Our National Parks Are a Treasure

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

I spent four summers right before and during college working either in or right outside the entrances of our National Parks. At 18, a new high school graduate, I pumped gas at Flagg Ranch, located a few miles south of Yellowstone National Park and just north of the Grand Tetons. At 19 and 21, I worked as a bell hop and desk clerk at Grand Lake Lodge, on the western slope of Rocky Mountain National Park. And at 20, I worked at Many Glacier Hotel in the heart of Glacier National Park, rotating between day and night shifts as a desk clerk and night watchman.

These were life-shaping experiences. For one thing, in 1968 in Colorado, I met the girl who would become my wife of nearly 54 years. During these summers I also climbed the Grand Teton and rafted on the Snake River in Wyoming, climbed Longs Peak and Snowmass Mountain in the high Colorado range, and hiked miles of trails on multi-day treks in Glacier, making noise in wooded areas to let the bear know we were coming. There were steak rides, mini-golf soirees, poker games and trips to Frontier Days and the Calgary Stampede, rodeos where cowboys would hone their craft and show their skills.

But what has stayed with me most so many decades later is the natural beauty of the parks, their lakes, forests, pristine streams and snow-covered mountains, all under big western skies that seem to stretch forever.

Sadly, America’s National Parks are endangered these days, in part because of growing crowds and the ravages of climate change, but most starkly because of accelerating cuts in the National Park Service staff and maintenance budgets. As NPR noted in a story this week, “as visitors flock to [the] parks, deep cuts leave rangers and wildlife at risk.”

The National Park system has been around since 1916. Today there are 63 National Parks and 423 National Park sites, which include the parks, national monuments, battlefields and other designated locations. In 2024, a record 331.9 million individuals visited these sites in aggregate, the largest number ever, according to the National Park Service.

Despite this, the Trump Administration has proposed a 30% cut in the National Park budgets. By May 22, according to an article by the National Park Conservation Association, the Park Service already has shed 13% of its staff under the Trump Administration as a result of “pressured buyouts, deferred resignations and early retirements.” Then, the House version of Trump’s big budget bill cast the parks “into even further crisis,” the Conservation Association reported.

Now, as the Senate version of the same budget bill enters its home stretch, it is not a question of whether, but how deep, cuts will be. Trump, the association writes, has proposed an additional $1 billion cut in the National Park Service budget in 2026 – even though visitors to the parks contributed $55 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023 alone.

These cuts are potentially so catastrophic that even some Republican senators from western states are squirming, The Hill reports. One is Steve Daines, senator from Montana. Daines, who is up for re-election in 2026, told The Hillthat he wants“to make sure [the parks are] adequately funded.”

The question is, what’s adequate? There has been no indication that either Daines or other western Republican intend to cast a nay vote when Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” comes up for passage, possibly this week.

Nor will cuts stop within the parks. The administration also proposes to sell as much as three million acres of federally managed public land outside the parks over the next five years. These, too, are treasured by fishermen, hunters, campers and hikers.

But it is the National Park sites that are the true gems of this country’s natural beauty. In a June 3 article, the National Parks Conservation Association noted the devastation they are facing.

•The administration’s proposed $1 billion National Park Service cut, if enacted, “would be the largest cut in the agency’s 109-year history,” the association says.

•The administration has moved to scale back efforts to preserve the environment within the parks. One example is the reversal of a move to phase out the sale of single-use plastics in the parks.

•The Trump Administration, since taking office, has fixated on rewriting American history to sharply reduce if not wipe out the role non-white and non-male Americans played in our history, going so far as to remove words like “black” and “female” from web pages across the government.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in mid-May issued a secretarial order and timeline for National Park Service and other Interior staff to review, identify and remove, “images, descriptions, depictions, messages, narratives or other information (content) that inappropriately disparages Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”

Just what that means presumably will be determined by this administration.

I haven’t been back to the National Parks in the Rockies since my wife, daughters and I celebrated our 25^th anniversary at Grand Lake Lodge, where we met and worked 57 and 55 years ago. We stopped there on a cross-country train trip from the Bay Area to Boston and back. Once again we found ourselves driving over Trail Ridge Road, traversing the pass over the Continental Divide.

I couldn’t help but think back on the half-dozen times my new girlfriend that first summer drove me over this treacherous 48-mile road between Grand Lake and Estes Park so I could visit a foot specialist. After my appointments, we’d often have pizza, take in a drive-in movie and make the long drive back to catch a few hours sleep before work at 6 a.m.

It was the start of a romance that’s still unfolding.

Lanson’s commentary first appeared in his Substack From the Grassroots.

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FRIDAY 6/27/25

House Passes Tax & Spending Bill, 218-214

US Economy Adds 147,000 Jobs – More good economic news for the Trump White House, as 147,000 jobs were added to the economy in June, the Labor Department reports. Not surprisingly, the federal government lost jobs while state government picked some of them up. Health care also added jobs, as unemployment ticked down slightly to 4.1%, from 4.2% in April and May. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

THURSDAY 7/3/25

UPDATE: The House passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act for tax and spending in the 2026 fiscal year, 218-214, NPR reports. On to the Resolute Desk in time for President Trump's Sharpie-intensive Independence Day celebration.

Rules of the Game – The House approved rules governing floor debate early Thursday for the Big Vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the Trump White House-endorsed tax and spending bill the president wants to sign by Independence Day, tomorrow, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The 219-213 passage of this procedural hurdle followed 20 hours of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) cajoling Republican holdouts – with President Trump intervening -- nearly all of them hardline budget hawks and some of whom wanted material payoffs in the form of amendments favorable to their individual districts, though they were told it was too late in the process for that.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a “surprise centrist defector,” was the sole Republican “no” on the procedural vote, Roll Call reports.

In addition to increasing the federal deficit by $3.3 billion over the next 10 years according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the tax and spending bill raises the debt ceiling by $5 trillion in order to avoid yet another potential government shutdown this summer, according to NPR.

Democrats contend the bill extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for the rich while taking from the poor and middle class. The CBO also calculates that 11.8 million Americans will lose health care coverage from Medicaid cuts in the bill, which includes work requirements for some recipients.

“People in America will die,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who was continuing to speak and hold up the final vote for more than five hours by mid-morning Thursday, said.

MAGA Republicans say the CBO should use “dynamic” calculations instead of its “static” calculations, which would take into consideration the way tax cuts for the rich will stimulate investment and job growth.

When a reporter asked President Trump after his tour of Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz” with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) whether the Medicaid cuts target 11.8 million citizens for waste, fraud and abuse, Trump had this reply, according to PolitiFact:

“No, I’m saying that. I’m saying it’s going to be a very much smaller number than that, and that number will be waste, fraud and abuse.”

--TL

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It's Not Over Yet

WEDNESDAY 7/2/25

Needs More Cuts – But wait, there’s more.

President Trump hopes to sign the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the budget reconciliation bill that contains pretty much all his legislative agenda, by Independence Day. And wouldn’t Trump’s Big Beautiful Sharpie Signature be a nice Fourth of July birthday celebration, huh?

But shortly after the Senate’s passage of the bill early Tuesday, 51-50 with Vice President Vance needed to break the tie, Rep. Andy Harris (R-TN), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), a member of the caucus, announced they would vote against a key procedural vote set for Wednesday to move the reconciliation bill forward, The Hill reports.

All Reps. Harris and Norman need is a third congressmember to sink the bill’s progression, and they say they have several more allies in the House. The procedural involves setting parameters on the bill’s debate.

“Look, Mr. Musk is right, we cannot sustain these deficits, he understands finance, he understands debts and deficits, and we have to make further progress,” Harris told Fox News Tuesday, referring to Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink CEO/exiled DOGE-founder Elon’s criticism of the bill (and plans to “primary” its congressional supporters). “And I believe the Freedom Caucus will take the lead in making further progress.”

Regression? … What, exactly is “progress” given that the Congressional Budget Office has scored the House’s hit on the federal deficit at $2.4 trillion over the next decade only to be topped by the Senate version’s $3.3 trillion cost.

•••

Trump Wins Lawsuit Settlement – Paramount Global will pay $16 million to Donald J. Trump’s presidential library fund in an out-of-court settlement over his lawsuit regarding a CBS News 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris prior to last November’s elections. Under the settlement, Paramount will not admit any wrongdoing.

Trump’s lawsuit regarded the editing of an answer Harris, his opponent in the presidential election, gave in the interview. Her answer was edited differently for the 60 Minutes broadcast and for Face the Nation earlier.

Trump’s attorneys argued the edits made Harris look less confused than she was while causing anguish and confusion for his supporters. Though Trump’s lawsuit clearly was without merit, in the end, the settlement is good for Paramount controlling shareholder Shari Redstone’s efforts to sell the company to Skydance Media without resistance from the Trump administration’s Federal Communications Commission.

--TL

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One Big Passed Budget

TUESDAY 7/1/25

Senate Passes OBBB – The Senate passed its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill reconciliation budget, 51-50, with Vice President Vance casting the tiebreaker. The vote came after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) held overnight discussions with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and other GOP leaders to discuss changes softening the effect of Medicare and nutritional assistance cuts to Alaska, and for slower phase-out of clean energy tax credits, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina – who announced days ago he will not seek re-election in 2026 – voted with Democrats.

•••

Defunding Planned Parenthood – As the Senate proceeded through its vote-a-rama Monday its parliamentarian handed the Republicans a win in determining eligible for budget reconciliation One Big Beautiful Bill language that would block Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding for services in addition to abortion, Roll Call reports, which already is outlawed by the annual Hyde amendment appropriations rider. This follows a Supreme Court ruling last week that Planned Parenthood and its patients could not sue to challenge a state’s decision to exclude the provider from federal Medicaid funds because of its abortion services.

Democrats had tried to block the OBBB provision, citing the so-called Byrd rule restricting what can be included in reconciliation.

•••

Twitter Feud – President Trump and Elon Musk split up without having a prenup, and now it’s coming back to haunt the GOP. After the Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink CEO spent about $275 million to get Trump elected and appoint himself DOGE chief, Musk now is trying to stop the Senate from passing the One Big Beautiful Bill budget built around the president’s own agenda.

Musk says that if the bill passes the Senate, he will form a new “America Party” toot suite and “primary” Republicans, The New York Times reports. Never mind that if it’s a new, distinct party, it seems Musk’s candidates would have to wait to next November’s general election to challenge Republican House and Senate members.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk tweeted on his X-Twitter. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”

So maybe it means Musk will fund candidates under something called the America Party and run them in GOP primaries? Whatever the case, it’s a potential windfall for Democrats who think they probably do, but given they will be going up against MAGA acolytes might not, have an advantage in taking back the House and Senate in 2026.

By late Monday, according to the NYT Musk had endorsed Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), a budget hawk who joined 213 Democrats in voting against the House version of the bill, which passed 215-214 late last month.

Trump, being one who never backs down from a social media war, whether on his own Truth Social or in this case on X-Twitter, where he easily out-capitalized Musk, tweeted back; “Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far, and without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa. No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!—DJT” –TL

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MONDAY 6/30/25

SCOTUS Rules – The Supreme Court on Friday handed President Trump a big victory by ruling a single federal district court cannot hold up an executive order for the entire nation. The ruling entails Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship but did not rule directly on the 14^th Amendment issue. Scroll down this column for details.

•••

Vote-a-Rama – Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Thom Tillis (R-SC) appear to be the only three remaining holdouts against the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill, which Roll Call says is likely to reach a vote Monday. President Trump says he would like to sign the bill by July 4^th, but before it even gets to a Senate floor vote, the Vote-a-rama will allow its members to propose unlimited amendments.

In the latest version of the Senate bill released early Saturday, provisions that would benefit Alaskan whaling captains and support rural hospitals may be swaying Murkowski to Trump’s side, The New York Times reports. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) needs just one of the three to help pass OBBB, and Murkowski already has joined the majority to move the bill forward through a couple of procedural votes.

But on Sunday the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office scored the hit the federal deficit would take from the Senate version at a minimum of $3.3 trillion over the next decade, which is $900 billion more than its score for the OBBB passed by the House 215-214 last month.

Two other key holdouts, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) announced their support for the Senate bill by late Friday. The president spent a rare weekend in Washington and played golf Saturday with Sens. Paul, Tillis, Eric Schmidt (R-MO) and Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC), according to Roll Call.

If Murkowski folds on the budget, Rand seems to be the holdout that opponents of the bill can count on, though erstwhile über-MAGA and budget hawk Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) also is not a certainty for either side. As for fellow budget hawk Tillis, Trump has threatened him with a primary challenge for his 2026 election campaign and Tillis has since announced he will not run for re-election next year, The Hill reports.

Democrats did what they could to gum up the works by calling for a full reading of the 940-page bill, which went on into Sunday. Then Democrats challenged Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) use of a “current policy” baseline scoring the 2017 tax cut extensions, according to The Hill.

“This is the nuclear option,” ranking Budget Committee Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), said. “It’s just hidden behind a whole lot of Washington, D.C. lingo.”

And Republicans are going beyond nuclear. Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) and other Republican hardliners called on the Senate Sunday to ignore rulings from Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough that would remove several key provisions of the bill.

“Great Congressman Steube’s 100% correct,” Trump Truth Socialed. “An unelected Senate Staffer (Parliamentarian) should not be allowed to hurt the Republicans (sic) Bill. Wants many fantastic things out. NO! DJT.”

•••

Nuclear Argument – Rafael Grossi, head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency, is contradicting President Trump’s assertion US strikes on Iran have “obliterated” the country’s nuclear weapons capabilities, saying that Iran could produce enriched uranium in months, Semafor reports. Trump meanwhile on Fox News Sunday Morning Futures refuted Iran’s claims that it had moved its enriched uranium stockpiles ahead of the attacks.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 6/27/25

Victory for Trump – The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that district courts likely exceeded their authority in blocking President Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, NPR reports. The ruling, with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting, does not rule on the 14^th Amendment regarding birthright citizenship, but essentially says that district courts cannot make decisions for the entire nation. The ruling does take power from district courts in issuing injunctions to restrict executive branch actions.

The ruling is the first of six to be issued by SCOTUS on the final day of its 2024-25 term. More to come.

•••

You Say ‘Obliterated,’ They Say ‘Not Quite’ – Thursday morning’s Pentagon press conference in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reiterated the Trump White House’s claim that it had thoroughly wiped out Iran’s nuclear weapons program in the US Air Force attack last weekend has done little to tamper the debate over the bombings’ effect. Thursday afternoon, the administration briefed the Senate Subcommittee on Homeland Security, in this case, to members from both sides of the aisle.

“I walk away from that briefing still under the belief that we have not obliterated the program,” said ranking member Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), per Daily Beast. “The president was deliberately misleading the public when he said the program was ‘obliterated’ because it is certain that there is still significant capability and significant equipment that remain.”

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) accepts the Trump White House’s assessment.

“By destroying Iran’s nuclear facilities, by using B-2 bombers, helping Israel, but delivering a decisive blow, which was bold and brilliant, President Trump let every other adversary in the world know Joe Biden doesn’t live in the White House anymore,” Graham said on Fox News’ Hannity. “There’s a new sheriff in town. … He’s been strong, he’s been measured. … He wants peace, but it takes two people to have peace. …”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 6/27/25

The Gilded Cage Match

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Tesla stock price year-to-date is down (at least for the moment) by about 22%.

Elon Musk’s net worth is approximately $410,000,000,000. Yes, a lot of zeros, so even were his net worth to decline by 22%, that would be $319,800,000,000. Still a lot of zeros.

Since January 1, 2024, NASA has used SpaceX for three crewed missions, one in March 2024, one in September 2024, and one in March 2025. There were several other missions with SpaceX rockets (e.g., SPHEREx, PUNCH, EscaPADE).

NASA is presently dependent on SpaceX. United Launch Alliance had a NASA mission back in December 2023. Blue Origin has just been doing things like launching Katy Perry.

Donald Trump has recently claimed that Musk “gets a lot of subsidies” and that perhaps if these firms are under the DOGE chainsaw there is “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED.”

Tesla offers five electric vehicle models: the Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, and the Cybertruck.

Depending on the trim, there are 8 variants that permit purchasers to obtain a $7,500 tax credit.

Now if the Senate language of the budget has held (it passed 51-50 Tuesday), the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles will end September 30. The House, surprisingly, is a bit more generous: it would run through the end of 2025, and for automakers who have sold fewer than 200,000 EVs over the years will have vehicles that can qualify for the credit until the end of 2026.

Tesla’s share of the US EV market is just over 40%. It was over 50% not that long ago, but there is (a) more competition from other vehicle manufacturers and (b) the whole “Elon is a ****” movement.

Still, Tesla is doing well in the market. Should the tax incentives for EVs be eliminated, that bill won’t be particularly “Beautiful” for General Motors, Ford. . .or Tesla. Arguably it will have less of an effect on Tesla simply because it has a bigger piece of the market.

Additionally, unlike traditional automakers, Tesla has done things like suddenly adjusted pricing in a notable way (down and up: because it is more efficient in its production that other automakers, it has higher margins on its vehicles, which can be trimmed and still come out ahead, though not as far) and Tesla hasn’t done things like advertise. (GM spent some $3 billion in 2024 on advertising, so evidently it works.

(Were Tesla to start spending on ads, it, too, might reap the benefits.)

So: (1) NASA is dependent on Musk. (2) Musk’s automotive fortunes (shrinking though they are) will not be devastated by the language in the budget bill, regardless of what passes.

Trump probably doesn’t understand that.

And Musk probably doesn’t understand that a purpose of a government is to help support the people who it governs. He may like DOGE. The majority of Americans don’t.

Both men have demonstrated they have little tolerance for those who don’t wholly agree with them. Consequently, their relationship is one that is intrinsically fraught with the seeds of failure.

And both men seem to have a world view that has it that people are out to screw them.

They’ve popularized the mantra “waste, fraud and abuse,” and even though it is repeated over and over and over again, there has been little in the way of what can be considered meaningful evidence — meaningful from the point that there could be “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED.”

Sure, Trump could cut off SpaceX. But in 2024 a full 75% of SpaceX’s revenues came from commercial launches, and as indicated, 100% of NASA’s launches were on SpaceX equipment.

NASA could be shuttered — and as it represents ~0.5% of the 2025 federal budget, there is “NO BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED.”

Trump’s threats to Musk are not as chilling as they would be to anyone else who doesn’t happen to be the richest person in the world.

If the beef between the two really gets big, there is the possibility that Trump could nationalize SpaceX, and thereby reduce about 40% of a source of Musk’s wealth — and probably tank the stock market as investors see the treatment of private enterprise. (Why these people aren’t more concerned about tariffs being placed on things like Kia minivans because Trump invoked emergency powers predicated on national security grounds is curious, so it is hard to predict what they will do.)

As previously mentioned, if all incentives for electric vehicles are eliminated, Ford and General Motors will be impacted most at the showroom. And if, as is likely, they do go away, then this puts the US in a position that is substantially behind China in advanced technology.

According to a recent study by the International Energy Agency — a study pre-the-likely-elimination-of-incentives in the US, as well as the lifting of the California emissions waver — by 2030 electric car sales in China will be 80% of the total.

Europe? “Carbon dioxide targets support the achievement of a sales share close to 60%.”

The US? “Around 20% . . . less than half the share projected for 2030 last year.”

The billions invested by GM and Ford in electrification will be worth far less than they are at the moment. Which could be construed as “BIG MONEY TO BE LOST.”

Do either of these men understand that?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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Your Turn

MONDAY 6/30/25

Was the Trump administration’s bombing of Iranian nuclear weapons facilities last weekend “obliteration” or something less? What do you think of Trump’s pivot from isolationism to a more neocon approach?

What do you think of the White House’s policy toward national parks, including its 30% cut in funding and plans to sell off some public lands?

Whether you lean right or left, pro-MAGA, never-Trumper, moderate liberal or progressive, we seek your civilly stated COMMENTS. Email The Hustings at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean left or right, or leave a comment in the appropriate column here, so we can post your opinions in the proper column.

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FRIDAY 6/27/25

No Patience for Diplomacy

Best Opportunity -- I have a somewhat positive emotional response to the USAF strikes. At the same time, I know that is partly because I do not have the patience conducting diplomacy requires -- especially with a posturing, lying entity like Iran. I doubt very much whether DJT has that patience either. Still, the depleted state of Iran's proxies made this the best opportunity for the foreseeable future. -- Hugh Hansen

Email your COMMENTS on the Israeli-Iran war and the United States’ bombing of nuclear sites in Iran, to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings – left or right, liberal or conservative, etc. – in the subject line.

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MONDAY 6/23/25

…meanwhile…

Call him ‘Daddy’ – President Trump left the NATO summit Wednesday in a good mood about NATO nations’ commitment (except Spain) to spending 5% of their GDP on defense. Scroll down center column for more …

THURSDAY 6/26/25

Defending Operation Midnight Hammer – Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth held a news conference Thursday morning praising “the highly successful strikes in Iran,” in a strike-back against a leaked initial intelligence report that Operation Midnight Hammer did little damage to Iran’s nuclear weapons program (per The New York Times).

“If you want to know what’s going on at Fordow, you’d better get a big shovel,” Hegseth, who appeared with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine at the Pentagon, said. DefSecHeg also cited a statement by International Atomic Energy Agency Director Gen. Rafael Mariano Grossi Thursday that the strike on three key Iranian sites last weekend “caused enormous damage.”

Meanwhile … On NPR’s Morning Edition former Trump 45 national security advisor John Bolton said Iran has achieved a lot of progress on its nuclear arms facilities, and he believes the work to destroy it is not done. (In fact, Bolton has long suspected that Iran may have some nuclear operations in North Korea.) However …

“These targets that were struck clearly are the targets that deserved to be struck,” Bolton told Steve Inskeep.

•••

NATO Butter-Up – Ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague earlier this week, President Trump was showing off a note from NATO Secretary Gen. Mark Rutte calling Trump “Daddy” after the president criticized Israel and Iran for continuing strikes heading into their fragile ceasefire after their “12 Day War.”

“Mr. President, dear Donald. Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, that was truly extraordinary, and something no one else has dared to do. It makes us all safer,” (per The Associated Press).

“You are flying into another big success in The Hague this evening. It was not easy but we’ve gotten them all signed to 5%!”

That refers to NATO nations’ commitment to spending 5% of their annual Gross Domestic Product on defense – Trump has demanded NATO nations increase their contributions in order for the US to ease up on it since before his first administration.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 6/25/25

Sore Thumbs – Operation Midnight Hammer, the US military’s strike last weekend on three of Iran’s facilities didn’t do much to slow Tehran’s development of nuclear weapons, likely setting it back only by months, according to an early intelligence assessment by sources briefed on it described to CNN.

The report Tuesday evening by the news network drew outcries from MAGA faithful. Speaking Wednesday morning from the NATO summit in The Hague, President Trump said the intelligence was “inconclusive” and preliminary. Trump maintained the strikes on Iran caused “total obliteration.”

Check that leak … The FBI has begun an investigation of how the preliminary assessment of the attack on Iran became public, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced at the NATO summit, The Wall Street Journal reports. Trump, meanwhile, called minimizing the bombings’ success “disrespectful.”

Ceasefire, meanwhile … Despite the president’s comments about Israeli and Iranian leadership not knowing what they are doing, or perhaps because he made those comments as he left for the NATO summit Tuesday, the ceasefire between the two countries is going swimmingly so far.

•••

Cuomo Clobbered in NYC Mayoral Race – Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo came in a distant second to democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in Tuesday’s rank preference New York Democratic primary, The New York Times reports. With 93% of the vote in, Mamdani took 43.5% of the rank preference vote to Cuomo’s 36.4%. State assemblyman Mamdani’s 70,465 vote margin was decisive enough for Cuomo, who resigned as New York State’s governor in 2021 amidst allegations of sexual harassment, to concede without waiting out a second round in the rank preference.

Candidate Brad Lander, who cross-endorsed with Mamdani and appeared with him as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday took 11.3% of the vote.

Pundits have been characterizing the Democratic primary as an indication of the direction of the party going into next year’s midterms. US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) both endorsed Mamdani in the race, but even with past New York mayors having (failed) runs for president, the mayor’s constituency is pretty distinct.

Mamdani faces perennial Republican candidate and Guardian Angels co-founder Curtis Sliwa as well as New York’s ethics-challenged current Democratic mayor, Eric Adams, who is running for this November’s election as an independent. Cuomo also has floated the possibility of running as an independent.

--TL

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Israel-Iran Ceasefire, Moscow-Style

TUESDAY 6/24/25

This is How the Ceasefire Between Israel and Iran Went – President Trump announced a ceasefire deal. There were no details and some skepticism of whether Israel and Iran agreed, but on Tuesday, both nations said they had agreed to stop fighting, NPR reports.

Then, in a statement to NPR, the Israeli military accused Iran of firing two missiles toward Israel after the ceasefire was to take effect. Israel said the missiles were intercepted. Iran’s state media reported a denial by Iran that it fired missiles after the ceasefire deadline.

Israeli defense minister Israel Katz ordered the military to “respond forcefully” anyway, and “continue the intensified operations targeting regime assets and terrorist infrastructure in Tehran.”

Trump expressed his anger toward both parties, though primarily Israel, when departing for the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, according to Morning Edition.

“You know what we have? We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard that they don’t know what the fuck their doing,” Trump said (NPR redacted the naughty word in its report).

“Israel, as soon as we made the deal, they came out and dropped a load of bombs, the likes of which I’ve never seen before, the biggest load that we’ve seen. I’m not happy with Israel.”

Then on Truth Social: ISRAEL. DO NOT DROP THOSE BOMBS. IF YOU DO IT IS A MAJOR VIOLATION. BRING YOUR PILOTS HOME NOW.

--TL

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US Attacks Iran's Nuclear Sites (With Updates)

MONDAY 6/23/25

UPDATE III: President Trump says in a social media post that Israel and Iran have agreed to a "complete and total ceasefire," the BBC reports, that could lead to the end of the war.

UPDATE II: Iran signaled Qatar about its attacks on Al Udeid ahead of launching the missiles, NPR’s All Things Considered reports, an indication it needed to take some action but did not want to go to the extreme of a potentially deadly bombardment. But that keeps open the question of what Iran will do next.

UPDATE: Iran has fired missiles at the Al Udeid base in Qatar, the US’ largest base in the Middle East (The New York Times). Qatar reports its air defenses have intercepted Iran’s missiles, and the US Defense Department says there are no reports of injuries from the counterattack.

Sucker Punch? – Is there something in The Art of the Deal playbook that you distract your subject with a “two week” warning, that you will take that long before your next move, only to bombard the other party after a couple of days?

Probably not. But the tactic might prove effective, as President Trump indicated after Saturday’s B-2 bombings of Iran’s nuclear weapons development sites, in particular the Fordow nuclear material enrichment facility north of Tehran.

“I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success,” he said in a special address to the US 10 p.m. ET Saturday (above, with Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio).

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responded without referring to the US, saying instead that Israel made a “grave mistake” and “it is being punished right now,” The Wall Street Journal reports.

Analysts are concerned about the potential for Iran blockading the Straits of Hormuz – or worse, targeting US bases in the region.

Meanwhile… Vance has signaled that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpile is in-tact and in the country’s control – so, not addressed by the “spectacular” success.

“We’re not at war with Iran,” the vice president told NBC News’ Kristen Welker, on Meet the Press. “We’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program.”

It’s that stockpile, and Iran’s work enriching it to become the world’s seventh nuclear superpower that is the impetus for Israel’s military attack on the country more than a week ago, and now the US response last weekend. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed for decades that Iran was on the brink of developing nuclear weapons.

On April 16, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi issued a warning ahead of his visit there that Tehran was “dangerously close” to building a nuclear bomb. On Monday, Grossi called an emergency meeting to demand Iran give clarity on the whereabouts of its nuclear material, the Deutsche Presse-Agentur press agency reports.

History … This has raised the question of whether President Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015 was effective. By the time Donald J. Trump began his first term as president a couple of years later, the IAEA’s monitoring of Iran’s nuclear power program indicated the JCPOA was successfully preventing Iran from sufficiently enriching uranium for military purposes.

That’s the basis of the argument that continues to this day, between conservative neocons and MAGA Republicans on the right, and Democrats and Republicans overall, as the Trump administration continues to talk dealmaking for a new agreement that may, or may not, be much like JCPOA, with Iran.

Can the Trump administration convince Tehran to return to the negotiating table even after Israel’s missile attacks and clear calls for regime change? After the US attack, there are serious doubts about that – but Trump apparently thinks it’s still possible. We probably won’t have to wait two weeks to find out.

New red hat? … Rubio joined Vance Sunday in denying “regime change” as the Trump administration’s goal. But the president on his own social media outlet indicated something somewhat different.

“It’s not politically correct to use the term, ‘Regime Change’ but if the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN, why would there be Regime Change??? MIGA!!”

•••

Correction – Our Wednesday, June 18 report on the then-potential US strike misidentified the bomber capable of dropping GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on Iran’s nuclear weapons sites. It was, and is, the Northrop B-2 bomber.

We’ve also since learned of a dispute over the spelling of Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facility. The New York Times spells it Fordo, while The Associated Press and CNN spell it Fordow. Zelensky – Zelenskyy.

We are sticking with “Fordow” with the “w.”

•••

No Joke? – “America’s Finest News Source” The Onion “republished” its recent editorial, “Congress, Now More Than Ever, Our Nation Needs Your Cowardice,” apparently only in The New York Times and coincidentally a day after the US Air Force bombed Iran’s nuclear weapon sites under authority of President Trump, but without consulting Congress.

The full-page ad, which was in the NYT only on Sunday and not in any other newspapers, says; “Each passing day brings growing assaults on essential liberties like freedom of speech and due process. Meanwhile, our delicately assembled legal system faces a constant barrage of threats. Even as this issue reaches publication, the US military has been deployed against peaceful protesters. We teeter on the brink of collapse into an authoritarian state. That is why, today, The Onion calls upon our lawmakers to sit back and do absolutely nothing.”

Editors of the satirical newspaper note a copy of the issue containing this editorial was delivered to every member of Congress.

Publicity stunt? Advertorial for The Onion’s recently revitalized print edition? Perhaps.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 6/23/25

Israel-Iran Ceasefire?

What’s Next -- Funny thing about some of the coverage of the bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities. Commentators claimed Donald Trump executed an amazing head-fake.

That is, on June 19 he said he would give Iran two weeks to come to the negotiating table.

Within two days — possibly before the name cards for the participants could be printed — the missiles flew with impactful consequences.

(Claims he made about “obliteration” are, not surprisingly, unfounded: on Monday (June 23) Israel attacked the Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plant. Was the facility mere smithereens, the Israelis wouldn’t have bothered.)

Ha! He tricked them, just as much of the media were tricked by the B-2’s flying west out of Missouri: Has Waze affected their ability to read maps?

Rather than a feint, isn’t it possible that Trump decided to pull the proverbial trigger on Saturday evening (Washington, DC, time) just because?

Is there any sense Trump has a plan vis-à-vis Iran?

Sure, he went to Truth Social almost immediately with his rants and threats. And the likes of Marco Rubio went on the Sunday shows mimicking his master.

As this is being written there are reports Iranian missiles are hitting US bases in the Middle East. Should this be a surprise?

And by the time you read this there will be more Truth Social bluster.

But will there be an articulation of what the US commitment is going to be? Claims about being at war with the Iranian nuclear program isn’t going to cut it.

What blood and treasure are we going to spend dealing with the Iranian regime?

This is not to question whether the attack should have taken place.

But it is to question whether Trump had something in mind before he put on a suit, slapped on a MAGA ball cap and went to the situation room Saturday evening. --Stephen Macaulay

Peace Through Strength -- The debate over whether to strike Iran’s nuclear enrichment sites is now behind us, as Tehran has suffered a significant setback in its pursuit of weapons-grade material. The United States military displayed impressive precision and professionalism in carrying out the orders of our ever-engaged commander-in-chief.

For many, the choice seemed binary: Either act decisively to prevent a nuclear Iran, or risk facing a far more dangerous regime emboldened by atomic leverage. Those of us who lived through the Cold War remember the constant threat of nuclear conflict — and the relief that followed the Soviet Union’s collapse. Unfortunately, the decades since have seen the rise of new nuclear threats, with Iran chief among them.

It is reasonable to hope that the recent B-2 strikes will not only stall Iran’s nuclear ambitions but also serve as a strong deterrent to its leadership — discouraging future aggression toward Israel, Western democracies, and continued support for terrorist proxies.

America cannot afford to project weakness. Under President Trump, the United States demonstrated a clear willingness to apply maximum pressure — politically, economically, and militarily — without rushing into prolonged entanglements. Critics may still call for restraint, but history shows that appeasement has rarely tempered radical regimes.

President Trump’s doctrine of peace through strength provided a strategic roadmap: one where America leads from a position of resolve, not retreat.

Avoiding war is always preferable. But ignoring Iran’s nuclear ambitions invites far greater peril. While some hesitate to act, President Trump understood that decisive leadership today can prevent the devastating conflicts of tomorrow. --Rich Corbett

Email your COMMENTS on the Israeli-Iran war and the United States’ bombing of nuclear sites in Iran, to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings – right or left, conservative or liberal, etc. – in the subject line.

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MONDAY 6/23/25

No Kings’ Protests Were Exhilerating

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

I confess. While millions marched and protested nationwide Saturday, many beneath dark and drizzly skies, I was putting up streamers, filling ice chests and arranging flowers and food for our granddaughter’s high school graduation party.

My brother, niece and friends picked up the slack and assuaged my guilt a bit by joining rallies before we gathered at our house. But I won’t fully right my equilibrium until I am out protesting again next week, and the week after and for many more to come.

Saturday clearly was cathartic. It energized the resistance and dwarfed Trump’s Flag Day birthday parade. Still the challenge is to sustain that energy for the long haul. And it will be long.

It seems clear that No Kings Day made a difference. In my state, two US House representatives, Seth Moulton and Ayanna Pressley, held town meetings Monday in its wake, sharply criticizing President Donald Trump’s actions, The Boston Globe reports. After his event, Moulton acknowledged to The Globe, “there is a degree to which some Democrats seem to be afraid to speak up or to speak out.”

Pressley told a separate gathering, that “this administration is lawless, and we are trying to beat them with the rule of law.”

Though many judges have stood up to Trump, their rulings and injunctions are temporary and often put on hold as they slowly make their way up the ladder of federal courts. Citizens, however, are not constrained as to how quickly or frequently they can mobilize and exercise their rights to protest peacefully. And the mass protests of citizens, in turn, could motivate more Democratic representatives like Moulton and Pressley to find their voices and pressure Republican representatives to at least temper their open-ended, rubber-stamp approval of whatever Trump and his most heinous staffers want.

This will demand stamina, week to week and month to month, as the headlines in just the last few days since the weekend rallies demonstrates. Here is a cross-section:

On health

• “A Senate Bill Would Make Deep Cuts to Medicaid” – The New York Times, June 16.

• “Dismissed Members of CDC Vaccine Committee call RFK Jr.’s actions ‘destabilizing.’” Associated Press, June 16.

On immigration

• “Trump Officials Reverse Guidance Exempting Farms, Hotels from Immigration Raids,” The Washington Post, June 16.

• “L.A. ICE Raids Leave People Scared to Leave the House …,” Los Angeles Times, June 17.

• NYC Mayoral Candidate Brad Lander Arrested by ICE: City Officials Demand Release.” Fox News, June 17.

On Consolidating Power

• “Trump Fires Democratic Commissioner of Independent Agency that Oversees Nuclear Safety,” Los Angeles Times, June 16.

• “White House Eyes Rarely Used Power to Override Congress on Spending,” The New York Times, June 17.

On International Relations

• “Trump Renews Embrace of Putin Amid Rift with Allies,” New York Times, June 16

On Corruption

• “’I Have Never Seen Such Open Corruption’ Trump’s Crypto Deals and Loosening of Rules Shock Observers,” The Guardian, June 17

This, of course, is a snapshot. They headlines come fast and furious.

Perhaps the most ominous and hideous has been the reaction of Trump and some other Republicans to the cold-blooded murders in their home of former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband just hours before the No Kings protests and Flag Day parade in Washington began to gear up. Though Hortman has been ulogized as a special legislator, even by some of her Republican state colleagues, her death was dismissed in a blizzard of social media lies by some nationally elected Republicans.

And the president? A headline in the political journal The Hill today read, “Trump says he won’t call ‘whacked-out’ [Minnesota Gov. Tim] Walz after Minnesota lawmaker shootings.” (Walz described Hortman as “the most consequential speaker in state history.” She reportedly frequently worked across the aisle with Republicans.)

Also today, according to The Washington Post, U.S. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota pushed back against Senate colleague Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, for spreading lies about Hortman’s murder. “This is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way,” he wrote on Social Media. In fact, police have arrested a suspect whose roommate identified as a Trump supporter. He allegedly had a long list of Democrats in multiple states he sought to assassinate.

The Post reported that Smith confronted Lee in person in the Senate, a rarity in today’s bitterly divided chamber, and said later, “He indicated that he, of course, meant no harm. But, of course, these things do cause harm. They hurt people.”

With the world teetering near the brink of widespread war and the Trump Administration doubling down on its violent and often masked immigration arrests, it’s difficult to assess where we are, let alone where we are heading.

It is clear, however, the public has begun to awaken and that harmful economic measures such as Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and tariffs likely will hasten disenchantment with his presidency.

As a Washington Post headline stated today, June 17,”GOP Budget Bill Faces Nearly 2-to-1 Opposition, With Many Unaware: Poll. (For the unaware, this is the bill that among other things will take away the health care and food stamps of millions of Americans, and sharply increase tax breaks for the rich.)

Staying visible in the streets in peaceful protest will help alert the unaware, often isolated in their personalized social media worlds. It may be the best way to counter alternate realities and ignorance.

For those who participated for the first time on No Kings Day, welcome. I hope to see you out there again soon. As one of my signs reads: “Democracy is Under Assault: Join Us!”

Lanson’s commentary first appeared in his Substack From the Grassroots.

_____
JUNETEENTH 2025

…meanwhile…

Juneteenth Celebration – Four years after President Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law, there is concern anti-DEI President Trump could rescind it. [Photo: Band performing for Emancipation Day in Texas, June 19, 1900, from federalholidays.net.]

Newsom Loses National Guard – For now: A three-judge panel, two appointed by President Trump and the third by President Biden, has indefinitely blocked California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) effort to regain control of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles to quell deportation protests, per Politico.

The San Francisco-based 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 3-0 ruling said that Trump appeared to be acting within his authority when he took control of 4,000 California National Guard troops during the L.A. protests. The Trump administration cited a law that has never been invoked without a state governor’s consent. The court found that the law gives the president wide latitude to determine the protests and associated violence were interfering with execution of federal law.

The ruling overturns US District Judge Charles Breyer’s issuance last week of a temporary restraining order against Trump’s National Guard deployment. Breyer has another hearing scheduled for Friday to consider Newsom’s request for a long-term blockage of Guard deployment, and subsequent deployment of 700 US Marines.

Newsom could ask an 11-judge appeals court panel to consider the issue, or seek emergency relief from the US Supreme Court, Politico reports. –TL

_____________________________________________

Wait For It

THURSDAY 6/19/25

Trump Gives Himself Two Weeks -- President Trump said Thursday he will decide "within the next two weeks" whether the US will attack Iran over its nuclear weapon development, in what The New York Times reports appears to give him breathing room to consider lower-risk options. The president added in his statement that "there's substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place in the near future."

White House Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that Steve Witkoff, special envoy for the Middle East has maintained correspondence with Iranian officials. But it will not be an easy two weeks for Tehran: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel can achieve all its goals alone.

[Be sure to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay's commentary, "Will He? Won't He? Does He Know?" in the right column -- which he wrote prior to Trump's latest comments on Iran.]

•••

Fed of Confusion – Acknowledging economic uncertainty over President Trump’s tariff policy, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Wednesday signaled no hint of an interest rate cut in July, with September the earliest likely for such relief, The Wall Street Journal reports. The Fed’s rate thus remains steady at 4.25% to 4.5%.

“We haven’t been through a situation like this, and I think we have to be humble about our ability to forecast it,” Powell said at the conclusion Wednesday of the Federal Reserve Open Market (FOMC) meeting. Fed policymakers are split on future rate cuts for the rest of the year, according to the WSJ, while Trump certainly is not.

“We have a stupid person, frankly, at the Fed,” Trump said ahead of Powell’s press conference Wednesday. “He probably won’t cut today. Europe had 10 cuts and we had none.”

Fed policymakers are split, Powell said, on future rate cuts this year, as inflation has eased in recent months (though still above the Fed’s 2% Consumer Price Index target), and unemployment remains low, at 4.2%, though with “hints of softness” as the WSJ put it.

Economists expect the lag between “Liberation Day,” Trump’s up-and-down tariffs, to show up in the form of higher prices beginning in July.

“Someone has to pay the tariffs,” Powell said (per The Hill). “Between the manufacturer, the exporter, the importer, the retailer, ultimately somebody putting it into a good of some kind – or just the consumer buying it.”

•••

Minority Dissent on Affirmative Care Ban – Justice Sonia Sotomayor read “with sadness” her dissent on a 6-3 case in which the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors, The Hill reports.

“The majority subjects a law that plainly discriminates on the basis of sex to mere rational-basis review,” Sotomayor said, in dissent joined by fellow liberal justices Elena Kagen and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

SCOTUS’ ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, brought to the court by the Biden administration, opens the rest of the country to banning gender-affirming care.

–Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
JUNETEENTH 2025

Will He? Won’t He? Does He Know?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”

That, of course, is President Donald Trump.

He was talking to reporters earlier this week about whether he would order the US military to strike Iran.

But that statement is fairly representative of everything about the Trump Administration.

And it very well may be that the “Nobody” he referred to includes himself.

At least that’s what his various statements on topics ranging from who is going to be rounded up by ICE to who is going to be paying what in terms of tariffs. (As for the tariffs: You are going to be paying. The “what” remains to be seen. For example, on “Liberation Day” China, like essentially every country on the planet, had a “reciprocal” tariff of 10%. Then there was the 20% tariff from March related to fentanyl. That’s 30%. But they were put on top of a 25% tariff still existing from the first Trump Administration (based on Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, claiming unfair trade practices). So 55%. But then Trump became miffed at the Chinese so he boosted the tariffs to 145%. Then there was a reset to 30%. Who knows what they are now and who knows where these various numbers came from?)

Among the items on the list of “Priorities” on the official White House website, there’s this under the “Drain the Swamp” category:

“President Trump is taking swift action to end the weaponization of government against political rivals and ordering all document retention as required by law.”

As you may recall, special prosecutor Jack Smith initially charged Donald Trump with willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act: Remember the beautiful boxes of classified documents in the bathroom at Mar-a-Lago? Seems like that wasn’t exactly “document retention as required by law.”

And as for the ending of “the weaponization of government against political rivals,” how does one explain the examinations of the “Biden crime family,” Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Liz Cheney, Christopher Krebs, Miles Taylor, Mark Milley, Robert Mueller. . . .

Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t. Who knows?

One might argue that the inconsistency exhibited by the man who is often seen in public wearing a baseball hat with a meaningless slogan on it (the only 79-year-olds who should be seen in public wearing a hat like that ought to be in Del Boca Vista, and only Del Boca Vista) is a negotiating tactic.

Keep the people you are negotiating with off balance.

While that might be useful in real estate transactions or property developments, when there is a need for long-term relationships with other parties because there is a mutual dependence (like it or not), this unpredictability may provide short-term advantage, but makes the other parties have rapidly diminishing confidence with the “deal maker.” Yes, there may be a gain in the moment, but after that moment is passed, after the echo of “Yahtzee!” is gone, then those who have been put off-kilter by the unpredictability of the other party are likely to want to get theirs back.

Or put more simply: Those who Trump treats badly (can anyone explain why he has been so abusive to Canada? Can he?) are probably not going to establish cordial relations with the country who is responsible for putting that person in the position to do that. He will be gone, but the bad taste will linger like scombroid fish poisoning.

This is no way to run a country.

Although he “wrote” in The Art of the Deal “never let anyone know exactly where you’re coming from,” it would be slightly more confidence-inspiring if it seemed that he knew.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____________________________________________

Right On? -- Has President Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party and MAGA populists finally cracked? News outlets left and right are cataloging the rift over the way Trump is abandoning his isolationist-no war campaign promise and how Israel’s missile attacks on Iran over its nuclear weapon development could become the current president’s own Iraq War.

Be sure to read our analysis of this issue on our Substack page. As always, your comments are welcome here. Why go to X-Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram or TikTok when you can engage with our No Alternative Facts, No False Equivalencies, No Echo Chambers discourse? Simply email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Scroll down with the trackbar on the unaffiliated far-right to read never-Trumper Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s comments on the White House’s flip-flop on exempting farms, restaurants and hotels from immigration raids, just below, and do not miss anecdotes about the June 14 No Kings demonstrations in the corresponding left column.

Scroll down further for Macaulay’s commentary on the House’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its effect on the federal deficit.

Are you pro-MAGA? Don’t miss contributing pundit Rich Corbett’s “Commerce Over Conflict” in the right column on Page 2. Your civil comments are welcome, too.

_____
JUNETEENTH 2025

Rejecting American ‘Royalty’

Scroll down for commentary by Sharon Lintner, Joel Postman, Jim McCraw and Hugh Hansen.

Breeding Ground of Hate -- The president has created a breeding ground of hate and in doing so, he has made hate acceptable. We are beginning to see the consequences.

The hate is escalating, leading some to commit acts of violence. This weekend, that hate left a state representative and her husband dead, a state senator and his wife severely injured. Horrific acts such as these will create fear among those who desire to run for office, allowing their opponents to dominate and win through intimidation.

When I was serving as vice president of our local borough council, my views didn't always line up with my Republican counterparts. One November morning, after the election, I went out to find my white car splattered with red paint. The sight of this frightened not only me, but my neighbors as well. This act of intimidation left me fearing for my physical safety. In spite of this, I finished my four-year term without missing one meeting or one vote, but I will not run again. Fear can paralyze.

Hate on the national level is filtering down, emboldening local officials and dividing communities. Hate is gaining traction. People say we can change that at the voting booth, but if we can't get honest, sincere candidates due to fear and intimidation then what? --Sharon Lintner

We’re Not Accustomed to Totalitarian Spectacles, Yet -- Trump's June 14 parade — whether characterized as a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the US Army or as a self-thrown birthday celebration for a nascent dictator — failed to deliver the president's anticipated totalitarian spectacle. We can only hope this is because, unlike in North Korea and Russia, where citizens are accustomed to and accepting of such demonstrations, which are frequent and well-orchestrated, the United States is not yet at a point where these displays are part of everyday life. This was evidenced by the well-attended "No Kings" demonstrations in cities of every size (and political leaning) across the country, and by the willingness of people to speak out against the Trump juggernaut. Let us hope we turn the tide and never reach parity with those states that conduct shows of military force and demonstrations designed to remind citizens of their obligation to unerringly praise and support "dear leader." --Joel Postman

Resistance in The Villages -- The Administration’s recent behaviors in Los Angeles, with the National Guard, the Marines, and ICE, and the Trump/Army birthday parade, were met with the largest demonstration so far in TheVillages, Florida, a well known bastion of MAGA Republicans. The lines of protesters were longer and deeper than ever before, and the variety of signage was spectacular, Our favorite sign of the two-hour demonstration, carefully watched by Sumter County sheriffs and wetted down by irrigation sprinklers, was Elect A Rapist, Expect To Be Fucked. This is the largest retirement community in the country, pushing out toward 170,000 residents, with about 20 percent of them retired military, another big chunk of retired cops, firemen and EMTs and healthcare workers, all concerned about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, among so many other things. – Jim McCraw

One-Tenth of Small Town -- I was very pleased with, and slightly surprised by, the No Kings demonstration here in our little northern Michigan town. We had about 300 people, or roughly 10% of our official population. We did not chant or call/response, so as to respect the children's trout fishing tournament taking place behind us. The drive-by traffic, heightened because most Michigan schools had let out days earlier, was at least 20 to 1 supportive (I saw two middle fingers, one thumbs-down, and heard one snooty "Nyooo," while scores on into hundreds honked, waved, and gave thumbs up and peace signs). There were people from my Lions Club and other service organizations, my gym, and several of our churches. If only we could have let Trump be president before the election! – Hugh Hansen

_____
MONDAY 6/16/25

Israel-Iran War, Day 6

A Parade Fit for a King -- “Our soldiers FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT, and they WIN, WIN, WIN,” President Trump said in his speech following the Washington parade celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the US Army (and his 79^th birthday).

Ready for War? – President Trump is, and so is Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Tuesday Trump said he is considering a range of options, including a potential US strike, The Wall Street Journal reports. In another reversal of a campaign promise, the president said on social media that the US knows where Iran’s leader is, but was not choosing to take action, so it’s time for “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”

The Ayatollah rejected Trump’s demand, The New York Times reports.

“Intelligent people know Iran, the nation and the history of Iran will never speak to this nation in the language of threats, because the Iranian nation cannot be surrendered,” Ali Khamenei said in a televised statement to Iranian state media. “The Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage.”

Possibly the only step the US might take now that Trump’s recent attempt to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear capabilities have been blunted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to drop a 30,000-pound GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator “bunker buster” on the Fordow enrichment facility south of Tehran.

The bunker buster, which can be carried only by a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress can penetrate 200 feet into the ground before exploding, according to Military.com.

•••

No Rest for Undocumented Farmworkers – Or, undocumented hotel and restaurant workers who were given a temporary reprieve last week when President Trump vowed to protect migrants in industries that would face worker shortages if said migrants are deported.

On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced the Trump administration will continue to raid farms, restaurants and hotels to purge undocumented migrant workers, The Washington Post reported.

Under the surface … According to the WaPo the Trump administration reversal reflects a White House rift between Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, who wanted to protect the migrant workers, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. The all-powerful and influential Miller won, of course.

--TL

_____________________________________________

TUESDAY 6/17/25

Trump 86es G7 for Iran Talks – President Trump left Tuesday’s Group of Seven Summit to the other six and flew from Kananaskis, Alberta, back to Washington under cover of darkness, returning before dawn, NPR reports.

“I have to be back as soon as I can,” Trump said, according to Politico. He warned Tehran residents they should leave town, quickly, as Israel continues its attacks on Iran.

“Iran is not winning this war, and they should talk and they should talk immediately before it’s too late,” Trump said. The president said he wants “better” than a ceasefire – an end to the war just begun last week between Israel and Iran.

On ABC News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking from an “undisclosed” office-style bunker somewhere in his country told Jonathan Karl; “They’re deliberately targeting our population.”

That was happening as Israel was targeting, to Trump’s point, Iran’s population.

Netanyahu told Karl on ABC News he is not ruling taking out Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The threat, Netanyahu says, is Iran’s imminent development of a nuclear warhead. Later Monday night, Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s The Daily Showcatalogued Iran being on the brink of a nuclear weapon with videos of Netanyahu describing such an “imminent threat” … since 2012 (the boy-called-wolf situation may be closer to reality, this time).

MAGA divide … Not used to seeing these two words together? Neither are (the editorial) We.

Politico reports of a split in the Trump coalition, between GOP hawks who have long called for a tougher approach on Iran – the imminent nuclear weapons argument – and the “resistance” wing including Steve Bannon, podcaster Ben Shapiro and ex-Fox News-turned Useful Idiot Tucker Carlson.

Worth repeating … Trump, Politico reports, Truth Socialed this: “Someone please explain to kooky Tucker Carlson that, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”

Deal, no deal? … On Monday, Trump made an appearance at the G7 with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, where the president announced a partial trade deal with the EU – that’s European Union, not United Kingdom – and dropped the deal’s papers, letting Starmer pick them up, according to the Express (UK).

The US-UK “deal” – yes, that’s exactly what it is – outlines a cut in tariffs on UK-built autos from 25% to 10% and on British aerospace parts, the BBC reports, but does not offer relief on British steel tariffs.

“We’re going to let you have that information in a little while,” Trump said.

•••

Federal Charges for Boelter – The Hennepin County district attorney will pursue first-degree murder charges against Vance Boelter, who has been charged with six federal offenses in the killing of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shooting of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, the Minnesota Reformer reports.

Federal charges against Boelter include stalking, murder and firearms charges. Authorities say he also visited two other state legislators early Saturday, who were left unharmed. John and Yvette Hoffman are reported to be headed for recovery.

•••

Purdue Settlement – A settlement between Purdue Pharma and members of its controlling Sackler family of $7.4 billion is a good deal for the company and family when considering how many lives Purdue’s opioid-pushing has affected, but many of the individuals involved are reported to want to finally put the issue to rest. That $7.4 billion settlement has been reached with all 50 states and US territories, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

--TL

_____________________________________________

MONDAY 6/16/25

About the Crowds – How many people took to the streets of Washington to watch the military parade celebrating the US Army’s 250^th anniversary, and, um, coincidentally, President Trump’s 79^th birthday, Saturday?

No estimates were immediately forthcoming. Perhaps whatever is left of the National Park Service was reluctant to make a 2017 inauguration-like guess.

Most of Trump’s cabinet was there, though few congressional Republicans showed up, The Hill reports.

The Army’s numbers included 6,600 soldiers, 150 military vehicles and 50 helicopters, according to Washingtonian magazine, which reports the crowd viewing all this “fell short of predictions, and at D.C.’s main counterprotest, the ratio of journalists to protestors was excessive.”

The Newsmax-esque pro-Trump Washington Examiner declared the gala a success, reporting that the parade turned out “thousands despite weather and nationwide protests.”

No Kings … But there was no organized No Kings anti-fascist protest planned for Washington, anyway. The New York Timesreports of big turnouts even in erstwhile pro-MAGA strongholds such as Dallas, three dozen rural areas in Indiana, where Trump won the 2024 election by 19 points, and Waukesha, Wisconsin, where “about 1,500 people marched through the streets in an area Mr. Trump had won with 59% of the vote.”

[See comments in the left column for anecdotes about protests in an erstwhile Republican stronghold and a small town in the Great Lakes region.]

The Independent cast a shadow of a doubt on Trump White House claims that 250,000 watched (it was telecast in its entirety on Fox News, by the way) while citing “experts” estimates that at least 4 million people attended No Kings protests across the nation, more than 1% of the US population.

Meanwhile, there were “empty bleachers” and “gaps in the crowd” according to The Indepndent, whose reporter, Richard Hall, described it as “something close to a medium-sized town’s July 4^th celebration.”

Fatality … Arthur Folasa Ah Loo, 39, described as an “innocent bystander” in a Salt Lake City No Kings protest estimated at 10,000 marchers, was fatally shot Saturday evening after police officers shouted out “gunman” and “man with a rifle” at the march, The Salt Lake Tribune reports. Suspect in custody is Arturo Gamboa, 24.

Retribution? … About the time Trump was on his way to the Canadian Rockies in Alberta for the annual two-day Group of Seven Summit, he announced he had directed federal immigration officials to make deportations of undocumented immigrants from Democratic-run cities their priority, The Associated Press reports.

Officials “must expand efforts to detain and deport illegal aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside,” Trump said Sunday in a social media post, in case all that extraneous capitalization didn’t give the outlet away.

Monday morning Trump was to hold his first meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney since their early May White House confab, The Globe and Mail reports, to “make progress” in resolving the “damaging” three-month trade war between the two countries.

Meanwhile … The Trump administration has told Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to “largely” pause its raids and arrests of allegedly undocumented aliens working in hotels, restaurants and in agriculture, according to an internal email obtained by The New York Times. [See Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s “The Damage Is Being Dumb,” in the right column.]

•••

Arrest in Minnesota – Vance Boelter, 57, suspect in the fatal shooting of the state legislature’s House Democratic-Farmer-Leader Party leader Melissa Hoffman, and her husband Mark, and the wounding of State Sen. John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette in separate attacks early Saturday, was arrested just before 11 p.m. Central time Sunday night, Minnesota Public Radio reports. Police chief of Brooklyn Park, the suburb where the Hoffman’s were shot, Mark Bruley, called the manhunt for Boelter largest in state history.

Meanwhile, The Minneapolis Star Tribune is debunking online conspiracy theories that Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate last year, has “close ties” to the suspect. Rather, Walz reappointed Boelter to a bipartisan advisory board in 2019, but a friend of the suspect has called him a strong Trump supporter.

[Email your COMMENTS on this center column news/aggregate/analysis and/or left- and right-column commentaries to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line, so we may post your comments in the appropriate column.]

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 6/16/25

The Damage Is Being Dumb

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday June 12, “Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They’ve worked them for 20 years.

“They’re not citizens, but they’ve turned out to be, you know, great. And we’re going to have to do something about that.”

He pointed out, “We can’t take farmers and take all their people and send them back because they don’t have maybe what they’re supposed to have, maybe not.”

While the near-incomprehensible utterances are startling — evidently he missed the “subject-verb-object” portion of his early education — what he was talking about was the situation regarding undocumented migrant farm workers — those people he has ordered ICE to deport.

According to study by the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (which has probably been DOGEd, because who needs facts?):

“The share of hired crop farmworkers who were not legally authorized to work in the United States grew from roughly 14% in 1989–91 to almost 55% in 1999–2001; in recent years it has declined to about 40%.”

The study found that in 2022 the number of crop farm workers with “no work authorization” (i.e., undocumented farm workers) was 42%.

That number of people simply isn’t going to be prest-o-change-o replaced by those who have lost their jobs due to manufacturing plants closing in the US.

Given the magnitude of that number you would have imagined that someone in the Trump Administration would have figured that rounding those people up and sending them somewhere beyond the southern border probably wouldn’t be a particularly good idea.

But that just shows how out of touch Team Trump is when it comes to people actually doing work.

Let’s remember Trump saying back in April when he signed an executive order in support of coal mining: “One thing I learned about the coal miners is that’s what they want to do.

“You could give them a penthouse on Fifth Avenue and a different kind of a job and they’d be unhappy. They want to mine coal, that’s what they love to do.”

While I have mined as much coal as Trump has (none), I’ve been a janitor, a dishwasher, and picked up trash in a parking lot with a nail on the end of a stick and I can tell you that when I got a different kind of job I was very happy. Those coal miners probably love a paycheck more than they love mining coal and would be perfectly happy living in a penthouse doing something else to earn money in ways not associated with cave-ins, explosions, and black lung disease.

Trump’s comment is like his Commerce Secretary-billionaire Howard Lutnick saying, “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month, my mother-in-law — who’s 94 — she wouldn’t call and complain.”

Arguably she could get good loan terms from her son-in-law.

Back to Trump’s comments about the undocumented migrant workers.

He admitted that some of them have “been there for 20, 25 years and they’ve worked great. And the owner of the farm loves them.”

But: “And then you’re supposed to throw them out. . .” — Well, isn’t that what he said is supposed to happen? This is his idea, not someone else’s. Not the farmers’, certainly -- “. . .and you know what happens? They end up hiring the people, the criminals that have come in, the murderers from prisons and everything else.”

Think on that for a moment. No, not the “and everything else,” which is inexplicable. But the whole notion that the “murderers from prisons,” whom Trump has described in many instances as being the worst of the worst, likely insane, drug-addled and otherwise bad, are going to the Central Valley to pick tomatoes.

Again, evidence that there is little understanding of how the real world works. And I do mean “works.”

Another example of this is the necessity of rehiring people DOGE thought were unnecessary.

According to a story earlier this month in The Washington Post:

“Trump officials are trying to recover not only people who were fired, but also thousands of experienced senior staffers who are opting for a voluntary exit as the administration rolls out a second resignation offer. . . .

“A Post review found recent messy re-hirings at agencies including the Food and Drug Administration, the IRS, the State Department and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In some cases, the government is posting new online job listings very similar to positions it recently vacated. . . .

“In February, the Agriculture Department launched a campaign to rehire bird flu response workers after avian influenza sent egg prices soaring. That same month, the Trump administration fired nearly 17% of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s workforce, temporarily imperiling the safety and security of America’s 5,000 nuclear warheads — before hiring them back after an outcry. . . .”

Clever, eh?

If there is any evidence of “waste, fraud and abuse,” it is primarily in what DOGE has done. Ask anyone who works in human resources and they’ll tell you it costs a hell of a lot more to hire someone than it does to keep someone.

And there are the tariffs. Remember back in April when Team Trump trade advisor Peter Navarro said, “So we’re going to run 90 deals in 90 days. It’s possible.”

Turns out those possibilities weren’t so good. How many “deals” have there been in 74 days?

One. (The UK. This is not counting the fuzzy claim of a deal with China. Just like everything having to do with Liberation Day there is a whole lot of bluster and little in the way of evidence.)

Trade negotiations are complex undertakings by people who have serious understandings of the implications and ramifications of tax policies on their countries.

This is not to go down the path of saying that Trump “chickens out.”

It is to say that Team Trump is mainly incapable of doing things that are hard. It is easy to whip out an oversized Sharpie and sign and executive order. It is something entirely else to structure and implement a useful policy.

Trump was going to end the war against Ukraine in 24 hours after taking office.

Nope.

Trump claimed he would put an end to the war in Gaza.

Not only has that not happened, but now there is a war between Israel and Iran.

What has he done on that front except bluster on his blog?

And so there is the “No Kings” pushback against Trump.

He probably likes the notion that he is being considered a king by those who don’t like him.

Yes, he is consistently overreaching the bounds — legal and traditional (funny thing how the so-called conservatives who don’t realize that, as Russell Kirk wrote, “the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity,” something they’ve cast off with reckless abandon) — of the Office of the President.

But arguably this isn’t as much because of some sort of monarchial mania as it is simply that he doesn’t understand things, despite the fact that he claims that during a recent cognitive test he “got every answer right” and that "One of the doctors said, 'Sir, I've never seen anybody get that kind of — that was the highest mark.'" Right. No one else has ever aced the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

While some may dismiss that claim as simply being silly, it is part and parcel of everything he does in office.

If he wasn’t 79 you might imagine he’s not unlike one of those boy kings who achieved the throne before they hit puberty. They don’t know what they’re doing, but they’ve got the gig.

He’s big on claims. Not so big on getting things done that matters in ways that aren’t performative.

The problem is that the consequences of his actions damage the people he has sworn to protect.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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MONDAY 6/16/25

What’s Left

Is an Israeli-Iranian war inevitable? How will the Trump administration respond? Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and if you lean left, please say so in the subject line so we post your opinions in this column.

Scroll down this column to read contributing pundit Kate McLeod’s reaction to Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is in the corresponding right column. You are more than welcome to react as well.

Be sure to scroll down further for comments on the Musk-Trump split by left-column contributing pundits Jerry Lanson, Sharon Lintner, Hugh Hansen, Joel Postman and Jim McCraw.

Three Lanson commentaries fill out the rest of this column’s page; “Ice’s Menacing Roundups Rachet Up,” “Behind the Headlines” (on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) and “Who Will Stand? Who Will Lead?”, on what Lanson says is a Trump administration attack on civil rights.

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FRIDAY 6/13/25

Israel Hits Iran’s Nukes

Israeli Military Hits Iranian Nukes – The Israeli military says it struck dozens of targets, including nuclear facilities, in Iran, stoking fears of an all-out war. Two Iranian nuclear scientists named in the strike were subjects of international sanctions, according to Haaretz, which reports that Iran’s FARS news agency has confirmed several top military officials were killed, including Iranian Army Chief of Staff Mohammad Baqeri.

Iran was reportedly in the process of quickly building up its nuclear capabilities and announced it had built and would activate its third nuclear enrichment facility, The Associated Press reports, after a United Nations watchdog censured Iran for failing to comply with its nonproliferation obligations.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, you might recall, found Iran was complying with restrictions on its nuclear development from the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action negotiated by then-presidents Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani.

Donald J. Trump in 2016 campaigned hard against the JCPOA and quickly dismantled it when he took office in 2017. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's (above) right-wing government has opposed the JCPOA all along.

In his second term Trump has sought a deal with Iran, and recently tried to warn off his erstwhile ally Netanyahu from starting war with Iran. A day before Netanyahu defied Trump, the US president warned that such an attack was imminent, according to Politico.

Now an Iranian counterattack seems likely, if not immediate. Trump will no longer be able to claim he never starts wars – only ends them (even if he finds a way to blame the Biden administration), and Netanyahu, even after defying Trump’s demand not to attack, will expect military assistance.

Iran also expects as much. Its foreign ministry has said that as Isreal’s “main supporter,” the US will be responsible for the consequences of “Israel’s adventurism” (per AP).

We – meaning the US – expect as much.

After Israel’s attacks on Iran began, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement (per The New York Times), “We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region. Israel advised us that they believe this action was necessary for self-defense.”

•••

National Guard is California’s – The Trump administration illegally federalized the California National Guard in response to anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, and control must be returned to Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) “forthwith,” US District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Thursday. But Breyer’s 36-page order was put on hold to at least Tuesday by the Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals following the administration’s immediate filing for appeal, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Trump administration’s “actions were illegal,” Breyer wrote, “both exceeding the scope of his authority and violating the 10^thAmendment to the United States Constitution.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 6/13/25

What’s Right

Is an Israeli-Iranian war inevitable? How will the Trump administration get involved? Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and if you lean right, please say so in the subject line so we post your opinions in this column.

Scroll down for Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (spoiler alert: he doesn’t think the huge deficits it will cause are very conservative).

Be sure to scroll down further in the right column for pro-MAGA contributing pundit Rich Corbett’s take on the Musk-Trump split, “The Pro-Republican Perspective on Recent Developments.”

Macaulay’s not-so-MAGA take on the same issue, “Trump v. Musk: Another Diversion” is filed in The Gray Area.

More Macaulay fill out the rest of the right column on this page; “Maybe Bidenomics Wasn’t So Bad After All,” “Great This Ain’t” and “Born in the U.S.A.”

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FRIDAY 6/13/25