Author: launchkits

For the Right

This is your column in which to comment on the Democratic National Convention this week, whether you’re a pro-MAGA supporter of the former president or a never-Trumper looking for his second defeat. Go to the Comments section this page.

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

Stephen Macaulay, our never-Trumper pundit-at-large, has been busy with these right-column commentaries lately, and we are happy to take your civil comments in reaction, whether positive or negative:

• “Kamala, Voldemort & Commercials”

• “Why I’m Not Interested in Trump-Musk”

• “Letter to the President”

• “If Joe is Sleepy, Was Trump Comatose?

Go to Page 3 to read our fact-based center column coverage of the July Republican National Convention.

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Invitation to Comment

Your comments go here if you lean left.  Go to the Comments section this column, if you lean liberal, or the one in the right column, if you lean conservative, to comment on the Musk-Trump “conversation” on X-Twitter, or other political issues and news. 

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

Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at thehustings.substack.com.

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…meanwhile…

Waiting for the Fed -- July’s Consumer Price Index all but assures the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates when it next meets in September. The CPI dropped to 2.9% for July, from 3.0% in June, marking its lowest level since March 2021, the Labor Department reports. Prices increased 0.2% in July over June, with shelter up 0.4%, accounting for 90% of the increase for all prices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Food was up 0.2%, food away from home was up 0.2%, and food at home was up 0.1%, while all prices except food and energy rose 0.2%. [Chart: BLS]

FRIDAY 8/16/24

It’s the Economy, Stupid – Ex-President Donald J. Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic policy Thursday at a press conference held at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club ahead of the Democratic presidential candidate’s unveiling of her economic policy in a Raleigh, North Carolina, appearance Friday.  

Her “populist” agenda, according to The Washington Post features …

•Elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans.

•”First-ever” ban on price gouging for groceries and food.

•Cap on prescription drug costs.

•$25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers.

•Child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life.

The last plank follows Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s suggestion earlier in August that the child tax credit be raised from $2,000 to $6,000, WaPo notes.

The price gouging ban gave Trump fodder at his Thursday presser that “radical left” California politician Harris wants to put “price controls all over the place, which will end up driving up your prices, not down your prices,” USA Today reports. Trump held up examples of foodstuffs to highlight grocery inflation, including Oreos, Froot Loops, Cheerios and an impossibly downsized container of Tic Tacs. 

Trump also attacked the Biden/Harris administration’s favorable jobs growth and unemployment rate record, which has generally gone unnoticed by voters. He claimed without evidence that “virtually 100%” of net job growth over the last year has gone to migrants, “actually beyond the number of 100%.”

•••

Vance Wrote the Forward – Donald J. Trump has spent much of the summer trying to distance himself from Project 2025, the 900-some page Heritage Foundation book that, among other things, would consolidate presidential power, eliminate various federal agencies and promote a “Christian nation.” 

In an August 6 speech in Philadelphia, with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris standing behind him, running mate Tim Walz said: “JD Vance literally, literally wrote the forward for the architect of the Project 2025 agenda. 

Friday PolitiFact:Daily confirmed Walz’s charge. Vance wrote the forward for Kevin Roberts’ book, Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America. PolitiFact cites HarperCollins Publishers’ website and “other marketing materials” as proof. 

Whatever your opinion, be sure to give Walz credit for correct use of the word, “literally.”

--TL

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THURSDAY 8/15/24

Reviving Ceasefire Negotiations? – Negotiations to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire were set to resume Thursday in Doha, Qatar, where mediators from Qatar, Egypt, the US and Israel are to take up the deal President Biden proposed May 31. Talks over that proposal have been stalled.

Problem is, it appears that Hamas, whose chief negotiator was killed in July 31 by an explosive device in a Tehran guesthouse, will not attend.

Phase I of Biden’s deal would have been a six-week ceasefire in which all hostages and detainees were to be released while Israel and Hamas were to negotiate Phase II, a complete and final ceasefire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants Israel to resume its war on Gaza after Phase I, if necessary.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza reported Thursday that the death toll there has topped 40,000. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and soldiers killed, according to NPR.

Competing interests: Haaretz reported earlier this week that while the war in Gaza drags on, Netanyahu is quietly working to advance his overhaul of the Israeli Supreme Court, which would limit its ability to overturn Netanyahu’s decisions it finds “extremely unreasonable.” Biden, on the other hand, hopes a ceasefire will diffuse a movement by pro-Palestinian Democrats to withhold their votes on November 5.

•••

Harris Leads in Battlegrounds – Vice President Kamala Harris leads Donald J. Trump in five battleground states, is tied in a sixth, and is behind in the seventh, in the non-partisan Cook Political Report’s Swing State Project Survey conducted by BSG and GS Strategy Group. In a head-to-head race, Harris leads Trump nationally, 48% to 47%. 

In the Swing State Survey, Harris leads Trump in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They are tied in Georgia and Trump leads in Nevada.

Meanwhile: Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton infamously avoided campaigning in Wisconsin in 2016. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris will not make that mistake. She plans to visit Milwaukee next Tuesday while former President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (per The New York Times). Harris will appear with running mate Tim Walz at Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention was held last month.

•••

Menendez Sub in Senate – Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy intends to appoint his former chief of staff, George Helmy, to serve out the rest of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s term this year, CQ Roll Call reports, citing “multiple New Jersey media outlets.” 

Menendez, who was found guilty in July of multiple federal charges, including acting as a foreign agent, steps down from his Senate seat next Tuesday. 

Murphy might have appointed the Democratic nominee for Menendez’s seat, Rep. Andy Kim, but Kim defeated Tammy Murphy, the governor’s wife, in the New Jersey Democratic primary. Kim faces Republican candidate Curtis Bashaw November 5.

--TL

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...meanwhile... WEDNESDAY 8/14/24

Ukraine Keeps Pushing into Russia – Ukraine hit four Russian airbases with four long-range drones overnight Wednesday, The Kyiv Independent reports, citing a source from the SBU, Ukraine’s security service. It is Ukraine’s largest such attack since pushing into Russia’s Kursk region more than a week ago. 

Earlier, according to the report, Russia claimed it had downed 110 Ukrainian drones in a massive attack. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the governor of Belgorod Oblast has declared a state of emergency as Ukraine’s military moves into the region adjacent to Kursk.

•••

Omar Survives Primary – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza beat centrist liberal Don Samuels in Minnesota’s primary election Tuesday, the AP reports. She escapes the fate that befell two fellow “Squad” members, Rep. Cori Bush, who lost the Democratic nomination in Missouri last week, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who lost the Democratic nomination in New York in June. Samuels, Omar’s challenger for her Minnesota 5th District seat, is an ex-Minneapolis City Council member she narrowly defeated in 2022.

Reports indicate Omar was not subject to a well-funded opposition campaign by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s United Democracy Project, which is credited with defeating Bush and Bowman.

•••

In Wisconsin – Trump-backed businessman Eric Hovde won the state’s Republican nomination Tuesday to take on two-term Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November, per USA Today. In Wisconsin’s 3rd House District small business owner Rebecca Cooke defeated state Rep. Katrina Shankland in the Democratic primary to take on freshman Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden November 5. The non-partisan Cook Political Report rates Wisconsin’s 3rd as “lean Republican,” according to USA Today.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Kamala, Voldemort & Commercials

By Stephen Macaulay

Here in southeastern Michigan the political advertising is relentless on the local broadcast stations. The Trump and Harris campaigns or their affiliated PACs are undoubtedly causing station managers to dance a jig of delight, given that they’ve become fairly dependent upon ad revenue from local law firms that promote their winning ways on a regular basis and so the slamming of candidates is something of a windfall.

The Harris commercials are consistent in a message of all of the people she’s “taken on” in her career, from greedy landlords to the drug companies. (It is somewhat surprising how many people have claimed they were instrumental to the $35 monthly insulin program: first Biden, now Harris, and even Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is running for the Senate.)

The Trump-related ads are not about any accomplishments that the ex-president made.

They are generally focused on what a deplorable person Kamala Harris is — although they wouldn’t use that adjective even though they describe her as one. 

Some of the ads have bizarre camera angles, images that appear to have been cut from a Super 8 film, and tinting as though this is something out of Blumhouse Productions.

One ad that is in heavy rotation is somewhat simpler: a nurse explaining how because of Harris’ failure at the border and the consequent overwhelming number of illegal immigrants, those illegals are not only filling up the hospital where she works, thereby preventing her patients from getting the care they need, but the patients, who are undoubtedly law-abiding Republicans, have to pay the medical bills run up by the illegals.

As someone who (a) pays taxes and (b) pays medical insurance premiums that seem to do nothing but rise, I certainly find that concerning.

So I wondered. 

And found this from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), which does research into things like public health policy:

“Lawfully present immigrants may qualify for Medicaid and CHIP but are subject to eligibility restrictions that result in some, particularly recent immigrants, being ineligible to enroll even if they meet other eligibility criteria. For example, many must meet a five-year waiting period before qualifying for Medicaid or CHIP. Lawfully present immigrants can purchase coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces and may receive tax credits for this coverage without a waiting period.”

That certainly doesn’t sound like they’re filling the appointments at the local urgent care.

Then KFF points out: 

“Undocumented immigrants are ineligible to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces.”

In other words, they can’t, though the implication is otherwise, get federal insurance.

KFF continues:

“Medicaid payments for emergency services may be made on behalf of individuals who are otherwise eligible for Medicaid but for their immigration status. These payments may help cover the costs for emergency care provided to immigrants who remain ineligible for Medicaid but are not coverage for individuals.”

If someone is an undocumented immigrant and gets hit by a bus, one imagines that the Hippocratic Oath kicks in and that person gets medical care. 

And that medical facility, subsequently, gets some reimbursement from the federal government for providing that care.

The alternative to that care would be, what?

Remember when Obamacare was being debated and there were Republicans, against it, talked about “Death Panels”?

Is the suggestion now that those who get hit by buses simply have to deal with it?

Wouldn’t that be more inhumane than a fictitious panel?

Doesn’t a Judeo-Christian nation in the 21st century, the most powerful country in the world, have a responsibility for providing some level of care even for those who are here illegally? 

I am not promoting illegal immigration. But I do believe that there is a certain level of “human-ness” that necessitates dealing with those who are in need of medical attention.

What seems to be getting zero attention from Trump or Harris is that the flat-out criminals aside, many of the people who enter the country illegally do so because they know there is a good likelihood that they can get a job from employers that are not in the least bit interested in their documents, but only in their ability and willingness to work for a low wage, probably off the books. So why not have the Department of Labor focus on making sure that employers have the correct paperwork for each of their employees and if they don’t have the documents, then they pay non-trivial fines and face other penalties. You can bet that when the demand for illegal workers dries up the number of people crossing the border illegally will dry up, as well. Addressing the demand is far more effective than building a wall to minimize the supply, because without the demand, there is no need for the supply. Don’t people read Adam Smith anymore?

But that nurse in the Trump ad certainly doesn’t want to get into the weeds of what the actual state of health care among illegal immigrants is. She just wants us all to know that when you have a tough time getting an appointment with your physician it is probably because of an illegal alien — and that person got the appointment that you want because of Harris.

The ad, as well as others in the anti-Harris playlist, says two things about Harris that seem to cancel one another out, or at least minimize the scariness of the candidate.
She is “dangerous.” But she is also “weak.”

In other words, she is the opposite of Voldemort.

In his August 8 press conference Trump said, “We have commercials that are at a level I don't think that anybody's ever done before.”

When you call your opponent “weak” and “dangerous” that is a level I don’t think that anybody’s ever done before -- and not in a good way.

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Your comments go here if you lean right. Go to the Comments section this column, if you lean conservative, or the one in the left column, if you lean liberal to comment on the Musk-Trump “conversation” on X-Twitter, or other political issues and news. 

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

Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at thehustings.substack.com.

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Did You Catch That?

TUESDAY Aug. 13, 2024

If you logged on to X-Twitter 8 pm Eastern Monday night, you might have thought you missed the social media site’s owner/Tesla-/SpaceX-CEO Elon Musk having a friendly “conversation” with Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. Or you might have wondered whether X’s “Spaces” were somewhere else, in a portal far, far away from the regular ex-Twitter folderol. 

Our left-column pundit, Ken Zino, did, and gave up before Musk finally got the show going. Our pundit-at-large, Stephen Macaulay, had already given up on the “conversation” ahead of time and explains why he sat this one out, in the right column. Nevertheless, there were 998 million posts about Trump-Musk between 7:47 and 10:47 pm, according to Musk's X account.

If you have something to say about the Musk-Trump show, whether you listened or not, please send us your Comments. Respond in the left column Comments section if you fall to the left of the political horseshoe’s center, or in the right column Comments section if you fall to the right. 

Or, simply email us at editors@thehustings.news and please list your leanings as liberal or conservative (whether centrist on either side, or progressive or MAGA or anything in between) in the subject line, so we post your comments to the appropriate column.

Also, be sure to sign up for our free Substack newsletter.

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A Glitchy Evening with Musk and Trump

By Charles Dervarics

With Vice President Kamala Harris surging in the polls, Donald J. Trump took to the friendly territory of X (formerly Twitter) Monday night for an interview with Elon Musk in hopes of reclaiming momentum for the fall presidential campaign.

What he perhaps didn’t expect were technical glitches that delayed the event by 40 minutes. Users received messages such as “this space is not available,” and those gaining access just heard music for many minutes. Musk claimed that a massive external attack on the website was to blame, and both he and Trump spun the delay as proof of tremendous interest in the interview.

The event was a homecoming of sorts for the former president, whose Twitter account was suspended in 2021 and who then launched his own social media site, Truth Social. Prior to the interview, Trump touted his return to the platform in a video posted to X.

While the Trump campaign termed it beforehand as “the interview of the century,” the event was more of a conversation between two men who agree on most topics. His questions were more of the softball variety, with no fact-checking of the responses.

For his part, Trump returned to many of his favorite themes, sharply criticizing Harris as both unqualified and too-far left for most Americans. “I think she’s more incompetent than he (President Biden) is,” Trump said. He also urged his supporters and the media to not let Democrats “get away with their disinformation campaign” to distance the vice president from her role in setting immigration policy.

The more newsworthy revelations, however, included the following:

  • Return to Butler: “We’re going back to Butler,” Trump said of his desire to return to the Pennsylvania site of his recent assassination attempt. The former president and Musk spent 20 minutes talking about the assassination attempt, with Trump stating that he will return there in October. He also joked that “illegal immigration saved my life” because he turned his head toward an immigration chart on stage. Without that turn of the head, the bullet may have caused more catastrophic injury.
  • Education changes: Trump returned to an earlier theme of wanting to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and “move education back to the states.” He noted that “not every state will do great” but that it would spur competition as families may relocate in search of better schools. He predicted about 35 states would “do great” with the change.
  • Government efficiency: Musk said he wants to sit on a commission to examine government inefficiency, and Trump seemed ready to take him up on his offer. “The waste [in government spending] is incredible,” Trump asserted.

Musk previously has endorsed Trump and pledged to provide substantial funding for his campaign.

TUE 8/13/24

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

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 1st 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 3rd 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

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...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.

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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 4th, 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.

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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.

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…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.

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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