Tag: AAA

Trump Won’t Sign

President Trump signs the MOU with the Islamic Republic of Iran at the Palace of Versailles last Wednesday, as French President Emmanuel Macron looks on. [White House photo]

•Read the Iranian soccer team's post-it note left in the SoFi Stadium locker room after the team's 0-0 draw versus Belgium, in The Gray Area.

UPDATE: President Trump says he won't sign the bipartisan ROAD to Housing Act until Congress takes action on his SAVE America Act that would tighten national voting rules in time for the midterms. The White House had touted the bill as a pillar of Trump's affordability agenda and scheduled his signing ceremony for noon at the Capitol Wednesday, but now it is "of minor importance," he said in social media posts Wednesday morning (The Wall Street Journal). The bill will become law if the president does not sign or veto it within two weeks.

On the ROAD to a Historic Housing Act – A bipartisan House of Representatives passed the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act Tuesday, 358-32, marking Congress’ most significant such legislation since the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit of 1986, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tim Scott (R-SC) led backing of the ROAD to Housing Act, which passed the Senate earlier this week, 89-10, and now proceeds to President Trump’s Resolute Desk for signing.

Trump had backed a provision included in the bill that bans the sale of homes to institutional investors who already own more than 350 single-family homes, though with certain exceptions, including for property built specifically to be leased (per CQ Roll Call).

The bill also speeds up federal environmental reviews for certain projects, ties cities’ federal funding to affordable housing production and removes certain restrictions on the building of manufactured homes, including a requirement they are built on a metal frame. Removing the metal-frame requirement could cut costs of manufactured homes by as much as $10,000, according to the WSJ.

However, there is no new funding for affordable housing projects, the WSJ reports, and the bill is up against increased mortgage rates and material costs and Congress does not have the authority to override local zoning regulations and building codes.

•••

Mamdani Wins Again – New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani defeated establishment Democrats running in Tuesday’s primaries for heavy blue congressional districts (Roll Call). These overwhelming victories in deep blue congressional districts by Mamdani-backed candidates is foreshadowing how the progressive arm of the Democratic Party plans to fight the MAGA GOP’s right-wing populism in 2028.

In New York’s 13th District, challenger Darializa Avila Chevalier narrowly defeated five-time Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, 49% to 46%. The AP called the race for Mamdani’s endorsee at 10:38 p.m. local time

For New York’s 10th, Brad Lander trounced incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman, 62% to 38%. The AP called the race just after polls closed at 9 p.m. EDT.

Both losing incumbent representatives were endorsed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). 

In the race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez for New York’s 7th District, state Rep. Claire Valdez defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, 57% to 34% in a race the AP called at 9:23 p.m. Velázquez had endorsed Reynoso. 

•••

Diesel Breaks Below $5 – National average price for a gallon of unleaded regular is $3.928 Wednesday, up 0.6 cents over Tuesday and 95.7 cents over February 28, while diesel has fallen to $4.98, or 2 cents lower than Tuesday and $1.165 more expensive from the beginning of the US-Israeli war. –TL

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TUESDAY 6/23/26

Trump’s Economy – President Trump is scheduled to visit a Mack Truck assembly plant in Macungie, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley Tuesday and shift attention from the Iran MOU to tout the strengths of his economy. This is Trump’s fourth visit of his second term to the purple state and the first in this midterm elections year, The Philadelphia Inquirer notes.

Touting a strong economy Tuesday could be tough as the tech stock selloff “accelerates” according to The Wall Street Journal, and pre-trade futures in the tech-intensive NASDAQ 100 down 3%.

‘Plunging’ gas prices? … Not quite, but Trump will be able to tell Mack Truck workers the gas they use to get to work is 0.3 cents cheaper on Tuesday than it was Monday according to AAA’s national average for a gallon of unleaded regular. The president is not likely to mention that it’s still 95.1 cents more expensive than on February 28, according to AAA. The diesel that powers those Macks averages $5 per gallon, flat Tuesday, down 1.3 cents from Monday and up $1.185 over the beginning of the US-Israeli Iran war.

•••

Reflections in a Swamp – It’s straight out of the authoritarian handbook: Leader’s pet project somehow turns sour. Dear leader cracks down on radical opposition he blames for destruction or defect of said project and orders his police force to arrest anyone who looks suspicious. Could be East Germany’s Stasi, Soviet bureaucrats, modern China or Putin’s Russia.

Or the current White House, where President Trump has “stepped up” law enforcement presence at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, claiming that vandalism was the chief cause of the “American flag blue” pool filling with green algae blooms.

Trump said he has photographic proof of an individual cutting a 350-foot gash into the pool’s bottom coating, though he offered few details to back any of this up. 

“I saw it,” Trump said. “They cut it very violently.”

US Attorney for Washington Jeanine Pirro said her office received a handful of citations over alleged destruction, though experts blame the green algae on more intense heat from the deep blue lining Trump had added.

But there were no such large gashes in the pool lining earlier Monday to back up the president’s claims, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Stina Blomgren of Sweden’s SVT briefly touched the pool water’s surface, she told Newsweek. Blomgren said a National Guard member told her, “Please refrain from touching the water. That will be the last time you do that. Any time after that you will be detained.”

No bid for green water … Beside the $14.7 million no-bid contract to Atlantic Industrial Coatings to reline the reflecting pool in American flag blue, the White House awarded a $1.7 million no-bid contract for improvement of the pool’s filtration system to Ohio-based Greenwater Services, a company owned by the J.J. Cafaro Investment Trust. 

The trust is led by John J. Cafaro, who has contributed more than $300,000 to Trump-linked political committees, The New York Times reports. Cafaro, a Florida neighbor of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, pleaded guilty in 2001 for conspiracy to bribe then-US Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. (D-OH) and later testified against the congressman, according to the report. 

•••

IAEA Back In Iran? – Just prior to leaving Lucerne, Switzerland to return to the US Monday, Vice President Vance told reporters that Iran has agreed to allow inspectors from the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) back in as part of the initial MOU negotiations. 

Not so, says Iran, which kicked out the IAEA in July 2025, after June US-Israeli missile strikes.

The art of the Trump White House’s deal so far seems to be making many concessions to Iran for maybe not so much in return. Sanctions on Iranian oil will be lifted under the deal, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. That means Iran can sell freely at market prices, after years of evading said sanctions via ‘dark fleets’, and of selling oil outside the US dollar-based international banking system (per NPR’s Morning Edition).

The most controversial part of the deal is the unfreezing of $300 billion in overseas accounts to Iran so it can buy food from American farms. 

•••

Out of Subpoenas – US District Judge Patrick Schlitz has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to subpoena Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney Gen. Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, as well as Hennepin and Ramsey county officials over a Justice Department investigation of whether they obstructed or impeded law enforcement during the sweeping immigration operations in the Twin Cities area, according to MinnPost.

Schlitz called the subpoenas an effort of harassment and retaliation to “coerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a MinnPost email seeking comment.

•••

In Memoriam: Alan Greenspan – Federal Reserve chairman for Presidents Reagan to Bush 43 Alan Greenspan died Monday at his Washington home, his wife Andrea Mitchell, chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News announced Monday. Greenspan, an erstwhile jazz musician and avowed Ayn Rand-devoted libertarian who served the second-longest tenure as Fed chair, from 1987 to 2006, oversaw the longest period of US economic growth in history. Greenspan also has taken some blame over the 2007-08 financial crisis leading to the Great Recession because of his laissez-faire policy toward banking. He was 100. –TL

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MONDAY 6/22/26

Green Algae Reflecting Pool and Swiss Talks – What color was Washington’s algae-green reflecting pool before President Trump signed a no-bid $14.2-million contract for an “American-flag blue” liner underneath? What of sanctions off Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives and related frozen bank assets, prior to the start of the war some 16 weeks ago?

Apologies for the all-too-obvious metaphor. 

Vice President Vance and Iran’s diplomats failed to show last Friday for talks at the beginning of the US-Iran 60-day ceasefire negotiated via memorandum of understanding last week. But Vance and his Tehran counterparts did show up in Lucerne, Switzerland, along with mediators Qatar and Pakistan later over the weekend. 

Iran’s diplomats reportedly walked out when a bellicose President Trump again warned he would revive missile attacks on the country Sunday. On Monday, both sides reported some progress.

To wit: The US issued waivers to allow Iran to sell crude oil, petroleum products and derivatives, and “associated banking,” The Times of Israel reports. Mediators said the two sides set up a “de-confliction cell” to stop military operations in Lebanon, mediators say (TToI further notes that neither Israel, Lebanon, nor Hezbollah were present for the negotiations). 

The United Nations reports there was no fighting between Israel and Hezbollah on Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called the talks in Switzerland “major progress.”

Speaking of pre-war status … The Trump administration declared the Strait of Hormuz “open” to commercial traffic, while Iran said it had remained closed. 

Which is it? 

Most up-to-date source we can find is straits.live, which reports …

“No. ... The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed to commercial shipping. As of 22JUN2026 • 1422Z, it is day 113 since the 28 February 2026 closure declaration.”

Meanwhile, at the pool … President Trump on Saturday blamed “vandalism” for “real problems” at the reflecting pool, where experts say the dark blue paint just applied to the liner attracted more heat from the sun, adding to the green algae bloom, The Guardianreports. Paint has been seen peeling off the water.

Trump claims that vandals have been arrested, though on Friday, David Hearn of Bethesda, Maryland, told The Washington Posthe was arrested mere seconds after reaching in and touching the American flag-blue liner at the end of a 52-mile bike ride around Hains Point. He is scheduled to appear in D.C. Superior Court July 9.

Happy semi-sesquincentennial.

•••

Starmer Out – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will step down and hand over Labour Party leadership to former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, The Guardian reports. Starmer said Monday he will remain a caretaker PM until the elections.

Starmer became Labour’s first PM just under two years ago, following 14 years of Conservative Party leadership. 

Burnham won a by-election in Makerfield last week and will be sworn in as a Minister of Parliament Monday, setting him up for a party leadership election. A second candidate to replace Starmer as Labour Party leader, former health Secretary Wes Streeting has decided not to run and will support Burnham, according to The Guardian. 

Starmer’s resignation “marks the beginning of a transition and it is important that this process is conducted in an orderly and responsible way,” Burnham said, adding “I will put myself forth in the process.” 

•••

More Gas Relief – Fuel prices continue to drop, with the national average for a gallon of unleaded regular at $3.929 Monday, 4.4 cents less than last Friday and up 95.4 cents from February 28. Diesel is down 8.2 cents from Friday to $5.013 per gallon, up $1.198 from late February. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 6/22/26

Peace Deal Number 39, CPI 4.2%

The Consumer Price Index was up 0.5% month-over-month in May, for an annual rate of 4.2%, highest in three years and up from 3.8% in April, the Labor Department reports. [Bureau of Labor Statistics] 

•Scroll down this column for President Trump’s reaction.

Trump Goes to 39 – CNN counts 39 times President Trump has announced an impending peace deal with Iran since the beginning of the war at the end of February. As with many of the previous 38 such presidential announcements, Thursday’s was a reversal of Trump’s threat to invade Iran by land and take over energy facilities including Kharg Island.

In the face of Trump’s most strident pronouncement to date, the punditocracy was more dubious than ever and Iran’s leadership denied any impending deal. 

This deal is another Memorandum of Understanding, and the art of Trump’s dealmaking apparently relies on his administration’s making new demands just as a deal is about to be signed. 

Weekend diversions … Not to say President Trump won’t Truth Social another coming bombing campaign and MOU or two over the weekend, but he turns 80 on Flag Day, Sunday, and he has bigger plans. The president celebrates his 80th with UFC Freedom 250, the Ultimate Fighting Championship event on the White House lawn beginning 8 p.m. Eastern time Sunday (watch live on Paramount!).

It will be a big night for the Trump family in many ways – The Athletic reported in May that on March 25, the president purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of TKO Holding Group, according to his required May 8 stock trading disclosure with the US Office of Government Ethics. 

TKO is parent of the UFC and World Wrestling Entertainment. Trump says his family handles stock trades for him.

Not related to Flag Day/Trump’s birthday party, but related to the war on Iran, The New York Times, owner of The Athletic, reports that in February, Trump purchased between $1 million and $5 million in stock in the Texas computer company, Dell. In last May, the Pentagon announced a $9.7 billion contract with Dell.

•••

De-NATO’d? – The US plans to significantly cut the number of aircraft and warships made available in Europe for North Atlantic Treaty Organization operations, two senior officials have told The New York Times. Planned cuts include:

•F-16 and F-15E fighter jets from 150 currently down to 100.

•Fewer maritime reconnaissance aircraft, from 26 down to 15, and a cut of all eight aerial refueling tanker jets previously available to Europe.

•Relocating a missile-launching submarine and an aircraft carrier, plus several warships and “scores” of jets.

•Reallocation of one of two groups of bombers previously assigned for Europe’s defense.

Germany’s Die Welt previously had published some of these details, according to the NYT.

•••

More Qualified than Pulte – Amidst widespread bipartisan opposition to Tulsi Gabbard fill-in and shopping mall scion Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence, President Trump Truth Socialed Thursday that Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton is his nominee to take the position permanently (Politico). Trump’s social media post came in after the House and Senate left the Capitol for the weekend, so the confirmation process certainly will not come soon enough. 

Senate leaders did get their early takes in, with Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) praising former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Clayton for having  “a great reputation as being an incredibly competent manager.” 

What greater praise could there be?

Conversely, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the notion of Clayton replacing fill-in Pulte would not move quickly on reauthorizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 

“It doesn’t matter what they do,” Schumer said. “Pulte has got to be gone.” –TL

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THURSDAY 6/11/26

UPDATE: Negotiations On Again, Again? – President Trump has called off Thursday’s strikes on Iran, again, claiming on social media progress made in negotiations with the Islamic Republic, The New York Times reports. Iran did not immediately confirm, however, Trump’s post that discussions “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”

Venezuelaing Iran – Makes sense that the foreign intervention the Trump administration figures is its most successful to date remains the model for all foreign interventions to follow.

With negotiations for a permanent deal apparently falling apart, President Trump says the US will strike Iran “VERY HARD” Thursday night, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The two sides have been trading strikes since a US Army Apache attack helicopter was downed Monday (with both crew members escaping unscathed), ending the ceasefire. On Wednesday, the US military apparently destroyed a drinking water facility on Iran’s southern coast, according to a New York Times analysis. US Central Command posted on X-Twitter that it has conducted attacks near the Strait of Hormuz “with precision munitions from US Air Force and Navy fighter jets.”

Trump’s Sisyphean quest to sign a deal with Iran, announced ad infinitum these past 14 or 15 weeks remains allusive. The US “in the not too distant future” will be taking Kharg Island, the main export hub off Iran’s southern coast, he said, “and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have in Venezuela, which is working out brilliantly for both Venezuela and the United States of America.”

•••

He Loves It – When a reporter asked President Trump in the Oval Office for a reaction to May’s 4.2% CPI, the president said this: “You know what I really love? I really love the inflation.”

Perhaps Americans have become too accustomed to the president’s eccentric syntax as he attempts to shift the conversation from reporters’ probing questions to MAGA-friendlier subjects. That would explain Trump’s expansion on loving inflation he had promised as a candidate to bring down to nothing, in an exclusive interview with the New York Post: “I love the inflation number because of what I’m talking about. The numbers are going to be phenomenal because of what’s showing is that despite the fact we’re in a war, the numbers are much lower than anticipated, and when we’re out of that war, the numbers will be at lower numbers than they were before it started.”

Economist Claudia Sahm told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition Thursday, “’It could be worse’ is a really tough sell.”

•••

A Bit More Gas Relief – Will fuel prices “drop like a rock” if President Trump carries through with his threatened takeover of Iran’s oil and gas markets? We may soon find out. Meanwhile, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded regular continues to click down, according to AAA, at $4.129 Thursday, down 2.2 cents from Wednesday. That’s $1.156 less affordable than on February 26. Diesel came down 2.4 cents to $5.279, up $1.491 since the beginning of the war. –TL

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WEDNESDAY 6/10/26

It’s Not Over – That peace deal Iran has been on the brink of signing with the US is unlikely soon, as President Trump Truth Socials his anger over the shooting down of a US Army Apache attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz.

“They’ve taken too long to negotiate a deal that would have been great for them. Now they have to pay the price!!!” Trump TS’d Wednesday morning, hours after the US Military said it hit targets in Iran in a “proportional response” to the attack on the Apache, The New York Times reports.

Iran has not accepted blame for the Apache’s downing, in which its two crew members were saved, unscathed, by a drone boat. 

•••

Platner to Take on Collins – Big news was Maine Democrats choosing Graham Platner, even though his one serious competitor, Gov. Janet Mills, backed out of the race earlier this year because she had a hard time raising sufficient funds, according to The New York Times. Despite the lack of competition, Platner took just 72% of the vote according to The Associated Press, with Mills, who has not yet congratulated the former oyster farmer, grabbing 20%.

Platner faces incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who occasionally casts an anti-Trump vote though it appears only when Senate passage of Trump’s agenda is guaranteed anyway. In his victory speech Tuesday, Platner said Collins has voted in Trump’s favor 95% of the time. An upset of Collins’ campaign for a sixth Senate term (she’s also chair of its Appropriations Committee) is considered crucial to the Democratic Party overturning its majority.

Writing in The Bulwark May 5, Jonathan V. Last called Platner “the post-Trump figure” and said he has a one-in-three chance of nabbing the 2028 Democratic nomination for president.

This was before the latest revelations that several of Platner’s girlfriends said he has a “toxic” personality.

Perhaps this latest in a series of revelations is Platner’s Access Hollywood tape moment, of sorts. Maine’s Democratic Senate candidate also has faced reports that he had a Nazi-esque skull & crossbones tattoo, since covered by a benign tattoo, and allegations that he sent sexually explicit text messages while married.

A Marine Corps veteran who served three tours in Iraq, Platner speaks of redemption and said in his victory speech he tries “to be a little bit better and a little bit kinder than the day before.” Certainly not Trump-like.

But Platner, a progressive who has had the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) since early in his campaign, does have a two-word name for whom he is fighting for the voters of Maine, much like Trump has used the two-word term “deep state.”

Platner's "deep state" is the “ruling class.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 6/10/26

Trump’s War Strategy

By Todd Lassa

UPDATE – After President Trump Truth Socialed Saturday that negotiations to end the war in Iran are “proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner” and told his negotiators “not to rush a deal,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio reported “significant” though “not final” progress had been made. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan, Bahrain and Pakistan are leading negotiations with Iran that reportedly do not address Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, the key reason Trump says the US and Israel initiated the war on Iran in late February.

Is this yet another Trump red herring? Rubio on Monday echoed the president’s bellicose threats from over the past 12 weeks to try and force Iran to reach an agreement, saying the US will either have a good agreement or deal with Iran “another way.” 

Also on Monday, Esmail Baqai, spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, said a deal “is not imminent.” (From reports by the BBC, NPR’s Morning Edition and The Independent.)

And so, the Strait of Hormuz remains blockaded. Meanwhile … Americans are paying an average of $4.507 for a gallon of unleaded regular to return from Memorial Day vacations Monday, AAA reports, 5.7-cents cheaper than last Thursday but $1.526 more than on February 28.

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President Trump famously, or infamously, has never expressed a coherent foreign policy, though his introduction of the “Donroe Doctrine” with the US Military attack on Venezuela and capture of its authoritarian president, Nicolás Maduro, just after New Years 2026 has boosted his State Department’s belief in itself and hints at what could lead to a more coherent strategy. 

Trump is of the age to have vivid memories of news broadcasts following Cuba’s Marxist revolution of 1959, the Bay of Pigs and Cuban Missile Crisis of the Kennedy administration, the Mariel Boat Lift of the late Clinton administration and the custody fight over six-year-old Elián Gonzalez after he was rescued on a sinking boat between Havana and Miami (he was eventually returned to Cuba) in the second Clinton administration.

Certainly, Trump closely followed Iran’s 1979 revolution, the hostage crisis at the end of the Carter administration and chants of “Death to America” coming from leaders of the Islamic Republic in subsequent decades.

We’d bet Trump had little or no knowledge of Cuba’s dictatorship under Fulgencia Batista, from 1952 up to Fidel Castro’s revolution.

We suspect Trump does not think much about the Shah of Iran’s CIA- and MI6-assisted coup ď état of democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953 (when the president was seven years old).

But the Trump administration seems to be connecting the two nations. As the war on Iran drives up oil prices, pushing the US Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index to 3.8% and putting pressure on the global economy, Trump’s State Department, led by Cuban-American Marco Rubio – who has more expertise by far than anybody else in the president’s cabinet – is using the early January attack on Venezuela and capture of Nicolás Maduro as a template for its actions in Cuba and potential capture of its former president Raúl Castro, brother of the late Fidel.

Chances of something that looks like regime change on the island are probably better than in Iran, where our initial attacks killed off palatable alternatives to the late Ayatollah Khamenei, or in Venezuela, where Trump is copacetic with the leadership of Maduro’s subordinates. Shutting off oil shipments to Cuba from Venezuela and anywhere else makes potential regime change in Cuba much easier, satisfying generations of Cuban-Americans in South Florida while opening up the possibility of Trump Organization-style beachfront projects in Havana. 

The upshot is this could happen as the US is in the middle of yet another ceasefire with Iran.

If and when Trump can finally end the war (which he has said many times has already ended, and we’ve won) with any agreement that neutralizes Iran’s nuclear enrichment program beyond what the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action achieved during the Obama administration, a Venezuela-like victory in Cuba would top the headlines, especially on Fox News and its cohorts to its right. 

This could be the sort of Trump administration “win” that would do more for the GOP in the midterms than the mid-decade gerrymanders in Republican-led states.

•••

CORRECTION: A report in Thursday's center column, "Castro, Meet Maduro?" misstated former Cuban President Raúl Castro's age. He is 94.

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FRIDAY 5/22/26

…meanwhile…

Jeffries Elected House Democratic Leader – House Democrats have elected Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (above) their leader, replacing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who announced she would step down after two decades (but remains in Congress for at least two more years). Jeffries, 52, covers New York’s 8th District which includes large parts of Brooklyn and a section of Queens, and becomes the first Black congressional leader from any party, replacing Pelosi, 82, who was the first female congressional leader from any party. Younger Democrats in Congress have been clamoring for more youthful leadership for the last few years. 

Other Leaders: Rep. Katherine M. Clark (D-MA), 59, replaces Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), 83, in the House Democrat number-two spot while Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA), 43, replaces Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), 82, for the number-three leadership position. Until the 118th Congress takes over in January, the outgoing top-three Democratic House positions are held by representatives older than President Biden, who just turned 80.

Meanwhile: Current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) faces some inner-party opposition as he tries to skate the line between condemning ex-President Trump’s dinner with an antisemite and a white supremacist (see right column) and actually condemning Trump himself. McCarthy cannot afford to lose five Republicans from the incoming House of Representatives to take the speaker’s gavel he long has coveted – which gives Democrats an outside chance of voting Jeffries into the speakership. 

Nobody, but nobody, really expects the GOP majority to let that happen, but it will make for an interesting January on Capitol Hill. 

--TL

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Oath Keepers Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy – Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and Florida chief Kelly Meggs were found guilty in federal court of seditious conspiracy for their involvement in the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol, Tuesday (The Hill). The Justice Department victory marks the first such conviction for seditious conspiracy since 1995, according to CNN.

All five Oath Keepers defendants were found guilty in the trial of obstruction of an official proceeding. Four Oath Keepers were found guilty of tampering with evidence – the fifth member of the far-right organization was not charged in this count. 

Rhodes and Meggs face potential prison sentences of up to 20 years for each.

••• 

Senate Votes to Codify Same-Sex Marriage – The Senate voted, 61-39, to codify federal recognition of same-sex marriage, with religious liberty protections securing the bipartisan support, Roll Call reports. Lead sponsor Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) told reporters the bill would ease concerns that the Supreme Court could revisit precedents that protected same-sex and interracial marriage. SCOTUS in 2013 found the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act largely unconstitutional.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the House could take up the bill as early as next week.

•••

Good Economic News – Various signs are appearing that the Federal Reserve is succeeding in capping inflation without triggering a recession. It’s early yet, but here’s a big piece of such evidence: the national average price of a gallon of gasoline was $3.521 as of Tuesday morning, AAA reports. That’s lower than the average price before Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news