When Congress returns from its break Democrats would be smart to force votes on minimum wage, union protections and immigration. The Senate must also confirm all the judges that have been nominated by Biden. This is crucial.
Would it make sense to go back and rethink the vote on IRS audits of $400K or less households? That was an amendment offered by in the course of enacting the overall IRA bill and my understanding is it failed on a party line vote mainly because it might compromise the overall passage of the bill. But the bill is now law and if the Biden administration actually meant what it said about this, pretty sure a bipartisan majority would pass it. Might as get full credit for this commitment.
… After making a familiar yet bogus claim about how he would have “easily won” if not for “massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country,” the former and twice-impeached president proposed a “REMEDY” in a Truth Social post on Monday morning.
“Declare the rightful winner or — and this would be the minimal solution — declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!” …
One week after a team of F.B.I. agents descended on his private club and residence in Florida, former President Donald J. Trump warned that his followers were enraged by the search — and that things could get out of hand if the Justice Department kept the heat on him.
“People are so angry at what is taking place,” Mr. Trump told Fox News. “Whatever we can do to help because the temperature has to be brought down in the country. If it isn’t, terrible things are going to happen.”
This week, one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, issued a similar warning that Mr. Trump quickly reposted on his social media platform. Mr. Graham, in a Fox News appearance on Sunday, predicted that if the search of Mar-a-Lago led to a prosecution of the former president, there would be “riots in the streets.”
The assessments by both men were worded carefully enough that they could be defended as efforts to spare the nation unnecessary strife, and on Monday, Mr. Graham tried to walk back his remarks, saying, “I reject violence.”
But the statements could also be perceived as fanning the same flames of outrage they claimed to be trying to avert. They carried a distinct echo of Mr. Trump’s calls after the 2020 election to do what was needed to keep him in office, signals that contributed to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol soon after he urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”
In a broader sense, the F.B.I.’s search of Mar-a-Lago has emerged as the latest rallying cry for those on the right who have long been suspicious that the powers of the federal government could be turned against them. It has prompted calls to dismantle or defund the F.B.I. and furious denunciations of what far-right supporters of Mr. Trump increasingly portray as an overreaching national security apparatus.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump spent much of the morning reposting messages from known purveyors of the QAnon conspiracy theory and from 4chan, an anonymous message platform where threats of violence often blossom. Some were outright provocations, such as a photograph of President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi with their faces obscured by the words, “Your enemy is not in Russia.” …
The assessments by both men were worded carefully enough that they could be defended as efforts to spare the nation unnecessary strife, and on Monday, Mr. Graham tried to walk back his remarks, saying, “I reject violence.”
(Really?)
But the statements could also be perceived as fanning the same flames of outrage they claimed to be trying to avert. They carried a distinct echo of Mr. Trump’s calls after the 2020 election to do what was needed to keep him in office, signals that contributed to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol soon after he urged his supporters to “fight like hell.” …
The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote, “It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens: upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the laws.” He explained that rule by absolute power is unnatural and harmful because those who hold such power are likely to abuse it by depriving others of their rights. “Passion influences those who are in power…Law is reason without desire.” This principle is known as the rule of law, and America’s Founders knew it was essential in a republic. John Adams, describing his objective in crafting the Massachusetts Constitution, phrased it this way: “to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”
George Washington possessed enormous power and popularity as the head of the American army during the Revolutionary War. However, he understood that the rule of law needed to be respected and demonstrated immense responsibility while holding his post. …
You probably have to be a senior citizen to remember the gasoline shortages of 1979. I am, and I do. I also remember how demoralizing they were. Then as now, outside a few big cities, America was a highly car-dependent nation, and waiting in long lines, not knowing whether you would be able to fill up, was deeply disconcerting.
What caused those shortages? The precipitating event was the Iranian revolution, which sent world oil prices soaring. But an oil price surge in itself needn’t mean gasoline shortages; it could — as we’ve seen recently — just mean higher prices at the pump.
The problem was that policymakers weren’t willing to see that global price hike fully passed on to U.S. consumers, given that only about 40 percent of the oil we consumed was imported. So they tried to limit the hit with various controls on prices and distribution; we needn’t go into the details. The point is that as every economics textbook will tell you, price controls often (not always) lead to an excess of demand over supply, and that was where the lines and shortages came from. …
It’s a cautionary tale, but the moral of the story isn’t that governments should always let prices rise as high as needed to balance demand with supply. When politicians don’t do what Econ 101 says they should, it’s not necessarily because they’re stupid (although sometimes they are); it’s not even necessarily because they’re cynical (although that happens too). Sometimes there are good social reasons not to let markets rip, even if government intervention comes at a cost.
Which is why we’re probably about to see a number of countries intervening heavily in energy markets over the next few months.
America, where plunging gasoline prices have temporarily brought inflation down to zero, won’t be one of those countries. But Russia has drastically curtailed shipments of natural gas to Europe, and European households are facing a huge inflationary shock as a result.
You might wonder why Russia’s de facto embargo matters so much. After all, Russia isn’t the only provider of European natural gas, and gas is only one of Europe’s energy sources. Consider, for example, British electricity generation. Gas accounts for only roughly 35 percent of Britain’s electricity, and currently none of it comes from Russia.
(graphs at the link)
Yet British home energy bills are skyrocketing. Why?
Part of the answer is that, as I wrote last Friday, markets in natural gas are basically defined as regions served by particular pipeline networks; and even though it doesn’t import gas directly from Russia, Britain is part of the European gas market. Russia’s stealth embargo has sent prices in that market soaring …
Documents at Mar-a-Lago Were Likely Moved and Hidden, Justice Dept. Says
The Justice Department disclosure paints the clearest picture to date of its efforts to retrieve documents from former President Trump’s estate in Florida.
The search found twice the number of classified documents Mr. Trump’s lawyers turned over voluntarily while vowing that they had returned everything.
The Justice Department sought a search warrant for former President Donald J. Trump’s residence in Florida after obtaining evidence that highly classified documents were likely concealed and that Mr. Trump’s representatives had falsely claimed all sensitive material had been returned, according to a court filing by the department on Tuesday.
The filing came in response to Mr. Trump’s request for an independent review of materials seized from his home, Mar-a-Lago. But it went far beyond that, painting the clearest picture yet of the department’s efforts to retrieve the documents before taking the extraordinary step of searching a former president’s private property on Aug. 8.
Among the new disclosures in the 36-page filing were that the search yielded three classified documents in desks inside Mr. Trump’s office, with more than 100 documents in 13 boxes or containers with classification markings in the residence, including some at the most restrictive levels. …
(AP) — The Justice Department said Tuesday that classified documents were “likely concealed and removed” from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into the discovery of the government records.
The FBI also seized 33 boxes containing more than 100 classified records during its Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and found classified documents stashed in Trump’s office, according to a filing that lays out the most detailed chronology to date of months of strained interactions between Justice Department officials and Trump representatives over the discovery of government secrets.
The filing offers yet another indication of the sheer volume of classified records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago. It shows how investigators conducting a criminal probe have focused not just on why the records were improperly stored there, but also on the question of whether the Trump team intentionally misled them about the continued, and unlawful, presence of the top secret documents. …
… The purpose of the Tuesday night filing was to oppose a request from the Trump legal team for a special master to review the documents seized during this month’s search and set aside those protected by claims of legal privilege. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon is set to hear arguments on the matter on Thursday.
Cannon on Saturday said it was her “preliminary intent” to appoint such a person but also gave the Justice Department an opportunity to respond.
On Monday, the department said it had already completed its review of potentially privileged documents and identified a “limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information.” It said Tuesday that a special master was therefore “unnecessary.” …
When Congress returns from its break Democrats would be smart to force votes on minimum wage, union protections and immigration. The Senate must also confirm all the judges that have been nominated by Biden. This is crucial.
Would it make sense to go back and rethink the vote on IRS audits of $400K or less households? That was an amendment offered by in the course of enacting the overall IRA bill and my understanding is it failed on a party line vote mainly because it might compromise the overall passage of the bill. But the bill is now law and if the Biden administration actually meant what it said about this, pretty sure a bipartisan majority would pass it. Might as get full credit for this commitment.
Trump Demands to Be Declared ‘Rightful Winner’ of 2020 Election
People – August 30
“Because, as EVERYONE KNOWS, we are a Country of MEN, not laws.”
Response to Trump Search Highlights Violent Rhetoric From the Right
NY Times – Aug 30
The assessments by both men were worded carefully enough that they could be defended as efforts to spare the nation unnecessary strife, and on Monday, Mr. Graham tried to walk back his remarks, saying, “I reject violence.”
(Really?)
But the statements could also be perceived as fanning the same flames of outrage they claimed to be trying to avert. They carried a distinct echo of Mr. Trump’s calls after the 2020 election to do what was needed to keep him in office, signals that contributed to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol soon after he urged his supporters to “fight like hell.” …
Establishing a Government of Laws, Not Men
The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote, “It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens: upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the laws.” He explained that rule by absolute power is unnatural and harmful because those who hold such power are likely to abuse it by depriving others of their rights. “Passion influences those who are in power…Law is reason without desire.” This principle is known as the rule of law, and America’s Founders knew it was essential in a republic. John Adams, describing his objective in crafting the Massachusetts Constitution, phrased it this way: “to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”
George Washington possessed enormous power and popularity as the head of the American army during the Revolutionary War. However, he understood that the rule of law needed to be respected and demonstrated immense responsibility while holding his post. …
Europe’s Gonna Party Like It’s 1979
NY Times – Paul Krugman – Aug 30
Feds cite efforts to obstruct probe of docs at Trump estate
Boston Globe – Aug 31