FRI 4/1/22

No April Fools … Personally, we never made plans for an April Fools story today. But we were struck by public radio’s Marketplace noting it would forego its annual tradition this year in light of current global events and the prevalence of conspiracy theories and other outrageous made-up news that far too many people are consuming from social media and various corners of the Internet. 

According to The History Channel’s This Day in History English pranksters first popularized April Fools in 1700. After 322 years, is it time for a burial?

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Red Cross to Mariupol, Ukrainian ‘copters to Russia … The International Committee of the Red Cross is attempting to open a “safe passage operation” in Mariupol, Ukraine, The Washington Post reports, a day after the Kremlin declared a humanitarian cease-fire in the southeastern city most heavily hit in the war. It was not clear whether the ICRC would be able to enter the city, where about 150,000 Ukrainian civilians remain trapped, according to the BBC. 

Meanwhile: Two Ukrainian helicopters bombed an oil depot across the border in Belgorod, according to Russian officials. Ukraine has not confirmed the report. While the Kremlin says the attack is “not conducive to peace talks” planned to continue online Friday, the attack stands out for Ukraine’s ability to invade Russian airspace, with ‘copters, no less.

Known Unknowns: Russia puts the number of its own military personnel killed in its war against Ukraine at approximately 1,300, Dmitry Polyansky, deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC Friday. Ukraine officials say it’s more like 17,000 and NATO says the number is even higher. Earlier this week Polyansky claimed there is no “war” in Ukraine, so let’s say those additional 15,700+ Russian soldiers were killed in the “special military operation.” 

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Gas Prices to Fall? … That’s a pun. President Biden announced the largest-ever release of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Thursday of up to 1 million barrels per day for up to six weeks, saying, per The Hill, “Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.”

Of course, all that oil needs to get transferred to refineries before it gets to your gas tank. It won’t happen in time for family vacation season, when a higher cost “summer blend” has hiked prices at the pump for decades. Biden calls the SPR release “a wartime bridge into the fall.” Not bad timing for Democratic mid-term candidates, at least, though 1 million barrels per day is not really much, so the effect will be mostly symbolic.

Known Knowns: Renewable energy has been on the cusp of reducing our reliance on oil from Russia, Venezuela and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since the Ford administration, and if the hype over automakers’ emerging shift to electric vehicles (though requiring rare metals for batteries from some of these, and other troublesome countries) becomes reality in this decade, perhaps we can phase out the SPR. Biggest impediment? Big Oil itself.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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THU 3/31/22

In Ukraine … As Russia allegedly pulls back from attacks on Kyiv and Cheherniv, Ukraine is bracing itself for a fresh assault on the breakaway Dunbar region to the east, despite further peace talks scheduled for Friday via video-link, Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelniskyy warns (per The Guardian). 

Meanwhile, up to 45 buses were reported headed to extra-hard hit Mariupol to evacuate citizens. 

Unknown Unknowns: The Pentagon says Vladimir Putin’s military advisors are telling him that Russia is having much more military success in Ukraine than it is, heavily downplaying Ukrainian resistance, The Washington Post reports. Assessment is Putin’s advisors may be afraid to deliver bad news to their dictator. This is not as reassuring as it may sound; U.S. military experts fear the deliberate propaganda aimed at Putin could undermine negotiations underway between Ukraine and Russia.

The Trump Factor: It always looms, doesn’t it? Earlier this week Donald J. Trump raised questions based on unsubstantiated claims about Hunter Biden’s former business dealings in Russia on a program called the Just the News TV and said “I think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release (evidence).” This is as Russian troops are shelling hospitals and schools and trying to close off humanitarian cooridors.

White House spokesperson Kate Bedingfield responded Wednesday; “What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin? ... There is only one, and it is Donald Trump.”

Wonder what the purveyor of The Big Lie might tell Putin how the war in Ukraine is progressing?

•••

Meanwhile, at Justice … As some anxious Democrats and never-Trump Republicans worry about deliberate progress in its investigation, the Justice Department has expanded its probe into the January 6 Capitol insurrection to examine preparation and financing for Donald J. Trump’s rally preceding the attack, The Washington Post reports. Good news perhaps, for DOJ, is this appears to fall largely in the time before seven hours, 37 minutes of communication with ex-President Trump went missing.

•••

Meanwhile, where the truth is what one wants to make it. . . That Madison Cawthorn (R) succeeded Mark Meadows in the North Carolina 11^th congressional district in 2020 is perhaps not entirely surprising. (Slightly more surprising is that for the purpose of voting in that district, Meadows’ address in the 11^th is attached to a mobile home.)

Cawthorn, 26, had attended Patrick Henry College in fall 2016 . . . but dropped out because his grades were, apparently, below average. Cawthorn had been injured in a vehicle accident in 2014 when he was a passenger in an SUV on its way back from spring break in Florida. He was partially paralyzed by the accident. And it seemed to have had an effect on his college undertaking as, according to Wikipedia, he said in a deposition, "You know, suffering from a brain injury after the accident definitely I think it slowed my brain down a little bit. Made me less intelligent. And the pain also made reading and studying very difficult."

Of course he was elected to Congress.

Cawthorn said in an interview in the Warrior Poet Society podcast that he was invited to orgies and drug use among his fellow Republicans in Washington.

That, it seems, is the proverbial bridge too far for those for whom truth is fairly flexible, as House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took him to task.

Axios reports that McCarthy said in an interview:

• "It's just frustrating. There's no evidence behind his statements. And when I sit down with him ... I told him you can't make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole."
• "In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away.”
• "I just told him he's lost my trust, he's gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And, you can't just say, 'You can't do this again.' I mean, he's, he's got a lot of members very upset."

In an environment that has been characteristic of the Republican Party since at least 2016, when blatant lies can be told only to be walked back, it isn’t entirely surprising that Cawthorn made things up.

What if he had said the same things about being aware of Democrats doing those things? Would it even have been questioned by McCarthy, or simply amplified?

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

WED 3/30/22

GOP Support for Brown Jackson – Susan Collins of Maine has told The New York Times she will vote to confirm federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. This makes Collins the first, and potentially only Republican senator to support Brown Jackson to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer at the end of the current term, and virtually assures President Biden's choice will take the seat. 

Meanwhile: But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) still has his 2024 presidential run sound bites from grilling Brown Jackson over her sentencing record on child pornography cases and on her alleged position on Critical Race Theory taught in grade schools – we’ll repeat it again; CRT is not taught below college level.

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Dismal Numbers – 1.) Russian troops have forcibly deported more than 20,000 Ukrainians to Russia in Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation,” Mariupol city council members say (per NPR) and, 2.) More than 4 million Ukrainians, about one-tenth its prewar population, have fled their country as refugees (also NPR). 

The 4-million-plus consists mostly of women and children, as most Ukrainian men are now part of the country’s military, pushing back Russian troops. Britain’s Defense Ministry says “heavy losses” are forcing Russian forces back into Russia and Belarus. 

Meanwhile: Ukraine officials doubt Russia’s promises made in cease fire talks held in Turkey earlier this week that it will “drastically reduce” attacks on Kyiv and Chernihiv, The Washington Post reports. Both cities were struck overnight Tuesday, and the belief is now that Russia made the promise in order to buy time to rotate its troops.

•••

Two Years Late? – The White House has just launched covid.gov, “a new one-stop shop website for vaccination tests, treatments, masks, and the latest COVID-19 information.” It took us two attempts to successfully find it – in the first, we were directed to covid.gov.pk, a Pakistan government site that beat the U.S. site to the Web.

Meanwhile: The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that people age 50 and older are now eligible for a second booster shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, beginning today, The Washington Post reports. 

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Meanwhile, in the world of every-day Americans -- In January 2021 the Gallup Live Evaluation Index hit 59.2%, a 14-year high measuring those people who consider themselves to be “thriving” as compared with “struggling” or “suffering.” Another way of looking at it is as a measure of stress: those who are striving feel less of it.

The other shoe drops: The latest Index has the number at 53.25, which is the lowest since it hit the high. Seems like inflation is causing a deflation in the level of thriving.

The Gallup pollsters looked at the breakdown of responses along political lines. Back in October 2020, not surprisingly, the percent of Republicans thriving was 69.9%. The number has decreased, going to 64.7% in June 2021, 58.1% in December 2021, but then up a bit to 60.25% in February 2022.

The Dems back in October 2020 were at 42.4% (perhaps not feeling so positive about Biden’s chances), then by June 2021 the number was up to 58.1%. However, there has been a decline since then, to 55.3% in December 2021 and 53.3% in February 2022.

How did this happen? Seems somewhat surprising that the Republicans are thriving more than the Democrats.

Slight solace. Gallup shows that since 2008 the measure hit the low mark of 46.8% twice: In November 2008, when the Dow was at its low point during the financial crisis, and in April 2020, when U.S. unemployment claims hit 30 million. 

So the latest figure is 6.45 points higher than those lows.

•••

Correction: 4-1/2 Minutes Short – We shorted the blank portion of President Nixon’s White House phone tapes turned over in connection with Watergate, in our item about President Trump’s missing January 6, 2021, communications Tuesday. In the case of Richard Nixon and Watergate, 18 and ½ minutes were missing, four-and-a-half minutes longer than we credited to Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, but still more than 439 minutes short of the length of missing communications from and to Donald J. Trump during the middle of the Big Lie-triggered insurrection on the Capitol. We regret the mistake.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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TUE 3/29/22

Biden Won’t Back Down – President Biden says he is not taking back his comments in Warsaw last weekend that “for God’s sake, this man,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, “cannot remain in power.” … 

“I’m not walking anything back,” Biden said as he released his Fiscal Year 2023 federal budget Monday.  “But I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change.” (Per The Guardian.)

Democratic political consultant and strategist to the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign, Paul Begala, likened Biden’s “for God’s sake” ad-lib, on NPR’s Morning Edition, to President Ronald Reagan calling the Soviet Union “the evil empire.”

Meanwhile: Negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow continue to meet in Istanbul to try and reach a ceasefire. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered “neutral status”, meaning he will not seek NATO membership, if Putin removes his troops from the country.

Breaking Tuesday: As Ukraine outlined its peace proposals in Turkey, Russia said it will “drastically reduce” its “activity” in areas around Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and Chernihiv, “to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations,” said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin (per The Washington Post).

•••

About Biden’s Budget – White House budget requests, at best, serve as starting points for what the president’s party in Congress want for the coming fiscal year. For the record, Biden’s $5.8-trillion request includes more money for affordable housing and local police funding while – here’s the controversial part – proposing a minimum 20% income tax on billionaires. Although Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is on record as opposing such taxes on the rich, The Hill says at the very least Biden will use this as a political cudgel for the 2022 midterms and possibly the 2024 presidential election.

Republicans will have a hard time campaigning against taxing billionaires, The Hill posits, citing a ProPublica story last June that several of the richest people in the U.S. pay little or no taxes, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Fox News’/Succession inspiration Rupert Murdoch. 

The White House claims the president’s budget request would cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and no one earning less than $400,000 per year will pay a penny more in taxes. Biden also requests $773 billion for the Department of Defense for FY23.

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‘Yuge’ Next to Watergate’s 14-Minute ‘Gap’ – President Trump’s White House records handed over to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection are missing seven-hours, 37-minutes of communications, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa report the House panel is “investigating whether it has the full record” as turned over by the National Archives earlier this year, or whether Trump communicated from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. that day using his aides’ phones and/or personal “burner” phones, people familiar with the probe told Woodcosta.

Our Reference: “Fourteen-minute gap” refers to a blank spot in the Watergate tapes recorded by Richard M. Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods. Those tapes nevertheless contributed to the president’s eventual resignation ahead of a probable bi-partisan impeachment.

Attempted Coup News You Can Use: U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Monday said Donald J. Trump “more likely than not” committed federal crimes in trying to obstruct the congressional count of electoral votes January 6, 2021 (WaPo), which is seen as putting more pressure on the Justice Department to investigate the 45^th president. 

Meanwhile: The House January 6 panel referred to the DOJ contempt charges against former Trump aides Peter Navarro (trade policy) and Dan Scavino (communications) for refusing to testify over their alleged plan to overturn the November 2020 election. Former White House advisor, and current Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is scheduled Thursday to testify before the 1/6 committee, which may now call on Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, over her texts exchanged between the election and the insurgency with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

--Compiled by Todd Lassa

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

FRI 3/25/22

Growing GOP Opposition to Brown Jackson – Support among the few Republican senators who might cross the aisle and vote for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson is shrinking, The Hill reports. President Biden’s nominee to replace Justice Stephen Breyer needs only the Senate’s 50 Democrats, but as Politico reported yesterday, Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema, of Arizona, are among nine perceived swing-votes.

This Just In: Friday morning, Manchin has announced he will vote to confirm Brown Jackson to SCOTUS, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Timing: With Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) having constantly grilled Brown Jackson over her child pornography case sentencing – a line of attack some pundits are connecting to QAnon conspiracy theories that conflate child sexual abuse with liberal Democrats -- and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) complaining that the nominee is not J. Michelle Childs, a federal judge in his home state, Republicans may be looking at a way to at least stretch out the vote on Brown Jackson beyond the three-week goal set by the White House. 

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Meanwhile, in the Thomas Household – Virginia Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, exchanged text messages with former President Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, to “pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 elections,” according to The Washington Post and CBS News. The two news organizations obtained 29 text messages exchanged between “Ginni” Thomas and Meadows beginning November 10, 2020 – a week after the election and three days after Joe Biden was declared the winner – from among 2,320 texts obtained by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. 

Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger III, confirmed the texts’ existence, but said “nothing about the texts messages presents any legal issue.”

Such As?: Meadows texted Thomas on November 24; “This is a fight of good versus evil. Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs.”

Note: Conservative religious evangelicals, including many who adhere to QAnon conspiracy theories, comprise Donald J. Trump’s most loyal base.

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Meanwhile, in English 101 -- Let’s put aside the fact that Virginia “Ginni” Thomas is married to Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. Ms. Thomas is an attorney in her own right. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from Creighton University, a private Jesuit college in Omaha. The Jesuits, among other things, are known to be a highly intellectual order in the Catholic Church.

Which brings us to wonder how the faculty at Creighton feel about the grammatical performance that has been made public by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in reporting related to Ms. Thomas’ series of text exchanges with Meadows[CD1]  in her efforts to have the 2020 presidential election overturned on behalf of Donald Trump (which could lead to a bit of wondering about how Jesuits [CD2]  feel about the moral leadership of that man, but that’s a question for another time).

Excerpts of the texts include:

• “I hope this is true; never heard anything like this before, or even a hint of it. Possible???”
• “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!! The Left tastes their power!!!”
• “Those who attacked the Capitol are not representative of our great teams of patriots for DJT!!”
• “Tearing up and praying for you guys!!!!”

While Ms. Thomas says that she and her husband never discuss their work, one of the things that they evidently don’t talk about is the use of punctuation marks. 

This seems to be the stuff of a teenager with a crush on someone rather than communication between two adults about something of immense importance.

“Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down.” 

Perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Thomas spend their time talking about bad movie remakes.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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 THU 3/24/22

Brown Jackson’s Public Hearing Ends – Day Three of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearings dragged on into Wednesday evening with repeats of much of Day One’s opening statements and Day Two’s first round of Q&A. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) led a second day of interrogation of Brown Jackson’s sentencing record as a judge on child pornography cases, and her position on Critical Race Theory as a member of the parents’ board of Georgetown Day School, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) continued to complain about far-left dark money groups allegedly sinking his preferred nominee, J. Michelle Childs. 

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) countered by telling Brown Jackson, “You have earned this spot. You are worthy. You are a great American.”

But it’s Not Quite Over: Senators continued their interviews with the SCOTUS nominee, though in private, behind closed doors.

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Meanwhile, North of the 38^th Parallel -- “The United States strongly condemns the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its test of a long-range ballistic missile. On March 10^th, the United States Government publicly released information that the DPRK’s tests on February 26 and March 4, 2022 EST involved an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system. We noted that there would likely be further tests in the future. The President and his national security team are assessing the situation in close coordination with our allies and partners.  This launch is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions and needlessly raises tensions and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region. This action demonstrates that the DPRK continues to prioritize its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs over the well-being of its people.  We urge all countries to hold the DPRK accountable for such violations and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations.  The door has not closed on diplomacy, but Pyongyang must immediately cease its destabilizing actions. The United States will take all necessary measures to ensure the security of the American homeland and Republic of Korea and Japanese allies.” -- White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, 3/24/22

No, Russia isn’t the only country undertaking global destabilization.

•••

Ex-Prosecutor Say Ex-Prez “Committed Crimes” – Donald J. Trump is “guilty of numerous felony violations” and it was a “grave failure of justice” not to hold him criminally accountable, former prosecutor Mark F. Pomerantz said in his resignation letter, obtained by The New York Times. Pomerantz and fellow prosecutor Carey R. Dunne resigned last month after Manhattan’s new district attorney, Alvin Bragg, put the brakes on the effort to seek a criminal indictment against the former president in an investigation of falsified business records. 

“The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes – he did,” Pomerantz wrote.

Bragg took over the case after Cyrus Vance retired as Manhattan D.A. rather than run for re-election last November. In his letter Pomerantz expressed confidence that Vance’s investigation would have led to criminal charges against Trump and his organization. Bragg insists the grand jury investigation continues, though its term expires in April. 

Boilerplate: Stop us if you’ve heard this before, but Donald J. Trump has slammed the D.A.’s investigation as “political.” The Trump Organization responded to Pomerantz’s resignation letter by calling the former prosecutor “a never-Trumper” and adding, “never before have we seen this level of corruption in our legal system.”

But Wait, There’s More: New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case against the Trump Organization for similar allegations continues, and the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has indicated it has evidence of Trump’s complicity in the attempted coup. But the House panel would have to convince U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to issue charges against the former president. 

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Mo v. Trump -- ICYMI, former President Trump “removed” his endorsement of Rep. Mo Brooks’ (R-AL) re-election campaign this year, saying he had “hired a new campaign staff who ‘brilliantly’ convinced him to ‘stop talking about the 2020 election’” … perhaps because this is 2022. “Election fraud must be captured and stopped or we won’t have a country anymore.”

Brooks shot back yesterday with an accusation that Trump asked him to remove President Biden from the White House following the 2020 elections, despite the congressman’s protests, according to The Hill. 

Brooks’ Statement: “President Trump has asked me to rescind the 2020 elections, immediately remove Joe Biden from the White House, and hold a new special election for the presidency. As a lawyer, I’ve repeatedly advised President Trump that January 6 was the final election contest verdict and neither the U.S. Constitution nor the U.S. Code permit what President Trump asked. Period.”

But Not the Last Word: We know from experience of the last two years that Brooks’ “period” on that statement will not stop Trump from perpetuating the Big Lie. In Ohio, seven Republicans are running for the primary to replace Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), with all top candidates claiming to be “Trumpiest,” according to NPR’s All Things Considered. But Rep. Brooks’ break from MAGA-ism indicates the former president’s grip on the GOP may finally be loosening.

•••

Meanwhile, in Job Approval Ratings -- According to Gallup, Donald Trump began his presidency with a 44% approval rating, peaked at 49% (May 1-13, 2020), then was at 34% in his last week in office. Makes one wonder about the power of “the Base,” but that’s a subject for another time.

The latest numbers for Joe Biden have him at 42%, which is a 1% bump over his number in February.

According to Gallup, there are two categories where there are numbers considered “statistically significant changes,” the 6% improvements in both his response to coronavirus (now at 53% approval) and his handling of the situation with Russia (now at 42%).

As for the first, that might be predicated on the sense that many Americans now have that COVID is “over.” Not true, of course, but it seems like it.

As for the second, that 42% leads to a question of what the surveyed would prefer —and most of them probably don’t have an answer for that.

Biden’s job approval ratings since he’s been in office started at 57%, his peak, and since September 2021 (43%) has been bumping along in the low 40%s. Better than Trump’s consistency in the mid- to high-30%s, but not exactly the stuff of a rousing rendition of “Hail to the Chief.”

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Former Secretary of State Albright has Died – Madeleine Albright, who “rose to power as a brilliant analyst of world affairs” according to The New York Times, before becoming the first female secretary of state for President Bill Clinton from 1993-97, died Wednesday of cancer. She was 84.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news