January 23, 2024

Tuesday, January 23, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

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Joe is always busy.

Bidenomics never sleeps.

New York Times report.

Low approval ratings and rock-bottom consumer confidence figures have dogged President Biden for months now, a worrying sign for the White House as the country enters a presidential election year. But recent data suggests the tide is beginning to turn.

Americans are feeling more confident about the economy than they have in years, by some measures. They increasingly expect inflation to continue its descent, preliminary data indicates, and they think interest rates will soon moderate.

Returning optimism, if it persists, could bolster Mr. Biden’s chances as he pushes for re-election — and spell trouble for former President Donald J. Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican nomination and has been blasting the Democratic incumbent’s economic record.

But political scientists, consumer sentiment experts and economists alike said it was too early for Democrats to take a victory lap around the latest economic data and confidence figures. Plenty of economic risks remain that could derail the apparent progress. In fact, models that try to predict election outcomes based on economic data currently point to a tossup come November.

Consumer sentiment surges while inflation outlook dips, University of Michigan survey shows.

The University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers showed a reading of 78.8 for January, its highest level since July 2021.

• On a two-month basis, sentiment showed its largest increase since 1991, said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director.

• Consumer sentiment has improved amid a drop in gasoline prices and solid stock market gains. (CNBC)

Yesterday was what have been the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Both President Biden and Vice President Harris held events on abortion, marking the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. Biden convened a meeting of his Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access at the White House, while Harris kicked off her “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour with a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Source. Wake up to Politics).

Harris, Biden deliver fiery message on abortion rights.

BIG BEND, Wis. — Vice President Harris framed the fight for abortion access in searing terms in this battleground state Monday afternoon, highlighting what she called “the horrific reality that women are facing every single day” since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade 18 months ago.


Harris left little doubt that her remarks were aimed in large part at former president Donald Trump. “As we face this crisis and as we are clear-eyed about the harm, let us also understand who is responsible, shall we?” she said. “The former president handpicked three Supreme Court justices because he intended for them to overturn Roe. He intended for them to take away your freedoms. And it is a decision he brags about.”


Harris’s remarks on the 51st anniversary of the decision in Roe, the Supreme Court case granting a constitutional right to an abortion, came as the Biden administration is trying to mobilize the Democratic base around the fight for reproductive freedom. Her appearance was part of a full-court press on abortion rights being unleashed by the Biden team this week, as the administration announced new steps Monday intended to ensure access to contraception, abortion medication and emergency abortions at hospitals.



President Biden, Harris and their spouses will attend a joint campaign rally on Tuesday focused on abortion access. Biden on Monday convened two dozen senior officials in the White House for a meeting of his reproductive health task force, where he was joined by several physicians who have practiced in states with abortion bans. The Biden campaign also posted an online ad Monday that alternates clips of Trump boasting of his role in overturning Roe with testimonials from women whose complicated pregnancies were made more traumatic due to state restrictions on abortion.
[Supreme Court to decide if law requires some emergency abortions]


Biden used brief remarks at the beginning of the White House meeting to blast what he called, “outrageous” policies that punish doctors and pregnant women for abortions. He called out Republican state legislators for enacting abortion restrictions on the state level and blasted GOP members of Congress for putting forward abortion restrictions that would apply nationwide.


“Even if you live in a state where the extremist Republicans are not running the show, your right to choose, your right to privacy would still be at risk” under federal abortion laws proposed by the GOP, he said. “Folks, this is what it looks like when the right to privacy is under attack.”


In addition to doctors affected by state restrictions on abortion, the meeting featured a wide range of high-ranking officials across Biden’s Cabinet and government, including Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

While Trump has not called for a nationwide abortion ban, and has shied away from the more forceful rhetoric on abortion embraced by some Republican leaders, he has been quick to take credit for the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that overturned Roe, since it came only after he cemented a conservative majority on the Supreme Court by appointing three justices to the nine-member bench.


“For 54 years, they were trying to get Roe v. Wade terminated, and I did it,” he said at a Fox News town hall this month. “I’m proud to have done it.”


The onslaught by the Biden team is notable in part because the president personally has shown discomfort when it comes to offering a full-throated embrace of abortion rights, an area where his private faith as a Catholic may be at odds with Democrats’ public position.

As the general election campaign draws nearer, it is not yet clear whether Biden will begin speaking more forcefully and frequently about the issue, or if he will leave much of the argument to surrogates and supporters.

Biden only briefly mentioned the word “abortion” during his remarks Monday, making sure to stipulate that he was not pushing for “abortion on demand,” but for codifying the protections in Roe v. Wade.
On Monday, Harris was, in many ways, leading the charge. She warned that the Supreme Court’s decision — and efforts across the country to further restrict access to abortions — was part of a more sweeping erosion of rights pushed by Republicans.


“In America, freedom is not to be given. It is not to be bestowed. It is ours by right,” she told a cheering crowd gathered at a union building in a suburb of Milwaukee. “And that includes the freedom to make decisions about one’s own body — not the government telling you what to do.”
[Advocates collect enough signatures to put abortion rights on Florida ballot]


Harris singled out a proposal by Wisconsin’s Republicans to ban abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy. Wisconsin’s Democratic governor has already said he will veto the bill. But Harris said the effort was a pattern to further restrict the rights of women — including in Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, an hour’s drive from where she spoke.

“Extremists aren’t done,” she said. “This afternoon in the Wisconsin legislature, extremists will hold a hearing on a bill that bans abortion with no exception for rape or incest. And in Congress they are trying to pass a national abortion ban.”
Biden, in contrast, was trying to shore up access to abortion, she said.


Eighteen months after the Supreme Court overruled Roe, Democrats see the issue as central to Biden’s reelection effort. Since the decision in Dobbs decreed that abortion rights should be left to the states, Democrats have won a string of electoral victories, fueling the party’s hopes that the abortion issue will propel Biden to reelection despite his low approval ratings.

Central to that endeavor is aiming Democrats’ animus at the politicians they warned will further restrict rights, with Trump at the top of the list.


As part of its push for reproductive rights, the Biden administration Monday announced several policy moves intended to expand access to contraception.


Federal agencies are issuing guidance that would make no-cost contraceptives more available under the Affordable Care Act and take similar actions to expand contraception access for federal employees. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra also plans to send a letter to health insurers instructing them of their obligation to provide no-cost contraceptives, according to the White House.


The federal health department also announced a new team dedicated to enforcing its interpretation of a law, known as the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which the Biden administration has said requires hospitals to provide emergency abortions nationwide, including in the 21 states where the procedure is limited or banned.


“Where abortion has been on the ballot, the American people have overwhelmingly voted to protect reproductive freedom,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House’s Gender Policy Council, told reporters last week, citing states such as Kansas and Ohio, where voters last year sided with measures protecting abortion rights.


The moves highlight Biden’s effort to shore up support among key allies, who have called for the White House to take stronger action to boost abortion access. Abortion rights advocates have been frustrated with the administration’s implementation of the emergency-care law, citing a case in which federal officials did not penalize an Oklahoma hospital that denied an emergency abortion to a woman with a potentially life-threatening pregnancy complication.


Biden officials have insisted that the president is the nation’s strongest defender of abortion rights, contrasting his efforts with Republicans who are attempting to replace him. And 58 percent of all voters, including about 1 in 5 Republicans, said they trust Democrats more than Republicans on abortion, according to a November poll conducted by KFF, a health policy organization.
Trump’s staunch supporters in the antiabortion movement have begun to envision how he would carry out their agenda, such as enacting new restrictions on abortion pills. However, Trump has said that Republicans should consider moderating their focus on abortion bans. “You have to win elections,” he said at the town hall.


Biden officials have said they are continuing to work with Congress to enact legislation that would provide a national right to abortion. But it would probably be difficult to get the 60 Senate votes needed to guarantee abortion rights across the country — or conversely, as many conservatives want, to ban abortions altogether.


“As we’ve been really clear, the president, the vice president, everyone in the administration, the number one priority for all of us is working to pass a federal law that will restore the protections that were lost when Roe was overturned,” Klein told reporters last week.


Little evidence exists of common ground on Capitol Hill. House and Senate Republicans have made repeated efforts to target abortion access, including introducing legislation last week that would implement a 50 percent tax credit for donations made to crisis pregnancy centers, which aim to dissuade women from having abortions.


“Despite what the radical pro-abortion left wants us to believe, the pro-life movement is also a pro-woman movement with a long history of empowering women during pregnancy and after,” Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), who co-wrote the legislation, said in a statement.


Meanwhile, Senate Democrats last week held an event where they vowed to continue combating Republicans’ antiabortion legislation.


“This isn’t a PR problem for women — it is a living hell and a personal nightmare,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said. (Washington Post).

Watch the President discuss the executive orders he signed yesterday extending abortion rights. 👇

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Kamala is always busy.

The Vice President welcomed by crowds in Wisconsin yesterday. Watch here.👇

One more thing.

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New Hampshire.

A New Hampshire poll, not about the GOP.

Are Putin players at work in New Hampshire?

New Hampshire Officials to Investigate A.I. Robocalls Mimicking Biden.

The calls, in a voice most likely artificially generated, urged people not to vote in Tuesday’s primary.

Voters in New Hampshire received robocall messages over the weekend in a voice that was most likely artificially generated to impersonate President Biden’s, urging them not to vote in Tuesday’s primary election, according to the state attorney general’s office.

The fake recordings, which told listeners that “your vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday,” were manipulated to seem as if they had been sent by an officer of a Democratic committee, the office said.

The attorney general’s office stressed that voting in the primary would not rule out voters from also casting ballots in the general election in November.

“These messages appear to be an unlawful attempt to disrupt the New Hampshire presidential primary election and to suppress New Hampshire voters,” the office said in a statement. “New Hampshire voters should disregard the content of this message entirely.”

The robocalls were earlier reported by NBC News.

Disinformation and political experts have raised concerns that such deceptive audio, known as a deepfake, could become prevalent this election season. Last year, the Republican National Committee used the technology to generate a video with images of doomsday scenarios after Mr. Biden announced his re-election bid. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida posted fake images of former President Donald J. Trump, his political rival, with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former health official.

State lawmakers are scrambling to draft bills to regulate political content produced by artificial intelligence, which has already been used in tight foreign elections to mislead voters.

“The political deepfake moment is here,” Robert Weissman, the president of the progressive watchdog group Public Citizen, said in a statement. “Policymakers must rush to put in place protections or we’re facing electoral chaos.”

In New Hampshire, the attorney general’s office began investigating the robocall accusations following a complaint from Kathleen Sullivan, a former chairwoman of the state Democratic Party. In her complaint, Ms. Sullivan said that recipients of the unauthorized robocalls saw her husband’s name in their caller ID and were given her personal cellphone number to call to request removal from the call list.

Ms. Sullivan, the treasurer of a political committee pushing voters to write in Mr. Biden’s name on Tuesday’s ballot, wrote in her complaint that “these kinds of tactics, if left unpunished, will only get worse in the future.”

Remember. Today is Election Day in New Hampshire.

Don’t listen to Robocalls. Vote for President Biden. Write Joe Biden in.

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About the Border.

A surprise.

Supreme Court sides with Biden administration in Texas border razor-wire case

Texas National Guard soldiers install additional razor wire lie along the Rio Grande on Jan. 10 in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, granted the Biden administration's request to vacate the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' injunction in a case involving razor wire placed along Texas' border with Mexico.

The move paves the way for federal officials to remove the wire.

Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh dissented.

Texas has maintained that it needs to act on the border because the federal government has failed to stem the tide of migrants crossing from Mexico.

Gov. Greg Abbott launched a controversial state-led, border security effort called "Operation Lone Star" in 2021. Since then, Texas has installed razor wire, a floating barrier in the Rio Grande, and added thousands of Texas state troopers and National Guard soldiers to patrol parts of the state's 1,254 mile long border with Mexico.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration turned to the Supreme Court over the installation of razor wire on the northern banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. That came after the state sued the administration in October, claiming federal agents were destroying state property and preventing Texas National Guard and Department of Public Safety officers from securing the border.

A federal judge ruled in the Biden administration's favor, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later decided the judge misunderstood a law that spells out what the federal government can be sued for.

On Monday, the Supreme Court sided with the Biden administration, allowing federal agents to cut through portions of the wire if they deem it necessary. (NPR).

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In New Hampshire, Trump’s closing argument was an appeal to Strongmen as great leaders. He praised Viktor Orban, Hungary’s dictator.

Some Americans seem to find dictatorship appealing.

In Germany this weekend, more than a million and a half people took to the streets again the AFD, the Far-Right Party which wants to end Democracy in Germany.

The protest was over a report claiming members of the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) took part in a meeting where plans to deport migrants en masse were discussed

Touch to watch the crowds in Berlin.👇

Who will Americans be?

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Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King’s son has died.

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As predicted, this happened on Sunday.

And, as predicted, Coach K of Duke, whose winning record was broken, called her.

Stanford's Tara VanDerveer sets all-time winningest college basketball coach record.

Stanford's Tara VanDerveer became on Sunday the winningest coach in college basketball history.

The big picture: VanDerveer surpassed the record of the recently retired Duke men's coach Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski with her 1,203rd win when Stanford Cardinal beat visiting Oregon State 65-56 on Sunday.

What they're saying: "A legend of the game with an undeniable impact on the sport," the Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team said in a post to X after the 70-year-old's achievement.

• "45 seasons. 25 conference regular season titles. 15 conference tournament crowns. 14 Final Four appearances. 3 National Championships. The longevity is inspiring. The dedication is unmatched. The love for the game is overflowing. And the numbers are staggering," the Stanford team said in an online post, titled "Only her."

Of note: VanDerveer tied with Krzyzewski on Friday night when she guided her side past the University of Oregon with a 88-63 win.

• Krzyzewski in a video message shared Sunday congratulated VanDerveer on her "amazing achievement," adding: "What's even more amazing is the manner in which you achieved so many victories ... You've been such a great representative for our great sport." (Axios).

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I thought this post from the classy newsman Dan Rather would brighten your day. Enjoy.

An EGOT for Elton

A Reason To Smile

It is perhaps the most coveted distinction in the entertainment industry: winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award, so coveted because it happens so infrequently. The list of EGOT winners includes luminaries such as Helen Hayes, Audrey Hepburn, and Richard Rodgers. There were only 18 recipients until this week, when Sir Elton John joined the esteemed group with his Emmy win for “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodger Stadium,” the superstar’s last American show.

For decades, Sir Elton’s music has given us a reason to smile. One of his most enduring songs, “Tiny Dancer,” was first recorded back in 1971, but there was no official video until recently. And what a video it is — not a traditional take but a beautifully told story through film. It was created by the winner of a fan contest celebrating the 50-year friendship between John and his longtime collaborator, lyricist Bernie Taupin. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 and is now the official music video for “Tiny Dancer.”

It was a trip to California that inspired Taupin to write the song’s lyrics. Apparently the “LA ladies” were quite the contrast to the women he’d known back home in the UK. 

If you need a five-minute break from our crazy world, I suggest you spend it with Sir Elton and this stunning take on his and Taupin’s classic song.

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