Jon Stewart wasn’t around to skewer previous Trump campaigns. That’s about to change.
Boston Globe – late yesterday
Jon Stewart put “The Daily Show” on the map during his years hosting the comic news show, from 1999-2015. Now he is returning to the Comedy Central series, beginning on Feb. 12. He will serve as an executive producer, and he will host once a week, on Monday nights, through the 2024 election cycle. The other three nights of the week will be hosted by a rotating team of correspondents and comics, as has been the case since Trevor Noah left in 2022.
It’s a dream come true for those who’ve been missing Stewart’s voice — or at least one-quarter of a dream come true. His return will likely spark renewed interest in “The Daily Show” and possibly bring back some of the viewers who left after he left. …
Cata Truss, a 57-year-old mother on the West Side of Chicago, has initiated a lawsuit, along with the local NAACP chapter for moral support because the city is spending millions of dollars to assist imported immigrants to her already blighted community that has been denied economic assistance for years. Truss says she is disgusted with the Democratic Party that she has voted for and supported for years. She says she will definitely vote Republican this year and she is finished with the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Chicago is attempting to deal with 35,000 imported migrants sent there by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Republicans have made the immigration crisis a mainstay of their 2024 Presidential aspirations and Donald Trump has said he will close the border completely and use the military to enforce it.
At the same time, a bipartisan effort has been underway for weeks in Congress to develop an immigration plan as part of a funding bill that also includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the South China Sea. The immigration plan is nearly finalized and according to reporting, is very promising. Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the bipartisan deal is near to, “finalize the most substantial border security policy in 30 years. . . This agreement would come not a moment too soon.” Biden and Majority Leader Schumer are also supporting the near-finalized bipartisan plan. Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans in the House, including Speaker Johnson are opposed to the deal.
While I understand the frustration of the Chicago neighbors, their cause will not be benefited by voting Republican in 2024. The same distorted political entanglements exist for frustrated 18-34-year-old Democrats who are upset with Biden’s age, environmental issues, or other issues and threaten to stay home or vote for some alternative.
Lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee achieved a feat on Friday after debating something that rarely comes together in an election year: bipartisan tax legislation.
Earlier this week, a group of top Republicans and Democrats reached agreement on a $78 billion package that would expand a tax benefit that provides money to parents and restore three popular expired business tax breaks. That combination offers both parties an opportunity to claim wins as voters begin to head to the polls ahead of the election in November.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved the package on Friday, 40 to three, with overwhelming bipartisan support — a good but not definitive sign for the bill’s prospects in the broader House. All Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the bill, and only three Democrats dissented. …
The legislation still faces a murky path through Congress, but tax writers are racing to pass it before the official 2023 tax filing season kicks off this month.
The agreement on a tax bill could foreshadow the kinds of trade-offs that lawmakers will face next year, when many other provisions of the 2017 tax law begin to expire. This package remains a work in progress …
The bill restores lucrative corporate tax breaks ushered in by the 2017 tax law that had either expired or were set to expire in the next several years.
Among those are immediate deductions for domestic research costs that would otherwise need to be spread out over a five-year period. The bill also restores full and immediate deductions for capital expenses — like new factories and equipment — and eases limitations on deducting interest expenses.
Those deductions were intentionally phased out to contain the estimated $1.5 trillion cost of the 2017 tax law. But many economists and political analysts had predicted the credits would ultimately be extended, given that they benefit some of the biggest U.S. companies. …
The bill restores lucrative corporate tax breaks ushered in by the 2017 tax law that had either expired or were set to expire in the next several years.
Among those are immediate deductions for domestic research costs that would otherwise need to be spread out over a five-year period. The bill also restores full and immediate deductions for capital expenses — like new factories and equipment — and eases limitations on deducting interest expenses.
Those deductions were intentionally phased out to contain the estimated $1.5 trillion cost of the 2017 tax law. But many economists and political analysts had predicted the credits would ultimately be extended, given that they benefit some of the biggest U.S. companies. …
How Big Companies Won New Tax Breaks From the Trump Administration
NY Times – Dec 30, 2019
As the Treasury Department prepared to enact the 2017 Republican tax overhaul, corporate lobbyists swarmed — and won big.
The overhaul of the federal tax law in 2017 was the signature legislative achievement of Donald J. Trump’s presidency.
The biggest change to the tax code in three decades, the law slashed taxes for big companies, part of an effort to coax them to invest more in the United States and to discourage them from stashing profits in overseas tax havens.
Corporate executives, major investors and the wealthiest Americans hailed the tax cuts as a once-in-a-generation boon not only to their own fortunes but also to the United States economy.
But big companies wanted more — and, not long after the bill became law in December 2017, the Trump administration began transforming the tax package into a greater windfall for the world’s largest corporations and their shareholders. The tax bills of many big companies have ended up even smaller than what was anticipated when the president signed the bill. …
One consequence is that the federal government (collected) hundreds of billions of dollars less over the coming decade than previously projected. The budget deficit has jumped more than 50 percent since Mr. Trump took office and is expected to top $1 trillion in 2020, partly as a result of the tax law. …
Most Republicans and Democrats seem to agree that Donald Trump will be the GOP presidential nominee again in 2024, after his wins in both the Iowa caucuses last week and the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
Barring a development that somehow upends the race, that would mean the next — and final — big question about the 2024 presidential ballot is Trump’s running mate.
So who might it be? (The top 5 – just their names. Deets omitted.)
Economists Predicted a Recession. So Far They’ve Been Wrong.
NY Times – just in
A widely predicted recession never showed up. Now, economists are assessing what the unexpected resilience tells us about the future.
The recession America was expecting never showed up.
Many economists spent early 2023 predicting a painful downturn, a view so widely held that some commentators started to treat it as a given. Inflation had spiked to the highest level in decades, and a range of forecasters thought that it would take a drop in demand and a prolonged jump in unemployment to wrestle it down.
Instead, the economy grew 3.1 percent last year, up from less than 1 percent in 2022 and faster than the average for the five years leading up to the pandemic. Inflation has retreated substantially. Unemployment remains at historic lows, and consumers continue to spend even with Federal Reserve interest rates at a 22-year high.
The divide between doomsday predictions and the heyday reality is forcing a reckoning on Wall Street and in academia. Why did economists get so much wrong, and what can policymakers learn from those mistakes as they try to anticipate what might come next?
It’s early days to draw firm conclusions. The economy could still slow down as two years of Fed rate increases start to add up. But what is clear is that old models of how growth and inflation relate did not serve as accurate guides. Bad luck drove more of the initial burst of inflation than some economists appreciated. Good luck helped to lower it again, and other surprises have hit along the way. …
The recession America was expecting never showed up.
Many economists spent early 2023 predicting a painful downturn, a view so widely held that some commentators started to treat it as a given. Inflation had spiked to the highest level in decades, and a range of forecasters thought that it would take a drop in demand and a prolonged jump in unemployment to wrestle it down.
Instead, the economy grew 3.1 percent last year, up from less than 1 percent in 2022 and faster than the average for the five years leading up to the pandemic. Inflation has retreated substantially. Unemployment remains at historic lows, and consumers continue to spend even with Federal Reserve interest rates at a 22-year high.
The divide between doomsday predictions and the heyday reality is forcing a reckoning on Wall Street and in academia. Why did economists get so much wrong, and what can policymakers learn from those mistakes as they try to anticipate what might come next?
It’s early days to draw firm conclusions. The economy could still slow down as two years of Fed rate increases start to add up. …
In 2010, at the signing of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, Joe Biden, the vice president at the time, was caught on a hot mic telling President Barack Obama that the bill was a “big deal.” OK, there was actually another word in the middle. Anyway, Biden was right.
And in one of his major unsung accomplishments — it’s amazing how many Americans believe that an unusually productive president hasn’t done much — President Biden has made Obamacare an even bigger deal, in a way that is improving life for millions of Americans. …
Trump tried but failed to repeal Obamacare in 2017, and the backlash to that effort helped Democrats win control of the House the next year. Trump was nonetheless able to create some erosion in the program, for example by cutting off funds for “navigators” that help people enroll.
That erosion has now been decisively reversed. The Biden administration just announced that 21 million people have enrolled for coverage through the A.C.A.’s health insurance marketplaces, up from around 12 million on the eve of the pandemic. America still doesn’t have the universal coverage that is standard in other wealthy nations, but some states, including Massachusetts and New York, have gotten close.
And this gain, unlike some of the other good things happening, is all on Biden, who both restored aid to people seeking health coverage and enhanced a key aspect of the system. …
… Biden has made health insurance coverage more accessible and more affordable for millions of Americans.
If Trump wins, however, he will try again to do away with Obamacare; he has said as much, and this time he could very well succeed. He promises to replace it with something “MUCH BETTER.” I guess this depends on your definition of better: In 2017, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump’s health plan would raise the number of uninsured by 32 million within a decade; that number would probably be larger today.
So, one more reminder of how much is at stake this year.
Drone Strike Kills 3 U.S. Service Members in Jordan, White House Says
NY Times – earlier today
The U.S. blamed an Iran-backed militia for the first American military deaths from hostile fire in the widening Middle East crisis.
Three U.S. service members were killed in Jordan on Sunday and at least 34 others were injured (after) a drone attack from an Iran-backed militia, the first American military fatalities from hostile fire in the turmoil spilling over from Israel’s war with Hamas.
The attack happened at a remote logistics outpost in northeast Jordan called Tower 22 where the borders of Syria, Iraq and Jordan converge. …
Armed Drone Hit U.S. Barracks in Iraq, Failed to Detonate
A drone laden with explosives believed to have been launched by an Iranian-backed militia crashed into the upper floor of a U.S. barracks at a base in Iraq but failed to detonate, U.S. officials said, underscoring the risks to U.S. forces in the Middle East during Israel’s war on Hamas. Had the drone exploded at Erbil air base on Oct. 25, it likely would have injured or killed U.S. troops, defense officials said. There were no reports of injuries. …
Enemy drone that killed US troops in Jordan was mistaken for a US drone, preliminary report suggests
Boston Globe – awhile ago
(AP) — U.S. forces may have mistaken an enemy drone for an American one and let it pass unchallenged into a desert base in Jordan where it killed three U.S. troops and wounded dozens more, officials said Monday.
As the enemy drone was flying in at a low altitude, a U.S. drone was returning to the small installation known as Tower 22, according to a preliminary report cited by two officials, who were not authorized to comment and insisted on anonymity.
As a result, there was no effort to shoot down the enemy drone that hit the outpost. One of the trailers where troops sleep sustained the brunt of the strike, while surrounding trailers got limited damage from the blast and flying debris. …
Mix-Up Preceded Deadly Drone Strike in Jordan, U.S. Officials Say
NY Times – an hour ago
Air defenses failed to stop an attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan on Sunday that killed three American soldiers at least in part because the hostile drone approached its target at the same time an American drone was returning to the base, two U.S. officials said on Monday.
The enemy drone was mistaken for an American surveillance drone returning to the remote resupply base, and air defenses were not immediately engaged, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss preliminary findings of a major cause of the episode. Two other drones that attacked other locations nearby in southeast Syria were shot down, they added.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported the drone mix-up, now at the heart of an investigation by the military’s Central Command into the deadly attack that has drawn vows of retaliation from President Biden, raised doubts about American military defenses in the Middle East …
The Iraq-based militia, Kata’ib Hezbollah, hints at pressure from Iran and Iraq.
NY Times – just in
In a surprise move, an Iran-linked militia in Iraq that the Pentagon said was likely responsible for a lethal drone attack on an U.S. base in Jordan over the weekend announced on Tuesday that it was suspending military operations in Iraq under pressure from the Iraqi government and from Iran.
The announcement came shortly after President Biden said that he had decided how to respond to the attack in Jordan on Sunday that left three U.S. soldiers dead, though he did not say what that response would be. His comment raised fears in Iraq about a possibly retaliatory U.S. attack on its territory.
The militia, Kata’ib Hezbollah, or Brigades of the Party of God, is the largest and most established of the Iran-linked groups operating in Iraq. It has spearheaded a majority of the some 160 attacks on U.S. military installations in Iraq and Syria that have occurred since Israel began its ground operations in Gaza, acting in response to the Oct. 7 attack Hamas led from the enclave. …
I have seen the savagery of firearms up close. I was afraid and viscerally appalled by them. I felt compelled to buy one anyway. …
I never wanted a gun. There are days when I forget I have it, locked up in a smart safe under a pile of clothes in a dresser. I still take it out to the range about once a month, but I spend more time looking at its disassembled parts on the cleaning table — the harmless viscera of the killing machine — than aiming it at the target. At home, if I pick it up, I just hold its slick black body in my hand, fingers wrapped around the grip. It doesn’t feel as heavy as I thought a gun would be — 20 ounces. The weight of a Bible. Or, perhaps, of two human hearts. I put it back in the safe, cover the safe with jeans. But I can’t hide the unease I feel — or is it shame? — about living with a gun in America. …
(The process of purchasing a handgun in MA is pretty complicated, takes several months to complete apparently, what with paperwork, bureaucratic delays and the required training course.)
… I still don’t know whether I will keep my gun. When I heard that a city nearby would host a gun buyback program, I marked the dates on my calendar. But it went by, and I didn’t give up my gun. My fear and discomfort have diminished, the gun is now familiar… My heart still pounds after I go shoot at the range, which I do rarely these days, though the adrenaline now dissipates faster. But I remain conflicted about being a gun owner in a society that is highly unequal and defined by systemic racism, where a gun’s capacity to both threaten and protect makes polarization worse.
I thought being a gun owner could give me a voice that would be audible across the pro-gun and anti-gun divide in our society, a permission to speak, to say that yes, I have a gun, and yes, I agree with gun laws — the ones that made me learn to use a gun and wait a couple of months before buying one — because, yes, they do save lives. But I am also worried that I could be making things worse. After all, guns are a powerful and contested symbol of all that is right and wrong about America.
That handful of steel in my dresser has never been an ordinary object. It may not be directly implicated, but it is part of the problem. Am I?
… Men who owned handguns were eight times more likely than men who didn’t to die of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Women who owned handguns were more than 35 times more likely than women who didn’t to kill themselves with a gun. …
Hmmm. This may seem pretty obvious, if you decide to kill yourself, you may well use your gun. If you don’t have one, you gotta use something else, or maybe change your mind altogether.
(Hey, there’s still that war going on over in Ukraine…)
E.U. Reaches Deal on Fund for Ukraine
The Hungarian leader Viktor Orban had been the sole holdout to the 50-billion-euro plan aimed at keeping Ukraine’s economy afloat during the war with Russia. …
NY Times – just in
European Union leaders on Thursday reached an agreement to create a 50-billion-euro fund for Ukraine, bringing onboard Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, who had been the primary obstacle to a deal.
“All 27 leaders agreed on an additional €50 billion support package for Ukraine within the EU budget,” the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on social media just an hour into Thursday’s meeting. “This locks in steadfast, long-term, predictable funding,” he added. “EU is taking leadership & responsibility in support for Ukraine; we know what is at stake.”
What, if anything, Mr. Orban received in exchange for giving up his veto for the fund, valued at about $54 billion, was not immediately clear.
He had been demanding an annual chance to veto the disbursement of money to Ukraine, but that was rejected. Instead, E.U. leaders agreed to a regular review of the way the money was being spent, to assuage concerns about diversion or corruption, bloc officials said. …
… Talks had been gridlocked, and the mood toward Mr. Orban, the closest ally in the European Union of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, had been souring since Mr. Orban blocked the first attempt to introduce the fund for Ukraine in December.
Ukraine needs the money desperately as it faces one of its most difficult moments since Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly two years ago, with American aid held up in Congress and virtually no progress on the battlefield.
Kyiv needs fresh cash to keep basic services running. The European aid, to be dispensed in the form of loans and grants over the next four years, would both cover immediate needs and allow Ukraine to plan its long-term budget. …
Jon Stewart wasn’t around to skewer previous Trump campaigns. That’s about to change.
Boston Globe – late yesterday
Jon Stewart put “The Daily Show” on the map during his years hosting the comic news show, from 1999-2015. Now he is returning to the Comedy Central series, beginning on Feb. 12. He will serve as an executive producer, and he will host once a week, on Monday nights, through the 2024 election cycle. The other three nights of the week will be hosted by a rotating team of correspondents and comics, as has been the case since Trevor Noah left in 2022.
It’s a dream come true for those who’ve been missing Stewart’s voice — or at least one-quarter of a dream come true. His return will likely spark renewed interest in “The Daily Show” and possibly bring back some of the viewers who left after he left. …
Distorted Political Entanglements
Cata Truss, a 57-year-old mother on the West Side of Chicago, has initiated a lawsuit, along with the local NAACP chapter for moral support because the city is spending millions of dollars to assist imported immigrants to her already blighted community that has been denied economic assistance for years. Truss says she is disgusted with the Democratic Party that she has voted for and supported for years. She says she will definitely vote Republican this year and she is finished with the Democrats.
Meanwhile, Chicago is attempting to deal with 35,000 imported migrants sent there by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Republicans have made the immigration crisis a mainstay of their 2024 Presidential aspirations and Donald Trump has said he will close the border completely and use the military to enforce it.
At the same time, a bipartisan effort has been underway for weeks in Congress to develop an immigration plan as part of a funding bill that also includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, and the South China Sea. The immigration plan is nearly finalized and according to reporting, is very promising. Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said the bipartisan deal is near to, “finalize the most substantial border security policy in 30 years. . . This agreement would come not a moment too soon.” Biden and Majority Leader Schumer are also supporting the near-finalized bipartisan plan. Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans in the House, including Speaker Johnson are opposed to the deal.
While I understand the frustration of the Chicago neighbors, their cause will not be benefited by voting Republican in 2024. The same distorted political entanglements exist for frustrated 18-34-year-old Democrats who are upset with Biden’s age, environmental issues, or other issues and threaten to stay home or vote for some alternative.
What’s in the New Tax Deal?
NY Times – Jan 19
The 2017 Tax Law is Donald Trump’s signature legislation. Tribute must be paid!
How Big Companies Won New Tax Breaks From the Trump Administration
NY Times – Dec 30, 2019
As the Treasury Department prepared to enact the 2017 Republican tax overhaul, corporate lobbyists swarmed — and won big.
The Trump VP picks that make the most sense
Wasington Post (via MSN) – about 6 hourse ago
Most Republicans and Democrats seem to agree that Donald Trump will be the GOP presidential nominee again in 2024, after his wins in both the Iowa caucuses last week and the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.
Barring a development that somehow upends the race, that would mean the next — and final — big question about the 2024 presidential ballot is Trump’s running mate.
So who might it be? (The top 5 – just their names. Deets omitted.)
(More deja vu?)
Economists Predicted a Recession. So Far They’ve Been Wrong.
NY Times – just in
A widely predicted recession never showed up. Now, economists are assessing what the unexpected resilience tells us about the future.
(More deja vu?)
Economists Predicted a Recession. So Far They’ve Been Wrong.
NY Times – just in
A widely predicted recession never showed up. Now, economists are assessing what the unexpected resilience tells us about the future. …
Bidencare Is a Really Big Deal
NY Times – Paul Krugman – yesterday
Seems like US military outposts in harm’s way don’t have anti-drone defense, yet.
Could this be true?
New Microwave Weapons Could Defend against Swarms of Combat Drones | Scientific American – December 1
(They’re working on it!)
Drone Strike Kills 3 U.S. Service Members in Jordan, White House Says
NY Times – earlier today
The U.S. blamed an Iran-backed militia for the first American military deaths from hostile fire in the widening Middle East crisis.
No need to handle swarms yet. Being able to handling just a few would be great!
Previously, from the WSJ …
Enemy drone that killed US troops in Jordan was mistaken for a US drone, preliminary report suggests
Boston Globe – awhile ago
Mix-Up Preceded Deadly Drone Strike in Jordan, U.S. Officials Say
NY Times – an hour ago
The Iraq-based militia, Kata’ib Hezbollah, hints at pressure from Iran and Iraq.
NY Times – just in
Seems to me it would make much more sense to shoot down your own returning drones than to NOT shoot down those from your enemy. Far better, even.
And then figure out how not to have to do that.
Living with a gun
Boston Globe – yesterday
I have seen the savagery of firearms up close. I was afraid and viscerally appalled by them. I felt compelled to buy one anyway. …
(The process of purchasing a handgun in MA is pretty complicated, takes several months to complete apparently, what with paperwork, bureaucratic delays and the required training course.)
Handgun ownership associated with much higher suicide risk
Stanford Medicine – June 3, 2020
Hmmm. This may seem pretty obvious, if you decide to kill yourself, you may well use your gun. If you don’t have one, you gotta use something else, or maybe change your mind altogether.
(Hey, there’s still that war going on over in Ukraine…)
E.U. Reaches Deal on Fund for Ukraine
The Hungarian leader Viktor Orban had been the sole holdout to the 50-billion-euro plan aimed at keeping Ukraine’s economy afloat during the war with Russia. …
NY Times – just in