'Empathy has taken a hard hit'
| Inflation rages like it's 1982  Democrats can warn about the twilight of democracy, investigate former President Donald Trump's crimes against the Constitution and mobilize against the planetary threat of climate change. But at a time of soaring prices -- epitomized by the worst inflation figures in 39 years -- and with supermarket shelves emptying, it's hard to get the attention of Americans.
New government figures showed Tuesday that the US consumer price index rose 7% over the past year, the steepest increase in prices since June 1982, when Ronald Reagan was President and E.T. was phoning home from cinemas. Secondhand cars and trucks were mostly to blame for rising prices, and food also kept going up, though at a slower rate than previous months. In one good sign, high prices for gasoline and home heating decreased marginally.
Back in 1982, inflation kept political leaders, who feared a corrosive force that could swiftly turn voters against them, up at night. But in recent decades, the inflationary monster has stayed in its lair. People are just not used to constantly rising grocery bills — one reason it's such a big deal now. And supply chain crunches brought on by the pandemic and Omicron's toll on the workforce are causing shortages of some goods, increasing a sense of malaise.
Most analysts argue that rising prices — not just in the US, but also across the world — are largely consequences of the Covid-19 crisis rather than policy errors by governments or central banks. Infectious waves have closed factories in Asian manufacturing hubs and caused chaos in transporting products to US markets, creating a spike in demand. Americans have cash to burn after two years of canceled vacations, closed restaurants and working from home — a factor also supercharging the price surge.
But politics doesn't reward nuance. President Joe Biden is in charge and he's going to get the blame. Republicans conjuring up exaggerated visions of Trump's pre-pandemic economic golden age have an open goal. Democrats already facing tough midterm elections in November aren't helped by the administration repeatedly referring to rising inflation as "transitory" — months ago. Interest rate hikes expected this year could further hurt Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.
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Thousands of crows invaded a California city  'Empathy has taken a hard hit' Nearly two years into the pandemic, medical staff are exhausted, and many are losing patience because their ordeal is being prolonged by patients who refused to get vaccinated and landed in intensive care units.
Dr. Benji Mathews, the chief of Hospital Medicine at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota, said, "We will fight and take care of every patient that comes through our walls regardless of the background, but our empathy has taken a hit."
"As someone has said before, imagine a 50-car pileup on the interstate and the roads are really icy and car number 51 is coming in, right? And that car that's coming in, they've been warned, there's roads (that) are icy, it's slippery. But why are they going into that?" Trump eyes a 2024 threat  In happier times, Trump shakes hands with Ron DeSantis, then a Republican candidate for Florida governor, in Tampa in July 2018. Trump feels like he made Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis into the Republican star that he is today. But now that DeSantis is hugely popular with the "Make America Great Again" crowd and attracting deep-pocket donors, the former President sees him as a threat to his own political future.
As CNN's Kate Sullivan writes for Meanwhile, Trump appeared to take a shot at DeSantis in a recent interview after the Florida governor dodged a question about whether he had received a booster shot. Trump didn't name DeSantis but said politicians who refuse to say whether they have been boosted are "gutless."
"They don't want to say it because they're gutless. You gotta say it. Whether you had it or not, say it," Trump told the far-right channel One America News.
Trump as a vaccine campaigner? Stranger things have happened, but not many. When the former President said last month he had received his booster shot he was booed by parts of a Texas audience. DeSantis is very aware of the anti-vaccine sentiment among the base, and when he was asked on Fox in December whether he had received his booster, he sidestepped the question.
Trump is apparently frustrated with the governor because he wants DeSantis to publicly rule out a White House bid in 2024 if he decides to run again. DeSantis has maintained his only objective is getting reelected as governor in November and has privately told Trump he won't challenge him, CNN has reported. But Trump won't be satisfied until he says it publicly, which is something DeSantis has so far avoided doing.
Trump also wants credit for DeSantis' political celebrity because he plucked him from near-obscurity in 2017 when he endorsed his bid for governor. DeSantis was a congressman at the time and was far behind the state's agriculture commissioner in the race. But after Trump's endorsement, DeSantis shot up like a rocket.
The Florida Republican has since raised his national profile during the pandemic and been one of President Joe Biden's top critics. He has attracted support from the GOP base with his resistance to public health restrictions and opposition to federal vaccination mandates. He recently signed a bill that made Florida the first state with a law imposing fines on companies that require Covid-19 vaccinations as a condition of employment. And DeSantis has turned his governorship into a platform for the causes that will drive the Republican primary in 2024, like bans on transgender athletes in girls' sports, immigration and "election integrity."
No wonder Trump has his eye on him. Thanks for reading. On Thursday, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau chairs a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Vienna, with tensions over security in Europe and Russia set to be discussed. EU foreign ministers gather in Brest, France, for an informal meeting to discuss international affairs. Italians commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster, in which 32 people were killed after the ship sgtruck rocks and sank as it approached the Tuscan island of Giglio. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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