A former elections supervisor in rural Coffee County, Georgia, has told the Washington Post that she opened her offices to a businessman active in the election-denier movement to help investigate results she did not trust in the weeks after President Donald Trump’s 2020 defeat.
A Few Thoughts for the End of the Week
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Journal Says Supreme Court Has ‘Blood on Your Hands’
The Lancet has a blistering editorial on the leaked Supreme Court draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade:
“If the U.S. Supreme Court confirms its draft decision, women will die. The Justices who vote to strike down Roe will not succeed in ending abortion, they will only succeed in ending safe abortion. Alito and his supporters will have women’s blood on their hands.”
“What is so shocking, inhuman, and irrational about this draft opinion is that the Court is basing its decision on an 18th-century document ignorant of 21st-century realities for women. The route forward is unclear and perilous. This Court’s argument suggests possible future attacks on a raft of other civil rights, from marriage equality to contraception.”
Electability Argument Falling Flat in 2022
Amy Walter: “For the last six years, the one thing that has kept the Democratic Party unified and motivated is Donald Trump. Fear and loathing got Democrats to turn out in the 2018 midterms, and kept those voters engaged in 2020. Sure, the party was divided ideologically and generationally, with liberals and younger voters flocking to the Bernie Sanders wing and older, Black and more moderate Democrats sticking with Joe Biden. But, at the end of the day, both sides understood that the most important and existential issue was defeating Trump.”
“This strategy for the 2018 midterms was summarized best by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s slogan of ‘Just win, baby.’ Primaries were for picking the candidates who could win these swing CDs, not for intra-party ideological warfare. In 2020, Democrats rallied behind the more centrist Biden simply because they believed he provided Democrats the best chance to beat Trump that fall.”
“But, with Trump no longer in the White House and Biden’s approval ratings underwater, the electability message is falling flat in Democratic primaries.”
China’s Slowdown Is Rippling All Around the World
Wall Street Journal: “China’s deceleration represents a double whammy for the global economy. The country isn’t just a huge market for the rest of the world’s goods, components and raw materials, but it is the manufacturing dynamo at the center of global trade.”
China Faces Possible Covid ‘Tsunami’
“China risks a ‘tsunami’ of coronavirus infections resulting in 1.6 million deaths if the government abandons its long-held Covid Zero policy and allows the highly-infectious omicron variant to spread unchecked,” Bloomberg reports.
Russia Is Pulling Back from Kharkiv
“Moscow appears to be withdrawing forces from around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, where it has been losing ground, in one of Russia’s biggest setbacks since its retreat from Kyiv last month,” the New York Times reports.
Georgia Swing Voters Don’t See Abortion as Key Issue
Georgia swing voters in the latest Axios Engagious/Schlesinger focus groups strongly support abortion rights — but say the issue alone likely won’t decide who they support in November midterm elections.
Inflation Is By Far the Most Important Issue
A new Pew Research poll finds the public views inflation as the top problem facing the United States – and no other concern comes close.
Key takeaway: 70% of Americans view inflation as a very big problem for the country, followed by the affordability of health care (55%) and violent crime (54%).
U.S. Intel Community Launches Review After Failings
“The US intelligence community is carrying out a sweeping internal review of how it assesses the fighting power of foreign militaries amid mounting pressure from key lawmakers on Capitol Hill who say officials have failed twice in one year on the two major foreign policy crises faced by the Biden administration in Ukraine and Afghanistan,” CNN reports.
Trump Hits the Speaking Circuit
“Donald Trump has found a new way to milk his ex-presidency — and test another — hitting the lucrative motivational speaking circuit with more fervor than any other active U.S. politician in history,” Axios reports.
“It’s a way to build support for a possible 2024 presidential bid while potentially pocketing large speaking fees as many of his iconic properties are struggling.”
“Trump stands to benefit on both ends. He headlines a rally-type event with a third party footing the bill, and stands to gets a hefty payout for his time.”
North Korea Reports 6 Deaths from Covid Outbreak
“Six people have died and 350,000 have been treated for a fever that has spread ‘explosively’ across North Korea, state media said Friday, a day after the country acknowledged a Covid-19 outbreak for the first time in the pandemic,” the AP reports.
“North Korea likely doesn’t have sufficient Covid-19 tests and said it didn’t know the cause of the mass fevers. But a big coronavirus outbreak could be devastating in a country with a broken health care system and an unvaccinated, malnourished population.”
The Economist: “North Korea lacks the testing and tracing infrastructure that other countries have built over the past two years. Its health-care sector suffered from serious underinvestment even before the pandemic. It does not have enough equipment and medical staff. Hospitals do not have regular power, clean water or proper sanitation. Two years of closed borders have depleted supplies of medicine, much of which is imported. It is unclear how much oxygen or how many ventilators the country has available. And pre-existing conditions make North Koreans especially susceptible to covid-19. Tuberculosis, which worsens the effects of the virus, is rampant. So is malnutrition.”
How More Than $1 Trillion of Crypto Vanished
“Traders’ flight from risky investments has halved the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, wiping out more than $1 trillion worth of digital money since November,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Wild swings are fairly common with cryptocurrencies, but even seasoned investors were left reeling as bitcoin dropped 29% over a seven-day losing streak that just ended as a stablecoin—one part of the crypto world that touted its stability—unexpectedly crashed.”
Sweden Signals It Will Also Join NATO
“A day after Finland’s leaders declared unequivocally that the nation would join NATO, the Swedish government signaled on Friday that it could soon follow suit, issuing a scathing report outlining how Russian aggression in Ukraine had fundamentally altered the security equation in Europe and saying that only NATO membership would offer the nation stability and protection,” the New York Times reports.
Baby Formula Shortage Could Last Months
Wall Street Journal: “Baby-formula manufacturers and retailers say they are working to address a long-running shortage in products on store shelves, but the hardships facing U.S. families may take months to abate…”
“Meanwhile, everyone from frustrated parents to lawmakers on Capitol Hill have called for inquiries into why shortages that initially emerged earlier in the Covid-19 pandemic have been difficult to resolve. A House committee has scheduled a hearing on May 25 about the formula shortage.”
Washington Post: Biden, lawmakers rush to address formula shortage.
The Worst Boss Speaks
When asked about being named the “Worst Boss” on Capitol Hill, Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) told Indy Politics that “a lot of these young people need to toughen up.”
White House Prepares to Ration Vaccines
Politico: “Among the sacrifices being weighed are limiting access to its next generation of vaccines to only the highest-risk Americans — a rationing that would have been unthinkable just a year ago.”
Looming End to Abortion Rights Gives Liberals a Spark
New York Times: “Around the country — from South Texas to Chicago, Pittsburgh to New York — the looming loss of abortion rights has re-energized the Democratic Party’s left flank, which had absorbed a series of legislative and political blows and appeared to be divided and flagging. It has also dramatized the generational and ideological divide in the Democratic Party, between a nearly extinct older wing that opposes abortion rights and younger progressives who support them.”
“The growing intensity behind the issue has put some conservative-leaning Democrats on the defensive.”
