THU-FRI 2/10-11/22

•Russia begins major military exercises in Belarus Thursday, which Western leaders fear could be cover for launching an invasion against Ukraine to the south (WaPo). The exercises are scheduled to run for 10 days.

•The Department of Homeland Security warns that a semi-truck convoy of drivers protesting COVID-19 lockdown rules and vaccination may attempt to blockade streets surrounding SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles Sunday where the L.A. Rams and Cincinnati Bengals will play Super Bowl LVI. The blockade would mimic truckers’ protests held in Canada in recent weeks (NPR).

Annual Inflation Rate Hits 7.5% -- The Consumer Price Index rose 0.6% in January, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday, for an annual rate of 7.5%. That’s up a half percentage point over the annual rate for the 12 months of 2021, which already was the highest U.S. inflation since 1982. Largest contributors are the usual suspects; Both food and energy prices rose 0.9% in January, with shelter also up sharply. 

•••

1/6 Committee Subpoenas Navarro – Until he described on MSNBC the “Green Bay Sweep,” a plan to overturn the November 2020 presidential election results by challenging Electoral College ballots in six battleground states, Peter Navarro might be best known as the failed San Diego politician and University of California-Irvine professor who found his way into the Trump administration as the proponent of strict, un-Republican-like trade policy toward China. Thanks to his open boasting about the plan, Navarro has been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. (We’ll pause while you utter “duh.”) The committee sees Navarro, who was the Trump administration’s director of trade and manufacturing policy as central to the plot to overturn the election of Joe Biden, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. And they can also see Navarro holding forth last year on MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber.

Navarro has responded with Trumpian fervor, calling the 1/6 panel “domestic terrorists” and claiming executive privilege, which of course neither the ex-president nor he have. 

Note: There are many books on the shelves about the Trump administration, and Navarro’s In Trump Time: My Journal of America’s Plague Year published in 2021 is one of them. Now Navarro might sell a few more copies, as it apparently details this coup plot in its pages. 

Political Trivia 1: According to Ballotpedia [ballotpedia.org], the Trump-Pence organization petitioned Wisconsin Elections Commission on November 18, 2020, for recounts in Dane County (Madison) and Milwaukee County, and the Trump campaign sent the state elections commission $3 million to pay for the recount. On November 27 and November 29 Milwaukee and Dane counties, respectively, announced the results of their recounts: Joe Biden received 87 more votes. 

Sports Trivia: The “Green Bay Sweep” is better known among football afficionados as the “Packers Sweep” or the “Lombardi Sweep,” in which the running back takes a handoff behind the line of scrimmage before turning upfield behind lead blockers (Wikipedia). 

Political Trivia 2: Richard Nixon famously considered Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi as his 1968 running mate, though Lombardi was a registered Democrat. 

•••

More of the Same from Trump – The defeated former president said in a statement released Thursday that the recent transfer of White House documents to the National Archives and Records Administration from Mar-a-Lago was “no big deal,” The Hillreports. The Trump administration records, you might recall from news reports earlier this week, belong to the American public, not Donald J. Trump.

Speaking of a minority of the American public: Trump earlier hit back against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) criticism of the Republican National Committee’s censure of Republican panelists on the House Select Committee investigation of the January 6 insurrection, in a release Wednesday, according to The Hill. McConnell “does not speak for the Republican Party, and does not represent the views of the vast majority of its voters. He did nothing to fight for his constituents and stop the most fraudulent election in American history.”

And so the fight over the soul of the GOP continues.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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WED 2/8/22

•Russia has sailed warships to the Black Sea in what President Vladimir Putin is calling a “military exercise” in Belarus, which happens to flank the northern border of Ukraine (WaPo). Russia already has more than 100,000 troops along Ukraine’s eastern and southern borders, and U.S. intelligence has warned of an invasion any day now, although some analysts believe Putin has boxed himself into a corner.

McConnell Claws Back His Party – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), often the most powerful man on Capitol Hill, shot back at the Republican National Committee for its voice-vote censure of Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City last weekend.

Cheney and Kinzinger are the sole Republicans on the House of Representatives Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

“The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views than the majority,” McConnell said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. “That’s not the job of the RNC.”

Note: McConnell, who said he still has confidence in RNC chairperson Ronna McDaniel, isn’t exactly escalating his cold war with ex-President Donald J. Trump, but he is keeping a lane open for “traditional” Republicans as this year’s midterm primaries, and the November final elections, play out.

We’ll drink to that … Speaking of the ever-widening rift between McConnell and Trump, the minority leader laughed off the ex-pres’ derogatory nickname for him, “Old Crow,” in an interview with the Washington Examiner, according to The Hill. “Old Crow? That’s my favorite bourbon.” 

It’s worth a reminder here that Trump does not drink.

•••

And Then There’s Nikki – Erstwhile Republican “moderate” and president wannabee Nikki Haley is siding with ex-President Trump again, following ex-Vice President Mike Pence’s defense of his actions in certifying the Electoral College vote for Joe Biden on January 6, 2021, as MAGA-hatted insurrectionists stormed the Capitol, in a speech last weekend before the Federalist Society in Florida [https://thehustings.substack.com/p/will-pence-really-strike-back].

“I think he did what he thought was right,” Haley, Trump’s UN ambassador and Republican governor of South Carolina before that, said about Pence's speech in a Fox News interview, according to Yahoo!News. “But I will always say … I’m not a fan of Republicans going against Republicans because the only ones who win when that happens are Democrats and the media.”

Note: This recalls, of course, President Reagan’s 11^th Commandment, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” While Haley might think this applies to Pence, and perhaps McConnell for that matter, we can’t recall any direct application of this amendment – by Haley or any of her wing of the GOP at least – to Trump, up to and including rhetoric leading to January 6 insurrectionists’ calls to “hang Mike Pence .” Yes, the media are making a big thing of that.

•••

Three Cheers for the Conservatives (Brits, that is) -- Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, who has recently had to apologize for parties held at Downing Street in violation of his own government’s protocols, now has another matter to deal with. This lead paragraph from The Washington Post story by Adela Suliman simply must be quoted in full:

“LONDON — British lawmakers from Boris Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party are demanding that he apologize and withdraw false claims about the leader of the opposition Labour Party, which appeared to stir up protesters who mobbed his political rival Monday night.”

Let’s break this down:

1. Members of the party he is part of
2. Demanding that he do something
3. That something is to apologize for saying in Parliament last week that Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, didn’t prosecute a British TV personality, Jimmy Savile, who has been revealed as a child abuser—and Starmer was not involved in the decision not to prosecute
4. That something also includes withdrawing the “false claims”

Note: Make no mistake that British politicians at all levels are, in some cases, as bizarre as their American cousins.

But full marks to those in the Conservative Party who have the guts to stand up to their leader, who has done something wrong, and to call him out on it rather than either pretending it didn’t happen or try to spin it as something that it isn’t.

If only their American cousins understood there are things like honesty and reality.

•••

Bomb Threat Disrupts Emhoff Visit – Secret Service agents quickly moved Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff from commemoration of Black History Month at a Washington, D.C., high school after a bomb threat was called in, The Guardianreports. Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, was in the high school’s museum about five minutes when the Secret Service rushed him out. While reports say there is no confirmation that the bomb threat was related to Black History Month, several Historically Black Colleges and Universities have reported at least 17 such threats since the beginning of the month.

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

 TUE 2/8/22

•Trial begins today for Louisville police officer Brett Hankinson, accused of endangering Breonna Taylor’s neighbors’ lives in a shooting over a no-knock warrant during which Taylor was killed.

Macron Meets Putin — Emmanuel Macron, president of France, met with Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, for five hours of talks yesterday regarding the situation on the border of the Ukraine. According to Politico, while Putin held forth on his fanciful claims and demands (which helps explain, in part, perhaps, while Donald Trump was so cozy with Putin), the Politicoreporting has it: “To all of this, Macron mustered virtually no response other than to insist that it was important to keep on talking.” 

Macron traveled to Kyiv today to meet with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ah, yes.

Note: There are more than 100,000 Russian troops — and tanks and cannons and all manner of other military gear — on borders with the Ukraine, both in Russia and Belarus. They aren’t there for the sightseeing. Politico quotes Putin as saying during a news conference, “I want to underscore once again even though I have already mentioned it — I’d really love if you really hear me and bring this point to your audience, that if Ukraine is in NATO and if they decided to take back Crimea using military means, European countries will automatically be in a military conflict with Russia.” Has NATO announced anything like it is going to be taking back Crimea by military means?

While the whole situation may seem far away to many in the U.S., this, by Dr. Taras Kuzio, a research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, published by Atlantic Council, is worth keeping in mind:

“At the heart of this crisis is one man’s refusal to accept the verdict of the Cold War and his burning resentment at modern Russia’s diminished standing on the global stage. Throughout his political career, Vladimir Putin has made no secret of his desire to revive Russia’s international prestige and address the perceived geopolitical injustices of the recent past. These imperial ambitions have found expression in Putin’s increasingly public obsession with Ukraine, a country whose very existence has come to embody the Russian ruler’s darkest fears and his many historical grievances.”

This is serious.

•••

More White Districts in Alabama – The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 from its “shadow docket” to reinstate Alabama’s redistricting plan, based on the 2020 U.S. Census, that cuts its majority-Black congressional districts from two down to one, just in time for this year’s midterms, SCOTUSblog reports. Alabama has seven seats in the House, and approximately 25% of its population is Black.

A three-judge district court panel, two of whom were appointed by then-President Trump, ruled in January that the redistricting plan probably violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, banning racial discrimination in voting policies. The 5-4 SCOTUS vote essentially gives Alabama time to address the redistricting plan until after the state’s next election – its midterm primary is May 24, with a runoff June 21. 

Note: The SCOTUS “shadow docket” ruling has implications for similar redistricting challenges in other states. In her dissent, Justice Elena Kagan argued the case should have been heard with a full briefing and oral arguments. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the minority in voting to uphold the Alabama district court’s ruling that would have required the state to redraw the map within two weeks, or hand it over to an expert. The case and its implications for other states turned on Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s appointment to the court in fall of 2020, SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe told NPR’s Morning Edition.

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

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MON 2/7/22

•French President Emmanuel Macron meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow today; meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets with President Biden in Washington, D.C., in efforts to renew talks to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine (NPR).

•Speaking of which: Russia is close to completing preparations for a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to U.S. military and intelligence assessments that estimate the aggression could leave up to 50,000 civilians killed or wounded, decapitate the Kyiv government in two days and create a humanitarian crisis with 5 million fleeing refugees. (WaPo). National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday an invasion could take place “as soon as tomorrow.” (The Guardian).

•••

Rip-Rip-Rip – While in office, President Donald J. Trump had a penchant for ripping up documents. (He presumably had it before he was elected; he probably has it now.) The problem with this handling of documents, The Washington Post reports, is a little something known as the Presidential Records Act. That act requires that all written communication relevant to a president’s official duties be preserved and turned over to the National Archives.

The Post reports: “Trump’s shredding of paper was far more widespread and indiscriminate than previously known and — despite multiple admonishments — extended throughout his presidency.” Apparently, the admonishments didn’t come from some librarian from the Archives but from people including then-White House counsel Donald McGahn, and chiefs of staff Reince Priebus and John F. Kelly.

Aides ended up having to collect the shreds and try to tape them back together. 

Note: This is further evidence that Donald Trump never understood the fact that he was working for the people not working for the Trump Organization. When he was running his own firm, he could do pretty much whatever he wanted with his documents: rip-rip-rip. But the presidency is something apart from the person who has that office and as such there are rules and procedures that are attached to that office. Even after the admonishments you can imagine Trump smirking, shaking his head and rip-rip-rip.

Wonder how the Republican National Committee thinks about this blatant disregard of norms that are part of the heritage of the nation? 

But wait, there’s more. . .

Florida Man’s Circular Argument – The National Archives and Records Administration retrieved Donald J. Trump’s presidential papers – apparently those he didn’t rip into little pieces -- and other records in January from his Mar-a-Lago home, that should have been turned over to the federal agency when he left office, The Washington Post reports. Of course, Trump has been long claiming he won the election anyway so perhaps he figured the records were his to keep, including those indicating what role he and his closest aides may have played in the January 6, 2020 attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

Of course, he doesn’t “own” any of the official documents, despite what he probably imagines.

--Edited by Gary S. Vasilash and Todd Lassa

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TUE 2/1/22

Wagging for Peace? – Great Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in Kyiv to meet directly with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in an effort to diffuse the apparently pending invasion by an estimated 130,000-plus Russian troops gathered along its eastern border and to the north in Belarus. While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken continues to meet with his Kremlin counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, to tamp down tensions in the region, the U.K.’s leader has headed over there himself as he faces calls for resignation back in London, over lavish “COVID-19 lockdown” parties he attended. 

Wagging the dog?: Certainly that’s what it looks like, and it will take a big diplomatic victory for Johnson to overcome outrage over the lockdown parties. But Johnson, who was aligned with Donald J. Trump’s presidency as the prime minister who fought for and administered the nationalistic Brexit withdrawal from the European Union, is now in Kyiv “to show support” to Ukraine, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. The U.K. “will continue to uphold Ukrainian sovereignty even as Russia seeks to destroy it,” Johnson said. 

Back here at home, factions of Trump’s GOP are taking an isolationist position at best – pro-Russia at worst -- over the crisis. 

•••

Uncovering More of Trump’s Coup Attempt – Six weeks after the November 2020 election, then-President Trump directed his attorney, former 9/11 hero Rudy Giuliani, to call the Department of Homeland Security to see whether he could have the department legally take control of voting machines in swing states whose Electoral College votes were to go to Joseph R. Biden, The New York Times reports, citing three sources. 

Giuliani did, but Homeland Security’s acting deputy director told the former New York City mayor he lacked authority to audit or impound the machines. The alleged plot quashed Team Trump’s third attempt to seize the machines, which included deploying the military and using the Justice Department, a scheme then-Attorney Gen. William Barr immediately “shot down,” according to the NYT’s report.

Note: Between the interviews with former Trump administration advisors and officials willing to talk to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and subpoenas issued to those who won’t turn, the panel appears to be building a strong case against the ex-president. But Trump’s rally in Houston last weekend serves as warning he is not going down without a fight, with help of his Republican supporters on Capitol Hill as well as in his rallies, culminating in another attempt in 2024.

•••

Sinema Sinking — Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) is not doing particularly well among Arizona Democrats according to a recent Morning Consult poll conducted December 21, 2021 to January 20, 2022, and compared with results from another poll taken January 21 to February 20, 2021.

Last year 67% of Democratic voters approved of the senator. The most-recent poll has her at 43%.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise that her approval rating among Republicans last year was 35%. It is now at 55%.

Yes, Sinema is more popular among Republicans than Democrats in her home state.

The shift among Independents isn’t particularly notable: 39% approval last year; 35% approval this year.

Sinema’s numbers are quite a contrast with her fellow Democratic senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly. His early 2021 approval rating among Democrats was 81%. In the latest poll it is 80%.

Similarly, 20% of Republicans approved of him in the earlier poll and 19% do in the most recent.

As for Independents there is seemingly a shift from Sinema to Kelly. He was at 36% in last year’s poll and is now at 39%.

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

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MON 1/31/22

•U.S. and Russian diplomats meet at the United Nations in New York today as more than 100,000 troops Russia have amassed near the Ukraine border. Russia denies it intends to launch an attack but has made demands the U.S. and NATO deem “impossible”: That NATO stop deployment of weapons, roll back forces elsewhere in Eastern Europe and assure that Ukraine not be allowed to join the alliance. (ABC News.)

Consumers Have That Sinking Feeling — The Index of Consumer Sentiment as measured by the University of Michigan is like the temperature in Michigan right now: Low. Specifically, the number is 67.2%. According to Dr. Richard Curtain, chief economist for the study, this is the “lowest level since November 2011.” And if that’s not enough to disturb your Monday morning, here’s more from Curtain: “Overall confidence in government economic policies is at its lowest level since 2014, and the major geopolitical risks may add to the pandemic active confrontation with other countries.

“Although the primary concern is rising inflation and falling real incomes, consumers may misinterpret the Fed’s policy moves to slow the economy as part of the problem rather than part of the solution.”

Note: It comes back to messaging. While there has been solid economic growth and increases in employment, the messaging from not only the White House but Congress has been weak at best. Go to a grocery store and see entire sections of shelves with nothing on them and that’s what the everyday American uses to calibrate what’s going on. Go to a car dealership and see the salesperson with an even more-smug look on his or her face than they did pre-pandemic because they know that anyone who wants a vehicle is going to be paying sticker — and likely more. That’s what average Americans are up against.

•••

Trump Reveals Political Platform for November 2024 – In the final days of his presidency, Donald J. Trump granted 114 pardons (ranging from Steve Bannon to Lil Wayne). During his administration there were a total 143 pardons. Seems like there is potential for that number to rise. At his latest MAGA rally in Houston Saturday ex-President Trump said: “If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from January 6 fairly,” Politico reports. “And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons, because they are being treated so unfairly.”

Note: “If I win” seems a rare point of magnanimity for the former president, who had warned previous to the November 2020 presidential election that he would accept the results only if he were the victor. This latest comment smacks of Trump trying to shore up support among his hard-core supporters, including most of more than 725, and counting, January 6 rioters who have been charged in the insurrection. Most of those who plead or are found guilty will have served misdemeanor sentences by then, Politico reports. 

•••

1/6 Panel Subpoenas 14 Over “Fake” Slates – Fourteen Republicans from seven states that voted for Joe Biden in the November 2020 presidential election received subpoenas Friday over for allegedly submitting fake slates for former President Trump to Congress to delay or block January 6 certification of Biden’s victory. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection demands that chairpersons and secretaries for alternative electors in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin produce documents and appear for a deposition in February, Roll Call reports.

Note: Though considered a “failed” coup and setup for Trump’s triumphant return to the White House after the November 2024 presidential election, it seems the attempt by pro-Trump Republicans was well-organized in a relatively short time – the alternative electors apparently met December 14, 2020 to carry out a scheme allegedly being organized by Trump’s closest advisors.

--Edited by Gary S. Vasilash and Todd Lassa

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