What’s Left

Scroll down with the trackbar on the far-right to read these left-column news items and commentary:

•President Biden raises $25 million in Radio City Music Hall event starring ex-presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, plus Stephen Colbert, Mindy Kaling and hundreds of pro-Palestinian protestors. 

•Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), indicted on federal charges related to an international bribery scheme, says he is leaving the Democratic Party to run for re-election in November as an independent.

•Contributing Pundit Ken Zino comments on President Biden’s March 7 State of the Union address in “Biden’s Call to Arms.”

TIP> Use the trackbar in the left column to read the entire item or commentary.

Your civil comments are much welcome. Use the COMMENT section of this column, or the one on the right if you lean conservative. Or email editors@thehustings.news and indicate in the subject line whether you lean left or right.

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…meanwhile…

WCK relief lead Lalzawmi (Zomi) Frankcom, 43, from Australia, was one of seven humanitarian aid workers killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza Monday. (PHOTO CREDIT: World Central Kitchen/wck.org)

NATO 75TH 4/4/24

Biden to Netanyahu: Cease Fire -- Following the deadly Israeli Defense Force air strike on a World Central Kitchen caravan in Gaza Monday, President Biden in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for an immediate ceasefire in its war on Hamas. Biden "made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers," according to the White House readout of the call. "He made clear that U.S. policy with respect to Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel's immediate action on these steps."

•••

WCK and Israel – President Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak by phone Thursday the first time since Israeli Defense Force air strikes killed seven World Central Kitchen humanitarian workers in Gaza, The Guardian reports. Biden is said to be "furious" over the strike. 

WCK chief and founder, chef José Andres accused the IDF of targeting the organization’s caravan, NPR Reports. “Israel has a right to defend its people, but defending your people is not killing everybody else,” he said. Andres wrote this op-ed on his colleagues' deaths for The New York Times.

Biden calls the Israel-Hamas war “one of the worst in recent memory in terms of how many aid workers have been killed.” (The Washington Post)

•••

NATO Celebrates 75 – The 32-member North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 75th anniversary Thursday at its Brussels headquarters. It holds a summit in Washington, D.C., July 9-11. 

Here are the top-12 contributors to NATO by percentage of GDP, according to worldpopulationreview.com:

1.) Poland – 3.9%.

2.) U.S. – 3.49%.

3.) Greece – 3.1%.

4.) Estonia – 2.73%.

5.) Lithuania – 2.54%.

6.) Finland – 2.45%.

7.) Romania – 2.44%.

8.) Hungary – 2.43%.

9.) Latvia – 2.27%.

10.) U.K. – 2.07%.

11.) Slovakia – 2.03%.

12.) France – 1.9%. 

NATO’s minimum contribution requirement is 2.0%.

•••

Biden Leads, Very Slightly, in Penn – President Biden leads ex-President Trump 42% to 40% in the Franklin & Marshall College poll of registered voters in the swing-state of Pennsylvania, when third-party candidates are considered, though the president leads Trump 48% to 38% in a one-on-one race. Though statistically a tie for the November election, other findings from this April poll reflect a slight preference – or, let’s call it less dissatisfaction – for Biden.

The April poll found 17% said they are “better off” financially than a year ago, up from 15% in February and 11% in October. Biden’s approval ratings in the commonwealth are at just 35%, though more voters believe Biden has better judgment and is more “trustworthy” than Trump, while 40% said Trump would better-handle the nation’s economy. Both are “too old” to be president, 40% of voters said.

On the other hand: Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Guy Reschenthaler has sponsored HR 7845, a bill to rename Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington (Virginia), “Donald J. Trump International Airport.” Reschenthaler has six Republican co-sponsors in the House.

“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges,” responds Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), (per Slate). “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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[WEDNESDAY 4/3/24]

The Russia House? – It’s easy to think of last month’s merger between Trump Media and Technology Group and shell company Digital World Acquisition Corporation as a hail-Mary to raise the cash the ex-president needed to pay a $454 million civil judgment to New York State last month. Of course, Donald J. Trump’s share of the new corporation’s market cap wouldn’t be available to him on time, and anyway, an appellate court threw him a lifeline, allowing Trump to pay the reduced fine of $175 million as his attorneys appeal the judgment. 

But the deal to merge Trump Media with the shell company had been lingering since 2021, when the media company’s Truth Social went live and promptly began to lose millions of dollars -- 58 of them just last year.

According to an exclusive story published by The Guardian Wednesday, something called the ES Family Trust has been providing Trump Media with emergency loans. Existence of ES Family Trust was first reported by both The Guardian and The Washington Post, but only the former says it has “learned from leaked documents” that Russian-American businessman Anton Postolnikov has been using the trust like a shell company. 

Person of Interest

Postolnikov has been a “person of interest,” according to the report, in a years-long FBI and Department of Homeland Security investigation. 

The trust has an account with Paxum bank, based on the island of Dominica, which counts Postolnikov as a part-owner, according to The Guardian’s report. But Paxum does not have a license to do business in the U.S. – thus the need for the ES Family Trust connection to Trump Media. 

The news report says Postolnikov is nephew of Aleksandr Smirnov, ally of Vladimir Putin.

An attorney for Paxum Bank warned The Guardian of legal action “for reporting the contents of the leaked documents.” After the story was initially published a statement from a Trump Media attorney called it a “false narrative that (Trump Media) has these fake connections to Russia. It is a hoax.”

There’s much more to the story, which you can read here.

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 4/3/24

Biden, Trump in Statistical Tie – President Biden and ex-President Trump are in a statistical tie for the November election, with Biden narrowly ahead, according to an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll outlined on Morning Edition Wednesday. Biden’s approval rating of 43% is his highest in three years, though his disapproval rating is at 53%. 

Significantly, the poll also finds that most Americans, including Republicans, Democrats and independents, find criminalizing abortion "wrong."

Biden’s statistical tie and slight lead over Trump is slightly better news than numbers from the Gallup poll that Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay analyzes in “Build Back [Biden] Better” in The Gray Area. You can read that here.

However: Trump leads Biden in six of the seven most competitive states according to a Wall Street Journal poll, citing “dissatisfaction with the national economy and deep doubts about Biden’s capabilities and job performance.” The poll of main battleground states show the ex-president leading the president by anywhere from two percentage points to eight percentage points.

•••

Israeli Strike on WCD Convoy – President Biden is “outraged and heartbroken by the deaths of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen, including one American, in Gaza yesterday,” reads a White House statement released on X-Twitter.

“They were providing food to hungry civilians in the middle of a war. They were brave and selfless. Their deaths are a tragedy.”

Israel “deeply regrets” the hit on the World Central Kitchen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, and the Israeli Defense Force called its attack a “grave mistake” that was the result of a “misidentification,” The Washington Post reports. 

The tide has been turning against the Israeli government – not the Israeli or Jewish people – since Hamas terrorists – not the majority of Palestinians -- killed 1,200 and kidnapped 240 on October 7 (per The Times of Israel). The Israeli government under its hard-right leader, Netanyahu, is capable of war crimes.

Your thoughts … as always, are welcome. Go to the left or right column, depending on your political leanings, and leave a comment, or email editors@thehustings.news.

--TL

__________________________________________

TUESDAY 4/2/24

Seven Food Relief Workers Killed in Gaza – The Israeli military has taken responsibility for a strike that killed seven workers for celebrity chef Jose Andres’ aid group, World Central Kitchen, Monday as their convoy was leaving a warehouse (per The Washington Post). 

“Unfortunately, there was a tragic incident in which our forces unintentionally hit innocent people in Gaza Strip,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday. 

WCK CEO Erin Gore described the incident as a “targeted attack,” and the organization says it is suspending its food relief efforts in Gaza. The seven killed in the Israeli attack include a U.S.-Canadian dual citizen, at least one Palestinian, as well as workers from Australia, Poland and the United Kingdom, per WaPo.

•••

April 2 Primaries – Presidential primaries are Tuesday for Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. In addition, there is a non-presidential primary in Wisconsin and runoff elections in Arkansas and Mississippi (per the AP).

--TL

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MONDAY 4/1/24

Is Military Aid to Ukraine on the Way? – Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA, above) said Sunday night touted a package that could forward military aid to Ukraine, after the House returns to Capitol Hill Tuesday, April 9. The three-plank bill would use the Repo Act, a “loan concept” and release of U.S. natural gas exports, Johnson told the eponymous host of Fox News’ Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy Easter evening. There has been much uncertainty over the legality of the Repo Act, which could forward more than $300 billion to Ukraine from seized Russian assets.

“If we could us the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to allow the Ukrainians to fight them, that’s pure poetry,” Johnson said. 

Even GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump supports providing aid to Ukraine as a loan, he said, and releasing natural gas exports that he said the Biden White House has prohibited would “help unfund” Vladimir Putin’s war effort. 

Democratic support: Johnson will have to count on pretty much all House Democrats to pass aid for Ukraine and then again if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) carries through her threat to file a motion to vacate. The House currently consists of 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats, with four seats vacant. That leaves Johnson with a one-vote Republican margin.

•••

Tide Turns for Netanyahu – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rocked international politics last month when, as the highest-ranking Jewish leader ever in the U.S., he called for immediate elections in Israel to replace its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu over his hardline response to the October 7 Hamas attacks. Now Israeli citizens are calling for the same, as hundreds of protesters have taken to Tel Aviv’s streets over the weekend, according to The Washington Post. They demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas’ attack took an estimated 1,139 Israeli and foreign nationals’ lives last October. 

Protesters also demand negotiations for Hamas’ release of more than 100 hostages the terrorist group continues to hold.

“In order to win, we need new leadership,” one Israeli protester told NPR. Netanyahu’s response is that elections now “could paralyze Israel for months.” 

In Gaza, meanwhile, residents describe “total destruction” around al-Shifa hospital after Israeli troops “destroyed all sense of life there,” according to the AP, quoting a local resident. Israel’s military continues to restrict emergency food supplies from entering Gaza as Palestinians there suffer ever growing cases of starvation.

•••

Putin Loses One – A group of anti-Kremlin Russians posted a photo of opposition leader Alexei Navalny on a hacked prison contractor’s website, CNN reports, citing interviews with hackers and its own data. The hacked-in picture appeared with the caption, “Long Live Alexei Navalny!” The opposition leader was killed in a Russian prison February 16. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin “won” re-election, again, in March.

•••

Egg Roll – After the White House issued a declaration last Friday that March 31, Easter Sunday, was “Transgender Day of Visibility,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) called it “outrageous and abhorrent” on social media and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said, “There is no length Biden and the Democrats won’t go to mock your faith, according to a timeline by Forbesmagazine.

Then Trump campaign spokewoman Karoline Leavitt issued a statement saying it was “appalling and insulting” that Biden “formally proclaimed Easter Sunday as ‘Transgender Day of Visibility.’” 

The GOP reaction led the White House to reply that President Biden has made the same proclamation every year of his administration, on March 31, the annual date of the international celebration, which does not change from year-to-year. The date of Easter Sunday does change, year-to-year.

The annual White House Easter egg roll was scheduled for Monday.

•••

Up on The Hill – The spring/Easter/Passover break for Congress continues through the week of April 1. The Senate returns on Monday, April 8, and the House returns Tuesday, April 9.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay can't stop thinking about the latest Gallup polls measuring President Biden's numbers against ex-President Trump's numbers.

Read "Does Character Count?", Macaulay's commentary on the Gallup Poll results, in The Gray Area.

Then scroll down and read Macaulay's "Build Back [Biden] Better," also in The Gray Area.

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Scroll down with the trackbar on the far-right to read these left-column news items and commentary:

•Former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was hired, then quickly fired, as a paid contributing commentator to NBC News.

•Former Vice President Mike Pence says he will not vote for Donald J. Trump this November.

•Conservative pundits comment on President Biden’s March 7 State of the Union address; RJ Caster’s “SOTU Meets Low Expectations” and Stephen Macaulay’s “Beautiful Bloviation.”

TIP> Use the trackbar in the left column to read the entire item or commentary.

Your civil comments are much welcome. Use the COMMENT section of this column, or the one on the left if you lean liberal. Or email editors@thehustings.news and indicate in the subject line whether you right or left.

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Biden Raises $25m

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton joined President Biden for a fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan Thursday night for an event that raised $25 million for the current president's re-election campaign. Mindy Kaling was host and Late Show host Stephen Colbert was interviewer, and the event was interrupted "many times" by protestors calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, NPR's Morning Edition reports.

Donald J. Trump also was in town, for the wake of a New York City police officer killed in the line of duty. A fundraiser for this former president is scheduled for next week in Palm Beach, Florida, where the Republican National Committee expect to raise $33 million for his presidential campaign.

•••

Shanahan In-- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s running mate as an independent candidate for his challenge to President Biden and ex-President Trump is not Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers nor former Republican Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, but is Nicole Shanahan, a longtime contributor to Democratic candidates and a Santa Clara University law school grad who co-founded patent platform ClearAccessIP, according to People magazine.

Shanahan helped produce and finance RFK Jr.'s controversial $7 million Super Bowl LVIII retro commercial that used a 1960 campaign footage for the candidate's uncle, John F. Kennedy. RFK Jr.'s relatives are appalled and dismayed by his candidacy, which touts anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories.

Shanahan married Google co-founder Sergei Brin in 2018, sold ClearAccessIP in 2020 and separated Brin in 2021.

Brin filed for divorce in June 2022 after a Wall Street Journal story alleged that Shanahan had an affair with Elon Musk, described as a close friend of the Google co-founder.

"I wanted a partner who ... possesses the gift of curiosity; an open, inquiring mind; and the confidence to change even her strongest opinions in the face of conflicting evidence. I found all those qualities in a woman who grew up right here in Oakland (California). The daughter of immigrants who overcame every daunting obstacle and went on to achieve the highest levels of the American dream."

•••

Your Comments, Please

Scroll down using the scrollbar on the far-right to read Ken Zino on “Biden’s Call to Arms.” You can also read Ken’s detailed account of President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address in The Gray Area. 

We welcome your comments as we continue to promote this site as an echo chamber-free space for healthy debate of political news and issues between the left and right. 

Recent center-column news/news aggregate up for debate includes (but is not limited to):

• The Federal Reserve keeps interest rates steady but signals future cuts as the Consumer Price Index inches up to 3.2%.

• Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) calls for Israel to hold new elections and possibly oust its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as he continues aggressive attacks on Gaza in order to eliminate Hamas.

• Congress passes the remainder of the Fiscal Year 2024 federal budget, just six months before the 2025 budget is due.

• Hungary’s authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, visits Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago.

-30-

Join the conversation: Leave a comment on this page, if you lean left, or in the right-column page if that’s how you lean. Or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate in the subject line whether you lean left or right – no matter whether you consider yourself “moderate” or pro-MAGA or pro-gressive.

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One Year In Moscow Jail for Reporter Doing His Job

[March 29 marks one year since Evan Gershkovich, reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and detained on allegations of espionage. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny the charges.]

PASSOVER/EASTER 2024

Twenty-Five for SBF -- FTX cryptocurrency exchange king Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday for stealing billions of dollars from customers (per The New York Times). The sentence was about half of the 40 to 50 years sought by federal prosecutors, but also far longer than the six-and-a-half years his defense attorneys sought. But it could have been worse: The fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges for which SBF, 32, was found guilty carry a maximum penalty of 110 years.

SBF apologized before being sentenced, but Judge Lewis Kaplan, handing down the sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan said; "He knew it was wrong. He knew it was criminal."

Lessons learned?: Er, no. Cryptocurrency values have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The political connection is that many proponents see cryptocurrency as a libertarian alternative to government currencies.

•••

Ban NBC News? -- The Republican National Committee may ban NBC News from the GOP convention in Milwaukee this summer over its decision to drop former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, Politico reports. "We are taking a hard look at what this means for NBC's participation at the convention," RNC and Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said. Several prominent NBC News and MSNBC personalities objected to news last week that NBC had hired McDaniel as a paid pundit after Trump's party replaced her with Michael Whatley and Lara Trump.

•••

Joseph Lieberman – The moderate’s moderate who became the first Jewish candidate on a major-party presidential ticket, Joseph I. Lieberman, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 82. The cause was complications of a fall, according to a statement released by his family (per The New York Times). 

Lieberman served the U.S. Senate for Connecticut from 1989 to 2013 and was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 presidential election, coming within a few hundred Florida ballot chads from becoming vice president. Lieberman had served his first three Senate terms as a Democrat but lost his party’s primary in 2006 and went on to win the general election as an independent. 

In 2008, Lieberman endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ) over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (IL) for the presidential election and was vetted as a potential running mate for McCain. Pushed by Republican leaders, McCain instead chose Sarah Palin, the hard-right governor of Alaska and harbinger for the Tea Party movement on Capitol Hill two years later. Lieberman endorsed no one in the 2012 presidential race and he did not run for a fifth Senate term, instead retiring in 2013, but he supported Democrats Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

•••

How to Apply for an RNC Job -- Imagine you're a recent college grad with a poli sci major, or even a grizzled veteran of political campaigns and you're looking for a new job. Say you're a Reagan Republican, or if you're one of those freshly minted college grads, maybe a Bush or Romney or McCain Republican.

Apply to the Republican National Committee -- a potential plumb in a presidential election year. You had better lie if you want the job.

That's the word from "people familiar" with RNC interviews following Donald J. Trump's ordered purge of Ronna McDaniel (who can't keep a new job herself -- see right column) with North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump, have told The Washington Post.

"Those seeking employment" by the RNC "have been asked in job interviews if they believe the 2020 election was stolen," the sources said, "making the false claim a litmus test, of sorts, for hiring."

RNC spokesperson Danielle Alvarez would not deny the WaPo report, according to a follow-up by The Guardian. "We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.

Be sure to update your CV.

•••

Mifepristone Appears Safe -- A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared ready to throw out a challenge to the FDA's expansion of the availability of mifepristone, a drug used in medicated abortions. Justices, including Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett challenged individual doctors and doctors' groups have "standing" in the case during about 90 minutes of oral arguments Tuesday, Amy Howe writes in SCOTUSblog. Elizabeth Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, argued that doctors must show they face "imminent harm" before their lawsuit could go forward. Beside potentially limiting access to mifepristone -- which the FDA expanded from 2016 to 2021 -- a finding for the plaintiffs would potentially limit the authority of such federal agencies as the FDA.

•••

Abortion Drug on Trial – The Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case in which a group of doctors opposed to abortion are challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approval more than 25 years ago of mifepristone, a drug used in medicated abortions, per SCOTUSblog. As NPR’s Nina Totenburg put it in Morning Edition, “You might call this ‘daughter of Dobbs.’”

The case’s outcome could determine women’s access to the abortion drug, even in states in which abortion is still legal after SCOTUS’ decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago. 

•••

Netanyahu Cancels – The Biden administration made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week it would abstain, rather than vote for, a United Nations’ resolution passed Monday that calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. A single vote by the U.S. would have automatically vetoed the resolution. 

But Netanyahu immediately cancelled a high-level delegation’s trip to Washington the White House had specifically requested in a phone call between Biden and Netanyahu last week, according to The Washington Post. 

The Biden administration wants Israel to call off a planned military operation in Rafah, a high-density city whose citizens already are reported to be suffering severe starvation. 

The cancelled visit is “surprising and unfortunate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

--TL

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Big Day for DJT

MONDAY 3/25/24

UPDATE: Trump Wins One, Loses One -- On Monday, a five-judge appellate court gave Donald J. Trump 10 days to post $175 million in lieu of a $454 million bond heretofore due today while he appeals his civil fine in the New York state real estate fraud case, The New York Times reports. But Judge Juan Merchan refused to grant Trump a delay in his case involving hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. That trial is scheduled to begin April 15. Still.

In Court – Donald J. Trump was to appear in a Manhattan courtroom Monday to try and put up yet another delay in yet another of his trials. This is the one in which Trump allegedly tried to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels just prior to his 2016 Electoral College victory over Hilary Clinton with money funneled to her via his former fixer/personal attorney Michael Cohen. The Monday hearing is to finalize a trial date of April 15, The New York Times reports.

In Westchester County – The former president’s grace period to pay a $454 million fine for his New York state civil judgment in a fraud case over the valuation of Donald J. Trump’s properties ended Monday after his attorneys said posting a bond for that amount is “virtually impossible.” Attorney Gen. Letitia James has laid the groundwork for seizing assets, beginning with one of Trump’s properties in Westchester County, according to The Wall Street Journal. James also could go after Trump’s accounts at financial institutions, says the report. 

•••

Putin Propaganda – The Kremlin has continued to try and shift blame for a terrorist attack on a concert venue last Friday that has left at least 137 dead and 180 injured to Ukraine, despite ISIS-K – the Islamic State in Khorasan – having claimed responsibility. Kyiv has adamantly denied any connection. Photos are circulating of the four suspects arrested displaying signs they have been tortured. According to the NYT, ISIS-K is active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with sights set “on Europe and beyond.”

•••

Russian Hits on Ukraine -- With U.S. Congress continuing to put off renewed military aid to Ukraine in deference to the MAGA minorities in both chambers, Russian military dropped ballistic missiles on the Security Service (SBU), Ukraine’s main intelligence and security agency, the Kyiv Post reports. Overnight drone attacks hit two power substations in Ukraine’s southern region. 

Empty Hill: The Senate is out until Monday, April 8, and the House doesn’t return until the next day, April 9.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

McDaniel Out

UPDATE -- Recently replaced Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel was sacked Tuesday by NBC News after vociferous objections about her hiring by erstwhile NBC News and MSNBC colleagues. Yes, both NBC News and MSNBC have hired former Republican, as well as former Democratic, operatives as on-air pundits, but McDaniel's years of criticizing real news outlets as "fake news" and of facilitating Donald J. Trump's election denials did not go over well with critics inside and outside the network.

Tuesday evening, NBC Universal Group Chairman Cesar Conde emailed the following to staff members: "There is no doubt that the last several days have been difficult for the News Group. After listening to the legitimate concerns of many of you, I have decided that Ronna McDaniel will not be an NBC News contributor."

Question: Will Fox News now pick up McDaniel (for, we surmise, a discount fee) or will she be relegated to the likes of One America News Network?

•••

On McDaniel's Landing at NBC News

NBC News is taking serious hits for hiring former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel as a paid commentator last week. After years of carrying the water for Republican Party head Donald J. Trump, McDaniel conceded on Sunday’s Meet the Press that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election “fair and square,” The Bulwark reports. Chuck Todd, former moderator of Meet the Press asked on the Sunday morning show, “Who’s paying for her?” according to USA Today.

McDaniel was replaced in the RNC by Trump’s hand-picked chairman Michael Whatley and co-chair Lara Trump, wife of Eric Trump.

•••

Scroll Down … with the trackbar on the far right to read RJ Caster’s conservative commentary on President Biden’s State of the Union address, “SOTU Meets Low Expectations.” Scroll down further to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary from the right, “Beautiful Bloviation.”

Further down the page on this side, you can read about Nikki Haley’s anti-climactic withdrawal from the race for the GOP presidential nomination.

Join the conversation: Leave a comment on this page, if you lean right, or in the left-column page if you lean left. Or, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate in the subject line whether you lean right or left – no matter whether you consider yourself “moderate” or pro-MAGA or pro-gressive.

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Menendez Won’t Run as Democrat

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) says he will not run for re-election this November as a Democrat, The New York Times reports. Menendez, indicted on federal charges as a central figure in an international bribery scheme, has until early June to decide whether he will run as an independent. Until then, Menendez can continue to raise money to pay for legal services for his wife, who is also charged in the scheme, and himself.

"I am hopeful that my exoneration will take place this summer and allow me to pursue my candidacy as an independent Democrat in the general election," he said. Democrats running for the nomination include Rep. Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Philip Murphy (D).

•••

[NOTE to readers of Vortex Books & Comics newsletter: Welcome! Please come back often (we update weekdays), and comment on political issues and news of interest, whether you lean left or right. Scroll down to read how you can safely join our civil political discourse.]

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has no primary challengers in his bid for a fourth term this November. But there are three Republicans vying for the nomination in Tuesday’s Ohio primary, and a Democratic Party-aligned group, Duty and Country, is pulling for the most MAGA among them, according to The New York Times.

Duty and Country has put about $2.7 million into an Ohio ad campaign calling businessman Bernie Moreno “ultraconservative” and aligned with Donald J. Trump (see “Trump’s Latest Rally” in the center column) in the hopes the new Republican core will nominate him Tuesday, only to be set up for a loss against Brown in November. It has worked before.

Moreno also has the backing of Ohio’s junior senator, Republican J.D. Vance, although another of the three, Ohio Secretary of State Franklin LaRose, also is “aligned” with Trump. Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan is considered a more “traditional” Republican, a moderate that could work with both sides of the aisle, as Brown often has done.

In addition to Ohio, primaries will be held in Arizona, Florida, Illinois and Kansas Tuesday.

•••

Help us promote The Hustings as a safe, civil, no-echo chamber news site where left and right can disagree politely. Voice your opinion in the COMMENT section in this column or the column on the right, appropriate for your political leanings. Or you can email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “red”/conservative, or “blue”/liberal, in the subject line so we post your comments in the appropriate column.

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IPO, meanwhile…

HOLD STEADY FED: The Federal Reserve will cut its interest rate, but not yet. Chairman Jerome Powell indicated there will be three cuts later this year. “Inflation is still too high,” Powell said Wednesday. “Ongoing progress on bringing it down is not assured, and the path forward is still uncertain.” For now, the Federal Open Market Committee “will keep the interest rate unchanged and continue to reduce our security holdings,” Powell said.

Terrorist Attack on Moscow -- Two to five gunmen attacked a concert hall outside Russia's capitol late Friday, with at least 40 dead and more than 100 injured, NPR reports. Fire has broken out in the hall with some attending a concert by the group Piknik trapped in the building. Kyiv is denying claims by some Russian officials of any complicity. "Ukraine certainly had nothing to do with the shooting in Crocus City Hall," an aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement. "It make no sense whatsoever." Kyiv Post has photos and video here.

•••

Sacrificial Speaker? -- After the House passed the 1,012-page, $1.2-trillion omnibus spending bill, 286-134 Friday afternoon, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). At least he got as far as funding the federal government through September 30, though there is still no future aid for Ukraine's defense against Russia.

"This will be the fall of Mike Johnson for allowing this bill to happen and not fighting for and defending our southern border," MTG said Friday on Steve Bannon's War Room show (per CQ Roll Call).

In passage of the omnibus, 101 Republicans and all but 22 House Democrats voted for the bill, Roll Call reports, leaving the Senate scrambling to hold its vote before that part of the budget expires at midnight.

Majority minus one more: Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) announced he will resign from Congress on April 19, says Roll Call, leaving the GOP with just 217 House members, a one-seat margin over Democrats. The four-term congressman, who as chair of the Select Committee on China co-sponsored the bipartisan bill calling on ByteDance to sell or close down TikTok in the U.S., made his announcement on Rep. Ken Block's (R-CO) last day. While California and Ohio will hold special elections to replace their early House retirements later this year, and New York next month will hold a special election to replace ousted Republican Rep. George Santos (the GOP is expected to lose the seat), Wisconsin law leaves Gallagher's seat unfilled until the November 5 election.

•••

UPDATE -- Shareholders of a shell corporation have agreed to buy Donald J. Trump's Truth Social, The Guardian reports. Now it's up to Trump to work a deal to free $454 million to pay his fine in the New York civil fraud case, by Monday.

Trump Payday Friday? – Shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corp. will vote Friday on whether the shell company should acquire Donald J. Trump’s Truth Social and launch an initial public offering as early as next week and raise sufficient cash for the former president to pay his $454 million fine for his New York civil fraud case, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Though apparently inspired by Reddit’s IPO this week, the “backdoor listing,” a much different sort of public offering. It would bring in an estimated $3 billion for Trump, who would be required to hold on to his share of more than 50% for at least six months. The stock listing would be “DJT.” Trump could potentially make a “side deal” to loosen enough cash to pay his fine by Monday, and we’ll go out on a limb here and say that you can count on that.

Truth Social earned just $3 million in the first nine months of 2023, according to the report, and lost nearly $50 million. 

•••

Cease-fire Efforts – The U.S. is expected to introduce a resolution before the United Nations late Friday calling for “an immediate and sustained cease-fire” in the Israeli-Hamas war, The New York Times reports, after Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Tel Aviv to urge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to refrain from invading Rafah. Meanwhile, CIA Director William J. Burns met with mediators in Qatar in an endeavor to broker that elusive ceasefire.

•••

‘Round Midnight – Here’s what must happen to a $1.24 trillion spending package before midnight Friday if a partial government shutdown is to be avoided, according to The Washington Post: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) must try to suspend House rules requiring two-thirds vote to pass the omnibus package there and avoid blockage from the MAGA Freedom Caucus. If Johnson can pull that off early Friday, he’ll need “substantial” support from House Democrats. Then, the Senate must “hastily engineer” a full vote before midnight and schlep the bill to the White House, where President Biden will surely sign it. 

If Congress can’t meet the midnight deadline but can manage to pull themselves together before Monday, effects of a partial shutdown could be “minimal,” according to WaPo.

--TL

___________________________________________

THURSDAY 3/21/24

Plugging In – The Environmental Protection Agency called for 30% to 56% of new cars and light trucks to be battery-electric vehicles by model years 2030-32, in its final ruling on new emissions standards issued Wednesday. While this is by far the strictest clampdown on greenhouse gas emissions ever by the federal government, subject to a quick reversal if Donald J. Trump wins the November election, it is an easing of the Biden EPA’s initial proposal issued last April. 

That standard would have mandated about two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. be BEVs by 2032. This adjusted standard, which becomes law when it is published in the Federal Register allows automakers to tackle the “zero-emissions” mandate with a combination of BEVs, which they have coming in bigger numbers by the end of the decade anyway, and plug-in hybrid vehicles, which have become more popular as EV demand has leveled a bit. The ramp-up between model years 2027 and 2030 also is not as steep. Easing of the standard without giving in to Big Oil has the support of automakers and of the United Auto Workers, whose president, Shawn Fain, endorsed President Biden in January.

--TL

________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 3/20/24

Restrict Aid to Israel? – As Israeli troops prepare to invade Rafah in an effort to root out four Hamas battalions, some House Democrats is considering restricting military aid to Israel if it fails to protect Palestinian civilians in the offensive.

“We have existing restrictions and laws that say those to whom we give financial support must use them in accordance with international law,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a close ally of President Biden, told NPR’s Steve Inskeep Wednesday on Morning Edition. 

Israeli military officials were on their way to the Pentagon Wednesday to meet with U.S. officials. Coons said that Israel has the right and responsibility to protect and defend its citizens against Hamas, which still has four battalions in Rafah, but “we have to balance that need with the obligation to protect civilians and facilitate humanitarian aid going into Gaza.”

•••

DeLuxe Tuesday – Trump-endorsed businessman Bernie Moreno won Ohio’s Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate Tuesday, beating Frank LaRose and moderate Matt Dolan, who was endorsed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, after “some Democrat meddling” by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), per Semafor. Brown is himself a moderate who would rather run for re-election against the Maga-iest of GOP challengers. This is considered the biggest race for November 5 aside from Trump v. Biden.

President Biden won Tuesday’s five primary states with at least 83% of the vote and Donald J. Trump had at least 75% of the vote, according to The New York Times.

Arizona: Though out of the race, Nikki Haley grabbed 18.7%, her best showing Tuesday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis got 1.6% in the GOP presidential race, leaving Trump with 77.9%. 

Ohio: Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who has dropped out of the Democratic race for president and has since endorsed Biden, got 13% of the vote here (NYT).

Kansas: More than 10% of Democratic primary voters chose “none of the names.”

Meanwhile, in California: No candidate reached the 50% threshold for an overall win to take former Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s seat Tuesday, though Republican state Assemblyman Vince Fong notches the primary win. The race for second was too close to call Wednesday morning. Fong will face either Republican Tulane County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux or teacher and Democrat Marisa Wood (NYT) November 5.

•••

Texas Law Blocked Again – Some five hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed temporary application of Texas SB 4 while it makes its way through the judicial system, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District blocked it, The Washington Post reports. SB 4 would give Texas officials the authority to deport immigrants caught crossing the border. The Mexican government has said it would not accept anyone sent back by Texas. Critics of SB 4 say it would encourage separation of families and spur racial profiling.

•••

I’ve Got an Omnibus Bill and I Want Funding Now – Lawmakers want the six-bill omnibus agreed upon by House and Senate leaders in both parties to come to the floor by Wednesday, but it is not likely to happen until Thursday, Punchbowl News. That means a partial government shutdown as Congress puts in some hours this weekend.

--TL

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/19/24

We Have a FY24 Budget – Almost. White House officials and the four congressional leaders reached a deal on Homeland Security funding Monday to finish off the budget for the current fiscal year. An omnibus bill to make its way through Congress and on to President Biden’s desk includes the remaining spending bills, for Defense, Labor-HHS, the Legislative Branch, Financial Services-General Government, and State Department-Foreign Operations, according to Punchbowl News. 

So the federal government will be funded right on up to September 30, when kick-the-can begins all over again. Except … CQ Roll Call notes that the voting process on these spending bills could go into the weekend, after their Friday deadline, and create a short shutdown before Biden can apply his John Hancock. 

•••

What’s That Golden Escalator Worth? – A court filling Monday by Donald J. Trump’s attorneys says the former president was unable to secure an appeal bond to cover his $454 million judgment in a civil fraud case, after “diligent efforts” to approach about 30 bond companies, The New York Times reports. As of Tuesday, Trump has six days to raise the cash before the New York attorney general could seize his New York properties and freeze his bank accounts. 

Trump will still have Mar-a-Lago. He assured the court during the civil trial he has the liquidity to pay the fine, but that statement now appears to be as questionable as the valuation of his New York properties over the years, which is what got him into this pickle in the first place. Perhaps a second production run of golden tennis shoes?

Trump did manage to post $91.6 million for E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case this month at “the eleventh hour,” with the money coming from a large insurance company, the NYT says.

‘Out of his control’… “He is really angry right now,” former Trump personal attorney/fixer Michael Cohen told CNN’s Kaitlyn Collins on The Source. “That’s what happens when Donald gets frustrated; he gets angry. When there’s a situation that is completely out of his control. And we do know that it is out of his control.”

While Trump appears to have the upper hand delaying his criminal cases, including Mar-a-Lagogate, the federal January 6thinsurrection case and the Fulton County election interference case, this civil case -- which could break up the former president’s real estate holdings -- arguably is his greatest fear.

Speaking of, uh, banks…Donald J. Trump is considering hiring his 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, for a role in this year’s campaign – possibly in charge of fundraising, The Washington Post reports. During his administration, Trump pardoned Manafort for bank and tax fraud convictions, so at least he has some experience in this area. Manafort was also accused of hiding millions of dollars he made consulting for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians.

•••

Censuring Socials? – A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared to back the Biden administration’s argument that the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals went too far in blocking the White House, FBI, CDC and other federal agencies from asking social media outlets from removing certain content -- including “erroneous information” about COVID-19, foreign interference into elections or such election information as where to find a polling place -- for violating the First Amendment, NPR’s Nina Totenberg reported on All Things Considered. 

“I’ve experienced government press people throughout the federal government who regularly call up the media and berate them,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, said. 

“Like Justice Kavanaugh, I’ve had some experience encouraging press to suppress their own speech,” said Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee. “’You just wrote a story that’s filled with factual errors. Here are the 10 reasons you shouldn’t do that again.’ This happens literally thousands of times per day in the federal government.”

A government official contacting social media companies even to encourage suppression amounts to unconstitutional pressure, Louisiana Solicitor Gen. Benjamin Aguinaga countered. 

“Just plain vanilla encouragement, or does it have to be significant encouragement?” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said in response to Aguinaga. “Because encouragement would sweep in an awful lot.”

Aguinaga had no clear response for this, Totenberg reported.

--TL

____________________________________________

MONDAY 3/18/24

Putin 'Wins' Again -- Vladimir Putin grabbed another six-year term for president of Russia with 87.3% of the vote, Politico reports, though not without protests urged by the late dissident leader Alexei Navalny. 

Long lines of Russians formed Sunday, the third and final day of voting, in such cities as Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, to vote against the dictator, in support of Navalny’s call for “Noon Against Putin” demonstrations, The Washington Post reports. 

Navalny died in prison last month. His widow, Yulia Navalnaya, wrote in her late husband’s name on her ballot at the Russian embassy in Berlin, where she voted, according to the BBC. 

Putin’s campaign included promises of new homes and cars for Russians who voted for him (per NPR’s All Things Considered Weekend). As of late Sunday, 50% of the vote had been counted. Putin had three challengers, none of whom criticized him (which means they probably are still alive and not in jail).

•••

Trump’s Latest Rally – It was in Vandalia, Ohio, where Donald J. Trump, who on Super Tuesday clinched the GOP presidential nomination for a third time, repeated demonstrably scary language about what will happen if he does not “win” the November election.

“Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” Trump (who again claimed he defeated Barrack Obama in 2016) said, per The Guardian,

Many news outlets note that Trump was referring to the domestic auto industry, which has several factories in Ohio and which the former president said he would protect with a 100% tariff on import vehicles, according to NPR. Domestic auto factories and their workers would suffer the “bloodbath,” according to this excuse. Both Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) on NBC’s Meet the Press and ex-Vice President Mike Pence on CBS’ Face the Nation gave Trump that “gimme” Sunday.

Trump also said this, according to The Guardian’s report: “I don’t think you’re going to have another election in this country, if we don’t win this election … Certainly not an election that’s meaningful.”

Biden spokesman James Singer said, “He wants another January 6th, but the American people are going to give him another election defeat this November because they continue to reject his extremism, his affection for violence, and his thirst for revenge.”

In Ohio, Trump repeated his claim that foreign countries are “emptying” prisons and mental institutions into the U.S. and called some immigrants “animals.”

“I don’t know if you call them ‘people.’ They’re not ‘people’, in my opinion. But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left say that’s a terrible thing to say.”

Clearly, at his own rallies at least, Trump has been given permission to say such things.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Pence Won’t Back Trump

[NOTE to readers of Vortex Books & Comics newsletter: Welcome! Please come back often (we update weekdays), and comment on political issues and news of interest, whether you lean right or left. Scroll down to read how you can safely join our civil political discourse.]

Former Vice President Mike Pence does not back Donald J. Trump’s third campaign for the presidency. 

“It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Donald Trump this year,” Pence told Martha McCallum on Fox News’ The Story last Friday. He said he will not vote for President Biden, either, but will keep his choice this November between himself and his secret ballot. 

“Look, I’m incredibly proud of the record of our administration. It was a conservative record that made America more prosperous, more secure and saw conservatives appointed to our court in a more peaceful world,” he said. 

Pence told McCallum his differences go beyond Trump’s belief that his vice president should not have confirmed the Electoral College vote for Biden on January 6th, 2021. Pence’s disagreements include Trump’s latest positions on the national debt, the “sanctity of human life” and getting tough on China (see HR 7521, the House bill to force ByteDance to sell TikTok).

When McCallum asked whether Pence, who ran for the GOP presidential nomination at the beginning of primary season, whether he might run as a third-party candidate, Pence replied; “I’m a Republican.”

•••

Help us promote The Hustings as a safe, civil, no-echo chamber news site where right and left can disagree politely. Voice your opinion in the COMMENT section in this column or the column on the left, appropriate for your political leanings. Or you can email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you consider yourself “red”/conservative, or “blue”/liberal, in the subject line so we post your comments in the appropriate column.

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More on SOTU

This week RJ Caster voices his opinion on President Biden’s State of the Union address, in the right column.

The scrollbars to the immediate right of each column will get you to the bottom of each of those columns, individually. The scrollbar on the far right of the page scrolls down to previous days’ posts. 

Use the far-right scrollbar (which in this case, has nothing to do with position on the political horseshoe) to read last week’s comments on Biden’s SOTU address. 

A thorough, detailed column on President Biden's State of the Union address, by left-column contributing pundit Ken Zino, may be found in The Gray Area.

Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s “Beautiful Bloviation” is in the right column. Zino’s “Biden’s Call to Arms” is in the left column.

We welcome your comments on the State of the Union address or any other political news and issues we’ve covered recently (and some which we may not have covered). Email editors@thehustings.news and please a.) keep it civil and b.) use the email subject line to indicate whether you consider yourself “right” or “left” politically, so we can run your comments in the appropriate column.

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Trump Legal Scorecard

[CPI at 3.2% -- As some economists (and the Biden campaign) eagerly anticipate an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve sometime this year, the Consumer Price Index has ticked up to 3.2% in February, from an annual rate of 3.1% in January, the Labor Department reports. That’s the wrong direction from the Fed’s target 2% rate. The month-over-month increase was 0.4%, with shelter and gas accounting for 60% of the increase. Energy was up 2.3%, while food, and food at home, was unchanged.]

IDES OF MARCH 2024

Fulton County, Georgia – Atlanta Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday morning that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the election interference case against Donald J. Trump, but only if her former romantic partner, Nathan Wade, withdraws from the case …

Mar-a-Lagogate – U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appears to have handed prosecutors in the confidential documents case against Trump a win by ruling against the ex-president’s attorneys’ motion that the Espionage Act behind the indictments are “unconstitutionally vague.” However, Newsweek notes that Trump appointee Cannon instructed his attorneys in the ruling that they should bring up the “unconstitutionally vague” argument in “connection with the jury instruction briefing” …

Hush Money Case – New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his office is willing to delay Trump’s hush money case after receiving late evidence from the U.S. attorney’s office, to give defense attorneys sufficient time for review. The trial was scheduled to begin March 25, and may now be delayed by 30 days.

--TL

•••

The Schumer-Netanyahu Split – After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for new Israeli elections on π day Thursday in frustration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence on a ceasefire in Gaza, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor to “remind” Schumer that Israel is not an American colony, calling his remarks “grotesque” and “unprecedented” (per Punchbowl News).

But just as Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition continues to consider Palestinians and their Hamas “leadership” in Gaza one and the same, so too do the staunchest U.S. supporters of Netanyahu refuse to distinguish between the Israeli government and the Jewish people. This despite the fact that even before the vicious, horrible Hamas attack October 7, Netanyahu was long-resistant to a two-state solution with Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile ...

Gaza's health ministry has accused Israel's military of firing on Palestinians awaiting aid in Gaza, killing 20 and injuring 150, The Guardian reports. The Israeli military denies the reports.

Influencing our November election

In trying to save his own power, Netanyahu has helped to throw the November U.S. presidential election to Donald J. Trump, and he knows it. Biden has ceded substantial votes to “uncommitted” in the Michigan and Minnesota Democratic primaries as he tries to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza in vain. 

While Biden has known Netanyahu for a very long time, going back to his time in the Senate, Trump and Netanyahu had a closer relationship during the Trump administration – until Netanyahu congratulated Biden for his victory in 2020, which of course led Trump to criticize the Israeli prime minister for his “disloyalty.”

If Netanyahu continues to reject ceasefire in Gaza (it is necessary to note that Hamas has done very little to help, either) the Israeli prime minister might very well be able to make it up to Trump by congratulating him this November.

--Analysis by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY π Day 2024

Schumer Calls for Israeli Elections -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), wants Israel to hold new elections, saying its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has "lost his way" (per The Hill). "As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7," Schumer continued. "The world has changed -- radically -- since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past."

•••

VP to Abortion Clinic -- Vice President Kamala Harris visits a Twin Cities, Minnesota abortion clinic Thursday, Axios reports, a first-ever such appearance by a sitting veep according to the White House. 

•••

Meanwhile, in Ft. Pierce, Florida – Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon holds a hearing Thursday morning on two of the ex-president’s requests to dismiss his 40-count federal indictment in Mar-a-Lagogate. Donald J. Trump’s attorneys claim the section of the Espionage Act accusing him of mishandling classified documents and obstructing federal officials’ attempts to get them back to the National Archives Washington is “unconstitutionally vague as applied to President Trump,” The Washington Post reports. 

Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia: Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee Wednesday dismissed three of 13 counts against Trump in the election interference case (per WaPo). Prosecutors may refile the charges, however.

•••

Schumer's Watch is Slow – The Senate may take its time in taking up the House bill passed Wednesday, 352-65, that would force ByteDance to sell its U.S. interest in TikTok, or face some sort of blockage or shutdown in the country. 

“The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” CQ Roll Call quotes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). 

This, despite obvious House urgency for the bill sponsored by Select China committee chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). 

Not on Warner's watch: From its interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Semafor has a much different take on the upper-chamber's timing on the TikTok bill. "We're going into a 24-hour election cycle, where literally millions of Americans get a lot of their news from this site," said the chairman of the Senate Select committee. "And if that can be manipulated against American interests -- I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, that is not in America's interests."

The Trump factor: Politico reports of worry that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a 15% stake in TikTok, has influenced Trump’s flip-flop on the issue, as he has since objected to removing the social media platform from the nation. Former Trump administration Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway has signed on with Club for Growth to counter the push to ban TikTok on national security concerns. 

Our take: Two things. A.) It’s a notable shift if the Senate, and not the House, takes up Trump’s cause. But after all, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is now a solid Trump backer. B.) If ByteDance is forced to sell TikTok to an American entity or face shutdown, wouldn’t Yass be in the catbird seat to buy up the 85% he doesn’t already own?

--TL

____________________________________________

Tick...Tick...Tick...

WEDNESDAY 3/13/24

Rrrrring -- The House passed HR 7521 Wednesday morning, 352-65, (per The Hill) that would force ByteDance to divest U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days. That clock doesn't start ticking until the Senate passes the bill. President Biden, whose re-election campaign has used the social media platform to reach young voters, is in favor of the bill and presumably will sign it.

How to Stop a Clock – The House is expected to pass HR 7521 Wednesday, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force China’s ByteDance to divest its U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days over national security concerns, or face shut-down here. This, even though the House needs two-thirds majority to fast-track suspension of rules procedures that the Republican leadership plans to use, Punchbowl News reports, and even though the leader of the GOP, Donald J. Trump, has reversed his position calling for the social media phenomenon’s removal.

TikTok flip-flop: Much has been speculated about Trump’s reversal on TikTok. He proposed a ban in 2020, but more recently said that its shut-down here will give more power to Facebook, which a 2022 “documentary” blames for Trump’s 2020 re-election loss. One theory that sticks out more than most is that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a “huge financial stake” in ByteDance according to Axios, has invited Trump to a retreat by Club for Growth, a conservative group that also opposes the ban. Yass has previously contributed $4.9 million to Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign.

Bonus social media gossip: Trump last summer asked The World’s Second-Richest Man Elon Musk whether he wanted to buy Truth Social, The Washington Post scoops Wednesday morning, citing two people “with knowledge” of the matter. Musk apparently demurred, but the conversation indicates an even closer relationship between the 91-times indicted ex-president and the owner of X than previously known.

•••

It’s … Trump v. Biden – In sports terms, the 2020 race would be Biden v. Trump, but however you put it, November’s presidential election is a rerun of the last. Ex-President Trump and President Biden both clinched their parties’ nominations Tuesday, winning primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington. In addition, Donald J. Trump took the Hawaii Republican primary (Biden earlier won the state). 

Georgia on my mind: Pundits point to Georgia, the state where Trump begged for 11,780 extra votes in ’20. While Biden took 95.2% of the Democratic vote (Marianne Williamson, 3%, Rep. Dean Phillips, 1.8%) Trump took 84.2% of the Republican vote, with 13.2% going to Nikki Haley and 1.3% to Ron DeSantis. 

Democrats shouldn’t get too excited, though: Republican voter turnout in Georgia was more than twice that for the Democratic Party.

History: November will mark the seventh time in U.S. history that the two major party candidates will be the same as in the previous election. For those of you who are about to be contestants on Jeopardy! here are the previous six, according to Pew Research:

1952 and 1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson.

1896 and 1900: William McKinley v. William Jennings Bryan.

1888 and 1892: Grover Cleveland v. Benjamin Harrison.

1836 and 1840: Martin Van Buren v. William Henry Harrison.

1824 and 1828: John Quincy Adams v. Andrew Jackson.

1796 and 1800: John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson.

•••

Not With Hur --  Perhaps it’s a sign of how well Robert K. Hur, special counsel on President Biden’s documents case, did his job that both Democrats and Republicans took shots at him in a congressional hearing Tuesday. Hur argued that he did not “exonerate” Biden in his report, and he defended his questioning of Biden’s memory, according to The Washington Post.

“I did not exonerate him. The word does not appear in the report, congresswoman,” he told Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) called him “part of the Praetorian Guard” preserving the Washington “swamp.”

Responding to a question by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on the federal documents case against Donald J. Trump; “Sir, I’m not here to express any opinion with respect to a pending case against another defendant.”

You can read Hur's full report for the U.S. Department of Justice here.

--TL

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/12/24

Buck Out -- Rep. Ken Buck (D-CO) said last year he would not run for rr-election this November. On Tuesday, he told reporters he can't wait that long to leave.

"This place just keeps going down, and I don't want to spend my time here," Buck said (per The Hill). The 65-year-old congressman often breaks from his party on various issues, and has criticized Trumpian election denial. With his unexpected early departure, the GOP now has 218 members to 213 House Democrats.

•••

Tuesday’s Primaries – Georgia is the big one for both Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald J. Trump. There are also primaries in Mississippi, Washington and the Northern Mariana Islands, with Hawaii holding GOP caucuses, per U.S. News & World Report. The organization Democrats Abroad also hosts a primary.

•••

Biden Budget v. House GOP – The Biden administration proposes a $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025, up 4.7% from this year, but with tax raises on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade (per USA Today). The proposal would restore the child tax credit from the American Rescue Plan, launch a program for affordable, high-quality childcare available from birth to kindergarten and provide new mortgage relief for home buyers. 

The White House’s budget is a wish list that will get lots of attention by both the Biden campaign and the Trump campaign between now and November (as Congress likely extends this fiscal year’s budget past its September 30 end), as will an alternate proposal just passed by the GOP-led House Budget Committee, according to the Huffpost. That “budget blueprint” for 2025 would shrink the deficit by $14 trillion over the next decade while extending the Trump tax cuts, which expire next year. HuffPost says “vulnerable” congressional Republicans are balking at taking a full House vote on what would be the first such Republican alt-budget to hit the floor since 2014.

--TL

____________________________________________

MONDAY 3/11/24

Orban Explains All -- Fresh back in Budapest from his visit to Mar-a-Lago, Hungary's authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, explained how Donald J. Trump will end the war in Ukraine if he is returned to the White House.

"He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russian war," Orban told Hungary's M1 TV channel, according to the BBC. "That is why the war will end. ... If the Americans don't give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, then this war is over. And if the Americans don't give money, the Europeans alone are unable to finance this war. And then the war is over."

We have been warned.

•••

Sweden became NATO's 31st member nation Monday morning, NPR reports, after decades resisting joining the Western military alliance. Sweden and Finland applied for membership in May 2022. Finland joined last year, but Sweden had faced opposition from Turkey and Hungary.

•••

Trump Mocks Biden’s Stutter – After generally favorable reviews of his State of the Union address last Thursday for its display of the president’s energy if nothing else, Joe Biden’s stutter has become the subject of Donald J. Trump’s ridicule beginning with a rally in Georgia Sunday. Trump infamously mocked a New York Times reporter for his upper-body disability back in 2015, but this is his first such attack on Biden’s lifelong speech impediment. 

What stands out about this to John Hendrickson, himself a stutterer, writes in The Atlantic is, “the sound of Trump’s supporters laughing right along with him. This is a building block of Trumpism. The man at the top gives his followers to be the worst version of themselves.”

•••

Oscar Speech – Mystyslav Chernov, one of three filmmakers of 20 Days in Mariupol to win the Academy Award for Documentary Feature Film Sunday night said in his acceptance speech he wishes he could exchange his Oscar statue for “Russia never Invading Ukraine.” At last year’s Academy Award ceremony Navalny took home the Oscar for the same category. Its subject, Aleksei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances at a Russian prison last month, led the Oscar broadcast “death reel.”

Pope chimes in on Ukraine: Pope Francis "sparked anger" last weekend after he said Ukraine should have the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate the end of the war with Russia, CNN reports. On X, Business Ukraine magazine responded with the post that the Pope "might want to consider the famous words of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on, "neutrality"; "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

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ICYMI – After all the hand wringing and folderol about the current fiscal year budget, its can having been kicked by continuing resolutions several times since last October, the Senate passed a $460 billion bill, 75-22 last Friday to avert a partial government shutdown (per The New York Times). Congress now has to March 22 to pass the other half of the federal budget. On Monday, President Biden unveiled his federal budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1.

•••

Up on the Hill – Both the full House and the full Senate are in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate only is in session Thursday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

SOTU Meets Low Expectations

By RJ Caster

To play on Michael Gerson’s turn of phrase President Biden seems to be assisted by the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” This plays into his favor so long as he is able to string together more than a half dozen polysyllabic words during a speech. As a result the X-verse (formerly Twitter-verse) was alive with a buzz from the “progressive but not that progressive coalition trying to carry President Biden through the convention and onto the general election.” One Democratic operative celebrated on X, “The danger they had in setting expectations so low for President Biden’s #SOTU is that he’s not only exceeding all expectations, he’s giving the best speech I’ve heard from him in 20 years.” I always joke that I set the bar low for myself, because then I can only succeed from there. That joke becomes a little more tragic when we’re using it to reference the leader of the free world… 

Truth be told, this was not a typical policy-laden State of The Union. There were head nods to policy advancements and policy goals. The Democratic Party of old tried to poke through with his tip of the hard-hat to America’s workers and unions; but that came about halfway into his speech. The majority of last week’s State of the Union wasn’t an update to Congress or Americans as a whole. This was President Biden’s convention speech, because there is a lingering worry in Biden-world that he may not get one in August. 

'My predecessor'
President Biden laid the groundwork for the general election rematch between himself and former-President Trump; referring to Trump over a dozen times as “my predecessor” without saying his name. The speech started out with Democracy being under assault, which is a top polling issue for core Democratic supporters. He then was sure to hit on abortion and the Dobbs decision, an issue the Democrats have successfully tied to the IVF ruling out of Alabama. After mocking the Supreme Court justices to their face over the Dobbs ruling (moments after decrying the assault on Democracy’s institutions, ironically), only then did President Biden pivot to the issue of jobs and the economy. 

President Biden worked down the checklist of issues that were important to Democrats, and in that order. But polling from Echelon Insights shows the huge disconnect between Biden’s staunch supporters, versus what is essentially everyone else -- including people who tepidly support Biden. Even CNN has found that people have come out of President Biden’s State of the Union addresses with less and less positive outlook year-over-year, with this year being the lowest positive rating yet. 

In the end President Biden was successful in making the people who already supported him breathe a sigh of relief that he didn’t embarrass himself, and them by extension. He gave his convention speech as though he was auditioning to give the convention in August. And speaking of conventions in Chicago… if the Israeli/Gaza situation doesn’t work towards a solution, the Democrats might be able to look forward to reliving 1968 if last night’s protests in the streets of DC are any indication.

Caster is CEO of Jacksonville, Florida-based Techne Media.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Biden’s Call to Arms

By Ken Zino

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

(Read Zino’s exquisitely detailed column on the address in The Gray Area.)

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

“Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” Biden said in his opening salvo. “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. … 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 6th: “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 6th 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 6th. 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: Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama was in the audience. “Fourteen months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of (in-vitro fertilization). She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF … 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.”

•Infrastructure: “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.” 

•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? … 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. … 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 six months instead of six years. One-hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl …  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 (International Brotherhood of Electrical 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 … 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.”

Inspiring Conclusion 

“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. 

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Don’t Say His Name

(FRI 3/8/24)

By Todd Lassa

The State of the Union address did not begin with the economy and President Biden’s success with GDP, employment and lowering the Consumer Price Index from 9% to 3% (OK, that was Federal Reserve handling inflation by raising interest rates). Instead, Biden went straight to saving world democracy and saving our own.

Evoking FDR’s January 1941 State of the Union address, Biden said “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 home and overseas, at the very same time.”

Reaganesque

In a speech in which he mentioned his predecessor many times, but never by name, he also recalled President Reagan’s demand that Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall,” and connected that notorious predecessor with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), seated, as tradition, behind the president and next to the vice president gave relatively subtle facial clues throughout the address; frowning and shaking his head at Biden’s not-so-subtle suggestion that MAGA Republicans on the Hill are empowering the Russian dictator. 

“I say this to Congress,” Biden said, “we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill. …

The Insurrection

Biden then made the easy pivot to January 6, 2021, saying political violence has “no place in America.”

“The insurrectionists were not patriots. They were here to stop the peaceful transfer of power. … Here’s the simple truth. You can’t love your country only when you win.”

Border Bill

The president touted the $118-billion border protection bill that Johnson refused to bring to the House floor. When heckled about it, Biden ad-libbed, “Oh, you don’t like that bill, do you? That conservatives got together and said was a good bill?”

Ramping up his re-election campaign, Biden warned of the power of women voters vs. the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ticked off his contributions to the improving economy, including “the lowest” inflation rate in the world, the CHIPS act shifting computer microprocessor production from China to the U.S. and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which he said many Congressional Republicans voted against, but then touted money brought to their districts. 

“If any of you don’t want it in your district, just let me know.”

Gaza

With a large contingent of Gaza-Israel ceasefire protestors outside the Capitol and silent protests by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), holding up “ceasefire now” signs inside, Biden announced an emergency military mission establishing a temporary pier on the Gaza coast of the Mediterranean “that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters” for Palestinians under siege from Israeli military forces. 

The White House had announced the plan earlier Thursday and late in his address. 

Generally, Biden came off as lively and relatively sharp, and only got tongue-tied a few times well into the address. He again spoke of chipping away at the federal deficit in part by raising taxes on billionaires (while raising salaries for public school teachers). His predecessor’s tax cuts, mostly for the rich, expire next year and if Biden loses in November, they certainly will be renewed under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

Other takeaways (via smartphone notifications): “Defiant Biden.” (AP). “Biden draws sharp contrasts with Trump in fiery State of the Union address.” (The Washington Post). “President Biden delivered a feisty, confrontational speech, engaging in a vigorous back-and-forth with Republicans.” (The New York Times). “Biden shifted into campaign mode, targeting Trump and the GOP on reproductive rights and immigration.” (The Wall Street Journal). “Biden didn’t mention Trump once. But his speech tonight was an open salvo ahead of a long, ugly match.” (Politico).

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Beautiful Bloviation

By Stephen Macaulay

Biden was boisterous, bold, bullish, and even brash, but. . .

 Pop quiz:

•Who made the following statements?

•When were they made?

“Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging.”

“U.S. stock markets have soared 70 percent, adding more than $12 trillion to our nation’s wealth.”  

“[W]e are restoring our nation’s manufacturing might. . . . America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration, with thousands upon thousands of plants and factories being planned or being built.  Companies are not leaving; they are coming back to the USA.”


Answers:

•President Donald J. Trump

•February 4, 2020; State of the Union Address

All of that sounds pretty good — and somewhat familiar — doesn’t it?

And, of course, Trump, the incumbent, lost the presidency to Joe Biden.

The State of the Union address is prescribed in Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution:

“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. . . .”

Odds are if you work for a large organization of any type you’ve been required to attend an all-hands address presented by the leader of the corporation or the charity.

And odds are the nicest thing you did when you got the advisory about attendance was to roll your eyes.

If there was any way to miss the bluster and the blah-blah-blah you did it. (“Erm. . .I have to get a root canal. . . .”)

Yet somehow we (yes, I guess this means me, too) expect that the American public is going to watch the address or, at the very least, been keen on catching up on the content delivered by the president.

Forget it. It didn’t happen.

Yes, those who are deeply involved in watching MSNBC or Fox News undoubtedly were jonesing for the speech.

But Biden partisans might only reconsider their support if, say, he had a 20-minute Mitch McConnell moment.

And Trump supporters wouldn’t change their mind about Biden even were he to lead the assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber in a “Hang Mike Pence!” chant.

What really matters is what is said — by both Biden and Trump — between now and November 5.

The State of the Union is really not much more than obligatory smoke and mirrors.

I mean, Trump closed his last (and I hope it really is his last) State of the Union sounding, well, Bidenesque:

“America is the place where anything can happen.  America is the place where anyone can rise.  And here, on this land, on this soil, on this continent, the most incredible dreams come true.

“This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece.  We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored.  Our brightest discoveries are not yet known.  Our most thrilling stories are not yet told.  Our grandest journeys are not yet made.  The American Age, the American Epic, the American adventure has only just begun.

“Our spirit is still young, the sun is still rising, God’s grace is still shining, and, my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come.”

Sounds like a guy with the sort of vision that we’d like to elect.

Right. . . ?

-30-

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