Tag: dictator

…meanwhile…

Donald J. Trump returned to a Manhattan court Thursday where his defense attorney cross-examined adult film star Stormy Daniels. The criminal case over falsified business records looks likely to be the only case Trump faces before the election. On Wednesday, the Georgia Court of Appeals announced it will review a judge's ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting Trump, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, which means prosecutors will not get their August trial date.

FRIDAY 5/10/24

Netanyahu on Dr. Phil – As Republicans on Capitol Hill have been criticizing President Biden for withholding arms to Israel over its attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, buzz Friday morning centers on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s interview with Phil McGraw on Dr. Phil Primetime. But Israel’s Haaretz led with this quote from Netanyahu in the interview: “The government’s first responsibility is to protect the people, that’s the ultimate enveloping responsibility, and the people weren’t protected, we have to admit that.”

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Confederate Leaders Go Back to School – School board members for Virginia’s Shenandoah County district voted 5-1 to restore names of Confederate leaders to two of its schools early Friday, CNN reports. Mountain View High School is to be renamed Stonewall Jackson High School, and Honey Run Elementary will be renamed Ashby Lee Elementary, for General Robert E. Lee and cavalry commander Turner Ashby, according to the report. 

The Confederate leaders’ names were removed from both schools four years ago in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd. 

Note: Save for the Jim Crow South, we cannot think of any losing military force that has had its “heros’” names applied to public buildings. We’re confident, for instance, there never has been an Adolf Eichmann secondary school nor a Hermann Göring kindergarten.

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No Shells for Rafah Attack – The Israeli Defense Force has not entered Rafah’s population centers yet, President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett on AC 360 Wednesday, but when they do, the U.S. will cut off arms to Israel, including artillery shells.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone into Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not going to supply them the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with those cities, to deal with that problem,” Biden said. 

Republicans on Capitol Hill are objecting, CQ Roll Call reports. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said in a letter to Biden they were “alarmed” by the pause in armament deliveries, that “flies in the face of assurances provided regarding the timely delivery of security assistance to Israel.”

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MTG Fail? – The House voted a decisive 359-43 to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over bi-partisan passage of a $61-billion aid package to Ukraine. The vote, according to CQ Roll Call, breaks down to just 11 Republicans voting against the motion to table, assisted by 32 Democrats, with another seven Democrats voting “present.” 

While considered a major win for Johnson, who replaced ousted speaker and former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last year, Punchbowl News says the speaker “looks weak,” after “bucking” or ignoring other Republican congressional leaders’ suggestion he rework the motion to vacate available to any single member when he advanced the Ukraine aid package. 

Meanwhile, MTG – known as “Moscow Marj” in some circles – achieved her goal to get GOP House members on the record regarding the Ukraine aid vote, according to Punchbowl News. On the other hand, this could be considered a sign Republican voters are not so much against aid to Ukraine.

And of course, a statement from Donald J. Trump, whom Johnson visited at Mar-a-Lago in April, reenforced the notion that Trumpian loyalty is a one-way street: “With a majority of one, shortly growing to three or four, we’re not in a position of voting on a motion to vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time.”

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Cruz Control – Republican senators reportedly are joking rather openly about Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) push to authorize the Federal Aviation Administration’s budget for the fiscal year by Friday’s deadline. Their “bemusement” stems from Cruz’s 180-degree turn from his role as a “conservative rabble-rouser” to “playing the leadon authorizing the FAA,” The Hill reports. Cruz is the ranking Republican on the Commerce Committee.

There is precedent for such hypocrisy, not mentioned in the report, when Cruz and his family jetted off to a Cancun vacation in February 2021 as a severe Texas storm left millions of his voters without power and water. 

“It’s been entertaining to watch,” one unnamed Republican senator told The Hill, regarding Cruz’s FAA push. Quoting the classic comedy movie Airplane, the senator added, “What’s the old Hollywood joke? ‘The foot’s on the other hand.’” Or in Cruz's mouth?

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WEDNESDAY 5/8/24

Haley Gives GOP Hope -- In case one of Donald J. Trump's myriad criminal cases stick before this August's Republican National Convention in Milwaukee (meaning, hurting him in the polls rather than helping him), his former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, continues to grab primary votes more than two months after she suspended her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Haley got 128,000 votes in Tuesday's Indiana primary, according to The Hill's Decision Desk HQ, or 21.7% to Trump's 78.3%. In April, 150,000 Pennsylvania Republicans voted for Haley in that state's primary.

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U.S. Blocks Arms During Rafah Attack – In response to the Israeli government’s refusal to hold off its long-threatened attack on Rafah at Gaza’s southern border, the U.S. is withholding shipment of 3,000 missiles to Israel, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. Israel’s offensive on Rafah launched after Palestinians believed Hamas had successfully negotiated a ceasefire, but Israel refused to sign on to the deal brokered with Egypt and Qatar.

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Cannon Gums Up Trump’s Classified Docs Trial – Quick reminder of the facts: Then-President Trump appointed Judge Aileen Cannon to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in late 2020. In an August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, the FBI recovered boxes of classified documents Trump hoarded after leaving the White House.

The Washington Post reported last year that witnesses in the subsequent case said Trump showed some classified documents to guests at Mar-a-Lago. Trump’s attorneys, meanwhile, have successfully clogged up special counsel Jack Smith’s case accusing Trump of willful retention of classified documents and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among other charges.

On Tuesday, Cannon issued a five-page order that delays indefinitely the classified documents trial once scheduled for May 20 – less than two weeks from now – and which special counsel Jack Smith had hoped would be rescheduled to July 8 (per Politico).

Considering all the issues between prosecutor Smith and Trump’s defense team, “finalization of a trial date at this juncture … would be imprudent and inconsistent with the court’s duty to fully and fairly consider the pre-trial issues,” Cannon’s order says. 

Theoretically, the case could still go to trial before the end of 2024, some legal pundits say, but that would require Cannon to run out of ways to slow the process.

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Zelenskyy’s Latest Threat – The narrative behind Ukraine’s resilient efforts to keep Russia from taking over the country tells of a united effort by its military and its public. That ignores the fact that ethnic Russians make up the largest minority in Ukraine, reportedly 17.3% in 2001, according to Wikipedia. What’s more, Ukraine’s military is not impervious to Russian infiltration. 

On Monday, Ukraine’s security service said it had uncovered a network of Russia’s federal security service, the FSB, whose agents were preparing yet another assassination attempt of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to The Kyiv Independent. In addition, two Ukraine state security administration (UDO) colonels have reportedly been detained for leaking classified information to Russia. 

According to the Independent’s report, Zelenskyy told The Sun last November he had survived “at least” five assassination attempts.

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TUESDAY 5/7/24

Israel Attacks Rafah -- The Israeli government did not agree to the same ceasefire deal Hamas agreed to Monday, so Israeli Defense Forces took control of Rafah anyway and have blocked off aid flow, a border official told The Washington Post. Meanwhile, Egypt has denounced the IDF's military operations in Rafah.

Putin to Out-Stalin Stalin -- It's inauguration day for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's fifth term as president, NPR reports. If he fills out the entire term, Putin will have led Russia longer than Joseph Stalin. Most European Union nations boycotted Putin's inauguration ceremonies, Morning Edition says.

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MONDAY 5/6/24

UPDATE: Hamas has accepted a 42-day ceasefire deal proposed by Egypt and Qatar that would return 33 hostages, dead or alive, BBC News reports. The deal still awaits response from Israel, which says it will not call off its planned attack on Rafah.

Time is Up for Rafah – Cease fire talks between Hamas and Israel seems to have sputtered to a stall, again, and so the Israeli government Monday morning urged people to evacuate Rafah in southern Gaza (The Washington Post) as its military prepares for its long-threatened assault on the city. Hamas and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government are blaming each other for lack of progress in the negotiations.

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Speaker Under Pressure – House Democrats will join a majority of Republicans to block Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to dismiss Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) this week, says NPR’s Morning Edition. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), told CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday, “Our view would traditionally be; ‘Let the other side work its own mess out.’ But when that mess starts to impact the ability to do the job on behalf of the American people, then the responsible thing at that moment might be to make clear that we will not allow the extremists to throw the Congress and the country into chaos.”

MTG has the backing in her threat of Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), but Donald J. Trump, who received Johnson at Mar-a-Lago last week, is sitting this issue out as he tends to the trial over falsification of business records in connection with hush money payments.

Hindsight… We have to wonder whether former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) would still be speaker and Trump wouldn’t be running for president again if McCarthy hadn’t had his pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago less than two months after the January 6th attack on the United States Capitol.

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More Tears Over Trump? – The criminal trial in which former President Trump is charged with falsifying business records in an alleged attempt to put the "hush" into hush money continues Monday, with the alleged recipient of said hush money, adult film star Stormy Daniels, expected to testify this week, according to The New York Times. On Friday, former Trump spokeswoman and close White House advisor Hope Hicks broke down in tears, after describing the effect on Trump’s 2016 campaign when the infamous Access Hollywood tape surfaced.

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Feds Investigate Cuellar – Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and his wife were indicted last Friday on federal charges accusing them of accepting $600,000 in bribes from the country of Azerbaijan and a Mexican bank in exchange for political favors in Congress. Federal agents raided Cuellar’s office and the couple’s house Friday, just weeks before a runoff between two Republicans to challenge him in the general election, according to The Texas Tribune. Republicans Jay Furman and Lazaro Garza face each other in a May 28 runoff with the winner to challenge Cuellar November 5.

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Up on the Hill – Both chambers of Congress are in session Tuesday through Thursday. The full House only is in session Monday, while the full Senate is in session Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Navalny is Dead

FRIDAY 2/16/24

From the Munich Security Conference -- Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny's wife, told the conference, to standing applause: "I don't know whether I should believe this horrible news or not...We can't really believe Putin and his government. I am asking everyone who is here to unite and help punish the Russian regime."

Poland's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski: "He was a victim of Russian fascism. He will probably be remembered as the best Russian president Russia never had." There are more dissidents in Russian prisons under Vladimir Putin than there were under Leonid Brezhnev's USSR, he said.

UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron called Navalny "an incredibly brave fighter against corruption," adding there is "no doubt about the dreadful nature of Putin's regime in Russia after what has just happened."

On Thursday Poland's Sikorski told the conference, "This is our joint appeal (with the UK's Cameron) to the U.S. House of Representatives and personally to Speaker Mike Johnson to submit the Ukraine aid package to a vote."

(Per BBC, NPR and AP.)

A reminder of what Donald J. Trump told a campaign rally in South Carolina last Saturday: “'If we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?' No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”

UPDATE: CONFIRMED by various news outlets ... Navalny Reported Dead -- Anti-corruption dissident and thorn in dictator Vladimir Putin's side, Alexei Navalny, has died after taking a fall in a prison yard, according to an unconfirmed report from Russia's federal prison system (per NPR's Morning Edition). Navalny has been held in one of Russia's deadliest prisons since December.

On X-Twitter: The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum: "Navalny threatened Putin because he revealed the extent of his theft and corruption. Putin killed Navalny because he couldn't let that truth be known."

Michael McFaul, U.S. ambassador to Russia, 2012-14: "Putin killed Navalny. Report it straight."

According to the BBC, reports say Navalny fell ill while taking a walk in the prison yard. Several posts on X show a healthy looking Navalny behind bars in a video reportedly taken the day before his death.

Meanwhile: Congress is off for President's Day week, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) having refused to bring the Senate's $95.1 billion bill containing aid to Ukraine to the House floor. The Senate returns February 28. The House returns March 5.

Last week, presidential candidate Donald J. Trump told an adoring crowd at a rally he would encourage Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" to a NATO country that does not pay up (NATO does not collect dues) and ex-Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson interviewed Putin at the Kremlin.

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THURSDAY 2/15/24

UPDATE -- Jury selection will begin March 25 in Manhattan's hush-money case against former President Trump, The Washington Post reports, to begin the first-ever criminal trial against a former U.S. president.

It’s Two Trump-Trial Thursday – Donald J. Trump was expected at the defendants’ table in a Manhattan courtroom early Thursday where Justice Juan Merchan is expected to rule on whether to maintain a March 25 trial date for the former president’s alleged efforts during the 2016 presidential election to cover up an affair with a porn star (per Politico). If you’re trying to keep count, that’s the case in which he allegedly reimbursed his then-attorney Michael Cohen for hush money to Stormy Daniels. 

Meanwhile: Another team of Trump attorneys will be in Atlanta where Judge Scott McAfee gathers evidence about the relationship between Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special prosecutor Nathan Wade, Politico reports. Trump’s attorneys want Willis and Wade tossed from the trial over the former president’s alleged scheme to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Willis and Wade deny allegations they benefitted financially from delays in the case.

Lordy, there are tapes: Legal analysts say the Trump legal team’s efforts to remove Willis and Wade will not likely put an end to the trial, considered the strongest of four against him – after all, there’s that recording of Trump begging for 11,780 more votes.  It will further delay the case with less than nine months left before the next presidential election.

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Nukes in Space – National security advisor Jake Sullivan speaks to the House Intelligence Committee Thursday, and though he won’t say why, he is expected to brief committee members on a nuclear-powered “capability” Russia is developing to target satellites, NPR’s Morning Edition reports. On Wednesday, Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) warned of a “national security threat” and called on President Biden to declassify intelligence on the Russian technology, according to USA Today. 

The Starlink satellites provided to Ukraine for communications in its defense against Russia come to mind as a likely target of the nuclear-powered “capability.” NPR notes that the Pentagon is working on a similar technology (with Lockheed Martin), the Joint Emergent Technology Supplying On-Orbit Nuclear (JETSON) High-Power program.

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Punkin’ Putin – In a Russian state television interview dictator Vladimir Putin said President Biden would be a better choice for his country this November than Donald J. Trump (per The Wall Street Journal). Putin also said he “didn’t get complete satisfaction” from his interview with right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson “because I honestly thought he would be aggressive and ask so-called sharp questions. And I wasn’t just ready for that, I wanted it, because it would have given me the opportunity to respond sharply in kind … But he chose a different tactic.” (Politico)

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The Fed is Cool – When the Consumer Price Index for January came in hotter than expected, at 3.4% Tuesday, the stock market took a dive over fears the Federal Reserve would hold off on interest rate cuts expected in a few months. The market bounced back Wednesday as Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsby told the Council of Foreign Relations in New York to, effectively, cool it, Marketwatch reports.

“Even if inflation comes in a bit higher for a few months, as many forecasts suggest, it would still be consistent with our path back to the target” of 2%. “There is nothing wrong” with some ups and downs, Goolsby said.

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WEDNESDAY 2/14/24

First This Happened – The House of Representatives voted 214-213 to impeach Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the southern border. The Democrat-controlled Senate is highly unlikely to provide the 2/3 majority necessary to convict, particularly as the impeachment comes without evidence or even charges of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Two Republicans and two Democrats missed the vote, but Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) made it for the GOP’s win, this time.

Just as Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of Colorado’s bid to remove Donald J. Trump from its primary ballot last week in Trump v. Anderson in part because it could open the floodgates for states to banish candidates in future elections, it seems the Mayorkas impeachment, coming nearly 150 years after the last impeachment of a cabinet member, could start a trend of cabinet official impeachments whether there is a Democrat or Republican in the White House.

President Biden’s statement: “History will not look kindly on House Republicans for the blatant act of unconstitutional partisanship that has targeted an honorable public servant in order to play petty political games. Instead of staging political stunts like this, Republicans with genuine concerns about the border should want Congress to deliver more border resources and stronger border security.” 

Then This Happened – Democrat Tom Suozzi defeated – no, annihilated – Republican Mazi Pilip, 53.9% to 46.1% to replace former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) in a special election for New York’s 3rd District House seat (Associated Press). Polls leading up to Tuesday’s special election showed a close race as Pilip tried to tie Suozzi with President Biden on the border issue, and Democrats believed that with either result, the outcome would hint at which party might have House control after the November election. 

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TUESDAY 2/13/24

The annual Consumer Price Index fell slightly to 3.1% in January, the Labor Department reports, buoying the possibility that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates when it next meets, in five weeks (the CPI was 3.4% a month earlier). The month-over-month increase was 0.3%, up from 0.2% in January, with shelter up 0.6% to account for more than two-thirds of the monthly increase. Food was up 0.4% but energy prices fell by 0.9%, largely the result of falling gas prices. [Bureau of Labor Statistics]

Senate Passes Ukraine/Israel/Taiwan Aid – The Senate passed an $95.1 billion military aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan early Tuesday with a healthy 70-29 vote after filibusters by “a handful” of Republican senators into the pre-dawn hours, according to CQ Roll Call. Still, the will of GOP leader Donald J. Trump hovers over the national security package, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested the bill won’t reach the full House floor in its current form because it lacks the “real border security provision” … like the $20 billion in additional border security that accompanied a national security package rejected by the former president so he could use it as a campaign cudgel against President Biden.

Trump’s choice: Meanwhile, the former president has endorsed Michael Whatley, head of the North Carolina GOP and a fellow election-denier, to replace Ronna McDaniel as chair of the Republican National Committee, with son Eric Trump’s wife, Lara Trump as co-chair (per The Hill). McDaniel is expected to step down as RNC chair after the February 24 South Carolina primary. 

Trump’s statement: “The RNC MUST be a good partner in the Presidential election. It must do the work we expect from the national Party and do it flawlessly. That means helping to ensure fair and transparent elections across the country, getting out the vote everywhere – even in parts of the country where it won’t be easy – and working with my campaign, as the Republican presumptive nominee for President, to win this election and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN.” Er, endquote.

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MONDAY 2/12/24

Trump and Putin – Former President Trump has been campaigning in South Carolina, where he hopes to annihilate its former governor and his former UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, in the state’s GOP primary Saturday, February 24. Haley has taken the traditional Republican position regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying she would continue aid to Ukraine. 

Donald J. Trump has said he would “negotiate” an end to the Ukraine-Russia war to end it on his first day in office, which presumably means he would let dictator Vladimir Putin take over at least the eastern part of Ukraine his troops have occupied. 

In Conway, South Carolina last Saturday evening Trump told his fawning crowd he had a conversation with an unnamed NATO ally’s leader, who asked him; “If we don’t pay (what it owes NATO) and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?”

“No, I would not protect you,” Trump told the cheering crowd he said to the leader. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.” (Per NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday.)

In a statement released Sunday, President Biden called Trump’s comments “unhinged.”

•••

Ukraine, Israel Aid Advances – The Senate Sunday advanced a $95 billion emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel to keep it on-track for passage this week, The New York Times reports. The bipartisan vote was 67-27, teeing up $60.1 billion for Ukraine in its defense against Russia and $14.1 billion for Israel’s war against Hamas. It also addresses threats in the Indo-Pacific region. 

“It’s no exaggeration to say the eyes of the world are on the United States,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). U.S. allies “don’t have the luxury of pretending that the world’s most dangerous aggressors are someone else’s problems and neither do we.”

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Hogan v. Trone – Former two-term Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan last Friday announced he is running for retiring Sen. Ben Cardin’s (D-MD) seat (per CQ Roll Call). He would become the state’s first Republican senator in 32 years. 

Hogan is a never-Trump Republican whose father, Larry Hogan Sr., was among the Republican U.S. representatives who voted to impeach President Nixon some 50 years ago. 

Among the Democrats running in the May 14 primary for Cardin’s seat are Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks and U.S. Rep. David Trone, who serves Maryland’s westernmost district, which transitions from blue to purple to red heading further west into the rural panhandle. Could become a center-right vs. center-left race.

•••

This Week – The House only is scheduled to be in-session Tuesday through Friday, though Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will likely call the full Senate to the floor early in the week to vote on the emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel. 

Coming Tuesday: A special election in New York’s 3rd Congressional District to replace Republican Rep. George Santos, who stepped down late last year. Former Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) is “locked in a tight race” with Republican Mazi Pilip, who has tried to tie Suozzi with Biden’s policies, especially on immigration, according to The Hill, which reports that Democrats are trying to avert an embarrassing defeat and keep hope alive to retake the House majority in November.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news