The War Comes to Moscow; Student Loan Relief and Inflation; Donald Trump vs. Mitch McConnell’s Wife
Author: Greg Valliere
August 23, 2022
WHO KILLED DARIA DUGINA? The daughter of far-right nationalist Alexander Dugin died in a car bombing that Russian officials immediately blamed on Ukraine. But experts believe it may have come from the National Republican Army, a militant group opposed to the war. It labels Putin a “war criminal.”
DUGINA WAS KILLED in the uber-wealthy Moscow suburb known as Rublyovka, where many members of Russia’s ruling class own sprawling villas. Everyone seemingly has a bodyguard; the pro-war elite — now targets — worry about who will be next.
OUTSIDE OF MOSCOW, Ukrainian guerrillas and allies clearly have Russia worried. Whether in Crimea or southern Russia, military installations are now targeted. The Russian front lines in the war have been penetrated with impunity. And throughout Russia, inflation is surging and wages aren’t keeping up, as in most of the world.
PUTIN’S REACTION TO TERRORISM IN MOSCOW probably will be to ramp up missile attacks on Ukraine; Kyev could be vulnerable, as could Ukrainian nuclear facilities. Putin has to worry about a domestic war at home, but he still has cards to play — including a natural gas trump card that could do huge damage to Western Europe’s fragile economy.
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PRESIDENT BIDEN HAS EXASPERATED HIS STAFF by delaying a student loan relief package until the very last minute, an Aug. 31 deadline. Leaks this morning, including a report on the CNN web site, assert that the Biden proposal will extend the moratorium on loan payments while forgiving $10,000 in debt for people earning less than $125,000 per year.
THAT EXECUTIVE ORDER has been on the table for months, as Biden listened to proposals from the left to excuse up to $50,000 in debt — prompting a public dispute between Progressives and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
SUMMERS SAID YESTERDAY THAT “Student loan debt relief is spending that raises demand and increases inflation. It consumes resources that could be better used helping those who did not, for whatever reason, have the chance to attend college.”
SUMMERS ADDED that student loan relief “will also tend to be inflationary by raising tuitions.” Most Americans believe the proposal will increase inflation, according to a CNBC poll. By waiting this long, Biden has encouraged the opponents of loan relief, who will cite the warnings from Summers.
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DONALD TRUMP VS. ELAINE CHAO: The snarling feud between the ex-president and the Senate Minority Leader has intensified. Trump issued a statement yesterday blasting McConnell as a “broken down hack politician,” and then ripped McConnell’s “crazy” wife Chao, who has served as Labor Secretary and Transportation Secretary.
CHAO HAS HELPED HER FAMILY “get rich on China,” Trump claimed, referring to charges that she steered business to her family’s shipping company. The Justice Department declined to press charges against Chao.
THE SOURCE OF THIS BITTER FEUD is McConnell’s assertion that the Republicans have weak candidates — many endorsed by Trump — who cannot prevail in November, as we wrote last Friday. One of those candidates, Herschel Walker, has opposed spending money on climate change. Walker said on Sunday: “Don’t we have enough trees around here?”
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