Wednesday News & Notes
DECEMBER 1, 2021 -- ROSA PARKS REFUSES TO GO TO THE BACK OF THE BUS IN MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA, 1955
•The Supreme Court is hearing arguments today in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over Mississippi’s restrictive abortion law, a case that ultimately could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Clark Contempt; Former Chief of Staff Agrees to Cooperate – The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection will vote to seek contempt of Congress charges against Trump administration Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, the Associated Press reports. Clark testified before a closed-door session of the committee November 5 but invoked executive privilege and “several other privileges” over his role in Donald J. Trump’s attempt to push the Justice Department to investigate false allegations of widespread fraud in the November 2020 presidential election.
In case you missed it, Trump lost.
The select committee has subpoenaed 40 associates of former President Trump so far. The Justice Department has issued contempt of Congress charges against former advisor Stephen K. Bannon, who is using his outlaw image to fuel MAGA outrage on his iHeart Radio show, Bannon’s War Room.
On Tuesday Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, agreed to cooperate with the committee on a “limited basis,” according to the AP. Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, said his client was looking for a potential accommodation that would not require Meadows to waive Trump’s claims of executive privilege in testifying.
Note: Meadows’ testimony under the potential restrictions could be of questionable value to the House panel. It appears the pro-Trump crowd’s attempt to drag out the committee’s investigation to next year’s midterms, and probable dissolution of the committee if the GOP wins a House majority is working quite well.
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Fed May Accelerate Bond Buyback Over Inflation – As the omicron variant of COVID-19 threatens more inflationary pressure, the Federal Reserve is looking to accelerate its bond buyback program, Chairman Jerome Powell told a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday.
“Generally, the higher prices we’re seeing are related to the supply and demand imbalances that can be traced directly to the pandemic and the reopening of the economy,” Powell said, Roll Call reports. “But it’s also the case that price increases have spread much more broadly in the recent few months across the economy. I think the risk of higher inflation has increased.”
Translation: This gives moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III (WV) and Krysten Sinema (AZ) even more cover for placing the Biden Build Back Better program on the backburner, as Republicans push the case that the $1.75-trillion program will only fuel high inflation.
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Not Big on Books, But. . . -- Winning Team Publishing, a brand-new publisher headed by Sergio Gor, former Trump campaign aide, and Donald Trump, Jr., is publishing Our Journey Together, a book of photographs that will chronicle Donald Trump’s time in the White House, Politico reports. The ex-president announced the coffee table-style book last week and the book ($74.99 standard; $229.99 signed) obtained 70,000 pre-orders in its first week, according to Gor.
Note: As is well known, Donald Trump is not big on reading, so a picture book isn’t particularly surprising.
Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) has been established. According to recent reporting in Forbes, TMTG is valued at $10 billion, largely due to the creation of a SPAC that is to merge with it.
Of course, Trump’s social media efforts after he was removed from existing channels has done so incredibly well. . . .
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash