BEST READ THE TEA LEAVES

Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas. What we’re reading… “GDP grew even faster than many had anticipated in the last three months of the year — by an annual rate of 3.3 percent, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis — offering fresh evidence that federal policymakers have managed to bring down inflation and secure a “soft landing” without major repercussions for workers or the economy. “It’s just a perfect report: Strong growth and low inflation,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “Everything contributed to growth: Consumers, businesses, government, housing, trade, inventories. All of the economic wheels were moving in the same direction.” Government policy played an important role in supporting the economy last year. The Biden administration’s efforts to fund new infrastructure and clean energy projects have created new jobs and spurred $640 billion in private investments around the country.” WaPo 1/25/24 If this is what doddering, old, and senile gets us, we’ll take it. “More news dropped today about the damage MAGA Republicans are doing to the United States. A report published today in JAMA Internal Medicine estimates that in the 14 states that outlawed abortion after the Supreme Court’s June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, 64,565 women became pregnant after being raped, “but few (if any) obtained in-state abortions legally.”   Texas topped the list, with 45% of the rape-related pregnancies occurring within the state, researchers estimated. Ninety-one percent of the estimated rape-related pregnancies took place in states without exceptions for rape, according to the researchers.” NBC News 1/25/24 Punchbowl News confirmed this evening that although MAGA Republicans have insisted the border is such a crisis that no aid to Ukraine can pass until it is addressed, Trump is preventing congressional action on the border because he wants to run on the issue of immigration. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told a closed meeting of Senate Republicans that “the nominee” wants to run his campaign on immigration, adding, “We don’t want to do anything to undermine him.” “We’re in a quandary,” McConnell said.  Choosing between one guy who’s not, and won’t be, in office again and the #1 chosen issue you say is destroying the country shouldn’t be a quandary. Unless you consider whether or not to make a losing deal with the devil a quandary. And a personal favorite… Trump posted a threat to donors: “Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley is very bad for the Republican Party and, indeed, our Country…. Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them and will not accept them.”  Still think you’ve bet on the right horse?