Violence Comes in Different Forms

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

On the eve of Thanksgiving, the shooting of two members of West Virginia’s National Guard near the White House rattled Americans preparing for this country’s most universal, family-friendly gathering.

Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.

The attack on the Guardsmen, by an Afghan refugee who once worked for our CIA in Afghanistan was tragic, its ostensible motive thus far unclear. Gun violence begets more gun violence. It cuts live short, deepens tensions, fear and division. All Americans must condemn such an incident and honor its victims.

But violence can take many forms.

On Thanksgiving, the day after the Washington, D.C., shooting, President Trump doubled down on what has become his signature cruelty – his unrelenting demonization of asylum seekers and immigrants, documented and undocumented. His drive to deport them, splintering families and sometimes sending loved ones to countries in which they’ve never lived.

Wrote The New York Times, “In a pair of lengthy social media posts just before midnight on Thursday, Mr. Trump said he would ‘permanently pause immigration from all Third World countries’ and denaturalize migrants ‘who undermine domestic tranquility.’” He did not elaborate.

On Friday it became clear that all asylum reviews would be frozen. CNN’s website ran this headline: “An emboldened Trump escalates his anti-immigration crackdown after National Guard shooting.”

In truth, however, Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agents have been escalating their crackdown for months. Here are just three headlines and stories that ran Wednesday morning, hours before the Washington attack.

• ‘I’m Losing Everything’: Babson College Freshman Speaks Out About her Deportation to Honduras Ahead of Thanksgiving – The Boston Globe

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, a freshman studying business at Boston’s Babson College, was about to board a plane to surprise her family in Austin, Texas, for Thanksgiving. Then ICE agents grabbed her at Logan Airport and whisked her away in an unmarked car. Within 48 hours she had been deported to Honduras, a country she had left 12 years ago at Age 7.

The basis of the arrest, the Globe reported, was a “final order of removal” issued when Belloza was 11. Both she and her father told the newspaper they weren’t even aware of it. About 1.3 million such orders existed when Trump began his term, the Globe reports, but few were enforced for those, like Belloza, with no record of any kind. She was a scholarship student who had hoped to open a tailor shop with her father.

• A Mother Was Taken into Custody by ICE. Then the Public Learned of Her Family Tie to the White House – CNN

Bruna Caroline Ferreira came to the United States from Brazil at Age 6. When she was arrested in the Boston suburb of Revere earlier this month, few people beyond her family and neighbors noticed. On Wednesday, however, it was reported that Ferreira is the mother of the 11-year-old nephew of Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary and biggest cheerleader. The boy, CNNreported, lives with his father, Leavitt’s brother, in New Hampshire, but his mother had maintained regular contact. Ferreira remains in custody in Louisiana awaiting a hearing that could lead to her deportation.

• Green Card Interviews End in Handcuffs for Spouses of US Citizens – The New York Times

Call it carefully planned cruelty. As the subhead of this article reads, “Agents are arresting foreign-born spouses [of citizens] when they report for the final step to obtain permanent residency, and charging them with visa violations that could result in deportation.”

That’s right, the spouses of US citizens are being set up to be separated from their husband or wife when they come to US courthouses to follow legal procedures to finalize their permanent residency. Perhaps we should ask President Trump these questions: How does this brutality make us a better country? A safer country? A richer country? In any way whatsoever?

“I had to take my baby from my crying wife’s arm,” said 33-year-old Stephen Paul of San Diego. “It’s insane to have them rip our family apart. Whoever is directing this has completely lost touch with their mission to the country.” Paul has had to take a leave from his job in the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to care for the 4-month-old. His wife is British.

“In 25 years of practice, I have never seen anything like this,” Paul’s lawyer, Johanna Keamy, told the NYT.

Immigration lawyers told the newspaper that in San Diego alone, several dozen arrests of spouses have taken place in similar circumstances just since November 12.

These kinds of stories document what might be considered their own acts of terror, particularly in the way they are carried out. They are their own form of violence -- against families, against communities, against love.

Unlike bullets, wrenching physical separation does not kill. But such acts deeply scar, not only those forced to leave but those left behind, not only the bereaved families, but those bound to them in community.

So, it is no surprise that the Trump Administration’s response to the brutal act of a lone gunman has thrown up arbitrary and potentially insurmountable barriers for all asylum seekers and for all immigrants from “third-world countries” (read, anyone with a non-white skin tone). It is no surprise that the administration has further militarized Washington, D.C., itself, calling up an additional 500 National Guard to join the 2,000 already patrolling the streets.

As The Washington Post wrote last Sunday: “Over Thanksgiving weekend, and a day George Washington proclaimed as one to be celebrated with unity and ‘grateful hearts,’ Trump went on a multi-post tirade on social media, saying US citizenship should be stripped from naturalized Americans ‘who undermine domestic tranquility.’ More darkly, he also called for deporting those deemed ‘non-compatible with Western Civilization.’”

In his weekend tirade, Trump also targeted the Biden administration, which had allowed the family of the suspected shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, to enter the United States in 2021 because of his service to our CIA.

What Trump never mentioned, WaPo writes, is that Lakanwal was granted asylum earlier this year – under the Trump Administration. That, of course, would not fit the week’s script of demonization.

Reprinted by permission from Lanson's Substack, From the Grassroots.

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THURSDAY 12/4/25

…meanwhile…

Nobel Schmobel – FIFA President Gianni Infantino awarded President Trump the first FIFA Peace Prize Friday, which includes a “beautiful medal for you that you can wear everywhere you go.” On Sunday, Kennedy Center Chairman Trump hosted the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors recognizing C&W songwriter George Strait, actors Michael The Phantom of the Opera Crawford, Sylvester Rocky Stallone, singer Gloria Gaynor and rock band KISS.

MONDAY 12/8/25

Will SCOTUS Advance the Unitary Executive Theory? – Oral arguments commenced 9:30 a.m. Eastern time over Trump v. Slaughter, part of the Trump administration’s effort to codify the unitary executive theory (see Project 2025), which posits that the president should have complete control over the executive branch. 

SCOTUSblog is live-blogging oral arguments HERE. 

The case involves Federal Trade Commission member Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, whom Trump had fired along with FTC member Alvaro Bedeya, both of them "associated" with the Democratic Party. 

SCOTUS last upheld restrictions on a president’s ability to fire members of an independent agency in Humphrey’s Executors v. United States after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fired FTC Commissioner William Humphrey before his term ended. That case was cited in a lower-court ruling favoring Rebecca Kelly Slaughter.

•••

Other Side of the Peace Talks – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in London Monday to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz to jump-start efforts for a ceasefire to the Russia-Ukraine war.

There’s no agreement on Donbas Oblast yet, Zelenskyy said, according to The Kyiv Independent, referencing Moscow’s demand in negotiations with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, which have so far occurred without any connection to Kyiv and/or its European allies. 

Moscow’s demands for complete takeover of the Donbas region, including land it has not conquered, and security guarantees for Ukraine remain “sensitive issues,” Zelenskyy told Bloomberg News. Russia also has refused to compromise on its demands for a ban on Ukraine joining NATO, even as the original 28-point plan largely written by the Kremlin was cut to 19 points.

•••

Pardoned, then Disloyal – Last Wednesday, President Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), who was to stand trial with his wife, Imelda, who were accused of taking $600,000 in bribes from an oil company controlled by the Azerbaijan government and a Mexico-based bank. Then Cuellar, one of the most conservative Democrats in the House announced his decision to run for re-election as a Democrat.

How did that go over with Trump? 

“Such a lack of LOYALTY,” Trump Truth Socialed according to The Washington Post, which reports that the president implied Sunday that as a result of the pardon, Cuellar should not run for re-election as a Democrat to his swing district along the Texas border.

Speaking of 'loyalty' … Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who is resigning from the House of Representatives January 5, says she is no longer “MAGA” but is “America First.” She told CBS News’ Leslie Stahl on 60 Minutes that President Trump has betrayed his MAGA creed by signing a crypto bill backed by crypto donors, blindly supports Israel and has bombed Iran as a result and sides with big pharma regarding COVID vaccines.  

Trump’s rift with “Marjorie Traitor Greene” peaked when she signed discharge papers calling for release of the Epstein Files. She says she has received pipe bomb threats and threats against her son.

When Stahl asked MTG how other congressmembers talk about Trump behind his back, the congresswoman replied; “It would shock people.”

MTG continued: “I’ve watched many of my colleagues making fun of him, making fun of how he talks, making fun of me constantly for supporting him, to when he won the primary in 2024 they all stated, excuse my language, Leslie, kissing his ass. And decided to put a MAGA hat on for the first time.”

MTG told Stahl she has no plans to run for the Senate, which she “hates,” nor for Georgia governor nor president. --TL

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FRIDAY 12/5/25

Netflix to Buy Warner Bros.-Discovery – Netflix will purchase Warner Bros.-Discovery for $72.6 billion after Warners splits off its cable network, which includes CNN, TNT and TBS, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s a sort of David slews Goliath deal in which Netflix as David outbid the Paramount and Comcast Goliaths. 

After the purchase, Netflix will operate HBO and HBO Max as standalone streaming services, Netflix co-chief Ted Sarandos said in a call with investors Thursday.

•••

Don’t Mess with the Gerrymander – The US Supreme Court handed President Trump a victory Thursday in his efforts to secure five additional GOP-majority US congressional districts from Texas when it overturned a lower court ruling that said the state had likely sorted out voters based on race (per SCOTUSblog). Currently 22 of Texas’ 38 US House seats are held by Republicans. With Thursday’s SCOTUS ruling, that should reach 27 Republican seats after the November 2026 elections. The GOP currently has a 219-214 House majority with two seats vacant.

Trump wants to maintain the Republican House majority after the midterms, which typically flip against a sitting president from either party. 

A three-judge district court in El Paso had overturned the Texas state legislature’s redistricting, but that was stayed November 21 by SCOTUS Justice Samuel Alito, who oversees emergency appeals from Texas.

Thursday’s brief unsigned ruling said, “The district court improperly inserted itself into an active primary campaign, causing much confusion and upsetting the delicate federal-state balance in elections.” 

The 6-3 ruling was split between the six justices appointed by Republican presidents, including three by Trump, and three appointed by Democratic presidents.

In her dissent, Justice Elana Kagan wrote that the order “announces that Texas may run next year’s elections with a map the district court found to have violated all our oft-repeated strictures about the use of race in districting. Today’s order disrespects the work of a district court that did everything one could ask to carry out its charge – that put aside every consideration except getting the issue before it right.”

•••

DOJ Arrests Alleged Bipartisan Pipe-bomber – The Justice Department Thursday announced charges against Brian Cole, 30, for allegedly planting pipe bombs at the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill the night of January 5, 2021.

“Four years, 10 months and 28 days ago, an individual placed a pipe bomb in the vicinity of both the RNC and DNC, and for that amount of time, that individual evaded accountability,” Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters Thursday, The Hill reports. 

There was no apparent reference to the event that happened the next day, when supporters of President Trump, who had lost re-election that previous November, stormed the Capitol to try and prevent Congress from counting Electoral College votes that affirmed Joe Biden as the 46th president. Afterward, eponymous host of The Dan Bongino Show on Rumble began floating a conspiracy theory that the FBI planted the pipe bombs in a false-flag effort connected with the January 6th attack on Capitol Hill. Now as FBI deputy director, Bongino said: “You’re not going to walk into our capital city, put down two explosive devices and walk off in the sunset. Not going to happen. We were going to track this person to the end of the Earth. There was no way he was getting away.”  –TL

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THURSDAY 12/4/25

Trump’s Attack – It’s on Somalia, Somalians, Somalian-Americans, Minnesotans.

On Tuesday, President Trump said this about Somalians and Somalian-Americas: “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country. We can go one way or the other, and we’re going to the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country.”

On Wednesday, the president added: “Somalians should be out of here. They’re destroying our country.”

On Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (a critic of Trump’s rhetoric): “I wouldn’t be proud to have the largest Somalian population.”

Hamse Warfa, a Somali-born entrepreneur in Minneapolis compared Trump’s rhetoric, according to Politico, with presidential candidate Trump’s lie in 2024 that Haitian’s were “eating cats and dogs” in Ohio.

“I am not garbage,” Warfa said.

Politico quotes a person familiar with planning that federal authorities are preparing targeted immigration enforcement in Minnesota, focusing on Somalis living illegally in the US.

•••

No Defense for Signal – Most of the federal government’s inspectors general have been sacked by the Trump 47 administration, but not all. The Pentagon’s inspector general is employed and well enough to release Thursday a report that concludes War (Defense) Sec. Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal app to discuss a missile attack by US Military on Houthi rebels in Yemen last March violated the Pentagon’s policies by discussing the attack via app rather than in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF).

The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg listened in by invite last March and reported on the attack plans, leaving out any sensitive details, weeks after he realized the Signal chat was real. 

The Pentagon IG’s report is said to conclude that the information Hegseth shared in the chat could have put US Military personnel and national security at risk had it fallen into the wrong hands, The Atlantic Daily reports. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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THURSDAY 12/4/25

Rules, Schmules

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Juan Orlando Hernandez was convicted in March 2024 of facilitating the smuggling of some 400 pounds of cocaine into the United States. 

According to the US Department of Justice, 400 tons of cocaine is on the order of 4,500,000,000 individual doses.

That means every man, woman and child in the US could have had 13 snorts of the drug.

Hernandez was sentenced by a US court to spend 45 years in prison.

He is the sort of person that Donald Trump might characterize as being a “bad hombre.”

So what is Donald Trump going to do to Juan Orlando Hernandez?

Pardon him.

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is blowing up boats in the Caribbean. These boats are supposed to be owned and operated by drug runners.

According to a report in The Washington Post on November 28, when it was determined that one of the boats blown up wasn’t completely destroyed and there were two survivors, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegsteth (who fancies himself as “Secretary of War,” presumably having played plenty of video games during his formative years) allegedly ordered that those two get taken out, too.

Which violates a whole lot of law, to say nothing of basic decency. 

After the WaPo report Hegseth posted on X that the “’lethal, kinetic strikes’” are targeting people “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

It seems, however, that the Trump Administration doesn’t want to share its evidence of those affiliations with anyone in Congress.

More than 80 people have been killed. 

According to the US Congress, a “Foreign Terrorist Organization” (FTO) can be designated by the secretary of state if the entity meets three criteria: “the suspected terrorist group must (1) be a foreign organization; (2) engage in ‘terrorist activity,’ ‘terrorism,’ or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism; and (3) threaten the security of US nationals or the national defense, foreign relations, or economic interests of the United States.”

As for what a “terrorist activity” is, the Immigration and Nationality Act defines it as including “specific types of violent actions (hijackings, assassinations, etc.).” Then there’s the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, which defines “terrorism” as a "premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents."

In other words, there are specific boxes that must be checked before there is a designation. People just can’t make it up as they go along.

No one wants US citizens to be endangered, corrupted or otherwise negatively impacted from illegal drugs coming from the Caribbean or anywhere else, like Honduras. 

Juan Orlando Hernandez is the former president of Honduras (2014-2022). He was extradited to the US after he was out of office.

So let’s see: Hernandez was tried and convicted. And now pardoned.

And let’s not forget Donald Trump’s pardon of Changpeng Zhao, who pled guilty and was convicted, along with the cryptocurrency company he ran, Binance (which was hit with a $4.3-billion settlement), for money laundering. The money laundering was associated with both drug cartels and terrorists.

Seems a bit strange that there is a willingness to pardon convicted criminals and to blow up boats being manned by what can only be thought of as alleged criminals.

One of the things that makes this country truly great — not “great” in the context of a red baseball cap — is that it is based on the rule of law.

Apparently the rule of law is something that is now becoming conditional, with the conditions being set on an ad-hoc basis.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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THURSDAY 12/4/25

Is This Any Way to Manage an Economy?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

While “tariffs” might be his favorite word, “weak dollar” might be close in the level of affection that Donald Trump has for it.

Consider these quotes:

  • “You make a hell of a lot more money with a weaker dollar. When you have a strong dollar, you can’t sell anything. It’s only good for inflation, and it’s good psychologically. It makes you feel good.”
  • "So when we have a strong dollar, one thing happens: It sounds good. But you don't do any tourism. You can't sell tractors, you can't sell trucks, you can't sell anything,"
  • "It is good for inflation, that's about it."

His typical exaggeration notwithstanding, the Trump administration has done its damnedest to weaken the dollar.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (FRED) earlier this month:

“Recent exchange rates with stable currencies (e.g., the euro, yen, and Swiss franc) suggest a general weakening in the US dollar, which is consistent with the current federal administration’s stated preferences.”

FRED calculated that if compared to the dollar exchange rate against the Euro area was 100 in January 2025, it was down to 89 in October, an 11% decrease.

One of the ways the administration has weakened the dollar is by its agitated approach to the global economy. There has been Trump’s consistent “they’re ripping us off” refrain, which evinces a lack of understanding of global supply chains. 

There are the on-again-off-again tariffs and the announcement of “deals” without any specificity. 

There are the attacks by Trump on Fed chairman Jerome Powell — “I’ll be honest, I’d like to fire his ass;” “He’s an average mentally person. . .Low IQ for what he does. I think he’s a very stupid person, actually,” which makes one wonder about Trump’s IQ, given that he was the man who nominated Powell to the Fed.

There are the tariffs on imported goods, which function as a tax paid by consumers, which can increase inflation, which reduces the purchasing power of the dollar.

There is simply a whole lot of uncertainty, and corporations and central banks don’t like that.

The dollar has long been the global reserve currency. It has been that because it was considered to be stable, so not only did it facilitate global trade (something that the Trump Administration’s policies are hobbling, to put it mildly), but it provided confidence in the markets.

Uncertainty ≠ Confidence

Trump wants the dollar to remain as the global reserve currency, yet his administration’s actions are doing things that put it in jeopardy. Although some people in the US are skeptical that the Chinese renminbi could replace the dollar, some people were skeptical of the Chinese auto industry versus the US. Yet Ford CEO Jim Farley recently said: “They have enough capacity in China with the existing factories to serve the entire North American market, put us all out of business.”

Yes, the dollar can be replaced.

If we go back to Trump’s quotes about the consequences of a strong dollar, there’s the comment about tourism. He’s saying, in effect, that a weak dollar means that foreign tourist’s currency will buy them more in the US market, so conceivably they’ll be flocking to the US.

According to a recent report from the US Travel Association:

“Travel to the United States is projected to reverse course and fall to just 85% of 2019 levels in 2025.”

Canadians have generally been about 25% of all international tourists to the US. And people from Canada, which have generally represented about a quarter of all tourists to the US, are not taking as many trips: in September land crossings were down about 35% and air travel down 27%.

Canadian tourists spent $20.5 billion in the US in 2024. 

They’re simply not coming in the numbers they had been before the Trump Administration destroyed relations with our former best neighbor. If we average the September reduction in Canadian tourists (31%) and then subtract that from the $20.5 billion, this means that the Canadian spend would be $14.1 billion. How helpful is that to the US economy?

For a man who is a vaunted businessman (despite that the Trump Organization has filed for Chapter 11 six times — and while everyone knows that casinos effectively print money, most of those reorgs were based on casinos) and dealmaker, his understanding of things like the importance of the U.S. dollar is dubious at most.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings. Most of his columns appear on the right; This one is on the left to provide balance with Rich Corbett on the debate over the weakening US dollar.

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TUESDAY 12/2/25

Is It the Currency, Stupid?

Inflation is inching back up while hiring for new jobs is waning under the Trump 47 administration. Our pro-Trump right-column contributing pundit, Rich Corbett, makes the argument in this debate that the cause is a weakening US dollar and not the Trump administration’s economic and immigration policies. Stephen Macaulay has a somewhat different take, and to make space for our pundit-at-large, whose work usually appears in the right column, his counterpoint to “The Buck Stope With the Buck Itself” appears in the left column today.*

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WEDNESDAY 12/3/25

Eight Hours to Nowhere – Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin kept White House envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner waiting for three hours ahead of five hours of negotiations in Moscow Tuesday over the 19-point European/Ukrainian response to the Kremlin’s 28-point peace plan. After their meeting Putin accused Europe of thwarting President Trump’s attempts to bring peace to Ukraine and amending the process in order to blame Moscow, NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports on Morning Edition Wednesday.

Putin’s comments to reporters gets much more bellicose: Russia doesn’t want war with Europe, Beardsley reports, quoting translation of the dictator’s comments, but is ready for it if Europe brings it on.

It wouldn’t be like “the surgical war that Russia’s conducting in Ukraine,” Putin said.

Such “surgery” includes constant Russian bombardment of Ukrainian civilians while Trump’s peace process drags on.

Speaking in English from Ireland where he met with European leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Europe must keep the pressure on Russia “so that Russia does not believe it will be rewarded for this war with stolen Ukrainian land or (a) thousand kidnapped Ukrainian children.”

Speaking of Europe … The European Union is pushing ahead with plans to finance two-thirds of Ukraine’s financial needs for the next two years, at 90 billion euros (US$105 billion) says EU President Ursula von der Leyen. Despite opposition from EU member Belgium, according to The Guardian, financing would come from frozen Russian cash balances. 

•••

About that Alleged War Crime – The September 2 US Military strike in the Caribbean on a Venezuelan boat allegedly smuggling drugs was lawful and proper, but just in case, War (Defense) Sec. Pete Hegseth says he didn’t do it.

“I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said at a televised obsequiousness-filled three-hour cabinet meeting with President Trump Tuesday afternoon, USA Today reports. “As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we’ve got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around for the hour or two hours or whatever.”

Responsibility thus has fallen on Adm. Frank M. Bradley, whom Hegseth says gave the order “well within his authority” to kill two survivors after the initial US strike on the boat killed nine others and triggered a fire. 

Hegseth maintains that Trump has his department’s back on this sort of thing.

•••

Moral ‘Victory’? – Democrats appear to be buoyed by Tennessee General Assembly Rep. Aftyn Behn’s nine-ish-point loss to Republican Matt Van Epps in a special election for the state’s 7th Congressional District. With 95% of the vote counted, Van Epps “edged” Behn 53.9% to 45.1%, the Tennessee Lookout reports. 

Democrats’ “moral victory”? Donald J. Trump beat Kamala Harris by 22 points in the district in 2024. 

Van Epps replaces Republican US Rep. Mark Green, who resigned from Congress last July. –TL

_____________________________________________

...meanwhile...

TUESDAY 12/2/25

Down to 19 Points – White House envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner meet with dictator/President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin Tuesday afternoon to go over a new, 19-point peace plan for Ukraine written after talks last week between the Americans and European and Ukrainian negotiators. This plan is to stand in for the 28-point plan reportedly drafted last month by Putin’s envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, Kushner and Witkoff.

While the pro-Russian 28-pointer went nowhere with Ukrainian and European negotiators, this week’s 19-pointer is unlikely to have much appeal to Putin, who insists on Russia retaining large portions of Ukraine it has not, so far, captured in the 3½-year-old war. 

Speaking in Bishkek, Russia, last week, Putin said fighting in Ukraine will end only when “the Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold,” according to Politico.

•••

It Was a Navy Admiral – The White House says a Navy admiral ordered the second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean last September 2 and that he acted “within his authority and the law,” even as both Republicans and Democrats in Congress are questioning whether the first strike, and even US military presence off the coast of Venezuela is legal in the first place (The Associated Press). 

And if the second strike, which reportedly killed two survivors from the first missile strike on the boat was legal, why is the White House trying so hard to absolve Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth of a potential war crime?

Even the notoriously conservative Wall Street Journal Opinion page is dubious, writing; “Lawmakers are doing a public service by trying to get to the truth on whether the Trump administration killed defenseless survivors of a drug-boat strike.”

•••

Habba Out – A Philadelphia-based federal appeals court consisting of two Bush appointees and one Obama appointee ruled that Trump attorney Alina Habba has been serving unlawfully as US attorney in New Jersey. President Trump has kept Habba in the role via a series of “unusual maneuvers” The New York Times reports, with neither Senate confirmation nor appointment by district court judges. 

However, former assistant US attorney Eli Honig, a CNN commentator, told NPR Morning Edition co-host Leila Fadel he expects the Trump administration to appeal the appeals court ruling before the US Supreme Court. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa*We never knowingly run AI-written news/analysis/commentary and generally eschew anything created by artificial intelligence. However, the illustration at the top of the center column was created by ChatGPT.

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TUESDAY 12/2/25

The Buck Stops with the Buck Itself

Commentary by Rich Corbett

In the grand theater of economics, supply and demand are often cast as the star performers — shortages driving up prices, gluts pulling them down. But peel back the curtain, and you’ll find a quieter, more insidious culprit: the weakening US dollar.

As the world’s reserve currency, the dollar’s value doesn’t just influence trade; it permeates every price tag American consumers see. A depreciating dollar inflates the cost of imports, commodities, and even domestic goods priced against global benchmarks, creating the illusion of scarcity-driven inflation. This isn’t abstract theory; it’s playing out in real time with gold’s relentless climb and gasoline’s stubborn refusal to drop despite record US oil output. Policymakers and pundits fixate on supply chains and corporate greed, but the real story is monetary erosion — fueled by unchecked deficits, low interest rates, and geopolitical jitters — that’s eroding purchasing power faster than any cartel could dream.

Consider gold, the ultimate dollar barometer. Historically, its price in $USD moves inversely with the greenback’s strength: When the dollar weakens, it takes more dollars to buy the same ounce of bullion. Gold isn’t just jewelry or a hedge; it’s a global store of value, and its surge reflects not mining disruptions or jewelry demand, but a flight from fiat fragility. As the dollar has shed value, down over 6% year-over-year against major currencies, the price of gold has skyrocketed nearly 57% in the same period. This isn’t supply and demand run amok; it’s the market screaming that the dollar buys less.

The same dynamic plagues the pump. The US is pumping more crude than ever. It’s at a record 13.5 million barrels per day on average in 2025, up from 11.3 million in 2020, making America the world's top producer and flooding global markets with supply. Yet, average gasoline prices hover around $3.08 per gallon as of mid-November 2025, down only modestly from pandemic peaks but still 30% above pre-2020 levels. 

Why? Oil is priced in dollars on global exchanges. A weaker dollar bids up crude costs for everyone, including US refiners, who pass it on despite domestic abundance. OPEC's games and refinery hiccups get the blame, but the root? A currency that's lost its luster, inflating energy costs even as barrels overflow.

It’s Systemic

This isn't isolated, it's systemic. Broader inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), sits at 3% year-over-year through September 2025, a cooling from 2022's double-digit frenzy but still 50% higher than the Federal Reserve's target. Economists tout "sticky" wages or housing shortages, but correlation with dollar weakness is stark: As the Dollar Index (DXY) dipped below 100, its lowest in years, CPI ticked up, gold soared, and gas refused to retreat. Import-heavy categories like electronics, apparel, and food bear the brunt, with foreign suppliers demanding more depreciated dollars to maintain their margins.

The implications are dire. If we misdiagnose the disease, treating symptoms like "greedflation" with price controls or antitrust saber-rattling, we risk deeper currency debasement. A weaker dollar erodes savings, hits exporters with retaliatory tariffs, and invites rivals like the euro or yuan to chip away at dollar dominance. The Fed can’t keep saving us and without fiscal discipline, we're on a treadmill to nowhere.

It's time to rewrite the script. Inflation isn't a supply-side boogeyman; it's the echo of a hollowed-out dollar. We need to stabilize the currency through balanced budgets, strategic tariffs on manipulators, and a pivot from endless money-printing. The buck stops with the buck itself.

Corbett is contributing pundit to The Hustings’ right column. His work also appears on his website, My Desultory Blog.

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TUESDAY 12/2/25

Fascism Takes Flight

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

On Sunday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd compared Donald Trump to the snapping turtle she had as child (“he’s mean when he’s cornered”). Perhaps she should also have compared him to a stray Tom cat, who barres his fangs when backed against an alley wall.

In recent days, the news has not been kind to Trump. Confronted by a nearly unanimous congressional vote to release the Epstein files, by rifts among his MAGA faithful and by a series of polls showing his percentile support descending among voters into the mid- to upper 30s, he’s lashed out viciously.

In one incident, he pointed his finger in the face of a Bloomberg reporter and called her “Piggy.” In another, when an ABC News correspondent asked him about the murder of reporter Jamal Khashoggi and also asked why he didn’t release the Epstein files on his own, he called her “a terrible person and a terrible reporter.” He then suggested that the chair of the Federal Communication Commission consider revoking the network’s broadcast license.

And when two Democratic U.S. senators and four representatives, all former veterans or intelligence officers, put out a YouTube video reminding members of the military that they should not follow illegal orders, Trump called their action treasonous -- and initially suggested that perhaps they should be hanged.

That same day, The Washington Post broke a story saying that the US Coast Guard, under Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, would no longer consider the swastika to be a form of hate speech.

This much is clear. If overtones of 1930s fascism served as a steady backdrop to the start of Trump’s second presidential term, the month of November has stripped away any pretense of subtlety.

His threat against Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and four members of the House of Representatives strikes me as the most unhinged and frightening of his words and actions this week, though, oddly, the news media largely chose to focus most of their reporting elsewhere.

The six Congress members produced their video, titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” to directly address members of the military and intelligence communities. Its message is straightforward, but avoids any specific examples (the military has been called in, among other things, to play a role in highly controversial immigration actions as well as the controversial sinking of vessels in the Caribbean and the Pacific).

In the video, the six Congress members take turns delivering this script:

“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” they tell their audience. “… This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens …..

“Our laws are clear – you can refuse illegal orders, you can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate our law or our Constitution. We know this is hard [but] … now more than ever the American people need you. We need you to stand up for our laws, our Constitution and who we are as Americans. Don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up, don’t give up the ship.”

On Thursday night, Trump reacted harshly. He posted on Truth Social, branding the lawmakers’ message as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Slotkin told NBC she subsequently received “hundreds and hundreds” of threats. She now has round-the-clock protection from the Capitol Police, the Detroit News reported.

Though Trump stepped back from his initial death threat, he has kept up the heat. Late Saturday he wrote that the lawmakers “SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW,” Mediate reports.

Yet this crazed tirade against lawmakers exercising their freedom of speech to talk to Americans about upholding their oaths under the Constitution has elicited a highly muted response from mainstream media.

The authors of the political web site electoral-vote.com wrote that not a single major news website chose Trump’s threat as its top story the next day – from The New York Times to CNN.

“Not a one [of their lead stories] has anything to do with Trump pulling a Mussolini/Hitler/Franco and calling for leading members of the opposition party to be put to death,” electoral-vote.com noted. “The story is not found lower on the page(s), either. It has completely disappeared.”

Added the site, “When the President of the United States calls for violence against someone, all it takes is for one person to take it seriously.”

On Friday, one of the House members, Air Force veteran and Pennsylvania Democrat Chrissy Houlahan put it this way in a CNN interview:

“I never in a million years thought I’d be talking to you tonight about the fact that the president of the United States has called for my death by hanging for sedition and treason. And called for it because I and a number of other people published a video that says you have to follow the law.”

She has reported receiving bomb threats to her office.

Trump, meanwhile, got his usual rubber-stamp support from House Speaker Mike Johnson and only slightly more restrained support from the GOP Senate leadership. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt predictably defended Trump’s tweet, calling the Democratic members of Congress “seditious traitors.” Trump himself took a half-step backwards, telling Fox News radio that “I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble.”

In the video, Sen. Kelly, who served in the Navy and is a former astronaut, says: “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”

It is a statement of fact.

On Friday, the day after The Washington Post reported that the Coast Guard would no longer classify the swastika as a hate symbol, the paper reported that the Coast Guard, “in a stunning and hasty reversal” spurred by “furious backlash,” would continue to classify both the swastika and noose as prohibited hate symbols.

But what comes next in the president’s ongoing sedition sideshow remains unclear.

Kelly, for his part, made clear he will not be cowed.

Trump, he said this weekend, is “going to try to intimidate us because he … didn’t like what we said… I think what any other president would have done is they would have retweeted that video and said two words, ‘of course.’ And maybe followed up with ‘of course members of the military should not follow illegal or unlawful orders.’ That’s what we should expect from a commander in chief. But not this guy.”

Perhaps he should have added that any other free press would have covered the story more effectively.

“For any other president,” wrote electoral-vote.com, “this [story] would dominate the news for weeks, if not months.”

Republished by permission from Lanson’s Substack From the Grassroots.

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WEDNESDAY 11/26/25

…meanwhile…

Thanks, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) for reminding US Military they should not obey illegal orders. From any leader. The Pentagon is not amused and is arranging a court martial of the senator. Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay has thoughts on this and other Trump administration so-called emergencies in today’s Right Column. Watch the video featuring Kelly and five other congressional Democrats HERE.

MONDAY 12/1/25

War Crimes, Potentially – Hill Republicans as well as Democrats are ready to grill Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth over a Friday Washington Post news report that Hegseth gave an order for a second military strike against an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean. WaPo reported Hegseth ordered the second strike to “kill everybody,” including two apparent survivors among the 11 aboard, in the first of more than 20 hits on alleged drug boats from Venezuela.

Hegseth has called The Washington Post’s report “fake news.” 

But the armed services committees of both the House and Senate are asking questions of the War (Defense) Department over potential war crimes, The Hill reports. The House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said in a statement released Sunday they are “taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question.”

Senate Armed Services Committee Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said in a statement; “The Committee has directed inquiries to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances.”

Trump’s backing … President Trump told the press aboard Air Force One Sunday he maintains great faith in Hegseth.

Fall guy … Even as Trump’s status among the MAGA faithful appears shakier thanks to the Epstein Files controversy and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) defection from Trumpworld, it will be easier for congressional Republicans to make Hegseth take the fall for the War (Defense) Department’s alleged violation of its own rules of military engagement.

•••

Russian a Peace Deal – Trump administration envoy Steve Witkoff meets with Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin Tuesday afternoon to negotiate a peace deal that started with a 28-point plan that met all the Kremlin’s wishes. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that revisions to the plan could lead to a deal, though no details following meetings between the White House and Kyiv in Geneva and last week in Florida have been made public. Meanwhile, Zelenskyy’s position has been damaged by the resignation last Friday of his chief of staff and lead negotiator, Andrii Yermak amidst allegations of deep and widespread corruption.

US Army Sec. Dan Driscoll reportedly told Ukrainian officials they would be better off taking a quick deal with Moscow rather than face defeat, Martin Fornusek and Tim Zadorozhnyy write Monday in The Kyiv Independent. Ukraine and Russia remain “poles apart” ahead of Witkoff’s Kremlin meeting, as Putin “sees no reason to make meaningful concessions,” while withdrawing from unoccupied territory is a “non-starter for Kyiv.”

Fornusek and Zadorozhnyy quote Oleksiy Melnyk, co-director of foreign relations and international security at the Razumkov Center in Kyiv that it “seems like the plan was designed to assist Ukraine’s capitulation.”

•••

Pardon Who? – A poll by Israel’s Kan news finds 42% oppose a pardon for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if not accompanied by a resignation, while 38% support a pardon for the leader, who has not yet been convicted after a years-long corruption investigation, Haaretz reports. 

The newspaper’s Gidi Weitz in an analysis writes that “Anyone who has read the transcripts understands that no power can save Benjamin Netanyahu from conviction on at least some of the charges. But the pardon request submitted to President (Isaac) Herzog contains no hint of this, and appears to be the most brazen request ever submitted.”Brazen, indeed … Netanyahu made the request to Herzog last week, saying his requirement to testify in court up to three days a week is getting in the way of important state business and echoing President Trump’s plea to the president after the US brokered a peace deal to end Israel’s war in Gaza. Many Israelis oppose a pardon because they believe Netanyahu should step down over his government’s security failures from Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack.  –TL

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THANKSGIVING WEEK 2025

Shooting Leads to ‘Reverse Immigration’ – It’s easy now to forget the outcry from veterans of the US occupation of Afghanistan when many Afghans who aided the military and the CIA were left behind during President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from the country. Whether they helped the US with intelligence or as translators and drivers, some 86,000 Afghans had reason to fear for their safety and the safety of their families when the Taliban took over.

Many of those 86,000 Afghans were allowed to immigrate to the US under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome, US attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro reminded us when announcing a first-degree murder charge for Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, suspect in the fatal shooting of US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of the West Viginia National Guard, at the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington Wednesday (per The Wall Street Journal).

Another National Guard soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, also was hit in the shooting. He remained in critical condition Friday. The suspect was shot by other National Guard soldiers and remains hospitalized.

President Trump on Thanksgiving evening Truth Socialed his solution.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump wrote. “Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything America stands for – You won’t be here for long.” (Per AP.)

Since Lakanwal was identified as the suspect, pundits left and right have been arguing about who let him in. He was granted asylum during the Trump administration in April 2025, apparently under authority of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome.

Our question is… For the families of Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe, and 86,000 Afghans who risked their lives by helping the US military and CIA in their home country, does it matter whether either president deserves blame?

•••

Thanks to Witkoff – From Russian dictator/President Vladmir Putin. Presidential envoy Steve Witkoff called the Kremlin’s top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, October 14, before a Trump-Putin call later that week to say the Trump administration could write a peace plan for Russia in its war on Ukraine much like the peace plan the White House brokered with Israel in its Gaza agreement, Bloomberg reports. 

“We put a 20-point Trump plan together that was 20 points for peace and I’m thinking maybe we should do the same thing for you,” Witkoff said in the five minute-plus call with Ushakov, according to a Bloomberg transcript from a recording of the conversation. 

Portions of the Trump administration’s 28-point peace plan for Ukraine, which leaked out earlier in November, offered everything to Putin’s Russia, including portions of the Donbas region still under Ukrainian control, halving of Ukraine’s military force and no path for the country to NATO membership.

The Kremlin Wednesday morning called the leaked phoner an attempt to interfere in peace talks, Politico reports.

“It is unlikely this is done to improve relations,” Ushakov told Russian media.

White House thankful for Hegseth’s absence … Meanwhile, the White House reportedly is thankful Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth has not joined top national security officials in Ukraine for peace talks, preferring to rally troops and troll MAGA enemies online, Politico reports. In Hegseth’s place, Army Sec. Dan Driscoll is leading the surprise negotiations with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv and with Russian advisors in Abu Dhabi.

•••

Thank You for Your Service – Because Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) is a former combat pilot and astronaut, he can be called back into military service. The Pentagon is considering doing just that for a potential court-martial or administrative measures over Kelly’s lead of five other Democratic Congress members in posting a video on X-Twitter telling US Military the Constitution requires they do not obey illegal orders, per Arizona Public Radio’s Cronkite News. Kelly has accused the Trump administration of trying to bully him into silence.

Kelly contrasted Republican Congress members’ lack of reaction to Trump’s calls for hanging the members he accused of treason to their reaction to the assassination of Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, on CBS News Face the Nation Sunday; “We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the United States Congress about what the president has said about hanging members of Congress.” – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 11/26/25

Team Trump Twists Language

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

We all know what an “emergency” is. Generally, it is something both urgent and unexpected.

A simple way is to think about the emergency room in a hospital as distinct from an in-patient room. While people going into both may need to have surgery, it is in the case of the first one that it needs to happen stat, while the second one is put on a schedule.

An emergency is bounded by time: it is a distinct period when something out of the ordinary occurs and requires immediate action.

Were an emergency not bounded by time it would essentially be the status quo, normality, the way things are.

For many of the tariffs that have been applied to trading partners the Trump Administration is using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act of 1977.

It, in part, allows the president, after declaring an emergency, to “deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy.”

“They’ve been ripping us off for years!” is a refrain Donald Trump has repeatedly used.

What was unusual about the network of trade that was established? What was the extraordinary threat? 

If General Motors wants to build pickup trucks in Mexico and if you want to buy one, is this odd or threatening?

What is the emergency?

If “They” have truly been “ripping us off for years,” it hardly seems to be an emergency situation. Rather, it is how things are.

One of the things that Donald Trump claimed was happening, for example, was that Canada was letting deadly fentanyl into the US. An emergency?

From October 2023 to September 2024 the US Customs and Border Protection operation seized 43 pounds of fentanyl coming in from Canada.

Meanwhile, during the same period 21,100 pounds of fentanyl were seized coming over the border from Mexico. That could be construed as something of an emergency. But 43?

One of the ways the Trump Administration calculated tariffs was based on whether a trade deficit existed with the other country. Or said more simply: the US bought more stuff from the other country than the other country bought from the US.

In 2023 the total trade deficit — that is, goods and services — with Canada was $40.6 billion.

In 2024 the total trade deficit with Canada was $35.7 billion.

Because the US likes to buy lots of Canadian oil, there was a trade deficit being run — for several years. But that trade deficit was going down.

Emergency?

The Ontario Government ran an ad during the television broadcast of a World Series Game that included Ronald Reagan’s observations as to why tariffs aren’t good.

An incensed Donald Trump immediately reacted, posting that he’d raise the tariff on Canadian goods by 10%.

Pique or emergency?

Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) participated in a video with other elected representatives* during which he and the others stated that American service personnel should not carry out “illegal orders.”

Kelly is a retired naval officer who flew military combat missions during the first Gulf War. He knows more than a little something about orders.

In the video Kelly states: "Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”

Yes, the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it clear that service personnel must obey lawful orders, but not unlawful ones.

Doesn’t illegal = unlawful?

Donald Trump, incensed by the video, put on his social media posts including “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT” and “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by death.” 

Sedition means, in part, resistance against lawful authority.

Kelly and his colleagues are recommending resistance against unlawful (a.k.a., “illegal”) orders.

Just as the Trump Administration seems to be defining “emergency” as any conditions they deem to be so, here they are taking exception to people telling other people to obey the law. Is this to suggest that service personnel should obey illegal orders?

In October 2016 during a campaign rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, then-candidate Trump said: "Don't believe what you see and don't believe what you hear, believe what I tell you.”

He still believes that, and he wants the American people to, as well.

==

*Other participants in the video are Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Representative Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Representative Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Representative Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), and Representative Jason Crow (D-CO). It is worth noting that Deluzio, Goodlander, and Crow are all attorneys, so they undoubtedly know a bit more about the law — civil and military — than former TV personality Pete Hegseth.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings where he writes primarily for the right column.

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WED 11/26/25

Bipartisan Bill Tackles Algorithms

Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and John Curtis (R-UT) appeared on NPR’s Morning Edition recently to talk about their Algorithm Accountability Act “to modernize online protections and hold social media companies accountable for harms caused by content pushed by their algorithmic feeds.” Read Kelly’s release HERE.

The bipartisan bill “amends Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 to impose a duty of care on the companies that utilize recommendation-based algorithms.”

As a fact-intensive news/news aggregate/commentary web publication that has been fighting the ravages of social media with our brand of civil media for five+ years, The Hustings cannot remain neutral on this issue. We are all for it. And we are encouraged by the Kelly-Curtis bipartisan support of the bill.

Why not join our pro-fact, anti-echo chamber, anti-Section 230 cause and become a Citizen Pundit? 

Email your civil, fact-friendly COMMENTS on the issues we cover within – or suggest an issue you believe is not getting enough coverage – to editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether your politics lean right or left in the subject line (regardless of the specific comment within) so we may post your thoughts in the proper column. –Editors

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FRIDAY 11/21/25

Talking Turkey Time

They get along! At least, Donald J. Trump and Zohran Mamdani did on their first in-person meeting Friday in the Oval Office. “He said a lot of my voters actually voted for him, and I’m OK with that,” the president said (per NYT). Watch MTG's resignation video HERE.

11/24 UPDATE: MTG, Comey & Letitia James – First, the last two. Federal Judge Cameron McGowan Currie has dismissed criminal charges against former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney Gen. Letitia James “within weeks of Trump publicly calling on Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi to prosecute several of his prominent critics,” The Wall Street Journal reports. 

The judge dismissed the case against Comey not, because as US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff established last week, US Attorney Lindsey Halligan failed to release Comey’s indictment to the full grand jury deciding the case, but rather, Currie dismissed the cases against Comey and James because as President Trump’s insurance attorney, Halligan was improperly appointed US attorney. 

Whew.

It’s not surprising that Comey and probably James have several issues over which their cases would have been thrown out.

Meanwhile, MTG … Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) released an 11-minute video Friday -- the same day her erstwhile political hero, President Trump, was making nice with New York City mayor-elect and Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani -- in which she announces her resignation from Congress in January, leaving a full year on her third term.

“Americans are used by the political industrial complex of both parties, election cycle after election cycle after election cycle in order to elect whichever side convince Americans to hate the other side more,” MTG says in her video. 

Trump turned on “Marjorie Traitor Greene” after MTG called for release of all the Epstein Files and said he would support a primary challenger to her in next year’s midterms. MTG says that for Trump, loyalty is a “one-way street.”

The Wall Street Journal’s take on all this is that MTG’s resignation is proof that Trump has full control of the GOP. But many pundits figure that MTG is now a major threat to Vice President JD Vance’s bid for the GOP presidential nomination in 2028. 

In The Atlantic conservative never-Trumper pundit David Frum evokes Jack Abramoff’s posit that there are two kinds of people in Washington: Those who get “the joke” that all the talk there of ideas and principles is “flimflam to conceal self-enrichment at the expense of the public’s experience” and those who don’t. 

MTG ran for her Georgia House seat in 2020 as one of those who do not get “the joke,” and has since become one of those in Washington who does, according to Frum.

‘The Joke II’ … One is probably not in on “the joke” if one believes that Trump’s playing nice with Mamdani on the same day that MTG announces her resignation is a coincidence; Is Trump about to gain better control of the Democratic Party, too? – TL

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FRIDAY 11/21/25

•Watch Democrats’ video calling on  US Military to reject unlawful orders HERE.

Peace Deal? – President Trump hosts New York’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani at the White House Friday afternoon. The mayor-elect hopes the two will find some common ground in working to ease the cost of living in Manhattan and the rest of the US, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

“I have many disagreements with the president, and I believe that we should be relentless and pursue all avenues and all meetings that could make our city affordable for every single New Yorker,” Mamdani says.

“Look,” Trump responds, “we don’t need a communist in this country, but if we have one, I’m going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation.”

He’s no communist … Trump’s effort to Make America the ‘50s again recalls the Joe McCarthy era when the label (not referring to any official Communist party member) was used to call out any American who identified as left of center. Mamdani is aligned more with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who identifies as lower-case democratic socialist.

This makes us think of all the independent American voters who over the past eight or nine years have expressed support for both Sanders and Trump. Perhaps Trump might want to try and be friendly toward Mamdani when they meet at the White House, now that he has lost Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) fervid support.

•••

No Peace Deal – If President Trump remains upset with Russian dictator/President Vladmir Putin, it doesn’t show in a 28-point peace plan US officials handed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Thursday, in which Moscow gets just about everything it has demanded all along. Art of the deal indeed.

The key point in the plan, according to The Kyiv Independent is that Ukraine gives up the entirety of the Donbas region, including portions it never lost to Russia. 

The negotiations are considered “urgent” because of Ukraine’s dire energy situation and a senior US official says some reported elements could still change. But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has reiterated that no deal involving the future of Ukraine can be made without participation of Ukraine, the BBC reports.

“Ukrainian officials and lawmakers describe the proposal as unrealistic and dangerous, warning it could harm civilians and embolden Russia,” according to The Kyiv Independent.

Upshot: Surely if Ukraine were required to cut its army in half, it would not take long for Russian military occupying Donbas to take over the rest of the country.

•••

‘Seditious’ Democratic Video? – Major uproar in Washington is President Trump’s reaction to a video posted by six Democratic lawmakers calling on US military to “refuse illegal orders,” as the Constitution requires of them. 

The 21 known US strikes killing at least 83 Venezuelans accused of smuggling drugs comes to mind. A fleet of warships, including the USS Gerald R. Ford supercarrier now occupy the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. And of course, there has been deployment of National Guard in major US cities.

Trump Truth Socialed this in reaction to the video, according to The New York Times: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR punishable by DEATH!”

The president is not threatening the six Democratic congressmembers with execution, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a presser, though Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stood up to say, “Trump’s threats amount to calls for execution of elected officials,” The Guardian reports.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), an ex-CIA analyst who served in Iraq, organized the video. She was joined by Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly (AZ), a former astronaut, and Democratic Reps. Chris Deluzio (PA), Jason Crow (CO), Maggie Goodlander (NH) and Chrissy Houlahan (PA). – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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FRIDAY 11/21/25

Hot Air

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

As you can see from the GasBuddy chart above of the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US over the past 12 months, the line beginning on the left side of the chart is lower than on the right side of the chart. 

Or simply, gas was cheaper a year ago than it is now.

But according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt yesterday (November 20):

“Thanks to President Trump's 'drill, baby, drill' agenda, the national average price of a gallon of gas on Thanksgiving Day is projected to be the cheapest price since COVID pandemic in 2021.”

Perhaps something will happen and the price will drop by November 27.

Also on November 20 AAA put out a news release about gas prices “As drivers prepare to hit the road for Thanksgiving.”

It says:

“. . .gas prices are relatively steady compared to last week. The national average for a gallon of regular went up by a couple of cents to $3.10.”

Went up!?!

There is an acknowledgement by AAA that pump prices are not particularly high at the moment.

Why?

“Despite the burst of gasoline demand that will occur during Thanksgiving week, overall demand is low this time of year which helps keep prices down.”

In other words, like the period that Leavitt refers to, during the COVID pandemic in 2021, economic forces work: the demand is low, so the prices are low.

While the demand for gas in 2020 and 2021 was low because people were staying close to home — or in their homes — so as not to spread the virus (yes, it is real, and the vaccine that the first Trump Administration did a good job on quickly developing was not, as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., claimed “the deadliest vaccine ever made”), likely the demand is down this Thanksgiving thanks to the tariff-induced price rises that Americans are experiencing in places like grocery stores.

In the event that the Administration lifts other tariffs as it has recently done for some grocery items and Karoline Leavitt goes out and claims something like, “The President’s policies are making things more affordable for the American people,” keep in mind that the reason those prices were higher are because of “The President’s policies.”

Very clever: make something artificially more expensive and then reduce the price and claim that the affordability is a result of policies to bring down prices.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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FRIDAY 11/21/25

Professor’s Suspension Chills Free Speech

Commentary by Jerry Lanson

It doesn’t take organized book burnings to mute free speech in today’s MAGA America. At Indiana University, it took only a disgruntled college student, an influential US senator and a cowardly university administration.

The story has barely caused a ripple in a week that saw the collapse of Democratic courage to stand up for affordable health care, a lurid dump of Jeffrey Epstein emails, the beating of US war drums off Venezuela, ICE’s invasion of another US city (Charlotte, North Carolina), and yet another Trump turnaround on tariffs as his administration scrambles to stabilize his plunging poll numbers in the face of rising prices.

The Indiana University saga, however, deserves a lot more attention, particularly since the impact of the university’s actions could prove chilling not only in Indiana but on campuses across the country.

Here is how The New York Times began its November 13 story on the incident, the only one I could find in a major publication.

A professor who showed a graphic labeling the “Make America Great Again” slogan as covert white supremacy has been removed from teaching a class under a new Indiana law meant to foster “intellectual diversity.”

Forget the smokescreen of the “intellectual diversity” euphemism. The law clearly is trying to dampen what’s taught and how. But while it requires faculty to “introduce students to a variety of perspectives,” according to the NYT, it does not call for removing from the classroom someone who includes a perspective that a single student finds offensive. Yet that appears to be what happened in this case.

Here is The New York Times account of the suspension, which happened some weeks ago.

Professor Jessica Adams was teaching a class, titled “Diversity, Human Rights and Social Justice,” in the University’s School of Social Work. She shared with students a widely used illustration, a pyramid showing the escalating steps from language that suggests covert support of white supremacy to language reflecting overt statements of white supremacy. Among the covert steps on the chart was the slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Adams, a full-time lecturer, told the newspaper that she was using the pyramid as part of a discussion of racism in the 24-student, graduate-level class. She noted that it is used in other social work classes, in part because racism often comes up in the field.

“We recognize that white supremacy is the ideology that emboldens racist behavior,” Adams told the NYT. Among other statements on the graphic, which has been in use for a couple of decades, were such things as “not challenging racist jokes” and “don’t blame me, I never owned slaves.”

The New York Times modest account steered clear of the contextual reality of the rapid rise of racism roiling the country right now. In the first 10 months of the Trump Administration, there have been widespread arrests of documented as well as undocumented brown and Black Americans in workplace dragnets, firings of top Black military officers, systematic downplaying or outright whitewashing of race and slavery-related exhibits in national museums and National Parks, and equally systematic scrubbing of federal websites so that terms such as “racism” and “feminism” don’t even appear on them. All of this has been documented in multiple mainstream news reports and, it might be argued, done in the name of Making America Great Again.

But one student’s complaint apparently was enough to remove Adams from an Indiana University classroom. At a Nov. 7 press conference, covered by The IndyStar, Adams said “I feel that my academic freedom has been stifled. I feel that I have not been treated with care or allowed due process, and I do feel that my students are suffering.”

Two students who attended the press conference said that in the weeks since her removal, assignments have gone ungraded by a series of guest lecturers who have stepped in.

Yet the dean who removed Adams declined comment to The New York Times.

Adams said that the university had told her that the student who filed a complaint against her said he was concerned that the term Make America Great Again appeared on the pyramid above other phrases he deemed more offensive, such as one about police violence. 

The American Association of University Professors held a press conference last week in which it decried the application of the state law “to punish and stifle faculty members.”

Indiana University, the AAUP noted, has closed its diversity offices and fired diversity employees.

Perhaps it’s wise to investigate what changes in policy are being applied on a university near you.

This commentary first appeared in Lanson’s Substack, From the Grassroots.

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WEDNESDAY 11/19/25

US Adds 190K Jobs

September Employment Numbers, Finally – The Labor Department’s September jobs report, delayed six weeks due to the government shutdown, reveals that 190,000 jobs were added two months ago as the unemployment rate inched up by 0.1 points over August to 4.4%. The report shows job gains in health care, food services and drinking places, and social assistance. Transportation, warehousing and federal government employment was down. [CHART: Bureau of Labor Statistics]

THURSDAY 11/20/25

Comey Case Calamity – The Justice Department’s Trump-directed indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is in serious trouble after US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff established that the full grand jury did not see original indictments. In federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, Wednesday Nachmanoff asked US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, the insurance lawyer who replaced an attorney who refused to indict Comey, whether or not the full grand jury were present when the indictment was filed September 25, according to Politico.

Comey was charged with lying to, and obstructing, Congress. 

“The foreperson and another grand juror was also present,” Halligan replied, confirming that the full grand jury was not present. Nachmanoff “just wanted to make sure” the indictment had never been seen by the full grand jury. --TL

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WEDNESDAY 11/19/25

‘HUGE’ Announcement – That’s wording and capitalization from whitehouse.gov following the black tie-red carpet greeting of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman Tuesday, in which President Trump designated Saudi Arabia a major non-NATO ally. It doesn’t hurt that bin Salman pledged $1 trillion in Saudi investment to the US, which also will supply his country with F-35 fighter jets.

On Khashoggi’s killing … Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman ordered the brutal 2018 killing and dismemberment of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to a CIA assessment, but President Trump was having none of that at their gilded White House meeting Tuesday. 

At the White House press conference, an ABC (“fake-” said the president) News reporter asked bin Salman about the murder of Khashoggi, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. Trump broke in with this:

“As far as this gentleman is concerned, he’s done a phenomenal job. You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial. A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about. Whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happened, but he knew nothing about it. And we can leave it at that. You don’t have to embarrass our guest by asking a question like that.”

Bin Salman called the killing of someone who was expressing his opinions "painful" (without taking any responsibility) and assured reporters at the presser that it won't happen again.

“There’s no justification to murder my husband,” Hanan Elatr Khashoggi responded publicly. Khashoggi’s widow has requested a meeting with bin Salman while he is in the US. A spokesman for the crown prince told NPR’s Morning Edition Wednesday that bin Salman does not have the time for it.

Other guests … They include Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, the latter significant because he owns The Washington Post for which Khashoggi wrote, before the Amazon founder made its editorial board more Trump-friendly, and the former of interest because of his infamous falling-out with the president late last spring. 

It should not come as a surprise that the Tesla CEO would attend a presidential black- tie dinner, in part because Musk remains tight with Vice President Vance and Trump’s sons, but also because Trump is most certainly in awe that the World’s Richest Life Form™ has a Tesla contract that could make him the World’s First Trillionaire.

•••

Five Seats Taken from Texas GOP – Texas cannot use its shiny new mid-decade congressional map for the 2026 midterm elections, a three-judge panel that includes a Trump appointee ruled Tuesday, per The Texas Tribune. Republicans had hoped the map would give the GOP 30 of 38 congressional seats, up from 25. 

President Trump had requested the mid-term redistricting made possible by the Texas legislature’s Republican majority, to assure a GOP congressional majority after the midterms. 

Texas Republicans’ remaining hope is an overturn by the US Supreme Court. Meanwhile, California has secured, for now, a five-seat Democratic Party gain after a November off-year election ballot measure.

•••

On the Resolute Desk – The House Tuesday afternoon passed 427-1 a bill compelling Justice Department release of its files of the investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, CQ Roll Call reports. The Senate later approved the discharge petition by unanimous consent on a motion from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and delivered it to the White House for President Trump’s signature.

After months downplaying the Epstein Files as a “Democratic hoax” (despite implicating former President Clinton and his treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, along with other Democrats) Trump has said he would sign the discharge petition. Schumer is waiting.

Sole “no” vote in the House came from Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA).

“If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” Higgins said.

Records related to the investigation of Epstein and his associate/ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell will be released within 30 days of Trump’s signature, except for materials related to ongoing investigations, according to Roll Call, and advocates warn that the way officials choose to comply with those restrictions could result in the release of fewer files than they hope.

Meanwhile … Summers, a Harvard University economics professor and former president says he will step down from the Open AI board, according to The Wall Street Journal. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 11/19/25

‘The Groceries’ Get Some Relief

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

Well, they finally figured this out: tariffs are not good for the American people despite the administration’s claim: “President Trump’s tariff policies have delivered significant and lasting wins for the American people through fair, tough, and strategic trade negotiations, strengthening the US economy and national security while breaking down unfair trade barriers that have harmed American workers for decades.”

If that was, indeed, the case then how to explain the fact that on November 14 the Administration added several items to Annex II of Executive Order 14257, which means these products “shall no longer be subject to the reciprocal tariffs.”

What are they?

Mainly what President Trump likes to call “the groceries,” even though in his read of it, it is “An old-fashioned term that we use—groceries.” It is also what normal Americans have to buy to eat. When is the last time he went to a grocery store — if ever? (Let’s not forget who was born with a silver spoon.)

Taken off the list are:

  • Coffee and tea
  • Tropical fruits and fruit juices
  • Cocoa and spices
  • Bananas, oranges and tomatoes
  • Beef

Part of the rational: other countries “produce substantial volumes of agricultural products that are not grown or produced in sufficient quantities in the United States.”

After all, when you go to Starbucks you may order a cup of Sumatra or Komodo Dragon Blend. 

And there are brews from Ethiopia, Kenya, Columbia, and elsewhere—none of which are grown in the US.

Here’s a fun fact: In the US about 3,500 metric tons of bananas are grown — at most.

In Latin America and the Caribbean it is 20 million metric tons.

So let’s see what his tariffs have done “for the American people.”

Over the past year:

  • Coffee prices are up 19%
  • Beef up 14%
  • Bananas up 8%

Just to name a few products.

And as we get further along, all manner of toys for Christmas will be higher, which harkens back to his “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls, you know?”

Or car companies often have promotions during the month of December to move the metal before the calendar year is out.

To borrow Lexus’s phrase, it will be “A December to Remember” — and not in a particularly good way, as the vehicle manufacturers at that point will start passing along some of the tariff-induced costs that they’ve been absorbing to consumers, which will mean prices for vehicles will be higher and discounts will be smaller.

Now the Administration claims — no surprise — that this is all the fault of Biden. And if it isn’t Biden, then Obama.

When exactly it is that they believe it is their responsibility isn’t clear.

But to go back to the lifting of the tariffs on those food products:

Isn’t this an admission that tariffs add costs to American consumers?

If they didn’t, then why take them off?

And there’s something else to consider. There is a boast that the prices for those goods will go down thanks to Donald Trump. But those prices have gone up and have been higher since “Liberation Day” thanks to Donald Trump.

Doesn’t he owe the consumers a rebate for the unnecessarily high prices they paid?

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

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WEDNESDAY 11/19/25