Dispatches

TRUMP TO HIS FOLLOWERS: I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION. Donald Trump, within minutes of taking the stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md. (3/4), went into his typical remarks, disparaging the United States as a “filthy communist country” and attacking Democrats and the news media, S.V. Date reported at HuffPost.com (3/4).

“They’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you. I’m just standing in their way,” he said. “We will drive out the globalists. We will kick out the communists.”

And even though dozens of rows in the back remained empty, Trump thanked the fire marshal for letting in so many of his supporters. “Look at all these people. They’re up to the rafters,” he said.

Trump called prosecutors investigating him “racist” — the ones in New York and Georgia are Black — and claimed they only went after him because he is likely to win the presidency again. He continued lying about the 2020 election having been stolen from him: “We did much better in 2020 than we did in 2016.” He added later, “I won that second election, and I won it by a lot.”

He relitigated, at length, his two impeachments: The first for his attempted extortion of Ukraine and the second for his incitement of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol that capped off his coup attempt to remain in office.

And he promised that if he won reelection, he would take revenge on those who didn’t respect his followers. “I am your retribution,” he said.

Trump, during his presidency, repeatedly attacked NATO and had planned to withdraw from the alliance in his second term — thereby giving Russian dictator Vladimir Putin his top wish. After Putin invaded Ukraine last year, Trump called him a “genius” for doing so.

On March 4, he promised that if he won the White House, he would quickly end the war because he “gets along great with Putin.”

“I’m the only candidate who can make this promise: I will prevent — and very easily — World War III. Very easily. And you’re going to have World War III, by the way, you’re going to have World War III if something doesn’t happen fast,” he said.

DON JR. CONFIRMS ‘DARK BRANDON’ HAS BEEN LIVING RENT-FREE IN TRUMP’S HEAD. Donald Trump’s stemwinder at CPAC (3/4) produced one moment that made clear President Joe Biden has been festering in Trump’s fragile psyche, Kerry Eleveld noted at DailyKos (3/6).

“In 2016, I declared, ‘I am your voice,’” Trump told CPAC attendees during his keynote address. “Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed: I am your retribution.”

Shortly after the declaration, Donald Trump Jr. posted a Dark Brandon-esque photo of Trump on Instagram pointing at the camera with glowing-red eyes atop the words, “I AM YOUR RETRIBUTION.”

So much for Trump’s 2017 inaugural pledge that “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.” Now it’s all carnage all the time, apparently, Eleveld noted.

“Two of Trump’s most endearing qualities are how fantastically thin-skinned he is and how utterly incapable he is of hiding it. If we needed any confirmation whatsoever that Biden’s alter ego ‘Dark Brandon’ has been living rent-free in Trump’s head, now we have it,” Eleveld concluded.

POLL FINDS MAJORITY OF US VOTERS WANT FED TO STOP RAISING RATES BEFORE IT TANKS ECONOMY. A majority of US voters want the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates before it plunges the economy into recession, a position that aligns with the view of many economists and lawmakers who fear the central bank is on the verge of needlessly throwing millions out of work, a recent poll shows.

Conducted by Lake Research Partners and published by the Groundwork Collaborative (3/6), the new poll found that 56% of US voters believe the Fed should bring its rate hikes to a halt as top central bankers indicate that more increases are coming in the near future—even though rates are already at their highest level in 15 years, Jake Johnson reported at CommonDreams (3/6).

“Our new poll makes it clear that people across the country want the Federal Reserve to stop raising interest rates before it pushes us toward a devastating and completely avoidable recession,” said Rakeen Mabud, chief economist at the Groundwork Collaborative.

“People understand that pushing millions of workers out of a job is a terrible way to address inflation and will do nothing to address root causes of inflation like supply-chain interruptions, the war in Ukraine, and big corporations manipulating the market to increase profits,” Mabud added. “And they want a Federal Reserve that prioritizes workers and families, not Wall Street and Big Business.”

The survey, which reached 1,240 registered voters nationwide, found that just 14% believe the Fed is on the side of “average Americans.” Nearly 40% said they feel the central bank serves the interests of big businesses or banks.

“Voters believe overwhelmingly that the Federal Reserve is on the side of Big Business, banks, and Wall Street,” Celinda Lake, the president and founder of Lake Research Partners, said during a press call (3/6).

The findings were released a day ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s scheduled appearance before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where he was expected to face sharp questioning from central bank policy critics such as Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

Powell and other central bankers have repeatedly claimed that the US labor market—which has thus far remained strong in the face of the Fed’s rate increases—is running too hot and must be weakened in order to curtail inflation, sparking accusations that the Fed is prioritizing just one side of its dual mandate and “trying to engineer a recession.”

Critics have said the Fed’s chosen policy approach—aggressive attempts to curb demand—is misguided and will do little to tackle the primary drivers of inflation, including corporate concentration and profit-seeking price increases.

The new polling shows that an overwhelming majority of US voters—77%—believe that “we should be focusing on the legislative tools Congress can use to fight inflation instead of simply relying on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.”

While the survey doesn’t mention specific legislative fixes, campaigners and experts have floated a range of proposals over the past year, from a crackdown on Big Oil profiteering to targeted price controls.

MAJOR US OIL COMPANIES RAKED IN $290 BILLION IN PROFITS LAST YEAR. An analysis published by the watchdog Accountable.US (3/6) revealed that the biggest oil companies operating in the US raked in a collective $290 billion in profits last year while they “consistently prioritized shareholder returns over alleviating the pressure of high energy prices.”

According to the report—which analyzed 26 oil companies doing business in the US—the $290 billion in collective 2022 Big Oil profits marked a 126% increase from the previous year. Fossil Fuel giants including BP, Shell, and Chevron more than doubled their net income in 2022, while smaller players like Murphy Oil and Southwestern Energy saw respective increases of 1,410% and 7,496%, Brett Wilkins noted at CommonDreams (3/6).

“With $290 billion in profits, Big Oil made enough money in 2022 to end world hunger, pay off U.S. medical debt, and build 10 Disney Worlds, but instead used their record profits to shower $163 billion on shareholders with plans to give even more in 2023,” Accountable.US said.

According to a summary of the analysis:

“The industry’s historic margins were largely achieved through unabated price gouging of American consumers. As families across the country experienced financial strain due to the artificially high prices at the pump, the industry spent over $163 billion on stock buybacks and dividends, further enriching their wealthy shareholders. Even as Big Oil executives complain about supposedly lower-than-desired margins in 2023, oil and gas companies have already publicly announced plans to buy at least $160 billion in stock backs starting this year.”

“Modern-day oil barons like Shell, BP, and Chevron forced American consumers into financial strain and ruthlessly extracted every last dime out of working and middle-class people,”said Accountable.US director of energy and environment Jordan Schreiber.

Fossil fuel and other corporations have used the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and inflation as pretexts to price gouge consumers.

“Despite the industry’s bald-faced lies, Big Oil’s never-ending greed was the central force driving the industry’s obscene price gouging,” Schreiber continued. “Now, executives have already announced plans to spend $160 billion on stock buybacks to enrich their wealthy shareholders further.”

“Meanwhile,” she added, “the MAGA majority in the House continues to shield Big Oil from accountability as their constituents pay the price.”

Last March, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) introduced a bill that would tax excess oil company profits and pay American households a quarterly refund. That same month, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the Ending Corporate Greed Act, a proposed 95% windfall profits tax on major oil companies.

President Joe Biden has indicated he would support a windfall profits tax on oil companies if they don’t increase production.

‘NEW’ HOUSE REPUBLICAN ENERGY PLAN: DRILL, BABY, DRILL. Now that their most urgent priority—the creation of multiple new committees that will allow the loudest sedition-backing crackpots to yell at people on television—has been dealt with, it’s time for House Republicans to at least pretend to take on the task of legislating. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was expected to unveil a Republican overhaul of federal energy and environmental regulations, Hunter reported at DailyKos (3/6).

As for why the first big-ticket bill from the new Republican majority is a so-called energy bill, you don’t need to read too much into it. It’s mainly because every other high priority item on their agenda is still mired in Republican infighting, but pretty much all of them can agree that when it comes to energy policy, the only plausible solution is to drill, baby, drill.

Politico brings us some quotes and spin, and whether it’s because they’re a harder-right outlet now or because political reporters are the most scrupulously gullible people on Earth, there’s a lot of deference to the notion that, no, no, this isn’t about gutting environmental laws and cranking up fossil fuel extraction for the sake of industries that have Washington, D.C., in their back pocket, this is about an “all-of-the-above” energy approach that will also benefit solar and wind and other projects because, you know, reasons. But Politico also points out the biggest hurdle this new bill faces: other House Republicans.

“While conservatives have demanded a kind of “open season” for amendments, GOP leaders sense that could be a risky strategy,” says Politico. So House leaders might announce that this bill, which collects about 20 different smaller bills from various committees into one big package, isn’t subject to such shenanigans.

While House Republicans suggest that this bill will be a bipartisan affair, or at least be a little bipartisan, but nearly all of that bipartisanship appears to be resting on pro-coal Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who Republicans expect will be on their side for this one.

The Republican bill contains the usual Republican wishlist:

• More drilling on federal lands and waters, requiring the federal government to “immediately” resume oil lease sales and fast-track permits for such projects.

• Blocking presidential power to veto some projects, a response to former President Barack Obama’s veto of the Keystone XL pipeline. Cross-border permits would fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy.

• ”Reforming” the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act to speed up environmental reviews for energy projects, including a new mandate that regulators rely on existing data rather than conduct new site-specific research. Republicans say this would speed up new wind and solar plants, and it might. The lion’s share of the benefit would go to new drilling and mining projects.

• A loosening of environmental regulations on hard rock mining.

• The repeal of the $27 billion greenhouse gas reduction fund designated in the Democratic Congress’ Inflation Reduction Act.

• The repeal of incentives to curb methane emissions designated in the Inflation Reduction Act.

• Changes to the Clean Water Act.

• A resolution expressing support for the export of American fossil fuels.

And so forth. The bulk of the nearly two dozen bills being considered for collection into the big-ticket Republican energy plan consist of speeding up extraction permitting, reducing the environmental considerations those projects are scrutinized for, and blocking local power to do anything about it. It’s the same drill, baby, drill plan Republicans have been pushing for years, and nobody is trying all that terribly hard to pretend otherwise.

The only real Republican attempt at a “clean energy” program anywhere in the mix is the argument that if we scrap as many environmental regulations as possible, that’ll benefit new large-scale solar and wind farms too, so Shut Up.

That’s true, of course. But it’s also true that whatever climate mitigation those projects might provide could be vastly outweighed by the damage done by ramping up even more fossil fuel use at a time when catastrophic climate change is already almost certainly on its way. It’s a maliciously insincere argument, but that’s nothing new for drilling-obsessed Republicans.

TRUMP HAS A VISION FOR THE FUTURE, AND IT’S ‘THE JETSONS.’ Lamenting that the US has “lost its boldness,” the top Republican 2024 presidential candidate called for a national contest to design 10 new Freedom Cities and beat China in the development of flying cars as a way to spur a “quantum leap in the American Standard of Living,” CNBC reported (3/3). Another plank of Trump’s plan, detailed in a less-than-four-minute video posted by his campaign, is for the federal government to boost investment in flying personal vehicles. “I want to ensure that America, not China, leads this revolution in air mobility,” Trump said in the video.

Charles P. Pierce noted at Esquire.com (3/3), “So make way for Trumpville, Utah; Trumptown, Montana; Trumpboro, Colorado; and Trumpcester, Idaho—all of which are guaranteed to go bankrupt in less than a decade. Luckily, all the people will be able to escape in their flying cars, like the Joads in their flivver.

“JETSON! YOU’RRRRRRRRE FIIIIIIIRRRRRED!”

FLORIDA REPUBLICANS WANT TO KEEP TRACK OF BLOGGERS. Charles P. Pierce also is keeping an eye on the state legislatures, many of whom are running amok. In RonDeSantistan’s Florida Legislature, state Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Sanford) has proposed Senate Bill 1316, which would require any blogger who is paid to write about government officials to register with the Florida Office of Legislative Services or the Commission on Ethics within five days after the publication of an article that mentions an elected state official. If another blog post is added to a blog, the blogger would then be required to submit monthly reports on the 10th of each month with the appropriate state office. They would not have to submit a report on months when no content is published.

“Obviously, the only sensible reply to this law, available to everyone who isn’t Viktor Orban, is ‘Bite me, please.’” Pierce noted. “The government demands a journalist register with the state. That the Florida Republican Party can raise a generation of politicians who can’t recognize this for what it truly is should be a sufficiently good argument for revoking Florida’s statehood.

“Those same politicians represent the next generation of Florida congresscritters and senators, which means we all have a stake in this kind of thing. This isn’t conservative American extremism, this is outright fascism, straight, no chaser.”

The bill also requires that bloggers file notices of failure to file a timely report the same way that lobbyists file their disclosures and reports on assessed fines. Explicitly, the blogger rule would not apply to newspapers or similar publications, under Brodeur’s proposed legislation.

Ah, here comes the kitty screeching from the burlap. Even in their current straitened circumstances, newspapers and similar publications are apt to have pockets deep enough to bring this ignorant drivel into federal court to be barbecued all the way up and down the line. But some poor schlub in a one-bedroom outside of Fort Myers, or a nonprofit that dines on happy hour snacks and is critical of Ronald DeSantis’ attempts to feed history into a shredder—those folks might not be able to sustain the vigorous legal challenge the law deserves.”

WATCHDOGS CALL BS ON WHISTLEBLOWER STATUS FOR JIM JORDAN’S FBI WITNESSES. Government watchdogs accused Republicans on the US House Judiciary Committee of illegitimate “theatrics” as Democrats released a 300-page report outlining major weaknesses in the GOP’s investigation into supposed political bias at the FBI, Julia Conley reported at CommonDreams (3/3).

Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is leading a probe into claims of anti-Republican bias at the law enforcement bureau and has claimed that his party has heard from “dozens and dozens of whistleblowers” about how the FBI has been “weaponized” against the right—but having heard the testimonies of three witnesses, the Democrats said, they can confidently say the people selected by the GOP “are not, in fact, ‘whistleblowers.’”

“These individuals, who put forward a wide range of conspiracy theories, did not present actual evidence of any wrongdoing at the Department of Justice or the FBI,” reads the Democrats’ report, titled “GOP Witnesses: What Their Disclosures Indicate About the State of the Republican Investigations.”

The report outlines the testimony given by retired FBI analyst George Hill; suspended former FBI special agent Garret O’Boyle, and former special agent Stephen Friend.

The three witnesses failed to offer convincing evidence of wrongdoing at the agency, and unlike whistleblowers who risk their careers and personal safety to alert the public about malfeasance in the government or a corporation, said the Democrats, their testimonies appear to be the result of “the active engagement and orchestration of disturbing outside influence on the witnesses.”

“A network of organizations, led by former Trump administration officials like Kash Patel and Russell Vought, appears to have identified these witnesses, provided them with financial compensation, and found them employment after they left the FBI,” reads the report. “They have a story to tell, and they appear to be using House Republicans to tell it.”

For example, Friend said he was given $5,000 in November 2022 by an organization run by Patel, who served as acting chief of staff in the Defense Department under former President Donald Trump. Patel also connected him with the Center for Renewing America, a right-wing think tank where Friend now holds a fellowship.

Friend claimed that the FBI did not follow its own operating procedures in investigations it opened into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, but as *Politico* reported, he “wilted” when “actually pressed for details and had no firsthand knowledge” of any abuses.

O’Boyle also said he had received financial support from Patel before testifying that FBI agents were pressured to open Jan. 6 cases and keep them open. In his testimony to the committee, he admitted that he was never threatened or retaliated against for closing a case in which he found insufficient evidence.

“At the end of the day, you exercised your judgment, and you weren’t—there were no consequences for that?” he was asked.

“As far as I know,” O’Boyle replied.

The former agent “does not show a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or gross mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety,” wrote the Democrats. “Rather, this appears to be a situation in which two special agents engaged in dialogue regarding a case process.”

The three witnesses have also demonstrated support for numerous conspiracy theories regarding Jan. 6 and COVID-19, with Hill tweeting at various times that the insurrection was “a setup” and that the FBI are “the brown shirt enforcers” of the Democratic Party, and O’Boyle comparing Covid vaccines to the actions of the Reserve Police Battalion 101, a Nazi police force. The witnesses have also questioned the validity of the 2020 election.

From The Progressive Populist, April 1, 2023

Populist.com