Scroll down to read our discussion of the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, with commentary by contributing pundit Jim McCraw, plus Timothy Magrath on Florida’s culture wars.
Join the no echo-chamber, no-trolling conversation on these and other political news issues. Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news or leave a comment for moderation by clicking the tab in this column.
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(WED 5/11/22)
Very, very, very slight inflationary relief in April … The Consumer Price Index was up 0.3% in April, compared with 1.2% in March, to lower the annual inflation rate to 8.3% before seasonal adjustment, compared with 8.5% the previous month. Shelter, food, airline fares and new car and truck prices led the inflation numbers, though as you can see from the chart above, gasoline/diesel prices at the pump, which are determined by global oil prices, are the greatest factor in raising prices. [TIP: Click on "Meanwhile" headline to see larger copy of the CPI chart. Then click on The Hustings banner to return to three-column format.]
•••
Biden’s inflation jawbone … President Biden tried to pre-empt Wednesday’s inflation numbers with a Tuesday White House address, telling Americans; “I know you’ve got to be frustrated. I know. I can taste it.”
He compared his administration’s lowering of the federal deficit after four years of deficit increases under his predecessor (whom he did not directly name) and blasted “extreme MAGA” Republican proposals to “raise taxes” on 75 million Americans and of constant GOP threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, singling out Rick Scott of Florida, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Scott has suggested Biden resign over the inflation rate.
Biden promoted minimum tax rates on corporations and billionaires in his stalled Bring Back Better bill, saying the “last thing we should be thinking about is rewarding corporations” for windfall profits from inflation. “You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure corporations pay their fair share.”
Note: With fast-approaching midterms likely to dampen any remaining prospects of advancing his BBB, Biden continues to push for overturning 40 years of “trickle-down” Reaganomics as Republicans of all stripes accuse the president of giving in to progressive, “socialist” Democrats in Congress.
•••
Latest anti-Trump audio … after the January 6 Capitol insurrection comes from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has since become one of the more prominent “traditional” Republicans to express loyalty to ex-President Trump. According to the latest recording released by NYT reporters and co-authors of This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, Graham, speaking from a secure location as Capitol police were still clearing MAGA rioters from the building said the “best person to have” in the White House was Joe Biden, not Donald J. Trump.
Retraction: Graham told CNN Tuesday “The Joe Biden we see as president is not the Joe Biden we saw in the Senate. He’s pursued a far-left agenda as president.”
Note: We’d guess the GOP that Biden sees from the White House is not the GOP he saw in the Senate.
Hearings date set: House Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has announced that after gathering lots of evidence and recordings of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, the panel will begin public hearings on June 9.
•••
Reed Can’t Wait … Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) announced his resignation Tuesday, half a year ahead of the midterms, citing “extremism” in the House of Representatives. In March 2021 he was accused of sexual harassment of a lobbyist and said he would not seek re-election this November. A moderate, Reed also had resigned as chair of the bi-partisan Problem Solvers Caucus.
Reed has joined the Prime Policy Group as a lobbyist.
•••
Trump’s count is 1-1 in West Virginia, Nebraska primaries … Trump endorsee Alexander Mooney beat David McKinley, 51.9% to 37.9%, for the GOP nomination for West Virginia’s second Congressional district in Tuesday’s primaries according to Ballotpedia. Both candidates are incumbents, having been squeezed into the same district after West Virginia lost a seat from the 2020 U.S. Census, and McKinley was one of 19 House Republicans who supported President Biden’s $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill last year.
Mooney faces Democratic candidate Barry Wendell in November.
Elsewhere in WV: Republican Carol Miller faces Democrat Eugene Watson for the House District 1 seat.
In Nebraska: Ex-President Trump lost the Republican gubernatorial primary, where his choice, Charles Herbster, with 29.2% lost to Jim Pillen’s 33.9%. Pillen was endorsed by current Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is term-limited, and Herbster faced allegations in a Nebraska Examiner story that he groped or sexually assaulted eight women since 2017. A third Republican, Brett Lindstrom, earned 26.7% of the primary vote.
Pullen faces Democratic candidate Carol Blood and Libertarian candidate Scott Zimmerman in November.
For Nebraska’s House District 1, Republican Mike Flood faces Democrat Patty Pansing; for District 2, it’s incumbent Republican Don Bacon versus Democrat Tony Vargas; and in District 3, it’s incumbent Republican Adrian Smith versus the Legalize Marijuana Now Party candidate Mark Elworth Jr.
According to Newsweek, Herbster’s loss to Pillen breaks Trump’s 55-0 winning streak in GOP primary endorsements to date.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics
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(TUE 5/10/22)
Tweet Trump's return? ... Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he will lift Twitter's ban of ex-President Donald J. Trump if his $44-billion deal to buy the social media platform happens, The Hill reports. "I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme," Musk said at the Financial Times' "Future of the Car" event.
•••
More aid for Ukraine … The House of Representatives and Senate could vote as early as Tuesday to approve a $39.7 billion package of additional aid to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s attack, Reuters reports. President Biden had requested $33 billion, but congressional Democrats added in $3.4 billion in additional military aid and $3.4 billion in additional humanitarian aid.
The additional funds come after Russian President Vladmir Putin held a subdued Victory Day Monday, which some Kremlinologists take as a sign the country will continue to withdraw from most of its neighbor, including Kyiv, even as it intensifies battles in the separatist eastern region of Donbas.
•••
Gas prices hit ‘record’ high … Gasoline prices in the U.S. have hit another record high, $4.374/gallon, Tuesday according to AAA. That’s up from $4.204/gallon a week ago, and $2.967/gallon a year ago. The “record high” is qualified – adjusted for inflation, gas prices were higher during The Great Recession.
President Biden is scheduled to present his plan to fight inflation and “lower costs to working families” from the White House Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
•••
Democracy loses the Philippines … Not that it was thriving under Rodrigo Duterte, but Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr., offspring of the country’s 1970s/80s dictator and an infamous shoe collector, won Monday’s presidential race with a much wider margin than expected. Marcos was supposed to narrowly beat his closest challenger, but according to the unofficial vote count (to be confirmed Tuesday) he garnered more than 30.5 million to the “champion of human rights and reforms” Vice President Leni Robredo’s 14.5 million votes, Politico reports. Third-place Manny Pacquiao, a boxing legend in The Philippines, earned just 3.5 million votes.
Sara Duterte, daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, leads a separate vice- presidential vote. Her father is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for allegedly killing thousands during his anti-drug crackdown.
Facebook strikes again: Marcos Jr.’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., declared martial law as president, from 1972 to 1981. The family allegedly stole more than $10 billion before the Marcoses fled the Philippines in 1986 and have never been held accountable, according to The Recount. Marcos Jr. and his family have been “restoring” Ferdinand Sr. and wife Imelda’s reputation with false history, especially on social media site Facebook in the months and years leading up to Monday’s elections, according to several news reports.
Can’t happen here, right?: Whatever happens to the MAGA movement in November 2024 – and keeping in mind ex-President Trump still owns the GOP – Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric are still allowed on Facebook and Twitter.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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What's Up... MON 5/9/22
Today … Russian President Vladimir Putin held forth over his country’s Victory Day celebrating its win over Nazi Germany in World War II, NPR reports, and we won’t bother here to repeat his lies from his speech. NPR does note, however, that Putin did not announce plans to intensify his war on Ukraine. His troops have retreated for now from Kyiv and are concentrating on Eastern Ukraine.
Tuesday … Nebraska and West Virginia hold primaries for the November midterm elections (per Ballotpedia).
Wednesday … Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduces the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a federal abortion rights bill that would supercede the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The bill will fail along party lines with Democrats lacking the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, but the vote will give Democratic senators up for re-election and challengers to Republicans in November’s midterms campaign advertising fodder. A similar bill passed by the House of Representatives last September failed in the Senate last February, The Guardian notes.
Meanwhile, Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves refused to rule out banning emergency contraceptive pills and IUDs in his state speaking on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.
•••
Never mind Trump’s presidential library … A presidential library could be built specializing in post-Trump presidency books, from loyalist Mark Meadows’ The Chief’s Chief to never-Trumper-again John Bolton’s The Room Where it Happened: A Memoir. Latest, and easily one of the most explosive is Mark Esper’s A Sacred Oath: A Defense Secretary in Extraordinary Times.
One of the first questions CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked Esper on a 60 Minutes feature interview Sunday was; Why wait until you can sell books to tell us this?
Fair question, and Esper’s response seems like a fair answer: Warning the world about such anti-democratic insanity as then-President Trump suggesting the late-May/early-June 2020 George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., be declared an insurrection and the National Guard be called in to shoot protesters in the kneecaps, and that Trump wanted to use the military to conduct a “secret” military strike against drug cartels south of the Mexican border, would have resulted in the former host of The Apprentice telling him “you’re fired.” Esper told O’Donnell he couldn’t count on his replacement being as diligent in pushing back against Trump’s MAGA thinking.
Esper said that he and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to “swat down” such Trumpian suggestions on a weekly basis. Milley, who continues as Joint Chiefs chairman under the Biden administration and Esper were both embarrassed to be conned into a political photo op with Trump when he held up a bible at St. John’s Church near the White House, an account backed up by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book, Peril.
Note: Thus Esper’s excuse for withholding stories of Trump’s anti-democratic propensity get a pass, and his memoir serves as yet another warning of what could still come from a GOP filled with pro-Trump midterm election candidates.
--Todd Lassa
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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
Scroll down to read our discussion of the Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, with commentary by pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay and contributing pundit Bryan Williams, plus R.J. Caster on Florida’s culture wars.
Join the no echo-chamber, no-trolling conversation on these and other political news issues. Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news or leave a comment for moderation by clicking the tab in this column.
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The Hustings is committed to providing a safe online space for your civil comments on the latest news and politics, whether you are liberal or conservative. Read our center-column story on the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll (“New poll affirms abortion rights support”) and tell us your opinion using the Comments tab on this page (subject to moderation) or email editors@thehustings.news.
Whether you are pro-choice or pro-life, please note in your comments whether you consider yourself “liberal” or “conservative.”
Also in this column…
•Contributing pundit Jim McCraw on the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion on overturning Roe v. Wade.
•Guest pundit Timothy Magrath on Florida’s culture wars (page 2).
•Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prospects for becoming next House speaker after leaked recordings of his post-January 6 comments on removing Donald J. Trump from the White House (page 2).
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(FRI 5/6/22)
Another good jobs report … The U.S. economy added another 428,000 jobs in April to keep the employment market tight, with unemployment steady at 3.6%, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Biggest job gains, as usual, were in the leisure, hospitality, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing industries and wages were up, though not by enough to overcome the highest inflation in 40 years.
•••
New poll affirms abortion rights support … We’ve heard for years that most Americans support abortion rights, and now that we’re on the precipice of the Supreme Court likely overturning Roe v. Wade, Democrats can have some confidence from a new Reuters/Ipsos poll that they have an issue that can push back on the expectation that the GOP will take back House and Senate majorities in the midterms.
Reuters/Ipsos says 63% of 998 adults interviewed online after May 3 are likely to support a candidate who would support a law giving all Americans a legal right to abortion, in order to replace Roe if it is struck down by the Supreme Court.
Split by political parties, 78% of Democrats said they would support a pro-abortion rights candidate, 49% of Republicans agreed, and 59% of independents agreed.
The Democratic National Committee’s lingering problem, of course, is whether a sufficient number of independents and most Democrats are as passionate about their “pro-choice” position as the 51% of Republicans who would not support such a candidate due to their “pro-life” stand. It must be noted that hard-right conservatives have also been floating the possibility of a federal law that would prohibit abortion in the U.S.
Reuters/Ipsos parsed out support for Roe v. Wade with these follow-ups…
•33% say they would be angry if SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade, including…
•51% of Democrats.
•24% of Republicans.
•25% of independents.
•29% of Americans say they would be “afraid” if SCOTUS overturns.
•40% of Democrats agree.
•22% of Republicans agree.
•23% of independents agree.
Finally, 54% of Democrats say the U.S. would become a “worse” place to live if Roe v. Wade is overturned, versus 43% of Republicans and 42% of independents.
White House announces new press secretary … Karine Jean-Pierre becomes the first-ever Black White House press secretary, replacing Jen Psaki, who is leaving for MSNBC. Jean-Pierre currently is deputy press secretary and has filled in for Psaki when she was out with COVID-19.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics
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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
Elon Musk had this to say about the company he’s about to buy for $44 billion: “Twitter’s a war zone. If someone’s going to jump in the war zone it’s like ‘okay, let’s go!.’”
Consider this the No War Zone, a safe place for your conservative- or liberal-leaning opinions. Leave your comments here on the leaked Supreme Court draft that wouild reverse Roe v. Wade, whether pro-life or pro-choice (see “New poll affirms abortion rights support” in Friday’s center-column) or email them to editors@thehustings.news and as long as they’re civil and respectful, we’ll post them on this page (please note whether you consider yourself “left” or “right”). No echo-chambers, no trolling.
Also in this column:
•Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary, “Stare Decisis: Look Away. I Need a Job.”
•Contributing pundit Bryan Williams on the leaked majority opinion draft and what it means for the Democrats this midterm.
•Macaulay and on page 2 guest pundit R.J. Caster with different conservative takes on Florida’s culture wars.
•Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prospects for becoming next House speaker after leaked recordings of his post-January 6 comments on removing Donald J. Trump from the White House (page 2).
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In the right column Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay addresses the veracity of Donald J. Trump’s Supreme Court justices.
Scroll down to read Jim McCraw on the left, and Bryan Williams on the right on that leaked Supreme Court draft ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade.
Everyone is talking about it. You can comment on it with a comment to editors@thehustings.news.
Scroll down further to read our coverage of Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida’s culture wars, with Timothy Magrath in the left column and R.J. Caster on the right.
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(THU 5/5/22)
Intense interest ... The Federal Reserve has certified a half-percentage point interest rate increase in its effort to stem inflation (per The Wall Street Journal), chairman Jerome Powell (above) announced Wednesday. The annual inflation rate was 8.5% for the 12 months ending March 31.
Markets reacted with enthusiasm, not the expected response from Wall Street for an interest rate hike, which usually occurs a quarter-point at a time rather than half a point. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.81% Wednesday and the “tech-heavy” NASDAQ rose 3.19%, while the Democratic National Committee’s prospects for staunching the long-expected Republican takeover of Congress in the midterms is down. It looks to be coming down to inflation and gas prices versus SCOTUS and abortion.
•••
About that Vance victory … Wednesday morning quarterbacking of Tuesday’s Ohio primary elections will spill into the weekend op-ed pages and Sunday morning’s political talk shows. The New York Times Thursday chalks up Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance’s narrow win in the GOP primary for Rob Portman’s U.S. Senate seat to loving exposure on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight and right-wing Silicon Valley titan/Gawker-killer Peter Thiel’s $15 million worth of campaign contributions. This appears to be the largest amount ever to a single Senate candidate by an individual megadonor, according to the NYT.
But in Karl Rove’s op-ed in The Wall Street Journal; “Vance’s Ohio Senate Victory Isn’t a Big Win for Trump,” the author maintains that Thiel’s donation of $3.5 million out of that $15 million total to Vance’s SuperPAC after Trump’s late endorsement is what put him over the top. Third-place GOP candidate Matt Dolan made much bigger gains in the last two weeks of the campaign, Rove says.
Upshot: All the top Republicans in the primary were pro-MAGA. As a celebrity who flipped on his circa 2016 never-Trumper position, Vance was the one to get the nod from the former president. Whether Vance can grow his following beyond the MAGA base this November will depend heavily on inflation and gasoline prices, and on whether SCOTUS overturns Roe v. Wade.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
By Stephen Macaulay
One of the characteristics of those who have been affected by the Trump Force Field of Political Behavior is that they will say or do anything in order to obtain or maintain their jobs.
Does anyone doubt that there were extreme cases of groveling among those who would have otherwise been characterized as standing for probity (e.g., Lindsey Graham) or family (e.g., Ted Cruz)? Graham went from his, in 2015, “You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell” to figuratively shaving the man’s back. Ted Cruz, after Trump threw serious shade at Heidi Cruz, called Trump “a sniveling coward.” Subsequently, if there was any sniveling, Cruz held the Kleenex under Trump’s nose.
The reason they and many others bow and scrape so much that they’ve developed moral kyphosis is simply because they want to keep their source of income. There is an evident fear that if they go against their Dear Leader they will find the Base, which is like some sort of red-colored mob of Dementors, driving them from what they apparently imagine is a sinecure.
Potential examples of those who apparently think that it is okay to blatantly lie —because later they can either deny it or defect it, something that Trump did with absolute abandon -- (The Washington Post calculated the number of lies being 30,573 over his presidency) — are Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, both of whom indicated, during their respective confirmation hearings, that Roe v. Wade was established precedent. Settled law.
As Gorsuch said during his hearings, “Part of the value of precedent – and it has lots of value, it has value in and of itself, because it is our history and our history has value intrinsically. But it also has an instrumental value in this sense: it adds to the determinacy of law.
“Once a case is settled, that adds to the determinacy of the law
“What was once a hotly contested issue is no longer a hotly contested issue. We move forward.”
Kavanaugh said during his hearing, “As a general proposition, I understand the importance of the precedent set forth in Roe v. Wade.”
So let’s say that the leaked SCOTUS draft opinion about Roe will stand with just a few minor copy edits.
What of what those two men said in front of senators and the American public?
When Supreme Court justices can be documented dissemblers, democracy has an exceedingly severe problem.
Justice Louis Brandeis wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.”
Nowadays, even the sun is cast in the shadow of lies.
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Reaction to the leaked Supreme Court draft from our pundit(s) on the left:
I am extremely disappointed, and thought, like many legal scholars, that this was “settled law” and that access to abortions is legal in all 50 states. This is horrible for women everywhere.
--Jim McCraw
•••
The Hustings welcomes your opinion on the Supreme Court’s impending ruling on overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and we will post them in the left or right columns, with no tolerance for trolling or personal attacks.
Let this be your echo chamber-free forum.
Please indicate in the subject line whether you consider yourself “left” or “right” – particularly important in this issue, as anti- or pro-abortion does not always align with other political opinions.
Also in this column, below:
•“Don’t Say Gay’ Escalates Culture Wars,” commentary by Timothy Magrath, on Ron DeSantis and Florida’s latest legislation.
•“No Sympathy Left for McCarthy”: comments from the left on our recent Twitter poll on Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prospects to become the next House speaker after revelations he had planned to tell Donald J. Trump to resign as president after January 6, 2021.
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(WED 5/4/22)
Vance advances … Conventional Wisdom suggests Ohio went from politically purple to red when it legitimately gave over its electoral college votes to Donald Trump in 2016 and again in 2020. Venture capitalist and Hillbilly Elegy memoirist J.D. Vance’s win in Tuesday’s Ohio GOP primary for the U.S. Senate seat that centrist Republican Rob Portman is voluntarily vacating after this November’s midterms certainly seems to bear that out.
Vance, with 32.2% of the primary vote, is the MAGA Republican who beat fellow MAGA Republicans Josh Mandel (23.9%) and Matt Dolan (23.3%) and a host of others, The New York Times reports, because he authored a bestseller and convinced ex-President Trump he had made a 180-degree turn on his circa 2016 anti-Trump position. No question that Trump’s relatively late endorsement of Vance helped propel the candidate from midfield to victory in the primary. It must be noted that the entire GOP field in Ohio’s primary identified as “pro-Trump.”
But it is Vance who will face Tim Ryan, who took 69.7% of the Democratic side of the primary Tuesday. Both candidates will benefit from a surge in campaign contributions already coming from pro-life and pro-choice advocates after a leak to Politico of the draft opinion that indicates the Supreme Court is about to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Meanwhile, back near the center: Senate candidate GOP “kingmaker” Trump has slammed Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, for “strict” 2020 coronavirus policies according to the Associated Press, but on Tuesday, the incumbent beat three far-right candidates with 48.1% to win his party’s nomination. DeWine’s Democratic challenger is former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.
Meanwhile, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: Not all Republicans running against Donald J. Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination are Ron DeSantis. Maryland’s two-term Republican governor, Larry Hogan, is not running for a third term this year but is “mulling” a run for president himself, The Washington Post says in its coverage of Hogan’s speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, Tuesday.
Republicans are “desperately in need of a course correction,” Hogan said. He described the January 6 Capitol insurrection as “initiated by the losing candidate’s inflammatory false rhetoric.”
Worth noting: Democratic candidate Carol Glanville Tuesday defeated Republican Robert Regan in a special election for a Michigan state House seat that has heretofore been held only by Republicans, the Detroit Free Press reports. Glanville beat Regan -- who was quoted in March saying that women being raped should “lie back and enjoy it”–with 51% of the vote to his 40%. Another 7.9% were write-ins, the Freep reports. The special election for the Western Michigan seat serving suburban communities outside Grand Rapids was held after state Rep. Mark Huizenga (R), won a special state Senate election last year.
•••
Follow the leak: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will, ICYMI, investigate the leak to Politico of Justice Samuel Alito’s February draft of a majority opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, it was widely reported Tuesday, the results of which are unlikely to go public. Suspicions are that it was leaked by someone working from the liberal side of the court to inflame pro-choice forces ahead of the November midterms, or that it was leaked by someone working for the conservative side of the court to ensure none of the majority joining Alito in letting states ban abortion would change his or her mind ahead of the final decision–which still could happen before SCOTUS goes on recess in July.
Happy Star Wars Day.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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(TUE 5/3/22)
Roe v. Wade is done … Despite hand wringing over how and from whom the Supreme Court’s draft opinion that appears ready to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked to Politico, the outcome has been inevitable since the end of the Trump administration. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett equals a majority. It seems likely Alito’s authoring of the 91-page draft opinion ruling for Mississippi in Mississippi Department of Health v. Jackson Women’s Health is a strong indication that Chief Justice John Roberts will side with the liberal minority, Stephen Breyer, Elana Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor against overturning the 49-year-old ruling. [https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473]
New federal law?: A good number of states will still be open to legal abortions, of course, though The Washington Post reported Monday morning, well before the leaked draft opinion bombshell, that some Republicans on Capitol Hill are gearing up to propose a nationwide ban on abortion. Anti-abortion groups and allies in Congress have been “meeting behind the scenes to plan a national strategy that would kick in if the Supreme Court rolls back abortion rights this summer,” the newspaper reports.
Timing?: Leak of the inevitable outcome gives Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill an extra month to try to abolish the Senate filibuster, though they still have to get Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on board.
More important for the Democratic National Committee is how effective it can be in using Mississippi Department of Health v. Jackson Women’s Health to flip the long-held expectation that the GOP will win a majority in the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate this November. If you thought America’s culture wars could not possibly get any hotter, get ready for the next six months.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics
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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
Reaction to the leaked Supreme Court draft from our pundit(s) on the right:
Democrats know they are in trouble in the midterms. President Biden and his party seem to be tone deaf and on the wrong side of just about every issue. So ... have someone leak this draft opinion on abortion to get progressives, Democrats, and pro-choice voters agitated and try to defend the vulnerable Dems’ majorities in November.
--Bryan Williams
•••
The Hustings welcomes your opinion on the Supreme Court’s impending ruling on overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Email your comments to editors@thehustings.news and we will post them in the right or left columns, with no tolerance for trolling or personal attacks.
Let this be your echo chamber-free forum.
Please indicate in the subject line whether you consider yourself “right” or “left” – particularly important in this issue, as anti- or pro-abortion does not always align with other political opinions.
Also in this column, below:
•“Mousketeers, Assemble!”, Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ un-Republican-like attack on The Walt Disney Company.
•“DeSantis’ Education Push-Back,” R.J. Caster’s defense of Florida’s banning of certain mathematics books for containing critical race theory components.
•“No Right Answer for McCarthy”: comments from the right on our recent Twitter poll on Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) prospects to become the next House speaker after revelations he planned to tell Donald J. Trump to resign as president after January 6, 2021.
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In this column below, read Timothy Magrath’s response to our center column on Florida’s rejection of mathematics text books and Governor Ron DeSantis’ culture war with The Walt Disney Company; “’Don’t Say Gay Escalates Culture War.”
Scroll down further to read about our Twitter poll on Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) future as House speaker after post-January 6 phone recordings of his discussions with other GOP leaders on Capitol Hill came to light, and read our discussion on Elon Musk’s impending takeover of Twitter.
Comments:
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(MON 5/2/22)
The primaries are here … And Republican leaders are confident they can retake the Senate this November so long as primary voters send in the right candidates.
John Thune, of South Dakota, second in Senate GOP leadership under Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) says his party has a 50-50 chance right now of gaining a majority, which would require simply one net Republican victory.
“It would be a lot higher than 50-50 if the primaries were over and we knew who our nominees were,” Thune told The Hill. “(There) are some very contentious, competitive primaries and in states, swing states, in a general election where you’ve got to have good candidates.”
Translation: Whereas the House of Representatives is considered a slam-dunk for Republicans, including – perhaps especially – Trump-endorsed candidates, Senate Republicans obviously are counting on voters moving beyond the Big Lie and the 2020 presidential election the former president continues to contest. Problem for Senate Republicans is the same primary voters will be choosing House candidates and where applicable, Senate candidates on the same ballot.
First up: The purple state of Ohio, now considered deep red after Donald J. Trump’s win there in both 2016 and 2020, as well as Indiana are held this Tuesday. Everyone’s watching Ohio, where moderate Republican Sen. Rob Portman is retiring. The lead Republican for the nomination is former anti-Trumper turned Trump endorsee and Hillbilly Elegy author J.D. Vance. If he wins the nomination, he will likely face Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who currently serves Ohio’s 13th District.
Other primaries in May, per Ballotpedia, are West Virginia, on the 10th, Kentucky and Idaho, on the 17th and Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia, on the 24th.
--Todd Lassa
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(FRI 4/29/22)
Parents v. Culture Wars … Most parents, no matter their political affiliation, are content with their children’s schools, reports an NPR/Ipsos poll with findings that suggest the “culture wars” over critical race theory, LGBTQ+ policy, and banning library books are the product of small, but vocal, minority of parents, and of elected officials looking to make political hay of the issues.
According to the poll, reported on NPR’s Morning Edition Friday, 76% of parents say their school does a good job of keeping them informed about curricula, including controversial topics. The poll covers a wide range of questions related to the culture wars and to the results of school shutdowns during the pandemic.
The poll results reflect an improvement over a February 2021 NPR/Ipsos poll that asked the same wide variety of questions about teachers and local school boards.
You can read a full summary here: https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/NPR-Ipsos-Parent-Child-Education-04282022
The April 2022 poll of 1,007 parents found:
• Only 24% said they have too little influence over their children’s curricula.
• 37% said they “don’t know,” and 34% said they have about the right amount of influence.
• Political affiliation breakdown: 32% of Republicans, 18% of Democrats and 23% of independents said they have too little say in their kids’ school curricula.
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How to spend filthy lucre … The Biden administration is weighing options for directing to Ukraine for rebuilding tens of billions in dollars of Russian assets seized in economic sanctions imposed upon its invasion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Roll Call, which notes that the plan would require an act of Congress and could potentially pose long-term risks to U.S. taxpayers. Russian foreign reserves were estimated in January at $630 billion, although it is not clear how much of that is frozen in the U.S.
President Biden announced Thursday a package of $33 billion in humanitarian aid and defense for Ukraine. Many Republican senators already are signaling, however, they will need more information about Biden’s supplemental before they could commit to voting for it, CNN reports.
Here’s some more information: Russia hit Kyiv with a cruise missile strike during UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ visit to the capital city, The Guardian reports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for a “strong response” to the strike, which came “hours” after Biden announced the U.S. would double aid to his country.
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Abortion ban OK’d … Oklahoma’s state legislature is not waiting for the Supreme Court to rule on Texas’ controversial SB 8, which essentially bans abortions, with a ban of its own. The Republican-dominated Oklahoma House of Representatives voted 68-12 to send the bill to Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt for his signature, The Guardian reports.
Like Texas’ SB 8, the Oklahoma law prohibits abortions after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant, and allows citizens to sue abortion providers.
The Oklahoma House also approved new legislation prohibiting transgender students from using school restrooms that match their gender identity, and requires parental notification before any classroom instruction on sexual orientation or identity. (Note:See today’s first item.)
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods
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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
Stephen Macaulay’s center-right take on Florida’s bill to strip Disney World of its special improvement district status “Mouseketeers, Assemble!” is directly below. And below that is R.J. Caster’s right-column commentary, “DeSantis’ Education Push-Back,” in response to our center column, “Checking Our Math.”
Scroll down further to read about our Twitter poll on Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) future as House speaker after post-January 6 phone recordings of his discussions with other GOP leaders on Capitol Hill came to light, and read our discussion on Elon Musk’s impending takeover of Twitter.
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