Digby's Hullabaloo Posts

LOLOLOLOL!!!

Onstage at a New Hampshire campaign event on Wednesday night, former president Donald Trump bragged about many things: his immigration policies, his passage of a tax cut, the unemployment rates during his administration.

He also bragged that he correctly identified a whale on a cognitive test when he was president.

“I think it was 30, 35 questions,” the former president said of the test, which he said involved a few animal-identification questions. “They always show you the first one, like a giraffe, a tiger, or this, or that, and then: a whale. ‘Which one is the whale?’ Okay. And that goes on for three or four [questions], and then it gets harder, and harder, and harder.”

Trump, 77, said he aced the exam, which he said he took to silence the critics who claim he may be too old or cognitively incapable to run for president.

Chief among those critics is former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, who — to gain ground on Trump ahead of the New Hampshire primary — has sharpened her pitch against him by doubling down on questioning his age and cognitive abilities.

Since the beginning of her campaign, the 51-year-old Haley has proposed that politicians and lawmakers over the age of 75 be required to take a “mental competency test” before they’re allowed another term in office. And while she has mainly targeted President Biden’s age — 81 — on the trail, in recent days she has also been drawing in Trump when arguing that the country needs younger leaders.

After finishing third in the Iowa caucuses behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Haley has repeatedly pointed to Trump’s age as an attack line in television ads and media interviews ahead of the crucial New Hampshire primary next week.

“The majority of Americans think that having two 80-year-olds running for president is not what they want,” she said at a campaign stop Tuesday in Bretton Woods, N.H. On Wednesday and Thursday, she more than once accused Trump of throwing a “temper tantrum.”

The attacks appear to be bothering the former president, who on Wednesday night spent a good portion of his remarks talking about how young he feels and boasting about his cognitive abilities.

“I feel like I’m about 35 years old,” he said. “I actually feel better now than I did 30 years ago. Tell me, is that crazy? I feel better now, and I think cognitively I’m better than I was 20 years ago. I don’t know why.”

“I think I’m cognitively better but I don’t know why” is not the brag he thinks it is.

The fact that he constantly needs to tell people that he’s a stable genius tells you that, deep down, he knows he’s not. #TrumpMentalHealth https://t.co/b21S8UT7nF

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 18, 2024

Awwwww…

London Zoo’s gorilla keepers were carrying out their usual morning duties when they first spotted that Mjukuu was in labour. Giving the experienced mum some space, they monitored her via CCTV cameras installed in the dens.  

Moments after giving birth in the privacy of their back dens, second-time mum Mjukuu could be seen gently cradling her newborn, before allowing the troop’s curious youngsters Alika and Gernot to examine the intriguing new arrival.

London Zoo’s Primates Section Manager Kathryn Sanders said: “We started our day as normal – we gave the gorillas their breakfast and began our cleaning routines. When we returned to their back dens, we could see Mjukuu was starting to stretch and squat – a sign that she was in labour.

“After a very quick labour – just 17 minutes – Mjukuu was spotted on camera tenderly holding her newborn and demonstrating her wonderful mothering instincts – cleaning her infant and checking it over.”

The birth of a western lowland gorilla at London Zoo is a real cause for celebration – the subspecies is critically endangered and as a result of poaching and disease their wild numbers have declined by more than 60% over the last 25 years.

The infant was fathered by Kiburi, who arrived at London Zoo from Tenerife in November 2022 as part of the international conservation breeding programme for western lowland gorillas – the programme ensures the preservation of a genetically diverse and healthy population of the gorilla subspecies.

Kathryn added: “To say we’re happy about this new arrival would be a huge understatement – we’ve all been walking around grinning from ear to ear.

“We’ll be giving mum and baby lots of time and space to get to know each other, and for the rest of the troop to get used to their new addition – they’re as excited as we are and can’t stop staring at the baby.”

Zookeepers are yet to confirm the sex of the infant, who has remained closely snuggled in its adoring mum’s arms. The infant will remain in close contact with mum for around the first six months of its life.

To find out more about the conservation zoo and book to visit London’s gorilla troop, visit www.londonzoo.org 

Will Barrett and Roberts save Chevron?

Ian Millhiser has a tiny bit of hope:

Four justices appeared absolutely determined, on Wednesday, to overrule one of the most consequential Supreme Court decisions in the Court’s entire history.

Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council (1984) is arguably as important to the development of federal administrative law — an often technical area of the law, but one that touches on literally every single aspect of American life — as Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was important to the development of the law of racial equality. Chevron is a foundational decision, which places strict limits on unelected federal judges’ ability to make policy decisions for the entire nation.

As Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during Wednesday’s arguments, Chevron forces judges to grapple with a very basic question: “When does the court decide that this is not my call?”

And yet, four members of the Supreme Court — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — spent much of Wednesday’s arguments in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce speaking of Chevron with the same contempt most judges reserve for cases like Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the pro-segregation decision rejected by Brown.

The open question is whether the Court’s four most strident opponents of this foundational ruling can find a fifth vote.

None of the Court’s three Democratic appointees were open to the massive transfer of power to federal judges contemplated by the plaintiffs in these two cases. That leaves Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett as the two votes that remain uncertain. To prevail — and to keep Chevron alive — the Justice Department needed its arguments to persuade both Roberts and Barrett to stay their hands.

Barrett, of the two, appeared the most open to preserving Chevron. Among other things, she repeatedly expressed concerns about the disruptive consequences that would result from overruling one of the most widely cited Supreme Court decisions of the last century. As Justice Elena Kagan noted at one point, Chevron has been cited by 17,000 lower court decisions, and Barrett appeared troubled by the “flood of litigation” that would result if all of these decisions were called into question.

Roberts, meanwhile, spent much of Wednesday’s arguments downplaying the significance of Chevron. That said, the Chief did have a colloquy with Paul Clement, one of the lawyers arguing in favor of overruling Chevron, which suggests he may be looking for a way to hand Clement’s client a narrow victory without deciding if Chevron itself should fall.

So the bottom line is that, if you are a gambler, you should bet on Chevron being overruled. But there is an off chance that Roberts and Barrett will decide not to make one of the biggest power shifts to an unelected branch of government in American history.

There’s not much to hang your hopes on there but I suppose it’s better than nothing. This is the most important GOP establishment project out there and it’s also a priority of MAGA guru, Steve Bannon (“deconstruction of the administrative state”) It’s a huge case. Keep your eyes on it.

Millhiser has much more at the link. It’s probably a good idea to take a few minutes to read the whole thing. We’d better hope that two of the terrible majority haven’t completely gone to the dark side.

The Supremes blocked his most comprehensive student loan relief policy but it hasn’t stopped them from doing what they can. He should get some credit for it:

The Biden administration on Friday announced another $5 billion in debt forgiveness for 74,000 student loan borrowers.

Although the Supreme Court blocked Biden’s signature student loan forgiveness plan, his administration has found alternative ways to provide relief to more than 3.7 million people.

The batch of debt cancelation announced Friday stemmed, in part, from his administration’s changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

The majority of borrowers who will benefit from the latest round of forgiveness are teachers, nurses, firefighters and other public service professionals, per a White House release.

The remaining borrowers who will benefit have repaid their loans for at least 20 years but never got the relief they were entitled to under their income-driven repayment plans.

Biden said in a statement his administration would continue to find other ways to forgive loans held by “as many borrowers as possible.”

“I won’t back down from using every tool at our disposal to get student loan borrowers the relief they need to reach their dreams,” he said.

It’s not enough but within the ridiculous boundaries of our system of government, they have not given up. I know for a fact, you get anything better from a Republican.

I know you’ll be shocked to hear this, but it turns out that corporations have been massively profiteering over the pandemic.

A new report claims “resounding evidence” shows that high corporate profits are a main driver of ongoing inflation, and companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop.

The report, compiled by the progressive Groundwork Collaborative thinktank, found corporate profits accounted for about 53% of inflation during last year’s second and third quarters. Profits drove just 11% of price growth in the 40 years prior to the pandemic, according to the report.

Prices for consumers rose by 3.4% over the past year, but input costs for producers increased by just 1%, according to the authors’ calculations which were based on data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Income and Products Accounts.

“Costs have come down substantially, and while corporations were quick to pass on their increased costs to consumers, they are surprisingly less quick to pass on their savings to consumers,” Liz Pancotti, a Groundwork strategic advisor and paper co-author, told the Guardian.

Since pandemic inflation spiked in 2021, a high-stakes debate has played out about its sources. Many progressive economists pointed to corporate profits – or “greedflation” – and supply chain issues as a driver of high prices, while their more conservative counterparts singled out government stimulus cash and high wages.

The report’s authors scoured corporate earnings calls and found executives bragging to shareholders about keeping prices high and widening profit margins as input costs come down.

The findings come as the Federal Reserve has hiked interest rates to their highest point in 20 years. The report casts serious doubt on the need for further interest rate hikes, and instead calls for stronger policies to rein in “corporate profiteering”.

Oy vey. If it isn’t the fascism it’s the corporate greed. And the two so often go together perfectly.

The relentless wail of Donald Trump

How dare Nikki Haley use his own strategy to beat him:

Former President Donald Trump might owe Sen. Ted Cruz an apology.

And no, it’s not about the long list of things Trump has said about Cruz and his family. Rather, it’s about how Cruz and his allies complained in 2016 about how non-Republican voters helped hand the nomination to Trump. They even tried to formally change the party’s rules to incentivize states to move away from elections that allowed independent and possibly even Democratic voters to weigh in on the Republican presidential race.

Trump ran away with the 2016 Republican presidential nomination in part due to his sheer dominance in these so-called “open primaries.” While at the same time, Cruz struggled to keep up by winning in closed primaries and caucuses.

Now, Trump is sounding the alarm at the possibility that former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley could use his old playbook against him.

“As you know, Nikki Haley, in particular, is counting on the Democrats and liberals to infiltrate your Republican primary, you know that, that’s what’s happening,” Trump said at a rally in New Hampshire on Tuesday evening. “A group of people coming in that are not Republicans and it’s artificially boosting her numbers here, although we are still leading her by a lot.”

Boo hoo hoo. Somebody’s always cheating poor old Trump.

But I have to say that Haley’s comments on this are as cowardly as ever:

“Nikki has always believed that the Republican Party has to be about addition, not subtraction. Republicans have lost the popular vote in the last seven of the eight elections,” Haley spokesperson AnnMarie Graham-Barnes said in a statement to Insider. “We lost races we should have won in 2018, 2020, and 2022. If Republicans want to start winning again, we have to start bringing in people fed up with Joe Biden’s disastrous administration, not pushing people away.”

Please. They mean, “we have to start bringing in people fed up with Donald Trump. not pushing people away” but they just can’t bring themselves to say it. So they just act like the big orange elephant in the room isn’t whining like a five year old.

Biden bridges it in N.C.

President Joe Biden visited North Carolina on Thursday to remind Tar Heel State citizens what his infrastructure plan has already delivered:

Who remembers, you know, during the pandemic when schools were shut down and … the kids weren’t able to attend schools. They had to go online. How many of you spent time in McDonald parking lots tapping into their Internet so you could do the homework with your kid?

Look, think of all the workers who need Internet to do their jobs when they’re working from home. So many are working from home — have to work. Small businesses need Internet to reach more customers here at home and literally around the world. And our seniors who need it in connection with their doctors through telemedicine because they can’t make it to the doctors in person.

High-speed Internet isn’t a luxury anymore, it’s an absolute necessity. It’s an absolute — (applause) — no, it really is. And yet, when I became president, around 24 million Americans didn’t have access to affordable high-speed Internet. And for millions more, their Internet connection was limited or unreliable.

That’s why, as soon as I came into office, I took action with what we call the American Rescue Plan. And it included — (applause) — it included more than $25 billion to invest in affordable Internet, high-speed Internet all across America.

A few months later, I signed a piece of legislation, which many people didn’t think we could get done: the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. (Applause.) A once-in-a-generation investment to rebuild America’s infrastructure — our roads, our bridges, our railroads, our high-speed Internet — all of it paid for.

And, look, our goal is to connect everyone in America to affordable, reliable high-speed Internet by the year 2030 — everyone in America — just like Franklin Roosevelt did a generation ago with electricity.

Biden went on:

Folks, what we’re doing here in North Carolina is just one piece of a much bigger story. To date, 400- — excuse me, 40,000 infrastructure projects have been announced across this nation. Since I’ve been to office, we’ve created 14 million new jobs — 440 [thousand] new jobs in North Carolina alone, just since I came to office. (Applause.) And that’s because of this guy right here. Nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs nationwide.

It’s crazy they think this is an attack line.

The only way that Biden getting a Cookout milkshake in North Carolina would be more relatable is if he had gone at 2am with his friends after drinking half a bottle of moonshine and then calling an ex-girlfriend three times #ncpol https://t.co/VYvGOuI8e1

— Braxton Marcela (@Braxton_Marcela) January 19, 2024

Reuters adds detail:

The pandemic relief bill combined with the $1 trillion infrastructure bill will help connect some 300,000 more homes and businesses to high-speed internet by 2027, the White House said. The measures will also help some 885,000 North Carolina households save up to $30 a month on their internet bills, according to the White House.

“It’s not enough to have internet access, but it has to be affordable,” Biden said.

Having mentioned FDR, Biden made sure to take a jab at Donald “Infrastructure Weak” Trump:

And now, my predecessor likes to say America is a failing nation. In my faith — (the President makes the sign of the cross) — bless me, Father, for he has sinned. I mean, come on. (Laughter.) A failing nation?

And, by the way, did you hear he wants to see the stock market crash, because he does not want — now. We’re doing well. He’s acknowledging — by that — we’re doing pretty damn well economically and we’re getting better. He wants to see the stock market crash. You know why? He doesn’t want to be the next Herbert Hoover.

As I told him, he’s already Hoover. (Laughter.) He’s the only president to be president for four years and lose jobs, not gain any jobs. Come on, man. (Laughter.)

North Carolina is getting a $26.7 million grant from the Biden administration to buy new electric school buses for low-income, rural, and tribal areas in the state.

That’s a big deal.

Michael McElroy, political correspondent for Cardinal and Pine, takes a look. pic.twitter.com/iyc3mB1IQf

— Cardinal & Pine (@CardinalAndPine) January 18, 2024

Associated Press:

Biden’s reelection campaign has made winning North Carolina and its 16 electoral votes a top priority. The Democrat narrowly lost the state in 2020 by 1.34 percentage points to Trump. They are expected to face each other again in November.

Fast-growing North Carolina is considered a presidential battleground, but only twice in the last 40-plus years has a Democrat won the state’s electoral votes: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008.

I remember 2008 well.

MAGA Republicans don’t want to fix the border

Republicans no longer have abortion to run on in 2024 thanks to Donald Trump and his SCOTUS appointments. They’re running away from abortion. With good cause. They have lost everywhere abortion rights have been on the ballot in election after election since SCOTUS overturned Roe in June of 2022.

So they’ve latched onto scare-mongering about brown-skinned immigrants, the real ones at the southern border and the even scarier Others they can conjure in the minds of their voters. Immigration is too good a campaign weapon to lose before November.

Of course, they’re going to sabotage the border bill. Republicans don’t want to fix the border. They want to campaign on the border being broken. pic.twitter.com/ubBUaGWN69

— PoliticsGirl (@IAmPoliticsGirl) January 18, 2024

Laura Ingraham claimed on her show Wednesday that she’d spoken with Trump and he’s adamant that House Republicans reject the bipartisan immigration bill passed by the U.S. Senate. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is on board (Meidas Touch):

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson admitted to Laura Ingraham on Fox News Wednesday night that he has been talking to Donald Trump “pretty frequently” about a possible deal being negotiated to fix problems at the border.

A bipartisan border deal was reached recently between Republican Senator James Lankford and Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer to solve many of the issues the country is facing at the southern border. Soon after, Laura Ingraham aired a misleading graphic on her show, cherry picking portions from the bill that would be most likely to anger hardline MAGA Republicans.

It worked.

Almost instantly, Johnson was pressured to denounce the bill and said that it would never reach the House Floor. On Wednesday, Johnson said, “I don’t think now is the time for comprehensive immigration reform, because we know how complicated that is.”

Complicated? Complicated? Not for Donald Trump, The Wizard of Wharton. He claims every problem can be fixed quickly and easily. Why not this one?

They want their weapon.

Republicans in the House have been pretty blunt about it (Business Insider):

“Let me tell you, I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden’s approval rating,” Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas told CNN this week. “I will not help the Democrats try to improve this man’s dismal approval ratings. I’m not going to do it. Why would I?”

Rep. Jared Mosckowitz (D-Fla.) took House Republicans to task over their grandstanding on immigration reform. He brought a prop of the Nehls quote above to reinforce the GOP’s refusal to address what they’ve made a signature campaign issue: “They want to use it to raise money. They want use it to politicize it. But they don’t want to solve the issue.”

They want their weapon.

President Joe Biden worked the problem this week with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other congressional leaders at the White House (NBC News):

“I’ve been a part of enough negotiations to know when you’re coming close to finishing, and I feel like we’re there,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters. “But didn’t I say something like that last three weeks ago?”

Leaving the White House, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Wednesday’s meeting “productive,” saying he told Biden and Democrats: “We must have change at the border — substantive policy change.”

[…]

McConnell said earlier Wednesday he expects that the Senate could vote on the emerging immigration package — tied to Ukraine aid, Israel funding and assistance for Taiwan — next week.

“We have a number of important international responsibilities. And I think it’s time to go ahead with the supplemental, and I’m anticipating it’ll be before us next week,” he said.

That prompted a speedy rebuke from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas:

I anticipate telling McConnell to pound sand. https://t.co/3gx9sjyJTc

— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) January 17, 2024

Why would Chip Roy tell McConnell to pound sand? Say it with me:

And 75% of GOP voters think Trump is just fine

It’s the other 25% he needs to be concerned about…

Former President Donald Trump‘s convincing victory in Monday’s Iowa caucuses shows his continued strength among Republicans, and a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds once more that Trump is both viewed nationwide as the candidate whom Republicans and Republican-leaning independents would be most satisfied with as their 2024 nominee as well as the highest-rated contender across a range of other attributes.

Three out of four Republican-leaning adults say they would be very or somewhat satisfied with Trump as the GOP’s presidential nominee, compared to 64% who say the same about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and 50% for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Trump’s two remaining rivals in the nominating race.

Trump’s advantage tracks closely with the findings about Republicans who were interviewed as part of a more extensive ABC News poll conducted the week before the Iowa caucuses.

And much like Iowa entrance polls that indicated Trump was able to dominate among evangelical or born-again Christian voters in the state on Monday, he maintains a sizable advantage in that group’s assessments nationally as well. According to the new ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, 74% of evangelicals or born-again Christians are somewhat or very satisfied with Trump. He has a stronger rating on this question than both Haley and DeSantis among this group.

They just think Trump is great.

They must have really loved this:

Marjorie Taylor Green is a very stable genius:

Sitting in here earlier, I was listening to the discussion on jobs and that the whole reason claimed by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle is that they want to bring in as many illegal aliens as possible, give them amnesty so they can fill jobs in America,” Greene claimed. “And then they talked about that we have a population growth problem in the United States.”

“Well, I think we can all say that if maybe, perhaps, 63 million people weren’t murdered in the womb, we wouldn’t have a population growth problem, would we?” she asked. “That’s not women’s reproductive rights. That’s called abortion. It’s called murder.”

Greene blamed abortion rights for slowing population growth.

Never say there is no plan:

I gotta give to it to MTG. She really understands what America’s all about: the mass deportation of immigrants. https://t.co/1FX3cXe9A5

— Daniel Miller (@DanielMillerEsq) January 18, 2024

By the way, they are lowering the working age in red states. They’re getting prepared.