TUE 3/22/22

Culture Wars and the KBJ Hearings – Republican scrutiny of President Biden’s nominee for Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, began with Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (R-SC) complaint that far-left lobbying groups and “dark money” sunk White House consideration of Judge J. Michelle Childs for the seat, because of her alleged rulings that were unfriendly to labor unions. 

Childs is a U.S. district judge in South Carolina, who also had the backing of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a close ally of Biden. 

But scrutiny of Jackson reached a crescendo when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, “You once wrote that every judge has ‘Personal, hidden agendas’ that influence how they decide cases. I can only wonder what your hidden agenda is?”

Backlash: According to Fox News Digital, “reporters and media commentators took to social media to complain about Blackburn asking for the Supreme Court nominee’s ‘hidden agenda’. First example was by CNN reporter Manu Raju, who tweeted this caption to a photo from the hearings: “Judge Jackson listens on as Marsha Blackburn questions whether the Supreme Court nominee has a ‘hidden agenda.’”

You can read other examples here: https://www.foxnews.com/media/media-attack-marsha-blackburn-take-hearing-comments-context

A Blackburn aide told Fox News Digital, “You can always count on mainstream media to target and harass the only female conservative in the room – it appears that’s their full-time job.”

Day Two: And that’s just from the opening comments on the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings. The second day, with committee grilling of Brown, has just begun.

•••

Vintage Defense in Ukraine – The U.S. is sending into Ukraine Russian defense systems it secretly obtained before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as protection against Russia’s attacks. The U.S. military acquired the Soviet-era defense systems to better understand the capabilities of missile defense systems Moscow was using around the world, according to The Wall Street Journal.

What’s Not 40-years Old: Meanwhile, President Biden warned Monday of likelihood of Russian cyber-attacks against “critical-sector” U.S. companies, The Washington Post says.

On the Physical Battlefield: President Volodymyr Zelensky says some Ukrainian cities have been bombed beyond recognition as Russia steps up its shelling. Ukrainian forces have re-taken a suburb of Kyiv as Russian troops remain stalled outside the city.

On Tuesday, Zelensky told the Italian government that Ukraine is on the brink of surviving the war, per BBC.

And What Would Trump Do?: As the Trump wing of the Republican Party continues to paint President Biden as “weak” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fox News host Stuart Varney pressed Donald J. Trump on what the ex-president would have done better. Would Trump send in MiG jets, as requested by Zelensky?

“Well, maybe, even more, to be honest with you,” according to a transcript of the Varney & Co. segment published by Mediaite. 

“Like what, Mr. President, like what?” Varney pressed. 

“Let me just explain that Putin is saying things like ‘don’t you dare send in anything … In the meantime, he’s killing thousands and thousands of people…” Trump went on to explain that the U.S. military has a fleet of “44-year-old” fighter jets.

“Well, what I would do, is I would, we would, we have tremendous military capability and what we can do without planes, to be honest with you, without 44-year-old jets, what we can do is enormous, and we should be doing it and we should be helping them to survive and they’re doing an amazing job.”

And there you have it. That’s why the Trump wing of the GOP finds Biden “weak” on the war.

•••

Meanwhile, in proposed financial/environmental regulations – The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday a proposed rule change that would require public companies to include information about “climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements.”

Rationalizing this, SEC chairman Gary Gensler wrote, “Today, investors representing literally tens of trillions of dollars support climate-related disclosures because they recognize that climate risks can pose significant financial risks to companies, and investors need reliable information about climate risks to make informed investment decisions. Today’s proposal would help issuers more efficiently and effectively disclose these risks and meet investor demand, as many issuers already seek to do.”

The proposal calls for companies to include information about:

1. Its approach to handling climate-related risks
2. Any identified climate-related risks that may impact its financial situation in the short-, medium- and long-term
3. How climate-related risks have affected or are likely to affect the company’s business
4. The impact that climate-related risks have had on the company

What’s more, it would require companies to disclose information about the greenhouse gas emissions that it produces directly or indirectly (e.g., by purchases from other companies that generate GHG).

A Form Too Far:  While we all like clean air and water, this may be a case of what is commonly referred to as “government overreach.” To be sure, if a company is polluting and it is found out, odds are its stock will plummet and investors will be negatively affected (to say nothing of those who are affected by the waste).

But couldn’t one argue that it would be worth knowing the cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings to the executives in charge of public companies, too? After all, if a key executive has a health issue that puts them out of action, odds are the valuation of said company is going to take a tumble.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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MON 3/21/22

Public Defenders Get Their Day – The first-ever Supreme Court justice nominee to have served as a public defender, Ketanji Brown Jackson (pictured above), gets grilled beginning today by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jackson most recently sailed through her nomination by President Biden to federal court, but now Judiciary Committee Republicans including Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, envision soundbites of their grilling Jackson as being “soft on crime” for their re-election campaigns. One of the issues they’ll focus on is her membership on  the U.S. Sentencing Commission, described by The Washington Post as a “bipartisan agency created by Congress in 1984 to reduce disparity and promote transparency and proportionality in sentencing.”

Retiring Justice Stephen Breyer is the only former member of the Sentencing Commission to sit on the Supreme Court. 

Known Knowns: In 2010, Jackson was one of several federal public defenders who “had either represented Guantanamo detainees or done policy work on behalf of detainees,” Lawforce editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes writes. The Republican National Committee says, Wittes continues, that Jackson’s “advocacy” goes “beyond just giving them a competent defense.” (She had continued advocating for the Guantanamo defendants after moving on to private practice.)

Jackson’s advocates fear Cruz & Co. will attack her for doing what public defenders are supposed to do: Practice law that is effective in defense against a determined prosecution.

Unknown Unknowns: SCOTUS watchers figure the Democratic majority on the Judiciary Committee will send Jackson’s nomination to the full Senate, where she will pass by at least a vote of 51-50. 

•••

Zelensky to CNN – Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an exclusive interview over the weekend he is open to negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, but if such talks fail it could lead to “a third World War.” 

Known Unknowns: Zelensky still hopes to convince NATO to transfer Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine at the very least and conduct a no-fly zone over his country at best, which NATO leaders and President Biden believe will also lead to World War III. Meanwhile, Russia has negotiated “ceasefires” and “humanitarian corridors” which it has promptly violated by firing upon and bombing Ukrainian civilians, so this begs the question of whether Putin expects -- or even wants -- to fire of some nuclear missiles to trigger WWIII no matter what.

How does Zelensky negotiate with such a leader?

The Latest in Negotiations: Ukraine on Monday rejected Russia’s demand it surrender Mariupol, NPR reports.

General Count: Latest reports claim the Ukraine’s military has killed five of 20 Russian generals who are part of the invasion.

Least-Worst Outcome?: Experts tell The Washington Post the war could end in a “stalemate.” “I don’t think Ukraine forces can push Russian forces out of Ukraine, but I also don’t think Russian forces can take that much more of Ukraine,” says former U.S. Marine Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.

President Biden travels to Brussels Wednesday to meet with leaders of NATO, the European Commission and G-7, then on to Warsaw Friday to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, according to Punchbowl News.

•••

Meanwhile, in COVID-adjacent news -- On Friday President Biden signed the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667), which might seem unimportant to you, unless you happen to ever need to see a health care professional.

The bill, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA):

• Authorizes “grants for programs that offer behavioral health services for front-line health care workers.”
• Requires “the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend strategies to facilitate health care provider well-being and launch a campaign encouraging health care workers to seek assistance when needed.”

On March 4, 2021, the AHA — which represents some 5,000 hospitals, 270,000 physicians, 2 million nurses and caregivers — wrote a letter to four senators: 

“Front-line health care workers have been steadfast in leading the fight against this pandemic since the first COVID-19 cases were identified last January, and their efforts have been extraordinary. After more than a year of working through the intensity of the pandemic, these dedicated workers are still on the front lines.

“Concerns are mounting about how the number of physicians, nurses and other health workers are coping with emotional and physical strain from treating COVID-19 patients. We know – both from survey data and anecdotally from extensive discussions with our members – that clinicians are suffering. A study reported by the National Academy of Medicine shows that between 35% and 54% of clinicians report at least one symptom of burnout, more than double the amount of burnout found in other fields. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this situation worse. These workers need and deserve added support as they continue to care for severely ill patients.”

And back then it seemed as though COVID would soon be gone.

Think about what the AHA wrote when considering the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers.

The bill was named for a doctor who led the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. Dr. Breen, 49, overwhelmed by what she was facing day after day after day, committed suicide.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

FRI 3/18/22

Lviv Hit – Russian missiles destroyed an aircraft maintenance facility four miles from the center of the western Ukrainian town of Lviv, just 45 miles from the Polish-NATO border, BBC and NPR report Friday. 

Meanwhile: President Biden was set to hold his first phone call since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with China President Xi Jinping Friday morning. Biden wants Beijing to put more pressure on Russia, counter to fears China will offer military aid and equipment to Putin.

Numbers: Key to convincing Putin to agree to a ceasefire is allowing him to save face as Ukraine continues to fight back effectively. U.S. intelligence officials put the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war at more than 7,000, greater than the number of U.S. troops killed in various conflicts over the last 20 years, Newsweek reports. Other reports place the number of Russian dead at more than 10,000. Four of the 20 Russian generals in Ukraine have been killed since the war began February 24, though Putin has acknowledged just one killed, in a March 3 televised address.

Russia’s invasion is “basically frozen” on the ground, The Washington Post reports. The United Nations has confirmed more than 1,900 civilian deaths in Ukraine.

•••

While picking a side -- “The Ukrainian president's speech before Congress was a triumph, cementing his hero status and showing off the kind of courage Americans are left longing for in this administration. Now, as the war enters its fourth week, voters are even more disgusted by the White House's response to Russia -- agreeing (in greater numbers now) that he's mishandled this crisis too.” —Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, March 17.

Yesterday a bill passed the House that will suspend permanent normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus. It passed 424-8.

The eight are all Republicans:

• Andy Biggs (AZ)
• Dan Bishop (NC)
• Lauren (CO)
• Matt Gaetz (FL)
• Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA)
• Glenn Grothman (WI)
• Tom Massie (KY)
• Chip Roy (TX)

The Family Research Council sent out emails to Republican lawmakers as it is against the bill.

Punchbowl News writes: 

“FRC complainedthe House bill modifies the Magnitsky Act. It would allow the Biden administration to ‘push a radical social agenda both here and abroad which is a problem for a host of reasons, not the least of which is emboldening other nations to target their citizens because they don’t believe the United States will oppose them,’ according to an email from the FRC.”

This pro-life organization needs to know that more than 100 living children have died in Ukraine.

Perhaps that sentence above should be modified: “Now, as the war enters its fourth week, voters are even more disgusted by the eight Congress members and the FRC’s response to Russia.”

They can’t have it both ways.

Tucker Carlson ‘Moscow Rose’: Fox News’ American propagandist for Vladimir Putin and Russia, Tucker Carlson, argues “if (he, Carlson, is) a propagandist, so is Zelenskyy,” according to The Recount, which we presume assigns the loser of a newsroom lottery to regularly watch Tucker Carlson Tonight. 

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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THU 3/17/22

Zelenskyy to Scholz: ‘Tear Down This Wall’…

Speaking to the German Bundestag via video a day after he addressed U.S. Congress, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thursday compared Russia’s bombing of his country to building of the Berlin Wall in 1962. He severely criticized German businesses and politicians who have until very recently maintained good relations with Russia, the BBC reports, and called on Chancellor Olaf Sholz to “tear down this wall.” (Photo from Zelenskyy's March 16 address to U.S. Congress, via C-Span.)

Zelenskyy’s metaphorical 21^st Century Berlin “wall” is splitting Europe between NATO nations and Russia and countries in its political orbit, including Belarus and Chechnya, and of course Ukraine itself, as Vladimir Putin wages war to regain control. 

Despite Zelenskyy’s harsh criticisms of Germany, members of the Bundestag gave him a standing ovation.

•••

A Known Known – Responding to a reporter’s question about Russian President Vladimir Putin shouted to President Biden after he delivered remarks Wednesday for reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, the president said, “I think he is a war criminal.” (Per The Washington Post.)

Compare and contrast to “savvy” and “very genius.”

•••

Some Companies Won’t Leave Russia – Dozens of Western-based companies have withdrawn from or suspended operations in Russia to support sanctions meant to counter its invasion of Ukraine, but many remain. Now the Yale School of Management lays it all out for you, notes Washington Post opinion columnist Dana Millbank. The Ivy League school has a list of 1.) companies that have withdrawn; 2.) companies that have suspended, keeping options open (Apple and Google’s app stores have kept operating to offer open information to counter Russian propaganda); 3.) companies scaling back; and 4.) companies “digging in,” which include Authentic Brands, Reebok, Bacardi, Cargill, Halliburton, Koch Industries, LG Electronics, Pirelli and Subway. For complete lists in each category, go to: https://som.yale.edu/story/2022/over-400-companies-have-withdrawn-russia-some-remain.

•••

Interest Rate Hike to Counter Inflation – Acknowledging that the annual inflation rate for 2022 will be closer to 4% than the 2% predicted late last year, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell announced Wednesday a quarter-percentage increase in its rate for borrowing to between 0.25% and 0.5%. It’s the “most aggressive pace in more than 15 years,” and marks the first increase since 2018, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Fed signaled it will ramp up the rate six more times this year to end 2022 with a rate of at least 1.875%, on the way up to 2.75% by the end of 2023, then holding in ’24.

Known Unknown: That 2018 increase came just before then-President Trump “jawboned” the Fed to keep rates low and keep the economy chugging under his administration. Since then, of course, the global COVID-19 pandemic has turned economic theory on its head, with record low unemployment coming along with 40 year-high inflation in the U.S. It also should be noted the sub-2% inflation rate for much of the last decade was considered the sign of a lagging economy.

Unknown Unknowns: Bottom line is that between the still-ongoing pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen.

•••

Meanwhile, over at the service station -- No one like high gas prices. Including us. Even those who don’t drive are affected by higher prices because whether it is that Amazon Prime truck or semis taking food to the local grocery store or buses taking kids to school, diesel and gas price hikes push upward the price of other goods and services.

While Russian oil is off the proverbial table, there are other countries that could provide petroleum products to the U.S. — except that the U.S. doesn’t have good trade relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, all of which are run by leaders that have issues when it comes to the governance of their people. To put it mildly.

But with inflation that started well before Ukraine was invaded and the sanctions that have followed that invasion, there are pressures in Washington to perhaps consider being more friendly to the trio of countries with which we are, more or less, on the outs with.

It seems that American voters — 52% of them — think the U.S. should improve relations with Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. So says a Morning Consult poll. The margin of error is +/-2% so that number is probably accurate.

What’s interesting is that 63% of Democrats and just 41% of Republicans think that diplomatic relations should be improved.

One might think that Dems would be against more carbon-emitting fuels and that the numbers would be switched[CD1] .

Note: But then, if we were could buy more oil from Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela we might potentially lower fuel costs in the U.S. without the domestic drilling and fracking and use of pipelines like Keystone that progressive Democrats oppose.

•••

Obituary: Former Rep. Fazio – Former Rep. Victor Fazio (D-CA) has died. He served the Sacramento area from 1979 to 1999 and was known as a congressman who could “reach across the aisle” to Republicans (at a time when that was still seen as possible on Capitol Hill), according to the Associated Press. He was 79.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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 [CD1]The point you’re missing is that many GOPers want to drill more in the US (Alaska/fracking) and support pipelines (Keystone), thereby lessening the need to ask more from those 3 countries. You could argue Dems are more disingenuous on this issue (pleasing the progs by not getting US oil, but still getting it from somewhere else).

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Please email your comments on today’s …meanwhile…to editors@thehustings.news

President Biden announces today an additional $800 million to support Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself, The Washington Post reports.

•Scroll down this column to read pundit Eric Blair’s commentary on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleas for a no-fly zone to stop Russian aggression. Our columnists on the left and the right are not very far apart on this issue. Whether you agree or have a different point of view, we want to hear from you. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and whether you consider yourself liberal or conservative in general.

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WED 3/16/22

Scroll down below today’s news to read our debate, No-Fly Zone = WWIII? with commentary in the left and right columns.

Zelenskyy Wants Polish MiGs and U-24 – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for a no-fly zone – unlikely because of the implications of starting a “hot war” with Russia – Polish MiG fighter jets, and the formation of a new international organization he called “U-24” to fight Russian aggression in his live video address to the U.S. Congress Wednesday morning. Zelenskyy evoked the attack on Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001, saying “Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into death… . Is this a lot to ask for, to create a no-fly zone?”

Zelenskyy also asked for more aid and tougher sanctions against Russia, including the withdrawal of all U.S. businesses from the country.

“Ukraine is grateful to the U.S. for its overwhelming support,” Zelenskyy added, “I am grateful to President Biden for his faithful commitments.” 

Closing Quote: “I’m addressing President Biden. … You are the leader of the nation. I wish you to be the leader of the world. It means to be the leader of peace. Slava Ukrain!

What is ‘U-24’? – Zelenskyy did not go into detail, but it obviously would be a way to back Ukraine with some of the 30 European and North American (U.S. and Canada) nations in NATO, and likely to evoke a strong reaction from Russia’s dictator-president, Vladimir Putin. 

•••

Fall Back No More? – Who says an evenly split Senate can’t agree on anything? Republicans, Democrats, and whatever Manchinema are voted unanimously to make Daylight Savings Time permanent. You sprung forward last weekend? You won’t fall back this autumn in a sort of Groundhog Day for Americans’ internal body clock if the House forwards the bill to the White House and President Biden signs it.

•••

Meanwhile, in the Home of Starbucks -- After graduation, most college graduates would like to move to Seattle, according to a survey from the Axios-Generation Lab Next Cities Index. The other cities in the top five are New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and Boston.

However: Amazon has told some 1,800 of its employees who worked in an office in downtown Seattle they can work elsewhere, GeekWire reports, not because of COVID but because of crime occurring around the offices.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news, and let us know whether you consider yourself “left” or “right.”

After Zelenskyy’s half-hour address -- Republicans, including Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska (pictured above) and House of Representatives Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, criticized Biden for failing to provide the Polish MiGs to Ukraine so the country could protect its own skies. The White House has rejected the transfer of MiGs as an action Putin would consider a NATO/U.S. declaration of war.

•Scroll down this column to read pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pleas for a no-fly zone to stop Russian attacks. Our columnists on the right and left are not very far apart on this issue. Whether you agree or have a different point of view, we want to hear from you. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and whether you consider yourself conservative or liberal in general.

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By Todd Lassa

Since Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy begged U.S. Congress and the United Kingdom’s parliament last week for a no-fly zone over his country, Russia’s army has shelled a maternity hospital and conducted an air strike on a military facility in Western Ukraine less than 15 miles from the Polish – and thus NATO – border, killing 35 and injuring 134 according to The Washington Post. Even as Vladimir Putin’s Russia suffers severe economic and trade sanctions, Ukraine is shedding blood, of civilians as well as its military.

Despite the obvious perils of a no-fly zone, proponents of NATO fighter jets closing Ukrainian airspace to Russia argue that the consequences of not doing so will be far deadlier. The proponents note that Ukraine agreed to give up its considerable nuclear arms stockpile in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum in exchange for a guarantee of its security by the U.S., U.K. and Russia. Supporters of Zelenskyy’s pleas for a no-fly zone include retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, former commander of the U.S. European Command, who told MSNBC that Putin already considers the sanctions and weapons supplied by the U.S. and NATO to Ukraine to be acts of war. 

But the prevailing viewpoint by the Biden White House and among Western European leaders is that we can’t afford to turn this new cold war into a “hot war” with Putin, who has hinted about his nuclear might. The U.S., U.K and France combined have slightly fewer nuclear warheads compared with Russia. The violent use of but one of them, however, would be devastating. 

What to do about Zelenskyy’s pleas for help? 

Two of our pundits react to this grave issue, with Stephen Macaulay in the right and Eric Blair in the left. 

Tell us what you think with an email to editors@thehustings.news, and no matter what your position on a no fly zone, please indicate whether you consider yourself “left” or “right” in order that we place your comments in the correct column.

(MON-TUE 3/14-15/22)

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FRI 3/11/22

Gas Tax Holidays are up for consideration in several states, including Tennessee, Georgia, Michigan, Maryland and highest-gas-tax-rate-in-the-U.S., California.

Beat the Midterms – The House Democratic Issues Conference meeting in Philadelphia through the weekend are split over how to stem their much-expected loss of the majority to Republicans in this November’s midterms, Roll Call reports. But the party’s progressives, who spent much of 2021 pushing to make the White House’s sweeping infrastructure program contingent on its even more sweeping Build Back Better plan, appears to have a solution.

Progressive House Democrats are pressing President Biden to enact those “big chunks” of BBB as outlined in his State of the Union address buy signing a pile of executive orders (EOs), Punchbowl News reports. 

“We’re going to make sure that we do everything we can to cut costs for the American consumer,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), chair of the House Progressive Caucus, who will release a slate of proposed EOs next week. 

Known Knowns: While this sounds like 2022 is 2021 all over again for the Progs, who appear to be acting like they have a commanding majority in the House, it should be noted that Jim Clyburn, the moderate Democrat from South Carolina largely credited with reviving Joe Biden’s bid for the party’s presidential nomination in 2020, “threw his considerable might behind the idea,” Punchbowl News says.

If the House Progs can convince the White House to stock up on ink for Biden’s Resolute desk, chunks of the nearly $2 trillion Build Back Better program to be given EO priority will certainly include the child tax credit, portions of the Green agenda and an increase in the refugee cap.

Known Unknowns: As a war-time president who got a bump in the polls after his SOTU from Trump-level low numbers, Biden may be in a better position than he was a few weeks ago to sign a pile of EOs, as House Dems – both progressive and moderate – attack their Republican midterm opponents as coming from a party of do-nothings and including even some pro-Putin candidates from the MAGA wing of the GOP.

•••

Meanwhile, in Constitutional News -- When someone pleads “the Fifth,” it generally goes to this clause in the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution…

“nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

The Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, which undoubtedly knows more than a little bit about the law, explains it like this:

“To be self-incriminating, the compelled answers must pose a “substantial and ‘real,’ and not merely a “trifling or imaginary hazard” of criminal prosecution.”

Which sounds rather serious.

Michael Flynn appeared before the January 6 Committee Thursday. Politico quotes his attorney: “General Michael Flynn appeared before the January 6th Committee today in compliance with their subpoena and, on advice of counsel, exercised his Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer the Committee’s questions.”

This is the same Michael Flynn who once had a brief stint as the national security advisor and got a pre-emptive free pass from then-president Trump for charges that he lied to the FBI during an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. (Why would you need to lie if you’d done nothing wrong?)

About that brief stint: January 22 to February 13, 2017. He barely had enough time to find out where the washroom is.

Why so short? Due to it being revealed that he’d reportedly lied to then Vice President Pence about conversations with Sergey Kislyak, who was the Russian ambassador at the time.

All of this goes without comment.

•••

Kick the Can No More – The Senate appears to have become as tired as we are with the age-old cliché about “kicking the can” -- that is, federal budget continuing resolutions, a few weeks or months down the fiscal year road in order to avoid government shutdowns. The chamber voted, 68-31 yesterday to pass a $1.5-trillion government funding bill that takes us through the end of the fiscal year, September 30, The Hill reports. That’s just two days after the House of Representatives passed the bill along with a provision to allow the Senate a CR that would have extended the deadline beyond Friday, the date set by the previous CR, to next Tuesday, to allow the upper chamber more time.

Some conservative Republicans had objected to voting on the 2,741-page bill without time to read it, but the $13.6 billion in aid tied to Ukraine helped speed the process.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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THU 3/10/22

Inflation Rate Hits 7.9% in February – The Consumer Price Index rose 0.8% in February, the Labor Department announced Thursday morning, as measured even before the effect of Russia’s attack on Ukraine on already skyrocketing oil prices, for an annual rate of 7.9%, highest since January 1982. Gasoline prices were up 6.6%, accounting for nearly one-third of the February inflation rate, with food and shelter also leading the index, the Labor Department says. The annual inflation rate for 2021 was 7.5%.

•••

(Almost the) Final Kick of the Can – In the end, the House of Representatives passage of a $1.5-trillion omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal 2022 seems anticlimactic next to all the news coming out of the war in Ukraine. But it’s not quite the end, as the Senate needs to take up passage and send the bill to President Biden’s desk, so the House added a four-day stopgap extending the deadline for federal funding to next Tuesday, Roll Call reports. The House passed the omnibus bill 361-169. Figure a dozen or so Republicans will join Democrats in the Senate.

Speaking of Ukraine, the House bill includes $13.6-billion in funding for the crisis there. 

Democrats stripped out $15.6 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding and determined that coronavirus relief needs a standalone funding bill, which is due to happen next week.

Known Knowns: Separation of the COVID-19 funding began when House Republicans demanded budget cuts elsewhere to accommodate the White House’s $22.5 billion appropriation request for coronavirus relief. That led to infighting among Democrats over concentrated power of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to Punchbowl News – so taking up the separate appropriations bill next week looks to be far from a slam-dunk. Expect House Republicans to take advantage of the infighting.

•••

Facing Threats, 1/5 of Election Officials Plan to Quit – One in six election officials have experienced threats because of their jobs, with 77% saying the threats have increased in recent years, and fully 20% plan to leave before the 2024 election, says a new report for the Brennan Center for Justice.

“As American democracy finds itself under assault from lies about the 2020 presidential race ‘being stolen,’ election officials are a prime target in the attempt to undermine future elections,” the report begins. “In 2020, in the face of a pandemic, record-high turnout, and a flood of disinformation about the election process and its integrity, these officials managed to run ‘the most secure election in American history.’” < https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/poll-local-election-officials-finds-safety-fears-colleagues-and>.

More than half of poll respondents are concerned about the safety of their colleagues, and more than a quarter are concerned about being assaulted on the job. The Brennan Center reports that safety concerns range from death threats that name officials’ young children to racist and gendered harassment. The report says 90% of election officials either are not aware of, or know little about, the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which investigates and prosecutes threats against election officials. (Hat tip to NPR’s Morning Edition.)

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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