…meanwhile…

(THU 6/2/22)

Gun debate begins … The House Judiciary Committee began debate Thursday on a bill that combines six gun control provisions into one, Roll Call reports, including:

•Increase the minimum age to buy some rifles.

•Limit magazine sizes.

•Codify regulations banning bump stops and ghost guns.

•Provide standards for safe gun storage.

“Do we have the courage, right here in this body, to imagine the phone call parents across Uvalde received last week?” said Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA), whose 17-year-old son was killed by a gunman in 2012. “The phone call that confirms our fear, our singular fear, that my child is dead and I was unable to protect them? Because I know that phone call.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) counter-proposed more school security investments and repealing gun-free school zones, and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) argued the bill could “run afoul” of the Constitution, citing a federal appeals court ruling against a California law that sought to raise the minimum purchasing age for guns at 21, and the Supreme Court’s 2008 District of Columbia v. Hellerdecision that mentioned home gun storage. 

Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) plans to finish the bill’s markup by the time the full House returns from its Memorial Day week recess next week.

--TL

_____________________________________

The Latest

Nine days after the last mass shooting, which was 10 days after the one before that, four people plus the suspected shooter are dead at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The suspect, who apparently shot himself, reportedly carried a handgun and a rifle, The Washington Post reports. As for that fatal shooting 18 days earlier of 10 Black people at the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, suspect Payton Gedron, 18, was indicted by a federal grand jury on 25 counts including domestic terrorism and murder as a hate crime (WaPo).

The House Judiciary Committee, in a special session Thursday, is scheduled to vote on the Protect Our Kids Act Thursday, as a bipartisan group of Senators continues to work to try and get the 10 Republicans necessary to pass compromise legislation. The compromise legislation centers on background checks and “red flag” laws, per The Guardian. Ten Republican Senators – don’t hold your breath.

Meanwhile, our latest commentary on gun violence, by Ken Zino, is in the left column. 

Join the conversation with an email to editors@thehustings.news, and list yourself as “left” or “right” in the subject line.

--TL

_____________________________________

...meanwhile... (WED 6/1/22)

More advanced rockets to Ukraine … The U.S. will send Ukraine long-range rockets that can more precisely strike Russian targets on the battlefield, President Biden writes in a guest essay for The New York Times. [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/opinion/biden-ukraine-strategy.html]

These new weapons come in addition to the $39.8 billion package approved by Congress last month. Germany also will send an advanced air defense system, the BBC reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for such weaponry for weeks.

In his essay, “What America Will and Will Not Do in Ukraine” Biden wrote; “We want to see a democratic, independent, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine with the means to deter and defend itself against further aggression.”

The U.S. will send rocket systems carried on a truck chassis that can precisely hit targets 40 miles in the distance, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. 

The U.S. does not “seek a war between NATO and Russia,” Biden wrote for the NYT. “As much as I disagree with Mr. Putin, and find his actions an outrage, the United States will not try to bring about his ouster in Moscow.”

Upshot: Despite Ukraine’s success in pushing Russian forces back from Kyiv, Russian forces have taken over most of Severodonetsk, The Washington Post reports, a key city in the Luhansk region. It’s another case of whether such powerful, precise weaponry will come in time to reverse Russia’s success in Ukraine’s eastern region.

•••

Disturbing RNC Election Day plan … Politico reporter Heidi Przybyla has uncovered disturbing Republican National Committee plans to take control of the November midterm elections. She has obtained video recordings of GOP operatives assembling a “disturbing multipronged network of party loyalists” with plans to disrupt the elections to gain an advantage in the elections consisting of…

•Poll workers adherent to 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories who are being trained to contest votes, especially in Democratic-heavy areas.

•GOP lawyers the above poll workers can quickly contact to document alleged voter fraud.

•”Party-friendly” district attorneys who can intervene to block vote counts in certain precincts.

•Installation of GOP loyalists on the Board of Canvassers, which is responsible for certifying the election.

Read Przbyla’s special report here: [https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/01/gop-contest-elections-tapes-00035758]

Note: According to Politico, a version of the anti-democratic plan “has been discussed for months by prominent Trump loyalists,” including Steve Bannon and Trump himself. Even if they are not chalking up wins in all the key primaries – see Georgia -- these authoritarian forces continue to run the Republican Party.

--Todd Lassa

_____________________________________

(TUE 5/31/22)

Orbån and Russian Oil … European Union leaders have agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil by the end of 2022, though the ban largely covers Russian oil brought in by sea, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Oil delivered via pipeline remains exempt.

It’s a sort of victory for Hungary’s authoritarian president, Viktor Orbån, the lone ally among 27 EU nations of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Orbån, as we’ve noted before, is a critic of Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, who is fighting Putin’s army to preserve his country’s democracy. A week before the NRA convention in Houston, Orbån hosted a CPAC meeting in Budapest.

•••

Handgun ban comes to Canada … Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal liberals in Ottawa have introduced Bill C-21, to freeze the import, sale and transfer of handguns, though current owners would be able to keep their guns, The Globe and Mail reports. Asked why not propose an absolute ban, Trudeau told a news conference that C-21 would provide “significant tools” to protect Canadians from gun violence.

“This is a concrete and real national measure that will go a long way to keeping Canadians safe,” he said.

Canada’s ongoing reaction to the killing of 22 people at the First United Church in Nova Scotia in 2020, its worst-ever mass shooting, is being compared with New Zealand’s strict gun laws enacted after the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings.

Upshot: Canada has no equivalent of the Second Amendment, and its lingering issue will be how to stem the smuggling of guns from across the world’s longest international border. Less than two weeks after the Nova Scotia shootings, Trudeau’s government banned more than 1,500 models of assault weapons. 

•••

Meanwhile, back in the U.S. … Though the House and Senate are officially on recess this week, the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled Thursday to mark up a package of eight gun-control bills under the umbrella Protecting Our Kids Act, Punchbowl News scoops Tuesday. 

According to the scoop, the package would:

•Raise the minimum age for buying semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21.

•Ban the import, sale, manufacture, transfer or possession of high-capacity ammunition magazines (though grandfathering existing possession). 

•Require existing bump stocks be registered under the National Firearms Act and bar new manufacture for civilian use.

•Amend the definition of “ghost gun” to require background checks in all sales.

•Beef up federal criminal penalties for gun trafficking and ‘straw’ purchases.

•Establish new requirements for storing guns at home, including a tax credit for purchase of storage devices.

House Democrats need to argue out whether to bring the provisions to the floor individually or as a package, which they plan to do next week. 

Upshot: It’s all an exercise in futility because virtually no one inside the Beltway expects significant gun control has any chance of gaining the 10 necessary Republican votes in the Senate, despite some bi-partisan discussions in that chamber. Instead, Democrats hope to use Republicans’ opposition, along with the abortion issue, as a political weapon in the November midterms.

--Todd Lassa

_____________________________________

(Memorial Day 2022)

Democracy Under Threat?

Analysis by Todd Lassa

The National Rifle Association convention in Houston this Memorial Day weekend appears to have been something of a success. Yes, there were huge crowds protesting the members-only confab across the street from the convention center, but the NRA expected those anyway even before the tragic shooting by assault rifle of 19 children and two teachers, just 300 miles away in Uvalde. 

And several key headliners and entertainment acts cancelled their appearances at the convention, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) as well as ‘70s two-hit wonder Don McLean and Gatlin Brother Larry. This gave the former president, Donald J. Trump, the opportunity to tell his adoring audience; “Unlike some, I didn’t disappoint you by not showing up,” according to NBC News.

But it was something else Trump said that was even more disturbing, if slightly more subtle, than his reading off the names of the 21 Ulvade victims at the beginning of his speech – an introduction that recalls his holding up a bible at St. John’s Church in Washington, D.C., during protests over the murder of George Floyd. 

It was not Trump’s solution that the federal government “should take back every penny of unused COVID relief” funds from the states to “quickly establish impenetrable security at ever school all over our land” that made us take notice. (After all, what second grader doesn’t want to go to a school that’s locked down every day like a prison?) 

It was Trump’s argument, “If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe at home.”

This was subtle, for the ex-president at least, because he didn’t flatly suggest we stop giving Ukraine military and humanitarian aid in its fight for democracy against Vladimir Putin’s totalitarian plans for the country.

But you can see how this will become a major talking point for Tucker Carlson, if not throughout the Fox News broadcasting day. Already, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who called Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke “a sick son of a bitch” for interrupting Gov. Abbott’s press conference on the shootings last week, has echoed Trump’s mental health vs. aid to Ukraine aid argument.

This comes about a week after the Conservative Political Action conference held a meeting in Budapest, where Hungarian President Viktor Orbån has close ties to the Kremlin and has called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy an “opponent.” 

The upshot is there is already plenty of white nationalist support in this country for Putin. 

Is this just an over-panicky reaction? Just Trump being Trump, putting the interests of Americans ahead of everybody else? Or is it another warning sign that American democracy is under siege, that it’s preparation for coup’ attempt part II, coming to a voting booth near you in 2024?

As Tucker Carlson might say, “hey, just asking the question.”

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Guns & Money

By Stephen Macaulay

One of the things that tends to be overlooked when the NRA convention is discussed is that it is also a tradeshow, with an expo center packed with a variety of companies showing their wares. There was a panoply of products, from companies offering gator hunts to ammo to magazines (print and otherwise) to scopes to guns to knives to the NRA Cigar Club, “the premier way for NRA Members to support the organization” by signing up for a stogie subscription service.

This is big business.

No, this is BIG BUSINESS.

According to the NSSF: The Firearm Industry Trade Association, “The total economic impact of the firearm and ammunition industry in the United States increased from $19.1 billion in 2008 to $70.52 billion in 2021, a 269 percent increase, while the total number of full-time equivalent jobs rose from approximately 166,000 to over 375,819, a 126 percent increase in that period.”

A 269% increase in 13 years. 

And that jobs number is nothing to sniff at.

It is easy to lose sight of the fact that the NRA isn’t just a group of individuals who are interested in their right to bear arms led by a group of high-paid functionaries who get wet-kissed by venal politicians who somehow imagine there are heirs to James Madison, who wrote the Second Amendment, it is a large cog of a big industry. Like all industries, it has representatives that work hard to maintain smooth running for its operations. 

What’s somewhat unlike all other industries is that even a speed bump—the slightest thing that could cause a restriction—is considered to be nothing but a comprehensive attack on all aspects of operations. And what is also unlike other industries is that the lack of sensible actions has as a consequence the multiple deaths of innocent children.

Children.

Any regulations that might inconvenience a prospective customer — merely inconvenience those for whom gun purchase and ownership is not a matter of concern (and ideally would prevent those for whom it is a bad, bad idea) — is considered to be a liability, something that could affect the bottom line.

The probable fear is that should there be measures put in place that in any way inhibit the purchase of guns that are best handled by a well-regulated militia there will be still more regulations, and that would be bad for business. Never mind the corpses of children.

The leadership of the NRA. The politicians that slavishly carry their water. These people aren’t stone stupid.

They undoubtedly know that the multiple, continual mass shootings are abhorrent.

But they are afraid to take the risk that if there are any additional laws, before you know it there will be every additional law. And that could impact their paydays.

Let’s not be naïve about this.

This is business.

Certainly those who are in favor of regulations should do their utmost to vote the tone-deaf toadies out of office when they are up for reelection and to take every opportunity to remind those people that they have blood on their hands every day on the way up to election day.

But there need to be other pressures. The investment community needs to stand up. Make it less lucrative for those associated with the firearms industry. It is one thing to make rifles and ammo for recreational hunting. It is fully another to make rifles and ammo that are likely to be used for killing cops. And children.

The legal community needs to find every possibility they can to make it problematic for those who don’t want to have common-sense regulations. The Second Amendment isn’t going to be amended. But presumably there are other ways to strengthen protection.

Plenty of those NRA expo exhibitors are straight-shooters, both literally and figuratively. Many of the companies that are part of the NSSF are organizations that are simply making products for recreational purposes. 

Presumably they are as horrified as anyone at what happened in Uvalde.

The goal isn’t to put them out of business. Responsible commerce is the goal.

But there are those whose pictures could accompany the dictionary definition of “oleaginous” whose efforts must be absolutely stymied.

They know who they are. We do, too.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Texas and Guns

Why is Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary in the right column? Because as with liberals, conservatives come in various stripes – moderate to far-left or far-right. The Hustings welcomes comments from all, so long as the comments are civil, respectful of other opinions and steeped in fact.

Despite a good deal of support on social media for Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke’s confrontation of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday, there is a good chance the Democratic challenger’s response could backfire, according to Newsweek political reporter Darragh Roche, who writes that “actions following the deadly shooting at an elementary school in Ulvade, Texas could potentially cost him the governor’s race in a state famous for supporting gun rights.”

What’s your reaction to “A Bullet Doesn’t Acknowledge Political Affiliations & Other Considerations”? Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news, and tell us in the subject line whether your political philosophy belongs in the right or left column. 

--TL

_____

…meanwhile…

Arlington Cemetery pictured, for Memorial Day weekend.

Uvalde timeline … The big question carrying though the weekend is how long did it take police to enter the Robb Elementary classroom (or classrooms, one of the many confusing pieces) where an 18-year-old with an AR-15 shot 19 children and 2 teachers? Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) has asked FBI Director Christopher Wray to investigate the timeline and take the lead in the case, Castro told NPR’s Morning Edition.

Evidence so far suggests it took police more than an hour to storm the classroom and kill the suspect, which of course flies in the face of NRA President Wayne LaPierre’s comment following the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting in 2012 that “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” (It is, sadly, the second time in May LaPierre’s statement was disproven – first being a Tops security guard’s attempt to shoot the Buffalo mass-killing suspect only to be killed himself). 

Singer-songwriter Don American Pie McLean was to have provided entertainment for the National Rifle Association convention Memorial Day weekend in Houston, but has cancelled, the Portland Press Herald (Maine) reports, as has Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who will attend a vigil in Uvalde, and address the NRA by video, instead -- and coincidentally, avoid protesters in Houston. 

Donald J. Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) are still scheduled to attend. Cruz suggests the solution is to have one lockable door as an entrance to every school – gun safety trumps fire safety, apparently.

As for any Senate action on gun control, it’s Standard Operating Procedure, with Democrats struggling to find any Republicans, let alone the 10 needed for cloture on significant legislation. However, a bipartisan group of senators is trying to do just that, according to Roll Call; Find 60 votes in order to forward a “Red Flag” law to allow courts to order the temporary seizure of firearms from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others. Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) are leading the push, but are having trouble finding sufficient Republican support.

Assault rifle rationale: Of the many rationalizations of the need for legal assault rifles made this week, the one by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to VICE News political reporter Elizabeth Landers played on Twitter is getting a lot of attention: “Well, if you talk to the people who use it, killing feral pigs in … wherever … the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you take it away from them.”

•••

Relief for veterans … In a rare act of bipartisanship the Senate is expected to pass next month a comprehensive $200 billion bill to cover military veterans who have suffered toxic exposure from the Iraq War, Afghanistan, the Gulf War and Vietnam, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has recognized some exposure to Agent Orange since it was identified in 1962 in Vietnam as the source of some service-connected illness in U.S. troops. But the Senate bill will be the largest expansion of authority at the VA, says Secretary of Veterans Affairs Denis McDonough.

--Todd Lassa

_____________________________________

(THU 5/26/22)

Graph: Debt is expected to rise in relation to GDP over the next decade, mainly because of increasing interest costs and growth in spending for Medicare and Social Security.

No relief from inflation … The sort of high inflation we have been suffering over the last year or so will continue into next year, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicted in a report released Wednesday (hat tip to WaPo). The CBO projects a federal budget deficit of $1.0 trillion in 2022, down from $2.8 trillion in 2021, and the deficit continues to decrease into 2023, though turning to rise thereafter through 2032.

This is not good news for the White House’s stalled Build Back Better plan, which looks to go nowhere through the midterm elections anyway. 

The CBO projects that inflation persists at 4.0% through 2022 due to a combination of strong demand and restrained supply in the markets for goods, services and labor. As the Federal Reserve tightens the money supply and interest rates rise rapidly, the U.S. economy slows, with inflation-adjusted Gross Domestic Product up 3.1%. The unemployment rate remains at a very low 3.8%, the CBO projects.

The Fed is expected to announce half-point interest rate increases at each of its next two meetings, in June and July, NPR reports Thursday.

Upshot: The unemployment rate remains a bright spot for the White House and the GDP level is about normal, but inflation and tight credit will hurt the Democrats in the November midterms, piling on to gridlock in the second half of the Biden administration.

•••

This might test Pence’s loyalty … The House Select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has heard accounts of Donald J. Trump’s positive reaction to chants about hanging his vice president, Mike Pence, for refusing to overturn the Electoral Vote count, according to The New York Times. The report says that the lame duck president’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, on January 6 left the dining room off the Oval Office and told colleagues that Trump was complaining about television coverage of Pence being guided away to safety.

Upshot: Pence lately has been easing up on sycophancy to his former boss. Before Tuesday’s primaries he endorsed incumbent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp over Trump’s candidate, David Perdue (who lost to Kemp), and is exploring a run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, potentially against Trump himself. 

Trump chose Pence as his 2016 running mate to shore up the conservative evangelical vote. Those voters remain among Trump’s fiercest supporters – can Pence claim them back?

•••

Oz v. McCormick recount … As expected since the dust cleared from the May 17 Pennsylvania GOP primary race for U.S. Senate, ballots for celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund CEO David McCormick are headed for a recount, The Washington Post reports. As of Thursday, Oz leads McCormick by 947 out of 1.3 million votes, within the 0.5% difference threshold to trigger an automatic recount. 

A reminder that this primary race plays into the tally of Trump’s endorsement success. Oz is his man.

Counties are to recount their ballots by June 7 and inform acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman of the final results June 8.

•••

Anticipating SCOTUS … Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Kevin Stitt, has signed into law the nation’s strictest abortion law to date, outlawing all abortions from any point in a woman’s pregnancy, except in the case of incest or rape (The Guardian). The Supreme Court is expected to overturn Roe v. Wade before its current-year calendar concludes at the end of June.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

A Bullet Doesn’t Acknowledge Political Affiliation

By Stephen Macaulay

On the stage in Uvalde is a group of almost entirely older men, including Texas governor Greg Abbott, lieutenant governor Dan Patrick and Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

Beto O’Rourke stands up from the audience and calls them out for doing nothing to protect innocent lives.

O’Rourke is criticized for “politicizing” the situation.

  1. Aren’t many of those people on stage politicians? What are they doing if not acting in their roles as elected politicians? How is their simply being there not a political act?
  2. Isn’t the whole issue related to gun laws political? Aren’t politicians the ones who are making decisions about what they will or won’t do when it comes to legislating, which is a political act?

The hypocrisy is palpable. And the taste is disgusting.

///

In my neighborhood there is a woman’s health clinic.

There is abortion counseling performed there.

That is clear because there are regularly protestors outside carrying signs that generally read “Abortion Is Murder” or something along those lines.

Many of these protestors are organized by churches.

How many church groups and protestors are going to be outside the NRA convention Saturday with signs that read “Killing Children Is Murder”?

How is it that there is temporary hand-wringing about mass shootings and little organized action from those who are so keen on protecting the unborn?

What about protecting the born?

///

“Drug therapy in colonial and revolutionary America,” a paper cited by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, notes that “Therapy in the 17th and 18th centuries remained largely symptomatic rather than curative. Treatment included such "depletion" measures as purging, sweating, bleeding, blistering and vomiting. Purgatives, emetics, opium, cinchona bark, camphor, potassium nitrate and mercury were among the most widely used drugs.”

Clearly, things have changed since then.

Here’s something to consider: Do those “originalist” members of the Supreme Court go in for “purging, sweating, bleeding, blistering and vomiting” when they’re sick?

///

Here’s something that never gets talked about by “originalist” members of the Supreme Court or any other individuals or bodies that are keen on people having weapons: In circa 1800 the population of people in the U.S. was approximately 5 million people.

The population of grizzly bears was 50,000.

Yes, gun ownership was probably relevant back then.

///

From the website of the trade association, National Shooting Sports Foundation on the AR-15, which it terms an “America’s Rifle”:

“And, they are a lot of fun to shoot!”

///

In 2020 there were 52.9-million Americans with a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH).

The NIH has it that of the 52.9-million U.S. adults with AMI, or Any Mental Illness, in 2020, only 46.2% received mental health services in the past year.

When did it become an issue of or choosing between gun legislation and mental health care?

Can’t the U.S. do both? 

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Democratic Primaries

Texas: Rep. Henry Cuellar (pictured), a moderate counted as the only Democrat in the House who opposes abortion rights, held off a challenge by progressive Jessica Cisneros in the Texas primary runoff for the U.S. House 28th District, 50.2% to 49.8%, Ballotpedia reports.

Minnesota: In primaries for a special election to replace Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-MN), who died in office February 17, Brad Finstad narrowly defeated Jeremy Munson in the GOP primary, MPR News reports, while Jeff Ettinger easily took the Democratic primary. The special general election is August 9, and the winner will have incumbent advantage in the midterms three months hence.

Georgia: Second-term 6th House district Rep. Lucy McBath beat first-term 7th House district Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, 62.6% to 31% in the Democratic primary for the redrawn 7th District. McBath’s Republican opponent in November has not been determined as of Wednesday morning.

Sen. Raphael Warnock, who won a Georgia runoff against David Perdue in January 2021, easily won the Democratic primary to face Republican challenger and Trump ally Herschel Walker in November.

--TL/CD

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Again

(K-12 School Shooting Database, Center for Homeland Defense and Security)

(WED 5/25/22)

In Uvalde, Texas … Ten days after 10 Black shoppers at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo were shot dead in the last mass shooting, 21 are dead, 19 of them second-, third- and fourth-grade students of Robb Elementary, in Uvalde, about 90 miles west of San Antonio. The other two victims were teachers at the school, CNN reported. The gunman carried an assault rifle and a pistol.

Biden reacts: President Biden addressed the nation Tuesday evening from the White House, where he had just returned from his first trip as president to South Korea and Japan. 

“Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with and stand up to the lobbies?” he said. As Democratic senator from Delaware, Biden pushed gun control legislation in the 1990s, including an assault weapon ban that expired after 10 years.

The NRA … holds its annual convention on the other side of Texas, in Houston, this weekend. Donald J. Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and the state’s Republican Gov. Greg Abbott are scheduled speakers.

Steve Kerr: The Golden State Warriors head coach, visibly shaken and angry, dispensed with the traditional pre-game press conference in the NBA team’s playoff against the Dallas Mavericks to address the school shooting; “I am tired of the moments of silence. Enough.” Kerr pleaded with senators to take action. Watch Kerr’s press conference here: https://www.nba.com/watch/video/steve-kerr-comments-on-the-shooting-in-uvalde-texas

Do something?: Democratic senators told The Hill a floor debate on gun control is “inevitable” after the Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo shootings. 

“The bottom line is, I just watched a girl walk across the plaza that held up a sign that said, ‘This is your fault.’ We need to do something,” said Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT). 

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), a lead proponent of gun control, took to the floor Tuesday to give an impassioned speech, but his side of the issue does not have the votes, likely with or without the filibuster.

But Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told colleagues not to expect gun-control measures on the Senate floor anytime soon, because he doesn’t expect sufficient Republican votes for passage (also The Hill).

•••

American Catholics Support Limited Abortion Rights … Catholics are generally in line with Americans in general who believe abortion should be illegal in some cases, but legal in others, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. However, support for some abortion rights drops for Catholics who attend mass at least once a week.

According to Pew:

•76% of Catholics say abortion should be illegal in some cases, but legal in others.

•13% say abortion should be legal with no exceptions, and 10% say abortion should be illegal, with no exceptions.

•69% say it should be legal if the pregnant woman’s life or health is threatened, 66% say it should be legal in cases of rape and 63% say the length of the pregnancy should determine legality.

Of Catholics who attend mass at least once per week:

•68% say it should be illegal in all or most cases, and 43% of the same contingent support legal abortion for such exceptions as rape or incest, while 49% support abortion when the life of the mother is threatened.

•70% of this contingent say life begins at conception.

Pew Research surveyed 2,221 Catholics, of 10,441 adults for this poll.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

GOP Primaries

Georgia: Incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (pictured), who raised Donald J. Trump’s ire for refusing to “find” 11,780 votes and overturn the state’s Electoral College votes from Joe Biden in 2020, took 52.1% of the Republican primary vote in his race for re-election and avoided a runoff before the November general election. Challenger Jody Hice, who was endorsed by the ex-president, won just 33.7% of the GOP primary, according to Ballotpedia. 

Raffensperger’s win gives anti-Trump Republicans a 2-0 win in Georgia’s most contested races, with incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp’s easy victory over David Perdue, 73.5% to 21.9% (per Ballotpedia). Kemp faces Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams this November for the second time in four years.

But the final count among the most closely watched Republican races in Georgia is 2-2, with Trump ally and University of Georgia football hero Herschel Walker easily winning the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat Raphael Warnock for his Senate seat in November’s general election. 

Uber-MAGA first-term Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took 70.4% of a crowded GOP primary, according to the AP, and faces Democrat Marcus Flowers this November.

Alabama: Katie Britt, who was campaign manager and chief of staff to retiring Republican Sen. Richard Shelby won 45.2% of the GOP primary vote and faces Trump ally, Rep. Mo Brooks (28.6%) in a runoff for the Republican nomination.

Arkansas: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former White House press secretary to Donald J. Trump, easily won the Republican nomination for governor, a seat held by her father from 1996 to 2007. Her Democrat opponent this November is Chris Jones, considered to have slim-to-zero chance.

--TL/CD

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Psaki Joins MSNBC

It’s official: Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is joining MSNBC as part of its political coverage, and will host a new program currently under development for streaming, and scheduled to launch in the first quarter of 2023, The Hill reports. Psaki, possibly best known on both sides of the political spectrum for her verbal sparring with Fox News’ White House correspondent Peter Doocy, was replaced last month by Karine Jean-Pierre.

Read our Substack page, https://thehustings.substack.com for an in-depth look at how incumbent Brian Kemp’s deal to land an electric vehicle factory in Georgia became a political issue in his race with challenger David Perdue for the GOP gubernatorial midterm primary.

Scroll down for …

•Our debate on expectations of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, which begins public hearings June 9. Ken Zino comments in the left column.

•Tucker Carlson’s embrace of the Great Replacement theory and the racially motivated killing of 10 Black shoppers at the Tops grocery in Buffalo.

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and indicate whether you are “left” or “right”.

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…meanwhile….

(TUE 5/24/22)

Three months of war on Ukraine …  President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of inflicting as many casualties and as much infrastructure damage on Ukraine as possible, euronews reports. Three months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the general assessment is that Russia has underachieved and Ukraine has overachieved given each country’s military resources, NPR’s Morning Edition says, but Russia is now concentrating on the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east, with two key cities, Mariupol and Kherson, under its control. 

At the World Economic Forum: In Davos, Switzerland, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin “made a big strategic mistake” in invading Ukraine, The Washington Post reports. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia is “trying to trample the aspirations of an entire nation with tanks.”

NPR reports, however, that Ukrainian forces’ ability to shoot down Russian aircraft has generally dissuaded enemy pilots from flying in its airspace.  

More arms to Ukraine: Twenty countries have announced new assistance packages to Ukraine, including harpoon launchers and missiles to protect the country’s coast, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Monday (per The Guardian).

From Moscow Tuesday: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a Q&A at a local event, said the West has espoused “Russophobia” since his country’s invasion of Ukraine, The Guardian reports. Russia is working to replace goods imported from western countries and will depend only on “reliable” countries beholden to the West. Read: China.

Russian counterpoint: Russian diplomat to the United Nations, Boris Bondarev has resigned his post, telling colleagues in a letter he has never been “so ashamed of my country,” over its invasion of Ukraine, The Washington Post reports.

•••

Speaking of China … Lots of hand wringing over President Biden’s statement in Tokyo Monday of military support for Taiwan as a warning against China’s aggression toward its neighbor. The White House has clarified that its policy on China-Taiwan has not changed – a policy of “strategic ambiguity” going back to the Carter administration. 

A White House spokesperson told Fox News; “As the president said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with military means to defend itself.”

The upshot: The U.S. has often reiterated its “One China” policy over the years even in the face of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan. Biden’s statement in Tokyo – “gaffe” or not – seems a way to “remind” Beijing of the Taiwan Relations Act over growing concerns of a Russian-style invasion.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Primaries Tuesday

Midterm primaries today in Georgia, Arkansas and Alabama, plus two Texas primary runoffs are battlegrounds for the GOP, as Donald J. Trump-endorsed candidates challenge incumbent Republicans in several key races. Watch this space Wednesday for a roundup of results, and email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you are “right” or “left.”

Read our Substack page, https://thehustings.substack.com for an in-depth look at how incumbent Brian Kemp’s deal to land an electric vehicle factory in Georgia became a political issue in his race with challenger David Perdue for the GOP gubernatorial midterm primary.

Georgia’s GOP primary for governor and how 

Scroll down for …

•Our debate on expectations of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, which begins public hearings June 9. Ken Zino comments in the left column.

•Tucker Carlson’s embrace of the Great Replacement theory and the racially motivated killing of 10 Black shoppers at the Tops grocery in Buffalo.

Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and indicate whether you are “right” or “left.”

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Tuesday’s Primaries

Midterm election primaries to be held Tuesday, May 24, are in Georgia, Alabama and Arkansas, with a primary runoff for Texas’ 28th congressional district, according to Ballotpedia. In addition, Minnesota holds a special election in its 1st congressional district to replace Republican Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died while in office February 17.

Scroll down to read our debate on the status of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, with Ken Zino commenting on the left. Scroll further down for our center column discussion of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson’s culpability in Buffalo’s racially motivated grocery store shootings.

Comment on any of these issues with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

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…meanwhile…

(MON 5/23/22)

Biden says U.S. would be willing to intervene militarily … if China were to invade Taiwan, NPR reports. Answering a reporter’s question at a Tokyo news conference with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Akasaka Palace, President Biden said the U.S. burden in protecting Taiwan is “even stronger” after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

Strategic ambiguity: White House aides scrambled to say Biden’s statement does not reflect a “policy shift” from the U.S. “one China” rule, in which it recognizes Beijing as China’s government and has no diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

But Biden said that any Chinese force against Taiwan “would not be appropriate,” and would dislocate “the entire region, and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.”

•••

Polish leader visits Zelenskyy … Polish President Andrej Duda met in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday to express support for Ukraine’s aspiration to join the European Union. Duda, whose country has accepted the majority of refugees from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine since late February, told the Ukrainian parliament that it does not need to submit to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s conditions, AP reports. 

“I want to say clearly: Only Ukraine has the right to decide for itself,” Duda said.

Upshot: In part due to Poland’s enthusiastic support of Ukraine as its immediate neighbor to the west (and to the implicit threat of Putin expanding his offensive to other former Soviet satellites) Duda has been softening his country’s hardline nationalism recently.

•••

Speaking of authoritarian leanings … Not many headlines from last week’s Conservative Political Action Committee gathering in Budapest, Hungary, where perhaps in the worst authoritarian tradition, mainstream free press were kept out of much of it. Coverage in The Guardian centered on the speakers, which included (via video) ex-President Trump, Fox News “personality” Tucker Carlson and Trump’s last chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

The MAGA wing of the GOP are in awe of Hungary and its nationalist-authoritarian President Viktor Orbån, who earlier this year won his fourth term. 

TV talk show commentator Zsolt Bayer, described by The Guardian as a “notorious racist” who has called Jews “stinking excrement,” has referred to Roma as “animals” and has used racial epithets to describe Black people, appeared on the CPAC stage live Friday with a prominent right wing Hungarian screenwriter talking about gender issues, and derided a 2019 Calvin Klein advertisement featuring a white supermodel with Black rapper Chika for “political correctness.”

The closing speech was by right-wing blogger Jack Posobiec, a purveyor of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory that accused Democrats of pedophilia. 

In his video address before Bayer’s speech, Trump heaped praise on Orbån, according to The Guardian, which apparently did get access to key speeches, as “a great leader, a great gentleman, and he just had a very big election result. I was very honored to endorse him.”

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Perdue v. Kemp

Former Sen. David Perdue’s (R-GA) challenge to incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is perhaps the most closely watched race in Tuesday’s Georgia midterm primaries, but if polls are the least bit accurate it won’t be a contest. Latest Fox News poll has Kemp leading Perdue by 60% to 28%. Donald J. Trump had endorsed Perdue because Kemp made no effort to turn over the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, though the ex-president has since backed down from that as polls have overwhelmingly favored Kemp, who will face Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams for the second time in four years, this November.

Meanwhile in Georgia’s U.S. Senate race Republican Herschel Walker, the former football star and Heisman Trophy winner endorsed by Trump is leading the race to face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in November. [An earlier version of this story incorrectly named Walker as challenger to Sen. Jon Ossoff (D), who beat Perdue for a six-year term in January 2021.]

Scroll down to read our debate on the status of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, with both RJ Caster and Stephen Macaulay commenting on the right. Scroll further down for our center column discussion of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson’s culpability in the Buffalo grocery store shootings.

Comment on any of these issues with an email to editors@thehustings.news.

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From the Left

Scroll down to read our debate on expectations for the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, and whether it has any relevance. Contributing pundit Ken Zino comments in this column below.

Scroll down further to read our center-column piece on Tucker Carlson’s culpability for last weekend’s shooting of 13 people at a Buffalo grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, with reader comments in the right column. 

•Page 2: Contributing pundit Jim McCraw’s commentary on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, also is in this column.

•Page 3: “Don’t Say Gay” is contributing pundit Timothy Magrath’s commentary in this column on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his state’s culture wars.

As always, we appreciate your comments on these and any other issues covered in the center column. Email us at editors@thehustings.news and let us know in the subject line whether you identify as “left” or “right.”

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