Progs Retract Call to Negotiate with Putin

Letter Was Drafted Last Summer – The Progressive Congressional Caucus has retracted a letter sent to President Biden Monday urging him to engage in direct diplomatic relations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announced the retraction and took responsibility for the letter, which she said was drafted June 30, before Ukrainian soldiers began taking back land claimed by Russian military forces. 

Thirty Democratic lawmakers signed the letter June 30, and several wondered out loud Tuesday why it was sent out, according to Jayapal, “without vetting.” She said the letter was being conflated with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) statement last week to Punchbowl News that House Republicans “would not write a blank check” to Ukraine if the GOP retakes the lower chamber after the midterms.

John Kirby, White House coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council responded to the letter, saying “Mr. Putin is in no mood to negotiate.”

Upshot: If Progressive Congressional Caucus members thought a letter urging negotiations with Putin was more reasonable and realistic last June than McCarthy’s statement last week, they were not paying attention to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskyy.

--TL

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Momentum on the Left has Left (MON 10/24/22)

Democrats Peak Early – There is “growing angst” among Democratic leaders that concerns over inflation and the economy have overtaken the negative reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade last summer in driving voters to the midterm polls, The Hill reports, echoing analyses at other mainstream news outlets. Consensus is that the assumption held before SCOTUS’ late-June 5-4 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that the traditional flip of the House and Senate majorities against the president’s party would indeed be the result of the November 8 elections.

The Polls: According to NBC News’ latest poll, 70% of voters show “high interest” in the midterms. However, that breaks down to 78% of Republicans expressing “high interest” versus 69% of Democrats, compared with 68% of Republicans and 66% Democrats in August telling pollsters they are highly interested in the elections. FiveThirtyEight reports a “dead heat” in the race for majority in the Senate, and a three-in-four chance Republicans will take over the House of Representatives. 

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Discuss these issues in the left or right column Comment box or email editors@thehustings.news.

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…meanwhile…

Britain’s New PM – Speaking in front of 10 Downing Street after his appointment by King Richard III, Britain’s third prime minister in less than two months, Rishi Sunak, vowed to make economic stability his priority, The Guardian reports. Admitting that “mistakes were made” by predecessor Liz Truss, who announced a “mini-budget” with unfunded tax cuts during her 50 days as PM, Sunak warned of “difficult decisions to come.”

•••

More on the Trump Tapes – CNN cited this quote from Bob Woodward’s new audiobook, The Trump Tapes, in Jake Tapper’s lead-in to an interview with The Washington Post’s associate editor Tuesday night: “The record now shows that Trump has led – and continues to lead – a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, which in effect is an effort to destroy democracy.”

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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(MON 10/24/22)

Iran and China – At the end of the week in which the Iranian government denied it was supplying kamikaze drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine – a denial no one other than Tehran and the Kremlin believe -- The Washington Post reported Saturday that some classified documents the FBI recovered from Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago last August 8 included highly sensitive secrets about Iran and China.

“If shared with others,” sources told the newspaper, “such information could expose intelligence-gathering methods that the United States wants to keep hidden from the world.” At least one of the documents details Iran’s missile program, WaPo reports. 

The Woodward Tapes: These revelations come before release of The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with Donald Trump, available from Simon & Schuster Audio on Tuesday. Associate Editor Bob Woodward writes in his WaPo op-ed that the tapes “show why he is an unparalleled danger” to the U.S., siding with such dictators as North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and valuing loyalty from political associates over all else. 

Connecting the Dots: Prospects the Biden administration will re-negotiate the 2015 Obama Iranian nuclear deal dismantled by Trump are surely over. But the whole of the Trump administration foreign “policy”, from swift cancellation of that agreement with Iran to the former president’s antagonism toward NATO and his admiration for Vladimir Putin must be examined in the Justice Department’s investigation of Mar-a-Lagogate.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

At Least Three Shades of Red

Sunak is Britain’s Next PM – Rishi Sunak (above) is Britain’s prime minister after his last Conservative Party rival, Penny Mordaunt, dropped out of the race just before Monday nomination deadline, The Guardian reports. Scandal-plagued former PM Boris Johnson, for whom Sunak served as chancellor of the exchequer for two years, dropped out Sunday evening. Sunak was expected to take over for Liz Truss by Tuesday, giving her a total of 50 days as PM. 

Note: Truss was on her way out pretty much from the time she took over for Johnson in August. Plagued with a higher inflation rate in the UK than in the US, in part blamed on Brexit administered by Johnson, she announced a huge tax cut evoking President Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics, which triggered a negative reaction by financial markets. That led to her embarrassing reversal of the economic plan. 

Sunak, 42, the youngest British PM in nearly 200 years, is to be the third Conservative PM since Johnson won in 2019.

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McConnell v. McCarthy on Ukraine Aid – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has rebuked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for his warning that a GOP majority in the lower chamber will not “write a blank check” for Ukraine, per Newsweek. It’s the latest sign of a continued split between Senate and House Republicans over loyalty to Donald J. Trump and his relationship to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“Russia continues escalating attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure,” according to McConnell’s statement. “The lessons to us are clear. The Biden administration and Ukraine’s friends across the globe must be quicker and more proactive to get the aid they need.”

Last Tuesday, McCarthy told Punchbowl News that if the GOP retakes the House after November 8th’s midterms, his caucus will balk at further military aid to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion. Last May, 57 House Republicans led by uber-Trumpers Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, and Matt Gaetz, of Florida, voted against a $40-billion aid package for Ukraine.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), responding to a question at a Harvard Kennedy School event last Tuesday, said “I don’t know that I can say I was surprised, but I think it’s really disgraceful that today Minority Leader McCarthy suggested that if Republicans get the majority back that we will not continue to provide support for the Ukrainians.”

Dirty Bomb: After Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu accused Ukraine of preparing a “dirty” nuclear bomb, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy responded in his weekly Sunday evening address that only Russia was capable of using nuclear weapons in Europe, reports Voice of America. 

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Discuss these issues in the right or left column Comment box or email editors@thehustings.news.

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Democrats Peaked Too Early

Politico-Morning Consult Poll … says voters overwhelmingly list the economy and inflation as their number-one concern. With the Consumer Price Index lingering over 8% and gas prices on the rise again, these voters polled say they trust the GOP far more than Democrats on this issue. 

According to the poll, crime now beats abortion as the “second-tier” issue. This is a big shift from late-summer, when the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health and falling gas prices boosted Democrats in the midterms otherwise expected to go the way midterms usually go – against the president’s party.

Comment in the box below, or in the right column if you lean conservative, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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No News in Campaign Ads (TUE 10/18/22)

Democratic and Republican midterm campaigns are disguising mailers as newspapers at the same time many daily newspapers are folding, according to The Washington Post. While both major parties are mailing such “hybrids,” WaPo singles out a “quiet four-state $28 million election-year effort by the liberal leaning American Independent Foundation and partner groups aimed at swaying voters in the midterm elections.” 

For example, AIF mailed (free, of course) a “12-page tabloid with a circulation of 953,000” monthly called “The Pennsylvania Independent” reaching about one in five of the state’s households “with articles from the Associated Press, crosswords, recipes and useful updates on which nearby towns had the lowest gas prices.” 

Our take: Partisan groups like the AIF are taking advantage of a nation already increasingly being deprived of non-partisan journalistic scrutiny of local and state governments as real daily and weekly newspapers continue to fold. We hope no voters are being fooled by this tactic.

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COMMENTS: Go to the comment box in this column (or the one in the right column if that’s the way you lean) or email editors@thehustings.news and identify yourself as right or left in the subject line.

--TL

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Lettuce Wins

(THU 10/20/22)

British PM Resigns – Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced her resignation just 44 days into her term, the BBC reports. Her conservative party is to choose a successor by Friday, October 28. London’s Daily Star claimed victory for its 60-pence head of lettuce for outlasting the PM with the shortest term in British history.

--TL

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Biden Ups Midterm Ante on Abortion Issue (WED 10/19/22)

Codifying Roe v. Wade – President Biden announces Tuesday the first and foremost issue on his agenda for the second half of his term, if Democrats manage to hold majorities in both the House and Senate, will be a bill codifying Roe v. Wade, The Hill reports. Yes, that is a big “if”. With three weeks to go to the November 8 midterm elections, most polls show that intended voters rank inflation and the economy as their top issue, ahead of abortion rights.

The Hill helpfully notes that if Democrats do hold off the GOP in the House and Senate, such legislation could appear on or near the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe decision, January 23, 1973 which was overturned last summer by SCOTUS’ ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Upshot: The White House’s gambit will only work for Democrats if it boosts turnout by pro-abortion rights voters in the midterms, rather than counts on changing minds among those who will vote by November 8 anyway.

•••

Record Early Voting in Georgia – The state’s first day of in-person early voting broke the midterm election record by Tuesday morning, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, with nearly 123,000 voters turning out. If Georgia is any indication of the turnout nationally, its likely polls on individual races across the states will prove to be way off the mark.

Meanwhile: Numerous news reports indicate independent and moderate Republican and Democratic voters in Georgia are willing to split their tickets. That would be good news for both incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, whose Democratic challenger is Stacey Abrams, and incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is in a statistical tie in recent polls with Trumpian Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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Codifying Roe v. Wade – President Biden announces Tuesday the first and foremost issue on his agenda for the second half of his term, if Democrats manage to hold majorities in both the House and Senate, will be a bill codifying Roe v. Wade, The Hill reports. Yes, that is a big “if”. With three weeks to go to the November 8 midterm elections, most polls show that intended voters rank inflation and the economy as their top issue, ahead of abortion rights.

The Hill helpfully notes that if Democrats do hold off the GOP in the House and Senate, such legislation could appear on or near the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe decision, January 23, 1973 which was overturned last summer by SCOTUS’ ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Upshot: The White House’s gambit will only work for Democrats if it boosts turnout by pro-abortion rights voters in the midterms, rather than counting on changing minds among those who will vote by November 8 anyway.

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Record Early Voting in Georgia – The state’s first day of in-person early voting broke the midterm election record by Tuesday morning, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, with nearly 123,000 voters turning out. If Georgia is any indication of the turnout nationally, its likely polls on individual races across the states will prove to be way off the mark.

Meanwhile: Numerous news reports indicate independent and moderate Republican and Democratic voters in Georgia are willing to split their tickets. That would be good news for both incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, whose Democratic challenger is Stacey Abrams, and incumbent Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who is in a statistical tie in recent polls with Trumpian Republican challenger Herschel Walker.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

Latest on the Midterms (MON 10/17/22)

Hill v. Point: A news alert Monday evening, October 17, from The Hill says Republicans are “growing more optimistic” that they will grab majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate after the November 8 midterms. Pollsters say the GOP is gaining momentum from the “stubborn” inflation rate being blamed on President Biden and the Democrats.

That alert was followed by The Point! by CNN’s Chris Cilizza who writes of a surprising poll by J. Ann Selzer for the Des Moines Register, placing Democrat Mike Franken in a statistical tie with Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who seeks his eighth term at age 89. Grassley, who hasn’t been seriously challenged in several terms, has 46% in Selzer’s poll to Franken’s 43%. 

Upshot: Selzer’s polls have been the most reliable since polls in general went south with the 2016 presidential race, Cilizza notes, and FiveThirtyEight rates her with a grade of A+.

•••

Early and mail-in voting are underway in many states as the November 8 midterm elections loom. While there is much new attention this year being paid on down-ballot races where elected state and county officials could potentially determine how future elections are conducted and counted, U.S. Senate races are in the national media spotlight. 

Specifically, three key Senate races are considered most likely to determine whether Democrats maintain power in the upper chamber or whether the GOP regains its control in January. 

Ohio: While Republican challenger, venture capitalist and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance holds the double-edge sword of Donald J. Trump’s endorsement, Democratic candidate Rep. Tim Ryan says he disagrees with his party’s leader, President Biden, on such issues as immigration policy. Vance and Ryan were scheduled to face off in their second of two debates Tuesday, October 18. The two candidates are in a statistical tie according to FiveThirtyEight, with Ryan polling an average of 45.1% to Vance’s 44.8% as of October 14.

Georgia: Republican challenger, football hero and Trump endorsee Herschel Walker has lost some support in the week or so since the Daily Beast reported a woman claims he paid for her abortion. Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock leads Walker 48% to 44.2% according to FiveThirtyEight averaging. Warnock would need at least 50% of the vote to win outright, however, to avoid a runoff likely against Walker. A third-party candidate, Libertarian Chase Oliver, is currently polling about 4% according to Fox News. Much of his November 8 votes would likely go to Walker in a runoff.

Nevada: Republican challenger Adam Laxalt leads incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto 45.1% to 44.5%, another statistical tie, according to FiveThirtyEight averaging. This despite 14 members of the Laxalt family, long politically prominent Republicans in Nevada, endorsed Cortez Masto over Laxalt’s embrace of his Trump-MAGA endorsement. Cortez Masto is losing Hispanic support over inflation and the economy, Newsweek reports, citing a USA Today/Suffolk University poll.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania: Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D), endorsed by The Philadelphia Inquirer October 17, leads erstwhile Jersey guy and MAGA Republican Mehmet Oz by 48% to 42.4%, according to FiveThirtyEight, which means the GOP would have to win at least one challenge against a Democratic incumbent just to retain the 50-50 Senate split, a tie broken by Vice President Kamala Harris. This race is for a replacement to retiring Sen. Pat Toomey, a not-at-all-Trumper Republican.

--Compiled by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Republicans Resurge in Midterms

Politico Again – Rating every race in play in the midterms, Politico says while the Senate remains a toss-up, the House of Representatives will likely go Republican. That’s an easy shift from the current margin of five Democratic members. 

Good news for the other side, though, on gubernatorial races. Politico predicts more Americans will be governed by Democratic governors.

Comment in the box below, or in the left column if you lean liberal, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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What Ye Hath Wrought (TUE 10/18/22)

A week after World’s Richest Man by Stock Valuation Elon Musk admonished Ye over an antisemitic tweet, the rap artist/provocateur/Kardashian-ex known by his passport as Kanye West announced in a press release he will buy the far-right social media platform Parler, USA Today reports. No details, such as price, were announced, though the deal includes parent company Parler Technologies’ private cloud and infrastructure and is to be completed by the fourth quarter. 

Consider together  Ye’s Parler purchase (Daily Beast describes it as a "MAGA cesspit") with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk’s apparently imminent purchase of Twitter and plans to reopen it to Donald J. Trump, and plans by tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Senate candidate J.D. Vance to buy another hard-right social media site, Rumble, and you have a new age conservative media troika that would do Rupert Murdoch proud.

--TL

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COMMENTS: Go to the comment box in this column (or the one in the left column if that’s the way you lean) or email editors@thehustings.news and identify yourself as right or left in the subject line.

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Final 1/6 Hearing? Final Accountability?

By Ken Zino

Pick your detective – Joe Friday of “just the facts” renown or Sherlock Holmes of “Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.” 

Both were present in spirit at the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol Thursday afternoon. Chairman Thompson (D-MS) and Vice Chair Cheney (R-WY) foreshadowed what was an inevitable move by the panel in their opening remarks after a summer filled with uncontested new information about extreme, pre-meditated and ultimately violent attempts to reverse the legal outcome of the 2020 election by former President Donald J. Trump and his political sycophants. 

First, Thompson: “So, I’ll say to you again as I did in June: this investigation is not about politics. It’s not about party. It’s about the facts, plain and simple. And it’s about making sure our government functions under the rule of law as our Constitution demands. … We will also take a step back and look at that evidence in a broader context providing a summary of key facts we have uncovered. Facts relevant to President Trump’s state of mind. About his motivations and about his intent.

“What did President Trump know? What was he told? What was his personal and substantial role in the multi-part plan to overturn the election?” Thompson said.

Thompson’s Points:

•Most of this evidence comes from Republicans, not from Democrats or Donald Trump’s opponents.

•They are aides who worked loyally for Donald Trump for years: Republican state officials and legislators. Republican electors. The Chairwoman of the Republican National Committee. Political professionals who worked at the highest levels of the Trump Campaign. Trump appointees who served in the most senior positions in the Justice Department. President Trump’s staff and closest advisors in the White House. Members of President Trump’s family. His own White House counsel.

Cheney’s points:

•“The violence and lawlessness of January 6th was unjustifiable, but our nation cannot only punish the foot soldiers who stormed our Capitol. Those who planned to overturn our election, and brought us to the point of violence, must also be accountable. With every effort to excuse or justify the conduct of the former President, we chip away at the foundation of our Republic...

•“He admitted he had lost the election. He took actions consistent to that belief. Claims that President Trump actually believed the election was stolen are not supported by fact and lack evidence. There is no defense that Donald Trump was duped, or irrational. No President can defy the rule of law and act this way in a constitutional republic. Period.” Cheney said. 

No surprise then that at the close of the business meeting (formally, it was not a hearing) Cheney proposed the committee subpoena the ex-president. The resolution passed 9-0. 

Insurrectionist in Chief Trump no doubt will contest the subpoena. In the unlikely event he does appear, he will take the Fifth like the 30 other witnesses when asked about Trump’s role and their own in this plot to overthrow the government. 

No matter what occurs with the committee, yet another unresolved question lingers. It’s the biggest one now that the game is afoot in this Shakespearean tragedy. In my mind, it is only a matter of time before the Department of Justice indicts the Insurrectionist in Chief. Trump will fall into a pit of lies. The pit he dug to try and bury a lawfully elected current president will be his fate in court; United States v. Donald J. Trump.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

1/6 Panel Subpoenas Trump

By Todd Lassa

(PICTURED: Still from a video Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio shot before the January 6 Capitol insurrection, as presented by the Select Committee.)

Donald J. Trump has been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, which in its ninth public hearing (formally, a business meeting) Thursday showed that the former president began his scheme to deny peaceful transfer of power at least as early as July 2020, more than half a year before he lost re-election. Trump also acknowledged privately to White House aides and officials that he had indeed lost the election. 

Among nearly 1 million electronic messages retrieved from the Secret Service are two reports from the “rally” site that agents should wear protective gear to prepare for Trump riding the “Beast” limo to the Capitol after he had been driven back to the White House against his will, and another at 1:25 p.m. that the president “is planning on holding at the White House for the next approximate two hours, then moving to the Capitol.”

Based on the former president’s reputation, Trump’s attorneys will do all they can to fight and at least delay any appearance before the 1/6 panel, which will publish its report by the end of the year. Vice Chair Liz Cheney’s (R-WY) resolution, passed 9-0, subpoenas Donald J. Trump for documents and testimony under oath in connection with the attack. It will not take much legal maneuvering to delay such testimony to next year and the 118th Congress, when Cheney and fellow panel member Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) will no longer be members of the House of Representatives. 

As for Trump’s documents required in the subpoena, during Thursday’s hearing the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the former president’s request to overturn the 11th Circuit District Court’s ruling allowing the Justice Department to review confidential papers that the FBI seized from Mar-a-Lago last August 8.

It is both a testimony to the depth of evidence and material, which the panel has continued to collect as additional witnesses have come forth, and the lengths to which the former president was willing to go to subvert our democracy to avoid having to leave the White House that made Thursday’s hearing as news-infested as it was. There were no new live witnesses. But the panel does have those Secret Service emails and other electronic communications that were requested at the last hearing, July 21, after it was revealed most of them from January 5 and 6, 2021, were said to be lost after the agency updated its devices.

Secret Service emails on Trump supporters planning to come to the Capitol on January 6, from December 26, 2020:

•“They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped.”

•“Their plan is to literally kill people. Please, please take this tip seriously and investigate further.”

•“The proud boys have detailed their plans on multiple websites such as [Donald Trump-“wins” website].

Brad Parscale, advisor in the 2020 Trump campaign said in video testimony that “Trump planned as early as July he would say he won.”

Panel member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told of how campaign advisor Bill Stepien and White House advisor/son-in-law Jared Kushner wanted Trump to encourage Republicans to vote by mail-in ballot, “but the president’s mind was made up” to claim that mail-in ballots are a key contributor to voter fraud, according to Stepien’s video testimony. On election night, Trump declared victory early and then called on the vote-counting to stop, as ballots came in well into the morning from Democrat-heavy urban areas. 

Trump planned to “declare victory no matter the results,” Lofgren concluded. The panel also produced evidence that Trump did not believe his own Big Lie, even as he was doing all he could to prove his case. 

In another piece of video testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson, aide to ex-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said Trump told Meadows “I don’t want people to know we lost.”

FRI 10/14/22
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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

How the West Was Won — And How It May Be Lost

By Stephen Macaulay

“Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.” ~ John Wayne

One of the movie genres that was once popular and almost definitive of America and what it means to be an American was the Western. Invariably there were narratives wherein there were groups of bad guys who (a) considerably outnumbered the good guys and (b) wanted something that wasn’t right, whether it was to bust one of their convicted brethren out of jail before he’d get strung up or who wanted to seize the land of a law-abiding farmer for their cattle.

And the good guys — with a certain amount of cajoling from, say, John Wayne — would invariably do the right thing and, with requisite sacrifice, stand up to the bad guys.

Now we are in a situation where there is question whether the Department of Justice should, assuming it has a case, stand up to Donald Trump and indict him for whatever crimes they may have assessed.

From Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) to Donald Trump himself there have been not-so-veiled cautions or threats that some sort of violence could occur were that to happen.

What would John Wayne do? Turn lily-livered? Or saddle up and do what it takes, even if it meant having his blood spilled?

Law or lawlessness?

(Strangely, if you think about it Trump has more to him of the railroad magnate who, in those movies, paid off a group of black-hatted hacks to clear out the real folk, or of the smarmy suited gambler who would lie and cheat at every opportunity . . . and hide whenever the hard stuff began.)

Remember, during a campaign speech in Iowa in 2016 then-candidate Trump said: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?”

In other words, he could flout the law and it wouldn’t have any effect on him.

But it isn’t about Donald Trump.

The man clearly doesn’t live in the same reality that most Americans do. There is a fraction of Americans who live in his warped world, or who at least find solace in the ostensible case that he is a victim just like they are, but how the alleged billionaire has anything in common with those who work on farms and in factories remains a mystery.

As Liz Cheney pointed out in her opening remarks yesterday, Donald Trump knew that he had lost the election. One could argue that he knew he had lost the election prior to it actually being held — which explains why he so early on began talking about how it would be “rigged.” Were he to be so supreme and superior, it would have been a blowout — in his favor.

When the landgrabber in a Western wanted to take someone’s farm, there was often a phony deed involved. A crooked lawyer would take it to a widow — her husband having been shot by one of the bad guys earlier in the story — and try to force her to sign it.

It isn’t real. Isn’t bona-fide. But when you’re a bad guy such niceties as truth don’t matter.

The January 6th Committee showed in Technicolor that Trump lied. Repeatedly. Lied knowing full well that he had lost the election. Lied in order to rile up the crowds who you could imagine taking torches to the sheriff’s office to get some miscreant out of jail. . . but in this case keeping some miscreant from going into jail.

The question is whether Merrick Garland is going to hitch up his britches, and do the right thing. The hard thing, but the right thing if he determines the law was broken.

Could there be violence? Certainly.

But is this a nation of laws?

Seems like that was one of the things we learned from those Westerns when the brave man stood up to seemingly insurmountable odds.

Does Donald Trump get to ride roughshod over the law?

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

1/6 Panel’s Hearing IX

The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol presents findings in its ninth public hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. The hearing will focus on the threat to former Vice President Mike Pence and will not have any live witnesses, NPR reports. 

Watch this space Friday for center-column analysis and left- and right-column commentary on the 1/6 hearing.

What’s next: Will the Justice Department act on the hearings and charge Donald J. Trump? 

Let us know your thoughts in the Comment box in the left or right columns, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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1/6 Panel to Subpoena Trump

THIS JUST IN -- The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol will vote at the end of its hearing to subpoena Donald J. Trump, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Meanwhile ... The Supreme Court has rejected the former president's request to intervene in the Mar-a-Lago documents fight, CNN reports -- a victory for the Justice Department.

•••

Inflation Rate Stubborn at 8.2%

The Consumer Price Index rose 0.4% in September, up from a 0.1% increase in August, while ticking down the annual rate to 8.2%, the U.S. Labor Department reports. Shelter was up 0.7% for the month, with food up 0.4% and medical care services up 0.1%, partially offset by a 4.9% decline in the gasoline index (including diesel) and -2.1% in energy overall. 

•••

Gas Prices Up – AAA says the national gas price average is $3.913 per gallon, up from $3.707 one month ago, with prices likely to continue rising after OPEC+’s 2-million barrel production cut, which begins in November.

•••

Prepare for Recession – There will be a recession in the U.S. in 12 to 18 months, 98% of CEOs surveyed by The Conference Board, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. And 99% of CEOs are preparing for a recession in Europe. 

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Who Moved Our Confidential Files?

An employee of Donald J. Trump told the FBI that he moved boxes at Mar-a-Lago “at the specific direction” of the ex-president, before federal agents served a warrant to seize the documents last August 8, The Washington Post reports, citing “people familiar with the investigation.” The employee’s account is backed by security camera footage showing people at Mar-a-Lago moving the boxes after the Justice Department issued the subpoena in May, according to the report. 

Comment on this report and/or the House Select Committee on the 1/6 Capitol insurrection in this column or the one on the left (appropriate to your political leanings) or email editors@thehustings.news.

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On Crime and Our Border

Republican senatorial candidates are making gains in the polls for the coming midterm elections (four weeks from Tuesday, folks!) by slamming their Democratic rivals on crime and even the since-abandoned “defund the police” slogan, a counter to the gains Democrats had begun to make after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 

But an underlying advantage the GOP has long had, poll-wise, versus Democratic candidates is the issue of controlling our southern border with Mexico. This issue has been a staple of Fox News pundits for years, beginning well before even ex-President Trump’s vow to “build the wall.” 

In a PBS Arizona debate last Thursday between Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly and Republican challenger Blake Masters (plus Libertarian Marc Victor) Masters accused Kelly and other Democrats of “surrendering our southern border.” [Masters is a venture capitalist who has co-authored a book with fellow Trump ally Peter Thiel.]

Kelly says he has privately disagreed with the White House’s border policy in conversations with President Biden. He and fellow Democratic Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema have co-authored a bipartisan bill to increase pay and staffing for Border Patrol officers, and Kelly also supports physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to PBS Arizona’s Cronkite News.

“I’ve been focused on this since day one, and I brought more resources here to the state of Arizona to deal with the issue,” Kelly said.

Comments: Has the Democratic Party (and have most media outlets) improperly ignored what’s been happening at the border since the Biden administration? We want to hear from you on this issue – especially if you lean left. Go to the Comment box below (if you lean right, please use the comment box in the right column). Or email editors@thehustings.news.

Republican senatorial candidates are making gains in the polls for the coming midterm elections (four weeks from Tuesday, […]

…meanwhile…

(WED 10/12/22)

Tune in to the likely last public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Thursday, 1 p.m. Eastern time on most news networks (except Fox). Check back here Friday for analysis and commentary and enter your own opinion in the Comment boxes or email editors@thehustings.news.

Zaporizhzhia Hit – The nuclear power plant in Ukraine lost power for the second time in five days after another Russian missile attack in retribution for the explosion on Vladimir Putin’s bridge to Crimea, AP reports. The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant suffered a blackout to its remaining outside power source, which is needed to keep the plant cool to avoid a meltdown. 

Russia has arrested eight people in connection with Saturday’s bridge explosion, NPR reports.

Biden’s warning: In an exclusive interview Tuesday on CNN, Jake Tapper asked President Biden about Russian President Putin’s threats to detonate a nuclear weapon in his war against Ukraine.

“I don’t think he will,” Biden responded. But he added that the U.S. ready with a response. “He, in fact, cannot continue with impunity to talk about use of a tactical nuclear weapon as if that’s a rational thing to do.”

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile... (TUE 10/11/22)

Gallup Poll Says – Americans’ trust in the three branches of federal government continues to falter, Gallup says in a new poll released Tuesday, with 43% trust in the executive branch, 47% for the judicial branch and just 38% in the legislative branch. That executive branch level is at near-Watergate lows, The Hill reports. Gallup says the three branches each had no less than two-thirds trust levels when it first published the poll in 1972. 

Gallup says respondents expressed more trust in their state and local governments. You can find details on the Gallup poll here: https://news.gallup.com/poll/402737/trust-federal-government-branches-continues-falter.aspx

•••

Emergency G7 – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address an emergency virtual meeting of the Group of Seven nations Tuesday to request, once again, better defense systems and long-range weapons, The Washington Post reports, as Russia continues to bombard key Ukrainian cities as retribution for the explosion Saturday on Russia’s bridge to Crimea.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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...meanwhile...

(MON 10/10/22)

It's Indigenous Peoples Day (U.S.), Columbus Day (23 states) and World Mental Health Day.

Reminder – The next and potentially last public hearing of the House Select Committee Investigating the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

Coverage and Commentary: Watch this space Friday for three-column coverage including analysis and commentary.

Trump's Take: The ex-president again took news media to task Saturday at his Minden, Nevada rally, for never turning a camera around on his crowds to "show how many people are here," (per Newsweek); "They never do it. They're corrupt. ... You know the biggest crowd I've ever seen? January 6th."

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Too Loud to be a Dog Whistle

The pertinent quote from Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) attacking Democrats for being weak on crime, at Donald J. Trump’s Minden, Nevada rally Saturday night: Democrats “want crime because they want to take over what you’ve got. They want reparations because they think that the people who do the crime are owed that.”

No subtlety there by the former Auburn University head football coach. The NAACP defines reparations, according to Newsweek, as “a financial recompense for African-Americans whose ancestors were slaves and lived through the Jim Crow era.”

Certainly leaders in the party of Lincoln were quick to condemn Tuberville’s remarks, right? 

“I’m not saying he’s being racist. But I wouldn’t use that language, be more polite,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told NBC News’ Meet the Press (per The Hill). “But the fact is we can’t ignore we have a 40 to 50% violent crime increase.”

Comments: Are Tuberville’s (and Bacon’s) comments simply another example of the racism surrounding the ex-president and his followers, this time just over-the-line blatant? We want to hear from you on this issue – especially if you lean right, and whether you are a never-Trumper or pro-MAGA. Go to the Comment box below (if you lean left, please use the comment box in the left column). Or email editors@thehustings.news.

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