More Commentary on Trump’s SAVE Address

Regurgitation -- I will be surprised if this changes senators' minds about SAVE. His address was some combination of laughably and pathetically tired, regurgitated tripe. It's faintly poetic this came on the day I renewed my election worker training, focused naturally on all the safeguards we employ around absentee ballots. --Hugh Hansen/Contributing Pundit

_______________________________________________

Debate & Donuts IV Wednesday

Many on the center-right as well as the left are worried about President Trump’s efforts to tighten up voting restrictions in time for the November 3 midterm elections with his SAVE America Act.

The president’s MAGA supporters counter that it’s the left that has suppressed their voter rights by encouraging undocumented immigrants to vote and that a socialist democrat takeover of the Democratic Party will impose further suppression.

As this disagreement has evolved over the last year and a half of the second Trump administration, Benjamin Franklin’s remark that we have “a republic, if you can keep it,” at the Constitutional Convention in September 1787 has been repeated many times.

The Hustings in partnership with The Allen Theatre is ready to repeat Franklin’s words yet again at our next Talking With, Not At… Debate & Donuts IV beginning 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 22. The free audience discussion is again to be held at the Allen Theatre, 36 E. Main Street in Annville, Pennsylvania.

If you are anywhere near South-Central Pennsylvania this Wednesday, and count yourself as politically conservative, liberal or centrist, we encourage you to join our civil debate.

No matter where you live, you always are encouraged to become a Citizen Pundit. Email your COMMENTS on this or other recent political issues to editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings, whether moderate or hard left/hard right in the subject line so we publish your comments in the appropriate column. –Editors

_____
MONDAY 7/20/26

Iran War, Week 18

President Trump at the Pennsylvania Defense & Innovation Summit at the US Army College in Carlisle, last week.

US Takes Casualties – At least three US military have been killed in the war – or ceased ceasefire – with Iran since Friday, The New York Times reports, and a fourth soldier is missing and feared dead.

The US attacked Iranian military sites overnight for the ninth consecutive day, while Iran has fired on Kuwait and Bahrain, both home to US forces, according to the report. Iranian authorities say at least 50 Iranians have been killed.

Meanwhile, another blockade … Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on Monday conducted an armored blockade on Saudi ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait between Yemen and Africa, the NYT says.

•••

Reconcile This – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has to the end of the week, when the House takes its summer recess, to pass additional defense spending to support the war on Iran as well as the President Trump’s pet SAVE America Act along with a stock trading ban for lawmakers, NPR’s Morning Edition notes Monday. With just a two-vote GOP margin in the House, the SAVE Act and defense spending increase – Trump requested $67 billion but the bill provides just $60 billion of that, according to Breaking Defense – might not be easy in a week.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, Trump allies want to attach the SAVE Act to its reconciliation bill that would extend the federal budget past the fiscal year ending September 30. If and when Democrats impose the filibuster (which Trump wants killed), Senate Republicans can blame them for a government shutdown one month before the midterm elections.

“However we could pass it,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who is now in line to become Budget Committee chairman, replacing the late Lindsey Graham, said of SAVE, “I’d be in favor of. Exactly how we do that, we’ll see.”

•••

Trump Endorsed Graham – Speaking of the late Lindsey Graham, President Trump has endorsed his sister, Sen. Darline Graham, for the full Senate term that would end in January 2033. South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Henry McMaster appointed Darline Graham to fill Sen. Graham’s seat for the remainder of his term ending January 3, 2027, after Lindsey Graham's sudden death from an aortic tear earlier this month, CQ Roll Call reports.

“I hope Darline does this, in that there would be nobody better to honor the legacy of her beloved brother,” Trump Truth Socialed. “RUN, DARLINE, RUN!”

Semafor reported last Friday that she was considering a run for the full term.

If Sen. Graham so chooses, she would have to win a special Republican primary scheduled for August 11 before facing Democratic candidate Annie Andrews in November.

Meanwhile, in Maine … Progressive candidate Troy Jackson, Maine’s State Senate president from 2018 to 2024, a logger and son of a logger from rural Aroostook County in the northern part of the state has emerged as the lead candidate for Democratic nominee to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins this November, according to Politico.

Maine Democrats were frustrated with the makeshift nomination process to replace the scandal-plagued Graham Platner, who dropped out of the race over sexual assault allegations, according to the report. But Jackson’s delegate count was so overwhelming that Jackson’s four top challengers dropped out of the race by Sunday evening, Politico reports.

State election law gives the Democratic Party to Monday, July 27, to name Platner’s replacement.

•••

Four Bucks at the Pump – National average of unleaded regular hit $4.003 per gallon Monday, according to AAA, up 2.2 cents over last Thursday, and $1.201 over the end of Week 0 of the US-Israeli war on Iran, February 27. Diesel is $5.108, up a dime from last Thursday and +$1.384 over late February. Adding to the diesel price pressure is Russia’s ban on exports of some refined products, Marketplace reports, and its need to import oil after Ukraine’s targeted drone hits on many of its refineries. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 7/20/26

You, Too, Can Get Voter Roles

Commentary By Stephen Macaulay

Odds are you have received multiple pieces of mail from individuals running for office or from organizations backing those candidates or ballot initiatives. You may wonder how your name and address got into play. Simple: That information (and more) is collected by states.

According to ballotpedia.org: “After the 2000 presidential election and the resulting Bush v. Gore Supreme Court decision, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. HAVA legislation created the US Election Assistance Commission. The legislation also directed every state to create “a single, uniform, official, centralized, interactive computerized statewide voter registration list defined, maintained, and administered at the State level that contains the name and registration information of every legally registered voter in the State …”

States make that information available either for a fee or for free.

During his July 16 speech one of Donald Trump’s bombshells was that China had acquired “220 million US voter files,” starting their collection in the 2020 election cycle.

Which is likely the case.

According to the Independent Voter Project, which has as a mission getting more people to sign up to vote so it is probably erring on the positive side, there are 217.8 million registered voters in the US, so quite possibly the Chinese got some duped names.

But the point is, you could get for $0 the “DOB, SSN, DL number, gender, phone number, email address, voting history, voter registration ID number, date of registration” for voters in Indiana, again according to Ballotpedia. (The state that really makes you pay some serious money is Alabama, which charges $37,000. But presumably the Chinese can manage.)

The point is, voter information is out there and only someone incredibly naïve would image that state actors from countries like China and Russia wouldn’t send out requests for these lists.

It is the “gambling in Casablanca” scenario, yet somehow Trump and his minions made this seem almost inconceivable if not incomprehensible.

(Speaking of Russia: on March 10, 2021 “Foreign Threats to the 2020 US Federal Elections,” drafted by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR)— State Department, and the National Security Agency (NSA), wrote this: Key Judgment 2: We assess that Russian President Putin authorized, and a range of Russian government organizations conducted, influence operations aimed at denigrating President Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party, supporting former President Trump, undermining public confidence in the electoral process, and exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the US.

How many times did Trump reference Russia in his speech? Once. Putin? Zero.)

Funny thing about Trump’s concern regarding the 2020 election — and it is not that he keeps trying to relitigate something that happened six years ago and which he has been unable to provide bona-fide evidence for any game-changing fraud in this period of time, a period that includes time that he was the President of the United States and can see whatever files he wants. That’s just sad.

No, the funny thing is that the 2020 election was held when he was the President of the United States and as such, were he as concerned about election integrity as he now proclaims to be, there would have been no monkey-business in that election.

There wasn’t. Yet for some reason he keeps thumping the podium claiming there was.

In other words, if the 2020 election was “rigged,” wouldn’t it have been his responsibility to untie the knots before the election occurred?

Back in 2020, perhaps to gin up new viewers and to satisfy existing ones, Fox News and its commentators made claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines had been rigged during the election, switching votes for Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

In March 2021 Dominion filed a $1.6-billion lawsuit against Fox for fraud.

In April 2023, just before the trial was to begin — and the jury was seated, so this is really at the final moment — it was announced that Fox would pay Dominion $787.5 million.

Does anyone think for a minute (outside of Trump and his acolytes) that Fox would pay that kind of money if it thought it would be able to show there was anything wrong with the Dominion equipment?

You’d think that case would have been enough to put the whole thing to rest.

Trump spent about five years (2011 to 2016) claiming that Barrack Obama wasn’t born in the US until he acknowledged that Obama was.

Six years after his defeat by Obama’s vice president, he’s still on the election lie.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, where he writes primarily for the right (conservative) column.

_____
MONDAY 7/20/26

The True Election Fraudster

Commentary by Bill McGuire

The problem with listening to anything Donald Trump has to say about election integrity is that he's done nothing but lie about if for the past five years. All his claims have been comprehensively debunked -- not to mention rejected in dozens of courtrooms across the country. We note that for Trump, every election he wins is a landslide, while every election he loses was rigged. That's his standing position on elections. Trump doesn't really believe them, nor in democratic rule. For him, just another system to be gamed.

In his most recent speech last night Trump asserted that his purpose "is not to weaken confidence in elections," when it's clear that has been the purpose all along. The January 6 riot in the Capitol, for example, was fueled by his lies about the 2020 election. Consistently making demonstrably false claims about election fraud is itself election fraud. Trump is the greatest election fraudster of our time.

McGuire is contributing pundit for The Hustings.

•••

What do you think about President Trump’s national address on election fraud? Join The Hustings as a citizen pundit with an email of your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings, whether moderate or hard left/hard right in the subject line so we publish your comments in the appropriate column. –Editors

_____
FRIDAY 7/17/26

Trump Won’t Give Up on 2020

President Trump addresses the nation on election fraud.

By Todd Lassa

In his address to the nation Thursday night, President Trump released old evidence to once again express his anger and frustration from having lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. This was all to reinforce his argument that Congress should pass his SAVE America Act (it won’t without the Senate quashing the filibuster, and even then Trump doesn’t have enough Republican votes) with its requirements for government-issued photo identification and documentary proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to vote in the November midterms.

And then, when Congress fails to pass the SAVE Act, Trump will use the empty old evidence he presented Thursday to claim the midterms were stolen, if Democrats take the House and possibly the Senate.

Trump told Americans over nearly 30 minutes in his address that the Chinese government paid US journalists to write negative articles about him and that there were manufactured illegal ballots for Biden. The president also blamed the “deep state” for covering up such “voting irregularities.”

China wanted Trump to lose the 2020 election, the president said, “because they knew I was wise to them” and thus he has since charged the country “billions of dollars” in tariffs while building the world’s greatest military.

Beijing Friday morning accused Trump of “unfounded defamation” in his remarks, the BBC reports.

“Trump quoted years-old intelligence committee reports, including some that had been declassified or partially redacted, without noting a distinction between what China may have planned versus what analysts say it did,” reports the Poynter Institutes’ Politifact.

In his address, Trump claims his administration’s investigations have identified 279,000 non-citizens on voter rolls, Votebeatreports, but election officials said they “weren’t sure how the number was arrived at.”

_______________________________________________

Burnham to PM – Minister of Parliament Andy Burnham took over as Labour Party leader from Kir Starmer Friday, on his way to taking over as the United Kingdom’s new prime minister, BBC reports. Burnham will become the seventh UK PM in 10 years Monday after Starmer meets King Charles to formally offer his resignation. Then the King meets Burnham and asks him to form a government.

Both meetings typically take place at Buckingham Palace.

Once he accepts Charles’ request to form a government, Burham officially becomes PM. This typically is followed by a speech by the new PM at Number 10 Downing Street, according to the BBC.

•••

Nearly $4 Again – National average of a gallon of unleaded regular is $3.981 Thursday, AAA reports, up 3.8 cents over Wednesday and $1.179 over February 27. Diesel is back up over five bucks, to $5.058, which is 5.3 cents higher than Wednesday and $1.284 over late February. –TL

_____
FRIDAY 7/17/26

Sour Dreams

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

While there is attention — including in this space — on the unsubstantiated claims about the 2020 election from Donald Trump in his televised address, there is something that also happened on July 16 that goes to the point of the man not having a clear grasp of what makes America great, and that’s not putting fraudsters in office.

Trump endorsed Mike Lindell, a.k.a., the MyPillow Guy, for the governorship of Minnesota.

As you may recall, Lindell is an election denier. He made false claims about the election equipment produced by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic over Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in 2020.

Lindell learned that you just can’t wave your arms and make false claims.

Dominion sued him in a $1.3 billion defamation case. There was a confidential settlement and the case was settled. You can’t be certain that (1) if Lindell had the goods on the company he wouldn’t have settled and (2) Dominion likely settled for a nontrivial amount of money.

Then there was a former Dominion executive, Eric Coomer, who sued Lindell for personal defamation. A jury found that was indeed the case and Lindell was ordered to pay Coomer $2.3 million. Not E. Jean Carroll money — there is the $5.6 million Trump paid to her and another $83.3 million judgment in her favor still being appealed — but a lot.

In the Smartmatic case Lindell had a summary judgment against him. While the amount he’ll pay hasn’t been announced, he does owe some $95,000 to Smartmatic for legal fees as well as for civil contempt — and the number goes up by $500 per day until he pays off the debt.

Yes, this is the sort of individual whom Donald Trump believes would make a good leader.

Trump’s claims can be considered in the same context.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

•••

_____
FRIDAY 7/17/26

Subpoenas Over Qatari 747 Security

Re: Subpoeonas of NYT Reporters -- Key features of the Trump regime include the demolition of the wall between the Department of Justice and the White House. DOJ is now totally weaponized in the service of the President: Rewarding his friends, punishing his enemies, and consolidating his power. Attorney General Todd Blanche is the Hand of the King. –Bill McGuire/Contributing Pundit

•••

You are invited to join our next live Talking With, Not At… Debate & Donuts IV at the Allen Theatre in Annville, Pennsylvania, 6 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, July 22.

Topic is: What do you think about the condition of American democracy, and what are your hopes and thoughts for its future?

As always, we offer you the chance to become a citizen pundit for The Hustings. Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings, whether moderate or hard left/hard right in the subject line so we publish your comments in the appropriate column. –Editors

_____
MONDAY 7/13/26

Call is Coming From Inside the White House

The Consumer Price Index slipped to +3.5% in June, from +4.2% in May, the Labor Department reported Tuesday morning.

THURSDAY 7/16/26

Trump to Address Nation – President Trump will address “free and fair” elections in a primetime national address on television Thursday evening. His own party is afraid, very afraid, according to Politico.

“The people I talk to are scared shitless,” a former Trump administration official told the publication on condition of anonymity, of course. “It’s not scared shitless about the text of what he’s going to say, it’s what does he add to the text?”

Trump is scheduled to address the nation at 9 p.m. Eastern time, USA Today reports.

•••

Upheaval in Ukraine’s Military – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired his popular minister of defense, Mykhailo Federov, widely credited with turning around Ukraine’s war with Russia by advancing his country’s warfare with long-range drone strikes, over clashes with generals and military contractors, The New York Times reports. Federov had been pushing for better transparency in signing deals with the military contractors, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

About 1,000 to 2,000 people gathered in Kyiv early Thursday to protest removal of Federov, who had tried to drastically reform the army and navy during his half-year in the post, the Kyiv Independent reports.

Federov said Thursday he had suggested “drastic personnel decisions” involving replacement of Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and Chief of the General Staff Andrii Hnatov. Younger soldiers and commanders have criticized both for their top-down, Soviet-era command culture, according to the Independent.

•••

Preview of Tonight’s Presidential Address? – Acting Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche in his job interview for the permanent position with the Senate Judiciary Committee and Jay Clayton, President Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence, before the Senate Intelligence Committee, both on Wednesday, repeated the same White House boilerplate when asked which candidate won the 2020 presidential election: “Joe Biden was certified president of the United States.”

•••

Upward Trend Continues – National average of a gallon of unleaded regular is $3.943 Thursday, AAA reports, up 5.3 cents over Wednesday and $1.141 over February 27. Diesel is back up over five bucks, to $5.005, which is 6.7 cents higher than Wednesday and $1.231 over late February. –TL

_______________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 7/15/26

Full-On War – There seems to have been some question in recent days about whether what’s going on with Iran amounts to the war being back on. A 60-day ceasefire fell apart last week after a couple of weeks negotiating over an MOU that gave Iran serious advantages [the fifth paragraph essentially put Iran in charge of restoring shipping through the Strait of Hormuz with Oman, with a pledge Iran would ensure safe passage and remove military obstacles such as its mines, The Wall Street Journal noted].

Meanwhile, the US has reimposed a naval blockade and is upping airstrikes after Iran attacked ships trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, The Associated Press reports Wednesday.

Iran has attacked Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain with drones and missiles, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

US Central Command says it’s striking Iran during daylight hours after days of attacking only at night, The Guardian reports, with hits “designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping” in the Strait. Seven Iranian Army personnel were reported killed, prompting the army to vow a “decisive response.”

•••

Trump Pays – Author and former “Ask E. Jean” Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll has been paid the $5.6 million awarded her in her 2023 defamation case against Donald J. Trump, The New York Times reports, citing a note added to the court’s online docket last week. Damages awarded in E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump in 2023 were held in escrow while Trump exhausted his appeals, all the way up to the US Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case.

Carroll accused the president of sexual assault and defaming her when he called her accusations “a Hoax and a lie” on social media.

Her attorney, Robert Kaplan said he was “pleased to report that she has received the damages payment the jury awarded her as a result of that verdict.”

•••

Let’s Get This Strait – A gallon of unleaded regular Wednesday is up 3.1 cents over Tuesday to $3.89, according to AAA’s national average. That’s up $1.088 from February 27. Diesel is $4.938 Wednesday, up 5.6 cents from Tuesday for a $1.164 premium over late February. –TL

_______________________________________________

TUESDAY 7/14/26

CPI Eases to 3.5% -- Month-over-month CPI was -0.4% in June (from +0.5% in May) largely from the energy index’s 5.7% drop. But that energy index drop follows a 3.9% hike in May, 3.8% in April and 10.9% in March. The June index for food was 0.2%.

•••

Another ICE Shooting – Six days after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Houston fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, a Mexican immigrant, for allegedly using his vehicle as a “weapon” as he drove a work crew to a construction site, it has happened again. This time in Biddeford, Maine, a small town about half an hour south of Portland.

There, an ICE agent Monday fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, 26, a Colombian man whom immigration advocates say was authorized to work in the US. An ICE agent fired four shots into the windshield of Guerrero’s white Kia. Witnesses described seeing Guerrero bleeding from the head as he was being pulled from the car, telling agents “I tried to stop,” the Portland Press Herald reports. Bystanders shouted at agents as people believed to be family members, including a pre-school girl thought to be Guerrero’s daughter, watched.

A spokesperson for Sen. Angus King (I-ME) told NPR that Guerrero was “not the target of the warrant” connected to a house under ICE surveillance in connection with an alleged illegal alien facing a final order of removal.

King told Morning Edition that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullen told him that Guerrero allegedly “weaponized” his car, then claimed the ICE officer worried Guerrero’s car “posed a threat to public safety” by potentially driving into a crowd.

“Police officers are trained all over the country not to shoot into cars,” King said.

Stephen Miller’s secret police? … There is no body camera footage of ICE’s fatal shooting of Guerrero, King said. As an independent, King voted with Senate Democrats against a bill that funds ICE through the end of President Trump’s term. But the Republican majority passed the funding while rejecting Democrats’ demands that it include requirements that ICE agents carry badges, identification and body cameras.

It took ICE nearly 12 hours to issue a statement, to just before 7 p.m. Monday confirming Guerrero’s shooting, according to the Press Herald. There has been no comment from DHS.

A Biddeford police officer’s involvement at the scene was limited to providing security at the scene, according to the newspaper’s report, and the unnamed officer has been placed on leave.

“This has to be a clear and transparent investigation,” King said.

•••

Trump Can’t Sue Himself – US District Judge Kathleen Williams accused President Trump and his attorneys of having manipulated the court system when Trump sued his own Internal Revenue Service for $1.776 billion, thus bypassing the requirement that parties in a lawsuit must have adverse interests, The Associated Press reports.

Trump had said the $1.776 billion would create a fund to compensate allies who believed they had been unjustly persecuted, including possibly those charged in the January 6^th attack on the US Capitol.

This comes just as Acting Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche testifies before the Senate Appropriations committee Tuesday in his quest to become Trump’s permanent AG.

Williams stopped short of voiding the part of the deal that would shield Trump from IRS scrutiny in perpetuity, but she referred Alejandro Brito, the attorney who filed the case for the president in Florida, for possible disciplinary action before the state bar. Williams also said attorney Daniel Epstein will not be granted permission to file cases within the Southern District of Florida for up to one year.

•••

About that Gas – Relief at the pump comes Tuesday for the first time since the 60-day Memorandum of Understanding ceasefire fell apart late last week. National average for a gallon of unleaded regular is $3.859 Tuesday, AAA reports, down 1.3 cents from Monday and up $1.057 from February 27. Diesel is up 0.7 cents, however, to $4.882 over Monday and $1.108 from late February. --TL

_______________________________________________

MONDAY 7/13/26

UPDATE: South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has appointed Lindsey Graham's sister, Darline Graham Norton, to finish his fourth term ending January 3, 2027, The Hill reports. President Trump had recommended McMaster appoint Graham's sister.

In the meantime South Carolina will hold a GOP primary for US Senate, with filing for the primary opening July 21 and closing July 28, according to the Post and Courier. If a runoff is necessary it will be held August 25.

Graham Dies -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a traditional Republican military/foreign relations hawk who somehow became one of President Trump’s staunchest allies after initially rejecting his MAGA politics, died Saturday evening after returning from Ukraine earlier that day. The Washington, D.C. medical examiner’s office says in a preliminary report that Graham, 71, died of an aortic dissection tear in his main artery, caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, The New York Times reports.

Graham was scheduled to appear Sunday morning on Meet the Press for what NBC News said would have been his 64^thappearance.

Graham had convinced President Trump to back a bipartisan bill to impose “scorching” tariffs and sanctions on Russian oil that has been paying for dictator/President Vladimir Putin’s war scheme against Ukraine, said Graham’s co-sponsor on the bill, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).

“In my last conversation with Sen. Graham, he was absolutely exultant calling from Kyiv,” Blumenthal told NPR’s Morning Edition Monday, “seeking final approval from the White House for our Russia sanctions bill, which he was going to discuss with President Zelenskyy.”

Graham briefly ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. In 2015 told CNN; “You know how to make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.”

That changed quickly as Trump claimed primary election victories leading up to his first win in November 2016, and particularly after Trump’s second win eight years later, Graham had become his closest ally in the Senate.

Trump on Sunday called Graham “one of the greatest people and senators I have ever known.” … “He was always working and was a true American patriot. Lindsey will be greatly missed.”

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster now must choose a temporary replacement to serve the remainder of Graham’s current term, to January. Graham was running for a fifth Senate term with Annie Andrews his Democratic Party challenger.

•••

Gas Update – The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular on Monday came down from Sunday’s prices, according to the AAA, though at $3.872 still higher by 2.6 cents over last Thursday, the most recent day we chronicled. That’s $1.07 costlier than unleaded regular prices on February 27. Diesel was up 6.5 cents over last Thursday to $4.875 per gallon. That’s $1.101 over late February.

•••

Plane Intimidation? – FBI agents knocked on the doors of New York Times reporters late Friday with subpoenas to investigate leaks about President Trump flying on his old Air Force One to return from the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, last week. That flight left behind Trump’s Qatari-gifted Boeing 747, which he used as Air Force One to fly to the summit.

The FBI subpoenas demanded that reporters give evidence of leaks about the Qatari jet to a grand jury.

According to The New York Times’ report on the story Sunday, FBI Director Kash Patel cancelled a trip to Chicago last Friday and spent “roughly eight hours” at the White House to run the investigation instead of doing so at his agency’s Washington headquarters. MS NOW as well as the NYT broke the story last week that Trump switched airplanes for his return to the US after the Secret Service voiced concerns to the administration that the über-luxurious 747 Qatar gave to Trump lacks the advanced anti-missile capabilities and other defensive countermeasures of the quotidian Air Force One.

Iranians loyal to the governing regime last week called for the death of President Trump during the funeral procession of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed in the first US attacks on Tehran last February (New York Post), apparently prompting the Secret Service to have the president change airplanes for his return. Trump switched back to the Qatari 747 at Mildenhall Air Force Base in England for the final leg of his return to the US last week.

Justice Department Director of Public Affairs Emily Covington “sought to downplay” the unusual nature of the subpoenas, the NYT reported Sunday.

“Every administration has addressed the crime of leaking national security information,” Covington’s statement read. “To the extent that we have to investigate breaches of national security, that’s something that we will continue to do.”

But the investigation smacks of the same sort of Capt. Queegian White House crackdown on Trump’s embarrassing, at least, no-bid contract attempt to “clean up” the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington – a pet project, like the East Wing ballroom that could not legally be made fun of, in a totalitarian regime such as China, Russia or North Korea. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 7/13/26

The Bold and the Blunderful

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“President Trump did what Democrats wouldn’t. After decades of neglect, he committed the bold leadership and proper resources to fix the Kennedy Center and start the renovations of the finest performing arts facility in the world.”

That’s a statement from Liz Huston, a White House spokeswoman, to The New York Times for a story about, well, to quote the opening sentence of the story: “As the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts prepares for major renovations, former project manager there have sent Congress internal documents that they say show how the institution bypassed government contracting norms in work carried out under President Trump.”

Norms like, oh, getting more than one bid for the work, something that your car insurance company probably requires you to do if you file a claim for a fender bender. Or something that you should probably do if you are planning a kitchen renovation.

The point of getting more than one bid isn’t necessarily just to get the best price but to have at least a sense of what best practices are and to get a better idea of how well the work will be done.

All of his prowess as a real estate mogul notwithstanding, Trump’s approach to getting renos done is less than satisfactory.

One need only look through the green sludge that is now in the Reflecting Pool to see the blue coating applied by Atlantic Industrial Coatings — a firm that got a no-bid contract worth some $14.6 million (Trump had originally estimated the cost to be about $2 million)—that is still peeling.

What does the Administration do? It has federal prosecutors change a 66-year-old with damaging the surface.

With no evidence, Trump has claimed vandals used box cutters to make a gash in the coating. It is worth noting that the gash in question is said to be 350-feet long. That’s just 10 feet short of the length of an NFL field (300 feet between the goal lines and a pair of end zones 30 feet each).

Sure, that’s likely.

As it has been a while since Secretary of Defense* Pete Hegseth has held a briefing about the war with Iran that apparently isn’t over, this is something from one of his presentations on April 24.

Hegseth said: “President Trump is the only president with the guts and moral clarity to finally do something about it. I see it every day behind closed doors; President Trump's fortitude is unshakable and his mission is crystal clear.”

Guts and moral clarity but there’s the War Powers Resolution, a legal document passed by Congress “to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgement of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and to the continued use of such forces in hostilities or in such situations.”

You know: Follow the document written 11 years after that Declaration of Independence we just celebrated was. In effect, the Constitution is the payoff of the Declaration.

The War Powers Resolution includes this: SEC. 3. The President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situation where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and after every such introduction shall consult regularly with the Congress until United States Armed Forces are no longer engaged in hostilities or have been removed from such situations.”

Did Trump consult with Congress “in every possible instance” before Operating Epic Fury commenced? Has he done so “regularly” since?

Of course he didn’t/hasn’t. He’s in charge. He’s bold. He gets things done.

Even if they’re not being done particularly well.

So how is the war working out for Americans?

One example. On July 9 AAA released this:“Gas prices are going up again, as the future of the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran remains uncertain. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline went up 5 cents overnight to $3.84 after steadily dropping since late May.”

It is worth noting the average price of a gallon of gas one year earlier was $3.16 per gallon.

So gas on the 9^th was 21.5% higher than it was a year earlier. Even though gas had been going down since late May, it was still significantly more expensive than it was prior to Operation Epic Fury. Or said another way: Americans have been paying more for gasoline for 4.5 months.

Remember when Trump said in April "The gas will go down as soon as the war's over. It'll drop like a rock"? Yes, there was a decline but not a precipitous one. The war isn’t over. And now gas prices are rising.

The US inflation rate had been 2.4% before the war commenced. It is now 4.2%, a three-year high. Simply put: Pretty much everything costs more.

Those who got a 30-year mortgage pre-war paid an average 5.98%. Today someone who wants to buy a house will pay 6.44 to 6.49% for a 30-year mortgage.

Yes that “bold leadership,” that unshakeable fortitude, may have been something that people liked about Donald Trump but are now beginning to see how it is leading to shoddy performance across the board that is costing America plenty.

===

*They like to call it the “Department of War,” presumably because it has more than a whiff of testosterone. But legally it is still the Department of Defense because it takes an act of Congress to change the name. But why let something like that get in the way?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
MONDAY 7/13/26

The Young Rethuglicans

Commentary by Bill McGuire

Young Republicans. Now there's a phrase to conjure up an image: Blue blazers, club neckties, earnest haircuts. Junior Chamber of Commerce, sober conservatism, future pillars of their communities. Well, not anymore. They're a different sort of organization now, judging by recent behavior.

At the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally in 2017 that featured white supremacists, neo-Nazis, KKKers, and one violent death, Young Republican National Federation (their full official name) leaders were in attendance as well. They included the president of the Washington State University Republicans and the photogenic young fellow from the University of Nevada who went viral with his tiki torch. And at the January 6^th insurrection at the Capitol, where rioters were sent in an attempt to block the Electoral College certification, Young Republicans were there, too. The arrests included officers of the Oregon, Miami, Binghamton University, and North Dakota organizations.

In October 2025, a 2,800-page Young Republican group chat on Telegram leaked out, revealing racist and antisemitic rants, praise for Hitler and gas chambers, laudatory remarks about slavery, and an endorsement of rape. Those hatefully speaking their minds included former and current heads of Young Republican groups in New York, Arizona, Kansas, and Vermont. Senior GOP politicians rushed out to condemn the texts and label the young offenders as outliers, but then, as if on cue, an equally offensive group chat in Miami was exposed.

And then there's Charlie Kirk, the late cofounder of Turning Point USA and to many conservatives, the young lion of the movement and their hope for reaching the coming generation. Kirk made his name on the campus circuit debating right-wing politics with college freshmen, sometimes winning, and in his podcasts, where he elevated race-baiting to a fine art. There, he also called for a return to public executions, preferably by firing squad or guillotine, with corporate sponsorship if possible and children required to watch. Another time, he called for the imprisonment and execution of then-President Joe Biden "for his crimes against America."

Sure, one could say these crazy kids aren't representative; they're just a few bad apples. But the old adage is often misunderstood: A few bad apples do in fact spoil the whole barrel. That's how rot works. This isn't the rank and file of the movement but its leadership. If young people like these are the future of the Republican Party, America is in for a bumpy ride.

McGuire is a contributing pundit for The Hustings where he writes for the left column.

_____
FRIDAY 7/10/26

The Future of Conservatism?

By Todd Lassa

Although it seems the political topic of the year, the dichotomy between older, established political leaders and their often less-moderate, fresh-out-of-law school counterparts is not all that new. Young political animals lack the sort of experience that can diminish their ideals, whether free-market libertarian or social democrat, and often they seem less willing to compromise with moderates or with the other party. And they’re too young to have any knowledge of how Republicans and Democrats like President Reagan and House Speaker Tip O’Neill used to get along and sometimes even (gulp!) find some middle ground together.

While much of the Democratic Party leadership is nervous that young progressives winning some of this year’s primaries might sink chances to take over House and Senate majorities in the midterms, Republican Party leadership appears satisfied with the direction of their young turks, even as fractures occur among conservative middle-agers like Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

In today’s front page, Contributing Pundit Rich Corbett argues in the right column that emerging conservative youth leaders are ready to advance the Republican cause re-established by Donald J. Trump, clear up any remaining obstacles to free market capitalism and make what the president claims is the world’s hottest country even hotter.

Contributing Pundit Bill McGuire has a quite different opinion of today’s Republican youth in the left column.

Because Corbett initiated today’s debate, may we suggest you read his right column first (after this one, of course) before reading McGuire’s left-column counterpoint?

One more request: Email us your own COMMENT on this subject, with an email to editors@thehustings.news, and please indicate your political leanings, right or left, in the subject line so we publish your opinion in the proper column. It’s easier and safer than commenting on X-Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, and you won’t be relegated to an echo chamber.

_____
FRIDAY 7/10/26

Young Conservative Leadership is Promising

Commentary by Rich Corbett

As the Republican Party builds on recent successes, a generational shift is underway to position young conservatives to take the mantle of leadership. Gen Z and younger millennials on the right are emerging with high energy, pragmatism, and a steadfast commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise, limited government, and national strength. They stand ready to lead, offering a marked contrast to their Democratic counterparts, where youthful activism has increasingly embraced democratic socialism — a sharp departure from the more moderate, market-oriented liberalism of previous generations.

Young conservatives bring tangible strengths to the table. Forged by experiences with inflation, housing shortages, and post-pandemic challenges, they advocate practical pro-growth policies such as tax relief, deregulation, and American energy dominance rather than top-down redistribution. Many are entrepreneurial, building careers in trades, technology, or small business while emphasizing self-reliance and opportunity. They confidently defend free speech, meritocracy, and cultural institutions against identity politics and institutional skepticism. Influenced by leaders like Vice President JD Vance, they engage effectively through podcasts, social media, and grassroots organizing. Training programs from groups like the Young Republican National Federation and Turning Point USA equip them with skills in campaigning, fundraising, and governance, creating a robust pipeline of capable successors aligned with enduring conservative principles.

By comparison, the Democratic youth surge has taken a more radical turn. Traditional liberals once balanced social programs with capitalist incentives and personal responsibility. Today, high-profile figures like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and the influence of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) have pulled younger Democrats toward expansive government intervention, wealth redistribution schemes, Green New Deal-style mandates, and fundamental critiques of capitalism. Polling consistently shows a large share of Americans under 30 — especially young Democrats — holding favorable views of socialism while expressing skepticism toward free markets. This dynamic has delivered primary victories for socialist-aligned candidates but often sidelines pragmatic governance in favor of ideological overhauls prone to higher taxes, regulatory burdens, and economic missteps.

Republicans therefore enjoy a clear generational advantage. The rising conservative cohort represents renewal: Energetic defenders of America's founding ideals, tempered by real-world competition and results-oriented thinking. Democrats, by leaning into extremes that echo historical failures elsewhere, risk alienating moderates and the broader electorate.

The mantle of leadership ultimately belongs to those prepared by principle and proven practice. As younger conservatives step forward, they offer the best hope for upholding liberty, responsibility, and prosperity in the years ahead.

Corbett is a contributing pundit for The Hustings where he writes for the right column.

_____
FRIDAY 7/10/26

Debate on Democracy

We have got a democracy, Benjamin Franklin said in a quote much appreciated this year, if we can keep it.

For the past week or so leading up to Independence Day, our nation’s semi-quincentennial, we have been publishing comments from the right and the left on the state and the future of American democracy.

The discussion continues with our next Talking With, Not At… Debate & Donuts IV at the Allen Theatre in Annville, Pennsylvania, 6 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, July 22.

Topic is: What do you think about the condition of American democracy, and what are your hopes and thoughts for its future?

Scroll down to the next page with the trackbar on the far right (not a political position) to read comments about the state of our democracy from contributing pundits and a reader. Click on The Gray Area to read comments on our democracy by Contributing Pundit Jerry Lanson and Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay.

_____
THURSDAY 7/9/26

Iran War, Week 16

Strait of Hormuz [NASA photo].

Ceasefire is Over – After President Trump threatened Iran while attending the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday attacks between the US and Iran quickly picked up to, it appears, new extremes.

The US hit Iranian missile and drone sites near the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday night, while Iran fired on US military base-hosts Kuwait and Bahrain, a senior US official told The Wall Street Journal.

US Central Command said attacks on Iran were broader in scope than Tuesday’s strikes and included Iran’s air-defense systems, coastal surveillance assets, naval capabilities and logistics infrastructure, according to the WSJ report. Jordan on Thursday said its air defenses had intercepted eight Iranian missiles.

•••

Just When You Thought it Was Safe to Go Back to the Pumps – After an 0.6-cent increase Wednesday, reversing several weeks of long, slow gas price relief, the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular jumped another 5 cents Thursday to $3.846, according to AAA. That’s $1.044 higher than on February 27. Diesel is up 3.8 cents Thursday according to AAA, to $4.810, up $1.036 since the beginning of the US-Iran war.

•••

Nominating Convention to Replace Platner – Nightmarish memories of President Biden’s last-minute withdrawal from the 2024 election in their heads, the Maine Democratic Party Wednesday announced plans to hold a nominating convention to select a new US Senate candidate, CQ Roll Call reports, to replace Marine Corps veteran/oysterman/left-wing populist Graham Platner after he withdrew over sexual assault allegations.

“We believe that for the movement to continue, it can’t be me,” Platner said in an 11-minute social media video Wednesday, according to the report. “And for that reason, we are suspending campaign operations.”

Platner’s withdrawal two days after a Politico report he denies in which a former girlfriend accuses him of sexual assault came ahead of next Monday’s deadline to be pulled off Maine’s ballot. The Democratic Party has until July 27 to forward a replacement candidate in their quest to beat incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, whose already mild resistance to President Trump has diminished during his second term.

Potential candidates …

•Maine Beer Co. Founder Dan Kleban already has announced, according to Roll Call.

•Nirav Shah, who led Maine’s public health agency during the COVID pandemic and was deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the Biden administration told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered Wednesday why he would be the right candidate if he chooses to run.

Other candidates identified by Roll Call are …

•Troy Jackson, former state senate president who points to a recent Public Policy Polling result that show him leading Collins 49% to 44%.

•Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, who lost to Collins in 2014.

•Former congressional staffer Jordan Wood, who ran for the Democratic nomination for Senate, then shifted his campaign to the state’s Second Congressional District.

•Paige Loud, another former Second Congressional District candidate. ––Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
THURSDAY 7/9/26

Peacemaker

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The first-ever “FIFA Peace Prize-Football Unites the World” award winner Donald J. Trump is a man who seems to be getting to that “Hey, you! Get off of my lawn!” stage of life.

On Wednesday, July 1, during a game between the USA and Bosnia and Herzegovina, USA striker Folarin Balogun, who happens to be a US citizen through the 14^th Amendment, something which Trump is opposed to, received a red card for a foul. A red card means the player is ejected from the game and is suspended for at least the next game.

That suspension was troublesome for the US team as Balogun is the premier player for the squad. He had scored three goals in the World Cup tournament games he participated in, which may not sound like much, but that is a big number in the sport.

So without Balogun, things seemed dire for the US team, which was to go up against Belgium.

Ever the diplomat, Trump got on the phone with FIFA President Gianni Infantino . . . the man who happened to give Trump the FIFA Peace Prize.

Who cares if there are rules?

Balogun was reinstated.

Belgium won the game by a commanding 4 to 1.

Balogun didn’t score that single US goal.

One week later, our very own presidential diplomat was back at it, but this time more in what is ostensibly his wheelhouse.

While attending the NATO summit in Turkey, he said this about the Iranian people that the US is negotiating with to end the war in Iran: “I don’t want to deal with them anymore — they’re scum. You know what scum is? They’re scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people. And they’re vicious, violent people.”

He went on to say:

“it’s just a waste of time dealing with them”
“They’re liars”
“There’s something wrong with them”
“They’re cuckoo”

When Infantino presented Trump with the “FIFA Peace Prize” at what was still then the Kennedy Center, renamed a couple weeks later before that switch was found to be breaking the rules, he said: “This is what we want from a leader. A leader that cares about the people. We want to live in a safe world, in a safe environment. We want to unite — that’s what we do here today, that’s what we’ll do at the World Cup, Mr. President.”

Yes, a leader who cares by insulting people that the country needs to come to an agreement with, unless, of course, he goes back to his “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” mode.

While he claims he is making it a “safe world” by going to war with Iran to keep it from developing a nuclear weapon, providing no evidence that that was, to use one of his metaphors, in the cards, odds are he is making the world less safe by treating the Iranians the way he is.

Let’s never forget that the 9/11 hijackers used only box cutters and pocket knives, not nuclear weapons, to cause the deaths and create the devastation in New York and Washington.

And let us also not forget that for the first and only time in the history of the NATO alliance Article 5 was invoked on behalf of the US. That part of the organization’s treaty says an attack on one NATO member is considered an attack on all. These are rules people abide by.

So Trump goes to the NATO summit and says:

“Greenland is very important for the US, but it’s not important for Denmark,” again threatening the sovereign territory of a US ally.

It would be better for all of us if this “FIFA Peace Prize” winner stuck to soccer.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____
THURSDAY 7/9/26