THE US ECONOMY IN GOOD SHAPE – CHAIR, FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

The three-panel federal appeals court in Washington DC, in a historic ruling, rejected Trump’s claims of total presidential immunity for the crimes he committed to remain in power after he lost the 2020 presidential election, including his role in the violent insurrection to prevent the constitutional transfer of power on January 6, 2021 The panel wrote: “It would be a striking paradox if the president, who alone is vested with the constitutional duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed, were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity”.

The appeals court has given Trump’s counsel till Monday, February 12, to file an appeal before the Supreme Court. If such an appeal is not filed, then Judge Tanya Chutkin’s Washington DC case against Trump for inciting the January 6, 2021 insurrection, currently under stay order, could start expeditiously.

The Court could refuse to take the case, on grounds that the DC appeals court ruling, hailed by the legal community as “masterful” and “bulletproof”, a decision which had covered every aspect of the case with “constitutional text, judicial precedent, history and logic”, to such a decisive level as to make contesting it difficult, overruling well-nigh judicially impossible.

Either of these alternatives will ensure that the Washington DC sedition case against Trump could start as early as April and a verdict served before the end of June.

However, considering the historic and unprecedented magnitude of the case and the 6/3 bias of the Supreme Court towards the conservative cause, it is likely that the case will be accepted for hearing by the Court. In which event, the Court is left with two further options:

It could display its Republican bias with impunity, and delay a ruling which would make it impossible to conclude the case till after the election in November. A despicable act of political bias, representing a win for Trump.

However, the Court will most likely render its ruling fairly and expeditiously, based on the traditional judicial adage that Justice delayed is Justice denied. An eminently just decision, as the voters will have the necessary information about Trump’s role in inciting an insurrection against the government, before they cast their votes in the presidential election in November.

The Supreme Court is also scheduled to make a ruling on the Colorado case, whether Trump is qualified to be on the ballot for the presidency according to the 14th Amendment of the constitution.

The main argument brought by Trump’s lawyers rested on whether the President of the United States was an “officer” of the United States! Jonathan Mitchell also argued that January 6 “was not an insurrection, it was a riot. The events were shameful, criminal, violent, all those things, but they did not qualify as an insurrection as that term is used in Section 3”.

The Supreme Court has already signaled that Trump will be allowed to remain on the ballot. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan expressed the majority opinion of the Court, that the decision to elect the President of the United States should be made not by a single state, not by the Supreme Court, but by the voters of the nation. An obvious deal with the devil to dodge the issue, and prevent the inevitable violence should Trump be disqualified from seeking re-election in November.

But a contradiction of a strict interpretation of the self-executing terms of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which clearly specifies Trump’s disqualification from the national ballot.

In spite of this specious win, which was widely anticipated, it’s been a rough week for Trump, who must feel that the walls are closing in on him

The attempt to impeach Biden administration’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, brought by the Speaker, Mike Johnson, was defeated in the House. The high crimes and misdemeanors cited to justify such a charge of impeachment? Failing to properly enforce the nation’s immigration laws, in short, failing to do his job, hardly a high crime or misdemeanor, charges required for impeachment.

In fact, at the time Mayorkas was impeached for not doing his job, he had been deeply involved in months of negotiations with the Senate to arrive at a non-partisan bill to solve the immigrant crisis at the southern border.

The Impeachment of Mayorkas, on instructions of Trump, was defeated last Tuesday in the House, signifying yet another humiliating defeat for the Republicans. Speaker Johnson made the rookie mistake only a dumb and inexperienced Speaker would make, calling for a vote before ensuring the final decision of the voters of his own Party. Four Republicans voted against impeachment.

The proposed immigration bill had been the subject of negotiation for months between the Senate and Secretary Mayorkas, representing the White House. It was authored by the ultra-conservative Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy (New Jersey) and Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona).

The text of the $118 billion bill was finally released last Tuesday in a “series of provisions aimed at reducing high crossings at the southern border, tightening of asylum laws, hiring new border guards and giving the President the power to “shut down the border” if there are too many migrants trying to cross the border. The bill also provided for critical military aid to Ukraine (60 billion), Israel (14 billion) and humanitarian aid for Gaza (20 billion). The bill included many of the stringent conditions Republicans had been demanding for years.

Senator Lankford, one of the authors of the bill, stated that he had been threatened four months ago, before the contents of the bill were released, by Right Wing Radio Host, Jesse Kelly, who said, “If you try to move a bill that solves the border crisis during this presidential year, I will do whatever I can to destroy you, because I do not want you to solve this before the presidential election”. It doesn’t take much imagination to guess the source behind this threat.

The bill tanked in the Senate without a vote. As Senator Sinema, one of the authors of the bill said, “After four months of negotiations about funding for the border crisis, suddenly there was no crisis at the border”.

No bipartisan bill to mitigate the crisis at the southern border will see the light of day so long as Trump and the MAGA (Make America Great Again) cult control the Republican Party. Total chaos at the border, illegal immigration, the smuggling of Fentanyl and other prohibited drugs – these are bread and butter for Trump, national problems which he welcomes, feeds on and makes money from, and are the most lethal weapons of his re-election campaign.

Trump wants the border crisis to escalate, the economy to crash and Americans to suffer, so that Biden’s ratings will suffer, evidence of Trump’s contempt for the welfare of the country.

Trump also recently displayed his manic narcissism, when, like his counterpart in Greek mythology, Narcissus, who fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water, he made public a photograph of his face superimposed on that of Elvis Presley, which he claimed had a remarkable resemblance! The King was spinning in his grave.

Biden’s achievements are undeniable, and include the sweeping $1.9 trillion economic stimulus and rescue bill, intended to bolster the economy after the Covid pandemic, the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, to repair and reconstruct the nation’s roads and bridges. An estimated eight million new jobs have been added in the first three years of the Biden administration and unemployment is at its lowest levels in five decades.

These signature pieces of legislation and many others have contributed to the current economic environment, about which the Chair of the Federal Reserve Board, Jerome Powell, expressed unqualified approval and optimism for the future:

“The US economy has been solid over the past year. Economic activity was robust, unemployment remained under 4% and inflation trended down.

“This is a good situation. Let’s be honest. This is a good economy”.

Powell was nominated to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors by President Obama in 2012, and elevated to Chairman by President Donald Trump. His reputation for impartiality and integrity is impeccable, his praise usually rare and miserly.

When even an anchor of the Republican Party propaganda machine, Maria Bartiromo recently admitted, even through gritted teeth, that “Biden’s economy is a lot stronger than anybody understands”, the good news is finally reaching the public.

The headlines over the past three years should have been the transformation of the White House of the Trump presidency, a monstrosity of vulgarity, fraud, lies and sedition, to an administration of decency and integrity, which has been slowly but surely working towards the goal of a better America – for all – and reclaiming the good name of America internationally, sans narcissistic fanfare.

The Biden administration seems to have finally woken up to the fact that their dearth of communication skills about President Biden’s achievements during the first three years of office has caused a major public relations problem. Three years which have showed more economic progress than the full terms of most other administrations.

Biden’s publicity staff has finally begun a more aggressive program of imparting information to the public, combating the lies spread by the Trump propaganda machine. Information that will undoubtedly be appreciated by regular Americans, as they realize that the pressure on their incomes is being eased by an improving economy, with lower gas and grocery prices and reduced interest rates. Consumer spending showed an increase of almost 1% in December, 2023 a sure sign of an improving economy.

Biden, who had maintained the age-old tradition, blown to smithereens by Trump, of the incumbent president never bad-mouthing his predecessors, finally decided to call Trump for what he is, a “sick f…. Even then, he refrained from enunciating the “f….bomb” in a public speech. However, after the speech, out of mic range, he described Trump as a f…ing ass h…e. Finally, proving that Biden can dish it out as profanely as Trump.

The latest MAGA (Make America Great Again) conspiracy theory is that Biden has rigged the 2024 Super Bowl, the greatest sporting extravaganza of the year in America, scheduled to be played today, February 11, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Trump’s cult, led by the current super-sycophant, Vivek Ramaswami, implied that Taylor Swift, the most popular entertainer in the planet by far, is Biden’s secret election weapon.

They allege Taylor plans to use her romance with Travis Kelce, record-setting NFL tight-end of the Kansas City Chiefs, one of the teams contesting the Super Bowl, to attend the game and publicly endorse the presidency of Joe Biden. In front of an audience of 100 million Americans watching the game live and on TV.

Taylor Swift endorsed Biden in 2020. However, Trump, the supreme narcissist, is not worried. He says this conspiracy won’t work, because he is more popular than the billionaire superstar entertainer with a global fan base of 266 million “Swifties” in Instagram, who outdid Frank Sinatra with a record 4th Grammy Album win last Sunday!

Trump’s desperation is evident at every turn, in his every tantrum, in his every inane, idiotic, incriminating tweet. An old man finally facing inevitable accountability for a lifetime of sordid crimes.

Though there were glimmers of hope for Trump in the Republican primaries last week. He won the US Virgin Islands with a convincing vote of 74%. He also won Nevada primary, where he was the only candidate, in a landslide. And I don’t for a moment pretend to understand the ramifications of Republican election procedures in Nevada, but Trump’s main rival, Nikki Haley, decided to contest a separate Republican caucus in Nevada, where she, the only candidate, managed to finish second to the last choice, “none of these candidates”.