…meanwhile…

“In light of the progress on inflation and the balance of risks, at today’s meeting the committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by ½ percentage point, to 4-¾ % to 5%,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday.

Go Vote – … if you are registered in Minnesota, South Dakota or Virginia, where early voting starts Friday, per Ballotpedia.

•••

About North Carolina – Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, has been well ahead of the Republican candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson in the polls for quite some time, leading some pundits to argue the key swing states in the presidential election are Pennsylvania-Georgia-North Carolina and not Pennsylvania-Michigan-Wisconsin.

Now comes an investigative scoop by CNN’s KFile that Robinson, whom ex-President Trump has called “Martin Luther King on steroids” called himself a “black NAZI” on a pornography website, “Nude Africa,” between 2008 and 2012. Robinson also has expressed support for restoring some form of slavery to the US. According to the thoroughly researched report, Robinson often used the pseudonym “minisoldr” “all over the internet,” including the pornography website. CNN says the gubernatorial candidate, a strict cultural Christian conservative regarding LGBTQ+ issues “liked to watch transgender pornography.”

The sober anti-Trump argument is that Trump’s popularity among his faithful is never jarred by other candidates that lose badly in their campaigns – think 2022 Republican candidate for senator from Georgia, Herschel Walker. The flip side of the argument is that North Carolina Republicans will avoid the polls November 5, so they won’t be there to vote for Trump, either. The Bulwark’s Marc A. Caputo argues that Republican North Carolinians avoiding the polls because of Robinson will be enough for Vice President Harris to win the state, and thus the Electoral College.

Of course, that still leaves Pennsylvania and Georgia.

What do you think?... Will Robinson’s scandal be enough to sink Trump’s chances? Is it really Pennsylvania-Georgia-North Carolina, or Pennsylvania-Michigan-Wisconsin? Leave your comments in the left- or right-column, or here, or email editors@thehustings.news.

--TL

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THURSDAY 9/19/24

Haitian Leader; 'We Can Do Better' – These words by Haitian community leader Viles Dorsainvil about the made-up stories by Donald J. Trump and JD Vance about neighbors' pets in Springfield, Ohio, to Leila Fadel on NPR’s Morning Edition Thursday bear repeating …

“I would say to them that they think that they are leaders. Leaders have to have the behavior of a leader. Through the rhetoric that they are putting out … please, before they say anything, try to check the veracity of it. … Stop dividing a community or a nation. Stop dividing the country that all of us love. We can do better. We can keep moving forward together with words of unity and encouragement. We are here to work. We are here to contribute to boost up the economy. Words matter.”

Trump and Vance have put people “in a very difficult situation in the past week,” he added.

At a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina Wednesday, vice presidential candidate and senator from Ohio JD Vance said that Vice President Harris’ “blanket immunity” giving Haitian refugees temporary legal status in the US is not legal, and suggested that Trump will deport them if he wins in November.

•••

Not Truckin’ for Harris – The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, known for a long time as the union for long-haul truck drivers but now including an Amazon Division, has declined to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (per Newsweek). The Teamsters have declined to endorse Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump as well, though it has released internal poll results from July 24 to September 15 that show Trump leads Harris 59.6% to 34% among its rank & file. Its April 19-July 3 poll showed President Biden leading Trump, 44.3% to 36.3%.

“The Teamsters carry a lot of weight,” Trump told Fox News Wednesday. “The Democrats cannot believe … it was always automatic that Democrats get the Teamsters, and they said we won’t endorse the Democrats this year, so that was an honor for me.”

For the record, the last Republican candidate the Teamsters endorsed was George H.W. Bush in 1988. The union backed Bill Clinton in 1992, did not endorse anyone in 1996 then backed every Democratic candidate – including Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020 – until now.

•••

Johnson’s CR Fails – Slings and arrows for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from both sides of the House aisle after his continuing resolution to fund the government six months past September 30 was defeated, as was widely predicted, 220-202 Wednesday.

Johnson “succeeded in spending a week dividing his party and leveraging his already miniscule leverage with the Senate,” said Punchbowl News. The House and the Senate have targeted Friday, September 27 as the deadline to leave for home, which means they no doubt will have to work that weekend to prevent a federal government partial shutdown on the following Monday.

Three Democrats voted for the bill, which contained the redundant SAVE Act rider that would require voters in federal elections to be US citizens, but 14 Republicans voted against it, Roll Call reports.

No matter which party takes the House majority after the November 5 election, it’s a good bet that Johnson will not be speaker for the 119^th Congress next January.

--TL

Fed Lowers Interest Rate by ½%

WEDNESDAY 9/18/24

UPDATE -- The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee (FOMC) has cut its target interest rate by ½% to the 4¾% to 5% range, while reiterating it continues to seek a 2% Consumer Price Index "over the long run." The August CPI was 2.5%, fueled by lower energy prices.

"The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance," the FOMC said in its press release. It said it also "will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities."

It’s Rate Cut Day! – The Federal Reserve will announce an interest rate cut by late this afternoon. The question everyone has been waiting to have answered is “by how much?” A quarter point or a half point?

•••

No Question – Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) short-term funding bill, with SAVE Act attached will not pass the House when introduced Wednesday. The SAVE Act would redundantly require proof of US citizenship for voter registration.

The question now is, what will Johnson do next? Punchbowl News reports; the Speaker has been so cagey about his plans that even his Republican allies have no idea. The hope of Republicans and Democrats is, the next continuing resolution, which must pass both chambers before the end of September to avoid a federal government shutdown, will extend funding until after next January 20^th’s presidential inauguration.

•••

Florida Charges – Gov. Ron DeSantis has launched a state investigation into an apparent assassination attempt on ex-President Trump at his Florida golf course near Mar-a-Lago. DeSantis, who you might remember challenged Trump for the Republican presidential nomination early this year, raised the possibility the state of Florida could charge suspect Ryan Routh with attempted murder, according to Politico.

Routh faces Justice Department charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number, though the DOJ is expected to issue further charges against him.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news
WEDNESDAY 9/17/24

Something to Think About Before You Vote

By Stephen Macaulay

Maybe you’re not sure who you are going to vote for tomorrow.

If that’s the case, then perhaps what two guests on Meet the Press said on 11/6/22 might be helpful in coming to grips with how to handle your ballot.

These two guests were in sequence. First Representative Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), then Senator Rick Scott (R-FL). The sequence is important because the second person has the opportunity to hear what the first has said and thereby should be able to come up with some compelling responses.

Seems as though Scott didn’t take that into account.

When asked by host Chuck Todd about things like messaging and popularity and what the Democrats are going to do, Maloney, said things including:

“So with all due respect, what Democrats are going to do right now is going to go out and fight with everything we've got for seniors who need costs capped in Medicare, for people worried about gun violence in our schools, for people who want to have a real plan to go forward together without the anger and the fear and the hatred, fighting for women's reproductive freedom and voting rights. That's what we're going to do.”

And

“Well, let's look at the record. I mean, for one thing we passed the most important gun safety legislation in 28 years, stood up to the N.R.A., stood up to the big gun lobbies, and no Republicans, except a handful, were willing to help. That's really important. In addition to that, we passed the most important local police funding, $300 million over the next five years, out of the House.”

And

“I think the president gets a bum rap. By the way, he's been a leader on public safety his whole career. He's also fixing our roads and our bridges. He's bringing jobs back from China. He's capping seniors' out-of-pocket costs in Medicare. He took on the big drug companies. If you want to know why all this dark money's coming into these races it's because we took on the big drug companies. He's helping our veterans with extraordinary health care, $250 billion. He's done gun safety legislation. And let's not forget the Rescue Plan that saved every small business and restaurant and live venue in the country. I think the guy gets a bum rap. I think he's working through the damage of the Trump years and the pandemic, and he's not getting enough credit for it. Now, we've got more to do, and he'll be the first one to tell you that.”

Sure, there’s plenty of partisan rhetoric in there, but there are also substantive things that affect individuals young and old. And how helping seniors with Medicare costs and putting some serious funding into police departments is “radical,” and one of the main themes of the Republicans on the trail is how the Democrats are destroying the country (fixing the roads?) because they are radical, is something I can’t suss.

But let’s move to Senator Scott.

Todd asked him what, if the Republicans get the majority in both chambers, “the first bill a Republican Congress sends to the president’s desk that you actually think he would sign?”

Scott answers:

“I think the issue is we've got to deal with inflation, so we've got to figure out how to spend our money wisely so we don't continue this inflation. I think we've got to do whatever we can to get this crime rate down. So I think we have to look at that. We've got to secure the border. I think we've got to get rid of the 87 IRS agents – 87,000 new IRS agents. So I think we have to address the issues that people are worried about right now, and they're worried about those issues, the fentanyl. So I think that's what we need to focus on. So we've got to make sure our military is focused on being lethal, not woke. So I think those are the things that we have to focus on.”

Is there a bill in there?

Or more to the point, is there a specific policy or plan described outside of eliminating the jobs of IRS agents (the vast majority of which have yet to be hired because the 87,000 relates to the number who could be hired by 2030)?

Todd followed that answer — and that is the complete answer given by Scott, not edited — `with this question:

“Well, let me ask you, inflation, you saw that's the biggest – that’s the number one issue people are dissatisfied with this economy. What's the first bill you guys can pass that you think can impact inflation?”

Scott:

“I think the thing we have to work on – on inflation, it's all tied to reckless government spending. We've got to get our budget in control, we've got to figure out how we're going to balance the budget. So that's the first thing we have to do.”

In other words, Scott doesn’t know the answer.

“We have to work on.” “We’ve got to figure out how.”

Wouldn’t it seem that a political party that sees nothing good on the landscape would have specific ideas of how they were going to change it?

Apparently that’s not the case for the Republicans.

To be sure, they’re all about going after Hunter Biden (if the guy is corrupt, then do we really need the U.S. Congress to concern itself with that?), stopping illegal immigration (how they’re going to do that is evidently something they need to think about), and making sure that Anthony Fauci pays for his trying to save Americans from what many of the people running for office as Republicans thought was a hoax (only 1.07-million people died from something that their dear leader said, more than 40 times, starting in March 2020; “It will just go away”).

Think about what needs to happen and who is, apparently, thinking about it.

And vote.

_____

Progs Retract Call to Negotiate with Putin

Letter Was Drafted Last Summer – The Progressive Congressional Caucus has retracted a letter sent to President Biden Monday urging him to engage in direct diplomatic relations with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. Caucus Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) announced the retraction and took responsibility for the letter, which she said was drafted June 30, before Ukrainian soldiers began taking back land claimed by Russian military forces.

Thirty Democratic lawmakers signed the letter June 30, and several wondered out loud Tuesday why it was sent out, according to Jayapal, “without vetting.” She said the letter was being conflated with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) statement last week to Punchbowl News that House Republicans “would not write a blank check” to Ukraine if the GOP retakes the lower chamber after the midterms.

John Kirby, White House coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council responded to the letter, saying “Mr. Putin is in no mood to negotiate.”

Upshot: If Progressive Congressional Caucus members thought a letter urging negotiations with Putin was more reasonable and realistic last June than McCarthy’s statement last week, they were not paying attention to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinskyy.

--TL

_____________________________________

Momentum on the Left has Left (MON 10/24/22)

Democrats Peak Early – There is “growing angst” among Democratic leaders that concerns over inflation and the economy have overtaken the negative reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade last summer in driving voters to the midterm polls, The Hill reports, echoing analyses at other mainstream news outlets. Consensus is that the assumption held before SCOTUS’ late-June 5-4 ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that the traditional flip of the House and Senate majorities against the president’s party would indeed be the result of the November 8 elections.

The Polls: According to NBC News’ latest poll, 70% of voters show “high interest” in the midterms. However, that breaks down to 78% of Republicans expressing “high interest” versus 69% of Democrats, compared with 68% of Republicans and 66% Democrats in August telling pollsters they are highly interested in the elections. FiveThirtyEight reports a “dead heat” in the race for majority in the Senate, and a three-in-four chance Republicans will take over the House of Representatives.

•••

Discuss these issues in the left or right column Comment box or email editors@thehustings.news.

_____

…meanwhile…

(WED 5/11/22)

Very, very, very slight inflationary relief in April … The Consumer Price Index was up 0.3% in April, compared with 1.2% in March, to lower the annual inflation rate to 8.3% before seasonal adjustment, compared with 8.5% the previous month. Shelter, food, airline fares and new car and truck prices led the inflation numbers, though as you can see from the chart above, gasoline/diesel prices at the pump, which are determined by global oil prices, are the greatest factor in raising prices. [TIP: Click on "Meanwhile" headline to see larger copy of the CPI chart. Then click on The Hustings banner to return to three-column format.]

•••

Biden’s inflation jawbone … President Biden tried to pre-empt Wednesday’s inflation numbers with a Tuesday White House address, telling Americans; “I know you’ve got to be frustrated. I know. I can taste it.”

He compared his administration’s lowering of the federal deficit after four years of deficit increases under his predecessor (whom he did not directly name) and blasted “extreme MAGA” Republican proposals to “raise taxes” on 75 million Americans and of constant GOP threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, singling out Rick Scott of Florida, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Scott has suggested Biden resign over the inflation rate.

Biden promoted minimum tax rates on corporations and billionaires in his stalled Bring Back Better bill, saying the “last thing we should be thinking about is rewarding corporations” for windfall profits from inflation. “You want to bring down inflation? Let’s make sure corporations pay their fair share.”

Note: With fast-approaching midterms likely to dampen any remaining prospects of advancing his BBB, Biden continues to push for overturning 40 years of “trickle-down” Reaganomics as Republicans of all stripes accuse the president of giving in to progressive, “socialist” Democrats in Congress.

•••

Latest anti-Trump audio … after the January 6 Capitol insurrection comes from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who has since become one of the more prominent “traditional” Republicans to express loyalty to ex-President Trump. According to the latest recording released by NYT reporters and co-authors of This Will Not Pass: Trump, Biden and the Battle for America’s Future, Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin, Graham, speaking from a secure location as Capitol police were still clearing MAGA rioters from the building said the “best person to have” in the White House was Joe Biden, not Donald J. Trump.

Retraction: Graham told CNN Tuesday “The Joe Biden we see as president is not the Joe Biden we saw in the Senate. He’s pursued a far-left agenda as president.”

Note: We’d guess the GOP that Biden sees from the White House is not the GOP he saw in the Senate.

Hearings date set: House Select Committee chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) has announced that after gathering lots of evidence and recordings of the January 6 Capitol insurrection, the panel will begin public hearings on June 9.

•••

Reed Can’t Wait … Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) announced his resignation Tuesday, half a year ahead of the midterms, citing “extremism” in the House of Representatives. In March 2021 he was accused of sexual harassment of a lobbyist and said he would not seek re-election this November. A moderate, Reed also had resigned as chair of the bi-partisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

Reed has joined the Prime Policy Group as a lobbyist.

•••

Trump’s count is 1-1 in West Virginia, Nebraska primaries … Trump endorsee Alexander Mooney beat David McKinley, 51.9% to 37.9%, for the GOP nomination for West Virginia’s second Congressional district in Tuesday’s primaries according to Ballotpedia. Both candidates are incumbents, having been squeezed into the same district after West Virginia lost a seat from the 2020 U.S. Census, and McKinley was one of 19 House Republicans who supported President Biden’s $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill last year.

Mooney faces Democratic candidate Barry Wendell in November.

Elsewhere in WV: Republican Carol Miller faces Democrat Eugene Watson for the House District 1 seat.

In Nebraska: Ex-President Trump lost the Republican gubernatorial primary, where his choice, Charles Herbster, with 29.2% lost to Jim Pillen’s 33.9%. Pillen was endorsed by current Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who is term-limited, and Herbster faced allegations in a Nebraska Examiner story that he groped or sexually assaulted eight women since 2017. A third Republican, Brett Lindstrom, earned 26.7% of the primary vote.

Pullen faces Democratic candidate Carol Blood and Libertarian candidate Scott Zimmerman in November.

For Nebraska’s House District 1, Republican Mike Flood faces Democrat Patty Pansing; for District 2, it’s incumbent Republican Don Bacon versus Democrat Tony Vargas; and in District 3, it’s incumbent Republican Adrian Smith versus the Legalize Marijuana Now Party candidate Mark Elworth Jr.

According to Newsweek, Herbster’s loss to Pillen breaks Trump’s 55-0 winning streak in GOP primary endorsements to date.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Charles Dervarics

_____________________________________

(TUE 5/10/22)

Tweet Trump's return? ... Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he will lift Twitter's ban of ex-President Donald J. Trump if his $44-billion deal to buy the social media platform happens, The Hill reports. "I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme," Musk said at the Financial Times' "Future of the Car" event.

•••

More aid for Ukraine … The House of Representatives and Senate could vote as early as Tuesday to approve a $39.7 billion package of additional aid to help defend Ukraine against Russia’s attack, Reuters reports. President Biden had requested $33 billion, but congressional Democrats added in $3.4 billion in additional military aid and $3.4 billion in additional humanitarian aid.

The additional funds come after Russian President Vladmir Putin held a subdued Victory Day Monday, which some Kremlinologists take as a sign the country will continue to withdraw from most of its neighbor, including Kyiv, even as it intensifies battles in the separatist eastern region of Donbas.

•••

Gas prices hit ‘record’ high … Gasoline prices in the U.S. have hit another record high, $4.374/gallon, Tuesday according to AAA. That’s up from $4.204/gallon a week ago, and $2.967/gallon a year ago. The “record high” is qualified – adjusted for inflation, gas prices were higher during The Great Recession.

President Biden is scheduled to present his plan to fight inflation and “lower costs to working families” from the White House Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

•••

Democracy loses the Philippines … Not that it was thriving under Rodrigo Duterte, but Ferdinand “BongBong” Marcos Jr., offspring of the country’s 1970s/80s dictator and an infamous shoe collector, won Monday’s presidential race with a much wider margin than expected. Marcos was supposed to narrowly beat his closest challenger, but according to the unofficial vote count (to be confirmed Tuesday) he garnered more than 30.5 million to the “champion of human rights and reforms” Vice President Leni Robredo’s 14.5 million votes, Politico reports. Third-place Manny Pacquiao, a boxing legend in The Philippines, earned just 3.5 million votes.

Sara Duterte, daughter of outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte, leads a separate vice- presidential vote. Her father is being investigated by the International Criminal Court for allegedly killing thousands during his anti-drug crackdown.

Facebook strikes again: Marcos Jr.’s father, Ferdinand Marcos Sr., declared martial law as president, from 1972 to 1981. The family allegedly stole more than $10 billion before the Marcoses fled the Philippines in 1986 and have never been held accountable, according to The Recount. Marcos Jr. and his family have been “restoring” Ferdinand Sr. and wife Imelda’s reputation with false history, especially on social media site Facebook in the months and years leading up to Monday’s elections, according to several news reports.

Can’t happen here, right?: Whatever happens to the MAGA movement in November 2024 – and keeping in mind ex-President Trump still owns the GOP – Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Eric are still allowed on Facebook and Twitter.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods

_____________________________________

What's Up... MON 5/9/22

Today … Russian President Vladimir Putin held forth over his country’s Victory Day celebrating its win over Nazi Germany in World War II, NPR reports, and we won’t bother here to repeat his lies from his speech. NPR does note, however, that Putin did not announce plans to intensify his war on Ukraine. His troops have retreated for now from Kyiv and are concentrating on Eastern Ukraine.

Tuesday … Nebraska and West Virginia hold primaries for the November midterm elections (per Ballotpedia).

Wednesday … Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) introduces the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a federal abortion rights bill that would supercede the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The bill will fail along party lines with Democrats lacking the 60 votes needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, but the vote will give Democratic senators up for re-election and challengers to Republicans in November’s midterms campaign advertising fodder. A similar bill passed by the House of Representatives last September failed in the Senate last February, The Guardian notes.

Meanwhile, Mississippi’s Republican Gov. Tate Reeves refused to rule out banning emergency contraceptive pills and IUDs in his state speaking on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday.

•••

Never mind Trump’s presidential library … A presidential library could be built specializing in post-Trump presidency books, from loyalist Mark Meadows’ The Chief’s Chief to never-Trumper-again John Bolton’s The Room Where it Happened: A Memoir. Latest, and easily one of the most explosive is Mark Esper’s A Sacred Oath: A Defense Secretary in Extraordinary Times.

One of the first questions CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell asked Esper on a 60 Minutes feature interview Sunday was; Why wait until you can sell books to tell us this?

Fair question, and Esper’s response seems like a fair answer: Warning the world about such anti-democratic insanity as then-President Trump suggesting the late-May/early-June 2020 George Floyd protests in Washington, D.C., be declared an insurrection and the National Guard be called in to shoot protesters in the kneecaps, and that Trump wanted to use the military to conduct a “secret” military strike against drug cartels south of the Mexican border, would have resulted in the former host of The Apprentice telling him “you’re fired.” Esper told O’Donnell he couldn’t count on his replacement being as diligent in pushing back against Trump’s MAGA thinking.

Esper said that he and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff had to “swat down” such Trumpian suggestions on a weekly basis. Milley, who continues as Joint Chiefs chairman under the Biden administration and Esper were both embarrassed to be conned into a political photo op with Trump when he held up a bible at St. John’s Church near the White House, an account backed up by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their book, Peril.

Note: Thus Esper’s excuse for withholding stories of Trump’s anti-democratic propensity get a pass, and his memoir serves as yet another warning of what could still come from a GOP filled with pro-Trump midterm election candidates.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news