Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond
East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. A recent sampling:
Harvard professor Jason Furman stated that the U.S. now has two million jobs and two million employed above the U.S. Congressional Budget Office’s pre-pandemic projections. On Fox News Maria Bartiromo stated that “the economy is a lot stronger than anyone understands.”
A fake NBC clip on social media on behalf of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign needs to come down now, NBC said. The Hill said the fake clip altered a report from one of NBC’s correspondents.
Since Trump has made border issues a campaign priority, Republicans want their particular border policies added to the funding package. They want: finishing the Trump wall and seizing private land to do so; narrowing the right to apply for asylum (in defiance of international law); ending blanket asylum in emergency cases, and ending sponsored asylum programs, which have reduced illegal entry up to 95%. The Republican stance is being called a “poison pill” for passing the security package.
Trump’s former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo commented that if Ukraine loses to Russia due to lack of U.S. funding, “the cost to America will be far greater than the aid we have given Ukraine.”
The U.S. Secretary of State said a funding failure runs the real risk of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin being able to go forward “with impunity, and we know he won’t stop with Ukraine.” Next up for Putin’s aggression could be a NATO country, which would obligate U.S. involvement.
“March-in” rights will be used by the Biden Administration to lower drug prices and foster competition. The rights allow seizure of patents for medicines developed with taxpayer dollars. The Alliance for Retired Americans: taxpayers should benefit from big profits aided by government research.
CBS: Last week a Nevada grand jury indicted six Republicans for submitting false certificates saying Trump was the 2020 presidential winner. The felony charges could net up to five years in prison.
No. Foreign governments did not change U.S. votes in 2020, according to a 45-page report of interviews with senior Trump Administration intelligence officials. Politico said Special Counsel Jack Smith is presenting the findings in the case against Trump for interfering with election results. Days after the vote Trump had said the election was “impenetrable,” but later disagreed with his own statement.
Smith plans to show evidence in court that Trump has a record of denying election results: Trump said in 2012 that voting machines switched votes from Republicans to Democrats. Campaigning in 2016 he said he would not accept a loss due to “voter fraud.” Smith recently asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a quick decision on whether Trump’s claim is true that he is immune from prosecution.
Trump recently stated he would not be a dictator if elected in 2024 except on “day one.” But former Trump security team member Kash Patel said on a Steve Bannon podcast that, if Trump’s elected, perceived opponents will be targeted “criminally or civilly.” Critics are calling that a dictator’s behavior.
Blast from the past: Dictators “make one contribution to their people which leads them to tend to support such systems: freedom from the necessity of informing themselves and making up their own minds concerning these tremendous complex and difficult questions.”