Highlights of the State of the Union
On Thursday evening President Biden gave his third State of the Union address. According to him he is doing a great job. He revived a collapsing economy and created 15 million new jobs. Made the world safer today than when he took office. Stopped the heartless Republicans from gutting Social Security and Medicare. And unified the country. Not everyone agreed with his assessment.
CNN disputed the claim that Biden had rescued a collapsing economy by pointing out that the annualized fourth quarter economic growth growth rate from 2020 was 4.3%, while the annualized fourth quarter economic growth growth rate from 2023 was 3.2%. The overall decline in 2020 was caused by pandemic-inspired lockdowns imposed in state-after-state and federal subsidies to the unemployed that kept many businesses closed and millions of workers unemployed. The termination of the lockdowns and the expiration of the unemployment subsidies during 2023 are what restored economic growth and 15 million jobs.
A panel of Russian commentators on the Russia One network discussing nuclear war as "the inevitable consequence of the West's increasing military aid to Ukraine" would seem to indicate that the world may not be as safe as Biden claims he has made it. The arrest of Gold Star father Steve Nikoui, father of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui who was killed in Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, during the State of the Union speech for reminding the President of this does not comport with a message of improved safety.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called Biden's remarks about Republicans wanting to gut Social Security and Medicare "the same old Democrat lies. There's not a Republican in the House or the Senate that is in favor of cutting these programs. The bigger threat to these programs and the economy is the $34 trillion in government debt and the annual multi-trillion dollar budget deficits. Failure to deal with these threats is what will collapse our economy and impoverish the people of America. It is shameful that the President fails to acknowledge this."
Former President Trump questioned Biden's unification boast, saying "this was an angry, polarizing, and hate-filled Speech. He calls his opponents enemies of democracy, but no Republican president has ever weaponized the Department of Justice like Biden has. The bogus prosecutions he has aimed at me are the most serious election interference ever perpetrated by an Administration. Let's face it, Joe Biden is the threat to democracy."
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) expressed her disappointment in the President's border policies, "he opened the border allowing millions to invade our country. He even secretly and illegally flew more than 300,000 foreigners into America. While he did admit that an illegal killed Laken Riley. He also called her Lincoln Riley despite having her named spelled out right in front of him. Then he went on to minimize her death by saying 'thousands are killed by legals every day.' He refuses to enforce the laws that would reduce migrant crime."
Las Americas Executive Director Marisa Limon Garza was "outraged by the President's use of the word illegal as a noun. It's a tired, racist trope and unfair to the Latino accused of her murder." Former House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) agreed, "he should've said 'undocumented' or 'newcomer.' Those are the only acceptable terms that all decent people agree should be used to identify these newly arriving Americans."
In related news, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre lamented polls showing rising discontent with President Biden's policies, saying "people don't realize how good their lives are under his rule. Look, we understand what Americans have gone through this past three years. It is incredibly complicated, and we get it. We get that it's going to take a little bit of time for Americans to see what this President has done. The unfortunate thing is that he has to face reelection before the people realize how great he has been."
Trump Ordered to Pay Man Who Libeled Him
British High Court Judge Dame Karen Margaret Steyn ruled that former President Donald Trump's suit for damages against Orbis Business Intelligence, a consultancy founded by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele, was "likely to fail" and that "Trump is liable for the entire amount of Orbis' legal expenses." She ordered Trump to pay £300,000 as a down payment before the total costs are decided by a specialist judge. Orbis has estimated that its costs to defend against Trump's suit exceed £600,000.
The dossier prepared by Steele for Hilary Clinton's unsuccessful 2016 campaign for president falsely accused Trump of engaging in sex parties with prostitutes and bribing Russian officials. Hugh Tomlinson, Trump's lawyer on this case, was disappointed in the ruling, saying that "the dossier's allegations were not supported by any factual evidence."
Steyn said "since the intent of the dossier was to ruin Trump's chances in the 2016 presidential election his victory vitiates his assertion that he was actually harmed by the false allegations. Thus, 'no harm, no foul.' Mr. Trump should have left well-enough alone. The hundreds of thousands his ill-conceived lawsuit will cost him are dwarfed by the hundreds of millions he will have to pay in two other recent cases he lost."
Arizona Refuses to Extradite Murder Suspect
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has refused the request from New York City (NYC) District Attorney Alvin Bragg that Raad Almansoori, a suspect charged with the murder of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia in the Soho 54 Hotel on February 7, be sent back to NYC. She explained that "Almansoori was already arrested for murder, but was released without bail. If I send him to Bragg he will be back on the streets of New York posing a threat to innocent lives. Here he is charged with carjacking and stabbing a woman on Feb. 17 and sexually assaulting another woman at a McDonald's the following day."
A spokesperson for Bragg complained that "extradition decisions between professional prosecutors in other states are typically worked out with simple telephone calls. And murder cases routinely take precedence over lesser charges. Mitchell's resistance is abnormal and flouts the professional courtesy that we expect."
Mitchell defended her stance, pointing out that "having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, I think it's safer to keep Almansoori here. I have to put public safety ahead of the 'professional courtesy' Bragg's office is demanding."
Bragg's office asserted that "Mitchell's obstruction of justice cannot go unpunished. We are going to petition Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs to intervene. Hobbs is a Democrat and will see Mitchell's actions as a Republican ploy to turn a routine legal issue into a political campaign ad for her reelection as County Attorney and order her to turn Almansoori over to us."
"Trump Can't Get a Fair Trial in DC"
Ordinarily, such a conclusion would prompt a change in venue. However, Democrat operative Marc Elias made this observation gleefully "with a jury pool drawn from a population in which only 5% voted for Trump in the 2020 election the odds of him being found guilty regardless of any evidence are extremely favorable."
Jury pool aside, Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, is already on record bemoaning the fact that Trump isn't in prison. She told defendants convicted for trespassing in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that "the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man, not to the ideals of this country, and not to the principles of democracy. It's a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, unfairly remains free to this day."
Based on Cutkan's remarks, Trump moved that she recuse herself from the case, a motion she herself denied, saying "a person so manifestly guilty must not be allowed to venue shop in pursuit of so-called 'impartial justice.' Trump's complaint is no more valid than Hitler's would've been if were to have objected that the Nuremberg tribunal comprised of his war-time enemies was too biased to impose justice on him for his obvious crimes against humanity."
Haley Violates Pledge to Support GOP Nominee
Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says "I no longer feel bound by the promise I made to support the eventual GOP presidential nominee." She justified her reversal, saying "it was made under duress. The Republican National Committee required that all candidates sign this pledge in order to be permitted to participate in the debates. Besides, as Lenin once said when he was criticized for breaking his election promise to give the peasants land, bread, and peace--'promises are like pie crusts, made to be broken.' He went on to totally transform his country in ways never seen before."
"Anyway, it is obvious that Trump is unworthy of the job and shouldn't be endorsed by anyone," she added. "So, I think I am among the righteous in this regard. Sen. Romney (R-Utah) has said there's no way he would ever vote for Trump. Former Rep. Liz Chaney (R-Wyo) would never vote for Trump."
"Look, Trump is a criminal under indictment for over 90 crimes," Haley pointed out. "He incited the January 6 insurrection. He mishandled classified documents. He questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. He is too dangerous to be walking around much less be allowed to seize power by winning the 2024 election."
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised "Nikki's courage for putting country over Party" and suggested "she join me to form a combined ticket to run as the 'No Labels' candidates for president and vice-president, respectively. It would pair a centrist choice of a Democrat and a Republican to give voters a sane alternative to a demented Biden and an unhinged Trump when they cast their ballots in the Fall election."
Dems Denounce Supreme Court Decision on Trump
Incensed by the US Supreme Court's unanimous decision to disallow Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold's action to bar Trump from being on her state's primary ballot, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md) has revived a bill that would grant the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power to declare a person guilty of insurrection and disqualify them from appearing on the ballot.
"Everyone knows Trump committed insurrection," Raskin said. "We all saw him on TV urging his followers to storm the Capitol and stop Congress from counting the electoral votes that made Joe Biden the nation's lawful president. The Court overlooked this self-evident truth when they said that it requires an Act of Congress to enforce the Fourteenth Amendment. Well, we're going to pass an Act of Congress. All it will take is to flip half-a-dozen Republicans to vote for our bill to allow Attorney General Garland to throw Trump off the ballot. The Democrat-controlled Senate will rubber stamp our bill and our democracy will be forever safe from Republican opposition."
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) reminded that "Trump isn't the only one who needs to be taken off the ballot. There are 126 Republicans in Congress who refused to concede that Biden won the 2020 election fair-and-square. They need to be kicked off too."
Meanwhile, the Senate has reintroduced the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This proposed law would authorize the DOJ to overrule state election laws. Garland has already called voter ID and prohibitions against using unsupervised drop boxes for ballots "discriminatory. Too zealous scrutiny over the casting of ballots disproportionately disenfranchises Democrats. It was the temporary bypassing of this scrutiny during the pandemic that allowed President Biden to receive more votes than any other candidate for president has ever gotten."
In related news, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg's (D) attempt to vote in the recent Texas primary was turned away at the polling place. "They told me I had already voted," she said. "I was very surprised to see that the clerk blamed it on user error. The whole purpose of having an election clerk and election judge is to prevent exactly this type of situation where somebody votes under one ID, but that's not the right person. The one silver lining is the high probability that the person who cast the ballot in my name voted Democrat."
NY Times Poll Finds Voters Favor Trump's Policies Over Biden's
A recent New York Times/Sienna College poll showed that Trump's policies were favored by 40% of voters, who said the policies had helped them personally, compared with only 18% who said the same about Biden's policies. Additionally, 43% of voters said that Biden's policies had hurt them, almost double the percentage who said the same about Trump's policies.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del) brushed aside these findings "because Democrats seem to have out-performed polls pretty consistently over the past few cycles in 2018, 2020, and 2022. There's no reason to expect this to change no matter how many polls show voters favoring Republican policies or candidates."
