Joe Biden became the first US president to visit ‘Earth’s lungs,’ the Brazilian rainforest, Sunday, on his way to a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.  (White House photo)

Billionaires, TV Stars – Donald J. Trump’s appointee for Commerce secretary, chief of investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald Howard Lutnick, is the billionaire. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the television physician with nine daytime Emmys and a history of promoting quack medicine, whom the president-elect has chosen to lead the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (including the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare) is the latest on the growing list of TV stars.

Oz is best-known politics-wise as the Republican Senate candidate for Pennsylvania who lost to Democrat John Fetterman in the 2022 midterms.. 

Linda McMahon bridges both descriptions as a retired pro-wrestler who with her husband, Vince, founded Titan Sports, which became World Wrestling Entertainment – better known as the WWE. McMahon, who ran the Small Business Administration for Trump from 2017-19 is his choice to become what Newsweek says “may be America’s last Education secretary.”

Trump also has named his first term’s national intelligence director, John Ratcliffe, to become head of the CIA, 

As for the elephant in the elephant’s room, there is much speculation among the punditocracy that Trump’s chosen attorney general, ex-Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, is actually, in political animal terms, a “sacrificial lamb” meant to divert the Senate’s attention from Trump’s other choices. Theory goes that were a few Republican senators to join Democrats in defeating Gaetz’s nomination, he would move on to run for Florida governor in a couple of years. 

But Trump has made it clear he wants Gaetz to be his AG, which seems more a case of the president-elect testing how far he can push things – his “mandate,” or agenda. Or as Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project nonprofit formed to defend Trump against criminal charges against him told The Washington Post at Mar-a-Lago: “It’s a hostile takeover on behalf of the American people.”

--TL

_______________________________________________

TUESDAY 11/19/24

On the 1,000^th Day – Ukraine on Tuesday fired six US-made ATACMS – Army Tactical Missile System – missiles at Russia’s Bryansk region, sparking a fire but with no initial damage or casualties, Russia’s defense ministry said, according to the AP. The attack comes on the 1,000^th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and two days after President Biden eased restrictions of Ukraine’s use of American-made weapons, which in turn prompted Dictator/President Vladimir Putin to lower the Kremlin’s threshold for using nuclear arms (per The New York Times).

The Biden administration “strongly supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the lame-duck president told leaders at the G20 summit in Brazil.

United Russia Minister of Parliament Maria Butina said Monday that the US is “actually pushing the world to a very dangerous red line,” (per the BBC). Yes, that’s the same Maria Butina who five years ago pleaded guilty before US District Judge Tanya Chutkin to conspiracy charges for infiltrating conservative groups, including the National Rifle Association, for the goal of advancing Russian interests.

Meanwhile… President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented in an address Tuesday to Ukraine’s parliament a 10-point plan for “internal resilience,” The Kyiv Independent reports.

“Ukraine may need to outlive someone in Moscow to achieve all the goals,” Zelenskyy said. 

Zelenskyy was criticized earlier this autumn, before Donald J. Trump won the November 5 presidential election, for presenting a victory plan that focused primarily on requests from external parties while lacking domestic reform, according to the Independent’s report.

•••

Another Fox Celeb for Trump’s Cabinet – President-elect Trump has named Fox Business’ The Bottom Line host Sean Duffy to be his transportation secretary (per The Hill). Duffy was US representative for Wisconsin from 2011 to 2019, where he was a loyal supporter of Trump during his first presidential term, according to his Wikipedia page. Duffy began his television career in a slew of MTV reality shows; The Real World: Boston, Road Rules: All Stars and Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Battle of the Seasons. He is married to Rachel Campos Duffy, co-host with Trump’s choice for Defense secretary Pete Hesgeth on Fox & Friends: Weekend.

Meanwhile… Senate Republicans and “people around Trump” say the president-elect has been told that former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) has “little chance” of confirmation as attorney general, Politico reports, adding that the GOP senators are “privately hoping” Trump “doesn’t make them walk the plank.”

ICYMI… Trump has nominated Chris Wright, CEO of the Denver-based fracking company Liberty Energy to be his Energy secretary; former US Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) from 2015-23 to head the Environmental Protection Agency; and John Ratcliffe, Trump’s national intelligence director from 2020-21 to head the CIA.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
TUESDAY 11/19/24

HHS chief nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (far right) shows loyalty to President-elect Trump by eating a McDonald’s Big Mac. Also in this “viral” picture on Trump's jet (L-R): Elon Musk, Trump, Donald Trump Jr., House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

By Todd Lassa

Was Donald J. Trump joking when he said earlier this year he would be a dictator only on Day One of his second administration? There are pretty clear signs that the president-elect’s plans to transform our democratic republic into something different already is underway. Consider his four most controversial proposed appointments, announced rapid-fire only in the week after Vice President Kamala Harris’ decisive defeat. 

The president-elect wants (Ex-) Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), one of the most loyal Trumpists in Congress these last four years to be his attorney general, knowing he will investigate politicians and government officials Trump feels have aggrieved him. 

Trump’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a key reason he lost his first re-election campaign. Anti-vaxxer/conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is his choice for secretary of Health & Human Services. 

Pete Hesgeth is a Fox News weekend host and an Army National Guard officer who is not a general who would resist any attempt to politicize the military. He is Trump’s choice for Defense secretary. 

After a private meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki six years ago, Trump told a press conference he trusted the dictator more than US intelligence about whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Trump’s choice for national intelligence director is former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), who has been supportive of Russia and has visited Syria’s strongman-president, Bashar Assad. 

‘Warrior Board’

Whether or not he will, officially, implement key planks in The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, Trump has made it clear he plans to dismantle pillars of the federal government, beginning with firing four-star generals and admirals he wants to purge from the military. Trump’s transition team is considering a draft executive order, which The Wall Street Journal has reviewed, that would establish a “warrior board” of retired senior military personnel with power to review three- and four-star officers and recommend removing those deemed unfit – i.e., those devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion. Trump has in the past made a vow to fire “woke generals.”

As commander-in-chief, Trump already will have the ability to “fire at will,” but such an outside board as outlined in the draft EO would bypass the Pentagon’s regular promotional system, and hints at a wide-scale purge, according to the WSJ.

Two purges Trump might have wanted to make years ago are his former chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during his first term, Gen. Mark Milley. Both publicly warned prior to the November 5 election they believe Trump is a fascist.

A progressive military group, VoteVets, warns that the “warrior board” in the proposed executive order would “politicize” the military, according to Newsweek, which dubs the potential plan in its headline, “MAGA Military.”

Musk and Ramaswamy

Then there’s the proposal for a Department of Government Efficiency to be led by Tesla/SpaceX/Starlink CEO Elon Musk (who apparently has become a perennial guest at Mar-a-Lago) and his fellow billionaire, pharmaceutical exec and former candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, Vivek Ramaswamy. The department would not be a government entity so to avoid Musk and Ramaswamy having to divest themselves of any corporate holdings or interest, and has been compared with President Reagan’s Grace Commission, which got nothing substantial accomplished. Musk says he wants to use the Efficiency Department to cut $2 trillion out from the $6.75 trillion federal budget. 

That sort of cut is widely considered impossible, but even managing a small fraction would have a profound effect on the federal government, not to mention on the unemployment rate and overall economy.

The Fourth Senator

Three Republican senators likely to push back against at least some of Trump’s nominees are Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, Susan Collins, of Maine, and Todd Young, of Indiana, each of whom did not vote for their party’s leader November 5. If these three plus 47 Democratic senators vote against any Trump nominees, the incoming vice president, JD Vance, will cast the tiebreaker on a 50-50 vote. 

The Trump team also has floated the possibility of recess appointments, which the former and future president used extensively in his first term in order to fill key positions.

Meanwhile … One of the 53 Republicans making up the Senate majority is freshman Sen.-elect David McCormick. The Associated Press called the Pennsylvania senate race for McCormick over three-time incumbent Democrat Bob Casey after it concluded there weren’t enough remaining ballots left to be counted in precincts where Casey was leading. McCormick’s 29,000-vote lead is well within the 0.5% margin that triggers an automatic recount, which Casey has refused to waive. 

Pennsylvania counties have until Wednesday, November 20, to begin the recount and must finish by noon on Tuesday, November 26.

_____
MONDAY 11/18/24

CPI is 2.6% -- The Consumer Price Index was up 0.2% in October, for a 2.6% annual rate, up slightly from the September annual rate of 2.4%, which came before the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate cut by a quarter-point. The October CPI for all items except food and energy was +3.3%. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

FRIDAY 11/15/24

Not an Onion Headline – “The Onion Buys Infowars, Alex Jones’ Site, Out of Bankruptcy.” That’s from The New York Times, so you know it must be accurate. 

Also accurate: Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion’s owner Global Tetrahedron says the purchase has the backing of Everytown for Gun Safety, the group founded in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting. A bankruptcy judge forced Infowars parent Free Speech Systems to the auction when Jones failed to pay a judgment totaling nearly $1.5 billion to Sandy Hook shooting victims’ families for their successful defamation suit. 

The sale to Global Tetrahedron is subject to approval by a bankruptcy judge. Global Tetrahedron did not reveal the amount of its winning bid, but families reportedly support a lesser purchase price in favor of turning Infowars over to The Onion’s owners.

We’re expecting an online makeover that turns Infowars into something like Stephen Colbert’s old satire of Fox News hosts on his Comedy Central spinoff of The Daily Show, called The Colbert Report.

Sandy Hook families sued Jones in Connecticut and Texas after he repeatedly spread a vile conspiracy theory on Infowars that the shooting, in which 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed six teaching staff and 20 six- and seven-year-old children on December 14, 2012, was a “staged” TV production.

Everytown backs Global Tetrahedron’s purchase of Free Speech Systems out of bankruptcy and in fact will sponsor the new Infowars under The Onion parent’s ownership. Along with Infowars, Global Tetrahedron also obtains Free Speech Systems’ production studio and Jones’ diet supplement business.

Sandy Hook families’ suit, filed in Connecticut and Texas, was never about the money but rather about putting an end to Jones’ Infowars lies, Chris Mattei, attorney for the plaintiffs, told NPR. 

When asked on NPR’s All Things Considered when Global Tetrahedron’s new Infowars would launch, CEO Collins said; “We can’t really give it away, but it’s in January.”

•••

Drill, Baby, Drill – President-elect Trump has named North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) his nominee to head the Interior Department, which manages nearly 500 million acres of public land and vast coastal waters. Prime oil drilling locations, in other words.

Think of Burgum as the yin to Elon Musk’s yang.

Burgum made his fortune from software, real estate and venture capital before he ran for North Dakota governor in 2016 and is “particularly close” to Harold G. Hamm, the CEO and founder of one of the largest independent oil companies, Continental Resources, according to The New York Times, which notes that Hamm has given nearly $5 million to the Trump campaign since 2023.

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 11/14/24

Bye-Bye Flouride? – President-elect Trump is expected to nominate vaccine-averse Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Politico reports, citing a “person with direct knowledge” of the plan. When RFK Jr. was running for president this year on his own, he promised to “go wild” with health and food policy. His impending nomination to HHS is yet another sign of the added confidence to the incoming administration of Trump’s big win November 5 and the Republican Party’s Senate majority.

•••

Storming the Gaetz – It has only been nine or 10 days, and already President-elect Trump is testing the limits of his “mandate” with his nomination of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to be his attorney general. That is, ex-Rep. Gaetz, as he promptly resigned from the House of Representatives after Trump’s announcement. 

Gaetz was (still is?) days away from a likely release of a “damning” House Ethics Committee report about allegations he had sex with a minor, Politico Playbook reports. His resignation effectively ended the Ethics Committee investigation, but it also “scuttled” Republican plans for a show of unity after Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was re-elected to his House leadership role – he will remain speaker.

In the end, a majority of House Republicans might get what they want: a mostly unliked Gaetz out of the House and a Republican-controlled Senate that could use the investigation to vote against him to become Trump’s AG.

Who else? … That leaves open the question of whom Trump’s next choice for AG might be. According to the Playbook report, Gaetz was not on the president-elect’s shortlist as late as Monday, but Trump was not happy with his other choices.

 Intel for Gabbard… Equally or perhaps more troubling for what’s left of mainline Republicans, and pretty much everybody else, is Trump’s choice of former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence. Her pick was first revealed by Trump confidant Roger Stone on his X/Twitter account, according to The New York Times. 

Senate Democrats are sure in her confirmation hearing to raise questions about her decision to meet with Syrian president/strongman Bashar al-Assad and her pro-Russian talking points. It will also be a test of whether someone like lame-duck and pro-Ukraine Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) might put up some resistance to Gabbard’s nomination.

Others ... Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski (AK), Susan Collins (ME) and Todd Young (IN) said prior to the November 5 election they would not vote for Donald J. Trump. Along with someone like McConnell, or if a recount for the Pennsylvania Senate race flips for incumbent Democrat Bob Casey (see below), they could provide resistance against some of Trump's more controversial nominees.

•••

Another Red House – The Associated Press has called House of Representatives’ majority at 218 seats to Democrats’ 208 seats. Nine seats are yet to be determined after last week Tuesday’s elections.

Meanwhile… AP several days ago pegged the Senate’s final numbers at 53 Republicans to 47 Democrats. On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania secretary of state’s office said that a margin of less than 0.5% between Republican candidate for US Senate Dave McCormick and three-term Democratic incumbent Bob Casey has triggered a recount. McCormick has led Casey by as many as 40,000 votes since the elections, but Casey held off on conceding as about 100,000 mail-in ballots had yet to be counted. As of Wednesday, when the recount was automatically triggered McCormick was leading Casey by roughly 28,000 votes out of 6.9 million.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
THURSDAY 11/14/24

WEDNESDAY 11/13/24

This One -- ... will be most controversial: Trump has named Rep. Matt Gaetz as his attorney general.

UPDATE -- Senate Republicans have chosen John Thune of South Dakota as majority leader. Thune replaces Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who steps down as minority leader this year.

Majority Leader Day – Republican senators are set to choose the next majority leader Wednesday, with GOP whip John Thune of South Dakota, and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas the lead candidates. Dark horse is President-elect Trump’s preference, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida (U.S. News & World Report). 

•••

DOGE Style – The tech bro couple of MAGA dreams, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, are tipped to lead President-elect Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency – yes, DOGE, for The Elon’s favored bitcoin product – according to The Wall Street Journal. DOGE’s mandate is to streamline government bureaucracy, Trump said. Good news for the world’s richest man and leader of SpaceX, X, Tesla and Starlink is that DOGE will operate outside of government – so no need for Elon to divest, even regarding NASA contracts with SpaceX.

More picks for All the Best People 2.0 … Peter Hegseth, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and host of Fox & Friends Weekend will be Trump’s defense secretary, The New York Times reports, adding that he’s “outside the norm of the traditional defense secretary.” Which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is the point. … Mike Huckabee, talk show host on the religious network TBN, former governor of Arkansas and father of the current governor of Arkansas is Trump’s choice to be ambassador to Isreal. Huckabee has “long called himself a Zionist,” the AP notes. So, no two-state solution. Nah.

--TL

TUESDAY 11/12/24

Noem to Homeland Security – President-elect Trump has chosen South Dakota Gov. and Uber-Trumper™ Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security, The Wall Street Journal reports. The department is key to Trump’s mass deportation plans. Noem was on the short-list to become Trump’s running mate last summer.

Gallego Beats Lake – Arizona was the seventh and final swing state to swing for Donald J. Trump in Sunday’s final count, but the president-elect’s coattails were not long enough to drag along uber-Trumper Kari Lake, who has lost her US Senate bid to Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego. With 95% of the vote counted, challenger Lake had 47.8% of the vote to Gallego’s 50%, The Wall Street Journal reports. Final count for the next Senate is 53 Republicans to 47 Democrats.

•••

Trump Appointments – President-elect Donald J. Trump has revealed a number of appointments the past few days, beginning last Thursday with his campaign chair, Susan Wiles, for chief of staff. Meanwhile …

Secretary of State: Marco Rubio, as first reported on CNN’s The Source With Kaitlan Collins. Yes, that’s right, ‘Little Marco,’ though since that ca. 2016 Trump insult, the neocon senator from Florida, a hardliner on China, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, according to The New York Times, has come around to the Trumpian belief the Ukraine “conflict” has reached a stalemate, and “needs to be brought to a conclusion.”

UN ambassador: Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York. Stefanik was a Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan trad-conservative Republican when she first ran for her House seat in 2014, at age 30, (per NPR’s All Things Considered), but pivoted to support Trump during his first administration. By 2021, she replaced Rep. Liz Cheney (WY) as House Republican Conference Chair after Cheney’s colleagues ousted her over her repudiation of Trump’s involvement in the January 6^th attack on the US Capitol. 

EPA administrator: Lee Zeldin, another New York Republican, will be in charge of dismantling President Biden’s climate change regulations (Politico). Zeldin was a loyal supporter of the president-elect when he served as a congress member during the first Trump administration.

Border czar: Thomas Homan was acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for part of the first Trump administration (ibid). He will not need Senate confirmation to become border czar, an unofficial title the Trump/Vance campaign misleadingly attached to Kamala Harris to attack her record as vice president. Homan says Trump 2.0 will crank up workplace raids, telling Fox & Friends’ Steve Doocy; “Where do we find most victims of sex trafficking and forced labor trafficking? At worksites.”

Deputy chief of staff: Stephen Miller, the 39-year-old senior advisor to Trump during his first administration (ibid) is considered perhaps the most extreme of hardliners on immigration reform. 

Speaking of … Susan Wiles, Trump’s pick as his chief of staff and the first woman to be so-named, told a private crowd that Trump will “move quickly” to reinstate orders from his first administration that President Biden then revoked, The New York Timesreports. Wiles did not specify which orders will be reinstated.

Uninvited … Niki Haley and Mike Pompeo. Haley, who once had Stefanik’s future job reportedly patched things up with Trump after her attempt to beat him to the GOP nomination this year, but he did not take her up on her offer to campaign for him. Trump ruled out Haley and his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, for any future in his next White House. Pompeo, a pro-Ukraine hawk, reassured Fortune’s Global Forum in New York City Monday that Trump “is not going to let Vladimir Putin run through Ukraine.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

Is Project 2025 On?

MONDAY 11/11/24

By Todd Lassa

Do you fear The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025? Or do you hope to see the incoming Trump White House quickly execute it? 

President-elect Donald J. Trump spent the vs. Harris portion of his campaign disavowing any significant knowledge of the sweeping, 900-some-page blueprint titled Mandate for Leadership – The Conservative Promise, which includes provisions to fire thousands of federal public employees and replace them with the president’s loyalists, make the nation safer for Christian nationalism, eliminate the Education Department and cut or privatize Social Security and Medicare.

On that first point, specifically, Project 2025 proposes that the next conservative president reinstate Schedule F, which Trump signed at the end of his first administration, to “dispatch at will” federal employees who are in the position to make or advocate policy, says the special interest website, Federal News Network. President Biden rescinded Schedule F on the third day of his administration. 

The Harris/Walz campaign tried to tie Trump/Vance to Project 2025 and tried to tell voters it is authoritarianism hiding in plain sight.

The Harris/Walz campaign’s warning didn’t work, convincing only voters who already were supporters.

Trump denied knowing much, if anything, about Project 2025, though “at least” 140 people who worked on it had also worked in the Trump administration, according to an investigative report by CNN.

Before JD Vance became Trump’s running mate, he wrote the forward to a new book by Heritage Foundation chief and lead architect on Project 2025, Kevin Roberts, originally titled Dawn’s Early Light: Burning Down Washington to Save America (a title whose second half seems to evoke what many Trump supporters attempted on January 6, 2021). The book was original scheduled for publication by HarperCollins on September 24, but the controversy raised by the Harris/Walz campaign prompted Roberts to call for its release date to be delayed until November, according to RealClearPolitics.

In his early-Wednesday morning acceptance speech last week, Donald J. Trump said he has an “unprecedented mandate.” Trump has since won all seven battleground states, and has even won the American popular vote, a claim he could not make eight years earlier. 

Meanwhile, the GOP has a 53-46 Senate majority (with one race yet to be called) and a 213-203 House majority likely to remain Republican when all the ballots are counted. 

Since his election victory, Trump has reiterated plans to close the southern border and start deporting undocumented aliens – at least, those deemed “criminals,” at first. He will end the Russian-Ukraine war in 24 hours, much to the dismay of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to the delight of Vladimir Putin. 

Trump will keep his tax-cut promise, which means making the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 – set to expire next year – permanent, while also lowering the corporate tax for certain corporations to 17%, from 21% (which itself was a TCJA reduction from 35%). 

Our president-elect finds “tariff” to be the most beautiful word in the English language and has promised 10% across the board one for virtually all incoming imports. 

Conservative and liberal economists alike warn that his plans for tariff hikes and mass deportations will re-ignite inflation, so Trump might want to consider instead slow-walking these promises and take the Bidenomics gains of 2.4% current inflation and 4.1% unemployment, along with decent economic growth, as his own win.

Which gets us back to Project 2025: Will Trump pivot back to The Heritage Foundation’s radical conservative blueprint? Will he implement a few of the less-radical policy initiatives? Or will he move toward full implementation without naming it? 

Your opinion on these questions matter. Email editors@thehustings.news with your civil comments and please, indicate your political leanings in the subject line. [You’ll note a right-column commentary on this question by Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay, who is a never-Trump conservative. We welcome comments from both never-Trump and pro-MAGA conservatives, as well as liberal readers from the various degrees along the left-spectrum.]

_____
MONDAY 11/11/24

Question: Now that Donald J. Trump has decisively won a second term, will the president-elect again embrace Project 2025, which obviously was written for him in the first place?

FRIDAY 11/8/24

Racist Text Messages to Black Youth, Adults – The FBI and several state attorneys general have opened inquiries into racist text messages sent to Black men, women and children that started to appear Wednesday, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The texts have gone out to Black middle-school, high school and college students, including the 17-year-old son of St. Louis’ mayor, according to the report, and say the recipients have been chosen for “some sort of indentured servitude.” (Listen to NPR’s report here.)

NPR tried calling phone numbers associated with the texts, to no avail. There is no indication yet whether the texts might be related to election day bomb threats at polls or pre-election day misinformation and disinformation thought to have come primarily from Russian hackers.

•••

EU to Abandon Ukraine? – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told an informal conference of European Union leaders in Budapest Friday that the EU must rethink its support for Ukraine following Donald J. Trump’s election victory, Reuters reports. Orbán, who is a close friend of both Trump and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, said Europe cannot finance the war without US support. 

Trump has promised to “end” the war via negotiations between Putin – who has fortified his aggression with North Korean army troops – and Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

“The Americans will quit this war, first of all they will not encourage the war,” Orbán told state radio (a product of his own authoritarian rule).

Meanwhile … The Biden White House is rushing to process about $50 billion in guaranteed loans to Ukraine before January 20. 

Speaking at the EU leaders’ conference in Budapest Thursday, Zelenskyy said this: “There should be no illusion that a just peace can be brought by showing weakness. Peace is a reward only for the strong.”

•••

Newsome Jumps Trump – Gov. Gavin Newsome Thursday issued a proclamation calling for a special session of the California legislature “to safeguard California values and fundamental rights in the face of an incoming Trump administration.” It is set to begin December 2, the day newly elected members of the state senate and assembly will be sworn in. 

“The special session will focus on bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action and immigrant families,” the proclamation states. 

Newsome is a likely candidate for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination who was considered in the running after President Biden stepped down from his re-election bid and before Vice President Kamala Harris was named his successor.

The special session will assure California “won’t be flat footed come June,” said Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta, (per the Los Angeles Times). “You can be sure that as California attorney general, if Trump attacks your rights, I’ll be there. If Trump comes after your freedoms, I’ll be there. If Trump jeopardizes your safety and well-being, I’ll be there.”

James Gallagher, the California assembly’s Republican leader, responded thusly: “This special session is a shameless political stunt. The only ‘problem’ it will solve is Gavin Newsome’s insecurity that not enough people are paying attention to him.”

Newsome v. Musk? … Lots of context here. In addition to the civil rights issues AG Bonta mentions above, Sacramento is concerned Trump will seek to gut California of its ability to set its own emissions standards established during Gov. Ronald Reagan’s administration. Later, during the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (also a Republican), California established a zero-emissions mandate, which had stemmed early losses at Tesla as it sold EV credits to automakers that fell short of the standard. 

But by the ‘10s, CEO Elon Musk, who appears headed to the Trump White House as a government waste-reduction czar, said he would have preferred Tesla to stand on its own without the ZEV credits. 

•••

Casey Defeated in PA – The Associated Press has called Pennsylvania’s US Senate seat for Trump-backed Republican challenger David McCormick, former CEO of the world’s largest hedge-fund. However, three-term incumbent Sen. Bob Casey (D) had not conceded as of Friday morning, saying at least 100,000 ballots – including provisional, military and overseas – are yet to be counted, according to the AP, which reports McCormick leads by 31,000 votes.

The Senate count now stands at 53 Republican, including McCormick, to 45 Democratic, with two races yet to be called. In the House of Representatives, Republicans have 211 seats to 199 Democratic seats, with 25 races to be called, and 218 necessary for the majority.

--TL

_______________________________________________

THURSDAY 11/7/24

This Just In -- Ex-president/President-elect Donald J. Trump has named a top political aide, Susie Wiles, as chief of staff. She will become the first woman in the role.

•••

UPDATE – The Federal Reserve lowered its target interest rate by ¼ points to the 4 ½% to 4 ¾% range, while reiterating it remains “strongly committed to supporting maximum employment and returning inflation to its 2% objective.” Whether meant intentional or not, the commitment seems to warn about potentially inflationary policies like tax cuts and tariffs.

II -- Chairman Jerome Powell said he does not expect the general election to influence the Fed's rate setting in the future, though the next president or Congress could enact fiscal policy that "could have effects over time that do matter." (Per Marketplace.) Powell also said he will not step down as Fed chairman if President-elect Trump asks him to, according to Marketwatch.

Another Rate Cut? – The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by another ¼-point when it concludes its Board of Governors meeting Thursday afternoon, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. This would mark the second benchmark rate cut since the Consumer Price Index fell close to the Fed’s 2% target late this year. In September, the Fed cut the rate by a half-point as the CPI came down to 2.5% from its end-of-pandemic high of 9.1% in June 2022.

Fed up? ... While Thursday’s expected cut was considered the second of many, the economic policies of President-elect Donald J. Trump could potentially blunt that. Specifically, another tax cut financed by hiked tariffs on imported goods would potentially re-fuel inflation. Trump already has spoken of taking executive control of the otherwise independent Fed and is unlikely to re-appoint its chair, Jerome Powell, when his term from the first Trump administration expires May 15, 2026.

•••

Zelenskyy Promotes ‘Peace Through Strength’ – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made his most-pointed response to President-elect Trump’s vow to work out a peace plan between Ukraine and Russia, at the European Political Community Summit in Budapest Thursday, per The Kyiv Independent.

“There should be no illusions that a just peace can be bought by showing weakness,” Zelenskyy said. “Peace is a reward only for the strong.”

Trump has said he can “solve” it in a day, as he has promised for a number of other issues, which apparently means handing over parts of Ukraine already claimed by Vladmir Putin’s Russian army. 

Meanwhile, President Biden is rushing to distribute before he leaves office a remaining $50 billion in Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration loans, backed by interest earned from immobilized Russian sovereign assets, reports Morning Edition.

•••

That’s a Wrap – Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith is expected to wrap up his two cases against president-elect/ex-President Donald J. Trump – conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 election and hoarding of classified documents -- before Trump’s January 20^th inauguration (per NPR’s All Things Considered). Because a sitting president cannot face trial, that gives Smith 74 days as of Thursday to present his case. Afterward, he faces potential retribution from the once and future prez.

•••

Next House – Control of the House of Representatives for the 119^th Congress remains undecided, with 40 seats yet to be called. As of Thursday morning, there are 205 Republican, and 190 Democratic victors, with 218 needed for control. It may take weeks before numbers are final, according to The New York Times.

New Senate … Republicans already have taken the Senate, with 52 seats. Democrats now have 44 seats. Key races in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania have yet to be called.

--TL

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Trump Will Be #47; GOP Takes Senate

WEDNESDAY 11/6/24

There will not be the long, drawn-out ballot count in the battleground states that virtually everybody (including us) had predicted. North Carolina and Georgia fell to Donald J. Trump before midnight Tuesday, while blue counties in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan were showing smaller margins for Kamala Harris than for Joe Biden four years earlier and Trump’s margin in key red counties in most states grew from 2020.

Trump, 78, was leading the popular vote Wednesday morning for the first time in three elections, 71.39 million to 66.45 million, according to the AP.

The once and future president did not wait for the AP to call Wisconsin and leap past the 270 electoral vote threshold when he made his victory speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, about 2:30 am EST. 

“Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason,” Trump told his crowd, referring to an assassination attempt last July in Butler, Pennsylvania, and another last September at Trump International Golf Club in Florida. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first foreign leader to hail Trump’s victory, The Guardian reports, writing on social media: “The biggest comeback in US political history! Congratulations to President @realDonaldTrump on his enormous win. A much-needed victory for the world!”

It probably doesn’t need to be repeated that Orbán is the only European Union leader allied with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump’s “huge victory” a “powerful recommitment” to the US-Israeli alliance, according to Haaretz. 

Prior to the market’s opening Wednesday morning, stocks rallied and bitcoin soared, “with investors piling into trades that align with a second Trump presidency,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “The dollar and Treasury yields both jumped, reflecting bets that Trump’s policies could widen the budget deficit and stoke inflation, while tariffs would strain trading partners.”

Meanwhile, myriad media outlets report that exit polls indicate male Latino support for Trump nearly reached 50%; Evelyn Pérez-Verdía, founder of We Are Más, cited the gender gap and told NPR’s Morning Edition the president-elect’s support was up 13 points among Latinos from 2020.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 11/6/24