Trumpdate (4.12.24):
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
A discharge petition to force a vote on Ukraine aid has reached 88% of signatures needed, with 25 more Democratic representatives needed to sign.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed Leonard Leo, co-chairman of the influential conservative Federalist Society, as part of a Supreme Court ethics investigation, which Leo vows to defy.
Evan Corcoran, a former Trump attorney who became a key witness against him in the classified documents case, has departed Trump's legal team.
Senator J.D. Vance, previously anti-Trump but now a supporter, claimed Biden's policies benefited billionaires while Trump's benefited working people, contradicting data showing wage inequality reduced under Biden.
House Republicans plan to bring up trivial issues like laundry appliances next week amid more pressing national matters.
Speaker Mike Johnson will meet with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, likely to promote a redundant bill preventing non-citizens from voting in federal elections, which is already illegal.
The Biden administration finalized a rule to close the "gun show loophole" by requiring background checks for online and gun show firearm sales.
44 Republican senators signed a letter calling for a full Senate impeachment trial of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, with 6 Republicans not signing.
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake shifted stance again on abortion, softening her previously hardline pro-life position.
Rudy Giuliani will be deposed in his bankruptcy case on April 15th and must provide relevant documents within 21 days of a subpoena.
While corporate consolidation is an issue, data shows large U.S. companies make up a smaller percentage of GDP compared to other major economies.
The Social Security trust fund is projected to run out, causing a 25% benefit cut unless reforms like tax increases or benefit reductions are implemented.
Federal authorities allege Shohei Ohtani's interpreter stole over $16 million from the MLB star through extensive illegal sports betting using Ohtani's money.
Data shows inflation-adjusted consumer consumption is higher currently than pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
A graphic highlights the surprising amount of global land area, over 38 million km², used for meat and dairy production through grazing or growing animal feed crops.
Reports reveal Ted Cruz's super PAC received hundreds of thousands of dollars from iHeartMedia, which lobbied for Cruz, raising campaign finance concerns.
The Trump campaign did not directly answer whether Trump would use the antiquated Comstock Act to restrict abortion nationwide if elected.
1.) The discharge petition that would allow a vote on Ukraine aid has reached 88%. [TS] It’s been over 6months.
The signature list needs 25 more names. Here’s a list of dems who have not yet signed:
[TS] A moral and political failure. People accuse the EU of being “free riders” in Ukraine’s battle (or in regards to NATO), but the EU has spent double what the US has spent helping Ukraine. And China, Iran and North Korea are helping Russia:
In the Ukraine war, China, Iran and North Korea have supplied crucial help to Russia. Iran and North Korea have sent weapons. And China has allowed Russia’s economy to overcome tough sanctions, as my colleague Ana Swanson has detailed. This economic aid offers military benefits, too: China is helping Russia rebuild its military-industrial base after two years of war.
China and Russia also act as military allies beyond Ukraine. “China and Russia are pursuing the joint development of helicopters, conventional attack submarines, missiles and missile-launch early warning systems,” Hal Brands of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies recently wrote in Foreign Affairs.
Iran and North Korea resumed their collaboration on missile technology during the Trump administration, according to the U.N. North Korea already has nuclear weapons, and Iran seems to want them.
2.) CNN: The Senate Judiciary has subpoenaed Leonard Leo (co-chairman of the Federalist Society) as part of a Supreme Court ethics investigation.
[INFO] The Federalist Society is a group of conservatives and libertarians that advocates for an originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. It has become an influential pipeline for appointing federal judges, especially to the Supreme Court.
Senate Democrats on Thursday issued a subpoena to a conservative legal advocate they are investigating in response to a series of ethics controversies at the Supreme Court involving lavish travel and gifts to justices.
Leo, a prominent conservative legal advocate and board co-chairman of the influential Federalist Society, confirmed Thursday he had been subpoenaed and vowed to not comply. Calling the subpoena “unlawful” and “politically motivated,” Leo said in a statement to CNN that he was “not capitulating” to what he described as the “left’s dark money effort to silence and cancel political opposition.”
Leo’s attorney, David Rivkin, sent a letter to Durbin asserting that he is “not complying” with the “unlawful and politically motivated subpoena.”
3.) CNN / Collins: Trump attorney who became a crucial witness against him has departed legal team.
Evan Corcoran, the Trump attorney who became a critical witness in the classified documents case against the former president, has quietly left his legal team.
Corcoran was brought on to help Trump fend off charges in the classified documents investigation, but instead turned into a central witness after Trump allegedly misled him about the whereabouts of the documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and encouraged him to lie to the Justice Department and withhold those documents.
One year ago, Corcoran was required to appear before a grand jury investigating the case after a district judge ruled he could not use attorney-client privilege to shield notes and memos from investigators about his interactions with Trump, saying that prosecutors met the threshold for the crime-fraud exception for him. The voice memos turned into notes provided a roadmap for prosecutors when they indicted Trump. Corcoran is referred to as “Trump Attorney 1” in that indictment.
4.) Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) on Fox “The Biden Administration policies have benefited billionaires, Trump’s policies benefited working people.”
WHO IS JD VANCE? J.D. Vance is an author and venture capitalist who gained prominence with his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," which recounted his upbringing in a struggling Rust Belt town and became a bestseller. He has been criticized for promoting stereotypes about the white working class and embracing right-wing populism. He was previously anti-trump (publicly denouncing him in the 2016 election), but had a remarkable reversal while running a successful campaign for the U.S. Senate in Ohio (2022) as a Republican while being backed by billionaire Peter Thiel.
[FACT CHECK] Biden has presided over a historic reduction in wage inequality fueled by strong real wage growth at the bottom and middle (per Arin Dube (Econ Prof at UMass)):
[TS] I’ve already covered Trump’s tax cuts in detail and how the majority of the benefits went to the wealthy.
[RELATED] For most Americans, pay has risen substantially more than prices since pre-pandemic: real (i.e., inflation adjusted) wages have grown:
5.) [TS] A quick look at what Republican’s are taking to the House floor next week:
[TS] I’m not joking. Take a look here. Sure, there’s a war in Ukraine. Sure, Putin is targeting civilians and infrastructure, but can we talk about the real issues here like laundry? Why won’t congress think of the appliances???
6.) NYT: Speaker Mike Johnson will meet with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago today. His House position is under threat from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[TS] Keep in mind, Mike Johnson and Trump are set to promote a bill to prevent non-citizens from voting - a complete political stunt. It is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.
It’s always said by Republicans that “liberal elites are looking down their noses at Trump voters.” But what does it say about them to have the confidence to lie to their constituents in this way?
[CONTEXT] Here is a map of all the states where non-citizens are allowed to vote in federal elections:
7.) CNN: Biden administration finalizes rule to close ‘gun show loophole’ in effort to combat gun violence.
The Biden administration on Thursday moved one step closer to enacting a rule requiring people who sell firearms online and at gun shows to conduct background checks on their potential customers.
The finalized rule aims to close what gun control advocates call the “gun show loophole” by increasing the requirements to obtain a federal firearms license, or FFL, by more specifically defining what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling firearms. By making the term more definitive, the Justice Department has said it aims to better regulate the market and encourage higher compliance with the federal background check requirement.
“Under this regulation, it will not matter if guns are sold on the internet, at a gun show, or at a brick-and-mortar store: if you sell guns predominantly to earn a profit, you must be licensed, and you must conduct background checks,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
8.) 44 Senate Republicans sign letter to Schumer calling for full Mayorkas impeachment trial.
GOP senators who did not sign the letter:
Bill Cassidy (R-LA)
Susan Collins (R-Maine)
Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska)
Rand Paul (R-TX)
Mittens Romney (R-Utah)
9.) [UPDATE] AZ Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake flipped again on her stance for women's reproductive freedom Thursday, easing off her hardline pro-choice stance and saying she wants to make sure 'every woman who finds herself pregnant has more choices."
[TS] She used the words "choice" and "choices" twice within the first 28 seconds of the video.
10.) Rudy will be deposed in his bankruptcy case on April 15th, and he and his associates will have 21 days from the date of a subpoena to hand over all relevant documents.
11.) [TS] Not news, but I’ve seen variations of sentiment over the years: “America is basically 7 corporations in a trench coat pretending to be a country at this point.”
[TS] Let’s compare the largest companies (by total revenue) in each country as a % of total GDP:
Volkswagen 2022 rev: $294.2B / $4.1T = 7% of Germany’s GDP
Samsung 2021 rev: $240.7B / $1.7T = 14% of South Korea’s GDP
Cenovus Energy 2023 rev: $38.7B / $2.1T = 2% of Canada’s GDP
I excluded asset mgmt companies (ie Brookefield)
TotalEnergie’s 2023 rev: $237.1B / $2.8T = 8% of Frances’ GDP
Walmart 2023 rev: $611.3B / $25.4T = 2% of US GDP
Walmart has been highest rev since 2014
[TS] All this to say that there is a still an issue with the size of companies, but to act like this is a uniquely American problem is incorrect.
As an aside - this graphic illustrates how much consolidation has taken place (less competition is bad for the consumer):
12.). CRFB: Social Security Trust Fund is running out of money. When that happens, then-current benefits will drop suddenly by around one-fourth.
[SUMMARY]: Social Security's trust fund is running out of money, which will cause benefits to drop suddenly by around 25% when it is depleted. Experts suggest implementing an automatic balancing mechanism that would adjust Social Security's revenues (through tax increases) or reduce benefits to prevent this funding shortfall from occurring. One proposal outlines measuring the financing gap 20 years out, then gradually closing that gap each year through a combination of benefit cuts and revenue increases until solvency is restored.
[RELATED] Seniors may get another 3%+ COLA next year.
13.) LA TIMES: Ohtani interpreter stole more than $16 million from baseball star, feds allege.
[TS] This story is wild -
The complaint alleges that Ippei placed about 19,000 bets between December 2021 and January 2024, all with Ohtani's money. The complaint says Ippei won $142,256,769.74 and lost $182,935,206.68, with a total net loss of $40,678,436.94.
[TS] Something else has to be going on here. No way Ohtnai wouldn’t notice. How do you bet $180M without anyone noticing? TOTAL SPECULATION: Did he have dirt on Ohtani or something? Feels like extortion. But who knows?
14.) Inflation-adjusted consumption is higher than it was in 2019:
15.) [TS] Not news, but I saw a graphic about global land use for meat and dairy and I was astonished:
[TS] I don’t doubt that it’s a big area, but this seems almost unbelievable. 38 million km² of land are used for the production of meat and dairy — either as grazing land or cropland to grow animal feed. Crazy.
[TOTALLY UNRELATED] But in the same vein of “graphics that were interesting” I was surprised to see a few fields listed in the “dangerous jobs” chart that BLS has:
16.) DAILYBEAST: The Ugly Truth Behind Ted Cruz’s Super PAC Podcast
Ted Cruz is once again pushing the bounds of campaign finance laws, this time with his super PAC pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars for his podcast appearances.
[SUMMARY]:
iHeartMedia lobbyists gave thousands of dollars to support Ted Cruz
Cruz was "volunteering" his time for iHeartMedia
Money from iHeartMedia was flooding directly into his super PAC
17.) Danielle Kurtzleben (NPR) asked Trump campaign whether he’d use Comstock to restrict abortion. “They wouldn’t answer directly.”
[TS] So Comstock is still an open question.
[SUMMARY]
Some anti-abortion groups are advocating for enforcing the 19th century Comstock Act to effectively ban abortion nationwide by prohibiting the mailing or shipping of any items related to abortion, including medication abortion pills. While the original intent of the Act was anti-obscenity, conservative legal interpretations view it as a way to restrict abortion without needing Congress to pass new laws. Abortion rights advocates fear a Republican administration could use the broad language of Comstock to prosecute any involvement with abortion procedures or medications, severely limiting access even in states where abortion remains legal.