Weekend comments from readers.

December 4, 2022

My wife and I are on 48-hour weekend babysitting duty, so this will be short and sweet—and mainly intended to open the Comments section to all readers. As always, please be respectful, use paragraph breaks to enhance readability for longer comments, and “like” worthy comments to promote them to the top of the Comments section for other readers.

On Friday, the nation received more good economic news: Per the NYTimes:

Unemployment remains near a half-century low, the Labor Department reported on Friday. As it recovers steep pandemic losses, the economy has already added more jobs through November than in any other year on record, except for 2021, Mr. Biden’s first in office.

You read that right: Job growth during each of Biden’s first two years in office has been more “than in any other year on record.” Inflation remains a stubborn problem, in large part due to wage growth caused by the pandemic labor shortage—something over which Biden has no control.

More good news on the litigation front against election-denialism in Arizona. A federal judge imposed monetary penalties (“sanctions”) against Kari Lake’s lawyers—including Alan Dershowitz—for making “false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions” in their complaint that sought to force Arizona to use hand-counted paper ballots only in the midterm elections. See Law & Crime, Judge Sanctions Kari Lake’s Legal Team, Which Includes Alan Dershowitz, for ‘Recklessly’ Filing ‘False, Misleading, and Unsupported’ Claims in Election Lawsuit.

The sanctions against Kari Lake’s lawyers are important because they put other lawyers on notice that alleging baseless conspiracy theories in court will adversely affect their professional standing. In most states, lawyers who are sanctioned must “self-report” the sanctions to the state bar, which will then open a disciplinary investigation. Moreover, the findings that the complaint made “false, misleading, and unsupported factual assertions” will help deflate Kari Lake’s conspiracy narrative. Good.

There are many important stories percolating through the political landscape and I can’t comment on all of them in the newsletter. I rely on reader feedback to help me identify and address issues that are important to this newsletter community. Add your voice to the conversation in the Comments section this weekend. I read every reader comment with interest!

Have a good weekend! Talk to you on Monday!