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Clark Kent lookalike wins Twitter during Jan 6 hearing

The Jan. 6 hearing Thursday night investigating former President Trump’s actions during the riot at the Capitol featured an unlikely superhero lookalike sitting just behind live witnesses Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews.

A man who resembled Superman’s ordinary alter ego Clark Kent stole the show on Twitter during the hearing. By late Thursday evening, “Clark Kent” was a trending topic on the platform, and the internet was abuzz with speculation about the mystery lookalike’s identity.

“Watch What Happens Live” host Andy Cohen joined in on the chatter over the man, playfully asking if he was single.

The man’s identity remains unconfirmed. But, if the internet’s speculation is correct, his mystery status leaves him to save the world in secret another day.

Source: TEST FEED1

We cannot lose trust and confidence in the Secret Service

The recent news alleging that the United States Secret Service deleted texts related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, coupled with testimony that raises questions about the Secret Service response to the events at the Capitol that day, have cast a shadow on a storied agency and threatened to overshadow the work the agency performs on a daily basis. A dynamic such as this would be uncomfortable for anyone, but especially for an agency whose mission is to protect our leaders by remaining in close proximity to them and tracking down anyone intending to do harm to our nation and its citizens.

Not too long ago, the Secret Service found itself thrust into another scandal, involving Monica Lewinsky, who had an affair with Bill Clinton. The Secret Service, housed under the Treasury Department prior to being moved to the Department of Homeland Security, pushed back. Then-director Lewis Merletti said, “We continue to believe that any action that could distance the Secret Service from the president increases the danger to his life and that of future presidents. While the court did recognize that the Secret Service’s views are legitimate, we are concerned that the court did not fully appreciate the impact that its decision could have on the safety of the president and other people the Secret Service protects.”  

That argument was made because of the forced, lawful close proximity that Secret Service personnel have under 18 USC 3056, the federal statute mandating the Secret Service to provide protection to the president and a list of other individuals. The law also gives Secret Service personnel law enforcement authority. This unique relationship — one required by law and based in part on cooperation — has no legal framework of reference other than the wording of the statute and policies set forth by the Secret Service and its new parent, Homeland Security.

After much legal back and forth in the Lewinsky investigation, a federal judge ordered Secret Service personnel to testify about what they allegedly knew and to produce a myriad of records. When asked if the relationship between Clinton and his protective detail “cooled a bit” because of this forced testimony, Mike McCurry, then the White House spokesman, responded, “Conceivably, yeah.” Why did that happen? Because it was clear that the Lewinsky investigation was about the president and not the Secret Service, yet they were thrust in the middle.

The same argument can be made today. While the House January 6th Committee is lawfully examining all facets of activities in Washington that day, the committee chairman’s opening remarks made clear what he believes: “Donald Trump was at the center of this conspiracy. And ultimately, Donald Trump — the president of the United States — spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down the Capitol and subvert American democracy.”  

So, while the Secret Service has made mistakes in the past — and perhaps made mistakes with regard to handling the aftermath of Jan. 6, 2021 — there is no argument or assertion that the Secret Service failed at its overriding mission of protection on that day or any other day.  

In a recent study, 87 percent of local officials surveyed observed an increase in attacks on public officials in recent years, and 81 percent reported having experienced harassment, threats and violence. On average, the U.S. president receives about 2,000 threats per year. During the Obama administration, the threats increased by some 400 percent, compelling Obama to form a Threat Task Force to address this trend.  

Yet, in 2021, the Secret Service handled 4,887 protective visits, including 787 foreign visits, and handled 6,040 protective intelligence (threat) investigations, during which the agency mitigated any threats and kept its 48 protectees and all sites they visited safe. This included the interdiction of Scott Ryan Merryman from Kansas, who was accused of traveling to Washington to deliver a message to President Biden that “people were fed up with the divisiveness in the country and to turn back to God (or go to hell).” Agents reported finding a magazine loaded with three rounds of .45 ammunition and a spotting scope. In another case that year, Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, of California, was accused of carrying AR-15-style rifle, ammunition, loaded magazines, and body armor in his car and of telling investigators that he wanted to “kill persons in power,” including President Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.   

After the Senate acquitted President Clinton of the impeachment articles in the Lewinsky investigation, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) proposed the Secret Service Protective Privilege Act of 1999 with the support of former Sen. Orrin Hatch. The bill would have required agents to testify only about criminal malfeasance that occurs in their sight. As Leahy explained, “The assassination of a president has international repercussions and threatens the security and future of the entire nation.” 

Perhaps, then, the question we should ask is this: In this modern threat environment, if the Secret Service loses the trust and confidence of its protectees and they refuse protection, could our nation handle the potential result?

Donald J. Mihalek is retired senior Secret Service agent and regional field training instructor who served on the President’s Detail during two presidential transitions. He also was a police officer and served in the U.S. Coast Guard. He is currently executive vice president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) Foundation.

Source: TEST FEED1

Kagan warns that Supreme Court legitimacy at risk if it strays too far from public sentiment

Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said on Thursday at a conference that the legitimacy of the Supreme Court is tied to its conformity to public opinion, Reuters first reported.

“I’m not talking about any particular decision or even any particular series of decisions, but if over time the court loses all connection with the public and with public sentiment, that’s a dangerous thing for a democracy,” Kagan said at a judicial conference in Montana.

Kagan, a liberal appointed to the Supreme Court by former President Obama, dissented in the court’s momentous Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the authority on abortion back to the states.

The recent Supreme Court term included many contentious decisions, including cases about gun rights and the Environmental Protection Agency, and Kagan was often on the dissenting side of majority decisions.

Kagan said at the conference that the court earns its legitimacy by remaining impartial and nonpartisan.

“Overall, the way the court retains its legitimacy and fosters public confidence is by acting like a court, is by doing the kinds of things that do not seem to people political or partisan,” she said.

Kagan referenced times in history when Supreme Court justices failed to discipline themselves and instead “attempted to basically enact their own policy or political or social preferences,” saying that this puts court legitimacy at risk.

Source: TEST FEED1

Fed tightening alters investors’ expectations, but will a recession ensue?

Investing has been considered an expectations game ever since John Maynard Keynes famously compared the stock market to a beauty contest: The best strategy to win is to select the contestant who you believe the majority of people will pick rather than your personal favorite.

But this analogy only goes so far in understanding what happens when markets are unusually volatile. Consider, for example, the profound changes in expectations that have occurred of late.

At the start of the year, investors were upbeat about the prospects for the economy even though inflation accelerated in the second half of 2021. The main reason is they concurred with the Federal Reserve’s assessment that the pickup was transitory. Accordingly, they anticipated that the Fed would raise rates very gradually – by 25 basis points a quarter — to bring inflation closer to its 2 percent average annual target.

But when inflation surged to a four-decade high this year, the Fed was compelled to raise the funds rate by 50 basis points and 75 basis points, respectively, at the May and June Federal Open Market Committee meetings. Moreover, it is expected to make another 75 basis point hike at next week’s meeting in the wake of the June CPI report that showed headline inflation topped 9 percent.

The Fed’s aggressive stance has heightened investor concerns that it could be making a policy error and tip the economy into recession. The U.S. stock market and bond market both posted their worst first half returns since the early 1970s and 1980s, respectively. Meanwhile, prices for commodities, including oil, liquified natural gas, lumber and copper have declined significantly from their peaks in anticipation of global weakness. Consequently, some observers contend that inflation has peaked.

So, what is happening to produce the heightened market volatility?

My take is it is an illustration of George Soros’s concept of reflexivity. In his formulation, there is an underlying economic reality and a perception of it by investors. As their perceptions change, so do market prices, which in turn alter the economy. Instead of investors being rational, as economic theory presumes, their views can be mistaken and generate market instability.

The initial mistake investors made was to believe that inflation would be transitory. Now, some commentators believe a recession is already underway. Their argument is that real GDP fell by 1.6 percent at an annual rate in the first quarter (mainly due to swings in trade and inventory levels), and the Federal Reserve of Atlanta’s tracker for the second quarter points to a modest decline. 

Economic conditions, however, are more complex than this rendering, as the data are mixed. With the unemployment rate near a record low, jobs growth solid and final demand positive, it is hard to believe a recession is underway. Also, there has never been a recession when real interest rates were negative.

What is not in dispute is that the economy is softening. The focus now is on consumer spending, which accounts for almost 70 percent of GDP. It slowed in the first half of this year as real income growth turned negative due to high inflation. The latter has also shaken consumer confidence with the University of Michigan survey plummeting to an all-time low while the Confidence Board survey shows a smaller decline. 

On the positive side, household balance sheets are strong and personal income is well above levels before the pandemic owing to record government transfer payments: Accumulated savings since the pandemic struck are estimated to be in excess of $2 trillion. Also, jobs are readily available, which should help to cushion the impact of negative growth in real incomes.

Looking ahead, the key issue relates to the sensitivity of the economy and inflation to higher interest rates. Pessimists believe the U.S. economy is very sensitive to rising interest rates. However, the experience over the past four decades suggests it reacts more to changes in the availability of credit than to the cost of credit.

This lesson was learned in 1980 when the fed funds rate reached 20 percent and the Federal Reserve implemented a voluntary credit restraint program to slow bank lending. The economy swooned soon after, and it then rebounded when the program was removed. It was not until mid-1981 that record-high interest rates caused the economy to slip into recession.

A key difference today is that inflation expectations are not firmly entrenched. Indeed, the Fed’s motive in raising rates is to maintain investor confidence that it will not allow inflation to spiral out of control.

Whether it can avert a recession hinges on how quickly inflation and inflation expectations are curbed. As commodity prices come off their peaks, inflation expectations are moderating as indicated by a narrowing in the spread between Treasury yields and TIPS (Treasury inflation-Protected Securities). Also, the U.S. dollar is super-strong, reaching parity versus the euro for the first time in 20 years and climbing to a two-decade high versus the yen.

These developments indicate that investors have not lost confidence in the Fed as they did during the 1970s. Indeed, the bond market is pricing in that the Fed will ease monetary policy next year.

The risk, however, is that core inflation that excludes food and energy may remain well above the Fed’s 2 percent target for some time. The primary reason is that the cost of shelter, which accounts for one third of core CPI, is poised to rise further due to the steep increase in mortgage rates this year and home prices previously. Therefore, the Fed may be compelled to raise the funds rate beyond what is currently priced into markets.

Weighing these considerations, the most likely outcome is a milder version of stagflation than in the 1970s. If a recession were to materialize, it would likely be short-lived for two reasons. First, balance sheets of households and businesses are solid, and there are no major sectoral imbalances. Second, the financial sector is sound as banks were recapitalized after the 2008-09 Global Financial Crisis. This lessens the risk of a broad-based credit crunch that typically accompanies deep recessions.

Consequently, with a lot of bad news already priced into markets and valuations more reasonable, investors should not over-react to the talk of recession.

Nicholas Sargen, Ph.D., is an economic consultant with affiliations with Fort Washington Investment Advisors and the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. He has authored three books, including “Global Shocks: An Investment Guide for Turbulent Markets.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Ohio grand jury indicts man accused in rape of 10-year-old at center of Indiana abortion controversy

The man who was accused of raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl in Ohio, who later traveled to Indiana to get an abortion, was indicted on two felony counts of rape on Thursday.

A grand jury in Columbus charged Gerson Fuentes, 27, issued the indictment on the two felony counts. Fuentes was charged with the rape earlier this month after police said that he confessed to raping the girl twice.

After becoming pregnant, the girl was forced to travel to Indiana for an abortion due to an Ohio law which bans the procedure after fetal cardiac activity is detected, usually about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The case has sparked national attention and incited further outrage among Democrats and pro-choice advocates following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last month.

Critics say that the court’s ruling, which leaves abortion rights up to the states, could result in a large number of “deserts” in which people seeking abortions are forced to travel hundreds of miles to other states to receive the procedure.

President Biden highlighted the case during an address announcing an executive order aiming to safeguard abortion rights.

“Raped, six weeks pregnant. Already traumatized. Was forced to travel to another state. Imagine being that little girl,” the president said.

The grand jury’s indictment comes days after the doctor who provided the abortion to the 10-year-old girl moved to sue Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) for “false and misleading statements about alleged misconduct.”

Fuentes’ arraignment is set for Monday.

Source: TEST FEED1

Xi reaches out to Biden, wishes him 'speedy recovery' from COVID

Chinese President Xi Jinping reached out to President Joe Biden on Friday to wish him a “speedy recovery” from COVID-19.

Chinese state media reports that Jinping sent a “message of sympathy” about the COVID-19 infection saying that he hopes Biden will recover soon.

Biden and Jinping are set to speak one-on-one within the next week for the first time since March, the president announced on Wednesday.

“I think I’ll be talking to President Xi within the next 10 days,” Biden told reporters at a Maryland air base.

Biden, 79, tested positive for the virus on Thursday and is experiencing “very mild symptoms,” according to the White House.

White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden, who is “fully vaccinated and twice boosted” is taking antiviral Paxlovid for the infection.

“Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time,” wrote Jean-Pierre in a statement.

Source: TEST FEED1

Iran and the bomb: It’s time to face reality

It appears increasingly unlikely that the Biden administration and the Iranian government will agree on terms for reviving the Iranian nuclear accord from which the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. for being “a bad deal.” Many of those in America, Israel and the Arab Gulf states who are worried about Iran’s behavior may rejoice at this prospect, but they should not. The hard, cold truth of the matter is that Iran is more likely to acquire nuclear weapons if the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is not resumed than if it is.

Iran was in compliance with the limits imposed by the JCPOA at the time that former President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018, when Iran’s “breakout time” of how long it likely would take for it to acquire nuclear weapons was estimated to be 12 months. Since then, Tehran has reduced its level of compliance with the terms of the agreement and its breakout time for acquiring nuclear weapons is assessed to be less than 10 days — or possibly even zero. 

Both sides say they want to resume the agreement; Iran wants relief from the economic sanctions that the Trump administration imposed. One sticking point, though, is Iran’s insistence on reversing the Trump administration’s designation of Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization — something the Biden administration refuses to do, perhaps partly for fear of Republican backlash, even though this designation has not stopped the IRGC from playing an influential role inside and outside of Iran.

But if the JCPOA is not resumed, Iran essentially has no incentive not to acquire nuclear weapons. And it certainly has the technical capacity to do so.

Some Israeli politicians have declared that the Jewish state will use force to prevent this. But despite Israel’s great military capacity, Israeli strikes against Iran may delay Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons by perhaps a year but will not prevent it. Indeed, Israeli strikes may increase Iran’s determination to acquire nuclear weapons.

Of course, what many Israelis — and others — really want is for the U.S. to forcibly prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, a hope that President Biden encouraged during his recent visit to Israel when he said the U.S. is “prepared to use all elements of its national power” to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. But just as the U.S. has not prevented India, Pakistan or North Korea from acquiring nukes, it probably cannot prevent Iran from doing so, either. The U.S. may have greater capacity than Israel to delay Iran from doing so, but it cannot eliminate the nuclear know-how that Tehran already possesses.  

And needless to say, U.S. military strikes against Iran would only increase Tehran’s determination to acquire them. Just as the U.S. (and the rest of the world) has done with every other country that has acquired nuclear weapons, it will simply have to learn to live with the situation.

Further, there is a good chance that a U.S. threat to use military force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons will not even delay Tehran from doing so. On two different occasions when I have participated in “war games” with this scenario (sorry, but I can’t tell you where), the Russian teams forestalled the effort by deploying small numbers of troops in and around Iranian nuclear facilities. If Moscow did this in real life, the Biden administration indeed could be expected to pull back from launching an attack on Iran for fear of a wider conflict with Russia.

Of course, a truly Machiavellian Vladimir Putin might do nothing to help Iran but smirk at the sight of America getting itself bogged down in a messy conflict with Iran, knowing that whatever the outcome, American military resources expended on a conflict with Iran would not be available for Washington to ship to Ukraine.

If — or as I believe, when — Iran is at the point of acquiring nuclear weapons, the appropriate course of action for the U.S. will be not to attack Iran at the behest of its regional allies in a futile effort to prevent this but to offer to extend the American nuclear deterrent to Middle Eastern allies seeking it if the JCPOA is not restored. Iran’s leaders may be hostile toward the U.S. and some of its Middle Eastern allies, but they are not suicidal. 

Mark N. Katz is a professor of government and politics at the George Mason University Schar School of Policy and Government, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Hill's Morning Report – A devastating night for Trump; Biden has COVID

Former President Trump on Jan. 6 “refused” to heed his oath of office and honor his duty as president to protect the U.S. Capitol from rioting supporters, according to House investigators.

Trump instead watched the destruction live on television for hours from a dining room off the Oval Office while assailing Vice President Mike Pence in a tweet as Pence was evacuated in a harrowing escape from the Capitol assisted by alarmed Secret Service agents. 

“He put a target on his own vice president’s back,” Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said.

The gripping account presented by House investigators on Thursday wove together a Jan. 6 timeline of Trump’s refusal for hours to accept advice from his family, allies in the Capitol and senior officials at the White House who urged him to publicly intervene to try to call off the violence and restore order. 

Witnesses, both in the hearing room and in videotaped testimony, said the president did not make any calls to law enforcement, the Pentagon or the Homeland Security Department to help the Capitol Police and the Secret Service protect Pence, members of the House and Senate and everyone else inside the Capitol that day. 

▪ Rebecca Beitsch and Mike Lillis, The Hill: Trump accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ in dramatic Jan. 6 hearing.

▪ New York Magazine: Watch Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) run from Jan. 6 rioters he cheered on.

▪ The Hill: Jan. 6 committee zeroes in on Jan. 6 attempts by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to reach Trump by phone during the attack.

Following the committee’s presentation Thursday night, Trump turned to his social media platform, Truth Social, to assail the panel as a “Kangaroo Court!” 

According to the committee, Trump on Jan. 6 phoned his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, as well as GOP senators he viewed as allies, even as members of the House and Senate were instructed to seek safety as rioters climbed through windows and chanted threats aimed at Pence and Democratic lawmakers they perceived as Trump’s foes.  

“Trump did not fail to act, … he chose not to act,” said committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), who called the president’s actions that day “dishonor and dereliction of duty” intended to delay the certification of the Electoral College ballots that formalized Trump’s loss and Biden’s election victory.

The aim of the committee’s final public hearing until September was to suggest Trump’s state of mind and intentions on Jan. 6 as investigators continue to assemble evidence that will be weighed by the Justice Department and compiled in a report with recommendations later this year (The Hill). 

Committee Vice Chairwoman Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) used the word “premeditated” in her summation to assert that Trump planned to falsely claim he won the election when he knew he lost and stage a last-ditch effort on Jan. 6 to hold onto power in violation of the Constitution by deploying loyal supporters to try to disrupt the official electoral tally.

▪ The Associated Press: Jan. 6 probe: Trump “poured gasoline on fire” at Capitol.

▪ Niall Stanage: Five takeaways from Thursday’s Jan. 6 hearing.

The investigators used audio of an interview with an anonymous witness, a White House security official, who told investigators that members of Pence’s Secret Service detail were alarmed enough to try “to say goodbye to family members” (The Hill). 

The panel also showed outtakes of Trump delivering two key speeches. In one never-before-seen clip filmed late on Jan. 6, he spoke head-on to a camera to ask supporters to leave the Capitol. According to one White House official, Trump’s last words before heading into the White House residence that evening were: “Mike Pence let me down.”

The former president was also shown in outtakes of scripted remarks that were ultimately released publicly on Jan. 7, 2021. A camera captures Trump during the taping as he tells aides he does not want to say the words scrolling on a monitor in front of him.

“`But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results’ — I don’t want to say the election’s over, I just want to say Congress has certified the results without saying the election’s over, OK?” Trump told the off-camera video team (The Washington Post).

The former president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, could be heard in the background drafting a new line for her father, including, “Now, Congress has certified—.” In the final cut, Trump said, “Congress has certified the results.” He said nothing about losing (The Hill).

Related Articles

▪ The Hill: Seven stunning moments from the Jan. 6 hearing.

▪ Aaron Blake, The Washington Post: Four takeaways from the Jan. 6 hearing on Trump’s actions — and inaction.

▪ The Hill: Former White House press deputy Sarah Matthews testifies Trump’s tweet gave a “green light” to rioters.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: ​​Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone considered resigning after attack.

▪ The Hill: Trump White House daily diary was found to be blank during key hours of Jan. 6 riot.

▪ The Hill: On Thursday, Trump questioned Pence’s Jan. 6 actions, electoral count reform bill ahead of dueling Arizona rallies. 

LEADING THE DAY

➤ ADMINISTRATION 

President Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is experiencing mild symptoms as he carries out his duties in isolation at the White House following a recent spate of travel internationally and domestically. 

Biden, diagnosed on Thursday with the virus, was prescribed an oral antiviral treatment, will perform his duties from the White House until he tests negative for the coronavirus, according to officials who downplayed the risks to the 79-year-old president, who has been vaccinated and boosted against the virus.

The president appeared via video in lockdown from the Truman Balcony at the White House on Thursday, telling the nation that he is still doing the work of the people despite contracting the virus.

“I’m doing well, getting a lot of work done. Going to continue to get it done. And in the meantime, thanks for your concern, and keep the faith. It’s going to be OK.” Biden said.

Biden’s diagnosis also prompted a tweeted photo of him seated at a desk, followed by the video message. He also received tweets from supportive lawmakers who said they spoke to the president by phone on Thursday, as well as public assurances from Vice President Harris and first lady Jill Biden, both of whom tested negative for COVID-19 on Thursday, describing the president as doing fine and working as usual. Both women wore masks during events outside of Washington on Thursday.

The president recently returned from the Middle East and planned a blitz of domestic travel that included a hand-shaking event in Massachusetts on Wednesday.

▪ The Hill: Five takeaways as the president tests positive for COVID-19.

▪ The Associated Press: Biden tests positive for COVID-19, has “very mild symptoms.”

▪ The Washington Post: Biden tests positive for the coronavirus, now the second president struck during the pandemic.

He is likely to remain in isolation longer than five days while working the phones and via Zoom, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha told reporters. Because of the stealthy transmissibility of omicron’s sub variants, the president, his doctor and his West Wing team have been prepared for the possibility of his infection, they said.

“Right now, the president is feeling well,” Jha told reporters after speaking with Biden by phone. “He described himself as feeling fine with mild symptoms” including fatigue, runny nose and a dry cough, he added.

The president’s infection was confirmed with antigen and PCR tests and he’s taking Paxlovid, according to his doctor, who released a statement on Thursday but did not appear publicly to take questions.

Illness — even an infection now known to Harris and her husband, many lawmakers, Cabinet members, West Wing aides and millions of Americans as well as other world leaders — is an international event when it affects a U.S. president, especially a septuagenarian battling low approval ratings who is eager to travel the country to persuade potential voters and donors to back Democrats in November’s elections.

Separate from worries about his physical health, Biden’s case of COVID-19 immediately became a communications challenge for the White House, report The Hill’s Alex Gangitano and Amie Parnes. 

▪ Politico: How does Biden’s case of COVID-19 compare to Trump’s? 

▪ The Hill: Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) announced they tested positive for COVID-19.

▪ The New York Times: COVID-19  precautions around the president have varied over his time in office.

Immigration: The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in a 5-4 order that it will not allow the administration to implement a policy that prioritizes deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in saying they would have allowed the administration to move ahead (The New York Times).

➤ MORE CONGRESS

The House on Thursday greenlighted a measure that would codify the protection of contraception rights as part of the Democratic response over the past week to the Supreme Court’s striking down of Roe v. Wade and its possible reverberations. 

The chamber voted 228-195, with only eight Republicans crossing party lines to vote alongside every Democrat: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio), John Katko (N.Y.), Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Fred Upton (Mich.) and Cheney. 

Reps. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) and Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) voted present. Six Republicans did not vote (The Hill). Just like the two votes last week aimed at protecting abortion rights and the ability for women to travel for abortion care, the bill is likely dead-on-arrival in the Senate.

The same cannot be said, however, for the legislation the House passed on Tuesday that would cement protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. The Democratic effort in the Senate to pass the Respect for Marriage Act received a major boost as Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) signaled his support for it. 

In a statement, Johnson, who is in a tough reelection bid, said he wouldn’t oppose it if it comes up for a vote in the upper chamber, but argued that it is unnecessary.

“Even though I feel the Respect for Marriage Act is unnecessary, should it come before the Senate, I see no reason to oppose it,” Johnson said (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

Johnson is the fifth Republican to signal support for the bill, which Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D), a fellow Wisconsinite and the first openly gay senator, is trying to round up GOP votes on. Ten GOP votes are needed for it to pass. 

▪ The New York Times: Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), a gubernatorial candidate, was attacked but unharmed on Thursday during a speech at a campaign event. The suspect pulled out a weapon, but Zeldin, who tweeted about it, grabbed the man’s wrist, delaying the attack before others nearby helped subdue the attacker. 

▪ The Hill: Lawmakers want to expand affordable housing. Communities say, “Not in my back yard.”

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

➤ POLITICS

It will be a Grand Canyon-sized split screen out West today as Trump and Pence will both be campaigning in Arizona for their preferred gubernatorial candidate, marking the first major proxy battle between the two former allies as they vie for early 2024 supremacy.

Trump later tonight will headline one of his trademark rallies for Kari Lake, a former TV news anchor, who has tethered herself to the ex-president and his disproven claims of widespread election fraud in 2020. Across the way is Pence — who is siding with Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), another Trump foe — in supporting Karrin Taylor Robson, who has emerged as the establishment’s best shot at taking down Lake (The Hill). 

Trump’s rally is set to take place in Prescott, Ariz., while Pence will headline a pair of events in Peoria and Tucson.

According to recent polls, Robson has significantly cut the gap and narrowly trails Lake with about a week and a half until primary day in a race that has only grown nastier by the day. But whether Robson can make any more headway is an open question despite outspending Lake by a significant margin. As of the end of June, she had outspent her by a 5-to-1 margin.

“I think it’s extremely hard to penetrate a message right now,” one Arizona GOP strategist told the Morning Report, pointing to voters being checked out during the summer and that primary day this year coincides with the start of school. 

“Usually our primary has been a few weeks after school starts and people pay attention again. This year Election Day is the day after school starts and you just lose a huge chunk of people not paying attention,” the operative added.

Trump’s rally was initially set to be held last weekend, but had to be postponed due to the death of Ivana Trump, his first wife and the mother of his three eldest children. 

On top of his burgeoning rivalry with Pence is his already-simmering one with Ducey, who earned a prime spot on Trump’s list of enemies when he refused to go along with the former president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 results in Arizona. 

“This whole thing is a proxy war at this point,” the GOP Arizona operative said. “Trump will try to rub his face in the crowd size and go after Ducey personally I bet.”

▪ Julia Manchester, The Hill: Arizona puts Trump’s political influence to the test.

▪ The Washington Post: Pence seeks distance from Trump as he considers 2024 presidential run. 

▪ Jason Riley, The Wall Street Journal: The only thing that can re-elect Biden is Trump.

📝 Introducing NotedDC, The Hill’s curated commentary on the beat of the Beltway. Click here to subscribe to our latest newsletter. 

OPINION

■ The inescapable conclusion from the Jan. 6 hearings, by Russell Berman, staff writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/3Or9ccU 

■ Biden’s COVID diagnosis is a teaching moment for the country, by Leana S. Wen, contributing columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3aSOKEk

■ Why Trump wins more loyalty than Biden, by John F. Harris, founding editor, Politico. https://politi.co/3aRI8pH 

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will meet at 9 a.m.

The Senate convenes on Monday at 3 p.m. to resume consideration of the CHIPS-Plus Act.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10:30 a.m. He is working in isolation at the White House after testing positive on Thursday for COVID-19.

The vice president will speak at the National Urban League Annual Conference in Washington at 12:30 p.m.

The White House daily briefing is scheduled at 3 p.m. Jha will join Jean-Pierre at the podium. 

🖥  Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features news and interviews at http://thehill.com/hilltv, on YouTube and on Facebook at 10:30 a.m. ET. Also, check out the “Rising” podcast here.

ELSEWHERE  

➤ INTERNATIONAL

The European Central Bank on Thursday raised its key interest rate by half a percentage point, taking an aggressive stance to fight inflation with a hike not seen since July 2011 (The New York Times). In addition, the ECB introduced a new policy tool to limit the divergence in borrowing costs across the eurozone’s 19 members (The New York Times).

A deal for Ukraine grain exports is set today to be announced by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at a signing in Istanbul, to include representatives of Ukraine and Russia. The unblocking of grain stockpiles amid the ongoing war will help ease a food crisis that has sent prices of vital commodities like wheat and barley soaring. A negotiated agreement allows Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and Russia to export grain and fertilizers (The Associated Press).

In Ukraine, foreign fighters joined the military there to push back against Russian forces. NBC News interviewed some of them who described a grinding artillery war in which western weaponry is starting to make some difference even amid the high death toll experienced by Ukraine’s military forces. An American fighting for Ukraine who served in the U.S. Army with combat tours in the Middle East described the constant Russian bombardment of the city of Severodonetsk in Ukraine’s Donbas region as “the closest thing I’ve ever seen to hell.” 

🌡️ Record heat in Europe and the United States pits fossil fuel reliance against the imperative of tackling the causes of greenhouse effects and climate change (The Hill).

➤ POLIO, PANDEMIC & POX

New York health officials on Thursday reported the first U.S. case of polio in nearly a decade. The condition of the individual is unknown, as is whether they were vaccinated against the virus. According to New York officials, it appears the person had a vaccine-derived strain of the virus, having potentially gotten it from someone who got live vaccine, which is available in other countries. Polio vaccines initially became available in 1955, with the disease considered eliminated in the U.S. in 1979. The last case was reported in 2013 (The Associated Press). 

The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday said in a statement that the federal government will have 786,000 more monkeypox vaccine doses from Europe to distribute to states and localities at the end of the month following Food and Drug Administration sign-off.

The Associated Press: Monkeypox virus could become entrenched as new sexually transmitted disease in the U.S.

Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported as of this morning, according to Johns Hopkins University (trackers all vary slightly): 1,026,294. Current average U.S. COVID-19 daily deaths are 347, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

➤ THE VATICAN, ARTIFACTS, CANADA

Pope Francis will travel to Canada on Sunday where he is expected to apologize in person ​​for abuses by Catholic missionaries Indigenous people and their ancestors suffered in notorious residential schools. Another brewing issue in Canada is over Indigenous art and artifacts held in the Vatican’s collection, including feathered headdresses, carved walrus tusks, masks and embroidered animal skins that the Vatican says were gifts to Pope Pius XI, who wanted to celebrate the Church’s global reach, its missionaries and the lives of the Indigenous peoples they evangelized. Some in Canada want the items back. “These pieces that belong to us should come home,” said Cassidy Caron, president of the Metis National Council, and headed a delegation that has asked Francis to return the artifacts (The Associated Press).

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Bravo to the winners of this week’s Morning Report Quiz, who knew or guessed correctly when asked about recent accounts of new friends, old friends, strained friendships and unlikely boosters in the headlines.

🥇Victorious puzzlers, all: Amanda Fisher, Mark Roeddiger, Harry Strulovici, Joan Domingues, Henry P. Friedman, Terry Pflaumer, Candi Cee, Peter Sprofera, Stewart Baker, Stanley Wasser, Jon Berck, Jeremy Serwer, Richard Baznik, Stephen Delano, Ki Harvey, Mary Anne McEnery, Patrick Kavanagh, Wilbur Roe, Jaina Mehta, William Grieshober, Pam Manges, Steve James, Luther Berg, John Donato and Robert Bradley.

They knew that President Vladimir Putin of Russia made a show this week of strengthening ties with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a trip to Tehran.

Elon Musk initially wooed Twitter’s executives and is now in court after walking away from an agreement to buy the company for $44 billion.

Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), a Trump critic and the House Democratic caucus chairman, on Tuesday said, “Run, Donald, run” when asked during an interview about the 2024 presidential contest.

Alex Rodriguez, once engaged to Jennifer Lopez, said during a podcast interview days before she tied the knot last weekend with Ben Affleck in Las Vegas that she is “the most talented human being I’ve ever been around.”   

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Source: TEST FEED1

Lawmakers want to expand affordable housing. Communities say, ‘Not in my back yard’

Lawmakers are scrambling to pass affordable housing legislation after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw a wrench into yet another social spending package last week.  

Manchin also rejected the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better Act last year, which would have allotted more than $150 billion for housing geared toward the middle class and lower-income Americans.  

To get those housing units built, lawmakers from both parties want to boost tax credits that incentivize builders to construct cheaper homes for low-income people in order to offset the often drastically higher profit margins that builders can make putting up homes for the wealthy. 

But even with those credits in place, builders are coming up against resistance on the local and state level because low-income housing can depress property values and drag down municipal tax revenues that determine things like the quality of local school districts. 

This phenomenon, known as “NIMBY-ism,” stands for Not In My Back Yard. It means that even though voters and taxpayers may support government efforts to build more low-and middle-class housing, they’d prefer to have it done somewhere that doesn’t affect them personally. 

During a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday scheduled to explore the role that tax incentives should play to make more cheap homes, Georgia builder Jerry Konter said that NIMBY-ism often appears in the form of local building regulations. 

“Many people on the panel have already talked about the regulatory burden in producing housing. And you know, NIMBY-ism is a large part of that, also. I know that in my community, I experience people [who] want school teachers and police officers and fire people to serve their community, but they put in restrictions that affect housing prices that force them not to live within that community,” Konter said. 

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) remarked during the hearing that teachers in his constituency are being priced out of their own school districts. 

“I had the Colorado Teacher of the Year come visit me a month or so ago,” he said. “She’s from Glenwood Springs, which is a rural community on the western slope of Colorado and in passing – she wasn’t complaining – but she just made the observation that 70 to 80 percent of her colleagues in the middle school and in the high school where she teaches have to have two or three jobs just to live in Glenwood Springs. So, you know, this is a real failure on the part of our society, I think, to be able to create workforce housing in our states.” 

One extreme example of NIMBY-ism occurred in 2019 in California’s San Fernando Valley where homelessness has been a major issue for many years. Efforts to build permanent housing for the homeless in the area have been met with fierce resistance from residents of the town of Chatsworth.  

Residents argued that a proposal to build 63 studio apartments for the chronically homeless as part of a billion-dollar Los Angeles City bond program would harm their community and present a danger to local school children. 

Another barrier to building affordable housing is zoning laws. 

“We hear from people around the country what zoning regulations have done, impeding the ability to build new homes across the country,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said during the hearing. “If we were to provide funding to support communities that update zoning regulations, would that help increase the supply of housing?” 

Konter said that zoning regulations can masquerade in various ways to prevent the construction of cheaper housing. 

“There tend to be zoning regulations that are put in place, and whether they’re intentional or disparate, the result is that they raise the cost of housing, and therefore we can’t build affordable housing through those zoning requirements,” he said.  

“It’s a great problem,” he went on. “Our members face it constantly. Things such as design standards being added to zoning – which has really nothing to do with zoning, but increases the cost of the housing. Zoning is a tremendous problem.” 

There are a number of tax incentives that lawmakers are pushing to build more middle-class houses and surmount the market-driven tendency of NIMBY-ism. 

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) proposed legislation creating a tax credit that covers the difference between the cost of building a home and selling a home in areas with bad commercial markets. 

“Private development lacks in some urban and rural areas because the cost of purchasing and renovating homes is greater than the value of the sale price of homes. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (NHIA) creates a federal tax credit that covers the cost between building or renovating a home in these areas and the price at which they can be sold,” a 2021 write-up on the bill from Cardin reads. 

The Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is widely regarded as the most powerful credit for creating low-income housing. Started in 1986, the LIHTC program has shelled out around $8 billion a year to issue tax credits for the “acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental housing targeted to lower-income households,” according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have a proposal to expand LIHTC in a variety of ways, including boosting its funding, repealing population caps associated with the credit, and prohibiting local approvals. 

The initiatives come as prices in the housing market continue to climb skyward. New data released Thursday put the median-priced single-family home at nearly $350,000. 

With mortgage rates above 5 percent and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, houses are less affordable in nearly every county in the country, according to a new report from real estate data company ATTOM. 

“Median-priced single-family homes and condos are less affordable in the second quarter of 2022 compared to historical averages in 97 percent of counties across the nation with enough data to analyze. That was up from 69 percent of counties that were historically less affordable in 2021,” the company said in a Thursday statement. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Record heat leads to more air conditioning, creating a depressing loop

The record summer heat scorching the U.S. and Europe is illustrating the drastic need for action on climate change, even as the high temperatures are likely to increase the production of energy and greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming.  

The heat is killing people, energy grids are getting overwhelmed, and more people in more places will be looking for air conditioning in the future, creating an insidious and depressing loop.   

“Most of the great bulk of our greenhouse gas emissions come from consuming energy, mostly to make electricity,” said Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law.  

The extreme heat, in turn, “greatly increases the need for air conditioners, which are a significant energy consumer,” he added.   

In the U.S., more than half of the states were under heat advisories as of Thursday morning, with highs hovering around 115 in Texas and Oklahoma. National Weather Service data indicates at least four states — Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and Missouri — saw temperatures at least 10 degrees hotter than the historical average for this point in the year.   

Across the Atlantic Ocean, the British town of Coningsby in Lincolnshire recorded an all-time high of 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday, breaking a record set only hours before of 104.4 degrees in London. Communities in France, Spain and Portugal battled high temperatures and wildfires.   

On both sides of the ocean, the high temperatures bring death and destruction.   

At least 13 deaths have been recorded in Britain, where many live without air conditioning because temperatures so seldomly reach the 90s and triple digits, as of Wednesday.   

At least 500 people died in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and southern Canada last summer during a scorching heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. Such waves are expected to become more common because of climate change, and the lack of action to slow it.   

Extreme heat means increased demand for power generation, which is “problematic,” because demand spikes specifically for gas for power generation in Europe over the summer, said Samantha Gross, director of the Brookings Institution’s Energy Security and Climate Initiative.   

The unprecedented heat, she said, is “making it difficult to refill the natural gas storage facilities which is what they’re trying to do right now in order to prepare for winter, which is what they’re really worried about.”   

“The heatwaves that we’re having, that are becoming stronger and more frequent and are a sign of climate change… they’re something that science has told us was coming and they are no surprise,” Gross said.   

However, she added, the greater demand for electricity generation both increases emission from power generation and strains regional grids, particularly in Texas, where the statewide grid has already been unprepared for extreme winter weather.   

“It’s a bit of an unfortunate feedback loop that when it’s hotter, we need more power,” she said. “Ideally, people will look at this and be like, Oh, this is what the climate scientists expected.”   

Gerrard suggested that while increased proliferation of air conditioning might be the only immediate relief from the heat, there are design lessons to be learned that could provide alternate options in future heatwaves.   

“In the long term, there are methods of building design that are better for air circulation and breezes,” he said. For example, he said, “having a lot of greenery is very important. The urban heat island effect is a major phenomenon reduced considerably by planting large numbers of trees.”   

Urban heat islands are a term for cities with dense concentrations of particularly heat-absorbent infrastructure, such as pavement and buildings, in place of natural land cover. The phenomenon can lead to higher temperatures as well as increased energy costs and air pollutant levels.   

The heat also has international implications, coming as British, European and American leaders have all joined an embargo against Russian oil, which provided much of Europe’s fuel.   

“I think the current heat wave will boost rather than hinder European efforts to prepare for this winter. People see how exposed they are to extreme temperatures. I don’t think they want to leave their heating and cooling at the mercy of Russian gas imports,” Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Energy Security and Climate Change Program, told The Hill in an email.  

“The EU’s proposed 15 percent gas cut will be hard to swallow, but it shows that policymakers are having frank discussions about conservation and energy efficiency.”   

The extreme temperatures come during a moment of intense pressure for climate policymaking in the U.S.

Just last week, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) said he would not back climate spending in a reconciliation bill after weeks of negotiations, which were themselves a last-ditch effort to save the Build Back Better framework Manchin torpedoed in 2021. President Biden on Wednesday called climate change an “emergency” but did not declare a national emergency after initial reports that he would.    

As Biden faces the likely loss of a Democratic majority in one or both chambers of Congress, executive action is likely to be his only recourse on climate this time next year—and that may not stand up against the most conservative Supreme Court in a generation.   

Source: TEST FEED1