More War, Pieces of Good News

The number of U.S. jobs soared another 353,000 in January while the unemployment rate stayed at 3.7 percent, below 4 percent for two years running in the longest stretch since the 1960s. The actual number of job gains was about double the economists’ predictions of 177,000 despite layoffs in tech and media companies. January’s numbers bring President Joe Biden’s total to 15.1 million jobs since his inauguration, over double those of DDT’s first three years that lost the entire number of new jobs in his last year. Average hourly wage growth also sharply accelerated; the 0.6 percent increase, totaling 4.5 percent for the past year, brought wages to $34.55 an hour. The Dow Jones shot up almost 540 points in the last week.  

Half of the adults in the U.S., up from 40 percent in November, believe that the Israeli military campaign in Gaza has “gone too far” because Republicans and independents are changing their minds about its appropriateness. The U.S. is increasingly isolated in supporting Israel as the Gaza death toll rose above 27,000, two-thirds of them women and children, because Hamas killed 1,200 people on October 7, 2023. Half of U.S. adults are extremely or very concerned that Israel’s war will lead to a greater Middle East conflict.

After Biden announced the U.S. struck over 85 facilities in Iraq and Syria used by Iranian-backed militias to attack U.S. forces, Republican congressional members attacked him for not starting a war with Iran. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) wanted “meaningful pain to the Iranian leadership” and “targeting Iranian warships” because the Houthis use Iranian weapons and intel to target U.S. warships. A war with Iran would be far worse than the disastrous one in Iraq. Even other GOP presidents—Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump—didn’t attack Iran.

In response to the Russian invasion, Ukraine sank a Russian corvette warship, Ivanovets, with sea drones in the Black Sea. The ship, costing $60 million to $70 million, was patrolling Lake Donuzlav in western Crimea. The 40-man crew on the 185-foot vessel seems to have disappeared. Russia has now lost 20 percent of its Black Sea Fleet including the flagship Moskva and the Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don. A video of the Ivanovets’ sinking.  

Russia also maintains that two missiles fired by Kyiv’s forces crashing a Russian military transport plane last month was downed by a U.S.-built Patriot defense system. The plane had 65 Ukrainian POWs headed for exchange. All 74 people on board were killed.

This past week, an internet outage in Russia was the largest in recent history. Supposedly the failure came from a technical problem from DNS protocol extensions. The solution was excluding IP address substitution. Hundreds of websites, including web-based platforms such as banks, online marketplaces, search engines, and telecom providers, were down. In July 2023, the Russian government tried to disconnect its internet from the global Web, but the failure caused outages. They want to have full control over their internet space to do away with Western platforms.

The Army of God, heading back to the southern border to “Take Our Border Back,” has decided to make up for the 699,950 people in the trek by inviting militias. They seem to have similar ideology—anti-immigration, anti-vaxxing, and pro-conspiracy theories. The organizers claim to be anti-violence and asked militia members to leave their “big guns” at home, but they may not be successful. Another philosophy of the marchers is sovereignty, in this case for Texas. One of the sponsors is the sovereign citizen how-to group, Americas Assembly, which teaches how to become a “non-citizen National of the united States of America.” Washington, D.C. is a “foreign territory” subject to different laws from the remainder of the country with the belief that its land has differs legally for the J6ers, insurrectionists on January 6. Supporters of the envoy think that sovereign citizen doctrine reflects the will of the people rather than the “de facto” laws.  

Another group recruiting for the envoy is Moms for American led by Kimberly Fletcher, who was subpoenaed for her involvement in the rally on January 6 before the riot at the Capitol. Not as well-known as Moms for Liberty, Fletcher’s group has been in existence longer with the mission “to restore the value of motherhood, marriage, womanhood, and patriotism.” 

Under cover of peacefulness, the envoy’s organizers said they aren’t going to Eagle Pass (TX), the location of Gov. Greg Abbott’s razor wire and other barriers on the Rio Grande River, but other groups mat go there. A self-described “progressive evangelical group,” is headed toward Eagle Pass to counter the Christian nationalist rhetoric of the “God’s Army” convoy.

One of the envoy’s organizers, Johnathon Alexander, has talked about the need for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) to “call up the militias” for deployment to the border. During the past few years, Alexander has been photographed in militia uniforms, showing videos from militia training events, and posing with military members and anti-government extremists, including far-right Idaho activist Ammon Bundy. Another envoy leader, Mike Forzano, heads up the “Exiled Patriots” and arms himself with knives, spearheading violent anti-LGBTQ rallies of Proud Boys and white supremacists. Alexander told interested parties, “There’s no telling how long this convoy will last” although an original organizer said that the convoy “ends this weekend.”

States giving rights to residents:

New York: A new law broadens the state’s definition of rape, eliminating the requirement for penile penetration. The former definition required the jury in E. Jean Carroll’s civil suit against DDT to use the term “sexual assault” instead of “rape” although she said he penetrated her. The judge in her case clearly explained that the narrow definition of that time didn’t mean that DDT is not a rapist.

Washington: A rule finalized in January 2022 allows the Pharmacy Abortion Access Project to provide community pharmacists with training on screening for medication abortion eligibility, prescribing abortion pills, and dispensing them from their brick-and-mortar stores currently existing only in this one state. Washington was also the first state to recognize pharmacists as medical providers, not to be excluded from health insurance provider networks.  

Legislators in the state are working to block a legal loophole allowing Christian nationalists and Republicans to close smalltown libraries if they fail to ban books they don’t like. A judge blocked conservatives from using this loophole to close the only library in rural Columbia County. Current law requires only 10 percent of residents in unincorporated parts of the county to force a referendum on closing the library—107 signatures in Columbia County. Recalling a politician requires 25 percent on a petition. Although residents in Dayton pay taxes for the library, activists insisted only people outside Dayton could vote on the library closure. As a state senator said, “Closing libraries is a stupid idea.”

South Carolina: A federal judge blocked part of the state’s new elections law from disqualifying ballots of same-day voters if one document mailed to the voter is returned to county elections offices as undeliverable. The judge told elections officials to develop a process to notify voters before eliminating their ballots. Three federal lawsuits have challenged the “undeliverable mail provision” of the new state election law. The former law required two pieces of undeliverable mail.

Wisconsin: The state Supreme Court will hear Gov. Tony Evers’s (D) lawsuit against the GOP-led state Legislature. He alleges they are obstructing basic government functions, and the court will hear arguments about the budget committee blocking funding from state conservation programs. Other issues are on hold pending a future order such as the GOP lawmakers blocking updates to rules for the state’s commercial building standards and ethics standards for social workers, marriage, family therapists, and professional counselors.

With no dissents, the Supreme Court refused an emergency request to temporarily ban West Point from using race in admissions while a lawsuit works its way through the courts. The organization bringing the suit, Students for Fair Admissions, sees the ruling as a setback. The group succeeded in challenging affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, ending a decades-long policy.

In a state Capitol hallway, Indiana lawmaker Jim Lucas tried to explain gun rights to a five students promoting gun safety by flashing a gun. One of the students made a video of the interaction. Lucas told them that people aren’t “truly free” unless they can defend themselves. In his Facebook posts, Lucas called the conversation “respectful, but it was clearly facts, reason and logic vs. plain emotion.” Last summer, Lucas pled guilty to drunken driving charges after crashing his pickup through an interstate highway guardrail and leaving. On social media, he posted racist messages.

Mushrooms may save the world from plastic waste and clean it of environmental toxins. Mycoremediation, a subtype of bioremediation, uses fungi to degrade environmental contaminants a mushrooms’ mycelia, their thread-light roots. Unlike bacteria-based bioremediation approaches, fungi employ their mycelia, thread-like root systems, to externally devour contaminants. Enzymes  turn pollutants and poisons into nutrients. Pestalotiopsis microspore can also break down polyester polyurethane in two weeks, using it as their primary source of carbon and transforming it into organic matter like Aspergillus terreus and Engyodontium album do. Within seven days, oyster mushrooms can break down toxins and microplastics present in cigarette butts. Since the 1950s, 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been created.

Border, War Updates; Mayorkas’ Impeachment Advanced

In January 2020, when Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) was in the White House, an Iranian missile gave dozens of U.S. military members brain injuries that he called “headaches.” Now DDT is blaming President Joe Biden for the drone attack killing three soldiers and wounding another 40—accusing Biden as being weak and claiming that an “attack would NEVER have happened if I was President, not even a chance.” He added that his control would mean “no more chaos, no more destruction ….”  

DDT still criticizes Biden for a disastrous economy but also takes credit for both Biden’s good economy and the skyrocketing stock market. “THIS IS THE TRUMP STOCK MARKET,” DDT recently posted on Truth Social. Bad—blame Biden; good—DDT did it.

More GOP congressional members voting against assistance for their constituents are taking credit for huge infrastructure projects, one of them Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) who said he was “proud to help deliver … the federal funds.” Stauber lambasted Biden and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz because they didn’t understand the legislative process. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explained to Stauber that the $1 billion replacement of the Blatnik Bridge “is happening because the Biden infrastructure package passed, despite your ‘no’ vote.” The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party added that Stauber called the bridge replacement “a path to socialism.”

In Florida, GOP Rep. Maria Elivira Salazar proudly presented a $650,000 check to help small businesses at Florida International University. A reporter asked her why she took credit after voting against the bill providing the funds, and Salazar said she brings money to her constituents every time she has the opportunity. Further pressed about her votes, Salazar said she couldn’t remember how she votes on any bills and she would ask her staff to check. In a 2022 video, she lied about inflation being 40 percent when it was 8.3 percent and blamed “Washington.”

Conservatives want everyone to know that the situation at the southern border is a disaster, but they don’t want to take any action on it for at least another year, hoping that DDT will move back into the White House. Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) has the choice between alienating his far-right caucus by presenting a Senate bill to the House or alienating potential voters for GOP candidates by postponing the border problem for over a year. He has said he won’t present the bill although he hasn’t seen it.

Johnson maintains that Biden could solve the border problem with executive actions, but Biden stated he needs funds and congressional authority that he has requested for several months. The president has already issued over 500 immigration-related executive actions, far more than DDT did, but hasn’t revived DDT’s policies because courts found 90 percent of them illegal. Another one that Johnson wants to revive, “Remain in Mexico,” is still in the courts, but it never blocked unlawful border crossing while exposing migrants to rape, kidnapping, torture, and other danger. Mexico has stated it would not cooperate with the program. Johnson’s demand for building the wall lacks congressional funding.

Following DDT’s order to reject any bipartisan bill to make the border secure, Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) accused Biden and his administration of “traitorous acts,” “slave trade,” “sex trafficking,” and promotion of “endless rapes” of women and children.

“The Army of God,” a truck envoy leaving Virginia Beach to “Take Our Border Back,” promised it would have 700,000 participants but has only a few dozen. Conspiracy theories, “fedsurrection,” on Telegram channels posted fears that the purpose was to catch right-wingers in violence similar to the belief about January 6, 2021 by one-fourth of people in the nation.  

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who brags about her patriotism, has a solution for the border problem: dissolve the United States and let the GOP states secede.

A government shutdown is 14 working days away, and Johnson is leading his House conservatives in an evidence-free impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Homeland Security Committee, led by Mark Green (R-TN) debated the impeachment articles past midnight on January 31. The Constitution states that Impeachments are only for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The two articles of the impeachment resolution accuse Mayorkas of violating immigration laws through Biden administration policies and accusing him of not following his duties, misleading Congress, and obstructing their investigation. Republicans complained about too many migrants coming across the border, the large amount of fentanyl collected at the crossings, and a parole program for Ukrainians.

Republicans claim that the Founding Fathers interpreted impeachment that the current GOP is, that instead of a criminal offense, demeanor means demeaning oneself. Therefore they can impeachment someone for not following the law or abusing their authority and said Mayorkas lied to Congress by stating that the border is operationally secure. The standard of “secure” in the Secure Fence Act is that not one person or piece of contraband improperly crosses the border. Mayorkas said that the law must be viewed with a “layer of reasonableness.” He clearly stated that he wasn’t using the Secure Fence Act definition. 

Johnson endorsed the impeachment and promised a vote on the House floor after the Homeland Security Committee advances the articles. His letter to Republicans falsely stated that Biden doesn’t need a law to create border security and that Biden wouldn’t enforce immigration laws anyway. Constitutional experts from right, left, and center have lambasted the impeachment project because in this case it doesn’t fit the U.S. system of government. Jonathan Turley, usually on the side of GOP congressional members, disagrees with the impeachment proposal:

“The courts have long recognized that presidents are allowed to establish priorities in the enforcement of federal laws, even when those priorities tend to lower enforcement for certain groups or areas. It is a matter of discretion.

“Voters will soon have an opportunity to render a judgment on those policies in the election. Mayorkas has carried out those policies. What has not been shown is conduct by the secretary that could be viewed as criminal or impeachable.”

One accusation against Mayorkas was that he refused to respond to requests. In one of the many demands that he appear before the committee, Mayorkas offered to testify but was unavailable for the hearing date because he was hosting a Mexican delegation. Mayorkas has testified before Congress more than any other Biden-appointed Cabinet official.

Since the GOP took over Congress a year ago, DHS turned over 20,000 pages of documents, 13,000 to just the Homeland Security Committee. Of the committee’s 173 requests, some are in process, such as the subpoena demanding information related to the Afghanistan withdrawal. Other requests were duplicate items already provided to the committee. DHS is putting together over one million pages of documents for a request, already having sent 6,500 pages of documents before the committee sent a subpoena for “failure to provide satisfactory documents,” complaining some were redacted or illegible. Many requests gave a two-week deadline and “delinquent” for only a few days.

Democrats pointed out that Mayorkas has been far more responsive than DDT, who routinely ignored congressional requests and subpoenas with no action from Republicans. DDT-era officials refused to appear for the annual worldwide threats hearing during the last two years of the administration. Then-DHS leader Chad Wolfe defied a subpoena after the department provided no documents to a border security request. In the past month, Mayorkas appeared before the committee twice, a budget hearing and the annual worldwide threats hearing.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) stated:  

“Republicans don’t actually want to work towards bipartisan solutions to fix the border—in fact, they have repeatedly sabotaged the Secretary’s efforts to secure the border and denied DHS’ funding requests. Secretary Mayorkas is upholding the law and honoring the public trust as he has throughout his more than 30 years of service to our Nation. The House must reject this sham resolution.”

A Cabinet member has not been impeached for 148 years when Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached in 1876 over alleged bribes. The Senate acquitted him. Some GOP senators have warned House members that any impeachment of Mayorkas would have a bipartisan death in their chamber. Those senators indicated that they don’t want to waste their time on the meaningless impeachment in the House where about a dozen names have been floated for the same meaningless action.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) suggested that most House Republicans would prefer not to be forced to vote on impeachments for Mayorkas and Biden. About the impeachments, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said about the House that “so far they’ve got nothing.” Several GOP senators believe policy issues are a bigger priority than the impeachments. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and John Hoeven (R-ND) want to focus on passing appropriations. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), however, accused Mayorkas of “deliberately defying federal law.”

Unfortunately for senators, the chamber is required to hold a trial on all impeachment articles passed by the House and meet six days a week unless the majority changes that schedule. No legislative or executive business can occur while the chamber is “sitting as a Court of Impeachment.” Political trials could also keep senators from campaigning between now and November. 

After a lengthy, contentious hearing, the committee voted 18-15 on party lines to advance the impeachment articles to the House floor.