The Left On McCarthy

What should liberals make of the Capitol Hill tiff between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO)? Pundit Eric Blair argues that Democrats shouldn’t count on the discord between Trump loyalists and traditional Republicans in “McCarthy’s Problems Are Not an Opportunity for Democrats.”

You’ll find Eric’s comments by scrolling down this page below Monday’s News & Notes.

We welcome your comments, too, on the Supreme Court oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regarding Mississippi’s legislation prohibiting abortions at 15 weeks, and the question of whether Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey will be, or should be, overturned. 

To submit your civil comments on these and other issues discussed in The Hustings please click the “comments” button, or email us at editors@thehustings.news. Help us create a new kind of social news media.

_____

News & Notes

WED 12/8/21

•A homeless man has been charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to the 50-foot “All-American Christmas Tree” on Fox News’ New York City headquarters early Wednesday, Politico says.

•After 16 years leading Germany, Angela Merkel has handed over control of the nation’s parliament to Olaf Scholz, who leads a three-party coalition.

•Pfizer says its two-shot vaccination appears to be less effective against the omicron variant of COVID-19, based on studies by South African scientists and Pfizer, but a third shot may be more effective (WaPo). Meanwhile, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, says the omicron variant may spread more quickly but is likely less severe.

•Instagram chief Adam Mosseri faces the Senate Commerce Committee’s consumer protection panel today over possible harm to teens from its photo-sharing social media app (NPR).

Convoluted Procedures Look to Avoid Federal Shutdown – Congress is on its way to a debt-limit increase over the current $28.9 trillion, to an amount to be determined later, presumably after a confusing set of procedures moves the legislation on to the Senate Thursday. This is from reports in The Hill as well as Roll Call. The procedural trick is that the Senate will be limited to 10 hours debate on raising the debt limit, thus allowing Democrats to pass the increase with a simple majority vote. 

Congress has until December 15, one week from today, to raise the debt limit in order to avoid a government shutdown, based on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin’s estimates. 

Republicans, remember, are resistant to taking on additional federal debt (see the next item on the 2022 defense bill, which will reach the Senate $25 billion higher than President Biden’s budget request). Under this compromise on the debt limit, 10 Republican senators will help advance a bill that blocks Medicare cuts.

•••

House Passes Defense Bill – The House passed a compromise version of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act Tuesday with a price tag of $768.1 billion, $25 billion more than President Biden had proposed, according to The Hill. As a result, 51 Democrats joined 19 Republicans in voting against the bill, with 363 House members from both parties voting in favor. The defense bill, which is expected to head to the Senate next week, includes a $740 billion base budget, $27.8 billion for nuclear weaponry and $368 million for defense-related spending in other federal departments. 

Note: Now go home for the holidays. Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV) does not want to take up Build Back Better legislation until next year, so there’s no reason for Democrats to insist on lingering around the Capitol until the Senate takes it up again.

•••

Biden in Video Faceoff with Putin – President Biden spent more than two hours in a video conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin Tuesday, warning him of economic and political sanctions if his military’s troops continue to move aggressively on Ukraine. Putin says the Russian troops are assembling on his country’s own land, and he wants to prevent NATO from moving east and recruiting Ukraine as a member. Some experts doubt Putin is being so obvious as to signal moves to repeat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014.

•••

As the Insurrection Turns – Latest on the House select committee’s investigation into the January 6 Capitol insurrection is that Roger Stone, former political consultant to Donald J. Trump, plans to plead the 5th Amendment in his testimony, while fellow former Trump associate Stephen K. Bannon’s contempt of Congress trial is set for July.

Prosecutors had proposed “swift justice” in the form of a one-day trial in April for Bannon’s two contempt charges. Bannon’s defense attorneys countered by asking for a 10-day trial in October, just in time for the provocateur to rally pro-Trump voters for the November mid-terms.

Note: Bannon’s antics and Stone’s unusual choice not to talk about himself may be moot. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), as one of nine Congress members on the committee, says the panel has amassed a lot of useful written material to move forward (per MSNBC’s The Eleventh Hour).

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

_____________________________________

TUE 12/7/21

•Former President Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has rescinded his decision to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, objected to the committee’s issuing of “wide ranging subpoenas of information from a third party communications provider,” in a letter to the panel obtained by CNN.

•President Biden will warn President Vladimir Putin in a special videoconference between the two leaders today that if Russia moves to invade Ukraine it will face serious sanctions (NPR).

•The U.S. will hold a diplomatic boycott against China over human rights violations, for the Beijing Winter Olympics in February. American athletes will be permitted to attend the games (WaPo).

•New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has issued a strict COVID-19 vaccine mandate affecting all employers in Manhattan. But the mandate does not take effect until December 27, four days before Mayor-elect Eric Adams replaces de Blasio. A spokesperson for Adams says he “would evaluate the measure once he is mayor.” (NYT)

•Former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), who died Sunday, will lie in state Thursday in the Capitol Rotunda (Roll Call). Further funeral arrangements are yet to be announced.

Tweet This: Nunes to Leave House – Donald J. Trump acolyte Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is retiring from the House of Representatives next month, leaving a whole year on his current term to become CEO of the former president’s new SPAC-funded media and technology group, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. The Trump Media & Technology Group plans a rival to social media such as Twitter – from which Trump has been banned since before he left the White House – thus allowing him to spew out various covfefe on an hourly basis again, but this time without critical responses from Democrats and never-Trumper conservatives.

Note:  The former president has allegedly raised more than $1 billion for his new venture through a “special purpose acquisition company” publicly created to merge with another company for a quicker stock exchange listing versus an IPO. The Securities & Exchange Commission is looking into whether the SPAC’s managers had any material discussions with Trump Media, which is a no-no, according to public radio’s Marketplace.

Comment of the Day: In his statement about leaving Congress (suddenly, it seems), a place he’s been since 2002, Nunes wrote:

“The time has come to reopen the Internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship.” (Per Politico.)

Apparently Nunes is referring to the fact that Trump had his social media privileges lifted by the like of Twitter and Facebook for, well, lying.

There are some 221.6 million U.S. Facebook users. There are some 77.75 million Twitter users.

Seems like (a) the Internet isn’t closed (didn’t we just all shop on CyberMonday?) and (b) there is a hell of a lot of flow coursing through the cloud.

Nunes continued, “The United States of American made the dream of the Internet a reality and it will be an American company that restores the dream.”

While we know he is referring to TM&TG, given the former president’s epic fails social-media-wise since being banned, Nunes may be dreaming.

•••

Justice Dept. to Texas: About Those Electoral Maps – The Justice Department is suing Texas over electoral maps that were drawn in the wake of the 2020 U.S. Census, in which the state gains two Congressional districts, but with no consideration of Black or Latino voters, minorities that account for 95% of Texas’ population growth in the last decade (per The Guardian). 

Vanita Gupta, the third-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice, says some of Texas’ districts were drawn with “discriminatory intent.”

That’s important because the Justice Department must show such intent in striking down the new maps. Gerrymandering is allowed, so such intent won’t do. The new maps give the GOP hold on 25 of 38 U.S. Congressional districts and on a majority of the state legislature’s seats, The Guardian says. 

•••

Tesla CEO Slams Biden EV Incentives – Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, criticized President Biden’s plans to spur electric vehicle adoption, including provisions in the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan providing incentives for consumers’ purchases of EVs, in a video interview for The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit Monday. Musk also said federal funding in the bipartisan infrastructure bill for EV infrastructure recharging is “unnecessary.”

“Do we need support for gas stations? We don’t. Delete it,” Musk said.

Note: Not enough time to get into how much the federal government has done for Big Oil over the last 125 years or so, but Musk has some interest in EV recharging, as Tesla has dotted the North American landscape with Super Chargers, which are recharging stations with connectors that work on its own cars, but not any other brand of EV. Tesla also has made much of its revenue over the last decade from selling California zero-emissions vehicle credits to major automakers in exchange for selling internal combustion-powered vehicles in the state.

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

_____________________________________

MON 12/6/21

•Congress is scheduled to take up the budget for national defense, and the debt limit this week (Punchbowl News). Treasury Sec. Janet Yellin says the government has until next week Wednesday to lift the debt limit to avoid default, but if all goes right (heh) both chambers are scheduled to begin holiday recess after Friday.

•Anyone traveling to the U.S. beginning today, including American citizens, must show a negative coronavirus test taken within a day of travel to enter the country (WaPo).

•Scroll down to read our home page debate on Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and their fight with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and his campaign to become House speaker after the 2022 midterms. Send your comments to editors@thehustings.news.

Georgia’s Political Mind – Much has been made about the political divide between blue cities and red countryside in Texas and California, but for the November 2022 elections, Georgia will be front and center again. Former President Trump is “primarying” incumbent Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, with former senator David Perdue -- cousin of the former president’s Agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue -- who has announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. If Perdue beats Kemp, he likely will face Stacey Abrams, who late last week announced her candidacy for the governor’s race as a Democrat – consider her a shoo-in for her party’s nod next year.

Abrams narrowly lost the 2018 race against Kemp – he’s the incumbent, remember – and went on to lead the runoff campaigns of Georgia Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, who won in January to give the party its veep-tie-breaker-thin majority over the GOP in the Senate. Ossoff, in fact, beat David Perdue in part because Trump, defeated two months earlier in his re-election bid, told his MAGA followers not to bother with a “fixed” runoff anyway.

Last February David Perdue filed papers to run against Sen. Warnock in 2022, as his seat filled in the final two years of Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. Isakson stepped down due to health issues. Gov. Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler, former owner of the Atlanta Dream, of the Women’s National Basketball Association, as Isakson’s replacement. Loeffler claimed a “100%” pro-Trump voting record for the year she served as Georgia’s junior senator. 

Anyway, after filing paperwork to challenge Warnock, the first Black U.S. senator from Georgia, he decided not to run for the seat. Trump’s man for that midterm primary is 1982 Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. Still with us?

Challenging All the Best People: What seems like a golden opportunity for Abrams and the Democratic Party also is yet the latest, probably biggest, test of Trump v. what remains of the traditional wing of the GOP. It’s also a test of strict new state voters’ laws implemented by the state’s legislatures over trumped-up allegations of “voter irregularities” after the ex-president’s loss of Georgia’s Electoral College votes to Joe Biden. 

Could come down to 11,780 votes, again.

•••

Rising Inflation Fears Push Fed Policy – Federal Reserve officials are making plans to accelerate the wind-down of its bond-buying stimulus program to begin raising interest rates by next spring, The Wall Street Journal reports. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell had previously indicated bond-buying would end next June, but the supply v. demand balance clearly isn’t balancing out as delta and omicron variants of the coronavirus rage on.

•••

Predictable Outcome – Counties in the U.S. in which a majority voted for Donald J. Trump for president last November are nearly three-times as likely to die from COVID-19 than counties that voted for Joe Biden, NPR reports in an investigation based on election data. The bigger the margin for ex-president Trump, the higher the death rate, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

•••

Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole Has Died – Former Sen. Bob Dole, Republican from Kansas who became the only candidate to lose campaigns for both president, in 1996, and vice president, in 1976, has died, age 98. Dole served as both majority leader, and minority leader of the Senate for 11 years combined, until his retirement in 1996 following his loss to Bill Clinton. 

Dole was the last presidential candidate who was a World War II veteran. He was “left for dead” on a WWII battlefield, and lost the use of his right arm as an Army soldier, according to The New York Times’ obituary. 

President Biden, whose senate career overlapped Dole’s over 23 years, called him “An American statesman like few in our history. A war hero and among the greatest of the Greatest Generation.”

Known for bi-partisan comity, though with a fierce and sometimes cutting sense of humor, Dole served in the House from 1961 to 1969, and the Senate from 1969 to 1996. He became a Capitol Hill lobbyist following his Senate retirement.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____

The Right On McCarthy

What should conservatives make of the Capitol Hill tiff between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO)? Pundit-at-large Stephen Macaulay dissects the minority leader’s curriculum vitae and his political character in “The Authentic Shallowness of Kevin McCarthy." 

You’ll find Stephen’s comments by scrolling down this page below Monday’s News & Notes.

We welcome your comments, too, on the Supreme Court oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regarding Mississippi’s legislation prohibiting abortions at 15 weeks, and the question of whether Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey will be, or should be, overturned.

To submit your civil comments on these and other issues discussed in The Hustings please click the “comments” button, or email us at editors@thehustings.news. Help us create a new kind of social news media.

_____

McCarthy’s Problems are Not an Opportunity for Democrats

By Eric Blair

The current internal turmoil plaguing the Republican Party on the House side of the U.S. Capitol is as entertaining as a symphony played on a chalkboard by fingernails as the orchestra. Democrats would be wise to keep the popcorn in the pantry and resist any reflexive schadenfreude or hopes of redemption from what will be a brutal, toxic gauntlet to the midterms next November.

At first blush, the word indiscipline, would appear an apt description for the House GOP Caucus. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has supplanted her equally media thirsty colleague, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for this week’s outrageous GOP’er. Boebert, whose non-apology to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for Islamophobic remarks based on an incident inside a House office building elevator, escaped any public condemnation or rebuke from most of her party peers, and certainly met a similar silence from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Ever ready to twiddle her thumbs on Twitter, Greene demonstrated an unflinching, unsurprising allegiance to fellow zealot Boebert by endorsing her defiance in apologizing for Boebert’s anti-Muslim comments, and even found time to throw under the bus a fellow Republican sister, Rep. Nancy Mace. The latter’s crime? Daring to criticize Boebert’s blatant bigotry. Greene, too, has stayed clear of McCarthy’s reproval, despite the now cannibalistic display of Republican-on-Republican crime. Perhaps Oscar Wilde would comment by saying that to ignore slurs against a Dem would be seen as forgivable; to ignore slurs against one’s own party member would be sheer cowardice. But why the fear for the man who aspires to be speaker of the House?

Ronald Reagan is attributed with the GOP’s 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican. But Bonzo has been put to bed, and the 12th Commandment is now: Thou Shalt Worship at the Altar of Mar-a-Lago.

McCarthy realizes that former President Donald Trump is the Republican Party, and all roads lead through West Palm Beach. Thus, his frequent sojourns to kiss the ring – and body parts -- of 45. All hope that Kevin McCarthy had experienced an epiphany on January 6, 2021, when he emphatically blamed Trump for encouraging and instigating the treasonous insurrection is long gone. The Svengali in silk tie holds the strings over McCarthy in ways Don Corleone could only fantasize. Could the House minority leader be kowtowing to Trump to do his bidding if 45 tries for 47 in 2024? Or is he worried Trump might run for speaker himself, an idea intimated by some of Trump’s staunchest Stygians in claiming that McCarthy lacks the votes to be Speaker if the Republicans retake the House in 2022?

It is doubtful that the Greenes and Boeberts can hold hostage enough seats to prevent McCarthy from becoming Speaker, as no GOPer would ever want to give Pelosi another two years with the gavel. But the anxiety that McCarthy has in upsetting Trump or his Congressional peons is real and reified by an ironic lack of leadership and concern for the integrity of the institution.

As the GOP lurches further and further toward fascism and the cult of Trump, Dems cannot rely upon disillusioned Republicans staying home or coming over to the Blue Side come November. A party that professes inclusiveness is having enough of a time securing its own purported big tent, as recent debates around the infrastructure bill have indicated. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wishes to stay Speaker, she needs to tighten the messaging, both of her own caucus as well as what the Democratic Party really represents and how that could appeal to Republicans who are soft on party affiliation and strong on good policy and platform. 

No one respects a cuckold, especially one who aspires to be the speaker of the House of Representatives, third in line of succession to the presidency of the most powerful country in the world. But McCarthy is playing with fire and Democrats would be deluded into thinking they have the extinguisher in their hands. His apparent impotence is not enough for the House Dems to think they can stay in power beyond 2022. They must be prepared for, and driven by the fear of, two doomsday scenarios: Trump as House speaker himself or McCarthy as speaker geisha beholden to the man from Mar-a-Lago.

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

MTG and Boebert v. McCarthy

By Todd Lassa

Can Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) unite the GOP behind Donald J. Trump by tearing it apart? 

That seems to be the objective of the otherwise powerless freshman in the House of Representatives (stripped of committee assignments at the beginning of the year) as she engages in public tiffs with speaker-in-waiting Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and marginally less-conservative members of his Republican caucus. 

According to The Bulwark, the latest incident occurred when another Trump acolyte, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) “apologized” for her anti-Muslim remarks regarding Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) over an encounter sharing a House office building elevator. Greene, better known as MTG, tweeted that Boebert shouldn’t apologize to members of “the Jihad Squad,” which in turn drew a tweet from Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) calling out her racism. 

MTG responded by calling Mace a “RINO” who should hang out with her friends in the Democratic Party. Mace most definitely is not a “Republican In Name Only,” and defended her conservative credentials, as a “pro-life fiscal conservative,” who by the way, voted against the bipartisan infrastructure bill as well as against Trump’s second impeachment. 

McCarthy reportedly held a meeting of the two last Tuesday, telling them to stop. MTG ignored the minority leader and told a reporter that Trump supports a primary challenge to Mace’s re-election race next year. 

Writing about these exchanges for The Bulwark, a conservative anti-Trump website, Editor-at-Large Charlie Sykes suggests ironically that Greene, and not McCarthy, has all the power inside the Republican House caucus and thus should be made speaker if the GOP regains the majority in the 2022 midterms. (Sykes makes no mention in this case of the rumor that Trump himself will run for the speaker’s seat, which can go to an individual not serving in Congress.)

The week before, during the House’s Thanksgiving break MTG told Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on his podcast that McCarthy “doesn’t have the votes to be speaker,” and that she wants Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) – who has voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and for Trump’s second impeachment -- banished from the GOP. Green suggested other Republicans who voted for infrastructure should be punished by the minority leader. 

This is also from The Bulwark’s Sykes, who suggests McCarthy is “groveling” for support from the extreme Trumpists to shore up sufficient votes to become speaker after the midterms. It’s a big hypothetical to think “moderate” Republicans like Kinzinger, and even Mace could be pushed out of the GOP and become spoilers in the House Democratic caucus in the manner of Joe Manchin III (WV) and Krysten Sinema (AZ) in the Senate Democratic caucus. But if Greene is running things, and not McCarthy, and can help  usher in a wave of fellow Trump acolytes with the November 2022 midterms, who is most likely to become 

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

The Authentic Shallowness of Kevin McCarthy

By Stephen Macaulay

In the center of the homepage for Kevin McCarthy (“Representing California’s 23rd District”) there is text reading “Constituent Services” and five hot-linked buttons below it.  And the central button, arguably one of the most important positions on the page, underscores what the House Minority Leader is all about.

The other four are “Agency Help” (a laudable service that a Congress member should perform for his constituents, which he deftly deflects, “My staff is dedicated to helping you with matters relating to federal pensions, immigration problems, federal income taxes, military benefits, Social Security claims, Medicare, veterans benefits and other matters.” — yes, let the underlings do it); “Flag Services” (which bizarrely includes a photo of “Congressman McCarthy at the top of Mt. Whitney, 2013”; admittedly Mt. Whitney is the tallest peak in California, but it is a three-hour drive from Bakersfield, where McCarthy is ostensibly based. He is holding a flag in the photo.); “Veterans Services” (which should be one of the most important services as all for those who have served, but oddly there is a bulleted list of 10 items, five of which are links to the sites of the branches of the military, one a link to a news release on the IRS website, another a link to military.com, which is a site owned by Monster (yes, the job-search company)); and just three that are links to deeper pages in the McCarthy site; and “Contact Me” (“Regrettably, I am unable to reply to any email from constituents outside of the district.” Perhaps busy making calls to sad excuses for Republican House members).

The one in the middle: “Tours and Tickets.”

That’s right: looking for a little entertainment? McCarthy is your guy. He offers “tours of the U.S. Capitol, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the National Cathedral, Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the White House. 

McCarthy is the kind of guy who he would seem to be against: Life-long pol. The graduate of California State University, Bakersfield (BS, marketing, 1989; MBA, 1994), McCarthy began his career as an aide to a congressman, from 1987 to 2002. In 2000 he was elected a trustee of the Kern Community College District. In 2002 he was elected to the California State Assembly. Then he was elected to the U.S. House in 2006.

He hasn’t looked back, since.

What he has done is apparently whatever it takes to advance his political standing, even if this means seeming not to believe in things like truth, honor, fidelity.

Bakersfield is the home of a genre of music that’s known as the “Bakersfield Sound,” a type of country music with raw authenticity.

Hard to imagine that Kevin McCarthy could come from there as he’s the opposite of authentic.

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

SCOTUS and Abortion from the Left

We welcome your comments on the Supreme Court oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regarding Mississippi’s legislation prohibiting abortions at 15 weeks, and the question of whether Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey will be, or should be, overturned.

We understand that not all liberals and pro-choice, and not all conservatives are pro-life. No matter your position on abortion, please include a note indicating whether you want your comments to appear in the left column, or the right column.

To submit your civil comments, please click the “comments” button, or email us at editors@thehustings.news. Help us create a new kind of social news media.

_____

News & Notes

FRI 12/3/21

•Coming today on the front page: A debate on Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) chances of becoming House speaker as he struggles to manage Trump loyalists including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over her defense of Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) Islamophobic remarks. 

November Unemployment Report – The U.S. added 210,000 jobs in November, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, as concerns loom over the omicron variant of COVID-19 and high inflationary pressures. Though the unemployment rate fell by 0.4 points, to 4.2%, the November job gains fall far short of the increase of 531,000 jobs in October, which was seen as a correction from tepid summer job gains as the delta variant of the coronavirus raged. 

The BLS Friday noted gains in professional and business services, transportation and warehousing, construction and manufacturing. Retail trade employment declined.

•••

Government Shutdown Narrowly Diverted Again, to February – The Senate voted 69-28 late Thursday to extend funding of the federal government to February 18, narrowly avoiding a shutdown. Hard-line pro-Trump Senate Republicans had tried to remove funding for President Biden’s coronavirus vaccine policies, claiming they are “unconstitutional” and threatening American rights and jobs, The Washington Post reports.

Republican Sens. Roger Marshall, of Kansa, Ted Cruz, of Texas and Mike Lee, of Utah led the effort  to remove funding for the vaccine policies but were unsuccessful, for now.

Earlier in the day, the House of Representatives narrowly passed the funding extension largely along party lines. Republicans and Democrats insisted they did not want to push the government toward a “fiscal cliff” even as the Senate came close to missing the deadline a day later, midnight Friday. The Republican amendment to remove funding for vaccination programs was narrowly defeated, 48-50. 

We can look forward watching the same legislative train wreck again in February, when Congress must pass short-term legislation again on 12 appropriation bills that fund the government through fiscal year 2022, which ends in September. Then, with the same Congress in place through the end of the year, it will start all over again.

Note: For the Ted Cruz wing of the Republican Party, stifling any Biden White House success in ending the coronavirus pandemic and thus leading to economic recovery through the midterms to the 2024 presidential race appears to be the goal.

•••

Schiff Suggests Book Waives Executive Privilege – Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), one of nine members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection, says that former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ book may deflate attempts to avoid testifying before the panel, Politico reports.

Schiff says that “by discussing the events of January 6 in his book, if he does that, he’s waiving any claim of executive privilege.”

The Guardian first reported excerpts from Meadows’ upcoming book earlier this week, including a passage that says then-President Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 just before meeting Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Cleveland, September 29, for the first presidential debate. 

•••

The Mueller Report: The Basement Tapes — A compilation of materials written by the team headed by Andrew Weissmann, a deputy to then-Special Counsel Robert Mueller, may be released, Politico reports, as a result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The New York Times and a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan by the news outlet. The materials did not make it into the final report.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Jude is quoted as writing: "Since Plaintiff filed its complaint, Defendant has located and begun processing this record and intends to release all non-exempt portions to Plaintiff once processing is complete.

"Defendant estimates that primary processing of the record will be complete by the end of January 2022 at which time Defendant expects to send the record to several other DOJ components for consultation."

Weissmann’s team had the responsibility of investigating Paul Manafort, former Trump campaign manager, who was convicted of a variety of felonies, including bank fraud and filing false tax returns, in trials in the Eastern District of Virginia and Washington, D.C. In a plea bargain, Manafort had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and witness tampering, but then was found of having violated the plea by lying to . . . Mueller’s investigators.

Manafort was sentenced to 43 months in prison for the first conviction and 73 months for the second (with 30 months concurrent with the first).

Trump pardoned Manafort in December 2020.

Note: Although nothing may come of this, it is certainly interesting to note what sort of people Trump is associated with. Let’s not overlook U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker’s order that a group of nine lawyers — including Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood — pay the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit approximately $175,000 for their “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process” in their effort to try to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election results. (Remember Powell’s attorneys said, regarding her defense in the Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit, “No reasonable person would conclude that the statements [about how the machines and therefore the election were rigged] were truly statements of fact.” 

It could be that things are going to be getting judicially tricky for Team Trump.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

THU 12/2/21

•A woman traveling from South Africa to the San Francisco area November 22 has the first known case of the omicron COVID-19 variant in the U.S. (NPR). She had been vaccinated, although not boosted, and is showing mild symptoms so far. Beginning next week, people traveling into the U.S., including Americans, will have to get tested one day before flying. Officials also have extended mask requirements for travel on public transportation to March 18. 

•Stacey Abrams has announced she will run for the 2022 Democratic gubernatorial nomination in Georgia (WaPo). Abrams narrowly lost the 2018 race to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and with helping Joe Biden win state’s 2020 Electoral College votes, as well as two Democrats in the Senate race runoffs.

Beginning of the End of Roe v. Wade – Whereas the throngs of protestors on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday comprised an undeterminable number of pro-choice and pro-life activists, the six conservative justices on the court indicated in their questions during oral arguments over Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that the right to an abortion will not be a federal right for long. The question is whether the court will rule narrowly to uphold Mississippi’s restriction on abortions after 15 weeks – prior to fetal viability according to medical experts – or whether the potential ruling will be a complete overturning of the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.

Chief Justice John Roberts appeared to be interested in a compromise ruling, asking Julie Rikelman, who argued for Jackson Women’s Health, “why would 15 weeks be an inappropriate line?”

Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued against stare decisis, the doctrine that precedent should determine legal decisions by citing SCOTUS cases in which the court overturned previous rulings, or set forth new Constitutional law, per SCOTUSblog, including Brown v. Board of Education (outlawing racial segregation in public schools), Baker v. Carr (one person, one vote), and Obergefell v. Hodges (same-sex marriage). 

But Justice Sonia Sotomayor said overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which in 1992 reaffirmed the earlier ruling’s right to abortions would require “strong justification” as “not much has changed” on the issue over 50 years.

“Will this institution survive the stench this creates in the public perception, that the Constitution and its reading are just political acts? I don’t see how it’s possible.”

Note: A decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is anticipated by next summer.

The decision could come at a fortuitous time for candidates supported by former President Trump -- whose three SCOTUS appointees are expected to favor the Mississippi law -- as they campaign toward next November’s midterms. 

•••

Meadows’ Book: Trump Tested Positive for COVID Before Debate – Donald J. Trump tested positive for COVID-19 prior to his first debate against Democratic candidate Joe Biden in Cleveland, September 29, according to Mark Meadow’s upcoming book on his time as the ex-president’s chief of staff. As first reported in The Guardian each candidate was required to return a negative test 72 hours prior to the debate, but Trump, then 74, learned of his positive test just prior to leaving for the debate in Cleveland. (Biden was 77.) 

“Nothing was going to stop (Trump) from going out there,” Meadows reportedly writes. After the debate, Trump returned a negative result from a different test, according to the report, but shortly after, on October 2, announced he had the coronavirus and entered the hospital.

•••

One of These Quotes is Satire – “Schools are a very appetizing opportunity. I just saw a nice piece in The Lancet arguing the opening of schools may only cost us 2-3% in terms of mortality. And you know, any life is a life lost. But to get every child in a school when they’re safely being educated and making the most out of their lives with a theoretical risk on the backside might be a tradeoff some folks would consider.” – Dr. Mehmet Oz, candidate for the GOP nomination for next year’s U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. I do say no more than 10 million-20 million killed. Tops.” – Gen. “Buck” Turgidson (George C. Scott), Dr. Strangelove, or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb (1964).

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

_____
Please email your civil comments, left or right, to editors@thehustings.news

SCOTUS and Abortion from the Right

We welcome your comments on the Supreme Court oral arguments on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regarding Mississippi’s legislation prohibiting abortions at 15 weeks, and the question of whether Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey will be, or should be, overturned.

We understand that not all liberals and pro-choice, and not all conservatives are pro-life. No matter your position on abortion, please include a note indicating whether you want your comments to appear in the left column, or the right column.

To submit your civil comments, please click the “comments” button, or email us at editors@thehustings.news. Help us create a new kind of social news media.

_____

Omicron from the Left

First the delta variant of COVID-19 disrupted President Biden’s progress in trying to get Americans vaccinated and fully re-open the economy, which he ran on as his chief priority. Now there’s the omicron variant that threatens yet another severe setback against ending the pandemic. Considering how politicized vaccinations, masking and social distancing already is, can the White House develop any policy that will work?

We want to hear from you, for comments in this column if you identify as a liberal. Click on the comments tab to enter your opinion or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

Also in this column …

•The $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, HR 5376, passed by the House of Representatives just before the chamber took its Thanksgiving week recess, now proceeds to the Senate, where West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin III wants to hold off on a vote until January. 

•Our flash debate on the question of whether the January 6 Capitol insurrection was “dress rehearsal” for the 2024 presidential election.

•Observations by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election victory.

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

News & Notes

WED 12/1/21

•The Supreme Court hears arguments today in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over Mississippi’s restrictive abortion law, a case that ultimately could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Clark Contempt; Former Chief of Staff Agrees to Cooperate – The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection will vote to seek contempt of Congress charges against Trump administration Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark, the Associated Press reports. Clark testified before a closed-door session of the committee November 5 but invoked executive privilege and “several other privileges” over his role in Donald J. Trump’s attempt to push the Justice Department to investigate false allegations of widespread fraud in the November 2020 presidential election.

In case you missed it, Trump lost.

The select committee has subpoenaed 40 associates of former President Trump so far. The Justice Department has issued contempt of Congress charges against former advisor Stephen K. Bannon, who is using his outlaw image to fuel MAGA outrage on his iHeart Radio show, Bannon’s War Room. 

On Tuesday Trump’s final chief of staff, Mark Meadows, agreed to cooperate with the committee on a “limited basis,” according to the AP. Meadows’ attorney, George Terwilliger, said his client was looking for a potential accommodation that would not require Meadows to waive Trump’s claims of executive privilege in testifying.

Note: Meadows’ testimony under the potential restrictions could be of questionable value to the House panel. It appears the pro-Trump crowd’s attempt to drag out the committee’s investigation to next year’s midterms, and probable dissolution of the committee if the GOP wins a House majority is working quite well.

•••

Fed May Accelerate Bond Buyback Over Inflation – As the omicron variant of COVID-19 threatens more inflationary pressure, the Federal Reserve is looking to accelerate its bond buyback program, Chairman Jerome Powell told a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday. 

“Generally, the higher prices we’re seeing are related to the supply and demand imbalances that can be traced directly to the pandemic and the reopening of the economy,” Powell said, Roll Call reports. “But it’s also the case that price increases have spread much more broadly in the recent few months across the economy. I think the risk of higher inflation has increased.”

Translation: This gives moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin III (WV) and Krysten Sinema (AZ) even more cover for placing the Biden Build Back Better program on the backburner, as Republicans push the case that the $1.75-trillion program will only fuel high inflation. 

•••  

Not Big on Books, But. . . -- Winning Team Publishing, a brand-new publisher headed by Sergio Gor, former Trump campaign aide, and Donald Trump, Jr., is publishing Our Journey Together, a book of photographs that will chronicle Donald Trump’s time in the White House, Politico reports. The ex-president announced the coffee table-style book last week and the book ($74.99 standard; $229.99 signed) obtained 70,000 pre-orders in its first week, according to Gor.

Note: As is well known, Donald Trump is not big on reading, so a picture book isn’t particularly surprising. 

Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) has been established. According to recent reporting in Forbes, TMTG is valued at $10 billion, largely due to the creation of a SPAC that is to merge with it.

Of course, Trump’s social media efforts after he was removed from existing channels has done so incredibly well. . . .

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____________________________________

TUE 11/30/21

•The Senate and House are scheduled to go on holiday recess after next week, but it’s clear the two chambers will have to stick around through Christmas as Democrats try to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open, raise the debt ceiling, move President Biden’s Build Back Better social safety net forward, and even fund the military by the end of the year. Republicans are happy to prevent most of this from getting done.

•Get something done: All adults should get a COVID-19 booster because of omicron, the CDC says (WaPo).

•The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over the Mississippi law that bans nearly all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy (SCOTUSblog).

Coronavirus Shutdown, Meet Government Shutdown – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) seems almost proud of the GOP’s reputation as the party whose raison d’etre seems to be to put a dead stop on getting anything done. Whatever you’re for, I’m against it, Groucho Marx sang in Horse Feathers. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) seems to be his party’s weakest link as all he can do is shake in frustration over McConnell, who almost seems to be working as part of a comedy team with notorious swing vote Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-WV). 

•On Monday, McConnell rallied his caucus to resist Schumer’s efforts to shut down debate on the National Defense Authorization Act, the $700-some-billion (the exact amount is part of the debate) annual defense budget that the majority leader had hoped to get passed early this week to move on to more contentious issues, Politico reports. Republicans’ excuse? They say they want more time to take up amendments. 

•The current stopgap federal funding bill expires Friday. Democrats have another kick-the-can stopgap spending bill on the table that would keep the lights on through late January, but the Senate Appropriations Committee’s ranking Republican, Richard Shelby, of Alabama is balking, Politico says. “I’d like February. March would suit me. April. May … I think it gives us more time to seriously sit down.” 

•Last, but not least, Manchin told reporters yesterday that McConnell wants Democrats to use reconciliation by itself in order to raise the debt ceiling by itself, which Politico says would be okay with him. It would also extend Trump-era policy still on the books into Biden’s second year as president, as we head toward those November mid-terms.

Note: What have we learned from all this? McConnell might famously be on the outs with the GOP’s leader, possible House speaker candidate and likely future presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, but he’s doing what he can (and that’s a lot) to keep the ex-president’s rule in place. All Biden can do is wait to see how this plays out with a new coronavirus strain threatening to shut down the global economy again. 

And isn’t it odd that the Republicans are putting the U.S. military in a bad place and showing levels of irresponsibility when it comes to paying bills? Maybe we’re thinking of the previous version of the Republican Party.

•••

Federal District Court Judge Blocks Vax Mandate in 10 States: Matthew T. Schelp, a federal judge in Missouri, has blocked the Biden administration’s requirement that health-care workers in facilities that receive funding from Medicare and Medicaid to be vaccinated, Axios reports. This covers 10 states -- Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming—which had brought a lawsuit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Note: In his ruling, Schelp, a Trump appointee, described the vaccination requirement as a “politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing mandate.”

The reference to “federalism” is interesting. It generally refers to the Constitution’s division of powers between the national government and the states. The funding for Medicare comes from the Social Security Administration, which is squarely in the federal category. Funding for Medicaid is a national-state proposition, with the federal government sending money to the states to fund it. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “the federal share (FMAP) varies by state from a floor of 50% to a high of 78% for FY 2022.” In Missouri, where Schelp works, the federal government kicks in at least 60%. In Arkansas, another of the state involved in the lawsuit, the percentage is at least 70%.

Somehow it seems that when there is that kind of money involved, the federal government ought to have at least the right that stores and restaurants do in posting signs saying, “No shirts, no shoes, no service.”

•••

They Don’t Make Up This Sort of Thing About Schumer – Just how much more effective and powerful is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) next to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)? The far-right propaganda machine only is concerned about the Speaker.

Consider this: An obviously false report that Pelosi had closed on a $25-million Jupiter, Florida “retirement” mansion just 25 miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spread across social media and the edges of more legitimate right-wing outlets, including the Washington Examiner. Jim Swift’s debunking in the anti-Trump conservative news site The Bulwark can be found here: https://www.thebulwark.com/conservative-media-makes-up-a-fake-florida-mansion-for-nancy-pelosi/

Odds are Schumer doesn’t mind.

–Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____________________________________

MON 11/29/21

•Congress returns this week (the Senate today; the House Tusesday) with an end-of-the-year agenda of “must-pass” legislation. An extension of the spending bill to avoid a federal government shutdown expires Friday. Congress also must pass a bill to raise the federal debt limit, which the government is expected to reach by paying for funding already approved, within a couple of weeks into December.

•We’re back from Thanksgiving recess with new worries about the omicron variant of COVID-19, first detected in Botswana. The U.S. has banned travel from eight countries and southern Africa, NPR reports. South Africa announced a surge in cases last week, and omnicron[GV1]  has been reported in Britain, Germany and Italy, NYT reports, while two cases were found in Canada Sunday evening.

Israel Stops Entry to Noncitizens — For the next two weeks (as it stands now, things could change) Israel is not allowing non-citizens to enter the country in an effort from stopping the omicron variant of the coronavirus from expanding in the country, The Washington Post reports. What’s more, cellphones of those people confirmed to have been infected by the virus are being monitored by Shin Bet, the country’s internal security service. Any gathering of over 50 people will have to acquire a “Green Pass,” indicating the participants have been vaccinated or recovered from the coronavirus.

Israelis who have been to any country that is defined as being “red” — in Africa, only Morocco and Egypt aren’t among them — will (1) have to take a PCR test after landing, (2) enter quarantine at a hotel setup for handling coronavirus cases and (3) even if they pass the PCR test must quarantine at home for seven days, at the end of which a PCR test is taken.

Those Israeli citizens who are fully vaccinated and not coming back from a “red” country must take a PCR test, quarantine at home for three days and then pass a PCR test.

Note: It is clear that the Israeli government is taking the omicron variant as seriously as the omicron variant should be. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., there are people like Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi (R), who, following the warnings of the potential of omicron by Dr. Anthony Fauci made in the previous segment of Meet the Press, said he is against mandating vaccinations because he believes “in individual liberties, and I believe in freedoms, and I believe individuals can make their own decision, what’s best for them, after they talk to their physician.” Reeves had previously said, “We have 1.6 million Mississippians that have been vaccinated. That’s not enough.” But he won’t make it happen. Meanwhile, in Israel, there is a clear understanding that this is a dire disease.

•••

Congress Members Go To Taiwan; China Unhappy: U. S. Representatives Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), Mark Takano (D-CA), and Colin Allred (D-TX) traveled to Taiwan last week to discuss the supply chain shortage; the Chinese Embassy had asked them not to go, Fox News reports.

"That individual U.S. politicians want to only challenge the one-China principle and embolden the 'Taiwan independence' forces has aroused the strong indignation of 1.4 billion Chinese people," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to the outlet.

Note: In explaining why she took the trip, Slotkin had tweeted that the auto industry is dependent on microchips. It so happens that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the largest producer of semiconductors in the world. (Yes, bigger than Intel, Samsung and other names you’re probably more familiar with.)

Presumably the U.S. officials realize that it is important to the well-being of all of those who are dependent on digital devices for TSMC to continue to produce as many chips as is possible. Which pretty much means that TSMC is important to everyone.

--Edited by Gary S. Vasilash and Todd Lassa

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Omicron from the Right

Personal responsibility to the greater social need and common sense toward public health issues trump personal liberties, as far as traditional conservatives who are not part of the current GOP power structure, are concerned. What are these conservatives in for now that the omicron strain of the COVID-19 virus threatens a return to business shutdowns, international travel restrictions and other social considerations that had seemed to be “behind us”?

We want to hear from you, for comments in this column if you identify as a conservative. Click on the comments tab to enter your opinion, or email us at editors@thehustings.news.

Also in this column …

 •The $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, HR 5376, passed by the House of Representatives just before the chamber took its Thanksgiving week recess. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, which could vote on it as early as December, but more likely January. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, where West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin III wants to hold off on a vote until January. 

•Our flash debate on the question of whether the January 6 Capitol insurrection was “dress rehearsal” for the 2024 presidential election.

•Observations by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election victory.

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Are You Left?

We are building an alternative social media site so you can read various points of view outside of the usual echo-chambers and submit your civil comments without fear of trolling or being flooded with suggestions to join extremist “news” outlets and organizations from the left or right. 

Unlike the Big Social Media sites, we do not hide behind Section 230, the law that protects such sites from libelous posts submitted by their readers. The Hustings is on Thanksgiving recess until December 1, but we will still be looking for your comments to post in the left or right column. 

Please send your comments on our debates and News & Notes to editors@thehustings.news and tell us whether you consider yourself “left” or “right.”

Email us your comments on …

•The $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, HR 5376, passed by the House of Representatives just before the chamber took its Thanksgiving week recess. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, which could vote on it as early as December, but more likely January. Any Senate amendments will send the bill back to the House before it can be sent to the Oval Office for President Biden’s signature. 

•Our flash debate on the question of whether the January 6 Capitol insurrection was “dress rehearsal” for the 2024 presidential election.

•Observations by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election victory.

Keep scrolling and you eventually will find our first home-page debates, covering the Fall 2020 presidential debates between Joe Biden and then-President Trump.

_____________________________________

Your Arguments for BBB Here

The House of Representatives has passed the $1.75-trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, HR 5376. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, which could vote on it as early as December, but more likely January. Any Senate amendments will send the bill back to the House before it goes to the Oval Office for President Biden’s signature. 

What do you think of the bill? Will it fuel or slow inflation? Will it reverse 40 years of Reaganomics? Help continue the conversation and send your comments to editors@thehustings.news. Please keep it civil and tell us whether you are left or right. 

Join our effort to provide an alternative to Big Social Media.

Scroll down to read, and comment on more:

•Stephen Macaulay’s right-column commentary on Trump administration Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ claim of executive privilege in his attempt to avoid testifying before the January 6 House select committee.

•The Hustings debate, “Was January 6 a ‘Dress Rehearsal’?” with news and analysis on the issue in the middle column, and commentary in the left and right columns.

•Observations by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election victory.

_____

News & Notes

Daily News & Notes returns Wednesday, December 1. Send your comments on news and politics, and on our three-column debates to editors@thehustings.news.

FRI 11/19/21

•The Hustings joins the Senate and House of Representatives in taking Thanksgiving recess. The Senate returns Monday, November 29, the House returns Tuesday, November 30 and The Hustings returns Wednesday, December 1. Happy Thanksgiving.

Build Back Better Passes House, 220-213 – Since when does the House filibuster? They call it the “Magic Minute” and House leaders may use it to speak for as long as they want. Then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, used it to delay a vote on a Trump administration immigration bill in 2018. 

Current Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s, R-CA, Magic Minute came to eight hours, 32 minutes, by the time he finished at 4:46 a.m. EST Friday, The Hill reports, on his getting a COVID-19 booster, inflation, the Gettysburg Address, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, President Washington crossing the Delaware, and U.S. policy toward China. 

This was McCarthy’s Magic Minute to try and delay President Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill. On that, the minority leader said this: “You are spending so much money. Never before!”

McCarthy’s warning on the level of spending surely will echo on the Senate floor when that chamber takes up the bill next month, or more likely, next year. 

Keep in mind the $1.75-trillion BBB covers 10 years of spending. Yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office turned in its report scoring the BBB, with the estimate it will add $367 billion to the federal budget deficit over those next 10 years. HR 3576’s Democratic proponents argue the CBO score does not count an additional $207 billion in revenue it has estimated the BBB would bring in by providing more money for IRS enforcement, according to The Hill’s report.

The math v. McCarthy:

•BBB deficit spending minus the estimated increase in tax revenues from the added IRS enforcement comes to $160 billion over 10 years, or an average of $16 billion per year, per the CBO report.

•The CBO projected the contentious Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, which averages out to $190 billion per year.

•Senators have proposed nearly 1,000 amendments to the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which reached the Senate floor Thursday (Politico). One of these is by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, a lead proponent of BBB, who wants to slash 10% from military spending. The White House has requested $715 billion – that’s for 2022 – but the Senate Armed Services Committee has requested $740 billion, or $25 billion more. For one year. 

Republicans can legitimately protest a big social safety net spending bill coming during the pandemic and 6.2% annual inflation. They cannot legitimately claim it is anywhere near the biggest spending bill, ever.

The House passed HR 5376 just before 10 a.m. Friday, by 220-213 vote. Rep. Jared Golden, D-ME, was the only congress member to vote against his party on the bill, which now proceeds to the Senate.

“This bill is monumental,” Speaker Pelosi said in a press conference after the vote. “It’s historic, it’s bigger than anything we’ve ever done.”

•••

Navarro Subpoenaed by House COVID Committee -- Peter Navarro, failed politician (he ran for office in San Diego five times and secured victory zero times) and economist of dubious repute (he is a big proponent of tariffs, which even Adam Smith knew didn’t work out well for those on the receiving end), the man who served in the Trump administration as director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy (a position created for him that ceased to exist post-Trump presidency, which gives you an indication of its value: Do created positions in government ever go away unless they are completely dubious?), has been issued a subpoena by the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, according to Politico.

Note: When Politico contacted Navarro regarding the congressional investigation, he responded, “I will be delivering a case of my new book In Trump Time to members of the committee which explains why this is indeed a witch hunt.”

What do we see here?

•The completely mercenary approach of people who were in the Trump administration (“my new book”). One of Navarro’s roles was to secure medical supplies and drugs. Apparently, there were contracts let to companies without open bidding to, Politico reports, “companies with close ties to the administration.” Remember the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)? That was in Navarro’s remit. 

•The continued nonsensical claims (“witch hunt”). Navarro, when leading efforts to respond to the pandemic, a man with no background in science, no background in medicine, pushed hydroxychloroquine. Even though the FDA had revoked emergency use authorization for the drug, Navarro still promoted it.

All the best people.

•••

Keep Your Kids Away from the Computer Screen for This – In the scrum following QAnon shaman Jacob Chansley’s sentencing to 41 months in federal prison for obstructing an official proceeding by participating in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, one reporter asked the defendant’s attorney what he considered “appropriate accountability” for ex-President Trump Mediaite reports.

“If you’re asking my opinion, my opinion is meaningless,” Chansley’s attorney, Albert Watkins, replied. “I will say that I would probably be far more effective over a beer with former President Trump, even if he didn’t have a beer, because I understand he doesn’t drink beer, but I’d have a beer. And I’d tell him, ‘you know what? You’ve got a few fucking things to do. Including clearing this fucking mess up and taking care of a lot of the jackasses that you fucked up because of January 6.” (Note that Chansley pleaded guilty to his charges.) Watkins continued, “In the meantime, I might talk to him about some other things that I agree with him on. But my opinion doesn’t mean shit.”

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

____________________________________

THU 11/18/21

•President Biden will host the first “Three Amigos” summit since 2016 at the White House today, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

•Biden has called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether retail gas and natural gas prices are being manipulated by Big Oil. ‘Unfinished’ gas costs are decreasing while gasoline prices at the pump are up 60% from a year ago (Marketplace).

•Not political, thankfully, but worth noting: The longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years may be viewed anywhere in North America, beginning 1:02 a.m. EST Friday/10:02 PST tonight and runs three hours, 28 minutes and 24 seconds.

House Censures Gosar – That Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, was censured by the House of Representatives 223 for and 207 against (with one being “present”) should come as no surprise. As there were only two Republican members — Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — who joined the Democrats in punishing Gosar for posting a video showing an anime video of him killing Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, and threatening the president is also not surprising.

What is surprising is how the GOP — once the party that was arguably the “grown-up” party, standing for things like morality and responsibility -- has become the Party Without Shame.

Here’s a simple metric: remember the book that came out some years ago titled All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? Let’s apply author Robert Fulghum’s metric to the behavior of the Republicans in this instance.

First, there is Gosar. Unrepentant for that video. Is this behavior that should be supported in children: “Here’s a picture of me killing Johnny: Whaddaya think, Mom?”

There is the claim that his staff posted it and he didn’t. Where is the taking of responsibility? “I didn’t make Sally do, it, Dad, she just did it herself. Yes, I gave her some money. But I didn’t do it.”

There is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowing revenge. “You just wait, Billy. I’m gonna get you real bad.” How is that laudable?

Being a grown-up is hard.

Clearly the Republicans are no longer interested in doing hard things. Like taking responsibility and holding a higher moral standard.

It has become the party that would flunk kindergarten.

•••

Meanwhile, Democrats Fail Math – Latest on President Biden’s Build Back Better social infrastructure program is that the House could take up a vote as early as today or Friday (believe it when you see it). “If there’s any chance of preserving their majority,” Punchbowl News says, referring to the midterms now less than a year away, “House Democrats will have to get BBB passed and on to the Senate. They will deal with whatever is sent back their way.”

Note: Remember when progressive House Democrats, backed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, held bipartisan infrastructure hostage, saying they wouldn’t vote for the bill until BBB was passed along with it, which of course requires backing from Sens. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, and Krysten Sinema, D-AZ, and, oh by the way, we should double that to $6 trillion? If the House had passed bipartisan infrastructure in September, the progs would have had these last two months, and potentially some goodwill from bipartisan infrastructure, to sort out the social programs bill.

Prediction: “Whatever is sent back” will be a reduction from $1.75 trillion to Manchin’s ceiling of $1.5 trillion, if it’s sent back to the House at all.

•••

January 6 Tourist Sentenced to 41 Months – Jacob Hensley, the spear-carrying January 6 Capitol insurrectionist seen all over cable news with a horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint, was sentenced to 41 months in prison Wednesday after pleading “guilty” to felony charges of obstructing an official proceeding, the AP reports. Hensley, of Arizona, was one of the first to enter the Capitol and has received the longest sentence so far among 38 rioters prosecuted. 

“I have no excuse, no excuse whatsoever,” Hensley told the judge. “My behavior is indefensible.” (So was his attire on January 6.) His attorney had tried to get Hensley credit for the 10 months he has spent in jail over the case.

Note: Meanwhile, former Trump campaign advisor Steve Bannon has pleaded not guilty to criminal contempt of Congress charges and is free (though he had to give up his passport to federal authorities) to continue posting his fiery pro-MAGA podcasts (CNN).

•••

One More from the House of Kindergarten – Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, “would probably make a good congressional intern,” Rep. Max Gaetz, R-FL, told Newsmax Wednesday, according to The Washington Post, which has apparently found a reporter willing to stomach the pro-Trump cable “news” outlet. Yes, that Kyle Rittenhouse, who faces potential life in prison if he’s found guilty of homicide in the fatal shooting of two people in last year’s Kenosha, Wisconsin, protests. Of course, upon his arrest (when he was still 17), Rittenhouse quickly became a hero on extremist outlets. The jury in his trial began their third day of deliberations today.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

_____________________________________

WED 11/17/21

•President Biden promotes the bipartisan infrastructure program today at General Motors’ electric vehicle assembly plant in Hamtramck, Michigan (NPR). Meanwhile, House Democrats are considering removal of a tax credit for union-built EVs (like those to be built in Hamtramck) from Biden’s $1.75-trillion Build Back Better plan in order to promote passage by the Senate(Roll Call).

•Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, wants a vote on the Build Back Better bill by Christmas, though Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, is pushing to waive it off until next year (NBC News). The House is scheduled to vote on it (very) late this week.

•The U.S. plans to buy 10 million Pfizer and Merck COVID-19 pills, which officials believe could be a pandemic game-changer (WaPo).

•The prosecution wrapped yesterday, and now defense presents its case in the Georgia trial of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, as the Wisconsin jury in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse enters its second day of deliberations.

House to Vote on Censuring Gosar – Rep. Paul Gosar, R-AZ, the former dentist whose two brothers and a sister (out of nine siblings) have called for his resignation, is up for House censure in a vote today, according to Politico, over an animated video posted online depicting Gosar fatally stabbing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, in the neck. Gosar also is shown about to attack President Biden in the cartoon video reportedly posted by the congressman’s staff. Along with the censure, the House will vote on removing Gosar from his committee assignments, a la Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, who lost her assignments way back in February for pro-QAnon postings prior to running for Congress. 

MTG, meanwhile, is pushing Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, to strip 13 House Republican “traitors” who voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill of their committee assignments.

Note: Pundit chatter points to this dichotomy as evidence the GOP is as much in disarray as the Democratic Party, though of a disarray particular to Republicans. McCarthy was once a relatively moderate Republican himself – he’s from California, after all – but now he must consider giving in to MTG’s (and thus Donald J. Trump’s) wishes, as the House Democratic majority votes to censure and strop Gosar, anyway. 

Meanwhile, cable news stations and other outlets that are not Fox News report on House Republicans who voted against bipartisan infrastructure but are touting bridge repairs and the like they are bringing home to constituents. 

Bottom Line: No matter what McCarthy does to stifle the increasingly loud arguments between his party’s factions, no pundits are backing off the presumption that a GOP massacre in next November’s House midterms will shift power to Republicans. The guarantee of a GOP House is not a guarantee of McCarthy as House speaker, however – if a majority of a Republican House majority are pro-Trumpers, there remains a real chance the former president, and not McCarthy, would replace Nancy Pelosi.

•••

Rep. Speier Announces Retirement – Rep. Jackie Speier, D-CA, announced she will not seek re-election in next year’s midterms, per Roll Call. Speier, 71, ran for the House of Representatives after she was shot by members of the Peoples Temple cult at Jonestown in Guyana in 1978. Her boss, Rep. Leo J. Ryan, was killed at the airport there following the massacre of 37 cult members. Speier currently holds senior positions on the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and chairs subcommittees on both. 

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

_____________________________________

TUE 11/16/21

•Retail sales rose 1.7% in October, the Commerce Department reports, a stronger showing than expected and compared with an 0.8% increase for September. The latest numbers provide much-needed good economic news for the White House.

•Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was released Monday after turning himself in to the FBI in Washington, D.C., over Contempt of Congress charges. He faces up to $200,000 in fines and two years in jail if convicted, NPR reports, and was required to turn in his passport.

•Jury deliberations have begun in the Kyle Rittenhouse case in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

•In a Washington Post-ABC News poll, 65% said the Supreme Court should overturn Texas’ abortion law restricting the procedure after the sixth week of pregnancy, and 60% believe Roe v. Wade should be upheld. SCOTUS will consider December 1 a Mississippi law restricting abortions after 15 weeks.

Social Infrastructure Vote Saturday? – The House vote on the Build Back Better plan, President Biden’s $1.75-trillion social infrastructure bill, could slip to Saturday, The Hill reports, citing a “senior Democrat source.” Considering how the House dragged out the bipartisan infrastructure vote, Saturday seems pretty optimistic, though the Thanksgiving break looms. 

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office promises its price tag on the bill by end of the day Friday. What’s the over-under on a Sunday vote?

Note: Forget the comparisons with FDR and LBJ over Build Back Better. Thanks largely to the 6.2% U.S. inflation rate, Biden is now being compared with Jimmy Carter.

•••

Pep Rally for Biden’s BIF Signature – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, was busy, as promised, with other matters. But Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, who is gearing up for a Trump-picked primary challenger in next year’s midterms, and Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, who already has announced he will not run for re-election, both attended President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill-signing ceremony Monday afternoon. 

House Republicans Don Young, of Alaska (who is not seeking re-election) and Tom Reed, of New York (who is) also attended.

Biden has chosen former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to be his infrastructure czar. He and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will administer the $1.75-trillion infrastructure budget, $550 billion of which is new spending. 

At the ceremony, Portman had this to say about attacks against the 13 Republican representatives and 19 Republican senators who voted for the bill, which Donald J. Trump has criticized though he had proposed a similar $1 trillion package during his many “Infrastructure Weeks” as president: “Finding common ground to advance the interests of the American people should be rewarded, not attacked.” (Per NPR’s All Things Considered.)

Portman said bipartisan infrastructure will help create jobs and reduce inflation, which might be enough of a win for Biden no matter how his social infrastructure bill goes down.

•••

Wonder Where the Flat Screen Was Made – The virtual summit between President Biden from the Oval Office, a big flat screen to his left broadcasting the video call, and Chinese President Xi Jingping from Beijing went on for more than three hours Monday night. The two discussed Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, human rights, climate change and Taiwan but did not produce any major resolutions, according to White House officials (from The Wall Street Journal’s report).

Biden told Xi he remains committed to the “One China” policy, according to White House officials, though he added the U.S. “strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”

•••

On Christie’s Republican Rescue Effort – Though former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie has yet to announce a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, he is making the rounds of non-Fox News media outlets in a tour for his new book, Republican Rescue. Though this Republican comeback kid, a sort of GOP counterpart to former perennial presidential candidate Joe Biden, wrote the book to pick a fight and distance himself from former President Trump, the punditocracy isn’t very sympathetic. Christie was one of the earliest mainstream Republicans to support Trump’s 2016 run and was an advisor early in the administration.

The big question though is whether Christie’s re-emergence as a never-in-2024-Trumper is any indication that the GOP is backing away – however slowly – from the former president. On MSNBC’s The 11th Hour Monday, Christie cited the Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll showing that 61% of self-identified Republicans say they have more allegiance to the GOP than to Donald Trump (26%). 

Note: Though The 11th Hour host Brian Williams pressed Christie on his fervid loyalty to Trump through most of the administration, Williams didn’t ask him about the polls over the past 10 months – countering the latest Iowa poll -- that show a vast majority of the nation’s Republicans believe Donald J. Trump’s Big Lie.

•••

Alex Jones Found Liable in Sandy Hook Case – Infowars host Alex Jones must pay eight families who filed a lawsuit against him for defamation over the Sandy Hook school shooting, The Washington Post reports. Jones had made up stories that families of the 26 killed at the Newton, Connecticut elementary school were paid actors who “faked” the shooting. The judge in the case found for the plaintiffs after Jones refused to turn over documents related to the case.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

____________________________________

MON 11/15/21

•Big Monday for President Biden, who signs the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill at 3 p.m. and holds a virtual meeting this evening with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

•Stephen K. Bannon turned himself in to the FBI’s Washington field office Monday after the Justice Department indicted the former Trump adviser with two counts of contempt of Congress, for failing to respond to a subpoena from the 1/6 House select committee (NPR).

Build Back Better This Week? – Democrats in the House of Representatives expect to pass President Biden’s $1.75 trillion social safety net Build Back Better bill this week, but “this week” could mean “by the weekend” or even “early next week.” Whether even “this year” is realistic, Congress members’ desire to take their Thanksgiving week break adds extra pressure, according to Punchbowl News. Progressives and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, want a vote this week, and moderates led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-NJ, “see no reason for a delay” on the vote, according to the Punchbowl News report. 

And Then There’s the CBO: However, the Congressional Budget Office is expected to update today its timetable for the scoring of the BBB. Moderate Democrats, including Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, want to see that the program is fully funded. The CBO probably won’t release anything until Thursday. 

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, says the Senate cannot complete its “Byrd Bath” until it receives the CBO report, anyway. So the bill potentially could sit in the Senate between Thanksgiving and New Year’s 2022.

The ‘Byrd Bath’ is – Late-Sen. Robert Byrd’s, D-WV, rule that prevents extraneous provisions tacked on to a budget reconciliation bill, and thus potentially be approved without filibuster challenges. Byrd sponsored the rule, which the Senate adopted in 1985-86, according to Congressional Research Service.

Fun Fact: Upon Byrd’s death in 2010, then-Gov. Joe Manchin, D, of West Virginia, named Carte Goodwin to fill out the rest of his term. When Goodwin chose not to run for re-election in November 2010, Manchin ran for the Senate seat himself. The rest is Democratic Party history.

•••

There Will be Oil – At what price? Gasoline and diesel, and home heating oil prices are at the forefront of inflation fears that continue to dog President Biden’s agenda. Opposition to his Build Back Better program, now set at $1.9 trillion, is tied to the 6.2% annual inflation rate the Commerce Department reported last week. 

Republicans and other opponents of the Build Back Better program say they worry this part of Biden’s agenda, in particular, will only fuel the high inflation rate. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin says inflation will come down as supply chains open up next year. In other words, the beginning, or the middle, or worst-case scenario for the Democrats, near the end of the midterm elections.

But oil prices tend to be controlled by Big Oil. There are no signs yet of delivery problems to the pump. AAA, by the way, says the national average price of regular gas is $3.415/gallon as of Monday, up from $2.126/gal November 15, 2020. Diesel averages $3.646/gal, versus $2.386/gal a year ago.

United Nations Climate Change Summit, Blah, Blah, Blah: Big Oil has been in a constant fight for years to slow the advance of the renewable energy industry. Oil price spikes come at the convergence of a restart of world economies after the pandemic shutdown and of the fairly ineffective COP26 United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland. The nations did not meet summit goals of a plan to reduce global warming by 1.5 degrees Celsius per year.

According to The Washington Post, the COP26 summit ended last weekend with nearly 200 countries agreeing to ramp up carbon-cutting commitments, phase out some fossil fuels and increase aid to poorer countries to help them convert to renewable energy sources. But language to “phase out” coal was watered down to “phase down” coal after a last-minute request by the world’s two most populous countries, China and India.

•••

Washington Real Estate News – The Trump Organization is selling its lease for its hotel in Washington, D.C.’s Old Post Office for $375 million, The Wall Street Journal scooped over the weekend. Subject of House committee investigations and hearings on conflicts of interest and the emoluments clause involving former President Trump, the hotel’s lease was sold to CGI Merchant Group, a Miami-based investment firm. The federal government still owns the building.

Elsewhere within the District, friend-of-Trump Peter Thiel has been identified by Politico as the purchaser of Wilbur and Hilary Geary Ross’ 10,000-square-foot house in the Woodland-Normanstone neighborhood for $13 million. Wilbur Ross was Trump’s Commerce secretary. Thiel is the German co-founder of PayPal, who secretly funded Hulk Hogan’s lawsuit against Gawker.com, putting the media outlet out of business, and was known for his speech praising Trump at the 2016 GOP Convention. He has made separate $10 million donations to super PACs supporting the 2022 House candidacies of J.D. Vance in Ohio and Blake Masters in Arizona, according to Politico.

Note: The soon-to-be ex-Trump Hotel (no recounts, please) may go from being a meeting place for Republican power brokers to a meeting place for Democratic and Republican power brokers. The former Ross residence? Not so much.

•••

Leahy to Retire – Vermont’s senior U.S. senator, Democrat Patrick Leahy, 84, has announced he will not run for re-election in 2022, NPR reports. Leahy is serving his eighth term in the Senate.

•••

O’Rourke Shoots for Texas Gubernatorial Race – Will his third campaign be a charm? Former El Paso congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced he will run for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Gov. Gregg Abbott’s re-election next year, The Texas Tribune reports. O’Rourke conducted a high-profile challenge to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R, in 2018, and entered the race for the Democratic presidential nomination last year.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

_____
Please email your comments to editors@thehustings.news

Are You Right?

We are building an alternative social media site so you can read various points of view outside of the usual echo-chambers and submit your civil comments without fear of trolling or being flooded with suggestions to join extremist “news” outlets and organizations from the left or right. 

Unlike the Big Social Media sites, we do not hide behind Section 230, the law that protects such sites from libelous posts submitted by their readers. The Hustings is on Thanksgiving recess until December 1, but we will still be looking for your comments to post in the left or right column. 

Please send your comments on our debates and News & Notes to editors@thehustings.news and tell us whether you consider yourself “left” or “right.”

Email us your comments on …

•The $1.75 trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, HR 5376, passed by the House of Representatives just before the chamber took its Thanksgiving week recess. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, which could vote on it as early as December, but more likely January. Any Senate amendments will send the bill back to the House before it can be sent to the Oval Office for President Biden’s signature. 

•Our flash debate on the question of whether the January 6 Capitol insurrection was “dress rehearsal” for the 2024 presidential election.

•Observations by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election victory.

Keep scrolling and you eventually will find our first home-page debates, covering the Fall 2020 presidential debates between Joe Biden and then-President Trump.

_____________________________________

Your Arguments Against BBB Here

The House of Representatives has passed the $1.75-trillion Build Back Better social infrastructure bill, HR 5376. The bill now proceeds to the Senate, which could vote on it as early as December, but more likely January. Any Senate amendments will send the bill back to the House before it goes to the Oval Office for President Biden’s signature. 

What do you think of the bill? Will it fuel or slow inflation? Will it reverse 40 years of Reaganomics? Help continue the conversation and send your comments to editors@thehustings.news. Please keep it civil and tell us whether you are left or right. 

Join our effort to provide an alternative to Big Social Media.

Scroll down to read, and comment on more:

•Stephen Macaulay’s commentary in this column on ex-President Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ claim of executive privilege in his attempt to avoid testifying before the January 6 House select committee.

•The Hustings debate, “Was January 6 a ‘Dress Rehearsal’?” with news and analysis on the issue in the middle column, and commentary in the left and right columns.

•Observations by Stephen Macaulay and Bryan Williams on Republican Glenn Youngkin’s Virginia gubernatorial election victory.

_____