I’ve noticed the usual handwringing and panic over the Biden document “scandal” in many corners of the liberal internet and I have this to say: Relax. Breath. This is not the end of the world. It is not something I am worry about.
Why?
First, most people don’t care about this. Yes, Twitter is having a meltdown, but as we learn in election after election after election, Twitter is not the real world. Cable news is overjoyed about this (I think I might have actually seen people on CNN orgasm on air as they discussed this). But cable news lives for this crap. Scandals — even fake ones — bring eyes. And CNN is foaming at the mouth to prove that they love Republicans. Again, this is not the stuff that most Americans care about.
Most people barely register this crap. It was annoying when it was Trump doing actual bad shit, but is good when it is Biden doing sloppy (but likely not bad) stuff.
Second, I know an awful lot about Biden. I wrote an entire 100 part series about why he should be our president before the election of 2020. I read every book there was to read about him and read every interview. The man is clean. I have a really hard time believing that he stole those documents on purpose and/or has or had some nefarious purpose for them. Do I believe that he might have packed them by accident because they fell in with other things that were his? Oh yah. That tracks 100%. Not great, but hardly scandalous. It turns out that these kind of accidents are actually really common. People take home confidential documents without realizing it and then bring them back. My informed opinion is that this is exactly what we will find out happened.
Third, this just isn’t the same thing as Trump’s case. Based on what we know, Biden is unlikely to face charges but Trump is likely. With Biden there was no obstruction. With Trump there was a lot. Biden raced to turn these in and searched on his own (well had his team search) for more. Trump resisted efforts to let anyone search. Trump’s lawyers lied that everything was turned it. Biden’s lawyers are carefully looking for more. There is no search warrant for Biden suggesting that no one thinks crimes were committed. There was for Trump. Finally, the sheer volume (at least so far) is very different.
Fourth, the special counsel on this may end up being great for us. It may protect Biden from GOP witch hunts. It turns out that this investigation will shield the work of prosecutors from Congress.
Garland has provided the best protection possible from partisan weaponized use of Congressional investigations that are promised by the new Republican led House of Representatives. In contrast, if Garland had simply exercised his authority and determined that no special counsel criminal investigation was warranted, then House Republican investigations would have had greater leverage, since they would have been seeking to investigate a closed matter.
Fifth, this shows that Democrats walk the walk. If there is something that needs to be investigated — whether it is on our side or theirs — it should be investigated. If we have all been wrong about Biden for 50 years and he is really some Russian spy who hides documents in his garage, then he *should* be impeached. Do I think that is the case? Heck no. But if it was, then I would want justice done.
Sixth, we aren’t near an election and stories have a very very short life. Unless something nefarious comes out (see points 2 and 3), no one will be talking about this next year.
Do you feel better? I hope so ❤️
Now onto the good news from this week!
Democrats are Amazing
The latest inflation data released on Thursday showed that price increases continued to slow.
Inflation has slowed for six straight months, which is good news for both consumers and economic policymakers.
Because it showed inflation slowing down, the report is positive news for Federal Reserve officials, who have been raising interest rates for months to rein in stubbornly high inflation.
Consumer sentiment has perked back up to its highest level since April
As inflation continues its slow and steady descent, consumer sentiment is climbing back out of a trough hit last year.
The University of Michigan’s closely watched consumer sentiment index rose to 64.6 in the preliminary January survey, according to data released Friday. It’s the highest reading since January 2022 and up 8.2% from December’s 59.7 reading
Prices fell in December as inflation continues to moderate
For the first time in nearly three years, inflation fell on a monthly basis.
Consumer prices decreased by 0.1% in December, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday in its Consumer Price Index. The last time prices were lower than the previous month was May 2020.
The closely watched inflation gauge also showed that year-over-year prices continued to cool last month, slowing to 6.5%, from 7.1% in November. It’s the smallest annual increase since May 2021.
Stripping out food and energy prices, which tend to be more volatile, core CPI came in at 5.7%, down from November’s 6% annual rate and up 0.3% from the month before.
“It all adds up to a real break for consumers, real breathing room for families and more proof that my economic plan is working,” said President Joe Biden on Thursday. “We have more work to do, but we’re on the right track.”
Brian Deese, Biden’s top economic adviser and head of the National Economic Council, told CNN’s Kate Bolduan that the latest report and the downward trajectory in prices over the past several months is “encouraging,” especially considering the latest jobs report, which showed the economy added 223,000 jobs in December and unemployment fell to 3.5%.
Democrats are trying to keep the fight for paid leave alive
Democrats are trying to keep the fight for paid leave alive — a difficult task given House Republican control and the enduring disagreements the two parties have had over how to pay for the policy.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a longtime champion of paid leave, is among those pushing to maintain the issue as a Democratic priority. In a letter shared exclusively with Vox and sent to the Biden administration on Thursday, Gillibrand and 15 other senators call for the president to include $547 billion in funding for a 12-week paid leave program in his upcoming 2024 budget.
Currently, the US is the only industrialized country that doesn’t guarantee workers a single day of paid parental leave or sick leave. This gap disproportionately affects lower-wage workers and workers of color, who are less likely to have such protections from their employers.
Although the prospects for a national paid leave program don’t look great this term, both advocates and Gillibrand’s office see openings. First, as signaled in the letter, lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to continue elevating paid leave as a chief priority, a move that would send a message about the party’s policy platform ahead of the 2024 election.
the administration could make more concrete policy changes via executive action by requiring federal contractors to offer their workers 12 weeks of paid leave and issuing grants to states to evaluate the impact of these programs.
In Congress, meanwhile, there’s potential for narrower bills.
Biden hails solar plant expansion in Georgia by South Korea company
President Biden on Wednesday hailed an announcement by a South Korean manufacturer that it would spend $2.5 billion to expand solar power equipment production in Georgia, calling it a “big deal” made possible by provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that he signed into law last year.
“Today’s Hanwha Q CELLS announcement to make the largest solar investment in U.S. history is a big deal for Georgia’s working families and the American economy,” Biden said in a statement. “And, this investment is a direct result of my economic plan and the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Congress’s bipartisan deal to spend billions more fighting HIV and malaria abroad
On December 23, while many of us were doing last-minute holiday shopping, Congress passed a big $1.7 trillion spending package, keeping the government funded through September 30, which marks the end of this fiscal year. You’ve likely heard of some of the bill’s more newsworthy provisions, such as a change to the Electoral Count Act to prevent an attempt like Donald Trump’s in 2021 to overturn a presidential election result, or the $45 billion in support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
But tucked into the package was a surprisingly large boost in funding for something that doesn’t usually generate headlines: global health programs. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, an international organization that provides financing for country-level programs like drug distribution and bednets in developing countries where those diseases are widespread, saw its funding from the US grow from $1.56 billion to $2 billion, a more than 28 percent year-over-year boost
DFL lawmakers unveil plans for expanding voting access, strengthening campaign finance laws
Minnesota Democrats are pushing for legislation aimed at expanding voting access and strengthening campaign finance laws in what they say is a response to a rise in disinformation and intimidation of election workers.
In the midst of unfounded claims of election fraud that have become more common since 2020, Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers say passing bills on elections is among their top priorities this session.
Bad News for Bad Guys
A coalition of Democratic groups and strategists are ramping up a coordinated effort to investigate and go after House Republicans.
The new year could not have started any worse for House Republicans: 11 failed attempts to elect Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, infighting among the rank and file as fringe members of the party hold the rest of the chamber hostage, and a unified Democratic caucus that’s watching Republicans tear themselves apart.
That’s exactly the narrative a coalition of Democratic and liberal groups want to cement in the minds of American voters for the next two years. These groups have developed a new plan to put the Democratic Party on offense and use Republican talking points and priorities against them. That effort includes an “investigate-the-investigators” approach: attacking the new House GOP leadership as they launch investigations into the Biden administration.
Describing themselves as collaborators in a war room to coordinate messaging, polling, paid and earned media, rallies, and local organizing, the groups include the relaunched Congressional Integrity Project and a campaign of mostly progressive activists called Courage for America. Helping with public opinion surveys is Navigator, a progressive research and polling group; Common Defense, a progressive veteran-focused organization; and a new rapid response and opposition research team called the House Accountability War Room, which Courage for America launched.
Trump’s Company Gets Maximum Punishment for Evading Taxes
Former president Donald J. Trump’s family real estate business was ordered on Friday to pay a $1.6 million criminal penalty for its conviction on felony tax fraud and other charges, a stinging rebuke and the maximum possible punishment.
The sentence, handed down by a judge in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, caps a lengthy legal ordeal for Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, which was convicted in December of doling out off-the-books perks to some of its top executives. One of the executives who orchestrated the scheme, Allen H. Weisselberg, pleaded guilty and testified at the company’s trial. He was sentenced on Tuesday to serve five months at the notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
Trump campaign officials got subpoena asking new questions about Jan. 6
A wide-ranging subpoena sent to Trump campaign officials last month shows new areas of investigative interest as part of the Justice Department’s extensive Jan. 6 criminal probe, according to a copy reviewed by The Washington Post, and lawyers say a grand jury focused on the day’s events and related fundraising has increased its activities in recent months.
The subpoena was received in early December, according to a former Trump campaign official who provided the document to The Post on the condition of anonymity because a criminal investigation is ongoing. The document seeks more than two dozen categories of information, and includes some questions that were not part of a series of similar subpoenas reviewed by The Post that were sent to several dozen people in September.
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Political Resurrection Already Looks DOA
People are taking to the streets, former allies are denouncing him, and Israel’s credit rating is threatened. It’s a lot to put a country through just to stay out of jail.
Once again, Benjamin Netanyahu is Israel’s prime minister. His return, however, has not heralded political resurrection. Instead, in less than two weeks, he has rejuvenated the country’s center and left in ways their own recent campaigns failed to do. His embrace of the radical right and religious hardliners is now exacting a steep price at home and abroad.
By the numbers, one recent poll shows Netanyahu and his coalition partners losing six seats and control of the Knesset, the country’s parliament.
Other good news
Democrats flip key state Senate seat in Virginia Beach
Democrat Aaron Rouse, a former NFL defensive back and a member of the Virginia Beach City Council, edged Republican Kevin Adams, a retired Navy lieutenant commander, in a special election for the seat of Republican Jen Kiggans, who was elected to Congress on Nov. 8, unseating U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-2nd.
Jamie Lockhart, executive director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia, said in a statement: “We are thrilled to congratulate Sen.-elect Aaron Rouse who valiantly and unapologetically made this special election about protecting abortion rights.”
On The Lighter Side
I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you 💖💚💜✊🏾✊🏻✊🏽💛💚💖