MONDAY, JUNE 7, 2021
Coming this afternoon on the home page: Craig Fahle and Stephen Macaulay debate the state of infrastructure negotiations between the Biden administration and Senate Republicans, including HR 3684, the INVEST in America Act introduced by House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Pete DeFazio, D-OR.
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MONDAY, JUNE 7, 2021 -- Today begins the Week of Reckoning for Capitol Hill Democrats, whose majority isn’t really a majority. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, will meet today with President Biden to try and reach a compromise over the Republican and White House proposals on an infrastructure bill, making today a sort of deadline (though we’re dubious about that). Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, has told Fox News he supports a bi-partisan compromise, though he also says he opposes the election overhaul bill, passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year as HR 1. Meanwhile, ex-President Trump spent last Saturday night gearing up for a run for a second term, again, in 2024.
On Tuesday – Stephen Macaulay comments on Sen. Joe Manchin and his quest for bi-partisanship, exclusively in our substack newsletter. Subscribe at thehustings.substack.com
Also this week – The Hustings debates infrastructure, again, in light of the latest Biden vs. Senate Republicans negotiations, coming Tuesday. Coming Thursday; Our debate previewing left-column and right-column arguments for the Thursday, June 17, Braver Angels National Coliseum debate on the role of violence in politics. To read these, click on The Hustings logo to return to the home page.
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FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 2021
THIS WEEKEND: Pro-Trump Republicans will run the Georgia state GOP’s convention this weekend on Jekyll Island. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan (who is not running for re-election), both of whom have criticized Donald J. Trump for refusing to accept his defeat last November, are not invited.
Read Today’s News & Notes … by clicking on the News & Notes tab above. To subscribe to The Hustings newsletter, go to thehustings.substack.com
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THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2021
Click on the News & Notes tab, above, for today’s file.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2, 2021
Click on News & Notes, above, for today's daily file.
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TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 2021
President Biden is scheduled to meet with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, tomorrow, Punchbowl News reports, citing sources. Capito introduced Senate Republicans’ alternative infrastructure bill before leaving Washington for the Memorial Day break. Over the weekend, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned of a need for ‘clear direction’ on infrastructure by June 7, when Congress returns from the recess. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has a markup of its own bill scheduled for June 9. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, wants the markup completed in time for the July 4 recess.
Biden Goes to Tulsa for 100th Anniversary of Destruction of ‘Black Wall Street’ –President Biden is in Tulsa today to help commemorate the 100th anniversary of the destruction there of “Black Wall Street” by a white mob, the AP reports. From May 31 to June 1, 1921, Tulsa’s white residents and civil society leaders looted and burned the city’s Greenwood District and used airplanes to drop explosives on it, thus leveling Black Wall Street and driving away prosperous businesses and residents.
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Democrats Walk Out of Texas House, Scuttle Voting Rules Bill – Republicans in the Texas legislature were set to approve a strict voting rights bill passed earlier by the state Senate, so it could be signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, R, Sunday night when 60 Democratic members of the chamber walked out, thus removing the quorum necessary for a vote. The bill would have become the most strict in the nation, including language inserted at the last minute “making it easier to overturn an election, no longer requiring evidence that fraud actually altered the outcome of a race,” The Washington Post reported before the walkout Sunday, “but rather only that enough ballots were illegally cast that could have made a difference.”
Exact rules and language of the 67-page state legislation remains fluid at best, and confusing, at worst, as the Republicans have reportedly have held the provisions close to their vests, making last-minute changes and withholding numerous drafts from the press.
Abbott Tuesday had threatened to shut off pay for state legislators, an action that would affect Republicans as well as Democrats. Sunday night’s vote was to mark the end of the Texas legislature’s session, and now Abbott also has threatened to call a special session for lawmakers to “do their job” so the bill can be sent to his desk.
Note: It has become increasingly apparent to Democratic Party leaders that the only way for President Biden to get any significant part of his agenda passed by the Senate before next year’s midterm elections -- including the For The People Act written to restore parts of The Voting Rights Act of 1965 and to counter several states’ new voting laws -- would be for his party to put an end to the legislative filibuster. The eternal question is whether Democrats have convinced Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, to join 49 others in the party to vote to kill it.
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Did Flynn Call for a ‘Myanmar-Style’ Coup? – By now, the exchange between keynote speaker Michael Flynn and an audience member at QAnon’s “For God and Country Patriot Roundup” in Texas last weekend is well-documented, if not fully agreed upon. The audience question, shouted by someone identified as a “simple Marine” was; “I wanna know why what happened in Myanmar can’t happen here.”
Flynn replied, according to the HuffPost; “No reason. It should happen.”
Of course, Flynn, the retired Army lieutenant general who served 22 days as Donald Trump’s national security advisor before it was revealed he lied to Vice President Pence about a conversation with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, effectively said in a tweet that he had been misquoted, that he said something along the lines of “no reason it should happen.”
QAnon followers are fans of the Myanmar coup of early this year, in which the military overturned the just-elected government led by Aung San Sui Kyi, and reportedly have killed more than 700 protesters.
Note: Perhaps the most startling issue here is the mainstreaming of QAnon and its followers, who continue to spin conspiracy theories in support of claims from the GOP’s de facto leader, ex-President Trump, that November’s election was stolen from him. But Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey have publicly suggested that Flynn’s comments be considered seditious. Army Col. Yevgeny Vindman, who was fired from the National Security Council by the Trump Administration after his twin, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, testified in Trump’s first impeachment hearing, says Flynn should be called back to active duty so he could be court-martialed. – Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods