The News & Guts Digest: a Serving of the Day’s Top News Stories with a Little Side of Commentary
Let’s get the bad news out of the way: inflation keeps growing.
In fact, it hasn’t been this bad in forty years. Prices rose 7.5% from January 2021 to January 2022. Used cars are 40.5% more expensive than a year ago. The price at the pump is up just a tick less, a flat 40%.
…What else is more expensive? Well, pretty much everything. Here are some highlights (lowlights?) pulled from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ comically detailed Consumer Price Index Report, issued Thursday morning:
At the grocery store:
- Citrus fruit +10.6%
- Dried beans +9.1%
- Crackers, bread, and cracker products +12.6%
- Beef & veal +16%
- Pork +14.1%
- Fresh fish & seafood +12.7%
- Frozen and freeze dried prepared food +9.8%
At the department store:
- Appliances +8.5%
- Apparel +5.3%
- Household furnishings & supplies +9.3%
- Tools +10.7%
- Sporting goods +8.2%
Things you receive bills for:
- Medical care +2.7%
- Financial services +9.3%
- Electricity +10.7%
- Utility (piped) gas service +23.9%
But something had to get cheaper, right? Yup:
- Smartphones -13.3%
- Recreational books -1.2%
- Girls apparel -4.3%
- Mens pants & shorts -0.8%
- Food at elementary & secondary school -59.8%
In sum, stock up books and iPhones and try to drive a little less to the fishmonger.
This Country Was Really Going Down the Toilet
Maggie Haberman, the New York Times’ resident Trump whisper, has a forthcoming book called “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” Axios previewed a nugget from the 480-page tome and it’s quite something…
…White House staff, according to Haberman, sometimes found documents clogging a White House toilet and believed Trump was the culprit…
…Appearing on CNN, Haberman explained, “Staff in White House residence would periodically find the toilet clogged. The engineer would have to come and fix it. What the engineer would find would be wads of clumped up wet, printed paper.”
Laugh, Cry, or Call the DOJ?
Putting aside the plumbing acumen of the real-estate-tycoon-turned-leader-of-the-free-world, disposing of White House documents likely violates the Presidential Records Act…
…And the White House pipes aren’t the only pieces of evidence. As we wrote yesterday, Trump returned 15 boxes of materials to the National Archives that he inappropriately took with him to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended. When officials from the Archives began cataloging the contents of the returned boxes, they found what they believed were classified documents…
…The Archives referred the matter to the DOJ. No one, including a former president, can just take classified information home with them willy nilly, after all. The DOJ bounced the issued back to the Archives, saying their Inspector General should do the inspecting…
…Should we point out the obvious? You know, about Trump potentially mishandling classified information when he spent a yuuuge chunk of the 2016 campaign blasting Hillary Clinton for her private emails?
Whose Phone is This?
The New York Times reported today that the House’s 1/6 committee believes there are “gaps” in the White House phone log from the day of the Capitol attack and the missing information is hindering their ability to create a timeline of what Trump was doing while his supporters were ransacking the seat of Democracy, beating up police officers, and digging through Nancy Pelosi’s drawers…
…The 1/6 committee knows Trump was using a phone to communicate with allies like Rep. Kevin McCarthy. How come phone calls like that aren’t in the logs, they wonder…
…Seems Nixonian, we know, but if you read between the lines, the situation is pretty obvious: Trump was using a cell phone. Whether it was his or whether it was an aide’s is unclear…
…Does anyone in the Department of Justice care? Also unclear…
Here’s Something That Should Keep Democrats Up At Night
Sen. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat from New Mexico, suffered a stroke late last month. We’re pulling for you, senator…
…Luján’s office insists he’s on the mend, but what if.…
…Hell, you know where we’re headed with this. Democrats have the slimmest possible majority in the Senate. They don’t have that majority if a member is indisposed, which could be a catastrophic disadvantage during the confirmation process of the next Supreme Court Justice…
…On Tuesday, The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government released a statement asking Luján’s office to provide more information on his status. “The Senator’s health, his absence from the Senate, and his future service are issues of public importance. The veil of privacy must be lifted so that New Mexicans know the state of Sen. Luján’s health and their representation within the Senate,” the group wrote…
…If Luján can’t return to office, the Democratic governor of New Mexico will undoubtedly replace him with another Democrat…Let’s hope it doesn’t get to that…
…Luján, by the way, is just 49-years-old. The average age of a sitting U.S. Senator is currently 64.3. It gets you thinking…
It’s About Damn Time
The Senate passed a law on Thursday that prohibits employers from forcing their workers to settle sexual harassment claims via closed-door arbitration hearings…
…Here’s how The Washington Post described what is surely one of the biggest accomplishments of the #MeToo era:
The bill would nullify agreements between employees and their employers in which the employees waive their rights — sometimes without realizing it — to sue in the case of sexual assault or harassment. Instead, the agreements require the employees to settle their disputes with an arbitrator.
Such forced arbitration clauses lead to “secretive, one-sided proceedings that let corporations hide misconduct and silence survivors,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who first introduced the bill with Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) in 2017.
“In addition to ending the practice, the legislation will also invalidate existing forced arbitration clauses that prevent sexual assault and sexual harassment survivors from seeking justice and public accountability under the laws meant to protect them,” Gillibrand said in a statement Thursday.
How About Dolly?
In case anyone needed more evidence that legendary crooner Dolly Parton is a mench, the company that runs her eponymous theme park, Dollywood, announced that they would pay for their employees continuing education…
…“One of The Dollywood Foundation’s key tenets is to ‘learn more’” said Eugene Naughton, president of the Dollywood Company. “This program is created with that very tenet in mind. We want our hosts to develop themselves through advanced learning to fulfill the foundation’s other tenets: care more, dream more, and be more.”
What the Hell is This?
What is The News & Guts Digest, you might be wondering…
…Well, we’re still figuring that out. But we’re eager to try new formats and we’re sure this will evolve over time…
…For now, thanks for reading!
