RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/4389558-joe-bidens-extremist-spending-is-a-danger-to-the-us/

Joe Biden says “Extreme Maga Republicans” want to wreck the economy by cutting federal spending. And yet, it is his administration’s blowout budgets that are extreme. Never in this country’s history, with the exception of two emergencies — World War II and COVID — have we spent taxpayer money so recklessly. 

Consider: in just the past three months, the federal debt of the United States jumped by $1 trillion. The U.S. now owes $34 trillion, up from $33 trillion at the end of September. For reference, it took 198 years of borrowing for the government to rack up its first trillion dollars of debt; that milestone was first reached in 1981.   

Putting that gargantuan figure in context, debt held by the public in 1981 amounted to about 25 percent of GDP; today’s debt amounts to more than 100 percent of GDP. Our debt is bigger than the entire economy of every single country in the world but the U.S. and China. 

The Peterson Foundation further puts our debt in perspective, noting that “$34 trillion is enough to cover a public four-year degree for every graduating high-school student for 106 years.”  

This should worry everyone. There’s a reason that Fitch Ratings downgraded United States’ credit rating from “AAA” to “AA+” last year, several years after S&P made the same decision. The last ratings agency still awarding U.S. debt its platinum rating is Moody’s; last year they lowered the outlook to “negative” from “stable,” citing a drop in “debt affordability.”    

https://www.racket.news/p/note-from-the-campaign-trail

SIOUX CITY, IA — I’ve done this gig so many times I have Pavlovian reactions to certain airports, but having never flown here, I didn’t know Sioux City’s three-letter code is SUX. That’s the name of the car that raged-out ex-councilman Ron Miller demands when he takes the Detroit mayor hostage in Robocop. “I want something with reclining leather seats that goes really fast and gets really shitty gas mileage,” he shouts, Uzi in hand.

“How about a 6000 SUX?” a police captain bullhorns back. Miller likes it, but wants cruise control. “I want a recount!” he yells, stepping over bodies. “And no matter how it turns out, I want my old job back!” So the story connects. Who’d have thought?

Anyway, Sioux City’s cool, just never came this way.

I started covering presidential campaigns in 2004. The problem then was the events were fake. Candidate speeches were market-tested piles of words designed to attract the statistical middle of the middle. In post-event asides, aides pretended to socialize and fed you rehearsed spiels over beers about their candidate’s path to victory. Everything was canned. A memory that stands out is plastic clumps of grass scotch-taped to reporters’ seats on Howard Dean’s “grassroots express” charter. It was hard to divine much, traveling in that mechanized sales hell.

Now things are reversed. Reality is altered before you leave the house. Challengers are censored or deamplified, the incumbent “brushes off” debates, vote counts are shady (what’s with Iowa Democrats waiting until Super Tuesday to announce caucus results?), and even ballots are curated. Coverage of everyone but the President and whoever’s currently pushed as the “viable” Republican alternative to you-know-who (“Could Haley Beat Trump? Big Donors are Daring to Dream,” writes the New York Times) is a desert of lies and hit jobs. Even public reaction is edited. A controversial guest essay by lefty legal scholar Samuel Moyn in the Times arguing the Supreme Court should vote 9-0 to return Trump to the Colorado ballot appears devoid of approving comments. I could buy most disapproving, but it looks more like all. Who can tell, without checking for yourself, where public sentiment is now?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-summons-the-furies-in-iowa-caucus-primary-desantis-2024-bias-indictment-6cb3750a?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

It was around 1 p.m., and he was scheduled to speak at 6. I had just arrived and was hoping to get a bite before the event. But already some 200 people waited outside the Hyatt convention center in this Iowa City suburb. I feared the line would grow fast, and the campaign had stopped issuing media passes—claiming, credibly as it turned out, a lack of space. I got in line and spent the next several hours talking with Iowans who want to give Donald Trump a second term.

Whether they’ll all caucus for Mr. Trump on Jan. 15 is another question. Some significant minority of the people I spoke with can fairly be called fans of the former president who aren’t otherwise politically engaged. Several said they had rarely or never caucused before. None, however, said they’ll likely support some other candidate if Mr. Trump is on the ballot. People who come to hear Mr. Trump aren’t there to assess him but to see their guy and commune with each other.

The first thing you notice at a Trump rally is the paraphernalia. Four out of five people are wearing some Trump-themed item: red MAGA hats, hoodies and sweatshirts bearing the words “Trump vs. Everybody” and “We the People ARE PISSED,” hats answering “Yes, I’m a Trump girl. Get over it,” beanies with the number 47. In Coralville, these items could be purchased at stands manned by industrious entrepreneurs hoping to make a few bucks off a form of fandom as intense as you might find at a Taylor Swift concert.

By 3:30 the line stretched around the far end of the hotel and into an adjacent parking garage—I would guess 5,000 people. Clipboard-wielding campaign volunteers collected phone numbers; jolly peddlers hawked Trump-themed scarves and gloves; local TV reporters queried fans on their enthusiasm.

I happened to meet eyes with a lithe woman in her 70s, her mostly red attire festooned with Trump buttons. “How many of these haff you been to?” she asked in what sounded like a Swiss German accent. “Ziss is my 42nd!” On the bill of her MAGA hat were embroidered the words “Happy days are here again.”

Mr. Trump frequently derides his primary opponents, especially Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, and his crowds obligingly boo and gesture thumbs-down. But many people at Trump rallies speak favorably about Mr. DeSantis (less so Ms. Haley). What keeps most of them aligned with Mr. Trump is the left’s never-ending campaign to jail, disqualify or otherwise destroy him.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-democrats-vs-democracy-6e1d47fb?mod=opinion_lead_pos12

“Coronating an unelectable candidate and disenfranchising voters enables the erosion of democracy itself.”

Team Biden is going to extreme lengths this campaign season to protect the President from the judgment of Democratic voters. Last month this column noted how his allies managed to cancel the Florida primary rather than expose him to competition from other Democrats. Now it appears that Biden loyalists have eliminated a competitive primary in North Carolina as well. Yes, the man who will spend the next week haranguing about threats to democracy seems to be doing an exceptional job of preventing it in his own party.

Will Doran reports for Raleigh’s WRAL-TV:

President Joe Biden will be the only Democratic candidate for president in North Carolina’s 2024 primary elections…
Tuesday’s vote by the North Carolina State Board of Elections echoed its initial decision, made in December, based on the North Carolina Democratic Party’s request to have Biden alone on the ballot. At the time, North Carolina Democratic Party spokesman Tommy Mattocks told WRAL that Biden has been the only candidate seriously campaigning in North Carolina.
“In order to get on the ballot, you need to have donors in the state and be actively campaigning in the state,” he told WRAL last month, adding that the rule is “the standard that we have used in all previous cycles.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/biden-and-the-polls-hes-fallen-and-he-cant-get-up

BIDEN AND THE POLLS: HE’S FALLEN AND HE CAN’T GET UP. In an interview with the Financial Times, the longtime Washington political analyst Charlie Cook noted that President Joe Biden’s job approval rating has been stuck below 50% for a long time, 2 1/2 years, and shows no signs of rising above 50% anytime soon. “There seems to be virtually no elasticity there,” Cook said. “I wonder whether people have just changed the channel — they’ve just written him off.”

To understand what Cook said about “elasticity,” look at the Gallup Presidential Job Approval Center. Biden started his presidency, in January 2021, with a 57% approval rating. He stayed around that level until the beginning of the summer, and then the slide began. By July 2021, Biden fell below 50% for the first time and has never returned. He fell below 40% in July 2022 and is at 39% today.

For 2 1/2 years, Biden’s job approval has bounced in about an 8-point range between highs in the mid-40s and lows in the high 30s. That’s what Cook meant about lack of elasticity — Biden doesn’t seem to go up and down in relation to his accomplishments or lack of accomplishments. He just sort of sits there, like voters have written him off.

Some Biden supporters like to point out that former President Barack Obama had some tough times in the polls before he won reelection in 2012. Yes and no. Obama began his first term, in January 2009, on a huge high — 67% approval in the Gallup rating. But by November of that year, Obama had fallen below 50%. The difference between Obama and Biden is 1) Obama occasionally rose back to 50% or higher, as he did in February and April of 2010 and January and May of 2011, and 2) although Obama fell to 40% a few times, he never sank below that.

The great hope of Biden partisans is that he will rise in the polls as November’s election approaches, as Obama did in 2012. In late August of 2012, Obama sat at 44%. Then, as the general election campaign moved into high gear, Obama rose to 52% by October. That’s where he was when he defeated Republican challenger Mitt Romney and won a second term.

So can Biden replicate that feat? It seems safe to say, although not guaranteed, that his polls will increase in September and October, no matter whom he is facing as a Republican opponent. That just generally happens as Democrats and Republicans dig into their partisan positions with an election approaching. But where will Biden start from? Obama rose from 44% to 52% to win. What if he had started at 34% or even 38%? It would have been a much tougher job.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/30/nikki-haleys-first-real-test-of-2024-00133336

Nikki Haley is finally under the microscope.

After evading attacks for weeks from her Republican rivals, it was a town hall question about the origins of the Civil War that finally seemed to stick.

And it couldn’t have come at a worse time. With weeks to go before voting starts, Haley is now facing the first major test of her ability to withstand a maelstrom in the presidential campaign. It is a significant moment not only for the former South Carolina governor, but for the broader effort among Republicans hoping to stop Donald Trump from steamrolling to the nomination.

“This is Haley’s first time under the bright lights, and she must power through this and tackle Trump now,” said Scott Reed, a veteran GOP strategist. “Or else.”

Haley’s rivals treated her Civil War comments as a lifeline for their own dimming prospects in the race. DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie quickly condemned her answer at their own campaign events this week. And Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, spent much of Thursday addressing questions about her remarks, putting her in the position of explaining rather than selling her candidacy.

For nearly a year — from her beginning as a long shot to her recent rise in polls — Haley went relatively unscathed. Her opponents have highlighted, with little effect, her evolving answers on issues like abortion and transgender rights. But they spent less money against her, too. As of Wednesday, Haley had $14 million spent against her in negative advertising, compared with nearly $37 million for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and $19 million for Trump, according to Rob Pyers, a nonpartisan data analyst. Trump has focused his hammer-like attacks on DeSantis, not Haley. And much of the media scrutiny over the past year focused on the Florida governor’s campaign missteps and policy proposals

But that changed Wednesday night in Berlin, New Hampshire. Haley’s halting and convoluted response to a town hall questioner — and her ensuing attempts to clarify her comments, later acknowledging slavery as a cause of the Civil War after first declining to do so — put a harsh spotlight on her, arguably for the first time during the primary. Within hours, news outlets had begun digging into her past remarks on the issue, resurfacing an interview she’d given in 2010 in which she offered similar beliefs about the root causes of the Civil War.

https://www.racket.news/p/the-mess-in-maine

Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows decided Thursday to remove Donald Trump from the state’s presidential ballot. Jared Golden, a Democratic congressman from Lewiston who voted to impeach Trump over the January 6th riots, quickly issued a statement:

We are a nation of laws, therefore until he is actually found guilty of the crime of insurrection, he should be allowed on the ballot.

Eight years ago this month, the big story in the presidential race was whether or not Trump was out of line in saying Hillary Clinton got “schlonged” in the 2008 primary. A Washington Post “linguistic investigation” quoted Steven Pinker in saying that “given Trump’s history of vulgarity… it’s entirely possible that he had created a sexist term for ‘defeat,’” but the paper concluded that Trump’s problem was that “he’s a gentile who, linguistically, may have wandered too far from home.”

Normally campaign season is a period of heightened engagement, as people scour the Internet to research even the most inane questions, knowing that at the end of the process, they get to cast votes on them. It’s why news companies tend to fatten up in election years, like Grizzlies during salmon runs. People are absorbed by dramas in which they feel themselves to be participants.

This year the public is being forced to research questions in which they have no say. We all understand now that there’s a disqualification clause in the 14th Amendment. We also understand that this clause seems to have been written with deliberate vagueness. I’m no lawyer, but I doubt the 14th Amendment was designed to empower unelected state officials to unilaterally strike major party frontrunners from the presidential ballot. If it was, that’s a shock. I must have missed that in AP Insane Legal Loopholes class. Is there any way this ends well? It feels harder and harder to imagine.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/newsmaker-interview-trump-puts-iran-europeans-and-antisemites

Newsmaker Interview: Trump puts Iran, Europeans and antisemites on notice, dispels Nikki rumors: John Solomon

In an extensive interview, the former president lays out an expansive vision to Just the News if he is elected to a second White House term ranging from Ukraine War to the southern border crisis.

Former President Donald Trump is sending some pointed messages to friends and foes alike: No, Nikki Haley is not on his vice presidential list because there isn’t one right now. Yes, if he returns to the White House European countries had better get ready to pay more for the Ukraine war. And both federal agencies and nonprofits that espouse antisemitic views and threaten Jews should prepare to lose federal funding or even their tax-exempt status.

In a wide-ranging interview with Just the News, the 45th president surveyed the sort of policies he’ll pursue if voters return him to office next November as the nation’s 47th president. He made clear securing the U.S. southern border is a top priority as is cutting off the sources of income from oil sales and reclaiming the unfrozen funds that he says has revived Iran’s terrorism activities across the globe on Joe Biden’s watch. Those activities include recent rocket and drone attacks from proxy groups targeting U.S. troops. The United States said Tuesday that it had shot down 12 attack drones and five missiles launched by the Iran-backed Houthis.

“Iran was allowed to get rich because Joe Biden allowed them to,” Trump told the “Just the News, No Noise” television show on Real America’s Voice. “So he could say whatever he wants. But he’s the reason for this. He’s an incompetent president. He’s a compromised president, totally compromised. But he allowed them to get rich.”

“But worse than being rich, because of the money, because of what they have, they will have within a short period of time nuclear weapons,” Trump added. “And that is never something that can be allowed to happen.”

Trump made clear he plans to return U.S.-Iran policy to a strict regimen of sanctions to choke off any funding for Tehran to use on weapons or terrorism support.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-do-you-like-desantis-now-24349ccd

With enemies like these, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.) is bound to make new friends among caucus and primary voters nationwide. A Florida newspaper has published a scathing editorial about the governor’s education policies, and it seems that his team couldn’t be happier.

If American parents learned anything from the educational catastrophe of Covid lockdowns, it’s that teachers union bosses are not their allies. As learning losses spiked and isolated adolescents suffered from a host of mental challenges, union officials who should have been advocates of immediate reopening kept demanding delays and all manner of unnecessary changes to school buildings and operations in the name of safety—without any rigorous analysis of costs and benefits.

Mr. DeSantis would have none of it, driving an early reopening in Florida and pursuing a sensible strategy of focused protection. The idea was to help those most at risk while allowing people at low risk to live their lives and maintain a thriving society. He also resolved to shift power over education back to parents, where it belongs. Now a hostile media outlet is providing a helpful reminder.

https://sashastone.substack.com/p/an-ex-democrats-case-for-trump

“Are you a Trump supporter now?” is the question my friends, acquaintances, and colleagues sometimes ask me. I know the answer to that question could end our relationship. So do they. Most of the time, they just don’t ask. They quietly assume that I might be, but what they don’t know can’t hurt them.

Since 2016, being labeled “Trump supporter,” has given most people the green light to cut ties, publicly humiliate, attack, and dehumanize at will. What you will rarely see on the Left is empathy. What has become all too common is unfiltered, bottomless hatred. In too many cases, physical violence, and destructive protests, all justified and encouraged by the ruling class.

2020 was the breaking point for me. I could no longer go along with it, especially after getting to know Trump supporters, and watching enough rallies to know the truth about who Trump really is.

And now, after the Colorado decision to throw Trump off the ballot, there has been a terrifying escalation in how they plan to deal with Trump and MAGA. What started as “cancel culture,” where due process was tossed in favor of trial by mob has spread to the government, infecting it like a parasitic fungus that ultimately kills its host.

From censorship to their treatment of the political protesters of January 6th, to what they’ve done to this country’s Justice Department, much of its culture, its universities, and the minds and bodies of children, it’s time to say ENOUGH.

It was already enough when the sitting President of the United States was banned from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. It was enough when they raided Mar-a-Lago when they convicted Trump in a show trial on primetime television that idiots on the Left now seem to believe counted as a real trial.

The four indictments are ENOUGH. Two impeachments are enough. Scaring the public every day, whipping up mass hysteria just for clicks, just for engagement, just for ratings is ENOUGH. Robert DeNiro’s ongoing freak-outs are enough. Stephen Colbert’s unfunny jokes are enough. A culture that has destroyed itself over an imaginary monster they invented is enough.