…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 6^th 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

__________________________________________

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

_____
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.

__________________________________________

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.

_____

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.

_____

Consumer Confidence Slips

[CREDIT: University of Michigan]

By Todd Lassa

After months of growing confidence in the economy as measured by the University of Michigan’s widely quoted Index of Consumer Expectations, consumers in May felt a bit more uneasy – 12.4% more uneasy than in April. This will cause more than a little angst among President Biden’s re-election campaign staff, though there’s still nearly half a year left before the presidential election for American consumers to turn around these numbers again.

“Consumer sentiment retreated about 13% this May following three consecutive months of very little change,” Joanne Hsu, survey of consumers director for the UMich index said in a press release Friday morning. “This 10 index-point decline is statistically significant and brings sentiment to its lowest reading in about six months.”

Consumer confidence scored a 67.4 in this month’s survey, which is down 12.7 points from April, but is still 14.2 points above May 2023.

Meanwhile, in this weekend’s left and right columns, Ken Zino and Stephen Macaulay, respectively, (both Michiganders, by the way) discuss Biden’s economy in comparison with ex-President Trump’s economy. As Macaulay notes, recent polls show voters have a more favorable opinion of the Trump administration’s economy than they do of the Biden administration’s economy.

To be sure, the Editorial We yearns for a time when we can debate Reaganomics v. Bidenomics, but that is not the political deal we have been dealt these past four years.

What’s your take? Whether you are a New Dealer, a Reaganomics Supply-Sider, or a devotee of Bidenomics or of MAGAnomics, we humbly seek your civil comments. Please email comments to editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you consider yourself – generally, not just on economic issues – conservative or liberal, in the subject line.

_____

Would You Have Him Run Your Business?

By Stephen Macaulay

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. — Aldous Huxley

It isn’t often that you see the author of Brave New World and Donald Trump acolyte Kelly Ann Conway together, but there are facts and then there are, in Conway’s felicitous phrasing “alternative facts.”

And it seems that when it comes to Donald Trump and the economy people are remembering alternative facts or perhaps selective facts.

That is, consider jobs. Now COVID-19 had more than a little to do with it, but the unemployment rate increased by 1.6% under Trump, rising to 6.3%. Some 2.9 million people lost their jobs. While it wouldn’t be fair to blame Trump for the virus, it is fair to call into question his lackadaisical and fantastical response to dealing with it. Had he done more, odds are that it wouldn’t have had such a significant impact on workers.

Then there is the trade deficit. He was going to put America First, right? He put tariffs on our allies predicated on an act that is based on defense needs (as though, say, Canada would suddenly stop shipping aluminum to the U.S.).

Turns out that the U.S. trade deficit was up 40.5% in 2020 compared with 2016 (thanks, Obama), the highest it had been since 2008.

The national debt increased from $14.4 trillion to $21.6 trillion under his guidance of things economic.

And while he traveled to places like West Virginia and Pennsylvania during the run-up to his election promising the coal miners in those parts that he would make sure those mine closings would come to an end and that “clean coal” would be powering the future, the future didn’t look so good for the miners, as 16.7% of them lost their jobs during his tenure and coal production declined by 26.5%

Yes, one heck of a businessman.

So it comes as something of a surprise to see that in Gallup poling conducted April 1-22 when asked what amount of confidence the people have in Trump and in Joe Biden to do or to recommend the right thing for the economy, 46% have a great deal/fair amount of confidence in Trump compared with 38% in Biden.

Biden has not proven himself to be a wizard when it comes to the economy, although one could argue that he has navigated the post-COVID situation rather well, going from a place where there was considerable unemployment and the lack of goods and services brought on by the lack of people to provide those things. Still, interest rates are higher in the U.S. than they have been for some time and inflation is at 3.5% so while there are products on the shelves of Kroger and Target, they generally come at higher price points than people may recall.

Still, for people to imagine that Trump is strong on economic issues is curious, especially in light of the billions of dollars of debt leading to bankruptcies at such places as:

Trump Taj Mahal
Trump’s Castle
Trump Plaza and Casino

And business failures including

Trump Airlines
Trump Steaks
Trump University

Arguably his business acumen based on his record — not on alternative facts, but those persistent ones that don’t cease to exist — is not something that should be particularly seen as one of his strengths.

_____

What’s Left

Keep in mind that if you’ve landed in this left column on your smartphone, you are not getting the whole picture of The Hustings.(Our three-column format might show up if you hold your phone horizontally.)

You also are missing out on Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s latest pieces for the right column, including “The Biden Shuffle,” “Pecker Meets Hamilton” and “The Trump Edge.” We hope for all readers of all political stripes to read our news/news aggregate in our center column, with conservative takes in the right column and liberal takes in the left. It’s that simple, and it’s designed to get everybody out of their echo chambers.

To comment, email editors@thehustings.news and please let us know whether you generally lean left or lean right, in the subject line.

_____

…meanwhile…

Donald J. Trump returned to a Manhattan court Thursday where his defense attorney cross-examined adult film star Stormy Daniels. The criminal case over falsified business records looks likely to be the only case Trump faces before the election. On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals announced it will review a judge's ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting Trump, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, which means prosecutors will not get their August trial date.

FRIDAY 5/10/24

Netanyahu on Dr. Phil – As Republicans on Capitol Hill have been criticizing President Biden for withholding arms to Israel over its attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, buzz Friday morning centers on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with Phil McGraw on Dr. Phil Primetime. But Israel’s Haaretz led with this quote from Netanyahu in the interview: “The government’s first responsibility is to protect the people, that’s the ultimate enveloping responsibility, and the people weren’t protected, we have to admit that.”

•••

Confederate Leaders Go Back to School – School board members for Virginia’s Shenandoah County district voted 5-1 to restore names of Confederate leaders to two of its schools early Friday, CNN reports. Mountain View High School is to be renamed Stonewall Jackson High School, and Honey Run Elementary will be renamed Ashby Lee Elementary, for General Robert E. Lee and cavalry commander Turner Ashby, according to the report.

The Confederate leaders’ names were removed from both schools four years ago in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.

Note: Save for the Jim Crow South, we cannot think of any losing military force that has had its “heros’” names applied to public buildings. We’re confident, for instance, there never has been an Adolf Eichmann secondary school nor a Hermann Göring kindergarten.

--TL

__________________________________________

No Shells for Rafah Attack – The Israeli Defense Force has not entered Rafah’s population centers yet, President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett on AC 360 Wednesday, but when they do, the U.S. will cut off arms to Israel, including artillery shells.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone into Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not going to supply them the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with those cities, to deal with that problem,” Biden said.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are objecting, CQ Roll Call reports. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a letter to Biden they were “alarmed” by the pause in armament deliveries, that “flies in the face of assurances provided regarding the timely delivery of security assistance to Israel.”

•••

MTG Fail? – The House voted a decisive 359-43 to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over bi-partisan passage of a $61-billion aid package to Ukraine. The vote, according to CQ Roll Call, breaks down to just 11 Republicans voting against the motion to table, assisted by 32 Democrats, with another seven Democrats voting “present.”

While considered a major win for Johnson, who replaced ousted speaker and former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last year, Punchbowl News says the speaker “looks weak,” after “bucking” or ignoring other Republican congressional leaders’ suggestion he rework the motion to vacate available to any single member when he advanced the Ukraine aid package.

Meanwhile, MTG – known as “Moscow Marj” in some circles – achieved her goal to get GOP House members on the record regarding the Ukraine aid vote, according to Punchbowl News. On the other hand, this could be considered a sign Republican voters are not so much against aid to Ukraine.

And of course, a statement from Donald J. Trump, whom Johnson visited at Mar-a-Lago in April, reenforced the notion that Trumpian loyalty is a one-way street: “With a majority of one, shortly growing to three or four, we’re not in a position of voting on a motion to vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time.”

•••

Cruz Control – Republican senators reportedly are joking rather openly about Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) push to authorize the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget for the fiscal year by Friday’s deadline. Their “bemusement” stems from Cruz’s 180-degree turn from his role as a “conservative rabble-rouser” to “playing the leadon authorizing the FAA,” The Hill reports. Cruz is the ranking Republican on the Commerce Committee.

There is precedent for such hypocrisy, not mentioned in the report, when Cruz and his family jetted off to a Cancun vacation in February 2021 as a severe Texas storm left millions of his voters without power and water.

“It’s been entertaining to watch,” one unnamed Republican senator told The Hill, regarding Cruz’s FAA push. Quoting the classic comedy movie Airplane, the senator added, “What’s the old Hollywood joke? ‘The foot’s on the other hand.’” Or in Cruz's mouth?

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 5/8/24

Haley Gives GOP Hope -- In case one of Donald J. Trump's myriad criminal cases stick before this August's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee (meaning, hurting him in the polls rather than helping him), his former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, continues to grab primary votes more than two months after she suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Haley got 128,000 votes in Tuesday's Indiana primary, according to The Hill's Decision Desk HQ, or 21.7% to Trump's 78.3%. In April, 150,000 Pennsylvania Republicans voted for Haley in that state's primary.

•••

U.S. Blocks Arms During Rafah Attack – In response to the Israeli government’s refusal to hold off its long-threatened attack on Rafah at Gaza’s southern border, the U.S. is withholding shipment of 3,000 missiles to Israel, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Israel’s offensive on Rafah launched after Palestinians believed Hamas had successfully negotiated a ceasefire, but Israel refused to sign on to the deal brokered with Egypt and Qatar.

•••

Cannon Gums Up Trump’s Classified Docs Trial – Quick reminder of the facts: Then-President Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in late 2020. In an August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, the FBI recovered boxes of classified documents Trump hoarded after leaving the White House.

The Washington Post reported last year that witnesses in the subsequent case said Trump showed some classified documents to guests at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s attorneys, meanwhile, have successfully clogged up special counsel Jack Smith’s case accusing Trump of willful retention of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other charges.

On Tuesday, Cannon issued a five-page order that delays indefinitely the classified documents trial once scheduled for May 20 – less than two weeks from now – and which special counsel Jack Smith had hoped would be rescheduled to July 8 (per Politico).

Considering all the issues between prosecutor Smith and Trump’s defense team, “finalization of a trial date at this juncture … would be imprudent and inconsistent with the court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the pre-trial issues,” Cannon’s order says.

Theoretically, the case could still go to trial before the end of 2024, some legal pundits say, but that would require Cannon to run out of ways to slow the process.

•••

Zelenskyy’s Latest Threat – The narrative behind Ukraine’s resilient efforts to keep Russia from taking over the country tells of a united effort by its military and its public. That ignores the fact that ethnic Russians make up the largest minority in Ukraine, reportedly 17.3% in 2001, according to Wikipedia. What’s more, Ukraine’s military is not impervious to Russian infiltration.

On Monday, Ukraine’s security service said it had uncovered a network of Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, whose agents were preparing yet another assassination attempt of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The Kyiv Independent. In addition, two Ukraine state security administration (UDO) colonels have reportedly been detained for leaking classified information to Russia.

According to the Independent’s report, Zelenskyy told The Sun last November he had survived “at least” five assassination attempts.

--TL

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TUESDAY 5/7/24

Israel Attacks Rafah -- The Israeli government did not agree to the same ceasefire deal Hamas agreed to Monday, so Israeli Defense Forces took control of Rafah anyway and have blocked off aid flow, a border official told The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Egypt has denounced the IDF's military operations in Rafah.

Putin to Out-Stalin Stalin -- It's inauguration day for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's fifth term as president, NPR reports. If he fills out the entire term, Putin will have led Russia longer than Joseph Stalin. Most European Union nations boycotted Putin's inauguration ceremonies, Morning Edition says.

--TL

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MONDAY 5/6/24

UPDATE: Hamas has accepted a 42-day ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar that would return 33 hostages, dead or alive, BBC News reports. The deal still awaits response from Israel, which says it will not call off its planned attack on Rafah.

Time is Up for Rafah – Cease fire talks between Hamas and Israel seems to have sputtered to a stall, again, and so the Israeli government Monday morning urged people to evacuate Rafah in southern Gaza (The Washington Post) as its military prepares for its long-threatened assault on the city. Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government are blaming each other for lack of progress in the negotiations.

•••

Speaker Under Pressure – House Democrats will join a majority of Republicans to block Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to dismiss Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this week, says NPR’s Morning Edition.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), told CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday, “Our view would traditionally be; ‘Let the other side work its own mess out.’ But when that mess starts to impact the ability to do the job on behalf of the American people, then the responsible thing at that moment might be to make clear that we will not allow the extremists to throw the Congress and the country into chaos.”

MTG has the backing in her threat of Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), but Donald J. Trump, who received Johnson at Mar-a-Lago last week, is sitting this issue out as he tends to the trial over falsification of business records in connection with hush money payments.

Hindsight… We have to wonder whether former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would still be speaker and Trump wouldn’t be running for president again if McCarthy hadn’t had his pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago less than two months after the January 6^th attack on the United States Capitol.

•••

More Tears Over Trump? – The criminal trial in which former President Trump is charged with falsifying business records in an alleged attempt to put the "hush" into hush money continues Monday, with the alleged recipient of said hush money, adult film star Stormy Daniels, expected to testify this week, according to The New York Times. On Friday, former Trump spokeswoman and close White House advisor Hope Hicks broke down in tears, after describing the effect on Trump’s 2016 campaign when the infamous Access Hollywood tape surfaced.

•••

Feds Investigate Cuellar – Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife were indicted last Friday on federal charges accusing them of accepting $600,000 in bribes from the country of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in exchange for political favors in Congress. Federal agents raided Cuellar’s office and the couple’s house Friday, just weeks before a runoff between two Republicans to challenge him in the general election, according to The Texas Tribune. Republicans Jay Furman and Lazaro Garza face each other in a May 28 runoff with the winner to challenge Cuellar November 5.

•••

Up on the Hill – Both chambers of Congress are in session Tuesday through Thursday. The full House only is in session Monday, while the full Senate is in session Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

If former President Trump sticks with his challenge and current President Biden keeps his promise, the two will meet again after their parties’ summer conventions and before the November 5 election this fall to debate.

Meanwhile, you can see how The Hustings got started nearly four years ago and get a good idea of how we work to keep all our readers out of any echo chambers by reading our first left-right commentary regarding the first Biden-Trump debates here. To comment on today’s front page and/or any other recent political news issues, please email editors@thehustings.news

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This is One of Three …

…columns, and if you landed here on your smartphone, you might think this is the center of The Hustings editorially. Not true -- that would be the center column. You might be able to see all three columns: left (liberal commentary), right (conservative commentary) and center (news/news aggregate and analysis) if you hold your smartphone horizontally.

Best way to read us is on a computer screen or a notebook, though we will work in earnest these next few months leading up to the November 5 elections to correct our smartphone problem.

Meanwhile, why not take some time to let us know what you think of the news in the center column? We’d love to hear what you think of House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) suggestion the National Guard be called in to control college student protests over the war in Gaza, as well as the International Criminal Court’s apparently imminent arrest warrant of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Also please take a look at Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s right-column piece, “The Biden Shuffle”, which is sure to trigger your reactions, positive or negative.

There’s plenty more controversy in recent days’ center column. Scroll down with the far-right trackbar to read those, and then further down the center column with the trackbar to its immediate right to catch up.

Then email your opinions to editors@thehustings.news and please let us know whether you lean left, or right, so we can post your comments in the appropriate column.

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…meanwhile…

The U.S. economy added a moderate 175,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported Friday. This slowing compares with 303,000 jobs added in March and has sparked a rally on Wall Street. The unemployment rate inched up to 3.9%, from a 3.8% level in March. This might be good news for the economy overall as the Federal Reserve remains concerned about inflation sticking above 3%, and will not likely cut interest rates before autumn, at best. Job gains were reported for health care, social assistance, transportation and warehousing. (Chart: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

FRIDAY 5/3/24

Biden: Stop the Chaos – President Biden took a sort of middle ground in a brief, unscheduled White House address on pro-Palestinian campus protests that have resulted in more than 2,000 arrests to date, according to NBC News.

“There’s a right to protest, but not a right to chaos,” Biden said. “People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being arrested.”

As the protests threaten to spill over to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August, Biden rejected deploying the National Guard as some Republicans have suggested, The New York Times reports. This as Republicans hope to work the pro-Palestinian protests to their advantage in November as Democrats are working the abortion issue.

--TL

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THURSDAY 5/2/24

Campus Protests – New York City Mayor Eric Adams told NPR’s Morning Edition that 40% of Columbia University campus protesters of Israel’s war on Gaza are “outside agitators,” based on the arrests from when the city’s police removed students from an occupation of the school’s Hamilton Hall. Thousands of campus protesters have been arrested at campuses from the University of California Los Angeles – where police evacuated encampments Wednesday evening -- to Stony Brook on Long Island and Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The question of when police will intervene in campus demonstrations varies by municipality and state, NPR reports. New York’s police department goes in only when a school calls for help, while at the University of Texas, state troopers have the support for intervention from Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Meanwhile… The House Wednesday passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, 320-91, Morning Edition reports. Introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the bill defines antisemitism as “A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” Opposition to the bill consisted of 70 Democrats and 21 Republicans.

•••

1864 Arizona Ban Lifted – Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban was repealed by the state senate Wednesday, 16-14, with two Republicans joining all 14 Democrats in the vote (per The New York Times). Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) was expected to sign the repeal Thursday, which will replace the 1864 law with a 2022 ban on abortions after 15 weeks, but with no exceptions for rape or incest.

•••

Greene Motion – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced Wednesday she will introduce a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) next week (per CQ Roll Call), despite support from House Democrats to vote it down. Or rather, according to MTG, because of it – she wants Democrats who support Johnson to go on-record with their districts’ voters. MTG so far has but two co-sponsors for her motion to vacate next week, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

--TL

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MAY DAY 2024

Brown Deals With Protesters – The Brown Divest Coalition peacefully ended its week-long “Encampment for Gaza” at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, after university President Christina Paxson agreed to raise a divestment resolution at a corporation meeting in October, The Boston Globe reports. Paxson did not agree to demands to drop charges against 41 student protesters in an administration building last December, NPR reports, but the compromise contrasts with demonstrations at Columbia University in New York and the University of California Los Angeles where college administrators called in police to break up the protests Tuesday.

•••

Florida Ban – Florida’s strict six-week abortion ban replacing the state’s 15-week ban takes effect Wednesday, ahead of a November ballot measure to overturn the new rule. Clinic operators say the six-week ban, which makes exceptions only in rare instances, will affect at least 40,000 women per year, Politico reports. More than 6,000 women from Alabama and Georgia, two nearby states that already have very strict abortion bans, had travelled to Florida for abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

•••

Culture Wars Polled – In a clear sign of the culture wars that threaten to deepen the chasm between the two major parties for a long time to come, an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll released Wednesday finds that 47% of Democrats say the “rise of fascism and extremism” is their most important issue in the upcoming election, while 36% of Republicans say it is “lack of values.” Those issues for either party are by far the number-one concerns, Morning Edition reports. Republicans’ number-one concern is further described as the need to instill “children with faith in God, teaching them that hard work and discipline pay off..."

--TL

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TUESDAY 4/30/24

Stormy Weather – The Access Hollywood video in which Donald J. Trump describes his “grab-them-by” method of assaulting women raised interest in squelching Stormy Daniels’ story of an affair with the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, Keith Davidson, attorney for the adult film star testified Tuesday in the ex-president’s criminal trial in which he is charged with falsified business records. (Trump continues to deny the affair.) Daniels said that after the video’s release, he had “sometimes frantic” conversations with longtime fixer Michael Cohen as the November election approached, The New York Times reports.

In contempt: The judge in State of New York v. Donald John Trump, Juan Merchan, early Tuesday held the ex-president in contempt for violating a gag order by attacking witnesses in the case, including Daniels and Cohen. Fine for the nine counts is $9,000, and Merchan has issued a warning that Trump could go to jail if he continues such attacks.

Merchan gave Trump until 2:15 p.m. to remove five comments from Truth Social and two from his campaign website, which he did, NPR’s All Things Considered reports.

•••

Timely Interview – The Atlantic devoted an entire issue written by several contributors and staff journalists with “If Trump Wins” earlier this year. Further warning of an authoritarian second term is on the latest cover of Time magazine, with Eric Cortellessa’s two interviews with Donald J. Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, “How Far Trump Would Go.”

Trump confirmed to Cortellessa he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military in deporting undocumented aliens from the United States, Cortellessa writes. He “might” fire U.S. attorneys who refuse his orders to prosecute someone; “It would depend on the situation.”

There’s much more, which every U.S. voter, Republican, Democratic, independent and third party, should read here. We’ll leave you with this quote from a sidebar to the cover story …

“If you look at the Biden administration, they’re sort of against anybody depending on certain views. They’re against Catholics. They’re against a lot of different people … I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country, and that can’t be allowed either.”

--TL

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MONDAY 4/29/24

Arrest ‘Both Sides’? – As House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has suggested sending the National Guard to college campuses to control pro-Palestinian student protests, the International Criminal Court is preparing an arrest warrant on charges related to the war on Hamas in Gaza for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

“If this is not contained quickly and these threats and intimidation are not stopped, the National Guard should be called in,” Johnson said, of the protests late last week.

The Israeli government’s war on Gaza is becoming to President Biden’s re-election prospects what the majority conservative Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health is to Republicans in November’s elections.

But Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who was mentioned in Sunday’s New York Times as possibly the leading candidate to become Donald J. Trump’s running mate, told Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, “I don’t know if you need to call in the National Guard, maybe you just call in the police.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told anchor Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, “I think calling in the National Guard to college campuses for so many people would recall what was done during the Vietnam War, and it did not end well.”

Meanwhile … the Biden White House continues in earnest to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting early in the week with top Arab diplomats, according to The New York Times. Blinken has been urging Hamas leadership to accept Israel’s “extraordinarily generous” cease-fire offer.

That offer… Includes releasing “thousands” of Palestinians held in Israel, and a 40-day ceasefire, according to the BBC.

WCK returns to Gaza … Chef Jośe Anďres’ World Central Kitchen has resumed food delivery to Gaza, The Washington Postreports, less than a month after seven of its workers trying to deliver food to Palestinians were killed in a drone attack by the Israeli military.

•••

About that Pennsylvania Primary – Pundits in Pennsylvania are still talking about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s showing in last Tuesday’s primary election, in which she got 16.6% of the vote against ex-President Trump despite having ended her candidacy – or should we say suspending her candidacy? -- March 6. A bit more startingly, Haley got 20% of the vote in heavily Republican Lancaster County, LNP/Lancaster Online reports.

Incumbent President Biden did not have an easy time of it in the swing state himself, however, where Rep. Dean Philips (D-MN), who also dropped out of the race March 6, got 5.4% of Lancaster County’s Democratic votes. Both county breakouts to LNP were courtesy Berwood Yost, director of Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research and the Floyd Institute for Public Policy.

•••

Read the Right Column – In “The Biden Shuffle,” Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay discusses the president’s low step height and his low approval rating. >>>>>>>>>>>>

•••

Up on the Hill – Both the House and Senate are in-session Monday through Thursday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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The Biden Shuffle

By Stephen Macaulay

According to the National Institute on Aging, “Many older adults experience problems with balance and dizziness. Problems can be caused by certain medications, balance disorders, or other medical conditions. Balance problems are one reason older people fall.”

Which goes to point out as to why, rather than having a high foot lift and knee bend, there is simply a shuffle in the walking gait of older people. By keeping the feet closer to terra firma, the potential of taking a tumble is reduced.

Joe Biden is an 81-year-old man, certainly by definition an “older adult.” And when he walks, there is often an appearance of an awkward shuffle.

When walking across the White House lawn to Marine One, Axios reports, Biden is no longer going solo where his gait can be seen, but he is now surrounded by a gaggle of others, thereby adding some cover for the shuffle.

While the gerontological truth on the ground isn’t changed, it is at least disguised, thereby providing less attention to Biden’s balance.

But what ought to put Biden off balance — even if he is sitting down — is this from Gallup’s Jeffrey M. Jones: “President Joe Biden averaged 38.7% job approval during his recently completed 13^th quarter in office, which began on Jan. 20 and ended April 19. None of the other nine presidents elected to their first term since Dwight Eisenhower had a lower 13^th-quarter average than Biden.”

To put that into context: the Eisenhower measure is from 68 years ago, solidly in the AARP category.

What’s more, there’s this about that 38.7% performance: “The latest quarterly average for Biden is technically the lowest of his presidency to date, though not meaningfully different from the previous quarter’s 39%.”

In other words, just as Biden’s ability to stroll is probably decreasing, it appears that his approval is, too.

As we all know, “past performance is not indicative of future results.” But if you are a betting person there is something to be seriously considered, then and now. Jones points out: “Three of the four prior presidents who had 13^th-quarter approval averages below 50% lost their reelection bids. . .” wait for it. . . “with Obama the exception.” If there is ever a case where Biden would mutter “Thanks, Obama,” this is it.

There are just a couple of quarters until the results polling that will matter the most to Biden will be revealed.

Unless he can turn things around in a meaningful way, he won’t be kicking up his heels on November 5. Assuming that’s physically possible.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

This Might Not Be the Column…

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

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

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

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…meanwhile…

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

FRIDAY 4/29/24

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

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

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

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

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

•••

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

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

--TL

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

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

Listen to oral arguments on NPR here.

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

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

•••

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

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

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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Pecker Meets Hamilton

By Stephen Macaulay

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Biden’s Call to Arms

By Ken Zino

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

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

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

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

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

In his 68-minute speech, Biden addressed:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inspiring Conclusion

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

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

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

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

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

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