U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

Marjorie Taylor Greene buried by former colleague for 'really sick' defense of accused Ukraine doc leaker



Appearing on CNN on Friday morning, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) hit out at Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for racing to Twitter to praise and defend Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who was accused of leaking classified military documents.

Just hours after Teixeira was taken into custody, Taylor Greene -- who opposes military aid to Ukraine -- blasted officials for arresting him, writing on Twitter: "Jack Teixeira is white, male, christian,[sic] and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime. And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more. Ask yourself who is the real enemy? A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?"

Asked by CNN host John Berman to comment, Kinzinger, who is still a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, said he was not surprised that the Georgia Republican would twist what happened for her own political benefit.

"I want to take your colonel hat off and put your congressman, former congressman, hat on," host Berman prompted. "Marjorie Taylor Greene, your former Republican colleague, was on social media defending the allegations against Jack Teixeira and what he is alleged to have done, suggesting that he might be some kind of hero and praised him for what he did. What do you make of that?"

"It's sick, it's really sick, John," Kinzinger shot back. "I mean, look, there's been this like thing in the Republican party about just owning the libs and being against everything the libs are for or against, you know. And I knew this was gonna happen -- I predicted it."

"They're going to turn him into a hero," he continued. "This guy is a traitor to his country. Marjorie Taylor Greene either knows that or she doesn't know it because she doesn't understand how any of this works."

"If I was [House Speaker] Kevin McCarthy I'd have stripped her security access, but of course, he won't do that. He'll just continue to be nice to her so he can stay speaker," he added.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Biden administration announces broad effort targeting production and distribution of illicit fentanyl

Garland announces charges against El Chapo sons and Sinaloa cartel for fentanyl trafficking

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday charged 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, including sons of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in a sprawling fentanyl-trafficking investigation.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the charges Friday alongside Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram and other top federal prosecutors. The charges were filed against cartel leaders, as well alleged chemical suppliers, lab managers, fentanyl traffickers, security leaders, financiers and weapons traffickers.

The indictments announced Friday charge three of Guzman’s sons — Ovidio Guzmán López, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Sálazar — who are known as the Chapitos, or little Chapos, and who have earned a reputation as the more violent and aggressive faction of the cartel.

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

Biden wraps up emotional Irish tour with campaign-style rally

Thousands gather to see Biden off after three-day tour



BALLINA, Ireland, April 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden gave a rousing campaign-style speech to an exuberant crowd in his ancestral home town in the west of Ireland on Friday to wrap up a nostalgic three-day state visit ahead of what is expected to be a gruelling 2024 re-election bid.

Biden appeared in front of thousands of flag-waving well-wishers to a rousing Celtic punk anthem in an event that brought the kind of energy the Democratic president will hope to recreate in domestic rallies.

"Nobody works the room like Joe Biden. It doesn't matter what age he is, he's the man of the moment," said John O'Dowd, owner of O'Dowds American Bar.

Ballina was the home town of Biden's great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt, who emigrated to the United States with his wife and their eight children in 1851.

The address was held in front of St Muredach's Cathedral, whose construction Blewitt was involved with in the 1820s. Blewitt assisted decades later in the planning of the city of Scranton, Biden's Pennsylvania hometown that is twinned with Ballina.

In a carefully stage-managed event, Biden flew past the cathedral and over the crowd in his helicopter.

Biden finished his speech with the county's bittersweet sporting slogan, calling for the Gaelic football team to win the national championship for the first time since 1951: "Mayo for Sam!"

EMOTIONAL ENCOUNTER

Earlier on Friday Biden, who is Roman Catholic, broke down in tears behind closed doors during a chance meeting at a nearby shrine with the priest who performed the last rites on his son Beau.

While visiting Knock, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared in 1879, Biden discovered that ex-U.S. Army chaplain Father Frank O'Grady had moved to the town from Washington. The two met for 10 minutes and said a decade of the rosary.

"He laughed, he cried and it just kind of hit the man. You could just see how deeply it all felt and meant to him. It was an extraordinary afternoon," Father Richard Gibbons, who had been giving Biden the tour when they met O'Grady, told the BBC.

Biden, recounting the meeting in his speech, said: "It was incredible to see him. It seemed like a sign."

Biden started his Irish trip on Wednesday in Belfast by urging political leaders there to restore their power-sharing government. On Thursday, he became the fourth U.S. president to address the Irish parliament and attended a state banquet at Dublin Castle.

Everywhere he has gone, Biden has spoken of his love for Ireland and sense of Irishness, regaling audiences with stories his grandparents and parents told him.

Day-to-day politics in Ireland have taken a back seat, with every step of the trip covered live on television in a country where U.S. multinationals including Google, Pfizer and Apple are among the largest employers.

In Ballina, it was tourism dollars that local business leaders had their eyes on.

"This is massive for the town," said pub owner Michael Carr, 52, who compared the impact on future tourism to that of actor John Wayne's visit to the fellow County Mayo town of Cong in 1951 to shoot "The Quiet Man."

"This is going to last for 40 years."

AFP


WATCH LIVE: Biden speaks outside St. Muredach's Cathedral in County Mayo, Ireland

[Rick Plant]

Kyrsten Sinema loads up on cash from big GOP donors



Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), who deregistered as a Democrat in favor of being an independent, is reportedly being bankrolled in part by top Republican donors.

Among those funding Sinema is Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman, CEO, and co-founder of private-equity firm Blackstone, according to NBC. Schwarzman is a major Republican donor who publicly stated last year that he wouldn't be backing Donald Trump's third presidential run.

Another contributor to Sinema's campaign is Ken Mehlman, a former Republican National Committee Chairman under the Trump Administration, according to NBC's analysis of Sinema's donors.

The analysis further reveals that, aside from top GOP donors, Sinema is funded in large part by big-money donors. More than half of the funds she received in the first part of this year came from donors who gave at least the maximum per-election individual donation, $3,300, NBC reported.

"She received $287,000 from employees of Blackstone, the major investment firm, and its affiliates, as well as almost $196,000 from employees of the Carlyle Group and its affiliates," NBC writes. "Sinema also received over $51,000 from employees of Elliott Advisors and their affiliates, over $71,000 from employees of Ryan LLC, and over $53,000 from employees of the firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and its subsidiaries."

Sinema is facing a challenge from Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who said last year that he would run for the Democratic nomination to Sinema's Senate seat.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/wealthy-investors-pacs-big-gop-donors-fill-sinemas-campaign-rcna79653

[Rick Plant]

President Biden's Investing in America agenda is making America a leader in infrastructure, innovation, and manufacturing — creating good-paying jobs that don’t require a college degree, with 12.6 million jobs created since he took office.

[Rick Plant]

Jen Psaki Calls For Trump To Be Held To The Same Standard As Jack Teixeira
https://www.politicususa.com/2023/04/16/jen-psaki-calls-for-trump-to-be-held-to-the-same-standard-as-jack-teixeira.html

[Richard Smith]

Where is the manifesto of the radical leftist Nashville shooter?

[Rick Plant]

Don't forget that every single Republican in Congress voted against the Inflation Reduction Act. Manufacturing, our economy, and job creation would be in peril without it. Thanks to President Joe Biden and the Democratic Congress for investing in America and making our country the world leader in manufacturing once again.


US manufacturing commitments double after Biden subsidies launched

Companies plan to spend over $200bn on clean technology and semiconductors following IRA and Chips Act

Companies have committed more than $200bn to US manufacturing projects since Congress passed sweeping subsidies last year, as president Joe Biden’s effort to spark a new industrial revolution gains momentum.

The investment in semiconductor and clean tech investments is almost double the commitments made in the same sectors in the whole of 2021, and nearly 20 times the amount in 2019, according to data compiled by the Financial Times.

While the FT identified four projects worth at least $1bn each in these sectors in 2019, there were 31 of that size after August 2022.

There has been more than $40bn in planned capital spending since the start of the year. Asian giants LG, Hanwha, and LONGI have all announced deals in the past month, taking total large-scale investments to $204bn on April 14.

"We see right now the tectonic plates are shifting with respect to investment in the United States,” said US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm this week, referring to the surge of investment in recent months.

The Inflation Reduction Act, which became law last August, includes $369bn of tax credits for clean technologies as the Biden administration of pledges to decarbonise the US economy. Another law passed last August, the Chips and Science Act, includes $39bn in funds to stimulate semiconductor manufacturing and $24bn worth of manufacturing tax credits. Both are also designed to break US dependence on Chinese supply chains.

The industrial policies have drawn fire from European and Asian allies, who have claimed their deep subsidies and made-in-America requirements amount to protectionism. Emmanuel Macron, president of France, who visited China last week in an attempt to improve Paris’s relations with Beijing, has said the IRA could “fragment the west”.

The EU unveiled a rival industrial strategy last month with provisions to match subsidies for projects at risk of going abroad.

While most US manufacturing commitments since August have come from domestic suppliers, roughly a third are from foreign-headquartered companies, according to the FT’s data. Taiwan, South Korea and Japan make up the bulk of the foreign investment.

The FT tracked more than 75 manufacturing projects worth at least $100mn each for plants to make semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, and renewable energy components, that have been announced since the bills became law in August.

The announcements would create about 82,000 jobs, according to the analysis. More projects are expected to be announced in the coming months as the US government provides more guidance on the tax credits.

“The magnitude of these investments together is pretty staggering,” said Cullen Hendrix, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “This is attempting to go from zero to 100 miles an hour in terms of supply chain development in a way that we haven’t seen in quite a while.”

https://www.ft.com/content/b1079606-5543-4fc5-acae-2c6c84b3a49f