Tag: Facebook

Republicans, Democrats Agree on Chinese Threat

WEDNESDAY 3/1/23

By Todd Lassa

In the refreshingly bipartisan House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party’s first public hearing Tuesday evening Republicans and Democrats pretty much agreed that U.S. acquiescence to China is boosting its economy and global prominence at the cost of our own. 

“We may call this a strategic competition, but it is not a polite tennis match,” Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) said in his opening statement. “This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st Century.”

At times, Democrats used their cross-exam time to promote Democratic policy, while Republicans used their time on the mic to promote Republican ideals. Even then, the committee’s three hours of testimony was almost unnaturally civil, with a panel consisting mostly of moderates from both sides of the aisle. Unlike an earlier House committee hearing earlier Tuesday on oversight of U.S. funding for Ukraine, there was no Matt Gaetz (R-FL). 

There was Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who warned the federal government “should not embrace Chinese-style central planning.

“We should not try to counter China by being more like China.”

Barr followed Rep. Shontel Brown (D-OH), whose questions prompted witness Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, to say that public investment was needed – including infrastructure spending -- for local manufacturing of computer chips and other products currently dominated by Chinese industry. 

Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) warned that Congress’ potential failure to raise the federal debt ceiling this year would show weakness in our democracy to the Chinese. 

“Democracies that reach high don’t always reach the skies,” responded witness Matt Pottinger, who served as deputy national security advisor under the Trump administration. “People understand that it’s not always going to look pretty.”

Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) .

“I believe fentanyl is committing diplomatic blackmail,” he said, and Pottinger cited FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assessment that a lab in Wuhan, China “most likely” released COVID-19 to result in the pandemic. (An Energy Department assessment leaked to The Wall Street Journal last week says it has “low confidence” in that conclusion.)

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) noted that China has increased its holdings in farmland outside its own borders by 1,000% in recent years. While Chinese entities, mostly governmental have purchased relatively little farmland in the U.S., it’s mostly close to military system installations, replied witness H.R. McMaster, Trump administration national security advisor in 2017 and 2018.

Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) suggested then-President Trump’s withdrawal from an Asian trade pact with China was a boon to the Chinese president’s plans for world domination. 

“January 6, 2021 was Xi Jinping’s best day in office,” Auchincloss said. He suggested negotiation of a new trade agreement involving the U.S. and Taiwan.

The hearing’s fourth witness, Chinese dissident Tong Yi (above), said tech experts here should “research how to bring down the great firewall,” China’s blocking of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google. “The truth is powerful on its own,” she said, and journalists and rights lawyers are “heavily repressed” inside China. 

The U.S. must watch not only the social media site TikTok, but also WeChat, Tong said, “a must-have inside China, but also a must have” for Chinese-Americans to communicate with their relatives inside China who must self-repress what they convey to those relatives to keep from being blocked by Xi’s government.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Social Media Fueled 1/8

Social media stoked Sunday’s attack by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Brazil’s Congressional building, federal court and presidential palace, NPR reports. The riot was organized on such outlets as Telegram and Whatsapp, often using coded language, and was livestreamed by Bolsonaro supporters on YouTube, and could be found on Facebook, TikTok and Twitter, according to a report on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Bolsonaro supporters were also cheered on January 8 by Donald J. Trump confidant and supporter Steve Bannon, as “freedom fighters.” NPR notes that Facebook is expected to announce soon whether ex-President Trump will be allowed to return to the platform. Trump’s two-year Facebook ban was up on Sunday, January 8.

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Debt Ceiling Showdown to Come?

TUESDAY 1/11/23

With a thin majority in the 118th Congress, House Republicans have no chance of getting such controversial legislation as rescinding IRS funding (see right column) through the Democratic-majority Senate and back to President Biden’s desk. But the 221 Republican members of the House can deny an increase in the federal debt ceiling necessary to pay for an already-passed budget and potentially shut the government down. After House Republicans voted to approve Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) rules package Monday, ex-President Trump called on them to "play tough" on the debt ceiling, stoking "fears of a chaotic Congress," according to The Guardian.

That’s the sort of disruption House Democrats, as expressed by minority whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, fear of the concessions Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made to secure the votes to become speaker.

“Kevin McCarthy hasn’t held the speaker’s gavel for a whole week,” Clark said, “and already he’s handed over the keys to MAGA extremists and special interests for the next two years.” 

•••

Feinstein Gets a Push – Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) turns 90 this coming June, and already she is the oldest member of Congress. Feinstein has filed paperwork for re-election for 2024, though she has not declared her candidacy for a sixth full term (she won a special election in 1992).

But on Monday, Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) announced Monday she is running for U.S. Senate in 2024. California’s other U.S. senator, fellow Democrat Alex Padilla, won re-election in 2022 (California Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed him to replace Kamala Harris when she became vice president in 2021) and therefore is not up for re-election until 2028. 

--TL

Enter your Comments below or in the right column, as appropriate for your leanings, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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…meanwhile…

(TUE 9/27/22)

1/6 HEARING DELAYED -- The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has delayed its ninth, and potentially last, public hearing originally scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday, because of Hurricane Ian brewing off the Florida coast, NPR reports. The make-up date and time is to be announced later.

•••

Continuing Resolution Update – The White House has asked for a continuing resolution extending the fiscal year past Friday with $47 billion in short-term spending, including $13.7 billion for additional aid to Ukraine, Government Executive reports (govexec.com). The CR also would include $22.4 billion in short-term COVID needs, $4.5 billion for monkeypox vaccinations, testing and treatments, and $6.5 billion to help tribes and territories deal with natural disasters and extreme weather events. 

Bipartisan support: The additional aid to Ukraine has sufficient bipartisan support in the Senate, NPR’s Morning Edition says, where 60 votes are needed for passage. That’s at least 10 Republicans as well as all the Democrats, of course. We’ll be watching to see which MAGA-leaning Republican senators support the vote.

•••

Cost of College Debt Forgiveness – President Biden’s plan to cancel student debt will cost $420 billion, of which $20 billion is the extension of a pause on student loan payments, according to the Congressional Budget Office, per The Washington Post. The number is roughly equal to the cost of the $1,400 stimulus checks mailed to Americans for pandemic relief at the beginning of the Biden administration. 

Upshot: Cancelling student debt always was going to be a major issue for the midterm elections, with Republican candidates objecting to shifting the student loan payments from former students and their families to taxpayers.

•••

Jury Selection for Oath Keepers Trial – A federal trial for the far-right Oath Keepers for allegedly helping organize the January 6 Capitol insurrection begins Tuesday, NPR reports. Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his co-defendants are accused of spending months recruiting, training and conspiring to use force to prevent the transfer of power from Donald J. Trump to Joe Biden, according to Morning Edition. The alleged plot included storing guns in Washington, D.C., for a quick reaction force to rush into the city on January 6, if necessary.

•••

Fake Disinformation Accounts for War in Ukraine – Facebook and Instagram owner Meta was used for hundreds of fake social media accounts and sham news websites that attempted to advance Russia’s cause in its invasion of Ukraine, the Associated Press reports. The scheme involved more than 60 websites designed to mimic legitimate news outlets, including the United Kingdom’s Guardian and Germany’s Der Spiegel that spread Kremlin talking points about President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Meta said Tuesday.

Note: The Guardian is among news outlets aggregated by our daily coverage. We always go directly to theguardian.com, not via social media.

•••

On Italy’s Right-Turn – Italy’s new coalition government, led by far-right Brothers of Italy candidate Giorgia Meloni, who becomes the prime minister replacing technocrat Mario Draghi, “threatens to fragment the European Union when unity is more urgent than ever,” Nicholas Lokker and Jason C. Moyer write for The Wilson Center (wilsoncenter.org). While Meloni’s new coalition government has been described as Italy’s most conservative since World War II, the new prime minister has repeatedly expressed support for Ukraine to maintain its democracy in its fight against Russian aggression.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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What's Up This Week (MON 9/26/22)

Hearing IX – Potentially the last public hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is scheduled for this Wednesday beginning 1 p.m. Eastern time. 

“It is possible that it’s the last,” committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) told NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. “But as we continue to work, we wouldn’t rule out the possibility of an additional public hearing.”

The 1/6 panel may be running out of time as the GOP probably retakes the House of Representatives in the November 8 midterms. 

Meanwhile, the committee also will interview conservative activist and Supreme Court justice-spouse Virginia Thomas, who exchanged emails with John Eastman, the attorney seen as instrumental in planning alleged Trump White House attempts to reverse the election results. 

“Eastman is the architect of the scheme that one federal judge has described as criminal, and we’d like to learn more about it,” Lofgren said.

Left-column preview: Be sure to read pundit Ken Zino’s Hearing IX “Curtain Raiser” in the left column.

•••

Senate and House Schedules – Both chambers are off Monday, with the Senate returning Tuesday, as Rosh Hashana concludes, through Friday. The House is in session Wednesday through Friday. 

Critical CR: Both the House and Senate must pass a continuing resolution this week to avoid partial shutdown of the federal government. The fiscal year ends Friday. 

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

I am Just Over It

By Michelle Naranjo

I have two different friends of different generations: one millennial and one boomer, and both are consistently two to three days behind the news cycle. The former has a penchant for sending texts with screenshots of the circus that has become the Trump campaign post-election, have typically been passed around Twitter for at least 24 hours, and have already expired like a dad joke. The latter takes to Facebook to announce political news that is often so dated, the accompanying commentary/rant is out of touch with current events.

It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but it’s so annoying. They get outraged and amused at stuff I’m way over. And that is because the stream of idiocy feels endless one month after election day.

This brand of annoyance also has become the general reaction to the seemingly never-ending string of failed lawsuits, hearings, and press conferences led by Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani. 

President Trump’s Twitter account has become a string of outrage about a rigged election (a false claim, as Twitter is quick to annotate). Followers are leaving the spectacle in droves since the sole focus appears to be on overturning an election that was conducted legally and not on the exploding pandemic. 

In an attempt to get more airtime, Trump traveled to Georgia Saturday night to lead a rally under the auspices of supporting the Republican senate candidates Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. What actually happened was an appearance by the two candidates drowned out to chants of “four more years” and Trump delivering his usual level of speech that is wearing out the fact-checkers. 

And we learned that he likes cucumbers.

After four years of this presidency and an especially difficult 2020, a general air of exhaustion fills the atmosphere. The people complicit in this, from the Republican politicians refusing to acknowledge Biden won, to the rabid supporters who don’t appear to understand math, let alone how a democratic election works, only reveal deeper and deeper levels of racism, ignorance, and greed. 

And it is annoying. I am way over it all. Trump doesn’t need to concede. He needs to get out of the way and let us all get on with healing and recovery. 

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Get out of the way, President Trump.

When Will the Whining Stop?

By Stephen Macaulay

In 1997 Frank Costanza brought his holiday to the attention of the world: Festivus. The airing of grievances. And a demonstration of feats of strength.

Festivus occurs on December 23, thereby getting a jump on Christmas.

On December 2, Donald Trump held his own Festivus. But there was no un-decorated pole. Rather, there were the trappings of the Office of the President of the United States.

To be sure, Trump is still the president. But the clock is running on his occupancy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

And he doesn’t like it.

Trump’s airing of grievances took the form of a 46-minute video shot in the Diplomatic Reception Room. Diplomats are supposed to be deft handlers of situations. There was nothing particular deft about his Facebook rant about the “rigged election”

Christopher Krebs was the director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency until Trump fired him by tweet (the new diplomatic channel?), because Krebs said that the election was not at all rigged or otherwise unduly influenced by dead Venezuelan politicians or whatever the conspiracy of the day might be.

Right now, William Barr, the attorney general whose actions over the past several months show that he would probably be more than glad to pick up Trump’s dry cleaning and shave his back, is reportedly on the edge of losing his job because he said the Department of Justice has uncovered nothing that would be voter fraud of the magnitude to change the outcome of the election.

The “Seinfeld” show broadcast on December 18, 1997, was and remains funny.

There is nothing amusing about the man who should be representative of all that is good and noble in this great country making it sound as though the United States is some third-world dictatorship.

Please address comments to editors@thehustings.news

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An airing of grievances before Festivus.