(THU 4/28/22)

Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay weighs in on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ culture war against Disney, in today’s right column.

U.S. GDP -1.4% in Q1… Gross Domestic Product dropped by 1.4% in the first quarter, more or less matching economists’ expectations following an overheated 6.9% increase in the fourth quarter of 2021, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday. 

The BEA says a spike in COVID-19 increases last quarter, mostly from the omicron variant, plus lowered government pandemic assistance payments fed the drop.

The advance estimate, subject to corrections in the coming weeks and months, reports decreased private inventory investment, wholesale trade (mostly motor vehicles) and federal government spending, mostly of defense spending on intermediate goods and services. Imports were up, mostly non-food, non-automotive durable goods.

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U.S. howitzers in Ukraine … The Pentagon says more than half the 90 howitzers the U.S. has promised to Ukraine for its war against Russia have been delivered (NPR), and more than 50 Ukrainian soldiers have been trained on how to use them. The U.S. has budgeted more than $3 billion in military aid to the country since Russia invaded, most of it delivered. The howitzers arrive amidst heavy Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine, its new battleground. 

This just in: President Biden is asking Congress to authorize more than $30 billion in security, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s prolonged attack, over the next five months, White House officials told The Hill.

Meanwhile: Russia has cut natural gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, The Washington Post says, while threatening other European countries that do not comply with its demand they pay in rubles. Russia desperately needs payment in its own currency as the West has sanctioned its liquid assets. 

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About that ‘marshall law’ … The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has “renewed” interest in texts from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to Trump administration Chief of Staff Mark Meadows suggesting the ex-president impose martial law before the January 20, 2021 presidential inauguration The Washington Post reports. 

As a reminder, MTG’s January 17, 2021, text to Meadows begins: “In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall (sic) Law.” …

‘Renewed?’: One hopes that the House panel has kept its eye on Donald J. Trump’s penchant for martial law. There’s his response to the June 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in Washington, D.C., over George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, when then-President Trump sought to invoke the Insurrection Act, and his post-presidency comments last February, when he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin describing his invasion of Ukraine as a “peace force.” 

“We could use that on our Southern border,” Trump told a right-wing radio show. “That’s the strongest peace force I’ve ever seen.”

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics