I know I’ve been doing a crap job of sharing updates or juicy blog posts. Sorry! Here are some varied updates. And hopefully I’ll pen a proper commentary shortly. I’m (hopefully) going to come back later this week with more thoughts on the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and what it takes to support young […]
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Lincoln: “repulse them, or they will subjugate us” “The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” Faulkner wrote in 1951. “Old times there are not forgotten,” wrote Daniel Decatur Emmett in “Dixie” a century earlier in 1859. “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” wrote somebody, but not likely Mark Twain. We’ll come back to harbingers of re-appearing tyranny in a minute. Republicans in Missouri want to bring back “old time” dueling: Sen. Nick Schroer (R-St. Charles County) is listed on the proposal, notes Fox 2 St.
This is a test, folks. We are going to see if the MAGA propaganda machine is strong enough to overcome reality for a majority of the people. Trump is saying out loud that he wants the border issue to enhance his election chances. There is no mistaking it. Meanwhile, some Republican members of the congress are saying that it’s a good deal and they should take it. That’s a very risky comment for him apparently: Here’s what Trump is ordering: Republican front-runner Donald Trump said he wants to be held responsible for blocking a bipartisan border security billin the works in the Senateas President Biden seeks emergency authority to rein in a record surge of unauthorized border crossings. “As the leader of our party, there is zero chance I will support this horrible open borders betrayal of America,” Trump told a rowdy crowd of supporters at a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, ahead of the state’s presidential caucus on Feb. 8. “I’ll fight it all the way. A lot of the senators are trying to say, respectfully, they’re blaming it on me. I say, that’s okay. Please blame it on me.
He believes he is the second coming. He really does. You’d think he would have been able to win the election.
The world’s best recovery and a silent revolution In an economics column headlined, “Falling inflation, rising growth give U.S. the world’s best recovery,” David Lynch (no, not that one) writes in the Washington Post: Here, despite lingering consumer angst over inflation, the surprisingly strong economy is outperforming all of its major trading partners. Since 2020, the United States has powered through a once-in-a-century pandemic, the highest inflation in 40 years and fallout from two foreign wars. Now, after posting faster annual growth last year than in 2022, the U.S. economy is quashing fears of a new recession while offering lessons for future crisis-fighting. “The U.S. has really come out of this into a place of strength and is moving forward like covid never happened,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist who now runs an eponymous consulting firm. “We earned this; it wasn’t just a fluke.” It was no accident: On Friday, President Biden hailed fresh government data showing that annual inflation over the second half of 2023 fell back to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
Say it ain’t so! The Daily Beast with a scoop: Always read the footnotes. That’s where former federal judge Barbara Jones, the court-appointed special monitor in Donald Trump’s New York business fraud case, just planted a financial bombshell that legal experts say suggests Trump lied knowingly and repeatedly on his federal financial disclosures about a major loan that never existed—and may have evaded taxes on $48 million in income. The detail came in a letter Jones filed on Friday to update New York Judge Arthur F. Engoron, first reported by The Messenger, on her efforts to get a full and clear accounting of the Trump Organization’s assets. The letter claims, yet again, that Trump and his company have filed statements containing inconsistencies and errors, but have been “cooperative” in the review process. But Jones tucked a major revelation into footnote 6, writing that a massive chunk of debt Trump has claimed to owe one of his own companies for years apparently does not exist, and never did.
It’s not looking good for the little Palin wannabe Lauren Boebert introduced herself to the new district she moved to to have an easier re-election and it didn’t go very well: Representative Lauren Boebert did not receive the warm welcome she was hoping for after switching Colorado districts, with her rivals accusing her of being a “carpetbagger” during the first primary debate. Boebert, who currently represents the Centennial State’s 3rd district, announced in December that she would run for election in the 4th district in 2024, instead. The decision comes after she was reelected in 2022 by such a narrow margin that the election nearly went to a recount. Her public image has taken a massive battering in recent months, as well. The far-right congresswoman attempted to defend her decision during the debate Thursday night, saying she made the switch because she wanted a “fresh start” for her family. “I am here to earn your vote. This is not a coronation,” she said.
What do Democrats offer instead? Donald “91 Counts” Trump will appeal the judgment, of course. It’s what he does as surely as “grab them.” He’ll appeal the $83.3 million judgment a Manhattan jury on Friday awarded E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case (The Guardian): Carroll will receive $18.3m in compensatory damages and $65m in punitive retribution. The former president is paying Carroll compensatory damages of $18.3m – $11m to fund a reputational repair campaign. The $7.3m is for the emotional harm caused by Trump’s 2019 public statements. Carroll and her legal team were beaming as they left court in a black SUV. They did not answer questions immediately after court let out. Moments after the decision was announced, Trump decried it as “absolutely ridiculous” on Truth Social, and said he would be filing an appeal. Naturally. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she’d never seen someone as contemptuous of the U.S. justice system as Trump.
Who’s a civilian? The Atlantic: The International Court of Justice in The Hague today made an initial ruling, four weeks after an application from South Africa that accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians. The court ordered Israel to ensure that its military does not commit acts of genocide against Palestinians, to immediately improve humanitarian aid to Palestinians, and to prevent and punish genocidal incitement against Palestinians. However, the court stopped short of ordering Israel to end its military operations against Hamas, a nod to Israel’s right to respond in self-defense after the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7. South Africa had hoped the court would order such a cessation, in effect ruling in favor of an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. The court did also call for the immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Given the dreadful toll of civilian deaths in Gaza, reportedly now topping 25,000, Israel should answer questions about its conduct. Every member of the United Nations’ 1948 Genocide Convention has an obligation to raise concerns if they have evidence that a group of people is at risk of genocide.
The Wall St. Journal breaks from the MAGA GOP which may have some effect on donors and, therefore, Republican politicians: The Wall Street Journal‘s editorial board is warning Republicans that they may pay a political price for letting Donald Trump rip up a deal to beef up border security measures and provide more aid to Ukraine. On Wednesday, Punchbowl News reported that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had told his colleagues that they were in a “quandary” because Trump opposes the deal and the caucus doesn’t want to do anything to “undermine” the likely Republican presidential nominee. The Journal submitted that following Trump’s command “would be a self-inflicted wound.” “President Biden would claim, with cause, that Republicans want border chaos as an election issue rather than solving the problem,” argued its editors. “Voter anger may over time move from Mr. Biden to the GOP, and the public will have a point.