Why I’m Not Interested in Trump-Musk

By Stephen Macaulay

Back in January 2017, while making a speech at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, Donald Trump claimed that the size of the crowd at his inauguration earlier that week had been “like a million, a million and a half people.”

It has been estimated that the size of the 2009 Obama inauguration crowd was that big.

And photographic evidence comparing the two events shows the number of people in Washington was significantly smaller for Trump.

But as Trump said to the VFW convention the following year, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

The bizarre Trump crowd size estimate gave rise to Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.”

Here we are, seven years later, and Trump is still concerned about crowd sizes.

At his Mar-a-Lago press conference August 8 he started throwing out numbers. Like claiming he had 107,000 people at a rally in New Jersey, which Newsweek calculated to be <60,000.

Then there were the small numbers:

“What did she have yesterday? 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you'd say my campaign is finished. It's so dishonest, the press. … When she gets 1,500 people, and I saw it yesterday on ABC, which they said, ‘Oh, the crowd was so big.’ … I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size. And no, they never say the crowd was big. … I think it's so terrible when you say, ‘Well she has 1,500 people, 1,000 people,’ and they talk about, oh, the enthusiasm.”

Which seems to mean Trump is saying his crowds are 20,000, 40,000 or 60,000 people. If he did the math, he’d probably be embarrassed about the low estimates he made.

While he went on to claim that were he president “You wouldn’t have had inflation” and that if he isn’t reelected “Everybody’s going to be forced to buy an electric car,” he did resume the crowd theme: “I have hundreds of thousands of people in, uh, South Carolina. I had 88,000 people in Alabama. I had 68,000 people.”

About that 88,000-person event in South Carolina.

Caitlin Byrd of The Post and Courier, based in Charleston, South Carolina, writes one of the most brilliant assessments of that claim:

“But the rally Trump appeared to be referencing wasn't a rally at all. It was a football game.

“The former president seemed to be mentioning his November 25 appearance at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia for the state's biggest college football spectacle of the year: the Clemson-South Carolina football matchup.

“The game was not a Trump campaign rally. It's a college duel that takes place every year.

“His appearance was brief.

“Trump walked onto the field, standing at the 25-yard-line with Gov. Henry McMaster. Loud cheers greeted him along with scattered boos. Trump waved to fans and the student section.

“He made no remarks. He just smiled and waved.”

Byrd goes on to point out: “The official box score put the crowd attendance for that game at 80,172 — not 88,000.”

Imagine if he’d gone to the Indianapolis 500.

Trump’s latest ploy is to claim that Harris’ crowds are non-existent, that Harris campaign is putting out fake pictures, such as at a rally held last week at an airplane hangar at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

Trump posted on Truth Social: “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

Even the local Fox News affiliate in Detroit noted: “Former President Trump is claiming that ‘nobody’ was on the tarmac last week in Detroit to greet Vice President Harris for a campaign event in the Motor City despite unedited video and images from multiple news agencies showing otherwise. “

Yes, even Fox News knows what is real and what isn’t.

As for Donald Trump. . .

Consider this: He stands on the field during the annual Palmetto Bowl football game and somehow apparently images the crowd is there for him.

He cites a Harris rally in Detroit, attended by thousands (the Harris-Walz campaign estimated 15,000) and says that there was “NOBODY waiting.”

Clearly the man has some issues and to listen to him talking to a man who has some challenges when it comes to claims (e.g., in 2016 Musk claimed there would be an autonomous coast-to-coast drive of a Tesla by the end of 2017, which didn’t happen; in 2020 he said there would be Teslas capable of operating as autonomous robotaxis by the end of that year, which didn’t happen; in the Tesla Q2 earnings call in July he said, "I would be shocked if we cannot do it next year.” Yes, have full self-driving.) seems like nothing more than a Fake-a-Thon.

Not worth the time and effort.

TUE 8/13/24

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

The Market, Musk Interview, DNC Coming Up

After dropping 1,034 points Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average clawed back 294.39 points Tuesday to finish at 38,703.27, which looks like a “correction.” We will have to watch Wall Street for at least the rest of the week to figure out what effect the market might have on the newly minted Kamala Harris/Tim Walz Democratic ticket.

Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is unlikely to wait, but Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay has something to say about that, in the right column.

We are looking ahead to an interview of Trump by Tesla/Starlink/SpaceX chief Elon Musk, possibly on his social media platform, X-Twitter. It is to take place Monday, details to come.

The following Monday, August 19, the Democratic National Convention begins.

We invite you to Comment on these and other news items and political issues. Email editors@thehustings.news and list your political leanings in the subject line.

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‘Creepy, and Weird as Hell’

Harris and Walz Tour – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris – it’s official now – continues her tour of seven battleground states begun Tuesday in Philadelphia when she introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. The Dem pair knock off two more battlegrounds Wednesday by visiting Eau Claire, Wisconsin and Detroit (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

In a jam-packed stadium rally in Philadelphia introduced by veepstakes first runner-up Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, Walz proved himself ready to be Harris’ affable, Midwestern dad-attack dog, telling the ebullient crowd about the Trump-Vance Republican ticket, “You know you feel it. These guys are creepy, and yes, weird as hell.”

As if setting out to confirm the “creepiness,” GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance will follow Harris/Walz for the first three days of her swing state tour, Business Insider reports. Vance, who Wednesday described Walz as “one of the most far-left governors,” said he would agree to a vice presidential debate after the Democratic National Convention, which begins the week of August 19.

•••

Another Squad Defeat – With $8.5-million backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s United Democracy Project Super-PAC, Wesley Bell defeated “Squad” member Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for Missouri’s 1^st District House seat (AP). Bell, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, faces Republican primary winner Andrew Jones in the heavily Democratic district.

In Missouri’s heavily Republican 3^rd District, Donald J. Trump-backed candidate Bob Onder defeated Kurt Schaefer in the GOP primary, AP reports. Both are former state senators, and Onder is also a physician.

Lucas Kunce won Missouri’s Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Josh Hawley in November.

In Michigan Tuesday, Rep. Elissa Slotkin won the Democratic primary to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D). Slotkin faces Republican primary winner Mike Rogers in November.

In Washington state, Raul Garcia won the Republican primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell (The New York Times).

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

If Joe Is Sleepy, Was Trump Comatose?

By Stephen Macaulay

Although I am as concerned as the next guy about looking at my 401k right now, the dubious economic understanding exhibited by Donald Trump about the stock market is in full form.

As he put it this week on Truth Social: “STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!! KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!”

A word about Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the company that brings you Truth Social: In March it was trading at a high for the year of $66.22. It is now at $26.98.

That’s a decline of about 60%.

Not good.

Shouldn’t the proprietor have more than a little something to do with the value of one’s company?

On Monday, August 5, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,033.99 points.

That is a decline of 2.6%.

Not good.

But let’s go back to when Donald Trump was president.

On March 12, 2020, the DJIA fell 2,352.60 points.

That’s a decline of 9.99%.

Again, not good.

On March 16, 2020, the DJIA fell 2,997.10 points.

That’s a decline of 12.93%

That’s really not good.

If Biden was sound asleep when there was this week’s decline, then Trump must have been in a coma in March 2020.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Write to Us

The Hustings is designed to bring left and right together in civil, fact-based discussion of current political news. You are welcome and encouraged to comment on our news/news aggregate and analysis, whether you’d like to make a prediction on who presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate should be or whether you think the next presidential debate should be September 10 on ABC News, or September 4 on Fox News.

What about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s reversal of a plea deal with three 9/11 masterminds? What about June’s Labor department report showing tepid job growth in June? Was the Federal Reserve slow in planning to lower interest rates? Is the Biden administration to blame?

What do you think of Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s column on the right criticizing Trump’s plan to “drill, drill, drill” for oil on his first day in office?

Enter your Comments in the space made for them in this column or the one on the right (depending on your political leanings), or email us at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you generally lean conservative or liberal in the subject line.

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Take This Walz

Democratic presidential nominee has chosen Minn Gov. Walz as her running mate, AP says.

UPDATE: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, sources tell The Associated Press. Walz has been credited with tagging the Trump-Vance ticket as "weird" (an epithet some Democrats worry could backfire as Hilary Clinton's "deplorables" did eight years ago) and he joins the campaign without any of the sort of baggage that began to weigh down veepstakes finalists Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

Philly Rally -- Democratic presidential candidate (yes, it's official now) Kamala Harris will announce her running mate at a rally in Philadelphia Tuesday evening. Yes, the purple-state campaign kickoff hints it will be Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. But Politico Playbook reports Tuesday morning that "most Democrats we pinged last night said they believe the chances of Harris picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are higher than chances of her picking" Shapiro. Playbook says this is a "reversal" of the expectations of a few days ago.

Kamala ‘Crash’? – Many economists dismissed Monday’s global stock market “crash” as overreaction to last week’s tepid jobs report. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, still very low historically, but only 114,000 jobs were added to the economy.

Did the Federal Reserve make a mistake in maintaining its interest rate of 5.25% to 5.5%? Is it too late to catch up and cut the rate between its last scheduled meeting in late July and its next, in September?

In The Atlantic Daily Derek Thompson writes that we shouldn’t pay much attention to Monday’s stock market, in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,034 points, to 38,703.27.

The Japanese market had its worst day since the crash of 1987, and Thompson cites 1.) “recession fears” due to the Fed’s reluctance to cut rates after the Consumer Price Index came down to 3%, within a point of the target; 2.) major tech companies Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta investing too much into artificial intelligence, which some analysts fear potential profits will be too low to justify; 3.) Japan’s central bank keeping its rates too low, resulting in a relatively cheap yen.

The Wall Street Journal reports in a headline that “cracks in the economy pose a risk to Harris’ momentum” and quotes Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump writing in Truth Social “TRUMP CASH v. KAMALA CRASH.” (There’s that woman’s first name/man’s last name thing again.)

While the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, bipartisan infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act can be credited for keeping unemployment low, it’s the Fed that determines monetary policy and thus sets interest rates. In times of high inflation, the Fed must try to bring the CPI down without triggering increased unemployment and potentially a recession. For what it’s worth, Trump tried to influence the Fed during his administration and has indicated he would do so again if he wins another term.

•••

Google This, Pal – Ruling on a suit by the Justice Department and several states, a district court judge has ruled that Google has acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online searches (per The New York Times).

“Google is a monopolist, and has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said, in a 277-page ruling. The suit accuses Google of maintaining the monopoly by paying such companies as Apple and Samsung to automatically make Google the search engine for smartphones and web browsers.

--TL

_____________________________________________

...meanwhile... MON 8/5/24

Any Minute Now – All-but-officially official Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to name her running mate, possibly by the time you read this. The vice president surely will name her choice for vice president on the ticket by Tuesday, when she begins a campaign tour of purple states in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile … That kick-off city has led many – in Pennsylvania, anyway – to predict that the commonwealth’s popular governor, Josh Shapiro, will be the man. But Pennsylvania could spoil not just Shapiro’s chances, but also that of Sen. Mark Kelly (AZ). Read why we predict Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota will be Harris’ choice on our Substack, here.

•••

But Not on ABC News – Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump “declared” on Truth Social Friday he will not attend a September 10 debate on ABC News he had previously agreed to with President Biden. Trump instead wants to debate presumed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris September 4 on Fox News. Unlike the ABC debate, the Fox debate would have a studio audience, presumably consisting of pro-MAGA voters.

“I’ll see her on September 4^th, or I won’t see her at all,” Trump Truth Socialed.

Last week Trump told ABC News’ Rachel Scott in his contentious appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago he believes she works for a “fake news” organization.

The Harris campaign believes Trump is running scared with the prospect of having to debate the vice president in place of Biden, whose poor performance in a June debate led to his handing over the Democratic campaign to Harris.

“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said, per The New York Times.

•••

9/11 Plea Deal Blocked – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reversed a plea deal the Defense Department had reached with three Guantanamo Bay prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks (per Newsweek). Under the deal, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants were to get life in prison and be let off from the death penalty in exchange for allowing families of the terrorist attack’s victims to ask questions.

While some victims’ families were relieved to have the chance to put the two decade-long cases behind them, others were upset there would be no chance for the death penalty.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Drilling Down on Dumb

By Stephen Macaulay

Once, the Republican Party seemed to be constituted of businesspeople. The Republicans would make money and the Democrats would give it away, was pretty much the notion.

But now the Republican Party seems to be full of people who know nothing about business and economics but plenty about imagined grievance.

At least their leader, Donald Trump, when it comes to issues related to energy, is either willfully ignorant or simply speaks in the context of things that are transactionally beneficial to Donald Trump.

And his supporters cheer.

Trump lets loose with the “drill, baby, drill” mantra. He makes it seem as though there is an insufficient amount of oil drilling going on in the United States. (Funny thing: he seems to underestimate the US across the board. For example, when he talks crime, he doesn’t indicate that in 2020, his final year in office, the violent crime rate in the US was greater than it is in 2024: 398.5 per 100,000 people under Trump, now down to 380.7 per 100,000 people last year under Biden.)

As for the oil drilling, you’d think that there are all manner of horrible regulations and restrictions on how and where drilling can occur, placing the US oil production in trouble.

Guess what?

In 2024 the US produces more crude oil per day than any other country in the world.

As in:

US: 12.8 million barrels per day
Russia: 10.5 million barrels per day
Saudi Arabia: 10.2 million barrels per day

Break out the “USA! USA! USA!” chant.

And again, in 2020 the US produced 11.3 million barrels per day.

Or a 12% increase in oil production under Biden.

Now to be fair, in 2020 there was COVID (and let’s not get into Trump’s pathetic response to that: After he was released from the hospital in October 2020 for COVID treatment, in his first speech, when there were some 220,000 Americans dead from the disease, when there was an increase in hospitalizations, he said: “It’s going to disappear. It is disappearing.”), so petroleum demand was down.

This is how much oil the US produced pre-COVID, when he was in office:

2017: 9.3 million barrels per day
2018: 10.96 million barrels per day
2019: 12.23 million barrels per day

For Trump, peak oil was 12.23 million barrels per day. For Biden peak oil was in 2023, 12.9 million barrels per day.

Yes, Sleepy Joe had more petroleum pumped that Trump.

But here’s a thing.

As people have known since even before Adam Smith (once a hero of the Republicans, now someone forgotten) explained it:

There is supply and there is demand.

And if the supply greatly exceeds the demand, then the producer has to reduce the cost of that commodity, which means the producer doesn’t make as much as it will when demand exceeds supply.

There is something else that needs to be taken into account: Petroleum is a global commodity.

A given oil company is looking to sell its product wherever it can make the most

money — regardless of where it comes from.

In the World According to Trump, there should be oil derricks damn near everywhere.

Hell, put one on the White House lawn if there’s oil below.

But for the oil companies, they’re not in the least bit interested in oversupplying the market.

So (1) the US leads in oil production and (2) oil producers have no incentive to vastly increase their output.

The “drill, drill, drill” may be good for crowd chants, but as for actual policy. . .?

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What’s Left

Scroll down the page (by using the trackbar on the far right) for reader discussion about who should be presumed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate. The vice president has confirmed she will announce her choice ahead of a campaign swing through swing states scheduled to begin in Philadelphia next Tuesday.

Harris and her choice for veep will proceed through Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.

As always, we are interested in your thoughts on this, and other political news and issues posted in the center column.

Please add your Comments in this column, or the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean liberal or conservative in the subject line.

We also encourage you to email your comments, criticisms and recommendations for The Hustings via that same email address. We will not publish those comments unless you ask us to.

_____

…meanwhile…

The US economy added just 114,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate rose 0.2 points over the previous month to 4.3%, the Labor Department reported Friday. This cooling in the job market comes a day after tech stocks were slammed and Intel announced it would lay off 15% of its staff. While an interest rate cut expected from the Federal Reserve in September is a potential boon to the Harris presidential campaign, some economists now worry it will be too late to prevent some level of downturn. Job gains last month came in health care, construction, transportation and warehousing, while the information sector lost jobs. [Bureau of Labor Statistics.]

Harris Snags Nomination -- Vice President Kamala Harris has formally secured the Democratic nomination for president, 12 days after incumbent Joe Biden announced he was stepping down from his campaign. Harris needed at least 2,350 states' delegates' votes to pass the threshold, but she will not officially accept the nomination until Wednesday, when the virtual voting period is closed, according to The Hill. Delegate voting had begun 9 am Thursday, and Harris ran unopposed.

Meanwhile ... Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, has joined Harris' campaign as senior advisor, Politico Playbook reports. Plouffe will have his work cut out for him; Trump has a 1.1-point lead over Harris, 47.6% to 46.5%, based on 97 polls, according to The Hill.

•••

Blinken: Maduro Opponent Won – Edmundo González won last Sunday’s election for president of Venezuela, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says, and he called on President Nicholás Maduro to begin negotiations to ensure a peaceful transition of power, The Washington Post reports. After last Sunday’s elections, Maduro had claimed without allowing access to ballots he had won, 51% to 44%, which lead to widespread protests across the country. According to the government’s own records, González won the election by a ratio of 2:1.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

Scroll down this page (with the trackbar on the far right) to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s recent columns on the whirlwind race for president in just the last month.

• In“Weird” Macaulay writes about the Harris campaign tactic that attempts to portray the Trump-Vance campaign as far beyond out-of-touch.

• In “About Kamala & The Wall” he writes about the Trump-Vance campaign’s attempts to hang the “border crisis” on the current vice president.

• In “Too Slow, Joe,” Macaulay criticizes the current president for dragging out his decision to step down from the race, and the effect it could have on the Democratic Party’s timing.

You surely have noticed by Macaulay’s columns that our pundit-at-large is a “never-Trumper” conservative.

Be sure to read the reader comments under “Undemocratic Democrats,” and you’ll see that we welcome comments from pro-MAGA conservatives, too. We encourage your civil comments no matter where you stand on the right or the left. Please add your Comments in this column, or the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean conservative or liberal in the subject line.

We also encourage you to email your comments, criticisms and recommendations for The Hustings via that same email address. We will not publish those comments unless you ask us to.

_____

On Harris’ Running Mate Candidates

Editors:

While I like Senator Kelly (and have two potential lines of connection to him -- thinking White House key chains here) I no longer have any feel for Arizona to know whether his presence on the ticket would make the state winnable. My best college friend knows Gov. Beshear a bit, did some effective campaigning for him in northern Kentucky, and his success in appealing to Red voters is admirable, but I don't think he becomes well-enough known, quickly enough, to change the electoral math. Big Gretch (Michigan governor) belongs at the top of the ticket, with Raphael Warnock (senator from Georgia). I don't know the North Carolina guy at all -- same objection as with Kelly plus no keychains.

So, I would choose (Pennsylvania) Gov. Shapiro, if VP Harris were too busy and just delegated the job to me. Prep carefully with him, then have him meet with some group(s) of Michigan Arab voters, seek to minimize that potential conflict.

Still, if I win Mega Millions tonight, I'm buying a little place in Toronto.

--Hugh Hansen

___________________________________________

Welcome, Citizen Pundits

The Hustings works best as civil media when we receive a healthy number of comments from you on political news/news aggregate/analysis from the center column. Let us know what you think of President Biden’s address from the White House Oval Office Wednesday evening and his explanation for stepping down from his re-election campaign, or of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before a joint session of Congress Wednesday afternoon … or both.

Or comment on any of the recent news from the center column, including Vice President Harris’ initial surge in popularity as the likely Democratic presidential nominee, and the Trump campaign’s initial reaction to her campaign.

Please let us know, too, whether we missed something you feel we should cover.

Go to the Comment section of the left or right column, depending on your political leanings, or email editors@thehustings.newsand please list whether you are right, conservative or MAGA or left, liberal or progressive, in the subject line.

_____

…meanwhile…

Real Gross Domestic Product rose a healthy 2.4% in the second quarter of the year, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, up from +1.4% in the first quarter. The Q2 increase reflected greater consumer spending, private inventory investment and non-residential fixed investment, the BEA says, partially offset by increased imports to the US.

FRIDAY 7/26/24

Harris Calls for Cease Fire – In what’s being called her first-ever foreign policy speech, Vice President Harris pushed back on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion before a joint session of US Congress Wednesday that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

“The images of dead children, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time, we cannot walk away in the face of those tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent,” Harris said Thursday following her White House meeting with Netanyahu, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. President Biden met separately with Netanyahu at the White House.

“And as I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. So to everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you and I hear you. Let’s get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war. Let’s bring the hostages home and let’s bring much-needed relief to the Palestinian people.” Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, recited one by one the names of hostages being held by Hamas, Morning Edition reported, and condemned protestors who spray-painted pro-Hamas slogans on a monument in Washington.

Harris’ comments drew quick criticism from far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, according to Haaretz.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Friday that “a surrender to [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar, an end to the war in a way that would enable Hamas to recover, and an abandonment of hostages held by Hamas. We cannot fall into this trap!”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Givr posted on X; “There won’t be an end to the war, madame candidate.”

Meanwhile at Mar-a-Lago, GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump urged Netanyahu to end the war, The New York Timesreports, ahead of a scheduled meeting between the two on Friday.

•••

Obamas, Finally – Barack and Michelle Obama finally have officially endorsed Kamala Harris Friday as the Democratic nominee for US president, in a video initially released on the vice president’s campaign website, according to The Guardian.

“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” former President Obama said.

--TL

__________________________________________

THU 7/25/24 -- Biden 'Passes the Torch'

Biden Bids Adieu – Joe Biden buried the Trump-like ambition for a second presidential term he expressed in his interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos following his debate disaster last month and formally announced he will not seek re-election in November.

“I revere this office, but I love my country more,” he said from the Oval Office, where his family watched from the side, just off-camera.

Biden endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who already has procured a majority of primary delegates necessary for the Democratic Party’s nomination. The party will hold a “virtual” delegate vote by August 7, ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago beginning August 19. Harris is expected to announce her running mate prior to the convention.

Though Republicans have called on Biden to step down from the presidency immediately, Biden said he will remain until his term ends next January 20.

“In recent weeks, it has become clear to me that I need to unite my party in this critical endeavor,” Biden told the nation. “I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America’s future, all merited a second term. But nothing, nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition …

“So I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. It’s the best way to unite our nation.”

•••

Netanyahu to White House – Amidst protesters outside the US Capitol, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Wednesday gave a fiery address to a joint session of Congress. Thursday, he visits the White House on the ultimate day of his three-day Washington visit to meet with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Biden hopes to convince Israel and Hamas to agree to his proposal for a three-phase release of remaining hostages in Gaza, according to U.S. News & World Report.

The White House says negotiations are in its closing stages, but with issues that need to be resolved.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

__________________________________________

Big Day in Washington -- WED 7/24/24

At the White House – President Joe Biden addresses the nation Wednesday from the Oval Office to explain why he is stepping down from his re-election campaign to make way for Vice President Kamala Harris. The president is scheduled to begin at 8 pm Eastern time.

On X he tweeted he will share “what lies ahead, and how I will finish the job for the American people” (per USA Today). Watch Biden’s address on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and CNN or streaming on myriad news websites.

On the Hill – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks Wednesday afternoon to a joint session of Congress “with significantly ramped-up security presence and barricades to keep out the many different anti-war and religious groups planning to protest his speech,” according to CQ Roll Call. Vice President Harris normally would preside over the joint session, but she will instead be making previously scheduled campaign appearances.

Together again … Biden greets Netanyahu at the White House on Thursday, the final day of the Israeli PM’s three-day Washington visit.

“The leaders will discuss developments in Gaza and progress toward a ceasefire and hostage release deal and the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security, including countering Iran’s threats to Israel and the broader region,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a White House statement.

•••

About that Presidential Campaign – Vice President Harris’ sudden rise to the top of the Democratic ticket raised more than $100 million from 1.1 million donors in the first 41 hours after President Biden stepped down, The Washington Post reports. The new ticket clearly has energized Democrats, including progressive “Bernie Bros” who previously criticized Harris’ tough-on-crime stance from when she was California’s attorney general, according to Politico.

The Trump campaign is attacking Harris for her efforts, or alleged lack thereof, as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” for allegedly “covering up” Biden’s diminishing cognitive capabilities over the last three-and-a-half years and even as a “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” running mate. That last attack is being counter-attacked as a blatantly racist criticism of Harris.

Meanwhile, Haley Not Haley … Michael G. Adams, attorney for former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has sent a cease-and-desist letter to a group called Haley Voters for Harris, formerly called Haley Voters for Biden, Fox News reports. Adams demands the group stop use of Haley’s “name, image or likeness that implies her support for the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”

Haley, you may remember, questioned GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump’s “mental fitness” after he confused her name with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA), and once said the first party to nominate a younger candidate than Trump or Biden would win the election.

But Haley recanted in time to be invited to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where she committed her primary delegates to Trump.

A Haley Voters for Harris statement counters that the group does not claim to speak on behalf of Haley or her views. HV4H Director Craig Snyder told NPR’s Morning Edition that the group’s name is “a factual statement of the way a lot of people feel and the way a lot of people intend to vote in November.”

•••

Menendez Resigns – ICYMI, Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), convicted last week on federal corruption charges and facing likely expulsion by the Senate Ethics Committee will resign his seat effective late August (per The New York Times). New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat, said he would promptly appoint a replacement, though he demurred on whether it might be his wife, Tammy Murphy, who lost the Democratic nomination for the Senate seat to Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) earlier this year. Kim faces wealthy hotel operator Curtis Bashaw, who beat a Trump-backed candidate for the Republican nomination.

•••

Cheatle Resigns – On Monday, Secret Service Director Kimberly A. Cheatle told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that she could not reveal, or did not know, key details about the July 13 assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald J. Trump at his rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania (per The New York Times). Her contentious testimony drew rare bipartisan agreement between the committee’s chair, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) that she must resign.

On Tuesday, she did.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Undemocratic Democrats

Editors:

The same folks “all in” on Vice President Harris as the best Democrat to run against Donald Trump are the same insiders, and so-called journalists who for months assured us that President Biden was physically and mentally fit to serve four more years as POTUS. I’m still puzzled at how democracy is not questioned when 14 million Biden votes and millions in donations for him just magically flow to Harris and her campaign? Dean Phillips, Jason Palmer and Robert Kennedy Jr. cannot be all that happy.

--Rich Corbett

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About Kamala & the Wall

By Stephen Macaulay

The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, the result of some rare Senatorial bipartisan activities (lead Republican on the bill, James Lankford of Oklahoma, said, “It doesn’t have everything in it I wanted, it doesn’t have everything in it my Democratic colleagues wanted. But it definitely makes a difference), was torpedoed by primarily Republicans who were acting in fealty to the dictates of their Dear Leader Donald Trump. After all, if the bill passed, then he’d lose what is his primary criticism of the Biden Administration (that and some bizarre “crime family” trope).

According to factcheck.org:

“It included money to build more border barriers, to greatly expand detention facilities, and to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges to reduce the years-long backlog in cases to determine asylum eligibility. It sought to expedite the asylum process, essentially ending — in most cases — the so-called ‘catch and release’ policy whereby migrants are released into the U.S. pending asylum hearings. And it would have increased the standard of evidence needed to win asylum status.

“The bill also would have supplied more funding to interdict fentanyl and human trafficking. . . .”

So what do we have here?

Walls
More enforcement personnel
Expedited handling of illegal aliens
Reduced amounts of fentanyl coming over the border

One of the things that is going to be thrown at, with some vigor, Kamala Harris is that she was supposed to take care of the border and, well, the border continues to be a mess.

But what is the role of our elected legislators?

That bill, as Lankford pointed out, didn’t have absolutely everything for everyone.

But it was better than what we now have. Far better. But the bill was spiked.

According to the official Republican 2024 platform, which seems to have been written by someone who doesn’t exactly have a grasp of when words should be capitalized:

“We must secure our Southern Border by completing the Border Wall that President Trump started. Hundreds of miles have already been built and work magnificently. The remaining Wall construction can be completed quickly, effectively, and inexpensively.”

Let’s take a look at the “Border Wall that President Trump started.”

Turns out that during FOUR YEARS (if you’re going to use caps, use them):

52 miles of new primary wall systems were built
33 miles of new secondary wall systems were built
351 miles of existing primary barriers were replaced
22 miles of existing secondary barriers were replaced

So giving him the benefit of the doubt, there were a whopping 85 miles of new wall built.

The length of a wall (or Wall) would need to be 1,933 miles to completely stretch along the border. Right now, there are 403 miles of primary structures, 52 of which are wall.

That means 1,530 miles of border need wall (Wall!).

At the rate the Trump Administration performed construction during his first term, 21.25 miles per year, it would require 72 years to finish the job. That’s nearly as long as Trump has been on the planet.

It is estimated that the Trump Administration spent $15 billion on The Wall. Of that, some $10 billion was taken from the Department of Defense.

Fifteen billion dollars.

This means that if there were 458 miles of something built or replaced or reinforced or otherwise Wall, it cost US taxpayers — NOT Mexico (remember that?) -- $32,751,092 per mile.

So in order to build the remaining 1,530 miles of Wall it would cost $50,109,170,760 — OK, let’s say there’s a volume discount and we’ll call it a cool $50 billion.

Somehow what Kamala Harris did or didn’t do on the border is trivial compared to all of this.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Harris Builds Support Among Some Dems

President Biden’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement in the election campaign quickly drew significant support from fellow Democrats Sunday. According to Politico, the following have endorsed the veep’s stand-in candidacy:

•Former President Bill Clinton and former Sec. of State Hilary Clinton.

•Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina.

•Rep. Debbie Dingell, Michigan.

•Gov. Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania (a leading potential running mate for Harris).

•Gov. Roy Cooper, North Carolina (also a potential running mate).

•Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts.

Former President Barack Obama is a holdout, posting on Medium that he has “extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges.”

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also have not yet committed to Harris.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Harris Has the Dem Nomination

Veep Harris has the Democratic nomination for president in hand [White House photo].

Vice President Kamala Harris has secured pledges from a majority of Democratic National Convention delegates Monday night, The Washington Post reports, which means she can count on becoming her party's presidential nominee when it moves forward with a special process August 7, ahead of the convention. The DNC is scheduled to begin August 19. Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) had expressed interest in switching parties back to Democratic in order to challenge Harris, but he apparently abandoned the notion by Sunday night.

--TL

Biden Bows Out -- MONDAY 7/22/24

By Todd Lassa

The number of Democratic lawmakers who called on Joe Biden to drop his re-election campaign topped 30 on Saturday. By Sunday morning, The New York Times reported that the president, holed up in his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, summer house with what was described as a mild case of COVID would not likely make any announcement until after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington Wednesday to address Congress, “unwilling to give the premier the satisfaction given their strained relations lately over the Gaza war.”

But that speculation was old news by Sunday afternoon, when President Biden posted a letter on X-Twitter announcing his withdrawal and endorsing his vice president, Kamala Harris, to lead the ticket.

Like a primary candidate running a distant second who hangs in the race too long, Biden insisted he was in it ‘till the end, until suddenly, he was not.

Unlike the primary scenario, this leaves Harris and any potential challengers very little time to cut Biden’s name off campaign signs already printed up. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago is scheduled to begin August 19. CNN reports that the Democratic National Committee is expected to hold a “virtual” roll call between August 1 and August 7.

Alternatively, there also has been much talk about a mini-primary process consisting of town halls, debates and other candidate forums, though this sounds rather time consuming particularly at the height of summer vacation season. The DNC could also hold either an open convention or a brokered convention August 19-22, according to Forbes.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), the first Democratic lawmaker to call on Biden to withdraw, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN Dems need to wait for other potential candidates and not rush to nominate Harris.

Sen. Joe Manchin (I-WV) told Martha Raddatz on ABC News This Week Sunday morning that it was time for Biden to withdraw. After the president withdrew, Manchin told two ABC News sources he is considering re-registering as a Democrat in order to run against Harris for the nomination.

First of what will surely become one of many Republican talking points targeting the likely Harris nomination is that she essentially “lied” to the American people by not saying anything about Biden’s diminishing capabilities, which were detailed by Olivia Nuzzi in New York magazine’s Intelligencer. Suddenly, Biden’s smashing State of the Union performance last March feels like it happened ages ago

Obituary: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee – The 15-term Democratic congresswoman serving Texas’ 18^th District, including Houston, died Friday, age 74. Family did not list a cause of death, according to The New York Times, but last June Jackson Lee announced she had pancreatic cancer. Among her congressional accomplishments, Jackson Lee was the author and sponsor of legislation that in 2021 made Juneteenth a national holiday.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news