A “new mindset is apparent” President Joe Biden exceeds expectations. (He’s exceeded mine.) But in several non-flashy ways people may not have noticed. David Dayen notices that Uncle Joe is taking on corporate concentration and bringing the busting back to trust busting (American Prospect): On July 9, 2021, President Joe Biden signed one of the most sweeping changes to domestic policy since FDR. It was not legislation: His signature climate and health law would take another year to gestate. This was a request that the government get into the business of fostering competition in the U.S. economy again. Flanked by Cabinet officials and agency heads, Biden condemned Robert Bork’s pro-corporate legal revolution in the 1980s, which destroyed antitrust, leading to concentrated markets, raised prices, suppressed wages, stifled innovation, weakened growth, and robbing citizens of the liberty to pursue their talents. Competition policy, Biden said, “is how we ensure that our economy isn’t about people working for capitalism; it’s about capitalism working for people.” Joe had me with that line. He gets it.
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But I’m sure it’s bad news for Biden… Dean Baker has the details: GDP Grow 2.9 Percent in 4th Quarter, Driven by Inventories and Service Consumption GDP growth was in line with expectations, with the economy expanding at 2.9 percent annual rate, down slightly from the 3.2 percent rate in the third quarter. Inventory accumulation was the largest single factor, adding 1.46 percentage points to the quarter’s growth. Service consumption added 1.16 percentage points, while a smaller trade deficit added 0.56 percentage points. Housing was a major drag, with residential investment subtracting 1.29 percentage points from growth. The quarter is likely to again show a healthy rate of productivity growth. Payroll hours increased at a 1.1 percent rate in the quarter. A sharp rise in people reported that they are self-employed is likely to raise hours growth to around 1.5 percent, leaving productivity growth in the range of 1.4 percent. This compares to reported declines in productivity in the first half of 2022.
Wow, just wow: It became a regular litany of grievances from President Donald J. Trump and his supporters: The investigation into his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia was a witch hunt, they maintained, that had been opened without any solid basis, went on too long and found no proof of collusion. Egged on by Mr. Trump, Attorney General William P. Barr set out in 2019 to dig into their shared theory that the Russia investigation likely stemmed from a conspiracy by intelligence or law enforcement agencies. To lead the inquiry, Mr. Barr turned to a hard-nosed prosecutor named John H. Durham, and later granted him special counsel status to carry on after Mr. Trump left office. But after almost four years — far longer than the Russia investigation itself — Mr. Durham’s work is coming to an end without uncovering anything like the deep state plot alleged by Mr. Trump and suspected by Mr. Barr.
Not enough Republicans leave the GOP in my opinion, but a few have done it over the past few years. One of the most entertaining and articulate is Tim Miller’s whose book “Why We Did It” is one of the best apologias out there, is always interesting on this topic. If you have a half hour to kill, this is an interesting interview on that topic.
Will they do what Trump wants? Sure they will. They want it too: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has released the names of the Republicans who will serve on a pair of subcommittees as part of the GOP’s promise to launch investigations into the Biden administration. McCarthy in a tweet Tuesday announced the GOP membership of two select subcommittees on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The House voted along party lines to establish the weaponization committee earlier this month to probe ongoing investigations from the Department of Justice. The subcommittee was part of a list of demands that hard-line GOP House members had for McCarthy to win their support to become Speaker. McCarthy later promised to create both the weaponization and COVID-19 subcommittees a couple of days ahead of the Speaker vote. Republicans have described the weaponization subcommittee as “Church-style,” referring to a Senate select committee led by former Sen.
The Business Secretary will be able to set minimum service levels for six key sectors — and decide what workers are included in the new strike-busting definitions
A No to Nato rally at Conway Hall on 25 February, at which I was due to speak, has been cancelled after the venue received threats and abuse online that made them concerned both for staff safety and for funding. This is just another symptom of the serious threat to free speech in modern society. […]
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Your evil government, the lizard people’s evil government A report issued Wednesday by the Secret Service finds that one-quarter of mass shootings in the U.S. between 2016 and 2020 were motivated by ” a belief system involving conspiracies or hateful ideologies involving anti-government, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic views.” Lina Alathari, the chief of the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center, told reporters the conspiracies included beliefs such as 9/11 never happened, or that the United Nations was coming to take their guns, or that aliens or lizard people were preparing to take over the world. “Mental illness is not a barometer for dangerousness and it is not a correlation for mass attacks. The vast majority of individuals with mental illnesses in this country will never be violent. In fact, often, they are the victims of violence,” Alathari said. At least six were radicalized online. “One attacker had started subscribing to an online message board about 18 months prior to his attack,” she said.
Let people know whom to blame when the GOP strangles the recovery Democrats should promote the hell out of the Biden recovery (Washington Post): The U.S. economy grew by 2.1 percent in 2022, notching six months of solid growth despite widespread concern that the country might be on the brink of a recession. Those fears have been assuaged — at least for now. The economy posted another consecutive quarter of steady expansion between October and December, with economic activity increasing at a 2.9 percent annual rate. Consumer spending contributed to the strong fourth-quarter showing, especially given the slumps in large parts of the economy, including housing and manufacturing. Admit weak spots where they exist (inflation is coming down, but is still too high), but trumpet the upsides. The GOP would even in a downturn. “You may see [growth] and think the economy is out of the woods, but that would be entirely the wrong read,” said Joseph LaVorgna, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities America who expects a recession midyear. “There are a lot of variables that are all pointing in the same direction: There’s a housing recession.
What else is new? Charles W. Cooke at National Review skewers Trump, saying he “has completely lost his grip on reality.” (Did he ever have it?) Needless to say the MAGA cult could not care less what National Review says about their hero. There was a point in time at which Trump’s unusual verbal affect and singular nose for underutilized wedge issues gave him a competitive edge. Now? Now, he’s morphing into one of the three witches from Macbeth. To peruse Trump’s account on Truth Social is to meet a cast of characters about whom nobody who lives beyond the Trump Extended Universe could possibly care one whit. Here in the real world, the border is a catastrophe, inflation is as bad as it’s been in four decades, interest rates have risen to their highest level in 15 years, crime is on the up, and the debt continues to mushroom. And yet, safely ensconced within his own macrocosm, Trump is busy mainlining Edward Lear.