Also on today’s menu:
Build Back Better With Clean Energy
Threats To GOP Advantage
Governor Chris Sununu’s Executive Order 2022-1, signed on February 9, establishes the Governor’s Commission on Cryptocurrencies and Digital Assets, which over the next 180 days will look into the current status of the cryptocurrency and digital asset industry, review federal and state laws and regulatory rules, and hear testimony on “appropriate regulatory regimes from business, finance, academic, and non-profit sectors, government and regulatory officials, owners of digital assets, and consumers of digital asset financial services.”
In his order, Sununu noted the state’s role in laying the foundation of the current international economic system 77 years ago. The Bretton Woods Conference that took place in July 1944 at the Mount Washington Hotel brought delegates from 44 Allied nations to negotiate and sign the Bretton Woods Agreements which created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
The new commission will comprise the attorney-general or designee; the commissioner of the Bank Department, or designee; one state senator recommended by the Senate president; one state representative recommended by the speaker of the House; one representative of the New Hampshire Bankers Association, appointed by the governor; one representative of the Cooperative Credit Union Association, appointed by the governor; three public members who have experience with cryptocurrencies and digital assets, appointed by the governor; and three other members appointed by the governor. The commission will submit its findings and recommendations to the governor, the speaker of the House, and the president of the Senate.
Build Back Better With Clean Energy
Speaking to executives of the electric utility industry, President Joe Biden said on February 9, “the clean energy companies of this [infrastructure] plan are about lowering prices. … It’s about reducing family energy bills while protecting the grid from extreme weather and making power more reliable.
“And it’s also about jobs. … The investment is going to support the creation of hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs all across the country and how it flows from this — what you’re all about to do, or God willing.
“And it’s going to make us more economically competitive while reducing pollution and improving public health, and helping us meet the moment on climate change — the most important piece of it, in my view.”
Threats To GOP Advantage
Polls are unreliable, but indications are that the Republican Party is in a good position to take back many of the congressional seats lost to Democrats, in part due to the schism between members of the Democrat party over how progressive they should be. However, divisions within the Grand Old Party are now becoming apparent, due to the Republican National Committee’s statement while censuring representatives Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for “participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse” on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Add to that Trump’s own statement that, if elected president in 2024, he would pardon the insurrectionists, and the GOP advantage seems to be in trouble.
Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell found it necessary to push back against the RNC’s claim. “We saw what happened,” he told reporters. “It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”
With so many Republicans still aligning with Trump and against of the U.S. Constitution, the party is showing strains that can bring down the once-proud party of Lincoln and of Eisenhower. Some still hold onto Eisenhower’s platform of “in all those things which deal with our form of government and finances, be conservative. On all those things which deal with the people, be liberal.” They are starting to stand up against those who would abandon democracy for their own personal power.
McConnell? He is no Eisenhower Republican, but he is savvy enough to understand that Americans will not elect a party that condones violence as “legitimate political discourse.” As unscrupulous as he has been in his dealings with Democrats, McConnell can recognize that damage that RNC statement has done.
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