This Might Not Be the Column…

…you’re looking for. This is the left column meant for left/liberal/progressive commentary that, unfortunately, comes up first if you find The Hustings on your smartphone. We will be working on a fix for this in the coming months.

If you’ve found us on your computer screen, the home page consists of a center column, which posts political news/news analysis that sets up commentary in the left column and in the right – conservative/right-wing – column. We want everybody who comes to this site to read the three columns no matter what their political leanings (unlike at echo chambers such as, say, X-Twitter, in which you read only the news & commentary you follow).

We encourage you to contribute to the left or right columns by emailing your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please tell us in the subject line whether you are liberal or conservative, so we can post your comments in the appropriate column.

_____

…meanwhile…

Real Gross Domestic Product rose a dismal 1.6% in the first quarter of this year, compared with Q4 2023’s strong 3.4% rise, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday. The report says consumer spending and housing investments continued to push up GDP.

Hocus SCOTUS — Savvy Supreme Court observers warn that Thursday’s oral arguments over a lower court ruling rejecting ex-President Trump’s claim of post-presidential presidential immunity in United States v. Donald J. Trump do not automatically equate to the ultimate ruling. But even the savviest observers anticipate a partial loss for special counsel Jack Smith in his election obstruction case related to Trump’s alleged plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

SCOTUS “appears skeptical” of U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s ruling on the immunity issue, SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe writes, while NPR’s Nina Totenberg said five of the nine justices appear ready to send the issue back to the lower court, assuring a trial would not happen by November 5.

On NPR’s Morning Edition Nina Totenberg posited it’s likely “court observers didn’t properly account for the personal experience of the conservative justices,” who spent much of their early careers outside the Beltway and saw Republican presidents become “targets of harassment” by Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress.

For those five conservative justices it comes down to the question of Trump’s official actions versus personal actions. This court majority appeared to be considering sending the issue back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to have her cut out the parts of Smith’s indictment that charge Trump for “official” actions.

The sixth conservative, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, appeared more skeptical of the arguments of Trump’s attorney, John Sauer. (Michael Dreeban, an attorney from Smith’s office, represented the U.S. in the oral arguments).

•••

Right Heads Fed? — Assuming Donald J. Trump’s courtroom maneuvers work for him (as they have, generally, for decades) and he manages to win a second term (far from being a long-shot at this point) all the ex-president’s men (and women?) will try to hand him some level of control over the Federal Reserve. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump’s allies are “quietly drafting proposals” that would suck power out of the Fed if their leader gets a second term in the White House. However, the report says, a divide is “deepening” between factions that would draft an incremental policy and those that would give the president a role in setting interest rates.

You may remember that during his term Trump was jawboning the Fed to keep rates low while the Fed’s board was considering a hike in order to jump-start ultra-low inflation levels and help boost the economy.

--TL

__________________________________________

Trump's Big Day -- THURSDAY 4/25/24

Trump’s Immunity Claim – The Supreme Court was to begin hearing arguments 10 a.m. Eastern time Thursday on ex-President Trump’s circular claim that he could not be prosecuted for crimes committed while president, including his attempts to remain president despite Joe Biden’s election victory (per NPR’s Morning Edition). SCOTUS’ decision will determine whether special counsel Jack Smith can go forward with his January 6^th/election obstruction case, which is to be tried in federal court in the District of Columbia.

Listen to oral arguments on NPR here.

Trump’s lawyers in the case, led by attorney John Lauro, claim the steps Trump took to block certification of Biden’s electors were part of his official duties and therefore he cannot be prosecuted, according to NPR’s Nina Totenberg.

Meanwhile… Ex-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker’s testimony in Trump’s hush money payments case continues in Manhattan. The case before SCOTUS will have no effect on this case, State of New York v. Donald John Trump because it is not a federal case.

•••

Arizona Indicts Trump Allies – Donald J. Trump has been named an unindicted co-conspirator in a 58-page grand jury indictment charging 18 of his allies with efforts to subvert the 2020 election in the state. The only names in the indictment are of 11 Republicans who allegedly posed as Arizona’s electors, but Politico among other outlets has identified former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Boris Epshteyn. Attorney Ken Chesebro is “unindicted co-conspirator number four,” according to Politico.

Other names redacted but made obvious by the indictment’s descriptions include attorneys John Eastman, Jenna Ellis and Christina Bobb, as well as Trump 2020 campaign operative Mike Roman. Michigan prosecutors on Wednesday revealed that Trump is an unindicted co-conspirator in its own election subversion investigation.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____

Pecker Meets Hamilton

By Stephen Macaulay

While some people are getting all excited about how things are going in the Trump hush-money trial in Manhattan, figuring that soon the former president will be wearing an outfit that matches his hair, this is perhaps one of those cases of mass sociogenic illness, where a group of people have the same collective delusion.

Consider the testimony given by David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, the tabloid that has done more for alien and Elvis sightings than any dozen other outlets.

Pecker stated, “I said I would run positive stories about Trump, and I would publish negative stories about his opponent.”

Aren’t we in Casablanca territory here, with Captain Renault’s “I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here”?

Many of the people who visualize Trump being transported to Riker’s Island have now-fading Hamilton posters on their walls. They see the so-called “catch-and-kill” approach—buy a story and then not use it—as being somehow in itself completely unnatural. While this is not to say that it wasn’t used by Team Trump for reasons that may be proven to be felonious, there is nothing intrinsically nefarious about the practice. It is a means by which one can get an edge over one’s competitors by preventing them from having access to whatever the story may be.

Clearly the National Enquirer was pretty good at this: Can you think of the name of one of its competitors?

Going back to those who are generally humming the lyrics “I am not throwing away my shot/Hey you I’m just like my country/I’m young scrappy and hungry” as they go for a champagne brunch at the local bistro: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay wrote what has become known as “The Federalist Papers,” which were published in three New York newspapers — The Independent Journal, the New York Packet, and The Daily Advertiser — on behalf of the yet-to-be-ratified Constitution.

In other words, they worked to run positive stories about the Constitution while running negative stories about the Articles of Confederation.

That’s just how it is — and how it long has been. It is dangerously naïve to think otherwise.

The case is far from being a fait accompli. While it may seem likely that Trump was personally involved in signing off on the falsifying of business records for purposes of covering up some untoward behavior — after all, he is famously known for micromanaging the activities of The Trump Organization, the inverse of how he operated within the federal government — “likely” isn’t “certainly.”

Making uninformed conclusions about thing like Pecker’s testimony is nothing more than clutching at straws—which may end up being fulsome folly.

_____

Biden’s Call to Arms

By Ken Zino

President Biden in his third State of the Union address invoked America’s previous victories in the Civil War and Word War II and in other times of crisis, notably the covid pandemic. What initially looked to be a call for democracy over plutocracy based on the White House fact sheet released earlier turned into an aggressive attack on the former president, “my predecessor,” more than a dozen times, repeatedly taking on the elephant insurrectionist not in the room -- Trump -- without saying his name.

He instead referred to the “previous administration,” and the Republicans who enabled him in the campaign speech, during a surprisingly pugnacious and impassioned delivery. This shouldn’t be, well, Greek, to the average voter. Biden wants to make American leadership great again, building from his demonstrably good policies.

(Read Zino’s exquisitely detailed column on the address in The Gray Area.)

He delivered a call to action for four more years that clearly channeled the ideas of the progressive wing of the Democratic party. My take here is that Republicans are in for the fight of their political lives based on their record. Biden also took on the Supreme Court -- staring directly at that Supremely Corrupt gang -- invoking the chaos overturning Roe v. Wade is causing. “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” he asked. “Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America.”.

“Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” Biden said in his opening salvo. “If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking … But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world. It wasn’t that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now, my predecessor, a former Republican president tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ A former American president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. … I say this to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill.”

In his 68-minute speech, Biden addressed:

•January 6th: “We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. January 6^th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. But they failed. …. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6^th. I will not do that. … And here’s the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when you win. … Political violence has absolutely no place in America!”

•Reproductive rights: Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama was in the audience. “Fourteen months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of (in-vitro fertilization). She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF … unleashed by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. She was told her dream would have to wait. …To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide.”

•The economy: “I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. … America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot.”

•Infrastructure: “Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities -- modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems.”

•Pandemic and public health: “The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer. Turning setback into comeback. … With a law I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally beat Big Pharma. Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a month.”

•Tax reform: “I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a million bucks, great! Just pay your fair share in taxes. A fair tax code is how we invest in the things … that make a country great, health care, education, defense … The last administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and exploded the federal deficit. They added more to the national debt than in any presidential term in American history. …. Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax breaks? … Thanks to the law I wrote and signed big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%. … It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21%.”

•Social Security: “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them. … Republicans will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. I will protect and strengthen Social Security.”

•Border Security: “In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. … That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers. One-hundred more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases. Forty-three hundred more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years. One-hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl … I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him or me. It’d be a winner for America. My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. … We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. Send me the border bill now.”

•Climate Change: “I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030. Creating tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs, like the (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) building and installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.”

•Crime: “The year before I took office, murders went up 30% nationwide the biggest increase in history. Now, through my American Rescue Plan, which every Republican voted against, I’ve made the largest investment in public safety ever. Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years. But we have more to do. Help cities and towns invest in more community police officers, more mental health workers, and more community violence intervention.”

•Middle East: “I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America … Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. … As we look to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution. There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy. There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live with peace and dignity. … no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.”

Inspiring Conclusion

“The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I won’t walk away from it now. My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are it’s how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be. ...

“I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it. …

“I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away. …

“I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes. I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence. …

“Above all, I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all Americans. And I will always be a president for all Americans. Because I believe in America. I believe in you, the American people. You’re the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. … So let’s build that future together. Let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Don’t Say His Name

(FRI 3/8/24)

By Todd Lassa

The State of the Union address did not begin with the economy and President Biden’s success with GDP, employment and lowering the Consumer Price Index from 9% to 3% (OK, that was Federal Reserve handling inflation by raising interest rates). Instead, Biden went straight to saving world democracy and saving our own.

Evoking FDR’s January 1941 State of the Union address, Biden said “my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either.

“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.

“What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both home and overseas, at the very same time.”

Reaganesque

In a speech in which he mentioned his predecessor many times, but never by name, he also recalled President Reagan’s demand that Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall,” and connected that notorious predecessor with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), seated, as tradition, behind the president and next to the vice president gave relatively subtle facial clues throughout the address; frowning and shaking his head at Biden’s not-so-subtle suggestion that MAGA Republicans on the Hill are empowering the Russian dictator.

“I say this to Congress,” Biden said, “we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill. …

The Insurrection

Biden then made the easy pivot to January 6, 2021, saying political violence has “no place in America.”

“The insurrectionists were not patriots. They were here to stop the peaceful transfer of power. … Here’s the simple truth. You can’t love your country only when you win.”

Border Bill

The president touted the $118-billion border protection bill that Johnson refused to bring to the House floor. When heckled about it, Biden ad-libbed, “Oh, you don’t like that bill, do you? That conservatives got together and said was a good bill?”

Ramping up his re-election campaign, Biden warned of the power of women voters vs. the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ticked off his contributions to the improving economy, including “the lowest” inflation rate in the world, the CHIPS act shifting computer microprocessor production from China to the U.S. and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which he said many Congressional Republicans voted against, but then touted money brought to their districts.

“If any of you don’t want it in your district, just let me know.”

Gaza

With a large contingent of Gaza-Israel ceasefire protestors outside the Capitol and silent protests by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), holding up “ceasefire now” signs inside, Biden announced an emergency military mission establishing a temporary pier on the Gaza coast of the Mediterranean “that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters” for Palestinians under siege from Israeli military forces.

The White House had announced the plan earlier Thursday and late in his address.

Generally, Biden came off as lively and relatively sharp, and only got tongue-tied a few times well into the address. He again spoke of chipping away at the federal deficit in part by raising taxes on billionaires (while raising salaries for public school teachers). His predecessor’s tax cuts, mostly for the rich, expire next year and if Biden loses in November, they certainly will be renewed under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

Other takeaways (via smartphone notifications): “Defiant Biden.” (AP). “Biden draws sharp contrasts with Trump in fiery State of the Union address.” (The Washington Post). “President Biden delivered a feisty, confrontational speech, engaging in a vigorous back-and-forth with Republicans.” (The New York Times). “Biden shifted into campaign mode, targeting Trump and the GOP on reproductive rights and immigration.” (The Wall Street Journal). “Biden didn’t mention Trump once. But his speech tonight was an open salvo ahead of a long, ugly match.” (Politico).

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Beautiful Bloviation

By Stephen Macaulay

Biden was boisterous, bold, bullish, and even brash, but. . .

Pop quiz:

•Who made the following statements?

•When were they made?

“Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging.”

“U.S. stock markets have soared 70 percent, adding more than $12 trillion to our nation’s wealth.”

“[W]e are restoring our nation’s manufacturing might. . . . America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration, with thousands upon thousands of plants and factories being planned or being built. Companies are not leaving; they are coming back to the USA.”

Answers:

•President Donald J. Trump

•February 4, 2020; State of the Union Address

All of that sounds pretty good — and somewhat familiar — doesn’t it?

And, of course, Trump, the incumbent, lost the presidency to Joe Biden.

The State of the Union address is prescribed in Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution:

“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. . . .”

Odds are if you work for a large organization of any type you’ve been required to attend an all-hands address presented by the leader of the corporation or the charity.

And odds are the nicest thing you did when you got the advisory about attendance was to roll your eyes.

If there was any way to miss the bluster and the blah-blah-blah you did it. (“Erm. . .I have to get a root canal. . . .”)

Yet somehow we (yes, I guess this means me, too) expect that the American public is going to watch the address or, at the very least, been keen on catching up on the content delivered by the president.

Forget it. It didn’t happen.

Yes, those who are deeply involved in watching MSNBC or Fox News undoubtedly were jonesing for the speech.

But Biden partisans might only reconsider their support if, say, he had a 20-minute Mitch McConnell moment.

And Trump supporters wouldn’t change their mind about Biden even were he to lead the assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber in a “Hang Mike Pence!” chant.

What really matters is what is said — by both Biden and Trump — between now and November 5.

The State of the Union is really not much more than obligatory smoke and mirrors.

I mean, Trump closed his last (and I hope it really is his last) State of the Union sounding, well, Bidenesque:

“America is the place where anything can happen. America is the place where anyone can rise. And here, on this land, on this soil, on this continent, the most incredible dreams come true.

“This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American Epic, the American adventure has only just begun.

“Our spirit is still young, the sun is still rising, God’s grace is still shining, and, my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come.”

Sounds like a guy with the sort of vision that we’d like to elect.

Right. . . ?

-30-

_____

Jason Palmer Wins American Samoa

Who? He is 51 years old, the first fact Jason Palmer wants voters to know from his campaign website. Palmer edged President Biden, who is 30 years his senior, 51 votes to 40 in the U.S. territory, the Associated Press reports. Each candidate won three delegates.

Further details on Palmer's site indicates he is an entrepreneur, "impact" investor and philanthropist who has "served in executive and leadership positions" at such organizations as Microsoft, Kaplan Education, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and New Markets Venture Partners.

____________________________________________

Porter or Garvey for Runoff?

MON-TUE 3/4-5/24

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has a “clear advantage” in California’s primary Super Tuesday to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in a runoff this November, Politico reports. Schiff scores 24% in the primary race, according to the Public Policy Institute of California’s latest poll of the top-two race March 5.

Fellow California Democratic Rep. Katie Porter is running second at 19%, but with a margin-of-error margin over Republican Steve Garvey, at 18%. Garvey was a first baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers and later the San Diego Padres, retiring in 1987.

Schiff would rather run against Garvey for the November 5 general election, though the assumption that California is “deep blue” is overblown, ignoring the inland districts like former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who served nine terms – er, eight-and-a-half – as congressman for the district that includes Bakersfield.

See the right column for a list of states’ primaries on Super Tuesday.

Comment on Super Tuesday, President Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday, March 7, or other recent political news and issues in the appropriate section this column or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____

A SOTU Tonight

By Todd Lassa (THU 3/7/24)

Policy and the political horse-race are inseparable in President Biden’s State of the Union address, where he must try to convince a sufficient number of voters the economy is good and his Republican rival does not want the “border crisis” solved, while proving he is not a “well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.” Pundits point to Biden’s ad-lib pushback on Republicans’ position on Social Security and Medicare cuts in last year’s address as an antidote to Special Counsel Robert K. Hur’s report on Biden’s document case in which he called the president “a well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory.”

But Biden is failing, so far, at his most important task, according to columnist Perry Bacon, Jr., in Thursday’s Washington Post; eliminating, or at least reducing the possibility there will be a second Trump term to threaten American democracy. With 38% approval rating, Biden is losing to an authoritarian ex-president who now has even the endorsement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

The lone important holdout is former Trump challenger Nikki Haley, who as of this writing has not endorsed the former president. On NPR’s Morning Edition Firehouse Strategies founding partner Alex Conant, who served as communications director for Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) 2016 presidential campaign told co-host A Martinez that this November’s election will likely come down to whether Haley supporters vote for president or sit out the election or vote down-ballot only.

“Thirty to 40% of the party is still limited-government conservatives,” Conant said. Is there anything Biden can say Thursday night to those Republican voters?

____________________________________________

Garvey vs. Schiff in Runoff, Porter is Out

WEDNESDAY 3/6/24

Republican candidate for the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) seat Steve Garvey handily took second place in California's Senate primary Tuesday. He will face Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff in the November 5 election. With 48% of the votes in, Schiff took 33.17% to Garvey's 32.45%, according to The New York Times. Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), who was running a very close third to Garvey in the polls garnered just 13.81%, and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) had just 7.36% of the vote.

The Democratic Party would have had to spend a lot of campaign money in a Schiff-Porter runoff. But Schiff instead spent a lot of money on "anti-Garvey" ads calling him "pro-Trump", during the primary race in conservative media outlets to help make sure Garvey placed second. Now Schiff can simply run those same ads in the big coastal cities plus Sacramento. Garvey, a former Los Angeles Dodger and San Diego Padre, won San Diego and Orange Counties as well as the less-populous Inland Empire Tuesday.

Meanwhile, in Minnesota: President Biden won the primary there, with "uncommitted," bolstered by protest over Israel's war on Gaza, edging out Rep. Dean Phillips, who "didn't carry his home state," for second, reports the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Bad news for Biden is that "uncommitted" took nearly 46,000 votes when the protest vote's goal was just 5,000 votes.

Meanwhile, in Texas: Sen. Ted Cruz handily won the Republican nomination for his re-election, but he will face Democrat Colin Allred, who beat state Sen. Roland Gutierrez 59% to 17%. This is "bad news" for Cruz, Newsweek reports, as Allred already is running even with him in some Texas polls. The Texas Tribune called Super Tuesday a "bad night for GOP incumbents," with Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, of San Antonio headed for a primary runoff with "gun rights advocate and social media influencer" Brandon Herrera and Republican state House Speaker Dade Phelan forced into a runoff against "hardline conservative" Republican challenger David Covey.

____________________________________________

Welcome to Super Tuesday

TUESDAY 3/5/24

January 6 Redux? – Yes, the Supreme Court’s ruling Monday to keep Donald J. Trump on Colorado’s ballot was unanimous. But conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined liberals Elana Kagen, Sonya Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson in criticizing the five other conservatives for going beyond the basic decision by determining the only way to enforce Section 3 of the 14^thAmendment is by a statute passed by Congress (per The Hill).

That majority ruling by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavenaugh “prompts worries of another January 6^th crisis,” screams a headline in Politico (insofar as Politico headlines can scream).

Enter Raskin: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD, above) responded to the SCOTUS ruling by announcing he would revive a 2022 bill he wrote with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) that would set up such a process. The legislation would establish a process by which the U.S. attorney general or a private citizen could petition the U.S. circuit court for the District of Columbia to remove a candidate like Donald J. Trump from the presidential ballot for participation in an insurrection, Raskin told NPR’s Steve Inskeep Tuesday on Morning Edition.

“Well, the supremacy clause of the Constitution says that the Constitution is binding on every other head of government, including the states,” Raskin told Inskeep. “To my mind, Colorado did the obvious thing. … The whole point of this provision in the Constitution was to keep people away from the oval office and other federal offices if they’ve proven themselves untrustworthy and willing to overthrow the governmental arrangements that gave them the office in the first place.”

Chances?: Not good. Raskin notes that 10 House Republicans voted for Trump’s second impeachment following January 6^th and seven GOP senators voted to convict. But that was three years ago. Best Raskin and House Democrats can hope for is to provide a distraction to a wafer-thin, disorganized Republican House majority and Trump splitting time between campaigning and court appearances.

--TL

____________________________________________

Weekend's Over

MONDAY 3/4/24

UPDATE: You Can, Colorado -- The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 Monday to restore Donald J. Trump to the Colorado ballot, NPR reports.

Can You Vote for Trump? – Not “will you,” but can you? The Supreme Court is expected to rule on at least one case seeking to keep former President Trump off the ballot as early as 10 a.m. Monday, the Associated Press reports. SCOTUS is expected to rule on at least one case, Colorado’s, which cites the insurrection clause of the 14^th Amendment for disallowing Trump because of an ongoing federal case charging him for taking part in the January 6^th attack on the United States Capitol.

SCOTUS’ decision will affect similar challenges in other states, as well. Last week a Cook County judge also cited Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment in ordering Trump off the Illinois ballot.

•••

On ‘Bloody Sunday’ – Vice President Kamala Harris called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Israel’s war on Gaza, in remarks from the Edmund Pettis Bridge on the 49^th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama (per NPR’s Morning Edition). Harris was scheduled to meet with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Ganz in Washington Monday, which is sure to irritate Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose hard line on a ceasefire with Hamas has endangered President Biden’s re-election bid.

Harris said: “What we are seeing every day in Gaza is devastating. We have seen reports of families eating leaves or animal feed, women giving birth to malnourished babies with little or no medical care, and children dying from malnutrition and dehydration. Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

Too little, too late?: Whether Harris’ meeting with Ganz after those remarks in Selma can do anything for Arab American support for Biden remains to be seen.

•••

(Nearly) Halfway to September 30 – House and Senate leaders released a $467.5 billion package for the “easy” appropriations bills Sunday afternoon with a “slim spending boost” and elimination of most Republican-backed riders, CQ Roll Call reports. The package raises spending by 0.3%, or $1.5 billion over fiscal year 2023, with small increases for Energy-Water and Transportation-HUD, while Agriculture is flat.

The House is expected to take up a vote Wednesday afternoon, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will need Democratic support to supplement Republican House members who are not MAGA.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Haley Wins Vermont, Ends Campaign

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wasn't going to do anything for Nikki Haley's campaign, anyway. Haley won Vermont on Super Tuesday, beating Donald J. Trump 50% to 46%, but lost in the Big Day's 14 other GOP primary states and will end, or "suspend" her campaign for the presidential nomination NPR has confirmed Wednesday morning. She will not endorse ex-President Trump ... yet.

The former South Carolina governor was scheduled to make "brief remarks" about 10 a.m. in Charleston, The Wall Street Journal reports, and will encourage Trump to "earn the support" of Republicans and independents who backed her. As of Wednesday Trump has 995 of 1,215 GOP delegates needed to win the nomination, 722 from Tuesday, according to The New York Times, to Haley's 89, of which 46 were earned Tuesday.

____________________________________________

Haley's Waterloo?

MON-TUE 3/4-5/24

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) endorsed former North Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for the GOP presidential nomination late last week, The Hill reports, as frontrunner Donald J. Trump tries to push on to the general election.

Collins told the Bangor Daily News she voted for Haley in Maine’s primary. “She has the energy, intellect, and temperament that we need to lead our country in these very tumultuous times,” the senator said.

On this week’s Super Tuesday 874 of 2,429 GOP delegates, or 36% will be up for grabs, according to The New York Times, and ex-President Trump could pretty much put his one-time UN ambassador away. The March 5 Super Tuesday primaries are in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia, as well as the territory of American Samoa.

_____

What’s Left

Some relief for Democrats came recently when retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he will not run for president as a third-party candidate. Manchin had flirted with the upstart No Labels party, which claims it will not run any spoilers. If Manchin had chosen to run as the No Labels party candidate, he almost certainly would have helped hand the November election to former President Trump.

Scroll down with the trackbar on the far right to read more.

Scroll down further to read in the left column the potential tactic by Arab Americans in Dearborn to vote “uncommitted” rather than for President Biden in Tuesday’s Michigan Democratic primary.

Further down the left column, contributing pundit Ken Zino weighs in on Nikki Haley's tilt at the windmill in the New Hampshire primary.

Comments on these and other recent news and political issues are welcome. Email us at editors@thehustings.news and please let us know whether your political leanings land you in the left or right column.

_____

…meanwhile…

McConnell to Step Down – "Three Johns" are lining up to replace Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who this week announced he will step down as Senate leader of the GOP (per NPR’s All Things Considered). Donald J. Trump prefers Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), so of course, Daines it is. While Democrats will forever be angry with McConnell for blocking President Obama’s SCOTUS pick in 2016, he also remains part of the shrinking anti-MAGA Republican bulwark on Capitol Hill. McConnell says he will finish the remainder of his Senate term, at least, to 2027.

FRIDAY 3/1/24

Right Column -- Headline in Friday's New York Times reads "Trump May Find Success With Strategy of Trial Delays." A pull-quote reads "The former president may face only one or two trials this year." Don't miss Stephen Macaulay's right-column commentary, "Book 'em."

•••

Next Week -- Super Tuesday is, well, Tuesday. President Biden's State of the Union address is Thursday.

•••

Navalny's Funeral -- Despite heavy state police presence thousands attended the funeral of Putin opposition leader Alexei Navalny Friday, two weeks after his unexplained death at a Russian prison in the Arctic Circle, the Associated Press reports. Funeral crowds chanted "You weren't afraid, neither are we," reports WAMU's The 1A.

Meanwhile, in the Kremlin ... Vladimir Putin, who obviously did not attend Navalny's funeral, warned of nuclear attacks on the West if it intervenes more directly in Russia's war on Ukraine, Thursday (per The New York Times). Speaking at his annual state-of-the-nation address, Putin said NATO countries helping Ukraine strike Russian territories or potentially planning to deploy their own troops "must, in the end, understand (that) all this truly threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and therefore the destruction of civilization."

•••

Meanwhile, on Our Own Southern Border -- Thursday was, of course, the Big Day of dueling presidential candidates on the southern border with Mexico. In one corner, incumbent President Biden said from Brownsville, Texas, the U.S. needs a "new, efficient and fair process for the government to consider asylum claims."

In the other corner, incumbent President Biden-denier Donald J. Trump -- who infamously scuttled the bipartisan border agreement recently via House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) -- said from Eagle Pass a "vicious violation of our country" is already underway. (Reporting by The Washington Post.)

•••

War Casualties -- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week conceded that 31,000 of his fellow Ukrainians have been killed by Russian troops since its invasion two years ago, a lower number than U.S. military estimates, according to The 1A. Since Hamas' bloody attack on Israel last October 7, the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) has killed more than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the health ministry there (multiple news sources).

Latest was that "scores" were killed when the IDF opened fire on a crowd of Palestinians near a convoy of food aid trucks Thursday (per NYT). The Gaza health ministry issued a statement that more than 100 were killed and more than 700 injured as they waited for food from the convoy. Israel says its forces were firing in defense, and that most casualties were the result of a stampede for supplies. Meanwhile, chances are growing dim for a ceasefire negotiated between Hamas and Israel and the Biden State Department before Ramadan.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____________________________________________

LEAP DAY 2024

Border Lines – President Biden visits the Tex-Mex border in Brownsville Thursday where he will try to turn the tables on the narrative he is responsible for a “crisis” there and point out that Donald J. Trump conspired with MAGA Congress members to block a bill that would have tackled said crisis while funding Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan defense and the whole damn federal government (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

Trump, meanwhile … goes to Eagle Pass where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is in a sort of “states’ rights” fight, having kicked out U.S. Border Patrol and replacing them with the Texas National Guard.

Expect plenty of quotables Thursday.

•••

Wasting Away Again in SCOTUSville – The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to rule on Donald J. Trump’s immunity claim from prosecution over criminal charges he conspired to overturn the 2020 presidential election, SCOTUSblog reports. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan had initially set March 4 as the trial date but tossed that idea when it became clear the SCOTUS ruling would push timing back toward the November 5 election, when Trump will have the chance to win back the White House and throw out the charges along with Special Counsel Jack Smith.

Meanwhile, in the Windy City: Citing the 14^th Amendment’s “insurrection ban” Cook County Judge Tracie Porter ordered Donald J. Trump removed from the Illinois ballot, but put her decision on-hold to Friday, as she is expecting an appeal by the former president’s attorneys, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Meanwhile, on CNN: Asked by Kaitlan Collins whether he would vote for Donald J. Trump over President Biden, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who leaves the Senate when his term ends next year said on The Source “No, no, no … absolutely not.” A Trump re-election would end the United States’ status as the Arsenal of Democracy and Reaganesque “shining city on a hill” Romney said, and while he prefers Trump’s domestic policy, especially at the southern border, the lame-duck senator believes Trump lacks the character necessary for the job.

•••

Two-Tiered Can Kicked – With at least 36 hours to go before partial government shutdown, congressional leaders reached an agreement Thursday to get the funding can down the road on the way to full federal funding. The deal extends Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Transportation-HUD one week to March 8, according to CQ Roll Call, when it would join Interior-Environment and Commerce-Justice-Science in a continuing resolution to March 22, at which point Congress will theoretically have time to finish a bill to fund the government for the current fiscal year. Which means it comes up again at the end of September for FY2025.

--TL

__________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 2/28/24

Michigan Primary Results -- President Biden garnered 81.3% of the Democratic primary vote in Michigan, to the Palestinian protest vote of 12.8% for "uncommitted," per CNN. But the raw number for that uncommitted vote was 75,768, far above the 10,000-vote margin Donald J. Trump scored there against Hilary Clinton in 2016, the goal for the Arab American protest. And in Dearborn, where nearly half the population is ethnically Arab, Biden's margin of victory was only 56% to 41%, according to MSNBC's Steve Kornacki.

Meanwhile, Donald J. Trump trounced Nikki Haley in Michigan, 68% to 26.7% (CNN).

•••

TUESDAY 2/27/24

Ramadan Ceasefire? – Israel could reach a temporary ceasefire in Gaza during Ramadan next week if a hostage release deal is reached, President Biden announced Monday, according to The Washington Post. Biden said on NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers his advisors were still working out the details and could have an announcement by Monday.

However, Israel says it will continue fighting in Gaza after such a pause.

Meanwhile, the U.S. senior airman who self-immolated Monday at the Israeli embassy in Washington shouting “free Palestine,” has been identified as Aaron Bushnell, 25. According to the WaPo, Bushnell grew up on a religious compound and had an anarchist past.

•••

Michigan’s Primary is Tuesday – President Biden faces challenger “uncommitted” as the state’s large Arab American population is expected to express anger at the White House’s support for Israel’s occupation of Gaza. If at least 10,000 voters chose “uncommitted” it will equal the margin by which Donald J. Trump beat Hilary Clinton in Michigan in 2016 (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

Meanwhile, Trump faces not so much Nikki Haley, but rather a Michigan GOP structure split in two.

•••

It’s Back – Senators returned to Washington Monday to quickly begin working a spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown that could begin in some federal departments Saturday and extend through eight others a week later. President Biden was scheduled to hold a White House meeting with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Appropriators appear ready to pass Agriculture, Energy-Water, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development before the Friday midnight deadline, CQ Roll Call reports, and Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) says these four are “close to being completed,” though lawmakers are working on a stopgap funding resolution just in case.

The remaining spending bills due March 8 are said to be a “heavier lift” according to Roll Call’s report, and a continuing resolution kicking this can to March 22 is being considered. It would be Congress’ fourth CR for this year’s budget.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

__________________________________________

The Day After Super Tuesday

By Todd Lassa (MON 2/26/24)

The New York Times might have come up with a less-predictable headline than “Haley Is Dealt Stinging Loss in Home State,” at the top of its front page Sunday. The “stinging loss” had been predicted for weeks following her second-place finish to None of These Candidates February 6^th in Nevada, and her 43% to Donald J. Trump’s 55% in New Hampshire two weeks earlier.

To be fair to Haley, who knew as well as anyone she would lose the primary in her home state, the 59.8% of the South Carolina vote Trump took (for 47 delegates), to the former governor and UN ambassador’s 39.5% (four delegates) is a better result for her than the 64% to 33% result an average of state polls had predicted, as counted by 538 last Friday.

Then there’s Haley’s political history in the state. As several outlets including the NYT recalled, Nikki Haley won her first South Carolina gubernatorial election in 2010 as an alt-Republican Tea Party candidate in 2010.

The Tea Party gave Haley her political life. Now it has taken it away.

Haley would seem to have a better chance in a purple state – perhaps Michigan, which holds its primary Tuesday. In Michigan, pundits’ eyes will be diverted – somewhat – to the Democratic ticket where President Biden faces the highest concentration of Arab Americans in the country, many of them angry over his support of Israel’s war in Gaza.

Nikki Haley says she will stick it out at least until Super Tuesday, which comes a week after Michigan, on March 5.

Now along comes another NYT news report late Sunday saying that the Koch brothers’ political action group, Americans for Prosperity Action has suspended its support of Haley, after spending millions on her with hopes of driving a stake through the heart of MAGA politics. If you need to be truly startled by a specific stinging loss suffered by Haley, this would be the one.

Elsewhere Sunday, Politico Playbook ran its own Reader's Digest take on The Atlantic’s entire January/February issue warning of the ramifications of a Trump victory in November.

“A wide range of our Politico colleagues have a thorough examination of how Donald Trump’s return to the White House would blow the policy agenda from his first go-around out of the water,” including abortion bans in blue as well as red states, climate science denial, expanded trade fights against allies as well as rivals, expanded classroom culture wars, attempts to kill the electric vehicle movement (MAGA-friendly Elon Musk notwithstanding), neutering the federal election watchdog, deploying U.S. troops on Americans, loosening controls on crypto … oh, and abandoning NATO and maybe even bombing Mexico.

The last GOP candidate standing between a repeat of the Biden v. Trump showdown, Nikki Haley, is now abandoned by the Koch brothers PAC so they can try to beat the MAGA faction on Capitol Hill. How much good will that do when MAGA congressmembers, already a minority, are running the House?

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Book ‘em

By Stephen Macaulay

The Supreme Court consists of one chief justice and eight associate justices. According to the Supreme Court Historical Society, “For all judicial matters, the Clerk. … and his staff of 31 are the link between the Justices and the legal world.”

So that brings us to 41 people.

Then there are, according to that society, more than 500 people who “work regularly in the Supreme Court building.”

Even if there are custodial personnel counted, the number is still a non-trivial one.

Of late, the Supreme Court hears about 60 cases per term. And while the number submitted is in the thousands, according to the Court itself, “The vast majority of cases filed in the Supreme Court are disposed of summarily by unsigned orders.”

SCOTUS says that it receives 7,000 to 8,000 petitions annually.

Presumably, the Justices are not burning the midnight oil going through piles of paper each and every day, though their clerks undoubtedly are.

While not a perfect comparison by any means but simply a way of putting these piles into context:

“Penguin Random House is the international home to more than 300 … independent publishing imprints. Together, our imprints publish over 70,000 digital and 15,000 print titles annually.”

Know that odds of getting a manuscript published by any publisher is no better than 2%.

So if Penguin Random House publishes 85,000 manuscripts and if the take rate is 2%, then this means it is receiving 4,250,000 manuscripts per year.

Penguin Random House has 12,330 employees.

If each of them reads manuscripts (of course, they don’t), then that’s about 345 titles per year.

If each of the 500 people at the Supreme Court reads her or his share of the 8,000 petitions, then that’s 16.

To be fair to the Supreme Court, deciding whether to publish a cowboy-vampire-bodice-ripper is not as critical as deciding on a case that will have profound consequences on someone’s future.

Still, there seems to be a bit of a productivity problem here.

This is underscored by its decision about taking up the case of whether Donald Trump can be prosecuted in relation to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol or whether he has immunity.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia had done the homework on the case, and on February 6 rejected Trump’s claim.

Trump’s people came to the Supreme Court with their appeal on February 12 (the day of the deadline set by the D.C. Circuit).

Special Counsel Jack Smith was given until February 20 by the Supreme Court to respond. The response came on February 14 — two days after the Trump’s brief.

On February 28 the Supreme Court announced that it is taking up Trump’s appeal.

That’s two weeks from when Smith’s team got their work done.

The Supreme Court wrote in an unsigned order, “The case will be set for oral argument during the week of April 22, 2024.”

That is more than nine weeks from February 14, when they had the paperwork for both sides.

They couldn’t have adjusted the calendar a bit?

Odds are, if you suddenly have a toothache your dentist will get you in ASAP and if your water heater bursts the plumber isn’t going to tell you that (s)he’ll come week-after-next.

There are some people who think that there need to be more justices on the Supreme Court.

I’d argue that there needs to be more productivity from all of the people involved on the Supreme Court.

Consider: the Supreme Court hears arguments during two periods of the year: October through December and January through April.

And for the first session the oral arguments are heard during the first two weeks of the month and it is the last two weeks for the second session. In both cases it is on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

While they are unquestionably working on the remaining two days of the week, there is still a whole lot more downtime than that available to the employees of, to stick with the comparison, Penguin Random House, who are probably working 48 weeks per year.

Again, a fuzzy comparison, but still, there is clearly evidence that there is not a whole lot of efficiency in the performance of the Supreme Court.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

_____________________________________________

More Macaulay ...

What does the Truman-era Supreme Court decision in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer have to do with the decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in United States of America v. Donald J. Trump that ruled the former president does not have executive immunity in his indictment for allegedly inciting the January 6^th attack on the U.S. Capitol? Read pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s “History Lesso n” in this column. Scroll down using the trackbar on the far right to read his commentary.

Then scroll further down the page to read Macaulay’s right-column take on Trump’s decisive win in the New Hampshire primary.

_____

No No Labels for Manchin

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign certainly breathed a sigh of relief last Friday when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he will not make a third-party run for president this November. Manchin, who is retiring this year, was considered a potential candidate for the controversial No Labels party, which claims to offer a moderate balance between the Republican and Democratic parties, but most certainly will draw more votes from Biden than Donald J. Trump, if a name candidate can be found.

Earlier, former Republican Maryland governor and prominent never-Trumper Larry Hogan, also considered a potential No Labels presidential candidate, announced he will run instead for retiring Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-MD) seat this fall.

______
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

Too Big to Fill – Donald J. Trump (whose limited-edition gilded hi-tops, above, are sold out at $399) leads Nikki Haley 64% to 33% in South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary Saturday according to 538’s polling average for the state.

FRIDAY 2/23/24

Da, CPAC – Fearing he could be a flight risk, federal law enforcement re-arrested Alexander Smirnov in Nevada Thursday, two days after a federal judge released him from custody over charges he told the FBI lies about President Biden and his son, Hunter (per HuffPost) regarding bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov says he was handed those lies by Russian intelligence agents.

We are not paying enough attention to Smirnov and the collapse of the House Republican investigation into the Biden case, led by Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY), Jonathan V. Last argues in the never-Trumper conservative publication, The Bulwark. By which he means; American voters and mainstream media are not sufficiently concerned.

“Russia is trying to interfere in a presidential race (again) on behalf of Donald Trump (again),” Last writes. But hey, to be fair, there is a lot going on, and it seems unlikely core MAGA Republicans are getting much coverage of this from their preferred media outlets.

At CPAC in suburban Washington Thursday, before what is described by several outlets as having a sparse crowd so far, candidate for running mate Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) backed Donald J. Trump’s longstanding Russia policy.

“We’re the one that forced this war, because we kept forcing NATO on Ukraine and showing Russia, hey, we’re going to build military bases on your borders,” Tuberville told the crowd (per The Recount). “And Putin said, no, no, you’re not going to do that. I haven’t voted for any money to go to Ukraine because I know they can’t win.” Tuberville later added; “Donald Trump will stop [the war] when he first gets in … he knows there’s no winning for Ukraine. He can work a deal with Putin.”

History check: Ukraine wanted to join NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the 1990s.

--TL

__________________________________________

Haley’s Comet – Facing likely embarrassment in Saturday’s South Carolina, her home state, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is sticking it out, going so far as to break away from the Republican comfort of Fox News to appear on mainstream outlets like CNN and NPR.

“Just wait, just wait. March, April, May, June,” Haley told CNN Wednesday. The question has not been so much “why?” but “how can she stick it out?”, so let’s not forget that the former South Carolina governor and Trump administration UN ambassador has the hefty financial backing of the Koch brothers, who have become never-Trumpers.

On CNN’s King Charles Wednesday, basketball legend and co-host Charles Barkley told her, “I’m dying to vote for you,” but is put off by Haley’s statements about racism in America.

In a phone call from her campaign bus Thursday morning, she resisted telling NPR’s Steve Inskeep whether she would vote for Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee. (Which seems inevitable unless his myriad trials sink him before the Republican convention in Milwaukee.)

“I have a lot of concerns about Trump regaining the presidency,” Haley said on Morning Edition. “I have even more concerns about Biden being president. I mean, you look at both of these men and all they have done is given us chaos, all they have given us is division.”

Being a “traditional” Republican, Haley criticizes Biden for the most “socialist” policy of any president in U.S. history (uh, FDR?) but unlike Trump, she is in favor of continued support for Ukraine in its resistance against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Meanwhile: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) also appeared on Thursday’s Morning Edition, telling Michelle Martin why he’s not running for president as a third-party candidate: “I just didn’t want to be a spoiler.” Manchin said he will continue to speak out for the middle, however. “It’s difficult being in the middle.”

--TL

__________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 2/21/24

In From the Cold – Alexander Smirnov was charged last week by special counsel David Weiss with felony false statement and obstruction charges for providing allegedly false information about Joe and Hunter Biden in the Burisma case. On Tuesday, Smirnov admitted that the “intel” pumped up by Fox News since the latter part of the Trump administration was passed to him by “officials associated with Russian intelligence” (per Axios).

As yet another connection between ex-President Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Russia comes to light, Trump has finally expressed his feelings about the death of dissident Aleksei Navalny at an Arctic Circle prison.

When Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Trump at a town hall Tuesday how he would raise the $364 million (plus interest) in penalties in last Friday’s verdict in the New York fraud case against the Trump Organization, the ex-prez said; “It is a Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism” (per Rolling Stone).

•••

Saving Speaker Johnson – Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is leading a group of moderate Democrats as sponsor of a resolution that would require any Democrat or Republican party leadership to sanction any vote to vacate the speaker’s chair, Axios scoops. The resolution would free Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to move bipartisan bills to the floor without fear of Donald J. Trump’s reprisals. That might include desperately needed relief to Ukraine in its defense against Russia … except … Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) has said she would introduce a motion to vacate Johnson if he advances the Ukraine aid bill to the floor.

--TL

__________________________________________

TUESDAY 2/20/24

Trump’s Navalny Problem – The death of Aleksei Navalny, likely at the indirect hand of Vladimir Putin, has nothing on the indignities thrust upon the former president … according to the former president. Yes, Donald J. Trump weighed in on Navalny’s death on his own Truth Social media site Monday, though he did not mention his friend and mentor, Vladimir Putin. To quote (per The New York Times)…

“The sudden death of Alexie Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our country. … CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down on path to destruction.”

Meanwhile: Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, told MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki over the weekend, that Putin was playing his former boss when he named Biden the “more stable” candidate that Russia could work with after November. “If Trump is elected, there will be celebrations in the Kremlin, no doubt about it,” Bolton said.

•••

Can Thomas Refuse This Offer?: Tired of the U.S. Supreme Court’s lack of ethics and Justice Clarence Thomas’ eagerness to take advantage of that lack in the name of ultra-conservative politics, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has offered Thomas $1 million per year for the rest of his life if he steps down, now. Or, at least, in the next 30 days, which Oliver has given him to respond, according to The Washington Post. Oliver also is throwing in as a bonus a $2.4 million motor coach outfitted with a king-size bed, four televisions and a fireplace.

He can: Of course, there’s nothing above – not prohibited by ethics restrictions -- that Leonard Leo and the money behind the Federalist Society couldn’t put up to make sure Clarence Thomas remains on the SCOTUS bench and maintain the conservative super-majority.

•••

Expelled former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has sued the eponymous host of late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live for hiring Santos on Cameo to send several short messages, including a video congratulating a blind woman for passing a drivers’ test (The Washington Post). Kimmel’s segment, called ‘Will Santos Say This?’ appears to have violated Cameo’s guidelines stating users must not use false names … though Kimmel’s schtick certainly has made the site more popular than ever.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Civil Discourse for the Right and Left

Is this your first visit to The Hustings? The primary goal of this news/news aggregate outlet is to engage readers in civil dialogue with political animals who have varied and different points of view. No echo chambers or news silos, no shouting or name-calling.

Our Debate Pages over the years offer some good examples, including "Debating the 1/6 Committee" posted May 18, 2022, with Ken Zino's comments in the left (liberal) column and comments by RJ Caster and Stephen Macaulay in the right (conservative) column. Caster and Macaulay both are conservatives, but they have differing opinions on whether the hearings should have been held.

That’s the kind of political discussion we seek to foster here. Help us keep this going by submitting your own comments on the news items on this page, or any recent political news item. Use the Comments section in the left or right columns, or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line so that we may post your comments in the correct column.

_____