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Liberal groups feel president Obama has lost the leverage he had after the McConnell-Biden fiscal cliff deal of Jan. 1, 2013, saying this only sets the stage for talk of spending cuts.

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Protestors on the side of governor Walz and mayor Frey both Democrats opposing the efforts of federal law enforcement create a situation where a car driven by Renee Good moves into the area with parked officers and leads to alleged car ramming and shots fired. An impasse in Minneapolis, with federal law enforcement efforts of immigration laws to remove migrants with criminal records opposed by Walz and Frey.  Following a surge in immigration under Biden, similar to that in World War II surge of migrants, which was followed by Operation Wetback in 1954 under Eisenhower. Walz was vice presidential candidate under Harris for the presidential election won by DJT. Political infighting and a alleged misuse of state funds have complicated the efforts. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem says today that the federal law enforcement by DHS had worked in Tennessee in cutting crime and made the city of Nashville safer, that there a Democrat Mayor had cooperated with federal law officers.She says about 490 people with criminal records were released into the city of Minneapolis by the state and local authorites under Walz and Frey, and not turned over as requested by DHS and Noem, under US law. On January 24, 2026, a man with a handgun and magazine of ammunition was in protests and in a confrontation with law enforcement was shot by a 6 year veteran of the federal law enforcement force. ...

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Michael Bennet in Colorado, Paul Hodes in New Hampshire, both Democratic candidates, are campaigning for austerity cuts to reduce the deficit. Paul Hodes suggested $3 billion in spending cuts that would remove airport, railroad and housing funds. As Democrats shift to deficit reduction and reducing spending, to keep up with shifting public sentiment; Republican candidates are shifting to radical solutions to reduce the deficit, including shutting down some federal agencies. This may result in an entirely different Congress ater the midterm elections- one focussed on deficit reduction just as the economy slows down as stimulus fades, and local governments cut back.

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No less than the Editorial Board of the NYT says  Democrats have their heads in the sand when it comes to reflecting honestly about transgender -with the Cass Commission of Britain's NHS advising serious caution- and social issues. Lack of acceptance about the need for strong action on issues of trade that have hurt ordinary Americans with the destruction of manufacturing and the middle class. Some of this was done with Biden taking a stand on trade by keeping the DJT tariffs on China, and supporting US manufacturing. But this was not enough- stronger action was needed especially with strong tariffs action as the last resort needed to get Canada, Mexico and China to stop fentanyl flows to the US in 2025 and protect the middle and working class in the US in their neighborhoods.  Yet on immigration the NYT does not come flat out and say that opening up the border was the single biggest error of the Biden administration. And a failure to talk openly to the American people in a fireside chat reminiscent of FDR about Venezuela and Mexico. Part of the reason was a misconception about American power when it could be used to good purposes and has been in history. The Monroe doctrine of the 1820's asserted American right to prevent colonial powers returning to the American continent north and south. This was a good idea and helped this continent develop freely and independently. The US has a right to prevent migrant trafficking and fentanyl flows in its backyard in the American continent, including taking economic action, when it causes serious disruption leading to 7 million refugees and millions of migrants crossing borders. It also has a right to create an even playing field for trade, that not DJT alone but advisers with great experience, Robert Lighthizer, Deputy Trade Representative under Reagan- who negotiated with 1980's Japan on the same grounds as we do with China today- strongly advise the president to do.   ...

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President Biden gives a rousing speech to the unions and the AFL-CIO, reminiscent of Lincoln's speeches as he debated Stephen Douglas in the struggle for the emancipation in the 1850's.

"Wall Street did'nt build this country, the middle class built this country. And the unions built the middle class. I'm not joking, without unions there would be no middle class. That's a fact."

Recalling the long lines for food during the pandemic-

"Ordinary people waiting in line for an hour for a box of food. And the policies in the past created more billionaires in the past than never before in our history." 

"Laying a strong foundation for the future of this country is more than having strong roads and bridges. It is about making sure, that here in America, folks who work hard can live their lives with dignity and respect."

 

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How president Biden is listening to new voices such as Chris Murphy on what economic, social and national model America should base its future on . Tech monopolies, Big Phama, Billionaires paying 8.2% tax and resisting fair taxes, Citizens United keeping out people interested in public service who don't want to raise money from corporations asking favors (Pharma, Tech monopolies). How Biden says his model in a folksy Scranton sort of way about his grandfather saying "Joey just remember" yet has the basics right about investing in the Nation, Fair Taxes that cut Deficits yet rebuild the dilapidated Infrastructure and creates Jobs, Renewable Energy target for 2035 to tackle Climate change.  And Harris as AG bringing her approach to tackle big corporate power and specific down to earth cost of living action +child care action, + housing costs action,  and Walz bringing experience from a large upper midwestern state in implementing climate change action, wage and income improvement, student debt and educational opportunity for all. This is a strong beginning and we build from here as the foundations are laid down for the future to create an Opportunity for All Economy. Making the effort bipartisan in the spirit of the legislation that Biden has achieved with Republicans senior leaders Cornyn, McConnell, and With Lankford on immigration legislation that will be a top priority for Harris to sign into law. ...

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  In a way that recalls FDR Biden backed dockworkers on wages that fell behind.  Former Fed Governor chief economist at the White House, Lael Brainard, together with the Transportation and Labor Secretaries Buttigieg and Julie Su, with White House chief of staff Zient, all in a Zoom call at 5.30 am with shipping company management in the EU and Asia. Brainard made proposal the shipping companies accepted for 62% increase in wages over 6 years, increasing top wages $24. The dockworkers union Longshoreman's Association asked for 77%, a decent share in the large shipping company profits after decades when wages lagged behind cost of living. Zient told the shipping companies in that Zoom call- “I need the offer today — not tomorrow. I’m going to brief the president in an hour that you believe you can get this done today.” Stein, Duncan and Gurley tell the extraordinary story of how Biden backed the call for raising 45,000 workers wages on the port docks along the East.  Coast. ...

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Jon Tester seeks another term as Senator of Montana. Senate control by party could depend on Montana, says WSJ.

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How the Simpson-Bowles Commission recommendations on reducting tax expenditures and the Romney, Feldstein proposals to limit tax deductions and loopholes to make the rich pay more- at the same time as the tax code is simplified with lower rates- offer a basis for moving towards a deficit reduction plan that has support on both sides of the aisle in Congress, of Democrats and Republicans. Jeb Hensarling and Pat Toomey are the Republican members on the Supercommittee to address deficit reduction, who support a balanced approach to raise revenue from taxes and spending. Obama advisor, Chrisitina Romer sees the Simpson-Bowles approach to limting tax deductions as a good starting point for building an agreement. Romer goes so far as to say let the Republicans in Congress decide on infrastructure project selection as there so many worthy infrastructure improvement projects that getting started would be the main objective.

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This WSJ editorial says the IMF must help Ukraine with emergency financing, and the U.S. and Germany need to offer long term economic assistance.

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Rep. Jake Auchinloss of Massachusetts views of breakdown in social order through lack of access to housing, childcare, automobiles, and groceries at affordable prices. Congressman Jake Auchinloss of Massachusetts talks about the need for order-the need for care, fairness, authority, and loyalty as a form of social order. Reference to the cost disease that makes housing, health care, automobiles, the basics less accessible than in the period 1960-1990. The symptoms of a breakdown of social order visible when such basics are missing. The cost of child care and the mental health issues created by social media add to the burden on parents and young people. The breakdowns at the border and drug trafficking, monopolies in tech with other priorities than the Nation's, and lack of resolute action, add to the anxiety of people about the social order fracturing. 

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With inflation up, cost of living increase, the $15 per hour wage in high cost of living states such as California and New York does not go very far in tackling cost of living in 2026. Astoundingly 20 states many in the SOuth still follow the $7.25 per hour federal minimum wage that has not changed since 2009. Axios shows the minimum wage by state. In Michigan workers in youth age earn 85% of the minimum wage of $12.80 and hour. As workers lost leverage with the decline of trade unions since the 1990's administrations of Clinton, Bush, Obama, the situation is a difficult one for lower wage workers in many states. The lower wages in retail and hospitality industries also creates downward pressure on all wages which have not kept up till recently in auto and other manufacturing industries. Outshoring increased pressures over the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations and as Democrats failed to do much about outshoring, it took a Republican DJT and Democrat Biden who followed to reverse the trend and create a push for higher wages. This also has failed as inflation surged during 2022-2023 and outshoring created new problems in sourcing parts from overseas in autos and other industries. The middle class is also not much better off and engineers making $90,000 a year are also living from paycheck to paycheck, with less access to housing that has gone up in price and become less affordable. This cost of living surge and the open borders migration pressure on public services led to DJT's reelection in 2025. ...

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Mead on Greenland and DJT at Davos- he says in WSJ that Europe and US have a lot in common. From the way the media handled it it played right into Mette Frederiksen of Denmark's effort to portray the US in a colonial light when the colonial power on record is Denmark which followed the British, the Dutch and the Spanish in setting up colonial empires, but just failed to compete and sold off its colonies one by one to the US or traded it for territory. Denmark has along dispute with Germany on Schlewig-Holstein. Germany's Merz avoided the rhetoric and his foreign minister Wadephul emphasized importance of Greenland for security of Europe and indirectly of the eastern seaboard of the US. Germany and Italy meet Feb 12 and both coungries will work with the US. Britain's Starmer joined the Nordic countries in protest with its own colonial record providing some of the darkest hours for China during the Opium Wars. Farage and Conservatives see Greenland would be best in US control for US and European security. This means much of Europe is still with the US on the Greenland issue though misrepresentations of the US position by Denmark and many Democrats continue because of a certain inveterate opposition to DJT, with no mention of Admiral Robert Peary's discoveries in north of Greenland in the 1890's (for US Navy), and Democrat Harry Truman's offer of $100 million for Greenland in 1947, going back to Secretary of State Seward's effort to add Greenland to the Alaska Purchase in 1867. ...

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To better reflect a diverse electorate in the presidential nominating process in the state primary elections president Biden is proposing including states with more union voters and diversity. South Carolina comes first with more union and diverse voters, then Iowa and New Hampshire with more rural voters, then Michigan with more union voters, followed by Georgia.

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The entire campaign could be settled here in North Carolina as Harris with 20 offices in the state, and tens of thousands of more volunteers, the energy of popular two term Roy Cooper Democratic governor of the state, work to get the support of voters in the Raleigh Durham area as well as rural voters in the western parts of the state.

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What Kamala Harris stands for on behalf of the workers and families of America, on behalf of the American people, for in Carl Sandburg's immortal poem "The People, Yes!" and for people struggling to make a living with food and housing costs, in the words of Tim Walz at the Democratic Convention- "So this is the part — clip and save it, and send it to your undecided relatives so they know: If you’re a middle-class family, or trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes. If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to help make it more affordable. And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves, and it’s what we want for our neighbors." ...

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Magdalena Andersson of the Social Democrats, joins Mette Frederiksen in Denmark as the first female prime minister in Sweden. Both are from the Social Democrats. She won by a single vote after an agreement with the Left Party to increase payments to pensioners, and alliance with the Greens. Under Sweden's strange and different system a minority vote can lead to formation of government- Andersson was elected with more votes against than in favor, 117 members of parliament in favor, 174 against, and 57 abstentions.  It is more about members not voting against so that in Sweden's system one has an absolute majority as a party if fewer than 175 parliamentarians oppose. This also means the budget that will pass will be the opposition's budget and Social Democrat Andersson will remain as prime minister, as opposition parties prefer Social democrats to right leaning anti immigrant parties. Today Germany's Social Democrat Olaf Scholz and Greens Habeck as "senior Minister," Elena Baerbock as foreign minister, are leading a new government in Germany. Social Democrats and Greens have undertaken the task of renewing investment in infrastructure and modernizing their countries in Northern Europe. ...

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With tumbling popularity of Trump among college educated suburban voters, especially women, elections in suburbs of San Diego, Kansas City, Orlando, Minneapolis and other cities , where Mitt Romney won handily in 2012 are now competitive. This report in the NYT says Trump is so unpopular in these areas that Trump is at risk of losing by double digits in such places.