Burnham listed as a consultation fee. Boesky told the SEC this payment was for Milken’s profits form an illegal trade.
4. Boesky implicated milked in insider trading, stock manipulation, fraud, and stock parking.

Milken’s shadow entity, MacPherson Partners:

1. Drexel’s internal investigation discovered suspicious activity in one of the limited partnerships Milken had set up to allow members of his department to make their own investments called MacPherson Partners.
2. Members of MacPherson Partners included: Milken, other Drexel Burnham executives, a few high value Drexel Bernham customers, as well as a few managers of money market funds - all friends of Milken.
3. MacPherson Partners acquired several stock warrant)s for the stock of Storer Broadcasting in 1985. At the time, the powerful private equity firm KKR was in the midst of a leveraged buyout of Storer Broadcasting, and Drexel Burnham was the lead underwriter for the bonds being issued.
4. One of Drexel Burnham’s other clients bought several Storer Broadcasting warrants and sold them back to the high-yield bond department (controlled by Milken) at Drexel Burnham.
5. Drexel Burnham’s high-yield bond department in turn sold them to MacPherson Partners (also controlled by Milken).
6. Those warrants were then handed out by Milken to members of his family, and the money managers bought the warrants for themselves without notifying the clients of the funds they were managing.
7. By allowing his wealth fund management friends to buy the warrants, Milken was essentially bribing them so they would in turn help him with his junk bond manipulation.

​

His Trial, Conviction and Sentence

During the trial, Milken spent $3 million a month on his legal defense and an expensive public relations firm.
He ultimately pleaded guilty to 3 counts of securities fraud, 2 counts of tax evasion, and 1 count of conspiracy to commit the other 5 crimes.
Milken was ordered by the court to pay a fine of $200 million and to pay $400 million to defrauded investors.
In a separate civil suit Milken had to pay out an additional $500 million to defrauded investors. Sentenced to 2 years for each of the 5 counts of tax and securities fraud for 10 years total.
When the judge read the sentence, Milken misunderstood and thought he had received 2 years total. After his lawyer told him that he was getting 10 years, the blood drained out of Milken’s face, he took his wife into a witness waiting room, closed the door and let out a blood-curdling scream.

Clemency from President Trump

​
On February 18, 2020 Trump granted clemency to Milken, although his lifetime ban from the securities industry is still in effect.
America’s Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, is longtime pals with Milken, and was the prime mover in convincing President Trump to pardon him. Mnuchin has flown on Milken’s private jet.
Another fat cat advocating for Milken was Nelson Peltz, who has raised over $10 million for Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
And don’t forget Trump's fattest fat cat, Sheldon Adelson, who also advocated on behalf of Milken.
Many powerful figures in high finance came together to lobby the White House on behalf of Milken, including:

1. Sheldon Adelson: a major Republican donor and Trump supporter, Adelson is the chief executive officer of casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp.
2. David Bahnsen: a former Morgan Stanley managing director and wealth management executive who wrote Trump in 2017 urging him to pardon Milken, calling the junk bond king’s prosecution a result of “a period of class envy run amok.”
3. Tom Barrack: the chief executive officer and chairman of Colony Capital Inc., Barrack is long-time Trump ally. He faced a call from an investor in November to step down in part over distractions from investigations into his political and personal activities.
4. Rupert Murdoch: a powerful media mogul and longtime Trump ally who put the power of News Corp. behind the president.
5. Maria Bartiromo: a popular anchor on Fox Business, Bartiromo has interviewed Milken as recently as 2018 (and has also interviewed Trump). The network is part of Murdoch’s media empire.
6. Ron Burkle: a billionaire investor who controls Yucaipa Cos., Burkle made his fortune in the grocery-store industry. Burkle, a Democratic fund-raiser famous for his friendship with Bill Clinton, made news last year when he was rumored to be interested in acquiring the Trump-friendly National Enquirer.
7. Elaine Chao: the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Chao was a key speaker at the Milken Global Conference last year, where she spoke about the future of mobility as well as women in government. She’s married to Republican Senate Majority Leader and top Trump ally Mitch McConnell.
8. Rudy Giuliani: Trump’s personal lawyer, the former New York mayor has lately been embroiled in the Ukraine scandal. As chief federal prosecutor in New York in the 1980s, Giuliani sought to prosecute Milken.
9. Rabbi Marvin Hier: dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Hier was invited by Trump to speak at his inauguration. The rabbi in 2018 called on Trump to fight extremism in the U.S. after a shooting at a synagogue.
10. Ray Irani: chairman and chief executive officer of Ray Investments Ltd. and former CEO of Occidental Petroleum, Irani stepped down as a board member at Wynn Resorts Ltd. following a sexual harassment scandal involving company founder Steve Wynn.
11. Robert Kraft: owner of the New England Patriots and a longtime Trump supporter.
12. Richard LeFrak: a billionaire developer and Republican donor, LeFrak appeared in a 2010 episode of Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice.”
13. Randy Levine: the president of the New York Yankees and a longtime supporter of Republican politicians, including Trump.
14. Kevin McCarthy: a Republican congressman from California, McCarthy is the House Minority Leader and a longtime Trump supporter.
15. Larry Mizel: chairman and CEO of home-builder MDC Holdings Inc.
16. Arte Moreno: owner of the Anaheim Angels, which he purchased from The Walt Disney Co. in 2003
17. Sean Parker: Napster co-creator and Facebook Inc. billionaire who has attended the annual Milken Institute Global Conference.
18. John Paulson: founder and owner of Paulson & Co., a New York-based investment adviser that manages about $9 billion, Paulson is best-known for making $15 billion in 2007 on a bet against mortgage bonds.
19. Nelson Peltz: founder and chief executive officer of Trian Fund Management LP, Peltz is well-known as an activist investor in companies like Wendy’s and Dupont.
20. Steven Roth: chairman and chief executive officer of Vornado Realty Trust, a REIT that holds more than 22 million square feet in commercial property, mainly in New York.
21. David Rubenstein: co-chairman and co-founder of The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm with $222 billion in assets under management.
22. Larry Ruvo: senior managing director of Southern Wine & Spirits of Nevada, the state’s largest liquor wholesaler.
23. Marc Stern: the chairman of TCW Group Inc. hosted a $10,000 per person fund-raiser for Trump at his Malibu home in 2018 attended by Vice President Mike Pence.
24. Steven Tananbaum: the founder and chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management LP, one of Wall Street’s biggest investors in distressed debt.
25. Ted Virtue: the chief executive officer of MidOcean Partners, the middle-market private equity and credit firm, who previously oversaw Deutsche Bank AG’s $35 billion direct investment portfolio.
26. Andrew von Eschenbach: a U.S. Food and Drug Administration chief under President George W. Bush, he now serves on the board of Bausch Health Cos.
27. Mark Weinberger: the chairman and CEO of Ernst & Young LLP, Weinberger quit Trump’s business council after the Charlottesville white supremacists rally but later dined with the president.

Conclusion

Milken likes to tell his life story as a smart guy who grew up wanting to be a scientist and lead America in the space race, but after his first year in college the Watts riots happened and it made him rethink his life. After talking with a Black man who told him that he couldn’t get access to capital because he was Black, Milken decided he would dedicate his life to making sure people with ability would have access to capital.
So Milken changed from a science major to finance, went to business school, made $billions on Wall Street all so he could help Black people?
There are plenty of people who in part owe their wealth to Milken and his junk bonds, and these people heap praise on Milken saying he created a lot of wealth in America and helped society tremendously.
The wealth, though, went to those people heaping the praise!
As for the companies Milken financed helping society, it would be difficult to argue that case. The big name companies that were financed by Milken include: CNN, Rupert Murdoch’s empire, Wynn casinos, Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital, etc.
Milken was not helping society, he was helping people on Wall Street get rich.
Government watchdogs are usually too weak to take on the crimes of the super rich, because the government watchdog worker still gets paid whether for not the Wall Street crook gets busted.
There is no incentive to play by the rules.
Milken has done a lot of philanthropic work especially in regards to cancer research with that $2.5 billion he had leftover after getting out of prison, although he hasn’t given away that much money considering his net worth in 2020 is $3.8 billion.
What I find most fascinating about the Milken story is the power of his public relations machine. All the major media outlets cast Milken as a philanthropist and not a criminal.
Another sign of the overwhelming influence of the wealthy on the American zeitgeist.

Kenneth L. Smith
March 30, 1935 - May 13, 2020
Kenneth Leroy Smith, "Walladawish," was one of the most important leaders of Indian Country and the most influential leader the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs had ever seen. He passed peacefully May 13, 2020 in his Warm Springs home overlooking the Deschutes River, surrounded by family.
He was a passionate advocate for the Indian Nation, giving a voice to those who had no voice. He believed the highest priority was to invest in the future generations of his people with the utmost respect and integrity, and to work together to make long-term strategic approaches instead of short-term gains. His philosophical outlook was taken from his grandparents. He said, "My grandparent's legacy will not end here. They instilled so much in me that I will carry forward my studies, my career direction, and a heart full of love for my family and a passion for my people. I will carry all they gave me with hopes the younger generations will follow, as I did them." He followed his roots to give Indian Country the voice it deserves. This included regulations and policies so Tribes could protect the forests, the wildlife, water, air, economics, the people, the children and the Tribal governments. In addition to creating economic sovereignty with his own people, he traveled all over the Country helping many other Tribes in numerous ways. He said, "I believe in the strengths of Indian people which have enabled them to endure and survive. I believe Indian people have the will and the ability to self-govern. The fulfillments, hopes and aspirations of Indian people and their Tribal governments must come from within."
Ken was born into the Wasco Tribe March 30, 1935 and raised by his grandparents, Annie and Wesley Smith, on Dry Hollow Ranch on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation. The ranch did not have electricity, running water or paved roads. He said "I learned what self reliance was growing up on the ranch with my grandparents. They taught me good work habits, to always show up 15 minutes early and the value of education. As a kid, my grandma Annie, Aunt Zelma and I would go pick huckleberries, raspberries, strawberries, and in the fall dig up potatoes." Ken and his grandfather fished for salmon and eel at Celilo Falls on the Columbia River. He always said that the ranch life of cattle and horses taught him about hard work, respect, listening, learning and how to be effective in what one does. He was taught how to take care of his physical body, mind and spiritual soul.
Ken attended boarding school in Warm Springs grades 1-6. He was Junior Class President at Madras High School and excelled as running back in football, 100 yards sprinting and long jumping for the track team.
In 1959 he earned his BS degree in Business Administration with emphasis in accounting, from the University of Oregon. At which time he was the second Native American to graduate from U of O.
Ken and Sybil Cowapoo were married in 1959 and later welcomed their children, Greg and Michele into the world.
In 1959, he immediately went to work for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs as an accountant. Thereafter, he worked as Head Accountant, Controller, Assistant General Manager, Acting General Manager, and as General Manager 1971-1981. He also served three years as an elected member of the 10th Tribal Council. Under his guidance the Kah-Nee-Ta Lodge Resort was built and the Warm Springs Power Enterprises completed, which was the first federally licensed hydro-electric project on any Indian Reservation.
His leadership style was believing in working together and ensuring the team was strong. He was a humble and fair man who always smiled and strived to keep the workplace in balance. Although he enjoyed joking around, he kept everyone on task towards accomplishing their goals for the benefit of all.
In 1981, he married Jeanie Marie Bussey Thompson, and their epic romance and adventures continued for 34 years, until her passing in 2015. Along with Jeanie, her two daughters, Debra and Becky Rae were brought into the family. In their retirement, Ken and Jeanie traveled to many countries experiencing different cultures. They lived between their homes in Warm Springs, Portland and Palms Springs. Their life together was full, vital, rich, diverse and full of mutual respect.
In 1981, newly elected President Reagan, asked Ken to serve as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior Department for Indian Affairs. As Assistant Secretary, Ken controlled a budget of one billion dollars, oversaw a workforce of 16,000, worked with 300 Tribes in the lower 48 states and provided services to 190 Alaskan Native Organizations. He administered 52,000,000 acres of trust land for Tribes and Indian people. Tim Giago, President and Publisher of "Indian Country Today" wrote, "Ken Smith was the best Assistant Secretary Indian Tribes have ever known."
From 1989-1995, Smith returned as Chief Executive OfficeSecretary-Treasurer for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. He was responsible for the second largest work force in North Central Oregon with an annual payroll of more than $24 million dollars at the time. The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs was renowned for being one of the most progressive and successful tribes in the United States. His actions provided the major impetus for cultural awareness, education, health and economic sovereignty among tribal members.
-$7.6 million dollar Cultural Museum at Warm Springs
-$5 million dollar Early Childhood Education Center
-$5 million dollar Health and Wellness Center
-Launched a major breakthrough in diatomaceous earth technology that created the Warm Springs Composite Products
-Launching of Indian Head Casino
-Development of Warm Springs Plaza Shopping Center
After his tenure in D.C., countless Tribes asked Ken to assist them. One example is the Coquille Tribe where he became the Coquille Economic Development Corporation leader, which became a national model of effective leadership and business among Tribal enterprises.
Smith's contributions were innumerable and he was a holder of many honors:
-Member, National Board of The Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.
-Member, Board of Trustees, High Desert Museum, Bend, Ore.
-Member, founder and past President of the Board of Directors, Museum at Warm Springs, Warm Springs, Ore.
-Member, Board of Directors, Portland Branch of The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
-Member, Board of Directors, World Forestry Center Council, Portland
-Member, Board of Directors, Redding Rancheria Economic Development Corp., Calif.
-Member, State of Education, Oregon
-Member, State Banking Board, Oregon
-Member, Oregon State Executive Board, U.S. West Communications
-Member, Board of Directors, U.S. National Bank of Oregon
-Member, Board of Directors and past President, Inter-Tribal Timber Council Warm Springs
-Member, Board of Directors, Oregon Heart Association
-Member, Board of Trustees, Oregon State University Foundation
-Member, Board of Directors, Oregon Historical Society
-Member, Board of Trustees, Oregon Business Council
-Member, Board of Directors, Futures for Children, Santa Fe, N.M.
Other recognized Honors and special achievements:
-1970, Chosen as one of five outstanding young men by the Oregon Junior Chamber of Commerce
-1974, Chosen to work on the American Indian Policy Review Commission Task Force, D.C.
-1979, published in National Geographic Magazine
-1984, Jay Silvers Achievement Award for "Leadership in Managing Indian Resources and Steadfast Commitment to the Economic and Social Betterment of American Indian Communities"
-Member of Bureau of Indian Affairs Reorganization Task Force (under President H.W. Bush and President Clinton)
-2017, Honored by Madras Union High School as one of its Distinguished Alumni
-2019, University of Oregon included him in their "Top 100 Ducks who made a difference"
We are truly saddened by the loss of this great leader and loved one. The best way to honor his legacy is for each of us to go forward and make a difference in the lives of others when we can, and to embrace our personal gifts and talents as Walladawish did. Rest in peace Walladawish. Don't worry. The work will be done. The focus will happen and movement will be made for our people. Thank you for creating the foundation for your family, the Reservation, Indian Country and most importantly future generations.
He is survived by his daughters, Michele Hensel (Kendal), Becky Rae Olson Schroeder (David), Debra Olson Daniels; eight siblings and so many others that this page is not big enough to hold them all. He was preceded in death by his wife, Jeanie; and son, Greg. A celebration of his life will be announced at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, we request contributions be made in his memory to the Museum at Warm Springs, P.O. Box 909, Warm Springs, OR 97761.
Please sign the online guest book at www.oregonlive.com/obits
source: http://obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?n=kenneth-l-smith&pid=196228779

I'd like to take a moment to address those of you considering switching their support from Bernie Sanders to Donald Trump. I've seen this sentiment around, and I think it's one that deserves further discussion.
America isn't in the best place right now. Far from the country our parents remember, our America has rampant income inequality, unemployment, citizens who cannot afford to pay their medical bills or their student loans. We've just come out of a hard recession, with a recovery that saw 95% of income gains going to the top 1%, and new stock market bubbles being inflated even as I type. There is a lot of very justified anger in this nation, and amongst it's people, and we're all fighting to protect ourselves from an insecure future.
The institutions that were created to protect us have failed us, our leaders have failed us, the establishment has failed us, and it's time for a change. This is the backdrop for the 2016 Presidential elections. The Democratic and Republican National committees have presented us with candidates that are part of the same establishment that has so wronged Americans on both sides of the political asile. The DNC gave Democrats Secretary Clinton, the RNC gave Republicans Governor Bush, and Senator Rubio, but none have been appealing to those of us looking for change. Out of this populist frustration we received two outsider candidates, candidates who want to change the political system in this country: Senator Bernie Sanders, and Mr. Donald Trump.
Both Trump and Sanders are outsiders of politics, one trying to change the government from within, the other from without. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders reflect our frustrations, our pains, and our struggles. Indeed, we see the establishment of both parties fighting against either candidate being nominated. On the Democratic side we're forced to fight against a mute media, derisive commentary, and a DNC that only has eyes for Secretary Clinton. On the Republican side Trump supporters are faced with outright hostility from media on both the left and the right, fighting against an RNC that wants to nominate "anyone but Trump," and even commentary from international sources that have little or no place in American politics.
From the outside, both candidates have equal appeal to those voters who are frustrated with Washington business as usual, both promise reform, both promise change. It's easy to understand why someone who supports Senator Sanders could see Donald Trump as an alternative. When looking solely at the issue of governmental reform, the two seem like different sides of the same coin.
However, past anger at the establishment, the two candidates could not be more at odds with eachother. While both want to take this country in a new direction, they also want to take the country in opposite directions. I feel that these different directions are not being well articulated in the media, much less on Reddit, and I would like to address some of the subjects on which the two candidates differ.
I will try to contrast a variety of topics, but this list will be by no means exhaustive, I am choosing to reference those subjects that I think the Reddit community is primarily concerned about. Please also note that I do have a personal bias, I believe that Senator Sanders is the best choice that we have for our next President, that said, I have made a point to include direct quotations as well as source links whereever possible, in hopes of facilitating both your own research, and so you can fact check my statements.

Net Neutrality and Privacy:

Sanders:

"Bernie Sanders believes that increasingly omnipresent mass surveillance and attempts to undermine net neutrality are corrosive to democracy in America. He has voted against the Patriot Act and opposes warrantless wiretapping. In regards to net neutrality, he has co-sponsored and introduced legislation in favor of an open Internet."
Senator Sanders has voted against The Patriot Act, and it's reauthorization. He has voted against the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, and introduced the Restore Our Privacy Act to fight against overboard surveillance requests.
On why he opposed PIPA and SOPA, Senator Sanders had this to say:

“While I believe that online piracy is a serious issue, it is absolutely essential that the Internet remain open and free of censorship or the chilling effects that result in self-censorship. I will not support legislation that results in censorship or self censorship on the Internet."

Ultimately Senator Sanders came to the conclusion that both SOPA and PIPA were "too deeply flawed to continue [working on]"

Trump:

"Obama's attack on the internet [Net Neutrality] is another top down power grab. Net neutrality is the Fairness Doctrine. Will target the conservative media."

The Fairness Doctrine was a policy of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), introduced in 1949, that required the holders of broadcast licenses both to present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was—in the Commission's view—honest, equitable, and balanced. The FCC eliminated the Doctrine in 1987, and in August 2011 the FCC formally removed the language that implemented the Doctrine.(Source)

It is unclear in what way Donald Trump believes that Net Neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine are similar.
The phrase "Net neutrality" does not appear on Donald Trump's official website, and the Positions page of his website has no mention of either net neutrality, or the internet. At the moment our only point of reference is the above Tweet.
This quote from the December 15th debate may offer further insights: “I would certainly be open to closing areas [of the internet] where we are at war with somebody, I sure as hell don't want to let people that want to kill us and kill our nation use our internet. Yes, sir. I am." He later clarified that he didn't mean closing down American parts of the internet, just Iraq and Syria. [As an editorial note: For better or for worse, the internet was a crucial tool in the success of the Arab Spring. Shutting down the internet in Iraq and Syria wouldn't just hurt ISIS, but also groups trying to organize against them.]
There was no mention of internet privacy on Donald Trump's official website, save their Privacy Policy.
On encryption, specifically regarding the unlocking of the San Bernadino shooter's iPhone, Donald Trump had this to say: "I agree 100% with the courts, in that case, we should open it [iPhone encryption] up. I think security over all -- we have to open it up, and we have to use our heads. We have to use common sense." Going so far as to encourage his supporters to boycott Apple until they comply with the FBI: "First of all, Apple ought to give the security for that phone, OK. What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time as they give that security number."
The only mention on encryption on the official DonaldJTrump.com website is from the blog post A little touch of Trump, in which he describes the safety measures put on campaign related harddrives. There is no mention of policy regarding encryption.
Senator Sanders supports privacy rights and has fought against SOPA, PIPA, The Patriot Act, and the renewal of the Patriot act. Due to the lack of specific information on Donald Trump's website, we have to look at his statments, which would seem to indicate that he is opposed to encryption, opposed to net neutrality, and that he is willing to shut down portions of the internet in the name of national security.

On Freedom of Speech:

Sanders:

"American's right to free speech should not be proportional to their bank accounts."
Senator Sanders supports the separation of Church & State, but also strongly supports religious freedom and free expression. By the same token, Senator Sanders believes that “Bosses should not be able to impose their religious beliefs on their employees.”
Senator Sanders has been a long outspoken proponent of free speech, participating in frequent protests, and once even being arrested for it.

Trump:

"The editors at Charlie Hebdo liked poking Muslims in the eye with constant blasphemous depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. For doing so they paid an incredible and unfortunate price. But it’s important to remember that before the massacre, there was little outcry from the media establishment that such free speech was racist, insensitive or inflammatory.
Donald Trump often holds himself up as a beacon of Freedom of Speech, and is widely lauded for his willingness to say and do politically incorrect things. However, his actions may tell a different story. From The Daily Beast:

• Trump sued his ex-wife, Ivana Trump, for $25 million in 1992–because she talked too much.
• In 2006, Trump threatened to sue Rosie O’Donnell, then a co-host on The View, after she said he was bankrupt.
• In 2011, rapper Mac Miller released a song called “Donald Trump,” which included the lyrics, “Take over the world when I’m on my Donald Trump shit; Look at all this money, ain’t that some shit?” Trump Tweeted at Miller to threaten a lawsuit: “Now I’m going to teach you a big boy lesson about lawsuits and finance.”
• That same year [2011], Trump threatened to sue MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell for suggesting he was worth less than $1 billion.
• In 2012, Trump sued Miss USA contestant Sheena Monnin after she claimed in a Facebook post that the pageant was “rigged,” because the five finalists were chosen before the pageant took place.
• In 2013, after Trump said he would donate $5 million to charity if President Obama would release his long form birth certificate to the public, Bill Maher joked that he would give Trump $5 million if he could prove that his father was not an orangutan. Trump sent Maher a copy of his birth certificate. When Maher didn’t pay up, Trump sued him for the $5 million.
• The same year [2013], Trump threatened legal action against Angelo Carusone, who had organized a petition to force Macy’s to stop selling Trump-branded products.
• In 1984, Trump sued the Chicago Tribune for $500 million after the publication’s architecture critic wrote an item suggesting Chicago’s Sears Tower, then the world’s tallest building, would remain as such, despite Trump’s plan to build a taller structure in downtown Manhattan.
• Trump threatened to sue ABC in 2005, after he learned the network was planning to produce a two-hour biopic about him and his family.
• In 2006, Trump sued New York Times reporter Timothy L. O’Brien for saying Trump is worth $150 million to $250 million when Trump claimed, at the time, he was worth $2.7 billion.
• In 2014, Trump sued Trump Entertainment Resorts, which he holds a 10 percent stake in, to remove his name from the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza casinos in Atlantic City, which he said did not live up to his standard of quality.

Donald Trump has filed lawsuits against authors, journalists, newspapers, cities, individuals, and even a company that he partially owns, for saying things that he didn't like, or didn't approve of. He routinely uses the threat of legal action to silence his critics.
As President: "One of the things I'm going to do if I win ... I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We're going to open up those libel laws. So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they're totally protected, we're going to open up libel laws, and we're going to have people sue you like you've never got sued before."
It should be noted that the "protections" Donald Trump speaks of are part of Freedom of the Press as defined by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Also of note is the fact that that a private citizen can already sue a publisher for libel, so long as they can prove that the news organization knowingly published false information with malicious intent, this was decided in the 1964 Supreme Court Case of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. Donald Trump does not need to add, remove, amend, or abridge any law to be able to sue a publisher, that is already the legal right of all American citizens.
Also, Donald Trump's campaign contract restricts the free speech of his volunteers and their employees:

• No Disparagement. During the term of your service and at all times thereafter you hereby promise and agree not to demean or disparage publicly the Company, Mr. Trump, any Trump Company, any Family Member, or any Family Member Company or any asset any of the foregoing own, or product or service any of the foregoing offer, in each case by or in any of the Restricted Means and Contexts and to prevent your employees from doing so.
  
• No Competitive Services. Until the Non-Compete Cutoff Date you promise and agree not to assist or counsel, directly or indirectly, for compensation or as a volunteer, any person that is a candidate or exploring candidacy for President of the United States other than Mr. Trump and to prevent your employees from doing so.
  

Theoretically these restrictions could be in place until 2024, or the end of Donald Trump's Presidency.
Senator Sanders has fought for freedom of speech his entire career, even going so far as being arrested during demonstrations and protests. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has filed numerous lawsuits attempting to silence his critics, and as President plans to make it easier to sue the press for unflattering commentary.

On climate change:

Sanders:

"Climate change is real, caused by human activity and already devastating our nation and planet. The United States must lead the world in combating climate change and transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainability."
Senator Sanders has long fought against climate change, as well a climate denial, which has earned him a high ranking from Climate Hawks Vote, consistently scoring within the top ten percent of Senators. Senator Sanders is also one of only three presidential candidates who agreed to refuse donations from greenhouse-gas emitters. He co-sponsored the Super Pollutants Act of 2014, the Climate Protection act of 2013, the End Polluter Welfare Act, and has fought against the Keystone XL pipeline.
In terms of energy policy: Senator Sanders wants to further promote the use of renewable energy sources, improve energy efficency standards, as well as taxing habitual greenhouse gas producers.

Trump:

"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."

"I mean, Obama thinks it’s the number one problem of the world today. And I think it’s very low on the list. So I am not a believer, and I will, unless somebody can prove something to me, I believe there’s weather. I believe there’s change, and I believe it goes up and it goes down, and it goes up again. And it changes depending on years and centuries, but I am not a believer, and we have much bigger problems." Source

From the DonaldJTrump.com official site:

"It is a hoax. Trump does not believe climate change is real, tweeting out his skepticism with strong language and calling it a hoax on Fox News in 2014. In a 2012 Twitter post which is no longer accessible, Trump charged that the concept of climate change was created by the Chinese to suppress the U.S. economy. In addition, Trump has expressed firm opposition to wind turbines, which he sees as an environmental and aesthetic problem." Source

In regards to energy policy, Donald Trump supports nuclear energy production, opposes Cap-And-Trade, believes that job creation is dependent on cheap, readily available oil, believes we need to increase oil production, and supports natural gas Fraking.
Unfortunately Donald Trump's Position page did not mention either climate change, or energy policy.
Senator Sanders believes that climate change is the greatest threat our nation, and our world, faces. It drives up energy costs, destroys valuable resources, and promotes terrorism. Donald Trump believes that climate change is a hoax, and the century long upward trend in global temperatures is "just weather."

The minimum wage and economic inequality:

Sanders:

"Millions of Americans are working for totally inadequate wages. We must ensure that no full-time worker lives in poverty. The current federal minimum wage is starvation pay and must become a living wage. We must increase it to $15 an hour over the next several years."
The main goal of Senator Sanders career, and indeed his Presidential bid, has been to combat income inequality. Senator Sanders supports a progressive tax system, which would ask a little more of the very wealthy individuals in this country, included among them Donald Trump. Senator Sanders is outspoken about preventing corporations from skiping out on their tax bills, or even recieving unearned benefits, and has sponsored the Corporate Tax Dodging Prevention Act, and co-sponsored the Stop Corporate Inversions Act of 2015.
Unlike the millionaires and billionaires, the lobbests and SuperPACs, the special interests and the seven digit donors, Senator Sanders economic plan is centered around directly benefiting the American people. Far from the trickle down voodoo economics of the past thirty years, Bernie Sanders wants to help the poor, rather than cut taxes for the rich.

Trump:

"But, taxes too high, wages too high, ... I hate to say it, but we have to leave it [the minimum wage] the way it is," Donald Trump has said that he would not raise the minimum wage if elected as President.
The term "Minimum wage" is not found on DonaldJTrump.com.
Donald Trump's tax plan is to cut taxes and simplify the tax code, while remaining revenue neutral. [Revenue neutral means that his reforms will not result in an increase in tax revenue for the Federal Government.]
From his site:

• No family will have to pay the death tax. [The Death Tax, more commonly known as the estate tax, currently only applies to estates worth $5,000,000.00 or more, and as such only effects the wealthiest of Americans.]
• Reducing or eliminating corporate loopholes that cater to special interests, as well as deductions made unnecessary or redundant by the new lower tax rate on corporations and business income. [Currently Donald Trump has only singled out one loophole that he would close, the Carried Interest Deduction for hedgefund managers. How he will finance the remainder of his tax cuts is unclear.]

Analysis of Donald Trump's tax plan shows that: "In its second decade, Trump's plan would lead to revenue losses of $15 trillion. Taking into account additional interest costs, the proposal would add $11.2 trillion to the national debt by 2026 and $34.1 trillion by 2036, according to the report." "The top 0.1 percent of taxpayers would receive an average tax cut of more than $1.3 million in 2017, or almost 19 percent of their after-tax income. Middle-income households would receive an average tax cut of $2,700, or 4.9 percent of their after-tax income, according to the report."
The analysis of Donald Trump's tax plan was performed by the nonpartisan Tax Policy center.
Until what time as Donald Trump tells the nation what loopholes he would close, what tax deductions he would end, and which federal programs he would cut, the above analysis is the best information we have available. Far from Senator Sanders plan, Donald Trump's tax policy would significantly cut federal revenue, increase deficits, and grow the national debt. As far as the minimum wage is concerned, Senator Sanders wants to raise it to $15/hour over the next several years, Donald Trump is content with allowing it to remain at the same rate it has been since 2009, $7.25/hour.

Foreign Policy and War:

Sanders:

“I will vote for this resolution because I believe that the use of force is one tool that we have at our disposal to fight against the horror of terrorism and mass murder. One tool but it is not our only tool, and it is something that must be used wisely… and with great discretion.“
Senator Sanders opposed the Gulf War and Desert Storm, supported the initial invasion of Afghanistan, voted against the Invasion of Iraq, opposed the 2009 troop surge, and ultimately, in 2008, voted against continued spending of the war in Afghanistan.
On ending the war in Afghanistan he had this to say: "This year alone [2011], we will spend about $100 billion on that war. In my view, it is time for the people of Afghanistan to take full responsibility for waging the war against the Taliban. While we cannot withdraw all of our troops immediately, we must bring them home as soon as possible. I appreciate the president’s announcement, but I believe that the withdrawal should occur at significantly faster speed and greater scope."
From Senator Sanders official campaign website we have these four guiding principles for foreign policy:

1. Move away from a policy of unilateral military action, and toward a policy of emphasizing diplomacy, and ensuring the decision to go to war is a last resort.
   
2. Ensure that any military action we do engage in has clear goals, is limited in scope, and whenever possible provides support to our allies in the region.
   
3. Close Guantanamo Bay, rein in the National Security Agency, abolish the use of torture, and remember what truly makes America exceptional: our values.
   
4. Expand our global influence by promoting fair trade, addressing global climate change, providing humanitarian relief and economic assistance, defending the rule of law, and promoting human rights.
   

Senator Sanders wants to end America's role as "policemen of the world," prefering diplomacy and influence over regieme change and warfare.

Trump:

"The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don't kid yourself. When they say they don't care about their lives, you have to take out their families,"
[Killing innocent men, women, and children, is a violation of the Hague Conventions, and the Fourth Geneva Convention, and as such is considered an international war crime, and a crime against humanity.]
On Iraq: When asked by Howard Stern in 2002 if he supported the proposed invasion of Iraq, Donald Trump had this to say “Yeah I guess so." This year his opinion on the Iraq war was "By the time the war started, I was against the war, and there are articles—I mean, there are headlines in 2003 and 2004—that I was totally against the war." Due to the conflicting nature of his comments it is unclear whether Donald Trump did support the Iraq war, as he stated in 2002, or if he opposed the Iraq war, as he stated fourteen years later in 2016.
On WMDs in Iraq: On February 13th, 2016 Donald Trump believed "They lied. They said there were weapons of mass destruction. There were none and they knew there were none." On February 19th, 2016 he expanded that "I don't know if he lied or not. He could have lied. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I guess you'd have to ask him." Due to the conflicting nature of his comments it is unclear whether Donald Trump believes that the Bush Administration lied about WMDs, as he stated on February 13th, or if he believes that the Administration could have been speaking truthfully, as he stated on February 19th.
On Afghanistan: On October 6th, 2015, Donald Trump had this to say about Afghanistan: "We made a terrible mistake getting involved there [Afghanistan] in the first place. At some point, are they going to be there for the next 200 years? At some point what's going on? It's going to be a long time." However on October 20th of that year, his opinion was that "We made a mistake going into Iraq. I've never said we made a mistake going into Afghanistan." Due to the conflicting nature of his comments it is unclear whether Donald Trump believes that the war in Afghanistan was a mistake, as he stated on October 6th, or if he never said it was a mistake, as he stated on October 20th.
On refugees from the Syrian civil war: September 9th, 2015 "but on a humanitarian basis, you have to [accept them] ... There's no question about it. They're living in hell, and something has to be done.", September 10th, 2015 "I think we should help, but I think we should be very careful because frankly, we have very big problems. We're not gonna have a country if we don't start getting smart.", and on October 3rd, 2015 "If they come in, and if I win, they're going back. They're going back,". Due to the conflicting nature of his comments it is unclear whether Donald Trump believes that we should allow Syrian refugees into this country, as he stated on September 9th, if they aren't a cause for concern, as he stated on September 10th, or if he'll deport them back to the warzone in Syria, as he stated on October 3rd.
In terms of foreign policy positions: Donald Trump's official website focuses primarily on slowing legal and illegal immigration. Stating that he will build a wall, deport all undocumented workers, end birthright citizenship, and make legal immigration and refugee status harder to obtain.
Currently little is known about how Donald Trump would deal with problems like ISIS beyond the fact that "I would bomb the shit out of 'em. I would just bomb those suckers. That's right. I'd blow up the pipes. ... I'd blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left."
Senator Sanders supports less military intervention in wars that don't directly involve us, preferring instead to support our allies, and work within military coalitions, as compared to Donald Trump, who may or may not agree with Senator Sanders depending on when you ask him. Currently all we know about Donald Trump's foreign policy for certain is that he wants to build a wall, limit legal and illegal immigration, bomb ISIS, and bomb their families.

Electoral reform:

Sanders:

“We are moving rapidly away from our democratic heritage into an oligarchic form of society where today we are experiencing a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.”
Senator Sanders wants to overturn Citizens United, which allows unlimited money to be funneled into electoral politics, both from sources domestic, and abroad. Pass the DISCLOSE Act, which would require political candidates to make public all their controbutions, and their source. Make election day a federal holiday, so that voters may have the day off from work to vote. End gerrymandering, which allows political parties to draw "safe districts" where their candidate cannot lose, and fight against voter suppression. Move towards publically funded elections, to allow everyone running for office an even playing field. And he wants to introduce Instant Runoff Voting, allowing third party candidates a better chance at winning elected office.
Senator Sanders' goal is to give every candidate a balanced playing field, from pushing foreign money out of election, to ending safe districts and rampant Gerrymandering, to instituting Instant Runoff Voting so that voting third party won't be tantamount to a wasted ballot.

Trump:

The phrase "electoral reform" does not appear on Donald Trump's official website.
The phrase "campaign finance reform" does not appear on Donald Trump's official website.
The phrase "DISCLOSE act" does not appear on Donald Trump's official website.
The word "gerrymandering" does not appear on Donald Trump's official website.
The phrase "citizens united" is mentioned four times on DonaldJTrump.com, stating that it was "Disasterous." [It should be noted that Donald Trump is friends with the President of Citizens United, David Bossie, and that in 2014 he donated $100,000.00 to the Citizens United Foundation.]
On the current campaign finance system, Donald Trump had this to say: "Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them... And that's a broken system."
On the topic of campaign finace reform, Donald Trump explained: “I love the idea of campaign finance reform,” Unfortunately, beyond loving campaign finance reform, he hasn't explained his plan to achieve reform, nor has he cited any specific policy positions on the matter.
On disclosure of campaign finances, he has said: “One of the things you should do is everybody should be known. If somebody gives a million or two million or five million it should be known,” Unfortunately it is unknown whether or not Donald Trump supports the DISCLOSE act, as he has not commented on the matter.
On voter fraud: “This voting system is out of control. You have people, in my opinion, that are voting many, many times. They don’t want security, they don’t want cards.” [It should be noted that there is no statistical evidence to support the theory that in-person voter fraud is a significant problem in the United States.]
I was unable to find any specific policy positions in the matter of election reform, beyond Trump's willingness to overturn the Citizens United Decision. There is no information regarding Trump's position on gerrymandering, campaign finance reform, electoral reform, voting reform, or the DISCLOSE Act. This is in stark contrast to Senator Sanders, who not only has the same desire for reform that Donald Trump does, but also has specific policy positions that he supports, in addition to a plan for their implementation.
While both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump speak to the anger that many of us feel at modern institutions and established politics, one candidate has a very clear and concise plan for the direction of this country, the other does not. One candidate wants to raise the minimum wage, protect net neutrality, and combat climate change, the other does not. One candidate wants to replace unilateral war with diplomacy, the other wants to commit war crimes. One candidate respects your freedom of speech, the other might sue you if you suggest he's a millionaire and not a billionaire. One candidate has a fully funded tax plan, the other has a tax plan that would increase the budget deficit and grow the debt. One candidate wants to reform the financial system and make it fairer for 99% of Americans, the other was made a billionaire by the same financial system he claims that he wants to reform.
Before you decide to join our opposition, you should know what they believe.