President Obama's former national security adviser, Susan Rice, was the one who requested that Trump transition members names, and even President Trump, to be unmasked in surveillance reports. This is according to Fox News.
This is quite the scandal, a real one, unlike the Trump-Russia fiction story. Susan Rice requested unmasking of US citizens that were "caught up" in surveillance of foreign entities. This is more than likely an illegal act, due to the fact, Devin Nunes stated this had nothing to do with the Russian investigation. Why does that investigation matter? Unmasking wouldn't be a big deal if it were part of a criminal or national security investigation, but Nunes didn't seem to think it was, at least pertaining to Russia that is. This is starting to sound like it may be tied to the FISA warrant obtain to surveil a server "connected" to a Russian bank, after a previous FISA warrant request was denied for requesting multiple Trump associates and Trump himself. To read more about the events leading up to this, read this previous Pulsar post. According to Circa, White House logs showed Susan Rice was behind the mask of the unmasking case. The article stated that computer logs showed Susan Rice accessed intelligence reports, some that had to do with Trump and his team, in Obama's last seven months. The article also stated that the unmasking began in July 2016, right around the first FISA request, and accelerated after Trump won the Presidential election. This could also mean Rice was behind the disseminating of the surveillance reports between agencies. Now according to The Daily Caller, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has called on her to testify before Congress, as she should. However, Rice may just plead the 5th the whole time, but her name is still present on the evidence pin pointing this case to her. Rice also said something that will land her in hot water, let's just say she lied. Here's the video from PBS NewsHour of Susan Rice saying "I know nothing about this", when being asked about Devin Nunes's initial unmasking claims:
Susan Rice has dug herself into a pretty deep hole here. First she committed an act that appears politically motivated, but that isn't confirmed yet. Second she went on camera and lied about it by saying she knew nothing about what Devin Nunes was talking about. Rice can plead the 5th all she wants, but the evidence is there, and if this case turns criminal, she may end up behind bars.
Also let's remind ourselves that no evidence exist that Trump and Russia colluded with Russia to win the Presidential election. When people say it's risky to bet against Donald Trump, they aren't kidding you, it is never safe to bet against Trump. President Trump's claims of surveillance during his campaign are looking to be more and more true everyday. Pulsar will continue to stay on this story all the way until the case is closed. The evidence continues to mount in favor of the President and against the Obama administration. For all we know, the Obama administration and the Clinton campaign may have colluded to derail the Trump campaign. Since that failed, it was up to the Obama administration to derail Trump's transition team, and then finally make sure all surveillance reports can be copied and shard throughout agencies to bite the Trump presidency. Stay tuned, the engine has only just fired up.
0 Comments
The evidence continues to stack up in favor of President Trump on claims that he, and even Trump Tower were "wiretapped", well surveilled that is. Let's run through it real quick.
A previous Pulsar post examined Devin Nunes's initial confirmation of Trump transition members caught up in surveillance, their names unmasked, and disseminated throughout the intel agencies. Nunes also stated this had nothing to do with the Russia investigation. Michael Flynn ring any bells? His calls were caught up in surveillance, but his name was unmasked and the call transcript was leaked to the press. Let's talk about Russia though, the DOJ under President Obama seemed concerned enough about Trump's Russia ties, a FISA warrant was granted to surveil a server in Trump Tower connected to a Russian bank. That was done in October 2016, after their initial request was denied, which was to monitor Trump and his adviser's communications back in June 2016. This is all according to RealClearPolitics. The next real interesting piece we have is from InfoWars, with a headline that reads "Reminder: DOJ Finds Falsely Planted Malwar at Trump Tower to Mimic Ties to Russia". The article cited Adam Kredo of the Washington Free Beacon, which also reported on this, who said this: "It wasn't very well reported, the Department of Justice revealed just last week that in fact some of these ties that they had witnessed between Trump Tower servers and Russian entities in fact, were stooged". Kredo's statements came from a One America News Network interview. Kredo went on to say "What that mean is that there was malware on some of these computers that were mimicking contact between these entities...". This just goes to show there was some sort of sabotage the Trump campaign, and eventually the Trump transition. Here's the video from Washington Free Beacon to watch for yourself:
This information is slowly coming out, really due to the "investigations" ongoing with the FBI and NSA. Like Kredo stated in the video, we're going to get a much better picture as more evidence starts to come out.
Remember, the Obama admin and agencies under him thought Hillary was going to win and that they'd never be caught. There is a reason Obama eased the rules of agencies sharing information with each other during his final days. Remember Judge Andrew Napolitano of Fox News being suspended? Yeah, that happened due to his March 16th column, where he claimed sources told him that the British intelligence agency called Government Communications Headquarters most likely gave Obama admin. transcripts of Trump's calls. Napolitano went back to work on 3/29, and he still stands by his claims! This is all according to The Daily Caller. Finally that brings us to a segment on MSNBC, where a former Obama official spilled the beans on the whole surveillance story. Evelyn Farkas, the deputy assistant secretary of defense under Obama, revealed there was a "rush to get intelligence on Trump team". That is all according to Fox News. In that same Fox News article there was a video of the segment from Global News on YouTube (Start video at 2:25):
It's no question, there was something going on with the Obama administration and his agencies spying on Trump, Trump Tower servers, and Trump advisers. There is more evidence to support Obama era surveillance on Trump than Trump and Russia colluding together. Reminder that zero evidence exists that Russia altered the election.
There is a reason Adam Schiff, and other democrats, want House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to recuse himself from investigations and even resign. It almost seems like they know the jig is up and they're on the verge of getting caught. Nunes seems to be on the verge of solving the case.
Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has confirmed that members of the Trump transition team and possibly President Trump himself were caught up in surveillance. Nunes stated it appears to have been "incidental", but some names were "unmasked" in intelligence reports.
This news is coming to us just days after the InfoWars report on the NSA's Project Dragnet which had Trump, Trump family, Trump employees, and numerous addresses included in the mass surveillance from 2004 to 2009. According to Fox News, Trump's transition team was "caught-up" in surveillance coincidentally from November to January. This revelation throws a large wrench in the small tire of the critics of the President's "wiretapping" claim. Nunes wasted no time personally notifying President Trump at the White House, and according to Politico, President Trump feels "somewhat vindicated". Here's a video from Fox News on what David Nunes had to say:
A few things to point out here. One, what Nunes read had to be such a bombshell he literally wasted zero time on getting this information straight to the President. Two, it left the top ranking democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, clearly upset with Nunes for not bringing the information to the committee first.
Let's stick with two real quick, why would Schiff be upset with Nunes? It's not that Nunes is a republican, it's because Schiff and others couldn't pressure Nunes on keeping this silent, at least for the time being. Maybe Nunes knew that as well, and wanted to make sure President Trump saw what he saw. Schiff isn't the only one, leftists from Congress to the media are upset. Alright, number three here is according to Grabien News where the FBI is not cooperating with the House Intelligence Committee, but the NSA is. That seems a bit fishy, does it not? We more than likely can expect more to come out on this, and with this bombshell it looks as if Trump is going to be the right one on all this. This "incidental" surveillance of the Trump transition team happened on Obama's watch. Nunes did say the surveillance appears to be legal and it looks to have been approved by a FISA court, but the unmasking of the names of Trump associates, and maybe Trump himself, which is not legal. Nunes was concerned also because the intel reports "ended up in reporting channels and was widely disseminated" according to Fox News. At the end of the day this is not good for our country and should raise concern over the "deep state", and the efforts of democrats and Trump opponents to take down President Trump. Stay tuned because the tide is turning.
Released last night via InfoWars and posted on Drudge Report for the past 24 hours, NSA documents proving surveillance on Donald Trump for at least five years. All information cited below will be from that InfoWars article.
Joe Arpaio, former sheriff of Maricopa Country in Arizona, and the chief investigator of the Cold Case Posse Michael Zullo have came across many documents showing that Donald Trump was under NSA surveillance from 2004-2009. Project Dragnet was electronic surveillance of U.S citizens which really came to light thanks to Edward Snowden in 2013, but just now have documents came to light about Trump being surveilled. Arpaio and Zullo have found information that has multiple Trump addresses, family members, and Trump employees that were all placed under electronic surveillance. Including Trump Tower, a total of 18 businesses, hotels, and casinos were targeted in Project Dragnet. Family members include, but may not be limited to, Ivanka and the article cited a former wife of President Trump, one could maybe guess Marla Maples. Now you're probably sitting there thinking that this was a while ago and is done and over with. It started in 2004 with the Bush Administration and it appears in 2009 the Obama Administration pulled the plug on it, goes to show how squeaky clean Trump and his organization really are. This is also goes to show that if at one point Trump was under surveillance, what could stop him from being placed under surveillance again? It took until 2013 for Dragnet, and many other illegal NSA projects, to be spotlighted. The technology and methods are still there and have probably only gotten better. So what does this prove? It proves at one point Trump was surveilled by the NSA, so what makes you think he wasn't prone to any more surveillance? Is it just a coincidence that multiple media outlets like The New York Times reported on "wiretapping" and "surveillance" of Trump and Trump aides? Yeah the Obama Administration may have ended his 2004-2009 surveillance, but someone somewhere could have opened that back up, obviously the media knows about something. Here's the full report from Alex Jones:
Say what you want about Alex Jones, but he is the farthest from "Fake News" you can get, he really speaks truth. Watch his show for yourself and do some research.
Interestingly, this all came out on the eve of FBI director Comey and NSA director Rogers House Intelligence Committee hearing. In this hearing Comey and Rogers stated there is no evidence of Trump and Russia collusion, but the investigation is still "on going". Comey then stated that there isn't any evidence that Trump Tower was "wiretapped" by the Obama administration, but there is still an investigation into it. So how can there be an on-going investigation into "wiretapping" or "surveillance" of President Trump and Trump Tower, but no evidence that anything occurred? Here's a video of Comey's statements on this per Fox 10 Phoenix:
What makes this all more spooky is that with there being a leaker, or leakers, leaking information throughout federal agencies, that just so happened got their restrictions on sharing information loosened up by President Obama. Transcripts of Former National Security Secretary Michael Flynn phone calls with the Russian Ambassador were leaked to the media by someone who had connections with someone who has access to surveillance information. Comey would not answer if he briefed President Obama on Flynn's phone call with the Russian Ambassador (call occurred during Trump transition period).
This is all pretty serious and spooky stuff. A warrant was granted to surveil a server in Trump Tower that was connected to a Russian bank, but that was all squeaky clean, from the warrant to the business going on with Trump Tower and that Russian bank. There was a FISA warrant request on Trump aides that was supposedly denied, but then it with Project Dragnet being out there, did the "deep state" just go under the radar of the courts and Congress? Someone under the order of someone in the Obama Administration had to carry out this surveillance, unless persons in the intel agencies went rogue. The President has every right to be concerned, though he should have waited and pinpointed his accusations, but is doing the right thing by letting Congress solve the problem while he can run the country. Project Dragnet can help add fuel to President Trump's claim, but evidence from 2015-2016 is going to be needed to solidify his claims and solve the case.
Today WikiLeaks came through with potentially the biggest intelligence leak ever. Vault7 is the name of this series of leaks, and today's leaks being the first of many, the first part called "Year Zero". All this according to a press release from WikiLeaks.
"Year Zero" has already shown some pretty stunning revelations into CIA surveillance, and not just internationally, but here at home. For some, this may be no surprise because of how shady the CIA, NSA, and other federal intel agencies operate, but to others this may be more frightening than surprising. Here is quick run down of the leaks per Fox News:
The information about to be presented here is per WikiLeaks Vault7.
Alright, per the leaks, the CIA can monitor us on almost any device that can connect to the Internet. The CIA uses malware and buys off software from companies to keep them "open" for hacking. iPhones, iPads, Androids, smart TVs, computers, and some of the apps the run on them can be hacked into, controlled, and monitored by the CIA. The CIA infects devices with malware that gives them control of the targeted device. All computer operating systems can and probably have been hacked by the CIA using these malware attacks. The CIA is able to code these malware programs and other hacking software where they can't be traced or picked up by anti-virus, and as well as using encryption. Basically the CIA has their tracks covered when carrying out these attacks. The leaks also claim that the CIA has lost control of these hacking programs. The leaks also revealed that the CIA has the technology to hack into and control vehicles, claiming nearly undetectable assassinations could be carried out. This piece of information was also reported on by Mirror, and it's said that since October 2014 the CIA was looking into technology and methods into hacking and controlling modern day vehicle control systems. The vehicle hacking revelations have stirred the pot on a conspiracy that journalist Michael Hastings was murdered by the CIA/FBI. Hastings was a big Obama administration critic and posted a piece on BuzzFeed titled "Why Democrats Love to Spy On Americans" right before his fiery car crash that killed him, according to Heavy. According to Inquisitor, WikiLeaks posted that before Hastings death, Hastings believed he was under FBI investigation, and was on to a big story. WikiLeaks also tweeted this:
Also according to Inquisitor, Hastings was doing a profile on CIA director John Brennan, and previously due to Hastings reporting General Stanley McChrystal was fired as commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. The information released in Vault7 certainly can make one think when looking at the Hastings case.
Of course you're probably asking yourself, " how legit is this?" Well a very good person to confirm the legitimacy is Edward Snowden. According to Washington Examiner Snowden said the WikiLeaks dump "looks authentic". Snowden was very active on Twitter today talking about Vault7 and backing up the leaks. One tweet should reassure some skeptics:
It's pretty tough to disagree with Edward Snowden and to even say the WikiLeaks dump is phony after all WikiLeaks has put out before. This should be raising some serious alarm bells in each branch of government, business, and private US citizens. The people of the United States deserve answers and shall demand the end of this surveillance state.
Congress, the Department of Justice, and The White House need to investigate the CIA, NSA, and FBI on all possible claims of illegal surveillance against the American people by infecting products of private business. This is unacceptable as it is shocking, very Orwellian. Though, we shouldn't really be to surprised since there has been many stories and investigations on the NSA for mass collecting data of US citizens and companies, so if you've been paying attention, this is just more of the obvious. It's perfectly clear, the Internet of Things are vulnerable to cyberattacks from anybody, and companies need to realize this and get their software and hardware protected immediately. We are connecting more and more devices of all shapes and sizes to the Internet each day and there is no end in sight. This is just unchecked government agencies abusing their power via widely available, widely used technology using their classified software and methods. Not good for liberty, not good for America. We'll end it on a clip from MSNBC of former CIA director Michael Hayden, who seems a bit shook about Vault7:
This past weekend was full of headlines, and of course, President Trump is at the center of them. On Saturday the President tweeted out allegations that former President Obama had his administration wiretap the phones at Trump Tower.
Now if you kept up with the Obama administration you may have noticed it wasn't so squeaky clean. The Obama administration had its fare share of scandals, with surveillance being one of them. President Trump may know more than he can tell the public at the moment, or he simply wants to dig deeper into some evidence he came across which blew this whole story. According to The Sun, the FBI obtained a warrant to conduct surveillance on four people close to the Trump campaign. However that was the second attempt at having a FISA court grant the warrant, so it makes you think why the first attempt was blocked. It also raises the question of any fine print within the warrant that was granted, say if those four people had business being in Trump Tower, that may have been included within the warrant. Even if there were no fine print, what would have stopped the Obama administration from doing such an act? Think of what the IRS did to conservative groups under Obama's watch. The Obama admin, along with the rest of the democratic party, never expected Trump to win and never thought any of this would be a problem. The real question is, who ordered the FISA warrant? Was it Obama directly, or was it former Attorney General Loretta Lynch? Former Attorney General under the Bush Administration, Michael Mukasey, believes Trump and that it may have came from the Obama Justice Department, per The Hill. Mukasey also stated that the prior Department of Justice may have really thought there was a Russian agent within the Trump campaign. Kinda of funny though, because right before Obama left office he had the DOJ ease the rules on spreading information between agencies. A little fishy, no? Let's also not forget the mysterious wiretapping into General Michael Flynn, which ultimately led to his resignation after being leaked. Below are a couple of videos from Fox News, first one of former Obama intel chief James Clapper denying the accusations along with brief analysis of the situation. The second is about the White House standing by the accusations with more analysis of the situation.
President Trump is not making this stuff up, like the man stated before he "don't kid". Press Secretary Sean Spicer himself said Trump had access to "very troubling" reports.
True or not, it shows how the deep state can operate, and by deep state I mean NSA, CIA, and FBI. These actions also make the case for government agencies being politicized. Again, this isn't Obama's first rodeo with this surveillance stuff. Today WikiLeaks tweeted this:
There is more where that came from, and one could on guess what we just don't know. Sadly, we just do not know if President Trump's accusation and potential evidence will add up, but if it does, Obama and his administration will be in some serious trouble.
Judicial Watch added a little fuel to this fire by filing lawsuits against the CIA, DOJ, and Treasury over these leaks. According to Judicial Watch, after the mentioned agencies failed to respond to a FOIA request regarding records into the General Flynn wiretapping. Multiple sources reported FBI directory James Comey told the DOJ not to investigate the President's claims, but those sources cited anonymous sources, so it make just be some "very fake news". Comey himself hasn't been quoted saying anything like that. The Trump Administration needs to replace all Obama era employees and appointees wherever possible, they have a serious leak problem. The Trump administration needs to keep digging for the remaining treasure to make the case for wiretapping. Rightfully so, The White House has asked Congress to investigate these accusations per The USA Today:
Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), was on Fox News's "Outnumbered" today, and said Congress would take a look at this and dive on in. Chaffetz is the the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
According to Greenville Journal Representative Trey Gowdy (R-SC), who also sits on the same committee as Mr. Chaffetz, believes if President Trump is telling the truth there will be a paper trail and "we'll be able to find it out". This whole situation goes to show the real power government has over the people of the United States. That should be what really spooks us, the American people, and we should be thankful we have people in Congress and the The White House that want to end all of that. We the people of the United States were (still are) having all our data sucked up by the NSA and maybe other agencies. Privacy is the biggest loser in the all of this, if not President Trump and the American people. Trump has very rarely been proven wrong, and Trump is obviously not a dumb person, he knows what he said and understands the accusations. If Trump is right then Congress, the DOJ, and the FBI will all reach the conclusion, make the charges, and get some indictments. Also if true, this will just go to show everything about the Obama administration being corrupt, sneaky, and crooked will be true.
Every 2 weeks Pulsar will give an update on what the FCC is up to. Since the last update the FCC has been busy and is making some moves.
Have you ever wondered why our smartphones don't come stock with an FM Radio app? Have you ever wondered why you have to download apps like iHeartRadio and Pandora that are connected to the Internet? Well that's because mostly all smartphones have their FM transmitters turned off. That's right, this all per Tech Times, and FCC chairman Ajit Pai wants to do something about it. The FCC is unable to force carriers/manufacturers to turn the FM transmitters on, but Pai is recommending to them that they do it. Doesn't it make sense to turn an FM transmitter on if it's going to be part of the phone? Also you wouldn't have to download Internet streaming radio apps either, you could pick up your local radio stations on your smartphone. The only downside to this is, well, traditional FM radio isn't all that great anymore thanks to Internet radio apps and satellite radio. People want many songs and the songs they like. According to that same Tech Times article, only 44% of smartphones have their FM transmitters activated. According to Slash Gear, the some of the current manufacturers (selling in US) that have their FM transmitters turned on are: HTC, LG, and Samsung. Samsung by far the largest out of the three. The FCC is planning to solve the digital divide in rural areas. According to The American Genius, The FCC has a few possibilities on the table to solve this issue. Gigabit Opportunity Zones are one of them, which give incentives to broadband providers that expand service to rural areas, and tax credits for entrepreneurs that set up networks themselves. Pai also wants to bring the wireless industry into rural areas. Here is Ajit Pai himself giving a brief overview, onFox Business, of what he wants to do and why
It's clear Pai is nothing more than a pro-consumer and pro-business FCC chairman, and that is exactly what the United States needs, especially with the pro-business Trump administration.
Pai appeared to get into a little hot water though, recently he "praised" Amazon on their Prime Now service. Pai tweeted out to @amazonprimenow after being very satisfied with the overall service, and this allegedly puts Pai in a Kellyanne Conway situation. All this according to Gizmodo, the tweet by Pai violated the same rule from the Code of Federal Regulations that Kellyanne Conway did when she promoted Ivanka Trump's brand. Which is totally an organized effort by retailers to boycott Trump brands, but now Ivanka's brand is number 1 on, guess what, Amazon. The Gizmodo article did not state Pai will be disciplined for this or not. We'll end it with the spectrum auction going on, again the FCC auctions off parts of radio spectrum so we can all enjoy our phones, computers, TVs, radio, and many other digital devices. The auction will officially end on March 30th, and it looks as if it will close with a bid total close to $20 billion, all according to Broadcasting & Cable. The FCC and its chariman Ajit Pai are gearing up to make moves and deregulate the US telecommunications industry. Business and consumers alike should all be excited for what will come out of all of this. We should expect a more business friendly environment which in turn will lead to new products and services that transfers into lower prices for the consumer. The FCC may finally bridge the digital divide, and we have the companies that can do the job. Trump's tax plans and business friendly tone is and has been incentivizing companies to do business and build factories in the US. SoftBank, Sprint's owner, is investing $50 billion in the US. Trump and Pai can make the telecom and tech industries boom, and it seems that has already started.
T-Mobile has been making the headlines on a weekly basis it seems, and this week they brought Sprint along with them. Though it was really Sprint's majority owner SoftBank who brought the news, and this really reflects how the tables have turned in the wireless carrier world.
Multiple sources citing Reuters reporting that SoftBank may cede control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom who owns T-Mobile. SoftBank has not yet discussed anything with Deustche Telekom due to a FCC rule prohibiting discussions between competitors during spectrum auctions, which one is currently going on. This is all per Fox Business Once the auction ends expect talks to ramp up. This potential merger could create a "super-carrier", but due to that possibility alone, regulators are bound to fight this merger hard. The potential merger may be a copy of the failed merger of Sprint and T-Mobile back in 2014. In 2014 Sprint, well SoftBank, had a $32 billion deal on the table with T-Mobile and all they need was government approval, and they couldn't get it. The FCC wasn't into that much of consolidation, and so Sprint walked away from the deal, and Sprint fired CEO Dan Hesse who was succeeded by current Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure. This all according to Forbes. Here is a video from Bloomberg on the potential deal:
This deal would be huge no doubt, and it's funny how the tables have turned. In 2014 it was Sprint wanting to buy T-Mobile, now it's SoftBank wanting to cede control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom who owns T-Mobile. It's only logical that T-Mobile and Sprint merge, and since Sprint is being ceded to T-Mobile's owner, Sprint is on the losing end. Now Sprint wouldn't fully go away, but employees will and branding.
The deal does have potential for good though, this would create a direct competitor to Verizon and AT&T and may even stir more innovation and competition within the industry, because it really would be more of a level playing field. T-Mobile is knocking on both Verizon's and AT&T's doors after blowing through Sprint's, and if this deal goes through it will be a Cinderella story for the ages. Why? Because T-Mobile use to be the smallest of the 4 major US carriers, now it has the chance to become 2nd or even 1st. However, this merger may have the chance to do some bad, and the FCC will pick that up. The potential merger would be a big one and create a worse oligopoly within the industry. How so? With T-Mobile eliminating Sprint for good there may not be incentive to go after AT&T and Verizon because T-Mobile will be just as big, so maybe the price war will die and companies will focus on themselves and not rivals. T-Mobile is really responsible, AT&T too, for the current price war and competition going on within the industry. According to Fox Business, Deutsche Telekom could receive offers from Comcast and DISH for T-Mobile. DISH Network is the more likely one, honestly it would be the best choice for T-Mobile, Sprint, and even Verizon. AT&T already scooped up DirecTV, DISH Network has Sling TV (Internet Pay TV), Verizon is getting into Internet TV, and it's clear the future of TV is shifting towards subscription based Internet TV. DISH Network would be a great asset and/or partner with the remaining three carriers, and T-Mobile sounds like they'd be the ones to do it. Comcast however could easily scoop up T-Mobile and become a new and direct competitor to Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. Sprint would really have to merge with someone then. Overall, big things are happening within the telecom industry, and big things are going to continue to happen in the telecom industry. In the US, the FCC has a business friendly, pro-deregulation face as the chariman Mr. Ajit Pai, and the US has a business friendly, pro-deregulation president Mr. Donald J. Trump. Innovation and competition shall flourish in the US during the next four years. Stakeholders should be excited, but have a right to be nervous, especially Sprint employees, but consumers should be excited to think what may come out of such a deal. Shareholders see a great opportunity for T-Mobile. On a funny note though, T-Mobile's and Sprint's CEOs aren't the best of friends and on occasion take jabs at eachother on Twitter and the shows, here's a video of T-Mobile's CEO John Legere, on CNBC, saying he'd throw potatoes at Sprint's CEO, per NTK Network:
Feel the love? Not really, but is comical and all in business fun. The clip does mention at SoftBank still wanting to do a deal for T-Mobile, and this was back in August of 2016, but since then T-Mobile has really taken off, which probably prompted SoftBank to be willing to cede control of Sprint to Deutsche Telekom.
Again, the deal has it's perks, but has it's worries and the worries may be enough for the government to give it the 2014 reaction, which was no deal. With Ajit Pai and the Trump Administration in town, the deal may have a positive government reaction this time around. Here are the 1-day's for T-Mobile and Sprint per Google (click for larger image):
If you haven't heard by now, tech companies are outraged by President Trump's immigration/refugee order, yes they have formally banned against the Trump Administration. It wasn't too long ago when Trump met with the leaders of some of these same companies in Trump Tower. Moral high ground or bottom-lines?
127 companies have filed a legal brief against President Trump's executive order on immigration and refugees from seven middle eastern countries. These companies include big names like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Tesla/SpaceX, Netflix, Uber, Intel, and many other companies, all according to CNN Tech. The reasoning behind the brief is, according to the Los Angeles Times, "The order makes it more difficult and expensive for U.S companies to recruit, hire, and retain some of the world's best employees." and "It disrupts ongoing business operations, and it threatens companies' ability to attract talent, business, and investment in the United States." Some companies, like Google, also have employees in the restricted countries, and may have interests. Reading the headline and reading that, you'd think that's morally justified and makes a statement towards the Trump Administration. If you think it about it, it almost seems like the companies are worried about hiring and making money. Check this video for a better idea from Fox Business's "Making Money with Charles Payne":
From watching that video, or really just thinking outside the status quo of a legal brief like this, it seems to be about H-1B visas and their net profits. The US has about 900,000 to 1 million people with H-1B visas and about 13% make up US tech jobs, all according to that video clip.
It makes sense, tech companies can hire foreign workers cheaper and get "more bang for their buck" basically, but what about US workers? It's hard to believe US schools, colleges, and universities aren't pumping out qualified US workers. Again, "more bang for their buck". Now there is nothing wrong with H-1B visas, but since President Trump is against the program these companies are scrambling for damage control. H-1B visas are good for businesses and of course the foreign workers, but it does pose some questions when any industry uses the program extensively, and the tech industry does. According to Business Insider, in 2014 64.5% of 315,857 H-1B visas were for computer related occupations. That is a large chunk of that year's H-1B approvals, and Trump wants to bring that number down to fill it with American workers, it's hard to see why Trump is wrong. US tech companies should be trying to hire Americans before H-1B immigrants, there are plenty of skilled and qualified candidates that are right here in the USA. The H-1B visa program shouldn't be treated as a garden of workers for any American industry. Hire who you need, where you need it, when you need it and if that requires using the H-1B program from time to time then so be it, but don't abuse it and shun the American worker. President Trump has been stirring up all sorts of controversy, but all for the better interest of the United States. US tech companies have not been a fan of Trump since Trump started targeting the H-1B visa program during his campaign, they also came out because of his stance on immigration and refugees as a whole, some sort of moral high ground. Moral high ground though, that's all this legal brief is disguised as, in reality the tech sector does not want "business as usual" going away, they want to continue on like Obama never left, not going to happen. The tech sector should not have anything to worry about, they'll continue to make great products and offer great services, and they'll still make hefty profit. H-1B visas are not going away, it's just going to be slimmed down and American workers will be promoted. Some of the companies on the brief are on Trump's Tech Advisory Council, but a few like Uber, have since stepped away from the table. Trump has been facing plenty of scrutiny over his orders, but Trump's a winner and don't expect him to lose now. It's sad that business is being politicized, because that is not the role for business, but this is just another example of what makes America, America. |
Categories
All
Archives
October 2020
|