•Former President Bill Clinton, 75, is hospitalized in Orange County with an infection not linked to COVID-19, according to a spokesman and two of his physicians, the L.A. Times reports. Clinton was in Southern California for a private reception and dinner for the non-profit Clinton Foundation.
•A federal court has sided with Texas on its controversial abortion law, which will remain in effect pending further review.
Retail Sales Rise 0.7% in September – Here’s some good economic news: retail sales rose 0.7% in September according to the Commerce Department, despite supply constraints, the Delta variant of the coronavirus and the end of unemployment benefits, The Wall Street Journal reports. The September rate of inflation was 0.4%, although it stands at 5.4% for the year.
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Bannon Faces Contempt Charges – The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection meets next Tuesday to begin contempt charges against former Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon for his refusal to respond to a subpoena, The Washington Post reports. Former Trump administration aides Mark Meadows and Kash Patel were initially expected to testify before closed doors this week but will be granted an extension or continuance.
Dan Scavino, former White House deputy chief of staff for communications also has had his hearing before the committee postponed after delivery of his subpoena was delayed.
Note: While the House committee considers Bannon potentially the key witness in its investigation of January 6, his refusal to appear by excuse of “executive privilege,” which doesn’t exist (i.e., Trump is no longer president, so that privilege is moot), is nothing more than red meat for the most die-hard of Trump’s supporters. Bannon will revel in his continuing defiance of the “deep state.” And may find himself in an orange jump suit.
•••
You’re Not Fired, After All – Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI has had his full law enforcement benefits restored by the Justice Department, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, more than three years after he was fired in a dramatic television reality show-like Trump administration stunt. Trump fired McCabe hours before his retirement package was set to take effect after the ex-president’s Justice Department charged the career FBI official with “lack of candor” in a media leak investigation.
Note: The “lack of candor” phrase came from then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding McCabe’s authorization of a conversation between the FBI and The Wall Street Journal. McCabe became FBI director in 2017, after James Comey was fired by Trump. Sessions was to be fired by Trump in November 2018. All the best people.
•••
Pledge of Allegiance Made to January 6 Flag – Participants in a “Take Back Virginia” rally in which former President Trump endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin recited the Pledge of Allegiance to a flag apparently carried at the January rally preceding the Capitol insurrection, Newsweek reports.
Youngkin has tried to distance himself from Trump in Virginia as the campaign heats up ahead of the November 2 election. He put out a statement Thursday that “While I had no role in last night’s event, I have heard about it from many people in the media today. It’s weird and it’s wrong to pledge allegiance to a flag connected to January 6. As I’ve said many times before, the violence that occurred January 6 was sickening and wrong.”
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a term-limited Democrat, and Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate running against Youngkin for governor both condemned the event, with McAuliffe calling it a “racist dog whistle,” according to Politico. A Fox News poll finds that Trump has a 53% unfavorable rating in purple Virginia, with McAuliffe, Youngkin and President Biden all more popular.
Note: We’ve for a long time said that the Virginia race for governor is the first true test of Trump’s post-January 6 popularity. Most recent polls have Youngkin pulling close to a dead heat with McAuliffe, but the pro-Trump rally and Trump’s endorsement of Youngkin is likely to wake up Virginia’s Democratic and independent voters despite the Republican candidate’s efforts to distance himself from the ex-president.
•••
DeSantis to Sue Over Vaccine Mandates — Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will challenge in federal court vaccine mandates proposed by President Joe Biden in September to be enforced by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Politico reports. According to Politico DeSantis said at a news conference, “Let's not have Biden come in and effectively take away — threaten to take away — the jobs of people who have been working hard throughout this entire pandemic. I am offended that a police officer could potentially lose their job.”
Note: Interesting that DeSantis is playing the law-and-order card when it seems that obeying the law is something that is selective according to many Republicans, including a resident of his state. While the duty of many police forces is “protect and serve,” (1) there have been 722,000 deaths associated with COVID and (2) studies show that the available vaccines have a high effectiveness of protecting individuals from contracting — and consequently passing — the virus, supporters of that ethos should have been first in line when the vaccines became available.
In addition to which, has DeSantis forgotten that the vaccines were the result of “Operation Warp Speed,” which was arguably his apparent role model’s only tangible accomplishment?
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2021
•A Moderna booster shot for recipients of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine triggered more antibodies than either Pfizer or J&J boosters, according to an FDA review and a separate ‘pre-print’ study (WaPo).
•Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof has left the NYT for a likely run for the 2022 Democratic primary for governor of Oregon (Politico).
Lowest Unemployment Claims Since Pandemic Began – New unemployment claims for the nation fell to 293,000 for the week ending October 9, compared with an adjusted 329,000 claims the previous week, the Department of Labor reported Thursday. The latest numbers represent the lowest initial claims since the beginning of shutdowns over the pandemic. New unemployment claims were 256,000 for the week of March 14, 2020.
•••
Another 1/6 Committee Subpoena – The House of Representatives January 6 Select Committee Wednesday subpoenaed former Trump administration Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as it took more than eight hours of closed-door testimony from former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen (per The Washington Post) regarding the final days of the 45thpresidency. Rosen had replaced President Trump’s longest-serving AG, William Barr, just before Christmas. Leading up to the January 6 Capitol insurrection, Clark, as a Justice Department official who was ready to lend DOJ resources to Trump’s false claims of election fraud, was ready to replace Rosen as acting AG.
Former Trump administration officials due to appear before the committee today include the ex-president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, and Kashyap Patel, former chief of staff to then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. The fourth, ex-advisor Stephen R. Bannon, already has refused to testify on the grounds of executive privilege, despite that those grounds do not apply to former presidents, let alone their associates and staff.
Note: The House select committee is currently sorting out with the current DOJ how to enforce the subpoenas and force Trump officials, and Bannon, to testify on how close they had come to organizing an inside coup for the lame-duck president. In other words, expect more MAGA rallies like Trump’s appearance in Iowa last weekend, as he heads toward another run in 2024.
•••
Trumped Again? — Thirty-five percent of those surveyed in a Morning Consult/Politico poll say that Donald Trump should “definitely” (25%) or “probably” run for president in 2024. Of the Republicans queried, 67% give him the nod.
Note: Odd how a man twice impeached and twice soundly beaten in the popular vote would be of appeal to what has now become the Republican Party, a party once known for ideas and now known for conspiracy theories and little in the way of support of democratic principles and the rule of law.
The survey also shows that for those who don’t want Trump to run, 26% say that Mike Pence, the former vice president whose life was openly threatened by Trump supporters during the January 6 insurrection, should be the candidate.
•••
Dueling Parties – Capitol Hill may be gridlocked in place with Republicans stonewalling Democrats, and Democrats fighting against each other, but there’s plenty of action on the campaign front according to third-quarter fundraising reports, as covered by Politico. Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC, raised nearly $8.3 million for the latest reporting quarter as he is expected to sail to re-election next year and potentially set up a run for the GOP presidential nomination for 2024. Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, reported $9.6 million raised in Q2, more than twice the second-highest number reported, by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-FL, who also faces re-election in the midterms.
In addition, the Opportunity Matters Fund, a political action committee supporting Scott, received a $10 million contribution from Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, Politico notes.
But Scott’s Q3 number was not number-one among all midterm candidates. Rep. Val Demings, D-FL, raised $8.4 million in the quarter for his bid to challenge Rubio in the November 2022 Senate election.
•••
Former Michigan Congressman Kildee Dies – Former U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, a Democrat from Michigan, has died. Described in Roll Call as the “Cal Ripken of Congress” for casting more than 20,000 votes in the House between 1977 and 2012, he was known for his “quiet work to protect the auto industry and labor unions,” and to improve public schools. His nephew Dan Kildee, who won the seat representing the Flint area in 2012, announced the former congressman’s death but did not give a cause. Kildee was 92.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods
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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2021
•The House of Representatives voted 219-206 yesterday to adopt the $480-billion increase in the debt limit as passed in the Senate last week, increasing the Treasury Department’s borrowing authority to about $28.9 trillion, Roll Call says. The hike prevents defaults that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin warned would have begun next Monday, instead through early December.
•Opening arguments in a Manhattan federal court begin today for Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, accused of illegally funneling $300,000 in Russian funds to U.S. political campaigns and groups, including a political action committee controlled by Trump allies (per Politico).
•William Shatner is spending the day in space, as the actor who portrayed Capt. James T. Kirk in Star Trek takes a ride on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin spacecraft, at age 90.
Inflation Rate Hits 5.4% for September – The Consumer Price Index was up 0.4% in September, for a 5.4% annual rate, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. Food prices were up 0.9% overall, with a food at home inflation rate of 1.3% for the month.
Energy was up 1.3% for September, with gas and diesel at the pump up 1.2% for the month. New vehicle prices rose 1.3% reflecting in part the new 2022 model year, though the continuing computer chip shortage is contributing to a supply-demand imbalance. Used vehicle prices, a leading contributor to inflation until recently, fell 0.7%, though they are up 24.4% for the last 12 months.
Note: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin maintains the nation’s high inflation remains a temporary problem, which will be overcome once supply chain bottlenecks free up. Her guidance on inflation is a counter-argument against Republicans who say President Biden’s $3.5-trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation will simply boost sky-high inflation. With energy prices hitting record highs and with container ships clogging ports worldwide, high inflation globally could be measured in years, rather than months.
•••
No Apparent Movement in Budget Reconciliation Deal Among Democrats – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said that crucial decisions need to come “in the next few days” about how to cut parts of the White House’s $3.5-trillion Build Back Better budget reconciliation package in order to meet deadlines, Roll Call reports. The deadlines already have slipped past September.
Much of the delay appears to be coming from the Senate side, where even Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, have different priorities. What should be cut? “That’s a negotiation,” Pelosi told reporters. “That’s not something I would be announcing here and I don’t even know what that would be.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, and a leader of the party’s progressive wing in the House, seems to be much less intransigent, and is leading the way on cutting the package by years of lifecycle rather than by specific dollar amounts on the “social infrastructure” programs. The $3.5 trillion package is designed to cover child care, family leave, climate change and other such programs for 10 fiscal years and must be cut to somewhere in the $2- to $2.3-trillion range to satisfy Manchin and Sinema.
Note: While it first seemed like progressive House Democrats were trying to maintain their high expectations by passing a sweeping package with wafer-thin majorities in both chambers, it now seems the two moderate senators are holding up negotiations.
•••
Michigan Protestors Call for “Forensic Audit” of 2020 Results -- Approximately 300 protestors assembled at the state capitol in Michigan yesterday calling for a “forensic audit” of the results of the 2020 presidential election, the AP reports. Donald Trump, who lost the state by 154,189 votes, had urged attendance at the protest. According to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, there have been more than 200 audits conducted, proving that the election was not fraudulent.
Note: The “forensic audit” in Arizona, which found no fraud, will cost taxpayers some $3 million to replace the vote-counting machines that were compromised by being turned over to the Cyber Ninjas. The protestors in Michigan should keep that in mind. A lot of potholes can be filled for $3 million.
And here’s a question: if they are concerned about election integrity predicated on what are admittedly close results, where were they in 2016, when Trump took Michigan by 10,704 votes?
One of the arguments that is raised about so-called election fraud is that in some states Trump was leading . . . and then he fell behind and lost.
Perhaps this will make things clearer for some people to understand why the person who is leading at the start doesn’t necessary end in front: according to the The Daytona Beach News-Journal, the driver on the pole of the Daytona 500, which has been run since 1959, has won the race just seven times.
•••
U.S. Border to Reopen to Canadians – The U.S. will open its northern border to fully vaccinated Canadians, and its southern border to fully vaccinated Mexicans, in November, Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced in a news release Tuesday, according to The Globe and Mail. Opening of the northern border affects land and ferry crossings and is based on recommendations by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No exact reopening date has been reported. Canada opened its border to vaccinated U.S. citizens last August. The border had been closed off due to the pandemic since March 2020.
Note: No reaction so far, from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics
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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2021
•Members of the House of Representatives return to the Capitol to approve the $480-billion hike in the debt limit ceiling, which the Senate approved 50-49 last week in order to keep the federal government’s lights on through December 3. President Biden is expected to sign the bill this week, the Associated Press says. Next Monday marks the day Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says the government would begin defaulting on payment for programs approved in the past, without the extension.
•Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay writes about Sen. Chuck Grassley’s fealty to Donald J. Trump at Sunday’s MAGA rally in “Iowa: Maybe Not What You Think.” Read his column at thehustings.substack.com.
Believe Science Now? – At least 85% of the world’s population have experienced weather events made worse by climate change, a new study in the journal Nature Climate Changereports. The study used machine learning to analyze and map more than 100,000 studies of events, according to The Washington Post, paired with a well-established data set of population shifts caused by fossil fuel use and other carbon emission sources.
“We have a huge evidence base now that documents how climate change is affecting our societies and ecosystems,” said lead author Max Callaghan of Germany’s Mercator Institute of Global Commerce and Climate Change.
Note: All too obviously, this study comes as moderate and progressive Democrats argue over the large components in President Biden’s $3.5 trillion Bring Back Better budget reconciliation bill that attempt to address climate change and heading toward a carbon neutral fossil fuel use. Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, has proposed $100 billion in cuts to the bill’s environmental provisions, while Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, of course is trying to protect his state’s already dwindling coal economy.
•••
North Korea Creating First-Strike Capability — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, while reviewing a parade of missiles that are said to be capable of reaching the U.S. mainland with nuclear warheads, said; “The U.S. has frequently signaled it’s not hostile to our state, but there is no action-based evidence to make us believe that they are not hostile,” and “The U.S. is continuing to create tensions in the region with its wrong judgments and actions,” according to the Associated Press, citing the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim is also quoted as saying they are working to develop an “invincible military capability.”
Note: According to the CIA World Factbook, commodity exports of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are watch components, fake hair, iron alloys, instructional models, tungsten.
If a nuclear power that makes those exports isn’t frightening, we don’t know what is.
•••
Texas Governor Bans Vaccine Mandates – Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has signed an executive order banning any entity in Texas from mandating coronavirus vaccines for workers or customers, The Washington Post reports. His action expands prior executive orders that placed such restrictions on state government office from imposing similar requirements.
Abbott also has asked the Texas legislature to enact his ban into law, Texas Public Radio reports.
Note: At this point, Abbott’s actions appear to be an attempt to pile on beleaguered President Biden’s failed promise to bring COVID-19 under control, which was partially undermined by last summer’s Delta variant, vaccine deniers and people like Abbott, who previously banned mask requirements. It is worth noting that the governor’s actions run counter to traditional Republican values of hands-off attitude toward private business -- apparently, these values belong to the “RINO” arm of the GOP.
Also note: WaPo reports in a separate story that two Wisconsin mothers are suing their children’s elementary schools after their sons contracted COVID-19. The children were required to wear masks when they returned to class during the last school year but were not required to do so when classes resumed this fall. The mothers, Shannon Jensen and Gina Kildahl, required their sons to wear masks to a Waukesha and a Fall Creek school, respectively anyway, but that did not prevent them from contracting the virus. Lawsuits filed in two Wisconsin federal courts blame the schools for lax attitude toward masks, quarantining and social distancing.
•••
Prison Labels Russian Dissident ‘Terrorist’ – Alexei Navalny says the prison that has held him since he returned to Russia in January after treatment for a nerve agent has changed his designation from “escape risk” to “extremist” and “terrorist,” Politico EU reports. Navalny is serving two years, eight months for alleged parole violations, and in June, a Russian court banned his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) from operating, labeling it “extremist.” In an Instagram post, Navalny said the new designation requires him to confirm his presence in the prison via video recording every two hours.
Note: One assumes that prison authorities know precisely where Navalny is and what he is doing every moment. The check-in requirement is undoubtedly just another way to keep the prisoner in line.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2021
•It’s the U.S.’s first Indigenous People’s Day (and traditionally, Columbus Day).
•Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay comments on Donald J. Trump’s Iowa rally and the changing demographics of the state, today at The Hustings/Substack;
Grassley Accepts Trump’s 2022 Endorsement – Donald J. Trump gave his “complete and total” endorsement to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-IA, already the oldest senator at 88, in his bid for an eighth term next year, at a rally the former president held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds Sunday. “I was born at night, but not last night,” Grassley said at the rally, according to the Des Moines Register. “So if I didn’t accept the endorsement of a person that’s got 91% of the Republican voters in Iowa, I wouldn’t be too smart. I’m smart enough to accept that endorsement.”
Note: Funny how Grassley almost grudgingly accepts Trump’s endorsement. The Iowa senator has danced around the former president’s lies and two impeachments, voting against conviction along with the majority of his fellow Republican senators, but not quite hanging with the group of Trump’s most loyal sycophants. On February 13, after the second impeachment, Grassley put out a statement that says, in part:
“The reality is, he lost. He brought over 60 lawsuits and lost all but one of them. He was not able to challenge enough votes to overcome President Biden’s significant margins in key states. I wish it would have stopped there. It didn’t. President Trump continued to argue that the election had been stolen even though the courts didn’t back up his claims. He belittled and harassed elected officials across the country to get his way. He encouraged his own, loyal vice president, Mike Pence, to take extraordinary and unconstitutional actions during the Electoral College count. My vote in this impeachment does nothing to excuse or justify those actions. There’s no doubt in my mind that President Trump’s language was extreme, aggressive, and irresponsible.”
What happened to that sentiment? Does Trump know about it?
Expect more political shifting and groveling from other Republicans who want to avoid being “primaried” for the midterms next year, as Trump teases his inevitable ’24 presidential campaign.
•••
Contempt for Bannon? – The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection may issue former Trump political advisor Steve Bannon contempt of Congress referral to the Justice Department, if he doesn’t comply with a subpoena issued last Thursday. Bannon has said he won’t appear in front of the committee, claiming executive privilege. Conversely, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Defense Department official Kashyap Patel have indicated they are “engaging” with the committee, The Hill reports.
Dan Scavino, former deputy chief of staff for White House communications under the Trump administration, was not mentioned in a joint statement issued by committee chairman Rep. Bernie Thompson, D-MS, and vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, Friday, the day after the October 7 deadline to respond to the subpoenas.
“While Mr. Meadows and Mr. Patel are, so far, engaging with the Select Committee, Mr. Bannon has indicated that he will try to hide behind vague references to privileges of the former president,” they said in their written statement.
Note: Trump cannot claim “executive privilege” for himself or for any former associates as a former president, himself. President Biden, who can make the claim, says he will release documents from the last administration for the investigation.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash