Pilot Dies In Mat-Su Plane Crash https://digitalalaskanews.com/pilot-dies-in-mat-su-plane-crash/
SKWENTNA, Alaska (KTUU) – A pilot is dead after emergency responders found a plane submerged in a Mat-Su area lake Sunday afternoon.
Alaska State Troopers say 67-year-old Janell Rude of Anchorage was the sole occupant of the Cessna 180A went it went down Sunday in Whiskey Lake near Skwentna. Troopers say they received the initial report of the crash shortly before 4 p.m.
An Air Force rescue team was called out by the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center to find the plane, which was fully submerged in the water. Rude’s body was recovered by rescue swimmers from the Air Force and Alaska Wildlife Troopers, and will be sent to the Alaska State Medical Examiner for an autopsy.
Troopers say the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration have both been notified.
A pilot is dead after emergency responders found a plane submerged in a Mat-Su area lake Sunday afternoon.(Google Maps/Alaska’s News Source)
Copyright 2022 KTUU. All rights reserved.
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Herschel Walkers Charitable Donations Are In Question
Herschel Walker’s Charitable Donations Are In Question https://digitalalaskanews.com/herschel-walkers-charitable-donations-are-in-question/
Herschel Walker, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, faces another controversy over claims he’s made. The former NFL player’s charitable donations are now in question.
According to The New York Times, Renaissance Man Food Services, a food distribution center founded by Walker, claimed to donate a portion of its proceeds to four non-profit organizations. However, at least two of the organizations claim they never received any donation.
PE4Life Foundation and the Boy Scouts of America reportedly said they are unaware of donations from Walker or Renaissance Man Food Services. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society said they received $860 from Walker in 2005, $1,000 from RMSF in 2006, and just $25 from Renaissance Man Food Services in 2009. The third non-profit, the Special Olympics, declined to comment publicly.
Walker is attempting to unseat incumbent Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock. A recent Marist Poll showed Warnock with 47% support among registered voters in Georgia, while Walker trailed with just 42% support.
This is one of many controversial moments for the Trump-endorsed candidate. Last week, he went viral for saying, “I’m not that smart” while talking to reporters and also predicted that Warnock would “embarrass” him at their Oct. 14 debate. Other moments have included bizarre remarks about climate change and lying about graduating from the University of Georgia in the top one percent of his class (Walker never graduated from the University of Georgia). His stance on abortion, for which he supports a total ban with no exceptions. As for gun control, Walker seemed to propose a governmental agency to monitor “young men that’s looking at women that looking at social media.” Walker has also attacked fatherlessness in the Black community, although he reportedly lied to his campaign about his “secret” children and was forced to admit to being the father of four, when he had publicly claimed just one child. News reports threatened to make public the existence of at least two of Walker’s children, compelling the candidate to speak out.
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FMIA Week 3: Broncos' Coaching Experiment Pays Off Dolphins Win 'Beast' Game And What We Learned About The NFL In September ProFootballTalk
FMIA Week 3: Broncos' Coaching Experiment Pays Off, Dolphins Win 'Beast' Game, And What We Learned About The NFL In September – ProFootballTalk https://digitalalaskanews.com/fmia-week-3-broncos-coaching-experiment-pays-off-dolphins-win-beast-game-and-what-we-learned-about-the-nfl-in-september-profootballtalk/
So here came the first big test in the grand Nathaniel Hackett experiment, with 12:48 to play in the fourth quarter Sunday night against San Francisco. The Niners led 10-5. Denver QB Russell Wilson, needing seven yards for a first down, scrambled for what appeared to be about six-and-a-half to about a foot shy of the first down at the Bronco 35-. But Wilson had reached his arm out, with the ball, very near the 35 as he went down.
Hackett has had three years of clock/judgment/timeout problems in his three weeks as an NFL head coach, which is why he made the unorthodox move last Tuesday of hiring a retired special-teams coach, Jerry Rosburg, as senior assistant/in-game decision-making. Now Rosburg had either one or two decisions to advise his boss on.
Decision one: Should Denver challenge the call on the field that Wilson was short of the first down?
“It’s a value challenge,” came Rosburg’s voice via headset to Hackett. So Denver challenged and failed; the Wilson reach for the first down would have mattered had he broke the plane of the goal line, but not in the field of play. Quirky rule, but in the field of play, the ball is spotted where it is when the knee hits the ground. Wilson was clearly short.
Decision two: Down five, playing poorly on offense, should Denver go for fourth-and-a-foot, or punt? “Punt,” Rosburg advised, and Hackett agreed. The Broncos defense was playing too well to risk failing at fourth-and-short and thus the team punted. When they got the ball back, Wilson drove Denver 80 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. All’s well that ends well, at least on this night.
Denver 11, San Francisco 10. Amazing that through the mayhem of the last 14 days – the ridiculous choice to try a 64-yard field goal in Seattle, the mismanagement of timeouts, the league-high four delay-of-game calls in two weeks, the win that felt like a loss in the post-Houston-game locker room last week – the Broncos are 2-1 and tied for first in the AFC West.
Such an odd debut to an NFL head-coaching career, realizing you don’t have people on your staff who can help you on things like time and game management – the Broncos have a very young staff – and think you’ve got to go outside the building for help. And doing it while in game-week preparation. I asked Hackett if it all felt embarrassing.
“No,” he said firmly over the phone from the stadium. “For me, I felt empowered that I was able to make a decision. Hey, let’s fix it. I’m the leader of the team. Let’s do it.
“This was the first time, the past two games, that I felt I was hurting my team. Did I have enough info? I don’t know. But I knew the setup wasn’t right. I needed help to make the tough decision.”
What a whirlwind. Hackett didn’t know Rosburg, who was living in Florida while retired. But after a flurry of phone calls and a Tuesday meeting in Denver, Hackett introduced him to the team in the squad meeting Wednesday. He told the players if he asked them to take a critical look at themselves if they erred, it’s right that he do the same as the head coach. He’d erred by not being ready to handle all the in-game decisions, and Rosburg was the fix-it agent.
There’s another little matter to tend to: the offense, and Wilson. The 12-play, 80-yard drive against the stout 49er D was the first time in three feeble games that the Broncos’ offense looked good. “Russell has come to a new state, a new organization, with 10 brand new guys in the huddle. It’s a completely new look, new team. He’s jumped in here and tried to make it as familiar as he could. On that winning drive, he said, I’m comfortable. I’m gonna use my legs here. I’ve got to make this happen. He did. Hopefully that’s the start of it for him.”
Sunday was a perfect day to illustrate the topic of this column: What have we learned about the NFL in September?
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen played on Sunday. They quarterbacked their teams to 12, 14, 17 and 19 points, respectively. Now, this could be a coincidence, and of course it’s only three weeks of games (not including the last games of the month, Cowboys-Giants tonight and Dolphins-Bengals on Thursday). The season’s just 17-percent complete.
But the two big national games with offensive geniuses galore that closed out Sunday football ended with scores of 14-12 and 11-10. To see Rodgers and Brady struggle as they have, to see Russell Wilson throw two touchdown passes in three games with a starry receiving corps … something just might be up.
I do think part of what we’re seeing is a reflection of how defenses are playing, with the consistent two-deep-safety look that’s a part of the game’s current trendy D, the scheme that forces offenses to win underneath with long drives. Perfect example Sunday in Tampa: Midway through the third quarter, the Bucs had two safeties lined up 18 yards deep against Aaron Rodgers, showing nothing before the snap or very early in the snap. Tampa safety Logan Ryan waited, waited, waited and then, when Rodgers threw, Ryan jumped the route of the receiver and picked it off.
Did you see the snippiness between Patrick Mahomes and KC offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy Sunday, just before halftime in Indy? That was prompted by Mahomes misfiring on two downfield throws because, as he said later, “The Colts were in a deep coverage.” (Logical for end-of-half situations, of course.) But the Colts are like so many other defenses. They’d prefer you try to beat them with 13-play drives, not eight-. The logic: offenses have a better chance to turn it over, or to get to a fourth-and-long, in 13 plays than eight.
A Rodgers reaction on Sunday. (Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Now, two-deep snaps are being used about the same as through three weeks last year. But as one team analyst told me, there’s significantly more complexity to an offensive playbook than defensive. So it makes sense that early in the season, offenses wouldn’t be as in-sync as defenses would. Again—three weeks is not a time to make definitive judgments. It’s just time to raise an eyebrow.
As Mike Vrabel once said about defensive football, coverage is about figuring out the worst thing that can happen to you and doing whatever is necessary to prevent that thing from happening. Disguising deep safeties is certainly not the only reason why scoring is down 5.0 points per game through three weeks, but it’s something to watch.
Three other September stories that stick out:
Miami’s good, and Miami’s not afraid of the big bad Bills. As I watch football each Sunday, I try to focus on one game in each window and follow one of the Red Zone channels to keep up with the other games. In the first window, I settled on Buffalo-Miami and was rewarded with a dramatic, intense game with a January competitive feel. This truly had playoff energy, all the way down to Buffalo offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey going nuts in the coach’s box upstairs as the clock ran out on the Bills in a 21-19 Dolphins win. The NFL’s story of September is Miami being 3-0, answering a ton of questions on offense, winning with a quirky and intelligent coach, and playing fun and intense football on both sides of the line.
This game … it was electric and a great illustration of how nothing lasts forever in the NFL. It doesn’t even last a month. We’d all been thinking Buffalo was the premier team in the sport (I still think the Bills are) and would skate away with the AFC East title. But after three weeks, Buffalo’s a game behind Miami. Think of it: On a sunny south Florida day with a heat index in the nineties, Buffalo’s offense was on the field for 40 minutes and 40 seconds, and for 90 snaps, and outgained Miami in yards 497-212. And Miami won the IV Bowl.
“It was, if I’m being honest with you man, it was a battlefield out there, honestly,” said one of the heroes of the day for Miami, second-year safety Jevon Holland. “People were going down. You had people coming in who didn’t really play much. It was chaotic. Fans were loud. People cramping. Drives … going 10 plays, 14 plays, 20 plays. The game was a beast. Just a beast.
“It’s difficult because the Bills offense is so electric and they can score at any point. And so, you have to be constantly, constantly on. That is draining, to constantly be operating at a very high level. But that’s what it takes to beat a team like that. You have to be perfect and that’s the standard you have to rise to.”
Holland started early, blitzing midway through the first quarter, strip-sacking Allen and setting up Miami’s first TD. Holland’s lithe but hits like Polamalu, and his sideline-to-sideline ability is striking. Ten tackles, two passes defensed, 1.5 sacks. The man was everywhere.
“What hurts right now?” I asked.
“Everything,” Holland said. “Everywhere.”
(And this team, somehow, has to get on a plane and play Thursday night in Cincinnati, after playing 90 snaps against the best offense in football in 90-something heat and humidity. Brutal.)
“Keeping Josh Allen from scrambling was important,” Holland said. “When he scrambles to his right, he is a very efficient, like, best-in-the-league top quarterback. That was what we tried to do, constant pressure from his right side, to get him going to his left. Trying to keep the pressure in his face, mix up the alignments in the front. Just keep him guessing on what defense we’re in, what coverage we’re in. And at the base of all of that movement and all of that smoke and mirrors was to play hard-nose football, stop the run, make him be one-dimensional. You measure your love for your teammates by your proximity to the ball at the end of each play. I think as a defense, we sell ...
Hurricane Ian Live Updates: Sarasota County Closes Schools; Storm Slows And Strengthens
Hurricane Ian Live Updates: Sarasota County Closes Schools; Storm Slows And Strengthens https://digitalalaskanews.com/hurricane-ian-live-updates-sarasota-county-closes-schools-storm-slows-and-strengthens/
Staff Report | Sarasota Herald-Tribune
The Herald-Tribune has made this article free of charge for all readers in the interest of public safety. Consider supporting the Herald-Tribune with a digital subscription.
Quick Sarasota-Manatee Hurricane Ian links:
Storm Coverage: Find all of our latest coverage of Hurricane Ian
Shelters: Find your Sarasota and Manatee county evacuation zone and hurricane shelters here.
Closures & Cancelations: Sarasota-Bradenton closures and cancelations due to Hurricane Ian
Sandbags: Where to get sandbags in Sarasota, Manatee counties
11:15 a.m. | Sarasota County Schools will close on Tuesday
In a press release, Sarasota County announced that Sarasota County schools will be closed tomorrow, Sept. 27.
Sarasota County schools will close Tuesday, Sept. 27, out of an abundance of caution and to allow for time to prepare schools that serve as emergency evacuation centers.
While there are no evacuations issued at this time, the county is expecting to announce an evacuation alert for Level A on Tuesday morning.
“As the storm approaches, we are here to serve our community with our schools and personnel to provide sheltering. We will continue to communicate updates with employees and families throughout the storm as information becomes available. The latest information can be found on our website sarasotacountyschools.net/hurricane and all our social media channels,” said Dr. Brennan Asplen, Superintendent of Schools.
11:00 a.m. | Hurricane Ian strengthens, Sarasota-Manatee in danger
According to the 11 a.m. National Hurricane Center update, Hurricane Ian’s storm track has shifted slightly closer to Sarasota and Manatee counties and the storm is moving slower. Sustained wind speeds have increased to 80 mph.
The slower speed is especially alarming.
“An even greater concern is the slower forward motion that is forecast during this period, as the upper trough passes north and east of Ian and the steering currents weaken,” said the NHC forecast. “This would likely prolong the storm surge, wind, and rainfall impacts along the affected portions of the west coast of Florida, although the roughly shore-parallel track still makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly what locations will experience the most severe impacts.”
The NHC has also increased the storm surge forecast for Sarasota County to 5-10 feet, while Manatee County has remained the same at 5-8 feet.
The forecast also warns of “life-threatening storm surge,” with the “highest risk from Fort Myers to the Tampa Bay region.”
Because of the slight slowdown, tropical storm conditions are expected in Sarasota and Manatee counties Tuesday night, with hurricane-force winds beginning Wednesday morning.
Hurricane Ian: See spaghetti models, path and storm activity for Florida
10:45 a.m. | Sarasota County expects evacuations to start Tuesday morning
According to a Twitter post, Sarasota County Government expects to announce an evacuation alert for Level A beginning Tuesday morning. This would also indicate that Sarasota County schools will be closed Tuesday, although no official announcement has been made.
10:30 a.m. | New College and Ringling College cancel classes in advance of Hurricane Ian
Ringling College of Art and Design has canceled classes today through Friday, and plans to close its campus effective noon on Tuesday.
“Out of an abundance of caution and due to the uncertain trajectory of the storm at this time, the decision has been made to close the Ringling College campus effective TUESDAY (9/27), by 12:00 noon,” said the school on its website.
Ringling students will need to vacate campus housing by noon on Tuesday.
New College has similarly canceled classes beginning at 10 a.m. today through Friday. The school has not yet announced if students will need to leave campus.
10:00 a.m. | Sarasota County declares state of emergency
Sarasota County declared a state of emergency on Monday in preparation for Hurricane Ian.
The declaration document states that the hurricane is tracking in a direction that could bring it to the Sarasota County area within the next 48 hours, “creating an imminent threat of severe weather, excessive rainfall, and flooding.”
In a video update Monday morning, Sarasota County Emergency Management Chief Ed McCrane said the declaration allows the county to begin using funds and purchasing equipment and services that normally would have to go through the lengthy procurement process.
McCrane said this “doesn’t mean anything’s imminent” or that “it’s a dire emergency at this moment.”
“But we’re preparing for that eventuality,” he said.
Hurricane Ian: See spaghetti models, path and storm activity for Florida
9:45 a.m. | USF cancels classes, will close campuses
According to a release, University of South Florida classes will be canceled starting Monday, Sept. 26, through Thursday, Sept. 29. This will allow for students to make any necessary preparations or travel ahead of the storm.
All campuses will begin closing Tuesday, Sept 27.
9:20 a.m. | North Port declares state of emergency
The North Port City Commission approved a local state of emergency this morning that will run in conjunction with the statewide declaration for Hurricane Ian.
The emergency gives City Manager Jerome Fletcher or his designee authorization to procure goods and services needed to address the hurricane without going through traditional formalities.
North Port Public Works Director Chuck Speake said city workers have been working to lower water levels in the 80 miles of canals and waterways, to minimize the impact of flooding.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure that the City is well-prepared for the impending storm,” said Fletcher. “We’ve been in constant contact with our partners at Sarasota County and the state, and while North Port could see significant impacts in the coming days, I’m confident that our team is ready to respond.”
8 a.m. | Hurricane Ian could bring 5-8 foot storm surge, 8-10 inches of rain
Little has changed with Hurricane Ian, according to the 8 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, as the path of the storm continues to include Sarasota and Manatee counties.
“Rapid strengthening is expected during the next day or so, and Ian is forecast to become a major hurricane tonight when it is near western Cuba,” said the NHC forecast.
Get hurricane updates in our mobile app: Download the updated Herald-Tribune app
Both Sarasota and Manatee counties are under a hurricane watch and a storm surge watch, and can still expect a storm surge of 5-8 feet and rainfall of 8-10 inches.
According to the National Weather Service Ruskin, both Sarasota and Manatee counties can expect to experience tropical storm force winds beginning as soon as Tuesday afternoon or evening.
School is in session in both Sarasota and Manatee counties today, with likely closures to be announced later today.
5:00 a.m. | It’s now Hurricane Ian, storm track shifts closer to Sarasota-Manatee
Tropical Storm Ian is now Hurricane Ian. Sarasota and Manatee counties are now under a Hurricane Watch that extends from Englewood to the north of Tampa, as well as a Storm Surge Watch.
According to the National Hurricane Center’s 5 a.m. update, the storm’s sustained winds are at 75 mph, pushing it onto hurricane status.
Though the track has shifted to the east, there is still major uncertainty about the path of Hurricane Ian. According to the NHC, Sarasota and Manatee counties can expect a storm surge of 5-8 feet and rainfall of 8-10 inches.
Hurricane Ian: Find all of our latest coverage of the storm
Shelters: Find a list of Manatee and Sarasota hurricane shelters here.
“Considerable flooding impacts are possible later this week in west central Florida,” said the NHC in its update.
The Sarasota-Manatee area can expect to experience rain and tropical storm conditions as early as Tuesday evening, while the bulk of Hurricane Ian’s impact on the area will take place on Wednesday and Thursday. Hurricane Ian is expected to be a major hurricane – with winds greater than 110 mph – by the middle of the week.
“Ian is likely to have an expanding wind field and will be slowing down by that time, which will have the potential to produce significant wind and storm surge impacts along the west coast of Florida,” said the NHC forecast.
Are schools open in Sarasota and Manatee counties?
Schools are open as normal in both Sarasota and Manatee counties on Monday, Sept. 26. Both districts will likely announce early in the day about closures for the rest of the week. Since most hurricane shelters in both counties are located in schools, closures are probable if Hurricane Ian threatens to have an impact on the area.
All School District of Manatee County Schools will be open tomorrow, Monday, September 26th, as usual.
At the same time, the School District will continue its close collaboration and cooperation with @MCGPublicSafety officials on decisions regarding the rest of the week. pic.twitter.com/1IFobdF7Nu
— Manatee Schools (@Manateeschools) September 25, 2022
Where are hurricane shelters in Sarasota and Manatee counties?
If you live in a hurricane evacuation zone or a mobile home, you must evacuate when the evacuation order is issued. Your first choice should be to stay with a friend or family member living close by but who is not in a flood-vulnerable area.
(You can find your Sarasota County hurricane evacuation zone here and your Manatee County hurricane evacuation zone here.)
Do not head to a shelter until they are officially opened by Sarasota or Manatee counties. They will announce on their websites, through social media and through the Herald-Tribune when shelters are opening.
Find a list of Manatee and Sarasota h...
Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Vos
Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Vos https://digitalalaskanews.com/jan-6-committee-subpoenas-wisconsin-assembly-speaker-vos/
WISCONSIN — The Jan 6. select committee subpoenaed Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos over the weekend because of a phone call he allegedly had with former President Donald Trump.
What You Need To Know
The committee’s subpoena states it believes the July 2022 phone call between Vos and Trump has relevant information related to the Capitol attacks
The committee stated in the phone call, Trump tried to convince Vos to try to change the results of the Wisconsin 2022 presidential election, in which Vos denied to do
Vos filed a lawsuit to try to block the subpoena, stating he believes it’s out of the committee’s scope for the investigation
The subpoena asked for Vos’ testimony by Monday at 10 a.m. Vos filed a lawsuit to block the subpoena, stating the turnaround time is an “undue burden” and that the move “lacks a lawful purpose.”
The subpoena states Vos received a phone call from Trump in July 2022, in which he allegedly asked Vos to “take measures to change the result of the 2020 presidential election in Wisconsin.”
Additionally, the subpoena also states Vos refused to do so, in which Trump then posted derogatory statements about Vos as a response and endorsed his challenger in the 2022 Republican primary.
The committee said it believes the phone call has relevant information to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riots, but Vos stated in the lawsuit “falls outside of the matters the Committee was authorized to investigate; and was not issued by a validly constituted committee.”
Vos also stated he believes the quick turnaround time for the testimony is for the committee to conduct the deposition before the next televised hearing, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 28.
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Ukraine Live Briefing: Gunman Attacks Russian Military Center; Protests Over Mobilization Continue
Ukraine Live Briefing: Gunman Attacks Russian Military Center; Protests Over Mobilization Continue https://digitalalaskanews.com/ukraine-live-briefing-gunman-attacks-russian-military-center-protests-over-mobilization-continue/
A man opened fire at a Siberian military recruitment office on Monday — the latest sign of unrest within Russia after President Vladimir Putin announced a military mobilization affecting up to 300,000 reservists from around the country.
At least 100 people were arrested Sunday in Russia’s southwestern region of Dagestan, according to the human rights group OVD-Info, as protesters gathered in the regional capital, Makhachkala, to condemn the war in Ukraine. In a speech Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the protests by urging Russians to “fight to ensure that your children are not sent to die.”
The United States announced more than $457 million in new “civilian security assistance” to Ukraine on Monday, as voting on joining Russia continued in Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. These staged referendums organized by pro-Russian authorities and backed by the Kremlin are expected to end Tuesday. The votes have been widely criticized in the West — and by some of Russia’s own allies — as a pretext for and prelude to annexation.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
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A gunman was detained after he shot and severely wounded an official overseeing Russia’s military mobilization at a commissariat in the Irkutsk region in Siberia, the area’s governor, Igor Ivanovich Kobzev, said Monday on Telegram. The official, Alexander Eliseevan, is in “critical condition” and undergoing emergency medical treatment, the governor said.
According to local news outlets, the alleged gunman’s mother said his best friend had been called up to fight despite having never served in the army. She was quoted as saying that her son, identified in the media as 25-year-old Ruslan Zinin, “was very upset because of this.”
The Kremlin acknowledged that some Russians who do not meet the current criteria for military mobilization have received summons, and it pledged to rectify any errors. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday: “There have been cases of violations of the order. In some regions, governors are working hard to fix the situation.” Peskov also said that “no decisions” have yet been made to close Russia’s borders to prevent military-age men from fleeing, despite media reports in recent days that a decision was imminent.
The United States will send $457.5 million in new aid to Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday. The funds will go toward bolstering the capacity of Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice institutions, he added.
Protesters blocked a highway on Sunday and took to the streets in Dagestan, a largely impoverished Russian republic that borders Georgia and Azerbaijan, to oppose the call-up of reservists to Russia’s armed forces. Videos posted on Twitter by the independent Russian outlet Mediazona show people shouting “No war!” and “Our children are not fertilizer!” on a busy street interspersed with police vehicles and officers. At least 100 people in the region were arrested, according to OVD-Info.
Zelensky said the Kremlin could punish those who refuse to vote in its staged referendums. “Russians can turn off their electricity and won’t give them an opportunity to live a normal human life,” he said of potential dissidents on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “They force people. They throw them in prisons,” he added. In a post on Telegram, Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the occupied city of Melitopol, said that only 20 percent of the city’s remaining population was found by Russian authorities during door-to-door referendum voting and that an even smaller fraction ultimately voted.
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Reservists mobilized in Russia are likely to receive “minimal” training before being deployed to Ukraine, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Monday in its daily intelligence assessment. The ministry said the partial military mobilization announced by Putin represents “an administrative and logistical challenge,” as a deficit of military trainers means fighters who largely have not had recent combat experience will be sent to the front unprepared, likely leading to a “high attrition rate.”
The United States is having an “ongoing conversation” with Ukraine about the weapons it needs to fight Russia, including Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday. Earlier this month, Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned the United States that providing longer-range missiles to Ukraine would be crossing a “red line” and make Washington a “direct party” to the conflict.
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Russian-Moldovan dual nationals mobilized to fight in Ukraine could lose their Moldovan citizenship under plans being developed by the government there, President Maia Sandu said Monday. According to Reuters, 200,000 people with Moldovan and Russian passports live in Transnistria, a breakaway republic in eastern Moldova controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
Italy’s election has thrown the country’s stance on the war in Ukraine into question, with the country projected to elect its most far-right government since the fall of Benito Mussolini. Although the projected winner for prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has consistently backed Ukraine, other figures in her circle have shown a fondness for Putin. One member of her coalition, Silvio Berlusconi, falsely claimed that Putin was following the will of the people by invading Ukraine and that he intended to replace Zelensky’s government with “decent people.”
A group of Sri Lankans recounted beatings and abuse in Russian captivity as they told their stories Saturday in a news conference. Seven Sri Lankans were held in an agricultural factory in eastern Ukraine for months before escaping on foot, and members of the group recalled being tortured. One said he was shot in the foot, and another said a toenail was ripped off and he was bashed with a rifle butt, the Associated Press reported. “Every day, we were cleaning toilets and bathrooms,” said Dilukshan Robertclive, one of the former captives. “Some days, Russians came and beat our people, our Sri Lanka people.”
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Long before his war in Ukraine, Putin waged war on Russian journalists: TV anchor Tikhon Dzyadko fled Russia after he received telephone death threats in the days after Russia invaded Ukraine. Alexey Kovalyev, an investigative editor, crossed into Europe in the middle of the night with “panic-packed bags” on his back and his dog in tow. Kirill Martynov, the political editor of Russia’s only remaining independent newspaper, sought refuge in Latvia with 53 other newspaper staff members.
But Putin has waged war on journalists in Russia for years, Washington Post reporter Robyn Dixon writes. In the wake of the war in Ukraine, many have had no choice but to leave the country, while dozens have found themselves labeled “foreign agents.”
“That means I’m toxic,” said Alexei Venediktov, who was editor in chief of the radio station Echo of Moscow when it was shut down in March. He escaped to Latvia. “I lost my job. I lost my company.”
Read More Here
Stock Market News Today: Dow Gains Slightly British Pound Drops To Record Low Against The U.S. Dollar
Stock Market News Today: Dow Gains Slightly, British Pound Drops To Record Low Against The U.S. Dollar https://digitalalaskanews.com/stock-market-news-today-dow-gains-slightly-british-pound-drops-to-record-low-against-the-u-s-dollar/
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Last Updated: Sep 26, 2022 at 11:13 am ET
Follow The Wall Street Journal’s full markets coverage after the British pound hit its lowest-ever level against the U.S. dollar.
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Republican Toomey Blasts Biden's 'irresponsible' Use Of Cold War-Era Defense Law
Republican Toomey Blasts Biden's 'irresponsible' Use Of Cold War-Era Defense Law https://digitalalaskanews.com/republican-toomey-blasts-bidens-irresponsible-use-of-cold-war-era-defense-law/
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican Senator Pat Toomey on Monday blasted President Joe Biden for what he called the increasing and “irresponsible” use of a Cold War-era defense law to boost production of baby food, solar panel components and other non-defense items.
Toomey, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, told Biden that using the Defense Production Act in this way disrupted supply chains and violated the intent of the law to make goods available in actual national security emergencies.
“If your administration continues to abuse the DPA and skirt legitimate questions surrounding its use, Congress may have to curtail the executive branch’s ability to so easily invoke it,” Toomey wrote in a letter obtained by Reuters.
Democrats now control the Senate, but unexpected losses in the November midterms could give Republicans more power to curb use of the DPA.
Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump, invoked the DPA in 2019 to stockpile rare earths, the specialized minerals used to make magnets found in weaponry and EVs, and then again in March 2020 to order General Motors to produce life-saving ventilators.
Biden has made broader use of the DPA in his presidency, including using it to ramp up production of supplies used in the response to COVID-19, infant formula and solar panel components. The 1950 law gives the Pentagon wide powers to procure equipment necessary for national defense.
The White House had no immediate comment.
Toomey said Biden had waived a requirement to notify the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the law, prior to any DPA expenditures, on six separate occasions since March, and expressed concern he was using the law to advance a partisan agenda.
He said a future Republican president could decide the DPA is a convenient means for funding construction of a border wall or finishing a long-stalled natural gas pipeline, even though these projects were not related to the defense-industrial base.
Toomey asked Biden to answer a series of detailed questions about the administration’s reasons for invoking the law by Oct. 11.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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Trump And The N-Word https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-and-the-n-word/
Donald Trump came to North Carolina this weekend to campaign for Ted Budd and other candidates. Of course, much of the event was Trump airing his grievances and touting his victimhood because it’s always all about Donald. Still, the stage was full of Trump sycophants, hoping some of his magic will rub off on them.
Besides Budd, House Speaker Tim Moore showed up. So did Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, Congressman David Rouzer, and Congressional candidate Bo Hines. A host of Republican Congressional candidates nobody had heard of also took the stage. They called Democrats Marxists and socialists. Most harped on immigration, building the wall, and IRS agents.
One moment, though, was most revealing. During his speech, Donald Trump called out, “The N-word! You know what the N-word is?” The crowd clearly responded with “N****r,” even if it’s hard to hear in the audio. But we know because of Trump’s response. When he heard it, Trump said, “No, No, No. It’s ‘nuclear.’”
In other words, Trump baited his own audience into exposing their bigotry. He knew what the response would be. He knew that the press wouldn’t cover it, but he gave MAGA permission to gleefully yell out racist epithets in public with no consequences. That’s part of why they love Trump. He’s not offended by their racism. He even encourages it.
None of the Republican candidates said anything. Ted Budd knows who MAGA is. Tim Moore knows. Even Mark Robinson knows. But to them, the power is more important than principles.
Hiding racism in plain sight has been the norm, particularly in the South, for decades. For MAGA, racism and xenophobia are the animating fears that drive them to the polls. People like Ted Budd know that. It’s why he focused his time on the stage on immigration and the Southern border.
Back in the 1980s, during the Reagan years, people who tried to exorcize hateful language from public acceptability were called politically correct, or “PC.” To hear Republicans tell it, uptight liberals lacked the sense of humor to laugh at racist jokes. They took offense at innocent, off-hand comments that might be demeaning to people of color or gays.
Today, MAGA wants to bring back that simpler time when Blacks and gays knew their place. They want to return to a time when the immigrants to this country came from places like Ireland, Italy, or eastern Europe. They want the freedom to use the N-word in public again and not receive a rebuke.
And people like Ted Budd will give it them. You certainly won’t see Budd criticizing Trump for baiting his audience. You won’t even see him disavow the people in the audience who shouted out the racial slur because, you know, MAGA will be MAGA. It’s just some harmless fun.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more
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Donald Trump Branded Ron DeSantis https://digitalalaskanews.com/donald-trump-branded-ron-desantis/
Donald Trump recalls meeting Queen Elizabeth II
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Donald Trump branded a 2024 presidential nomination rival “fat” and “whiny” in private remarks, a book claims. The former US president and Mr DeSantis used to be allies, but rivalry now simmers with both believed to have their eyes on becoming the Republicans’ candidate to take on Joe Biden in two years’ time.
Besides reportedly criticising Mr DeSantis’s weight, Mr Trump also said another rival, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, had a weight problem.
Neither Mr Trump nor Mr DeSantis have formally declared they will run in the next election.
The claims are published in a new book by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. In an excerpt from Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, published by The Atlantic, Ms Haberman detailed a meeting she had with Mr Trump at his golf club in New Jersey.
In the meeting, Ms Haberman discussed Mr Christie with Mr Trump whom she claims said: “I was compared to him? Why? I didn’t know I had that big of a weight problem.”
Former president Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a rally (Image: Getty)
Ron DeSantis with Donald Trump (Image: Getty)
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The former president also described his 2016 leadership rival as an opportunist, according to Ms Haberman’s book.
She also wrote of learning from other sources that Mr Trump had called Mr DeSantis “fat”, “phony” and “whiny”.
Mr Trump has responded firmly to the prospect of Mr DeSantis running for the GOP ticket.
He criticised Fox & Friends when the programme shared polling figures which showed Mr DeSantis taking a lead over him. Mr Trump accused the show of going to the dark side, accoring to Insider magazine.
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at a campaign event for Gov. Brian Kemp (Image: Getty)
Joe Biden (Image: Getty)
This month saw Florida’s Republican Governor defend his decision to fly dozens of migrants to the wealthy vacation island of Martha’s Vineyard from Texas in a political row over border security.
Mr DeSantis claimed credit for two chartered flights which carried about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as part of a broader Republican effort to shift responsibility for border crossers to Democratic leaders.
He was also among a group of politicians which stripped Walt Disney Co. of its self-governing status after it opposed a new state law which limits discussion of LGBTQ issues in schools.
The influential Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) called on US lawmakers to pledge not to meet with executives and lobbyists from companies which “have been hostile to policies that help all Americans.”
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Republicans have also expressed anger after companies, including Citigroup, Levi Strauss & Co and Amazon.com Inc, said they would pay for employees who lived in states where abortion has been banned to travel out of state to undergo the procedure.
Meanwhile, legal experts said last week Mr Trump’s bid to impede a criminal investigation into his possession of documents taken from the White House has begun to unravel.
A panel made up of three judges of the Atlanta based 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Wednesday that federal investigators could immediately resume examining the classified records.
This would reverse Florida-based US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s decision to wall off those documents while an independent arbiter assesses whether any should be withheld as privileged.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gives two thumbs up towards then US President Donald Trump (Image: Getty)
Jonathan Shaub, a former attorney in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, said: “Cannon’s ruling is so far out of the norm, and the 11th Circuit did such a good job of thoroughly dismantling her opinion.”
Mr Trump may appeal the 11th Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court.
At issue in the investigation is whether he broke federal laws preventing the destruction or concealment of government records and the unauthorised possession of national defence information.
The Justice Department is also looking into whether Mr Trump unlawfully tried to obstruct the investigation.
Mr Trump has not been charged with any crime and the mere existence of an investigation does not mean he will be.
As part of Mr Trump’s counterattack against the investigation, he has made public claims he personally declassified the seized records.
He told Fox News: “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking it.
“You’re sending it to Mar-a-Lago or wherever you’re sending it, and there doesn’t have to be a process.”
Mr Trump’s lawyers have stopped short of stating in court that he declassified the documents though they have not conceded they are classified.
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I Love Being With Her: Trump Gushes About NY Times
“I Love Being With Her”: Trump Gushes About NY Times https://digitalalaskanews.com/i-love-being-with-her-trump-gushes-about-ny-times/
Former President Donald Trump gushed about New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman while dishing out dirt on just about everyone for her new book.
“I love being with her, she’s like my psychiatrist,” Trump told two aides while sitting for one of three interviews for Haberman’s new book “Confidence Man,” according to an excerpt published by The Atlantic.
Haberman, a veteran New York reporter who has covered Trump for years, wrote extensively about Trump’s time in the White House as well as his origins as a real estate developer.
“I have found myself on the receiving end of the two types of behavior Donald Trump exhibits toward reporters: his relentless desire to hold the media’s gaze, and his poison-pen notes and angry statements in response to coverage,” Haberman wrote.
“The reality is that he treats everyone like they are his psychiatrists — reporters, government aides, and members of Congress, friends and pseudo-friends and rally attendees and White House staff and customers,” she explained. “All present a chance for him to vent or test reactions or gauge how his statements are playing or discover how he is feeling. He works things out in real time in front of all of us.”
Haberman wrote that despite Trump’s constant attacks on reporters, he has met with nearly every prominent author that has written a book about him.
“His impulse to try to sell his preferred version of himself was undeterred by the stain that January 6 left on his legacy and on the democratic foundations of the country — if anything, it grew stronger,” Haberman wrote.
At one point during an interview in September 2021, Haberman asked Trump whether he had “taken any documents of note upon departing the White House.”
“Nothing of great urgency,” Trump said, before mentioning letters that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un had sent him, which he previously described as “love letters.”
“You were able to take those with you?” Haberman pressed.
“He kept talking, seeming to have registered my surprise, and said, ‘No, I think that’s in the archives, but … Most of it is in the archives, but the Kim Jong-un letters … We have incredible things,’ Haberman wrote. “In fact, Trump did not return the letters — which were included in boxes he had brought to Mar-a-Lago — to the National Archives until months later.”
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Haberman also questioned Trump about whether he had stayed in touch with world leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which Trump denied. But when she brought up Kim, Trump “responded, ‘well, I don’t want to say exactly” before trailing off.
“I learned after the interview that he had been telling people at Mar-a-Lago that he was still in contact with North Korea’s supreme leader, whose picture with Trump hung on the wall of his new office at his club,” Haberman wrote.
Trump also discussed his time at the White House, including his thoughts on his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“I asked why he had given Jared Kushner expansive power,” Haberman wrote. “‘I didn’t,’ Trump said, although he had done exactly that. When I pressed, Trump said, ‘Look, my daughter has a great relationship with him and that’s very important.'”
Trump lashed out at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., saying “the Old Crow’s a piece of shit,” and mocked Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over his efforts to ingratiate himself to Trump.
“‘You know why Lindsey kisses my ass?’ he asked, with Graham standing nearby. “So I’ll endorse his friends.'”
During another portion, Trump discussed the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and former Vice President Mike Pence.
“I said, ‘Mike, you have a chance to be Thomas Jefferson, or you can be Mike Pence,'” Trump said he told Pence before the Jan. 6 congressional session to certify election results. “He chose to be Mike Pence.”
Haberman reported that Trump has also privately lashed out at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential rival, calling him “fat,” “phony,” and “whiny.”
At one point, Trump made a “candid admission that was as jarring as it was ultimately unsurprising,” Haberman wrote.
“The question I get asked more than any other question: ‘If you had it to do again, would you have done it?'” Trump told Haberman of running for president. “The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because here’s the way I look at it. I have so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are.”
Haberman noted that Trump’s first impulse was not to mention public service or any of his accomplishments but “only that it appeared to be a vehicle for fame, and that many experiences were only worth having if someone else envied them.”
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Religion Is Shaping Brazil https://digitalalaskanews.com/religion-is-shaping-brazil/
Eds: This story was supplied by The Conversation for AP customers. The Associated Press does not guarantee the content.
(THE CONVERSATION) With one week to go before Brazil’s presidential election, the two front-runners are battling for the religious vote.
Last month, first lady Michelle Bolsonaro told an evangelical church service that the presidential palace had been “consecrated to demons” under previous presidential administrations – a gibe against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, commonly known as Lula, and his center-left Workers’ Party.
Lula is running again in this year’s election, whose first round is Oct. 2, 2022, and has joined the fray. In his official campaign kickoff in August 2022, for instance, he alleged that the right-wing current president, Jair Bolsonaro, is “possessed by the devil.”
Lula has been heavily favored to win the election and retake the office he held from 2003 to 2010. In polls, he currently runs about 15 percentage points ahead of Bolsonaro.
Religious voters are an important part of the story. Bolsonaro – whom international media dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” for his persona as a conservative firebrand, his anti-democratic streak, and his ability to attract a Christian base – garnered 70% of evangelical support in the 2018 election. Scholars, including me, argue that without the evangelical vote, he would have narrowly lost.
However, as a political scientist who has written a book about religious politics in Brazil, I see these comparisons between the U.S. and Brazil as also glossing over key differences. Yes, Bolsonaro and Trump are very similar in how they use religion. Yet the ways evangelical communities work and how religion shapes politics is different in each country – and my own research suggests that conservative Christians will not be as consistent a base for Bolsonaro as they are for Trump and the Republican Party.
Who’s who
One key difference is the language used: who “evangelicals” are in the first place.
In Latin America, traditionally a Catholic stronghold, the Spanish and Portuguese term “evangelico” is applied to nearly all non-Catholic Christians, including Protestant denominations that are usually classified as “mainline” or even “progressive” in the U.S. Estimates indicate that around a third of Brazilians identify as evangelical today, up from just a few percentage points in 1970. In the same period, the percentage of Catholics has fallen from over 90% to right about half.
By contrast, in the U.S. the term “evangelical” is reserved for theologically conservative Protestant groups, as well as Christians who have had a “born-again” experience of religious awakening. Americans also increasingly apply the term “evangelical” in a political sense, to refer to predominantly white political conservatives who are affiliated with Protestant churches.
As a result, the group of people termed “evangelicals” is much more diverse in Latin America than in the United States – and it’s politically quite diverse, too. All this said, many evangelicals in Brazil do have some tendency to adopt theologically conservative beliefs, such as interpreting the Bible literally.
Dozens of parties
A second major difference is the lack of strong partisan affiliation on Brazil’s religious right. Since the 1970s, many Americans are used to associating evangelicalism with the Republican Party. The founding of groups such as Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority helped spur evangelicals to become a strong base for political conservatism.
However, there is no political party in Brazil that can claim such a strong link to evangelicals as a whole. Brazilian politics is famously fragmented, especially on the right, and there are dozens of parties in Congress at any given time. Many parties – mostly conservative ones – court evangelicals, but none have shored up strong loyalty across the wide spectrum of evangelical denominations and churches.
Jair Bolsonaro personifies this weak partisanship. Bolsonaro ran for the presidency in 2018 under the Social Liberal Party, but then left the party to attempt to form his own party in 2019 after taking office. Those efforts ultimately failed, and he joined the Liberal Party in late 2021.
Evangelicals may support Jair Bolsonaro, but polls have shown they have little loyalty to whatever party he is affiliated with at the moment. As a result, the president cannot count on his voters to also elect his political allies. Ultimately, this very weak partisanship in the electorate weakens presidents, since they have to negotiate with a highly fragmented Congress.
Key issues
A third difference between evangelicals in Brazil and the U.S. relates to their views on political issues. Like their counterparts in the U.S., religious conservatives in Brazil feel very strongly about issues related to sex and gender. In a striking parallel to recent controversies in U.S. public schools, Brazilian evangelicals mobilized politically over the past decade to oppose efforts to teach children and teenagers tolerance on LGBTQ issues.
However, Brazilian evangelicals are much less conservative than their American counterparts on many other issues. This is particularly the case for topics on which U.S. evangelicals often follow cues from the Republican Party. For instance, my research shows that Brazilian evangelicals from a wide range of denominations are highly supportive of environmental action such as preventing deforestation.
Many Brazilian evangelicals have historically tended to come from poor areas and communities of color, leading them to support issues such as welfare policy and affirmative action. About 1 in 3 Brazilian evangelicals identifies as white, versus 2 in 3 in the U.S.
As a result, they are likely to be attracted to President Bolsonaro for his conservative stances on gender and sexuality. However, they may penalize him for his very weak record of environmental protection as well as what is generally recognized as poor performance on the economy and COVID-19.
Tea leaves
What does this mean for the upcoming presidential election? Bolsonaro is again attracting evangelicals, though not yet as strongly as in 2018. New evidence indicates that only about a quarter of evangelical churches are getting involved in the campaign so far this year – a substantially lower share than what my co-authors and I documented in 2018.
However, particular churches are still taking a strong stance. Brazil’s most politically engaged Pentecostal church, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, is urging its followers to begin a monthlong “fast” from secular news sources. This will presumably increase the political influence of church leaders, including the church’s head, Bishop Edir Macedo, who is an ardent Bolsonaro supporter.
Like their U.S. counterparts, Brazilian evangelicals tend to be highly religious and believe that religion should influence politics. What that means in 2022, however, is harder to divine than ever. After Bolsonaro’s four years in office, evangelicals may well judge him by his track record, not just by his promises – which could be both a blessing and a curse for him.
The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. The Conversation is wholly responsible for the content.
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Which Wetlands Should Receive Federal Protection? The Supreme Court Revisits A Question It Has Struggled In The Past To Answer
Which Wetlands Should Receive Federal Protection? The Supreme Court Revisits A Question It Has Struggled In The Past To Answer https://digitalalaskanews.com/which-wetlands-should-receive-federal-protection-the-supreme-court-revisits-a-question-it-has-struggled-in-the-past-to-answer/
(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)
Albert C. Lin, University of California, Davis
(THE CONVERSATION) The U.S. Supreme Court opens its new session on Oct. 3, 2022, with a high-profile case that could fundamentally alter the federal government’s ability to address water pollution. Sackett v. EPA turns on a question that courts and regulators have struggled to answer for several decades: Which wetlands and bodies of water can the federal government regulate under the 1972 Clean Water Act?
Under this keystone environmental law, federal agencies take the lead in regulating water pollution, while state and local governments regulate land use. Wetlands are areas where land is wet for all or part of the year, so they straddle this division of authority.
Swamps, bogs, marshes and other wetlands provide valuable ecological services, such as filtering pollutants and soaking up floodwaters. Landowners must obtain permits to discharge dredged or fill material, such as dirt, sand or rock, in a protected wetland. This can be time-consuming and expensive, which is why the case is of keen interest to developers, farmers and ranchers, along with conservationists and the agencies that administer the Clean Water Act – the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Supreme Court has already shown a willingness to curb federal regulatory power on environmental issues. From my work as an environmental law scholar, I expect the court’s decision in this case to cut back on the types of wetlands that qualify for federal protection.
The Sackett case
Idaho residents Chantell and Mike Sackett own a parcel of land located 300 feet from Priest Lake, one of the state’s largest lakes. The parcel once was part of a large wetland complex. Today, even after the Sacketts cleared the lot, it still has some wetland characteristics, such as saturation and ponding in areas where soil was removed. Indeed, it is still hydrologically connected to the lake and neighboring wetlands by water that flows at a shallow depth underground.
In preparation to build a house, the Sacketts had fill material placed on the site without obtaining a Clean Water Act permit. The EPA issued an order in 2007 stating that the land contained wetlands subject to the law and requiring the Sacketts to restore the site. The Sacketts sued, arguing that their property was not a wetland.
In 2012, the Supreme Court held that the Sacketts had the right to challenge EPA’s order and sent the case back to the lower courts. Now, after losing below on the merits, they are back before the Supreme Court. The current issue is whether the Sacketts’ property is federally protected, which in turn raises a broader question: What is the scope of federal regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act?
What are ‘waters of the United States’?
The Clean Water Act regulates discharges of pollutants into “waters of the United States.” Lawful discharges may occur if a pollution source obtains a permit under either Section 404 of the Act for dredged or fill material, or Section 402 for other pollutants.
The Supreme Court has previously recognized that the “waters of the United States” include not only navigable rivers and lakes, but also wetlands and waterways that are connected to navigable bodies of water. However, many wetlands are not wet year-round, or are not connected at the surface to larger water systems, but can still have important ecological connections to larger water bodies.
In 2006, when the court last took up this issue, no majority was able to agree on how to define “waters of the United States.” Writing for a plurality of four justices in U.S. v. Rapanos, Justice Antonin Scalia defined the term narrowly to include only relatively permanent, standing or continuously flowing bodies of water such as streams, oceans, rivers and lakes. Waters of the U.S., he contended, should not include “ordinarily dry channels through which water occasionally or intermittently flows.”
Acknowledging that wetlands present a tricky line-drawing problem, Scalia proposed that the Clean Water Act should reach “only those wetlands with a continuous surface connection to bodies that are waters of the United States in their own right.”
In a concurring opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy took a very different approach. “Waters of the U.S.,” he wrote, should be interpreted in light of the Clean Water Act’s objective of “restoring and maintaining the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.”
Accordingly, Kennedy argued, the Clean Water Act should cover wetlands that have a “significant nexus” with navigable waters – “if the wetlands, either alone or in combination with similarly situated lands in the region, significantly affect the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of other covered waters more readily understood as ‘navigable.’”
Neither Scalia’s nor Kennedy’s opinion attracted a majority, so lower courts have been left to sort out which approach to follow. Most have applied Kennedy’s significant nexus standard, while a few have held that the Clean Water Act applies if either Kennedy’s standard or Scalia’s is satisfied.
Regulators have also struggled with this question. The Obama administration incorporated Kennedy’s “significant nexus” approach into a 2015 rule that followed an extensive rulemaking process and a comprehensive peer-reviewed scientific assessment. The Trump administration then replaced the 2015 rule with a rule of its own that largely adopted the Scalia approach. The Biden administration has proposed a new rule that would deem waters of the United States present if either a significant nexus or continuous surface connection is present.
What’s at stake
The court’s ultimate ruling in Sackett could offer lower courts, regulatory agencies and landowners clear direction on the meaning of “waters of the United States.” And it will likely affect the government’s ability to protect the nation’s waters.
A broad interpretation could include many agricultural ditches and canals, which might obligate some farmers and ranchers to apply for Section 404 permits. It could also ensure oversight of polluters who discharge pollutants upstream of federally protected waters.
The Sacketts assert that the permitting process imposes significant costs, delays and potential restrictions on property use. In response, the Biden administration contends that most landowners can proceed under general permits that impose relatively modest costs and burdens.
In my view, this court’s anti-regulatory bent – and the fact that no other justices joined Kennedy’s concurring Rapanos opinion – suggest that this case will produce a narrow reading of “waters of the United States.” Such an interpretation would undercut clean water protections across the country.
If the court requires a continuous surface connection, federal protection would no longer apply to many areas that critically affect the water quality of U.S. rivers, lakes and oceans – including seasonal streams and wetlands that are near or intermittently connected to larger water bodies. It might also mean that building a road, levee or other barrier separating a wetland from other nearby waters may be enough to remove an area from federal protection.
Congress could clarify what the Clean Water Act means by “waters of the United States,” but past efforts to legislate a definition have fizzled. And today’s closely divided Congress is unlikely to fare any better. The court’s ruling in Sackett could offer the final word on this issue for the foreseeable future.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/which-wetlands-should-receive-federal-protection-the-supreme-court-revisits-a-question-it-has-struggled-in-the-past-to-answer-185282.
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At Least 13 Dead Many Wounded At School Shooting In Russia
At Least 13 Dead, Many Wounded, At School Shooting In Russia https://digitalalaskanews.com/at-least-13-dead-many-wounded-at-school-shooting-in-russia/
At least 13 people were killed, including nine children, when a gunman wearing a T-shirt with a red swastika opened fire on Monday in a school in the central Russian city of Izhevsk, Russia’s Investigative Committee reported. The gunman, reportedly armed with two weapons, also killed himself.
Among the dead were a school security guard and two schoolteachers.
The attack occurred at School No. 88 in Izhevsk, the capital of the Udmurt Republic, a region in central Russia west of the Ural mountains. The head of the Udmurt Republic, Alexander Brechalov, said that 23 people were injured — including 20 children.
Russia’s Investigative Committee identified the gunman as Artem Kazantsev, a 34-year-old local resident and former student at the school. Investigators were searching his residence.
Brechalov told reporters that Kazantzev was registered with a psycho-neurological clinic.
The shooting did not appear to be connected with a spate of violence in recent days that followed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s declaration of a partial military mobilization. In one of the latest incidents, a young Russian man on Monday shot the chief of a local military enlistment office in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.
The gunman, clad in black pants, black jacket, the swastika T-shirt, and a black balaclava, shot the school security guard before walking into the school and opening fire on children, many of them as young as 7 years old, according local media accounts.
Panic-stricken children fled the school during the attack, as police with pistols raised rushed up stairwells and along school corridors, according to video aired by independent local media.
Children huddled silently with their teachers in classrooms, according to videos published by local media. In another video, shots could be heard as the children and staff hid.
A seventh-grade boy at the school jumped from a third floor window to escape the shooting and broke his leg, Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komomolets reported.
Ammunition clips piled on a desk next to the gunman’s body in images of the scene published by local media bore the word “hatred” in red paint. Two pistols near his body had braided cords with the words Columbine, Dylan and Eric, a reference to the 1999 Columbine school massacre in which 13 people were killed by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, called the attack “an inhuman act of terrorism” and said Putin was deeply saddened by it. Peskov said the president telephoned the head of the Udmur Republic and other officials and “gave all the necessary instructions.”
Putin has insisted that the war in Ukraine is intended to eliminate “Nazis” from eastern Ukraine, and he and his supporters have referred, without basis, to the elected government in Kyiv as a “Nazi regime.”
Russia, however, has long had far-right, neo-Nazi elements within its own population. It was not clear if the gunman who attacked the school in Izhevsk was a member of any such group in Russia.
School shootings in Russia are relatively rare in comparison with the United States but may be becoming more common, with three mass shootings at educational institutions since May last year.
Just over a year ago, an 18-year-old university student, Timur Bekmansurov, killed six people and wounded 47 at Perm State University.
In May last year, Ilnaz Galyaviev, 21, killed nine people at a school in Kazan, Tatarstan, including seven children.
In 2018, a fourth-year student at Kerch Polytechnic College, Vladimir Roslyakov, killed 21 people and injured 67 in Russia’s worst school shooting.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial mobilization” of troops in an address to the nation on Sept. 21, framing the move as an attempt to defend Russian sovereignty against a West that seeks to use Ukraine as a tool to “divide and destroy Russia.” Follow our live updates here.
The fight: A successful Ukrainian counteroffensive has forced a major Russian retreat in the northeastern Kharkiv region in recent days, as troops fled cities and villages they had occupied since the early days of the war and abandoned large amounts of military equipment.
Annexation referendums: Staged referendums, which would be illegal under international law, are set to take place from Sept. 23 to 27 in the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk regions of eastern Ukraine, according to Russian news agencies. Another staged referendum will be held by the Moscow-appointed administration in Kherson starting Friday.
Photos: Washington Post photographers have been on the ground from the beginning of the war — here’s some of their most powerful work.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.
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How A QAnon Splinter Group Became A Feature Of Trump Rallies
How A QAnon Splinter Group Became A Feature Of Trump Rallies https://digitalalaskanews.com/how-a-qanon-splinter-group-became-a-feature-of-trump-rallies/
WILMINGTON, N.C. — Julie McDaniel can’t say for sure who started it. It might even have been her.
McDaniel was in the front section at a Trump rally earlier this month in Youngstown, Ohio, when the former president started wrapping up his speech by playing an instrumental score embraced by followers of the QAnon online conspiracy theory. She felt moved to raise her right hand and point to the sky — to God, she said. Soon everyone around her was doing it, too.
“It was spontaneous, it was it was like the domino effect,” said McDaniel, who also attended Friday’s rally here in Wilmington, N.C., coming from her home in the Chicago area. She objected to news coverage that condemned the gesture, with some comparing it to a Nazi salute. “It was an amazing, amazing moment, when you have the unity that everybody is there, and not only in this small group that was on the floor, but other people were doing it,” she said.
The group on the floor was an offshoot of the QAnon community called Negative48, a name that they say stands for the opposite of evil. They’ve become a fixture at Trump’s rallies this year. Numbering about 100, they can be spotted by their lanyards sporting as many as 16 commemorative buttons from each rally they have attended. Or see them wrap their arms around each other to sway to Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds” blasting over the loudspeakers. Or lining up to take selfies in front of the stage with their leader, a man in American flag pants named Michael Brian Protzman.
The FBI has warned that extremist movements such as QAnon — which loosely revolves around the baseless belief that the world is secretly run by Satan-worshipping child sex traffickers — is likely to motivate some people to criminal and violent acts. The ideology has already been implicated in multiple crimes, including several people arrested in the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and a recent murder in Michigan.
But the Negative48 group rejects such characterizations.
“Some people call QAnon a cult, but I like to spell it cult with a Q, Q-U-L-T, because it’s hard to find people that are on our same page,” said group member Kelly Heath from Georgia. “It’s a strange story. You’re not going to hear about it every day. It’s like saying that God’s coming, the world is changing, and we need it to change. There’s bad people that run the world, and they do bad things to kids, and it’s ugly.” Heath said the group included members who were themselves victims of sexual abuse as children.
As long as there have been Trump rallies, there have been roadies who follow him from city to city. Some have called themselves the “Front Row Joes,” like Saundra Kiczenski, who Trump called up to the stage in Anchorage in July because he liked her shirt covered with his face. Friday’s rally in Wilmington, N.C. was her 69th. Richard Snowden said the Wilmington rally would probably be his last, capping 80 events in 28 states across seven years. During his speech that night, Trump called out a few women from North Carolina who he said had been to 92 rallies, earning them a special invitation to Mar-a-Lago.
The Front Row Joes brought no agenda besides their undying love for Trump. The arrival of the QAnon group, however, has led to a silent standoff with Trump’s team, raising concerns that they could disrupt events, alienate other fans, distract from the former president’s message or generate bad publicity. The crew of crowd-control staff — male and female body builders in tight, silky green polos and black pants — keeps a close watch on the Negative48 group, telling them they can’t block the aisles with their dancing and, in Wilmington on Friday, working to head off another scene of index fingers pointing to the sky.
A Trump spokesman did not respond to requests for comment about the group.
The Trump team’s tensions with Negative48 come even as the ex-president has more and more explicitly courted support from QAnon followers with social media posts that adopt the movement’s slogans and imagery.
“Together we are standing up against some of the most menacing forces, entrenched interests and vicious opponents our people have ever, ever seen,” Trump said in his speech on Friday. “Despite great outside dangers from other countries, our biggest threat remains the sick, sinister and evil people from within our own country.”
QAnon followers search for hidden meaning in cryptic messages from a supposed military leader with the code name “Q” and in Trump’s own pronouncements. The Negative48 spinoff focuses on deciphering meaning using a takeoff of gematria, an ancient Hebrew tradition of assigning numeric values to letters. (Forty-eight, the group says, is the value of the word “evil.”)
One man with the group who didn’t identify himself illustrated how it worked using the name of this newspaper. “The Washington Post?” he said. “W is 23 in the alphabet. P is 16. Thirty-nine. Angel 39. Which angel? Lucifer was an angel.”
The group made headlines last year when members gathered in Dallas expecting to see the resurrection of John F. Kennedy Jr. In January, they decided to start attending every Trump rally in 2022. Protzman, their leader, said he wasn’t available for an interview and declined to set another time to talk. Other members were mysterious about their reasons or goals for coming to Trump rallies.
“We learned gematria from Michael in Dallas,” said Melissa Cole, who was at the rally in Wilmington with two 13-year-olds and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in a stroller. “We have traveled around together, some of us go home, some of us go back and forth, but collectively we’re all learning together from him … We’re standing for the 2020 election, it was stolen from us.”
While the Negative48 group has become a prominent feature of recent Trump rallies, they clearly don’t represent the whole crowd. Many others interviewed in Wilmington were Carolinas residents, local Republican activists and Trump supporters attending an in-person rally for the first time.
But it would be equally inaccurate to describe the Negative48 group as total outliers. Other attendees who weren’t part of the group came wearing QAnon slogans or eager to discuss their belief, or at least curiosity, in the movement’s theories.
“Biden is a fraud, he’s an actor,” said a woman in an “I TQLD YOU SO” T-shirt who declined to give her name. “He died in 2019.”
Lisa Pyle, who came to the rally wearing a Q hat, said the Jewish New Year a few days after the rally would be the occasion when the Supreme Court would reveal that it had overturned the 2020 election.
“You know Joe Biden’s not the president,” she said. “That’s someone playing Joe Biden. It is. I know you want to laugh. I’m not joking.”
Her husband, Kip, chimed in to explain that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and many other members of Congress had already been arrested. The couple said Q was the force behind a long series of events in American history, including the Civil War, the JFK assassination, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 election.
Lisa: “You’ve heard of Agenda 2030?”
Kip: “Do you do any research?”
Lisa: “You know about the Georgia Guidestones?”
Kip: “You gotta do some research, brother.”
Elsewhere at the rally, Eileen McDermott said she’d only started to explore gematria, but she believed there were coded messages in Trump’s speeches, executive orders and musical selections. She said her devotion to Trump became a strain on her relationship with her daughters, but eventually they accepted that if they wanted to have a relationship with her they had to let her be her.
“I think Donald Trump wants people to use their brains to think, and I think he wants us to figure out what he’s saying,” she said. “It’s all going to be exposed, it’s just a matter of time.”
When an ad came over the loudspeaker for Trump’s official presidential photo album that sells for $75, McDermott proudly noted that she bought two copies: one to let guests leaf through and one to keep stored away in mint condition. She said she spent $2,000 to fly from Southern California just for Friday’s rally.
Arriving early, she went to a nearby beach to watch the sunset and she noticed a glow in the eastern sky — almost like there was a second sun. McDermott said she isn’t sure about that one yet, she needs to do more research.
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European Markets Choppy; Sterling Slumps Against The Dollar
European Markets Choppy; Sterling Slumps Against The Dollar https://digitalalaskanews.com/european-markets-choppy-sterling-slumps-against-the-dollar/
UK bond yields set for record monthly rise
British government bond yields are on course for the biggest monthly rise recorded within Refinitiv and Bank of England data going back to 1957, a Reuters analysis found.
The yield on 10-year gilts has risen 131 basis points so far in September, with a sell-off intensifying Friday after the government announced extensive tax cuts. Yields move inversely to prices.
“The speed [of gilt yield rises] has been quite eye-watering. We’ve not seen moves like this since the Financial Crisis,” Craig Inches, head of rates and cash at Royal London Asset Management, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
“The problem you’ve got now is markets are very thin, liquidity is very low, and you’ve got a lot of market participants caught in long positions. There’s been many people who’ve been trying to call the top in the interest rate profile and they’ve been stopped out of markets,” he said.
— Jenni Reid
UK economy: “Something’s got to break”, says bank CIO
As sterling slumps against the dollar, hitting a record low in the early hours of Monday, the U.K. is in a position where “something’s got to break”, according to Fahad Kamal, CIO at Kleinwort Hambros.
“Sterling is the thing that seems to be taking a lot of the pressure right now,” Kamal told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”
Falling energy prices would also not cause inflation to dip anytime soon, according to the CIO.
“The oil price falling will help, but ultimately inflation has gone beyond just the oil price and commodity prices, it’s much deeper and more entrenched and linked to things like rent and wages,” Kamal said.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
German business sentiment plummets in September
German economic sentiment deteriorated rapidly in September, according to the latest survey from the ifo Institute.
The ifo Business Climate Index dropped to 84.3 points this month, its lowest value since May 2020 and down from 88.6 points in August.
“The decline is affecting all four sectors of the economy. Companies assessed their current business as clearly worse,” said Clemens Fuest, president of the ifo Institute.
“Pessimism regarding the coming months has grown decidedly; in retail, expectations have fallen to a record low. The German economy is slipping into recession.”
– Elliot Smith
Brent crude slides below $85 a barrel as dollar surges
Brent crude fell below $85 a barrel Monday, as recession fears mount and the U.S. dollar surged.
Brent futures for November settlement were trading down over 1% around $84.92 at 8 a.m. London time. West Texas Intermediate futures also fell to trade around $77.93.
Central banks around the world — including the U.S. and the U.K. — continue to hike interest rates in an effort to tackle inflation.
You can read the full story on CNBC here.
— Hannah Ward-Glenton
Stocks on the move: Belimo up 7%, K+S down 8%
Shares of Swiss heating and ventilation manufacturer Belimo Holding climbed more than 7% in early trade after Berenberg upgraded the stock to “buy” and increased its price target, citing rising demand for home renovation.
At the bottom of the Stoxx 600, German chemical company K+S fell 8%.
– Elliot Smith
Giorgia Meloni and her far-right Brothers of Italy party top vote in Italian elections, exit poll shows
Giorgia Meloni seen speaking during the campaign. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the right nationalist and conservative party Brothers of Italy (Fratelli dItalia, FDI) held the conclusive electoral rally at Arenile, in the left-oriented district of Bagnoli, Naples.
Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Italians are on course to elect the country’s first female prime minister and the first government led by the far-right since the end of World War II.
Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) party are set to gain 26.4% of the vote, according to an exit poll early Monday morning. The party is in a broad right-wing coalition with Lega, under Matteo Salvini, Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and a more minor coalition partner, Noi Moderati.
This alliance is set to win 44.43% of the vote, according to exit polls, enough to gain a parliamentary majority with the center-left bloc on 26.57%. Early projections from the actual election results are due Monday morning.
Read more on the story here
Sterling hits record low against the dollar, as Asia-Pacific currencies also weaken
CNBC Pro: Morningstar reveals its top high-dividend global stocks — and gives three 30% upside
Morningstar has revealed its pick of global stocks with the highest dividend yields, saying they stand out in an environment where many companies may not be able to maintain their dividends due to “economic strain.”
Pro subscribers can read more here.
— Ganesh Rao
CNBC Pro: Dan Niles predicts when the S&P 500 might bottom, and reveals how he’s profited this year
Stocks prepare to test their lows in the final week of trading for September
Heading into the final week of trading for September, the Dow and S&P 500 are each down about 6% for the month, while the Nasdaq has lost 8%.
Both the Dow and S&P are now sitting 1.2% and 1.6%, respectively, above their lows from mid-June. The Nasdaq is 2.9% above its low.
— Tanaya Macheel
Wed, Aug 17 202212:29 AM EDT
European markets: Here are the opening calls
European stocks are expected to open in negative territory on Wednesday as investors react to the latest U.S. inflation data.
The U.K.’s FTSE index is expected to open 47 points lower at 7,341, Germany’s DAX 86 points lower at 13,106, France’s CAC 40 down 28 points and Italy’s FTSE MIB 132 points lower at 22,010, according to data from IG.
Global markets have pulled back following a higher-than-expected U.S. consumer price index report for August which showed prices rose by 0.1% for the month and 8.3% annually in August, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday, defying economist expectations that headline inflation would fall 0.1% month-on-month.
Core CPI, which excludes volatile food and energy costs, climbed 0.6% from July and 6.3% from August 2021.
U.K. inflation figures for August are due and euro zone industrial production for July will be published.
— Holly Ellyatt
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Post Politics Now: Amid Inflation Challenges Biden To Hold Event Focused On Saving Money
Post Politics Now: Amid Inflation Challenges, Biden To Hold Event Focused On Saving Money https://digitalalaskanews.com/post-politics-now-amid-inflation-challenges-biden-to-hold-event-focused-on-saving-money/
Today, with inflation remaining a challenge for his party as the midterm elections loom, President Biden is convening senior administration officials at the White House to talk about “new actions that will save families money and lower costs,” according to an advisory. Among the moves will be a new rule to require airlines and travel sites to be more transparent about additional fees, CNN is reporting.
Congress returns to Washington this week with a deadline of Friday to pass a short-term funding bill to keep the government open. Also on tap this week: The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection will hold a public hearing on Wednesday. A witness list has yet to be announced but expect a heavy focus on former president Donald Trump.
Your daily dashboard
10:35 a.m. Eastern time: Biden returns to the White House from Delaware.
11:45 a.m. Eastern: Biden welcomes the Atlanta Braves to the White House. Watch live here.
1:30 p.m. Eastern: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters. Watch live here.
4:15 p.m. Eastern: Biden hosts a meeting of the White House Competition Council.
Got a question about politics? Submit it here. After 3 p.m. weekdays, return to this space and we’ll address what’s on the mind of readers.
Analysis: Manchin makes permitting push as time ticks away for a deal
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Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) is working hard to attach his energy permitting bill to a stopgap spending bill needed by week’s end, and he’s sharpening his message to Republicans who may withhold their support despite agreeing with his bill’s overall goal: It’s probably now or never.
Writing in The Early 202, The Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell and Theodoric Meyer say Manchin argued in an interview that Democratic support for energy project permitting reform is at its high-water mark and that it won’t pass in the next Congress regardless of which party controls the Senate.
The latest: Harris discusses China’s ‘irresponsible provocations’ with Japanese prime minister
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Vice President Harris, who is leading the U.S. delegation to Tuesday’s funeral of former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, met Monday with the country’s current prime minister, Fumio Kishida, in Tokyo.
According to a White House readout, topics included China’s “aggressive and irresponsible provocations in the Taiwan Strait” that followed a visit to Taiwan by a congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Harris and Kishida also condemned a recent ballistic missile launch by North Korea and “pledged to work together to address the threats posed by [North Korea’s] nuclear and ballistic weapons program,” the White House said.
On our radar: Biden welcoming Atlanta Braves to the White House
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With this year’s Major League Baseball playoffs just around the corner, President Biden plans to welcome last year’s World Series champions, the Atlanta Braves, to the White House on Monday.
Biden is scheduled to host the Braves late Monday morning in keeping with a long tradition of presidents celebrating championship teams in major U.S. sports.
The Braves were previously scheduled to be in town for a series with the Washington Nationals.
The Braves have secured a playoff spot again this year. With less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, the team is trying to overtake the New York Mets to win the National League East division. If the Braves fall short, the team will still make the playoffs as a wild card team.
Noted: Ex-staffer’s unauthorized book about Jan. 6 committee rankles members
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News that a former adviser to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection is publishing a book billed as a “behind-the-scenes” look at the committee’s work came as a shock to most lawmakers and committee staff when it was announced last week.
The Post’s Jacqueline Alemany and Josh Dawsey report that Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman, is set to publish “The Breach” on Tuesday, just one day before a public hearing of the Jan. 6 panel, which has gone to extraordinary lengths to prevent unauthorized leaks, as well as keep its sources and methods of investigation under wraps.
On our radar: The Biden-Trump rematch, in many ways, has already begun
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President Biden was at a Democratic reception in Maryland a few weeks ago when his rhetoric turned toward an increasingly frequent topic — “what Trump is doing and the Trumpers are doing.” An audience member called out, “Lock him up!” Biden went on to cite “the new polls showing me beating Trump by six or eight points.”
A few days earlier, former president Donald Trump was at a rally in Pennsylvania when he, too, turned toward a frequent topic: “We’re leading Biden … by record numbers in the polls.” He said three times, with growing enthusiasm, “So I may just have to do it again!”
Take a look: On Sunday shows, Sullivan warns Russia against using nuclear weapons in Ukraine
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National security adviser Jake Sullivan made the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows, warning that there would be “catastrophic consequences” for Russia if it uses nuclear weapons in its war on Ukraine. Sullivan said that message has been conveyed to Russian officials at the highest levels.
The Post’s Blair Guild pulled together what Sullivan had to say during appearances on multiple shows.
Noted: Blinken says conversation about supplying weapons to Ukraine ‘ongoing’
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a conversation with Ukraine over the supply of U.S. weapons to aid the country’s war effort is “ongoing,” notably regarding a request from Kyiv for Army Tactical Missile Systems, or ATACMS, as the surface-to-surface missiles are commonly known.
The Post’s Rachel Pannett has details:
“Whatever they put on the table is something we’re going to look at, to consider, and we’re going to give them our best judgment about what can be effective for them,” Blinken said in an interview with “60 Minutes.”
The United States so far has made 20 transfers of defense equipment valued at billions of dollars, Blinken said, including antitank and antiaircraft weapons that helped repel Russian forces during their attempt to seize the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
“At every step of the way, we have worked to make sure that the Ukrainians had in their hands what they needed to defend themselves,” Blinken said. He described it as an “ongoing conversation” about what Ukraine needs at any given moment, adding: “We adjust as we go along.”
You can read the full story here.
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'Trump Has Reason To Worry' After Letitia James Exposed His 'familys Financial Shadiness': Legal Expert
'Trump Has Reason To Worry' After Letitia James Exposed His 'family’s Financial Shadiness': Legal Expert https://digitalalaskanews.com/trump-has-reason-to-worry-after-letitia-james-exposed-his-familys-financial-shadiness-legal-expert/
By Sneha Dey, The Texas Tribune
Sept. 26, 2022
A committee charged with producing a “patriotic” telling of Texas history approved a 15-page pamphlet last month that will now be distributed to new Texas drivers.
The advisory committee — named the 1836 Project after the year Texas gained its independence from Mexico — was created last year with the passing of House Bill 2497. The legislation required the committee to tell a story of “a legacy of economic prosperity” and the “abundant opportunities for businesses and families, among other requirements.”
“We must never forget why Texas became so exceptional in the first place,” Gov. Greg Abbott said when he signed the bill. Abbott, along with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan, later selected a nine-member, largely conservative group to head the 1836 Project.
The creation of the committee was largely a conservative backlash to The New York Times’ publication of “The 1619 Project,” which was named after the year enslaved people first arrived on American soil and aimed to center slavery in conversations about U.S. history. The pamphlet, which will be distributed at driver’s license offices, comes at a time when the state is increasingly trying to regulate how race, sexuality and history are taught in public schools.
The Texas Tribune reviewed the 1836 Project committee’s final pamphlet and asked historians to comment on how accurately and thoroughly the document chronicles the state’s history.
The historians acknowledged that the committee had a difficult assignment; Donald Frazier, the chair of the subcommittee in charge of drafting the pamphlet, called squeezing the entirety of the state’s history into little more than a dozen pages a “herculean task.”
But the historians also noted that condensing the state’s history and painting it in a mostly celebratory light came at a cost. The pamphlet, they said, fails to fully hold institutions accountable for slavery and other forms of oppression and shortchanged Indigenous Texans, Tejanos, Black Texans and women.
The pamphlet engages with contemporary research — like literature about the lasting impact of the Confederacy — but also tries to fulfill state lawmakers’ wish to promote “patriotic education” and avoid disturbing Texas’ myths, said Raúl A. Ramos, a history professor at the University of Houston.
“The traditional mythic version of Texas history, it’s about the heroes of the Alamo having pure intentions of liberty and freedom in the abstract rather than the liberty to conquer Indigenous and Mexican lands and freedom to own enslaved people,” Ramos said. “It’s that abstract idea that is attractive and powerful and [that’s what] people gravitate towards, and I think that’s what people associate with patriotism.”
Below is a look at how the Project 1836 advisory committee’s pamphlet discusses four areas of Texas’ history — early settlements, the oil and cotton industries, the Alamo and slavery — and the historians’ notes on what the document’s authors chose to play up, play down or omit.
Early settlements
Trinidad Gonzalez, a history professor at South Texas College, said the pamphlet aggrandizes Manifest Destiny, the belief that American settlers had the God-given right to expand across North America. It’s an idea about early settlements that was driven by 19th century nationalism and exceptionalism.
In the opening paragraph, the pamphlet says the land of Texas seemed like “an inhospitable zone to many,” but Americans “with fortitude and nerve” saw the opportunities and made the region productive.
“It wasn’t just the Americans who thought it was boundless opportunities. [The pamphlet’s authors] are trying to create the simplified Manifest Destiny story that fits this older myth of white Americans coming in and basically building Texas,” Gonzalez said. “And when you do that, then you silence everybody else that participated in the history of Texas.”
Historians told the Tribune that the pamphlet glosses over the Indigenous, Spanish and Mexican populations that resided before, saying Texas was “nearly depopulated” before American settlers migrated to the land.
However, the Indigenous population significantly outnumbered American settlers in 1836, Gonzalez said. The stretch of land from the Rio Grande Valley to Laredo was also once one of the most economically successful Spanish settlements, he added.
Emilio Zamora, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, called the pamphlet’s interpretation of early settlements in Texas “very unsettling.”
The document “speaks very negatively about the Mexicans and the colonial settlers that preceded them,” Zamora said.
Oil, not cotton
When it comes to the state’s economy, the pamphlet zeros in on the oil industry. The discovery of oil “ushered in a period of remarkable transformation,” the pamphlet says. It characterizes the wildcatter and oil derrick as “Texas icons.”
Nowadays, West Texas’ Permian Basin is the nation’s most productive oil region. The Permian produces more than 5 million barrels of the nation’s daily output of 11.6 million barrels of oil per day.
But before oil, there was cotton. Texas still leads the nation in cotton production. Cotton continues to be the state’s largest agricultural export and is responsible for thousands of jobs across sectors, such as ginning companies, warehouses and oil mill processing plants.
The 1836 Project pamphlet mentions oil five times. It never mentions cotton.
The pamphlet highlights Houston’s title as “energy capital of the world,” but cotton used to be so essential to the city that it would celebrate the crop with festivals, naming a symbolic leader for the carnival King Nottoc (“cotton” spelled backwards).
The pamphlet “ignores the reality that cotton production and poverty long characterized much of the Texas economy after the Civil War and through 1940. Instead it glamorizes the oil industry,” said Walter Buenger, a history professor at UT-Austin.
Buenger said that the state’s dependence on cotton made Texas one of the poorest states in the country.
The cotton market had globalized and become increasingly competitive, but the state delayed mechanizing cotton production to continue offering low-skilled jobs that had low returns. It resulted in an unequal distribution of income: While a handful of cotton traders got “fabulously wealthy,” most Texans struggled to survive, Buenger said.
“Through 1940, Texas was, for the most part, very poor. And they were poor because they were wrapped up in this cotton production business,” Buenger explained.
The Alamo
The Alamo, the Spanish mission founded in the 18th century in what is now San Antonio, has long been enshrined as “the cradle of Texas liberty.” The men who died as Mexican troops laid siege on the Alamo are often remembered as heroic martyrs who valued liberty over their lives.
“Only Texas could turn defeat into a legend — and a song, and a tourist attraction, and a major motion picture,” author Rosemary Kent famously said of the Alamo.
But the 1836 Project pamphlet does not dwell on the Alamo. Of the document’s 4,517 words, just 87 are spent on the siege.
Gene Preuss, an associate professor of history at the University of Houston-Downtown, called that a notable move away from traditionalist history in a state where the Alamo has often been at the center of Texas politics and history.
“There really isn’t much discussion of the Alamo in the pamphlet,” he said. “And I find that interesting because a lot of traditional histories would focus on the Alamo.”
In fitting the Battle of the Alamo into one abridged paragraph, the pamphlet’s authors appear to acknowledge the recent efforts to reexamine the historic event.
“For a long time, Texas history has been taught from one perspective,” Preuss said. “I think [the pamphlet] does enough to open some cracks, which I as a professor can open further for my students so that when they come into class, they don’t say things like ‘I didn’t know [Black Texans] participated in the Texas revolution’ [or] ‘I didn’t know Tejanos were on the side of Texians and died at the Alamo.’”
But the pamphlet also avoids going into that reexamination. It doesn’t mention, for instance, the issues brought up in the book “Forget the Alamo,” which was published last year and prompted the lieutenant governor to push for the cancellation of an event featuring the title at the Bullock Texas State History Museum. The book highlights how the defense of slavery played a key role in the conflict with Mexico and questions the garrison defenders’ military strategy.
Slavery
When the 1836 Project committee was established, Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of “The 1619 Project,” feared that the 1836 Project was another attempt to veil the nation’s history of slavery.
“When it comes to slavery, some people have never wanted open debate and honesty. They seek to bury and prohibit instead,” Hannah-Jones said on Twitter.
The pamphlet does mention slavery, acknowledging that it became an economic engine for the state. Republican lawmakers also required that the document mention how on June 19, 1865, the date that became the basis for Juneteenth, Union soldiers in Galveston announced the liberation of all enslaved people.
“We wanted to reemphasize and make dang true that everybody understands that slavery was a bad thing and Texas participated,” Frazier, the chair of the subcommittee in charge of drafting the pamphlet, said at the August committee meeting.
But many of the historians the Tribune spoke with said the pamphlet doesn’t go far enough, noting that it omits how central defending slavery was in the Texas war of secession from Mexico and the Civil War. They say it airbrushes gr...
Wyoming Lawyers Judges Slam Hagemans rigged Election Stance
Wyoming Lawyers, Judges Slam Hageman’s ‘rigged Election’ Stance https://digitalalaskanews.com/wyoming-lawyers-judges-slam-hagemans-rigged-election-stance/
Harriet Hageman embraces with her husband, John Hageman, during her election night party Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Event Center in Cheyenne. Hageman defeated her incumbent opponent, Liz Cheney, in Tuesday’s primary election to become the Republican nominee for Wyoming’s lone U.S. House of Representatives seat in November’s general election. (Lisa Hushbeck/Oil City News File)
Forty-one legal professionals accuse the Trump-endorsed congressional candidate of violating the oath of attorney and professional misconduct for false statements about the 2020 election.
Maggie Mullen, WyoFile
A group of prominent Wyoming attorneys and retired judges called on congressional candidate Harriet Hageman to stop spreading misinformation about the 2020 election in a Sept. 12 letter.
“We want you to know that we believe your comments about a rigged election were not supportive of the Rule of Law, have contributed to destabilizing our democratic institutions, and were inconsistent with our collective duties as members of the Wyoming bar,” the letter reads.
Hageman, a natural resources attorney, trounced incumbent U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney in the August primary election to secure the Republican nomination for Wyoming’s sole seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Shortly before the primary election, Hageman told voters during a candidate forum in Casper that “absolutely the election was rigged. It was rigged to make sure that President Trump could not get reelected.”
Prior to that statement, Hageman had been more circumspect on the campaign trail about the 2020 election, repeating instead that the results were unknown. She appeared to revive that equivocation in her response to the letter.
“There remain serious questions about that election,” Hageman said in a press release on Thursday morning. She also called the letter a “threat” by her fellow attorneys to file a complaint with the state bar against her.
The Rule of Law
Lawyers must be members of the Wyoming State Bar to practice in the state, and admission involves taking the oath of attorney — a declaration to “support, obey and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution and laws of the State of Wyoming.”
The letter argues that making false claims about the presidential election is “contrary to at least the spirit, if not the letter, of the oath you and the rest of us swore upon our admission to the Wyoming bar, as well as other ethical duties and responsibilities owed by all of us as Wyoming lawyers.”
The state bar association also requires attorneys to abide by the Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct, which state that attorneys have a “special responsibility for the quality of justice.” The rules also consider “conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” to be professional misconduct. The letter references several of these rules in its argument.
The 41 attorneys and retired judges that signed onto the letter include retired Chief Justice of the Wyoming Supreme Court Michael Golden, former Attorney General Pat Crank, retired Teton County District Court Judge Tim Day, Wyoming State Bar President Chris Hawks and Anna Reeves Olsen, the president-elect of the state bar.
The signees are part of a larger group of attorneys that informally came together following the Jan. 6 insurrection. The informal coalition is loosely connected over the internet and includes about 80-100 legal professionals, according to Bill Schwartz, a Jackson attorney.
“Everyone was so appalled and concerned and feeling like we should do something as the guardians of the Rule of Law,” Schwartz said.
Thirty-four members of the group put their names to an op-ed — originally published in January of 2021 and then again in July of this year — condemning the attack of the U.S. Capitol and applauding Cheney’s defense of the Constitution.
As was the case then, the drafting of this month’s letter to Hageman was a collaborative effort by the group, according to Schwartz.
“It would be inappropriate to suggest that this was written by one person or two people or even three people,” Schwartz said. “It takes a long time to get 41 lawyers comfortable with a letter like this.”
In her statement, Hageman accused the group of borrowing a template from The 65 Project, a legal advocacy group that targets attorneys who aided attempts by Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 election. The name of the group refers to the number of lawsuits that failed to produce any evidence to support the claim that the election was rigged against the former president. The letter cites some of 65 Project’s work, but Schwartz said the group drafted its argument independently.
The group did not send the letter to the state bar, according to Schwartz and Crank.
“The collective thought was to not do that, that we write to her colleague-to-colleague,” Schwartz said, adding that it’s possible, however, that any one of the signees could have sent it to the bar.
Because such proceedings are confidential, State Bar Executive Director Sharon Wilkinson would neither confirm nor deny that any such complaints had been filed.
“That’s all confidential under [Wyoming Supreme] Court rules. So we cannot discuss that at all,” Wilkinson said.
First Amendment
The Wyoming Republican Party trumpeted Hageman’s statement in a fundraising solicitation to its members Thursday evening. The party has been struggling financiallydue to a string of lawsuits and withheld dues.
“As a constitutional attorney, I have spent my career fighting for the rights of others, and now a group of my fellow lawyers is trying to squelch my own 1st Amendment rights because they disagree with me,” Hageman said in her press release.
In its letter, the group said it is not suggesting that her membership in the bar restricts her rights to freely express ideas and opinions.
“Indeed, whether a lawyer’s demonstrably false statements of fact about an election made in the public square are subject to bar discipline consistent with the 1st Amendment is an interesting issue that does not yet appear to have been settled,” the letter said.
Hageman did not respond to WyoFile’s request for comment.
This article was originally published by WyoFile and is republished here with permission. WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.
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Biden's Mixed Record Forces Some Dems Into Odd Balancing Act
Biden's Mixed Record Forces Some Dems Into Odd Balancing Act https://digitalalaskanews.com/bidens-mixed-record-forces-some-dems-into-odd-balancing-act/
CINCINNATI (AP) — Democratic House candidate Greg Landsman can tick off how his party’s control of Congress and the White House has benefited his city.
The bipartisan infrastructure deal will mean upgrades to the heavily traveled highway bridge linking Cincinnati with its airport and northern Kentucky while bolstering a vital westside viaduct. COVID-19 relief funding meant training for more new police academy recruits. A sprawling spending package capped insulin prices.
What You Need To Know
Officeholders and top candidates often distance themselves from their party’s unpopular president
Some Republicans shunned Donald Trump ahead of the 2018 midterms when Democrats flipped the House, just as many Democrats ran away from Barack Obama as 2010’s red wave loomed
But this cycle presents conflicting political incentives that have forced some front-line Democrats into delicate balancing acts
The predicament underscores the lack of a national Democratic playbook on how to run in relation to Biden ahead of the midterms
But Landsman won’t say whether President Joe Biden, who signed those measures into law, will help or hurt his campaign to unseat longtime Republican Rep. Steve Chabot. He doesn’t think the president will visit the southwest Ohio swing district before the November midterm elections and insists that, in thousands of conversations while campaigning, Biden usually “just doesn’t come up.”
Officeholders and top candidates often distance themselves from their party’s unpopular president. Some Republicans shunned Donald Trump ahead of the 2018 midterms when Democrats flipped the House, just as many Democrats ran away from Barack Obama as 2010’s red wave loomed. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton suffered similar midterm election fates.
But this cycle presents conflicting political incentives that have forced some front-line Democrats into delicate balancing acts. While improving lately, Biden’s approval ratings remain low and inflation is still running near record highs. Yet unemployment is down, wages are up and the White House has notched key congressional wins applauded by many Democrats in close races.
The predicament underscores the lack of a national Democratic playbook on how to run in relation to Biden ahead of the midterms.
“These issues become, especially in places like Cincinnati, Greater Cincinnati, very local very quickly,” said Landsman, a City Council member whose hesitancy to mention Biden is a change from his appearance with the president in Cincinnati in May.
Two hundred miles north in Toledo, Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in House history, has been more direct, producing an ad saying she “doesn’t work for Joe Biden” mere weeks after greeting the president at the Cleveland airport in July.
Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, running for Ohio’s open Senate seat, appeared with the president at the recent groundbreaking of an Intel computer chip factory outside Columbus. But he suggested then of the possibility of Biden seeking reelection in 2024 that both parties need “new leadership” and “it’s time for a generational move.”
When Biden visited Milwaukee on Labor Day, Democratic Gov. Tom Evers, who is up for reelection, appeared with him, but Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, competing against Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, did not. In Maine, Democratic Rep. Jared Golden has an ad saying he opposed “trillions of dollars of President Biden’s agenda because I knew it would make inflation worse.” Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly is giving Biden’s performance “mixed reviews.”
Landsman says he appeared with the president because he supported White House-backed microchip legislation that helped make the new Intel facility a reality. Kaptur says she appeared with Biden because he was announcing $1 billion for Great Lakes improvements and got a firsthand look at the town of Lorain, which has been devastated by steel mills closing.
“There’s some other things I don’t agree with the president on. But that one — getting attention to Lorain, Ohio, which has endured such a battering in the international markets, and the people are still so positive and so constructive,” she said, “it was a great moment.”
Phil Heimlich, a former Cincinnati City Council member and Republican county commissioner who opposes Trump and has endorsed Landsman, said Democrats’ struggles with Biden are real but pale in comparison to GOP candidates contending with a national party increasingly beholden to his predecessor.
“I think the national stuff still plays a role,” Heimlich said, “but that cuts both ways.”
When Trump held a rally recently in Youngstown, Ohio, Chabot didn’t attend. Kaptur’s opponent, J.R. Majewski, did. But they aren’t letting their opponents escape Biden’s political shadow.
“I think people know Pelosi and Biden. Some people are favorable. But I don’t think that’s the majority,” said Chabot, who has criticized Landsman for briefly working in Nancy Pelosi’s Washington office in 1999, before she was House speaker. He’s also tagged tweets about rising prices #Bidenflation.
Majewski said in his first TV ad that “Biden and Kaptur are spending more and more while inflation goes up and up.”
Chabot was first elected to Congress in 1994 and has won several hotly contested reelection races. But Ohio’s new congressional maps mean his territory encompasses more of Democrat-friendly Cincinnati.
A recent Landsman campaign event included his releasing a 5-year-old wire-haired dachshund named Jerome in a wiener dog race as Oktoberfest celebrations thronged the city’s downtown. Chabot, that same weekend, greeted would-be voters at a smaller, Catholic church-sponsored street festival in the nearby town of Reading, where he was born.
“I know a lot of people who are not Democrats and they are definitely going to be voting,” Jean Huneck, a 67-year-old who owns a small mechanical engineering business, said of the new, ostensibly bluer district. Huneck is a registered Democrat but supports Chabot and said the GOP needs big November wins to counter Biden.
“I feel like our livelihoods are depending on it,” she said.
Kaptur has held her seat since 1983 but faces circumstances opposite from Chabot’s. Redistricting swapped parts of her district’s largely blue Cleveland suburbs for a conservative, eastern swath of the state that hugs Lake Erie and reaches the Indiana border.
Some of the new territory is dotted with cornfields and bait and tackle shops. An occasional yard sign says “Trump 2024 or Before,” a reference to the former president’s spurious suggestions he could be reinstated into power.
Majewski is Trump-endorsed, and Kaptur has branded him as a past devotee of QAnon conspiracy theories who passed police barricades during last year’s deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Kaptur says in a TV ad that her opponent is “too dangerous to serve in Congress.”
The National Republican Campaign Committee, the party’s House campaign arm, promoted a photo of Biden kissing Kaptur’s hand upon arriving in Cleveland and a video of her saying that, after a year in office, the president’s “report card is outstanding” juxtaposed with headlines about inflation and the president’s sinking approval ratings.
Following an Associated Press report that Majewski misrepresented his military career, the NRCC canceled TV ads it had booked to support his campaign.
Brendan McHugh, a 31-year-old who works in investment real estate in Toledo, said linking Biden and Kaptur isn’t a bad thing because “Democrats have been getting some wins recently.”
“I’ve been pleased with the progress that the Biden administration’s been making,” McHugh said, calling that “a net positive” for Kaptur.
Michael Jones, a 56-year-old attorney who lives in the same Old Orchard neighborhood near the University of Toledo, said that he’s a Kaptur supporter and that controlling things like inflation is largely out of Biden’s hands. But he added, “There’s a lot of challenging things happening right now.”
“People may look at who’s at the top right now,” Jones said. “And it may impact how an undecided person might vote.”
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Pollsters Fret Over Another Big Miss https://digitalalaskanews.com/pollsters-fret-over-another-big-miss/
With help from Eli Okun and Garrett Ross
THIS WEEK: Monday: Rosh Hashanah is observed. … Tuesday: NASA will (again) try to launch Artemis I. The Conference Board publishes the September consumer confidence index. VP KAMALA HARRIS is in Japan for state funeral of former PM SHINZO ABE. … Wednesday: House Jan. 6 committee holds a hearing at 1 p.m. President JOE BIDEN hosts the first ever U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit. CBC’s 51st annual Legislative Conference kicks off. … Friday: House holds its final votes before Election Day. GREG ABBOTT and BETO O’ROURKE meet for the sole debate of the Texas gubernatorial campaign. … Saturday: DONALD TRUMP rallies in Macomb County, Mich.
DISPATCH FROM ROME — “Italy is on course to elect its most right-wing government since World War II, after projections suggested a coalition led by GIORGIA MELONI is set to take power.” More from Hannah Roberts and Giorgio Leali
POLL POSITION — In 2016, polling was basically a debacle. In 2018, it seemed the course had been corrected. Then came 2020 — and polling that was, in some cases, off even more substantially than in 2016.
Six weeks out from Election Day, it’s the question hanging over every conversation about the midterms: Are the polls going to be wrong — again?
Over the last six years, political polling has struggled to consistently get it right, from failing to capture Trump’s win in 2016 to understating the 2018 “Blue Wave” to overestimating Biden’s share of the votes in 2020 in some key states.
“Pollsters know they have a problem,”Steve Shepard writes in a must-read this morning. “But they aren’t sure they’ve fixed it in time for the November election.”
Throughout the country, polls show Democratic candidates running way ahead of expectations. And that’s “left some wondering whether the rosy results are setting the stage for another potential polling failure that dashes Democratic hopes of retaining control of Congress — and vindicates the GOP’s assertion that the polls are unfairly biased against them,” Steve writes.
After 2016, pollsters changed their samples to include more voters without college degrees — people more likely to be Trump backers.
After 2020, pollsters largely agreed that they once again missed Trump voters who refused to participate in surveys.
Is 2022 another election with Trump as the main character? Well, polling experts are split into two main camps:
1. “Some pollsters are hoping that since Trump isn’t running in the midterms, the problems of underestimating Republicans’ vote share will disappear with him.”
2. “Others worry that Trump’s ongoing dominance of the news cycle — from the FBI seizure of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago to litigation against his businesses in New York — effectively is making him the central political figure going into Election Day.”
Steve talks with top pollsters and explains how they’ve adapted to 2022 — whether contacting voters via text and online interviews (Marist), “separat[ing] those who say they are undecided from those who refuse to answer” (Quinnipiac) or conducting “surveys that measure each candidate’s level of support without pitting them against one another” (Monmouth).
But even those changes may not be enough to avert another 2020-style miss.
“I’m confident that [the changes are] the right things,” says Democratic pollster CELINDA LAKE. But “I’m not confident that they’re sufficient.”
Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook. Drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza.
For perhaps the first time in his presidency, Biden has a positive economic story to tell. Wages are up. Gas prices are down. And after months of setbacks, the White House finally clinched legislation boosting domestic manufacturing, tackling climate change and lowering prescription drug prices.
But just as Democrats rush to capitalize on those wins ahead of the midterms, new economic storm clouds are forming that threaten to erase those hard-fought gains, Adam Cancryn reports this morning. Inflation remains stubbornly high. Food and housing prices have yet to cool off. Fears of a global recession are weighing on the stock market.
“Those crosscurrents have left the Biden administration in a weird place — eager to promote their accomplishments, but wary of celebrating an economy that’s left many Americans behind,” Adam told Eugene on Sunday night. “In the White House, Biden advisers have counseled Democrats to play up the progress the U.S. has made since the pandemic wrecked the economy.
“Yet even as Biden tries to sell the country on a feel-good economic recovery, the question remains: Will voters feel those benefits in time to give Democrats credit in November? Or will the underlying uncertainty end up working against the party’s all-out bid to defy the odds and keep control of Congress?”
BIG PICTURE
RED WAVE BECOMES A RIPPLE — The latest CBS polling and projections revise predicted House Republican gains downward again, now forecasting 223 GOP seats next year to 212 Democratic — a narrow majority with implications for KEVIN McCARTHY’s prospects as leader. One nugget: “Two-thirds of voters feel their rights and freedoms are very much at stake in this election — more so even than say their financial well being is.”
CRIME PAYS — Republicans are increasingly pushing crime rates as a key midterm issue across the country, detailing disturbing incidents in ads and speeches, WaPo’s Annie Linskey and Colby Itkowitz report. It’s an opportunity for the GOP to play offense again after being on defense over abortion for much of the summer — and to move beyond just economic messaging. Some Democrats are pushing back, saying the messaging plays into racial stereotypes and foments division. But others worry about the efficacy of the attacks, and are trying to emphasize their own law-and-order credentials in response.
Related Read: “Biden’s mixed record forces some Dems into odd balancing act”, per the AP
BATTLE FOR THE SENATE
FRANKEN SPEAKS — After a former campaign staffer accused Iowa Democratic nominee MIKE FRANKEN of sexual misconduct — which did not result in any charges — Franken tells Burgess Everett that it never happened. And he’s accusing Republicans of weaponizing what he calls a false allegation: The first reporting on the matter was written up by a GOP consultant.
The unpredictable Franken won’t commit to supporting CHUCK SCHUMER for majority leader, and casts himself as an independent mind. Despite the spurt of attention to his race, he’s still a longshot against Republican Sen. CHUCK GRASSLEY: “The DSCC is not involved in this race,” a spokesperson for the group says, point blank.
KEYSTONE STATE LATEST — Is Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. JOHN FETTERMAN’s focus on campaigning in rural reaches of the state leading him to neglect Black voters in big cities? The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Jon Moss reports that some activists and officials are worried the Democratic Senate nominee isn’t doing enough. Fetterman’s campaign says it’s engaging Black voters in many ways, but some Dems warn he could be over-correcting to try to shore up the party’s losses among white working-class voters.
— Modern bromance: Fetterman and AG JOSH SHAPIRO have very different styles. But as they run for Senate and governor, the two Democrats are building on a long working relationship and mutual affection, “seemingly strategizing to complement each other throughout the state,” the Daily Beast’s Ursula Perano reports.
— Top-ed: “Tucker Carlson wants to talk about my tattoos. So let’s talk about them,” by Fetterman for NBC
FOLLOWING THE MONEY — In Ohio, Democrats’ monthslong advantage on the airwaves can be traced to the disparity between the two nominees’ funding bases: Democratic Rep. TIM RYAN pulled in small-dollar donations nationwide, while Republican J.D. VANCE has relied on big donors and the Senate Leadership Fund, the Plain Dealer’s Andrew Tobias reports. “Even though Vance and his allies are spending almost three times as much as Ryan, they’re only getting about 20% more airtime. That’s largely because candidates, under federal law, get much better prices compared to outside PACs.”
BATTLE FOR THE HOUSE
UP FOR DEBATE — “Slotkin, Barrett clash on economy, abortion in first TV debate,” by The Detroit News’ Melissa Nann Burke
BATTLE FOR THE STATES
WHERE ABORTION IS PLAYING — Arizona’s new near-total abortion ban continued to reverberate across the state’s political landscape Sunday, the Arizona Republic reports in a roundup of the latest reactions.
WHERE ABORTION ISN’T PLAYING — Kansas was ground zero for the post-Dobbs backlash to abortion restrictions this summer. But Democratic Gov. LAURA KELLY, in a tight reelection campaign, is barely mentioning the issue, NBC’s Adam Edelman reports. She’s focusing on the economy and education instead. “Experts and Democrats say the effort could be key to the vulnerable incumbent prevailing in the overwhelmingly red state. That’s because the path to victory for Kelly … relies almost entirely on her ability to appeal to Republican voters, with whom a prominent pro-abortion rights message wouldn’t largely resonate.”
DOWN BALLOT — The L.A. Times’ Laurel Rosenhall has a column looking at the States Project’s efforts to flip statehouse seats to Democrats, which has Californians gathering to strategize the likes of Michigan races. “At one time, it might have been unseemly or just strange for activists to try to influence local elections far from home. But that’s changed.”
THE PRE-POST-MORTEM — “Shapiro, Mastriano race could foreshadow 2024 in Pa.,” by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Julian Routh
HOT ADS
With help from Steve Shepard
— Nevada: Congressional Leadership Fund’s latest ad against Democratic Rep. DINA TITUS in Las Vegas seeks to link government spending, including the 2021 Covid relief package, to high inflation — a linchp...
Analysis | Manchin Makes Permitting Push As Time Ticks Away For A Deal
Analysis | Manchin Makes Permitting Push As Time Ticks Away For A Deal https://digitalalaskanews.com/analysis-manchin-makes-permitting-push-as-time-ticks-away-for-a-deal/
Shanah Tova, Early Birds! Nearly a year after they won the World Series, the Atlanta Braves are stopping by the White House today to commemorate the victory with President Biden before they play the Washington Nationals tonight. (Editor’s note: The Braves trail the Amazin’ Mets this year in the NL East and we look forward to the Mets visiting the White House next year.) Tips: earlytips@washpost.com. Thanks for waking up with us.
In today’s edition … The Jan. 6 committee returns on Wednesday … Trail Mix: Annie Linskey on why J.D. Vance wants to scrap sanctions on Russia … What we’re watching: Unions on Capitol Hill and VP Harris in Asia … Matt Viser on how the Biden-Trump rematch, in many ways, has already begun … but first …
Manchin makes permitting push as time ticks away for a deal
Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) is working hard to attach his energy permitting bill to a stopgap spending bill needed by week’s end, and he’s sharpening his message to Republicans who may withhold their support despite agreeing with his bill’s overall goal: It’s likely now or never.
In an interview with The Early 202 Sunday night, Manchin argued that Democratic support for energy project permitting reform is at its high-water mark and that it won’t pass in the next Congress regardless of which party controls the Senate.
“We have never had an opportunity where we’ve had this many Democrats that would vote for permitting reform. Never. Never,” Manchin warned, adding that Democrats likely won’t support it in the future.
Republicans have been pushing permitting reform for years, but were unable to enact it during the two years of the Trump administration when Republicans controlled the House and Senate because the party didn’t have 60 votes in the Senate to pass it.
Republicans “know what they’re dealing with,” Manchin said. “Hopefully, they’ll come to that realization. It’ll be a realistic moment they’re gonna have to understand the practical situation.”
Manchin said he definitely has the support of at least 40 Democrats — “I’m hoping for 48, but 45 would be a very nice number,” he said — and that he remains “very optimistic” about his bill’s chances. But he needs enough Republican support to push the overall vote tally to 60.
Getting the needed Republican support is a tall task.
A memo sent to Republican offices, provided to The Early, said that Manchin’s bill does little to improve the permitting process for fossil fuels, saying it doesn’t ease environmental law restrictions and includes “unenforceable deadlines” for projects. “In some cases, the Manchin language takes us backwards, not forwards,” the memo says.
But the GOP opposition to Manchin’s proposal also has a whiff of schadenfreude, with many Republican lawmakers eager to deal the West Virginian a setback after he unexpectedly threw his support behind Democrats’ signature health care, climate change and tax bill over the summer. Democratic leaders secured Manchin’s support, in part, by promising to pass his permitting bill.
Several Republicans pointed to a blistering editorial in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, which outlines similar arguments to the GOP memo, calling Manchin’s bill a “disappointment” because it “will benefit renewables but it creates new regulatory risks for fossil fuels.”
Manchin said the WSJ editorial “is just not accurate whatsoever.” He wrote a response Sunday night in the WSJ making the case that this a “defining moment” and insisting his bill is full of “common-sense permitting reforms.”
The tense standoff over Manchin’s bill is complicating efforts to pass a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open until after the midterm elections, when spending negotiations can continue.
And time is tight. Congress is out today in observance of Rosh Hashanah. The Senate returns Tuesday (the House is back Wednesday) for an abbreviated, yet deadline-packed, week. Tuesday night the Senate will vote on a procedural motion to advance the stopgap bill known as a continuing resolution (CR).
Manchin spent the weekend on the phone with colleagues, according to a Manchin aide. One of the senators he attempted to reach was his Republican counterpart on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sen. John Barrasso (Wyo.). Barrasso said he needs to see the entire government funding bill before he makes a decision on how he’d vote.
“I have reservations about Manchin’s proposal because it’s really good for West Virginia and it’s actually bad for Wyoming,” Barrasso told The Early on Sunday. He said it would allow the federal government to approve new electricity transmission lines in states regardless of the states’ needs, which he opposes.
The bill would make it easier for West Virginia’s Mountain Valley Pipeline natural gas project to proceed, a huge priority for Manchin. It’s also a priority for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who released her own permitting bill but announced last week that she’ll support Manchin’s proposal.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) came out against the bill because the Mountain Valley Pipeline would run through Virginia.
A group of eight Senate Democrats late last week sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) arguing Manchin’s plan would disproportionately harm low-income areas and communities of color. They called for the permitting bill to be separated from the government funding measure, but Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the only signatory of the eight who has said he will vote against Manchin’s bill.
The text of the funding bill is expected to be released today, according to a senior Democratic aide. In addition to extending current funding levels for more than two months, it will also include $12 billion for Ukraine; reauthorization of Food and Drug Administration user fees, which also expire Sept. 30; Afghan resettlement funding; winter heating help; and disaster funds, including money to help alleviate the water crisis in Jackson, Miss.
If the procedural vote fails Tuesday night, Schumer will have to figure out what can pass and strip out extraneous components to ensure the government doesn’t shut down — something neither party wants six weeks before Election Day.
Happening this week: One more Jan. 6 hearing
Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia who advised the House committee investigating Jan. 6, took to “60 Minutes” on Sunday evening ahead of the committee’s final public hearing on Wednesday.
The committee was not happy.
Riggleman discussed his new book about his work for the committee, “The Breach,” which will be released on Tuesday. “Lawmakers and committee staff were largely unaware that the former staffer had spent the months since leaving the committee writing a book about his limited work on staff — or that it would be published before the conclusion of the committee’s investigation, according to people familiar with the matter who, like others interviewed by The Washington Post, spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail private conversations,” our colleague Jacqueline Alemany reports.
CBS News made the most newsworthy revelation in the interview public in an except before the broadcast: that “the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter’s phone” while the Capitol was under attack, according to Riggleman.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the Jan. 6 committee, said Sunday on “Meet the Press” that the committee was “aware” of the call but could not say anything specific about it.
J.D. Vance says it’s time to get rid of sanctions on Russia
Annie Linskey has this week’s tale from the trail: One question I’m curious about ahead of the midterms is how Republicans will approach foreign policy in 2023 if they win control of the legislative branch. The GOP retreated from internationalism toward isolationism during Donald Trump’s presidency, but this year Republicans on Capitol Hill have overwhelmingly supported efforts to fund and equip Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion.
Ohio offers a warning that President Biden shouldn’t count on this continuing next year. Retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) is the co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and has been a leading champion for providing more lethal aid to Kyiv. But the GOP nominee in the race to replace him, J.D. Vance, expresses growing opposition to the U.S.-led sanctions on Russia.
At a campaign stop this month that was held — remarkably — in Russia, Ohio, Vance was asked by a voter if the United States should remove sanctions on Russia. “At this point, yeah, I think we should,” he said. “Yeah, absolutely.”
I was in Ohio not far from the event, but the Vance campaign told me it was closed to reporters. The Sidney Daily News, which was invited, kindly shared a tape.
Vance said at the event that the sanctions impact Europe more than the United States, but he said that wasn’t enough of a reason to keep them in place. “I’m not willing to make the American people suffer any more for what’s going on 6,000 miles away,” he said.
Vance has opened a lead in the polls over Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), who has supported the sanctions and funding for the government led by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Around the time of the Russian invasion in February, Vance was heavily criticized for saying on Stephen K. Bannon’s podcast: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.” Five days later, he issued a lengthy statement that called Russian President Vladimir Putin “an evil man” and described Russia’s aggression as “unquestionably a tragedy.” Vance added: “Russia has earned sanctions, but whatever sanctions we apply will have little effect.”
The reason Vance backtracked seven months ago is because there are about 80,000 Ukrainian American voters in Ohio, out of an estimated 1.1 mil...
Oil Prices Fall For A Second Day On Recession Fears
Oil Prices Fall For A Second Day On Recession Fears https://digitalalaskanews.com/oil-prices-fall-for-a-second-day-on-recession-fears/
Model of Oil barrels are seen in front of rising stock graph in this illustration, July 24, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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LONDON, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Oil prices fell for a second day on Monday on fears of lower fuel demand from a possible global recession sparked by rising interest rates, with further price pressure coming from a surging U.S. dollar.
Brent crude futures for November settlement slipped by $1, or 1.2%, to $85.15 a barrel at 0943 GMT. The contract fell as low as $84.51, the lowest since Jan. 14.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for November delivery dropped 87 cents, or 1.1%, to $77.87. WTI dropped as low as $77.21, the lowest since Jan. 6.
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Both contracts slumped by about 5% on Friday.
The dollar index that measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies climbed to a 20-year high on Monday.
A stronger dollar tends to curtail demand for dollar-denominated oil.
Meanwhile, interest rate increases imposed by central banks in numerous oil-consuming countries to fight surging inflation has raised fears of an economic slowdown and accompanying slump in oil demand.
“A backdrop of global monetary policy tightening by the key central banks to quell elevated inflation, and a splendid run-up in the greenback towards more than two-decade highs, has raised concerns about an economic slowdown and is acting as a key headwind for crude prices,” said Sugandha Sachdeva at Religare Broking.
Disruptions in the oil market from the Russia-Ukraine war, with European Union sanctions banning Russian crude set to start in December, has lent some support to prices.
Attention is turning to what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and allies led by Russia, together known as OPEC+, will do when they meet on Oct. 5, having agreed at their previous meeting to cut output modestly.
However, OPEC+ is producing well below its targeted output, meaning that a further cut may not have much impact on supply.
Data last week showed OPEC+ missed its target by 3.58 million barrels per day in August, a bigger shortfall than in July. read more
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Reporting by Noah Browning Additional reporting by Mohi Narayan in New Delhi and Sonali Paul in Melbourne Editing by David Goodman
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Pound Hits Record Low After Tax Cut Plans https://digitalalaskanews.com/pound-hits-record-low-after-tax-cut-plans/
Image source, Getty Images
The pound has fallen to a record low against the dollar as markets react to the UK’s biggest tax cuts in 50 years.
In early Asia trade, sterling fell close to $1.03 before regaining some ground to stand at about $1.07 on Monday morning, UK time.
Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has promised more tax cuts on top of a £45bn package he announced on Friday amid expectations borrowing will surge.
The cost of UK government borrowing also continued to climb on Monday.
If the pound stays at this low level against the dollar, imports of commodities priced in dollars, including oil and gas, will be more costly.
Other imported goods could also become considerably more expensive, further pushing up inflation which is already at its highest rate for decades.
And British tourists visiting America will find that their holiday money does not go as far as before sterling’s slide.
There are also concerns that the government’s plans to cut taxes and borrow billions will stoke high inflation and force the Bank of England to raise interest rates even further.
This would raise monthly mortgage costs for millions of homeowners.
While worries about the UK economy have hit the pound, its value has also been under pressure due to the strength of the dollar.
Other currencies have been falling against the dollar, and the euro touched a fresh 20-year-low against the US currency amid concerns about the risk of recession.
Last week, the Bank raised interest rates by half a percentage point to 2.25% to try to calm inflation, which is at a 40-year high of 9.9%. The rate increase was the seventh in a row and took rates to the highest for 14 years.
However, some economists have speculated that the Bank may call an emergency meeting as soon as this week to hike interest rates again. The Bank of England declined to comment.
Market-watchers now forecast that interest rates could reach 5.5% or even higher by next spring.
Why the falling pound matters
Investors all around the world trade huge amounts of foreign currency every day. The rate at which investors swap currencies also determines what rate people get at the bank, post office or foreign exchanges.
Many people don’t think about exchange rates until it’s time to swap money for a foreign holiday. When you travel abroad, things will be more expensive if the pound buys less of the local currency.
However, a fall in the pound affects household finances too.
If the pound is worth less, the cost of importing goods from overseas goes up.
For example, as oil is priced in dollars a weak pound can make filling up your car with petrol more expensive. Gas is also priced in dollars.
Technology goods, like iPhones, that are made abroad, may get more expensive in UK shops. Even things that are made in the UK but from parts that are bought abroad can get much more expensive.
Commenting on the likelihood the Bank of England could raise rates before its scheduled meeting in November, former Bank deputy governor Sir John Gieve told the BBC: “I’m sure they very much don’t want to do that… because that is a sign of pressure.
“Emergency meetings are avoided if at all possible and I am sure they will try to avoid it.”
On Monday, the cost of UK government borrowing surged again, and by some measures reached the highest level since 2008 during the financial crisis.
At the weekend, Mr Kwarteng said there was “more to come” in terms of tax cuts after announcing a massive shake-up of taxes on Friday during a “mini-budget” to boost economic growth.
Under the plans, which he hailed a “new era” for the economy, income tax and the stamp duty on home purchases will be cut and planned rises in corporation taxes have been scrapped.
As well as outlining £45bn in tax cuts, the government confirmed it would spend £60bn for the first six months of its scheme to subsidise rising energy bills for households and businesses. But that cost is expected to rise as the scheme to support households will last for two years.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves described the fall in sterling as “incredibly concerning”.
“We need to hear from the chancellor his plans to get a grip on the public finances because that is what is giving real concern to market traders” and “working people”, she added.
The Treasury refused to publish a forecast by independent watchdog the Office for Budget Responsibility on Friday on the UK’s economic outlook as well as future borrowing and debt.
BBC political editor Chris Mason said that while ministers were not saying anything publicly: “The impression I am left with is they want to ride this out. They hope it is short-term volatility. “
However, he said one Conservative MP told him: “This is very worrying. All the wheels could come off.”
Image source, PA Media
Image caption,
Brewers say the fall in the pound is “worrying” for the UK beer industry
Some investors think the Bank of England could act as soon as Monday to halt the pound’s slide.
“To stop the bleeding even temporarily, the Bank of England may well enter ‘whatever it takes’ territory to bring inflation down. An emergency meeting rate hike could happen as soon as this week to regain credibility in the market. We could even see a hike today,” said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management.
Paul Davies, chief executive at Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company, said the fall in the pound was “worrying” for the British beer industry, which imports hops from overseas.
He said: “Many of the hops used in this country are actually imported and a lot of them, particularly for craft brewers, are imported from the US, so changes in currency is actually worrying for industry.
“Then of course people drink a lot of imported beers from Europe, and the euro vs the pound is also something we’re watching very closely at the moment.”
Has your business been affected by the falling value of the pound? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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Trainee Officer https://digitalalaskanews.com/trainee-officer/
Bengaluru, Sep 26 (IANS): The Indian Air Force (IAF) has set up a ‘Court of Inquiry’ to establish the circumstances leading to the death of the Under Trainee Flying Officer (UTFO) Ankit Kumar Jha at Air Force Technical College (AFTC), Bengaluru on September 21.
An IAF official release stated that there were reports in the media about the death of UTFO. The deceased UTFO had joined the IAF in February 2021 and was undergoing training at the Air Force Technical College (AFTC). His training had been terminated on September 20 2022, after informing his father of the same.
Termination of training was the result of recommendations made by a Court of Inquiry (COI), which was instituted following a complaint by a fellow woman trainee officer against the UTFO on June 30, 2022, it said.
It had been established that the UFTO had committed certain acts of misconduct. The Inquiry proceedings were duly examined at multiple levels before being approved at Air HQ, as per the established procedure on the subject, the statement read.
As per the existing norms, an IAF officer was deputed to convey the news of this unfortunate happening to the parents of late UFTO A.K. Jha in New Delhi. A post-mortem examination was conducted on September 23, 2022. The report is awaited.
On September 24, his kin visited AFTC. They were briefed about the incident. The Indian Air Force condoles the unfortunate loss of life and prays for strength to the bereaved family in their time of grief. IAF is cooperating with the investigation being conducted by the police on the matter, the statement said.
Meanwhile, six Indian Air Force officials have been booked for alleged murder case following the death of Ankit Kumar Jha last week under suspicious circumstances.
The deceased youth, 27-year-old Ankit Kumar Jha was training at the AFTC in Jalahalli campus for one-and-half years, according to police. He had allegedly committed suicide by hanging after being discharged following a court of inquiry. However, the deceased youth’s family have claimed that their son had been killed.
In his suicide note, the deceased had mentioned the names of six IAF officials, including a commodore, two wing commanders, and group captain, among other, said police sources.
Aman, brother of the deceased, has alleged that a training officer had killed his brother and made it look like a suicide case. Gangammamgudi police have taken up the case and are investigating both angles.
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GOP Mum Majewski Irate After AP Story Questions His Characterization Of Military Record Ohio Capital Journal
GOP Mum, Majewski Irate After AP Story Questions His Characterization Of Military Record – Ohio Capital Journal https://digitalalaskanews.com/gop-mum-majewski-irate-after-ap-story-questions-his-characterization-of-military-record-ohio-capital-journal/
Republicans are holding their breath after the Associated Press published a story indicating GOP congressional nominee J.R. Majewski exaggerated his service record. Majewski himself is lashing out at the AP, threatening to sue and insinuating they worked with his opponent U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-OH.
On the campaign trail Majewski has presented himself as combat veteran who deployed to Afghanistan. In reality, the AP reported, he spent the bulk of his active-duty career in Japan, before deploying in 2002 to an airbase in Qatar for six months.
That airbase provides support services throughout the Middle East, including Afghanistan. Part of Majewski’s job as a “passenger operations specialist” took him to airbases throughout the region to load and unload. But the AP reported his campaign didn’t initially address whether he ever traveled to Afghanistan. They further noted Majewski was not awarded a service medal for those who spent 30 days consecutively or 60 days non-consecutively in the country.
Majewski’s response
Since the AP’s story published, Majewski has attempted to push back.
In a friendly interview with NewsMax he insisted that yes, he had “set foot” in Afghanistan. He went on to describe his service and effectively confirmed the AP’s reporting.
Although working from an airbase more than 1,200 miles from Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield seems far from “combat” to a lay person, it actually counts under federal law. As the AP noted, because of an executive order signed by George H.W. Bush, support bases are considered combat zones.
Still, he was clear that most of his time was spent away from the front lines.
“Myself and other airmen deployed to Qatar,” he said. “That was where CENTCOM was, that was our staging base and we deployed from there all throughout the area of responsibility. We’re the people who gave supplies to the front line. We’re the people that transported the fighters to the front line.”
Asked directly if he can call himself a combat veteran, Majewski offered: “I believe so.”
Friday, Majewski gave a more forceful denunciation. He called the story “blatantly false” and a “politically motivated hit piece.” He added that he was considering suing the reporters.
But Majewski offered no evidence to refute the story, instead insisting “anyone insinuating that I did not serve in Afghanistan is lying.” The AP’s report indicates Majewski didn’t deploy directly to Afghanistan, and that Majewski himself was evasive about whether and for how long he served there.
As for the medal, Majewski argued he separated from the Air Force honorably before the service began awarding it. Although he has the right to request an update to his records, Majewski said, he has yet to do so.
The Majewski campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether he served enough time to earn honor or whether he has requested it.
What lawmakers had to say
Rep. Bill Johnson, R-OH, represents the southern and eastern rim of the state in congress. A veteran himself, Johnson guards the honors that men and women in uniform accrue. In 2011, he co-sponsored stolen valor legislation that would’ve fined and imprisoned anyone who fraudulently claimed to have “served in a combat zone” with “the intent to obtain anything of value.” That legislation didn’t pass, and instead a narrower measure tied medals went forward in 2013.
But in a statement, Johnson withheld judgment about Majewski. He explained that for nearly 27 years he lived by the Air Force’s core values.
“Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do,” Johnson said. “Those core values taught me, as a commander and a leader, not to make snap judgments about people without all the facts. And in this case I simply don’t have all the facts.”
Two other incumbent Ohio congressmen served in uniform as well. U.S. Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-OH, served as a physician in the U.S. Army, and U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-OH, was U.S. Army Ranger. Neither lawmaker responded to a request for comment.
Veteran rhetoric on the campaign trail
Before securing former President Trump’s endorsement, the most substantial rhetorical blow J.D. Vance landed came at the expense of fellow candidate and Marine veteran Josh Mandel.
Throughout the primary race Mandel emphasized his service as a core reason for voters to choose him. He went so far as to end several ads with the tagline, “Send in the marine.” But after Mandel nearly came to blows with Mike Gibbons in a dispute about private sector employment, Vance criticized Mandel.
“I think the way you use the U.S. Marine Corps, Josh, is disgraceful — it’s not a political tool,” Vance said.
“This guy wants to be a U.S. Senator,” he added derisively. “He was up here, ‘hold me back, hold me back, I’ve got two tours in the Marine Corps.’ What a joke.”
But Vance’s campaign declined to weigh in on Majewski’s exaggerations of his service record.
Political fallout
Majewski has drawn scrutiny for suggesting states that voted for Donald Trump in 2020 secede and attending the January 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. He shelled out money to help others attend the rally as well. In an interview with Spectrum News he insisted he did nothing wrong.
“I hated what happened,” Majewski said of January 6, “And it’s a total injustice to keep having to answer questions about why I was there.”
But it appears Majewski’s descriptions of his service record may be more damaging to his candidacy.
FLASH —#OH09: NRCC IE is canceling TV ad schedules that it had booked for the final six weeks of the campaign (9/27-11/8)
— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) September 22, 2022
In a statement, his opponent Rep. Kaptur said, “the idea that anyone, much less a candidate for the United States Congress, would mislead voters about their service in combat is an affront to every man and woman who has proudly worn the uniform of our great country. J.R. Majewski owes each of these heroes a full explanation about his deception.”
Republicans in Ohio may stay mum, but the National Republican Congressional Committee has announced it will cancel a roughly $1 million ad buy in the race. The main campaign committee for House Republicans abandoning a candidate is a significant signal of their read of the contest.
Congressional race watchers at Sabato’s Crystal Ball changed their rating from toss-up to leans Democratic shortly after the news came out as well.
Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
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Political Notes: Long Island House Race Pits Gay Dem Vs. Gay Trumper
Political Notes: Long Island House Race Pits Gay Dem Vs. Gay Trumper https://digitalalaskanews.com/political-notes-long-island-house-race-pits-gay-dem-vs-gay-trumper/
In what LGBTQ political watchers say is a first for a general election ballot, a race for a U.S. House seat on Long Island is pitting a gay Democratic former congressional aide and TV commentator against a gay Republican who supports former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
GOPer George Santos had run for New York’s 3rd Congressional District seat in 2020 but lost against the incumbent, Congressmember Thomas Suozzi (D-Glen Cove), who ran unsuccessfully for New York governor this year rather than seek reelection to Congress. With the House seat open, Democrat Robert Zimmerman entered the race to succeed Suozzi and aims to defeat Santos come November 8.
Either will become the first LGBTQ congressmember from Long Island. At 68, the single Zimmerman would be the oldest out LGBTQ non-incumbent elected to Congress.
“I can’t think of a more difficult time to be in Congress nor a more important time to be in Congress,” Zimmerman told the Bay Area Reporter in a recent phone interview. “Issues I’ve worked for my entire life are all on the line.”
He pointed to voting rights, protecting democracy, women’s rights, access to abortion, and LGBTQ rights as examples of the issues he would champion if sent to serve on Capitol Hill.
“We are now facing unprecedented attacks on our freedoms,” said Zimmerman, who lost a bid for Congress when he was 27 years old and was only out to his close friends at the time.
Santos’ campaign did not respond to the B.A.R.’s interview request.
According to his campaign bio Santos, 34, is a first-generation American born to immigrant parents from Brazil and grew up in Queens. The Wall Street financier and investor now lives on Long Island with his husband and their four dogs.
On the campaign trail he has focused on immigration, calling for more security on the border, and has railed against the impact inflation is having on small businesses in the district. Santos has also slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), tweeting that “it’s time to fire” her.
“This country has gone in the wrong direction, the direction that Americans just do not deserve to go in,” Santos told Fox News earlier this month.
The House race marks the first time in U.S. history that two LGBTQ congressional candidates are facing off in a general election, according to the LGBTQ Victory Fund. The organization, which helps to elect LGBTQ candidates across the country, early on endorsed Zimmerman.
“I’d rather have this problem than not. We need more LGBTQ candidates running for office,” said Sean Meloy, the Victory Fund’s vice president of political programs, about seeing two LGBTQ candidates competing for the same elective office. “We are under-represented to a wide degree. To get basic equity in government, we need 35,000 more LGBTQ people in office. We have just over a thousand right now.”
New York’s 3rd House District became a bit bluer due to redistricting this year but is still considered somewhat of a swing district. The Cook Political Report has rated the race as leaning Democratic, while Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, has it listed as a toss-up in his Sabato’s Crystal Ball ratings.
“There is a slight tilt, I would say to the Democrats. But in a midterm election it is a purple seat,” Meloy told the B.A.R.
The Victory Fund was an early backer of Zimmerman, helping him with fundraising and campaign volunteers so that he survived his party primary in August. He is one of the organization’s “Game Changer” candidates this election cycle.
“From growing up closeted in the 1970s to now being the Democratic nominee, he has proven time and time again his unwavering belief — and determination — that progress is not just possible, but necessary,” Victory Fund President & CEO Annise Parker said of Zimmerman following his August 23 primary win. “As legislation moves through Congress to codify same-sex marriage, reproductive health care access and other critical rights for our community, we are confident Robert will be a fearless voice for his community and LGBTQ people across the country.”
As a graduate student at Fordham University, Zimmerman had worked for several congressmembers from Queens and Long Island. Later in his life, he was elected to the Democratic National Committee.
President Bill Clinton appointed Zimmerman to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Presidential Commission on the Arts, while President Barack Obama named him to the National Council on the Humanities.
Over 30 years ago, after he lost his race for a New York State Assembly seat, Zimmerman founded ZE Creative Communications in his hometown of Great Neck, New York. He spent 20 years serving on the board of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
Starting in the early 2000s, he spent 15 years as a commentator on various news networks, including CNN and MSNBC.
“I always stayed engaged,” said Zimmerman, who told the B.A.R. that he never thought he would have another chance to run for elected office.
But then came Suozzi’s decision to leave Congress. Friends began urging Zimmerman to enter the race.
“People called me up and said, ‘You have been standing up for other people and speaking up for them. It is time you spoke up for yourself.’ So I took my shot. I wanted to take a stand for myself,” said Zimmerman. “It is very exciting and meaningful to me. When I was growing up, I never dreamed we would have an LGBTQ-plus person representing Long Island and Queens in Congress. I couldn’t possibly imagine it would be me.”
Zimmerman told the B.A.R. that the only thing he has in common with his opponent is that they are both gay men.
“That is where it starts and ends,” he said. “He supports the Trump agenda is all you need to know.”
The day after the primary the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee quickly went on the attack against Santos. In a memo it circulated the campaign arm for House Democrats called him “an anti-choice extremist, defender of insurrectionists, January 6th participant, QAnon promoter, conspiracy theorist, and flat-out liar.”
“Since losing in 2020, Santos has somehow become even worse for Long Island. From joining insurrectionists at the Stop the Steal rally, to praising the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe, Santos wasted no time proving voters right for rejecting him,” stated gay Congressmember Sean Patrick Maloney (D-New York), who chairs the DCCC. “With Santos’ radical record and a strong Democratic candidate that far better represents their values, Long Island voters will once again make sure George Santos fails in his efforts to get to Congress.”
Zimmerman told the B.A.R. he has agreed to take part in several upcoming debates with Santos, whom he describes as “dangerously radical” and too “extreme” to represent the district.
“I promise not to disappoint,” he said.
He hopes LGBTQ people on the West Coast will consider donating to his campaign or volunteering to phone bank on his behalf. Helping to elect him would also likely upset the last occupant of the White House, he noted.
“I have the distinction of being the only candidate running for Congress in New York who has been personally denounced by Donald Trump. I took him on and mocked him. He referred to me as ‘disgusting’ and as a ‘Hillary flunky,'” said Zimmerman, referring to the former first lady and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
(Trump made the comment on the Fox News morning program “Fox & Friends” on May 6, 2016.)
To learn more about Zimmerman’s campaign, visit his
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.
Keep abreast of the latest LGBTQ political news by following the Political Notebook on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/politicalnotes
Got a tip on LGBTQ politics? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com
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The Biden-Trump Rematch In Many Ways Has Already Begun
The Biden-Trump Rematch, In Many Ways, Has Already Begun https://digitalalaskanews.com/the-biden-trump-rematch-in-many-ways-has-already-begun/
President Biden was at a Democratic reception in Maryland a few weeks ago when his rhetoric turned toward an increasingly frequent topic — “what Trump is doing and the Trumpers are doing.” An audience member called out, “Lock him up!,” and Biden went on to cite “the new polls showing me beating Trump by six or eight points.”
A few days earlier, former president Donald Trump was at a rally in Pennsylvania when he, too, turned toward a frequent topic: “We’re leading Biden … by record numbers in the polls.” He said three times, with growing enthusiasm, “So I may just have to do it again!”
The country seems to be barreling toward a rematch that few voters actually want, but that two presidents — one current, one former — cannot stop talking about. Biden and Trump both say they are planning to make their decisions in the coming months, but with a lingering codependency between them, they each appear to be nudging the other into what would be a rare faceoff between the same two candidates four years apart.
In some sense, given the growing attacks, a 2024 grudge match is already underway. But it is less a heavyweight rematch that the country is eager to see and more of a rerun that few seem to be looking forward to. Neither Biden nor Trump is enthusiastically embraced by his own party, according to a Washington Post-ABC News survey released Sunday.
Some 56 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents said they want the party to nominate “someone other than Biden” in 2024, and 35 percent want him to run for a second term. Among those under age 40, a resounding 75 percent want the party to pick someone other than Biden, despite his recent action on climate change and student loan forgiveness, two issues thought to appeal to younger voters.
“I don’t think Biden has done a bad job by any means,” said Adam Kane, a 48-year-old museum director from Peacham, Vt., adding that he likes and respects Biden. “But it’s just time for some fresh leadership. He’s just too old, is what it comes down to. It’s time to pass the torch to the next generation.”
Biden, 79, will be celebrating his 80th birthday this November and is already the nation’s oldest president. Trump turned 76 in June.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are divided over Trump, with 47 percent saying the party should nominate him and 46 percent preferring someone else. It is a stronger showing than Biden’s, but it also reflects a marked drop in support from when Trump was in office; a 2019 Post-ABC poll found 67 percent of Republicans and Republican leaners wanted the party to nominate Trump for a second term.
If they were to run against each other, registered voters were split almost down the middle, with 48 percent supporting Trump and 46 percent supporting Biden, the Post-ABC poll showed, within the margin of error. In 2020, Biden won the national popular vote by 4.5 percentage points.
“Trump is too much, and Biden is too little,” said Howard Walker, a 54-year-old Democrat from New York. He voted for Biden in 2020, thinks Trump has turned the Republican Party into a cult and says a Trump victory in 2024 would mean the end of democracy. But he no longer views Biden as the best candidate.
“Sometimes he’s there, sometimes he’s not,” Walker said. “Sometimes he tells long grandma stories that go nowhere, which is what old people too. And that’s okay, but that’s not what we need in a president.”
Many Republican voters, similarly, say they would support Trump if that were their only option, but they are yearning for a new leader.
“It would be best if someone else is running,” said Karin Cabell, a 58-year-old Republican from Hazelton, Pa. “It would be nice to just have fresh blood on both sides.”
Biden and Trump, though, are in a sense each other’s nemesis, and both may have trouble walking away from a rematch.
Trump views Biden as having unfairly taken the presidency from him, creating elaborate explanations for why he lost that have no basis in reality. Biden views Trump as an existential threat to the country’s founding principles, and sees himself as uniquely positioned to prevent Trump from regaining power. Unseating Trump in 2020 remains one of Biden’s proudest accomplishments.
“Why would I not run against Donald Trump if he’s the nominee?” he asked in an ABC News interview in December.
The White House has recently seen an advantage in returning to a familiar foil, particularly heading into the midterm elections, and Biden has increasingly had Trump on his mind, or at least on his lips. “The only reason I ran is because Donald Trump was running,” he said at a June 10 fundraiser in Los Angeles.
At a Maryland fundraiser in late August, Biden called Trump’s “extreme MAGA philosophy” something that is “almost like semi-fascism.” It was a line that aides said later was unplanned, but unsurprising given Biden’s views. He also said “Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans have made their choice: to go backwards, full of anger, violence, hate, and division.”
Biden has been road-testing several phrases to brand the Republicans who follow Trump. He has called them “The Trumpies” and “ultra-MAGA” and “MAGA Republicans,” and he has declared that “this is not your father’s Republican Party.” He says there are still mainstream Republicans he can work with, but “there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.”
Biden has sharpened his focus on Trump and escalated his rhetorical attacks, to the point that his central political message is now the importance of keeping Trump and his followers from power.
“Folks, you can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy. Not a joke. I’m being deadly earnest now. You can’t be pro-insurrection and pro-democracy,” he said in Maryland. “You can’t support law enforcement and call the mob that attacked the police on January 6th in the United States Capitol ‘patriots.’ ”
During remarks on Friday, he warned, “It’s become a litmus test in their party to pledge loyalty to Donald Trump by buying into the ‘big lie’.”
Similarly, Trump, in his recent rallies, can mention Biden nearly two dozen times in a single event, asserting that Biden is doing a much worse job as president than he did and boasting that he would easily win a rematch.
“A poll just came out. Did you see it?” he said at a Sept. 17 rally in Ohio. “I’m 18 points up on Biden. Who the hell wouldn’t be? Who wouldn’t be?”
He criticized Biden over gas prices — both for allowing them to rise in the first place and for using petroleum reserves to lower them. And he insisted the reduced prices would not last (“Right after the election, it’s going to double up and go higher than anybody ever believed”).
“Trump was right on everything,” Trump continued. “And I believe I was. I was right on everything. Including Afghanistan and Ukraine. The Biden administration is outrageous.”
He also responded to Biden’s Sept. 1 speech in Philadelphia, where the president warned that Trump was seeking to tear apart the fabric of democracy, saying those remarks amounted to “the most vicious, hateful, and divisive speech ever delivered by an American president.”
He said Biden was in effect branding Trump supporters as “enemies of the state.” He added, “He’s an enemy of the state, you want to know the truth. The enemy of the state is him and the group that control him, which is circling around him: ‘Do this, do that, Joe, you’re going to do this, Joe.’ ”
One factor complicating Trump’s potential presidential run is the growing series of investigations and lawsuits against him, which appear to be picking up steam. Some analysts believe his legal troubles will make it harder for him to run, since he will need to devote time and resources to his legal defense. Others argue that Trump is even more likely to seek the White House now, as a form of protection against the legal challenges.
The United States has a rich history of presidential rematches, dating as far back as John Adams, who defeated Thomas Jefferson in 1796 only to lose to him four years later. But there are few direct parallels to what could transpire between Biden and Trump in 2024.
It is highly unusual for a sitting president to be unseated, then run against his successor. Most defeated presidents — George H.W. Bush was the last one — head into a quiet retirement from politics. In this, as in so much else, Trump is an anomaly, choosing instead to barnstorm the country to claim falsely that he was cheated.
The closest parallel to a potential Biden-Trump rerun may be the 1892 race between Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison. Cleveland served one term as president before being unseated by Harrison, then he tried to get his old job back, and ultimately succeeded.
Their second campaign focused largely on the same issue that had dominated the first, such as tariff rates, and it hardly electrified the nation. “No one showed much interest in the result,” historian Henry Adams wrote.
“The 1892 election was one of the quieter ones in American history,” said Troy Senik, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and author of “A Man of Iron: The Turbulent Life and Improbable Presidency of Grover Cleveland.” “Because Cleveland spent much of it plagued by gout and Harrison was preoccupied with the health of his wife, who was fighting an ultimately fatal case of tuberculosis.”
Despite lively political cartoons — some referring to an out-of-wedlock child that Cleveland had allegedly fathered — the candidates lacked the mutual loathing of Biden and Trump. “Between the two candidates themselves, there didn’t appear to be animosity,” said Charles Hyde, president and CEO of the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site.
In fact, when Harrison was sworn i...
Italy Shifts To The Right As Voters Reward Meloni's Party
Italy Shifts To The Right As Voters Reward Meloni's Party https://digitalalaskanews.com/italy-shifts-to-the-right-as-voters-reward-melonis-party/
ROME — A party with neo-fascist roots, the Brothers of Italy, won the most votes in Italy’s national elections, looking set to deliver the country’s first far-right-led government since World War II and make its leader, Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s first woman premier, near-final results showed Monday.
Italy’s lurch to the far right immediately shifted Europe’s geopolitical reality, placing a euroskeptic party in position to lead a founding member of the European Union and its third-largest economy. Right-wing leaders across Europe immediately hailed Meloni’s victory and her party’s meteoric rise as sending a historic message to Brussels.
Near-final results showed the center-right coalition netting some 44% of the parliamentary vote, with Meloni’s Brothers of Italy snatching some 26%. Her coalition partners divided up the remainder, with the anti-immigrant League of Matteo Salvini winning nearly 9% and the more moderate Forza Italia of ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi taking around 8%.
The center-left Democratic Party and its allies had around 26%, while the 5-Star Movement — which had been the biggest vote-getter in 2018 Parliamentary elections — saw its share of the vote halved to some 15% this time around.
Turnout was a historic low 64%. Pollsters suggested voters stayed home in part in protest and also because they were disenchanted by the backroom deals that had created the three governments since the previous election.
Meloni, whose party traces its origins to the postwar, neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, sounded a moderate, unifying tone in a victory speech early Monday that noted that Italians had finally been able to clearly determine who they wanted to govern.
“If we are called to govern this nation, we will do it for everyone, we will do it for all Italians and we will do it with the aim of uniting the people (of this country),” Meloni said. “Italy chose us. We will not betray (the country) as we never have.”
While the center-right was the clear winner, the formation of a government is still weeks away and will involve consultations among party leaders and with President Sergio Mattarella. In the meantime, outgoing Premier Mario Draghi remains in a caretaker role.
The elections, which took place some six months early after Draghi’s government collapsed, came at a crucial time for Europe as it faces Russia’s war in Ukraine and the related soaring energy costs that have hit ordinary Italian pocketbooks as well as industry.
A Meloni-led government is largely expected to follow Italy’s current foreign policy, including her pro-NATO stance and strong support for supplying Ukraine with weapons to defend against Russia’s invasion, even as her coalition allies stake a slightly different tone.
Both Berlusconi and Salvini have ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. While both have distanced themselves from his invasion, Salvini has warned that sanctions against Moscow are hurting Italian industry, and even Berlusconi has excused Putin’s invasion as foisted on him by pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas.
A bigger shift and one likely to cause friction with European powers is likely to come over migration. Meloni has called for a naval blockade to prevent migrant boats from leaving North African shores, and has proposed screening potential asylum-seekers in Africa, before they set out on smugglers’ boats to Europe.
Salvini has made clear he wants to return to the interior ministry, where he imposed a tough anti-migrant policy as minister. But it’s not clear he would get the post given he is currently on trial in Sicily for keeping migrants at sea.
On relations with the European Union, analysts note that for all her euroskeptic rhetoric, Meloni moderated her message during the campaign and has little room to maneuver given the economic windfall Italy is receiving from Brussels in coronavirus recovery funds. Italy secured some 191.5 billion euros, the biggest chunk of the EU’s 750 billion-euro recovery package, and is bound by certain reform and investment milestones it must hit to receive it all.
That said, Meloni has criticized the EU’s recent recommendation to suspend 7.5 billion euros in funding to Hungary over concerns about democratic backsliding, defending Viktor Orban as the elected leader in a democratic system.
Orban’s political director, Balazs Orban, was among the first to congratulate Meloni. “In these difficult times, we need more than ever friends who share a common vision and approach to Europe’s challenges,” he tweeted.
French politician Marine Le Pen’s party hailed the result as a “lesson in humility” for the EU.
Santiago Abascal, the leader of Spain’s far-right Vox opposition party, tweeted that Meloni “has shown the way for a proud and free Europe of sovereign nations that can cooperate on behalf of everybody’s security and prosperity.”
Meloni is chair of the right-wing European Conservative and Reformist group in the European Parliament, which gathers her Brothers of Italy, Poland’s Law and Justice Party, Spain’s Vox and the Sweden Democrats, which just won big in elections on a platform of cracking down on crime and limiting immigration.
Thomas Christiansen, professor of political science at Rome’s Luiss University and the executive editor of the Journal of European Integration, noted that Italy has a tradition of pursuing a consistent foreign and European policy that is in some ways bigger than individual party interests.
“Whatever Meloni might be up to will have to be moderated by her coalition partners and indeed with the established consensus of Italian foreign policy,” Christiansen said in an interview.
The vice president of the European Parliament, Katharina Barley of the Social Democrats of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said Meloni’s victory was “worrying” given her affiliations with Orban and Donald Trump.
“Her electoral lip service to Europe cannot hide the fact that she represents a danger to constructive coexistence in Europe,” she was quoted as saying by German daily WELT.
Meloni proudly touts her roots as a militant in the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement, or MSI, which was formed in the aftermath of WWII with the remnants of Mussolini’s fascist supporters. Meloni joined in 1992 as a 15-year-old.
During the campaign, Meloni was forced to respond after the Democrats used her party’s origins to paint Meloni as a danger to democracy.
“The Italian Right has handed fascism over to history for decades now, unambiguously condemning the suppression of democracy and the ignominious anti-Jewish laws,” she said in a multilingual campaign video.
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