Excerpts from Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ speech to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, Sunday afternoon …

“I have spoken to state and local officials, both Republicans and Democrats to let them know we will be with you every step of the way as you recover (from Hurricane Helene). Because at times like these we stand together as one nation. That is who we are. …

“I’m going to tell ya, it’s going to be a tight race, ‘till the very end. And we are running as the underdog, so we have some hard work ahead of us, but we like hard work. Hard work is good work, and with your help, in 23 days, we will win.”

[CROWD CHANTS: “We will win! We will win!”]

“This election really is about two very different visions for our nation. One, his, focused on the past, the other, mine, focused on the future. … 

“And here’s the thing, North Carolina, he’s not being transparent with voters. He’s not being transparent. So, check this out. He refuses to release his medical records. I’ve done it. Every other presidential candidate in the modern era has done it. …

“He’s unwilling to do a 60 Minutes interview. Like every other major party candidate has done for half a century. He is unwilling to meet for a second debate. And here’s the thing; it makes you wonder. It makes you wonder. Why does his staff want him to hide away? Are they afraid that people see that he is too weak and unstable to lead  America?”

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MONDAY 10/14/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Harris’ Highlight Clip – Vice President Kamala Harris began hitting back at Donald J. Trump at her campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, Monday with a 30-second video clip of the ex-president repeatedly kvetching about “the enemy within” (see “Trump on Fox Business,” this column below). 

“Please roll the clip,” Harris began (per NPR’s Morning Edition). 

As with Maria Bartiromo, Trump in his highlight reel suggests political opponents should be jailed or dealt with by police or military force violently.

“He is out for unchecked power,” Harris tells her crowd. “That’s what he’s looking for.”

From Pennsylvania -- identified by pundits in recent days as the swing state to end all swing states -- Harris’ appeal appears both desperate (how is this election so close?) and confident, as in; this should turn independent voters who likewise fear authoritarianism toward her.

Up next … Harris is scheduled to take questions from Charlamagne Tha God, host of The Breakfast Club at 5 pm Eastern/2 pm Pacific Tuesday, and make her first-ever appearance on Fox News at 6 pm Eastern/3 Pacific Wednesday on Special Report with Brett Baier. 

Let’s dance … Appearing with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem in suburban Philadelphia Monday, Trump interrupted his rally when two people in the crowd needed medical attention. The ex-president turned the rally into a dance party, with Trump getting down and getting funky to his adopted theme song, The Village People’s YMCA. Upon hearing about the MAGA Soul Train, Harris said, “I hope he’s okay,” Newsweek reports. 

To the Garden … Donald J. Trump is so looking forward to his October 27 rally, nine days before the presidential election, scheduled for New York City’s Madison Square Garden. 

“I’m gonna fill the garden,” Trump has boasted to a confidant who passed the comment on anonymously to the anti-MAGA conservative outlet, The Bulwark. Home of the New York Knicks, Madison Square Garden seats nearly 20,000.

--TL

_______________________________________________

MONDAY 10/14/24

Trump on Fox Business – Why, Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo wanted to know, is there not more talk about two recent assassination attempts on Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump? Bartiromo obviously was prompting the former president to comment on “liberal” media and how outlets like Fox News were making a big thing of it (much as conservative media makes a big thing about illegal southern border crossings).

“I don’t want to say ‘conspiracy theorists’ and all that, but you could ask that question.” Trump asserted that investigators – presumably the FBI, though he did not specify – has confiscated six phones in one of the two cases and have not unlocked any of them to investigate content.

“Maybe they don’t want to do it,” Trump said, live from the Fox Business studio Sunday. 

He also suggested that President Biden ought to act against Iran over its apparently ongoing attempt to assassinate Trump, saying that the current president should threaten that unless Trump is left alone, “We’re going to blow your whole damn country up – and they’ll stop it.”

Trump told Bartiromo the border issue is “bigger than inflation” (perhaps because the Consumer Price Index came down to 2.4% in September) and criticized the White House hurricane response, particularly in North Carolina and “parts of Georgia.” (He also praised Republican governors’ leadership in the response in those swing states.)

Chaos agents Does Trump expect chaos on election day? Bartiromo asked.

“No, not from the side that votes for Trump. … The bigger problem is from people within.”

As is his modus operandi, Trump turned the tables on Democrats and never-MAGA Republicans who express worry over Trump’s anti-democratic tendencies. The ex-president did this table-turning by suggesting more authoritarian action.

“We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical-left lunatics,” Trump said. “And it should be really very easily handled, if necessary by National Guard and if really necessary by military. Because they can’t let that happen.”

Trump does not have to buy their support, but … The National Border Patrol Council, self-described as “the guardians of non-supervisory border patrol agents and support personnel assigned to the US Border Patrol” has endorsed Trump for president, the Arizona Republic reports, as the former president has “pledged to hire thousands of new agents” with a $10,000 signing bonus.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/14/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Excerpts from Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, Saturday…

“Early voting by mail. We’re finally there. Take back our country. Early voting by mail and in-person opened in Arizona this week. So, if you have a ballot, return it immediately and if not go vote – get your you-know-what up and vote. …

“And with your help we are going to win Arizona and we’re going to defeat Ka-ma-la. Ka-ma-la. She shouldn’t be running …

“She didn’t get any votes. Say what you want about Biden, I’m not a fan of Biden, but you know what? He got 14 million votes. She got none. I’m the one that has to beat two people, not one. You know, everyone else. Historically, in history you had to beat one. I got to beat two. They never made it easy for us, but she’s going to be easy – I have a feeling that he would have been tougher than her.

“But we’re going to usher in a new golden age of American success, for the citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. …

“What Kamala and her radical left cronies have done to the state of Arizona is a crime that can never be forgiven. What they’ve done to us and what they’ve done to the border can never be forgiven.”

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MONDAY 10/14/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

President Biden gave a strong rebuke to the lies, distortions and conspiracy theories made by the Trump/Vance campaign in the wake of Hurricanes Helene and Milton Wednesday, as reported in the center column. 

In the right column, Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay examines Trump’s tariff policy and how the ex-president sent coveted coronavirus test kits to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, as reported by The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward in his latest book, War

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung called Woodward’s book the “work of a truly demented and deranged man who suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome. None of these made-up stories … are true.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed delivery of the test kits from Trump to Putin but denied that Trump as ex-president made secret calls to Putin, as described in War.

As we quickly approach the November 5 presidential election, we welcome your civilly stated comments on these and other pertinent issues, whether you approach this news from the left or right, never-Trump or pro-MAGA.

Go to the COMMENTS section of the left or right columns, or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Read our newsletter and subscribe for free at thehustings.substack.com.

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THURSDAY 10/10/24

Inflation continues to ease, as the Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in September for an annual rate of +2.4%, compared with +2.5% in August and +2.9% in July. Real average hourly earnings for all employees also rose 0.2% in September, the Labor Department reports Thursday. The CPI index for all items less food and energy was +0.3% last month, and up 3.3% annually. [CHART: US Bureau of Labor Statistics] 

FRIDAY 10/11/24

Where Are the Candidates? – Perennially nervous Democrats are “second-guessing” the Harris/Walz campaign strategy, according to FiveThirtyEight, which quotes the website VoteHub’s tracker of campaign events. Turns out that neither Democratic candidate Kamala Harris nor GOP candidate Donald J. Trump are exactly tearing up the campaign trail, though when they do so, it’s very much in the swing-states. From August 23 to October 9, Trump has held 39 public events to Harris’ 28, says VoteHub.

•••

Trump v. Detroit – In what Politico describes as “a rambling, two-hour speech” to the Detroit Economic Club – which means it’s modeled after one of his outdoor campaign rallies -- Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump drew applause for promising to “revolutionize” and revitalize the auto industry. That means in part scrubbing the Biden administration’s unspent billions to promote electric vehicles and raising tariffs on Mexican-built Chinese cars to as much as 1,000%. 

Trump also proposes another devastatingly expensive tax gimme; to make new vehicle loans “fully deductible.” Trump’s myriad proposed tariff hikes presumably would help pay for this (Politico quotes Federal Reserve data that show $1.6 trillion in securitized auto loans for the first half of the year), which means higher auto prices for everyone.

Most striking, though, is that Trump insulted the steadily revitalizing city of Detroit in order to attack opponent Kamala Harris.

“The whole country will be like – you want to know the truth? It’ll be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she’s your president,” Trump said. 

Harris might want to return to the Motor City for a campaign appearance toot suite. While Metro Detroit maintains the usual urban v. suburban divide economically and politically, its downtown area, at least, in the last decade has become a model for other big cities in need of revitalization.

Mayor Mike Duggan, who took office in 2014 to help foster the city past its 2013 bankruptcy responded to Trump’s remarks on social media, pointing to Detroit’s drop in crime (it is on-track for its lowest homicide rate since 1966) and its growing population.

•••

Obama for Harris – Can ex-President Barack Obama sway Black men whom in myriad polls show are either leaning toward Donald J. Trump for president or are going to sit November 5 out? His campaigning for Hilary Clinton in 2016 did not push her over the top, Electoral College-wise, but the former president is taking to the stump to make his case for Kamala Harris, beginning in Pittsburgh Thursday (per The Washington Post).

“On the one hand, you have somebody who grew up like you, knows you, went to college with you, understands the struggles and pain and joy that comes from those experiences. … But in Trump, “you have someone who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the community, but for you as a person … and you’re thinking about sitting out?”

Later at a campaign office in Pittsburgh, Obama addressed young Black men who are reluctant to vote for a woman as president: “Get over it.”

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 10/10/24

Biden Has Had Enough – The first confirmed deaths from Hurricane Milton, which hit the west coast of Florida at Level 3 strength Wednesday night, was a result of tornadoes, NPR reports Thursday. President Biden addressed those in the path of Milton and evacuees of Hurricane Helene Wednesday evening from Ray City, Georgia, describing the efforts of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the face of criticism, lies, distortions and conspiracy theories by MAGA Republicans and the Trump/Vance campaign.

“We have made available an unprecedented number of assets to deal with this crisis, and we’re going to continue to do so until the job is done,” Biden said.

“But now I want to be clear about something.  Over the last few weeks, there has been a reckless, irresponsible, and relentless promotion of disinformation and outright lies that are disturbing people.  It’s undermining confidence in the incredible rescue and recovery work that has already been taken and will continue to be taken, and it’s harmful to those who need help the most.

“There is simply no place for this to happen.

“Former President Trump has led this onslaught of lies.  Assertions have been made that property is being confiscated.  That’s simply not true.

“They’re saying people impacted by these storms will receive $750 in cash and no more.  That’s simply not true. 

“They’re saying in — the money is needed to — for the — in the — for this crisis is being diverted to migrants.  What a ridiculous thing to say.  It’s not true.

Now the claims are getting even more bizarre.

“Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a congresswoman from Georgia, is now saying the federal government is literally controlling the weather — we’re controlling the weather.  It’s beyond ridiculous.  It’s got to stop.

“In moments like this, there are no red or blue states.  There’s one United States of America, where neighbors are helping neighbors; volunteers and first responders are risking everything, including their own lives, to help their fellow Americans; state, local, and federal officials are standing side by side.”

•••

No More Debates – Former President Donald J. Trump has put a definitive end to talk of one more debate with Vice President Kamala Harris before the November 5 election, Politico reports, with this post on his Truth Social network Wednesday: “THERE WILL BE NO REMATCH!” Both Fox News and CNN had offered to conduct another presidential debate.

Harris Endorsement – The Atlantic has given Democrat Kamala Harris only its fifth presidential candidate endorsement since the magazine’s founding in 1857. First was Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, then Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. Calling Republican candidate Donald J. Trump “one of the most personally malignant and politically dangerous candidates in American history,” the magazine has endorsed his Democratic opponents twice before; Hilary Rodham Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 10/10/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Stephen Macaulay

One of the things that is underappreciated about Donald Trump is that he is a presidential historian.

How else to explain his pronouncements about William McKinley, 25th president of the United States?

Trump is bullish about McKinley because what is known as the “McKinley Tariff of 1890.” McKinley wasn’t president at the time of the act’s passage. He was a member of the House of Representatives. But when he was elected, McKinley pursued protectionist policies. So the Idol of Ohio is, well, an idol for at least one person. (You’d think JD Vance, fellow Ohioan, would talk up McKinley, but evidently economics isn’t his thing, fabulation is.)

Trump, of course, wants to apply tariffs to a greater extent than he did in his time in office. (To be fair, Biden has maintained many of them.)

But while Trump describes the dream of across-the-board tariffs of something of a panacea for all the economic woes of all Americans, according to the Tax Foundation, a non-partisan research organization that is thought to be business-friendly:

“The Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades.”

Tax increase?

According to the headline of a “fact sheet” produced by the White House on February 5, 2018, “President Donald J. Trump Achieved the Biggest Tax Cuts and Reforms in American History.”

Turns out, however, that wasn’t the case, as the Economic Recovery Act of 1981 signed by Ronald Reagan was. In fact, The Revenue Act of 1964 (Johnson),  1945 (Truman), 1948 (Truman), and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (Obama) were all bigger.

And then there’s that assessment of the Tax Foundation.

Well, no one said he is an economic historian.

But on the subject of American history, let’s go back to January 30, 1799, when the Logan Act was signed into law.

As the act opens:

“Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”

Vladimir Putin leads Russia. Russia is an enemy of the United States.

Yet Donald Trump is evidently his pal.

According to Bob Woodward’s forthcoming book War, after Trump left office he communicated with Putin an alleged seven times.

While we don’t know that to be the case, let’s consider this from the debate with Kamala Harris, when Trump was asked about the Russian attack on Ukraine:

“I want to get the war settled. I know Zelenskyy very well and I know Putin very well. I have a good relationship. And they respect your president. Okay? They respect me. They don't respect Biden. How would you respect him? Why? For what reason? He hasn't even made a phone call in two years to Putin. Hasn't spoken to anybody. They don't even try and get it. That is a war that's dying to be settled. I will get it settled before I even become president. If I win, when I'm President-elect, and what I'll do is I'll speak to one, I'll speak to the other, I'll get them together. That war would have never happened. And in fact when I saw Putin after I left, unfortunately left because our country has gone to hell, but after I left when I saw him building up soldiers, he did it after I left, I said oh, he must be negotiating. It must be a good strong point of negotiation.”

He also said:

“And I'll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I'm President-elect, I'll get it done before even becoming president.”

Sounds like he and Putin have kept a line open. And the Logan Act is still in effect.

But there is something that is claimed in Woodward’s book — and let’s face it, outside, primarily, members of Team Trump who cast aspersions in abundance with no factual basis for them, Woodward’s reporting has proven to be solid over the years — that should be more disturbing than Trump and Putin having a jaw-boning session about who knows what:

Trump, in 2020, reportedly sent Putin COVID testing equipment.

Equipment that was in short supply in the U.S. in 2020. The year that, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 350,831 American citizens died from COVID.

Presumably some of those people would have been saved had there been more available testing.

America first? Really.

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THURSDAY 10/10/24

How to define a liberal? How to define a conservative?

The answers to those questions have been elusive since long before The Hustings began publishing in the autumn of 2020. But the ascendence of Donald J. Trump’s political career as he descended his Golden Elevator in 2015 has made the issue of how to define “left” and “right” even more acute. 

Is former US Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) a RINO for endorsing Kamala Harris for president? How liberal is Harris herself after reversing her stand on fracking?

We are always up for debating such arguments at The Hustings, but if Cheney wants to write a column for us (email us, Ms. Cheney, at editors@thehustings.news) we certainly will post it in the right column, not the left because she may or may not be, officially, a Republican, but she certainly remains a conservative.

In today’s right column, Rich Corbett, a regular reader and occasional contributing pundit for the conservative side calls out The Hustings for posting criticism of Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, in that right column.

And that is what the right – and left – columns are for: civil commentary from pundits and readers from various points on the political spectrum and to foster political discussion with respect for the facts and for readers and writers who may not agree with your point of view. 

The Hustings invites you to join the discussion. Go to the Comments section in any of these columns or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your leanings – from moderate liberal to hard-left/progressive or moderate conservative to hard-right/populist in the subject line. 

Don’t forget our regular newsletter/blogs at thehustings.substack.com.

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WEDNESDAY 10/9/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

SCOTUS will hear arguments Wednesday on whether Oklahoma must execute Richard Glossip, who seeks a new trial in a murder case for which he has been on Death Row for 27 years. Meanwhile, SCOTUSblog's analysis of justices' questions in Tuesday's oral arguments over ghost guns indicates it is likely the court will uphold the Biden administration's 2022 ban on the weapons. Scroll down for details.

WEDNESDAY 10/9/24

Polling is Tight – Kamala Harris leads Donald J. Trump 48.5% to 45.9% in FiveThirtyEight’s latest average of national polls, “accounting for each poll’s recency, sample size, methodology and house effects,” while battleground-state polls are even less conclusive. Among those states, Vice President Harris leads in Nevada, Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan. Ex-President Trump leads in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Texas, Florida and Montana. Most leads on either side are within the margin of error, however.

Pennsylvania, the Big Kahuna of swing states, is even.

Meanwhile … Democrats are nervous, according to The Hill, which notes that in part that’s a natural state for the party. But the concerns include “grumbling” over Harris’ interview on CBS News 60 Minutes, concerns about static poll numbers (see above), her message – GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance has attacked Harris’ response on ABC-TV’s The View that she wouldn’t do anything differently in the last four years than President Biden – and her “standing” among not only white, but also Black and Hispanic men.

•••

Ghost of a Chance – The 2024-25 Supreme Court session is just underway, and it appears that in its first big case, a majority of justices appear ready to uphold a 2022 rule by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives banning “ghost guns,” Amy Howe writes in Howe on the Court. The Supremes heard oral arguments Tuesday over ghost guns, which are defined as “unserialized, untraceable firearms.”

Howe’s blog was reposted by SCOTUSblog.

Attorney Peter Patterson, representing challengers of the ATF rule argued the bureau “exceeded its authority by operating outside the bounds set by Congress” in the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Arguing for the rule, US Solicitor Gen. Elizabeth Prelogar said the “whole reason” for obtaining a ghost gun is if you are banned by law from owning a gun, or “you want to use that gun in a crime.”

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, at least one of whom would be necessary to overturn the ban, “appeared skeptical” of the arguments of the challengers’ attorney, Patterson, Howe writes.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 10/9/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Editors:

My assumption is either only leftists are reading (the audience) or are writing (the opinion columnists) for The Hustings. Lately, the “Right” column does far more to criticize the Republican candidate running for president than to present an opposing point of view to the Democrats. Either leave it blank or fill it with an opposing POV to the radicals on the left — there’s not much balance if that’s what is supposed to be represented by the columns.

--Rich Corbett

(The author is an occasional guest pundit for The Hustings)

•••

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
WEDNESDAY 10/9/24
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What are your thoughts and hopes about the escalating war between Israel and Hamas, and now with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon? 

What are the realistic prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza before the end of the year?

Is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enabling a Trump/Vance win in the November 5 US presidential election? Would a Trump administration use Netanyahu’s proposal for Israeli judicial “reform” as a model?

As always, we seek your civil comments on these and other current issues. You can use the Comment section in this column or in the column on the right, if you lean toward political conservatism. 

Or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line. 

Sign up for our free Substack newsletter here.

•••

Don't miss these commentaries in the right column ...

"The Art of the Lie," "Laws, Schmaws" and "Advantage: Intellectual Arteriosclerosis?" by never-Trumper Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay.

"Vance Was Rock-Solid" by pro-MAGA contributor Rich Corbett.

And in the left column ...

Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay (again, this time as counterpoint on the vice presidential debate), "About Second Place."

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MONDAY 10/7/24

Harris on 60 Minutes – Scroll down to read about Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ interview with Bill Whitaker. Use the trackbar on the near right to scroll down this center column.

TUESDAY 10/8/24

October Surprise Book Club – In 2020, President Trump “secretly sent coveted” coronavirus tests to Russian dictator/President Vladmir Putin for his personal use, The Washington Post reports in a preview of Bob Woodward’s new book, War due in bookstores October 15. Counter to many Trump supporters’ reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, Putin was “petrified of the virus” Woodward writes, and cautioned Trump not to reveal he had sent the medical equipment to Moscow. 

Woodward also writes that early this year Trump ordered an aide away from his Mar-a-Lago office so he could take a call with Putin. The book offers no account of the Trump-Putin conversation.

A reminder … Meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy a week ago Friday following the United Nations General Assembly, Trump said of the Ukrainian president; “We have a very good relationship. I also have a very good relationship with President Putin, and you know I think we’re going to get (the war) resolved very quickly.”

•••

The Harris Interview – Would a Harris administration take a harder line on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he continues to resist any serious move to a ceasefire in Gaza? 

Well, maybe. In her 60 Minutes interview with Bill Whitaker Monday night, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said this; “With all due respect the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And that answer is ‘yes.’”

Assuming that means a President Kamala Harris would rely on the political will of a more moderate Israeli electorate, it does not bode well for a shift in US policy to potentially withhold arms to press for a ceasefire. 

When Whitaker pressed Vice President Harris on how her administration would pay for expansion of the child tax credit and tax breaks for first-time home buyers, key points in an economic plan that the nonpartisan Committee for Responsible Budget says will add $3 trillion to the federal debt, Harris reiterated the Biden administration argument that the richest, “who can afford it,” should pay their fair share and that good old fashioned bipartisan compromise would get Congress to pass such a plan.

“There are plenty of leaders of Congress who understand and know that the Trump tax cuts blew up the federal deficit,” she said.

About the border … Whitaker also pressed Harris on the “historic flood” of illegal immigrants crossing the border in the first three years of the Biden administration, four times the number who crossed in Donald J. Trump’s final year in office (the COVID-19 pandemic year). Harris argued that illegal immigration has been a long-time problem and that under the Biden administration the “flow” of illegal immigration and flow of fentanyl both have been cut in half.

Where’s Donald?  Whitaker explained that CBS News had an agreement with the Trump campaign to interview the Republican nominee for president – as 60 Minutes has managed since the 1968 presidential election, when the show interviewed both Richard M. Nixon and Hubert Humphrey. Ultimately, Donald J. Trump declined to appear and was interviewed on Fox News Monday night, instead.

--TL

_______________________________________________

One Year of War in Gaza

MONDAY 10/7/24

No End in Sight – On Monday, one year after Hamas’ cross-border terrorist attack on Israel, Hamas is claiming responsibility for rocket fire from Gaza to the Tel Aviv area, wounding two, according to Haaretz, which reports about 35 rockets have been fired into Israel in recent days. The Israeli Defense Force has directed northern Gaza residents to evacuate southward, while Iran has warned the IDF against retaliation for the missile attacks. 

Hamas still holds 101 hostages taken during the attacks a year ago, according to the BBC.

The region is as far away from forming a Palestinian state as it has been since the state of Israel was formed in 1948. 

Meanwhile … Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu appears to be gaining support from his constituency after facing severe criticism over being surprised by the attack one year ago. 

In President Biden’s first briefing room appearance, last Friday, he was asked whether he thought Netanyahu was trying to influence the US election. [It’s a question we asked in a Substack post last April.] Biden responded that no presidential administration has been a stronger ally of Israel than his own. But that says nothing of Biden’s relationship with Netanyahu, with whom he has been working to reach a ceasefire in Gaza for much of the last year.

“And whether he’s trying to influence the election, I don’t know,” Biden said, according to The Hill, “but I’m not counting on that.”

Clearly, he has not had any reason to count on Netanyahu, who is pressing forward in his efforts for judicial reform, even during the war. 

The Bibi Files … “Bibi” Netanyahu has been pushing these judicial reforms while under yearslong investigation, along with his wife and son, for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. His own immunity against these charges appear to rely on remaining in office.

Netanyahu is scheduled to testify in December, according to WNYC radio’s On the Media, which last weekend reported on a documentary by Alexii Bloom, The Bibi Files, which relies on leaked footage of police interrogations with the Israeli PM. 

“We all started with the fact that the prime minister does not respect the law,” says Israeli journalist Raviv Drucker in the doc. “Anyone that has dared to touch Mr. Netanyahu is doomed.”

What about Harris?  Would a Harris administration handle negotiations with Netanyahu over a cease fire agreement with Hamas any differently? It’s a crucial question, and one that may be answered too late to help Kamala Harris win the crucial swing state of Michigan, which has a large Palestinian and Middle-Eastern diaspora.

Would a President Harris take a harder line than Biden on shipping arms to Israel if Netanyahu continues to resist ceasefire in Gaza?

Do we have a “real close ally” in Netanyahu? CBS News reporter Bill Whitaker asks Harris in an interview that airs on 60 MinutesMonday night.

“I think with all due respect the better question is do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people. And the answer is ‘yes.’”

•••

The Last US Election? – World’s richest man/Bond villain/Tesla and SpaceX CEO/X-Twitter owner and “free speech absolutist” Elon Musk made his first appearance at a Trump rally last Saturday, and it probably is not his last. It was Trump’s return to Butler, Pennsylvania, site of an assassination attempt July 13, where Musk wore a black MAGA hat and a black “Occupy Mars” t-shirt, Fox News reports.

“Just to be a pest to everyone. You know, people on the street, everywhere: Vote, vote, vote!. Fight, fight, fight. Vote, vote, vote,” Musk said, and then he began jumping up and down, according to the foxnews.com account. 

What Fox News did not report (perhaps you have to watch its video) is that Musk asserted, according to The New York Times; “President Trump must win to preserve the Constitution. He must win to preserve democracy in America. If they don’t, this will be the last election. That’s my prediction.”

Maybe we won’t have to vote again whether Donald J. Trump or Kamala Harris wins the November 5 election? 

Remember that at The Believers Summit in West Palm Beach, Florida later in July, hosted by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action, Trump “called on Christians to flood the polls in November,” according to The Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact, and promised if they vote for Trump, they “won’t have to vote again” in four years.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

By Stephen Macaulay

In my neighborhood in a suburb of Detroit, the number of Trump lawn signs vastly outnumber those for Harris. The signs are graphically consistent, with the dominating factor being the names Trump and Vance. 

The differences are found just below the top of the signs.

Sometimes it says “Promises Kept.” This is a curious statement. Near as I can tell, the only promise Trump kept was to appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v. Wade. What is somewhat ironic about that situation is the pertinent justices, when questioned in the Senate about their positions regarding Roe v. Wade, cited stare decisis, saying that this is settled law. Then they, in effect, broke their implicit promises and treated it as though it wasn’t.

One of the things often noted today is that there were no wars during Trump’s term in office thanks to his mastery of international affairs, which included siding with Vladmir Putin and sending and receiving love letters to and from Kim Jong Un. Presumably that lack of a war is meant to underscore that he would “keep us safe.”

But a promise to keep us safe seems to have been shattered given that in 2020 350,821 Americans died from COVID — something that he repeatedly assured the public would “just go away.”

To be sure Trump didn’t cause COVID. But his administration’s efforts to mitigate the effects of the virus was something short of robust.

And to put that number of COVID deaths into context, 58,220 Americans died in the war in Vietnam, or 17% of the number of Americans who died from COVID during Trump’s last year in office.

Which lead to another of the slogans on the signs, the now-familiar “Make America Great Again.”

Presumably this now implies that things were “Great” during his administration. As the deaths from COVID indicate, perhaps not so much.

When Barrack Obama took office in January 2009 the U.S. unemployment rate was 7.8%. As you may recall, the economy in 2008-2009 was in horrible shape.

When Obama left office in 2017 the unemployment rate dropped to 4.7%.

So when Trump came into office he started with a 4.7% unemployment rate.

He left with a 6.4% unemployment rate.

What’s “Great” about that? Well, I guess you could say the 14.8% unemployment rate that occurred in April 2020, while he was still in office, makes that 6.4% really, really good.

And speaking of Obama, about whom Trump has nothing good to say, the average GDP growth rate during his time in office was 2.3%. He inherited the economic conditions from the Great Recession, so that’s at least positive.

One would imagine that under Trump the Gross Domestic Product soared.

Nope. 2.3%.

So how “Great” did Trump make America?

And finally, there’s this slogan on a Trump sign:

“No More Bullshit!”

This, I must confess, is a mystery to me. The Biden-Harris Administration has done plenty of things that can be vigorously criticized, but one thing that seems evident about the both of them is that they are anything but bullshit artists.

So while on that subject I submit this from a speech Trump gave on September 27 at Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan.

He opened by talking about voting. “I will, once and for all secure our elections.” There is little evidence that 2020 was unsecure, so arguably he secured that election, although he has spent the past many years arguing against that.

The next sentence, “We’re going to go to paper ballots.” Odd that there are supporters like Peter Thiel, who has made a fortune on digital technologies.

Then Trump said, “We’re going to have same-day voting, voting ID.”

But within a matter of seconds he told the crowd, “Whether you vote earlier, absentee, by mail, or in person, we are going to protect the vote.”

Didn’t he just say “We’re going to have same-day voting”? And didn’t he vote early this past August in Florida?

But people vote about the economy more than election methodologies.

Trump said:

“We had the greatest economy in the history of our country and we were just getting started actually. But we had the greatest economy, the greatest employment for everybody, men, women, African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American, everybody, young people with a diploma, without a diploma.”

Well, as we have seen, to call the economy or the employment rate “the greatest” is quite a stretch. What’s more, the current unemployment rate is 4.1%, which is better than the 6.4% he left with.

Now, Trump claimed that illegal immigrants are taking the jobs of Americans. So, of course, when the issue is immigration, he has to talk about the Wall.

Trump:

“We built more wall than I said I was going to build. And then we had 200 miles of wall ready to go. It was all fabricated, all made to the highest specifications of Border Patrol and ICE, and it was all set. And then we got more votes than any sitting president has ever gotten by far. And they say we lost the election, so let’s leave it at this. You know what? We have one coming up in 39 days, so that’ll be a wonderful replacement. 

Wonderful replacement.”

This one is really chock full of, well, bullshit.

During the 2016 campaign Trump said he’d build 1,000 miles of wall. Then he ratcheted that back to 450 miles of wall. Then when he left office U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed there were 80 miles of new wall built. There were 452 miles in total, so that means 372 miles of replacement, reconstruction and secondary wall.

Mexico paid for none of it.

And amusingly enough, during the Obama administration there were 299 miles of vehicle barriers and 350 miles of pedestrian fencing built.

Then there was the clever use of a modifier in his statement regarding the number of votes he received as a sitting president.

Obama was the last sitting president who ran for reelection prior to Trump. 

In terms of votes, Obama received 65,915,795 votes in 2012 compared with Trump’s 74,223,234 in 2020.

However, Obama’s number is 51.06% of the total votes cast in ’12 while Trump’s number is 46.8% of the total popular votes cast in ‘20.

So while, yes, Trump got more popular votes than Obama did, he got fewer votes on a percentage basis.

And then there’s the fact that Joe Biden received 81,282,632 votes, or 51.3% of the popular vote, which is even better than Obama’s 51.06% and significantly better than Trump’s 46.8%.

Final example: China. While Trump has called Xi Jinping a “brilliant man,” China is as much of a boogie man as illegal aliens.

Trump told the assembled in Warren:

“I charged hundreds of billions of dollars to China in tariffs and taxes. No other president has ever charged China 10 cents, and we’ve taken hundreds of billions of dollars.”

As the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE) wrote in July 2022, “Two years ago, President Donald Trump signed what he called a ‘historic trade deal’ with China that committed China to purchase $200 billion of additional US exports before December 31, 2021. Today the only undisputed ‘historical’ aspect of that agreement is its failure.”

Huh? Isn’t he the consummate dealmaker?

PIIE continues, “In the end, China bought only 58% of the US exports it had committed to purchase under the agreement, not even enough to reach its import levels from before the trade war. Put differently, China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump’s deal promised.”

Where do those “hundreds of billions of dollars” come from? Well, a non-trivial amount is from the pockets of people like those in Warren, every time they shop for goods at the local Walmart that are made in China. They are paying the price of tariffs.

The truth is hard. Bullshit is easy.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, writing primarily for the right column.

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MONDAY 10/7/24

That question is still up for debate at The Hustings. Email editors@thehustings.news with your thoughts and with your political leanings (independent of your pick for winner in the Vance v. Walz event) in the subject line.

Scroll down this page with the trackbar on the far right to read our center-column analysis, “Ohio Normal Meets Minnesota Nice,” with right-column commentary by guest contributing pundit Rich Corbett and left-column commentary by Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay.

You’ll not that Macaulay is back in the right column at the top of the page with his latest commentary, “Laws, Schmaws.”

Further down the page in the right column, don’t miss Macaulay’s “Advantage: Intellectual Arteriosclerosis” and “Where Have You Gone, Edward Gibbon?”

Sign up for our free newsletter at thehustings.substack.com.

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THURSDAY 10/3/24

The US economy added 254,000 jobs in September for an unemployment rate of 4.1%, which the Labor Department says is virtually unchanged from August’s 4.2% rate. Greatest jobs gains came in food service and drinking places, health care, government, social assistance and construction. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

FRIDAY 10/4/24

Dock Strike Ends – Just in time to avoid discernable damage to the Harris/Walz campaign, the International Longshoreman’s Association representing tens of thousands of East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers ended a three-day strike by tentative agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents ocean carriers and port operators. Dockworkers will receive a 62% wage increase over the six years of the contract, after its union called for 77% to the US Maritime Alliance’s 50% offer, according to NPR’s All Things Considered.

The parties also agreed to extend the current contract to January 15 to allow the two sides to negotiate other issues of the contract, including the Longshoreman’s Association’s call for a ban on potentially job-reducing automation at the ports.

•••

Which State for Melania? — Prior to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last July, MAGA critics were raising the issue of apparent absence of First Lady Melania Trump as her husband racked up the usual number of rallies and call-ins to Fox News. Then she showed up bigtime at the RNC as if to assure the MAGA faithful that the Trumps’ marriage was solid. 

Now in the face of GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s flippy-floppy position on abortion rights – currently, that it’s a states’ rights issue – Melania Trump has revealed she is full-out in favor of abortion rights. 

Mrs. Trump “doubled down” in her first public statement following The Guardian’s report that her memoir, Melania reads; “It is imperative to guarantee that women have autonomy in deciding their preference of having children, based on their own convictions, free from any intervention or presence from government.”

Is the October surprise coming from inside the house? … No doubt the absolute anti-abortion MAGA supporters who made nothing of Melania Trump’s disparaging remarks about Christmas decorations at the White House a few years ago will not make much, if anything, of these words in Melania when it hits bookstore shelves next Tuesday, October 8. But it does raise the question of where Melania Trump is living, or would prefer to live: New York, where abortion is legal, or Florida, where it is illegal after week six.

About Melania … CNN media correspondent Hadas Gold on Thursday reported that the publisher of Melania for Skyhouse Publishing requested the cable news network pay a fee of $250,000 to interview Melania Trump for her book. CNN declined.

--TL

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Trump on Jan. 6 – Then-President Trump tweeted about attacking Mike Pence from the White House over his vice president’s refusal to reject Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in the formal vote count January 6, 2021, according to a 165-page filing by special counsel Jack Smith (via Politico). The filing unsealed Wednesday by Tanya S. Chutkan, US District Court judge for the District of Columbia reveals that Pence, who faced a gallows mock-up on the Capitol Grounds that day “took extensive notes about meetings” with Donald J. Trump and his outside advisors, according to NPR’s Up First podcast.

The distinction regarding Trump’s meeting with “outside” advisors is important because Smith’s filing is a response to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision that gives sitting presidents virtually unlimited immunity for official acts. Smith’s filing indicates prosecutors believe they have sufficient evidence to convict Trump in the face of the court’s summer ruling.

The filing alleges Trump engaged in an effort, not as president, but as a private citizen and candidate for office, to overturn the election, says CQ Roll Call. Chutkan is now gathering information from both sides of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump about which allegations prosecutors can pursue and which would be off-limits, as well as how to handle other outstanding issues in the case. 

The case will not go to court before the November 5 presidential election of course, and if Trump wins that election, it has no future.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 10/3/24

By Stephen Macaulay

It is fair to say that all readers of The Hustings are law-abiding citizens. Meaning that we don’t do things like shoplift when we go pick up a prescription at CVS — you know, grab a package or razors or a stick of antiperspirant, whatever might not be locked behind a Plexiglas screen.

In fact, most Americans of all walks of life are law-abiding citizens.

So when someone says something about a way to address crime, we are probably interested because when those objects from CVS take the five-finger discount out of the store, we all eventually pay.

Convicted felon Donald Trump announced his plan for reducing theft during a speech in Erie, Pennsylvania, last weekend:

“One rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately.”

The “rough hour” would be undertaken by law enforcement.

Presumably some people get pumped up by talk like that. After all, they think, they’re not criminals, they don’t steal things, so why not?

Why not have the people who serve and protect beat the hell out of people so those miscreants will never think about lifting even a free, proffered snack at Costco?

Maybe because it is against the law.

It is really sad that the man who wants to lead the country — a country that was heretofore one where people are expected to abide by the law, even if it means stopping at a red light in the middle of the night on a deserted street — is encouraging people to break the law — people whose job and sworn duty it is to uphold the law.

What if police officers were encouraged not only to smack down shoplifters but even other infractions? Forget the protections of the Fifth Amendment. Wait, that was to be suspended, too, on day one, along with the rest of the founding laws of the U.S.A.

What kind of country would this be? Certainly not the one that one that people have pledged to uphold and defend.

And what’s “Great” about that?

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THURSDAY 10/3/24