Time to Win It Commentary by Hugh Hansen

And so another DNC comes to an end. I’ve never been a fan of the conventions (on either side), never quite understood the power attributed to them. Yes, generate even greater enthusiasm among the already very faithful, and yes perhaps allow some coalition-building or ego-soothing between factions within the party. But giving real, actionable information to undecided but likely voters, especially when there are now so few of them? And when Election Day is still over two months away? Neh. Maybe before cable, when watching TV in the evening was what everyone did and the only three channels were all carrying the convention. BC — “Before Cable” — was also before I (or Kamala or Tim or Barack or Michelle) could vote. As one pundit observed, the fact that my team seemed resigned, or even content, to let big speakers slip out the late side of the prime time window suggests that party leaders know most people are going to get their convention exposure from clips the next day, like how I get the late- night monologues.

So, that’s my somewhat resigned background to this commentary. Beyond that? I thought the Democrats did a very fine job. If it’s going to be clips, I didn’t see any huge snafus that will be effective YouTube fodder for the opposition trying to capture those elusive undecideds. I think it was wise to feature the efforts of Republicans of conscience like Mr. Kinzinger to provide a rationale for Reagan Republicans (or Eisenhower Republicans, in my dad’s case) to exit the Trump party. I am an admirer of skillful oratory, (more clips!) and my goodness do the Democrats have that, and in multiple styles and age points. I’d pony up a fair figure for a Mayor Pete/AOC joint dinner event. The tendency not to go quite so high as Mrs. Obama urged four years ago. I don’t know whether it will have a net positive or negative effect on the election outcome. As a friend acknowledged last night, though, it is such a relief to laugh about some of Trump’s and Vance’s crazinesses with our leaders, not just with Colbert.

Was it a tactical mistake not to give speaking time to someone from the Palestinian side of the Gaza issue? Sigh. Maybe. Only hindsight will offer a valid opinion (it won’t truly “tell”). It is unfair but true that Trump winning will be far worse for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank than anything President Harris’s administration might do or fail to do. 

POSTED TUESDAY September 10, 2024.

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Welcome to Our Podcast Page By Todd Lassa

Our new podcast, After the Car needs a website/webpage, so rather than design an all-new site from scratch, we are going to park it here. After the Car is about rethinking and redesigning our urban streets and suburban roads to give better accommodation to cyclists, pedestrians and mass transit commuters.

It is not about the end of the car, or getting rid of the car, though perhaps it’s time to think about ways to reconfigure parking spaces and parking garages for, say, low- and moderate-income housing.

Whether you’re a hard-core motorist or a hard-core cyclist or you use mass transit and don’t have a driver’s license, we invite your comments and suggestions. As with The Hustings news/news aggregate and commentary, we urge you to write to us at editors@thehustings.news.

Columns, commentary and analysis written for The Gray Area page will remain here, below this editor’s note. Look for more of these at thehustings.substack.com and, of course, in the columns on our front page.

POSTED THU 8/1/24

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Legal Lameness By Stephen Macaulay

If you watch MSNBC you’ve likely seen:

• Andrew Weissmann
• Mary McCord
• Barbara McQuade
• Joyce Vance
• Neal Katyal
• Glenn Kirschner
• Harry Litman

And attorneys who work on air for NBCUniversal, including:

• Ari Melber
• Katie Phang
• Lisa Rubin

That’s a lot of legal firepower. Arguably — at least given the venue — liberal legal firepower.

On occasion Nicolle Wallace brings on Judge J. Michael Luttig, who was once a bastion of conservative jurisprudence, and who still would be were the term “conservative” not wholly debased in the Age of Trump.

But what have we learned from all of the above? Apparently, not much.

Whether it was the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. the United States or Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s dismissal of the federal indictment against Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents, all of the above, to one degree or another, seem to have been completely flummoxed.

Jeanine Pirro over on Fox has been more correct.

Hell, Judge Judy would be, too.

Here’s the thing: the right has been more adept at throwing stuff at the wall—and we know what much of that “stuff” is — and seeing what sticks.

The aforementioned all harumph at these activities.

And yet somehow these legal “absurdities” end up otherwise. The gavel comes down and the liberals are out of luck.

Michelle Obama’s “When they go low, we go high” seems to be the abiding principle of the liberals.

But sometimes keeping the hem of your skirt doesn’t work in real life.

There seems to be a notion that all of the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed before the liberals do something. Yet meanwhile the folks on the right file what might seem to be crazy suits and end up getting a high success rate.

As legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky put it, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” and liberals are far too keen on doing things that are not allowing them to score goals.

The other team is trouncing them.

Unless liberals get in the game, elbows and all, they should prepare themselves for obsolescent opinionating.

— Posted THURSDAY 7/18/24

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Lord, Help Us By Stephen Macaulay

I had been concerned that George Stephanopoulos would have been too friendly to Joe Biden.

He was courteous. Respectful. And he did the sort of follow up that I was afraid he wouldn’t.

And I was hopeful that Biden would have assuaged my concerns regarding his performance on the Atlanta stage.

Instead he was feeble. Grasping. Dismissive. And didn’t come off, well, presidential.

• Stephanopoulos: And — did you ever watch the debate afterwards?
• Biden: I don’t think I did, no.

What is arguably the most consequential event in his 54-year political career and he isn’t certain as to whether he watched it or not?

And if he, indeed, didn’t, why not?

• Stephanopoulos: Are you more frail?
• Biden: No.

Seriously, Joe? Isn’t this in the “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening” realm?

• Stephanopoulos: Have you had a full neurological and cognitive evaluation?

Now before I provide the transcripted response, it is fair to say that people generally don’t speak in cogent ways during a Q&A. But they get to the answer.

• Biden: I’ve had — I get a full neurological test everyday with me. And I’ve had a full physical. I had, you know, I mean, I — I’ve been at Walter Reed for my physicals. I mean — um, yes, the answer.

He had his last physical in February.

Did he have a full neurological test on June 27? If so, seems like a fail.

Then there was:

“We invented the chip, the little chip, the computer chip. It’s in everything from cellphones to weapons.”

The only good thing about that observation is that he didn’t point out it is also in phonographs.

It went on. He dug in his heels. And calling on Higher Powers he proclaimed:

“If the Lord Almighty came down and said, ‘Joe, get out of the race,’ I’d get out of the race. The Lord Almighty’s not coming down.”

Romans 11:33: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out!”

A.K.A., “God works in mysterious ways.”

–POSTED FRIDAY 7/12/24

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Polls & Prizes By Stephen Macaulay

Once, before shopping malls became something just this side of ghost towns, there were often people with clipboards ready to pounce on unsuspecting shoppers, asking them to come to a room where they’d get snacks, beverages and a $10-dollar gift certificate from the mall.

All they needed to do was provide their opinions. It could be about a TV show. Fast food. Or politics.

Now those opinion researchers have to turn to different means of attracting people.

So some, like YouGov, have turned primarily to the Internet.

If you’ve ever been faced with an online opinion poll — perhaps you’ve gotten an email from an airline asking whether you’d recommend it to someone and having clicked a response you now find yourself faced with pages of questions and little way of knowing when it will end, so you mutter something and close the page — one of the issues is that there isn’t necessarily a visible ending or a reward for enduring.

YouGov has an approach that allows participants to collect points that can be turned into cash or prizes. And who doesn’t like cash or prizes?

Which leads to a question about the motivations of the participants.

But we’ll let that go.

And turn to a recent CBS News/YouGov survey conducted April 9-12.

While a major focus was on the situation in the Middle East, there are also results that ought to give the Biden team some pause.

Strike that.

It ought to make the Biden team seriously reassess what they’re doing. 

Or not.

No, it is not the 40% overall approval rating for the president — he’s been in the 40s since January 2022, so he is presumably comfortable in that space (although he’s down two points since February ’24, and south is not the direction he needs).

It’s not necessarily those who think the “condition of the national economy today” is “fairly” (31%) or “very” bad (30%). Those answers would probably change after the respondents got their prizes.

Those who said they thought things in the U.S. overall were going “somewhat” or “very badly” went on to answer that the reason for this was based, “a lot” on “The state of U.S. politics” — 72% said that. In second place, at 66%, was “The U.S. economy.”

Now the unemployment rate is 3.8%. It has been between 3.7% and 3.9% for the past year. Meaning: those who want a job have one or can get one.

The inflation rate is 3.5%, which is (1) higher than the Federal Reserve would like (it wants 2%) but (2) significantly lower than the 8% of 2022.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was at 37,983 last week, nearly 13% higher than a year earlier.

Even though there is a war in the Middle East gas prices today are about (actually a smidge lower) what they were a year ago.

Evidently there is a disconnect between facts on the ground and Internet polling.

The result that the Biden team should really take stock of — because even if it is off by several points it is still a big number — is the president’s overall approval rating among those ages 18 to 29.

In February 55% of that cohort approved of Biden.

It is now 43%.

That is a decline of 22%.

Even if that poll is among those who are only in it for the prizes, losing a fifth of anyone is something a politician can ill afford.

[ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN SUBSTACK, 4/16/24]

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The Trump Edge By Stephen Macaulay

In the most-recent Quinnipiac Poll the results between Joe Biden and Donald Trump — 48% to 45% — are, according to the organization, within the margin of error and consequently too close to call.

But there are other factors that could come into play that would be still closer but not definitive.

Like the third-party candidates.

In this case it would be like this:

• Trump:                          39%
• Biden:                           38%
• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.:     13%
• Jill Stein:                       4%
• Cornel West:                   3%

It’s a shame that Pat Paulsen has been dead since 1997 because he could run again, too, and arguably one of his campaign slogans would have made him more competitive and likely reduce the Trump percentage:

“Just a common, ordinary, simple savior of America’s destiny.”

Almost sounds like proto-MAGA.

But there is something else that could work to Trump’s benefit:

Conviction in the New York falsifying business records case (a.k.a., the “hush money” case).

That’s right. Being guilty as charged.

If convicted, the general mix of voters surveyed is mixed. That is, Quinnipiac found that 29% would be less likely to vote for Trump, 55% said it would make no difference, and 12% say that they would be more likely to vote for him.

But the numbers for the Trump partisans, the full-on faithful, is where he could really cash in on being convicted:

• 10% less likely
• 62% neutral
• 26% more likely

That’s right: a quarter of those Trump-inclined would be more supportive of a convicted criminal than they otherwise would be.

In the overall scenario, there is a 38% upside (i.e., the neutral and the more likely minus the less likely).

In the Trump voter scenario, that jumps to 78%.

Instead of trying to delay and otherwise obstruct the trial Trump ought to be working toward getting convicted.

[MONDAY 4/15/24]

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Does Character Count? By Stephen Macaulay

It isn’t often that one would come upon a quote from Dear Abby (a.k.a., Abigail Van Buren) here on The Hustings, but this is completely relevant in the context of recent Gallup polling about Biden and Trump: “The best index to a person’s character is how he treats people who can’t do him any good, and how he treats people who can’t fight back.”

Yes, you can probably see where this is going.

When asked whether each “cares about the needs of people like you,” 48% said Biden does and 42% Trump.

Asked about whether the man “is honest and trustworthy,” 46% said Biden is and 35% Trump.

When asked whether the two are likeable, 57% of those surveyed said Biden is and 37% said Trump.

One could conclude that Biden should receive some sort of Mr. Rogers Trophy for being a Good Neighbor.

Because then there is the other set of topics:

“Can manage the government effectively”:       Biden 39%    Trump 49%

“Displays good judgment in a crisis”:              Biden 40%    Trump 45%

“Is a strong & decisive leader”:                      Biden 38%    Trump 57%

Trump could get some sort of Benito Trophy for Making the Trains Run on Time.

A question that voters are going to have to ask themselves is whether character matters.

Somehow a guy who only 35% think is trustworthy may not be good because he is largely considered “strong and decisive.” The question is who he’s being strong and decisive for. Given that he cares less “about the needs of people like you,” odds are he’s not acting on your behalf.

Does character matter?

Presently Donald Trump faces 88 charges across four criminal cases, 44 federal charges and 44 state charges.

Even if this were a case of “Biden’s Justice Department” being out to “get him,” there are all of those state charges, none of which are in Delaware, Biden’s home turf, so 44 charges is certainly non-trivial.

What’s more, everyone who is interested saw the boxes full of state secrets of varying levels of secrecy being “stored” at Mar-a-Lago like the records for landscaping and pool maintenance. That arguably isn’t an example of “good judgment,” and reportedly if some of that information got out to the enemies of the U.S. there very well could be a consequent crisis.

Here’s something that voters of all inclinations ought to consider:

Like him or not, would you elect someone facing 88 criminal charges for school board superintendent?

Then they ought to consider what choice they’ll make in November.

[WEDNESDAY 4/3/24]

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Build Back [Biden] Better By Stephen Macaulay

Joe Biden has a problem.

Well, that is a bit of a simplification.

Joe Biden has plenty of problems.

And the latest polling from Gallup shows it.

If <50% can be considered “underwater,” then Biden is drowning.

First, the most abysmal: The situation in the Middle East between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

The average of all U.S. adults — Democrats, independents and Republicans — who approve of how he’s handling it is 27%.

And while one might think “The Republicans are probably dragging that number down,” while that is often the case, not here.

Just 47% of Democrats approve of what the Biden Administration is doing to address the Middle East situation. That is the lowest Democrat number for any of the categories queried.

And just 21% of independents approve. Again, the lowest number for Indy approval.

There are just 16% of Republicans approving — which isn’t the lowest number.

When it comes to Biden’s handling of the Economy, only 8% of Republicans give him a nod. Independents are at 33% and Democrats at 74%.

Other categories in the survey are the Environment, which gets him an overall 46%, Energy Policy, 42%, and Foreign Affairs, at 33%.

If there weren’t some sudden clinching among White House staffers — to say nothing of Administration principals — when the overall number for “His job as president” was revealed, then they’re whistling past the proverbial graveyard.

Only 40% of U.S. adults think he’s doing a good job.

And here is where the Republicans hit the nadir of their responses: 7%.

Eighty-three percent of Dems approve. So even if the average was made between the two parties the number would be 45%.

There are, however, the Independents, of whom only 34% think he’s doing a good job.

Of course there are plenty of caveats.

One is that because he is president, he is doing things related to the various categories whereas his competitor is actually doing nothing beyond bloviating.

Another is that it is still somewhat early. He has time to recover.

But Gallup points out:

“Biden’s subpar job approval rating is similar to George H.W. Bush’s average 41% rating in March of the fourth year of his term. Jimmy Carter (45%), Donald Trump (47%) and Barack Obama (46%) also averaged approval ratings in the 40s at the same point in their presidencies, while George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan had ratings above 50%.”

If we consider Obama in Q1 2012 to be an outlier, then what can we say about the performance at the polls of the elder Bush, Carter and Trump?

They all lost.

The younger Bush, Clinton and Reagan, at +50%, all won.

So where does this put Biden?

Somewhere that he’d better move away from, sooner rather than. . .well, there may be no later.

Stephen Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings, writing primarily commentary and analysis for the right column.

[TUESDAY 4/2/24]

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President Biden’s Call to Arms By Ken Zino

[Editor’s Note: These are detailed comments by President Biden from his 2024 State of the Union address. Please see the author’s comments on the address in the left column and comments by Stephen Macaulay in the right column on our Home Page.]

President Biden in his third State of the Union address invoked America’s previous victories in the Civil War and Word War II, as well as in other times of crisis, notably the covid pandemic. What initially looked to be a call for democracy over plutocracy based on the fact sheet released by the White House earlier turned into an aggressive attack on the former president dubbed “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.

Biden 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?” … “Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America.”. 

Biden’s call to arms began thus: “In January1941, President Franklin Roosevelt came to this chamber to speak to the nation. He said, ‘I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.’ Hitler was on the march. War was raging in Europe. President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment. Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world. … Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union. And yes, my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either. Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today. What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.

“Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond. 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. It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable. … 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 6^th: “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: “Joining us tonight is Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama. Fourteen months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of IVF. She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF … treatments across the state, 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 … I inherited an economy that was on the brink. Now our economy is the envy of the world! Fifteen-million new jobs in just three years – that’s a record! Unemployment at 50-year lows. … 800,000 new manufacturing jobs in America and counting. More people have health insurance today than ever before. … Wages keep going up and inflation keeps coming down! Inflation has dropped from 9% to 3% – the lowest in the world! And trending lower. And now instead of importing foreign products and exporting American jobs, we’re exporting American products and creating American jobs … my policies have attracted $650 billion of private sector investments in clean energy and advanced manufacturing creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America. 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. … For years people have talked about it but I finally got it done and gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs. … That’s not just saving seniors money. It’s saving taxpayers money cutting the federal deficit by $160 Billion because Medicare will no longer have to pay exorbitant prices to Big Pharma. … Now it’s time to go further and give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prices for 500 drugs over the next decade. That will not only save lives it will save taxpayers another $200 Billion.

•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? … I’m going to keep fighting like hell to make it fair. Under my plan nobody earning less than $400,000 will pay an additional penny in federal taxes. … the Child Tax Credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes for millions of working families and cut child poverty in half. Restore the Child Tax Credit because no child should go hungry in this country … In 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes … 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. The result was. … 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 6 months instead of 6 years. One-hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl … This bill would save lives and bring order to the border. It would also give me as President new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming. …  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 IBEW 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. This crisis began on October 7^th with a massacre by the terrorist group Hamas … Israel has a right to go after Hamas. Hamas could end this conflict today by releasing the hostages, laying down arms, and surrendering those responsible for October 7^th. Israel has an added burden because Hamas hides and operates among the civilian population. But Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza. … More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed. Most of whom are not Hamas. Thousands and thousands are innocent women and children… 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. Creating stability in the Middle East also means containing the threat posed by Iran. That’s why I built a coalition of more than a dozen countries to defend international shipping and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. I’ve ordered strikes to degrade Houthi capabilities and defend U.S. Forces in the region. As Commander in Chief, I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and military personnel.

Inspiring Conclusion 

“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. And when you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever before. … Again and again I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation. Between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future. My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America. Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. 

“Now some other people my age see a different story. An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me. I was born amid World War II when America stood for freedom in the world. I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware among working people who built this country. I watched in horror as two of my heroes, Dr. King and Bobby Kennedy, were assassinated and their legacies inspired me to pursue a career in service. A public defender, county councilman, elected United States Senator at 29, then Vice President to our first Black President, now President, with our first woman Vice President. 

“In my career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old. Whether young or old, I’ve always known what endures. … 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.” 

(Posted FRI 3/8/24)

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What Would the Dems Do? By Stephen Macaulay

Let’s talk about death.

According to the National Cancer Institute, in 2023 there were an estimated 288,300 new prostate cancer cases in the U.S., which represents 14.7% of all cancers diagnosed.

There were an estimated 34,700 deaths from prostate cancer in 2023 which is, comparatively speaking, pretty good, in that it represents 5.7% of all cancer deaths.

But it is not zero.

Prostate cancer is, says the National Cancer Institute, “more common in older men than younger men” and that it is more likely to occur in “men of African American descent.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, age 70 and African American, was diagnosed with prostate cancer during a routine exam in early December and underwent surgery on December 22.

His doctors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center wrote after the surgery, “His prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent.”

As men of certain ages and of all races undoubtedly think: Good for him!

(And for those of you who are male and reading this: If you are 40 or above, please get screened for prostate cancer.)

The point is, men and women alike are prone to the consequences of aging. Ultimately it means the end.

But in cases like that of Austin, things can be caught and accommodated for.

Still, there is the issue of age.

Joe Biden is 81. Donald Trump is 77.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the life expectancy in the U.S. is 76.4 years.

So both Biden and Trump are on the other side of the average.

What happens if either or both die before the election?

While there are issues of a technical nature regarding due dates for qualifying for primaries in various states, let’s assume that the death happens after the primaries but before the conventions (July 15 in Milwaukee for the Republicans; August 19 in Chicago for the Democrats).

In the case of the departure of Trump, the Republicans are in comparatively good shape: They’ve been conducting a fairly robust campaign over the past several months. Presumably, a Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis could find the necessary number of delegates at the convention to put one of them on the ballot.

But what about the Democrats?

After Biden, who?

Kamala Harris, who has proven to be more of a cipher than an obvious asset? Yes, were President Biden to die before August 19, she would assume the office. But how many people—Democrats included—think that she would make a candidate?

But if not her, who?

This is a serious problem for the Democrats. The only two Democrats who are running at present — and running may be something of an exaggeration — are Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and author Marianne Williamson.

Who?

Perhaps it is tradition that parties that hold the presidency don’t encourage people to run against the sitting president if that president (a) is able to run for a second term and (b) is running.

But the situation as it exists right now, with an elderly man in office and what can be described as “no bench strength” behind him is a profound problem.

Unexpected things happen, as the case of Secretary Austin show. Contingency planning is essential but apparently absent for the Democrats.

Posted Thursday, January 11, 2024

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Maybe We All Should Be Corporations Commentary by Ken Zino

Since the Supreme-ly Corrupt Court has decided that corporations are people, the latest analysis from the non-partisan Congressional budget office raised both of my eyebrows. 

CBO earlier this month said; “Over recent decades, the economic profits of corporations (that is, profits from current production) have grown in relation to the size of the economy, whereas the amounts that corporations pay in federal taxes have remained stable. That pattern, which cannot be explained by changes in federal statutory corporate tax rates, reflects a divergence between economic profits and the corporate tax base (income that is subject to the corporate tax). Because such differences affect how the Congressional Budget Office projects revenues from the corporate income tax, the agency has analyzed the relationship between the two measures.”

“Economic profits and the corporate tax base are two different concepts, and there are many reasons they might diverge. In the analysis underlying this report, CBO considered three factors that contribute to that divergence:

• Conceptual differences between the measure of economic profits and the measure of tax profits (net income as defined under tax rules);
• Differences in the types of businesses included in each measure of profits; and
• The tax treatment of losses and special deductions.

“Overall, CBO finds that conceptual differences, particularly differences in the treatment of foreign profits, account for much of the growth in the gap between economic profits and the corporate tax base. Differences in the types of businesses included in each measure also help explain why there is a gap, but the effect of those differences has been relatively stable in recent years. Finally, the tax treatment of losses helps explain variations in the gap over the business cycle.”

My take: The system is rigged for the rich and powerful, who deploy dark money at our expense.

Source:

Trends in Corporate Economic Profits and Tax Payments, 1998 to 2017 

https://p.feedblitz.com/t3/812526/27849156/11952992_/~feeds.feedblitz.com/~/739538393/0/cbospublications~Trends-in-Corporate-Economic-Profits-and-Tax-Payments-to?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=812526&utm_campaign=Express_2023-05-09_14:30&utm_medium=FeedBlitzEmail&utm_content=812526&utm_campaign=Express_2023-05-09_14:30

Posted Monday, May 15,2023

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Fox News Settlement Political poetry by Todd Lassa

“Money is accountability,”

Dominion Says

take that, money equals speech

_______________________________________________

Read the Final Report by the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol here.

•••

Biden Out-Foxes Republicans on the Economy … Again Commentary by Ken Zino

Once again, the president appears to have out-foxed unwitting Republican obstructionists. Asked by a reporter whether rail workers will ever see more than the single day of sick leave per year they currently get, President Biden replied; “As soon as I can convince our Republicans to see the light,” thereby once again using his economic success to highlight the opposition party’s lack of policy. 

President Biden took the opportunity during his press conference celebrating the bipartisan resolution preventing an impending rail strike to reiterate the economic progress his administration continues to make after the unending disasters and corruption of the previous administration. Republicans were thumped in the midterm elections, of course.

“I want to thank Congress, Democrats and Republicans, for acting so quickly,” he said of the resolution. “I know this was a tough vote for members of both parties. It was tough for me. But it was the right thing to do at the moment to save jobs, to protect millions of working families from harm and disruption, and to keep supply chains stable around the holidays, and to continue the progress we’ve made and we’re – continue to see on the economy,” Biden said.

Zino is a contributing pundit On the Left.

(Posted Monday, December 5, 2022.)

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Spies Close to Home? Chinese Government Intelligence Officer Sentenced in U.S.   Commentary by Ken Zino

Espionage, trade and state secrets as well as national intelligence have been much in the real news lately, including a memo from former Justice Department prosecutors and FBI officials in the matter of what could become the United States v. Donald Trump if Attorney General Merrick Garland moves ahead against the King of Mar-a-Lago. (The memo, from publicly available information, was written by a group of former federal prosecutors, defense attorneys, and other legal experts and made public at Just Security.

A Chinese government intelligence officer was sentenced to 20 years in prison for espionage crimes and attempting to steal trade secrets from a Cincinnati aviation company, last week. The DOJ counts it as the first Chinese government intelligence officer ever to be extradited to the United States to stand trial. Yanjun Xu, 42, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 

“As proven at trial, the defendant, a Chinese government intelligence officer, used a range of techniques to attempt to steal technology and proprietary information from companies based in both the U.S. and abroad,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Today’s sentence demonstrates the seriousness of those crimes and the Justice Department’s determination to investigate and prosecute efforts by the Chinese government, or any foreign power, to threaten our economic and national security.” (See the full story at AutoInformed; https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-convicts-chinese-intelligence-officer-espionage-crimes-attempting-steal-trade-secrets).

The Justice Department and the FBI of course are involved in other grave national security matters that won’t require extradition of the alleged offender and alleged co-conspirators from Mar-a-Lago or other U.S. locations. Moreover the secrets involving spies and spying techniques, people and governments and nuclear programs – as revealed in court filings and real news reporting are obviously of much more value to those seeking to harm the U.S. and those seeking to profit from their possession. 

The documents were not secured after they were illegally removed from the White House. The ex-president needs to explain his alleged violation of many federal crimes to a jury. His flagrant disregard of national security needs to be weighed on the scales of justice. 

Here’s the executive summary on prosecuting Trump from Just Security:

memo analyzes six federal crimes:

Mishandling of Government Documents

1. Retention of National Defense Information (18 U.S.C. § 793(e))

2. Concealing Government Records (18 U.S.C. § 2071)

3. Conversion of Government Property (18 U.S.C. § 641)

Obstruction, False Information, Contempt

1. Obstruction of Justice (18 U.S.C. § 1519)

2. Criminal Contempt (18 U.S.C. § 402)

3. False Statements to Federal Investigators (18 U.S.C. § 1001)

After his appointment by Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland, Special Counsel Jack Smith said this:

“I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice. The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch. I will exercise independent judgement and will move the investigations forward expeditiously and thoroughly to whatever outcome the facts and the law dictate.”

(Posted Monday, 11/21/22)

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 Canada Shows How Public-Private Partnerships Work Commentary by Ken Zino

Canada, with its abundant material resources and its advanced automotive industry with extensive production and qualified workforces, is ideally positioned to thrive in the inevitable electric vehicle industrial revolution. The entire EV universe can only grow as the devastating effects of climate change from fossil-fuel use intensifies. Canada’s federal government not only recognizes this, but is actively pursuing an industrial policy that is beneficial for its constituents as well as for the environment. 

Free market ideologues, many of them backed by fossil-fuel-providers, disdain such progressive thinking. They are in my direct experience positively scornful of a federally directed industrial policy such as the one established in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act*. Not a single Republican ideologue — idiotologue? — voted for it. This, arguably, is the United States’ first significant climate law since congressional hearings were first conducted on the environment 40 years ago. Such anti-government ideology reminds me of my experience over the years with Republican-led governments, which are demonstrably harmful in innumerable ways to all but the ultra-rich. 

More importantly, in my view, the Inflation Reduction Act also represents significant change in political philosophy toward rational thinking over ideology and sundry idiots. As I understand it, this policy change soundly reasons that the U.S. shouldn’t let the misleadingly labeled free market move, say, all semiconductor production offshore to areas that are hostile to U.S. interests, or let it mock and abandon trade agreements or vital international alliances.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz discussed expanding Canada’s and Germany’s deep and long-standing partnership in areas of common interest, including trade and investment, clean energy and clean technology, and global climate leadership. The leaders and ministers expressed their resolve to address the impacts of climate change, including the importance of expanding the international coverage of carbon pricing in the lead-up to COP27, according to an official government readout of the meeting.

How a Public-Private Partnership Works

On Tuesday, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and the Canadian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore deeper cooperation across all stages of the automotive value chain – from technical development and the extraction of raw materials to production, service life and recycling. 

“With Canada, Mercedes-Benz has a strong and capable partner to break new ground for a new era of sustainable transformation in the automotive industry,” said Markus Schaefer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Chief Technology Officer, responsible for Research & Development and Procurement.

Volkswagen Group also signed the agreement with government on battery value creation and raw material security. 

“Volkswagen has been vigorously pushing the transformation to e-mobility, recognizing the industry‘s responsibility in the global battle against climate change. … Working hand in hand with governments around the world is an absolute prerequisite to meet our climate goals and I want to thank the Canadian government for their support. The supply of battery raw materials and the production of precursor and cathode materials with a low carbon footprint will allow for a fast and sustainable ramp-up of battery capacity — a key lever for our growth strategy in North America,” said Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group.

Common to both global automaker giants is Rock Tech Lithium with its operations in Canada and Germany that aim to supply the automotive industry with “made in Germany” lithium hydroxide. Starting in 2024, Rock Tech intends to commission Europe’s first lithium converter with a production capacity of 24,000 tons per year – equal to the volume needed to supply 500,000 electric cars with lithium-ion batteries. 

Rock Tech owns the Georgia Lake Project in Ontario, Canada. The company has set itself the goal of creating the world’s first closed loop for lithium, potentially decreasing the raw material problem potholes and fissures on the road to clean mobility. As early as 2030, about 50% of the raw materials used are expected to come from the recycling of batteries.

*Inflation Reduction Act Details

It spends $370 billion on climate and energy security measures. It uses increased or new tax credits to stimulate clean energy generation and efficiency, electrification, as well as the extensive adoption of electric vehicles. 

It will help American workers and create good-paying, union jobs across the country. For the first time ever, the Inflation Reduction Act establishes “Make it in America” provisions for the use of American-made equipment for clean energy production. The law provides expanded clean energy tax credits for wind, solar, nuclear, clean hydrogen, clean fuels, and carbon capture, including bonus credits for businesses that pay workers a prevailing wage and use registered apprenticeship programs. It’ll lower the deficit and ask the ultra-wealthy and corporations to pay their fair share. And no one making under $400,000 per year will pay a penny more in taxes.” 

In the messy, money dominated world of US party politics, part of the bill also supports fossil fuels by protecting federal drilling auctions and underwriting upgrades of coal and gas capacity. I will take a pragmatic, rather than ideological, approach here. It’s a small price to pay during the transition to clean transportation, until more common-sense reasoning and politics ameliorate members of the party that that try  the majority of American’s souls. Can elephants fly to escape fires and droughts?

Zino is a contributing pundit On the Left

(Posted Thursday, August 25, 2022)

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The Forgotten Obvious Commentary by Ken Zino

What to say about the decisive 61% to 39% rejection of the Kansas abortion law amendment that that would have removed the right to abortion from the state’s Constitution? It seems to me that it proves the forgotten obvious. The larger the turnout in an election, the more representative the result. 

Kansas has been in this territory before. When it was a territory slated for statehood, Kansas suffered violent political battles between its pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions — a prelude to the Civil War. 

War is not the answer here and it remains an American tragedy that it took a war to eliminate slavery in this country. Ponder what U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said after the Kansas vote on the abortion held in conjunction with the state’s August 2 primary: 

“Since the day that Dobbs was decided, the Justice Department has made clear that we will be relentless in our efforts to protect and advance reproductive freedom. As we have said repeatedly, women who reside in states that have banned access to abortion must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal. Under fundamental First Amendment principles, people must also remain free to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states. States may not ban the abortion medication Mifepristone on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its efficacy and safety. And federal agencies may continue to provide reproductive health services to the extent authorized by federal law.

“Last week, I also said that the department is vigilantly monitoring state laws and enforcement actions to ensure that states do not infringe on federal protections of reproductive rights. And I said that when they do, we will consider every tool at our disposal, including filing affirmative cases, statements of interest, and intervening in private litigation,” Garland said.

Reproductive freedom is an issue that has strongly held beliefs on both sides. Consider this from the Supreme Court’s website on The Court and Constitutional Interpretation https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/constitutional.aspx. “When the Supreme Court rules on a constitutional issue, that judgment is virtually final; its decisions can be altered only by the rarely used procedure of constitutional amendment or by a new ruling of the Court. However, when the Court interprets a statute, new legislative action can be taken.”

When The Court Interprets a Statute, New Legislative Action Can Be Taken.

Voters in states like Kansas matter. It appears from recent poling and punditry (appears until we have larger voter samples) that a majority of voters in a majority of states — even with their misgivings — do not want to restrict reproductive freedom. It is in a sense a form of slavery. This is between a woman, her partner and their families, and her physician. 

Genuine dialogue is needed here between the politicians who purport to represent “We the People.” It must not take the form of active and ongoing efforts to prevent people from voting or from overturing legal elections by violent force. This is not our constitutional tradition. 

This calls for reasoned empathy, not the politics of hatred or binary positions. If the current political parties are not up for this, then we should create new ones with our votes. As to the Supreme Court, which Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papersviewed as the weakest part of the federal government and one that should be above partisan politics, it should not impose extremist positions on how our citizens should be ruled. You cannot take away that right. So let’s get on with the voting in the primaries and midterm elections, and for the moment ignore the perjurers who acknowledged in their Supreme Court justice nomination hearings that Roe v. Wade was established law. 

We will enact new laws to circumvent their perfidy. 

Zino is contributing pundit On the Left.

COMMENTS: editors@todd-lassa

(POSTED: MON 8/8/22)

•••

Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland Delivers Remarks for the Reproductive Rights Taskforce, Washington, D.C. – Wednesday, August 3, 2022

In the five weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe and Casey, legislatures across the country have taken steps to impose bans and other restrictions on access to abortion, with devastating consequences for women’s health, their safety, and their civil rights.

And we know that the harms caused by these laws have been and will continue to be especially severe for people of color and for those of limited means.

Since the day that Dobbs was decided, the Justice Department has made clear that we will be relentless in our efforts to protect and advance reproductive freedom.

As we have said repeatedly, women who reside in states that have banned access to abortion must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal.

Under fundamental First Amendment principles, people must also remain free to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states.

States may not ban the abortion medication Mifepristone on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its efficacy and safety.

And federal agencies may continue to provide reproductive health services to the extent authorized by federal law.

Last week, I also said that the department is vigilantly monitoring state laws and enforcement actions to ensure that states do not infringe on federal protections of reproductive rights.

And I said that when they do, we will consider every tool at our disposal, including filing affirmative cases, statements of interest, and intervening in private litigation.

Yesterday, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the State of Idaho to hold invalid that State’s criminal prohibition on providing abortions, as applied to women who are suffering medical emergencies.

As we explained in our complaint, Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion directly conflicts with the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA. That federal law requires hospitals receiving Medicare funds to provide necessary stabilizing treatment to people suffering from an emergency medical condition.

As I said when we announced this suit, it does not matter what state a hospital subject to EMTALA is located in.

If a patient comes into an emergency room with a medical emergency jeopardizing the patient’s life or health, the hospital must provide the treatment necessary to stabilize that condition.

And this includes abortion when that is the necessary treatment.

Any state law that prevents a hospital from fulfilling its obligations under EMTALA violates federal law.

The Justice Department will also be filing a motion to dismiss the Texas lawsuit challenging HHS’s guidance under EMTALA. The law could not be clearer, and we are going to vigorously litigate this suit to ensure women get the emergency care to which they are entitled under federal law.

Led by Associate Attorney Gen. Vanita Gupta, the Department’s Reproductive Rights Task Force will continue to build on these efforts to protect reproductive freedom. Its work includes monitoring state laws that infringe on federal constitutional

protections, evaluating appropriate actions in response to those laws — including filing lawsuits and statements of interest — and coordinating technical assistance to both Congress and the states on federal constitutional and statutory considerations.

Five weeks ago, I promised that the Justice Department would work tirelessly to protect reproductive freedom, and that we would not waver from our founding responsibility to protect the civil rights of all Americans.

That is what we have done, and that is what we will continue to do.

___________________________________________________________________________________

…meanwhile… Trump Loses Tuesday Primaries

Trump-backed primary candidates lost big to centrist Republicans in June 28 primaries. 

Colorado: Former election clerk Pam Anderson, a critic of ex-President Trump’s 2020 election lies beat Tina Peters to face incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold in November’s midterms. Peters is the Mesa County election clerk indicted for breaking into her own county election system. 

Businessman Joe O’Dea, who has publicly accepted President Biden’s 2020 victory, beat state Rep. Ron Hawks, a close ally of Peters, for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.

Traditional Republican Heidi Ganahl beat a former suburban Denver mayor for the GOP nomination for governor, Greg Lopez, who said he would pardon Peters if elected. Ganahl faces incumbent Democratic Gov. Jared Polls this November.

One glaring exception was uber-right-winger Lauren Boebert, who easily won her primary to run for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives for Colorado’s 3^rd District, The Guardian reports. Ballotpedia has not called the Democratic primary, where three candidates are vying for the nod. 

Mississippi: Incumbent Rep. Michael Guest, who voted for an independent January 6 commission, easily beat a challenge from a former Air Force pilot. 

Oklahoma: Incumbent Republican Sen. James Lankford easily defeated an evangelical pastor who complained that Lankford failed to repeat Trump’s election lies.

—Per Associated Press (WED 6/29/22)

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1/6 Committee Schedules Surprise Hearing for Tuesday Breaking News

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol has a “deluge of new evidence” according to one of its members, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and will hold a last-minute hearing Tuesday, June 28 at 1 p.m. Eastern time. The committee’s sixth and seventh hearings, originally scheduled for this week, were initially delayed until after Congress’ July 4th holiday recess.

No additional details on the surprise hearing were forthcoming, The Hill reports. On Thursday, June 23, the committee deposed British documentary filmmaker Alex Holder and asked him to turn over video footage from the documentary, taken before the November 2020 presidential election and after January 6, 2021, including interviews with Donald J. Trump, his adult children and former Vice President Mike Pence.

During the 1/6 panel’s third hearing, June 16, the committee flashed on the video screen behind their seats the link to its website [january6.house.gov] as its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) asking “those who might be on the fence about cooperating to reach out to us.”

–Todd Lassa (MON 6/27/22)

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SCOTUS Overturns Roe V. Wade Breaking News

The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, ending 49 years of federal right to abortions (per AP). The 6-3 vote feels like a shock to many though a surprise to none after last May’s leak of a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote that “Roe v. Wade was aggressively wrong from the start.” 

Roe, decided in 1973 was affirmed by Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992. 

The decision handed down Friday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization allows Mississippi’s Gestational Age Act to become law. It “provides that [e]xcept in a medical emergency or in the case of a severe fetal abnormality, a person shall not intentionally or knowingly perform … or induce an abortion of an unborn human being if the probably gestational age of the unborn human being has been determined to be greater than 15 weeks.”

Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett joined Alito’s opinion, and Chief Justice John Roberts agreed but filed a separate opinion, according to NPR. 

In his concurring opinion, Thomas wrote that the ruling suggests the court should re-consider contraception and same-sex marriage rulings. 

The majority opinion, and the dissent of Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan may be found here: 

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf

–Todd Lassa (FRI 6/24/22)

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Taking Sides? The Art of Controlling History Commentary by Todd Lassa

As horrific news kept pouring in from Ukraine — tempered by President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy’s unexpected bravery and stories of his troops holding back Russian tanks with more success than expected – The New Yorker’s David Remnick offered insightful commentary in that magazine. Remnick’s observations are particularly valuable as he  covered the end of the Soviet Empire as Moscow correspondent for The Washington Post and earned a 1994 Pulitzer for his book Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire. And on the topic of last days, Remnick comments that in Putin’s mind, “this is his moment, his triumphal historical drama, and damn the cost.”

Putin controls Russian history, Remnick writes, like his predecessors going back at least as far as Tsar Nicholas I, with a special shout-out to Stalin, who was named chief historian of the Soviet Union in 1928 by the All-Union Conference of Marxist Historians. Carve out Nikita Kruschev’s “secret” criticism of Stalin in 1956 (after he was dead, of course) for purging party members, and Mikhail Gorbachev, the leader who held the single hope for Russian freedom and liberty in the 20^th Century. Then Putin took over for Gorbachev’s successor, Boris Yeltsin, in 1999. From that moment, Russia’s history was history.

Presently, Putin is controlling the perception of history in that he is claiming to the Russian people that he his undertaking a “special military operation” to “stop a Ukrainian ‘genocide’ against the Russian-speaking population in that country.”

Which, of course, is “alternative history.”

Remnick’s point, mainly, is that so long as Putin can control Russian history up to and including the point its first draft is being written, he controls his country. Remnick does not use the column to connect Putin’s “history” with the ongoing efforts by the Trump wing of the GOP to similarly control American history.

The Big Lie is obvious, as should be Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. (Remember the historic summit in Helsinki, 2018; “I don’t see any reason why it would be (Russia). President Putin was extremely powerful in his denial today”?)

There is Trump’s command, diffused by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, to call in the 82^nd Airborn to quash June 2020 protests in Washington over a Minneapolis policeman’s killing that May. In a kind of preternatural irony, Trump sought to invoke the Insurrection Act as the reason for calling in the military, Bob Woodward and Robert Costa write in Peril.

Nearly two years later, Trump is still in charge of the GOP as Putin tries to wrest control of Ukraine. Last Saturday, before the brouhaha over his praise of Putin on a right-wing radio show could begin to die down, Trump told well-heeled donors at a Republican National Committee fundraiser in New Orleans we should “put the Chinese flag on F-22 fighter jets” and “bomb the shit” out of Russia. Seems like he is no longer keen on his former pals Putin and Xi. Although that line was reported as a joke, according to The Hill, it’s not so much a joke as another Trump fabrication: his suggestion came just after his former national security advisor, John Bolton told The Washington Post that Trump would have pulled out of NATO had he won a second term.

But it’s not all Trump. His wing of the GOP has been on a tear in local school boards and at the state level with proposals to outlaw “Critical Race Theory,” in quotes here because, of course, it has never been taught in K-12 schools, anywhere, in order to codify the sort of “history” that whitewashed the Confederacy as a disagreement over states’ rights. Controlled history.

It has never been my intent to take sides on any issues appearing in The Hustings. However, while this outlet seeks to provide equal voice to both the left and the right, we make no excuses for being anti-authoritarian.

Slava Ukrain!

(Wednesday, March 9, 2022. First posted Monday, March 7, 2022 at https://thehustings.substack.com)

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It Has Come to This Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Tucker Carlson’s defense of Vladmir Putin has been not only disconcerting to many, but puzzling to others. Pre-Trump Republicans in general and conservative Republicans in particular were, at the very most, skeptical of those in power in Moscow.

Remember “Trust but verify”?

Ronald Reagan was under no illusions when it came to the leaders of the then-Soviet Union. The verification part of that commandment was to indicate that there would be no suffering of fools.

Here’s a funny thing: In the late 20th and early 21st century there were conservatives who decried those in what they considered to be the leftist academic world for their support of postmodernism and deconstruction, which those on the right said created conditions for a “post-truth” world, where there was no core truth of values.

Arguably it was Trump and his acolytes who have had a far bigger effect on undermining reality with, in Kellyanne Conway’s telling, “alternative facts.”

While statements made by all who have any connection to politics – including statements made here — must be taken with at least a shaker full of salt, it is evidently the case that correctitude is something that is no longer considered by those, particularly in the Republican Party (why them: look at the polling of those who question the validity of the 2020 presidential election: With no factual evidence to the contrary, more than two-thirds of Republicans think that the election was “stolen”), to matter.

To bring this back to Putin: One day he says that he is sending “peacekeepers” into the Ukraine. The next day those forces are killing people.

At the top of his show on Tuesday, February 22, Carlson gave his defense of why he is defending Putin, with a litany of things that Putin didn’t do to him (actually the setup was such that the viewer at home was the person that Carlson was putting words into the mouth of, a rhetorical slight-of-tongue).

One of the things Carlson says Putin didn’t do to him has pretty much gone unremarked, something that says volumes of what has happened to the Republican Party as it has gone from standing for things like values to a supine position except when it comes to ginned-up outrage for things that often don’t exist. (Railing against the teaching of critical race theory in places where critical race theory isn’t being taught, for example.)

Carlson said, referring to Putin, “Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?”

And that’s the money quote.

It explains what has happened to Republicans, especially elected officials.

They are afraid of losing their jobs.

This has brought them to a place where they have gone from harsh criticism of Trump (I’m talking to essentially all of you who were running against him in the 2016 G.O.P. presidential primaries) to utter flattery.

They have decided that principles aren’t as important as a paycheck, so why risk Trump’s wrath? Say whatever soothing words he wants to hear, even if they are lies.

The truth doesn’t matter to these people. They will twist it any way necessary if only to keep their jobs. They don’t care about the good of others, about the polity. They only care about themselves. Ten years before The Art of the Deal was published there was another book published that was right in line with the thinking that has come to characterize Republican Party leadership: Looking Out for Number 1.

Russell Kirk, who was once revered by conservatives, wrote, “If you want to have order in the commonwealth, you first have to have order in the individual soul.”

When there are so many people who are worried about their positions and trappings, the integrity of their souls become something of disinterest. In fact, these people would probably publicly scoff at the mention of something so metaphysical (though one hopes that in the dark and still of the night they would be troubled by the spirit put within them by their Creator).

As St. Augustine wrote: “Purity of soul cannot be lost without consent.”

Lies, no matter how widely they are told, or by whom, are still lies.

Trump lost his job because the majority of the American people fired him. He didn’t like that. Carlson is siding with authoritarians because they, as yet, haven’t fired him.

This is what it has come to: Disorder caused by those who are promulgating self-serving lies.

(Monday, March 7, 2022. First posted Thursday, February 24, 2022 at https://thehustings.substack.com)

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Death in America Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Sometimes the government must do things to protect its citizens even in situations where individuals might not think they’re interested in that protection, but which has a broader social effect such that it is beneficial to the polity at large.

Like seat belts in cars. In 1968 a federal law went into effect requiring that vehicles sold in the U.S be equipped with seat belts. Most states subsequently enacted primary enforcement laws that vehicles can be pulled over by law enforcement officers if it is observed that a driver or passenger is not wearing a seat belt. As one state slogan has it, “Click It or a Ticket.” There are 15 more states that have secondary enforcement, which means that if someone is pulled over for a moving violation and the officer observes that there is no seat belt use, that can be added to the infraction.

There is only one state that doesn’t have a seat belt enforcement law on the books: New Hampshire. As you probably know, New Hampshire’s state motto is “Live Free or Die.” On the subject of the death part, know that according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, seat belt use has cut fatalities in half. So perhaps some New Hampshirites like the odds of a flipped coin when they climb into their SUV and leave the belt unengaged.

According to “Mortality in the United States, 2020,” the leading causes of death in the U.S. and the number of people who have died as a result are:

• Heart disease: 696,962
• Cancer: 602,350
• COVID-19: 350,831
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 200,955
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 160,264
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 152,657
• Alzheimer’s disease: 134,242
• Diabetes: 102,188
• Influenza and pneumonia: 53,544
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 52,547

Yes, COVID-19, in 2020, went from nowhere (OK, China) to number-three.

Meanwhile, there are those who are protesting against government requirements for wearing a mask (which is certainly less constricting than, say, a seat belt) or getting a vaccination. The arguments on behalf of masking and vaxxing are that they not only protect the individual but also other people in the country.

But there are two groups of people who are suffering the most from what it seems the people who still somehow think COVID mitigation efforts are a bridge too far (who knew that there are so many snowflakes in the Republican Party?):

·       Sick people

·       The people who have to take care of sick people

Look at that list of causes of death. Remove the COVID number.

That leaves 2,155,709 people, all of whom needed medical attention.

Let’s not forget those who needed elective surgery. While the word “elective” might make some people think this is nothing more than things like breast enhancements, that is far from being the case for hundreds of thousands of people who are suffering from things that planned surgery will possibly alleviate.

According to a study published by the JAMA Network, which falls under the American Medical Association, in 2019 there were 905,444 procedures performed and in 2020, the first year of COVID, that number dropped by 48%. It isn’t because there were fewer people who needed surgery. There were just complicating factors.

Like the state of the health care industry.

Which brings me to the second category of people, the health care workers.

Morning Consult surveyed 1,005 U.S. health care workers between January 31 and February 11.

Of that cohort, 30% said they’ve been struggling with coping with the demands of their job over the past six months.

More startling — and sad because conditions would not be this bad had more citizens taken the steps necessary to reduce replication of the virus — 49%, when asked how they felt about work during the pandemic, responded, “I’ve felt defeated by the demands.”

It didn’t — and doesn’t — have to be this way.

I just wonder how the strident anti-mask/vaxx people feel when they are attending funerals or find themselves having to be admitted to a hospital.

Shame is something I’d suggest.

(Monday, March 7, 2022. First posted Friday, February 18, 2022 at https://thehustings.substack.com.)

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What’s in a Name? Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Donald Trump has a penchant for calling Republican officials who disagree with him “RINOs” or “Republicans in Name Only.” These people range from the late Colin Powell to Mitt Romney to Larry Hogan. Arguably bona-fide Republicans.

But are they?

According to a new Morning Consult/Politico survey in which voters were asked whether the events of January 6, 2021, were “a legitimate form of political discourse,” 33% of self-identified Republicans said that it was — as did the Republican National Committee in its censure of two other Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who don’t see storming the U.S. Capitol as “legitimate . . . political discourse.”

Which makes one wonder: Is there such a thing as the Republican Party as it has been known prior to 2016, or is what now exists the “Trump Party” pure and simple? As is widely known, prior to running for president as a Republican, Trump was cozy with Democrats and some — as in some traditional Republicans in the earlier part of this century — might have argued that the free-wheeling morality exhibited by Trump was something that no self-respecting Republican would ever do.

But appealing to people who wanted to, in effect, “stick it to the Man,” even though Trump was arguably the poster-child for “the Man” in terms of his alleged wealth and disinterest in the “little guy,” a category that is a large portion of his “base,” Trump became the leader of the Republican Party, which he evidently continues to be.

So here’s a question: Does the leader get to redefine what something is? One could argue that the people that Trump has described as RINOs are actually those who have traditional Republican values and so those who are in Trump’s camp are the real RINOs because one of the only things that they have in common with what has been long thought of as Republicanism is their opposition to Democrats.

Perhaps those who are actual Republicans, not the post-2016 variant, need to take their name back. Of course, that would necessitate their standing up to Trump and it seems that another characteristic of long-standing Republicans is loss of a spine, which explains their inability to do anything other than precariously lean on the edge of a cliff that they’re afraid Trump and his minions will push them off.

Of course, conceivably the cliff has a drop of only a few inches, but they’re not going to take that risk because they like their jobs too much to uphold principles.

(Thursday, February 24, 2022. First posted Thursday, February 17, 2022 at https://thehustings.substack.com.)

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P.J. O’Rourke: An Appreciation By Todd Lassa

I first “met” P.J. O’Rourke in his role as editor-in-chief of the National Lampoon and my role as an avid high school reader of the magazine in the 1970s. There also were regular pieces in the pages of such publications as Harper’s and Rolling Stone, mostly about politics and current affairs from his almost defiantly conservative perspective.

By the middle of the decade, David E. Davis, Jr., signed him on as a contributor to Car and Driver magazine, where O’Rourke, who died Tuesday at 74 from lung cancer, applied his self-deprecating sense of humor to automobiles. O’Rourke also let loose his conservative leanings in these pieces, too, because the automobile industry and its products were then, and are now, as political as anything you can build or buy. 

When Davis launched his own “buff book” publication, Automobile Magazine in 1986, O’Rourke came along as a regular contributor. I met O’Rourke in person, all too briefly in 2011 on the way to Davis’ funeral in Michigan. I was Motor Trend’s Detroit editor, but at Davis’ crowded wake, I didn’t manage to engage O’Rourke in any meaningful conversation on cars or politics, two subjects for which we clearly shared similar levels of passion. 

Five years later, on NPR’s Wait, Wait … Don’t Tell Me, O’Rourke told his fellow panelists that as the sole conservative on the show, he did not agree with Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton on a single issue, and yet he would vote for her – because his party’s candidate was Donald J. Trump. 

Best I can do now is catch up on O’Rourke’s books. I’ve spent much more time reading his columns and magazine pieces, while his Republican Party Reptile, subtitled The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and (Other) Outrages of P.J. O’Rourke has gathered dust on my bookshelf for years. 

I also need to pick up Parliament of Whores, subtitled A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain U.S. Government. In it, according to his obit in The New York Times O’Rourke writes; “Although this is a conservative book, it is not informed by any very elaborate political theory. I have only one firm belief about our American political system and that is this: God is a Republican and Santa Claus is a Democrat.”

That belief, and his description of the two major American parties, written in 2010, fits in nicely with what we are trying to accomplish with The Hustings at a time when mainstream Democrats and mainstream Republicans seem unable to speak to each other at all. According to O’Rourke, “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says ‘government doesn’t work’ and then get elected and prove it.”

(Thursday, February 17, 2022)

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Infantile Adventures in Trumpworld Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Remember the 20-foot inflatable Trump Baby balloon that made its debut in the summer of 2020 flying over Parliament Square, which then morphed into other blimps that flew over locations in other parts of the world, including Mar-a-Lago? Well, it may be time to bring the Trump Baby back because of behavior chronicled in a forthcoming book by Maggie Haberman, Confidence Man. In the book, Politico reports, Haberman writes that periodically wads of paper had to be removed from the presidential potty and it was clogging the plumbing. Presumably this has something to do with the reports of Trump ripping up documents. 

As you may recall, Trump, back in December 2019, complained about low-flow toilets, saying that it was necessary to hit the handle “10 times, 15 times, as opposed to once.”

His penchant for flushing paper that isn’t of the Charmin variety may have had something to do with that.

Clearly, this is the sort of thing that parents have to deal with, as their toddlers put things in the toilet that don’t belong there.

One would imagine that a grown man who somehow became the so-called “Leader of the Free World” (Haberman, according to Politico, has told people that Trump has stayed in contact with Kim Jong-un, leader of one of the most unfree countries on Earth) would know better than to perform such an infantile act.

Trump, of course, is obsessively repeating that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite the fact that there is no actual evidence of this proffered.

Again, this is the sort of thing that a child does. Say a baseball goes through a window. Say there is no one in the backyard but Donny. “I didn’t do it. Someone else did.” “Who?” “Some bad guy came by. I think he may have been from outer space. Or maybe Venezuela.”

This completely unhinged thinking has affected Trump’s pals at the Republican National Committee, with the “legitimate political discourse line.” This is analogous to a child using Sharpies on the living room wall then claiming that it is “art.”

The funny thing about Mitch McConnell chastising the RNC is that he seems like Grandpa Mitch telling the kids that they’re out of line. Some of them mutter, while staring at their shoes. Others mumble while trying to say that’s not what they actually said.

And Donny comes out and proclaims, oddly, “If Mitch would have fought for the election, like the Democrats would have if in the same position, we would not be discussing any of the above today, and our Country would be STRONG and PROUD instead of weak and embarrassed.”

Where are the adults?

Let’s see: in the 2016 election Hillary Clinton received 65,853,514 votes from actual people and Trump 62,984,828. Did the Democrats claim that the election was fraudulent? Did Barack Obama say that because things were unclear he was still the president?

There were 213 Republicans who won seats in the House in the 2020 election. Were those numbers dodgy? There were 11 state gubernatorial elections on that ballot. Republicans won seven. Did they really lose?

As I’ve said in this space on more than one occasion, the grownups who are supporting this damaging childish behavior should be ashamed of themselves.

(Monday, February 14, 2022. First posted Friday, February 11, 2022 at https://thehustings.substack.com.)

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Heard on radio

CBS Evening News anchor Nora O’Donnell recently on NPR’s 1A recalled this quote by an early predecessor on her evening news show, “Uncle” Walter Cronkite: “Journalism is what we need to make democracy work.”

(Wednesday, February 9, 2022.)

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Lies, Damn Lies and the RNC Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“WHEREAS, The primary mission of the Republican Party is to elect Republicans who support the United States Constitution and share our values. . .”

And there you have it, signed, sealed and delivered.

No, not the censure of Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), of which those are the opening words in the resolution against the two, but the elected officials who participated in the voice vote against the two as well as the elected members of Congress who continue to spread lies about who won the 2020 presidential election and who fail to see that were there to be a slight tipping on January 6, 2020, the Constitutional mandate of counting the electoral votes could have ended in the vice president of the United States, a Republican, hanging from a gallows. 

Somehow the “Hang Mike Pence” chant seems to be forgotten by these people who ought to be absolutely outraged. And what of the historic Republican decorum? Do the people who smeared feces in the U.S. Capitol during the storming of the building get a pass?

But wait.

According to the resolution “Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

“Legitimate political discourse”? Where? In Thuderdome? Discourse doesn’t happen through bullhorns.

Consider the following passage from the resolution, a resolution motivated by Cheney and Kinzinger participating in the “Select Committee to Investigate the January 6^th Attack on the United States Capitol.”

(“Attack on the United States Capitol.” Shouldn’t Republicans want to get to the bottom of that? Those six words should give every patriotic American a chill down her or his spine. A symbol of freedom was attacked. And the Republican National Committee wants to give it a pass because they claim it was only “legitimate political discourse.”)

“The (House Republican) Conference must not be sabotaged by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who have demonstrated, with actions and words, that they support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022.”

Destroy President Trump?

Does trying to find out the truth of the matter constitute destruction? Are any of these people parents? Do any of these people accept their children telling even white lies? 

Are Cheney and Kinzinger joining up with a group of Democrats who are outfitted in face paint and carrying bear spray and truncheons of various configurations that are laying siege to Mar-a-Lago, or are they sitting in the House of Representatives where decorum has — with little thanks to the people who are standing in condemnation of Cheney and Kinzinger — been restored?

The Republicans can throw Cheney and Kinzinger out of their club. The Republicans can do whatever it takes to make sure that Cheney doesn’t win re-election.

But what they can’t do is wrap themselves in the flag that the January 6^th rioters defiled and claim that they are upholding the Constitution.

That is another in what has become an all-too familiar Big Lie, which these shameless men and women utter with impunity.

They should be ashamed of themselves for putting party over honesty.

(Wednesday, February 9, 2022. First posted Friday, February 4, 2022 at thehustings.substack.com.)

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Tucker Carlson Probably Doesn’t Like Borscht, Either

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

According to a fact sheet published by the U.S. Department of State on September 3, 2021, titled “U.S. Relations With Russia”:

“The Kremlin increasingly relies on repression to stifle civil society and critical voices, including new legislation restricting educational and cultural exchange programs, designating media outlets and NGOs as ‘foreign agents,’ more pervasive use of the so-called “undesirable foreign organization” designation, and even using the COVID-19 pandemic as a justification to further restrict freedom of expression and assembly. The Russian government uses arbitrary designations, criminal convictions, and administrative barriers to disqualify potential opposition candidates, ensuring no independent voices can participate in government processes.”

Sounds like quite the place for freedom-loving individuals, doesn’t it?

As is well known, there is a chunk of the Russian military, about 100,000 of them, on the Ukrainian border.

They are not there for a little R&R.

Something is likely to go sideways.

Which means the shooting begins.

Presumably Vladimir Putin would like to take the land of Ukraine and bring it back to the bosom of Mother Russia.

That whole “Soviet Union” thing ultimately didn’t work out. So he seems to be interested in bringing back as much turf as he can.

According to Politico, in March 2014, John McCain, then the Republican senator from Arizona, said on the floor of the Senate: “I have no illusions or worry about the long-term future of Russia. Russia is now a gas station masquerading as a country.”

Putin makes a lot of money on gas.

But one of the things he is against is the Ukraine joining NATO.

NATO describes itself as having two functions, political and military.

The political part: “NATO promotes democratic values and enables members to consult and cooperate on defense and security-related issues to solve problems, build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.”

Which doesn’t sound much like the aforementioned description of what the Kremlin wants. “Democratic values”? Bah.

Then there is the military part: “NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military power to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under the collective defense clause of NATO’s founding treaty – Article 5 of the Washington Treaty or under a United Nations mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations.”

Notice, this is about defense, not offense.

Those Russian soldiers aren’t there on the border because there is concern in Moscow that Ukrainian tanks are going to start rolling east.

The U.S. has, by and large, been in favor of things like democratic states. (Some MAGA people might misunderstand the last two words in that sentence: No, it doesn’t refer to New York or California.)

Republicans used to be bullish on democracy.

Seems that may be changing.

Fox’s Tucker Carlson has been a voice against the U.S. trying to defend the Ukrainian people against the possible incursion of Russian troops.

Axios quotes Carlson as saying this: “I just want to go on the recordand say I could care less if they call me a pawn of Putin.

“It’s too stupid. I don’t speak Russian. I’ve never been to Russia. I’m not that interested in Russia. All I care about is the fortunes of the United States, because I have four children who live here.”

That’s right: Let a foe of democracy do whatever he wants to as long as it doesn’t disturb Carlson.

Freedom, schmeedon, right Carlson?

(Monday, January 31, 2022. First posted at thehustings.substack.com Friday, January 28, 2022.)

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Can This Democracy be Saved? Substack fodder by Todd Lassa

It was a frightening cover interview in the Financial Times more than halfway through Donald J. Trump’s single presidential term, published June 27, 2019. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s authoritarian leader since 1999 declared “liberalism,” the “dominant western ideology since the end of the second World War in 1945,” had “outlived its purpose.” 

This was three years after Russia meddled in our presidential election with the goal of damaging Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s chances, while helping Trump’s chances and stirring up distrust in our democratic system, according to U.S. intelligence. 

As if to drive his point home, Putin signed a law last year that allows him to run for two more presidential terms and remain in office until 2036. 

Trump must be envious. The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection is looking into a plan driven by the Big Lie that would have had certain co-operative members of the Defense Department “potentially seize voting machines in the country and utilize Department of Defense assets to make that happen,” as the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said on CBS News’ Face the Nation Sunday.

Meanwhile, Putin has similar plans in mind for Ukraine, according to a communique issued by the U.K.’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office Saturday, which named four members of a pro-Russian political party in the country who are potential leaders of a puppet government the Kremlin plans to install there. 

The New York Times’ Sunday news story on the communique buried this connection deep into the jump page: All four of the intended puppet-leaders once were clients of Paul Manafort, who also was a campaign manager for Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump pardoned Manafort during his last days in the White House, just before Christmas 2020, for a conviction connected to the Mueller Investigation into the Russian meddling of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Thompson also revealed on Face the Nation that Trump’s attorney general up until Christmas 2020 — the AG who had falsely characterized The Mueller Report as exonerating Trump even though Special Counsel Robert Mueller said the report does not exonerate him — William Barr, has had “conversations” with the 1/6 panel.

We should find out more about Barr’s pre-January 6 actions, and ultimately whether he pushed back against the reported plan to seize voting machines when the committee holds public hearings this spring.

(Friday, January 28, 2022. First posted at https://thehustings.substack.com Monday, January 24, 2022.)

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Gorsuch: So Much for Civility Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Neil Gorsuch was nominated to the Supreme Court by Donald Trump and evidently exhibits his sponsor’s level of concern for the well-being of other people. According for reporting by NPR’s Nina Totenberg, because Justice Sonia Sotomayor has diabetes and is consequently at high risk should she be infected with the coronavirus — high risk as in possible death — Chief Justice John Roberts has asked the other members of the Court to wear masks during arguments. Gorsuch, who sits next to Sotomayor, won’t.

This is shameful and pathetic.

Gorsuch is a proponent of natural law jurisprudence. That has it that people have rights not just those conferred on them by law, but by God, nature and reason. Undoubtedly Gorsuch’s notion of rights contributed to his voting against the Biden OSHA vaccine mandate.

But what about wearing a mask on behalf of one’s colleague’s well-being?

Let’s go back to natural law and the concept that there are rights that derive from God.

One of the people who is arguably closest to the divinity on this planet is Pope Francis.

In a book published last fall, Let Us Dream: A Path to a Better Future, Francis writes that people who resist simple, sensible actions that can protect one’s fellow man in the face of the pandemic “are incapable of moving outside of their own little world of interests.”

Clearly, on Planet Gorsuch, any inconvenience for him is too large to bear.

Gorsuch, incidentally, was raised as a Catholic but now attends an Episcopal church. Perhaps he doesn’t feel that the Pope’s observations are relevant.

Does one’s religious affiliation matter? One could make the case that it does for a constitutional originalist, but we’ll not go down that road here.

What can be said for a man who refuses to do something that is essentially irrelevant to him in order to help protect someone who is at risk of death is he apparently missed a clause in the first sentence of the Constitution: “promote the general Welfare.”

Some 852,000 American citizens have died as a result of the COVID pandemic.

And how does Gorsuch’s behavior “promote the general Welfare”?

(Friday, January 28, 2022. First posted at thehustings.substack.com on Wednesday, January 19, 2022.)

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About that Quinnipiac Poll Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The White House isn’t happy with a Quinnipiac poll released this week that gives Joe Biden an approval of 33%, Axios reports. Jennifer O’Malley, deputy chief of staff, put out a memo that says, in part, “This week’s Quinnipiac poll, just like Quinnipiac’s poll for the last five months, is very likely an outlier. The FiveThirtyEight average of all public polls finds the President’s approval is at 43%.”

So a 43% approval rating is something they ought to be happier about? That is still, as it is sometimes put, underwater. And they are taking on more water by the day.

O’Malley’s memo concludes:

“In their first year in office, the President and Congressional Democrats took action to deliver results for working families, getting people back to work and saving millions of lives through a historic vaccination program. Today, more than 200 million Americans are fully vaccinated and millions are getting booster shots each week and it’s clear the vaccines work against Omicron, reducing your likelihood of hospitalization illness by 17 times. And, as a result of the American Rescue Plan and the President’s action, we created 6.4 million more jobs in 2021 – the most jobs created in a year ever. The President and Congressional Democrats will build on this progress in 2022, addressing price increases, mitigating supply chain bottlenecks, implementing the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and making additional progress fighting the virus.”

Well. . .yes. But.

Yes, there are lots of people vaccinated. But anyone who has watched or read any news of late knows that Omicron is knocking the nation on its proverbial ass, and the Biden Administration doesn’t seem to be ahead of the pandemic (which is becoming endemic) but instead is reacting to it.

And let’s face it, they shouldn’t be all that happy with the number of Americans getting jabbed because while the “200 million Americans” may seem like a big number, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, when it comes to the percentage of the population fully vaccinated, you have to go down the list — United Arab Emirates, Brunei, Portugal, Chile, Malta, China, Cuba, Cambodia, Singapore, Spain, Denmark, Malaysia, Seychelles, New Zealand, Iceland, Australia, Japan, Canada, Qatar, Ireland, Uruguay, Belgium, Kuwait, Finland, France, Italy, Argentina, Austria, Ecuador, Bhutan, Norway, Germany, Sweden, Mauritius, Bahrain, United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Netherlands, Taiwan, Maldives, Luxembourg, Brazil, Fiji, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Peru, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, Latvia, Greece, Andorra, Israel, Lithuania, Thailand, El Salvador, San Marino, Sri Lanka—until you reach the United States. The U.S. is at 63.5%.

Not swell.

Yes, there are lots of new jobs, but there was lots of unemployment. And whether it is at your local supermarket or fast-food establishment, you’re likely to find that there is a dearth of employees. What’s more, if in either place, if you can find what you’re looking for (shelves are still comparatively sparse; things are being taken off of menus), given the rate of inflation, it is going to cost more.

“Addressing price increases”? This ought not be something happening in the future, but happening right now.

The Biden Administration is clearly not been doing a bang-up job. To be sure he has brought the White House back to a state of normalcy compared with the situation when the Trump Administration was inhabiting the place, but that isn’t exactly a high bar.

Certainly, the so-called Republicans aren’t being helpful with anything (what is it that they’re actually doing beside continuing to be the Party of No?).Thursday, January 27, 2022. Originally appeared at thehustings.substack.com Friday, January 14, 2022.)

But there needs to be better messaging coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because most of the messaging — by reputable outlets — about COVID and the economy undoubtedly make most Americans — yes, 77% and maybe even more — feel that what’s going on isn’t at all good and the Biden Administration isn’t making it much better.

(Thursday, January 27, 2022. First posted at thehustings.substack.com Friday, January 14, 2022.)

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Is Trump Finally Losing Control of the GOP? Analysis by Todd Lassa

Democrats’ Attempt to Push Voting Rights Bills Through the Senate Helps McConnell

The cliche’ that seems to work best to describe President Biden’s Atlanta speech and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) response is “snake eating its own tail.” 

Biden jawbones the public on a couple of voter rights bills, H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and require Justice Department clearance of election law changes in former Confederate states including Georgia, and its somewhat watered-down counterpart, H.R. 1, the For the People Act. 

Democrats want at least H.R. 1 passed to stem expected loss of a majority in the House, and probably in the Senate this year, but also to quell Donald J. Trump’s threat to run for the GOP presidential nomination again in 2024, and address some states’ new voting laws that could give partisan leaders power to overturn Electoral College votes. 

[Join the ongoing debate on Trump’s “ongoing coup” at The Hustings homepage; https://thehustings.news/trumps-coup-must-be-stopped/ and leave your comments on this page, or email to editors@thehustings.news]

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says he plans to carry out Biden’s wishes by changing filibuster rules to allow simple majority votes on H.R. 4 and H.R. 1 (already passed by the House) by next Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) quickly sent a message to Biden, Schumer and especially Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) Tuesday with the threat to clog the Senate with more than a dozen GOP bills using Rule XIV. Among these are bills to block vaccine mandates and White House fracking bans, McConnell told The Wall Street Journal. He made his warnings yesterday on the Senate floor, while standing in front of a placard quoting the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s defense of the legislative filibuster’s effect of assuring minority political voices are heard.

Yes, Sen. Byrd, the Democrat from West Virginia, whom Manchin replaced.

McConnell flexes his considerable political muscles, proving he is as powerful as Manchin, a couple of months after the Republican leader’s relationship with Trump hit rock-bottom. Trump, you might recall, called McConnell an “old crow” last November after the minority leader praised Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill (which was similar to a failed infrastructure proposal Trump put forth while he was president – but never mind). 

If all this isn’t enough for McConnell to wrest party control from the ex-president, consider this: The one piece of election reform gaining bipartisan support on Capitol Hill is a rewrite of the Electoral College Act of 1887. While no specific changes to the Act have been floated, they surely will restrict the ability of partisan state officials to overturn voters’ Electoral College will.

(Monday, January 17, 2022. First posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2022 at thehustings.substack.com.)

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Are Conservatives Democrats’ Only Hope? Analysis by Todd Lassa

Democrats have had a sense of doom about this year’s midterms and the 2024 presidential election at least since the Senate acquitted Donald J. Trump last February after his second impeachment. While the present hang-ringing may be appropriate under the circumstances—the economy; omicron explosion—the party has been long known for its uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. What’s more, its lack of discipline is well described by humorist Will Rogers’ immortal quote in which he says he doesn’t belong to an organized party: “I’m a Democrat.” 

Republicans always have been split, too, though not with such lack of discipline. There was trust-buster Theodore Roosevelt against industrialist-Republicans. Barry Goldwater versus George Romney and Nelson Rockefeller. The John McCain of McCain-Feingold campaign reform versus the John McCain of McCain-Palin.

A significantly sized group of Republicans broke off from the party completely when Donald J. Trump won the GOP’s nomination for president in 2016. Now, they might be Democrats’ best chance for, well, not losing so much of its super-thin majorities in the House and Senate this November. 

The Lincoln Project, itself highly troubled in an almost Democratic Party sort of way, has launched the sharpest television commercials against the former president and his considerable coterie of sycophants and fellow grifters.

Some Democrats seem confident Biden will turn his fortunes around in the next 10 months, as his bipartisan infrastructure plan takes hold, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) sees the light on the Build Back Better bill … oh, and on at least one of two voter rights bills that might prevent pro-Trump Republicans from turning over Electoral College votes two-and-a-half years from now is passed. 

Anti-Trump Republicans want to defeat the former president’s acolytes, and strip Trump of his tenacious grip on the GOP. It is in their interests for the Democratic candidates who make that happen to be moderates, not hard-left progressives who attempt to swing the political pendulum all the way from the populist-right conservatives who control their preferred party. 

Charlie Sykes, a founding editor of The Bulwark is one of the never-Trumpers who hopes there will be moderate Democrats to support so they don’t have to leave ballots blank. [https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/why-ronjon-might-win] Sykes writes that one of Capitol Hill’s Trumpiest of Republican senators, Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson, could find it easy to win a third term this year (he previously had promised a self-imposed two-term limit) despite a Marquette University Law School poll that finds him underwater. 

In Marquette Law’s latest poll, taken last October, Johnson had a 36% favorable rating versus 42% unfavorable (while Biden was 43% favorable/53% unfavorable in the state), with  36/33 in 2020 and 40/30 in 2019. 

Sykes believes factors favoring a third term for Johnson include:

1. The national political environment.
2. A Wisconsin track record of “out of party” Senate incumbents winning midterms.
3. Democrats nominating “unelectable” challengers. 

To that last point, Sykes notes the frontrunner so far against a dozen other intended candidates for the Democratic nomination to challenge Johnson is Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who has been endorsed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and would be the most high-profile senator belonging to the same wing of the party as AOC and her wing in the House.

Sure, Sykes is warning: Challenge one of the most conservative-populist members of the senate with the most progressive Democrat possible, one easily attacked as a “socialist.”

But is it working? Will Democratic Party leaders listen to never-Trumper conservatives like Sykes, who has been a staple on CNN and MSNBC for about five years now? Will the growing number of nascent Party of Lincoln groups have any effect on this year’s primaries? 

Progressive Democrats have managed to win House seats in reliably liberal areas: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the Bronx and parts of Queens, Rashida Tlaib mostly in Detroit, Ilhan Omar mostly in Minneapolis. Sure, there are Sen. Warren and Bernie Sanders, but as a fellow Cheesehead like Sykes, I can tell you that politically Wisconsin – the state of both “Fighting” Bob LaFollete and Joe McCarthy – is no Massachusetts or Vermont. Yes, Barnes did have to win a majority of the entire state to become its lieutenant governor, but the total vote for his election certainly must have been lower than that for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) in the same election. For Barnes to win the Senate election this year, there will have to be a huge turnout in Milwaukee and Madison, likely with votes being counted after 3 a.m. Eastern, just like in the ’20 presidential election.

Will Wisconsin Democrats pay attention to Sykes’ warning? Right now, it looks like Democrats are only in the moment, hoping Trump gets a subpoena to appear before the House 1/6 committee. Maybe they’ll pay attention to the entreaties of anti-Trump conservatives after November 8. Will Rogers probably would say, “don’t bet on it.”

(January 17, 2022. First posted Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at thehustings.substack.com.)

•••

Still the First Refuge Substack fodder by Todd Lassa

In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary, patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer, I beg to submit that it is the first. – Ambrose Bierce

Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared “warm words” with former Vice President Dick Cheney on the House floor Thursday as members of Congress gave speeches about the insurrection on that spot one year earlier. Cheney, himself a former congressman and his daughter, Wyoming’s Rep. Liz Cheney, were the only two Republicans who joined a virtually full crowd of Democrats across the aisle who condemned the Trump wing of the GOP and its incitement of the violent event. Later Thursday evening, Tucker Carlson attacked Ted Cruz on his Fox News show for calling January 6, 2021, a violent terrorist attack. 

Why was the Republican senator from Texas, who was not only there a year ago, but also voted against certifying Joseph R. Biden’s Electoral College votes, believing his eyes?

As if that weren’t enough, in an op-ed contribution Karl Rove was calling on Republicans to condemn the January 6 riot and “those who refuse to acknowledge it,” written for The Wall Street Journal, no less. 

And so it goes, one year after the Capitol insurrection, the center-point for an ongoing coup d’etat[https://thehustings.news/trumps-coup-must-be-stopped/

https://thehustings.news/the-incredible-power-of-the-big-lie/; https://thehustings.news/corruption-from-a-con/] that began when Donald J. Trump warned months before the November 2020 presidential election that if he did not win re-election, it would be proof of Deep State election fixing enhanced by expanded mail-in and early voting in many states due to the pandemic. 

Consider the Cheneys’ fight for the GOP’s soul yesterday, and even Sen. Cruz’s comments to Fox News and it’s déjà vu all over again. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and even House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) condemned the insurrection a year ago. After McConnell voted to acquit the ex-president last February 13, he took to the Senate floor to hold Trump “practically and morally responsible” for the Capitol riot. Meanwhile, McCarthy took pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago begging forgiveness from the defeated former president, and the national punditocracy pinballed between declaring Trump dead politically and in full-charge of the GOP. 

It took maybe a couple more weeks to settle on the latter conclusion. 

McConnell continues to hedge his bets. On Thursday, he issued a statement that “January 6, 2021 was a dark day for Congress and our country. The United States Capitol, the seat of the first branch of our federal government, was stormed by criminals who brutalized police officers and used force to try to stop Congress from doing its job. This disgraceful scene was antithetical to the rule of law. One year later, I am as grateful as ever for the brave men and women of the U.S. Capitol who served our institution bravely that day and every day since. I continue to support justice for those who broke the law.” 

But … 

“As I said yesterday, it has been stunning to see some Washington Democrats try to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predicated this event.”

McConnell is referring to a voting rights bill that would require a no-filibuster vote and the co-operation of Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) before it could subvert several states’ new election laws that might give Republican election officials authority to overturn November 2024 Electoral College ballots in favor of Donald J. Trump. 

Alas, this year’s GOP pushback on Trump will not – did not – make it to February 13. By the end of the day of the first anniversary of the insurrection, Ted Cruz had apologized to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson – no pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago necessary.

“You’re right, Tucker. They weren’t terrorists. They were patriots.”

(Tuesday, January 11, 2022. First posted Friday, January 7, 2022 at thehustings.substack.com.)

•••

Simplicity and Shame Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

We make it all-too complicated.

When I was a young, smart-ass in high school, I scrawled something on the locker of my then ex-girlfriend with a Magic Marker. (It had something to do with the break-up.)

I was caught in the act.

And the next day I spent the entire day washing down not only the locker in question but every locker in the building.

It didn’t occur to me to call a lawyer.

We have all seen the riot that took place at the Capitol one year ago.

We have all seen the destruction that occurred.

We have all seen the police being attacked by the rioters.

We have all seen what we never imagined would ever happen after a speech given by the sitting president of the United States.

Yet somehow this didn’t happen?

Somehow this wasn’t bad?

Somehow this isn’t something that punishment needs to be meted out for?

Somehow there is no responsibility being applied to the responsible?

Yes, there have been more than 700 charged for participating in the riot. Some 70 have been sentenced.

A simple question: What if instead of scrawling a message to Peggy on a locker I had thrown desks through the windows of the classrooms she was in that given day?

Would I have found myself taking up a career as a glazier, or would I have found myself, post-haste, in (a) the principal’s office and then (b) in juvie? 

Would my parents have grounded me until, oh, I qualified for Social Security?

I’m guessing that regardless of which side of the aisle you’d sit, you know the answers to those questions.

That’s not hard.

During his speech to the crowd on 1/6 (“We have hundreds of thousands of people here”—uh, no, but that was just one of a Niagara of lies), Donald Trump talked about how “they” were planning on renaming the Washington Monument and getting rid of the Jefferson Memorial. And “They’ll knock out Lincoln too.”

“But then we signed a little law. You hurt our monuments, you hurt our heroes, you go to jail for 10 years.”

“You hurt our heroes, you go to jail for 10 years.”

Presumably, he was talking about stone statues, not flesh-and-blood individuals.

What if he had been in office and the Capitol Police were being beaten with flagpoles and hockey sticks, being drenched in the face with bear spray?

Not hard to imagine his reaction to that.

During his presentation he said, “we’re going to have to fight much harder”… “And after this, we’re going to walk down [to the Capitol, where Congress was undertaking its Constitutional duties], and I’ll be there with you” and “you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated.”

“Lawfully slated” as defined by Trump and Trump alone, with fictitious claims like, “In Detroit, turnout was 139% of registered voters.” Huh?

“So let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue,” he concluded.

And we know what happened then.

Trump was the leader of the country. Trump was a man who should have been truthful. Trump was a man in a position that once school children (maybe not high school, but. . .) were told to respect.

What happened?

We know what happened.

It wasn’t the “fake news media.”

It wasn’t “big tech.”

It wasn’t any list of other villains.

Trump lost.

He — and all those who did and who continue to support him in his lies—should be ashamed of himself for claiming otherwise.

Shame.

It is as simple as that.

And every parent — Democrat or Republican — should think about whether anything that happened on 1/6 is something their children should emulate.

Peggy knew what a jackass I was.

(Friday, January 7, 2022. First posted Thursday, January 6, 2022 at thehustings.substack.com)

•••

When is Enough Entertainment Enough? Commentary by Jim McCraw

No other people sharing the planet have more access to entertainment than the American people. We spend the time after work and after dinner being entertained with a horizontal and vertical density of entertainment like no other country on Earth.  Huge amounts of what we can see, we have already seen: Endless reruns of I Love Lucy and Lawrence Welk, still available at the shout of a voice command over cable remotes everywhere. Dozens of channels, broadcasting, cable casting and satellite-beaming through every minute of every day.  The news, in every shade from red to blue, in many languages, never stops. On digital 4K billion-color screens up to and including 85-inchers.

Almost all of this is available on your smartphone, too, which you can plug into your vehicle’s sound system and screen to be entertained with sound and pictures while you drive. There are noise-cancelling earbuds for your privacy, and that’s about all the privacy you’re going to get.

We never talk much about Big Entertainment.  Big Pharma, Big Tech, for sure.  But, Big Entertainment?  Nah.  They’re the good guys, right?  Making us happy after dinner so we can forget how screwed up things are at work and where we live.

Since all the important guts and teeth of the Federal Communications Commission, which prohibited certain kinds of media ownership, were excised a long time ago, we have seen the formation of Big Entertainment. 

The Walt Disney Company, for one, owns so many entertainment companies it’s hard to keep track:

Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, theatrical exhibition unit, home media distribution, Disney Music Group, domestic television networks, and international holdings.  Walt Disney World, Disneyland Resort, Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, Shanghai Disney Resort, Disney Vacation Club, Disney Cruise Line, Walt Disney Pictures, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, Disneynature, and Disney Theatrical Group. Walt Disney Television consists of ABC and ESPN, Disney Television Studios, 20th Television and 20th Television Animation, ABC Owned Television Stations, Freeform, Disney Branded Television, FX Networks, ABC News, 73% ownership of National Geographic Partners, and 50% of A&E Networks with Hearst. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Angels of Anaheim.

Comcast owns  the Xfinity cable subsidiary, Comcast Business, Xfinity Mobile, Verizon, over-the-air national broadcast network NBC, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Syfy, NBCSN, Oxygen, Bravo, Qubo, E!,  Universal Pictures, Dream Works Animation, Illumination, Universal Animation Studios), Universal Parks & Resorts, Platform, FreeWheel, and Sky Group.

AT&T, the telephone company, owns WarnerMedia, which owns 29 brands, including HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT, truTV, Cinemax, and multiple non-English cable stations.

If you don’t think the Disney companies, let alone AT&T, Viacom, Comcast, and Sinclair, with 294 TV stations in 89 markets, have any influence over who you are, what you do, and for whom you vote to represent you, you are mistaken.

  

____________________________________

Iowa: Maybe Not What You Think Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

(THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2021)

While you might think that Iowa is an agricultural state through and through, it is actually the case that manufacturing is the number-one source of jobs in the state. According to the Iowa Area Development Group, “With over 17% of Iowa’s GDP attributed to manufacturing, Iowa ranks seventh in the U.S. for the percentage of GDP derived from manufacturing.” What’s more, “More than half (52.9%) of Iowa’s manufacturing jobs are in its non-metropolitan counties.” And one more: “Iowa’s well-educated and dedicated workforce is a recognized asset to advanced manufacturing firms. The state’s network of University-driven manufacturing-oriented research and community college training programs help drive productivity.”

Although COVID has an effect on the state—recent stats show it is mid-pack nationally in terms of deaths per 100,000 citizens (0.41), which is better than Washington (0.44) but not as good as Michigan and New Mexico (0.36).

Although the job situation there is pretty good, as the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics has the unemployment rate at 4.1%. Most of the jobs lost are in the leisure and hospitality category.

According to “Iowa’s Workforce and the Economy 2021,” a publication from the Iowa Workforce Development agency, “Workers with less education continued to experience a higher unemployment rate than better educated members of the labor force: those with less than a high school diploma (6.7 percent), high school graduates with no college (6.5 percent), some college or associate’s degree (4.9 percent) and Bachelor’s degree and higher (2.8 percent).”

On Saturday, October 9, Donald J. Trump, the only president in the history of the United States to have been impeached twice, the man who lost the popular vote (e.g., the vote of “the people”) to Hillary Clinton in 2016 (65,853,514 for Clinton, 62,984,828 for Trump, or a 2,868,686 deficit for Trump) and the popular vote to Joe Biden in 2020 (81,282,916 for Biden, 74,223,369 for Trump, or a 7,059,547 deficit for Trump), took a stage on the grounds of the Iowa State Fair and proclaimed, according to Politico, “I’m telling you the single biggest issue, as bad as the border is and it’s horrible, horrible what they’re doing they’re destroying our country, but as bad as that is the single biggest issue the issue that gets the most pull, the most respect, the biggest cheers is talking about the election fraud of the 2020 presidential election.”

Why think about the hard stuff like immigration reform and whatever it is that he imagines that “they” are doing to destroy “our country” when it can be about him?

The election fraud of the 2020 presidential election is that Trump keeps claiming that somehow he was meant to win but he lost and the only way that could have happened is if something nefarious happened, or that should be “somethings nefarious happened,” as there would have to be a whole lot of shenanigans going on in order to account for the delta in the number of votes. (Yes, there is a concentration on the number of Electoral College (306 Biden, 232 Trump), but he lost that, too.)

One of the things that seems odd about all of the bluster that is emitted by Trump is this whole certainty that the victory was his.

Might one not think, “Maybe someone assured him that he would win, some who has not inconsiderable power and know-how in the ways of things not on the up-and-up”? One could make the argument that given what we don’t know about his conversations with some world leaders when he was in office and given his evident vanity, an assurance that didn’t come to be is something that would lead to this continued claim of what simply isn’t the case. “How could it be otherwise?” he may imagine.

Trump won in Iowa in 2020, with 53.1% of the votes to Biden’s 44.9% (897,672 for Trump and 759,061 for Biden). The numbers for Republican Senate incumbent Joni Ernst and her opponent Theresa Greenfield are quite similar: 51.8%, or 864,997 votes for Ernst and 45.2%, or 754,859 votes, for Greenfield.

If there was a steal, was there a steal in Iowa?

Of course the people who were there in Iowa hooting and hollering in support of the sore loser. Of course he basked in it. Of course venal players like Chuck Grassley who was obsequious to Trump.

But here’s the thing: with the changes that are occurring in Iowa, as higher education and manufacturing are becoming essential to one’s livelihood in the state, isn’t it likely that flim-flam artists who are trying to sell a line of bull are going to become less tolerated in the state?

You don’t run 3D printers and advanced CNC metalcutting equipment without a grounding in education, not fantasy.

At some point reasonable people are going to understand that numbers are numbers, reality is reality, false claims are just that: Not true.

(WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2021)

_________________________________________________________________________________

Carlson’s Cred Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“Systemic economic challenges include pervasive corruption, labor shortages driven by demographic declines and migration, widespread poverty in rural areas, vulnerabilities to changes in demand for exports, and a heavy reliance on Russian energy imports.”

CIA The World Factbook entry on Hungary

Sorry, that quote is taken from a Deep State source.

But to continue. . .

Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent a week in Hungary. He did his show from Budapest. Maybe he figured he’d garner more respect there, given that 16% of the population speaks English.

One of the concerns that some in the U.S. have had is some sort of bizarre puppy love that Carlson reportedly exhibits toward Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.

Orbán has been prime minister since May 2010. The last election, held in March 2017, he was re-elected by the National Assembly 134-28. It is worth knowing that he was put up for election by President János Áder, who has been in office since May 2012. The next election will be in 2022.

One thing to keep in mind about this is that Hungary had been under Communist rule from the end of World War II until it held its first multiparty election in 1990. Realize that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has been running things in the Russian Federation — which had more than a little something to do with the post-war situation in Hungary before in its previously branded incarnation — since May 2012. Putin was elected in 2018 with 77.5% of the vote. 

Um, yes, 77.5% of the vote.

Second place in that election, a set of steak knives.

As you may recall, Donald — “I alone can fix this” — Trump seemed to have something of a crush on Putin, possibly because Trump knew that unless he was able to completely shred the U.S. Constitution — something that, as more information comes out, we learn he was working at — he would only have eight years in office and Putin has a whole lot more time in office.

And had it not become politically advantageous to attack China, he would have probably pinned a photo of Xi Jinping to the Oval Office wall, as Xi can serve as president for life.

So it is not outside the realm of possibility that Carlson, with the Former Guy’s fortunes starting to wane, decided he needed to hook his star to another politician, one who actually built a wall on the southern border of the country he rules.

But there could be another reason why Carlson left the country for a bit.

Because for all of the attention given to the man — yes, even here, which is unfortunate — despite what might seem like his popularity, it is really somewhat meager.

According to the site TVrev.com in a story about the Q2 2021 advertisers on Tucker Carlson Tonight, the top advertiser during the week of June 24-30 was. . .Fox News Channel. That’s right. A house ad. It ran 17 times.

The second biggest advertiser was MyPillow. Mike Lindell ought to sell as many pillows as he can before the lawsuits kick in. MyPillow was pushed 13 times that week.

And number three? Fox Nation. That’s right, another Fox house ad, this one for its streaming service. It ran 12 times.

Then rounding out the top 10 (with none of them in double figures in terms of being run) are Balance of Nature, Qunol, Relief Factor, Rejuvenate Muscle Health, Pure TalkUSA, X-Chair, and RockAuto.

What do all of those have in common? How about the fact that none of them are major brands?

Hungary might seem appealing given that.

Realize that consumer products companies all have legions of people who work to find out the best, most-effective outlets to place their marketing messages. It might seem that Coke ads are everywhere, but they aren’t. They are where it is calculated that the company will get the best return on its investment.

And the same goes for everything from Budweiser to Ford, from Microsoft to McDonald’s.

One assumes that the team working on My Pillow is, well, let’s say not as metrics driven.

No doubt that Carlson garners lots of viewers for his show.

But look back at that list of advertisers.

(THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2021)

__________________________________________________________________________________

The Collapse in Kabul Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

(MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021)

One of the things the United States is world-class at doing is logistics.

Think of what we’ve witnessed during the time since March 2020, when there were all manner of issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and shortages of everything from toilet paper to potato chips.

When it came to delivering things, if the things were there to be delivered, then delivery happened. Think of FedEx, UPS, the USPS and Amazon. These are all delivery services extraordinaire. 

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night” — nor even deadly viruses kept the USPS and the other organizations from continuing to get it done.

Who didn’t watch with anticipation the news feed when the delivery trucks from FedEx and UPS were staged outside the Pfizer plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, trucks that were outfitted with the refrigeration equipment necessary to safely carry the first vials of vaccine across the country?

While it is hard to say that these outfits are perfect, it is harder to deny that most of the time — a vast majority of the time — they get the job done.

Yes, we are really, really good at logistics.

Which brings me to the collapse in Kabul.

Logistics just isn’t about the physical moving of things, although that is critically important.

It is largely about planning. Given something at point A, the need to get it to point B, and based on the means by which the transfer can take place … how do you do it?

This is not to objectify people, to make it seem as though they are the same as a Prime box of whatever.

It is to say the fact that there are literally thousands of people whose lives are at risk — at risk because they were on the same side that the U.S. was ostensibly there to support, to say nothing of the U.S. personnel on the ground who were told to “lock down” because getting from the embassy to the airport was problematic at best — who are left in that position because there was a failure to plan.

A failure to plan how to move from A to B with the equipment available to make that move.

President Trump had said that the U.S. would leave Afghanistan by May. President Biden talked September. It all came down in August.

Which leads me to wonder: Why didn’t the Biden team take the time to get the logisticians in place to come up with plans to get people out of that country tout suite? 

To hear the otherwise urbane Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying, in effect, “Gee, that happened faster than we’d expected,” is really quite a sad indictment of the inability of this country to get the loafers, high heels and running shoes off the ground. (We do a good job of getting the boots on and off; it is the civilians for whom there is a serious, serious problem.)

Biden has wanted the U.S. out of Afghanistan for more than 10 years. Didn’t he take some of that time to figure out how to accomplish that rather than just to make a proclamation about how he was doing the right thing?

Whether the U.S. leaving is right or wrong thing is not the issue here. What is the issue is the fact that we had a responsibility to the people with whom we had created a bond of trust and the U.S. utterly failed them.

Biden had claimed there wouldn’t be a Saigon moment. There wouldn’t be pictures of helicopters taking people off the roof of our embassy.

No, there hasn’t been a Saigon moment but a Kabul moment, one where we see the Hueys flying and people crushing people at the airport, hoping for a ticket out.

Where was the planning? Where are the logistics skills and capabilities?

Why is there such an epic fail?

While the proverbial woman or man on the street of Anywhere, U.S.A., probably hasn’t spent a minute thinking about Afghanistan (unless one of their loved ones or friends was serving there) over the past 20 years, when that person turns on the TV and sees what a cluster this surrender has been, the confidence in the Biden administration is going to take a hit the likes of which will be more surprising than what Blinken admitted to.

•••

When the New Clothes are an Orange Jumpsuit Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

(TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2021)

“President Trump granted a full pardon to Stephen Bannon. Prosecutors pursued Mr. Bannon with charges related to fraud stemming from his involvement in a political project. Mr. Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen.” That from a statement from former Trump White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, according to CNN last January.

Bannon was one of four people charged by New York-based federal prosecutors in August 2020 for defrauding donors of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

What were the donors ostensibly contributing to?

“We Build the Wall.”

Yes, one of Trump’s on-going hobby-horses.

Seems somewhat swampy, doesn’t it? Not just the Wall, but the fact that Bannon and his cohorts were fleecing the good working-class Americans who have been sufficiently upset by the ex-president about marauding murderers and worse coming up from the south. (Remember when it sounded as though there was an entire army of “bad hombres” on the move toward Mayberry, threatening Opie and Aunt Bea?) 

Of course Bannon is in dubious company.

There is Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager who got a pass having been sentenced to 47 months in prison, being found guilty of two counts of bank fraud, five counts of tax fraud and one count of failing to declare a foreign bank account.

Roger Stone, convicted of obstructing the Russia investigation, and sentenced to 40 months, got one, too.

As did Michael Flynn, former Trump White House national security adviser, who had pleaded guilty to lying to investigators regarding contacts with Russia’s ambassador, until he decided that he wasn’t guilty of lying to investigators, his conviction notwithstanding. And Trump simply made it not, as the kids say, a thing.

There is Ellliot Broidy, a former Republican National Committee finance chair and Trump fundraiser who pled guilty to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws. Notice something about the foreign aspect of all this?

Most recently Tom Barrack, long time Trump associate, who was, as The Washington Post put it, charged in “federal court in Brooklyn, New York, with acting as unregistered foreign agents as they tried to influence U.S. policy on the UAE’s [United Arab Emirates’] behalf while Trump was running in 2016 and later while he was president.” Unfortunately for Barrack, there are no Trump pardons at hand.

Others in the swampy circle who have been convicted but didn’t get a pardon from the Former Guy are Michael Cohen (three years in the slam, in part for hush money payoffs to a Playboy model and a pornographic actress, both of whom claimed affairs with Trump; Rick Gates, who pled guilty to helping the aforementioned Manafort in concealing $75-milllion in foreign bank accounts; George Nader, who pled guilty to two counts of sex crimes involving minors and who worked on the 2016 Trump campaign.

Allen Weisselberg, former CFO of the Trump Organization, was charged on July 1 with the evasion of taxes on $1.76-million in income. 

Let’s not be Pollyannaish about this. Politicians are, in general, not the kind of people that you’d trust with your wallet or with members of your family. Democrats and Republicans alike.

But in this case, things have been turned up to 11.

Let’s face it: given what Trump did — and presumably continued to when in office, despite the centuries of precedent that said not to do it — to turn a buck (often at other’s expense) should surprise no one that not necessarily copacetic things occurred during the past several years.

Still, this is at a magnitude that is remarkable, especially as we like to think that we are all about “transparency.”

Nope.

It continues. And those who did and who continue to support Trump are hanging on with all their might because to acknowledge that there wasn’t pervasive corruption is to make a self-admission that is profoundly unsettling.

“The swindlers at once asked for more money, more silk and gold thread, to get on with the weaving. But it all went into their pockets. Not a thread went into the looms. . . .” So wrote Hans Christian Anderson in The Emperor’s New Clothes.

In that case, the Emperor was naïve, not complicit. The people—including members of his court—were obviously frightened of the consequences of speaking the truth.

The Big Lie is an act of desperation, about believing something because to acknowledge that if things aren’t as imagined — that there wasn’t a cadre of grifters who were simply looking out for themselves and everyone else be damned — is to admit that what was thought to be right, the best, the greatest isn’t. Wasn’t.

“The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, ‘This procession has got to go on.’ So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.”

________________________________________________________________________________________

The Annotated Trump About Page Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

(TUESDAY, JULY 20, 2021)

I must confess that I was unaware of Donald Trump’s website (www.donaldjtrump.com).

The “about” page includes this description of what he claims to have accomplished and will continue to accomplish:

“Over the past four years, my administration delivered for Americans of all backgrounds like never before. Save America is about building on those accomplishments, supporting the brave conservatives who will define the future of the America First Movement, the future of our party, and the future of our beloved country.  Save America is also about ensuring that we always keep America First, in our foreign and domestic policy.  We take pride in our country, we teach the truth about our history, we celebrate our rich heritage and national traditions, and of course, we respect our great American Flag.”

The Heritage Foundation describes the original America First movement, circa World War II, thusly: “America First was an amalgamation of groups and fellow travelers who sometimes shared little more in common than an opposition to America’s entry into the war. The ranks of the antiwar movement included pacifists and communists (at least until Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941), wild-haired liberals, straight-laced conservatives and everything in between.”

Apparently, the current set includes those with elaborate comb-overs, red ball caps, and little understanding of history or grammar.

And on the homepage of Trump’s site there is what constitutes, presumably, its creed, which I comment on in italic font (admittedly a creation of someone in Venice in the 16^th century, but MAGA isn’t everything, at least typographically speaking).

• We are committed to defending innocent life and to upholding the Judeo-Christian values of our founding.

A point against abortion, and as for the upholding of values, it isn’t entirely clear what they are as if there was ever a case of someone who has simply transactional in behavior, it was Trump.

• We believe in the promise of the Declaration of Independence, that we are all made EQUAL by our Creator, and that must all be TREATED equal under the law.

The inclusiveness of Trump seems to have left something to be desired. 

• We know that our rights do not come from government, they come from God, and no earthly force can ever take those rights away. That includes the right to religious liberty and the right to Keep and Bear Arms.

“What Would Jesus Carry?”?

• We believe in rebuilding our previously depleted military and ending the endless wars our failed politicians of the past got us into for decades.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, “The United States spends more on national defense than China, India, Russia, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and Australia — combined.”

• We embrace free thought, we welcome robust debate, and we are not afraid to stand up to the oppressive dictates of political correctness.

Whenever there was substantive disagreement, didn’t Trump claim the alternative wasn’t true “because that’s what many, many people told me”? Does “Fake news” ring a bell?

• We know that the rule of law is the ultimate safeguard of our freedoms, and we affirm that the Constitution means exactly what it says AS WRITTEN.

Yes, and the Constitution includes Article II, Section 1, which includes a description of what he tried to void on January 6.  

• We support fair trade, low taxes, and fewer job-killing regulations, and we know that America must always have the most powerful military on the face of the Earth.

 And hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.

• We believe in Law and Order, and we believe that the men and women of law enforcement are HEROES who deserve our absolute support.

So what happened on January 6? 

• We believe in FREE SPEECH and Fair Elections.  We must ensure fair, honest, transparent, and secure elections going forward – where every LEGAL VOTE counts.

The only people who don’t seem to ascribe to this are those who follow Donald J. Trump.

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Bipartisan Means Both, Not One (Someone ought to tell Manchin) Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

(TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2021)

In an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, explains why he will vote against the “For the People Voting Act” bill. There are two quotes that stand out in his rationalization:

• “Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage.”
•  “. . .congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.”

Manchin’s fallback position on damn near everything is “bipartisan.”

Meanwhile, there’s Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, who said on May 5, “One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration. We’re confronted with severe challenges from a new administration, and a narrow majority of Democrats in the House and a 50-50 Senate to turn America into a socialist country, and that’s 100% of my focus.”

So let’s look at this. Whether it is the filibuster or the voting rights act, Manchin claims that somehow the country will be riven if the Democrats do things that they were elected as Democrats to do if the Republicans don’t come along with them. Presumably the Republicans are Republicans because they believe Republican things, not Democratic things. And vice versa. But apparently not in Manchin’s case.

Then there’s McConnell. The minority leader knows what he’s there to do, and damn it, he’s going to do it.

“One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping the new administration.”

Not 50%. One hundred.

Clearly the man is not particularly interested in “coming together to find a pathway forward.”

Rather, McConnell is saying, in effect, “My way or the highway.”

Common ground?

The same day that Manchin’s op-ed was published, there is an above-the-fold story in The Washington Post with the headline: “FBI inquiry of USPS chief DeJoy threatens bipartisan overhaul bill.

The lede of the story: “The FBI investigation into Postmaster General Louis DeJoy threatens to fray a fragile bipartisan and cross-industry coalition that supports financial relief legislation for the U.S. Postal Service, opening a new vein of turmoil for the embattled agency.”

Briefly, DeJoy is being investigated because it seems that when he was running New Breed Logistics it may be the case that he was violating campaign finance laws.

DeJoy is something of a bête noire because his efficiency plan for the U.S. Postal System that he instituted last fall, before the 2020 election, included things like removing sorting equipment from post offices and reducing the number of post boxes on street corners. This makes me wonder how the man could have run a logistics company because it is fairly obvious to anyone that by reducing things like that cause bottlenecks. And it is no surprise that mail service timing dropped precipitously.

DeJoy’s apparent argument was that this was to save money. The Democrats response is that it was done to put roadblocks in the way of mail-in voting. Mail-in voting is something that Donald Trump (a) used and (b) whined about in his speech in North Carolina on June 5 — guess some people can have it both ways.

(Ask Trump voters if they were happy when the Christmas cards from their grandkids came late or when their Christmas cards to their grandkids were delivered late. Or the paperwork from Medicare. Or the credit card bills that were suddenly due. No joy there.)

The thing is, this whole notion of trepidatiousness when it comes to offending the other party — well, at least, it seems, if you’re a Democrat and you are not falling in line with Republicans — is completely bizarre.

Aren’t there two parties because there are two points of view?

How often is McConnell criticized for his intransigent position? 

One could make the case that Manchin’s position of wanting all people to agree is in some ways a laudable one. But is it realistic? Or is it a craven play to placate a sufficient number of people in West Virginia happy so that he can keep his job?

According to the most-recent stats from the West Virginia secretary of state, 35.59% of registered voters in the state are Democrats. . .and 37.83% are Republicans.

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Big on Beowulf?  Commentary by Stephen Macaulay`

(MONDAY, APRIL 19, 2021)

 Here’s something that those politicians who are thinking about setting up an Anglo-Saxon-based club might want to take into account:

The Angles and the Saxons were actually immigrants, having gone to what we now call the British Isles from mainland Europe. The indigenous people, the Britons, were largely killed or marginalized.

So it is interesting to consider that this group of 21^st century Americans are going to form a club that is against immigration that is predicated on a group of people who were immigrants.

Of course, they’re not ones to let truth get in the way of what they perceive to be a good story.

One of the more remarkable aspects of the founding document of this nascent club is that they are giving full-throated support to Anglo-Saxon architecture.

It isn’t clear what they mean by that. Huts with thatched roofs? The occasional castle? Forget about things like buildings with HVAC systems and plumbing.

Funny thing: It is believed that some of the cathedrals built (yes, this period was pre-Henry VIII, so there were a bunch of Papists running the Church) were built by craftspeople who were brought in from other countries. The whole immigrant thing is hard to get away from, even 1,500 years ago. 

Realize that the Anglo-Saxon period ended in 1066 with the Norman Conquest (uh-oh: things didn’t work out so well for those Anglo-Saxons, having been invaded by the Danes, Norwegians and the Normans, so it seems odd that this club of America Firsters would throw their lot in with people who (a) started out as immigrants and (b) who fell to immigrants), so we’re not talking about a whole lot of magnificent architecture as a model.

The club members do have something in common with the Anglo-Saxons, at least based on the outfits that we saw some of them wearing on the January 6 storming of the Capitol: in the fifth and sixth century, the Anglo-Saxons were big on paganism—you know, the whole worship of false gods.

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Only Unity Can Save Us Now Analysis by Todd Lassa

President Biden’s inauguration represented a new dawn to so many from both parties. Even if Uncle Joe reached across the aisle a bit, giving into the reality that he needs probably 10 Republican senators to get things done, it would be a refreshing change from the last four years of governing by tweet. After all, Democrats knew from the get-go that they probably have until January 2023 to get any legislation passed.

Two news items that mostly flew under the media radar this week warn that if unity fails, Democratic legislation will fail, not just for the next 21 months, but possibly for a long, long time, well beyond the remaining 24 months of Biden’s first term. The items from Politico and The Bulwark+ demand more coverage (subscription required, so that’s a contradiction). Here goes. 

G-10 Senators Used as “Props”

Moderate Republican senators — known as the G-10 — and their staff feel dismissed after meeting Biden at the White House to negotiate over the American Rescue Plan Act, his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, according to Politico. Just one day after the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, publicly laid out his party’s roadmap for passing ARPA through the arduous reconciliation process to avoid a filibuster and require only 51 votes. 

“You do one meeting and 24 hours later, they prepare the reconciliation process,” a G-10 staffer told Politico. Then, last week, Biden said the G-10 “didn’t move an inch” on the ARPA, and now of course, the moderate Republicans fear the president will do the same in negotiations over his $2.3 billion infrastructure bill. 

After Biden’s latest comments, the G-10 released a statement in just a few hours (considered unusual that the senators’ staffs agreed on wording so quickly) that began, “The administration roundly dismissed our effort as wholly inadequate in order to justify its go-it-alone strategy.” That part hasn’t been widely reported. What has been widely reported is the Senate parliamentarian has ruled that the Senate Democrats can attach the infrastructure bill to the same fiscal year reconciliation that passed COVID-19 relief. 

Even then, that leaves only the question of what Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, will support.

The G-10 Senate Republicans are Shelley Moore Caputo of West Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Jerry Moran of Kansas, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Mitt Romney of Utah, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Todd Young of Indiana. Portman already has announced he will not seek re-election in 2022.

Columnist Steve Benen, writing for MSNBC’s website, calls into question how moderate some of those senators are considering their pro-Trump votes in the last administration. He writes that the G-10 counterproposal to the COVID relief bill was “woefull,” and now they have no infrastructure plan of their own. 

That opens up a whole new argument of what, exactly, constitutes “negotiation.” Does the G-10 need to start with a plan of its own, or simply begin by telling Biden what they think infrastructure is and isn’t (which is the heart of the conservative argument), and find an acceptable program somewhere in between. “What would it take to get you into this infrastructure bill today?”

Biden’s hurry-up campaign might be explained by the short time left to push through more legislation (requiring 60 GOP Senate votes) if the White House and Senate spend month after month in negotiations, but if the G-10 end up feeling they’re “props” and “window dressing” in these negotiations, no further White House proposals will go anywhere, anyway. 

Which brings us to the second under-reported item this week …

The GOP’s 2020 Elections Autopsy

This is what the Biden administration faces if it doesn’t negotiate with the G-10. It may be what Biden, and the whole Democratic Party — hell, what the nation — faces if moderate Republicans don’t effectively push back on the Trump administration’s residual power in the next 21 months. 

And let me say, at the outset, that after I read Jonathan V. Last’s piece, “Reading the Republican Autopsy” published by The Bulwark April 13, I had to DuckDuckGo him to make sure I wasn’t reading the website’s resident satirist. I wasn’t. He’s the executive editor. 

A political party’s “autopsy” refers to post-election studies of what went right, and mostly, what went wrong, in the last national election, particularly for the presidential candidate from the losing party. The most famous of these probably was the GOP’s 2012 autopsy of Mitt Romney’s challenge to President Obama’s re-election. The Republican Party reached the rather obvious conclusion that unless it opened its tent to the amalgam of minority groups who by now made up more than 50% of the voting public, the GOP would forever be relegated to a minority party.

We’ve heard squat about President Trump’s self-challenged defeat last November, nor of the GOP’s loss — no matter how marginal — in the Senate and its inability to snag the House of Representative’s majority. Indeed, Last writes, “People were confused as to why the losing party didn’t conduct an autopsy to figure out what went wrong…” even if The Bulwark, established by a never-Trumper group of conservative refugees from the National Review, is certain it knows what went wrong.

“Except that they did,” Last continues, without revealing how he obtained a copy of the autopsy. Doesn’t matter. Last most obviously has good contacts among the Republicans who quietly revile Trump even after having voted for his legislation. 

The pertinent conclusions from the autopsy is that the GOP has three ways to recapture the presidency in 2024, and the first two won’t work:

1..) “Win a lot more votes than the opposing candidate.”

2.) Get fewer votes, but win at least 270 state-certified Electoral College votes. 

3.) “Get fewer votes and fewer Electoral votes, but prevent the official counting and certification of the Electoral votes — and then win a majority of state delegations when the contest is shifted to Congress.”

In other words, mix an Electoral vote cocktail of what the Trump campaign attempted to do in such states as Georgia and Michigan (where just one Republican member the state’s canvassing board refused to reverse his certification vote to prevent a flip of Biden’s victory in the state) and what happened Jan. 6. The Hustings is designed to expose readers to both reasonable side of political issues, and I am committed to reporting and writing as objectively as possible for the center column, but – we hereby are on-record as being biased in favor of democracy in the U.S.A.

This is all legal and constitutional, Last writes, and he notes that many of the myriad “ballot security” bills matriculating through state legislatures this year have provisions to make it easier to overturn electoral votes tucked neatly inside. 

One provision of the controversial Georgia bill we reported on in the March 26 News & Notes is this: “Imposing new state oversight of county election boards.” 

It is that provision — not cutting the number of drop-boxes or shortening voting hours or restricting free water and snacks — that most threatens our democracy.

(THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021)

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Tale of the Tape III: “All the Best People” Resume Reading by Stephen Macaulay

Mike Pence

• Hanover College, BA in history, 1981
• Admissions counselor, Hanover College, 1981-83
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, JD, 1986
• Attorney in private practice, 1986-90
• Radio host, 1988-1999
• President, Indiana Policy Review Foundation, 1991-93
• Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives, 2001-13
• Governor, Indiana, 2013-17
• Vice president, United States, 2017-21

Kamala Harris

• Howard University, BA in political science and economics, 1986
• University of California, Hastings College of the Law, JD, 1989
• Deputy district attorney, Alameda County, California, 1990-98
• Assistant district attorney, San Francisco, 1998-2000
• Family and Children’s Service Division head, San Francisco, 2000-04
• District attorney, San Francisco, 2004-11
• Attorney General, California, 2011-16
• Senator, California, 2017-21
• Vice president, United States, 2021-

(Posted April 5, 2021)

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On President Biden’s First Press Conference Analysis by Todd Lassa

Memories of food fight-style presidential press conferences will quickly fade, but for now, following up President Trump’s last such event, 140 days prior, with President Biden’s first, 64 days after he took office, felt like following a Slipknot cut with a Brubeck tune on your mixed tape.

Joseph Biden’s 62-minute long press conference in which he took multiple questions from 10 reporters, spaced out and wearing masks in the East Room of the White House, expressed the 46^th president’s own unique style, full of calm, respect and empathy as he sought to convince the public that big government could do good things with a leader who first joined the U.S. Senate “120 years ago.”

The press conference was almost jarring in its normalcy.

The preponderance of reporters’ questions were about the huge influx of underage immigrants being held in U.S. Border Control facilities. Biden said the big increase in immigrants reaching the U.S. border with Mexico is not unusual, especially in January, February and March, though conservative media have noted that the numbers are much higher than the increases a year ago under President Trump because of the new president’s immediate reversal of Trump’s draconian border policies following his January 20 inauguration. 

Biden’s long-term goal is to pay directly to improve conditions in such countries suffering poverty, violence and gangs, policy he initiated as vice president in the Obama administration, when, he said, he hired contractors to fix street lighting, rather than try to solve problems with direct payments to a potentially corrupt foreign government. 

More immediately, Biden is feeling the frustrations of what he characterizes as an inherited problem that caused scrutiny and criticism of his administration when the problems weren’t quickly quelled.

“We’re attempting to rebuild the system,” he said.

On the problem of Democrats’ tiebreaker-thin Senate majority, Biden appears to support Sen. Joe Manchin III’s, D-WV, suggestion that a filibuster be a filibuster again – see Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. There were a total of 58 motions to break filibusters between 1917 and 1971, Biden said, and last year alone the number was five-times that count, so reform should deny filibusters conducted in-absentia. 

“I’m a fairly practical guy,” Biden said. “I want to get things done. … I have never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the U.S. Senate.” 

Asked about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, D-KY, attempts to condemn Biden and his $1.9-trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) as “socialism,” Biden responded “I know Mitch well. He knows me well.” He is saying “what I’d expect him to say.”

A majority of Americans, including a majority of Republican voters support the ARPA, Biden said, citing polls. 

Next among Biden’s priorities is a major infrastructure spending bill, which most observers expect will be far costlier than the $1.9-trillion ARPA package – possibly as high as $3 trillion. By rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, both physically and technically, the president said, “we can create significant numbers” of high-paying jobs. 

“That used to be a Republican goal,” Biden continued, citing such statistics as more than 1 million uncapped oil wells. Workers can be paid “as much to cap those wells as you pay to dig those wells.” 

The president returned to his favorite theme, that of “rebuilding the backbone of America” and the American workers “who built America, and the unions that built them.” 

Biden can evoke all the pragmatism he wants, but if he manages to push through a massive infrastructure bill – with or without filibuster reform – on top of the ARPA passed only because his party avoided filibusters by using the reconciliation process, he will have effectively put 40 years of Reagan supply-side economics to rest.

For more on Biden’s press conference, see Friday’s News & Notes.

(Posted March 25, 2021)

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Tale of the Tape II: “All the Best People” Resume reading by Stephen Macaulay

Steven Mnuchin 

• Yale University, economics BA, 1985
• Chief information officer, Goldman Sachs, 1985-2002
• Vice chairman, ESL Investments, 2002
• CEO, SFM Capital Management, 2003-04
• CEO, Dune Capital Management, 2004-16
• Executive positions, OneWest Bank Group, which was sold to CIT Group of which he became vice chairman, 2009-16
• Secretary of the Treasury, 2017-21

Janet L. Yellen

• Brown University, BA, summa cum laude, 1967
• Yale University, Ph.D., 1971
• Assistant professor, economics, Harvard University, 1971-76
• Economist, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 1977-78
• Lecturer, London School of Economics, 1978-80
• Faculty member, University of California-Berkeley, 1980-94
• Member, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 1994-97
• Chair, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 1997-99
• Chair, Council of Economic Advisers, 1997-99
• President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 2004-10
• Vice chair, Federal Reserve Board of Governors, 2010-14
• Distinguished fellow in residence, Brookings Institution, 2018-21
• U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 2021-

(Posted March 25, 2021)

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On Infrastructure Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The situation in the U.S. has largely been one where putting things off seems like the most cost-effective course. The operative word there is seems.

Yes, it may not be economical to, say, have a stockpile of medical ventilators or a warehouse full of N-95 masks, but then a pandemic hits and suddenly there is a lot of finger pointing while people die. Clearly, medical equipment and supplies that are not being used represents inventory that isn’t making anyone any money, but what are the economic impacts of having to suddenly source these products, both from the standpoint of the effects on those who need it and don’t have it (people dying in hospitals because the ventilators weren’t there; doctors and nurses getting sick because they don’t have sufficient PPE) and that of paying a premium for the available product?

Then there is infrastructure. It would be interesting to know how many members of Congress have passports that have been used for the past five years for trips that aren’t to Cancun. Go to Japan, go to Germany, spend some time in the airports, spend some time driving on the roadways, and you’ll know that while people may chant “We’re number one!,” evidence in plain sight will tell you that when it comes to infrastructure we are anything but.

According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) in the U.S. there are 46,100 “structurally deficient” bridges. The ARTBA — which, obviously, has a vested interest in getting bridges built or fixed, so take a grain of salt and reduce that number by 10% and you’re still at 41,490 — estimates that this represents about one in three bridges and that it would take 50 years to fix all of those that require work. As for the states that require the most repair, the top five are Rhode Island at number one, followed by West Virginia (if Sen. Joe Manchin isn’t all over this, then there’s something wrong), Iowa, South Dakota and Pennsylvania. 

One would imagine that the politicians in those states would be more agitated by the crumbling state of their bridges — and let’s not forget that when bridges collapse, people can die — than they are the results of the last presidential election. But look at the list and consider what the concerns apparently are.

Of course, there is a concern for paying the infrastructure bill. But here’s the thing: everyone knows (or ought to know, were it that many of them would prefer to think that things are just fine until they aren’t) that there is a whole lot that needs to be fixed or added to the U.S. infrastructure, whether it is rebar in roads or fiber optic cables to provide high-speed internet to rural communities. Water supplies. Utilities. Medical facilities. Roads.

While there is a reasonable concern that there will be monies wasted — in fact, it should be a foregone conclusion that there will be — at the end of the day there will be something tangible as a result. When the bridge collapses and people die, there is a rush to rebuild. The people are still dead. And the monies still get wasted.

Seems like a very false economy.

(Thursday, March 18, 2021)

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Tale of the Tape: “All the Best People” Resume reading by Stephen Macaulay

Jeff Sessions

• Huntingdon College, B.A., 1969
• University of Alabama School of Law, J.D., 1973
• Private practice, 1973-1981
• U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama. 1981-1993
• Alabama Attorney General, 1994-96
• U.S. Senator, Alabama, 1997-2017
• U.S. Attorney General, 2017-18

Merrick Garland

• Harvard University, A.B., summa cum laude, 1974
• Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 1977
• Law clerk, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District, 1977-78
• Law clerk, U.S. Supreme Court, 1978-79
• Special assistant to U.S. Attorney General, 1979-81
• Private practice, 1981-89
• Lecturer, Harvard Law, 1985-86
• Assistant U.S. attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Columbia, 1989-92
• Private practice, 1992-93
• Deputy assistant attorney general, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1993-94
• Principal associate attorney general to U.S. Deputy Attorney General, 1994-97
• Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1997-2021
• U.S. Attorney General, 2021-

(Friday, March 12, 2021)

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And This Is What the Residue Is Like Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Representative Eric Swalwell, D-CA, filed a federal lawsuit against Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and Rep. Mo Brooks, R-AL, for their responsibility germane to the injuries and destruction caused by their incitement of the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Remember, as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, said on the floor of the Senate February 13: “President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it” and, “President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office as an ordinary citizen.”

Legally liable.

So what was the response from Mar-a-Lago to Swalwell’s filing on March 5?

According to The Washington Post:

“Trump spokesman Jason Miller said in a statement, ‘Eric Swalwell is a low-life with no credibility.’”

This is what the representative of the former President of the United States says about a sitting member of Congress.

Let’s call this what it is: A continuation of the low level of verbal discourse that is characteristic of Donald Trump.

There has been a pervasive claim that Trump is a highly successful businessman. One suspects that when his tax returns are made public it will become evident how dubious that assertion is, unless, of course, one equates “successful businessman” with being a tax dodge. The huge amounts of Trump debt already known puts a question mark to that level of success as it is, but it is highly likely more will be revealed — more about less.

Consider truly successful business people. Do you imagine that General Motors CEO Mary Barra would find it acceptable for one of her staff to speak for her and call someone a “low-life”? Tim Cook of Apple? Warren Buffett?

Of course not.

And it is truly disgraceful the party that used to be that of business finds this to be acceptable.

It is funny how Republicans used to decry everything from comic books to hip-hop music claiming that they have a deleterious effect on the civility of children and yet many of them continue to enable a man who has had more of a corrupting influence — from his “grab them by the _____” to his mocking of reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a disease that causes difficulties in moving, to his “shithole countries” remark to his upholding of a lie (“the election was stolen”) — than a Quentin Tarantino film festival with all of the narrative bits left out.

Another thing that Republicans were allegedly about was acting in a grown-up, responsible way, while Democrats would perform stupid stunts.

It is hard to imagine a better example of stupidity and waste than Sen. Ron Johnson, R-WI, having Senate clerks read out loud the 628-page COVID relief bill. It took 10 hours and 43 minutes. What was his point? Did he think that the Democrats were going to suddenly smack their foreheads and proclaim, “Damn, this is a long bill and it has a big price tag. Maybe we should forget about the whole thing and just go to Texas because evidently the pandemic has ended there, and the state is open for business!”

Johnson did it — yes, yes, it is his “right” to call for a reading — because he is an unserious clown who is evidently more interested in antics than in helping craft legislation that can help people.

It sounds like this was a wan attempt at sabotage. Funny thing about that. The word sabotage goes back to an industrial action taken by French workers back in the 18^th and 19^th century, when they would throw their wooden shoes — sabots — into the machinery to stop their motion.

Sort of sounds a little like what socialists do, doesn’t it, Ron? Or is it simply stupid?

(March 9, 2021)

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Straw Poll, Straw Candidates? Analysis by Todd Lassa

(MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021)

Former President Donald J. Trump scored 55% in the CPAC straw poll asking attendees at the Orlando, Florida, event, “Thinking ahead, if the 2024 Republican primary for President in your state were held today among the following candidates, for whom would you vote?”

As one of Trump’s national security advisors, Republican hawk John Bolton told CNN of the 55% result, “that’s pathetic” (see the Debate page for a three-column discussion of the 2021 CPAC – click on The Hustings logo above).

For a Conservative Political Action Conference many pundits dubbed “TPAC” because of the dominance of the former president, Trump’s showing wasn’t as dominant as Bolton expected. Then again, the number-two candidate in the straw poll was Florida’s own Gov. Ron DeSantis, who drew a mere 21%. 

For those interested in how the more-or-less complete list of Republican 2024 hopefuls stacked up behind Trump and DeSantis, here’s the full straw poll as tabulated by conservative pollster McLaughlin & Associates and published by The Washington Times. Hat tip to the anti-Trump conservative website, The Bulwark for posting it.

1. Former President Trump                               55%
2. Gov. Ron DeSantis                                        21%
3. North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem                      4%
4. Ex-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley              3%

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul were tied for fifth at 2%.

Fox News celeb Tucker Carlson, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, Ex-Veep Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, ex-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (not quite as popular a local as DeSantis) were tied for eighth at 1%. 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton was ninth at 0.4%, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney 10^th at 0.3% and Florida’s other senator, Rick Scott 11^that 0.2%. 

Two of the four most moderate Republicans – some might say, the most conventional conservatives — counted in the straw poll, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and ex-Ohio Gov. John Kasich were tied for 12^th, at 0.1% each, and the third and fourth, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, each scored a goose-egg. Then again, so did Texas Gov. “it was the windmills’ fault” Greg Abbott. 

“Other,” (Jared Kushner, perhaps?), tied Nikki Haley with 3% and “undecided” tied Carlson, Hawley, Pence, Scott, Carson and Rubio with 1% of the vote. Tough crowd.

The straw poll also asked CPAC attendees whom they would choose if Trump declines to run again, and we don’t need to go into details here, except that DeSantis was on top with 43%, Noem second with 11% and Donald Trump Jr. third with 8%. Ivanka Trump, once considered Donald Sr.’s favorite, tied for sixth with Carlson, Hawley and Haley at 3%. 

There was another straw poll taken at CPAC. Its results were released just prior to Trump’s airing of grievances to the crowd, a presentation that has been described by some as “low-energy.”

This poll says that 68% want Trump to run again. The remaining 32% had no opinion or said he should stay a private citizen.

When you have a self-selected group of people who gave Trump a 97% job approval who are not statistically all-in on Trump as a candidate, there is certainly trouble in Mar-a-Lago.

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On the Subject of Supply Chains Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Here’s something to think about: Joe Biden has signed an executive order for a 100-day review of supply chains, a term that you probably never thought you’d see in a political website, but there it is. 

Because I like the name of the site, and because it sort of goes to the point that this isn’t something that a whole lot of people outside of logistics firms and project management personnel ever think about (and they think about little else), according to Investopedia, “A supply chain is a network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a specific product to the final buyer. This network includes different activities, people, entities, information, and resources. The supply chain also represents the steps it takes to get the product or service from its original state to the customer.”

Put more simply: You know that computer you’re reading this on? Think of the screen and the keys and the hinge that allows the screen to fold down onto the keys and the housing and electric cord and the logos and all of the stuff that’s inside that allows it to work. A supply chain manager orchestrates all of those things coming together … and then there is the whole other part of the supply chain that gets it from the manufacturer to the retailer to you.

Complicated stuff.

The Biden review will examine four areas:

• Semiconductor chips
• Batteries for electric vehicles
• Rare earth minerals
• Pharmaceuticals

Let’s take the last first. A story that appeared on the site fiercepharma.com March 12, 2020 — think about that, pre-pandemic — opens: “As the spread of COVID-19 threatens to disrupt pharma supply chains and create drug shortages, the Trump administration is reportedly looking for ways to reduce U.S. dependence on APIs and drugs from China. So, how dependent is the U.S. on China for its drugs? The fact is, the FDA doesn’t know.”

Swell.

According to a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) released in December 2020, “COVID-19 Related Goods: The U.S. Industry, Market, Trade and Supply Chain Challenges,” reads, “The leading suppliers of pharmaceuticals to the U.S. market, by value, in 2019 were in Europe (Ireland, Germany, and Switzerland), while the leading suppliers by volume were in Asia (China and India) and North America (Canada and Mexico).”

That is why it is good to have good relations with leaders of other countries. (Funny thing: neither Russia nor North Korea are on the list.)

Rare earth minerals are the sorts of things that are even more obscure than “supply chain” — like neodymium, terbium, praseodymium — and are, well, “rare.” And perhaps not surprisingly, the country with the most of them is China. It isn’t like there aren’t rare earth sources in the U.S. — Wyoming is a big source — but it hasn’t been economical to mine them here when there was that big source.

And then semiconductors.

This has been quite the concern because it turns out that even cars that aren’t made by Tesla depend on them.

As you know if you’ve tried to buy a computer during the past few months, they’re hard to get because when people started working at home — and kids started virtual learning — suddenly computers were a hot commodity. Lots of semiconductors are required there.

And then there are things like Sony PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, which have had quite a boost from people not going anywhere. Again, chip-intensive.

Car plants were closed. That wasn’t much of an issue for Sony and Microsoft and Nintendo, so they kept ordering chips. The car companies pushed pause on their orders and got pushed to the back of the line when it was time for resumption of production.

So U.S. vehicle production has been hobbled. Turns out their semiconductor supply chain wasn’t robust.

According to the piece, “Biden rushes to address global computer chip shortage via latest executive order,” by Reuters, “Biden has been under pressure from Republican lawmakers to do more to protect American supply chains from China by investing in domestic manufacturing of next-generation semiconductor chips.

“’I strongly urge Biden administration to prioritize protecting emerging and critical technologies, like semiconductors, from the grasp of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party),’ said U.S. Representative Michael McCaul, in a recent letter to the White House from Republicans on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.”

The supply chain problem for all of those things didn’t suddenly manifest itself on January 20.

What was the former guy doing for the last many months when he was still on the U.S. payroll to address this?

(February 25, 2021)

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People Judge You by the Words You Use Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

In a statement responding to a federal lawsuit filed against private citizen Donald Trump (as well as Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers) by Representative Bennie G. Thompson, D-MS, for violating the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act, which bars interference in Congress’ constitutional duties, as occurred on January 6 at the Capitol, Trump spokesman Jason Miller opined, that “President Trump has been acquitted in the Democrats’ latest Impeachment Witch Hunt, and the facts are irrefutable. President Trump did not plan, produce or organize the January 6 rally on the Ellipse. President Trump did not incite or conspire to incite any violence at the Capitol on January 6.” (Per The Washington Post.)

Yes, the “alternative facts” stay in play. 

To borrow some lines from McConnell’s speech:

“Fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the Vice President.

“They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth—because he was angry he’d lost and election.”

And:

“The issue is not only the President’s intemperate language on January 6th.

“It is not just his endorsement of remarks in which an associate urged ‘trial by combat.’

“It was also the entire manufactured atmosphere of looming catastrophe; the increasingly wild myths about a reverse landslide election that was being stolen in some secret coup by our now-president.”

Sounds like McConnell knows who is responsible: “the leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.”

Some day — perhaps someday soon — Trump and his minions are going to discover, the hard way, that words have meaning — and consequences.

Funny thing to think about: On January 21, 2017, then-press secretary Sean Spicer stated, “This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration — period — both in person and around the globe.”

That gave rise to Trump aid Kellyanne Conway saying on “Meet the Press” to the host, Chuck Todd, about the claim regarding the crowd, “You’re saying it’s a falsehood. And they’re giving Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”

The garbled nature of that passage notwithstanding, Spicer’s claim and Conway’s excuse were the start of an administration that based its operation on denying whatever was inconvenient or on making up things as it went along (a.k.a., “bullshit”).

Think only of the COVID-19 pandemic if you don’t think that this has real-world impact, not the world that can be changed by drawing a line on a map with a Sharpie.

Let’s see how this works out. Something is irrefutable. And that probably isn’t innocence.

(February 17, 2021)

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Don’t Sweat the Censures Commentary by Bryan Williams

“Our job as Americans and as Republicans is to dislodge the traitors from every place where they’ve been sent to do their traitorous work.”  The quote is from the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, of Wisconsin. He was speaking of Communists. But his quote can accurately be applied to local Republican state and county committees in their quest to drive out any moderate voice. One has no farther to look than the votes taken by state and local Republican committees to censure their Republican elected officials for voting their conscience to convict former President Trump of impeachment. State GOPs in Louisiana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming have censured their respective elected members (Sens. Bill Cassidy, Richard Burr and Pat Toomey, and Rep. Liz Cheney). As I write this it appears Sen. Mitt Romney has escaped censure from his fellow Utah Republicans.

Why are local party officials like this? To a casual political observer, this internecine strife within the Republican Party makes no sense. Why are they kicking members of their own party? Are we not Americans, entitled to our own opinions? Picture, if you will, a soup made of all Republicans — far right, right, centrist, and “light” Republicans. State parties are the “roux” for that soup. They are comprised of the starch and fatty oils used to thicken the soup so it has some texture, viscosity, and shape to make your finished dish look more substantial and filled out. Too much starch and your soup is ruined. State GOPs are all starch. If you are the least bit watery, you’ll be strained out – dislodged, as Sen. McCarthy said. It is a testament to our time that lifelong Republicans like those named above are the latest victims of political cancel culture. 

Does anyone remember Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania? He’d be first on Sen. McCarthy’s list, while Burr, Cassidy, Cheney, et. al would be much further down, if on the list at all. But this is 2021, and we live in a political vacuum created by Donald Trump. He’s been out of office for almost a month and he still makes more headlines than the Democrat who took his job. Those starchy Republicans are still enamored with him and believe you must show fealty, or else.

Should the principled Republicans fear censure votes, and what it means for their political future? Will they be “primaried the hell out of,” as Trump has threatened? We are living in strange times where politics is front and center because of the 24-hour news cycle and insidious social media saturation that gives rise to personalities like Trump, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Surprisingly enough, Trump, AOC, and Greene are all heroes of the starchies (Democratic starchies in AOC’s case – yes, the other party is not immune to political cannibalism). But state parties do not equal the electorate at large. That was on display in the 2020 election when millions of people decided Trump had to go, and they either voted for Biden or didn’t vote at all — the latter evidenced by down-ticket Republicans receiving more votes than Trump did nationally.

The bottom line is, a censure is just like the impeachment(s) Trump has received – a slap on the wrist, but no demonstrable action to remove. Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney will retain their seats until their term is up. They have time to make amends and prove to the folks back home that they are ready and willing to fight whatever ugly legislation that Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer throw at us. They may have to keep their heads low for the next few weeks, but Biden is sure to give them reason to return to the forefront of Republican resistance to Biden administration policy. Indeed, Romney already has engaged the Biden administration on the $1.9-trillion coronavirus stimulus package and his Family Security Act. All this noise from the Republican roux is just that — noise. There’s a lot more soup out there. Please, dear reader, don’t forget that.

(February 17, 2021)

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The Long Con Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“We are talking about breaking the law here. I just want to make sure you understand that. No one is going to get hurt, but the law is going to be broken.”

“Laws are made to be broken, aren’t they?”—The Grifters, screenplay by Donald E. Westlake

***

Donald J. Trump, 45^th president of the United States, was found guilty of “incitement to insurrection” by 57 U.S. senators in his second impeachment trial; because of the requirement for a two-thirds vote for impeachment, Trump was acquitted.

Trump is the only president of the United States to have been impeached twice. Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868. Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998.

On Tuesday, February 9, by a vote of 56 to 44 (a simple majority necessary in this case), the Senate voted that the second impeachment was constitutional, as there had been an objection raised based on Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, which reads: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”

The concern was that because Trump was no longer in office, he could not be removed from office.

In remarks following the acquittal, Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, stated that his rationale for voting the way he did is, “Because former President Trump is constitutionally not eligible for conviction.”

Given that the Senate had voted that it was constitutional, McConnell’s claim after the fact that it was unconstitutional seems to have made everything that happened after February 9 pointless.

But it raises another issue: If McConnell and others are legally (and morally) bound by the finding that the impeachment was constitutional, then isn’t it a violation for them to ignore that finding?

///

Let’s do some math.

Since George Washington started in 1789, there have been 45 men and 46 presidencies. (Grover Cleveland served two nonconsecutive terms—1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897—so that is why there are more presidencies than people.)

This means approximately 7% of all presidents have been impeached.

Donald Trump holds a remarkable record in that he single-handedly represents 50% of all of the impeachments.

MAGA.

///

In a news conference held by the House managers for the second impeachment trial of Trump after the acquittal, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, made an appearance that was arguably out of place. 

In effect, it was like the E Street Band, having performed a magnificent concert and holding a post-show briefing on how they did it, were suddenly joined by Bruce Springsteen, who hadn’t been on stage. Obviously, the words of the Boss were the ones that mattered most. (But presumably some of the House managers were happy that the Boss of House Democrats gave them props.)

Still, Pelosi made an interesting point about the people who voted to acquit, one that should not be overlooked, nor should it be underestimated.

She said that many of them were concerned with one thing. Not the Constitution that they’ve sworn to uphold.

They are concerned with their jobs.

Concerned that were they to vote to find Trump guilty, they’d be primaried or censured or otherwise lose their gig. . .and they couldn’t find another job afterward.

While this might seem to be an exaggeration, how else to explain their willingness to violate their oath to the Constitution?

Remember: A vote was taken. The impeachment was deemed to be constitutional. To vote to acquit based on the grounds of unconstitutionality flies directly in the face of what they had accepted—even if they didn’t like it.

But it didn’t matter. They knew that if they were to do the right thing, they’d be facing a job hunt.

Resumes are a bitch. And finding a job during COVID is tough.

///

McConnell was able to go out and claim, “The Senate’s decision does not condone anything that happened on or before that terrible day. It simply shows that Senators did what the former President failed to do: We put our constitutional duty first.”

No, you continued to play the long con.

Beats working.

(February 14, 2021)

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Make them feel bad about their lot and then worsen it– Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Although the huge number of deaths in the U.S. from COVID-19 (some 475,000 and rising) is disturbingly high, a study published by The Lancet claims that Trump Administration policies have had a deleterious effect on the health of people in the U.S.—even absent the number of deaths that can be attributed to the slow walk toward addressing the virus that didn’t just disappear.

The study, “Public policy and health in the Trump era,” was conducted by 33 researchers.  The authors write: “His signature legislative achievement, a trillion-dollar tax cut for corporations and high-income individuals, opened a budget hole that he used to justify cutting food subsidies and health care.”

So low income people ended up in a worse health situation as a result. But it is not all on Trump. The authors point out: “Although Trump’s actions were singularly damaging, many of them represent an aggressive acceleration of neoliberal policies that date back 40 years.” They provide an example: while the U.S. life expectancy was on par with other countries of approximate economic status in 1980, it fell behind other G7 nations by 3.4 years in 2018, which the authors write is “equivalent to 461,000 excess U.S. deaths in that year alone.” In other words, U.S. health policies conducted through many administrations were not advantageous to those most in need. The authors—who seem not to be in the least bit apolitical—make the point that the people whose votes Trump cultivated—”low and middle-income white people”—were those who are most negatively impacted by “policies that benefit high-income people and corporations and threaten health.” 

(February 12, 2021)

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Senators, Do Your Jobs Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

George Washington was elected in 1789. Since there have been four impeachment trials in the Senate. Arguably a big deal.

So if you are a Senator, a juror in what has happened just four times in 232 years, you are probably going to be paying attention.

And here’s what Politico Playbook reported of the activities during the first day of the proceedings:

SPOTTED AT THE IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: Sen. JOE MANCHIN, D-WV, shaking his head during a montage in which Trump told the rioters, “We love you.” … Sen. JOSH HAWLEY, R-MO, not listening in the cloakroom. … Sen. RAND PAUL,R-KY, the only senator who refused to wear a mask, doodling on a pad of paper during the manager presentations. … Rep. AL GREEN, D-TX, who infuriated his own party by forcing votes to impeach Trump in 2017 and 2018, sitting in the gallery and taking it all in. … Sen. SUSAN COLLINS, R-ME, holding her hand over her heart for several minutes after Raskin’s presentation. (h/t the Hill pool) … 

Hawley and Paul are both leaders of those who think the impeachment is unconstitutional. The basis of the opening statements by both sides was to discuss that very issue.

Yet Hawley couldn’t bother to listen. Paul was busy doodling.

Remember when you were in high school and the history teacher was holding forth in the front of the class?

Not being at your desk was probably not an option.

Sitting there not paying attention was not something that would have been looked at kindly.

Yet here are two Senators, two people entrusted with supporting and defending the Constitution, two people who are ostensibly participating in a historic event that has consequences for the Republic and they don’t, evidently, give a flying —-*.

Nice work, guys.

Despite the fact that Hawley and Paul and 42 other Republicans voted against it, 56 Senators voted that the impeachment proceedings are Constitutional. Maybe Hawley and Paul will say the vote was stolen. That Dominion Voting Systems had something to do with it. They’ll consult with Mike Lindell to get the lowdown on what actions to take. Rudy Giuliani will be brought out to hold forth in a way that would have embarrassed Joe McCarthy.

They lost. Trump lost. And somehow truth and objective facts are losing, too.

Whether they are in favor of it or not, they have their jobs to do. They must listen to the evidence. They must weigh the evidence. They can’t ignore the evidence.

This is not about getting Trump out of office. Even his defense attorney, Bruce Castor managed to say that Trump is no longer at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

This is not about the Democrat’s long-standing efforts to get Trump removed from office (see previous sentence).

Let’s posit that the Democrats are the most vindictive pack of scoundrels ever to exist in the Swamp.

They are not being impeached. Donald Trump is being impeached for his encouragement and love of people who, it is being argued, were insurrectionists. 

The evening of the first day of the proceedings Axios had the following:

• “Not a single thing will change,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-SC told the news website. “The outcome is set.”

So here is another person who is clearly not going to be doing his job. 

The American Bar Association says this about jurors:

“A jury is a group of people summoned and sworn to decide on the facts in issue at a trial. The jury is composed of people who represent a cross-section of the community.

“The jury listens to the evidence during a trial, decides what facts the evidence has established, and draws inferences from those facts to form the basis for their decision. The jury decides whether a defendant is ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’ in criminal cases, and ‘liable’ or ‘not liable’ in civil cases.”

While, according to the Cornell Law School, impeachment is a “quasi-criminal proceeding,” things like listening to the evidence, deciding what facts have been established, drawing inferences and making decisions are what the Senators should be doing.

This means no a priori assumptions. No hanging out somewhere else. No doodling.

But that would assume that these people really care about upholding the Constitution. 

In case they’ve forgotten, here’s what they said when they got their jobs:

I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

(*While we are confident that you know what noun would be used there, a word that was heard more than once by the Senators who were paying attention during the House manager’s video presentation of the insurrection, we’ll defer.) 

(February 10, 2021)

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Maybe She’ll Have to Repeatedly Write “I won’t do that again” On the Chalkboard Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

“Past comments from and endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene on school shootings, political violence, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories do not represent the values or beliefs of the House Republican Conference. I condemn those comments unequivocally. I condemned them in the past. I continue to condemn them today.” That is from the official webpage of Kevin McCarthy, House Minority leader, a statement made after a meeting with Greene on Wednesday.

“I made this clear to Marjorie when we met.” Then maybe he gave her a time-out because it seems that he’s done little—if anything—else.

“Her past comments now have much greater meaning. Marjorie recognized this in our conversation. I hold her to her word, as well as her actions going forward.” Maybe next time she’ll have to sit in the corner.

And here McCarthy tries to deflect his non-action: “I understand that Marjorie’s comments have caused deep wounds to many and as a result, I offered Majority Leader Hoyer a path to lower the temperature and address these concerns. Instead of coming together to do that, the Democrats are choosing to raise the temperature by taking the unprecedented step to further their partisan power grab regarding the committee assignments of the other party.”

In other words, he didn’t do anything, he doesn’t want the Democrats to take action—like removing the woman who claimed that the shootings at schools like that in Parkland, Florida, in 2018 were “false flag” events that were staged (yes, 17 people were killed: nothing fake about that) from the House Education and Labor Committee (Education!)—so because they will, he blames them. For what? Ethical behavior? Acting like grown-ups?

And here we go with the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” argument: “While Democrats pursue a resolution on Congresswoman Greene, they continue to do nothing about Democrats serving on the Foreign Affairs Committee who have spread anti-Semitic tropes, Democrats on the House Intelligence and Homeland Security Committee compromised by Chinese spies, or the Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee who advocated for violence against public servants.”

That’s right. Don’t deal with the issue at hand because there are other people who have done things wrong. He says.

Is this the House Minority Leader or a fourth grader?

(THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2021)

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Troped Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

There is a figure of speech known as synecdoche in which the part stands for the whole. This trope is familiar in use. For example, someone might see a cool car and say “Look at those wheels!” without meaning to literally just look at the wheels but the whole thing. When Antony in Shakespeare says to the Romans, etc., “lend me your ears,” he didn’t want only their lobes, but their full attention.

On January 20, 2021, Donald J. Trump, in one of his last acts in office, signed this:

Executive Order on the Revocation of Executive Order 13770

Sounds fairly meta, but that’s the title.

What does that mean?

“Section 1.  Revocation.   Executive Order 13770 of January 28, 2017, “Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees,” is hereby revoked, effective at noon January 20, 2021.  Employees and former employees subject to the commitments in Executive Order 13770 will not be subject to those commitments after noon January 20, 2021.”

Remember when Donald J. Trump was running for office in 2016 and kept talking about “draining the Swamp”? Well a preponderance of the Swamp Things were those people who had formerly been in government who left only to take on positions as lobbyists.

Trump was having none of that. Until he did.

As then-acting director of the Office of Management and Budget Mark Sandy wrote of 13770,“Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees,” “This executive order establishes new ethics commitments for every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2017.”

Every appointee. Every agency. For life. Until it wasn’t.

Which is synecdoche for his approach to his time in office. If it was good for him, then, well, it was good for him, regardless of what he otherwise said or did.

If X is a good thing at the time, then X it is. But when X doesn’t have any lift, then it goes. So in this case, it is that the Swampy people hired had work in his Administration; when they no longer had work in his Administration, then if they wanted to go out and get gigs lobbying for the Russians or whomever (with Russians being quite a popular group, vide, Manafort and Flynn), go to it. This would work to Trump’s advantage because they would, wink-wink, owe him.

This whole notion of rhetoric came to mind when reading the statement put out by Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, after his meeting with his Dear Leader on January 28:

“Today, President Trump committed to helping elect Republicans in the House and Senate in 2022. A Republican majority will listen to our fellow Americans and solve the challenges facing our nation. Democrats, on the other hand, have only put forward an agenda that divides us — such as impeaching a President who is now a private citizen and destroying blue-collar energy jobs. For the sake of our country, the radical Democrat agenda must be stopped.”

Let’s parse this.

“A Republican majority will listen to our fellow Americans and solve the challenges facing our nation.”

While it isn’t entirely clear which “fellow Americans” aren’t being listened to (those who stormed the Capitol?), the Republicans held the Presidency, House and Senate for years—so why were we left with any challenges to be solved? (E.g., remember all of the attacks on the Affordable Care Act and the claims that they would “repeal and replace,” yet never came up with a replacement —after years?)

“destroying blue-collar energy jobs.”

Remember Trump’s claims about “clean coal” and putting coal miners back to work during his 2016 campaign? According to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer¹, Trump went to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on October 13, 2020, and proclaimed, “We’re putting our great coal miners back to work.” According to the Inquirer, “There are 6,400 fewer miners today than when he took office.” Somewhat inconvenient for that claim, isn’t it? But it sounds good.

Let’s assume McCarthy is talking about the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline, which Obama had canceled, and like many of his acts, Trump reversed by executive order. (Was it science or spite?) Now, one of President Biden’s first full-week executive orders has reversed Trump’s reversal.

The XL pipeline — more than 1,000 miles long from Alberta, Canada, to Texas and Louisiana — is to carry tar sands crude. So here’s this from the NRDC²: “Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than lighter conventional crude, and this ups the likelihood that a pipeline carrying it will leak. Indeed, one study found that between 2007 and 2010, pipelines moving tar sands oil in Midwestern states spilled three times more per mile than the U.S. national average for pipelines carrying conventional crude. Since it first went into operation in 2010, TC Energy’s original Keystone Pipeline System has leaked more than a dozen times; one incident in North Dakota sent a 60-foot, 21,000-gallon geyser of tar sands oil spewing into the air. Most recently, on October 31, 2019, the Keystone tar sands pipeline was temporarily shut down after a spill in North Dakota of reportedly more than 378,000 gallons. And the risk that Keystone XL will spill has only been heightened: A study published in early 2020, co-authored by TC Energy’s own scientists, found that the anti-corrosion coating on pipes for the project is defective from being stored outside and exposed to the elements for the last decade.”

Yes, the source of that is the National Resources Defense Fund, but be that as it may, it has checkable claims — probably more substantive than “We’re putting our great coal miners back to work.”

Words. Sometimes they mean something. But nowadays, their meaning seems transient, especially from people in whom we should place our trust.

¹Trump says at Pennsylvania rally that he’s putting coal miners back to work: Fact-check (inquirer.com)

²The Keystone XL Pipeline: Everything You Need To Know | NRDC

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“Russia, if you’re listening. . .”  Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Mitt Romney, one of the few Republican elected officials who has a fully operating moral compass, said, much to guffaws back in 2012 that Russia was the biggest foe facing the U.S. The end of the Cold War or not (remember when there were people like Ronald Reagan, standing at the Berlin Wall, proclaiming “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” and Donald Trump couldn’t be bothered to visit a cemetery in France where Americans killed during World War I are buried because it was raining?), Russia is our biggest foe, although one could make an argument for China.

Yet if you think about the Trump Russian Policy, it could be summed up as “Don’t ever, ever, ever say anything bad about Vladimir Putin, even if this means that you throw your own intelligence officials under the bus.” (No, there really wasn’t a Trump Russian Policy, presumably because Peter Navarro was busy dealing with things he didn’t have the slightest understanding of, which seemed to be his portfolio during the last administration.)

There had been something of a Trump China Policy which went from the highest form of fawning admiration for Xi Jingping — probably because of the all-powerful political capabilities of the man — to “China virus,” because Trump needed a scapegoat for COVID-19 and that seemed convenient. Some might point to the tariffs that the Trump Administration leveled on the American public China, but as is not often noted, the Phase 1 agreement that the U.S. and China entered into isn’t anywhere near being fulfilled (i.e., China is supposed to buy a whole lot of U.S. stuff; it isn’t; the Trump team did, well, nothing).

Back to Russia.

Lena Surzhko Harned, an assistant teaching professor of Political Science at Penn State, points out in an essay in The Conversation, “’The U.S. is falling apart’: How the Russian media is portraying the U.S. Capitol siege”: “The storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, which was Christmas Eve for Eastern Orthodox Christians, was a perfect holiday gift for Russian politicians and state-controlled Russian media.”

You know, people like Vladimir Putin, the man who has been president of Russia since 2012, whose current term runs out in 2024, and who, thanks to a change in the Russian constitution that was put into effect this past July, can run for two more six-year terms in 2024. 

Or, said another way, “president for life.”

Prof. Harned quotes the reactions of notable Russians, such as Konstantin Koschev, head of the International Affairs Committee of the Federal Council (i.e., the upper chamber of the Russian Parliament). He called the insurrection “the end of the celebration of democracy.”

People like Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and numerous House members ought to read those words. Are those who provide material to the enemy patriots?

Harned notes that a Russian TV talk show, “Time Will Tell” portrays “Trump and his supporters as persecuted political dissidents” a point “used to further highlight the argument that American democracy is steeped in hypocrisy.”

In other words, Harned shows that the Russians are having a field day thanks to Trump and his apparatchiks.

And to think that the Republicans were the party of staunch anti-Russian totalitarianism throughout the Soviet years. Now they are enablers.

Thanks, Trump.

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America’s Abusive Relationship A Metaphor by Nic Woods  

America is trying to extract itself from an abusive relationship – with Patriarchy/Supremacy, who are joined at the hip.

The relationship has been long and fraught, but America was betrothed to Patriarchy/Supremacy from the beginning. Patriarchy/Supremacy watched her birth, signed her birth certificate, and their union was codified through compromises made in their wedding contract, which the rest of us like to call The Constitution. 

America has tried to leave before, particularly when Patriarchy/Supremacy tried to kill her in the Civil War. 

After that, she left to try to become more herself, but somehow Patriarchy/Supremacy convinced her to return because, well, she was missed. Fewer women were available and well, Patriarchy/Supremacy wasn’t getting any younger. And what was she going to do with all that personal growth anyway? It won’t attract her to any more suitors.

After a great compromise, she returned and resigned herself to the marriage for decades until she started to chafe from the internal contradictions. Some of her children remembered the promises of her birth certificate – that all men would be created equal – and started to wonder why America couldn’t leave Patriarchy/Supremacy behind and fulfill that promise. Other children really loved their father, basked in his approval, and wouldn’t give him up for the world.

In 2008, America had, kind of, had enough and defied at least half of the conjoined twin, which caused an irreparable chasm in the marriage. America had asserted herself, but this assertiveness was barely tolerated. She was still all he had though, (as his last mistress, South Africa, abandoned him a few decades earlier, after therapy) so tolerated it, he did. 

But then came 2016, when he decided he’d had enough and rattled her a little by reasserting that he was the top dog in this relationship. Her job was solely to endorse what he wanted, not think for herself.

America secretly went into therapy. She started to wonder if she could ever be herself while she remained married to this two-headed monster. After getting deathly ill from neglect, she plotted her departure. She left November 3, and he balked in disbelief that she could possibly have done that. He got angry. He cajoled. He threatened.

She hit him with a restraining order Jan. 6 and moved for a quickie divorce, effective Jan. 20.

Later Jan. 6, he responded to the restraining order with an attack. She was bruised and angry, but not broken. He threatened to come back and do more damage before that divorce was finalized. 

I strained this metaphor to make a point: The decision to leave an abusive relationship is when the relationship, most likely, becomes deadly. America is at the point of leaving Patriarchy/Supremacy for good. 

Patriarchy/Supremacy is holding America back from her true self. He always has. It’s time he is destroyed before he destroys her.

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Words, words, words Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

As an estimated 25,000 troops assemble around the U.S. Capitol to provide protection for the inauguration of Joe Biden as president of the United States (yes, he won), it is worth recalling some of the remarks of Donald Trump, at his swearing-in ceremony:

Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.

1. So why did he spend so much time in office dissing Obama and working to dismantle all he’d built?
2. An what’s this about an “orderly and peaceful transfer”?

For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.

Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth.

Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed.

1. Would this be like the wealth that was garnered from the Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C., which the Trump Organization leased in 2013, and which Trump, a politician, has not removed himself from on a financial basis? According to a story in Government Executive, “Trump’s D.C. Hotel Under Renewed Scrutiny,” “in January 2019, the GSA inspector general found that GSA’s Office of General Counsel and Public Buildings Service recognized the president had a business interest in the lease, which raised questions about the Emoluments Clause, but ‘decided not to address those issues’ in managing the lease.” Sound like politicians washing one another’s hands.  Trump’s D.C. Hotel Under Renewed Scrutiny  – Government Executive (govexec.com)

2. And about those factories. According to a CNBC story published in August, “there are currently over 100 products under the ‘Made in America’ collection on the online Trump Store, where they are marked as either ‘Made in America’ or ‘Made in the USA,’ according to a CNBC review. Yet, at least another 180 items that CNBC reviewed are labeled as having been made in Scotland, France or Italy, are labeled as ‘Decorated in the USA’ or have no country of origin listed at all. That means a little more than a third of the items in the online Trump Store are described as officially made in the United States.” So two thirds are made in factories that aren’t in the U.S.A. Which could mean—closed factories. Buy American? Trump makes over $1 million from store selling products of foreign origins (cnbc.com)

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.

1. Would “establishment” be people like Betsy DeVos, worth $2 billion, Wilbur Ross, $600 million and Steve Mnuchin, worth $400 million?

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now.

1. Does anyone actually think Trump ever listened to anyone who wasn’t talking about him? And

You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.

1. Here was the start of the controversy regarding crowd size: Sorry, there weren’t “tens of millions.”

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves.

These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

1. But then the pandemic hit, Trump claimed it would disappear, and so schools have closed, neighborhoods have been emptied as people stay how and unemployment exploded.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

1. Until January 6, 2021.

And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.

1. Remember “Infrastructure Week” back in February 2018? No one else does, either.

We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

1. How is it that countries can steal our companies? Before he started instituting tariffs — long anathema to Republican belief — companies would move themselves to other countries, because that’s what happens under capitalism.

I will fight for you with every breath in my body – and I will never, ever let you down.

1. Some 393,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 on his watch.

We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.

1. Still waiting.

We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.

1. Why was the Donald J. Trump Collection made in places like China and Bangladesh?

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.

1. Example: January 6, 2021.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

1. From the man who nearly took the U.S. out of NATO

There should be no fear – we are protected, and we will always be protected.

We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by God.

1. And 25,000 members of the National Guard.

We Will Make America Wealthy Again.

1. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. has the highest level of income inequality among G7 countries.

We Will Make America Proud Again.

We Will Make America Safe Again.

1. There is a seven-foot fence topped with razor wire around the U.S. Capitol. Proud? Safe?

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Before Donald Trump left Washington for his holiday on December 23 (here’s a fun fact: remember how Trump regularly excoriated Barrack Obama for his time golfing? According to CNN, during Obama’s two terms he played golf a total 333 times. According to thegolfnewsnet.com, Trump has been “on the grounds of his golf courses or played golf elsewhere 304 times since becoming President,” as of December 25. He’s still got time to beat Obama), it was reported that he’d held meetings in the White House with attorney Sidney Powell and even considered appointing her a special counsel to look into the 2020 presidential results.

Be that as it may, there was Powell in the White House the week before Christmas.

Which brings me to the question of sources. 

On December 24 The Washington Post ran a story by Jon Swaine about a source that Sidney Powell cited in her request to the U.S. Supreme Court to look into election irregularities. While Powell said that this person’s identify had to be kept secret for a variety of reasons, the Post discovered the identity of this “expert”: Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman.

Remember: The President of the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court. And one Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman.

According to the Post, there was a civil fraud case involving Maras-Lindeman and the state of North Dakota (which went 65.5% for Trump in the 2020 election). It seems she claimed she was a medical doctor. That she had a PhD and an MBA.

Not a one.

Then the Post reports that in the case North Dakota state attorneys brought against her (it seems that she had organized an event to raise money for veterans but allegedly spent it on things for herself at McDonald’s and QVC; she has appealed her case to the state Supreme Court) they cited a profile of Maras-Lindeman on the Together We Served site that claimed she had served in the Navy. That much is true: She joined in December 1996 and was discharged in August 1997. But her Together We Served profile further claimed she had not only served in various combat zones, but also worked in the Office of Naval Intelligence and obtained a Purple Heart. Maras-Lindeman’s profile is no longer on the site. She said in an interview with the Post she never created it, and now claims to be a private contractor involved in foreign intelligence. Maras-Lindeman also told the Post “People like me don’t exist.” Which is a convenient way to make claims and then deny them in the next breath, which seems to be the current M.O. in Trumpland.

More: There had been a now-deleted LinkedIn profile that said she’d received eight academic degrees between 1997 and 2014—but the attorneys in North Dakota could only substantiate one, a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Kentucky. She probably got the other ones under assumed names, so as to protect her identity.

Which brings me back to that term paper you wrote. Would you cite a source like Maras-Lindeman?

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2020

The Week in Advance – President Trump Sunday evening signed the $900-billion COVID relief package after the 5,593-page bill was flown to Mar-a-Lago, where he was spending the Christmas weekend. Folded into a larger, $2.3-trillion omnibus spending bill, Trump’s signature averts a federal government shutdown before the end of the year. It provides $600 checks to individual taxpayers, and extends a moratorium on evictions. See The Hustings main page for debate on the COVID relief package … The House on Monday night will vote on a bill to increase the COVID relief checks from $600 to the $2,000 per adult and per child, a figure that Trump had said he wanted. That bill almost certainly will not be passed by the Republican-led Senate … The House also is scheduled to override Trump’s veto of a $740.5-billion defense spending bill Monday night, and the Senate is scheduled to do the same when it reconvenes Tuesday. It will be the first Congressional override of Trump’s administration. He had objected to the spending bill’s provision to rename military facilities that are named after Confederate leaders, and because it has no language to revoke Section 230, which protects tech companies like Facebook and Twitter from liability from their users’ posts … All of this amounts to an unusually busy week on Capitol Hill for a period between Christmas and January 3 for a lame-duck Congress. The 117^th Congress is scheduled to be sworn in just before the Georgia Senate runoff races set for Tuesday, January 5. The runoffs pit Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock against Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loefler, and will determine which party controls the U.S. Senate (the Dems need to win both seats to bring their number even with the Republicans at 50—two independents caucus with the Dems; vice president-elect Kamala Harris would provide the tie-breaking). –Todd Lassa

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE HUSTINGS

Daily News will return Monday, December 28.

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2020

Trump Issues Additional Pardons and Commutations – President Trump pardoned 15 people and commuted the sentences of five more. Among those pardoned are George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to his 2016 campaign who pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI as he was under investigation by the Mueller investigation, and Alex Vander Zwann, a Dutch lawyer who pleaded guilty in 2018 of lying to the Mueller team, Tuesday. Also getting a pass from the president are three former GOP congressmen, Duncan Hunter of California, Chris Collins of New York and Steve Stockman of Texas, as well as four Blackwater International contractors convicted in the September 2007 shooting of 31 Iraqi civilians during the country’s war … Trump Hints at Veto of COVID Relief Bill – President Trump gave the Democrats an early Christmas present by vaguely implying in a Twitter video that he might veto the COVID-19 relief package because he doesn’t want $600 payments to individuals, but $2,000. This is in line what the Democrats have long wanted. This leaves Republicans in a bad situation—at best. . . .While Administration Reaches Agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for Additional Vaccine Doses – Pfizer-BioNTech and the Trump administration have reached a deal in which the pharmaceutical firm will provide additional COVID-19 vaccine doses. In the deal, Pfizer-BioNTech gets help from the federal government in pricing supplies to make the vaccine. In return, the company will provide 70 million additional doses by June, and an additional 30 million by July, NPR reports. On December 11 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense announced the additional purchase of 100-million doses of the Moderna vaccine by June 2021, bringing the total from that source to 200-million … Biden Slams Trump on Cyberhack Response – It’s as if the Biden/Harris transition team had read Stephen Macaulay’s latest commentary (Daily News, December 22). President-elect Biden called out President Trump for failing to take seriously the massive security breach on the federal government and American industry, in prepared remarks prior to a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware Tuesday. The Trump administration “failed to prioritize cyber security,” Biden said, with indifference ranging from “eliminating and/or downgrading cyber coordinators, to firing his director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to President Trump’s irrational downplaying of the seriousness of the attack.” And what is undoubtedly going to cause some dyspepsia for one current and one former Trump favorite, Biden went on to say: “Initial indications from Secretary [of State] Pompeo and Attorney General Barr suggest that Russia is responsible for this breach … It certainly fits Russia’s long heritage of reckless and disruptive cyber activities. But the Trump administration needs to make an official attribution. This assault happened on Donald Trump’s watch. It is still his responsibility as president to defend America’s interests for the next four weeks.” —Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2020

BREAKING: Relief Package Passes Senate, House – The Senate approved the $900-billion emergency relief package just before Midnight by a 91-7 vote. Earlier Monday evening, the House approved the bill, which also includes $1.4-trillion to fund the federal government through September. President Trump is expected to sign the bill … 

Au Revoir, AG Barr – Controversial US Attorney General Bill Barr leaves the Trump administration Wednesday four weeks before President-elect Biden’s inauguration, and not on the president’s good side. Along with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Barr has pushed back against President Trump’s assertion that it was the Chinese, and not a Russian spy agency behind a recently uncovered massive cybersecurity hack of federal government and American business systems since early this year. Capitol Hill critics have slammed Barr by asserting he has acted more like Trump’s personal lawyer and less like an independent attorney general. But on Monday, at what was expected to be his last official press conference as AG, Barr also said there was no legal basis to seize voting machines from various states for inspection, nor was there any basis for appointing a special counsel for either the presidential election, or to investigate Hunter Biden, the son of the president-elect, who has revealed he is under investigation over his tax returns. Deputy AG Jeff A. Rosen will fill in for Barr for the remaining 28 days of the Trump administration … All in the First Full Week of the New Year — Two dates to keep in mind are January 5 and January 6. Georgia holds the runoff election for its two Senate seats on the 5^th, which will determine whether or not the Republican Party maintains control of the chamber. Both Democratic challengers, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, must defeat Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, to gain control of the Senate, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris the tiebreaker in what would be the resulting 50/50 split. The Senate and House confirm January 6 the Electoral College votes that the 50 states cast December 15. Both chambers must vote to affirm the Electoral College only if there is a challenger from each chamber, and current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, has warned Republican senators not to try anything. A number of Republican Trump supporters in the House of Representatives are considered likely challengers, although Democrats still hold a majority there, so there is no way the final vote in that chamber would support overturning the election. One other important date is January 3, the day the 117^th Congress will be sworn in. The date falls on a Sunday next year, but House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md, says there may not be time to vote on the bill the Constitution requires to change that date.  –Todd Lassa

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We Were Attacked: Who Cares? Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

When Donald Trump, standing next to Vladimir Putin at the 2018 Helsinki Summit, said that he believed Putin rather than the U.S. security apparatus on the subject of interference in the 2016 election, those on the Left were bursting a vein. Meanwhile, those on the Right, a group that had historically been in support of law enforcement of all types, be it the local police or the CIA (as they were the law-abiding citizens, unlike those on the Left, so they had nothing to fear), were strangely mute. (Although John McCain called Trump’s act a “disgraceful performance.”)

Although the CIA, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI, National Security Agency, Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, House Intelligence Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee determined that the Russians had hacked the 2016 presidential election (again, note how those on the Right are all exercised about the un-hacked 2020 election yet made nary a mew about the 2016 election), Trump would have none of it. People were fired, instead. While “shoot the messenger” would be an appropriate metaphor, in today’s hyper-charged political environment (“Stand back and stand by”) it could be all too literal.

The Russians have likely hacked us again. More to the point: the Russians have likely attacked the U.S. government.

This according to the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, software provided to the government by a company named SolarWinds—software used by things like the Commerce Department, Pentagon, Treasury Department, and the Department of Homeland Security—have been compromised by what is thought to be SVR, the Russian foreign intelligence service.

In addition, FireEye, a cybersecurity firm that tests the security of various organizations—government and commercial—announced they determined a “highly sophisticated state-sponsored adversary” got its hands on the software it uses to test the security.

Where is the outrage?

We are at risk.

Those on the Left are busy with petty internecine battles about the sufficiency of inclusion regarding the make up of Biden’s cabinet.

Those on the Right are busy protesting efforts being made by state and local officials to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

And Trump is still whining about the fact that he lost the election.

I am not going to go down the conspiratorial rabbit hole about Trump’s unwillingness over the past few years to stand up to Putin, due to Putin holding a whole lot of Trump’s debt or a videotape that would make the “Access: Hollywood” film seem like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

But why has Trump not done his job, the thing that he swore when he took the oath of office, to “preserve and protect”? What has he been doing?

Clearly not what a president is supposed to do.

Let’s be clear: Getting into those aforementioned government agencies is an attack on our infrastructure, like blowing up a section of Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan—but worse.

While I don’t pretend to know what the appropriate response is, I do know that it is a pathetic state of affairs when the Left is calculating credentials, the Right is disputing the efficacy of masks, and the president is Tweeting about an election he lost, according to his 2016 metric, by a landslide.

Perhaps the “America First” thinking that has been so proudly proclaimed during the past few years, a pronouncement that has the effect of making some people fail to realize that there are other countries and state actors elsewhere in the world, some of whom are our enemies, has brought us to this.

Russia attacks the U.S. and there is near silence.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2020

Congress Reaches Deal on COVID Relief Package — Facing the possibility that the House and Senate would otherwise have to remain in session through the Christmas holiday, Congress reached an agreement on its second coronavirus relief bill late Sunday [see The Hustings three-column homepage, December 9]. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, announced Sunday evening that a vote approving the package was “finalized and could be quickly approved,” according to The Washington Post.

The relief bill allocates almost $900-billion to the emergency, stop-gap measure to fill in for the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which expires December 26. Politico reports.

The package is meant to provide short-term relief into the first quarter of 2021, after which the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus becomes President-elect Biden’s problem. The new package, which pales in comparison to the $2.2-trillion CARES Act, extends unemployment benefits and a second round of direct payments, at $600 per, according to Politico, but the two sticking points that delayed passage for weeks remained stuck in place.

Republicans didn’t get their liability shield against employee claims of contracting the coronavirus at work, and Democrats did not get aid for state and local governments facing dramatic declines in tax revenues. –Todd Lassa

On Our Effort to Mediate Our Nation’s Differences Commentary by Todd Lassa

The editors and contributors of The Hustings work to understand all reasonable points of view on any political issue. This is especially true for those of us who write and edit the center column, which publishes news (largely aggregated for now) so the left column and right column pundits can publish their opinions, all on one balanced, no-echo-chamber page.

At The Hustings, we are quick to acknowledge that all of our journalists and writers come to each news or comment post with pre-conceived notions and personal opinions. For the center column we work hard to put that aside as much as humanly possible. We source and aggregate material from a variety of respected news outlets, from The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post to Slate and The Bulwark.There’s plenty of Politico and NPR in these pages, and of course we watch these news stories unfold live on C-Span, CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.

Shortly after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol, 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin told Fox News she has information that far leftist members of Antifa were involved with the riots that forced Congress into safe rooms and has resulted in six deaths, so far. Palin’s Fox News interviewer, part of the cable TV network’s news staff and not a commentator like Tucker Carlson or Laura Ingraham, did not challenge Palin on her comment.

Palin’s assertion, often called “me-too-ism,” has spread through hard-right media outlets even though it is as unsubstantiated as President Trump’s claim that election-rigging stole the 2020 election from him. Since that broadcast, several pro-Trump extremists have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. There has been no credible evidence to back Palin’s claims. Fox News apparently has issued no correction. If The Hustings repeated this as part of our regular news & comments section, we would be giving Palin’s untruth undue respect and consideration.

About the same time Palin appeared on Fox News, historian Jon Meacham, of Vanderbilt University, appeared as a regular guest pundit with two others on MSNBC’s “The 11^th Hour.” Take this as bias if you will, but we think his comments bear repeating:

“If the country does not begin again to see that politics is about the mediation of differences and the resolution of problems for a given period of time, and not a Shermanesque arena for total constant warfare, then this is a chapter in an unfolding story, and not a last chapter.”

Going forward, we hope The Hustings can help mediate the differences between America’s conservatives and liberals and help close the book on the political terrorism tearing our country apart.

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LETTERS

To submit a reader comment, please email editors@thehustings.news

Re: End of the Republican Party?/It’s Trump’s GOP/Trump is the Most Conservative  Republican President of Our Time, Nov. 18:

Is The Donald a conservative?  Not by his definition.  The Donald sees himself as an American.  He gets results.  Look at what he achieved during his term even though he was being piled on by the Democrats – and some Republicans.  His approach to others is chaotic.  That’s the way The Donald is – and has always been.  Don’t expect an old-style Washington politician.  His approach shocks some and repels others.  People who didn’t like The Donald’s daily shrieking voted for Sleepy Joe.  We’ll see how that goes – especially when he “retires” in favor of VP Harris about the 20-month point.  If The Donald chooses to remain head of the American Republican Party, the party had better figure out a way to either settle him down – or to portray his chaotic behavior as the “new normal” for political discourse.

–Gerry Conover