Washington Post: “Lawmakers are racing to beat fast-approaching government shutdown deadlines in March, but deep policy divisions may slow them down on everything from passenger rail funding to Internal Revenue Service resources to support for the World Health Organization.”
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China Loses Either Way in Biden-Trump Rematch
Bloomberg: “Trump vows massive tariffs that could shrink US-China trade to practically nothing — and Biden has new restrictions ready to roll before election day.”
Biden Campaign Joins TikTok
“President Biden posted on TikTok for the first time on Sunday with a Super Bowl-themed question and answer, signaling what could be a push for the youth vote in his reelection campaign,” The Hill reports.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) reacts: “Biden campaign bragging about using a Chinese spy app even though Biden signed a law banning it on all federal devices.”
Biden Disparages Netanyahu in Private
“President Joe Biden has been venting his frustration in recent private conversations, some of them with campaign donors, over his inability to persuade Israel to change its military tactics in the Gaza Strip, and he has named Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the primary obstacle,” NBC News reports.
“Biden has said he is trying to get Israel to agree to a cease-fire, but Netanyahu is “giving him hell” and is impossible to deal with, said the people familiar with Biden’s comments, who all asked not to be named.”
Inside White House Infighting Over the Border
“Aboard Air Force One en route to tour the southern border in January 2023, President Biden sat at the head of his conference table and exploded with fury,” Axios reports.
“The president lit into his team, which included then-Deputy Chief of Staff Jen O’Malley Dillon, Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall and other immigration officials. He demanded obscure immigration data points — and vented when his staff didn’t have them handy.”
“The previously unreported meeting is emblematic of the Biden administration’s struggle with the border crisis during the past three years — infighting, blame-shifting and indecision.”
RFK Jr. Apologies for Super Bowl Ad
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly apologized to family members late last night after a super PAC supporting his presidential campaign aired a $7 million Super Bowl spot that appropriated a famed 1960 ad aired by uncle John F. Kennedy.
Said Kennedy: “Federal rules prohibit Superpacs from consulting with me or my staff. I send you and your family my sincerest apologies. God bless you.”
Lloyd Austin Hospitalized Again
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin transferred his duties to his deputy as he is hospitalized for treatment for symptoms “suggesting an emergent bladder issue,” CNN reports.
GOP Officials Stand by Trump After NATO Comments
“After Donald Trump suggested he had threatened to encourage Russia to attack “delinquent” NATO allies, the response among many Republican officials has struck three themes — expressions of support, gaze aversion or even cheerful indifference,” the New York Times reports.
“Republican Party elites have become so practiced at deflecting even Mr. Trump’s most outrageous statements that they quickly batted this one away.”
Washington Post: Trump’s NATO-bashing comments rile allies, rekindle European fears.
Quote of the Day
“Just like we drew it up.”
— President Biden, mocking the GOP conspiracy theories that he had rigged the Super Bowl for the Kansas City Chiefs.
RFK Jr. Runs Super Bowl Ad
A super PAC supporting Robert F. Kennedy ran a campaign ad during the Super Bowl which was a remake of his uncle’s famous ad which ran in the 1960 presidential campaign.
Trump Says Taylor Swift Is ‘Disloyal’ to Him
Donald Trump said on Truth Social that Taylor Swift should be thankful for his 2018 signing of the Music Modernization Act, which he said he did “for Taylor Swift and all other Musical Artists.”
Said Trump: “Joe Biden didn’t do anything for Taylor, and never will. There’s no way she could endorse Crooked Joe Biden, the worst and most corrupt President in the History of our Country, and be disloyal to the man who made her so much money.”
GOP Senators Defy Trump on Advancing Foreign Aid
“Donald Trump spent the weekend telling senators they should not pass more unconditional U.S. foreign aid. More than a dozen Republicans ignored him Sunday, moving forward on a bill to send $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan,” Politico reports.
“The Senate voted 67-27 to advance the foreign aid supplemental spending bill that doesn’t include border provisions, moving it another step closer to passage. That still isn’t guaranteed, as leaders haven’t yet reached an agreement on GOP-demanded border amendments.”
Black Churches in Georgia Unite to Mobilize Voters
“Two of the largest Black church groups in Georgia are formally uniting for the first time to mobilize Black voters in the battleground state ahead of the November presidential election,” the New York Times reports.
“The two congregations, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, plan to combine their resources and their more than 140,000 parishioners in the state for the get-out-the-vote program, which they are set to announce on Monday at the Georgia Capitol.”
“Their efforts, which for now will be concentrated only in Georgia, are meant to reinvigorate the Black church as a powerful driver of voter turnout at a time when national polls point to lagging political energy among Black Americans — and slipping enthusiasm for President Biden, who owes his 2020 rise to the White House to their support.”
Means of Control
Out this month: Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State by Byron Tau.
“You are being surveilled right now. This sweeping exposé reveals how the U.S. government allied with data brokers, tech companies, and advertisers to monitor us through the phones we carry and the devices in our home.”
Sale
Means of Control: How the Hidden Alliance of Tech and Government Is Creating a New American Surveillance State
- Hardcover Book
- Tau, Byron (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 400 Pages - 02/27/2024 (Publication Date) - Crown (Publisher)
Biden’s No-Win Immigration Problem
“President Biden’s struggles with the chaos at the border are partly of his own doing. But no president in recent history — including Donald Trump — has faced an immigration crisis of the scale that Biden has,” Axios reports.
“The reality at the U.S.-Mexico border over the last three years is unprecedented — back-to-back-to-back records for migrant encounters by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.”
Finland’s Stubb Elected as President
“Finland has elected Alexander Stubb as the president of the newest member of the NATO defense bloc after voters had to choose between two seasoned diplomats to keep neighboring Russia at bay,” Bloomberg reports.
“The 55-year-old former prime minister represents continuity in foreign and security policy, with a focus on supporting Ukraine and integrating Finland into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which it joined in April.”
Trump Threatens to Upend International Order
New York Times: “Mr. Trump has never believed in the fundamental one-for-all-and-all-for-one concept of the Atlantic alliance. Indeed, he spent much of his four-year presidency undermining it while strong-arming members into keeping their commitments to spend more on their own militaries with the threat that he would not come to their aid otherwise.”
“But he took it to a whole new level over the weekend, declaring at a rally in South Carolina that not only would he not defend European countries he deemed to be in arrears from an attack by Russia, he would go so far as to ‘encourage’ Russia ‘to do whatever the hell they want’ against them. Never before has a president of the United States — even a former one aspiring to reclaim the office — suggested that he would incite an enemy to attack American allies.”
“Some may discount that as typical Trump rally bluster or write it off as a poor attempt at humor. Others may even cheer the hard line against supposedly deadbeat allies who in this view have taken advantage of American friendship for too long. But Mr. Trump’s rhetoric foreshadows potentially far-reaching changes in the international order if he wins the White House again in November with unpredictable consequences.”
“What’s more, Mr. Trump’s riff once again raised uncomfortable questions about his taste in friends.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) denies Trump said it, even though there’s video.
Trump’s Appeal Was Never About the Economy
Jonathan Chait: “The American economy keeps performing better and better. Oddly, so too does Donald Trump’s polling. It is historically difficult to find a period of time in which an incumbent president, absent a major scandal or failed war, has suffered such miserable public approval in the face of widespread prosperity.”
“But for all the questions this predicament raises, it should at least put to rest one persistent question: whether the source of Donald Trump’s appeal is the immiseration of the working class.”
