Left on the 1/6 Investigation

Let’s Start with the Facts

By Ken Zino

The way you pose a question sometimes dictates the answer, but not always the final result. Given our critically wounded democracy, I have little confidence in the politicians, most -- if not all of them Republicans -- who are presiding over our decline into fascism. They doth protest too much, after initially condemning January 6. Then claiming it was a peaceful demonstration, a legitimate political protest. And now, given the current political winds, seeing the chance that – maybe, just maybe – a coup isn’t needed to seize the power they lost, they are claiming that they are shocked, yes shocked that politics is actively in the background of the January 6 committee.

The remit of the committee seems clear (full resolution here https://january6th.house.gov/about) excerpted:

“Whereas January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days of our democracy, during which insurrectionists attempted to impede Congress’s Constitutional mandate to validate the presidential election and launched an assault on the United States Capitol Complex that resulted in multiple deaths, physical harm to over 140 members of law enforcement, and terror and trauma among staff…

“Whereas, on January 27, 2021, the Department of Homeland Security issued a National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin that due to the “heightened threat environment across the United States,” in which “[S]ome ideologically-motivated violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.” The Bulletin also stated that:

“(1) “DHS is concerned these same drivers to violence will remain through early 2021 and some DVEs [domestic violent extremists] may be emboldened by the January 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. to target elected officials and government facilities.”; and…

Whereas, on April 15, 2021, Michael Bolton, the Inspector General for the United States Capitol Police, testified to the Committee on House Administration of the House of Representatives that --

(1) “The Department lacked adequate guidance for operational planning. USCP did not have policy and procedures in place that communicated which personnel were responsible for operational planning, what type of operational planning documents its personnel should prepare, nor when its personnel should prepare operational planning documents.;” and

(2) “USCP failed to disseminate relevant information obtained from outside sources, lacked consensus on interpretation of threat analyses, and disseminated conflicting intelligence information regarding planned events for January 6, 2021”; and

Whereas the security leadership of the Congress under-prepared for the events of January 6th, with United States Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton testifying again on June 15, 2021, that --

(1) “USCP did not have adequate policies and procedures for FRU (First Responder Unit) defining its overall operations…

(2) “The Department did not have adequate policies and procedures for securing ballistic helmets and vests strategically stored around the Capitol Complex.;” and

(3) “FRU did not have the proper resources to complete its mission.”: Now, therefore, be it resolved…

1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex … and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, (emphasis added) including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies...

(2) To examine and evaluate evidence developed by relevant Federal, State, and local governmental agencies regarding the facts and circumstances surrounding the domestic terrorist attack …. on the Capitol and targeted violence and domestic terrorism relevant to such terrorist attack…

What I expect of the House panel are: Questions answered under oath by the House members who have publicly implicated themselves as "persons of fascist interest." Since this is our burning of the Reichstag moment -- Hitler used it as an excuse to suspend civil liberties -- I think we must follow our law here. How this plays out, we will see, but first as Badge 714 often said, “just the facts.” There is a tangled web here that's needs elucidation by the persons involved.

But you might say “this is a dangerous precedent,” claiming this will weaponize congressional subpoena power. Well, let’s begin at the beginning. A lot of what happened on January 6 is on camera, but that’s just the culmination of what appears to be a long and deliberate attempt to keep Trump in power at any cost. Including mobilizing our police and armed services to seize power, declare martial law and nullify an election he lost.

Here’s the Joint Chief of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, describing the Capitol attack, six days after it occurred -- eight days before President Biden’s inauguration: “The violent riot in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021 was a direct assault on the U.S. Congress, the Capitol building, and our Constitutional process. We mourn the deaths of the two Capitol policemen and others connected to these unprecedented events.

“We witnessed actions inside the Capitol building that were inconsistent with the rule of law. The rights of freedom of speech and assembly do not give anyone the right to resort to violence, sedition and insurrection.”

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Debating the 1/6 House Committee

By Todd Lassa

When the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol–its formal name–issued subpoenas to House of Representatives Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and four other GOP representatives earlier this month, the response from Republican leadership was familiar: It’s pure politics, an attempt to staunch the coming GOP takeover of Congress in the November midterm elections.

Republicans have made it clear that after it wins a House majority in the midterms, it will turn the tables and ramp up an investigation of President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his business dealings. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told the New York Post in March, “We will subpoena Hunter Biden.” Last year, Stefanik replaced Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) after McCarthy removed Cheney for becoming the ranking GOP member of two on the 1/6 panel.

McCarthy and his four colleagues in the House, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Mo Brooks of Alabama, are expected to be no-shows for their House Select panel testimony scheduled through the end of the month. Democrats, as well as post-Trump and never-Trump Republicans fear, counter to the charges of the panel’s partisanship, that there will be no consequences for the former president before the November 8 midterms.

Too little, too late, say pols and pundits who want to see action taken against Trump administration officials and associates, and against the former president himself for his alleged role in instigating and organizing the brutal attack on the Capitol to overturn the 2020 presidential election. They were given some hope Tuesday when The New York Times reported, citing unnamed sources, that the Justice Department has asked the January 6 House panel for transcripts of more than 1,000 interviews conducted privately, including questioning of Trump’s associates or former associates.

The request points to “further evidence of the wide-ranging nature” of the House panel’s investigations, the NYT says. But Trump critics who want accountability for the 1/6 attacks believe Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland has dragged his heels in enforcing the panel’s contempt charges of those who refuse to testify.

The 1/6 panel has subpoenaed Biggs and Perry for May 26, Jordan for May 27 and McCarthy and Brooks for May 27, but it seems likely they will join the likes of Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former adviser Steve Bannon as no-shows. Chairman Thompson has scheduled public hearings to begin June 9.

What can we expect of the 1/6 House Select committee? Contributing pundit Ken Zino comments in the left column. Contributing pundit R.J. Caster and pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay offer their thoughts in the right column.

Whether you are liberal, conservative never-Trumper, or conservative pro-MAGA, we want to hear from you. Enter your opinion in the comment section or email editors@thehustings.news and tell us whether you consider yourself “left” or “right.” (THU 5/19/22)

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Two Divergent Opinions from the Right on 1/6

Time to Move On

By RJ Caster

By this point everyone should be in agreement that what happened on January 6th was, in fact, utterly defenseless and condemnable in every way.

Having worked on the Hill, one of my fondest memories was walking through the Capitol from the Senate side to the House side to avoid the weather, and not once did I make that walk and not think about the history encapsulated beneath those frescoed ceilings. Nevertheless, the political angle to the January 6 investigation is a demonstration of tone-deafness by the Democrats.

The polls already are working against the Democrats heading into the midterms, and polls about January 6th show that Americans are increasingly ready to move past it. Fewer people than a just a few months ago believe President Trump is accountable. At a time when Americans are bracing for a recession and planning for how they’ll pay to balance rising fuel and food costs, I don’t think the Democrats are going to find a very receptive audience outside of the Beltway.

•••

Servant Cheaters

By Stephen Macaulay

Solemn Promise to a Divine Witness.

First, the oath that members of the U.S. House of Representatives take upon assuming office, which is codified in Title 5, Section 3331 of the United States Code:

“I, ______, do solemnly swear [or affirm] that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Second, a Thought Experiment

A local social media sensation with a marvelous toothy grin posts that said dental remarkability is the result of a daily gargle with bleach and that it is recommended that whoever else wants such a dentifrice, said rinse is the ticket.

You know, having checked out the National Library of Medicine of the National Center for Biotechnology Information:

“Mouth/throat: In the home and emergency department, give plenty of water to drink. Milk may be more soothing but not necessarily.

“Stomach/GI tract: At home and in the emergency department, do not induce vomiting; if the bleached burned on the way down, it would burn on the way back up. Give plenty of water.”

It may not kill the person who possibly ingests it, but it can cause damage.

You work for a bleach distributor. If people follow the advice of the local media star the demand for bleach will rise and you will get a bonus.

You also know, from the aforementioned source, “a 2010 pediatric study over a 16-year period that just under 270,000 US children (< 5 years of age) were injured by household cleaning products. Bleach was the leading source (37%) and usually by ingestion (63%).”

Do you:

Ask that the company you work for to start a campaign that promotes the gargling with bleach?
Ask that the company you work for to start a campaign that promotes safe practices to protect the population?

The Details

On May 12, 2022, Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, released the following statement:

“The Select Committee has learned that several of our colleagues have information relevant to our investigation into the attack on January 6 and the events leading up to it. Before we hold our hearings next month, we wished to provide members the opportunity to discuss these matters with the committee voluntarily. Regrettably, the individuals receiving subpoenas today have refused and we’re forced to take this step to help ensure the committee uncovers facts concerning January 6. We urge our colleagues to comply with the law, do their patriotic duty, and cooperate with our investigation as hundreds of other witnesses have done.”

The members receiving letters signed by Thompson are Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Scott Perry (R-PA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Mo Brooks (R-AL).

All of them had previously received invitations to appear. Those invitations were ignored. Which resulted in a subpoena.

Why the subpoenas? you might wonder.

According to the Committee:

McCarthy: “in communication with President Trump before, during, and after the attack on January 6. . . also in communication with other members of the White House staff during the attack and in the days before and after January 6 concerning the events at the Capitol. . . .”
Perry: “directly involved with efforts to corrupt the Department of Justice. . .had various communications with the White House about a number of matters relevant to the Select Committee’s investigation, including allegations that Dominion voting machines had been corrupted.”
Jordan: “in communication with President Trump on January 6 and participated in meetings and discussions throughout late 2020 and early 2021 about strategies for overturning the 2020 election.”
Biggs: “participated in meetings to plan various aspects of January 6 and was involved with plans to bring protestors to Washington. . . . was involved in efforts to persuade state officials that the 2020 [election] was stolen.”
Brooks: “spoke at the rally on January 6, encouraging rioters to ‘start taking down names and kicking ass.’ In addition, Mr. Brooks has publicly described conversations in which the former President urged him to work to ‘rescind the election of 2020’ and reinstall Mr. Trump as President.”

It is worth knowing why the Select Committee exists. In part:

“(1) To investigate and report upon the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the January 6, 2021, domestic terrorist attack upon the United States Capitol Complex (hereafter referred to as the “domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol”) and relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power, including facts and causes relating to the preparedness and response of the United States Capitol Police and other Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies in the National Capital Region and other instrumentalities of government, as well as the influencing factors that fomented such an attack on American representative democracy while engaged in a constitutional process.”

So these five men were politely asked to come. They refused. Now they are being subpoenaed. They will probably refuse.

Why?

They have sworn to uphold the law. The Committee, whether they like it or not, is a legally constituted body. So how does their refusal square with their oath?

They might claim that their discussions with Donald Trump are privileged. Except it isn’t. According to the U.S. Department of Justice: “Privileged communication is defined as statements made by people within protected relationships (e.g., husband and wife, attorney and client).”

They are (1) not Donald Trump’s spouses nor are they (2) his attorneys.

They may argue that this could set a bad precedent in terms of being forced to reveal a private discussion with the president, but there are a couple things to consider here.

First of all, what the Select Committee is going to ask them about is something bounded by the events occurring on and related to the events that occurred in Washington on January 6.

Second, their discussions with the president are discussions that occurred in their roles as public servants. They are not private individuals. They are in Washington at the behest of and in the service of the people. They might not like having to share what they said, but what they said was only because of their being elected. (Odd none of them claim that the votes that put them into office were somehow invalid.)

Whither Truth, Justice and the American Way?

January 6 was an unprecedented event that put the Constitution in danger (e.g., the 12^th Amendment). Presumably the purpose of the Select Committee is to keep it from being a precedent for other Electoral College vote certifications being put at risk.

So regardless of what political party you support, ask yourself this question about the five subpoenaed congressmen:

If they have nothing to hide, if they did nothing untoward, then why the resistance to simply telling what they know?

One gets the sense that were they holding the bleach franchise they’d be beating the drum for it.

Where is their probity?

Some Considerations

So what should the Select Committee do?

They should simply publicly make it clear to the American people what these people are staying quiet about. If they did nothing wrong, then why aren’t they owning up to it?

What’s more, they should also make it plain that if a regular American is subpoenaed, they are likely to do their civic duty and show up where and when they are directed to, and that these men, for whatever reason (one suspects it has more to do with avariciousness than principle) are refusing to do what the rest of us are expected to.

They talk about “making America great again.”

How is their behavior, how is their example, helping?

That there was an attack on the Capitol is something that no one can doubt.

That there was a stolen election is something that no one has put forth compelling evidence to support.

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From the Left

The House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to five fellow members, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). All five Republicans are expected no-shows. Public hearings begin June 9.

Will the hearings be too little, too late a response to the violent attack and attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election? We debate expectations in these three columns Wednesday.

Scroll down for …

•Our analysis and reaction to Saturday’s shootings at a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo.

Click to page 2 for …

•Russia’s reaction to Finland’s application for NATO membership. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since objected to NATO membership applications by both Finland and Sweden charging they harbor “terror” groups including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which are blacklisted by the U.S., European Union and Ankara, according to Aljazeera.

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…meanwhile…

(U.S. Senate candidate John Fetterman.)

(WED 5/18/22)

Finland, Sweden Apply to NATO … It’s official. Finland and Sweden formally applied in Brussels to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Wednesday, thus expanding the western military coalition to 32 members. Vladimir Putin will not be pleased. UPDATE -- NATO failed to reach consensus Wednesday with Finland and Sweden over their applications for membership, but vowed to continue talks (AP).

•••

CPAC goes full-metal authoritarian … Meanwhile, the 48-year-old Conservative Political Action Committee, which has held lovefests most recently to Donald J. Trump in Orlando and Dallas goes to Budapest, Hungary, Thursday and Friday for an “extraordinary session” where authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbån and Fox News host Tucker Carlson will speak together in a video address, according to Newsweek.

Orbån’s CV: He criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his April election victory speech and although Hungary is one of the 30 current members of NATO and counting, Orbån is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Orbån referenced his regard for the Great Replacement theory in a speech Monday following the killing of 10 Black shoppers at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo allegedly by a white supremacist.

•••

Fetterman v. Oz … or McCormick … John Fetterman (pictured above), the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor who pushed back against Donald J. Trump’s challenge of his state’s 2020 presidential election results, calling the 45^th president “no different than any other random internet troll” will face either Dr. Mehmet Oz or David McCormick for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R). Fetterman, who put a scare into his supporters last weekend when he announced he had suffered a mild stroke, and will undergo surgery to have a pacemaker implanted, beat Rep. Conor Lamb 61.4% to 29.2% to win Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, while Oz (31.2%) – Trump’s candidate – led McCormick (31.1%) by 1,114 votes as of 9 a.m. Wednesday, according to Ballotpedia. That’s close enough for an automatic recount.

Oz and McCormick easily led third-place Kathy Barnette, at 24.8% and four other candidates, though Barnette, a political commentator who attended the January 6 Capitol insurrection had surged in recent polls.

The GOP will have a gubernatorial candidate who had attended then-President Trump’s January 6 “rally,” Doug Mastriano, who says he left before violence began. He easily beat Lou Barletta, 42.3% to 22.7%, and seven others Tuesday and will face Democrat Josh Shapiro in the November finals. Current Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf cannot run for another term because of term limits in the state.

North Carolina primaries: Rep. Madison Cawthorn’s (R-NC) behavior, which includes his accusing congressional colleagues of inviting him to sex and drug parties, carrying a loaded gun into an airport and release of sex tapes from his own youth was too much even for the current Trump GOP. He lost his bid for a second House of Representatives term Tuesday in North Carolina’s Republican primary, although by just 1,319 of fewer than 66,000 votes. Edwards won 44.7% of the vote to Cawthorn’s 42.7%, with third-place Matthew Burke at 12.6%.

Also in North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Ted Budd beat former Gov. Pat McCrory in the GOP Senate race and will face Democrat Donald Davis in November.

Idaho: Incumbent Republican Gov. Brad Little, with 60.9% of the vote, beat Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, 24.9%. The lieutenant governor position in Idaho is elected separately. During the pandemic, McGeachin banned mask mandates and expanded state prohibitions against state entities requiring vaccination and testing while Little was out of state, at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Kentucky: Sen. Rand Paul easily won the GOP primary. His Democratic challenger this November is former state legislator Charles Booker.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

(TUE 5/17/22)

Shooting Aftermath … President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden travel to Buffalo today to meet with first responders and family members of the 13 victims of Saturday’s mass shooting (including 10 fatalities) at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood, NPR reports. FBI Director Christopher Wray has called the shooting a “targeted attack” and a hate crime.

Federal investigators also are calling a “hate crime” the attack Sunday on a church in Laguna Woods, California, which ended with five wounded and one dead in the Taiwanese congregation. The suspect is David Chou of Las Vegas, a Chinese-born American citizen whose motives are believed to be political.

Domestic Terrorism bill: The attack on a grocery store in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo has revived the bipartisan Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act, Punchbowl News reports. The bill would create offices inside the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to “monitor, investigate and prosecute cases of domestic terrorism.” The legislation passed by voice vote in the House of Representatives during the 116^th Congress, then stalled in the Senate.

House Democratic leaders had to pull the bill three weeks ago after Democratic progressives revolted, Punchbowl News says. The bill has three Republican co-sponsors in the House: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Fred Upton of Michigan and Don Bacon of Nebraska.

What Tucker said: Few dots were needed to connect Fox News’ Tucker Carlson with Buffalo shooting suspect Payton Gendron over their apparent agreement on “Great Replacement Theory,” including our own post in this space yesterday. So, what did the host of Tucker Carlson Tonight say about the shooting Monday night?

He began his opening monologue talking about “at least 104 Americans shot in major American cities” as well as the apparently politically motivated shooting at the Taiwanese church in Orange County – and conflated these with the Buffalo shooting.

Carlson calls the 180-page document of suspect Payton Dendron “definitely racist,” but “what he wrote does not add up to a manifesto… .” Carlson distances the suspect’s rantings from his own stated beliefs saying, “he writes like the mental patient he is [VJ1] .” If you care to watch the rest of his monologue, it is available at the Fox News website.

Note: Carlson’s argument that the suspect’s mental illness was a factor in his motivations is legitimate. But mental illness and a belief in the Great Replacement Theory are not mutually exclusive.

•••

This Tuesday’s primaries … Primaries are held Tuesday in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Idaho, and Oregon, says Ballotpedia. Most closely watched are North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, the latter of which has contentious battles in both parties for the Senate. Incumbent Republican Pat Toomey, considered too moderate for the MAGA GOP, is not running for re-election.

In the Democratic primary, John Fetterman, who as lieutenant governor became an anti-MAGA hero for pushing back against pro-Trump attempts to overturn the state’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden in 2020, faces U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb, who has been redistricted. Fetterman revealed Sunday that he is recovering from a stroke, which has the Democratic National Committee worried about the popular lieutenant governor’s chances for winning.

How far right will Pennsylvania Republicans go?: That’s the question for Pennsylvania’s GOP Senate primary Tuesday, where Kathy Barnette has had a late surge in the polls against Donald J. Trump’s pick, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and financier Dave McCormick, who is married to former Trump aide Dina Powell.

Here’s the kicker: Barnette is to the right, politically, of both Oz and McCormick.

•••

No more post-election limits … In another win for conservative anti-campaign finance reform (see Citizens United v. FEC, 2010) the Supreme Court Monday struck down, in a 6-3 vote, a law that limited post-campaign contributions to $250,000, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. This part of the bipartisan 2002 Campaign Reform Act (McCain-Feingold) was designed to prevent such contributions from influencing newly elected or re-elected candidates.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) filed the case, Federal Election Commission v. Ted Cruz for Senate after his 2018 victory over Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, which became the most expensive Senate race to that point, according to SCOTUSblog.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had filed a Friend of the Court brief asking that the entire McCain-Feingold reform legislation be struck down.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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Reader Comment

I don’t read or watch much by Tucker Carlson, but this “center-balanced column” ("Tucker Carlson is Culpable," May 16) had me curious how fairly his position was represented on thehustings.news. So, I opted to view his monologue.

https://video.foxnews.com/v/6306359096112#sp=show-clips

Personally, I’m more offended by President Biden’s economic policies driving inflation higher (followed by a recession) … and his administration’s refusal to uphold current U.S. immigration law than I am by the opinions of a Fox News political pundit. How about holding those we elect to lead and represent us a bit more accountable?

--Rich Corbett

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To the Right

The pro-Trump wing of the Republican Party (which is most of it) has long objected to the existence of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – one of five House members since subpoenaed by the panel -- claiming its work is purely political. Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has announced public hearings will begin January 6.

Look for a debate in these columns Wednesday on what our pundits expect from the committee.

Scroll down for …

•“The Sullied Soul,” Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s reaction to our center column news analysis connecting Fox News’ Tucker Carlson with the Buffalo shooting suspect’s replacement theory beliefs.

Click to page 2 for …

•Russia’s reaction to Finland’s application for NATO membership. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has since objected to NATO membership applications by both Finland and Sweden, on the grounds they harbor “terror” groups including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which are blacklisted by the U.S., European Union and Ankara, according to Aljazeera.

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Is Trump the RINO?

Some on the right might argue that today’s center column should be on the left. That argument would seem to fully surrender the GOP to Donald J. Trump’s nationalistic MAGA philosophy.

But not every old-fashioned, conservative Republican has given up quite yet. Consider his former vice president, Mike Pence, who last week revealed he has the backbone to endorse incumbent Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia for re-election, though Kemp has teed off Trump sufficiently for him to endorse rival David Perdue, the former U.S. senator from Georgia who lost to Democrat Jon Ossof in the state’s January 2021 runoffs.

Those of us at The Hustings would like to believe that a return to good old-fashioned free-market capitalist conservatism will find its foothold in the GOP and stomp out what clearly appear to be MAGA’s authoritarian tendencies. Yes, we are still trying to be even-handed and fair, but we are also fervently pro-democracy.

You may feel differently. The right column is always open to pro-Trump arguments so long as they are civil, not personal (no trolling allowed – this is not Elon Musk’s vision of Twitter) and do not try to pass off falsehoods as fact (these rules apply equally to all sides).

If you’re that other sort of modern Republican – the never-Trumper sort – your comments are welcomed for the right column as well. If you consider yourself liberal or progressive, we’d like to post your comments in this column. Please tell us in which column you belong, based on your overall philosophy rather than a position on a single issue, by listing yourself as “left” or “right” in the subject line. Email editors@thehustings,news.

--T.L.

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Tucker Carlson is Culpable

By Todd Lassa

There was Tucker Carlson, grinning in a picture on his pre-Musk Twitter feed, holding a copy of the May 1 issue of The New York Times with part one of Nicholas Confessore’s exhaustive two-part tome on Fox News’ most popular personality. The headline: “American Nationalist: How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable News.” Confessore describes in thousands of words how Carlson may host the “most racist show in the history of cable news” and certainly does host cable news’ most popular.

Carlson is cable news’ most prominent proponent of “Replacement Theory,” which claims that expanding voting rights along with free and open borders for immigrants, especially those at the Southern border, are part of a conspiracy to reduce white Americans to minority status and assure Democrats’ control.

The 18-year-old suspect in Saturday’s shooting of 13 people at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York – 11 of them Black and 10 of them now dead – doesn’t fit the Boomer demographics of Carlson’s show. There is no evidence, so far, that the suspect was a viewer, though there is ample evidence, several news outlets report, that he is an adherent of Replacement Theory and began to follow racist social media outlets as a bored high school student stuck at home from when the pandemic began.

The suspect, Payton Gendron posted a 180-page manifesto online timed for release just before his alleged attack, The Buffalo News reports, saying he believes that “whites are in danger of being replaced by non-whites, who must be removed from this country or slaughtered. Blacks and Jews draw most of Gendron’s vitriol in the manifesto.” The manifesto refers to The Great Replacement Theory, an older, more "traditional" edition of Carlson's fearmongering.

Whether or not Gendron looked away from social media long enough to watch a single minute of Tucker Carlson Tonight or not, he shared with the host the same reasoning behind their racist-nationalist philosophy.

We can’t begin to guess how Carlson might respond to this tragedy on his show Monday night.

It must also be noted that the suspect was investigated less than a year ago as a 17-year-old high school student for making a “threatening statement” at his school, according to The Washington Post. He was held in custody for a day under a provision of the state’s mental health laws and released.

One of the things that Carlson revels in is the sense that he and people like him (well, actually not really like him because Carlson wouldn’t truck with the plebs) are somehow victims. Because they have been victimized, they have every right to lash out.

And we can see how this turns out.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

The Sullied Soul

By Stephen Macaulay

“They’ll be spandex jackets, one for everyone.”—"I.G.Y. (What a Beautiful World),” by Donald Fagen

The “hate that remains on the soul of America.”

Those words were spoken by President Joe Biden in response to the fatal shooting of 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo by what he described as “a lone gunman, armed with weapons of war and hate-filled soul.”

This is America one fifth of the way through the 21^st century.

One would have imagined that we are more advanced, more sophisticated, more understanding that things are changing. We aren’t.

But like it or not — and there seem to be plenty on the not side — there is a simple fact of America in 2022: Demographics are changing.

As William H. Frey, senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, pointed out, “there is an unprecedented stagnation in population growth, a continued decrease in Americans’ geographical mobility, more pronounced population aging, a first-time decline in the size of the white population, and rising racial and ethnic diversity among millennials, Gen Z, and younger groups, which now comprise a majority of the nation’s residents.”

To quote Dorothy: “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

And some people don’t like it. Some of those people include those who have had some of the biggest jobs in Washington.

There have long been racists in Washington. They haven’t gone away. It seems as though they’re not going away.

But it would be an exaggeration to even imagine that the alleged 18-year-old shooter paid a whole lot of attention to what’s being said in Washington.

It would also underestimate the state of affairs were we not to recognize that if political, social and cultural leadership don’t believe in the second paragraph of the Constitution — "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness” — but only the Second Amendment, there will continue to be trouble as we continue into the future.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Too Little, Too Late?

Are the House Select Committee’s subpoenas of five Republicans, including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, “too little, too late”? or well-timed to set up June 9 public hearings on the January 6 Capitol insurrection between midterm primaries and November 8?

Submit your comments on this page, or email editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you are left or right.

Other issues Friday …

•Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) holds up an otherwise bi-partisan-supported Ukrainian aid package.

•Elon Musk places his purchase of Twitter on hold. Good for civil discourse?

•U.S. gas prices hit another record.

Scroll down for more news and commentary, including …

•Sweden’s application to join NATO, and Russia’s reaction.

•SCOTUS’ likely ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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…meanwhile…

(FRI 5/13/22)

Paul putsch … Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has single-handedly held up a $39.8-billion military and humanitarian aid package to Ukraine that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) had hoped to quickly pass through the Senate Thursday. Paul, often identified with the pro-Putin wing of the far-right GOP, wants to expand an Afghanistan inspector general role to oversee U.S. aid to Ukraine, according to The Hill.

The Senate is expected to vote on the package next week.

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Trump to Twitter must wait … Tesla CEO Elon Musk has placed his $44-billion takeover of Twitter on temporary hold to make sure the social media outlet’s claims that fake accounts (bots) “do indeed represent less than 5%” of Twitter’s users, as the company estimates. The real number is important because those bots do not buy advertising.

Musk, who earlier in the week said that Donald J. Trump would be allowed back on Twitter under his ownership, later Friday morning tweeted; “Still committed to acquisition.” Unless, of course, that was a Musk bot.

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Another gas price record … The national average for a gallon of unleaded regular hit another high Friday, at $4.432 per gallon, AAA reports. A week ago, the average hit $4.279, and it compares with $3.028 per gallon a year ago.

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Five House Select Committee Subpoenas … Two inevitable reactions to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection subpoenas of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and four other Republicans come from opposite ends of the political spectrum; 1.) Are the subpoenas, as Stephanie Ruhl suggested on MSNBC’s The Eleventh Hour “too little, too late”?, and 2.) If/when Republicans take back control of the House, they’re going to turn the tables and come after Hunter Biden. Perhaps even President Biden, himself, who could face impeachment for the 8%-plus annual inflation rate. This is Tucker Carlson-style what-about-ism to the extreme.

Beside McCarthy, who has been asked to appear before the committee on May 31, the other Republican House members who were subpoenaed Thursday are, of course, Jim Jordan, of Ohio (May 27), Scott Perry, of Pennsylvania (May 26), Andy Biggs, of Arizona (May 26) and Mo Brooks, of Alabama (May 31). No one other than perhaps the committee expects they will honor their subpoenas, which the panel issued after the six Congress members declined requests to appear – McCarthy already has said he will not show up.

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has made it clear that the panel has abundant evidence from about 1,000 witnesses already questioned. With all the hard lifting apparently complete, Thompson’s plan to begin public hearings June 9 could prove fairly well-timed coming between primary season and the November midterms.

Despite McCarthy’s repeated complaints that the whole Select Committee process is nothing more than politics, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the ranking of two Republicans on the committee – whom McCarthy stripped of her House GOP leadership role last year -- was among panel members pushing hardest for the subpoenas, Politico reports in a scoop citing sources Friday.

Cheney told reporters that issuing the subpoenas “was not a decision that was taken lightly” (per The Washington Post).

“It’s a reflection of how important and serious the investigation is and how grave the attack on the Capitol was.”

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Subpoena for Hunter Biden?

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and five other Republicans in the House will ignore the Select Committee’s subpoenas to appear for questioning over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Should they appear, or should Democrats fear the GOP will turn the tables if/when they win a majority of the House of Representatives this November?

Submit your comments on this page, or email editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you are right or left.

Other issues Friday …

•Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) holds up an otherwise bi-partisan-supported Ukrainian aid package.

•Elon Musk places his purchase of Twitter on hold, potentially delaying Donald J. Trump’s return.

•U.S. gas prices hit another record.

Scroll down for more news and commentary, including …

•Sweden’s application to join NATO and Russia’s reaction.

•SCOTUS’ likely ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade.

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On the Left

…meanwhile…

Finland to NATO … Finland, which has an 830-mile border with Russia must apply to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “without delay,” President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Thursday, per The Guardian.

In a daily call to reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finnish application to the military bloc is “definitely” a threat to Russia and would not make Europe or the world more stable, Reuters reports.

Define ‘stable’: Meanwhile, the UN says the scale of unlawful killings in Ukraine is “shocking” (The Guardian, again). NATO appears ready to fast-track previously neutral countries, including Finland and Denmark, for membership.

The Trumpian upshot: Where would NATO, Ukraine and the U.S. be today if Donald J. Trump’s attitude toward NATO had prevailed?

•••

Turns out there was attempted voter fraud … Trump attorney John Eastman tried to convince Pennsylvania state Rep. Russell H. Diamond, a Republican, to apply a mathematical equation to reject ballots at a “prorated amount” in order to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state, The New York Times reports. The NYT filed a public records request to release Eastman’s emails from his former employer, the University of Colorado Boulder.

Mail-in ballots were the source of contention in the state. On election night, November 3, 2020, Trump had a big lead there, but after outstanding votes were counted primarily from Democratic-leaning areas including Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Biden was declared winner of Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes, by November 6. The following day Rudy Giuliani held a press conference for the Trump campaign alleging voter fraud against the incumbent, at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia.

Eastman wrote to Diamond that Trump’s legal team had presented “ample evidence of sufficient anomalies and illegal votes to have turned the election from Trump to Biden,” at public hearings across the nation, including Pennsylvania. Diamond countered with a response that Trump’s lawyers had not presented sufficiently strong evidence of fraud, the NYT says.

•••

Manchin votes with the GOP … Dog bites man. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) voted with 50 Republicans to defeat, 51-49 a bill to ensure abortion rights that was expected to die by filibuster but will live on as an issue for the November midterms (per NPR). Manchin is said to favor abortion rights with more limits than in the bill, as do

Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME), who were considered to be two potential swing votes for the Democrats, but also voted against the bill.

•••

‘First’ cases in North Korea … The Hermit Kingdom’s capital, Pyongyang, confirmed its first COVID-19 cases Thursday, though experts have long doubted the country’s claims that it had gone this long in avoiding the pandemic, according to The Washington Post.

Meanwhile, back home: The White House has issued a proclamation on remembering the 1 million Americans lost to COVID-19 so far (a number we will officially reach within a few days). President Biden says in the proclamation “we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember. We must remain vigilant against this pandemic and do everything we can to save as many lives as possible.”--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

On the Right

Disagree, or agree, with our center-column take on where NATO would be today if Donald J. Trump was president?

Other news up for discussion:

•Latest revelation on John Eastman’s attempt to overturn Pennsylvania for Trump.

•Senate’s abortion rights bill.

Email comments on these and other recent issues covered by The Hustings to editors@thehustings.news, and list yourself as “right” or “left” in the subject line, or click on the headline at the top of this column and then enter your comments on that page.

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