Counterpoints Welcome

So long as you keep them civil.

For Monday’s front page, we posted synopses of the Trump/Vance platform in the right column and the Harris/Walz platform in the left column, both as they appear in donaldjtrump.com and kamalaharris.com, and without commentary. 

In today’s right column, Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay offers his critique of the Trump/Vance platform. We are sure there are pro-MAGA readers who may have something to say about the Harris/Walz platform and/or Macaulay’s commentary. As always, you are welcome to submit your comments for posting in the right column. 

Left-leaning readers also are invited to comment on the platforms and on our pundit-at-large’s opinion piece. 

Go to the COMMENT section of the left or right columns, as appropriate, or email editors@thehustings.news  and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

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TUESDAY 11/5/24

Trump Wins

WEDNESDAY 11/6/24

Not Even Close -- The Associated Press called Wisconsin for Donald J. Trump just before dawn Eastern time, to give the once and future president 277 electors to Vice President Kamala Harris' 224.

"This was a movement like nobody's ever seen before," Trump said at a victory gathering in West Palm Beach, Florida, before the AP call, "and frankly, this was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time. There's never been anything like this in this country, and maybe beyond."

The Republican Party also took control of the Senate Tuesday night. The House of Representatives remains close.

•••

Nabs Georgia, North Carolina – Just after 1 am Eastern time Donald J. Trump led Kamala Harris 247 to 210 in the Electoral College vote count as called by the AP, with 270 needed to win. Trump is leading in Pennsylvania for its 19 electoral votes, at 51.2% to 47.8%, with 91% of the vote in.

Trump also is leading in the key swing states of Michigan, 51.4% to 46% with 59% in, and Wisconsin, 51.4% to 47.2% with 84% counted. Trump has a slight lead over Harris in Arizona, at 49.9% to 49.2%, with 51% in. Just 4% of the votes were counted in Nevada, where Trump was leading 71.5% to 26.8%.

--TL

_______________________________________________

ELECTION DAY 11/5/24

Scroll down one page with the trackbar on the far right to read …

<<<<<<<<<<Kamala Harris’ platform in the left column.

Donald J. Trump’s platform in the right column. >>>>>>>>>>

Shape of the Count to Come? -- First-in-the-nation-to-vote Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, finished counting its six ballots at 12:12 am Tuesday. The result, reports The New York Times: Three votes for Kamala Harris. Three votes for Donald J. Trump.

•••

Yet More Misinfo, Disinfo – Late Monday night as Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald J. Trump were wrapping up their presidential election campaigns, the Office of the Director of National Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI said in a joint statement, according to The New York Times, that foreign adversaries led by Russia were “conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of US elections and stoke division among Americans.”

Fight misinformation, disinformation … Confused over what you are reading about today’s election on Facebook and X-Twitter, or watching on TikTok and YouTube and the like? The Brennan Center for Justice has this handy guide to voter misinformation.

•••

Wait For It – As in 2020, swing states Pennsylvania and Michigan were not allowed to count early ballots until Tuesday, November 5. Wisconsin’s rules have changed and this year election workers have already begun tabulating the early ballots.

•••

Abortion on the Ballot – Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota have ballot measures to roll back bans on abortion, the AP reports. South Dakota, in fact, has two competing ballot initiatives, according to NPR. In addition, AP says, Colorado and Maryland have measures that would protect abortion rights via their state constitutions. Initiatives to maintain access are on the ballots in Montana and Nevada, and a New York law would ban discrimination against women on the basis of “pregnancy outcome, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”

•••

Trump’s Last Rally – Donald J. Trump began what he called his “last rally” after midnight Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he got “kind of sentimental” NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

“But here’s the good news: All we were doing is putting ourself in a position where we could win tomorrow if you show up,” Trump said. 

Earlier, Trump held a rally in Pittsburgh with conservative podcaster Megyn Kelly, whom he once called “nasty” for her question during the first 2016 GOP primary debate on Fox News, of whether Trump has the temperament to be president. 

“He got mocked by the left by saying he would be a protector of women,” Kelly told the rally crowd Monday evening. “He will be a protector of women and it’s why I’m voting for him. He will close the border and he will keep the boys out of women’s sports where they don’t belong.”

•••

Harris on Rocky Steps – That’s the steady sort of rocky, as in the steps up to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Sylvester Stallone runs in his 1976 movie, Rocky.

Harris called the “famous steps, a tribute to those who start as the underdog, and climb to the victory.”

Celebrities speaking at Harris’ final push were Oprah Winfrey, Fat Joe and Philly native DJ Jazzy Jeff. Lady Gaga, The Roots and Ricky Martin performed. 

“We are done with it,” Harris said of the “most consequential” presidential election of our lifetime. “America is ready for a fresh new start, where we see our fellow Americans, not as an enemy but as a neighbor.”  

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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TUESDAY 11/5/24

A Quick Review of a Shaky Platform

By Stephen Macaulay

How many people who plan on voting for Trump have actually taken the time to go to his official website — www.donaldjtrump.com — and have looked at his presidential platform?

Probably not many. Because he doesn’t offer much in the way of anything but empty bluster or problems that actually exist.

For those who are interested in so-called “kitchen-table” issues, the planks of that platform are pretty flimsy. And if we want to build a stronger America, substantive plans are needed.

So, to review, here are the 20 points of his platform.

1. Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion. 

One might think that when he was president and had a Republican Congress he would have gotten that wall built and paid for by Mexico, that there wouldn’t have simply been a reduced number of illegals crossing the border when he was in office, but that he would have sealed it. None of that happened.

2. Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.

This is a red-meat item. . .until people realize that their family members, friends or neighbors are mistakenly caught up in this operation.

3. End inflation, and make America affordable again.

Sounds good, but there is nothing to substantiate how he would make that happen. Arguably the reason inflation is as high as it is is a hangover from the COVID crisis which, as you may not recall, he didn’t handle very well.

4. Make America the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!

Perhaps someone needs to tell him the U.S. currently is “the dominant energy producer in the world, by far!” As of August 2024 the U.S. produces 21.91 million barrels of oil per day. Saudi Arabia is number two, back at 11.13 million. Looks fairly dominant.

5. Stop outsourcing and turn the United States into a manufacturing superpower.

According to the National Association of Manufacturers, certainly no booster of the Democrats, as of September 2024,“Manufacturing employment fell slightly in September, losing 7,000 employees from August but remaining above pre-pandemic levels. Job growth in the sector has slowed in the past year, yet remains well above pre-pandemic levels with 12,917,000 manufacturing employees in September. The sector averaged 12,648,000 employees pre-pandemic (2017–2019).” So arguably, the U.S. is a greater manufacturing superpower now than when Trump was in office.

6. Large tax cuts for workers, and no tax on tips!

Notice there is no detail of how big those cuts will be for workers. And going back to the previous item, in Q4 2017, pre-pandemic and when Trump was in office, there were 153.9 million people employed in the U.S. In September 2024 there were 161.86 million people employed. MAGA? And as for the “no tax on tips” — sounds good, but wouldn’t a higher minimum wage work more efficiently?

7. Defend our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms 

From whom? Isn’t he the guy who is suing CBS and who is threatening his political opponents? And Harris has said that she owns a Glock, so who is threatening gun rights? And since when has there been an issue related to freedom of religion? Maybe he’s concerned with the Bibles he’s hawking.

8. Prevent World War III, restore peace in Europe and in the Middle East, and build a great iron dome missile defense shield over our entire country -- all made in America 

Is WW III something anyone has been concerned with. . .until he started making it seem like it is imminent? And it seems fairly clear that his answer to the fighting in Europe is surrendering to Putin. And as for the Middle East, there seems to be no plan. No surprise there.

9. End the weaponization of government against the American people.

Is this a problem for the American people, or just the many people in his sphere who have been found guilty of manifold malfeasances?

10. Stop the migrant crime epidemic, demolish the foreign drug cartels, crush gang violence, and lock up violent offenders.

“Using the FBI data, the violent crime rate fell 49% between 1993 and 2022, with large decreases in the rates of robbery (-74%), aggravated assault (-39%) and murder/nonnegligent manslaughter (-34%).”—Pew Research Center. Here’s the thing: He can claim there is a problem, then “solve it.”

11. Rebuild our cities, including Washington DC, making them safe, clean, and beautiful again. Remember when Trump was going to transform Atlantic City? How did that work out?

12. Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world.

For a man who denigrates the men and women who have given their lives in service to their country, this is rich.

13. Keep the US dollar as the world's reserve currency.

If he follows through on his isolationist plans, forget about that.

14. Fight for and protect Social Security and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age. 

Remember his tax cuts for the workers? Where will the funding for these programs come from? Mexico?

15. Cancel the electric vehicle mandate and cut costly and burdensome regulations.

First, there is no “electric vehicle mandate.” Second, remember the e. coli issue that recently broke out at McDonalds due to some contaminated produce? Bet some of the things that the provider of the produce ignored were considered to be “burdensome.” Just think if these regulations were gone.

16. Cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, radical gender ideology, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.

Who decides what is “inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content”? Somehow his sensitivity to race, women and political opponents makes him a dubious arbiter.

17. Keep men out of women's sports.

This is one of 20 things that the want-to-be president is concerned with? 

18. Deport pro-Hamas radicals and make our college campuses safe and patriotic again.

Didn’t he say something about freedom of speech in point seven?

19. Secure our elections, including same day voting, voter identification, paper ballots, and proof of citizenship

Does this mean that there should be only same-day voting? If so, why has he been promoting early voting? While there certainly should be vetting of voters, this is a non-problem that he is vigorously ginning up so he can blame something else if he loses.

20. Unite our country by bringing it to new and record levels of success.

Laudable. But where is anything in his list that will actually do that?

The presidential election shouldn’t be treated like a popularity contest. 

Trump may be more popular than Harris, but the presidency isn’t about throwing stuff at the wall and hoping it sticks or making things up on the fly or gutting our freedoms while claiming the actions make us freer.

_____
TUESDAY 11/5/24

Harris/Walz

The platform of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is called “A New Way Forward” …

Taxes:

•Cut taxes for 100 million Americans, with no income tax increases for anyone earning less than $400,000 per year.

•Restore the expanded Child Tax Credit from the early years of the Biden administration, to as much as $3,600. 

•Expand the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $6,000 in tax relief for middle- and low-income families for the first year of a child’s life.

•Raise the corporate tax rate to 28%, “still well below the rate that was in place before the Trump tax cuts,” which expire in 2025.

Affordable housing: 

•Partner with the private sector to build 3 million additional homes, via the Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit.

•Launch a $40 billion Local Innovation Fund for housing expansion.

•Offer first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down-payment assistance.

•Expand the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit for private and non-profit developers to expand the affordable rental supply by more than 1.2 million new homes.

•Crack down on large corporate landlords using equity-backed price-setting tools via a proposed Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act and stop Wall Street investors from buying up homes in bulk.

•Create a new Neighborhood Homes Tax Credit to support new construction or rehabilitation of more than 400,000 owner-occupied homes.

‘Opportunity Economy’:

•Spur creation of 25 million new business applications by expanding the start-up expense deduction for new businesses to $50,000 from the current $5,000.

•Reduce obstacles and red tape that “make it harder to grow a small business.”

•Invest in workers, innovation and industry to revitalize American manufacturing, strengthen the US industrial base and maintain a lead in cutting-edge technologies.

Food/Grocery Costs:

•Invest in “building resilient food supply chains” by expanding production among new suppliers and small farms, growers and processors to create broad-based supply chains.

•Crack down on “unfair” mergers and acquisitions among big food corporations. Investigate and prosecute price-fixing. 

•Assure that the federal government has the resources to identify and take on anti-competitive food and grocery industry practices.

•Call on Congress to pass a federal ban on price gouging.

Health Care:

•Expand and make permanent tax credit enhancements for Affordable Care Act (ACA, or “Obamacare”) marketplace plans.

•Extend the $35 cap on insulin and $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs to all Americans.

•Accelerate the speed of Medicare prescription drug negotiations.

•“Crack down” on pharmaceutical companies that block competition and on abusive practices who “squeeze” small pharmacies’ profits and raise costs for consumers.

Energy Costs:

•Continue to invest in a clean energy economy and cut red tape so clean energy projects are “completed quickly and efficiently.” The Harris/Walz platform says the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act has made “more than $265 billion in clean energy investments creating more than 330,000 jobs.” 

•Continue home energy technology credits from the Inflation Reduction Act and secure more than $22 billion in financial assistance for households to maintain safe and healthy indoor temperatures.

Immigration:

•Harris plans to push Congress to pass through the bipartisan border security bill drafted earlier this year. The bill, which was supported by the National Border Patrol Council (union for border agents) would add thousands of border patrol and other immigration personnel, speed up immigration decisions and make it harder to claim asylum in the US (per Time). 

Foreign Policy

•Stand up against dictators and ”defend America’s interests and democracy,” and US interests in Ukraine, South Korea, Israel and elsewhere.

Abortion:

•Supports ending the filibuster, a procedural hurdle requiring 60 Senate votes, to make it possible to reinstate Roe v. Wade, which protects abortions up to the time of fetal viability – about 20 weeks -- as the law of the land. Democrats would likely need to retain their slim Senate majority after November 5 in order to have enough votes to remove the filibuster. The platform opposes allowing states from imposing restrictions on abortion (per The Washington Post). 

_____
MONDAY 11/4/24

The Policy Platforms

MONDAY 11/4/24

There’s a good chance you have voted already, early and/or by mail, and a better chance you made up your mind long ago. Nevertheless, for your convenience, we’re running Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’ platform in the left column and Republican candidate Donald J. Trump’s platform in the right column.

Meanwhile, be sure to read pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s analysis and opinion of the Trump/Harris platform on our Substack page.

Here’s your chance to comment on Macaulay’s comments – or submit your comments on the Harris/Walz platform on the left, and/or the Trump/Vance platform on the right, or both. Email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean right or left in the subject line.

The Harris/Walz “New Way Forward” laid out on the campaign’s webpage lays out all the economic policy detail Harris’ critics say they have been missing, while the Trump/Vance platform has a lot to say about the former president’s plans for immigration reform. There should be no confusion among undecides about where each candidate stands on the major issues.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, though co-written by former aides from the Trump administration, is conspicuous by its absence from his platform. Described by PolitiFact as a roadmap for the next conservative president to downsize the federal government and fundamentally change the way it works, Harris’ platform page insists Trump would indeed implement as much of it as possible if elected Tuesday. It would, the Harris page says, consolidate his power and bring the Justice Department and the FBI “under his direct control so he can give himself unchecked legal power and go after his opponents, and rule as a dictator on ‘day one.’”

What Trump actually said is that he would be a dictator only on that one day.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 11/4/24

Trump/Vance

Republican candidates Donald J. Trump and JD Vance say the nation has been in “serious decline” since the Biden/Harris administration took over nearly four years ago. Their proposed fixes…

Tariffs and Taxes

•Trump has called “tariff” the “most beautiful word” in the English language. His policy supports “baseline” tariffs on foreign-made goods and passage of the Trump Reciprocal Trade Act, which would impose a 10% tariff on imports from all countries and a 60% tariff on Chinese imports. 

•Make permanent provisions of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which doubled the standard deduction and expanded the child tax credit (they expire in 2025). Eliminate taxes on tips for restaurant and hospitality workers, and “pursue additional tax cuts.”

Energy

•The platform claims the US became the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world under the Trump administration and will be number-one again by lifting restrictions on American energy production, including nuclear power, and by terminating the “Socialist” Green New Deal. 

•Trump claims lowering fuel costs for transportation of goods will bring down the inflation rate.

Affordable Housing

•Platform claims inflation-slashing will reduce mortgage rates and help new home buyers. The platform also calls for opening limited portions of federal lands for new home construction and promotes home ownership via tax incentives and support for first-time buyers. It would also cut “unnecessary” regulations that raise housing costs.

Deregulation

•Slash wasteful government spending and promote economic growth to stabilize the economy.

•Cut burdensome regulations by reinstating Trump administration deregulation policies, which the platform says saved Americans $11,000 per household.

•Lead the world in the emerging industries of crypto, artificial intelligence and space to “pave the way for future economic greatness.”

Healthcare

•Increase transparency, promote choice and competition and expand access to new affordable healthcare and prescription drug options. Also protect Medicare from the “Democrat plan to add tens of millions of new illegal immigrants” to its rolls. 

•Shift resources back to at-home senior care, overturn disincentives that lead to care worker shortages and support unpaid family caregivers through tax credits and reduced red tape.

Education

•Support universal school choice for every US state, support schools that focus on excellence and parental rights, end teacher tenure and adopt merit pay.

•Defund public schools that engage in “inappropriate” political indoctrination of our children of federal taxpayer dollars.

•Stand up to those who violate the religious freedom of American students. Champion the right to pray and read the bible in school.

Immigration

•Stop illegal immigration, secure the border, deport illegal aliens and reverse Democratic Party open border policies that the platform says have driven up the cost of housing, education and healthcare for American families. Trump has said publicly he intends to deport as much as 20 million illegal aliens.

•Complete the Trump administration’s border wall and shift “massive portions” of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement. “We will use all resources needed to stop the invasion – including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas to our own southern border.”

•Restore the Trump administration’s travel ban and use Title 42 to end the child trafficking crisis” by returning the children to their home countries.

•Use existing federal law to keep “foreign Christian-hating Communists, Marxists, and Socialists out of America. … We will use extreme vetting to ensure that jihadists and jihadist sympathizers are not admitted.”

•Cut federal funding to sanctuary cities that release “dangerous illegal alien criminals” rather than turn them over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

•Make merit-based immigration a priority so those admitted to the US contribute positively to US society and economy.

Foreign Policy

•Stop wars by ending global chaos and restoring “peace through strength” via a buildup of the American military. Trump has said he will end the war in the Ukraine in a day by negotiating with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

•Stand with Israel and seek peace in the Middle East.

Abortion

•Trump claimed victory when the US Supreme Court, including his three appointees, overturned Roe v. Wade in their 6-3 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After the 2022 midterm elections indicated heavy voter opposition to the Dobbsruling, Trump changed his position on the issue and now says it is a state’s issue on whether and how to restrict abortion.

_____
MONDAY 11/4/24

Campaign Schedules

Democratic Ticket

Kamala Harris rally Friday at the Wisconsin State Fair Exposition Center 6-10 pm CT in Milwaukee with musical artists Cardi B, DJ Gemeni Gilly, Flo Milli, Glo Rilla, The Isley Brothers and MC Lyte.

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff campaigns for Harris/Walz in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, time and location TBA.

Republican Ticket

JD Vance rally 1 pm ET Friday in Portage, Michigan.

Donald J. Trump rally 4:30 pm ET Friday at Macomb Community College, Warren, Michigan.

Vance rally 6 pm ET Friday at The Forum at 95, in Selma, North Carolina.

Trump rally 8 pm CT Friday at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum, site of this year’s Republican National Convention and the first Harris/Walz rally last summer. 

Vance rally 10 am PT Saturday at the Whitney Recreation Center in Las Vegas.

Vance rally 12:30 pm PT Saturday at Dillon Precision, Scottsdale, Pennsylvania.

Trump rally 4 pm ET Saturday at Salem Civic Center, Salem, Virginia.

Trump rally 7:30 pm ET Saturday at First Horizon Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina.

Trump rally 10 am Sunday at Lancaster Airport, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Email COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
FRIDAY 11/1/24

…meanwhile…

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STEADY AT 4.1% -- The US economy added just 12,000 jobs in October in part because Hurricane Helene made landfall September 26 and Hurricane Milton hit on October 9, both before the Labor Department’s October reference period for household and establishment surveys. The unemployment rate remained unchanged from September’s 4.1%. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Filters Off – If there seemed to be any limits remaining on what Donald J. Trump might say to win next Tuesday’s presidential election, they were pretty much off in his event with Putin-friendly ex-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson, Thursday in Glendale, Arizona (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her,” Trump said of former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, of Wyoming. “You know, when the guns are trained at her face.

“They’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.”

Cheney's response .... "This is how dictators destroy free nations," Liz Cheney said Friday (per USA Today).

Question … Was Trump’s speech motivated more by his isolationist philosophy or for his grievance against the ranking Republican from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, who has been campaigning for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris?

‘Protect women’ … Harris responded Thursday to Trump’s comment Wednesday at a rally near Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he would “protect” women, “whether the women like it or not.”

Harris’ response … “It actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies,” Harris told reporters in Madison, Wisconsin (per The Washington Post).

•••

Crux of the Biscuit – It’s the apostrophe. The Associated Press reports that sources say White House officials altered a transcript by non-partisan stenographers of President Biden’s self-inflicted reversal of the Trump/Vance campaign’s self-inflicted “island of garbage” joke from Madison Square Garden last Sunday. 

The original Biden quote, as transcribed, read: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters – his—his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

Press official-edited: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his—his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
FRIDAY 11/1/24

Rationalize or Lie

By Stephen Macaulay

If Kamala Harris loses the presidential election, then the next day — if not election night, depending on the numbers — the talking heads on MSNBC that haven’t exploded will be breaking down what went wrong with the campaign.

There will be a number of reasons offered as to why this happened. Some will say it was because she gave an insufficient number of interviews. Others will suggest it is because the messaging about the economy (which is actually in good shape) wasn’t forcefully articulated. And so on.

Then there will be those who blame it on Biden. The reasons for that will range from his waiting too long to absent himself from the process to his — there he goes again — bollixed “garbage” comment. One thing you can say about Uncle Joe for most of his career: He evidently likes the taste of his own foot.

These commentators will go on and on, trying to come up with a reason why she lost.

If Donald Trump loses the presidential election, then the next day — but probably the night of — he will claim that (1) he won and (2) that it was stolen from him. 

Commentators on Fox will parrot at least 50% of those claims.

There will not be any discussion of Trump not trying to appeal to people who weren’t already his voters or the Leni Riefenstahl-ready Madison Square Garden event’s vitriol.

Remember: He still claims he won the 2020 election despite his profound inability to show any evidence of that happening.

And because he says he won, then people who have bought into him claim the same.

Meanwhile, if it happens on the other side, then there will be analysis of varying levels of rationale. But even a little bit of rationale is a whole lot better than none.

This is the difference that people need to consider when they cast their ballots.

For all of their faults, when the Democrats lose they, eventually, accept the outcome.

When Republicans prior to Donald Trump lose, they did the same. Now they claim the loss can only be attributed to a “rigged election.”

The amusing — if it wasn’t so pathetic, sad and dangerous — part about this is that in the case of the 2020 election, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (think about the name of that committee in the context of Trump’s claims about all of the crime that he maintains is occurring and think about how some of those people, who he characterizes as “political prisoners,” rubbed their feces on the walls of the Capitol) found that Team Trump’s planning months before the election was engineered for loss, not victory.

And even though he won the 2016 election, Trump created the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity in 2017 to root out fraud — which wasn’t found, a precursor to what his Cyber Ninjas didn’t find in Maricopa County after the 2020 election.

While on the subject of Maricopa County. . . John McCain, who served six terms as a Republican senator from Arizona, died in 2018. Among those who presented eulogies were former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Among the pallbearers were former vice president Joe Biden and former senator Gary Hart.

President Donald Trump didn’t attend. McCain’s wife, Cindy, explained she didn’t invite him because she wanted the ceremony to occur “with dignity,” that she wanted it to be “respectful and calm.”

In 2015, when running for president, Trump had said of McCain, who served with honor in the military and as a senator, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”

McCain, a naval pilot, was on his 23rd bombing mission over Hanoi when his plane was shot down. He spent 5 ½ years in a North Vietnamese prisoner of war camp, where he was tortured.

Trump avoided the military.

McCain was a Republican who was a stalwart for his party, but he was a greater supporter of his country and what it stands for. 

In 2017 McCain voted against repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Trump wanted the act to be repealed.

Trump, after all of his years being against the ACA, now says “I have concepts of a plan” to replace it.

Not “I have a plan.” Just some ideas. You would think that someone who began campaigning in 2015, served in office for four years, and has been running ever since would have more than some concepts about something that is important to some 21.3-million Americans.

But it doesn’t seem to matter to him or to his supporters. 

Which brings us back to the rationalizing Democrats and the reckless Republicans.

If Kamala Harris loses, there will be a comprehensive autopsy.

If Donald Trump loses, there will be an array of lies.

Facts versus falsehoods.

One is hard. The other is whatever you want them to be — until the truth emerges, which it will. But possibly too late.

_____
FRIDAY 11/1/24

Harris/Walz Campaign Schedule

WEDNESDAY

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make stops in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and then in Madison, Wisconsin, where they will be accompanied by Mumford & Sons.

THURSDAY

Harris appears with Latino music group Maná in Las Vegas, then in Phoenix with Los Tigres del Norte. 

Walz makes stops in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

FRIDAY

Harris will be in Wisconsin, time and location TBD.

•••

SATURDAY

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will campaign for his wife, Kamala Harris, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, time and location to be announced.

Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

_____
WEDNESDAY 10/30/24

…meanwhile…

President Biden's comments about Trump supporters -- or his Madison Square Garden comedian -- has taken a bit of the air out of Kamala Harris' "closing argument" Tuesday evening at the Ellipse, site of Donald J. Trump's January 6, 2021, speech to a mob that attacked the Capitol. Scroll down for Harris speech analysis.

THURSDAY 10/31/24

Sanitation in Green Bay – Donald J. Trump was driven to his rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Wednesday in a garbage truck with his name emblazoned on the side, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, as he parried the brouhaha over his Madison Square Garden comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” about Puerto Rico and an island of garbage. This won the campaign day for Trump, Politicosays, as Kamala Harris had to deal with President Biden’s counter-remark about MAGA supporters and garbage. 

Biden’s comments stepped on Harris’ own “closing arguments” speech at the Ellipse with the White House in the background, Tuesday evening.

“You know the thing is, they treated our whole country like garbage, intended or not,” Trump told the Wisconsin crowd. 

•••

Democratic Angst – Meanwhile, finger-pointing has begun among Democrats over “a string of factors” that have hobbled Kamala Harris’ campaign “from the outset,” The Hill reports. Whether Harris wins or loses the election next Tuesday, Democrats are disappointed with her messaging, especially on the economy, and with President Biden’s late withdrawal from the race. 

“People are nervous and they’re trying to cover their ass and get a little ahead of election day,” an unnamed Democratic strategist told The Hill. “It’s based on anxiety, stakes, and the unique nature of the cycle.”

•••

Anti-Vaxxer for HHS? – Former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., now a key player in the Trump campaign, has told his supporters Donald J. Trump has promised him “control” over the Departments of Health and Human Services and of Agriculture, CQ Roll Call reports.

“I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said. “I’m going to let him go wild on food. I’m going to let him go wild on the medicines.”

--TL

_______________________________________________

Harris at the Ellipse – For voters still undecided or, at least, unmotivated to go to the polls in the next six days, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris tried once again to define herself largely by defining Republican candidate Donald J. Trump. She is a conventional politician; one who seeks to work both sides of the aisle and for all voters. Trump, she reiterated, is in it only for himself.

“Look, we all know who Donald Trump is,” she said from the Ellipse, with the White House in the background. “He is the person who stood at this very spot nearly four years ago and sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election he knew he lost.”

“He was told by the staff that the mob wanted to kill his vice president, and he responded with two words: ‘So what?’ And that’s who Donald Trump is.”

The one thing Harris’ “closing argument” had in common with Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday is that they each got out to the other’s voters in some measure. Fox News regulars who watched Harris’ speech live may have learned, or maybe re-learned, some facts from Trump’s January 6th speech at the Ellipse in 2021 that have been lost in the pro-MAGA rhetoric about “tourists” holding a love-in that day, while Trump’s rally, especially his guest speakers have certainly got out to anyone who follows mainstream media in the last few days.

“He has an Enemies List of people he intends to prosecute,” Harris continued. “He says one of his highest priorities is to set free the violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers on January 6th.”

The vice president elaborated on some of her policy proposals, including a federal ban on price gouging in groceries, affordable housing for first-time home buyers, and of course legislation making abortions legal nationwide. Harris said she will “work with Democrats and Republicans to sign into law the border security bill that Donald Trump killed.”

On foreign policy, Harris said she will “Not surrender America’s global leadership. And I will stand with our friends,” she said, without specifically naming Ukraine or Israel. “Because I know that our alliances keep the American people safe and make America stronger and more secure. World leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark. Easy to manipulate with flattery and favor. And you can believe that autocrats like Putin or Kim Jong Un are rooting for him in this election.”

The Harris campaign estimates about 75,000 people attended her closing argument at the Ellipse, according to The Wall Street Journal. Prior to the speech, the National Park Service doubled its estimate of attendees expected to 40,000. 

Madison Square Garden has a concert capacity of 20,000, and some news reports say Trump’s crowd there started to thin out as the event stretched to about five hours Sunday. The Trump campaign says a large overflow of supporters who were not able to get in were on the streets outside the Garden that night.

•••

‘Deplorables’ Redux – President Biden sucked some of the air out of Vice President Kamala Harris’ “closing argument” at the Ellipse in Washington, Tuesday, when he addressed Latino supporters by video: “Just the other day, a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,’” Biden said, referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s stand-up routine at Donald J. Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally Sunday evening.

Puerto Ricans are “good, decent, honorable people,” Biden continued. “The only garbage I see out there is his supporters and his, his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

The White House later released a transcript to show that Biden was referring to Hinchcliffe as the “garbage” Trump supporter, The New York Times reports. It’s unclear whether the president’s video to Latino supporters was recorded or released “live.” But if the former – even the latter – it shows Biden’s communication staff had slipped on the job to draw criticism from the Trump/Vance camp that detracted from Harris’ important speech at the Ellipse.

“This is disgusting,” Trump running mate JD Vance said. “Kamala Harris and her boss Joe Biden are attacking half the country.”

(Earlier in the week, Vance defended the Garden rally language Biden was attacking, saying; “We have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America.”)

•••

Trump Responds – Donald J. Trump’s own response to the backlash over comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” about Puerto Rico at the Sunday evening rally came at a Tuesday campaign rally in heavily Hispanic-Latino Allentown, Pennsylvania. 

“I’m so proud that we’re getting support from Latinos like never before. We’re setting every record,” Trump said (per the Pennsylvania Capital Star). “Hispanics, Latinos, nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do. Nobody.”

Trump claimed “no one” has done more for Puerto Rico than him – eliciting memories of his paper towel-roll toss to victims of Hurricane Maria in 2018 – and he promised to deliver “the best future for Puerto Ricans and for Hispanic Americans.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 10/30/24

Trump/Vance Campaign Schedule

WEDNESDAY

Donald J. Trump rally at the Rocky Mount Event Center, Rocky Mount, North Carolina, 1 pm ET, followed by a rally with former Packers quarterback Brett Favre in Green Bay, Wisconsin, 6 pm CT.

Town Hall with JD Vance and Tulsi Gabbard in Bedford, Pennsylvania.

THURSDAY

Trump rally at CSI Aviation Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 12 pm MT, followed by a rally at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, 3:30 pm PT.

FRIDAY

Trump will hold an event at Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum, site of this year's Republican National Convention and the first Harris/Walz rally last summer, and home to the Milwaukee Bucks.

•••

Email your COMMENTS to editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

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WEDNESDAY 10/30/24

One Week to Vote

Democratic Ticket

Monday: Vice President Kamala Harris is in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Monday with her running mate, Tim Walz and singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers. 

Tuesday: Harris gives “closing arguments” addressing her economic policies, health care and civil rights at the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Wednesday: Harris and Walz make stops in North Carolina and Pennsylvania, and then in Madison, Wisconsin accompanied by Mumford & Sons.

Thursday: Harris appears with Latino music group Maná in Las Vegas, then in Phoenix with Los Tigres del Norte. Walz, meanwhile, makes stops in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Republican Ticket

Monday: Former President Donald J. Trump has a 6 pm appearance in Atlanta, while JD Vance goes to Wausau, Wisconsin, at 2 pm CT and Racine, Wisconsin, at 5:30 pm CT.

Tuesday: Trump is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at 7 pm ET and Vance is in Saginaw, Michigan, noon ET.

Wednesday: Trump holds a rally with former Packers quarterback Brett Favre in Green Bay, Wisconsin, 6 pm CT.

Thursday: Trump is in Henderson, Nevada at 3:30 pm PT.

Friday: Trump holds a rally in Milwaukee at 7 pm CT.

Saturday: Trump is in Salem, Virginia, at 4 pm ET.

--Hat tip to Newsweek

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MONDAY 10/28/24

…meanwhile…

Yes, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s ‘joke’ about Puerto Rico at Madison Square Garden turns out to be the big story from Sunday’s Trump rally. Will it make a difference at the polls next week?

This is Supposed to Help? – After the Trump/Vance campaign’s self-imposed October Surprise at Madison Square Garden Sunday, the ex-president on Monday followed up with these comments, according to The Hill, on former First Lady Michelle Obama, who has been campaigning for the Harris/Walz Democratic ticket:

“You know who’s nasty to me? Michelle Obama. I always tried to be nice and respectful,” Donald J. Trump said at an Atlanta rally Monday. “Oh, she opened up a little bit of – a little bit of a box. She opened up a little bit of something. She was nasty, ooh, ooh. She shouldn’t be nasty. That was a mistake she made.”

•••

Warning from Ukraine – Donald J. Trump must “face reality” that any attempt to freeze Russia’s invasion of Ukraine if he becomes president is “unrealistic,” says Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of the Ukraine parliament’s foreign affairs policy. 

“This plan doesn’t look realistic because it implies the agreement of Vladimir Putin, who is absolutely unreliable and not trustworthy when it comes to observing any agreement,” Merezhko said of Trump’s plan to end the war within 24 hours of taking office. “At the same time, Putin, as of now, is not interested in negotiations and agreements. He still believes that he can win.”

It is unknown from this report in The Kyiv Independent whether Merezhko was being wry and perhaps a bit ironic about the Trump/Vance campaign’s motives and its relationship with Russian dictator Putin. 

In September, Republican veep candidate JD Vance floated the idea of freezing the war and creating autonomous zones on both sides of the demilitarized zone while – wait for it; this is one of Putin’s main goals – keeping Ukraine out of NATO, according to the Financial Times. 

Merezhko asserts that the only real plan is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “Victory Plan” to “strengthen Ukraine and thereby force Putin to sit at the table of negotiations.”

Meanwhile, North Korea … This comes after NATO confirmed that Russia has brought in North Korean troops into its Kursk Oblast, which Ukrainian troops attacked in August. 

“The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” said NATO Secretary-Gen. Mark Rutte, Reuters reports. 

Not only do the North Korean troops give Putin more leverage in any future negotiations, they reinforce his long-anticipated plan to move into Lithuania and Poland if he has better success in Ukraine.

--TL

_______________________________________________

MONDAY 10/28/24

Carnival at the Garden – Much news media coverage of Donald J. Trump’s four-hour rally at Madison Square Garden Sunday night has concentrated on comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s “joke” that Puerto Rico is a “floating island of garbage,” and so as it turns out, we are leading with it too. The comedian also called out a Black man in the audience with a reference to watermelon, according to The New York Times, which headlines its story on the rally as “A Closing Carnival of Grievances, Misogyny and Racism.” 

(In a statement reported by CNN, Trump spokesperson Danielle Alvarez said that Hinchcliffe’s jokes do not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.)

While Trump himself, two hours late to the event, avoided overtly racist attacks, the more disturbing comments from his opening acts may have been those against Vice President Kamala Harris that appeal most to the former president’s unwavering supporters from the New Apostolic Reformation movement -- Christian Nationalists.

From the stage, sanitation worker David Rem, 60, called Harris “the devil” and held a crucifix while “while delivering a particularly manic address,” according to The Independent, saying “the cross that I’m holding is the cross that my mother … used to hold in the air when she prayed at night, every night, for Donald Trump and his family, because we knew three years ago that he was going to be, his life was going to be attempted to kill (sic), because they don’t want Donald Trump at the ballot box.”

Real estate investor/equity fund manager Grant Cardone repeated vile lies about the vice president having “pimp handlers.”

Sid Rosenberg, 77WABC radio host and sports reporter, told the crowd that “fucking illegals” get “whatever they want” and ranted about Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent, according to Mediaite.

“She has some sick posture, that Hilary Clinton. What a sick son of a bitch. That whole fucking party a bunch of degenerates, lowlifes, Jew haters and low lives.”

Tucker Carlson repeated Trump’s lies about Harris’ “changing” ethnicity, saying she wants to become “the first Samoan-Malaysian, low-IQ former California prosecutor ever to be elected president.”

The Garden’s scoreboard read “Trump Will Fix It” and the ex-president took advantage yet again of the opportunity to paraphrase his own catchphrase from his TV show, The Apprentice; “Kamala, you’re fired!”

“When I say ‘the enemy within’ the other side goes crazy,” Trump said, repeating his disturbingly authoritarian description of anyone associated with the Democratic Party, the press and pretty much anyone not on his side. He described the date of his potential election as the 47th president as “liberation day.”

Trump repeated his promise of mass-deportation of undocumented aliens and his senior advisor and anti-immigrant crackdown whisperer, Stephen Miller, said only his boss is bold enough to say “America is for Americans and Americans only.” (Per NYT).

Tulsi Gabbard, Vivek Ramaswamy, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. (who asserted “the king of New York is back to reclaim the city that he built”) and Melania Trump were there. 

So was Rudy Giuliani, who said, “This is where a Republican is not supposed to come. Which is why Donald Trump came here.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/28/24

Democracy Dies in Darkness: So What?

By Stephen Macaulay

There is considerable hand-wringing and pearl-clutching occurring because The Washington Post management decided not to endorse a presidential candidate for the 2024 election.

And that response is one of the reasons why Kamala Harris may not win the election.

The people who read The Washington Post are likely to be voting for her. Do they need some sort of imprimatur to do what they plan to do anyway?

Jeff Bezos, who owns the Post, is a rich guy. As a rich guy, he wants to (1) become richer and (2) keep his wealth intact.

Bezos has a business including AWS, cloud services that can be sold to the government for some non-trivial amounts of money. To annoy someone who can make letting contracts for AWS isn’t good business. (Of course, that someone has been previously annoyed and he’s not known for letting grudges go, so odds are it doesn’t matter what Bezos says or doesn’t.) And while there are generally thought to be limitations to such things, it wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility that a call from the White House to the IRS could lead to certain problems for point (2).

But really: The Washington Post?

That’s going to make a difference to the outcome of the election?

(And the same can be said for the Los Angeles Times, though it is highly irrelevant for other reasons.)

This is scoliotic thinking.

The people who need to be reached and convinced are more likely to be listening to Joe Rogan than waiting on tenterhooks for still another Bob Woodward book.

“But Harris has Springsteen!” Yes, and the Boss, who appeals mainly to Boomers, is but a few years younger than Trump, and it is hard to imagine that he’s going to change any minds regarding who people vote for, of even if they vote.

Even Slim Shady doesn’t have the stuff he once had.

Beyonce is better — but again, singing to the choir.

The claim about Trump being a “threat to democracy” is largely irrelevant.

That’s because for the everyday person, it is, more or less, meaningless.

Does it mean that one can vote? Sure, we’ve got that, right?

And aren’t the Democrats trying to convince those who otherwise aren’t planning to vote that they may have that vote taken away from them?

This matters to those potential non-voters why?

Abstract nouns like “liberty” and “justice” are similarly not particularly compelling.

“Fight, fight, fight” is more tangible to many of these people. They “get” that.

So Trump may get them while the Democrats parse metaphysics.

The Democrats need to start making things more real.

For example, Trump is talking mass deportation.

He is appealing to an increasing number in the Brown and Black communities.

No one is in favor of “illegal immigrants.”

But wouldn’t it be worthwhile to talk about how mass deportation might work?

How many legal young Latinos are likely to be slammed into the back of a cop car because they don’t have acceptable I.D.? How many young Black men are likely to be hassled unless they, too, have acceptable creds?

The Democrats need to make that point. 

Someone — girlfriend, sister, mother — get raped by an illegal? What then? Do these women carry to term — or get charged with a felony?

That’s real.

Then there are tariffs. While that sounds like some distant economic thing, in point of fact it is going to add to the price of lots of regular items.

Consider: According to Walmart, “Most of the products we source for our retail businesses in the US and other major markets like Mexico were made, grown or assembled domestically. For example, two-thirds of merchandise sold in Walmart US and 93% of merchandise sold in Walmart Mexico fall in this category. Because of the desire to meet customer demand for variety, quality and affordability for products ranging from mangoes to certain electronics, we also source products from around the world.”

So that means 1/3 of the products in Walmart and “certain electronics” (which probably accounts for damn near all of them: do you think TVs are made in America?) are made elsewhere, and if there is an across the board 20% tariff applied — and here this is on products from anywhereelse, not China, which will get a bigger tariff — this simply means that it is going to cost the consumer that much more.

No other government is going to “pay” for the tariff. 

Every consumer is.

Make that clear. Want to buy a pair of Nikes or Adidas? Plan to pay more because they aren’t manufactured in the U.S. Those $100 kicks are going to cost $120 (at least) plus tax. 

And this whole notion of “Made in America” may sound good, but don’t expect a whole lot of shoe factories or clothing plants to open any time soon. And electronics are gone, no matter what politicians say.

Work for the auto industry? The traditional domestics have invested billions in EV capacity (yes, in places like Detroit-Hamtramck and Dearborn). If the tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act are eliminated, as Trump has suggested they will be, then those companies are going to be in some financial peril, and your job, even if you’re making crossovers or pickups, may be in jeopardy.

Why haven’t the Democrats made this point?

People may not know anyone from Ukraine. That may seem to be part of a vague “somewhere else.”

But they may have grandparents from Poland or the Czech Republic or other countries in central Europe. Do they really want to have those places overrun by Putin should he have the whim to do so? Trump would apparently let that happen.

Explain that to your babcia.

There are probably more than a few Democrats who are at the upper echelons of the Harris campaign who know things like who Dr. Samuel Johnson was, something that most people don’t.

One of Johnson’s observations was “Example is more efficacious than precept.”

Perhaps there is still time — not much, but some -- to give up on the precepts and to explain flat-out what a Trump presidency will mean to the people they need to get to vote for their candidate.

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MONDAY 10/28/24