January 28th, 2022: A Supreme Court Opening, Rising Tensions with Russia, and the Record-Breaking 2021 Economy

An opening on the Supreme Court — President Biden zeroes in on his nominee:

Will there be war in Europe?

And a booming economy last year — but what about now?

I’m Paul Brandus — you’re listening to West Wing Reports— it’s Friday, January 28th.

Timing is everything — remember when Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a Supreme Court Justice? Some liberals wanted her to retire when Barack Obama was president — so he could appoint another liberal to the court. Actually — Obama tried that after a CONSERVATIVE Justice — Antonin Scalia — died in 2016. But Republicans controlled the Senate then and Mitch McConnell said — you can’t appoint a justice in a presidential election year — it should be up to the NEXT president.

You think elections don’t matter? That next president was Donald Trump — and he appointed THREE conservative justices — including one — in an election year — Amy Comey Barrett — her confirmation rammed through BY McConnell just days before — you guessed it — a presidential election year.

But this time the election was won by a Democrat — Joe Biden — and this time the Senate is controlled by Democrats — but just barely. But it will probably be enough for Biden to put a liberal justice on the court to replace Stephen Breyer — a liberal justice who is retiring after 27 years.

Biden has wasted no time in confirming that he will make good on a big 2020 campaign pledge:

That’s a big deal in a lot of ways — not the least of which is that it’ll certainly boost his standing with two key parts of his base — women and blacks. The midterm elections are NOT looking good for Democrats — but this will certainly help. The president says he’ll unveil his nominee by the end of February — a sign the White House is going to let this story play out for a while.

For some additional perspective, here’s Lawrence Hurley — who covers the Supreme Court for Thomson Reuters - he appeared on C-SPAN:

As for Breyer — you probably don’t know too much about him — justices tend to keep a fairly low profile. So I want to play a clip OF him from Thursday — what he said was so refreshing and optimistic — sounds out of place given the problems we have — and that made all the more wonderful:

Breyer reminded us that America after all this time, nearly 250 years — was designed to be — as Abraham Lincoln called it — an experiment.

Wow. That was terrific — Justice Steven Breyer — announcing his retirement — after 27 years — at the end of this Supreme Court term.

No — that’s the blunt message from the Biden administration to Russia — NO - over Moscow’s demands on Ukraine. The U-S continues to think that the Russians could invade at any time. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has this blunt advice for Americans IN Ukraine:

The fear is that Americans COULD be caught in harm’s way:

And while the diplomats continue to talk — the Pentagon is getting ready. Spokesman John Kirby ran down a list of units from around the country that are on a heightened state of alert:

To emphasize — have NOT been activated.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. Meanwhile, here’s a question for you — with so much focus on Russia and Ukraine — what are OTHER American adversaries doing? China, North Korea, Iran. We’ll get the big picture from one global observer shortly.

Economic news now — get a load of this — the economy grew last year at its strongest pace since 1984 — when Ronald Reagan was in the White House. It was even stronger in the 4th quarter as the year was coming to an end — abd leading the way was spending by BOTH consumers AND businesses.

Well, that’s great — but that’s in the rear view mirror. What about the road ahead? Milton Ezrati is chief economist at Vested -- he spoke with Yahoo Finance:

The number one worry is inflation — galloping ahead at a 7% rate, the Federal Reserve is set to begin raising interest rates in an effort to bring that under control. But as I’ve said before a lot of our inflation is linked to the pandemic — and supply chain. When those things will be fixed -- well, it’s really anyone’s guess.

A ray of hope about Omicron — hospitalizations are down. Not much — just two percent over the last two weeks.

But they’re soaring in four states — hospitalizations nearly doubling in Montana over the last two weeks they’re up 90-percent in Wyoming and up 70-percent in Alaska and 60 percent in Alabama — just in the last two weeks.

All told — 63-percent of all Americans who are eligible have been fully vaccinated — for Americans over the age of 18 — that figure is 74-percent. That data compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Let’s come back now to Russia and Ukraine. Everybody’s focused on this hot spot — my question is this. What are OTHER American adversaries — China, North Korea, Iran — what are they up to while we’re distracted?

Let’s get some answers from my old friend David Andelman — one of the more astute observers of global events. He’s been a correspondent for the New York Times, CBS, and is currently a columnist for CNN and NBC. Also the author of several books — the latest is A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen —

David welcome - you know it seems to me that while we’re distracted by Russia and Ukraine — it’s a good time for China — after the Olympics, at least — North Korea and Iran to cause trouble.

My thanks to David Andelman — by the way — in addition to being a CNN and NBC columnist, he also has a Substack column — check that out.

Now, let's hear about ANOTHER Evergreen podcast — that I know you'll enjoy

Time now to open up the West Wing Reports archives — and see what made history this week in the past:

1961 — you can’t make this stuff up — Nearly three years before Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated President Kennedy, his Mother visited Washington and asked to see JFK. Marguerite Oswald wanted help finding her son - Lee — the ex-Marine marksman who had defected to the Soviet Union.

Marguerite Oswald never got to see President Kennedy, of course. Nor — did she get to see Navy Secretary John Connally. Both JFK and Connally would be shot by her son in 1963.

An unbelievable story.

And who can forget this -- from 1998?

Well, that wasn’t true. Bill Clinton — telling a whopper this week in 1998. Turns out he DID have sexual relations with that woman — “Miss Lewinsky — he could say her first name - it was Monica.

That lie was the beginning of what would turn into his impeachment — by the House -- but acquittal by the Senate.

Want more history? Check out my books on Amazon — I’ll sign ‘em for you too — just shoot me an email: [email protected].

And need a speaker for your event? I do that too — current events, economics, analysis — history — I connect the dots — would love to hear from you.

Speaking of books — I’ll send you one — IF you download my new app — it’s called — West Wing Reports — available in the Apple and Android stores — just download it on your phone or tablet — there’s a button called “What’s on your mind?” All you do is push, talk and send. That’s it. What’s on your mind? Questions, comments? Let me know. Leave a comment — and your name goes into a drawing for any of my books — your choice.

I like to end each week with a quote — something you might find thoughtful: This week: it's from William McKinley -- our 25th president:

The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.

Think about it.

That’s all for this week. Here’s my email — [email protected].

West Wing Reports is a production of Evergreen Podcasts.

Special thanks to CSPAN for the audio clips.

Our producer and sound designer and engineer: Noah Foutz

Executive producers: Michael D’Aleoia and Gerardo Orlando.