FRI 2/18/22
•We are celebrating Presidents Day. News & Notes returns Tuesday, February 22.
•The Senate Thursday passed a temporary spending bill ahead of a Friday deadline that would have shut part of the federal government (Roll Call). Next kick-the-can-down-the-road deadline: March 11.
•All members of Congress are invited to President Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday, March 1, but they will be required to wear masks and will not be allowed to bring guests. What’s the over-and-under on the number of empty seats?
U.S. Sells $6b in Tanks to Poland – The U.S. will sell 250 M1A2 Abrams tanks to Poland for $6 billion to give the NATO ally that flanks Ukraine’s western border a “substantial boost in firepower,” according to Stars and Stripes. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the sale in Warsaw, where he met with Polish officials about the Russian aggression with more than 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s border.
“We are on the verge of the most dangerous conflict since World War II,” Austin said. He describes the tank sale as a deal Russian President Vladimir Putin “did not want.”
Note: The Biden administration warns that a full-on Russian invasion is imminent, as Russia announces nuclear missile drills and has begun cyber-attacks on Ukraine. Vice President Kamala Harris meets with other NATO leaders at the pre-scheduled Munich Security Conference. But one has to wonder where NATO would be now, had Donald J. Trump managed to turn over the 2020 presidential election in his favor. Recall that in his 2018 meeting with Putin in Helsinki, Trump put more trust in the Russian president’s denials of meddling in the 2016 presidential election than his own intelligence reports. “I don’t see any reason why it would be” Russia, Trump said. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”
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Trumps Must Testify – Ex-President Donald J. Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. must comply with New York Attorney General Letitia James’ subpoenas to testify in her investigation of family business practices, a state Supreme Court judge ruled Thursday, according to The Hill. Judge Arthur Engoron has denied the Trumps’ efforts to reject the subpoenas, dismissing the former president’s arguments that James’ various comments, including her campaign vows essentially amounted to a political “witch hunt.”
Engoron’s “review of the thousands of documents responsive to [Office of Attorney General’s] prior subpoenas demonstrates that OAG has a sufficient basis for continuing its investigation, which undercuts the notion that this ongoing investigation is based on personal animus, not fact and law. …
James is conducting both civil and criminal investigations of the Trump Organization’s business practices. Engoron gave Trump 14 days to comply with his subpoena. Ivanka and Don Jr. have 21 days to give depositions.
Note: Perhaps the only certain thing here is that Las Vegas will soon offer odds on the over-under bet on number of pleadings of the Fifth.
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McCarthy Endorses Cheney’s Trumpian Primary Challenger – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has endorsed Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) primary challenger for the midterm elections. Republican candidate Harriet Hageman is one of ex-President Trump’s hand-picked primary challengers, and McCarthy’s endorsement is considered the “latest act of GOP retribution for criticism of Trump election lies,” according to Roll Call. Cheney, of course, is one of two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. (The other, Adam Kinzinger, of Illinois, is not running for re-election this year.)
Note: McCarthy does not have a Republican primary challenger for the seat he has held since 2007, yet. However, Bruno Amato, an actor most recently seen on the Paramount+ TV series Yellowstone is challenging McCarthy as a Democrat, according to Bakersfield.com.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S Vasilash
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THU 2/17/22
•Time to re-open the nation? White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday the U.S. has made ‘tremendous progress’ in its ability to protect against the coronavirus, with ¾ of adults double-vaccinated. U.S. cases dropped 44% in the last week (WaPo).
No, Not a Pull-Out – There is no sign that Russia is pulling back troops from near the Ukraine border, U.S. intelligence indicates, per The Washington Post. Instead, Russia has added “thousands” more troops, apparently beyond the 150,000 previously estimated.
And on Thursday, President Biden warned, “my sense is (invasion) will happen in the next several days,” The Hill reports.
Meanwhile, a separatist reportedly told Russian media – without evidence, and serving as an example of the Kremlin’s efforts to invade from within – that he had been fired upon by Ukrainian forces. Thursday morning, NPR reported shelling on a Ukrainian village from the Russian-occupied east sector of the country. Ukraine officials said the Russian shelling hit a pre-school and injured at least two civilians.
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Is There Middle Ground in Public Schools? -- As more conservative suburban school districts around the country consider banning books and any American history lesson that might make white students feel “uncomfortable,” voters in the nation’s most liberal city, San Francisco, have voted to recall three school board members who made renaming 44 schools their priority. Mayor London Breed (D) criticized the board for being distracted by “political agendas,” The Guardian reports, while board President Gabriela Lopez, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and commissioner Alison Collins say they made racial equity their priority because that’s what they were elected to do. Breed will name three temporary replacements.
Issues: San Francisco public school parents want the seven-member board to concentrate on a $125-million deficit, replacing the district’s retiring superintendent and how to return students to in-class instruction as the COVID-19 pandemic finally recedes.
What they did instead: The board began the process in January 2021 of renaming 44 San Francisco schools named after public figures linked to racism, sexism, etc., including presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington, and California’s senior U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein (D).
Note: It’s as if school board members asked, “what can we do to make San Francisco an even easier red meat target of Fox News pundits?” Moderate Democrats, like James “wokeness is a problem and we all know it” Carville, have been warning for much of the last year that such progressives are all but handing the midterms over to pro-Trump Republicans.
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As ‘All the Best People’ Churns – The Trump administration’s first interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, “misused his official position” to support a project that could benefit the Great Northern Veterans Peace Park Project, a non-profit he established with his wife, according to a Department of the Interior inspector general’s report, per Roll Call. Zinke “maintained close ties” with the foundation after he was confirmed as interior secretary, the IG’s report states, even though he said he would not participate after his confirmation in 2017. The foundation commenced negotiations with developers of a commercial project related to the non-profit’s project, in Zinke’s hometown of Whitefish, Montana. The inspector general referred the case to the Justice Department, which declined to prosecute, Roll Call says.
No note on this news item – just adding to the Trump-era political corruption pile.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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WED 2/16/22
•President Biden has rejected Donald J. Trump’s claims of executive privilege in ordering the National Archives to turn over January 6 White House visitor logs to the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, within two weeks (Politico).
Is Russia Pulling Back, or Adding Troops? – The Kremlin claims Russia is pulling back troops from the Ukrainian border, but NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says there is evidence Russia is actually adding troops, the BBC reports.
In an address from the White House Tuesday, President Biden vowed to “rally the world” against Russia if its president, Vladimir Putin, decides to invade Ukraine (per Newsweek). “The world will not forget that Russia chose needless death and destruction,” Biden said. “Invading Ukraine will prove to be a self-inflicted wound.”
Biden put the number of Russian troops threatening Ukraine at 150,000 Tuesday.
Meanwhile, there’s a “measure of calm” in Kyiv, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.
Note: The “measure of calm” may have as much to do with the monotony over eight years of conflict over the Crimean peninsula as the actual Russian troop count. What may be making Ukrainians more nervous is the Kremlin’s acumen in cyber-warfare, which effectively shut down two national banks briefly earlier this week.
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Sandy Hook Families Settle with Remington – Nine families of victims in the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newton, Connecticut, have settled with Remington, manufacturer of the AR-15 used to kill 20 first graders and six adults, for $73 million, The New York Times reports. It is believed to be the largest payout for a gun manufacturer, and skirted a federal law protecting gunmakers from lawsuits by arguing the Remington AR-15 was marketed to “couch commandos” and troubled young men like the man who committed the massacre.
Note: The payout will be from Remington’s insurers, as the gun manufacturer is currently undergoing bankruptcy. Connecticut, along with New York and California, have instituted consumer protection laws that skirt federal protection for firearm manufacturers, and legislators in other states are looking at similar runarounds. This recalls the National Firearms Act of 1934, which essentially taxes certain high-power weapons out of existence although, in this case, it would work only for certain states.
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Obituary: P.J. O’Rourke – Writer, journalist, satirist, and conservative political commentator P.J. O’Rourke has died in Sharon, New Hampshire, from complications of lung cancer at age 74. He was editor-in-chief of National Lampoon, wrote numerous books, including Parliament of Whores and a collection of essays How the Hell Did This Happen? The Election of 2016, was the conservative opposite Molly Ivins in the point-counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes in the 1990s and was a regular on NPR’s comedy quiz show, Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me. O’Rourke wrote for The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone and The American Spectator.
When The New York Times in 2010 invited prominent people to define the two major political parties, O’Rourke wrote: “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says ‘government doesn’t work’ and then get elected and prove it.”
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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TUE 2/15/22
•Russia says some units participating in its “military exercises” near the Ukrainian border will return to their bases, giving NATO and the U.S. a modicum of hope that an invasion is being averted (AP).
•A U.S. District Court judge in Manhattan will dismiss a libel case by 2008 vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin against The New York Times over an inaccurate 2017 editorial (WaPo). The judge says Palin has not met the legal standard of “actual malice” for the case to go forward.
Trump Bean-Counters Take it All Back – What do you say when your own long time accounting firm, Mazars USA, says it can no longer stand behind 2011-20 financial statements it compiled based on information provided by the Trump Organization? If you’re former President Donald J. Trump, you say the firm’s withdrawal of support, which came in a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James February 9, according to The New York Times, is politically motivated.
Never mind that the letter retracts the firm’s “statements of financial condition” for the decade that includes the Trump Organization’s development of the Trump International Hotel Washington D.C., in the Old Post Office building, “just minutes from the White House” according to its website, developed during Mazars’ decade time frame. The Trump Organization is the subject of a civil case in which it is alleged to have artificially inflated the values of its properties for favorable loan terms, and a criminal investigation, both in New York State. The disclosure of Mazars’ “instrument to retract” came in a New York AG disclosure Monday by James, who hopes to question Trump and two of his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka.
Note: For about seven years now, Trump has managed to convince about 30% of American voters that he is the constant victim of a political witch hunt. Keeping the banking industry on his side – loyal Trump Organization lender Deutsche Bank notwithstanding – is not going to be as easy. Bottom line is that while the civil and criminal cases may affect Trump’s ability to run for president in 2024, it will not have much of an effect on the political fortunes of his congressional candidate picks for this year’s midterms.
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Push Comes to Shove – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has invoked Canada’s Emergency Act to bring to order semi-truck drivers’ protests against pandemic restrictions, The Globe and Mail reports. How serious is it? Well, the CBC preempted its continuing coverage of the Winter Olympics to provide live coverage of Trudeau’s announcement invoking the Emergencies Act for the first time in the nation’s history. Canadians take the Winter Games very seriously.
There are two primary situations in Canada (although there are acts occurring in other provinces as well). The ones in Quebec and Ontario are caused by the so-called “Freedom Convoy.” Think of it as “Truckers Against Vaccines.” (It has since morphed into being against masks and other restrictions, too.) Part of the convoy drove to the country’s capital and parked their big rigs in downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill. The trucks have been joined by all manner of other vehicles and plenty of people as part of a protest. Why? Well, there is a requirement that Canadian commercial truck drivers have to show proof of vaccination when they cross back into Canada. In other words, the government wants to minimize the potential of their bringing more virus back into the country. The other situation is in Windsor, at the Ambassador Bridge, which was blocked for six days by truckers and their associates; usually some 10,000 cross the bridge per day, so this had a big economic impact, to say nothing of causing more than minor inconvenience to the business owners and travelers from both sides of the border.
Trudeau said in a news conference, “It is now clear that there are serious challenges to law enforcement's ability to effectively enforce the law." So, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police will be able to join the provincial and local police forces who are trying to restore order. In addition, the government is requiring that crowdfunding platforms, which many protestors have turned to, register with the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said “We are making these changes because we know that these platforms are being used to support illegal blockade and illegal activity, which is damaging the Canadian economy.”
Note: This is serious stuff. Some are saying more should have been done earlier, which presumably means the police being more forceful in their response to the blockades. Then, of course, there would have been an issue with that.
But one thing that Freeland said is probably going to do more than any number of law enforcement personnel: “We are today serving notice: if your truck is being used in these protests, your corporate accounts will be frozen. The insurance on your vehicle will be suspended.”
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods
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MON 2/14/22
•Authorities have re-opened the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, the busiest commercial connection between the U.S. and Canada, after anti-vaxx truckers blocked it for nearly a week (AP). A larger protest persists in Ottawa.
•Arguments begin today in the hate-crime trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers (WaPo).
Diplomacy’s Race Against Invasion – Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, says diplomacy over Ukraine is “far from over” and proposes continuing and “intensifying” them even as Russian and Belarussian jets fly near their neighbor’s border, The New York Times reports. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is next on deck for negotiations. He is in Kyiv, Ukraine, today and proceeds to Moscow tomorrow. President Biden made little headway with Russian President Vladimir Putin in an hour-plus call Saturday.
Note: Even as fighter jets and Russian warships are gathering near Ukraine in the Black Sea, the U.S. and NATO nations are relying on the threat of economic sanctions, including the future of the Russian Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline to Germany, to staunch Putin’s desire to rebuild his country’s dominance in the region.
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Slow-Walking Attorney – Former Trump lawyer John Eastland, a key player in the attempt to get Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the Electoral College count on January 6, 2021, is claiming attorney-client privilege in attempting to refuse to turn over thousands of emails to the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, Politico reports. Judge David Carter, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has ordered Eastland to review more than 94,000 emails. Some 8,000 have been turned over to the committee. Eastman has about 48,000 more to review and is reportedly taking his time in doing so.
Note: Eastman was pretty much an unknown until he was interviewed by the 1/6 panel in December, when he reportedly pleaded the 5th Amendment 146 times. There are concerns he is slow walking his review of the emails until the mid-term elections in November. The Eastman emails originated on the server of his former employer, Chapman University. Eastman resigned from the university after January 6. As an attorney for Chapman has made clear: the school isn’t interested in trying to help Eastman. Why didn’t the committee subpoena the emails directly from the university?
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Vaxx By State — “Have you gotten the vaccine, or not?” is the question asked in a Morning Consult survey of about 40,000 people in the U.S. and a fairly consistent 20% are unwilling (i.e., on February 7 of this year, 20% said they are unwilling; on March 15 of last year, 21% were unwilling). Where are the opposition rates the highest? The top-five areas of resistance are: Wyoming (35%), Montana (34%), North Dakota (30%), Idaho (29%), and West Virginia, Alabama and Oklahoma tie for fifth at 28%.
On the flip side, the lowest rates of vaccine unwillingness are: District of Columbia (7%) and Massachusetts (10%), while New Jersey, Vermont and Delaware tie for fifth at 16%.
Note: It is interesting to note that the states where people are more willing to get vaccinated happen to be representative of the creation of the country: Look at the list of the first states and they check the boxes (yes, D.C. is an anomaly, but other than that. . . ). And it is notable that while Vermont is the only outlier vis-à-vis the original 13 – it’s the nation’s 14th state.
Seems that the original freedom-lovers are pro-vaccine.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
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