(The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in September, the Labor Department reported Thursday, maintaining an annual rate of 3.7%. Details below.)

FRIDAY 10/13/23

Scalise Takes Himself Out – Newt Gingrich, Paul Ryan, John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy were all stripped of their House speaker’s gavel by hardcore Republican forces. Now Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) has removed himself from the race to replace McCarthy, a day after he got just 113 votes (per NPR) in a private GOP House vote. 

The next speaker will have to get at least 217 House votes to grab the gavel.

“Our conference still has to come together and it’s not there,” Scalise said after a private Republican meeting in which he announced his withdrawl, per Punchbowl News. “There are still some people that have their own agendas. And I was very clear – we have to have everybody put their agendas on the side and focus on what this country needs. This country is counting on us to come back together. This House of Representatives needs a speaker and we need to open up the House again. But clearly, not everybody is there. And there’s still schisms that have to get resolved.”

Scalise told reporters he will stay on as majority leader. “I have a job I love,” he said. And apparently no one is trying to remove him from it.

But what about: Support for Israel following Hamas’ surprise invasion and attack. And the federal budget, which expired September 30 but was extended by continuing resolution, to November 17. None of this gets done without a House speaker. 

Who’s left?: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is still in the running, we think, and in case that doesn’t work out for the GOP, there’s always the wacky scenario about how McCarthy gathers a sufficient number of increasingly panicked Democrats to vote for him with whatever number of Republicans still count themselves as moderates.

--TL

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THURSDAY 10/12/23

New Charges for Menendez -- The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office issued additional charges to Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), his wife, Nadine and New Jersey businessman Wael Hawa Thursday. Prosecutors allege the three used Menendez's position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to benefit the government of Egypt, while failing to register as foreign agents (Politico).

•••

Inflation Rate is 3.7% -- The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in September, the Labor Department reported Thursday, for an annual inflation rate of 3.7%. That's still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, of course, so do not expect interest rate relief soon. The CPI index for shelter accounted for more than half the increase, while the energy index was up 1.5%, food was up 0.2% and food away from home was up, for the third-straight month, by 0.3%. Used cars and trucks, and apparel were down for the month to partially offset the increases.

____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 10/11/23

UPDATE -- House Republicans have nominated Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise over Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan. But Scalise now needs 218 votes on the House floor, or support from all but three Republicans or a combination of Republicans and Democrats.

Speaker Madness -- House Republicans scheduled 10 a.m. Wednesday to meet and choose the next speaker. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) is floating a proposal to raise the threshold to bring a candidate to the floor for a roll call vote, Punchbowl News reports. It would benefit Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is in favor and not Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who is not. Meanwhile, Kevin McCarthy appears to be on the sidelines with the hope that neither top candidate will gather enough Republican votes, leaving Democrats to decide the former speaker is their least-worst choice.

--TL

Israel and Ukraine

TUESDAY 10/10/23

Zelenskyy Equates Hamas Attacks with Russia – Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared solidarity with Israel Tuesday, equating Hamas’ attacks with Russia’s invasion of his own country, in posts on X-Twitter (per The Hill), saying “everyone who values life must stand in solidarity.”

“We in Ukraine have a special feeling about what has happened. Thousands of rockets in the Israeli sky… People killed just on the streets… Civilian cars shot through… Detainees being humiliated…Our position is crystal clear: anyone who causes terror and death anywhere on the planet must be held accountable. Today’s terrorist attack on Israel was well-planned, and the entire world knows which sponsors of terrorism could have endorsed and enabled its organization.”

Iran denies: Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei denied his country’s involvement in the Hamas attacks, according to NPR. Khamenei added, “We kiss the hands of those who planned the attack on the Zionist regime.”

Casualties: The Israeli military said it found “hundreds and hundreds” of bodies of Hamas militants who died fighting inside the country, as an indication of the size of the attack, NPR reports. There are no longer infiltrators coming over the Gaza border. More than 900 Israelis have been killed by Hamas attacks and rocket fire, Israel says. Palestinian officials say at least 680 people were killed in Gaza and by Israeli strikes. 

--TL

____________________________________________

War and Terrorism

MONDAY 10/9/23

Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu immediately declared war after the Iranian-backed militant group Hamas launched terrorist attacks against his country, Saturday. Over the weekend, Hamas had pounded Israel with more than 4,000 missiles, according to CNN. By Monday morning Eastern time, Hamas had killed more than 1,000 Israelis, BBC reports, including 260 youth at a dance festival. Hamas had taken “dozens” of hostages, kidnapping men, women and children from the southern portion of the country into Gaza (NPR). Israel has shut off electricity, fuel and food to Gaza. About 500 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict (BBC).

The U.S. Navy is sending a carrier strike group to the region, not as a symbolic move, but to show it’s “quite important” to keep Hamas from opening a second front, Jon Finer, White House deputy advisor to the White House told Morning Edition.

Senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s national security advisor, John Hannah, told The New York Times’ Peter Baker it seems “highly probable to me” that Saturday’s attack had origins in Iran and Hezbollah’s home base of Lebanon with the goal of “derailing the momentum toward peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a key Biden administration diplomatic initiative to reach a deal “akin” to the Abraham Accords. 

President Biden quickly expressed U.S. support for Israel, but that did not stop accusations from the right that the recent White House hostage deal with Iran had prompted the attacks. 

“Sadly, American taxpayer dollars helped fund these attacks, which many reports are saying came from the Biden administration,” Trump said in a formal statement. 

No American taxpayer dollars were paid to Iran in the hostage deal, Baker writes. “The Biden administration signed off on the release of $6 billion of Iranian oil revenue frozen in South Korea and decreed that it be kept in a bank in Qatar available only for humanitarian proposes,” Baker reports, adding that officials said last Saturday that none of the money has been spent.

This war comes 50 years after an attack by an Arab coalition launched the Yom Kippur War and led to the end of Prime Minister Golda Meir’s leadership. Now questions are being raised over why Israel’s elite intelligence force were caught off-guard by the attacks, and what effect it will have on the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been a hardliner on the issue of a Palestinian homeland. 

The war between Israel and Hamas also comes after circulation of a video from an Iranian subway station of another young woman apparently being attacked by authorities for wearing “improper” clothing, and days after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi. 

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

(House Republicans were to take a secret vote for speaker Tuesday, with a full chamber vote on Wednesday. Reps. Jim Jordan, Steve Scalise, and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, above, all are in the running.)

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said in an interview on Hugh Hewitt's syndicated radio show he is willing to resume his House speakership if enough Republicans who voted to boot him last week vote to reinstate him this week, The Washington Post reports. McCarthy repeated his interest in the job again, at a press conference largely centered on the Israel-Hamas war.

The whole damn process to choose a new speaker is expected to commence Tuesday. Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Steve Scalise (R-LA) are lead candidates.

•••

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “conservative” or “right” or “liberal” or “left” in the subject line.

_____

(Laphonza Butler became the newest member of the U.S. Senate when California Gov. Gavin Newsom named her to replace the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Scroll down for more.)

The Biden administration will expand by about 17 miles former President Trump’s wall on the Mexican border and begin to deport thousands of illegal Venezuelan immigrants, heretofore considered political and economic refugees, the White House announced Thursday (per The New York Times). Fueled by the likes of Fox News and other right-wing media outlets, President Biden has been under pressure to staunch an ever-growing surge of migrants at the border. 

Hard-line Republicans tied a border crackdown to funding for Ukraine’s war effort when the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the federal government to November 15. Passage of the CR ultimately led to Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) removal as speaker.

While Biden had denounced Trump’s border wall initiative during the 2020 presidential campaign, his administration announced it was waiving more than 20 federal laws and regulations to make way for construction of physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border in South Texas. 

The White House claims the administration’s hands are tied in the border wall issue, because Congress appropriated funds for its expansion in 2019. 

“The money was appropriated for the border wall. I tried to get them to reappropriate, to redirect that money,” Biden said in a press conference Thursday. “They didn’t. They wouldn’t.”Asked whether he thought such walls work to stem illegal immigration, Biden replied, “no.”

____________________________________________

Newsom Names Feinstein's Replacement

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has chosen EMILY’s List President Laphonza Butler (above) to fill the seat of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) just two days after Feinstein died, Politico reports. The governor had promised to appoint a Black woman to fill the seat, after he appointed Alex Padilla to complete the Senate term of Kamala Harris when she became vice president in 2021, but the pledge has become a conundrum for Newsom and the Democratic Party. 

The replacement was not supposed to run for re-election next November, but according to the Politico item, Butler is to take the seat with no pre-conditions. Vice President Harris was expected to swear Butler in on Wednesday.

Just one of the three Democratic candidates who announced she would run for the seat after Feinstein earlier this year said this would be her last term, Rep. Barbara Lee, is a Black woman. The other two Democratic candidates for the party’s nomination, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Katie Porter, are leading in a September poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, according to the poll’s co-sponsor, the Los Angeles Times. 

Schiff has 20% and Porter has 17%, to Lee’s 7%.

If Butler does indeed enter the ’24 race, Newsom’s choice will get him in even more hot water with the Democratic Party as he prepares a 2028 run for the White House.

On the Republican side, businessman James Bradley has 7% to attorney Eric Earley’s 5%. Retired Los Angeles Dodger and San Diego Padre Steve Garvey also is considering a run for the Senate.

•••

Should Laphonza Butler run for Senate in 2024? Email us at editors@thehustings.news.

_____

Surprising Employment Gains – The U.S. economy added 336,000 jobs in September, the Labor Department reports, which is about twice the level economic analysts had predicted. The unemployment level remained unchanged at 3.8%. Gains were reported in the usual places; leisure and hospitality, government, health care, professional, scientific and technical services, and social assistance.

-- Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Conservative and Conservativer – House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) (above), co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, are lead candidates to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker of the House, expected to come up for vote next Wednesday. 

Scalise is ostensibly slightly the more moderate of the two, a well-liked, good-humored lawmaker who was severely wounded at a congressional softball game a few years ago. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy for blood cancer. Though the number-two Republican under McCarthy, Scalise is not the former speaker’s choice.

A rift between the two goes back to 2018, when Scalise expressed interest in stepping over McCarthy to replace Paul Ryan (R-WI) as speaker before that year’s midterms turned the House over to the Democrats and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. Semafor scoops that McCarthy aides have been calling lawmakers on behalf of Jim Jordan, who in his role as chairman of the Judiciary Committee is in charge of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. 

“It’s unclear if McCarthy himself has sanctioned their work,” Semafor’s Kadia Goba reports, describing the former speaker’s aides as “consulting and providing guidance” to Jordan.

Meanwhile, many Republicans are pushing to remove the “motion to vacate” rule that did McCarthy in.

“That needs to go,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), one of more than 70 members of the Main Street Caucus. He calls it a “chokehold on this body,” (per Semafor). Lawler’s district voted for Joe Biden in 2020.

Ukraine v. Mexican border: Jordan says he opposes any additional financial aid to Ukraine in its defense against Russia, while the Pentagon says that aid will soon run out, NPR reports. President Biden soon will address the nation to present his case for the need for an additional $24 billion the White House says is crucial to Ukraine’s continuing offensive against Russian forces.

Just asking: Is Jordan’s opposition to continuing aid to Ukraine simply good old-fashioned conservatism, or does it have anything to do with former President Trump’s admiration for, and connections to, dictator Vladimir Putin?

It must be noted that a majority of House and Senate Republicans favor continued support for Ukraine. On this particular matter, Jordan's ascendance to speaker would further the chamber's minority rule.

Meanwhile, in Spain: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Spain Thursday for a summit of European leaders at Alhamnbra Palace to plead for continued support of Ukraine’s defense.

--TL

____________________________________________

Speaker Blown Out

TUESDAY 10/3/23

The New York Times called it a “far-right revolt.” The Washington Post referred to the removal of Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) Tuesday afternoon as a “vote led by hard-right Republicans,” and The Wall Street Journal called the Rep. Matt Gaetz-led (R-FL) group “party dissidents.” 

CQ Roll Call simply called them a “Republican bloc,” but along with Democrats who had no trust in McCarthy nor interest in saving him – as they might have – they made up the 216 votes necessary to make him the first House speaker, ever, to be removed from office, with 210 congress members voting “nay.” The Capitol Hill newsletter helpfully added that “(t)he only previous vote to oust a speaker using a ‘motion to vacate’ came in 1910, when Republican Speaker Joseph G. Cannon of Illinois easily survived.”

What now? That was a question shouted out by one of the House members after the roll call vote revealed McCarthy’s stunning six-vote loss, NPR’s All Things Considered reported. For now, Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) will preside over the election of a new speaker, and House Democrats have about 44 days to enjoy the GOP’s disarray, before the continuing resolution extending the fiscal 2023 budget expires, again. Perhaps it's time for McCarthy to pull a John Boehner?

--TL

____________________________________________

...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 10/2/23

Gaetz Goes After McCarthy – MAGA Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida introduced a resolution late Monday evening to strip Speaker Kevin McCarthy of his gavel. A vote to depose McCarthy is likely within 48 hours, according to The Washington Post. Gaetz has criticized McCarthy for working with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling earlier this year and for reaching a deal to avert a government shutdown late last Saturday. He says he and his House cohorts want less government spending and a return to the budget process. 

Asked who he would like to see replace McCarthy, Gaetz pointed to “our number two, Steve Scalise,” Republican from Louisiana. 

In an earlier presser before his motion to remove, however, Gaetz reminded the press that one does not have to be a member of Congress to serve as speaker of the House. Voila! Donald J. Trump returns to Capitol Hill.

Trump Towering Inferno … Except … a couple of hours earlier than that, ex-President Trump turned up at the first day of New York Attorney Gen. Letitia James’ civil trial accusing Trump, the Trump Organization and Eric and Don Jr. of a yearslong pattern of financial fraud.

Trump, who did not have to appear in court for this civil case turned it into a campaign stop, CNN notes, saying he showed up “because I wanted to watch the witch hunt myself.” He called Justice Arthur Engoron “deranged” and accused him of being a Democratic operative. Engoron last week found Trump, his organization and his sons liable in the case last week but commenced with the trial to establish damages.

AG James wants to see a $250 million fine and a five-year ban on Trump & org and sons from doing business in New York State. Licenses have already been revoked for such flagship properties as Trump Tower and Trump International Hotel.

--TL

____________________________________________

Shutdown Averted

Monday 10/2/23

Donald J. Trump and his MAGA-band minority of House Republicans were defeated hours before the fiscal year’s pressing deadline Saturday night when the Senate cleared a House bill keeping the lights on for another 46 days. The House bill did not have the $6 billion for Ukraine included in the Senate bill.

“Democrats and Republicans have come to an agreement the government will remain open,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced before the 88-9 vote. “We will have avoided a shutdown.” 

Prior to the vote, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said his caucus would avoid cloture to let the vote go through.

“We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted,” President Biden said in a statement Saturday night, CQ Roll Call reports. “I fully expect the Speaker will keep his commitment to the people of Ukraine and secure passage of the support needed to help Ukraine at this critical moment.” 

And the Republican minority’s provision for strict border control provisions also went missing, first in the House’s 335-91 vote for the bill that went to the Senate. 

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) said he “made very clear that I wouldn’t support any short-term funding bill that didn’t include serious border measurements to help put an end to the Biden Border crisis,” per The Hill. 

The other eight senators who voted against the bill Saturday were Republicans Marsha Blacburn (TN), Mike Braun (IN), Ted Cruz (TX), Bill Hagerty (TN), Mike Lee (UT), Roger Marshall (KS), Rand Paul (KY), Eric Scmitt (MO) and J.D. Vance (OH).

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Quelle Surprise – Former President Trump called Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a “star” on Truth Social, Semafor reports, and endorsed him to be the next speaker. This gives Jordan a distinct edge over Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), who was the number-two House GOP leader before Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was removed as speaker last Tuesday. 

Jordan, a key ally of the former president, told CNN that Trump remains the GOP’s leader, will be its presidential nominee next year, and expects he will become the 47^th president.

Meanwhile: Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee and at 39, youngest of the three, is a third, dark horse candidate for House speaker after Jordan and Scalise but has received very scant media attention. 

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The Anti-McCarthy Eight

Minority Rule -- The eight House Republicans who joined all the House Democrats to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker are ...

•Matt Gaetz, Florida

•Andy Biggs, Arizona

•Ken Buck, Colorado

•Tim Burchett, Tennessee

•Eli Crane, Arizona

•Bob Good, Virginia

•Nancy Mace, South Carolina

•Matt Rosendale, Montana

____________________________________________

MAGA-right Republicans in the House were – still are – ready to shut down the federal government at any cost because that’s what Donald J. Trump wants. Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) figured that out in time to pass a bipartisan bill extending the current fiscal year’s spending to mid-November despite threat of a motion to vacate if he dared work with Democrats. There was no way for McCarthy to pass a spending bill -- even a short-term one -- without this threat.

Those MAGA House Republicans are led by Rep. Max Gaetz (R-FL), who said McCarthy’s speakership is now on “tenuous ground” (per The New York Times). A motion to vacate means a single House member may challenge McCarthy’s position. It’s a threat that has been held over his head since it took 15 rounds for Republicans to elect him speaker earlier this year. 

After Saturday night’s vote, McCarthy said (per Punchbowl News); “If someone wants to bring a motion against me, bring it. There has to be an adult in the room.”

Before the Saturday vote, one pundit on MSNBC’s The 11^th Hour Friday said that Trump wants the government to shut down because he (mistakenly) thinks it will halt Justice Department cases against him for alleged involvement in the January 6^th Capitol insurrection and for classified documents found in his possession after leaving office. 

That’s too obvious. Forever the pro-chaos politician, Trump wants to shut down the federal government as an extension of his Big Lie, the January 6^th attack and his ongoing assault on American democracy.

•••

Agree? Disagree? Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news.

_____

WEDNESDAY 9/25/23

Trump Organization Committed Fraud -- New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that Donald J. Trump and his Trump Organization committed fraud by inflating his net worth in business transactions, and has ordered cancellation of Trump business certificates, making the burden of proof much easier for the state's attorney general in a $250 million civil lawsuit (The Washington Post). The ruling also imposes sanctions on attorneys representing Trump, two of his adult children, two other company executives and the business for repeating failed arguments the judge called "borderline frivolous."

•••

Is Trump Winning the Shutdown Showdown?

Republican hard-liners almost certainly will shut down the federal government after midnight Friday because Donald J. Trump called for it on his Truth Social media network last week. Can Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) coalesce a sufficient number of moderate Republicans and Democrats to pass a continuing resolution kicking the can down to December before he loses his gavel to a motion to vacate?

That mouthful seems unlikely, with all the inter-party in-fighting going on. New York magazine’s Intelligencer chalks this up to Trump’s taste for chaos – political and otherwise – and his identifying with those five or 10 hardliners who remain upset by McCarthy’s debt-limit deal with President Biden earlier this year. But really, the impetus for the coming shutdown is far greater than Trump’s taste for chaos or “empathy” with his loyal hardliners. 

To justify his call for a shutdown, Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press a week ago; “We have $35 trillion in debt. We have to save our country.”

Trump was rounding up from $32.99 trillion, $7 trillion of which was added during his administration (according to these numbers, reported by Newsweek the Biden administration has contributed about $6- to $6.1 trillion of that, so far). 

This is the latest chapter in Trump’s ongoing coup attempt. Biden will blame the shutdown and the short-term chaos it causes when certain checks do not get mailed. But the longer the government remains closed the deeper the economic chaos goes into the 2024 presidential campaign, and as we all know, the current president ultimately owns the state of the U.S. economy.

According to Intelligencer the “vast majority” of House Republicans want deep budget cuts, “draconian” immigration rules and to cut off assistance to Ukraine, all “decisively unacceptable” to most Democratic senators and some Republican senators. Most Republican senators and at least a significant number of Republicans in the House also support continuing aid to Ukraine.

“I think all of you know I’m not a fan of government shutdowns,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters last week (per USA Today). "I’ve seen a few of them over the years, they never have produced a policy change and they’ve always been a loser for Republicans, politically,” he told reporters.

But McConnell has never seen a government shutdown led by a four-times indicted former president. 

•••

Up on the Hill -- Monday is Yom Kippur. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in session Tuesday through Friday, but you can bet on them putting in long hours on Saturday.

--Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

(The Consumer Price Index for August rose to 3.7%, from July’s 3.2%, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. Prices rose 0.6% month-over-month, with higher gasoline prices accounting for more than half of that, while the shelter index rose for the 40^th consecutive month. Energy was up 5.6%, food at home was up 0.2% and food away from home was up 0.3%.)

FRIDAY 9/15/23

UAW Strikes Detroit Three – The United Auto Workers’ first “stand-up strike” hit Ford Motor Company’s Michigan Assembly Park final assembly plant for its Bronco and Ranger trucks, Stellantis’ Toledo Assembly complex (Jeep Wrangler) and General Motors’ Wentzville assembly plant in Missouri, which builds the Chevrolet Colorado and Express and the GMC Canyon and Savanna. About 13,000 of the UAW members struck the three plants at midnight into Friday morning. 

“Tonight, for the first time in our history we will strike all three of the Big Three at once,” UAW President Shawn Fain told his union’s 150,000 members in a Facebook Live broadcast at 10 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. The strategy is to “call on select facilities, locals or units to stand up and go on strike.”

The “stand-up” strike recalls the UAW’s “sit down” strike at GM’s Flint, Michigan plant in 1936-37. Under today’s stand-up strike workers not yet called on will continue working under an expired agreement, with no contract extensions. UAW officials will rotate through Detroit Three factories to “keep the companies guessing,” Fain said. “It will give our national negotiators maximum leverage and flexibility in bargaining. And if we need to go all out we will. Everything’s on the table.”

Earlier Thursday, Ford CEO Jim Farley told NPR from the floor of the National International Auto Show in Detroit that he still hoped his company could reach an agreement with the UAW.

“There’s still time to,” Farley said, “but it’s hard to negotiate when you don’t get much feedback.”

--TL

____________________________________________

THURSDAY 9/14/23

UAW is Headed for a ‘Stand-Up’ Strike – The United Auto Workers remains far apart from General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis (Chrysler, Jeep, etc.) in negotiations over a new four-year contract, as the current contract, covering about 150,000 workers, expires 11:59 p.m. Thursday. In a Facebook Live broadcast Wednesday, NPR reports, UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union would stage a “stand-up strike,” in which members would be instructed to strike suddenly at strategic, targeted auto plants, and additional locations would follow at moment’s notice until the Detroit Three agree to a new contract. 

Why stand-up striking will work: The UAW undoubtedly will hit plants building the most profitable luxury models and big trucks at GM, Ford and Stellantis. The automakers have made record profits by installing computer chips during the pandemic supply chain shortage into these models, which has resulted in the average price of a new vehicle reaching nearly $50,000. 

Issues: “We do not yet have offers on the table that reflect the sacrifice and contributions our members have made to these companies,” Fain says. The UAW is demanding a 40% pay raise. The Detroit Three has offered no more than 20%. Automakers and the UAW also remain apart on cost-of-living increases, profit sharing, pensions and retiree healthcare.

Quote: Ford has put forth four “increasingly generous offers,” CEO Jim Farley says. “The future of our industry is at stake. Let’s do everything we can to avoid a disastrous outcome.”

About that future: The Detroit Three, especially Ford, have indicated the massive, ongoing shift from internal combustion engine-power to electric vehicles will require far fewer UAW workers. The union, not surprisingly, is not as enthusiastic about the move to EVs.

Automakers’ interests: During the federal bailouts of GM and Chrysler in 2009-10 all three automakers gained significant concessions from the UAW, including a controversial “two-tier” wage scale paying new line workers considerably less than veteran workers. With last year’s record profits, GM CEO Mary Barra earned total compensation of nearly $29 million, Farley earned $21 million and Stellantis NV CEO Carlos Tavares made $24.8 million, according to Securities & Exchange Commission filings cited by NPR*.

[*An earlier version of this story listed lower compensation for Barra and Tavares, and a slightly higher amount for Farley.]

Political interests: Car guy and “most pro-union president ever” Joe Biden’s economy would take yet another hit with the strike just as many polls show him in a statistical tie with Donald J. Trump for next year’s election.

--Todd Lassa

____________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 9/13/23

‘Weakest’ Impeachment Inquiry Ever – That’s according to Time magazine, which interviewed two highly regarded impeachment experts about Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) announcement that two House committees have formally opened impeachment inquiries into allegations that President Biden was involved in his son, Hunter’s, business deals. 

McCarthy’s decision to go forward does not appear to be based on evidence gathered so far by the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, says Frank Bowman, professor emeritus from the University of Missouri’s law school and author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump. 

“Biden’s Republican pursuers have got exactly zero, zip, bupkis, on any matter that might be impeachable,” Bowman told Time.

The magazine also quotes constitutional scholar Phillip Bobbitt, professor at Columbia Law School, expert on the history of impeachment and co-author of the updated, 2018 edition of Charles Black’s Impeachment: A Handbook thusly: “This is very disturbing for people who study past impeachments, because impeachment is really a very extreme measure.”

Yet, inevitable: Impeachment is highly political, and the pro-MAGA House Freedom Caucus was going to find a way to investigate Biden over his son’s questionable business dealings, which have been red meat for Donald J. Trump’s followers since before the 45^th president pushed then-newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to help gather evidence. 

Even after McCarthy’s announcement, one of the MAGA Republicans, Florida’s Matt Gaetz said he will use his leverage over the speaker, including threatening votes to remove him from the post, “over and over again until it works.” (Per Newsweek.)

Minority rule is alive and well.

•••

Slow Train – North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un took his private train, weighed down by armored cars with bulletproof glass, to a summit with Vladimir Putin at a space facility in Russia’s far east, where he pledged his enduring support for Putin’s “sacred struggle” against Ukraine, The Washington Post reports. According to Washington intelligence on the meeting, Putin needs more North Korean weaponry to replenish its dwindling supply lost to its invasion of Ukraine.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 9/12/23

UPDATE -- Speaker McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters Tuesday he is directing House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The inquiry could center on whether Biden benefitted from his son, Hunter's, business dealings, among other issues, says The Washington Post.

"These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption and warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives. That is why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden," McCarthy said in a press conference. He did not take questions from reporters.

Impeachment Inquiry Advances – Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) holds a closed-door meeting with House Republicans Thursday that could launch an impeachment inquiry into whether President Biden was involved in his son Hunter’s business dealings, Punchbowl News reports. McCarthy’s caucus expect an update on the investigations led by House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY). 

According to the report, McCarthy plans to say Jordan and Comer have uncovered enough information to formalize the impeachment inquiry and obtain the Bidens’ bank records and other documents. [Last week, a CNN poll found that 61% of Americans believe Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s business dealings.]

Perfect storm: The House of Representatives returns from its six-week summer recess Tuesday with about two weeks to pass a federal budget. Meanwhile, the House Freedom Caucus continues to demand $100 billion in cuts from the 2024 fiscal year budget to which McCarthy and the White House have already agreed, with threat of removing the speaker of his hard-fought post if he fails to reverse himself from that deal, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. 

McCarthy also faces threat of removal if he eases off the impeachment inquiry. 

Upshot: A House vote to impeach Biden is not a slam-dunk, according to PN, which lists Republicans Ken Buck, of Colorado, and Don Bacon, of Nebraska among moderates who could put pro-impeachment Republicans into the minority.

If the White House could pick from one of these fights with the House Freedom Caucus, it might be the impeachment inquiry rather than the budget fight, as Freedom Caucus members have let it be known they are more than willing to shut down the government for a while and remove Speaker McCarthy over it.

Keeping in mind that Republicans narrowly hold a House majority while Democrats barely hold a Senate majority (though with a more comfortable margin thanks to the filibuster) the 45 members of the House Freedom Caucus would run into a Senate wall on both fights. 

Schumer: “Don’t let people way out on the extreme dictate what the House does.” – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Upshot II: Forty-five House Republicans have the power to shut down the government for at least a few days into October, and it’s likely they will draw out an impeachment inquiry into the Bidens into the election year. Speaker McCarthy is far more vulnerable than President Biden on both these issues.

•••

Google This – The Justice Department’s anti-trust case against Google begins Tuesday, to determine whether Google illegally used its search engine to dominate over competitors in search and advertising. A positive outcome against Google could affect the way we use the Internet, says NPR’s Morning Edition.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Day of Remembrances

MONDAY 9/11/23

President Biden commemorates the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and United Airlines Flight 93, from the military base Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage on his way back from the Group of 20 forum in New Delhi, India, and a stop in Hanoi, Vietnam. The stop in Hanoi recalls, of course, the long, protracted war that ended shortly after Biden began his Senate career. 

In Hanoi, Biden met with Prime Minister Minh Chinh, President Vo Van Thuong and 

chairman of Vietnam’s National Assembly, Vuong Dinh Hue. Biden and Hue spoke of the “importance of people-to-people ties and the vital role that our tireless, mutual work to address painful war legacy issues has played in building trust and understanding that now forms the base of our future partnership,” according to the White House’s readout. 

The president’s visit to Hanoi also served to forge deeper ties with Vietnam with the new Comprehensive Partnership to increase trade between the two nations. Vietnam is boosting semiconductor production, which would help the U.S. reduce supply chain dependency on China. Biden described the meeting as a historic moment “that is overcoming a bitter past,” NPR reports.

Biden also visited a memorial to one of his friends in the Senate, the late John McCain (R-AZ), who spent five years in the “Hanoi Hilton” as a prisoner of war during the U.S. conflict with Vietnam. 

Fifty years: September 11 also marks the CIA-aided coup of Chile’s elected leader, Marxist Salvador Allende, by Gen. Augusto Pinoche, brutal dictator who led the country for another 17 years.

Two years: Go to https://thehustings.news/reflect-on-9-11/ to read The Hustings’ commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. 

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news