Left and Right commentary on center-column political news.
•Go to the Comments section in this column, or the column on the right if you lean conservative rather than liberal, to comment on Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, or on other political news issues.
•Or email editors@thehustings.news with your comments and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.
•Visit our Substack page here and sign up for our free newsletter.
_____
Ukraine's military says it controls nearly 400 square miles of Russia, in and around the Kursk region, NPR's Morning Edition reports. Scroll down for details.
TUE 8/13/24
Details -- Up to 1,000 soldiers, at least 11 tanks and 20 armored vehicles have crossed the Ukraine border into Russia since its counteroffensive a week ago, the Kyiv Post reports. Alexei Smirnov, governor of Kursk Oblast reports at least 12 civilians dead and 121 injured. About 121,000 residents of the region have fled or evacuated, and the governor of the neighboring Belgorod region also has evacuated civilians from its border region, according to the Post.
As Western pundits debate over why Ukraine chose to invade a week ago, The Kyiv Independent says the move into Kursk Oblast is meant to divert Russian tanks and protect Ukraine's border regions, Kyiv says. But the Kyiv Post also reports that residents of the small town of Sudzha have appealed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin for help and that many there worry that family members were unable to evacuate. Sudzha has just 5,000 residents, but it also is the last major transit point for Russian pipeline gas heading to Europe via Ukraine.
•••
Both Campaigns Hacked, FBI Says -- Computer hackers in Iran have tried to hack a Trump associate and advisors to the Biden-Harris campaign, people "familiar with the matter" tell The Washington Post. Three Biden-Harris staffers also received spear-phishing emails, according to the report.
"We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter," the agency said in a prepared statement. According to the WaPo the FBI began investigating the hacking in June, contacting Google and other companies.
--TL
____________________________________________
MON 8/12/24
More – Ukraine pushed at least 10 miles into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, adding that unconfirmed reports say the counteroffensive went as much as 20 miles past the border, with locals fleeing and complaining there was a lack of warning from Russia’s government, which is offering them 10,000 rubles (about US$115) compensation.
The incursion has strained Ukraine’s defensive forces in the Kharkiv region, according to NPR, while Russian reinforcements are expected to push back Ukrainian troops in Kursk soon and reclaim the border.
The debate: Allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with US arms once raised worries Vladimir Putin would give him excuse to engage with the US and NATO. In May, the US allowed Ukraine to use its missiles to counter-strike Russia’s attack on the Kharkiv region. Of the further push across the border, Business Ukraine magazine tweeted this Monday morning: “Now that Ukraine has crossed the reddest of Putin’s red lines and invaded Russia without sparking World War III, there are no excuses for restricting Kyiv’s ability to defend itself or denying Ukraine the weapons it needs to win the war.”
Agree? Disagree? – Read the left or right column for how to add your comments to this page.
•••
‘Final’ Ceasefire Proposal This Week (?) – It all comes to a head, again, this week when President Biden, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani are to present a “final” ceasefire proposal to end Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza (per The New York Times). The US, Egypt and Qatar last Thursday called on Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiations table. Then on Saturday, at least 93 people were killed in a school sheltering Palestinian refugees in Gaza, The Washington Post reports. Israel said its military forces were targeting Hamas fighters.
On Monday, according to Haaretz, leaders of the UK, France and Germany called on Iran to refrain from attacks on Israel that would jeopardize truce talks, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asking Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to “do everything possible to prevent further military escalation.”
•••
On Biden’s Exit Interview – President Biden spoke about his proposal for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in his interview with Robert Costa for CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend.
“The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the UN Security Council, etc., is still viable,” Biden said. “And I’m working literally every single day – and my whole term – to see to it that it doesn’t escalate into a regional war. But it easily can.”
Huge turnouts supporting Harris’ campaign have included some demonstrators opposed to continued funding and support for Israel in its war on Hamas in Gaza.
CBS News released a clip of the Sunday Morning interview last week, in which Biden warns that he believes Donald J. Trump will not accept a loss in the November election. Trump has said he will accept results of a free and fair election, but his campaign also is floating the notion that the Democratic Party’s switch to Vice President Harris as his opponent is not “constitutional.”
Biden told Costa he made his decision to withdraw from the presidential race with a “small circle” of people including First Lady Jill Biden at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home as he recovered from a case of COVID.
•••
Harris Trumps Trump, Biden, on Economy – This one, frankly, is a bit confounding. An FT Michigan Ross poll finds that 42% trust Vice President Kamala Harris to handle the economy while 41% trust ex-President Trump. … And Harris’ score tops the most recent score for President Biden by seven points. Never mind that the Federal Reserve has more to do with interest rates and trying to control inflation than does any president, though Trump has indicated his second presidential term would seize some or all control from the Fed. In her nascent presidential campaign, there is no indication Harris would abandon Biden’s reversal of “trickle-down” supply side Reaganomics.
And yet, “The fact that voters were more positive on Harris than on Biden … says as much about how badly Biden was doing as it does about how well Harris is doing,” University of Michigan Professor Erik Golden said, according to the Financial Times.
Presumably, the professor was speaking about the Harris v. the Biden campaign, not the Harris v. the Biden economy.
•••
Musk Interviews Trump – X-Twitter owner Elon Musk will interview Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump on X-Twitter, 8 pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific, on X-Twitter.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
•Go to the Comments section in this column, or the column on the left if you lean liberal rather than conservative, to comment on Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, or on other political news issues.
•Or email editors@thehustings.news with your comments and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.
•Visit our Substack page here and sign up for our free newsletter.
_____
Whether you identify more with the left column or the right column, we’d love to hear from you. Hit the Comments section in the right column if you lean conservative, or the Comments section in this column if you lean liberal.
Or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.
Or do you consider yourself “centrist”? Write to us at the email address above and we’ll write back to figure out which column best characterizes your comments.
Did you know that while we do not have a newsletter, we do have a Substack page?
In the coming weeks we’ll be looking at the reported Elon Musk-Donald J. Trump interview that is to take place Monday, August 12. We’ll also be talking about the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which begins a week later, on August 19.
_____
(President Biden expressed doubts ex-President Trump would accept a loss, in an interview taped for CBS Sunday Morning. Scroll down the center column for details.)
Ukraine Takes Kursk – Although not officially connected to Ukraine’s invasion of the western Russian region of Kursk, a column of Russian military vehicles and personnel “was destroyed” there, The Kyiv Independent reports Friday, citing Suspilne and the independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo. Kursk Oblast is the location of the Ukrainian military’s incursion this week into Russia.
The report was corroborated by pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Rybar, which said that a local resident who filmed the attack handed the video over to Ukrainian media but has been arrested by Russian authorities. In the BBC’s report on the incursion, a reporter says Russian media have been unusually frank in reporting on Ukraine’s success in the region.
•••
That Mar-a-Lago Presser – Ex-President Trump’s hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago Thursday was “rambling and chaotic” according to NPR’s Morning Edition and by now you’ve heard the highlights.
This one stands out: “Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours – same real estate, same everything, same number of people if not – we had more.”
That’s right, Donald J. Trump was comparing the peaceful 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to his January 6, 2021, speech at the Ellipse leading up to the attack on the US Capitol. He described his White House departure in the presser as “peaceful.”
The country is in mortal danger if Trump does not win the November 5 presidential election, he said, predicting war and a depression on the level of the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Asked about his remarks before the National Association of Black Journalists last week suggesting that his Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris changed her ethnicity, Trump called her “very disrespectful” of both her mother’s Indian heritage and her father’s Jamaican heritage.
Describing Harris’ appeal, Trump said; “She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.” (Direct quotes per The New York Times.)
--TL
_____________________________________________
THURSDAY 8/8/24
Trump Agrees to Three Debates -- Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump announced at a "rare" Mar-a-Lago press conference that he has agreed to three debates with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris (per Politico). They are to be on Fox News September 4, ABC on September 10 and NBC on September 25.
•••
It’s About Cars? – President Biden is pretty sure Donald J. Trump will resist defeat in the November 5 presidential election. On CBS Sunday Morning Robert Costa asks Biden if he’s “confident there will be a peaceful transition of power in January of 2025?”
“If Trump loses, no I’m not,” the president responds. “I’m not confident at all. He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All this stuff about if we lose it’ll be a bloodbath … Look what they’re trying to do in the local election districts where the people count the votes … putting people in place where they’re going to count the votes.”
The full interview runs Sunday morning, August 11, between 9 am and 10:30 am Eastern time.
Republican reaction: Trump defenders say his statement earlier this year that there “will be a bloodbath” was a warning about the US auto industry if Chinese automakers are allowed importation without serious tariffs (Biden has imposed a 102.5% tariff on Chinese-built EVs). The former president’s comments came after the United Auto Workers’ leadership endorsed the Democratic ticket.
Flashback: In the Trump-Biden debate in late June, the one that led to Biden stepping down from his re-election campaign, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Trump three times whether he will accept the results of this November’s election.
After some evasion and downplaying of his role in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, when Bash asked; “yes or no?” on that third attempt, Trump replied, “absolutely” he would accept results if the election was “fair and good.”
NOTE: Don’t miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary, “Letter from the President” in the right column.
•••
Reports: Ukraine Pushes Into Russia – Ukraine forces launched on Tuesday “an ambitious operation” across Russia’s western border at Kursk Oblast in large numbers,” The Kyiv Independent reports, citing a mix of sources. Officials in Kyiv have so far been silent about the offensive.
But Russia’s defense ministry says the invasion involves a Ukrainian force likely involving 100s of troops and dozens of vehicles, according to the report. A “visibly frustrated” Vladimir Putin called the offensive a “large-scale provocation” and accused Ukrainian forces of shelling residential areas, in a short, televised address on Wednesday.
The Independent reports no official announcements from Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken to his commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and said “details would follow later.”
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
(President Biden expressed doubts ex-President Trump would accept a loss, in an interview taped for CBS Sunday Morning. […]
By Stephen Macaulay
I never knew how important we were here at The Hustings.
That is, the other day I received a letter with this in the space where the return address would otherwise appear:
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
Now I know that it is a sign of respect that former office holders often are called by their former titles.
But the position on the envelope could cause something of an issue.
That is, it seems as though this is a statement of present condition, as though he is currently president of the United States.
What if there was some problem delivering the letter to my address and it had to be returned to sender?
Wouldn’t it be reasonable that the postal worker would figure the president is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW and so send it to Joe Biden?
Inside the envelope was, of course, a lengthy screed that, fundamentally, exhorted me to send money to an address that isn’t on Pennsylvania Avenue. Money that would, so it argued, permit Donald J. Trump to return to that address and, what’s more, save the country.
Or that would be more appropriately put: Save the Country!
You may be thinking, “Getting a solicitation from a politician is no big deal. Who doesn’t get them?”
And you would be right.
But what made my letter from Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, special was that it included the “MAGA VICTORY SURVEY.”
The survey was printed not only with my name and address, but an eight-digit Personal Identification Code. Does that mean that there are tens of millions of others who have gotten a survey? I’d like to think not.
The instructions tell me that upon completion I am to “submit this form along with your contribution to the TRUMP NATIONAL COMMITTEE in the postage-paid RUSH RETURN ENVELOPE provided and return immediately.”
I understand why the committee is in caps and boldface; I wonder about the return envelope’s status.
The four-page MAGA VICTORY SURVEY includes 17 questions, although #17 is a bit of a ringer as it is actually a “PERSONAL SUPPORT FORM” that asks:
“Will you support the Trump National Committee’s efforts to regain the White House, win a Republican Majority in the U.S. Senate, strengthen our Republican Majority in the U.S. House, and elect Republicans across America in this November’s elections?”
The box followed by YES! includes recommended donation amounts starting at $2,024. There is also a $47 option: “A symbolic gift of $47 signifies your commitment to making Donald Trump the 47th President of the United States this November.”
There is a “No” option: “I want the Democrats to take over the White House.”
It is surprising that it isn’t followed by “TRAITOR!”
There is a third box:
“While I support the Trump-Republican agenda, I cannot donate at the suggested levels at this time. Enclosed is my gift of $15 to cover the cost of processing my Survey.”
To quote Donald J. Trump, “Sad.”
However, if it is costing the Trump National Committee $15 per survey — I mean, Survey — and there are tens of millions out there, it seems they might have found a more cost-effective processing house.
Anyway, for those of your who didn’t get a letter from
Donald J. Trump
President of the United States
here’s the sort of questions you’re missing:
Note how the current president is simply referred to by his name. (And it should be noted that this was printed pre-Kambala.)
3. Please rank the following issue priorities in terms of importance to you (with
1 being the most important, 5 being the least important),
I know what you’re thinking: Ones across the board!
And it goes on from there, including witch hunts, Lunatic Left policies, invasion, harsh mandates, unelected Deep State bureaucrats, and more.
You can only imagine the mental “Four more years! Four more years!” chant that is going on among the tens of millions as they fill out their MAGA VICTORY SURVEY.
One curious thing, however.
There is fine print.
It indicates that Trump National Committee (‘TNC’) is “a joint fundraising committee of Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. (‘DJTFP’), the principal campaign committee of Donald J. Trump, and the Republican National Committee (RNC).”
Of the money sent (“not deductible for federal income tax purposes”), the distribution will be 10% to the RNC and “90% to DJTFP, which will designate the funds first to its primary election account, then it its general election account, and finally to its recount account.”
“Recount account”?
Are the folks at Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc., nervous about something?
_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
After dropping 1,034 points Monday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average clawed back 294.39 points Tuesday to finish at 38,703.27, which looks like a “correction.” We will have to watch Wall Street for at least the rest of the week to figure out what effect the market might have on the newly minted Kamala Harris/Tim Walz Democratic ticket.
Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump is unlikely to wait, but Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay has something to say about that, in the right column.
We are looking ahead to an interview of Trump by Tesla/Starlink/SpaceX chief Elon Musk, possibly on his social media platform, X-Twitter. It is to take place Monday, details to come.
The following Monday, August 19, the Democratic National Convention begins.
We invite you to Comment on these and other news items and political issues. Email editors@thehustings.news and list your political leanings in the subject line.
_____
Harris and Walz Tour – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris – it’s official now – continues her tour of seven battleground states begun Tuesday in Philadelphia when she introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. The Dem pair knock off two more battlegrounds Wednesday by visiting Eau Claire, Wisconsin and Detroit (per NPR’s Morning Edition).
In a jam-packed stadium rally in Philadelphia introduced by veepstakes first runner-up Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, Walz proved himself ready to be Harris’ affable, Midwestern dad-attack dog, telling the ebullient crowd about the Trump-Vance Republican ticket, “You know you feel it. These guys are creepy, and yes, weird as hell.”
As if setting out to confirm the “creepiness,” GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance will follow Harris/Walz for the first three days of her swing state tour, Business Insider reports. Vance, who Wednesday described Walz as “one of the most far-left governors,” said he would agree to a vice presidential debate after the Democratic National Convention, which begins the week of August 19.
•••
Another Squad Defeat – With $8.5-million backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s United Democracy Project Super-PAC, Wesley Bell defeated “Squad” member Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for Missouri’s 1st District House seat (AP). Bell, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, faces Republican primary winner Andrew Jones in the heavily Democratic district.
In Missouri’s heavily Republican 3rd District, Donald J. Trump-backed candidate Bob Onder defeated Kurt Schaefer in the GOP primary, AP reports. Both are former state senators, and Onder is also a physician.
Lucas Kunce won Missouri’s Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Josh Hawley in November.
In Michigan Tuesday, Rep. Elissa Slotkin won the Democratic primary to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D). Slotkin faces Republican primary winner Mike Rogers in November.
In Washington state, Raul Garcia won the Republican primary to challenge Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell (The New York Times).
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
By Stephen Macaulay
Although I am as concerned as the next guy about looking at my 401k right now, the dubious economic understanding exhibited by Donald Trump about the stock market is in full form.
As he put it this week on Truth Social: “STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!! KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!”
A word about Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., the company that brings you Truth Social: In March it was trading at a high for the year of $66.22. It is now at $26.98.
That’s a decline of about 60%.
Not good.
Shouldn’t the proprietor have more than a little something to do with the value of one’s company?
On Monday, August 5, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1,033.99 points.
That is a decline of 2.6%.
Not good.
But let’s go back to when Donald Trump was president.
On March 12, 2020, the DJIA fell 2,352.60 points.
That’s a decline of 9.99%.
Again, not good.
On March 16, 2020, the DJIA fell 2,997.10 points.
That’s a decline of 12.93%
That’s really not good.
If Biden was sound asleep when there was this week’s decline, then Trump must have been in a coma in March 2020.
_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
The Hustings is designed to bring left and right together in civil, fact-based discussion of current political news. You are welcome and encouraged to comment on our news/news aggregate and analysis, whether you’d like to make a prediction on who presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate should be or whether you think the next presidential debate should be September 10 on ABC News, or September 4 on Fox News.
What about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s reversal of a plea deal with three 9/11 masterminds? What about June’s Labor department report showing tepid job growth in June? Was the Federal Reserve slow in planning to lower interest rates? Is the Biden administration to blame?
What do you think of Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s column on the right criticizing Trump’s plan to “drill, drill, drill” for oil on his first day in office?
Enter your Comments in the space made for them in this column or the one on the right (depending on your political leanings), or email us at editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you generally lean conservative or liberal in the subject line.
_____
Democratic presidential nominee has chosen Minn Gov. Walz as her running mate, AP says.
UPDATE: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, sources tell The Associated Press. Walz has been credited with tagging the Trump-Vance ticket as "weird" (an epithet some Democrats worry could backfire as Hilary Clinton's "deplorables" did eight years ago) and he joins the campaign without any of the sort of baggage that began to weigh down veepstakes finalists Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.
Philly Rally -- Democratic presidential candidate (yes, it's official now) Kamala Harris will announce her running mate at a rally in Philadelphia Tuesday evening. Yes, the purple-state campaign kickoff hints it will be Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. But Politico Playbook reports Tuesday morning that "most Democrats we pinged last night said they believe the chances of Harris picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are higher than chances of her picking" Shapiro. Playbook says this is a "reversal" of the expectations of a few days ago.
Kamala ‘Crash’? – Many economists dismissed Monday’s global stock market “crash” as overreaction to last week’s tepid jobs report. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, still very low historically, but only 114,000 jobs were added to the economy.
Did the Federal Reserve make a mistake in maintaining its interest rate of 5.25% to 5.5%? Is it too late to catch up and cut the rate between its last scheduled meeting in late July and its next, in September?
In The Atlantic Daily Derek Thompson writes that we shouldn’t pay much attention to Monday’s stock market, in which the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 1,034 points, to 38,703.27.
The Japanese market had its worst day since the crash of 1987, and Thompson cites 1.) “recession fears” due to the Fed’s reluctance to cut rates after the Consumer Price Index came down to 3%, within a point of the target; 2.) major tech companies Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon and Meta investing too much into artificial intelligence, which some analysts fear potential profits will be too low to justify; 3.) Japan’s central bank keeping its rates too low, resulting in a relatively cheap yen.
The Wall Street Journal reports in a headline that “cracks in the economy pose a risk to Harris’ momentum” and quotes Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump writing in Truth Social “TRUMP CASH v. KAMALA CRASH.” (There’s that woman’s first name/man’s last name thing again.)
While the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act, bipartisan infrastructure bill and Inflation Reduction Act can be credited for keeping unemployment low, it’s the Fed that determines monetary policy and thus sets interest rates. In times of high inflation, the Fed must try to bring the CPI down without triggering increased unemployment and potentially a recession. For what it’s worth, Trump tried to influence the Fed during his administration and has indicated he would do so again if he wins another term.
•••
Google This, Pal – Ruling on a suit by the Justice Department and several states, a district court judge has ruled that Google has acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online searches (per The New York Times).
“Google is a monopolist, and has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Judge Amit P. Mehta of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said, in a 277-page ruling. The suit accuses Google of maintaining the monopoly by paying such companies as Apple and Samsung to automatically make Google the search engine for smartphones and web browsers.
--TL
_____________________________________________
...meanwhile... MON 8/5/24
Any Minute Now – All-but-officially official Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to name her running mate, possibly by the time you read this. The vice president surely will name her choice for vice president on the ticket by Tuesday, when she begins a campaign tour of purple states in Philadelphia.
Meanwhile … That kick-off city has led many – in Pennsylvania, anyway – to predict that the commonwealth’s popular governor, Josh Shapiro, will be the man. But Pennsylvania could spoil not just Shapiro’s chances, but also that of Sen. Mark Kelly (AZ). Read why we predict Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota will be Harris’ choice on our Substack, here.
•••
But Not on ABC News – Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump “declared” on Truth Social Friday he will not attend a September 10 debate on ABC News he had previously agreed to with President Biden. Trump instead wants to debate presumed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris September 4 on Fox News. Unlike the ABC debate, the Fox debate would have a studio audience, presumably consisting of pro-MAGA voters.
“I’ll see her on September 4th, or I won’t see her at all,” Trump Truth Socialed.
Last week Trump told ABC News’ Rachel Scott in his contentious appearance before the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago he believes she works for a “fake news” organization.
The Harris campaign believes Trump is running scared with the prospect of having to debate the vice president in place of Biden, whose poor performance in a June debate led to his handing over the Democratic campaign to Harris.
“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said, per The New York Times.
•••
9/11 Plea Deal Blocked – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reversed a plea deal the Defense Department had reached with three Guantanamo Bay prisoners accused of plotting the September 11 attacks (per Newsweek). Under the deal, 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants were to get life in prison and be let off from the death penalty in exchange for allowing families of the terrorist attack’s victims to ask questions.
While some victims’ families were relieved to have the chance to put the two decade-long cases behind them, others were upset there would be no chance for the death penalty.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
______
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
By Stephen Macaulay
Once, the Republican Party seemed to be constituted of businesspeople. The Republicans would make money and the Democrats would give it away, was pretty much the notion.
But now the Republican Party seems to be full of people who know nothing about business and economics but plenty about imagined grievance.
At least their leader, Donald Trump, when it comes to issues related to energy, is either willfully ignorant or simply speaks in the context of things that are transactionally beneficial to Donald Trump.
And his supporters cheer.
Trump lets loose with the “drill, baby, drill” mantra. He makes it seem as though there is an insufficient amount of oil drilling going on in the United States. (Funny thing: he seems to underestimate the US across the board. For example, when he talks crime, he doesn’t indicate that in 2020, his final year in office, the violent crime rate in the US was greater than it is in 2024: 398.5 per 100,000 people under Trump, now down to 380.7 per 100,000 people last year under Biden.)
As for the oil drilling, you’d think that there are all manner of horrible regulations and restrictions on how and where drilling can occur, placing the US oil production in trouble.
Guess what?
In 2024 the US produces more crude oil per day than any other country in the world.
As in:
Break out the “USA! USA! USA!” chant.
And again, in 2020 the US produced 11.3 million barrels per day.
Or a 12% increase in oil production under Biden.
Now to be fair, in 2020 there was COVID (and let’s not get into Trump’s pathetic response to that: After he was released from the hospital in October 2020 for COVID treatment, in his first speech, when there were some 220,000 Americans dead from the disease, when there was an increase in hospitalizations, he said: “It’s going to disappear. It is disappearing.”), so petroleum demand was down.
This is how much oil the US produced pre-COVID, when he was in office:
For Trump, peak oil was 12.23 million barrels per day. For Biden peak oil was in 2023, 12.9 million barrels per day.
Yes, Sleepy Joe had more petroleum pumped that Trump.
But here’s a thing.
As people have known since even before Adam Smith (once a hero of the Republicans, now someone forgotten) explained it:
There is supply and there is demand.
And if the supply greatly exceeds the demand, then the producer has to reduce the cost of that commodity, which means the producer doesn’t make as much as it will when demand exceeds supply.
There is something else that needs to be taken into account: Petroleum is a global commodity.
A given oil company is looking to sell its product wherever it can make the most
money — regardless of where it comes from.
In the World According to Trump, there should be oil derricks damn near everywhere.
Hell, put one on the White House lawn if there’s oil below.
But for the oil companies, they’re not in the least bit interested in oversupplying the market.
So (1) the US leads in oil production and (2) oil producers have no incentive to vastly increase their output.
The “drill, drill, drill” may be good for crowd chants, but as for actual policy. . .?
_____
Scroll down the page (by using the trackbar on the far right) for reader discussion about who should be presumed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ running mate. The vice president has confirmed she will announce her choice ahead of a campaign swing through swing states scheduled to begin in Philadelphia next Tuesday.
Harris and her choice for veep will proceed through Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
As always, we are interested in your thoughts on this, and other political news and issues posted in the center column.
Please add your Comments in this column, or the right column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean liberal or conservative in the subject line.
We also encourage you to email your comments, criticisms and recommendations for The Hustings via that same email address. We will not publish those comments unless you ask us to.
_____
The US economy added just 114,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate rose 0.2 points over the previous month to 4.3%, the Labor Department reported Friday. This cooling in the job market comes a day after tech stocks were slammed and Intel announced it would lay off 15% of its staff. While an interest rate cut expected from the Federal Reserve in September is a potential boon to the Harris presidential campaign, some economists now worry it will be too late to prevent some level of downturn. Job gains last month came in health care, construction, transportation and warehousing, while the information sector lost jobs. [Bureau of Labor Statistics.]
Harris Snags Nomination -- Vice President Kamala Harris has formally secured the Democratic nomination for president, 12 days after incumbent Joe Biden announced he was stepping down from his campaign. Harris needed at least 2,350 states' delegates' votes to pass the threshold, but she will not officially accept the nomination until Wednesday, when the virtual voting period is closed, according to The Hill. Delegate voting had begun 9 am Thursday, and Harris ran unopposed.
Meanwhile ... Barack Obama's 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe, has joined Harris' campaign as senior advisor, Politico Playbook reports. Plouffe will have his work cut out for him; Trump has a 1.1-point lead over Harris, 47.6% to 46.5%, based on 97 polls, according to The Hill.
•••
Blinken: Maduro Opponent Won – Edmundo González won last Sunday’s election for president of Venezuela, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says, and he called on President Nicholás Maduro to begin negotiations to ensure a peaceful transition of power, The Washington Post reports. After last Sunday’s elections, Maduro had claimed without allowing access to ballots he had won, 51% to 44%, which lead to widespread protests across the country. According to the government’s own records, González won the election by a ratio of 2:1.
--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa
_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
Scroll down this page (with the trackbar on the far right) to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s recent columns on the whirlwind race for president in just the last month.
• In“Weird” Macaulay writes about the Harris campaign tactic that attempts to portray the Trump-Vance campaign as far beyond out-of-touch.
• In “About Kamala & The Wall” he writes about the Trump-Vance campaign’s attempts to hang the “border crisis” on the current vice president.
• In “Too Slow, Joe,” Macaulay criticizes the current president for dragging out his decision to step down from the race, and the effect it could have on the Democratic Party’s timing.
You surely have noticed by Macaulay’s columns that our pundit-at-large is a “never-Trumper” conservative.
Be sure to read the reader comments under “Undemocratic Democrats,” and you’ll see that we welcome comments from pro-MAGA conservatives, too. We encourage your civil comments no matter where you stand on the right or the left. Please add your Comments in this column, or the left column if that’s how you lean, or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean conservative or liberal in the subject line.
We also encourage you to email your comments, criticisms and recommendations for The Hustings via that same email address. We will not publish those comments unless you ask us to.
_____