For the Left

If you are liberal, euphoric over the emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, or ready to sit out the November 5th election because of President Biden’s Gaza war policy, we want to hear from you. Go to the Comments section to react to our center-column coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. 

Or you can email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Meanwhile, Stephen Macaulay, our never-Trumper pundit-at-large, has been busy with these right-column commentaries lately, and we are happy to take your civil comments in reaction, whether positive or negative:

• “Kamala, Voldemort & Commercials”

• “Why I’m Not Interested in Trump-Musk”

• “Letter to the President”

• “If Joe is Sleepy, Was Trump Comatose?

Go to Page 3 to read our fact-based center column coverage of the July Republican National Convention.

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Biden Bids Adieu at the DNC

By Charles Dervarics

It wasn’t the Democratic convention that Joe Biden envisioned for 2024. Instead, his appearance Monday in Chicago — part campaign speech, part wistful reflection on his career — represented the end of an era as the president made clear he is turning the keys over to new management.

With a speech that pulled on a few heartstrings, Biden touted his administration’s progress to overcome the pandemic, create new infrastructure and manufacturing jobs, reduce drug prices and install the most diverse cabinet in history. “We’ve had the most extraordinary four years of progress,” he said.

To steady chants of “Thank you Joe” and “We love Joe,” the president reflected on why he ran for president in 2020 — to honor his late son, Beau, and to help restore democracy amid the turmoil of Donald Trump’s presidency. 

“I made a lot of mistakes in my career. But I gave my best to you for 50 years,” he said. “Like many of you, I give my heart and soul to our nation.”

Even with the warm reception for Biden, the night’s activities illustrated the fast-changing political landscape of the past month. Vice President Kamala Harris made the unusual step of appearing on stage the first night of the convention, both to introduce herself to delegates and urge them to give Biden a warm welcome. 

A video and speeches about Harris’ early years were just some of the many activities that pushed Biden’s speech back until 11:30 p.m., well after prime-time television on the East Coast.

Biden spoke briefly about the tumultuous events of the past month when he faced pressure to step aside due to his age and eventually withdrew and endorsed his vice president.

The 81-year-old president said it is “not true” that he is angry at those who urged him to end his candidacy. “I love the job, but I love my country more.” Of Harris, he said, “She’s tough, she’s experienced, and she has enormous integrity.”

He also noted that his half-century career in national politics began as a 29-year-old elected to the U.S. Senate, where the minimum age to serve is 30. “I've either been too young to be in the Senate because I wasn't 30 yet or too old to stay as president. But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you.”

•••

Some “apparently uncommitted” delegates unfolded a protest banner during Biden’s speech, according to The Washington Post. Outside, the “tens of thousands” of pro-Palestinian protesters organizers had predicted turned out in far lower numbers. Dozens broke through part of a perimeter security fence, which drew riot police to the site, according to a Reuters witness. Chicago Police declined to say how many were arrested.

•••

While Biden’s late speech served as the highlight of the evening, it was not the only dramatic event of the night. United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain introduced a new campaign slogan when he removed his jacket to reveal a red t-shirt with the words “Trump is a Scab! Vote Harris!”

The convention hall quieted during a series of short speeches about protecting reproductive rights. Most dramatic was the story of Hadley Duvall, a victim of sexual assault who became pregnant by her stepfather at age 12. “What is so beautiful about a child having to carry her parent’s child?” she told the crowd.

And Hillary Clinton connected the past and future in an address criticizing Trump and calling on Americans to break the glass ceiling to elect a female president. “We have him on the run now,” she said of the former president. At one point, the crowd chanted “lock him up” in reference to Trump’s recent felony convictions—a stark difference from 2016 when Trump supporters used “lock her up” as a chant against Clinton, then the Democratic nominee, over her email controversy.

_____________________________________________

DNC Week -- MON 8/19/24

Prepping for a Loss – While Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump has said he will accept the results of a “free and fair” election, he is defining for his supporters what that means; “This was an overthrow of the president. This was an overthrow,” Trump said at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, of President Biden stepping down from the race last month, The Washington Post reports. “It was a coup of a president. This was a coup.” Beware January 6, 2025.

•••

Of Protests and Ceasefires – As pro-Palestinian protesters gather around the DNC in Chicago, Gaza war ceasefire talks are moving this week from Qatar to Egypt, where stubborn resistance from Hamas leaders and from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far prevailed. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says this week’s talks are “maybe the last chance” for a Gaza ceasefire, according to The New York Times. 

•••

Zelenskyy Explains – What’s Ukraine doing in Russia? Has been the much-asked question since the counter-invasion earlier this month. Ukraine is creating a “buffer zone on the territory,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy explained in his Sunday address, Newsweek reports. Earlier Sunday, Ukrainian forces destroyed a second bridge in Russia’s Kursk region.

“It is now our primary task in defensive operations overall, to destroy as much Russian war potential as possible. … In particular, this is the creation of a buffer zone on the territory of our aggressor – our operation in Kursk Oblast.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

For the Right

This is your column in which to comment on the Democratic National Convention this week, whether you’re a pro-MAGA supporter of the former president or a never-Trumper looking for his second defeat. Go to the Comments section this page.

Or you can email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Stephen Macaulay, our never-Trumper pundit-at-large, has been busy with these right-column commentaries lately, and we are happy to take your civil comments in reaction, whether positive or negative:

• “Kamala, Voldemort & Commercials”

• “Why I’m Not Interested in Trump-Musk”

• “Letter to the President”

• “If Joe is Sleepy, Was Trump Comatose?

Go to Page 3 to read our fact-based center column coverage of the July Republican National Convention.

_____

Invitation to Comment

Your comments go here if you lean left.  Go to the Comments section this column, if you lean liberal, or the one in the right column, if you lean conservative, to comment on the Musk-Trump “conversation” on X-Twitter, or other political issues and news. 

Or email editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at thehustings.substack.com.

_____

…meanwhile…

Waiting for the Fed -- July’s Consumer Price Index all but assures the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates when it next meets in September. The CPI dropped to 2.9% for July, from 3.0% in June, marking its lowest level since March 2021, the Labor Department reports. Prices increased 0.2% in July over June, with shelter up 0.4%, accounting for 90% of the increase for all prices, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Food was up 0.2%, food away from home was up 0.2%, and food at home was up 0.1%, while all prices except food and energy rose 0.2%. [Chart: BLS]

FRIDAY 8/16/24

It’s the Economy, Stupid – Ex-President Donald J. Trump attacked Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic policy Thursday at a press conference held at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club ahead of the Democratic presidential candidate’s unveiling of her economic policy in a Raleigh, North Carolina, appearance Friday.  

Her “populist” agenda, according to The Washington Post features …

•Elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans.

•”First-ever” ban on price gouging for groceries and food.

•Cap on prescription drug costs.

•$25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers.

•Child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life.

The last plank follows Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s suggestion earlier in August that the child tax credit be raised from $2,000 to $6,000, WaPo notes.

The price gouging ban gave Trump fodder at his Thursday presser that “radical left” California politician Harris wants to put “price controls all over the place, which will end up driving up your prices, not down your prices,” USA Today reports. Trump held up examples of foodstuffs to highlight grocery inflation, including Oreos, Froot Loops, Cheerios and an impossibly downsized container of Tic Tacs. 

Trump also attacked the Biden/Harris administration’s favorable jobs growth and unemployment rate record, which has generally gone unnoticed by voters. He claimed without evidence that “virtually 100%” of net job growth over the last year has gone to migrants, “actually beyond the number of 100%.”

•••

Vance Wrote the Forward – Donald J. Trump has spent much of the summer trying to distance himself from Project 2025, the 900-some page Heritage Foundation book that, among other things, would consolidate presidential power, eliminate various federal agencies and promote a “Christian nation.” 

In an August 6 speech in Philadelphia, with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris standing behind him, running mate Tim Walz said: “JD Vance literally, literally wrote the forward for the architect of the Project 2025 agenda. 

Friday PolitiFact:Daily confirmed Walz’s charge. Vance wrote the forward for Kevin Roberts’ book, Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America. PolitiFact cites HarperCollins Publishers’ website and “other marketing materials” as proof. 

Whatever your opinion, be sure to give Walz credit for correct use of the word, “literally.”

--TL

_____________________________________________

THURSDAY 8/15/24

Reviving Ceasefire Negotiations? – Negotiations to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire were set to resume Thursday in Doha, Qatar, where mediators from Qatar, Egypt, the US and Israel are to take up the deal President Biden proposed May 31. Talks over that proposal have been stalled.

Problem is, it appears that Hamas, whose chief negotiator was killed in July 31 by an explosive device in a Tehran guesthouse, will not attend.

Phase I of Biden’s deal would have been a six-week ceasefire in which all hostages and detainees were to be released while Israel and Hamas were to negotiate Phase II, a complete and final ceasefire. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants Israel to resume its war on Gaza after Phase I, if necessary.

Meanwhile, the health ministry in Gaza reported Thursday that the death toll there has topped 40,000. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and soldiers killed, according to NPR.

Competing interests: Haaretz reported earlier this week that while the war in Gaza drags on, Netanyahu is quietly working to advance his overhaul of the Israeli Supreme Court, which would limit its ability to overturn Netanyahu’s decisions it finds “extremely unreasonable.” Biden, on the other hand, hopes a ceasefire will diffuse a movement by pro-Palestinian Democrats to withhold their votes on November 5.

•••

Harris Leads in Battlegrounds – Vice President Kamala Harris leads Donald J. Trump in five battleground states, is tied in a sixth, and is behind in the seventh, in the non-partisan Cook Political Report’s Swing State Project Survey conducted by BSG and GS Strategy Group. In a head-to-head race, Harris leads Trump nationally, 48% to 47%. 

In the Swing State Survey, Harris leads Trump in Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They are tied in Georgia and Trump leads in Nevada.

Meanwhile: Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton infamously avoided campaigning in Wisconsin in 2016. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris will not make that mistake. She plans to visit Milwaukee next Tuesday while former President Barack Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (per The New York Times). Harris will appear with running mate Tim Walz at Fiserv Forum, where the Republican National Convention was held last month.

•••

Menendez Sub in Senate – Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy intends to appoint his former chief of staff, George Helmy, to serve out the rest of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez’s term this year, CQ Roll Call reports, citing “multiple New Jersey media outlets.” 

Menendez, who was found guilty in July of multiple federal charges, including acting as a foreign agent, steps down from his Senate seat next Tuesday. 

Murphy might have appointed the Democratic nominee for Menendez’s seat, Rep. Andy Kim, but Kim defeated Tammy Murphy, the governor’s wife, in the New Jersey Democratic primary. Kim faces Republican candidate Curtis Bashaw November 5.

--TL

_____________________________________________

...meanwhile... WEDNESDAY 8/14/24

Ukraine Keeps Pushing into Russia – Ukraine hit four Russian airbases with four long-range drones overnight Wednesday, The Kyiv Independent reports, citing a source from the SBU, Ukraine’s security service. It is Ukraine’s largest such attack since pushing into Russia’s Kursk region more than a week ago. 

Earlier, according to the report, Russia claimed it had downed 110 Ukrainian drones in a massive attack. Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the governor of Belgorod Oblast has declared a state of emergency as Ukraine’s military moves into the region adjacent to Kursk.

•••

Omar Survives Primary – Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a vocal critic of Israel’s war in Gaza beat centrist liberal Don Samuels in Minnesota’s primary election Tuesday, the AP reports. She escapes the fate that befell two fellow “Squad” members, Rep. Cori Bush, who lost the Democratic nomination in Missouri last week, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, who lost the Democratic nomination in New York in June. Samuels, Omar’s challenger for her Minnesota 5th District seat, is an ex-Minneapolis City Council member she narrowly defeated in 2022.

Reports indicate Omar was not subject to a well-funded opposition campaign by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s United Democracy Project, which is credited with defeating Bush and Bowman.

•••

In Wisconsin – Trump-backed businessman Eric Hovde won the state’s Republican nomination Tuesday to take on two-term Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November, per USA Today. In Wisconsin’s 3rd House District small business owner Rebecca Cooke defeated state Rep. Katrina Shankland in the Democratic primary to take on freshman Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden November 5. The non-partisan Cook Political Report rates Wisconsin’s 3rd as “lean Republican,” according to USA Today.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Kamala, Voldemort & Commercials

By Stephen Macaulay

Here in southeastern Michigan the political advertising is relentless on the local broadcast stations. The Trump and Harris campaigns or their affiliated PACs are undoubtedly causing station managers to dance a jig of delight, given that they’ve become fairly dependent upon ad revenue from local law firms that promote their winning ways on a regular basis and so the slamming of candidates is something of a windfall.

The Harris commercials are consistent in a message of all of the people she’s “taken on” in her career, from greedy landlords to the drug companies. (It is somewhat surprising how many people have claimed they were instrumental to the $35 monthly insulin program: first Biden, now Harris, and even Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is running for the Senate.)

The Trump-related ads are not about any accomplishments that the ex-president made.

They are generally focused on what a deplorable person Kamala Harris is — although they wouldn’t use that adjective even though they describe her as one. 

Some of the ads have bizarre camera angles, images that appear to have been cut from a Super 8 film, and tinting as though this is something out of Blumhouse Productions.

One ad that is in heavy rotation is somewhat simpler: a nurse explaining how because of Harris’ failure at the border and the consequent overwhelming number of illegal immigrants, those illegals are not only filling up the hospital where she works, thereby preventing her patients from getting the care they need, but the patients, who are undoubtedly law-abiding Republicans, have to pay the medical bills run up by the illegals.

As someone who (a) pays taxes and (b) pays medical insurance premiums that seem to do nothing but rise, I certainly find that concerning.

So I wondered. 

And found this from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), which does research into things like public health policy:

“Lawfully present immigrants may qualify for Medicaid and CHIP but are subject to eligibility restrictions that result in some, particularly recent immigrants, being ineligible to enroll even if they meet other eligibility criteria. For example, many must meet a five-year waiting period before qualifying for Medicaid or CHIP. Lawfully present immigrants can purchase coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplaces and may receive tax credits for this coverage without a waiting period.”

That certainly doesn’t sound like they’re filling the appointments at the local urgent care.

Then KFF points out: 

“Undocumented immigrants are ineligible to enroll in Medicaid or CHIP or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces.”

In other words, they can’t, though the implication is otherwise, get federal insurance.

KFF continues:

“Medicaid payments for emergency services may be made on behalf of individuals who are otherwise eligible for Medicaid but for their immigration status. These payments may help cover the costs for emergency care provided to immigrants who remain ineligible for Medicaid but are not coverage for individuals.”

If someone is an undocumented immigrant and gets hit by a bus, one imagines that the Hippocratic Oath kicks in and that person gets medical care. 

And that medical facility, subsequently, gets some reimbursement from the federal government for providing that care.

The alternative to that care would be, what?

Remember when Obamacare was being debated and there were Republicans, against it, talked about “Death Panels”?

Is the suggestion now that those who get hit by buses simply have to deal with it?

Wouldn’t that be more inhumane than a fictitious panel?

Doesn’t a Judeo-Christian nation in the 21st century, the most powerful country in the world, have a responsibility for providing some level of care even for those who are here illegally? 

I am not promoting illegal immigration. But I do believe that there is a certain level of “human-ness” that necessitates dealing with those who are in need of medical attention.

What seems to be getting zero attention from Trump or Harris is that the flat-out criminals aside, many of the people who enter the country illegally do so because they know there is a good likelihood that they can get a job from employers that are not in the least bit interested in their documents, but only in their ability and willingness to work for a low wage, probably off the books. So why not have the Department of Labor focus on making sure that employers have the correct paperwork for each of their employees and if they don’t have the documents, then they pay non-trivial fines and face other penalties. You can bet that when the demand for illegal workers dries up the number of people crossing the border illegally will dry up, as well. Addressing the demand is far more effective than building a wall to minimize the supply, because without the demand, there is no need for the supply. Don’t people read Adam Smith anymore?

But that nurse in the Trump ad certainly doesn’t want to get into the weeds of what the actual state of health care among illegal immigrants is. She just wants us all to know that when you have a tough time getting an appointment with your physician it is probably because of an illegal alien — and that person got the appointment that you want because of Harris.

The ad, as well as others in the anti-Harris playlist, says two things about Harris that seem to cancel one another out, or at least minimize the scariness of the candidate.
She is “dangerous.” But she is also “weak.”

In other words, she is the opposite of Voldemort.

In his August 8 press conference Trump said, “We have commercials that are at a level I don't think that anybody's ever done before.”

When you call your opponent “weak” and “dangerous” that is a level I don’t think that anybody’s ever done before -- and not in a good way.

_____________________________________________

Your comments go here if you lean right. Go to the Comments section this column, if you lean conservative, or the one in the left column, if you lean liberal to comment on the Musk-Trump “conversation” on X-Twitter, or other political issues and news. 

Or email editors@thehustings.news and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Be sure to sign up for our free newsletter at thehustings.substack.com.

_____

Did You Catch That?

TUESDAY Aug. 13, 2024

If you logged on to X-Twitter 8 pm Eastern Monday night, you might have thought you missed the social media site’s owner/Tesla-/SpaceX-CEO Elon Musk having a friendly “conversation” with Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. Or you might have wondered whether X’s “Spaces” were somewhere else, in a portal far, far away from the regular ex-Twitter folderol. 

Our left-column pundit, Ken Zino, did, and gave up before Musk finally got the show going. Our pundit-at-large, Stephen Macaulay, had already given up on the “conversation” ahead of time and explains why he sat this one out, in the right column. Nevertheless, there were 998 million posts about Trump-Musk between 7:47 and 10:47 pm, according to Musk's X account.

If you have something to say about the Musk-Trump show, whether you listened or not, please send us your Comments. Respond in the left column Comments section if you fall to the left of the political horseshoe’s center, or in the right column Comments section if you fall to the right. 

Or, simply email us at editors@thehustings.news and please list your leanings as liberal or conservative (whether centrist on either side, or progressive or MAGA or anything in between) in the subject line, so we post your comments to the appropriate column.

Also, be sure to sign up for our free Substack newsletter.

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A Glitchy Evening with Musk and Trump

By Charles Dervarics

With Vice President Kamala Harris surging in the polls, Donald J. Trump took to the friendly territory of X (formerly Twitter) Monday night for an interview with Elon Musk in hopes of reclaiming momentum for the fall presidential campaign.

What he perhaps didn’t expect were technical glitches that delayed the event by 40 minutes. Users received messages such as “this space is not available,” and those gaining access just heard music for many minutes. Musk claimed that a massive external attack on the website was to blame, and both he and Trump spun the delay as proof of tremendous interest in the interview.

The event was a homecoming of sorts for the former president, whose Twitter account was suspended in 2021 and who then launched his own social media site, Truth Social. Prior to the interview, Trump touted his return to the platform in a video posted to X.

While the Trump campaign termed it beforehand as “the interview of the century,” the event was more of a conversation between two men who agree on most topics. His questions were more of the softball variety, with no fact-checking of the responses.

For his part, Trump returned to many of his favorite themes, sharply criticizing Harris as both unqualified and too-far left for most Americans. “I think she’s more incompetent than he (President Biden) is,” Trump said. He also urged his supporters and the media to not let Democrats “get away with their disinformation campaign” to distance the vice president from her role in setting immigration policy.

The more newsworthy revelations, however, included the following:

  • Return to Butler: “We’re going back to Butler,” Trump said of his desire to return to the Pennsylvania site of his recent assassination attempt. The former president and Musk spent 20 minutes talking about the assassination attempt, with Trump stating that he will return there in October. He also joked that “illegal immigration saved my life” because he turned his head toward an immigration chart on stage. Without that turn of the head, the bullet may have caused more catastrophic injury.
  • Education changes: Trump returned to an earlier theme of wanting to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and “move education back to the states.” He noted that “not every state will do great” but that it would spur competition as families may relocate in search of better schools. He predicted about 35 states would “do great” with the change.
  • Government efficiency: Musk said he wants to sit on a commission to examine government inefficiency, and Trump seemed ready to take him up on his offer. “The waste [in government spending] is incredible,” Trump asserted.

Musk previously has endorsed Trump and pledged to provide substantial funding for his campaign.

TUE 8/13/24

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Why I’m Not Interested in Trump-Musk

By Stephen Macaulay

Back in January 2017, while making a speech at the Central Intelligence Agency headquarters, Donald Trump claimed that the size of the crowd at his inauguration earlier that week had been “like a million, a million and a half people.”

It has been estimated that the size of the 2009 Obama inauguration crowd was that big.

And photographic evidence comparing the two events shows the number of people in Washington was significantly smaller for Trump.

But as Trump said to the VFW convention the following year, “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

The bizarre Trump crowd size estimate gave rise to Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts.”

Here we are, seven years later, and Trump is still concerned about crowd sizes.

At his Mar-a-Lago press conference August 8 he started throwing out numbers. Like claiming he had 107,000 people at a rally in New Jersey, which Newsweek calculated to be <60,000.

Then there were the small numbers: 

“What did she have yesterday? 2,000 people? If I ever had 2,000 people, you'd say my campaign is finished. It's so dishonest, the press. … When she gets 1,500 people, and I saw it yesterday on ABC, which they said, ‘Oh, the crowd was so big.’ … I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size. And no, they never say the crowd was big. … I think it's so terrible when you say, ‘Well she has 1,500 people, 1,000 people,’ and they talk about, oh, the enthusiasm.” 

Which seems to mean Trump is saying his crowds are 20,000, 40,000 or 60,000 people. If he did the math, he’d probably be embarrassed about the low estimates he made.

While he went on to claim that were he president “You wouldn’t have had inflation” and that if he isn’t reelected “Everybody’s going to be forced to buy an electric car,” he did resume the crowd theme: “I have hundreds of thousands of people in, uh, South Carolina. I had 88,000 people in Alabama. I had 68,000 people.” 

About that 88,000-person event in South Carolina.

Caitlin Byrd of The Post and Courier, based in Charleston, South Carolina, writes one of the most brilliant assessments of that claim:

“But the rally Trump appeared to be referencing wasn't a rally at all. It was a football game.

“The former president seemed to be mentioning his November 25 appearance at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia for the state's biggest college football spectacle of the year: the Clemson-South Carolina football matchup.

“The game was not a Trump campaign rally. It's a college duel that takes place every year.

“His appearance was brief.

“Trump walked onto the field, standing at the 25-yard-line with Gov. Henry McMaster. Loud cheers greeted him along with scattered boos. Trump waved to fans and the student section.

“He made no remarks. He just smiled and waved.”

Byrd goes on to point out: “The official box score put the crowd attendance for that game at 80,172 — not 88,000.”

Imagine if he’d gone to the Indianapolis 500.

Trump’s latest ploy is to claim that Harris’ crowds are non-existent, that Harris campaign is putting out fake pictures, such as at a rally held last week at an airplane hangar at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. 

Trump posted on Truth Social: “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. She should be disqualified because the creation of a fake image is ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”

Even the local Fox News affiliate in Detroit noted: “Former President Trump is claiming that ‘nobody’ was on the tarmac last week in Detroit to greet Vice President Harris for a campaign event in the Motor City despite unedited video and images from multiple news agencies showing otherwise. “

Yes, even Fox News knows what is real and what isn’t.

As for Donald Trump. . .

Consider this: He stands on the field during the annual Palmetto Bowl football game and somehow apparently images the crowd is there for him.

He cites a Harris rally in Detroit, attended by thousands (the Harris-Walz campaign estimated 15,000) and says that there was “NOBODY waiting.”

Clearly the man has some issues and to listen to him talking to a man who has some challenges when it comes to claims (e.g., in 2016 Musk claimed there would be an autonomous coast-to-coast drive of a Tesla by the end of 2017, which didn’t happen; in 2020 he said there would be Teslas capable of operating as autonomous robotaxis by the end of that year, which didn’t happen; in the Tesla Q2 earnings call in July he said, "I would be shocked if we cannot do it next year.” Yes, have full self-driving.) seems like nothing more than a Fake-a-Thon.

Not worth the time and effort.

TUE 8/13/24

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Left

•Go to the Comments section in this column, or the column on the right if you lean conservative rather than liberal, to comment on Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, or on other political news issues. 

•Or email editors@thehustings.news with your comments and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

•Visit our Substack page here and sign up for our free newsletter.

_____

…meanwhile…

Ukraine's military says it controls nearly 400 square miles of Russia, in and around the Kursk region, NPR's Morning Edition reports. Scroll down for details.

TUE 8/13/24

Details -- Up to 1,000 soldiers, at least 11 tanks and 20 armored vehicles have crossed the Ukraine border into Russia since its counteroffensive a week ago, the Kyiv Post reports. Alexei Smirnov, governor of Kursk Oblast reports at least 12 civilians dead and 121 injured. About 121,000 residents of the region have fled or evacuated, and the governor of the neighboring Belgorod region also has evacuated civilians from its border region, according to the Post.

As Western pundits debate over why Ukraine chose to invade a week ago, The Kyiv Independent says the move into Kursk Oblast is meant to divert Russian tanks and protect Ukraine's border regions, Kyiv says. But the Kyiv Post also reports that residents of the small town of Sudzha have appealed to Russian leader Vladimir Putin for help and that many there worry that family members were unable to evacuate. Sudzha has just 5,000 residents, but it also is the last major transit point for Russian pipeline gas heading to Europe via Ukraine.

•••

Both Campaigns Hacked, FBI Says -- Computer hackers in Iran have tried to hack a Trump associate and advisors to the Biden-Harris campaign, people "familiar with the matter" tell The Washington Post. Three Biden-Harris staffers also received spear-phishing emails, according to the report.

"We can confirm the FBI is investigating this matter," the agency said in a prepared statement. According to the WaPo the FBI began investigating the hacking in June, contacting Google and other companies.

--TL

____________________________________________

MON 8/12/24

More – Ukraine pushed at least 10 miles into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, NPR’s Morning Edition reports, adding that unconfirmed reports say the counteroffensive went as much as 20 miles past the border, with locals fleeing and complaining there was a lack of warning from Russia’s government, which is offering them 10,000 rubles (about US$115) compensation. 

The incursion has strained Ukraine’s defensive forces in the Kharkiv region, according to NPR, while Russian reinforcements are expected to push back Ukrainian troops in Kursk soon and reclaim the border.

The debate: Allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with US arms once raised worries Vladimir Putin would give him excuse to engage with the US and NATO. In May, the US allowed Ukraine to use its missiles to counter-strike Russia’s attack on the Kharkiv region. Of the further push across the border, Business Ukraine magazine tweeted this Monday morning: “Now that Ukraine has crossed the reddest of Putin’s red lines and invaded Russia without sparking World War III, there are no excuses for restricting Kyiv’s ability to defend itself or denying Ukraine the weapons it needs to win the war.”

Agree? Disagree? – Read the left or right column for how to add your comments to this page.

•••

‘Final’ Ceasefire Proposal This Week (?) – It all comes to a head, again, this week when President Biden, Egyptian President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi and Qatar Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani are to present a “final” ceasefire proposal to end Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza (per The New York Times). The US, Egypt and Qatar last Thursday called on Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiations table. Then on Saturday, at least 93 people were killed in a school sheltering Palestinian refugees in Gaza, The Washington Post reports. Israel said its military forces were targeting Hamas fighters. 

On Monday, according to Haaretz, leaders of the UK, France and Germany called on Iran to refrain from attacks on Israel that would jeopardize truce talks, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz asking Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, to “do everything possible to prevent further military escalation.”

•••

On Biden’s Exit Interview – President Biden spoke about his proposal for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire in his interview with Robert Costa for CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend. 

“The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the UN Security Council, etc., is still viable,” Biden said. “And I’m working literally every single day – and my whole term – to see to it that it doesn’t escalate into a regional war. But it easily can.”

Huge turnouts supporting Harris’ campaign have included some demonstrators opposed to continued funding and support for Israel in its war on Hamas in Gaza. 

CBS News released a clip of the Sunday Morning interview last week, in which Biden warns that he believes Donald J. Trump will not accept a loss in the November election. Trump has said he will accept results of a free and fair election, but his campaign also is floating the notion that the Democratic Party’s switch to Vice President Harris as his opponent is not “constitutional.”

Biden told Costa he made his decision to withdraw from the presidential race with a “small circle” of people including First Lady Jill Biden at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, vacation home as he recovered from a case of COVID.

•••

Harris Trumps Trump, Biden, on Economy – This one, frankly, is a bit confounding. An FT Michigan Ross poll finds that 42% trust Vice President Kamala Harris to handle the economy while 41% trust ex-President Trump.  … And Harris’ score tops the most recent score for President Biden by seven points. Never mind that the Federal Reserve has more to do with interest rates and trying to control inflation than does any president, though Trump has indicated his second presidential term would seize some or all control from the Fed. In her nascent presidential campaign, there is no indication Harris would abandon Biden’s reversal of “trickle-down” supply side Reaganomics.

And yet, “The fact that voters were more positive on Harris than on Biden … says as much about how badly Biden was doing as it does about how well Harris is doing,” University of Michigan Professor Erik Golden said, according to the Financial Times.

Presumably, the professor was speaking about the Harris v. the Biden campaign, not the Harris v. the Biden economy.

•••

Musk Interviews Trump – X-Twitter owner Elon Musk will interview Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump on X-Twitter, 8 pm Eastern/5 pm Pacific, on X-Twitter.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

What’s Right

•Go to the Comments section in this column, or the column on the left if you lean liberal rather than conservative, to comment on Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, or on other political news issues. 

•Or email editors@thehustings.news with your comments and indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

•Visit our Substack page here and sign up for our free newsletter.

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Left Here, Right There

Whether you identify more with the left column or the right column, we’d love to hear from you. Hit the Comments section in the right column if you lean conservative, or the Comments section in this column if you lean liberal.

Or email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate your political leanings in the subject line.

Or do you consider yourself “centrist”? Write to us at the email address above and we’ll write back to figure out which column best characterizes your comments.

Did you know that while we do not have a newsletter, we do have a Substack page?

In the coming weeks we’ll be looking at the reported Elon Musk-Donald J. Trump interview that is to take place Monday, August 12. We’ll also be talking about the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, which begins a week later, on August 19.

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…meanwhile…

(President Biden expressed doubts ex-President Trump would accept a loss, in an interview taped for CBS Sunday Morning. Scroll down the center column for details.)

Ukraine Takes Kursk – Although not officially connected to Ukraine’s invasion of the western Russian region of Kursk, a column of Russian military vehicles and personnel “was destroyed” there, The Kyiv Independent reports Friday, citing Suspilne and the independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo. Kursk Oblast is the location of the Ukrainian military’s incursion this week into Russia. 

The report was corroborated by pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Rybar, which said that a local resident who filmed the attack handed the video over to Ukrainian media but has been arrested by Russian authorities. In the BBC’s report on the incursion, a reporter says Russian media have been unusually frank in reporting on Ukraine’s success in the region.

•••

That Mar-a-Lago Presser – Ex-President Trump’s hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago Thursday was “rambling and chaotic” according to NPR’s Morning Edition and by now you’ve heard the highlights. 

This one stands out: “Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours – same real estate, same everything, same number of people if not – we had more.”

That’s right, Donald J. Trump was comparing the peaceful 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to his January 6, 2021, speech at the Ellipse leading up to the attack on the US Capitol. He described his White House departure in the presser as “peaceful.”

The country is in mortal danger if Trump does not win the November 5 presidential election, he said, predicting war and a depression on the level of the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

Asked about his remarks before the National Association of Black Journalists last week suggesting that his Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris changed her ethnicity, Trump called her “very disrespectful” of both her mother’s Indian heritage and her father’s Jamaican heritage. 

Describing Harris’ appeal, Trump said; “She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.” (Direct quotes per The New York Times.)

--TL

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THURSDAY 8/8/24

Trump Agrees to Three Debates -- Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump announced at a "rare" Mar-a-Lago press conference that he has agreed to three debates with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris (per Politico). They are to be on Fox News September 4, ABC on September 10 and NBC on September 25.

•••

It’s About Cars? – President Biden is pretty sure Donald J. Trump will resist defeat in the November 5 presidential election. On CBS Sunday Morning Robert Costa asks Biden if he’s “confident there will be a peaceful transition of power in January of 2025?”

“If Trump loses, no I’m not,” the president responds. “I’m not confident at all. He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All this stuff about if we lose it’ll be a bloodbath … Look what they’re trying to do in the local election districts where the people count the votes … putting people in place where they’re going to count the votes.”

The full interview runs Sunday morning, August 11, between 9 am and 10:30 am Eastern time. 

Republican reaction: Trump defenders say his statement earlier this year that there “will be a bloodbath” was a warning about the US auto industry if Chinese automakers are allowed importation without serious tariffs (Biden has imposed a 102.5% tariff on Chinese-built EVs). The former president’s comments came after the United Auto Workers’ leadership endorsed the Democratic ticket. 

Flashback: In the Trump-Biden debate in late June, the one that led to Biden stepping down from his re-election campaign, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Trump three times whether he will accept the results of this November’s election.

After some evasion and downplaying of his role in the January 6th attack on the US Capitol, when Bash asked; “yes or no?” on that third attempt, Trump replied, “absolutely” he would accept results if the election was “fair and good.”

NOTE: Don’t miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary, “Letter from the President” in the right column.

•••

Reports: Ukraine Pushes Into Russia – Ukraine forces launched on Tuesday “an ambitious operation” across Russia’s western border at Kursk Oblast in large numbers,” The Kyiv Independent reports, citing a mix of sources. Officials in Kyiv have so far been silent about the offensive.

But Russia’s defense ministry says the invasion involves a Ukrainian force likely involving 100s of troops and dozens of vehicles, according to the report. A “visibly frustrated” Vladimir Putin called the offensive a “large-scale provocation” and accused Ukrainian forces of shelling residential areas, in a short, televised address on Wednesday.

The Independent reports no official announcements from Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken to his commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and said “details would follow later.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

(President Biden expressed doubts ex-President Trump would accept a loss, in an interview taped for CBS Sunday Morning. […]

Letter from the President

By Stephen Macaulay

I never knew how important we were here at The Hustings.

That is, the other day I received a letter with this in the space where the return address would otherwise appear:

Donald J. Trump

President of the United States

Now I know that it is a sign of respect that former office holders often are called by their former titles.

But the position on the envelope could cause something of an issue.

That is, it seems as though this is a statement of present condition, as though he is currently president of the United States.

What if there was some problem delivering the letter to my address and it had to be returned to sender?

Wouldn’t it be reasonable that the postal worker would figure the president is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW and so send it to Joe Biden?

Inside the envelope was, of course, a lengthy screed that, fundamentally, exhorted me to send money to an address that isn’t on Pennsylvania Avenue. Money that would, so it argued, permit Donald J. Trump to return to that address and, what’s more, save the country.

Or that would be more appropriately put: Save the Country!

You may be thinking, “Getting a solicitation from a politician is no big deal. Who doesn’t get them?”

And you would be right.

But what made my letter from Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, special was that it included the “MAGA VICTORY SURVEY.”

The survey was printed not only with my name and address, but an eight-digit Personal Identification Code. Does that mean that there are tens of millions of others who have gotten a survey? I’d like to think not.

The instructions tell me that upon completion I am to “submit this form along with your contribution to the TRUMP NATIONAL COMMITTEE in the postage-paid RUSH RETURN ENVELOPE provided and return immediately.”

I understand why the committee is in caps and boldface; I wonder about the return envelope’s status.

The four-page MAGA VICTORY SURVEY includes 17 questions, although #17 is a bit of a ringer as it is actually a “PERSONAL SUPPORT FORM” that asks:

“Will you support the Trump National Committee’s efforts to regain the White House, win a Republican Majority in the U.S. Senate, strengthen our Republican Majority in the U.S. House, and elect Republicans across America in this November’s elections?”

The box followed by YES! includes recommended donation amounts starting at $2,024. There is also a $47 option: “A symbolic gift of $47 signifies your commitment to making Donald Trump the 47th President of the United States this November.”

There is a “No” option: “I want the Democrats to take over the White House.”

It is surprising that it isn’t followed by “TRAITOR!”

There is a third box:

“While I support the Trump-Republican agenda, I cannot donate at the suggested levels at this time. Enclosed is my gift of $15 to cover the cost of processing my Survey.”

To quote Donald J. Trump, “Sad.”

However, if it is costing the Trump National Committee $15 per survey — I mean, Survey — and there are tens of millions out there, it seems they might have found a more cost-effective processing house.

Anyway, for those of your who didn’t get a letter from

Donald J. Trump

President of the United States

here’s the sort of questions you’re missing:

  1. Who do you think should set the U.S. policy agenda?
    1. President Trump         b. Joe Biden   c. Deep State bureaucrats

Note how the current president is simply referred to by his name. (And it should be noted that this was printed pre-Kambala.)

3.  Please rank the following issue priorities in terms of importance to you (with 

1 being the most important, 5 being the least important),

  • Stamping out inflation
  • Restoring law and order in America’s crime-infested cities
  • Rooting out Deep State bureaucrats and draining the Washington Swamp
  • Negotiating America First free trade agreements
  • Securing our boarders, building the Wall, and deporting illegal immigrants

I know what you’re thinking: Ones across the board!

And it goes on from there, including witch hunts, Lunatic Left policies, invasion, harsh mandates, unelected Deep State bureaucrats, and more.

You can only imagine the mental “Four more years! Four more years!” chant that is going on among the tens of millions as they fill out their MAGA VICTORY SURVEY.

One curious thing, however.

There is fine print.

It indicates that Trump National Committee (‘TNC’) is “a joint fundraising committee of Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc. (‘DJTFP’), the principal campaign committee of Donald J. Trump, and the Republican National Committee (RNC).”

Of the money sent (“not deductible for federal income tax purposes”), the distribution will be 10% to the RNC and “90% to DJTFP, which will designate the funds first to its primary election account, then it its general election account, and finally to its recount account.”

“Recount account”?

Are the folks at Donald J. Trump for President 2024, Inc., nervous about something?

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news