Editors:

I own a small business and see homelessness, hunger and abuse of power (in Afghanistan). However, until we take care of our own how can we help others? I see (Afghani) refugees go into hotels in California that could have housed the homeless. People are being evicted and we are spending money on a country that would not help us if the tables were turned. This is not our business!

--Angela Barbara, Yermo, California

•••

Can Biden's Presidency Be Saved?

The tragic suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport should not be politicized, former Republican strategist and No Labels co-founder Mark McKinnon said Thursday night on MSNBC’s The Eleventh Hour, where he’s a regular guest pundit. Indeed, while both arms of the American political horseshoe agree Thursday was the worst day of Joseph Biden’s presidency, many to the left of the Fox News regulars say that if evacuations continue swiftly and efficiently, if not very safely by next Tuesday’s deadline, the result will be as good as could be expected from any recent commander-in-chief.

In his press conference yesterday, Biden once again evoked the deal his predecessor made with the Taliban, when he took a question from “the most interesting guy I know in the press.”

That would be Fox News White House Correspondent Peter Doocy, who asked Biden whether he bears responsibility in the killing of 13 U.S. troops in Thursday’s blasts.

“I bear responsibility for fundamentally all that has happened,” Biden responded. But he continued, “The former president made a deal with the Taliban that he would get all the American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1. In return, the commitment was made, and that was a year before, in return, he was given a commitment that the Taliban would continue to attack others but would not attack any forces. Remember that?”

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News & Notes -- Blame Pompeo?

While Democrats and the left have, overall, leveled considerable criticism on President Biden for a lack of planning in the withdrawal of tens of thousands of Americans and local allies from Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline, Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo continues to draw more and more scrutiny over the issue, Politico reports.

Pompeo led Trump’s efforts to negotiate with the Taliban early last year for the withdrawal, without any input from Afghanistan’s duly elected government. Trump floated the possibility of hosting Taliban leaders at a summit at Camp David, and ultimately set a withdrawal date of May 1 of this year, under the misguided assumption he would be re-elected.

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

•News & Notes is on Labor Day weekend holiday recess, returning Tuesday, September 7. 

•You can still comment on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, or other recent news items, for posting in the left or right column of The Hustings. Click the comment button, or email editors@thehustings.news.

UPDATE – The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to leave the Texas law banning abortions after six weeks in place. It rejected Wednesday night a request to block enforcement as legal challenges to its constitutionality are litigated in lower courts (per SCOTUSblog). Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in opposition to the ruling.

•••

>1,000 Assaults on Police January 6 — There were some 1,000-plus assaults on police during the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol according to a court filing, Politico reports, quoting Emily Miller, federal prosecutor leading the evidence collection for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., as writing, “Based on a review of the body-worn-camera footage conducted by our Office, the footage displays approximately 1,000 events that may be characterized as assaults on federal officers.”

Note: Remember when Rep. Andrew S. Clyde, R-GA, described the riot as a “normal tourist visit”? Or Donald Trump gushing about how there was “a lot of love” during the insurrection? For the party that used to be that of “law and order,” it seems as though there is more than a modicum of support for “crime and disorder.”

•••

SCOTUS Declines to Block Restrictive Texas Abortion Law – The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take action Tuesday night on Texas Senate Bill 8, a nearly complete ban on abortions, The New York Times reports. The bill allows health care providers in the state to be sued for providing abortion services and makes no exceptions for incest or rape. The law restricts abortions for mothers who are at least six weeks pregnant. 

An emergency application by abortion providers who are trying to block SB 8 is pending, and SCOTUS is expected to rule on it presently. 

Note: Loading of the federal courts with conservative judges, as well as Senate Republicans’ successful replacement of SCOTUS Justices Antony Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, and Ruth Bader Ginsberg over the last four years is about to lead to a (likely successful) challenge to 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision.

•••

Biden Refuses to Back Down on Need to End 20-Year War – President Biden’s address to the nation Tuesday afternoon following the United States’ one-day early withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan drove home many of the points he has made since evacuations began last month as the Taliban swiftly took over Afghanistan. His administration refused to count on an Afghan government crippled by corruption and unwilling to rely on a security force with 20 years of training and support by U.S. troops to fight back. 

“After 20 years I refuse to send another soldier to fight a war that should have ended long ago,” Biden told the nation.

Note: The Taliban were quickly pushed out during the Bush administration, and now they are back in. Excepting suppression of terrorist attacks this qualifies as an unmitigated U.S. defeat, a result that must annoy neocons as much now as hawks were miffed at the Vietnam result 46 years ago.

After serious criticism of a poorly planned withdrawal and Saigon-like images of helicopters removing people from the roof of the U.S. embassy in the last couple of weeks, Biden is getting a bit of relief from the right and left this week as he attempts to shift much of the blame to previous administrations, especially Donald Trump’s. The president reported that 5,500 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan, with 100 to 200 remaining who he says will get out if they want. The fate of allies, including Afghan interpreters for American soldiers is, and always has been, the main point of attacks on the Biden administration. Several American veterans’ groups are working to keep “promises” to such allies, including those who are the subject of anecdotes of how they saved many of our troops’ lives. 

Biden says 120,000 people have been airlifted from Afghanistan at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. There have been no reliable estimates of the number of allies and their families, but reports say the Taliban is “hunting” down anyone who has helped the U.S. effort since late 2001. Some of the blame for lack of such evacuations is directed to the State Department’s exceptionally bureaucratic Special Immigrant Visa program.

The other red meat for hard-liner Republicans, some of whom continue to call for Biden’s impeachment, is the issue of billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment, including airplanes and helicopters and ground vehicles falling into the hands of Taliban fighters, but Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, chief of U.S. Central Command confirmed Tuesday they were permanently disabled before the last soldier jumped on a C-130 military transport just before midnight local time Monday. 

Ex-President Donald J. Trump told Fox Business’ Varney & Co. Tuesday that the Biden administration cannot execute “a simple withdrawal from a country that we should have ever gotten into in the first place.”

But hard-right pundit-provocateur Ann Coulter tweeted this: “Thank you, President Biden, for keeping a promise Trump made, but then abandoned when he got to office.” Then, hitting Trump where he especially feels it, she later tweeted this: “Trump REPEATEDLY demanded that we bring our soldiers home, but only President Biden had the balls to do it.”

The Poll: According to a poll released by the Pew Research Center Tuesday:

•54% said the U.S. decision to withdraw was the right one; 42% said it was wrong.

•69% said the U.S. failed to achieve its goals in Afghanistan; 27% said the U.S. succeeded.

•42% said the Biden administration did a “poor” job of executing the Afghanistan withdrawal; 29% said his actions were “only fair”: 21% “good”; 6% said Biden did an “excellent” job.

•••

New Afghani Leader – The Taliban is set to name Hibatullah Akhundzada as Afghanistan’s new leader, The New York Times reports.

•••

Ending Enhanced Unemployment Insurance Early Didn’t Help – Job growth was not enhanced in the half of U.S. states that cut off early an extra $300 per week in federal unemployment insurance funds that were part of President Biden’s COVID-19 relief package, according to The Wall Street Journal. Citing economists and its own analysis of the numbers, states that shut off the additional $300 per week in unemployment insurance from the federal program, meant to enhance states’ standard unemployment insurance, had “about the same job growth” as states that continued to offer the pandemic-related extra aid. The extra unemployment insurance ends next week.

Note: Many businesses that re-opened as COVID-19 vaccinations began last spring and early summer had complained of worker shortages, particularly restaurants, hotels and other service-related industries. While some Republican lawmakers blamed the extra $300 per week for keeping unemployed out of the job market, the Journal posits that family care responsibilities, school closures, imbalance of available jobs, fear of COVID-19 and employee retirements had much to do with the worker shortages.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Nic Woods and Gary S. Vasilash

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BULLETIN -- TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2021

War in Afghanistan is Over – The U.S. has officially left Afghanistan, site of its longest war, a day early. Gen. Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command said the last airplane out left at 3:59 p.m. Eastern time, or 11:59 Kabul time on Monday, the Associated Press reports, 24 hours ahead of President Biden’s deadline. Fewer than 200 Americans remain in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, and it’s “likely closer to 100.” The State department will continue to work to get them out, he said. The U.S. has suffered more than 2,400 casualties since the war began in response to the September 11 attacks in 2001, the AP says. The Taliban are once again in charge of the country.

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News & Notes -- MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 2021

•OUR SUMMER RECESS: The Hustings will post once again this week, after Tuesday’s Afghanistan withdrawal deadline, and then return after the extended Labor Day weekend, on Tuesday, September 6.

•Hurricane Ida has been downgraded to a tropical storm as it hovers over the Mississippi River, the AP reports. Ida made landfall over Louisiana Sunday 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people.

•Tuesday is President Biden’s deadline for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The number of troops helping airlift remaining citizens as well as local allies has been reduced from 5,800 to about 4,000.

U.S. Military Has Capacity to Airlift 300 Remaining Americans – The United States has the capacity to evacuate approximately 300 Americans remaining in Afghanistan before the Tuesday deadline to leave, the Associated Press reports. The U.S. military intercepted five rocket fire attacks aimed at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport Monday, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. 

“This is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission these last couple of days,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken (AP). The U.S. has conducted two drone strikes against ISIS-K militants since more than 200 Afghanis and 13 U.S. troops were killed in last Thursday’s suicide bombing at the Abbey Gate of Karzai Airport.

Speaking on ABC’s This Week Sunday, Blinken said he expects the Taliban will continue to allow people to leave Afghanistan after Tuesday’s deadline.

Note: There are still many U.S. allies who helped our two-decade war effort in Afghanistan desperate to get out, though several different numbers have been bandied about, most in the “hundreds of thousands.” It seems criticism of President Biden’s late planning for the August 31 withdrawal from Afghanistan has been tamped down a bit over the weekend, as analysts criticize misguided attempts at “nation building” by four presidents over nearly 20 years. 

•••

France Proposes Kabul Airport Safe Zone – France and the United Kingdom will propose to the United Nations Security Council establishment of a “safe zone” at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in order to continue to allow people to leave Afghanistan, French President Emmanuel Macron told Le Journal du Dimanche, as reported by Politico.

“Our resolution proposal aims to define a safe zone in Kabul, under UN control, which would allow humanitarian operations to continue,” Macron said. In the interview, he said that the U.K. backs the proposal, though there has been no confirmation from London.

•••

Berenson Banned from Twitter — Alex Berenson, American thriller writer and former New York Times reporter, has been permanently banned from Twitter for violating COVID-19 misinformation rules. The Hill reports it received a statement from a Twitter spokesperson that reads: “The account was permanently suspended for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation rules.”

Note: Newsweek noted that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, took to Twitter to write: “I don’t know Berenson. But all the Leftie Brown Shirts cheering his being banned — you are the problem. You’re supporting authoritarian billionaires’ arbitrary censorship. & you are contributing to so many people’s distrust of Covid info — by silencing dissent, many are skeptical.” Not surprising, Cruz has gone over the top. The “Brown Shirts” he references goes to the Nazi Sturmabteilung, storm troopers. People Tweeting about a Twitter ban? And isn’t it somewhat ironic that Cruz has taken to the very billionaires’ site?

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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News & Notes -- FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2021

•Vice President Kamala Harris has cancelled a Friday campaign rally for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recall election, due to Thursday’s suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan. In the latest polls, conservative radio host Larry Elder leads a slate of 46 candidates challenging the Democratic governor in the recall. 

Biden Takes Responsibility, Vows Revenge for Suicide Bombing – Because at least 95 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops are dead after a suicide bombing Thursday at the Abbey Gate of Kabul, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai International Airport (the Associated Press), President Biden made an address to the nation Thursday, which he ended with a moment of silence. 

[Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said in a press conference Friday morning that a single suicide bomber triggered the blast Thursday, not two bombers as initially reported amidst the fog of the scene.]

While delivering his prepared remarks Biden vowed revenge against those responsible. 

“We will respond with force and precision at our time, at the place of our choosing. These ISIS terrorists will not win. We will rescue the Americans, we will get our Afghan allies out and our mission will go on,” he said. 

Biden said U.S. troops will complete the mission to evacuate Americans and allies by the deadline of next Tuesday, August 31, but that he would fulfill any request for additional resources made by military leaders. Biden’s promise of vengeance for yesterday’s tragedy indicates some sort of strategic U.S. presence in Afghanistan, though the president did not elaborate. 

Note: Biden’s way forward is to complete the withdrawal as safely as possible by next Tuesday’s deadline, and maintain some sort of U.S. intelligence presence in the Graveyard of Empires potentially indefinitely – even with the withdrawal, President George W. Bush’s War on Terrorism appears to carry on in some form nearly 20 years after it began.

“We will never forgive,” Biden said to the terrorists yesterday. “We will never forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.”

What’s going on?: After the Taliban’s quick takeover of most of Afghanistan, ISIS-K surfaced as an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Islamic State, or ISIS. Analysts note that Texas-sized Afghanistan is made of individual warlords controlling each of these regions, but in the post-U.S. war era, it’s going to potentially get messier than ever. Experts and analysts appearing on CNN, NPR, MSNBC, et. al. do not agree on ISIS-K’s relationship with the Taliban now leading the country. The generally accepted analysis is that ISIS-K and the Taliban are enemies – some analysts now say they are now working together and blame equal responsibility for yesterday’s attacks, while The Washington Post to name just one outlet, says ISIS-K considers both the U.S. and the Taliban to be enemies.

•••

Afghan President Alleged to Have Absconded with U.S. Funds – The House of Representatives Oversight Committee’s ranking Republican, James Comer of Kentucky, and Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-WI, have called on Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to give the committee a briefing on U.S. taxpayer dollars allegedly spirited out of Afghanistan by president-in-exile Ashraf Ghani, Fox News reports. 

Comer and Grothman are looking into allegations that Ghani ran off with as much as $169 million in U.S. aid to Afghanistan. Ghani fled the country for the United Arab Emirates (and if he took anything with him it’s in a Swiss bank account) just as Taliban forces were taking control of its capital, Kabul, saying he left in order to avoid certain bloodshed.

Note: Yes – Ghani’s own bloodshed. This potential investigation only supports critics of the U.S.’s 20 years in Afghanistan who argue that we have supported nearly 20 years of corrupt local politicians. The Afghan people may have been willing to fight back against the Taliban, but government and military leadership were only interested in taking the money and running.

•••

SCOTUS Ends Biden’s Eviction Moratorium – The Supreme Court, ruling via its “shadow docket” Thursday night, blocked the Biden administration from enforcing the national eviction moratorium via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention SCOTUSblog reports. It was a 6-3 ruling. The majority’s eight-page ruling said, in part, according to The Washington Post, “our system does not permit agencies to act unlawfully even in pursuit of desirable ends. . .  It is up to Congress, not the CDC, to decide whether the public interest merits further action here.” 

Earlier this week, SCOTUS refused to block a lower court order that required the Biden administration to reinstate ex-President Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy for blocking illegal crossings along the Southern border.

Note: Biden’s executive order giving the CDC authority to extend the moratorium came only after the initial eviction moratorium imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic expired at the end of July. This one was set to expire October 3, but when Biden initially gave in to progressive Congressional Democrats’ demand for an extension, he warned that it probably would not survive court challenges on behalf of landlords who opposed the extension.

•••

Capitol Police Officer Shot Ashli Babbitt as “Last Resort” – The Capitol police officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection told NBC News he shot her “only as a last resort.” In his first interview since the Capitol Hill riots, Lt. Michael Byrd said, “I saved countless lives.” He said 60-80 members of the House of Representatives were just inside the Capitol lobby where he and fellow officers tried to hold back the crowd.

•••

Seven Capitol Officers Sue Trump, Associates – Seven Capitol Police officers have filed suit against ex-President Trump, some of his associates and white supremacist groups in Federal District Court for the District of Columbia over the January 6 Capitol insurrection. The lawsuit alleges violation of the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, The New York Times reports, and includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfere with Congress’ official duties. 

Pro-Trump rioters in the insurrection were attempting to prevent Congress from officially counting Electoral Count votes for Joseph Biden’s win over Donald J. Trump.

Defendants in the suit by the seven officers, five of whom are Black, include Trump confidant Roger Stone, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Note: This is the latest of three suits that have been filed charging Trump and his coterie of cronies associated with January 6. In addition to which, there are several other suits that will be working their way through the judicial system targeting Trump for curious financial activities. Odds are that if Trump decides to run again — assuming that his clothing doesn’t match the color of his hair by then — it will be so as to avoid prosecution. Quite a proud moment for America when a former president is even sued by police officers.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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News & Notes -- THURSDAY, AUGUST 26, 2021

•Two bomb blasts outside Kabul’s airport have been reported before noon Eastern U.S. time, according to the AP. The second blast was reported by Russia’s Foreign Ministry. There are 13 reported dead and 15 injuries, including among U.S. troops, from the two explosions.

•With Congress on recess, President Biden concentrates on foreign issues today, beginning with an update on the Afghanistan withdrawal prior to two bilateral meetings with Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, by noon Politico reports. This afternoon Biden will hold several Zoom calls with governors who have volunteered to help re-settle Afghani refugees.

•French President Emmanuel Macron headed to Ireland to meet with its president, Michael Higgins, today to convince the country’s leaders to sign on to a 15% minimum corporate tax rate as recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Politico Europe reports. Ireland has been able to attract economic development via low corporate taxes for several decades.

•Ty Garbin, 26, the only of six men to plead guilty of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D, last year, was sentenced in federal court to six years in prison yesterday, NPR reports. (See Wednesday’s News & Notes.)

•A three-judge panel of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the 2017 death sentence of Dylan Roof, the first to be convicted of a federal hate crime, for the 2015 slaying of nine members of the Black congregation of Mother Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Politico reports. 

Running Out of Time in Kabul – U.S. allies have halted evacuation operations at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, The Wall Street Journal reports. About 1,500 Americans remain to be evacuated, although “at least 250,000” Afghani allies who worked with Americans haven’t been evacuated, according to a report in The New York Times.

That’s “far too many for American forces to rescue by deadline next Tuesday,” the Times reports. The current pace is about 20,000 per day, with nearly 96,000 Americans rescued since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan August 14. 

Americans and allies trying to withdraw in earnest by next Tuesday’s deadline, along with the Taliban, face a third threat: Isis-K, or Islamic State of Khorasan, established 2015 in Eastern Afghanistan. It is a sworn enemy of the Taliban, according to The Times of London. The U.S. Embassy in Kabul has warned remaining Americans to avoid approaching the airport until they receive specific instructions from a U.S. representative to do so (Politico). “U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately.”

Note: While Democrats and Republicans alike continue to criticize the Biden administration over the likelihood that tens of thousands of Afghan allies and their families will be left to the Taliban (with some Republican members of Congress even calling for the president’s impeachment), some commentators at such outlets as Fox News argue that the U.S. should close its borders to Afghani evacuees and not re-settle them here.

•••

Brits to Afghans Trying to Flee: Run for the Border — British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace held a Zoom call with members of Parliament yesterday during which he said about remaining Afghan citizens who had helped British efforts in the country: “If they think they can make it to a third country, that may be better and safer. I recommend trying to get to the border,” according to Politico, citing reporting from The i. It also cites The Times’ (London) reporting Wallace saying “not everyone is going to get out.” There are reportedly some 1,500 eligible Afghans the Brits had yet to evacuate.

Note: This is clearly heart-rending regarding those people who are being advised to get to Iran or Pakistan. While Wallace’s remarks came from leaks, not public pronouncements, at least there is some semblance of speaking the truth of the situation on the ground – a situation which for the British is undoubtedly not any different from the situation facing Afghans who had helped out the U.S. efforts. 

•••

1/6 Committee Requests Trump Administration Records – The January 6 select committee in the House of Representatives has requested a treasure trove of Trump administration records related to the day the former president’s supporters attacked the Capitol, from the National Archives and Records Administration and seven other agencies, according to Roll Call. Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-MS, has given the Archives and Records agency until September 9 to turn over the documents, which include Trump’s January 6 schedule, White House visitor records, and information about White House efforts to impede the Electoral College vote. Some of those records had previously been requested by other House committees, Roll Call says. 

The other agencies involved in the request are departments of Justice, Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

•••

Federal Judge Sanctions Pro-Trump Attorneys – Federal Judge Linda Parker has sanctioned pro-Trump attorneys who launched an effort last year to overturn Michigan’s Electoral College vote for Joseph Biden in last November’s election. Parker ruled that attorneys Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood failed to perform due diligence in investigating claims of voter fraud in Detroit before filing their lawsuit seeking to overturn the state’s results, WDET-FM reported on NPR, and attempted to “undermine faith in the election process,” Parker said in her ruling.

Powell and Wood have been ordered to pay court fees and take continuing education law courses.

Note: Powell is soliciting funds from supporters to pay for court costs, WDET says, further perpetuating ex-President Trump’s “Big Lie” among supporters who might otherwise admit from Parker’s ruling that the election was fair and ballots were accurately counted. 

•••

German Company Reaches Deal to Acquire Politico – Germany’s Axel Stringer has reached a deal to acquire Politico, according to a report by The Hill. Axel Stringer is a 50-50 partner with Politico, of Arlington, Virginia, in ownership of the Politico Europe joint venture and thus will acquire the remaining share in the deal. Terms of the deal have not been announced, although The Hill says several sources have put it upwards of $1 billion.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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Continue the dialogue and comment on the U.S. withdrawal. The Hustings wants to be your alternative to the big social media sites, but with civil discussion of political issues. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news or leave a comment on the tab on this post.

•••

Republicans Call on Biden to Resign

A “long list” of Republican congress members and leaders have called on President Biden to resign over his handling of the evacuation of Americans and allies in Afghanistan, Fox News reports. The cable network conducted a 32-minute, 27-second phone interview with Donald J. Trump, in which the former president called Biden’s evacuation of Kabul, “the dumbest move ever made in U.S. history.”

The list includes presumed 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who had served as South Carolina governor before she was Trump’s United Nations ambassador. “But that would leave us with Kamala Harris, which would be 10 times worse,” she said, according to Fox News. “God help us.”

Indeed, several Republicans called on both the president and the vice president to resign, which would move House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, into the White House.

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News & Notes -- Biden's Approval Rating is Below 50%

As the Biden administration struggles to extricate Americans and allies who helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan over nearly 20 years of our presence, the president’s approval ratings in the polls has slipped below 50%, FiveThirtyEight reports. In its average of major polls as of Day 219 of the administration, President Biden’s approval rating is 47.5%, with a disapproval rating of 46.9%. [https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/biden-approval-rating/]

For Day 219, Biden’s approval rating betters only President Trump, who was at 36.9% this time four years ago, compared with the last three presidents. Barack Obama had a 51.4% average approval rating on Day 219 of 2019, and George W. Bush was at 52.8% in August 2001, FiveThirtyEight says.

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It’s About the Timing – So the House of Representatives considered the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan with the $3.5 trillion budget resolution proposal together, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, had promised, but this can full of federal spending got kicked down the sidewalk again. This seems something of an obvious deal, in that the budget resolution vote this week always was going to be a first-step procedural vote, simply a framework for budget programs. 

Bi-partisan infrastructure is … all but delivered to President Biden’s desk, which is what the Unbreakable Nine, expanded to 10, wanted immediately. They don’t want the $3.5 trillion budget resolution with its “social” infrastructure spending proposals, just as Senate Republicans and Democrats Joe Manchin III and Krysten Sinema don’t want it, at least without substantial cuts in spending. 

Progressive Democrats in the House will continue to push for it, however, making for an interesting autumn on Capitol Hill as they insist that $3.5 trillion is not even enough. 

•Progressives believe the Democratic majorities, thin as they are in the House and Senate, amounts to a “mandate” for a Democratic president’s efforts to reverse 40 years of supply-side Reaganomics. We have discussed this issue in home page debates at The Hustings since the beginning of Biden’s administration. For left-column takes on this:

•Scroll down this page past Stephen Macaulay’s column on Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, to Craig Fahle’s column, “Don’t Screw This Up, Democrats.”

•Scroll down two more columns on the left for Fahle’s “Enforce the Tax Laws We Have, by Giving the IRS the Tools to Do It,” on more IRS funding as a potential source for a portion of new infrastructure spending.

•Scroll to the second column from the top on Page 3 for Fahle’s “The Folly of Chasing a Bipartisan Deal on Infrastructure.”

•Go to Page 4, scroll down three columns for “Tax the Tuna,” by Michelle Naranjo.

•Also, Page 5, the second column, for “Earmarks are Like Cockroaches and Ants,” by Keith Tipton, and Page 7, five columns down, for Stephen Macaulay on “Biden’s Infrastructure Plan is Worth the Money.”

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25, 2021

•President Biden committed to the August 31 deadline Tuesday of pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, despite concerns that there is not enough time to evacuate all remaining Americans, let alone allies with special immigrant visas. Taliban leadership is holding Biden to the deadline, however, as critics from both parties say they worry Americans and allies are being held from passing Taliban checkpoints to reach Hamid Karzai International airport in Kabul.

•The U.S. military has evacuated more than 82,000 Americans, Afghans, and others as of Wednesday morning, NPR reports.

•Reps. Peter Meijer, R-MI, and Seth Moulton, D-MA, both military veterans, have announced in a joint statement they traveled to the Kabul airport Tuesday, the AP reports, to advocate for an extension of the August 31 deadline. Both the State and Defense departments have warned against such travel “during this time of danger.”

•Prosecutors have signaled to U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker he should consider Ty Garbin’s cooperation against five other defendants in the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer when Garbin is sentenced today, the AP reports. The prosecutors have recommended a nine-year sentence for Garbin, 25, who is the only of six charged with the kidnapping plot uncovered by the FBI late last year to plead guilty in the case and has offered ‘extraordinary evidence.’ The prosecutors allege the men plotted the kidnapping after Whitmer “shut down” Michigan in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Democrats Reach Compromise on Budget Reconciliation, Infrastructure – “Compromise” typically means no one is happy, and that appears to be the case again with the House of Representatives’ party-line vote yesterday to move President Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation forward, along with the $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, negotiated with the “Unbreakable Nine”, plus Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida, who joined the moderate Democrats who had been resistant to the coupling of budget resolution with infrastructure rather than simply sending the latter straight to Biden’s Oval Office desk (per The Hill). Here’s where everything is after the straight party line 220-212 vote yesterday:

•The House takes the final vote on the White House’s bipartisan “hard infrastructure” bill no later than September 27.

•Legislators begin writing the $3.5 trillion “social infrastructure” budget reconciliation bill, which must first be written before the House and the Senate (which earlier this month approved the reconciliation bill 50-49) can pass a final bill on to Biden’s desk. 

•Approved the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and offer the Justice Department additional tools to resist tighter voting restrictions being passed by Republican-led legislatures across the country, including recently in Texas and Georgia. Unlike budget reconciliation, the voting rights bill requires either 10 Republican votes in addition to all 50 Democratic votes in the Senate, or a Democratic vote to set aside the legislative filibuster. Neither will happen so long as Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, remain opposed. 

•••

Veep Asks Vietnam to Help Rebuke Chinese ‘Bullying’ on South China Sea – Vice President Kamala Harris called on Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc Wednesday to join the U.S. in challenging China’s “bullying” over control of the South China Sea, Politico reports. China has been challenging Japan on that part of the region for years.

“We need to find ways to pressure and raise the pressure, frankly, on Beijing to abide by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and to challenge its bullying and excessive maritime claims.”

Note: Taiwan leadership has counted on the United States to protect it from the Republic of China’s claims on its otherwise free neighboring country. The Biden administration’s messy withdrawal from Afghanistan has Taiwan worried about the loss of the U.S.’s international clout, and at the same time Beijing has clamped down on Hong Kong. The upshot is that Beijing now must begin its own negotiations with the Taliban, as Afghanistan is a key leg of China’s Silk Road global infrastructure plans.

•••

Hawaii Governor to Tourists: Stay Home — State hospitals in Hawaii are at capacity due to an increase in COVID-19 cases, so Gov. David Ige, D, is asking that tourists not visit the islands until at least the end of October, The Washington Post reports. Tourism is the major driver of the state’s economy.

To deal with the hospital demand — the Queen’s Health System, the largest healthcare structure in the state, declared an “internal state of emergency” on August 20 -- out-of-state healthcare workers are being flown in to help out.

Note: Not surprisingly, the Post reports there are protests against an order requiring state and county workers to show proof of vaccination or have weekly tests. Reportedly Lt. Gov. Josh Green, D, who also happens to be an E.R. doctor, and his family have been subjected to protestors outside their home. As WaPo describes it: “Some have yelled into bullhorns and shined strobe lights into the building, while others have posted fliers around the neighborhood of his face with the words ‘Jew’ and ‘fraud.’” Yes, even in a place many think of as Paradise.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Budget Reconciliation Unites Republicans – The House of Representative’s party-line passage of President Biden’s $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package Tuesday is providing a rare opportunity for pro- and anti-Trump Republicans to coalesce against the White House, The Hill reports. 

Republicans have been more receptive to the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure program, which includes $550 billion in new spending, mostly for roads, bridges, and the like. The Senate easily passed the bill 69-30 early this month, with 19 Republicans joining all the Democrats in the vote. 

•Can President Biden, often evoking Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, effectively reverse 40 years of supply-side Reaganomics? We’ve asked the question in home page debates at The Hustings since the beginning of the 46^th president’s administration. For right-column takes on this …

•Scroll down this page past David Iwinski’s column on Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, to his column, “Progressives Push Another Budget Boondoggle.”

•Scroll down two more columns on the right for Stephen Macaulay’s “The Broken System,” on more IRS funding as a potential source for a portion of new infrastructure spending.

•Scroll to the second column from the top on Page 2 for Macaulay’s “Infrastructure Means Fixing the Roads.”

•Go to Page 4, scroll down three columns for “The Gas Tax is for Roads, for Cars and Trucks Only,” by Bryan Williams. 

•Also, Page 5, the second column, for “Earmarks Made Simple,” by Stephen Macaulay, and to Page 7, the fifth column, for “It’s Time for Infrastructure, Not Corporate Tax Hikes,” by Bryan Williams.

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By Stephen Macaulay

According to the Biden Administration, the alliterative “Build Back Better Agenda” is meant to:

• Lower Child Care Costs
• Lower Higher Education Costs
• Lower Prescription Drug Costs
• Lower Health Care Costs
• Lower Housing Costs
• Cut Taxes for Families with Children
• Cut Taxes for Workers Without Children
• Create Workforce Training
• Create Clean Energy Jobs
• Invest in Teachers and Schools

While it seems that lower costs for teaching kids would be popular with the young who have families and the older cohort can appreciate the reductions in costs for picking up pills, while it is hard to imagine that people — whatever political color they are on the spectrum — would be against tax cuts, and while everyone knows that better paying jobs that can benefit the infrastructure are good, it seems that so far the agenda is just that.

A list.

It seems that people in Biden’s own party in the House are not prepared to start checking off items on the list. They have their own priorities.

So there’s that. Or we could say: So there’s not that. Not an approved, funded action plan.

Then there’s COVID. According to the CDC, as of the week of August 13, 2021, “The current seven-day moving average of daily new cases (114,190) increased 18.4% compared with the previous seven-day moving average (96,454).” High and going higher.

This should have the opposite effect and stopping someone in their track and actually propel them to a vaccination center: the current seven-day moving average is “882.8% higher than the lowest value observed on June 19, 2021 (11,619).”

While the Biden Administration has certainly been more proactive in promoting masks and vaccines rather than bleach and internal lighting, it seems as though it is still somewhat leery of bruising the tender sensibilities of those who are in the anti-vax community.

This is a public health emergency. If you’re worried about tracking devices, don’t concern yourself with an mRNA vaccine. Throw away your cellphone.

Why isn’t the Administration making this a requirement rather than a choice? Last I checked, I can’t drive my car in the state of Michigan without having insurance.

And now there is Afghanistan.

Whether or not ending the “endless war” is the right move is up for debate.

What isn’t up for debate is the debacle that the Biden administration orchestrated by not doing its job when it comes to having a plan and a method to get Americans and those people who have supported the Americans out of Afghanistan.

Everyone talks about getting people out of Kabul.

Here’s something to think about: Afghanistan is approximately the size of Texas.

What if you lived in San Antonio, Austin or Houston and were told that the only way you could evacuate would be getting to Dallas? And by the way, there are people who would be shooting at you.

Do we ignore the Afghanis who don’t live in Kabul?

Biden simply is not getting the job done, and the pictures of people jam-packed into C-17s like so many Amazon Prime boxes or, more horrifically, those people who were hanging on to the fuselages makes his inability to follow through all the more obvious.

Infrastructure. COVID. Afghanistan. We’re waiting.

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Stephen Macaulay is pundit-at-large. See about thehustings.news

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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The U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan -- MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021

Joe Biden ran for president last year promising to end the endless war in Afghanistan.

“I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan – two Republicans, two Democrats,” David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper noted in their News Analysis piece in The New York Times Sunday. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”

Donald Trump’s administration last year had negotiated a May 1, 2021, withdrawal from Afghanistan with the Taliban, but without involving the Afghanistan government, Biden’s defenders note. 

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, tweeted this over the weekend, Newsweek reports: “The Trump/Biden calamity unfolding in Afghanistan began with the Trump administration negotiating with terrorists and pretending they were partners for peace, and is ending with American surrender as Biden abandons the country to terrorist enemies.”

But Twitter users “promptly criticized” Cheney for failing to note her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s responsibility for starting the war in Afghanistan, Newsweek notes. 

Critics say President George W. Bush’s efforts there suffered when his administration diverted attention and resources to war with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, despite the fact that the country was not involved in the 9/11 attacks.

What do you think? Leave your comments by clicking the “comment” tab, or email us at editors@thehustings.news

•••

Also in this column...

>Craig Fahle comments on the Senate's $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation package in "Don't Screw This Up, Democrats."

>>Michelle Naranjo comments on Mask Mandate 2.0 in "Tales from Our Side of the Turnpike."

>>>Craig Fahle comments on increased funding proposals for the Internal Revenue Service in "Enforce the Tax Laws We Have -- by Giving the IRS the Tools to Do It."

>>>>Fahle, again, on Texas Democratic state legislators walking out on a quorum, in "Worthwhile Symbolism to Fight Voter Suppression."

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021

•President Biden may decide to push back the August 31 deadline to complete withdrawal from Afghanistan as early as today, The Washington Post reports, citing “multiple” sources. The potential delay may be related to the WaPo’s own scoop (see below) that CIA Director William Burns met with the Taliban’s leader in Kabul Monday. About 5,800 U.S. troops are holding command of Kabul’s airport in an effort to evacuate tens of thousands of Americans and allies.

Budget Resolution, Infrastructure on a Road to Nowhere – House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s, D-CA, plans to run the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill and the $3.5 trillion budget resolution proposal – and, oh yeah, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act – through the House with moderate and progressive Democrats in concert went nowhere Monday night. The moderates flat refused to vote on the budget resolution without first passing infrastructure and delivering it to President Biden’s desk. The budget resolution vote would have been a procedural move, as the full bill hasn’t been written yet.

Although the moderates had warned about such a standoff for weeks, Pelosi did not even begin negotiating with the group’s leader, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, until last night, Punchbowl News reports. 

The procedural vote would have “deemed” the budget resolution as having been adapted by the House, Roll Call reports, though as negotiations continued into Tuesday morning, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, ended the legislative session and announced the House would reconvene again at noon Eastern Tuesday following a caucus meeting and then a 10:30 a.m. classified briefing on Afghanistan. 

Note: The “Unbreakable Nine” added a tenth, Blue Dog Coalition leader Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-FL, Monday (The Hill). No word from the Squad nor any other progressive Democrats who have been holding Pelosi to her plan to bring both to the floor for a vote together to guarantee “social infrastructure” spending was included in the bigger bill. They will have to be convinced that a procedural vote that would make sure the budget resolution progresses as infrastructure lands on Biden’s desk is the best they can count on to fulfill their conceived “mandate” from voters.

•••

CIA Director Meets with Taliban Leader, WaPo Reports – CIA Director William Burns met in Kabul Monday with the Taliban’s de facto leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, as the U.S. military tries to secure flights for tens of thousands of Americans and allies at Hamid Karzai International Airport, in what President Biden calls “one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history.” News of the meeting between Foreign Service veteran Burns and the Taliban leader was scooped up by The Washington Post.

Note: Obviously, the Biden administration is trying to negotiate more time past the August 31 deadline to safely evacuate Americans and allies. It’s apparent the Trump administration did not leave Biden much preparation from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s April 2020 negotiations with the Taliban, exclusive of talks with what was then the democratically elected Afghani government. 

•••

Five-Month Sentence for Proud Boys in BLM Banner Burning – Proud Boys leader Enrique Terrio has been sentenced to more than five months in jail for destroying a Black Lives Matter banner at the Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., last summer and for bringing two high-capacity firearm magazines into the Capitol January 4, Politicoreports. 

Terrio apologized for destroying the BLM banner: “What I did was wrong,” he said. He was arrested on charges of destroying the banner when he entered Washington two days before the pro-Trump Capitol riots.

•••

Capitol Officer Will Not be Charged in Ashli Babbitt’s Shooting – The U.S. Capitol Police department’s Office of Professional Responsibility has officially exonerated the officer who shot and killed Ashli Babbitt in the January 6 pro-Trump attacks on Capitol Hill, according to The Hill. The OPR “determined the officer’s conduct was lawful and within department policy, which says an officer may use deadly force only when the officer reasonably believes that action is in the defense of human life, including the officer’s own life, or in the defense of any person in immediate danger of serious physical injury,” the Capitol Police said in a statement.

Note: The officer was not, and will not be, named of course, although there have been right wing media claims that his or her name is known among supporters of ex-President Trump and his Big Lie. This follows claims the January 6 rioters were at first pro-Antifa, then “tourists,” and ultimately not worthy of the need for a bipartisan 9/11-style congressional investigation.

•••

Side Effects Are Biggest Vaccine Concern — A recent Morning Consult poll finds that 37% of people who are “uncertain” about whether they’ll get vaccinated for COVID-19 and 25% of those who don’t plan to get vaccinated are concerned about side effects. The second-biggest concern is that “the vaccines moved through clinical trials too fast,” with the responses being 32% and 23%, respectively. The third largest concern: Respondents don’t trust the companies making the vaccine. But while 9% of those who are uncertain about getting a jab don’t trust them, 17% of those who don’t plan to get vaccinated don’t trust them.

Note: Anyone who has watched an ad on TV for any prescription medication has heard a litany of side effects that could be caused by said drug that makes those who don’t have the disease wonder why anyone would take the risk. While side effects are a real thing, they are also a small risk because otherwise the drugs wouldn’t be approved for human use, although they could be approved for horses. And what is remarkable is the concern about the vaccines moving through clinical trials too quickly. How many ordinary people know how quickly or not any drug on the market has gone through clinical trials? Of that 17% who do not trust the drug companies: How many of them take Viagra, a Pfizer product? 

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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News & Notes -- MONDAY, AUGUST 23, 2021

•Today is Andrew Cuomo’s last day as governor of New York, as the Democrat steps down after a state attorney general’s report alleges widespread sexual harassment. Cuomo’s replacement at midnight tonight is Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a fellow Democrat who intends to run for a full term in November 2022.

•Climate Change Mayhem: Hurricane Henri has been downgraded to a tropical storm, though authorities in southern New England fear potential flash floods as it slowly moves up the coast. Meanwhile, Politico reports, the death count had reached 22 Monday morning from flash floods that occurred in Western Tennessee after 17 inches of rain in less than 24 hours, Saturday.

•The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, The Hill reports. The Biden administration hopes full approval will persuade many of the vaccine-resistant to take the shots.

Budget Resolution vs. Infrastructure Program Face the ‘Unbreakable Nine’ – Despite President Biden’s standing on Capitol Hill being weakened by his lack of pre-planning of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, is still planning to take up a vote in the House of Representatives on the $1.2-trillion infrastructure package and the $3.5-trillion budget resolution package together, despite House Democrats’ lack of votes on the latter, according to Punchbowl News. The so-called “Unbreakable Nine” are holding firm on opposing the pairing of the budget resolution and the infrastructure bill, both already passed in the Senate.

Pelosi is walking a tightrope between progressives who want even more than Biden’s $4.7-trillion worth of roads and bridges and “social” infrastructure program proposals and the Unbreakable Nine group of moderate Democrats, who authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post, headlined “Let’s take the win. Let’s do infrastructure first.”

“While we have concerns about the level of spending and potential revenue raisers, we are open to immediate consideration of that package,” Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Carolyn Bordeaux of Georgia, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, Jim Costa of California, Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii and Vincent Gonzalez, Henry Cuellar and Filemon Vega of Texas, wrote of the budget reconciliation bill. “But we are firmly opposed to holding the president’s infrastructure legislation hostage to reconciliation, risking its passage and the bi-partisan support of it.”

Note: It’s possible Pelosi has enough votes from moderate Republicans for bi-partisan passage of the infrastructure bill alone, Punchbowl News theorizes, though that would mean some slight-of-hand on the speaker’s promise to group the bills together. We expect Pelosi, probably the most savvy leader on Capitol Hill, has some sort of plan to assure that Biden will get a much-needed win on infrastructure (his averaged poll numbers have dipped below 50%, Politico reports). Whatever Pelosi’s plan, it will almost necessarily involve tamping down progressive Democrats’ delusion that they have a “mandate” in the 117^thCongress in order to be effective. The timing for a full reversal of Reganomics is not good.

•••

Taliban Will Not Extend August 31 Deadline – Taliban leadership says it will not extend the self-imposed U.S. deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan, despite President Biden saying Sunday he would not rule it out, the BBC reports Monday. Biden said Sunday the airlift out of Kabul is accelerating, but the withdrawal remains “hard and painful.” 

“The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful, no matter when it started, when we began,” the president said in a national address Sunday afternoon (AP). “It would have been true if we’d started a month ago, or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television.”

Note: Biden already had moved up his initial September 11 withdrawal deadline to August 31. The president has had to increase the number of U.S. troops from the 2,500 left by the Trump administration to about 5,800 troops, and they’re barely holding the perimeter of Karzai International as Americans and allies try to get past Taliban security stops.

•••

GM Recalls All Bolt EVs — General Motors has added the 2019-2022 model year Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV models, some 73,000 units, to its recall of the electric vehicles, meaning that all of the Bolts built have now been recalled by the company. The recall is based on a concern of battery fires. According to the automaker, “In rare circumstances the batteries supplied by GM” — they are supplied by a Korean company, LG — “may have two manufacturing defects . . . present in the same battery cell, which increases the risk of fire.”

Note: This is a particularly significant recall, based on the Biden Administration’s recent goal of having 50% of light vehicle sales being electric by 2030. GM is in the process of investing $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles between now and 2025 and it is shooting for a goal of having all of its vehicles electrified by 2035. GM is still the biggest automaker in the U.S. and the Bolt fires could put a dent in (1) consumer willingness by buy an EV and (2) GM’s transformation efforts.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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News & Notes -- FRIDAY, AUGUST 20, 2021

•President Biden will address the nation 1 p.m. Eastern time today on the crisis in Afghanistan. The Pentagon says it has evacuated more than 7,000 Afghans so far, and expects to evacuate another 6,000 shortly (NPR), but multiple reports say approaching Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul continues to be dangerous for Afghans, with Taliban checkpoints on the periphery.

•Haiti’s Civil Protection Agency says the death count from last weekend’s earthquake is at nearly 2,200 (AP).

Three More Senators have Contracted COVID-19 – Sens. Roger Wicker, R-MS, John Hickenlooper, D-CO and Angus King, I-ME, announced Thursday they have tested positive for COVID-19, The Washington Post reports. All three are vaccinated and have reported mild symptoms. Earlier in August, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-SC, announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

•••

Man in Custody after Threatening Attack on Washington, D.C. -- A man from North Carolina who U.S. Capitol Police say claimed to have an explosive device in his pickup truck that could destroy two blocks of Washington, D.C., was taken into custody Thursday, The Washington Post reports. The man, identified as Floyd Ray Roseberry, 49, of North Carolina, held off police for approximately five hours before surrendering. Homes and congressional office buildings in the area were evacuated, although it should be noted that neither the House of Representatives nor the Senate were in session this week.

Prior to that he was posting to Facebook Live, railing against the Biden administration and other Democrats. There was no bomb in his vehicle, although authorities say there were materials that could be used to build one on board.

Note: The man parked his vehicle near the Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest cultural institution and the largest library in the world. Books. Coincidence that the man parked there? What is more damning is that Rep. Mo Brooks, R-AL, released a statement that is interpreted as being supportive, as in: “Although this [alleged*] terrorist’s motivation is not yet publicly known, and generally speaking, I understand citizenry anger directed at dictatorial Socialism (sic) and its threat to liberty, freedom and the very fabric of American society. The way to stop Socialism’s (sic) march is for patriotic Americans to fight back in the 2022 and 2024 elections. I strongly encourage patriotic Americans to do exactly that more so than ever before.” When did voting become equated with fighting?

(*: We add “alleged” to Brooks’ statement, as the man in custody has yet to face trial. –Ed.)

•••

Texas Has a Quorum for Voter Bill – Almost six weeks after Democrats in the Texas state legislature hightailed to Washington, D.C., to avoid a quorum for a controversial Republican bill that would regulate voting rights in the name of voting “security,” a sufficient number of legislators has returned to Austin for a quorum, The Texas Tribune reports. State officials counted 99 members present (including Rep. Steve Arison, a Republican from San Antonio, isolated in a side room of the Capitol after he had tested positive for COVID-19), and 49 absent. 

Note: Amid reports that Republicans quietly began negotiating with some Democrats on the voting regulations, the Texas Democrats fractured and some remain in Washington, according to the Tribune, where House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, plans to conduct a procedural vote involving the John Lewis Voting Right Advancement Act on Monday. Meanwhile, Attorney General Merrick Garland has indicated that the Justice Department will aggressively challenge what it determines are states’ voting regulations that are meant to suppress voting rights. It’s far from over for the Texas legislature.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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News & Notes -- THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 2021

•Is the Biden administration an irrevocable failure following the president's withdrawal from Afghanistan as the Taliban swiftly took over the country? Our columnists respond to that question in the right and left columns, and we’d like to add your comments as well. Email your opinion on the matter to editors@thehustings.news

•Federal health experts now recommend a booster shot for Americans who have received two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer shots, eight months after the second shot.

•Pockets of resistance to the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan remain, with protesters attempting to fight back in scattered cities, according to the Associated Press. A United Nations official warns of severe food shortages in the country, which relies heavily on imports. The country also is reportedly short on cash under the Taliban.

Biden Uses Purse to Push COVID Mitigation — In remarks from the White House yesterday, President Biden said that he is taking efforts to protect students and seniors from COVID-19. On the first, he stated, “I am directing the Secretary of Education . . . to take additional steps to protect our children.”

This includes using all of his oversight authorities and legal actions, if appropriate against governors who are trying to block and intimidate local school officials and educators. In addition, “if a governor wants to cut the pay of a hardworking education leader who requires masks in the classroom, the money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to pay that person’s salary — 100 percent.”

On the seniors front, he stated, “If you work in a nursing home and serve people on Medicare or Medicaid, you will also be required to get vaccinated.” He added, “I’m using the power of the federal government, as a payer of healthcare costs, to ensure we reduce those risks to our most vulnerable seniors.”

Note: With moves like these, Biden is putting the pressure of the purse on those obstreperous state and local officials as well as the operators of nursing homes and senior care facilities. Look for more actions of this type going forward because the pandemic isn’t getting any less virulent.

•••

Biden Remains Committed to August 31 Afghanistan Withdrawal – President Biden told George Stephanopoulos Wednesday he expects Americans remaining in Afghanistan – estimates are 10,000 to 15,000 left – to be evacuated by the August 31 withdrawal deadline set before the Taliban began to overtake the country, but he will extend that deadline if necessary. He was confident, though less resolute, about the remaining Afghani allies who have worked with U.S. and NATO forces for the last two decades would be evacuated.

The U.S. military holding the Karzai International Airport in Kabul are expected to ramp up their evacuation to 5,000 to 7,000 per day, Biden said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. The president said an estimated 50,000 to 65,000 Afghan allies and their families remain, lower than the 80,000 estimate cited by Stephanopoulos. 

“The commitment holds to get everyone out that, in fact, we can get out and everyone that should come out,” Biden said. “And that’s the objective. That’s what we’re doing now, that’s the path we’re on. And I think that we’ll get there.”

Biden was unapologetic about the mayhem over the U.S. evacuation efforts caught on camera the past few days, and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Wednesday they knew of no U.S. intelligence that predicted the swift fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. They have been called upon to testify before Congress on the matter. 

Note: While the U.S. military holds Kabul’s airport, Americans and allies trying to make their way there have to pass through checkpoints the Taliban have set up. Ultimately, those checkpoints will determine how many allies remain stranded – particularly those without American visas.

•••

Pelosi Plans Biden Agenda Trifecta Next Week – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, will begin the House of Representatives’ early return from August recess next Monday with a procedural vote grouping the $1.2-trillion bi-partisan infrastructure bill, President Biden’s $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation bill and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act together. Only one of those items, the infrastructure bill – which passed the Senate last week with nine more Republicans than it needed – would have an assured chance of passing on its own.

Such groups as No Labels will demonstrate next Monday on Capitol Hill to urge Pelosi to disconnect the three bills, as advocated by nine moderate Democrats in the House last week. Conversely, progressive Democrats had pushed for Pelosi to couple bi-partisan infrastructure and the big “social infrastructure”-intense budget reconciliation bill together. Pelosi cannot afford to lose more than three Democrats on the vote, according to myriad news sources.

Conversely, Punchbowl News indicates Thursday that there are a sufficient number of Republicans to make up for progressive Democrats who might vote against a singular infrastructure bill.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, has pressed his party’s leadership to take a standalone vote on infrastructure, and if he can achieve that next week, “there’ll be as many as two-dozen Republicans who cross the aisle to support the public works package.” Punchbowl News says this is possible if Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, who expects Republicans to win the House majority in the midterms next year, and is eyeing Pelosi’s job, chooses not to whip his caucus to vote against infrastructure.

Note: The White House desperately needs a victory right now. If Pelosi does not disconnect the three bills and get the infrastructure bill to Biden’s desk for a signature this month, infrastructure languish until well into autumn.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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News & Notes -- WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2021

•Has the seven-month-old Biden administration been mortally wounded by the president's poorly planned withdrawal from Afghanistan? Email your comments on the situation to editors@thehustings.news

Taliban Promises ‘No Reprisals’. No One Believes Them – Taliban officials promised “no reprisals, nor revenge” for Afghanistan citizens as the fundamentalist Islamists continued to take over the country yesterday, NPR reports. Spokesman Suhail Shaheen described the current Taliban as different – kinder, gentler – than the organization that took over Afghanistan in 1996 with an especially brutal interpretation of Sharia law, though when pressed by Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition said it would be up to judges to determine whether Afghanis convicted of theft would have their hands cut off and nailed to a wall, for instance.

Women would not be prevented from attending school or going to work, but the hijab already has been mandated.

“Global jihadists are electrified” by the return of the Taliban to the Afghani government, international security expert Asiandyar Mir of Stanford University told Inskeep in a separate segment. Afghanistan is filled with jihadist groups like Al Queda and ISIS, but also more localized groups.

With Afghanistan taken, Pakistan may be the first target of Al Queda and ISIS; Mir believes the U.S. will be at a disadvantage without local airbases.

Meanwhile, about 11,000 people still stuck in the country have identified themselves as Americans, The Washington Postreports, and the Taliban is blocking routes to Hamid Karzai International Airport. Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have urged Biden to hold up U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan until all the allies, estimated to be more than 80,000, have been able to evacuate.

The Taliban has agreed to allow “safe passage” for civilians struggling to reach the airlift, Biden administration national security advisor Jake Sullivan says, but the U.S. has yet to reach agreement with the Taliban on the timetable for the airlift. Kosovo and North Macedonia have agreed to accept Afghani refugees.

Note: Seven months into Joe Biden’s presidency, there’s an argument going around Capitol Hill that it already has failed. Former Vice President Mike Pence, clearly setting himself up as 2024’s Ronald Reagan, writes in a commentary in The Wall Street Journal : “The Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan is a foreign-policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis.” 

Biden’s defenders say the failure was inevitable from the moment former President Trump had proposed last year hosting Taliban leaders at Camp David and began the shutdown of Bagram Air Force Base. But there’s no getting around the lack of preparation in removing American personnel, journalists, and Afghan allies who qualify for special immigration visas (SIV). 

The White House’s only hope now is to issue as many SIVs as possible, and evacuate as many personnel and allies as possible, with or without visas. Whether the Biden administration is mortally damaged probably will depend on the messaging of the Fox News crowd vs. the MSNBC crowd, and to what degree the general public weighs Biden’s economic policy versus his foreign policy (which was considered one of his strengths).  However, given the unexpected decline of 1.1% in retail sales in July and the lowest reading of consumer confidence (70.2) since 2011 according to the University of Michigan, the economic policy may not be working in his favor.

•••

Democrats Introduce Beefed-Up John Lewis Voting Rights Bill – Rep. Terri Sewell, D-AL, introduced a beefed-up version of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act Tuesday in order to take a full vote on it next week, Roll Call reports. The new version of the bill seeks to strengthen provisions that would counter the Section 2 provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, in Shelby v. Holder.

Section 2 of the ’65 law requires that certain states, chiefly in South, must receive federal approval for new laws that could crack down on minority voting rights. The Lewis Act would reinforce the U.S. Justice Department’s ability to challenge voting laws, such as the new laws imposed in Georgia and Iowa.

Sewell’s bill faces virtually unanimous Republican opposition in the House of Representatives, where Democrats have a thin majority, and in the Senate, where a filibuster almost certainly will sink it.

•••

Abbott Positive for COVID — Texas governor Greg Abbott has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the AP. The Texas governor was vaccinated in December.

Note: Although the AP received word from the governor’s office that he “is in good health and experiencing no symptoms,” the governor’s spokesman, Mark Miner, also released a statement saying that Abbott is receiving monoclonal antibodies.

Although Abbott has been vaccinated, it is not entirely surprising that he’s been infected. The vaccination protects people from serious illnesses. What’s more, a vaccinated person can carry the virus in his or her respiratory system and pass it on to other people, which is the reason why mask recommendations have been made by major medical organizations, physicians and epidemiologists.

Abbott, no friend to mask wearing, is running for reelection in 2022. Which means that he is spending time on the campaign trail, meeting with supporters.

Arguably, those campaign stops could be COVID hotspots.

•••

Pope Makes Appeal for Vaccines – Pope Francis said that getting a COVID-19 vaccination is “an act of love,” in a video message delivered in Spanish on Twitter, Wednesday, Politico reports. He said that vaccine shots should be made widely available in the face of disparities between the developed, and developing world.

•••

Ex-Rep. Paul Mitchell Dies – Two-term representative from Michigan Paul Mitchell died Monday of cancer at age 64. A member of the House of Representatives’ Problem Solvers Caucus, Mitchell was first elected as a Republican for Michigan’s 10^th District in 2016. He chose not to run for a third term in 2020 in order to spend more time with a son who has special needs, Roll Call says. After last November’s presidential election, Mitchell left the GOP for the remainder of his term and registered as an independent, because, he said, of the Republican Party’s behavior after Donald Trump’s failed re-election campaign.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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News & Notes -- TUESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2021

•The Taliban have issued “amnesty” across Afghanistan and are “urging” women to join the new government, the AP reports. Many are skeptical, of course, of a reformed Taliban that says it’s “kinder” and “gentler.”

•Federal health officials are looking to recommend COVID-19 booster shots for persons of all ages, regardless of physical condition, eight months after the initial shots (AP). An official announcement is expected this week.

Biden Stands Firm on Afghanistan Withdrawal – Afghanistan’s president-in-exile, Ashraf Ghani, refused to negotiate with the Taliban after the Biden administration announced in April that U.S. troops would leave the country by September 11, the president said, in his attempt to explain in a televised address Monday his rationale for our rushed departure there after nearly 20 years. Interpreters and other U.S. allies wanted to remain in-country until it became inevitable the Taliban would take over, he said.

President Biden referred to ex-President Trump’s February 2020 talks with the Taliban to put an end to the longest war in U.S. history, nearing 20 years when embassy staff in Kabul began burning sensitive documents on its way to Hamid Karzai International Airport, where chaotic scenes of refugees clinging to aircraft wheels replayed on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC for much of the day. 

Under the Trump administration, whose secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, was the first to meet with Taliban leaders, U.S. troops in Afghanistan – now the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan – drew down from 15,500 to 2,500, Biden said. 

“The Taliban was at its strongest since 2001,” because of the U.S. troop reduction prior to Trump’s planned May 1, 2021 withdrawal, Biden said. “There would have been no ceasefire after May 1. There would have been no protection for our forces after May 1.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden continued. “After 20 years, I learned the hard way … there was never a good time to withdraw.” … . The U.S. “should not fight in a war that Afghanistan wasn’t willing to fight itself,” he said. But the reluctance apparently came from Afghani military and political leaders. John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan Reconstruction, told NPR’s Morning Edition that the country’s security forces were willing to fight, but were overcome by overly technical, sophisticated U.S. arms.

Biden did concede that that U.S. forces were overwhelmed and surprised by the speed of the Taliban’s conquest: “The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than anticipated.”

But there already are calls for an investigation into a potential failure of our intelligence resources on this account.

On the MSNBC side of cable news networks, Nicole Wallace suggested that 95% of the American public are supportive of Biden’s withdrawal, and 95% of news media are against it. 

Guest pundit Matt Zeller, a military veteran of the Afghani war, former CIA analyst and former Democratic congressional candidate who helped found No One Left Behind told MSNBC he was “appalled” by Biden’s speech. He described the administration’s efforts to secure Afghans who worked with U.S. and alliance troops, contractors, and journalists essentially non-existent, and that the White House has neglected to respond to the group’s pleas for help for allies who face almost certain death at the hands of the Taliban.

Critics say the Biden administration’s disorganized withdrawal has jeopardized Afghani allies who helped U.S. and NATO forces, and journalists, are the main concern. The State Department is preparing special military visas to relocate as many of such allies as possible. Many have been hobbled by bureaucratic paperwork that has prevented them from emigrating from Afghanistan for years. 

NBC News special foreign correspondent Richard Engel, speaking from Kabul confirmed Zeller’s criticisms, saying the U.S. response has been too little, too late, as the Afghan allies must fill out English-language paperwork to obtain visas. Mediaitereports that Fred Ryan, publisher of The Washington Post has emailed National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to plead to the Biden administration to get journalists and their families out of Afghanistan.

Fox News, where the home page of its website helpfully explains in a headline that “Biden points fingers for Afghan horror despite campaign vow to take responsibility as president,” interviewed Bush 43 campaign aide Karl Rove, who called Biden’s withdrawal “appalling” ahead of the president’s speech. 

Rove began his response to Martha MacCallum’s question by catching this mistake, without apparent irony; “Look, he sent out his spokesman this weekend, who said, ‘we had a successful operation in Iraq … actually in Afghanistan …”

Note: Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY, and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton separately took to the airwaves to criticize both the Biden and Trump administrations’ sloppy plans to withdraw from Afghanistan, leading us to wonder whether a re-uniting of Bush administration neocons might be what it takes for traditional Republicans to take their party back from the MAGA populists. The one common thread unifying all the political analysis and punditry, however, is that 20 years of Afghanistan quagmire has left a mark on all four presidents involved – there is a gravestone being carved in the cemetery of empires.

Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, The Washington Post and Mediaite.

•••

Pelosi Plans Vote on Budget Resolution Next Week – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, plans to bring the $3.5 trillion budget resolution to the House of Representatives for a vote next week, but Punchbowl News says she doesn’t have enough Democrats to get it passed. A group of nine moderate Democrats last week demanded that the budget reconciliation bill be separated from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, but that faces progressive Democratic representatives who want even more than the reconciliation bill’s provisions. Pelosi cannot afford to lose more than three Democratic votes to get both the infrastructure bill and the budget resolution passed.

•••

House Could Take Up Voting Rights Act Next Week – Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee met over the weekend to prepare for a vote next week on the Voting Rights Act, Roll Call reports, although the proposed legislation faces strict Republican opposition. Voting rights will backslide if redistricting based on the U.S. Census results released last week proceeds without such a law, said Wendy Weiser, vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University.

•••

Harris to Asia This Week — Vice president Kamala Harris will travel to Singapore and Vietnam this week The Washington Post reports. Harris will depart on Friday and arrive on Singapore on Sunday (Singapore is 12 hours ahead of Washington; while most commercial carriers stop on the way from Washington, D.C., if Air Force Two does it as a nonstop, it takes 19 hours, 49 minutes to go from Washington to Singapore, according to travelmath.com). When the vice president arrives, she is expected to give a speech about “the future of the U.S. relationship with a region increasingly under pressure from Beijing” the Post reports.

Note: The Chinese Embassy reportedly remains open in Kabul. Imagine how the people in places like Vietnam — especially in Ho Chi Minh City — are going to feel about the U.S. commitment vis-à-vis China and their existence. Picture how the people in Taiwan must feel as the country to their west is talking “repatriation. This is Harris’s second international trip, with the first being to Guatemala and Mexico, where the issue was immigration, which is working about as well for the Biden administration as the images from Afghanistan.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

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MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021

UPDATE: President Biden will address the nation from the White House on the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, Monday at 3:45 p.m. Eastern time.

•Death toll from Saturday’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake in Haiti reached more than 1,300 as of Monday morning, The Washington Post reports. A forecast tropical storm now threatens rescue efforts.

The Fall of Kabul – The Taliban have captured Afghanistan’s capital after little more than a week of spreading throughout the country and taking over provincial capitals with swift efficiency. The U.S. military still hold the perimeter of Kabul’s chaotic airport, where American diplomats and thousands of Afghanis desperately try to fly out of the country.

It’s the Saigon 1975 airlift that President Biden promised would not happen,

Over the weekend, the Biden administration announced 3,000 U.S. troops would return to Afghanistan to help airlift American diplomats as well as locals who were interpreters and other aides during our nearly 20 years fighting the Taliban there, then upped the number of troops a couple of times before doubling it to 6,000. 

It’s the sort of troop count that neocons would have preferred been made permanent, like our presence in Europe and Japan after World War II and near Seoul since after the Korean conflict, but Biden, in rare agreement with his predecessor, Donald Trump, campaigned for an end to this endless war. 

The U.S. spent nearly $1 trillion “rebuilding” Afghanistan in its image over two decades, and when plans for a withdrawal by September 11, the 20^th anniversary of the terrorist attack that prompted the Bush 43 administration to invade and remove the Taliban from power in the country and occupy it through the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations, was announced by President Biden, then moved up to the end of August, the Taliban moved quickly. 

By Sunday, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled Kabul for a nearby Asian nation in the region according to media reports. 

Observers have expressed surprise over the way Afghanistan’s 300,000 American-trained security forces quickly surrendered to about 75,000 Taliban fighters. But this lack of will to defend themselves has been a recurring feature of the security forces through four American presidents.

Afghan security forces trained by the U.S. over all these years “did not have the will to fight,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee told NPR. 

Monday, Trump’s former national security advisor and veteran of the Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 administrations, John Bolton, told NPR’s Morning Edition he still sees an opportunity “to find ways to see if there’s any way to revue this disaster and get them [the Taliban] out.” 

But the Taliban already have cracked down on Afghanis who were seen as aiding the American and NATO efforts there and have begun “forced marriages” with soldiers and keeping young women and girls from an education. It is considered only a matter of time – short time, considering what has happened in the last week – before Al Queda gains a foothold in Afghanistan.

Note: Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley briefed members of Congress on the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan Sunday, Politico reports, “some of whom have railed against what they called a lack of preparedness by the Biden administration.” 

The White House says Biden, who spent the weekend at Camp David, will speak to the nation in a few days, an apparent lack of alacrity that contrasts with Afghanistan’s swift fall to the Taliban. The quick takeover already has cast a pall on Biden as having a failed administration – and that might chill Democrats and never-Trumper Republicans who worry about the former president’s heavy hints he will run again in 2024, except that he is being blamed equally for the ugly withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But the country has long been known for defeating, even destroying, regimes, most recently the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Now, under the Taliban, it has the opportunity to build up a regime: Afghanistan is a key corridor in China’s “Silk Road” project to build up a large portion of the third world, according to Saeed Kahn, who teaches and lectures in the Department of Near East & Asian Studies at Wayne State University, in Detroit. He spoke last Friday in The Hustings Week in Review on Clubhouse.

Sources: This News & Notes on the fall of Afghanistan is based on reporting from NPR, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Politico.

The Hustings Home Page Debate – To read our April 22 home page debate on President Biden’s original announcement about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, go to: https://thehustings.news/page/7/

The left column, “Biden’s Afghanistan Plan is not ‘America First’, by David Amaya: https://thehustings.news/left-columnist-argues-for-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

The right column, “The Afghanistan Departure,” by Stephen Macaulay: https://thehustings.news/conservative-take-on-afghanistan-withdrawal/

•••

Canadians to Visit Polls Early — Although Justin Trudeau’s time in office was expected to run until October 2023, the Canadian prime minister asked the Governor General, Mary Simon, to dissolve Parliament so that there will be an election held September 20, 2021.

Note — Trudeau heads the Liberal Party, which has 170 seats in Parliament, which gives the party a plurality but not a majority. It is thought that Trudeau wants to take advantage of the current popularity of the party with hopes of gaining a majority. Obviously Trudeau is rolling the dice, given the months he would otherwise have guaranteed in Ottawa.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 2021 •President Biden may decide to push back the August 31 deadline to complete withdrawal […]

By David Iwinski

Since Joe Biden took the oath of office, despite the exciting declarations of the left that “the adults are back in charge” and “American honor and respect have been restored” the country has been on a long, painful slide downwards. 

With the primary campaign claim that President Trump had bungled the coronavirus response and that as a result, hundreds of thousands have died, the Biden team has been no more adept with confused claims and bad science. Energy independent under Trump, Biden quickly canceled the Keystone pipeline and within months the price of gasoline skyrocketed, gas lines were seen (last experienced in 1976) and now Joe has to beg OPEC to increase production, which has been refused. Ineptitude described every step of this Presidency but, until now, it was essentially a problem for Biden and Vice President Harris and, for the rest of the country, a temporary annoyance to be discarded by 2024.

Until now.

Donald Trump promised that we would exit Afghanistan and change our policy of endless war. However, when he established that policy and timetable, he made it crystal clear that he would not tolerate actions by the Taliban that would threaten U.S. citizens or those allies within Afghanistan who helped us over the last 20 years.

His exact words… “We are acting as a police force, not the fighting force that we are, in Afghanistan. After 18 years, it is time for them to police their own country. Bring our soldiers back home but closely watch what is going on and strike with a thunder like never before, if necessary!”

This comment, like many others, show that Trump was willing to have us exit Afghanistan with honor and protect our people as we left. 

Biden and his team of experts bungled it so badly that it is likely that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of those who trusted our commitment to their safety will face threats of torture and death. Some will be Afghanistanis and some are likely to be American citizens. The Taliban was able to seize sensitive material from our embassy not destroyed in time and, further, hundreds of millions -- perhaps billions -- of dollars in sophisticated ordnance were left on the ground, ready to be used.

Bombs, helicopters, fighter jets, firearms, drones and all other manner of ordnance were abandoned in the chaos and will either be used by the Taliban against Afghans or against other nations. The items too sophisticated for the Taliban to use can be traded to Pakistan for hard currency, all of which will be used to fuel terrorism abroad and, particularly, against the United States.

Moreover, the failure of the Biden administration to secure our southern border means that thousands of terrorists let out of jail may soon be shipped off to Latin America to find their way across our porous border. 

It’s bad enough that this stupidity and chaotic ineptitude would be brutal to the people that are our allies and extraordinarily disrespectful for the thousands of American soldiers who died in Afghanistan and the tens of thousands for permanently disabled, but if you can believe it, the legacy of Biden’s misjudgment may have even greater ramifications on other parts of the world. 

China no longer fears us has already moved aggressively against Taiwan, even in the last few days. They have further notified American diplomats that we best not take any action on what they see as an “internal matter” of solving the Taiwan problem. Who knows how much additional suffering around the planet and economic disruption there will be with the clear signal that the United States cannot be trusted to protect its allies and haven’t the ability to plan well enough to prevent catastrophe? 

Images of Afghanistan citizens clinging to departing planes, desperate to get away from the hell they will soon descend into, are the legacy Joe Biden will live by.

Iwinski is a contributing pundit. See On the Right

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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The U.S. Withdrawal from Afghanistan -- MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2021

As Democrats and other supporters of President Biden had a hard time defending the way he conducted his withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, their argument that the withdrawal did not go far with Fox News coverage and other conservatives of both the pro- and never-Trump nature. 

Trump’s onetime national security advisor, John Bolton, largely blamed his former boss, but told NPR that Biden’s withdrawal was conducted in a “particularly ineffective way” (see center column). 

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page put it this way: “President Biden’s statement on Saturday washing his hands of Afghanistan deserves to go down as one of the most shameful in history as Commander in Chief at such a moment of American retreat. As the Taliban closed in on Kabul, Mr. Biden sent a confirmation of U.S. abandonment that absolved himself of responsibility, deflected blame to his predecessor, and more or less invited the Taliban to take over the country.”

What do you think? Leave your comments by clicking the “comment” tab, or email us at editors@thehustings.news

•••

Also in this column ...

>David Iwinski comments on the Senate's $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation framework in "Progressives Push Another Budget Boondoggle."

>>David Iwinski, again, on Mask Mandate 2.0 in "Wary of Inconsistent Mask Rules."

>>>Stephen Macaulay comments on increased funding proposals for the Internal Revenue Service in "The Broken System."

>>>>Bryan Williams comments on Texas Democratic state legislators walking out on a quorum in "Texas Democrats Should Vote Against Bills They Oppose."

_____
Please email comments to editors@thehustings.news

By Craig Fahle

Democrats have an opportunity to put their money where their mouths are, finally.  The $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill is a crucial opportunity for Joe Biden to implement many of the ideas he campaigned on in 2020. Increased support for childcare, universal pre-K, expanded Medicaid, funding to combat climate change, investments in clean energy development, tuition free community college, immigration reform, and a fairer tax system are all crucial planks in the party platform. There will surely be some adjustments made to the reconciliation bill before it receives final votes, but even then, this will be the most significant progressive legislation passed since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. Democrats would be wise not to screw this up. Alas, there is always an opportunity for the Dems to do just that.   

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a bit of a fine line to walk … keeping a handful of skittish moderates from balking at the overall price tag (and their own reelection fears) thus scuttling passage of the bill. Meanwhile, progressives in the caucus have made it clear that they will not support the infrastructure bill if the reconciliation package isn’t done first. It’s a power struggle, but Pelosi must find a way to keep everyone in line. Sure, some moderate Democrats may fear being labeled as “tax and spend liberals” or even “socialists” in advance of the midterms. They may worry they will be hammered over a price tag with the word “trillion” attached to it. So be it. The Republicans were going to label them as such no matter what happens with the reconciliation bill.   So … If you have a D next to your name, think about WHY you are a Democrat, and have the courage to vote for what you believe in. It may cost some seats next year, but what’s more important? Your job, or your principles?  

Opportunities like this don’t come around for Democrats too often. If they pull this off, they will have a massive achievement under their belts – namely a spending plan that helps people instead of corporations -- a spending plan that taxes the truly wealthy and corporations to pay for a big chunk of it. If the Democrats can’t sell that in 2022, that’s on them.

Feeling Left out of our civil political discourse? Tune in to The Hustings Week in Review Friday, August 13, on the new audio social media site Clubhouse. Enter our room beginning 5 p.m. Eastern time, to listen in or voice your opinion in our new discussion of the week’s news. Download the Clubhouse app at clubhouse.com or from your favorite app store, for free.

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Also on the Left

>"Tales from Our Side of the Turnpike," Michelle Naranjo's left-column response to "Mask Mandates Redux: More Headwinds Approaching."

>>"Enforce the Tax Laws We Have by Giving the IRS the Tools to Do it," Craig Fahle's response to the question of whether more IRS funding is needed to improve tax collection enforcement.

>>>"Worthwhile Symbolism to Fight GOP Voter Suppression."

>>>>Opinion from "affirmatives" on the recent Braver Angels debate resolution: "America is a Racist Nation."

As always, you are invited and encouraged to comment on these home page debates and on items from our daily News & Notes. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news or click on the "comments" tab.

•Read us and subscribe at https://thehustings.substack.com

•Follow us on Twitter @NewsHustings.

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FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2021

•Scroll down for details on the Senate’s $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation framework, debated here in the left and right columns.

•The Taliban have now captured Kandahar and Herat in its surprisingly quick takeover of Afghanistan, leaving only four major cities under government control, with just four major cities left, including the capital of Kabul, The New York Times reports. The U.S. is responding by sending 3,000 troops, in addition to remaining troops that are scheduled to leave by the end of the month, to help evacuate the embassy and interpreters.

•Tune in to Clubhouse at 5 p.m. Eastern time today for the first installment of The Hustings Week in Review. Download the Clubhouse app at clubhouse.com.

Moderate Democrats Reject Coupling Budget Resolution with Infrastructure – Nine moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives have called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, to de-couple the Senate’s bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill from its $3.5 trillion budget resolution, Punchbowl News reports. Pelosi has called House members back to the Capitol Aug. 23, ahead of its scheduled return from August recess after Labor Day.

“We will not consider voting for a budget resolution until the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passes the House and is signed into law,” the Democratic representatives said in a letter to Pelosi. 

Democrats currently have an eight-vote majority in the House, at 220-212, with three vacancies.

The speaker said earlier this summer that the House would not consider the so-called hard infrastructure bill unless it was accompanied by the much larger “social” infrastructure package, which Senate Republicans, led by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have rejected outright. The White House had split a proposal that would have packaged together “hard” and “social” infrastructure to avoid a filibuster on the former, the “roads & bridges” bill (the Biden administration has marketed these together, along with his COVID-19 relief package, as the Build Back Better Act). 

The Senate passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act Tuesday by 69-30 vote, with 19 Republican senators joining all 50 Democratic senators (including independents Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, and Angus King, of Maine). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer promptly introduced the framework for the Build Back Better Act, which passed Tuesday afternoon by 50-49 vote with no cloture required because it’s under budget reconciliation.

Mutiny on Pelosi: The nine moderate Democratic representatives who signed the letter to Pelosi are Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Carolyn Bordeaux of Georgia, Jared Golden of Maine, Ed Case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Filemon Vela, Henry Cuellar, and Vincente Gonzalez, all of Texas.

Note: This latest Democratic Party mess calls into question Pelosi’s much-vaunted political leadership skills, for its awful timing and public lack of unity. Pelosi should paraphrase Will Rogers: “I’m not the House speaker from any organized party, I’m a Democrat.”

Why did it take this long for nine Democratic moderates to push back against sophomore and junior progressives, who have said for weeks that the two spending bills must be considered together? Why wasn’t this settled well before the Senate took up the hard infrastructure bill? To be fair, President Biden also wanted both the infrastructure bill and the budget resolution to reach his desk for his signature at the same time, but Sens. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, and Joe Manchin III, D-WV, already have indicated they will not vote for a $3.5-trillion spending bill. Republicans, especially those worried about being “primaried” by pro-Trump candidates next year, now have the opportunity to kill both bills and take away Biden’s bipartisan victory.

•••

Census Results Show We’re Less White, More Urban – First results from the U.S. Census – four months late because of coronavirus shutdowns and Trump administration delays – show a declining non-Hispanic white population, a declining birth rate and a higher concentration of population around major urban areas, The Washington Post reports. These early results could point to a coming clash between the growing non-white urban population and states like Georgia and Texas that are trying to constrict voting laws after urban areas delivered large margins for Joseph R. Biden for president last November. 

Some key results…

•Non-Hispanic whites made up 57.8% of the population in last year’s census, down from 63.7% in 2010. 

•The 5.1 million drop in non-Hispanic whites marks the first time this segment of the population fell since 1790.

•People of color now make up a majority of the population under 18 years old, at 52.7%.

•The birth rate is at its lowest since the 1930s, during the Great Depression.

•The Hispanic population has tripled in the last three decades, to 62.1 million people, or 18.7%.

•The Asian population has more than doubled since 1990, from 3% to 6.1%.

•The non-Hispanic Black population remains steady, at 12.1% of the population.

•••

Trump Sets Up Iowa Team for 2024 (Re-) Run – Donald J. Trump’s Save America PAC has hired Eric Branstad and Alex Latcham as senior advisers to “help on many political matters,” according to a spokesman. The ex-president has all but confirmed his plans to run again for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.

Bloomberg first reported that Trump’s PAC had hired the two advisers in Iowa. Branstad was Trump’s state director in Iowa in 2016, and a senior adviser again in 2020. In between, he was a senior adviser for the Trump administration in the Commerce department. He is the son of Trump’s ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, who had previously served as a once-moderate Republican Iowa governor.

•••

SCOTUS Strikes Down Part of New York Eviction Moratorium – The U.S. Supreme Court, has granted – 6-3 with liberal justices dissenting – a request to lift certain parts of a New York residential eviction moratorium that have been in place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic early last year, SCOTUSblog reports. In Chrysafis v. Marks, landlords argued in a New York federal court that tenants’ ability to declare financial hardship to avoid eviction violated their right to due process by allowing tenants to put the brakes on eviction proceedings without proving financial hardship from the COVID-19 pandemic, and without allowing landlords’ rebuttal. 

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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THURSDAY, AUGUST 12, 2021

•The U.S. Census Bureau releases 2020 population data today expected to set off a redistricting fight that will affect state legislature majorities via gerrymandering. 

•The Taliban have captured their 10^th provincial capital in Afghanistan in the past week, NPR reports, as U.S. and NATO military forces continue their withdrawal. The latest is in Ghazni, just 80 miles southwest of Kabul.

•Doing the math: The Senate left town Wednesday after passing the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill. It returns in September to a Republican vs. Democratic struggle over the debt limit. The House of Representatives returns from its August recess early, on the 23^rd, to consider the two packages, totaling $4.7 trillion in spending. 

•Read details of the $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation framework making its way through the Senate in the August 11 News & Notes file below, and check out the debate on the budget, with Craig Fahle in the left column and David Iwinski in the right column.

Weekly Unemployment Claims Fall to 375,000 – The rate of weekly unemployment claims fell by 12,000 to 375,000 for the week ended August 7, the Labor Department reported Thursday morning, a near-low for the pandemic. The previous week’s claims were adjusted upward by 2,000 to 387,000. The insured unemployment rate for the week ended July 31 was 2.1%, off 0.1% from the previous week’s rate.

•••

Trump Considered Replacing Rosen in Order to Push ‘Big Lie’ – President Trump’s last acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, told the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Office of Inspector General in a two-hour phone call last Friday that he had to persuade the president not to replace him with a colleague who was willing to push the narrative that continuing election fraud investigations placed doubt on Joseph Biden’s victory last November, according to The New York Times. Sources told the Timesthat Rosen testified Trump threatened to fire Rosen with Jeffrey Clark, a Justice Department official apparently willing to support the “Big Lie” narrative.

Trump did not fire Rosen, the Times notes, but “the plot highlights” the president’s ongoing efforts to use the Justice Department for his own political purposes. Rosen’s Justice Department colleague, Jeffrey Clark, gave the newspaper no comment, but said back in January that his communications with Trump were “consistent with the law.”

Note: Keep in mind that Rosen served as acting AG for less than a month, after William Barr resigned just before Christmas, when he declared there was no widespread fraud in Biden’s election victory over Trump.

•••

Trump to Meet with Cheney Challenger – Ex-President Trump is scheduled to meet today with Harriet Hageman, a potential 2022 mid-term primary challenger to Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Politico reports. Cheney is one of 10 House Republicans who voted in favor of Trump’s second impeachment earlier this year, and currently serves on the House select committee investigating the January 6 pro-Trump attacks on the Capitol. Hageman is a Republican trial attorney who unsuccessfully ran for Wyoming governor in 2018, but she also served on Cheney’s short-lived 2014 U.S. Senate campaign, according to Politico.

Note: This is yet another early indicator of Trump’s Republican support going into the 2022 midterm elections. By most appearances, Trump retains his popularity on the state and regional level in such red states as Wyoming, even while his command of Capitol Hill Republicans – consider the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill – appears to be wavering.

•••

Federal Judge Agrees to Release Trump Hotel Records – U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia Amit Mehta ruled Wednesday that the House Oversight Reform Committee should be able to obtain some records related to Donald Trump’s hotel lease on his company’s development of the Old Post Office Building in Washington into a luxury hotel, Roll Call reports. The investigation relates to the emoluments clause of the Constitution, and whether foreign governments paid millions of dollars through the hotel by booking rooms there, as the Trump administration conducted policy affecting the governments. Trump’s attorneys are sure to appeal Mehta’s ruling.

•••

California Requires Teacher Vaccinations – Gov. Gavin Newsom, D, announced Wednesday that California will require all teachers and school employees to be vaccinated, or submit to weekly COVID-19 tests, Politico reports. Newsom faces a recall election September 14.

•••

Cuomo Replacement Will Run in ’22 – Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who takes over the New York governorship when a disgraced Andrew Cuomo steps down August 24, says she will run for the Democratic nomination for the November 2022 gubernatorial election, The Wall Street Journal reports. Hochul also is reportedly considering a mask mandate in New York schools to fight COVID-19.

Trump attorney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s son, Andrew Giuliani, is considering a bid for the Republican nomination, while two more Republicans, state Rep. Lee Zeldin and former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, already have announced for next year.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

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Debating Budget Reconciliation

Build Back Better Plan -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, says the House of Representatives will not vote on the just-passed $1.2-trillion Senate infrastructure bill unless it is accompanied by President Biden's $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation bill. Unlike the infrastructure bill, the Bring Back Better Plan, as it's called, does not need any Republican senators to support it, though it will need the support of Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, as well as support of most progressive Democrats in the House. Fresh off his infrastructure bill's bi-partisan support, however, Biden says he expects both bills to land on his Oval Office desk on-time, which most optimistically is mid-September. Pundits Craig Fahle and David Iwinski take their first look at the reconciliation bill, and debate them from the left column, and right column, respectively.

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News & Notes -- WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2021

•The Senate passed the $3.5-trillion budget blueprint via reconciliation just before 4 a.m. Wednesday, 50-49. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, followed up the vote by setting up Senate consideration in September for voting rights bills. The House of Representatives will return early from recess, on August 23, to take up the blueprint along with the $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill, says Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD, according to Punchbowl News. Details below.

Consumer Prices Rise 0.5% in July – The Consumer Price Index rose 0.5% on a seasonally adjusted basis for July, following an 0.9% increase in June, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday morning. The annual inflation rate remains high at 5.4% thanks in part to shortages in many sectors due to effects of the pandemic and its shutdowns. 

Still affected by computer chip shortages, new vehicle prices rose 1.7% in July, though used vehicles were up only 0.2%, after a 10.5% rise in June. Food prices were up 0.7% in July, and food-away-from-home was up 0.8%, reflecting increases in fast food workers’ wages. Energy was up 1.6% and the gasoline sector was up 2.4%. 

Note: Assessing the data, Josh Bidens, director of research at the Economic Policy Institute, noted, “the mid-year inflation spike is real, but largely contained. It continues to be far, far too early to think the data merit serious [Federal Reserve] tightening right now. The recovery is going quite well—we should keep fostering it, not trying to weigh it down.”

•••

Infrastructure, Budget Reconciliation Pass Senate – After 19 Republican senators voted with 50 Democrats to pass the $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill the two parties returned to their separate corners because of the $3.5-trillion in proposed additional spending. That leaves Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-NY, to navigate her party’s ship between its thin majority in the House of Representatives and its own progressives, who seem to consider the majority in both chambers to be absolute. 

On NPR’s All Things Considered Tuesday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-MA, reiterated the progressive wing’s demands for budgeting “social infrastructure,” including the “care” economy, climate change, housing and a pathway for immigrants to citizenship. When Alisa Chang, of NPR, pressed Pressley on the question of whether progressives are willing to “torpedo” the “entire infrastructure bill if that entire $3.5-trillion package does not end up passing in the Senate,” Pressley ducked a direct yes-no answer.

“I expect we will honor the original terms of the deal,” Pressley responded, referring to Pelosi’s promise to only vote on the infrastructure bill in tandem with the budget reconciliation bill.

Under Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, the budget reconciliation framework debate immediately commenced, with a 50-49 vote (Sen. Mike Rounds, R-SD, was absent) including Sens. Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, and Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and obviously no support from any of the 50 Republicans, in the affirmative. 

Vote-a-Rama: The Senate considered a record 47 amendments in a 15-hour ‘vote-a-rama,’ Punchbowl News reports, including the issues of critical race theory, fracking, inflation, the Green New Deal, police funding, sanctions on Hamas, taxpayer funding of abortion and opposition to tax increases on anyone earning less than $400,000 per year. The House can accept these “non-binding” amendments or send them back to the Senate.

An amendment by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, went viral on Twitter. He introduced an amendment that would eliminate federal funding for any locality that votes to “defund the police.” 

Sen. Corey Booker, D-NJ, immediately “embraced” the amendment and called for a voice vote for its passage, urging every senator to make it clear they want “to fund the police, believe in God, country and apple pie.” 

The amendment passed with all 50 Democrats joining the Republicans. 

“This is a gift,” Booker continued. “I’m sure we’ll see no political ads attacking anybody here over ‘defund the police.’” 

Booker was calling out Republicans who were introducing amendments to become fodder in midterm election campaign ads. On Twitter, the response from liberals was split between those who understood Booker’s “satire” and those who didn’t.

Note on Bipartisanship: President Biden praised open talks with Republicans and Democrats on the bi-partisan infrastructure bill from the White House Tuesday afternoon. “We went through years of infrastructure week, and now we have infrastructure decade,” he said, “…that I truly believe will transform America.”

Biden laughed at a reporter’s question about whether he feared the House will not pass the Senate bill if Democrats are not satisfied with the accompanying budget resolution. “It will happen,” he replied, evidently confident of the bill’s passage – hinting, perhaps, that Pelosi has a strategy for quick approval in order to place two bills covering a massive portion of the White House’s agenda within the coming month.

Note on Bipartisanship II: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, appears to be moving the GOP away from Trumpism, as he dismissed the former president’s ongoing criticism of the infrastructure bill, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

“Infrastructure is popular with Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “The American people, divided, sent us a 50-50 Senate and a narrowly divided House. I don’t think the message from that was ‘do absolutely nothing.’ And if you’re going to find an area of potential agreement, I can’t think of a better one than infrastructure, which is desperately needed.”

•••

Republican “Yays” on Infrastructure – Republican senators who voted with 50 Democrats to pass the $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill Tuesday are: Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Kentucky), Roy Blunt (Missouri), Richard Burr (North Carolina), Shelley Moore Capito (West Virginia), Bill Cassidy (Louisiana), Susan Collins (Maine), Kevin Cramer (North Dakota), Michael D. Crapo (Idaho), Deb Fischer (Nebraska), Lindsay Graham (South Carolina), Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Joe Hoeven (North Dakota), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), James Risch (Idaho), Mitt Romney (Utah), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Thom Tillis (North Carolina) and Roger Wicker (Mississippi). (Per The New York Times). 

•••

All About the Timing – Clearly seeing no path to running for an unprecedented fourth term next year as New York governor, Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation, effective in two weeks. Facing a New York attorney general’s report that accuses him of sexual harassment, Cuomo said he was “caught up in generational and cultural shifts.” 

Cuomo also is facing allegations he covered up roughly half of COVID-19 deaths in the state’s nursing homes during the peak of the pandemic last year.

Replacement for the rest of his term is Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochuk, a Democrat from Buffalo not closely aligned with Cuomo, who becomes New York’s first female governor.

Note: Pundits on the left wasted no time comparing Cuomo’s resignation to the lack of response outside of denial by Republican politicians accused of sexual impropriety, including former President Trump and current Rep. Matt Gaetz, of Florida. 

The conspiracy theorists also came out on this one. Snopes put out a post saying that governor-to-be Kathy Hochuk is notNancy Pelosi’s stepsister.

•••

Country Is Predictably Divided — A Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted August 7-9 shows that the Democrats and the Republicans are pretty much divided on the categories that each has long been associated with, with the Dems stronger in social issues and the Republicans on economic and security ones. One number that ought to give some solace to the White House is that 51% approve of the job President Biden is doing and 46% disapprove.

Going down into the issues, here are some of the responses when asked which party in Congress was trusted to handle the specific issues:

Health care

• Democrats:            47%
• Republicans:          36%

Immigration

• Democrats:            38%
• Republicans:          45%

Climate change

• Democrats:            48%
• Republicans:          29%

Environment

• Democrats:            48%
• Republicans:          29%

Energy

• Democrats:            42%
• Republicans:          38%

Education

• Democrats:            44%
• Republicans:          36%

National security

• Democrats:            36%
• Republicans:          47%

Gun policy

• Democrats:            39%
• Republicans:          44%

Medicare/Social Security

• Democrats:            44%
• Republicans:          37%

Coronavirus

• Democrats:            45%
• Republicans:          33%

Voting rights

• Democrats:            45%
• Republicans:          40%

Of those 11 categories, the Republicans come out on top in just three.

The margin of error of the poll is ±2%.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2021

SENATE PASSES $1.2-TRILLION BIPARTISAN INFRASTRUCTURE BILL, VOTES TO BEGIN DEBATE ON $3.5-TRILLION 'SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE' BUDGET RECONCILIATION – The Senate Tuesday morning passed the $1.2-trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill by a vote of 69-30, nine more than needed to avoid a filibuster. Republican senators voting with the 50 Democrats include Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, immediately took up a vote to debate the White House's $3.5-trillion "social infrastructure" budget reconciliation package.

•••

CUOMO RESIGNS -- Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned Tuesday afternoon over the state attorney general's report investigating sexual harassment claims against him. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, becomes the first woman to serve as governor of New York. It is unclear whether Cuomo may be impeached after he has left office.

•••

New Millennium Deal – Democrats unveiled their $3.5 trillion “blueprint” for budget reconciliation, a sweeping “social” infrastructure plan that requires 12 Senate and 13 House committees to submit a filibuster-proof fiscal package by September 15, Roll Call reports. The proposal highlights spending for health care, social policy, and climate policy. Democrats have proposed just $1.75 trillion, half the package, in tax increases for upper income and in corporate taxes and by reining in prescription drug costs and other savings to pay for it. The draft package includes room to grow the budget deficit in the coming decade, which Democrats say could be partially mitigated by closing the “tax gap” between what is owed and what is paid.

Once adapted, the package “will allow the Senate to move forward on a reconciliation bill that will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working people, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor since FDR and the New Deal of the 1930s,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, says on his website. “It will also put the U.S. in a global leadership position to combat climate change and to make our planet healthy and habitable for future generations.”

Top expenditures in the Senate Democrats’ blueprint include $726.4 billion to health, education, labor, and pensions, $332 billion to banking and the Department of Housing and Urban Development and $198 billion for energy and natural resources.

Note: A substantial infrastructure package seemed like a bipartisan dream just a month or two ago, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, remains determined to tie that package with this $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation “social” infrastructure package, which can only pass so long as moderate Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema are on board. One more reminder that Democrats do not have a decisive majority in the House and Senate, even if Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, have to treat it as such to appease their party’s progressives. Considering Pelosi’s two-bill mandate, President Biden’s first big non-pandemic victory is still not the slam-dunk it should be.

•••

New Senate Voting Rights Bill Expected -- Senate Democrats are planning to propose a stripped-down voter rights bill this week that will include requirements for a voter registration card in order to potentially garner some Republican support. House of Representatives Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-SC, who told NPR Tuesday morning that voter rights is the third leg of a three-legged Democratic agenda stool, along with infrastructure and the budget reconciliation bill, says he would support inclusion of a voter registration card requirement[VJ1] . 

•••

U.S. Attempts Diplomacy Appeal with Taliban in Afghanistan – U.S. Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad warned the Taliban that a government that comes to lead Afghanistan by force will become an international pariah and will not be recognized, the Associated Press reports, as the Biden administration’s attempts at a peace deal founder. Zalmay traveled to the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar, to deliver the message, following Taliban insurgents’ capture of five of 34 provincial Afghani capitals within a week, the AP says. 

Note: Order in Afghanistan has proven to be untenable since ancient times – just ask Soviets of the 1980s. The U.S. withdrawal, finally, comes as The Washington Post publishes excerpts from its reporter, Craig Whitlock’s new book, The Afghanistan Papers, including a story this morning that the Bush administration hid from the public attempts to attack Vice President Dick Cheney. So, here’s just a bit of solace: A Taliban military chief warned his fighters in an audio message not to harm Afghani forces and government officials in the captured territories, the AP says.

•••

District Judge Questions Restitution Amounts in 1/6 Riots – Why are Capitol riot defendants being asked to pay only $1.5 million in restitution, leaving American taxpayers to foot most of the costs to fix the building and grounds of more than $500 million? Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell, asked prosecutors Monday. Howell challenged the toughness of the Justice Department’s position in plea hearings for a Colorado Springs man who admitted to one of four non-violent counts of picketing the U.S. Capitol, The Washington Post reports. 

Howell criticized the prosecutors for seeking only $2,000 per defendant charged with a felony, and $500 per defendant charged with a misdemeanor.

“I’m accustomed to the government being fairly aggressive in terms of fraud when there have been damages that accrue from a criminal act for the restitution amount,” she said.

Note: While not explicitly stated, Howell’s comments recall criticism from the left earlier this year that the mostly white, male, Capitol rioters were not being treated by law enforcement with the sort of force that protesters of color often face. This is compounded by fears some authorities have that ex-President Trump could trigger the most rabid of his MAGA-followers to commit further, more intense violence in the name of the November election “Big Lie.”

•••

Abbott Asks to Suspend Surgeries — Texas governor Greg Abbott, R, has asked hospitals in the state to voluntarily postpone elective procedures and said that the Department of State Health Services is seeking medical workers from outside the Lone Star State to help with the unprecedented surge in COVID cases there, Politico reports.

Note: Abbott issued an executive order May 18 prohibiting government entities — as in counties, cities, school districts, public health authorities, and government officials — from requiring masks. What’s more, any local government or official that would not follow the executive order could be fined up to $1,000. Abbott’s rationale? According to a press release from his office, Abbott said, “Texans, not government, should decide their best health practices, which is why masks will not be mandated by public school districts or government entities. We can continue to mitigate COVID-19 while defending Texans' liberty to choose whether or not they mask up." This is not a “Remember the Alamo” moment. Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, et. al would probably have had everyone in the chapel of the Mission San Antonio de Valero wearing masks lest the virus take them down.

What’s more, “elective surgeries” may sound benign, but all this means is that they are surgeries that are scheduled, which can mean anything from hip replacement to kidney stone removal to heart bypass grafting. Abbott’s mandate isn’t making it easier on those Texans.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods

---

•Read Stephen Macaulay's commentary on the former acting attorney general’s reported testimony to the Justice Department on how Donald J. Trump tried to subvert last November’s presidential election, today at https://thehustings.substack.com

•The Senate is expected to take a full vote on its $1-trillion bi-partisan infrastructure plan by Tuesday morning, following a procedural vote on cloture today. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin will call on Congress today to raise the debt limit by “regular order,” as Senate Democrats release their $3.5-trillion reconciliation budget this morning. Yellin will repeat to Congress that “increasing or decreasing the debt limit does not increase government spending, nor does it authorize spending for future budget proposals. It simply allows Treasury [department] to pay for enacted expenditures.”

•The Taliban have overrun the provincial capital of Sar-e-Pul, Afghanistan Monday, the AP reports, after capturing three other cities Sunday. U.S. military forces are to complete withdrawal from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of fighting, by the end of August. 

Climate Change Report a ‘Code Red for Humanity’ – Humans have altered the environment at an “unprecedented pace,” and it’s almost too late to change course, a damning report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. UN Secretary Gen. Antonio Guterres calls the report “a code red for humanity.”

Greenhouse gas release is growing, and countries have failed to meet targets set under the 2015 Paris Accords, according to The Washington Post account of the report. “There is no time for delay, and no room for excuses,” Guterres says.

The report is from 234 authors relying on more than 14,000 studies from around the globe. It says the Earth has warmed more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8F) with little sign of slowing, and could reach 1.5 degrees Celsius by the early 2030s, as heat waves, hurricanes and rain storms become more intense.

Note: As the U.S. returns to the strictures of the Paris Climate Accords under the Biden administration, China and India, late to the Industrial Revolution Party continue to increase greenhouse gas emissions with little curb in sight. The UN report seems to indicate it’s “almost” too late to mitigate emissions, a message that climate change scientists have been making for decades now.

According to the EPA’s no-longer updated A Student’s Guide to Global Climate Change, “Higher temperatures mean that heat waves are likely to happen more often and last longer, too. Heat waves can be dangerous, causing illnesses such as heat cramps and heat stroke, or even death.

“Warmer temperatures can also lead to a chain reaction of other changes around the world. That's because increasing air temperature also affects the oceans, weather patterns, snow and ice, and plants and animals. The warmer it gets, the more severe the impacts on people and the environment will be.”

And you wonder why Greta Thunberg is concerned.

•••

This Won’t Help – The price of oil and other “key industrial commodities” slid Monday over fears the Chinese government failed to halt the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant, The Wall Street Journal reports. Brent Crude Oil fell 4% to $67.87 barrel, and West Texas Intermediate futures fell 4.3%, to $65.38 per barrel.

Note: However, the price of oil in the first half of 2021 was up more than 45% and Wall Street traders have speculated that there could be a run up to $80 per barrel as the economy recovers.

•••

Cuomo’s Top Aide Resigns – Melissa DeRosa, top aide to three-term New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D, resigned after last week’s attorney general report released evidence of the governor’s alleged sexual harassment of other government workers. The AG report says DeRosa helped Cuomo retaliate against one of the women who accused him of the harassment, The New York Times says.

Note: Cuomo thus remains the only New Yorker who believes he will remain in office to the end of his term, next year.

•••

Vax Passport Needed to Ship Out -- U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams held with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, granting the cruise line’s request for a preliminary injunction against a Florida state law that bars businesses — such as Norwegian Cruise Line — from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination, noting in her ruling that the state “fails to provide a valid evidentiary, factual, or legal predicate” for the ban, Politico reports. Florida’s anti-vax passport law stemmed from an executive order that Gov. Ron DeSantis, R, signed in April, which was then codified into law by the state legislature.

Note: According to the Florida Department of Health, during the week of May 28 there were 11,437 cases and 10 weeks later the number was 134,506. Possibly DeSantis was thinking about Trump’s statement in February 2020 “You know, a lot of people think that goes away in April with the heat — as the heat comes in. Typically, that will go way in April.” In Florida the average temperature in April is 69.3 degrees. In July it is 81.6 degrees. Evidently that’s not working out as “a lot of people” think.

What is bizarre about this (well, there are actually plenty of odd things about Florida’s approach to the pandemic) is that here is a business that wants to require proof of vaccination for people to enter its establishment. It isn’t being done because the company wants to reduce the number of potential customers but because it makes financial sense for the company: Were there to be a breakout of the virus on board the ship it is conceivable that this would mean that the ship would not be permitted into port, which would therefore mean that the company’s asset — as in the ship — would not be making money for it. This is purely a business decision on behalf of Norwegian Cruise Line. (The argument for masks in schools—something DeSantis has also banned, and which is the object of lawsuits—is entirely different.)

And to think that DeSantis positions himself as being pro-business. As WUSF reported on February 7, 2021, in a story about the coronavirus impact on passenger cruise operations, “The Florida Ports Council, which continues to push for seaports to be included in federal pandemic relief efforts, has estimated that the economic impact of COVID-19 on the 15 ports in Florida has reached $22 billion, cutting $775 million in tax revenue and affecting 170,000 jobs.” Clearly an important business that DeSantis seems to be thumbing his nose at.

•••

Bi-Partisanship is Real – The Senate passed by voice vote the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers for Veterans Therapy Act (PAWS) last Thursday, Roll Call reports. Once signed by President Biden, the pilot program will provide service dogs to military veterans with mental illness, not just those with mobility issues as is currently the program. The bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Steve Stivers, R-OH, and co-sponsored by 317 of his colleagues from both parties.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

MONDAY, AUGUST 9, 2021

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By David Iwinski

Does anyone really believe that the massive, $1.2-trillion infrastructure spending program that just passed with the help of 19 Republican senators will actually go into the construction of infrastructure projects that benefit all of America? This spending will be siphoned off into pork barrel projects that will accomplish absolutely nothing, and so the $3.5-trillion budget reconciliation “social infrastructure” bill that does not need any of those 19 Republican senators to pass will only add to the nation’s budget deficit pain. 

The only hope for Congressional Republicans may be the push-pull of progressive House Democrats who want even more from the proposal opposite Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema of Arizona, who may still be swayed to vote against the fiscally profligate social infrastructure package.

Despite the possibility of swaying Manchin and Sinema, one practical reality of the balance between Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate is that there is simply not much leverage on the Republican side, and many Republicans are fairly soft on the budget resolution, as made evident by the infrastructure bill vote. After a show of resistance, Republicans will be only too happy to cave in under the expectation that they can claim to their constituents that they brought home money for their district. Progressive Democrats most definitely want to add more “social infrastructure” spending to this bill, but these are the areas where they can expect the strongest resistance from Republicans throughout the conservative range. 

These social programs include such giveaways as a proposed $726 billion for health education labor and pensions, which will not necessarily improve a single line item, but will fund professionals who execute the programs. Another $332 billion of the budget framework would go to banking and to the Department of Housing & Urban Development, the latter of which has had a poor track record of developing viable and vibrant neighborhoods with affordable housing. 

The $198 billion for energy and natural resources – again, this is the initial blueprint, which will be amended, most likely upwards by the Democratic Party’s progressives -- will most certainly be wasted on various make-work projects, pie-in-the-sky theoretical save the earth projects and plain old-fashioned boondoggles. But as much as this proposed big spending is a hot-button for Republicans, they have an equal and opposite effect on progressives and far-left liberals, and given the strength of their convictions and current sway with the Democratic centrist establishment, they are not likely to relent or back off.

Searching for the Right answers to the big questions up for discussion in our civil political discourse? Tune in to The Hustings Week in Review Friday, August 13, on the new audio social media site Clubhouse. Enter our room beginning 5 p.m. Eastern time, to listen in or voice your opinion in our new discussion of the week’s news. Download the Clubhouse app at clubhouse.com or from your favorite app store, for free.

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Also in the Right Column

>Scroll down to read "Wary of Inconsistent Mask Rules," David Iwinski's right-column response to "Mask Mandate Redux: More Headwinds Approaching."

>>"The Broken System," Stephen Macaulay's response to the question of whether more IRS funding is needed to improve tax collection enforcement.

>>>"Texas Democrats Should Vote Against Bills they Oppose," Bryan Williams' commentary about lawmakers who fled the state to avoid a quorum for voting legislation.

>>>>Opinion from "negatives" on the recent Braver Angels debate resolution: "America is a Racist Nation."

As always, you are invited and encouraged to comment on these home page debates and on items from our daily News & Notes. Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news or click on the "comment" tab.

•Read The Hustings and subscribe at https://thehustings.substack.com

•Follow us on Twitter @NewsHustings

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By Michelle Naranjo 

When I bought my first home in Pennsylvania in late November 2019, I was still relatively new to the state. My domestic partner and I were still trying to find the lids to pots and pans when news of a deadly virus abroad crossed the radio waves. By the time we had finally established which direction the sofa should face in late January 2020, the possibility of hosting a housewarming party had grown dim, but I didn't mind because I didn't have any friends locally, and my partner was exhausted from traveling back and forth to New York City for his job. 

By June of 2020, the pandammit boredom had set into our domestication. His work in the City had gone away, and with little else to do we had started working on the house. An orange breadbox on Facebook Marketplace would look perfect on the slate-gray kitchen countertops I had craftily hand-painted to match the matte black sink and faucet procured in one of many online shopping excursions from before the shutdowns. 

That is how I met "Beth." She was selling things from her mother-in-law's estate, and, like me, her mother-in-law loved anything that came in orange. 

Beth is just a couple of years younger than me and lives just north of us in Carbon County. She is bright, funny, and as we discovered when we met masked in the parking lot of a discount store to exchange a hand sanitizer-wiped $20 bill for a bread box, we have a lot (mostly thrift store shopping) in common. That meeting came in a lull of the COVID-19 epidemic and was just a brief glimpse of blue sky before the infected and dying hockey stick graph began to surge. Our friendship grew the following year over text messages. While I didn't get to see her, I ventured to Carbon County twice to get both of my vaccinations. In early Spring 2021, while vaccine supplies ran low in my county, hospitals in the conservative coal counties were in surplus because no one wanted them. 

Almost 20 months since we moved in and with vaccinations widely distributed, my partner and I have planned a housewarming/joint-birthday party for mid-August. It seemed everyone we know is vaccinated, so we see more of my partner's friends. Beth and I even got to meet up at an estate sale in Carbon County. I was masked; she, like most people in Carbon County, was not, and joked that she could tell when people lived on the other side of the turnpike because we still wear masks in public. 

After confirming that she and her husband would be coming to the party, Beth dropped the information on me that, despite working as a bartender part-time in the evenings and cleaning at several AirBnB vacation homes in the touristy town of Jim Thorpe, she has yet to be vaccinated. Her mother had some side effects from her jabs, and she just isn't sure she wants to risk "it." 

I have childhood friends traveling into town for the event and expect every guest bed to be full. Everyone else invited over the age of 12 has been vaccinated. 

And that, dear reader, is the tale of why now I won't have any local friends from Pennsylvania at this party. 

While I know that any breakthrough COVID cases would not be severe on our vaccinated friends, I won't require everyone else to "mask up" in my home to protect one person who fears vaccination side-effects more than the coronavirus. This event is supposed to be casual and welcoming Beth is unreasonable for friends who are still wearing masks when out with the general public. 

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Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

By Charles Dervarics

For a weary citizenry, renewed calls for indoor masking — even among vaccinated individuals — are already shaping up as a political battle among all-too-familiar fault lines, with most liberals supporting the idea and many conservatives opposed.

Calls for a mask mandate 2.0 have come from health experts and government leaders in response to the delta variant of COVID-19, which experts describe as a more potent and transmittable virus. While the greatest concern is for the unvaccinated, some communities are finding that even those with vaccine protection can get “breakthrough” infections and transmit the virus. That has raised the level of concern among health care experts, who see rising hospitalizations in some communities.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending indoor masking in areas with high infection rates and urging face coverings in K-12 schools this fall. The agency notes that vaccinated individuals can easily transmit the Delta strain, putting the unvaccinated, including children, at risk.

“This finding is concerning and was a pivotal discovery leading to CDC’s updated mask recommendation,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.

While critics cite shifting and confusing guidance from the CDC, Walensky said the situation has changed since May when the agency stopped recommending masks in most settings for fully vaccinated individuals. “Delta is just a different kind of beast. It’s much more contagious.” she said in a CBS interview. 

But conservative critics including former President Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, strongly oppose the move, with Cruz labeling the mandate “absurd” given all the limits of the past 17 months. The partisan splits were evident on Capitol Hill, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi instituted a face covering policy strongly opposed by many House Republicans. 

The delta outbreak also is scrambling state and local politics. Cities such as Washington, D.C., Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans have instituted new masking policies, while the governors of Florida and Texas signed executive orders banning such requirements. In his order last week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott prohibited mask mandates as well as COVID-19 vaccine requirements among government agencies and municipalities statewide. 

“No governmental entity, including a county, city, school district and public health authority, and no governmental official may require any person to wear a face-covering or to mandate that other person wear a covering," the executive order read.

Masking 2.0 also may meet limited enthusiasm among average Americans, including the vaccinated. Movie theaters are reporting increased business, Broadway theaters are preparing to re-open and concerts are ramping up as evidenced by the 100,000 who turned out in Chicago for Lollapalooza last weekend. Concert attendees had to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for COVID, but pictures from the event showed massive crowds and little masking.

However, one potential difference maker this time is how many employers have quickly joined in to re-evaluate mask requirements. Large companies such as Walmart, Kroger and Target are requiring masks for employees in hard-hit areas, and indoor mask requirements are back for visitors at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Yet one issue for local leaders — and all Americans — is how to determine if your area is experiencing what the CDC considers a high rate of infection. 

The agency calls a community at high risk if it reports more than 50 new cases a week per 100,000 residents. This rate is still far below what many areas of the country experienced during the height of the pandemic. But with schools scheduled to reopen soon and health experts predicting further spikes due to the delta variant, a rapid and prolonged return to “normal” may still be months away.

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By David Iwinski

We hear constant, ominous rumblings from the Biden administration that we are about to be forced by the federal government into mandatory mask-wearing and possible lockdowns, because of the threat of COVID-19 and its delta variant. There are a great many factors that argue against this course of action by the federal government, let’s take a look at a few.

The scientific evidence for mask efficacy in preventing the spread of COVID is widely varied and even within the CDC and other senior officials, for the entirety of the last 18 months, we have heard wildly contradictory reports on whether masks actually do anything at all. What they do, however, is create a pervasive sense of fear, social isolation and a perception that day-to-day life is simply not safe.

We hear all the time this senseless blather about “two weeks to eradicate the risk” when we dang well know that it won’t happen because the last time, we heard that it had been well over a year and counting, with no end in sight. What evidence of any concrete validity should cause us to believe that another period of mass isolation will somehow eradicate the risk?

Numerous experts have said the size of the virus and the nature of the masks means that they will not stop the exhalation or inhalation of the coronavirus. Further, there is contradictory evidence that continual breathing of droplets normally aspirated might lead to respiratory disease, particularly in children. We should add to that the simple reality that many, many Americans are not going to wear the masks, no matter what.

I have seen the angry denunciations by hysterical people demanding utter compliance and that they will take matters into their own hands if they see people not wearing a mask. Of course, this is not going to work and only heightens the distance between those consumed with fear and those who simply want a little evidence that masks have even a minimal positive effect before they put them on their children and their own faces, indoor and outdoor, every single day.

Add to that the inevitable downturn in the economy and what that will mean to people’s ability to keep their homes, keep their savings and keep their livelihoods. There is emerging some clinical data that depression, social isolation and suicide are on the rise. Do we really need to push these trends even harder?

Some may say that these negatives can be offset by adding so-called “stimulus payments” but are we really so naïve to think that the trillions of dollars poured into the country -- often earmarked for expensive programs in a particular legislator’s district -- are never going to have to be repaid and that that debt will not be a burden on the country for decades, if not centuries? Have we really come to believe that we can get something for nothing?

No one is denying that COVID has dangers. Many things in life do. The problem with government enforced mask mandates is that they require acceptance of an enormous range of guaranteed negative effects including social isolation, depression, suicide, bankruptcy, loss of income and loss of homes as well as potentially other respiratory diseases, not to mention the massive disruption in the education process. We are all supposed to absorb these negative effects without question based on a premise that poorly designed, ill-fitting and ineffective masks will somehow prevent infection even after a significant percentage of the population are too fed up to ever wear them again. 

This is nonsense masquerading as government care. This is the erosion of civil liberties based on a dubious and unproven premise that government officials themselves have reversed dozens of times. It is the function of what government does best: Some highly visible and nonfunctioning action they take simply to convince people that they “care” and that they are “doing something” as a way to preserve high-paying jobs controlling our lives. Note how many officials demanding we mask-up rarely wear masks themselves when on camera. Former President Obama just cancelled his big 60^th birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard, but only after public outcry. 

If we continue to give in to this erosion of our civil liberties and our ability to exercise our own judgment, we will soon have no personal liberties left, and every action or thought will require government approval.  

Americans are not going to let that happen.

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