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.

•••

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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On Harris’ Running Mate Candidates

Editors:

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

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

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

--Hugh Hansen

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Welcome, Citizen Pundits

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

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

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

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

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…meanwhile…

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

FRIDAY 7/26/24

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

--TL

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

•••

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

On Tuesday, she did.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Undemocratic Democrats

Editors:

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

--Rich Corbett

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About Kamala & the Wall

By Stephen Macaulay

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

According to factcheck.org:

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

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

So what do we have here?

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

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

But what is the role of our elected legislators?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fifteen billion dollars.

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

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

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

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Harris Builds Support Among Some Dems

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

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

•Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina.

•Rep. Debbie Dingell, Michigan.

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

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

•Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts.

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

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

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Harris Has the Dem Nomination

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

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

--TL

Biden Bows Out -- MONDAY 7/22/24

By Todd Lassa

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Too Slow, Joe

By Stephen Macaulay

Let’s ratchet back all the plaudits for Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race. It became absolutely clear that Joe Biden wasn’t up to the task during his “debate” with Donald Trump. That was June 27. It is now July 21.

As he might put it, “C’mon, man.”

There should be a certain level of annoyance with the man for dragging the inevitable out for as long as he did.

That could have negative consequences for the Democrats in November.

Will there be statements then along the lines of “If only we’d had a couple more weeks …”?

At this state it seems fait accompli that Kamala Harris will be the candidate. Biden has endorsed her.

Again, because of this delay, it very well may be that she’s the most convenient candidate. Not the best. Convenient.

Yes, Joe Biden did a good job as president. Yes, he deftly accomplished things that his predecessor only blew smoke about. Yes, the world is in a better place thanks to Biden’s support of Ukraine (it is frightening to think of the condition of that country were Trump in office: the inability of that man and his acolytes to recognize the fact that there is global interconnectedness that can’t be rolled back with tariffs and walls is pathetic).

But I can’t but think that in the past several months — there is plenty of reporting about how Biden had missed more than a step long before June 27 — Biden has developed a sense that he is the only one who should be president.

A Trumpian attitude.

Had that continued, what is a laudatory career of service would have been horribly besmirched.

But he has done the right thing.

Still, he is presenting Kamala Harris with a tremendous challenge.

If she fails in November, it won’t entirely be her fault, but it is likely that she will get the blame.

Too bad his mom or dad never told him, “Joey, you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.”

There would have been more time for the momentum that is going to be needed to take on the Trump-Vance ticket.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

The List, So Far

Gathering up the names of Democratic senators and House members who have called on President Biden to withdraw his re-election campaign in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris, or another prominent party member is, yes, a bit like hearding cats. DuckDuckGo it and you’ll find several news outlet sites offering up their lists, but many of them are several days old.

But USA Today is trying to keep up with a running list. While its list Friday morning did not include Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), who announced his call for Biden to step down before Donald J. Trump completed his hour-and-a-half GOP nomination speech, the newspaper does note that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has scheduled a meeting with the president for Friday.

Tester became the second Democratic senator after Peter Welch, of Vermont, to call on Biden to withdraw. Here are the 18 Democratic US representatives who have called for his withdrawal, according to USA Today…

•Greg Stanton, Vermont.

•Raúl Grijalva, Arizona.

•Scott Peters, California.

•Brittany Petterson, Colorado.

•Jim Himes, Connecticut.

•Ed Chase, Hawaii.

•Brad Schneider, Illinois.

•Eric Sorensen, Illinois.

•Mike Quigley, Illinois.

•Seth Moulton, Massachusetts.

•Hillary Scholten, Michigan.

•Angie Craig, Minnesota.

•Mike Sherrill, New Jersey.

•Pat Ryan, New York.

•Earl Blumenauer, Oregon.

•Lloyd Doggett, Texas.

•Adam Smith, Washington.

•Mike Levin, California.

Enter your Comments in the left or right columns as appropriate for your political leanings, or email editors@thehustings.newsand indicate whether you lean left or right in the subject line.

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From God and Unity to Hannibal Lecter

FRIDAY 7/19/24

Donald J. Trump’s presidential nomination acceptance speech Thursday evening began with the calm-voice unity he promised after last Saturday’s assassination attempt.

“I was beginning to tell the great job my administration had done on immigration on the southern border,” Trump said, describing the attempt by Thomas Matthew Crooks at the ex-president’s rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania. A chart Trump turned to on his right saved him from taking the bullet directly.

“I said to myself, ‘wow, what was that?’ It can only be a bullet…

“I felt safe because I had God on my side.”

Trump’s speech, which CNN clocked in at one hour, 32 minutes was as “unifying” and as touchy-feely as the ex-president has ever been in public for about the first half hour but then turned quickly into his finishing the rally he tried to begin in Butler County five days earlier.

Trump said he will be a president "for all of America, not for half of America ... We are one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” We must not demonize others with whom we disagree, Trump added.

We should “stop weaponizing the Justice department,” he said, calling out “highly respected federal judge” Aileen Cannon, who on Monday dismissed Trump’s classified documents case in Florida.

“If Democrats want to unify our country, they should drop these witch hunts which they’ve been doing for eight years.”

He called out “crazy Nancy Pelosi” and touted his administration’s work on “right to try,” giving Americans access to pre-approved drug trials.

Trump promised to end President Biden’s wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

“We’re dealing with fierce people, and we don’t have fierce people, except when cheating on elections.”

From there, Trump’s free-flowing, off-Teleprompter hour repeated, “drill, baby, drill,” an oft-told assertion that the Biden administration has stifled US oil production, which is not true. He kept returning to the “border crisis.”

Trump repeated his plan to deport illegal immigrants. He tied in his regular rally call-out of Silence of the Lambs character Hannibal Lecter to mentally ill immigrants he said other countries are sending here.

“I will end our illegal immigration crisis by closing our border and completing the wall,” which Trump misleadingly stated he built most of.

“I will bring back the American Dream,” Trump continued. “That’s what we’re going to do. You don’t ever hear about the American Dream anymore.

“Starting day one, we will drive down prices and make America affordable again.” The next Trump administration would cut its $36 trillion in debt and “we will reduce your taxes.”

Details to come?

•••

Tester Calls for Withdrawal – Jon Tester of Montana has become the second Democratic US senator to call for President Biden to withdraw from the presidential race (per NPR’s Morning Edition). Tester is in a tight race to win his fourth term this November against Republican candidate Tim Sheehy, a former US Navy Seal. The winner in this red state could very well determine which party controls the Senate next year.

•••

Gershkovich Sentenced to 16 Years – American reporter Evan Gershkovich was sentenced to 16 years in a high-security Russian penal colony, “after a hurried, secret trial that the US government has condemned as a sham,” his employer, The Wall Street Journal, reports. The court’s verdict came after three days of hearings and was considered a foregone conclusion, as espionage trial acquittals are considered exceedingly rare.

News of Gershkovich’s sentencing came amidst reports Friday that US and Russian officials were closing in on a prisoner swap that would free the WSJ reporter.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

An ‘Easy Call’ in November

Guest Commentary by Rich Corbett

The Trump/Vance ticket will still be painted poorly by most in the mainstream media (journalism is skewed more than ever to the left). But The Biden/Harris failure in nearly everything they touched will have far more Americans feeling bamboozled by “moderate” Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

From the Biden administration’s failed and costly foreign policy, giving us world instability everywhere, to their excessive spending and attempts to buy votes (student loan forgiveness, green energy, etc.) to their war on domestic energy, which helped to give us the highest inflation in recent memory.

The ridiculous open border policy imported criminals and fentanyl that destroy communities across America. People are no longer safe, living in or visiting progressively run Democratic cities, with their soft-on-crime district attorneys and openly anti-law enforcement rhetoric. Progressive leadership from the top has ruined our public schools and has churned out students who have been taught more hatred for America.

And yet, even using the heavy handed lawfare of the type we see in third-world banana republics and communist countries, partisans were unable to stop Biden’s opponent, Donald Trump.

Let’s not even broach the questionable Secret Service protection failure in Pennsylvania.

So much for the “unity” that was promised when Biden/Harris attracted voters in 2020. Let’s hope voters are not fooled by Democrats and their left-wing propagandists again. It’s an easy call in November 2024 for those who want to save the USA.

Corbett is editor of My Desultory Blog

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What Will Democrats Do?

Out-in-the-open infighting between Democratic lawmakers on the question of whether President Biden be pressured to drop from the presidential race undoubtedly are triggering ulcers among those who fear a second Trump administration. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) is the latest to call on Biden to step down from the race, saying he has "serious concerns" the president can't win re-election, the Los Angeles Times reports.

On the other hand, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) last weekend wrote an op-ed for The New York Times saying he supports Biden staying in the race. He told The New Yorker he does not think Biden would serve a full four years if re-elected, however. Sanders called on the media to stop focusing on Biden's age and cognitive abilities.

"What the media should be doing, in my view, is focussing on the contrast between Joe Biden, what his record is and what his vision is for the future, not just what happened in a debate," Sanders told the magazine.

It should be kept in mind that Democratic lawmakers' calls for Biden to step down will seem amplified during a week in which the cheers for Donald J. Trump are loudest.

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Talk of “unity” coming from both parties after Donald J. Trump survived an assassination attempt was almost jarring, Sunday. As Trump said he would rewrite his Republican National Convention speech, President Biden took to the Resolute Desk for a six-minute Oval Office speech in which he made an argument to “lower the temperature.”

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence, for any violence, ever. Period. No exceptions,” Biden said. “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized.”

What do you think? Is this possible in the three-and-a-half months before the presidential election?

Enter your thoughts into the Comments section in this column if you lean left, or in the right column if you lean conservative. Or email editors@thehustings.news and please tell us whether you lean blue or red in the subject line.

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RNC Week Day 4

Veep candidate Sen. J.D. Vance introduced himself to an adoring RNC crowd Wednesday. Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump closes the convention in Milwaukee with his speech Thursday night. The New York Times has a transcript of Vance's speech here (subscription required).

THURSDAY 7/18/24

Vance Advances – From vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s point of view, traditional conservatives from the Bush/Romney wing of the GOP are RINOs. In his speech before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Wednesday night where he formally accepted his veep nomination, Vance expressed his empathy for blue-collar workers, both non-union and union members, while showing disdain for Wall Street, for trade deals with Mexico and China, and for the US invasion of Iraq after 9/11. Vance also mentioned Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the key swing states in this year’s elections, as often as he could.

When Vance was in the fourth grade, Biden backed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) “that sent countless good jobs to Mexico,” he reminded the cheering RNC crowd. As a sophomore, he said, Biden backed a “sweetheart deal” with China, and while a high school senior, the current president supported the invasion of Iraq. You might have noticed these initiatives came largely from now-RINO’d Republicans.

“And somehow a real estate developer from New York City named Donald Trump was right in all these issues, and Joe Biden was wrong,” Vance said.

He decried “cheap Chinese goods” and low wages, and warned of China’s flow of fentanyl into the US (drug addiction was the villain of Vance’s 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy).

Vance, who left Appalachia to serve four years in the US Marines before attending The Ohio State University, then got a law degree at Yale University before becoming a tech venture capitalist, blamed Wall Street for “crashing” the economy, which led to American builders going out of business.

He didn’t point out that the resulting Great Recession stifled new construction for much of the ‘10s, but instead said Biden’s “inflation crisis is really an affordability crisis” for the costs of housing, groceries and gasoline.

“President Trump’s vision is so simple and yet so powerful,” Vance continued. “We’re done, ladies and gentlemen, catering to Wall Street. We’ll commit to the working man.”

The “we” in “we’re done” was meant to refer to American politicians, though it also refers to the traditional Republicans the MAGA GOP has effectively evicted from the party.

Of Ukraine … Vance is famous for being among the group of populist congressional Republicans who vehemently oppose continued military aid to Ukraine (and thus support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion), but he didn’t mention the country by name Wednesday night. He did say this: “Together, we will make sure our allies share in the burden of securing world peace. No more free rides for nations that betray the generosity of the American taxpayer.”

Of Taiwan … Meanwhile on Wall Street, tech stocks took a dive Wednesday when Bloomberg Business Week released an earlier interview with Trump in which the presidential candidate said Taiwan “should pay” for US protection against Chinese military aggression.

“Taiwan is 9,500 miles away,” Trump said. “It’s 68 miles away from China. … I don’t think we’re any different from an insurance policy.”

No doubt the former president also jolted Taiwan’s newly elected President Lai Ching-te, who is dealing with a divided government.

Factoid… Punchbowl News notes that Trump is the first politician since Richard Nixon (1960, ’68 and ’72) to be nominated by his party three times and would be the first president since Grover Cleveland to serve non-consecutive terms.

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Biden Falls Ill – Joe Biden told Ed Gordon of BET News in an interview released Wednesday that “if a medical condition emerged” he would drop out of the presidential race. That evening, Biden returned to his Delaware beach house from a campaign stop in Las Vegas with a mild case of COVID, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. While “mild covid” would have to make a big leap to become a “medical condition” the virus whose treatment by then-President Trump helped lead to Biden’s 2020 election victory gives a bit more hope to Democrats already calling on him to step down.

Whether or not Biden and his close circle can use COVID as an excuse to hand over his campaign to Vice President Harris or another, younger, more vigorous candidate, it’s difficult to see any other path to victory by a severely divided Democratic Party.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Make America Strong -- …once again. That’s the Republican National Convention’s Wednesday theme, which might seem to play in Donald J. Trump’s post-assassination attempt fist-bump accompanying exhortation to his supporters to “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT.” But in Wednesday’s case “make America strong” means ending aid to Ukraine in its defense against Russia, withdrawing from NATO and isolating the US in general.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), passed over as Trump’s 2024 running mate in favor of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), previewed Wednesday in his Tuesday evening speech before the RNC, saying “There is nothing dangerous nor divisive when putting America first.”

ICYMI, Tuesday’s theme was “Make America Safe Once Again,” in which several speeches included variations of an erroneous assertion that crime and violent crime is booming under President Biden. The opposite is quite true, with crime statistics falling quickly since the pandemic.

Former Trump challenger Nikki Haley was the keynote Tuesday, after having first been passed over for an invitation to the RNC.

“President Trump asked me to speak in the name of unity,” Haley told the crowd. Like Trump running mate J.D. Vance, though much more recently, she has done a 180 on her previous warnings about the ex-president’s fitness for the job. “Donald Trump has my strong endorsement. Period.”

A vote for Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris, Haley said, asserting Biden would not complete a full second term if re-elected.

“For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump,” Haley continued. She noted that like her, there are Americans who “don’t agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time.”

Though a staunch pro-Ukrainian candidate earlier this year, Haley said the wars in Ukraine and Gaza belong to Biden, not Trump.

“A strong president doesn’t start wars. A strong president prevents wars.

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Meanwhile, on the Left – A group of Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Democratic National Committee to halt plans to hold a virtual roll call nomination vote for President Biden ahead of next month’s convention, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The letter, which NPR obtained from two different sources, calls the virtual nomination a “terrible idea” that would sap party morale.

While the letter has been signed by Democrats who want Biden to remain their candidate, as well as Democrats who want him to step down and others who have not announced a position, all clearly want more time for the question to play out of whether Biden can indeed beat Donald J. Trump in November.

•••

Menendez Guilty – A federal jury found Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) guilty on all 16 counts in his corruption trial Tuesday (per Politico). Federal prosecutors had charged the senator with bribery, acting as a foreign agent for Egypt, obstruction of justice, extortion and conspiring to commit these crimes.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has called on Menendez to step down, though the New Jersey senator has been defiant all through the investigation and two-month trial.

“I am deeply disappointed by the jury’s decision,” Menendez said Tuesday. “I have every faith that the law and the facts did not sustain that decision and that we will be successful upon appeal.”

US District Judge Sidney Stein will sentence Menendez, 70, October 29. He faces decades in prison.

If Menendez does step down for the few remaining months of his term, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) will appoint a successor, likely to be Rep. Andy Kim, who is the Democratic nominee for the seat’s full term beginning next year.

--TL

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TUESDAY 7/16/24

Strike of the Tech Bros – (And a coal barron…) Elon Musk has formed a new Super PAC supporting Donald J. Trump’s candidacy with a commitment of about $45 million per month up to November 5, The Wall Street Journal reports, not coincidentally in tune with the ex-president’s pick of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as his running mate.

Also joining in on America PAC are Joe Lonsdale, co-founder of Palantir Tech, the Winklevos Twins (once in dispute with Mark Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook) and Joe Craft, CEO of coal producer Alliance Resource Partners whose wife, Kelly Craft, was ambassador to Canada.

This news, and not Trump’s announcement that Vance is his running mate, nor Trump showing up with a bandage around his right ear, was top news at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee Monday night.

About Winklevos v. Zuckerberg… Coincidentally (?) Trump last week Tuesday posted on his Truth Social he vowed to imprison “election fraudsters” including Zuckerberg, according to Business Insider. Or as capitalization enthusiast Trump wrote it; “All I can say is that if I’m elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time!”

The take on Vance… Trump’s veep pick suggests a “break with the Republican orthodoxy of the last several decades on a range of policy issues, including unions, antitrust, trade and taxes,” according to The Washington Post. But Vance’s connection with X-Twitter owner and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk – somewhere at or near the top of the list of world’s richest men, depending on the day – suggests the Hillbilly Elegy author might be leaning libertarian-ward, with a reverence for such tech innovators/American oligarchs.

Probably a good time to list the other job on Vance’s CV: venture capitalist.

The union factor… Teamsters President Sean O’Brien became the first-ever union leader to address the Republican National Convention Monday, telling a cheering audience that Trump “has the backbone to open the doors to the Republican convention that’s unprecedented,” per The Washington Post. “You can have whatever opinion you want but one thing is clear: President Trump is a candidate who’s unafraid to hear from new, loud, and often critical voices.”

Oh, and ... Republicans also outlined their 2024 platform at the convention. Read details here.

-- TL

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MONDAY 7/15/24

Vance is Running Mate -- It's official, having appeared on Truth Social: J.D. Vance, 39, is Donald J. Trump's running mate for the November election (per The Washington Post). Vance, of Ohio, was elected to the Senate two years ago in the mid-terms. He is otherwise known for writing Hillbilly Elegy, published in 2016.

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Cannon Dismisses -- U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the classified documents case against Donald J. Trump on grounds that special counsel Jack Smith was not constitutionally appointed and funded by US Congress, The Washington Post reports Monday. Other federal courts have rejected similar arguments. It is uncertain whether Smith will appeal to a higher court in the case.

•••

From Assassination Attempt to Unity? – Donald J. Trump has torn up his Republican National Convention speech to “preach unity,” the Washington Examiner reports Sunday in its exclusive first interview with the ex-president a day after Thomas Matthew Crooks’ attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania. After raising his fist in defiance when the Secret Service gathered him up, the “retribution” candidate now signals he is about to go soft this week at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

“The speech I was going to give on Thursday was going to be a humdinger. Had this not happened, this would have been one of the most incredible speeches” reportedly aimed at criticizing President Biden’s policies. “Honestly, it’s going to be a whole different speech now.”

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who appears to be a shaved beard away from becoming Trump’s running mate, will be in Milwaukee, too. But Vance apparently hopes to become a bulldog to Trump’s kinder, gentler populism, as the senator blames President Biden and his campaign for the assassination attempt. Never mind that Vance might not be a contender for running mate this year had Trump’s supporters not threatened to hang Vice President Mike Pence on January 6^,2021.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that Donald Trump is an American fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination,” Vance wrote on X-Twitter, per Politico.

Rep. Eric Swalwell responded on X, (also per Politico): “You called Trump ‘American Hitler’”, referring to Vance’s much earlier take on the once and current presidential candidate; “Now show yourself back to the kid’s table. … Violence will NEVER be the answer.”

Biden spent much of Sunday trying to be as cordial toward Trump as Trump has promised to be at the RNC. First, the president cancelled a Monday visit to the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, then gave both a short press conference (taking no reporter questions), and later Sunday evening speaking against political violence from the Oval Office.

“We cannot, we will not go down this road in America.” Biden said.

Former First Lady Melania Trump similarly called on America “to ascend above the hate in these times.”

Meanwhile…Biden has called for a review of the Secret Service’s actions surrounding the assassination attempt, in which one audience member was killed and two others were critically injured. But House Oversight Committee Republicans have been investigating the Secret Service for months, according to Real Clear Politics. A Secret Service agent fatally shot Crooks, 20, after the gunman fired eight rounds.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news