TUESDAY, MAY 18, 2021
President Biden visits the Ford F-150 assembly plant in Dearborn, Michigan, today to talk up the UAW-built battery-electric powered version of the bestselling pickup truck to be unveiled Wednesday, as well as his American Jobs Plan’s proposal for EV recharging stations to be built across the nation.
Biden Supports Israeli Cease-Fire – President Biden supported a cease-fire of Israeli attacks on Hamas in the Gaza strip in a call with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu Monday. The president “discussed U.S. engagement with Egypt and other partners toward that end,” according to a readout of the phone call, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The president’s support for a cease-fire “fell short of an explicit demand,” the Journal says, and Biden reiterated backing Israel’s right to defend itself. Since last week, Israeli military have targeted Hamas’ tunnel network for weapons under the Gaza Strip, as well as an office tower housing the Associated Press and other news media outlets.
•••
Republican-Majority Board Call on Arizona to Finish Recount – Four of five Maricopa County supervisors are Republicans, all of whom denounced an Arizona Senate-ordered recount of the urban county’s presidential election ballots as a “sham” and a “con” championed by Donald J. Trump, The Washington Post reports. In a public meeting Monday and a letter to state Senate President Karen Fann, R, Monday, the board of supervisors said that the audit by the Florida firm Cyber Ninjas has been inept, promoted falsehoods and defamed public servants who ran the election last November.
The officials called on the state to end the audit, which began in April and which they say is one-quarter complete. Cyber Ninjas’ chief executive had supported Trump’s false claims of a “stolen” election prior to being hired for the audit and has been looking for such signs of fraud as ballots containing bamboo in the paper, indicating they originated in China.
“I will not be responding to any more requests from this sham process,” said Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, a Republican, at the public meeting yesterday. “Finish your audit and be ready to defend what you’re finding in a court of law.”
Note: Consider the Maricopa Board of Supervisors’ letter and public meeting a counter by local officials to the sort of state GOP censuring of U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, and several of her colleagues who voted for Trump’s second impeachment last January.
•••
Rumble in the Empire State – With a flourish worthy of a New York Post headline, Andrew Giuliani, son of the former president’s personal attorney, told the right-leaning tabloid he is running for governor of New York State against Andrew Cuomo: “Giuliani vs. Cuomo. Holy smokes. It’s Muhammed Ali vs. Joe Frazier. We can sell tickets at Madison Square Garden.”
Giuliani the Younger goes on to criticize Andrew Cuomo, son of former New York State Gov. Mario Cuomo for “a number of scandals in recent months,” as the Post frames it, including 9,000 nursing home deaths allegedly covered up during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fun fact: The two fathers barely overlapped. Mario Cuomo was the 52nd New York governor, from 1983 to 1994, while Rudy Giuliani, (though in the 1980s the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York) was mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001 (ending his last term on New Year’s Eve, some three months after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center towers).
Note: Ex-President Trump recently ranted against family dynasties in the GOP, including the Bushes, the Cheneys and the Romneys, but you can pretty much count on him promoting Andrew Giuliani, who was one of his White House aides while Rudy Giuliani was off scouring the Ukraine for dirt on Hunter Biden and made his cameo appearance in Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm. If nothing else, the Giuliani vs. Cuomo face-off for the November 2022 New York gubernatorial election could draw attention from the Trump-led Republican Party’s attempts to retake Congress in next year’s mid-terms.
Trump ‘Who Thinks He Still is President’ to Bring Back Rallies – Also in the New York Post, Donald J. Trump is planning to restart his rallies in June, with a pair of events at locations still being selected. A third rally is expected around the July 4 Independence Day celebration. The headline words, “who think he still is president,” is not from the New York Post, but from Vanity Fair picking up the Post’s story.
•••
Steel & Aluminum Tariffs Talks to Commence – The steel and aluminum tariffs (25% and 10% respectively) that were imposed on materials being shipped to the U.S. from the European Union in 2018 by the Trump Administration under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act — which essentially means it is a national security consideration — will be under discussion by representatives from the EU and the U.S., CNBC reports. The tariffs imposed by the U.S. resulted in retaliatory tariffs by the EU, on products including Bourbon, orange juice and peanut butter.
Note: Donald Trump, former reality TV star and U.S. president, seemed to have had a difficult time understanding things like tariffs, which are not paid by the exporters but by the importers, which means that the American people (and/or importers) had to eat the price rises that were paid by companies making things out of steel and aluminum. The Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal in yesterday’s edition, under the headline “How Trump’s Steel Tariffs Failed,” wrote, “President Biden would do far more good for the U.S. economy if he rolled them back unilaterally.” What’s more, the WSJ pointed out, “The evidence is overwhelming that Donald Trump’s tariffs have benefitted the few to the detriment of the many,” something that seems to have been missed by the likes of Wilbur Ross, Peter Navarro and Trump himself. Assuming that they cared. -- Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
__________________________
MONDAY, MAY 17, 2021
Support The Hustings' efforts to spread political news & commentary via civil discourse. Subscribe to our newsletter at thehustings.substack.com.
SCOTUS to Hear Mississippi Abortion Case – The U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition Monday morning regarding a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, SCOTUSblog reports. The court is scheduled to hear the case next term, which begins in October.
•••
Israeli Attacks on Gaza Escalate – By Monday, the start of a second week of attacks and counter-attacks on the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, more than 200 estimated Palestinians are dead, including at least 40 children, and at least 10 Israelis, according to the United Nations’ newsletter. Israel announced Monday that its rocket attacks have destroyed an underground tunnel Hamas has used to transport weapons. Last Saturday, Israel destroyed an office tower after warning the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and other news media organizations with bureaus in the building of the attack.
“We’re targeting a terrorist organization that is targeting our civilians and hiding behind their civilians, using them as human shields,” Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu told CBS News’ Meet the Press Sunday. Today, there are reports of 42 Palestinian civilians killed Sunday, including 10 children and seven members of the same family.
UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet Saturday appealed for a de-escalation of fighting and urged all sides to respect international law.
•••
Republicans Launch Gubernatorial Campaigns in Nevada, Pennsylvania Republicans aligning themselves with Trump have announced they will run for governor in Nevada and Pennsylvania Monday morning, The Hill reports.
North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who switched parties in April, says he will run for governor of Nevada.
“Like Reagan and Trump, I switched parties. I’ve always made my own path,” Lee said when he left the Democratic Party for the GOP.
In Pennsylvania, former Rep. Lou Barletta, who lost a challenge to Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, for his seat in 2018, said he will run for governor next year, when current Gov. Tom Wolf, D, must leave office due to term limits. Barletta has been an ally of Trump.
•••
McConaughey for Texas Governor? — Actor Matthew McConaughey is considering a run for the governorship of Texas, according to Politico. McConaughey, 51, is a native son, having been born in Uvalde, Texas, and is presently residing in Austin, where he attended the University of Texas. McConaughey won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2013 for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. About the possibility of his run, Karl Rove, senior adviser and deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush, another Texas resident, is quoted by Politico as saying, “I find it improbable, but it’s not out of the question.” It is not clear which — if either party — McConaughey would represent.
Note — Isn’t the world sufficiently complex that it would be better to elect people who have a deep sense of how the political system works, to say nothing of things like infrastructure (remember the frozen pipelines?)? Sure, it would be a goof if McConaughey ran, but perhaps the country has seen the consequences of electing someone with visibility, but no experience.
•••
Parties Reach Deal on 1/6 Commission – Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill reached a deal last weekend to establish a “9/11-style” commission to investigate the January 6 insurrection on the Capitol that led to then-President Trump’s second impeachment. The commission will comprise five congress members from each party. House Speaker Pelosi, D-CA, and Rep. John Katko, R-NY, brokered the deal.
The commission produces more headaches for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, following his caucus’ ouster of Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, from her party’s third-most-powerful committee chairmanship, as Katko is considered a close ally and member of McCarthy’s whip team. McCarthy has said the commission should also investigate, along with the insurrection, protests over racial issues connected with Black Lives Matter, across the nation last summer. Because McCarthy visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago after President Biden’s inauguration, he may be called as a witness before the commission. – Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods
_______________________
FRIDAY, MAY 14, 2021
Elsewhere on this page: Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, is now freed up to reform the GOP away from ex-President Trump – Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams debate her role and the potential for a third party established by former Republicans. Scroll down using the trackbar on the far-right.
Nixon Would be Impressed – White House Special Counsel Chuck Colson compiled an “enemies list” for President Richard M. Nixon, during the Watergate era, that identified outsiders from among liberals, media, Hollywood actors and the like. If only Colson had identified then-FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, better known as Woodward and Bernstein informant “Deep Throat.” That’s essentially what former President Trump did, according to a scoop in The New York Times that says the administration plotted with the notorious conservative video-manipulating “documentary” crew, Project Veritas, to discredit perceived enemies from within, including former national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, and FBI personnel.
Project Veritas planned a “sting” operation on McMaster and organized female undercover operators to arrange dates with FBI employees “to secretly record them making disparaging remarks about Trump,” the Times says. The operation began, according to the newspaper, shortly after BuzzFeed News reported on a private dinner between McMaster and Oracle CEO Safra A. Catz during which the national security advisor allegedly called his boss an “idiot” with the intelligence of a “kindergartner.” Catz did not comment to the Times, which reports that the White House could not substantiate her claims.
Note: The House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee is in negotiations with Trump’s own Chuck Colson, his White House counsel Don McGahn, over a subpoena issued for his testimony on the Mueller Report into the Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election. Too late to threaten the Trump administration with a third impeachment, however.
•••
House Republicans Replace Cheney with Stefanik – Elise Stefanik of New York has been voted in by her party as chairwoman of the House Republican Committee Friday morning, replacing Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming, who was voted out Tuesday. Though Stefanik was essentially a shoo-in, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas made a last-minute run for the job Thursday when he told a Dallas radio show host that the New York representative was “too moderate.” In an interview with Fox News Thursday, Brett Baier asked Cheney whether she is considering a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, presumably against ex-President Trump. “I am not, Brett,” she replied.
•••
Masks Off? – The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says fully vaccinated people (including the two-week period after the final jab) can go maskless in most indoor and outdoor situations. Masks are still required on airplanes, buses and other public transportation, the CDC says, and there has been some criticism from health professionals about whether it’s safe for those who haven’t been able to take the vaccine, including children under 12, to meet in crowds where there is no way to tell whether adults going maskless have been vaccinated.
Who Doesn’t Want a Vaccine? — Although correlation isn’t causation, months of former President Trump downplaying the consequences of COVID-19 (“One day—like a miracle—it will disappear”) perhaps contributes to a finding by Morning Consult: of the 20 states with the highest resistance to vaccination, Trump won 19 of them. Looking at the demographics, it is interesting to note the groups who have “Low rates of total vaccine willingness”:
- 18-34 year-olds with low income (47%)
- Moms (49%)
- 35-44 year-olds with low income (50%)
- Rural dwellers with low income (51%)
- Black adults with low income (53%)
- Republican women (53%)
- Black adults without a college degree (53%)
- Republication without a college degree (54%)
- 18-34 year-olds (55%)
- Black women (55%)
Note — One of the common factors here is low income. Although there is an increasing amount of public service messaging about how important it is to get a shot to protect one’s unborn child or grandparent, there is one message that would probably make a huge difference: it’s FREE.
•••
Israeli-Hamas Fighting May Turn into Full-on War – Israeli bombing of a mosque left 12 dead Friday, NPR reports, as Palestinians continue to flee North Gaza from escalation of fighting begun early this week. The Israeli army has called up about 9,000 reservists, the AP reports, and quotes Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu saying, Israel “would extract a very heavy price from Hamas.” President Biden backed Netanyahu’s actions, saying “there has not been a significant over-reaction” by the Israelis.
•••
Never Pay Ransom? – Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, citing sources, say Colonial Pipeline Co. paid extortionists ransom for decryption tools to unlock computer systems that the hacker group DarkSide used to cut off supply of petroleum to the East Coast. The extortion attempt last weekend capped supply of approximately 45% of petroleum and jet fuel to the region, shutting down many gas stations, especially in the Southeast, but Colonial restarted its pipeline’s operations Wednesday. President Biden asked Americans to “be patient” as it will take days for the fuel supply to get back up to speed. –Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash