Author: todd.lassa

Panic at the White House

By Todd Lassa

No matter how Vice President Kamala Harris tried to spin President Biden’s performance in his debate with Donald J. Trump Thursday evening, the incumbent’s performance was a disaster, serving to confirm multiple polls that say voters think he is too old to run for re-election. Ex-President Trump, 77, is too old, too, say many of these polls, but Biden, 81, was unable to effectively strike back at Trump’s multiple lies beyond repeating familiar arguments in a thin, raspy voice. 

Credit CNN’s debate rules, at least, for preventing the sort of mayhem that defined the first such clash between the two in late September 2020.

CNN anchor John King told a post-debate panel he has never had his phone light up as much before, from Democratic operatives reacting early in the debate – when Biden lost his train of thought several times. The president appeared to perk up later in the debate when Trump made incendiary comments about Biden’s family and on his record with the Veterans Administration and foreign policy before the whole thing devolved into an argument over who is the better golfer.

Pundits and news outlets had made much prior to Thursday about how the debate was by far the earliest between presidential candidates in modern times. Intentional or not, this early bird special debate gives both the Democratic and Republican parties the opportunity to “broker” their upcoming conventions if their respective candidate voluntarily steps down. 

You can bet that won’t happen at the Republican National Convention in “horrible” Milwaukee next month. But Biden has to Chicago in August to step down from his campaign if he’s serious about stopping what much of his party considers “dictator for a day” Trump’s anti-democratic tendencies. 

Democratic Party leadership knows that Biden’s vice president would not be the answer. Never mind that no MAGA Republican would ever vote for her under any circumstances; progressive Democrats, already angry over Biden’s policy toward Israel in Gaza would oppose her presidential candidacy for her law-and-order crackdowns as California attorney general and as San Francisco district attorney before that.

Most obvious step-in is 2028 presidential candidate and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He stood behind Biden after the debate, saying “I have no trepidation” about his continuing to run, NPR reports. 

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), a designated Biden surrogate, defended the president’s performance on Morning Edition, arguing that Trump “spent the entire debate lying and lying and lying.”

True that Trump repeated such Fox News talking points as that Capitol police invited in the January 6th rioters he will pardon if he wins November 5. And Dana Bash had to ask three times whether Trump would accept the election result “no matter what” before he gave the usual answer about assuring clean ballot counting.

As of Friday, Democratic Party leadership and certainly anti-MAGA Republicans like Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and former Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger realize it is very unlikely President Biden will be re-elected November 5.

Other voices … Friday’s headlines:

“Biden’s Struggles in Debate Alarm Democrats” – The New York Times.

“The debate Democrats feared” – Semafor.

“Democrats Discuss Replacing Biden on Presidential Ticket” – The Wall Street Journal.

“Democrats really have no way to spin this. We break down Biden’s disastrous debate” – Politico.

“DEFCON 1 moment: Biden’s debate performance sends Democrats into panic”, and “Ninety miserable minutes of Biden v. Trump” – The Guardian. 

“Joe Biden’s horrific debate performance cast his entire candidacy into doubt” and “The president had one job to do and he utterly failed at it” – The Economist.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Take Away the Keys

By Stephen Macaulay

‘Talking with an older person about their driving is often difficult. Most of us delay that talk until the person’s driving has become what we believe to be dangerous. At that point, conversations can be tense and awkward for everyone involved.” — National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

“Drivers aged 70+ have higher crash death rates per 1,000 crashes than middle-aged drivers (aged 35-54).” — Centers for Disease Control

Ask yourself this: Would you have gotten into a car being driven by Joe Biden last night?

Would you have entrusted your loved ones to him behind the wheel?

At some point you must tell mom or dad, grandma or grandpa that they just can’t be behind the wheel.

They may be sharp as a tack at Wordle or other mentally focused tasks. 

We accept that they probably aren’t going to be so good at pickleball.

But when it comes to being president of the United States, things are happening at such a pace, with such an intensity, that there isn’t that ability to concentrate to figure out a five-letter word. And because there is the plethora of incidents, one needs to be robust and healthy.

“Oh, but he had a cold.”

It is unnerving to hear people like Mika Brzezinski holding forth on MSNBC about what a very bad man Donald Trump is and what a very good man Joe Biden is and how Biden has proven that he performs in the clutch.

To stick with the automotive metaphor, I don’t think Joe Biden could operate a clutch -- though he likely learned to drive in a car with a manual transmission -- both in terms of leg strength to engage it and the acuity to know how to move the shifter through the gears.

To the extent that there are the mewling apologists (“Oh, he just had a bad night”) we can expect another Trump presidency.

Sorry: Biden is no longer “the comeback kid.” And time won’t change that.

Is it thought that he is going to get better with age?

Do you think that Mario Andretti is a better driver at 84 than he was at 24?

This is analogous to the situation of when Trump was president and media outlets refused to use the word lie when Trump was, as he did last night, repeatedly lying.

Now there is a ridiculous reticence to simply say, “Biden is too old.”

Yes, he is good man, a moral man, a man who has proven that he was able to get things done during his presidency, whether it was enacting landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act or helping defend democracy in Ukraine.

But like all of us, he does have his flaws, one of which may be the “I alone can fix it” mentality, though in his case it is “I alone can beat him.”

Without going all Sophoclean, we know the consequences of hubris. But in this case, the effect of hubris extends to all of us.

‘Talking with an older person about their driving is often difficult. Most of us delay that talk until the person’s driving has become what we believe to be dangerous.”

It’s dangerous, folks.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Debate Today

Are you watching Thursday evening’s Trump v. Biden presidential debate? It is on CNN for 90 minutes, beginning 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific.

We hope so. We hope you’ll use the debate as a chance to compare/contrast in these columns the arguments made and policies championed by former President Trump and President Biden. You can help us answer such questions as “who won?” and “what were the best and worst arguments?” Or, “How will Biden’s or Trump’s policies help or hurt my family?” Did it change your mind about either candidate?

If you typically make such comments on Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or X, you can make your voice heard here, without echo chambers or silos. The Hustings is designed to engage liberals and conservatives along their wide spectrums – from “moderate” to “staunch” or “progressive” in a civil, safe space. 

Click on the headline in the right or left column, as aligns with your political philosophy, and enter your comments in the COMMENTS section on the appropriate page.

Or, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean right or left (regardless of which presidential candidate you think has won the debate) in the subject line.

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It's Debate Week, Everyone

Beaches, European vacations and Justice Clarence Thomas’ motor coach awaits as the Supreme Court enters the last week of June with important cases still on the docket, not the least of which is United States of America v. Donald J. Trump. That’s the one in which the former president is charged by special counsel Jack Smith for attempting to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Will the Supreme Court rule this week on whether the former president has immunity as a former president? They will have to if they are to keep from returning in July, which hardly ever happens. 

That probably leaves Friday, as SCOTUS does not really want to put its finger on the scales prior to the Trump v. Biden debate on CNN Thursday. 

We invite you – no, we encourage you – to make your comments on Trump’s immunity claim and other breaking news this week. We really would like your comments, from the left or right, on the debate after the debate Thursday evening.

Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings (regardless of who you think wins the debate) in the subject line.

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SCOTUS-Orama

THURSDAY 6/27/24

NOT TODAY: Trump v. United States – The US Supreme Court’s last ruling of the day Thursday was for Mike Moyle, Speaker of the Idaho House of Representatives v. United States according to SCOTUSblog. So no decision ahead of Thursday night’s presidential debate on former President Trump’s claim of post-presidential immunity in regard to special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment for his alleged 2020 election interference. Bets on whether there’s a decision Friday, so SCOTUS can go on vacation before the Independence Day holiday?

Moyle v. United States – This is the ruling SCOTUS’ official website briefly posted a day early then quickly removed, but not before Bloomberg News could write about it. A 6-3 ruling temporarily blocks an Idaho law from prohibiting abortions necessary to protect a woman’s health, including her fertility, while allowing abortions to prevent a woman’s death. Obviously, the law places  the burden on doctors and hospitals to determine whether or not a pregnant woman faces death if there is no abortion. But the procedural ruling leaves key questions unanswered, so the issue is likely to come up before the court again soon. 

Harrington v. Purdue Pharma L.P.— By 5-4 vote SCOTUS threw out a controversial opioid settlement with Purdue Pharma over a “mountain” of litigation against the maker of OxyContin, Bloomberg News reports. The majority opinion, written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, says the deal would have improperly shielded the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma. Family members were to be made immune to lawsuits over OxyContin in exchange for at least $6 billion in payments to OxyContin families and their victims. But Gorsuch in his ruling notes Sackler family members themselves never filed for bankruptcy, according to NPR.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile... WEDNESDAY 6/26/24

This week?: The US Supreme Court may rule as early as this Friday, after the presidential debate, on Donald J. Trump's claim of ex-presidential immunity in his election interference case. Next year: SCOTUS has agreed to hear arguments regarding a Tennessee law banning transgender care for minors, which would test the constitutionality of similar restrictions already law in 23 other states.

Tuesday’s Primaries – Known best to non-New Yorkers as the second-term congressman who pulled a fire alarm while fellow lawmakers were on the House floor working on a spending bill, Rep. Jamaal Bowman lost the Democratic primary Tuesday to Westchester County Exec. George Latimer, The New York Times reports. The primary race for New York’s 16th District cost a record $25 million, more than $14 million of which the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, spent on Latimer.

Bowman had attached his star to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s The Squad and supports the pro-Palestinian side in the war on Gaza..

Meanwhile, Beetlejuice fan Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) is in for a likely third term after switching districts to Colorado’s 4th, where she beat four other Republican candidates. At her election night victory, according to the AP, Boebert wore gold lamé Donald J. Trump basketball shoes and a white, signed MAGA hat, and commented; “America will rise again, and I’m so excited that you all are here to be part of it with me.” 

Boebert’s in the right place … Colorado’s 4th opened when Republican Rep. Ken Buck resigned early over what he called the GOP’s divisiveness and devotion to Trump.

State Rep. Gabe Evans (R), a former police officer, defeated former state Rep. Janak Joshi for the chance to take on Colorado 8thDistrict incumbent Yadira Caraveo (D) who won by fewer than 2,000 votes in 2022. The district extends north of Denver.

--TL

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TUESDAY 6/25/24

Pardon Assange? -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will seek a pardon from the US presidency after reaching a deal to accept a charge under the US Espionage Act, according to his wife, Stella. Assange, 52, was released yesterday from a prison in the UK where he had been held for five years and was en route Wednesday to US territory in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, per The Guardian, on the way back to his native Australia.

"The fact that there is a guilty plea, under the Espionage Act in relation to obtaining and disclosing national defense information is obviously a very serious concern for journalists and national security journalists in general," Stella Assange told Reuters.

This was not Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon Papers: While WikiLeaks' document dump in the last decade revealed alleged war crimes on the part of the US government, Assange also has been condemned even in journalism circles for publishing them unredacted, making them open to Russia and potentially placing US agents in danger. The WikiLeaks dump resulted in history's largest release of classified US documents.

--TL

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MONDAY 6/24/24

SCOTUS to Review Transgender Law – The Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments next year a Tennessee law banning transgender care for minors under 18 years of age. The case will offer SCOTUS the opportunity to consider the constitutionality of similar restrictions already imposed by 23 states since 2021, according to The Washington Post.

Meanwhile… SCOTUS’ ruling on whether ex-President Trump has immunity as an ex-president in special council Jack Smith’s case charging him with attempts to overthrow the 2020 presidential election could be delayed to early July, The Hill reports, but possibly ahead of the Republican National Convention July 15-18 in Milwaukee, by time the nine justices should already be on vacation.

•••

After the Golden Escalator – Britain’s chief Brexiter and leader of the Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, told ITV that Donald J. Trump has “learned quite a lot from me” before running for president in 2016, per Politico.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What If His Surname Was “Biden”?

By Stephen Macaulay

The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ethics recently put out a statement about one of the House members, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R), who apparently is the representative of Florida’s First District, but who seems to be an inhabitant of Trump World, given his traveling hither and yon in support of his liege lord.

Gaetz, as you may recall, was thought to have been involved in some sketchy activities that had something to do with young women. (To put it nicely.)

Well, it turned out that in April 2021 the Ethics Committee opened a review into the allegations, but then, in response to a request from the Department of Justice, it stopped its investigation.

And what it was looking into is the stuff of the National Enquirer (to use an example familiar the Trump coterie, given the role it played in his felony convictions). 

To wit: “in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

It brings a Warren Zevon lyric to mind: “Send lawyers, guns and money/The shit has hit the fan.”

But it didn’t hit. 

In February 2023 the Department of Justice dropped its investigation.

More than a year later, the Ethics Committee is taking another look.

This time, it is reviewing whether Gaetz “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts, dispensed special privileges and favors to individuals with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct.”

It is not pursing “the allegations that he may have shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe or improper gratuity.”

While it might seem simple to determine, say, whether he pulled out his phone and pulled up some DIY porn on the House floor would be fairly simple — as in asking representatives — perhaps the Ethics folks feel a bit squeamish.

The Committee properly points out: “the mere fact of an investigation into these allegations does not itself indicate that any violation has occurred.”

True.

But let’s review:

  • Sexual misconduct
  • Illicit drug use
  • Accepting improper gifts
  • Providing “favors”
  • Misusing state ID records
  • Using campaign funds for personal reasons
  • Taking a bribe

That’s quite a list, so it wouldn’t be entirely surprising if some violation has occurred.

The House Judiciary Committee has shown itself to be nothing short of zealous as it goes after the Bidens, Fauci, Mayorkas, etc., despite flimsy or non-existent evidence of wrong-doing. Still, there’s two-time NCAA wrestling champion, the man who apparently has never seen a suit jacket that he likes, Jim Jordan, fulminating against what is often nothing other than fantasy.

The Ethics Committee states: “No other public comment will be made on this matter except in accordance with Committee rules.”

One can’t but think that this isn’t because of some decorum.

Maybe something has hit the fan.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

From the Left, for All

As Donald J. Trump’s trial in Manhattan for falsifying business records begins what could be its final full week, numerous polls show the former president leading incumbent Joe Biden in swing states, giving Trump the potential edge in the Electoral College count.  

Is President Biden at the same stage that Trump was just after Memorial Day eight years ago, when Trump trailed Hillary Rodham Clinton, but slowly crept up to what was a statistical tie by November 2016? What happens to Trump’s poll numbers if the Manhattan jury finds him guilty in the business records/hush money case?

What about the Trump tax cuts, skewed toward the rich, which Biden, if he wins a second term, surely will want to let expire next year? 

This column is for those of you who identify as liberal or progressive or anywhere to left-of-center on the political horseshoe to voice your opinions. But because it’s on the same page as the straight news/news aggregate/analysis in the center column, and commentary from conservatives in the right column, this column is for everybody. 

We welcome your comments on these above, or any other recent issues. Use the COMMENTS section this page or email editors@thehustings.news and if you are writing for this column, please indicate so with a note like “I lean left” in the subject line.

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GUILTY!

New York v. Trump -- Falsifying business records in the first degree. GUILTY on all 34 counts. Appeal no doubt forthcoming.

Sentencing: July 11 (per NPR).

***

THURSDAY 5/30/24

It’s Day Two of jury deliberations in the Trump falsified business records/hush money trial. On Wednesday, the jury, which consists of seven men and five women, asked to rehear portions of testimony by former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker and of former Trump fixer Michael Cohen (The New York Times).

Musk to Join Trump? – Presumed Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and Elon Musk are in talks for a potential role for Musk in a second Trump administration, The Wall Street Journal reports in an exclusive. A role for Musk hasn’t been “fully hammered out and might not happen,” according to people familiar with the talks, though the pair have discussed ways to give Musk “formal input and influence” on policies related to the economy and border security. 

Musk runs Space-X, X and Tesla, the latter of which triggered an electric car revolution. Notable, because Trump wants to roll back the Biden administration’s programs to boost EV sales in the U.S. with strict emissions standards after 2030 and by building a national recharging network that would rely on Tesla’s Supercharger technology.

•••

Alito Won’t Recuse – Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito says he will not recuse himself on two upcoming decisions regarding the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, after an upside-down American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag were photographed outside two of his homes. Democratic members of Congress called on Alito – who blames the freak-flags on his wife -- to recuse himself. A decision on ex-President Trump’s claim of immunity in the January 6th case is imminent. 

•••

The Polls – Donald J. Trump’s popularity is “soaring,” Newsweek reports, citing surveys by polling firm Civiqs, which say 41% polled Monday have a favorable view of the ex-president compared with 55% who have an unfavorable view. That -14 point gap is Trump’s best since December 29, 2021.

Meanwhile … The New York Times’ The Upshot says President Biden still holds support among white voters, and could determine who wins Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin which “probably offer his clearest path to victory.”

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/29/24

In the Jury’s Hands – Jurors in Manhattan will begin deliberations in the New York district attorney’s case against Donald J. Trump accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels. Judge Juan Merchan was to give the jury deliberation instructions early Wednesday. The answer is, yes, the jury could return a verdict within hours. Or within days. Perhaps weeks?

They are not to consider lead defense attorney Todd Blanche’s “suggestion” that the former president could go to jail if convicted, a statement in his closing arguments Tuesday that drew quick and harsh admonishment from Judge Juan Merchan (Axios), who called Blanche’s statement “highly inappropriate.” 

Was it an honest mistake by Blanche, inexperienced as a trial defense attorney but with plenty of experience as a prosecutor, or was it a calculated shot at saying something in court that a jury cannot unhear? 

Blanche began his closing arguments Tuesday by attacking prosecution witness Michael Cohen, whom he called a “G.L.O.A.T.”, or “greatest liar of all time.”

In his closing arguments, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass described, “meticulously,” The New York Times reported, what he said was Trump’s scheme to “muzzle” on the eve of the ’16 presidential election Stormy Daniels’ story of their sexual encounter the prosecutor said crossed legal lines when Trump reimbursed Cohen for paying the adult film star $130,000 in hush money.

•••

Trump Won’t ‘Ban’ Birth Control – Candidate Donald J. Trump’s Project 2025 based on The Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the coming election does not call for a ban on birth control in the wake of the ex-president’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade, according to analysis by Politico, but it would remove requirements that insurance covers male condoms and emergency contraception in favor of requiring coverage of natural family planning methods.

Coincidentally, in Trump’s business records falsification/hush money case, adult film star Stormy Daniels testified that Trump did not use a condom in their brief affair.

•••

It’s Not Antisemitism, It’s Netanyahu – In what might be described as a “well, we knew that/told ya so” moment for protesters inside Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be overusing claims of antisemitism to deflect from his own problems, stifle legitimate criticism and further his political agenda, according to the Associated Press. Those problems include a years-long corruption investigation, his efforts with the help of a far-right parliamentary coalition to suck power out of the country’s judiciary and the way his government was taken by surprise in the October 7 Hamas attack.

“Not every criticism against Israel is antisemitic,” Israel historian Tom Segev told the AP. “The moment you say it is antisemitic hate, you take away all legitimacy from the criticism and try to crush the debate.”

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/28/24

Covering Trump Tax Cuts – Capitol Hill Republicans are looking at how they can cover approximately $4 trillion of tax cuts from the Trump administration, which are up for expiration next year. Should they cover any or all of it? The Wall Street Journal reports many Republicans argue that extending the tax cuts would be essential for strong growth, while others in the GOP are looking to repeal electric vehicle tax credits (which have been around for a long time, but were boosted by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act) and other federal spending.

Keep in mind this is bound to come up in 2025 whether Donald J. Trump or President Biden wins the November 5 election. If Biden is re-elected, he will potentially face a Republican-majority Senate and/or House.

For Trump, a money-raiser… Meanwhile, Trump has tied requests for donations to his campaign to tax-cut pledges and other policy positions, The Washington Post reports, “and is testing the boundaries of federal campaign finance laws.” The ex- and future hopeful president told a group of wealthy donors at a New York luxury hotel recently that it would cost $25 million to have lunch with him, the report says, not the $1 million one businessman offered. 

Authoritarian response… Trump also told donors he will “crush” pro-Palestinian protests and deport student demonstrators if he wins the November 5 election (WaPo).

This campaign promise came after an Israeli strike Sunday on a Rafah tent camp killed at least 45 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a tragic accident.”

•••

Up on the Hill – Congress is on Memorial Day break all week. Both chambers return to Capitol Hill on Monday, June 3, with the House in session through Thursday, June 6 and the Senate in session through Friday, June 7.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

From the Right, for All

Just when you thought you could get a break from politics, there’s the closing arguments and potential jury decision this week in the Manhattan trial in which Donald J. Trump is accused of falsifying business records. 

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans who otherwise would be enjoying a week away from Capitol Hill during their weeklong Memorial Day weekend are mulling over how to cover the estimated $4 trillion cost of the Trump administration tax cuts, which they surely will want to extend when the cuts expire next year.

Trump has warned some of his richest donors they will face an historic tax increase if Biden is re-elected. 

What do you think? This is the column by conservative columnists, pundits and readers, whether pro-MAGA or never-Trump, or anything in-between (Nikki Haley?), but this column is for everyone, which is why we invite liberals and conservatives alike to post their comments on the same page.

Comment in this column or email editors@thehustings.news and if you are writing for this column, please indicate so with a note like “I lean right” in the subject line.

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What’s Left

For those of you reading this website on a smartphone, please be aware this is not the center column, which is full of facts and straight political news. It is the left column. Unfortunately, that's the way our page loads on small screens, at least until we can fund a bespoke smartphone app. (We envision the app to land on the center column, with a swap-right, swap-left feature to get you to the commentary.)

While you are here, why not read contributing pundit Ken Zino's column on the economy and what our two latest presidents have done for -- or to -- it, "Trump Tanked the Economy and Biden is Fixing It." Then go over to the right column to read pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay's take on the same subject, "Would You Have Him Run Your Business?"

Zino's column first appeared in thehustings.substack.com, where you can subscribe for free.

Let us know what you think of Bidenomics v. Donald J. Trump's economic policy. Become a Citizen Pundit by emailing your comments to editors@thehustings.news and indicate in the subject line if you consider yourself leaning "left" (whether or not you like Bidenomics) or leaning "right" (whether or not you agree with Macaulay's comments on Biden v. Trump).

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…meanwhile…

Defense rested without testimony from accused business document falsifier Donald J. Trump in his "hush-money" trial Tuesday. Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled closing arguments for next Tuesday. Meanwhile, President Biden has reacted with a campaign video on X (above) to the 30-second Truth Social video posted Monday afternoon touting a second-term Trump administration that contained two visual text references to "unified Reich" along with hypothetical headlines crediting Trump with deporting millions and creating economic boom.

FRIDAY 5/24/24

South Carolina Voting Map is a Go – The U.S. Supreme Court threw out, 6-3, a federal district court ruling holding that a congressional district on the South Carolina coast was an unconstitutional gerrymander that sorted voters primarily by race, per SCOTUSblog. SCOTUS’ decision clears the way for South Carolina’s Republican statehouse majority to use the map the federal district court had blocked. 

The ruling, along conservative-liberal lines, “sets a high bar for plaintiffs to meet in future gerrymander cases,” SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe writes.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the decision for the majority.

•••

No Abortion Pills in Louisiana – Gov. Jeff Landry (R) is expected to sign a bill passed by the Louisiana state legislature Thursday that reclassifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances, the AP reports. Doctors have said the drugs, mifepristone and misopristal, are used for other reproductive health care needs.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports Friday that East Coast abortion clinics have experienced a surge in traffic since a Florida law banning most abortions took effect.

•••

Clash of the Libertarians – GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are headed for a clash, The Hill reports, this weekend as both are scheduled to speak to the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Washington, D.C.

•••

Border Bill Blocked, Again – Senate Republicans blocked for a second time advance of the bipartisan border enforcement bill that languished earlier this year after Donald J. Trump told his party to keep it off the books so he could continue to use the issue to challenge President Biden, per The New York Times. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he advanced the bill for a second time in order to “remind” voters that Republicans have stood in the way of its passage.

--TL

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THURSDAY 5/23/24

Repeat the Latest Lie? –The authoritarian’s art of restructuring “facts” by repeating lies until the general population believes them has worked well for Donald J. Trump – who continues to insist he’s the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election – so why not expand the program? 

Trump was to hold his next campaign rally in Brooklyn Wednesday according to NPR’s Morning Edition, so we will soon see whether the former president repeats the lie that the current president’s Justice Department was ready to have him shot during the FBI’s August 2022 court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Trump “misrepresented” a standard DOJ statement included in such searches, according to The New York Times.

About that ‘recession’... Earlier this week The Guardian published results of a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the newspaper that says 55% of those surveyed incorrectly believe the U.S. economy is shrinking and 56% think we are in a recession, despite strong growth for real gross domestic product. Real GDP was up 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024 after a much-stronger 3.4% growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysts. This coincides with a bull market for stocks, with the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones Industrial Average continuing to break record highs -- the Dow is at 40,000 points.

Perhaps she wants to be UN ambassador, again… More than 10 weeks after suspending her campaign for the GOP’s presidential nomination, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley has been grabbing about one in five votes from Trump in primaries including in Indiana, Nebraska and Maryland, giving never-Trumper Republicans and moderates hope for a backup plan in case, say, the former president’s falsified business records/hush money case actually does him in. When Haley dropped out of the race, she said she could not vote for Trump this November.

Now, Haley, at a speech before The Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. says that while she does not like everything Trump has done and said, “Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.” 

Clearly, she agrees with the 55%-56% majority in the Harris poll, above.

•••

Independence Day – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “stunned” ministers of parliament from his conservative Tory party with his call Wednesday for elections on July 4, the Independent reports. Sunak’s call for elections followed “yet another” Tory MP announcing early retirement, when Dame Eleanor Lang said she would step down ahead of the elections.

Sunak told British news broadcasters that the U.K. economy is “going gangbusters,” after the Labour party challenged his claim the country’s economy is now growing faster than the U.S. Sunak also confirmed in the news tour that plans to fly undocumented immigrants from Great Britain to Rwanda – no matter which country they came from – would not happen until after July 4.

•••

Alito Flies Freak Flags – Legend has it that President Dwight D. Eisenhower considered his appointment of The Warren Court’s eponymous chief justice his greatest failure in two terms. By the time President George H.W. Bush nominated Robert Bork in a failed bid for the Supreme Court, Republicans and Democrats had learned to closely vet the politics of their SCOTUS nominees. 

But what would Bush’s son, 43rd President George W., think of his 2005-06 nominee, Samuel Alito? Bush isn’t likely to comment, as he has largely dropped out of public view since distancing himself from the GOP’s MAGA movement a few years ago. 

SCOTUS’ nine justices, including Alito, in November 2023 signed a Code of Conduct said to be, in most cases, “not new.”

“The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules … derived from a variety of sources …” the introduction notes. 

Among the rules, “A justice should not … make speeches for a political organization or candidate, or publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for public office…”

And yet, photos taken in July and September 2023, and from a Google Street View image taken in August of last year, just prior to SCOTUS signing the Code of Conduct, show an “Appeal to Heaven” pine tree flag used by the religious strand of MAGA’s “Stop the Steal” protests flown at Alito’s Long Beach Island, New Jersey beach house, according to The New York Times. This follows an NYT report that an upside-down stars-and-stripes was photographed at Alito’s suburban Washington home just after January 6, 2021. 

Alito blamed the upside-down American flag on a dispute his wife had with a neighbor who had an anti-Trump sign on his front lawn. The SCOTUS justice did not respond to the Times regarding his “Appeal to Heaven” flag.

A Supreme Court decision on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6/election obstruction case is expected before SCOTUS takes its summer break.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/22/24

Start of Backlash – The governments of Spain, Ireland and Norway announced Wednesday they recognize a Palestinian state, contending there will be no end to the conflict in the Middle East without it. The Israeli government – which has waged war on Gaza for more than eight months while refusing to delineate between itself and Jewish citizens or between Hamas and the Palestinian people – denounced this as giving aid to Hamas, The Washington Post reports.

This brings to 143 the number of nations supporting a Palestinian state, BBC News reports, and more countries are expected to sign up over the next week. 

Quote: “In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side in peace and security.” – Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

•••

MAGA Win for McCarthy’s Seat – Donald J. Trump-endorsed Vince Fong has won a special election to finish out the term of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the AP reports. California state assembly member Fong, whom Trump called “a true Republican” in February, defeated Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux in the special election. It is up to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to determine timing in swearing in Fong to serve the remaining six-plus months of McCarthy’s term, though Fong clearly has the support to propel him to a re-election win this November.

•••

McAfee Wins, Willis Advances – Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee easily won a full term in Tuesday’s Georgia primary, while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis easily won the Democratic nomination and will advance to the November general elections, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. McAfee is the judge in Willis’ case charging former President Trump and more than a dozen of his associates with election interference in 2020. Willis is expected to defeat Republican challenger Courtney Kramer in the heavily Democratic county this fall.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/21/24

UPDATE -- The Trump defense team rested its case in the falsified business records/hush-money trial just after 10 a.m. Tuesday. That means the ex-president will not take the stand in his own defense. Closing arguments are to begin Tuesday, May 28, The New York Times reports.

No Trump Testimony? – Ex-President Trump’s defense attorneys have indicated they could rest their case Tuesday after calling just two witnesses to the stand, capped by Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor who had served as a legal advisor to Michael Cohen. That would mean no testimony from Trump in a case that could go to the jury in a matter of days. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen, Trump’s ex-fixer/attorney, was the prosecution’s 20th witness, in case you’re keeping count.

Stormy Monday… Perhaps drawing on his past experience as a federal prosecutor, Costello objected out-loud from the witness stand, proclaiming “geez!” in reacting to Judge Juan Merchan sustaining an umpteenth objection by prosecutors to a question from defense. Costello then blurted out, “strike that” … again, something you do not stay if you’re not prosecution or defense trying the case. 

“You don’t give me side-eye and you don’t roll your eyes,” Merchan admonished Costello, before clearing the courtroom – including reporters – presumably to further admonish defense’s witness. (From NPR’s Morning Edition and The New York Times.)

•••

Trump Drives it Home – Various news outlets, led by a full issue of The Atlantic late last year have been warning that Donald J. Trump means what he says if he wins a second presidential term this November (or should we say “when he wins…” as pundits believe he is no more likely to concede a loss this year than he did after 2020). Now comes Trump’s Truth Social account, which posted a video featuring references to “the creation of a unified Reich” with hypothetical news headlines we’d be reading next year after that presumed victory over President Biden. 

Note… “Reich” is German for “empire,” by the way.

Navarro’s take… Unflinching Trump loyalist Peter Navarro, the economist who served as a White House trade advisor for the former president, predicts from prison that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell would be gone within the first 100 days of a second Trump administration, from an interview with Semafor’s Gina Ghon. Navarro is in a minimum security federal prison in Miami for refusing to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Powell, it is worth recalling, was appointed the 16th Fed chair in 2018 by then-President Trump, who quickly grew tired of his pick because the Fed was looking to increase a then-unnaturally low U.S. inflation rate.

--TL

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MONDAY 5/20/24

Trump Trial Monday -- Testimony by former fixer Michael Cohen in the Donald J. Trump falsified business records case – a.k.a. “hush money” – was to continue Monday and the entire case could go to the jury by the end of the week. We also could see the ex-president himself testify in the trial, although “everybody” is advising Trump against it, according to Politico. Which is to say, legal experts “and even Trump’s political allies,” though maybe not so much political opponents, nor “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” who might take some delight in watching him bring some of his campaign rally antics to the witness stand.

No Extradition for Assange – Julian Assange has been granted permission to appeal his extradition by the U.S. in his WikiLeaks case by two high court judges in Britain, The Washington Post reports. Assange and his attorneys will be allowed full defense on First Amendment grounds, and as an Australian citizen. He has been charged in the U.S. for espionage for releasing sensitive military and diplomatic files through WikiLeaks in 2010.

If convicted of U.S. charges, Assange could face up to 175 years in prison, NPR reports.

•••

Arrest Warrants Sought for Netanyahu and Sinwar -- The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’ Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, The Wall Street Journal reports. Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the ICC, which Israel does not recognize.

Replacing Hamas… Former army chief Benny Gantz, a current minister in Israel’s three-member war cabinet also denounced the ICC prosecutor’s move. But Gantz said he would quit the Israeli government in three weeks, and potentially force new elections, if Netanyahu does not come forth with a plan to replace Hamas in Gaza with international and local Palestinian supervision.

•••

Iran ‘Copter Down – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, and other top officials, including foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian are confirmed dead after a helicopter crash Sunday, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

What it means… As president, Raisi, 63, had an administrative job with little power, but he was considered next in line to be Iran’s supreme leader as an aging Ali Khamenei prepares to step down.

•••

Biden at Morehouse – President Biden told the graduating class of historically black, all-male Morehouse College he heard voices of protest against the Israeli-Hamas war and that the conflict on Gaza breaks his heart, too, the AP reports. 

“I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” Biden said in his commencement speech, where some graduates wore keffiyehs – Palestinian scarves – around their shoulders, on top of black graduation gowns. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he said, is “why I’ve called for an immediate cease-fire” and for Hamas to return hostages still held from the group’s October 7 surprise attack on Israel.

•••

Up on the Hill – The Senate is in session Monday, giving House representatives like Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) a free day to attend ex-President Trump’s falsified business records trial in Manhattan. Both the House and the Senate are in session Tuesday through Friday, ahead of a Memorial Day weeklong recess.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay has been thinking and writing about the way ex-President Trump upended Reaganomics during his four years in office. Scroll down this page with the trackball on the far right (no pun here) to read "Would You Have Him Run Your Business?", The Hustings' right-column counterpoint to contributing Pundit Ken Zino's "Trump Tanked the Economy, and Biden is Fixing It."

Also in this column, read Macaulay's "The Name's Not the Thing," about the Manhattan trial in which Donald J. Trump is accused of falsifying business records in order to pay $130,000 in hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels. SPOILER ALERT: Macaulay has forever been a never-Trumper pundit leaning moderately to the right.

Further down the page on the right is Macaulay's column, "The Biden Shuffle," describing the juxtaposition of Joe Biden's age and his poll numbers.

These three Macaulay columns first appeared in thehustings.substack.com, where you can subscribe for free.

You are also invited to become a Citizen Pundit by emailing your comments to editors@thehustings.news. Please indicate in the subject line if you consider yourself leaning "left" (whether or not you like Bidenomics) or leaning "right" (whether or not you agree with Macaulay's comments on Biden v. Trump).

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Put Down Your Smartphones

If you are reaching The Hustings on a smartphone, be aware this is not the center of our front page, which is written to objectively to present the news/news aggregate about our political world. If you have reached us by computer, you can scroll down to last Friday’s posts to read contributing pundit Ken Zino’s commentary on former President Trump’s claims his policies built a great American economy only to have President Biden knock it down; “Trump Tanked the Economy, and Biden is Fixing It.”

Please be sure to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s right-column take on Trump’s claims, “Would You Have Him Run Your Business?”

SPOILER ALERT: Macaulay’s take is that of a traditional conservative and he does not say anything more positive than Zino about Trump’s economic policies. Macaulay and Zino are much further apart on Bidenomics, however. 

These May 10 center and left-right posts are what we do at The Hustings, and you can participate whether you agree with Zino’s center-left take or Macaulay’s center-right take, if you are, say, a pro-MAGA conservative or a socialist-leaning fan of The Squad.

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and please list your political leanings in the subject line so that we may post said comments in the appropriate column.

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…meanwhile…

The Consumer Price Index has stalled in the mid-threes, to a 3.4% annual rate in April, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. That's down 0.1 points from the March CPI. Month-over-month inflation was 0.3%, after four months of 0.4% increases. Shelter and gas contributed to more than 70% of the CPI increase, with energy up 1.1%. Food was unchanged, breaking down to food at home -0.2% and food away from home +0.3%. Last month's disappointing CPI no doubt will raise doubts that the Federal Reserve will move to cut interest rates before fall. [UPDATE: The slight decrease in the April CPI is being seen as a positive sign the Fed could still cut interest rates this year, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Thursday breached 40,000 points for the first time ever.]

FRIDAY 5/17/24

Some Relief for Gaza – Trucks have begun carrying “badly needed” food, water, fuel and other supplies into the Gaza Strip by the U.S. military onto a new floating pier, The Associated Press reports. Military officials “anticipate” this effort could scale up to 150 trucks per day, as heavy fighting and Israeli restrictions on border crossings has strangled food and supply delivery. There have been reports for weeks of impending starvation.

Even when accelerated to 150 trucks per day, it will hardly be sufficient. Before the Israeli-Hamas war, now seven months old, more than 500 truckloads entered the territory on an average day, the AP says.

International Court … Israeli Justice Ministry official Gilad Noem told the International Court of Justice Friday that the South African case accusing Israel of violating the Genocide Convention “completely divorced from facts and circumstances,” Reuters reports. The government of South Africa has requested the court to order Israel to halt its operations in Rafah and withdraw from Palestinian territory.

•••

Trump Defense Chews Up Cohen – Donald J. Trump’s defense team denied “loudly and angrily” the ex-president’s much-disliked ex-fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony Thursday, according to The Washington Post. Cohen told the court under cross-examination he spoke with Trump on October 24, 2016, to outline a plan to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels in order to cover up an affair, denied by the ex-president, between the adult film star and Trump. 

As a reminder, the case by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of falsifying business records to cover up said payments to Daniels, via Cohen, in time for Trump’s 2016 Electoral College win.

Cohen, who could be the last witness in the trial, will return to the stand Monday for the prosecution’s redirect. Trump has not said whether he will take the stand in the case.

--TL

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THURSDAY 5/16/24

SCOTUS Upholds CFPB Funding -- The Supreme Court has upheld, 7-2, funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was created after the 2008 financial crisis to offer consumer protection for mortgages, car loans and other loans, SCOTUSblog reports. Pay day lenders had argued in CFPB v. Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd. that the bureau should be subject to the Constitution's appropriations clause with Congress voting on its budget every fiscal year. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority said the CFPB "does not have to petition for funds every year" because Congress authorized the bureau to draw from the Federal Reserve System funding its director deems "reasonably necessary to carry out" its charter, subject to an annual inflation rate cap.

Justices Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented.

•••

SCOTUS Restores Louisiana Voting Map – In an unsigned ruling, the Supreme Court’s six conservatives prevailed to restore Louisiana’s congressional voting map, which includes an additional majority-Black voting district, The Washington Post reports. Though considered a “victory” for Black voters and the Democratic Party, justices Sonya Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan dissented. 

The 6-3 ruling comes in response to emergency appeals filed after a federal three-judge panel in April ruled the Louisiana map an unconstitutional gerrymander. 

Brown Jackson was the only justice to issue an argument, saying SCOTUS’ intervention was “premature.” According to SCOTUSblog her argument is related to the Purcell principle, the idea that courts should not change election rules during the period just before the election because it will cause confusion among voters.  

•••

Attempted Assassination in Slovakia – Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico was in critical condition Thursday from five gunshot wounds in what his government called a politically motivated assassination attempt Wednesday, The New York Times reports. The suspect is said to be a 71-year-old poet, who in videos posted online can be seen firing at Fico at point-blank range in the center square of Handlova, where he was shaking hands with supporters after a government meeting. The suspect, who has been arrested, has been called a “lone-wolf” not connected with any political group.   

Fico’s condition reportedly stabilized overnight, but doctors are said to be carrying out more procedures in hopes of improving his condition.

Fico, 59, reportedly a pro-Russian ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, won his first of three terms as PM in 2006, but lost re-election in 2010. According to the NYT profile, Fico returned to power in 2012 and resigned in 2018 after mass protests over the murder of a journalist investigating government corruption, and his fiancé. He returned for a third term last fall after his Smer party, which leaned liberal during Fico’s first term but has steadily moved right, won parliamentary elections.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/15/24

Let's Debate! -- Yes, well, this time it's Kennedy v. Nixon 1960 style, with no audience to distract from and steal time. Donald J. Trump will debate President Joe Biden Thursday, June 27, on CNN from its Atlanta studios and again on Tuesday, September 10 on ABC News from a to-be-determined location. Both the Republican National Committee and the Biden campaign have rejected the non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which has hosted presidential one-on-ones since 1988.

The RNC has concerns about timing and about accusations of CPD bias, while Biden campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon says the commission is "out of step with changes in the structure of our elections and the interests of voters." No decision yet on a vice-presidential debate.

•••

Blinken Bolsters Ukraine – On his second day in Kyiv, Secretary of State and amateur rock star Antony Blinken announced release of $2 billion in military aid for Ukraine as part of the $61-billion package passed past the last-minute by U.S. Congress last month, the Kyiv Post reports. In a presser with Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Blinken said the aid is intended “to provide weapons today” and to invest in the country’s infrastructure, another way of saying, according to the Post, that Kyiv is thus enabled to procure military equipment from other countries. 

It also is free to strike Russian targets outside its borders.

“We have not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine,” Blinken said. “But ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war.”

About that amateur rock star tag… Blinken Tuesday evening wielded a guitar in a basement bar in Kyiv, where he played Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World with a local band named 1999.

•••

It’s Alsobrooks v. Hogan – Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrooks will face former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a moderate, never-Trumper Republican, in the November race to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Alsobrooks handily beat Rep. David Trone for the Democratic nomination, 54% to 41.9%, and Trone quickly reacted by calling on his supporters to vote for Alsobrooks and President Biden. 

Hogan would become the first Republican senator from Maryland since Charles Mathias won his third and final term in 1980.

Meanwhile, in West Virginia: Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who first won as a Democrat in 2016 but quickly switched parties, took 61.8% of the GOP vote in Tuesday’s West Virginia primary to replace retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), The Washington Postreports. For future trivia questions, Glenn Elliott  the Democrat facing Justice for Manchin’s seat.

Also in West Virginia, Rep. Carol Miller held off a challenger from the January 6th riots to win the Republican primary for her seat.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/14/24

Speaker Support -- House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA, above) joined Donald J. Trump Tuesday, NPR reports, at the Manhattan courthouse where the former president is being tried on charges of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to a Playboy centerfold and to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Defense attorneys Tuesday cross-examined Trump's ex-fixer/attorney Michael Cohen, who on Monday told jurors of Trump's direct knowledge of the hush money payments, and how he was reimbursed under the bookkeeping heading, "attorney's fees."

Aid Arriving Too Late for Vovchansk? -- Russia's ongoing offensive into Ukraine's second-largest city is "pushing Vovchansk to the brink of annihilation," reports The Kyiv Independent. This marks the first serious Russian offensive to retake territory in Kharkiv Oblast since the beginning of the war. Ukraine's "lightning counteroffensive" retook the city in September 2022.

•••

Tuesday Primaries -- West Virginia, Maryland and Nebraska hold their primaries Tuesday (The Washington Post). In West Virginia, Gov. Jim Justice faces Rep. Alex Mooney for the Republican nomination for retiring Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III's seat. Justice has Donald J. Trump's endorsement, but whomever wins will certainly give the GOP a plus-one in the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-49 majority.

In Maryland, Rep. David Tone faces Prince Georges County Executive Angela Alsobrook in the Democratic primary to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin. This race also is critical for the Democratic majority, as former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, a never-Trumper who last year was considered a potential candidate for the GOP presidential primary and then was linked to No Labels' third-party aspirations, will face the winner of the Democratic primary November 5.

•••

RINO Ryan? -- Donald J. Trump has called on Fox News chief Lachlan Murdoch to fire former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) off the news organization's board, Vanity Fair reports. Accusing Ryan, a dyed-in-the-wool old-school Republican who says he won't vote for President Biden, either, of being a "RINO", the ex-president is upset that the former speaker says he will not vote for Trump this November.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 5/13/24

Menendez on Trial -- Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) faces 16 criminal counts including bribery, fraud and foreign-agent offenses, along with his wife, Nadine, and three New Jersey businessmen in a federal trial beginning in the Manhattan district, Monday. The alleged bribery scheme involves bribes for securing military sales to Egypt and promoting the interests of Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Cohen Time -- Donald J. Trump fixer-turned-antagonist Michael Cohen testifies this week in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case alleging Trump falsified business documents, a.k.a., the "hush money" case. Cohen "will unearth some of the secrets he buried, revealing a mess that prosecutors say his former boss was desperate to hide," according to The New York Times in its preview of his testimony as a witness for the prosecution.

A year-and-a-half into Trump's presidential term Cohen pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court for campaign-finance violations and other charges, and was sentenced to three years in prison. He has already spent a year in prison for paying the hush-money, facts Trump's defense team will use against him in cross-examination.

•••

Accounting for Trump – An Internal Revenue Service audit begun after 2010 of a possible double-dip tax writeoff over the troubled Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago could eventually lead to a $100 million tax bill for the former president, according to an investigation by The New York Times and ProPublica reported in the newspaper Sunday. Built just before The Great Recession, the first tax writeoff for the 92-story glass tower on the Chicago River claimed by Trump was in 2008, when he claimed the loan burden and lagging sales, far below his organization’s projections, would make it impossible for the condo-hotel tower to ever make a profit. Trump reported up to $651 million in losses that year, according to the report.

The IRS did not begin its audit, however, until after Trump and his tax advisors shifted the company that owned the tower into a new partnership, according to the NYT’s Sunday front page story. 

The tower, built with 486 residences and 339 “hotel condominiums,” and central to the first season of The Apprentice TV show in 2004, is described as Trump’s last major building project, though it is not his first business failure. 

Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay discusses some of Trump’s Greatest Misses in his commentary, “Would You Have Him Run Your Business?” below in the right column.

Macaulay’s column is opposite Ken Zino’s left-column commentary, “Trump Tanked the Economy, and Biden is Fixing It.” Both columns flank the center-column news on the Friday, May 10 release of the Index of Consumer Expectations by the University of Michigan. We urge you to read all three columns, beginning with the center, for the full Hustings experience.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

The Name’s Not the Thing

By Stephen Macaulay

Donald Trump, self-proclaimed business wizard, is currently on trial, being prosecuted by the New York County — which includes Manhattan — district attorney’s office.

A grand jury determined that there are 34 counts related to falsifying business records that had the effect of keeping from the public information about Trump’s alleged extra-marital undertakings.

Essentially the dubious activities are predicated on the notion that if Trump, who is sometimes illustrated on T-shirts as having the physique of a WWF wrestler, thereby indicating his virility, was to be exposed having spent a night with an actress whose stage name is “Stormy Daniels,” a vivacious blonde who is more than moderately shapely, an actress who has played lead in such films as Sex Door Neighbors and Love in an Elevator, and this information was to be made public prior to the 2016 presidential election, there could have been some people who would think that this sort of Seventh Commandment-breaking behavior disqualified him from the highest elected position in the U.S. and so wouldn’t have voted for him.

So Trump allegedly instructed his people to pay off Daniels and to do so in a way that was in violation of regulations related to business expenses. 

Several people have stated that the prosecution is because of who the defendant is. On Sunday May 12, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, joined the likes of Jonathan Turley and Mark Levin, by saying on his show: “I doubt the New York indictment would have been brought against a defendant whose name was not Donald Trump.”

And Zakaria is probably right.

But what seems to be lost in such statements is the fact that it has nothing to do with his name but that the person in question allegedly falsified business records because he was running for president. 

What’s more, had Bill Clinton not been president, his dalliances with “a subordinate government employee” probably would have gotten him fired were he in the private sector, but he was president.

Trump is innocent until proven guilty. But let’s not accept false equivalencies between Donald Trump and John Doe.

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MONDAY 5/13/24

The New York Times and ProPublica revealed over the weekend that yet another of Donald J. Trump’s business ventures, Chicago’s Trump International Hotel and Tower, has been under scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service since the early ‘10s. 

That’s about five years before Trump first declared his presidential candidacy. In this right column below, Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay writes that other, known Trump business failures led up to one big one during his four years as president, in “Would You Have Him Run Your Business?”

Use the trackbar at the far right to scroll up and down this page for recent posts. Use the trackbar within each column to read to the bottom of the column.

And be sure to read Ken Zino’s left-column piece, “Trump Tanked the Economy, and Biden is Fixing It.”

Then let us know your thoughts, whether you disagree or agree with Macaulay or Zino, or if you would like to defend four years of Trump’s economic policies, your civil comments are very much welcome. Email your civil comments to editors@thehustings.newsand indicate whether you lean left or right in the subject line, so we can post your comments in the appropriate column.

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Trump Tanked the Economy, and Biden is Fixing It

By Ken Zino

The U.S. labor market added 175,000 jobs in April, the White House said via its Council of Economic Advisors, according to the latest official data. More than 60% of private-sector industries added jobs. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 3.9% – it went from 3.83% to 3.86% – and the labor force participation rate (LFPR) held steady at 62.7%. Wage gains continued to outpace inflation. I saw nothing in the report that was practically worrisome to the auto industry I’m involved with, or the economy as a whole, for that matter, when it was issued.

That said, Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Hamas and other regional wars, the Federal Reserve’s policies and our own Supreme Court and federal courts present serious challenges. The Putin wing of the Republican party, the ones who use Russian talking points and informants, are also not Greene, so to speak, but black areas impinging on growth. At least Biden isn’t sleeping through the official proceedings. 

From here on, what will be significant is if companies -- many of them global -- can adjust supply and pricing to fluctuating demand without incurring huge losses to increase unemployment. Consumer confidence and consumer demand are at the heart of the American economy.

“We learned at least two things” May 3 “about the U.S. labor market. First, most importantly, we learned that employers continue to hire at a strong pace, helping to generate record spells of both low unemployment and high women’s LFPRs. Second, we learned that as the pandemic continues to fade into the rear-view mirror, some key economic misalignments are realigning in a manner consistent with steady, stable, sustainable growth,” the Council of Economic Advisors said. 

Adarsh Jain, director of financial markets at GlobalData, a consultancy I use and respect, put it thus: “2024 started strong with labor market witnessing an unprecedented three consecutive months (January through March) of 15%+ month-on-month growth in job postings, signaling robust jobs demand. It is natural to anticipate a pullback from this rapid pace as companies adjust their demand, given that job postings, indicating hiring intentions, experience their first double-digit decline in four months in April, with a 12% month-on-month decrease.

“In terms of sector trends, consumer driven sectors like retail, automotive and consumer have been strong, despite persistent inflation, whereas tech sectors like telecom and IT have exhibited weakness. It will not be surprising if advances in AI continue to have a dampening effect on the demand for labor in these sectors,” Jain said.

With all the excrement flying about, just remember that under Trump you couldn’t even buy toilet paper. And bleach was recommended as a cure for Covid. The “T” in the Trump economy stands for “Tanked.” We have met the enemy before, and the enemy this time is some of us in our own House and Senate. The Biden Administration continues to work on solutions, not create further problems.

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