POLITICO Nightly: A key number to watch in the fight against inflation

 

BY VICTORIA GUIDA President Joe Biden and then-Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) speak with workers at the Metro D Line Extension Transit Project in Los Angeles. | Apu Gomes/Getty Images PRODUCTIVITY POINTS — Prices have gone up a lot over the past couple of years, which, unless you’re living under a rock, you’ve noticed. Wages, too, have surged and are now growing faster than inflation. But the Federal Reserve has kept a wary eye on worker income for fear that it might lead to a resurgence in inflation. If you read that paragraph, you might think, despairingly: do we really have to worry about wages growing too fast? The good news is that the answer is no, not necessarily. But the economy does need a special ingredient: productivity growth. That is, more output from the same inputs. “The absolutely most critical piece of information that we need to glean is, what is happening to the productivity growth rate?” Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee told Nightly recently. “The question of, ‘Is this rate of wage inflation consistent with this rate of price inflation?’ That cannot be answered unless you say what the productivity growth rate is.” A reductive but useful way of thinking about wage growth is productivity growth plus inflation. So if you have 4 percent wage growth and 1 percent productivity growth, that implies 3 percent inflation — above the Fed’s 2 percent target. But if productivity growth is higher, you can have higher wages without rapid price increases. And there is more good news. Maybe. The most recent data for the second quarter (April to June) showed productivity grew at an annualized rate of 3.7 percent. That’s gangbusters compared to the rate we saw before the pandemic, which was more like 1 percent. Before we pop the champagne, though, there are caveats. Productivity is output per hours worked. On an individual level, you might have the same productivity on a given day if you’re getting a little bit done each hour or achieving a ton for just a couple hours. On a macroeconomic scale, we measure how much is produced by everyone combined in the aggregate amount of time they’re working. As you might guess, that’s a massive undertaking. Initial data is quite noisy, and it gets significantly revised as more, better data becomes available. But even if 3.7 percent gets revised down, or if it’s just a one-off, there’s reason to be optimistic that productivity growth might be a little higher going forward. “We should hope that the recent second-quarter productivity number is the real deal,” said James Pethokoukis, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “If the U.S. economy is going to grow anywhere near as fast in the future as it has in the past, productivity growth is going to have to do the heavy lifting.” Productivity last had a sustained surge because of the proliferation of the internet, though it can sometimes spike for bad reasons as well; often it goes up during a recession when there are layoffs because companies are able to sustain the same level of output for a time with fewer people. This happened in 2020. Then in 2022, productivity actually dropped because companies were adding workers so fast, so more hours were being worked but less was being produced. But now, those workers are largely trained up and supply chains have largely healed, opening the floodgates for more production, notes Skanda Amarnath, executive director of the worker advocacy group Employ America. “Output gains tied to the recovery that preceded it are starting to shine through,” he said. Now that the weirdness of the pandemic seems to have been more ironed out in the data, Goolsbee thinks that the second half of the year will be more instructive as to whether we’re returning to our disappointing pre-pandemic trend or whether we’ll see a boost. The biggest thing everyone is watching? If and when artificial intelligence will begin to show up in the productivity data. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com . Or contact tonight’s author at vguida@politico.com on Twitter at @vtg2 .   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO APP: Stay in the know with the POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS  – DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID .     WHAT'D I MISS? — Trump’s bond set at $200,000 in Georgia election-related case: Donald Trump’s attorneys have signed an order setting his bond on racketeering charges in Georgia at $200,000 and binding Trump to a set of rules that explicitly limit his ability to use social media to attack witnesses or co-defendants in the case. The three-page order, signed by Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, sets the conditions of Trump’s pretrial release in the case, which stems from his effort to subvert the 2020 election. — Tropical Storm Hilary shutters Southern California schools: District leaders fearing safety hazards from Tropical Storm Hilary moved to close schools across much of Southern California today. The nation’s second largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, announced Sunday it would close to allow staff time to check buildings for damage from the rare West Coast tropical storm — and to avoid potentially dangerous bus rides to school. San Diego Unified pushed the start of its school year to Tuesday, but asked staff to report to work if they could do so safely. Several other school districts in Los Angeles County, including in Pasadena, also announced plans to close, bracing for the storm to swirl northeast and risk flooding throughout the region. — AI cannot hold copyright, federal judge rules: Artificial intelligence cannot hold a copyright for works it creates, a federal judge ruled. Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the U.S. Copyright Office was correct in denying copyright protections to a work that was created entirely without human involvement. The ruling will be a critical component in future legal fights as lawyers and inventors test the limits of intellectual property laws when applied to AI. NIGHTLY ROAD TO 2024 SECOND IMPRESSIONS — Vice President Kamala Harris’ term has largely been marked by stilted performances at public events, at odds with the uninhibited interrogator she was known as in the Senate. They’ve fueled whispers about whether she’ll be a drag on the reelection ticket as the 2024 race heats up, writes POLITICO. Now her political future, and quite possibly the success of the Democratic ticket in 2024, hinges on a simple question: Is it possible for Harris to make a second impression ? For Harris, it’s a question that fundamentally misunderstands the point. In her mind, she’s the same person she was when the prevailing narrative of her was that of a star prosecutor, ascendant political talent and even the future of the Democratic Party. UNREQUITED BROADSIDES — Chris Christie built his entire presidential candidacy toward a marquee confrontation with Donald Trump, relentlessly goading him and needling him as a coward in a clear effort to tempt the quick-to-anger former president into showing up to the debate on Wednesday in Milwaukee. It appears Trump will not take the bait, other than swiping back at the former New Jersey governor on social media and in speeches, writes the New York Times. Last week, he signaled that he planned to skip the first Republican debate and instead sit for an interview with Tucker Carlson that will be broadcast online at the same time. Trump’s absence could lead to an anticlimactic scene at the debate , with Christie forced to launch unrequited broadsides through the airwaves without the fireworks of a Trump response. TRUMP’S TRIAL DATE — Federal prosecutors objected today to the April 2026 trial date proposed by lawyers for Donald Trump in the case accusing the former president of scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 election, reports the Associated Press. Members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team said in a court filing that Trump’s lawyers last week had exaggerated the amount of material that they would need to sift through in order to be ready for trial. In suggesting an April 2026 trial date, defense lawyers said they had been provided by prosecutors with 11.5 million pages of potential evidence to review. But prosecutors said much of that includes duplicate pages or information that is already public, such as documents from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol as well as copies of Trump’s social media posts. AROUND THE WORLD Presidential candidate Luisa González, of the Citizen's Revolution Political Movement, speaks to supporters after the polls closed in Quito, Ecuador. | Carlos Noriega/AP Photo IT’S A RUNOFF — Ecuadorian voters looking for a new leader to help curb the country’s unprecedented violence will have to head to the polls again in October for a runoff, reports the Associated Press’ Regina Garcia Cano .   The October battle will pit Luisa González, an ally of Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa (who was convicted of corruption in 2020 in absentia, though remains influential in the country), against former lawmaker Daniel Noboa, the son of banana magnate Alvaro Noboa. The younger Noboa was the big surprise of the election, winning 24 percent despite never polling higher than fifth. González, meanwhile, was the frontrunner throughout but only captured 33 percent, well short of the 50 percent she needed to win outright. In third place with 16 percent was Christian Zurita, whose name was not on the ballot but who replaced Fernando Villavicencio, whose killing this month as he left a campaign rally in Quito, the capital, laid bare people’s fears over unprecedented violence in a country they considered peaceful up until three years ago. MOVED IT ALL ONLINE — China wants to define how the metaverse works — and it is pushing proposals that bear an eerie resemblance to the country’s controversial social credit systems, proposals reviewed by POLITICO showed , according to Gian Volpicelli . The proposals, drafted by the state-owned telecoms operator China Mobile, floated a “Digital Identity System” for all users of online virtual worlds, or metaverses. They recommended that the digital ID should work with “natural characteristics” and “social characteristics” that include a range of personal data points like people’s occupation, “identifiable signs” and other attributes. They also suggested this information be “permanently” stored and shared with law enforcement “to keep the order and safety of the virtual world.” The proposals even provide the example of a noxious user called Tom — an ideal stand-in for whoever uses the fledgling technology, for instance for gaming or socializing — who “spreads rumors and makes chaos in the metaverse”; the digital identity system would allow the police to promptly identify and punish him. The proposals are part of discussions between tech experts and officials at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations’ telecoms agency that sets global rules for how technology works. Chinese public and private actors have sought to set global standards on fledgling technologies at the ITU — a strategy that Western officials have previously warned about as China seeks to promote a government-controlled version of the internet and telecommunications. Western officials already rang the alarm in 2020 over similar attempts by Chinese telecoms giant Huawei to rewrite how internet protocols, a key building block of global internet traffic, work.   Enter the “room where it happens”, where global power players shape policy and politics, with Power Play. POLITICO’s brand-new podcast will host conversations with the leaders and power players shaping the biggest ideas and driving the global conversations, moderated by award-winning journalist Anne McElvoy. Sign up today to be notified of the first episodes in September – click here .     NIGHTLY NUMBER Over 8,500 The number of Mauritanian migrants who crossed the Mexico-U.S. border between March and June , a huge surge up from just 1,000 in the four months prior. The uptick is due to the discovery of a new route through Nicaragua, where relaxed entry requirements allow Mauritanians and some other foreign nationals to purchase a low-cost visa without proof of onward travel. The news of the new route of migration to the U.S. has spread largely through Instagram and TikTok. RADAR SWEEP THE CULT OF LORNE — In today’s media landscape, rarely is there still one singular figure who can define a show or make or break a career. Maybe the last vestige of the true super-producer is Lorne Michaels , the scion of the SNL empire and its products, which include a constellation of stars like Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, Tina Fey, Aidy Bryant, Pete Davidson and so many others. What all of those people have in common is they’ve essentially pledged allegiance to Michaels and his brand, even long after leaving SNL. For Longreads, Seth Simons digs into the cult of Michaels, why he’s managed to stay singularly relevant for decades, and what could be next for him and his empire. PARTING IMAGE On this date in 1940: Doctors and nurses watch over Leon Trotsky as he dies from head wounds suffered in an attack in Mexico City. The exiled Russian revolutionary and co-founder of the Soviet Union, was attacked with a pickax by Ramón Mercader and fatally wounded. While still conscious, Trotsky said that his death was ordered by Joseph Stalin; it was later confirmed Mercader was an agent of the Soviet Union. | AP Photo Did someone forward this email to you?  Sign up here .   Follow us on Twitter Charlie Mahtesian @PoliticoCharlie Calder McHugh @calder_mchugh   FOLLOW US

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Cult Expert Explains How to Most Effectively Reach People Within the Cult of Trump

 

Roger Stone on November 5, 2020

Two days before the 2020 election was called, Roger Stone laid out a fake electors plot to defraud states of their votes and secure a victory for Donald Trump. This is damning evidence. BLURB after the caption: The Lincoln Project is a leading pro-democracy organization in the United States — dedicated to the preservation, protection, and defense of democracy. Our fight against Trumpism is only beginning. We must combat these forces everywhere and at all times — our democracy depends on it. Don’t forget to like, share, and follow The Lincoln Project on social media below!

The four phases of Trump’s attempted coup We’re now in Phase 3. Prepare for Phase 4. ROBERT REICH AUG 22 Trump’s attempted coup against the United States continues. We are now in Phase 3. Phase 1 was his refusal to concede the loss of the 2020 election and his big lie that the election was “stolen” from him, without any basis in fact. Trump’s actions in Phase 1 were not illegal, but they were immoral. They violated the norms that every president before Trump had dutifully followed. Phase 2 was his plot to overturn the result of the 2020 election. Phase 2 was hatched even before Election Day. On October 31, 2020, Trump confidante Steve Bannon told associates that Trump planned to declare he won and claim Biden’s expected victory fraudulent. Audio footage recently available shows that two days before the election, Trump lieutenant Roger Stone was already planning for alternative slates of electors. Then came Trump’s efforts to strong-arm election officials in swing states to alter votes, persuade Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification of electors, get the Justice Department to find fraud in the election process, come up with slates of fake electors, persuade Republican members of Congress to reject the certification, defame and intimidate poll workers, and invite supporters to Washington on the day of the certification — which led inexorably to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. Phase 2 was illegal. It violated both statutory laws and the Constitution. Trump is only now starting to be held accountable for these violations, in federal court in Washington and in state court in Georgia. Phase 3 is his current attempt to discredit and undermine the criminal justice system that’s seeking to hold him accountable for Phase 2. Trump is smearing presiding judges, excoriating prosecutors, and harassing and intimidating potential witnesses and jurors. He’s telling another big lie: that the prosecutors, grand juries, judges, potential jurors, and witnesses who are prepared to try him are corrupt and partisan — engaged in a plot to prevent him from being reelected. Like his original big lie, this one has no basis in fact. Trump’s efforts in Phase 3 are illegal. By publicly threatening people who are or will soon be participating in his trials, he is violating the explicit terms of his release pending trial, which prohibited him from engaging in harassment or intimidation. In seeking to silence or intimidate judges, prosecutors, and potential jurors and witnesses, Trump is attempting to obstruct justice. Whether Trump is held accountable for Phase 3 of his attempted coup will be up to the judges and prosecutors now engaged in trying to hold him accountable for Phase 2. Which brings us to what is likely to be Phase 4 of his attempted coup — his campaign for reelection. As his trials approach in the months ahead, Trump is likely to escalate his lies that the election system and the criminal justice system are both rigged against him, and therefore against his supporters. It is too early to know what additional illegal or unconstitutional means he will employ in Phase 4, but there is no reason to believe Trump will treat the upcoming election any more respectfully than he treated the 2020 election or has treated efforts to hold him accountable for what he did then. Notwithstanding Trump’s ongoing attempted coup, the most recent New York Times/Siena poll shows Trump in a dead heat with Biden for the presidency. Last week’s Quinnipiac poll also shows Trump and Biden in a virtual tie. Polls are fallible, of course, and the election is 15 months away. But the closeness of the race should be of concern, especially given that Trump has now been indicted for seeking to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s attempted coup continues. Since before the 2020 election, he has been engaged in a concerted attempt to undermine the institutions of the United States government.  Everyone who cares about American democracy should be duly warned — and prepared for Phase 4.

A Case For Government In a rapidly changing world DAN RATHER AND ELLIOT KIRSCHNER AUG 22 President Biden inspects the damage of the wildfire on Maui. (Photo by Mandel Ngan) In California and Nevada, government officials and emergency teams assess the damage from an unprecedented tropical storm.  President Biden travels to Maui to meet with survivors and see the deadly devastation of the recent wildfire that left the town of Lahaina in ashes.  Cities and states across the country are contending with the effects of this summer’s extreme heat, which has scorched wide swaths of the American South and beyond. Indeed, July was the hottest month on Earth since records have been kept.  It is clear that we are living in a warmer — and more volatile — climate. And in order to adapt and try to mitigate further danger, we will need an active and engaged government, at many levels and in many forms.  In the aftermath of earthquakes, floods, storms, and other disasters, the government often plays a pivotal role in recovery. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times considered the future of Maui by looking at Paradise, the Northern California town that was decimated by that state’s deadliest wildfire five years ago. It is rebuilding, with a lot of help:  That Paradise exists today is due largely to state and federal aid. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has spent millions of dollars and years cleaning up, and in 2019, the state worked to make Paradise and surrounding communities eligible for more than $500 million in federal funding to rebuild single-family homes in disaster areas. In 2021, on the third anniversary of the fire, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced that it had removed tens of thousands of dead and dying trees and cleaned thousands of properties. In 2022, his office announced an additional $200 million in state block grant programs for recovery in Paradise. Only governments have the resources necessary to rebuild at this scale — and on this long of a timeline. These efforts take years, and governments are expected to be involved throughout the process.  But the government's responsibility is not just to come in after the worst has already happened; it is also to prevent damage and destruction in the first place. We pour billions of dollars into our armed forces and nuclear arsenal, hoping not to fight wars but to deter them from starting. Our government inspects our food, regulates our pharmaceuticals, issues building codes, investigates airplane crashes, and performs countless other functions, not only to understand when things go wrong but to try to keep us safe.  And yet we are living in an era when one of our two major political parties has become hostile to the very idea of government, channeling a rhetoric and a reality that undercut our national well-being. To be sure, there is waste in government (as there is in the private sector), and there are regulations that are misplaced, onerous, and unbalanced. Government involvement can be counterproductive in some areas. Indeed, an entrepreneurial spirit is an American strength. We should be consistently debating how, when, and where to deploy government resources. But none of these caveats invalidates the essential role that only government can play in tackling the climate crisis.  We need a government that accepts science and the reality of human-induced climate change. We need a government willing to work with other nations to protect our Earth. We need a government committed to clean energy. We need a government that funds research and innovation. We need a government responsive to its people. We need a government that addresses the desperation of the most vulnerable.  We need a government that understands we have no choice but to all be in this together.  Republicans, looking for ways to attack President Biden, have been critical of his response to the crisis in Maui. It is fair that his actions and the efforts of the government come under scrutiny. And it is in the nature of politics that these criticisms would take on a tone of electioneering. But from Trump to other would-be party leaders, the main line of attack is a matter of words, not deeds — what The New York Times characterized as Biden’s “not saying enough publicly.” Even some of Biden’s supporters wish he had offered more words of comfort and concern in the days after the fire. And it is true that every president must sometimes serve as “consoler in chief” — a role Biden usually fulfills admirably and with ease. The White House counters criticism by insisting that Biden has been very engaged in this crisis from the beginning. State and federal elected officials from Hawaii have generally given the federal response high marks (although it should be noted they are almost all Democrats). But it is also telling that Republicans are focusing on optics and not operations. The disingenuousness is breathtaking. What Hawaii, this nation, and this world need is not more speeches. We need action. On the climate. Immediately. Even as Republicans flock to TV news and social media to publicly attack Biden, they are working to privately undermine the significant climate efforts his administration has made, including the groundbreaking Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate legislation in American history. The Heritage Foundation recently released its “Project 2025,” which The New York Times called “a conservative ‘battle plan’ for the next Republican president.” The article summarized the plan’s recommendations: The plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels — the burning of which is the chief cause of planetary warming.  If implemented, this plan would be an unmitigated disaster. It would contribute to an untold amount of pain, suffering, and environmental harm. It is a missile meant to destroy a governmental response to the climate crisis. And it exposes the hypocrisy of the Republican attacks on Biden’s response to Maui.  We need the government fully engaged to address arguably the greatest threat we face as a nation and a planet. Government is not the only answer. But it is part of any answer with promise.

August 21, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

August 21, 2023 HEATHER COX RICHARDSON AUG 22 The wildfires that raced across Maui, Hawaii, on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 8 and 9, driven by high winds across land that had been suffering a drought, have fed a familiar political narrative.  That firestorm roared into the 13,000-person town of Lahaina, killing a confirmed 114 people, with more than 1,000 still unaccounted for. It is the deadliest fire in modern U.S. history. While local officials had warned that such a fire was likely, emergency systems were either understaffed or unprepared, or failed for other reasons. Figuring out exactly what happened and why, mourning the dead and injured, and rebuilding, will take years. President Joe Biden received notice of a brush fire on August 8 as part of his “daily extreme weather memo,” and over the next two days received additional briefings. “Jill and I send our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones in the wildfires in Maui, and our prayers are with those who have seen their homes, businesses, and communities destroyed. We are grateful to the brave firefighters and first responders who continue to run toward danger, putting themselves in harm’s way to save lives,” President Biden said in a statement on August 9. He explained that he had ordered all federal assets on the island to help with the response, including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Navy’s 3rd Fleet, as well as the Department of Transportation to coordinate commercial airlines for evacuation. The next day, August 10, Biden began a speech about the PACT Act in Salt Lake City by saying: “[L]ook, before I begin, I want to say a word about the devastating wildfires that have claimed at least 36 lives in Maui, in Hawaii. [W]e have just approved a major disaster declaration…for Hawaii, which will get aid into the hands of the people… desperately needing help now. [A]nyone who’s lost a loved one, whose home has been damaged or destroyed is going to get help immediately.”  He explained the moves the administration had already made and promised, “I just got off the phone, before I got here, for a long conversation with Governor Josh Green this morning and let him know I’m going to make sure the state has everything it needs from the federal government to recover…. In the meantime, our prayers are with the people of Hawaii, but not just our prayers—every asset we have will be available to them. And we’ve seen—they’ve seen their home, their business destroyed, and some have lost loved ones. And it’s not over yet.” On that day, August 10, Biden signed a disaster declaration, saying that a major disaster existed in Hawaii, and ordered federal aid to the state to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Federal funding helps with temporary housing and home repairs, some property losses, debris removal, and hazard mitigation.  By August 15, almost 500 federal personnel had been deployed to Maui, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) had provided 50,000 meals, 75,000 liters of water, 5,000 cots, and 10,000 blankets and shelter supplies to six shelters run by the American Red Cross and Maui County for survivors who couldn’t go home. FEMA had also approved Critical Needs Assistance (CNA), which provides a one-time payment of $700 per household to those without housing to replace vital items like medication on an emergency basis.  The Small Business Administration had begun making low-interest federal disaster loans available to Hawaii businesses and nonprofit organizations. The Department of Agriculture approved Hawaii’s request for extra Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra declared a public health emergency retroactive to August 8, which gave Medicare and Medicaid greater flexibility in meeting emergency health needs for beneficiaries, then deployed disaster response personnel to Hawaii.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was on the island clearing roads, stabilizing the electrical grid, and working with the Environmental Protection Agency to remove hazardous waste. The U.S. Forest Service Incident Management Teams and Wildfire Liaisons worked with state officials to put the fires out and prevent flare ups, while the U.S. Fire Administration was working to support local firefighters. The Department of Defense was moving supplies across the state. On August 17, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida and Republic of Korea (ROK) president Yoon Suk Yeol arrived for Friday’s historic trilateral summit at Camp David, and Biden fell publicly silent about Maui. Promptly, the right wing insisted that he had done nothing for Hawaii. In fact, public documents suggest Biden was speaking daily with state officials in Hawaii and increasing the federal response there. By August 19 there were more than 1,000 federal personnel on the ground. “We’ve offered whatever support the governor needs,” General Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said. Whether or not you agree with the level of response the Biden administration has provided to those suffering in the fires, the pattern of using the media to establish a narrative that the administration is ignoring Americans when it clearly is not is almost exactly what happened with the East Palestine, Ohio, railway disaster in February 2023. Then, pro-Russian accounts promptly began to argue that the Biden administration was ignoring a disaster at home—when emergency personnel were on the ground immediately—in order to fund Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion. Now, behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno, a specialist in disinformation, noted that the X (Twitter) account that seeded the “Hawaii, not Ukraine” narrative was created just last month and that accounts associated with both Russia and China are amplifying the narrative that Biden has neglected Maui. It seems telling that the same right-wing “independent journalist” who went to East Palestine has flown into Maui to attack Biden’s response, showing up on Trump ally Steve Bannon’s “War Room.”   Indeed, one of Biden’s strongest suits is his foreign policy initiatives, and as Republican presidential candidates have virtually nothing to offer on that front, some Republicans seem to be trying to use the Maui fire as a way to undercut Biden’s foreign policy triumphs. Increasingly, they are turning against aid to Ukraine as they back former president Trump, who boasted on Friday that he was “the apple of [Russian president Vladimir Putin’s] eye. Supporting Ukraine in its battle against Putin’s authoritarianism has been a key aspect of Biden’s attempt to protect democracy at home and around the world, and as the 2024 election approaches, House Republicans, at least, are reluctant to continue funding that effort. Today the extremist House Freedom Caucus released a list of what it demands before it will agree even to a short-term measure to fund the government this fall; Ukraine funding is one of the things to which they object.  Today the president and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden visited Maui, where after seeing the devastation, President Biden said that “the country grieves with you, stands with you, and we’ll do everything possible to help you recover, rebuild, and respect culture and traditions when the rebuilding takes place.” He promised that we will “rebuild the way the people of Maui want to build.” Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) said, “We in Hawaii have been through hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions—but we have never seen such a robust federal response. Thank you.”   — Notes: https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2023/08/hawaii-wildfires-timeline-maui-lahaina-dg/index.html https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/08/10/president-joseph-r-biden-jr-approves-hawaii-disaster-declaration-3/ https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/08/11/hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-declares-public-health-emergency-hawaii-response-wildfires.html https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/09/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-the-wildfires-in-hawaii/ ​​https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2023-08-10/biden-activates-military-to-battle-maui-fires https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/08/10/statement-from-national-security-council-spokesperson-adrienne-watson-on-the-status-of-unjustly-detained-americans-in-iran/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/08/10/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-one-year-anniversary-of-the-pact-act-salt-lake-city-ut/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/20/biden-hawaii-wildfires/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/08/17/fema-maui-response-lahaina-fires-biden/ https://www.brookings.edu/articles/republicans-are-turning-against-aid-to-ukraine/ https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-claims-hes-the-putin-whisperer-i-was-the-apple-of-his-eye https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/21/house-freedom-caucus-potential-shutdown-00112068 https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2023/03/20/ohio-train-derailment-east-palestine-pro-russia-twitter-accounts-elon-musk/70027849007/ https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/08/21/remarks-by-president-biden-paying-respects-to-the-lives-lost-in-maui-and-reaffirming-his-commitment-to-supporting-residents/ Twitter (X): RVAwonk/status/1693361801352605746 RVAwonk/status/1693255476769681612 mattyglesias/status/1693267979130094054 RonFilipkowski/status/1693248630763700536 Victorshi2020/status/1693803766078664829