Tag: shutdown

Shutdown Day 22

Nearly 7 million citizens, including this couple in Philadelphia, attended about 2,700 No Kings events across the US Saturday, NBC News reports. Scroll down the left column for additional commentary by KE Bell, and the right column for commentary by RJ Caster.

Shutdown Day 22

Vance Arrives in Israel – Vice President JD Vance, “Trump’s top messenger” according to USA Today, is in Israel Wednesday to “rein in” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold together the week-old peace deal with Hamas. Vance’s formidable task is to move the peace deal on to its next phase, entailing Hamas’ disarmament and Israel’s full withdrawal of troops from Gaza.

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Racism Sinks Nominee – Paul Ingrassia has pulled his name from nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel after Politicoreported comments he made in a text chat that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday belongs in “hell” and that he has a “Nazi streak.” 

A sufficient number of Senate Republicans noticed. Ingrassia, 30, whose ties to Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate delayed a Senate committee hearing, finally was to appear before the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs committee Thursday.

But after Politico’s scoop Ingrassia pulled his own name from consideration because he knew there were enough Republican senators to vote against him.

Ingrassia tweeted and Truth Socialed Tuesday: “I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time. I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!”

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On Japan’s First Female PM – Japan’s parliament elected the country’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, Tuesday after weeks of her serving as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party. The conservative LDP has led Japan for much of the past seven decades.

Takaichi is hardly a feminist, counting the late UK PM Margaret Thatcher as her heroine and holding über-traditional gender values, NPR’s All Things Considered reports. 

Takaichi will meet with another political hero, President Trump, who flies to Japan on Monday for a three-day visit. –TL

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TUESDAY 10/21/25

Putin Drops Meeting – Officially, there are no plans for President Trump to meet with Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin to discuss a peace deal, or ceasefire, in Ukraine, in the immediate future, The New York Times reports Tuesday. Unofficially, it’s clear Putin does not feel the need to discuss a meeting in which he would be expected to give up any Ukrainian territory Russia has captured, or which he soon expects or hopes to capture, in the foreseeable future. 

Also not planning to meet are Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who had a “productive” call Monday, The Kyiv Independent reports.

Trump said last Thursday following a phone call with Putin that the two would meet in Budapest in unspecified coming weeks. The next day, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Trump at the White House, Putin got what he wanted: Trump refused his request to sell long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.

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Comey Moves to Dismiss – The Justice Department’s two-count indictment of former FBI Director James Comey is considered among the weakest of the Trump retribution cases, and on Monday defense attorneys issued two dismissal motions with the court, per Roll Call. 

Comey’s attorneys argue that former insurance attorney Lindsey Halligan was improperly appointed and therefore should not be able to bring the case. They argue Halligan’s appointment was contrary to the Constitution’s Appointment Clause, which requires Senate confirmation. 

In the second motion, Comey’s attorneys argue the charges against him are indicative of Trump’s selective prosecution.

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Biden Spox Goes Indy – Accountability rather than defection is the reason for Biden White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s switch from registered Democrat to independent voter, she tells NPR’s Michel Martin on Tuesday’s Morning Edition. In her new book, Independent: A Look Inside the White House, Outside the Party Lines Jean-Pierre says President Biden’s disastrous June 2024 debate performance revealed “political vulnerability” and not “cognitive decline,” and the former press secretary blames Democratic disunity in part for Trump’s triumphant return to power. 

Jean-Pierre told NPR’s Martin that criticism of her as press secretary reflected a deeper bias, and said that Democrats have failed Black women, taking advantage of the party’s most reliable supporters.

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White House’s Gold Period – Every act of creation begins with an act of destruction, Pablo Picasso once said, and if you’re all-in on President Trump’s $250 million privately funded White House ballroom in all its gilded glory, you’ll like this. Demolition has begun on the East Wing to make way for the 999-person capacity ballroom, The Washington Post reports. Trump had previously said the ballroom would accommodate up to 650 people and would not require any demolition of the East Wing.

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Colombian Cutoff – President Trump said Sunday he would end aid to Colombia and impose new tariffs on the country after its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, said the latest US military strike on boats in the Caribbean had killed a fisherman, The New York Times reports. The US military has attacked several boats from Colombia’s neighbor Venezuela in recent months, with the White House claiming without evidence they were operated by drug cartels. –TL

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Shutdown Day 20 -- MONDAY 10/20/25

Putin Prevails – The close, friendly relationship between Russian dictator/President Vladimir Putin and President Trump apparently has not waned in the face of Trump’s pressure on Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Last Friday President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went to the White House hoping to procure Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine’s defense against Russia but left without any such commitment.

President Trump had spoken by phone with Putin on Thursday and apparently rung off convinced not to give Zelenskyy the 1,000-mile+-range missiles, The Washington Post reports. 

Last Friday’s private White House meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy reportedly was as acrimonious as their public meeting back in February, with Trump pressuring Zelenskyy in a “shouting match” to accept Russia’s ceasefire terms, according to the Financial Times. Trump told Zelenskyy Russia will “destroy” Ukraine if Zelenskyy didn’t agree to the terms. 

In Orbánistan … Before Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy, he had committed to a meeting with Putin in Putin-friendly Budapest, Hungary in an unspecified number of coming weeks. Zelenskyy has since said he wants to be part of the meeting.

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Trump Frees Santos – President Trump has commuted the sentence of former Rep. George Santos (R-NY), 37, who was serving a seven-year sentence at a federal prison in New Jersey after pleading guilty to wire fraud and aggravated theft, The New York Times reports. Trump Truth Socialed late Friday that he had cut Santos’ sentence short, citing their shared politics and the president’s belief the sentence had been excessive.

New York Republicans criticized Trump’s commutation.

“George Santos is a convicted con artist. That will forever be his legacy and I disagree with the commutation,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) said in a statement Saturday, according to the NYT.

– Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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MONDAY 10/20/25

…meanwhile…

(FRI 9/30/22)

UPDATE: House Passes CR -- The House passed the continuing resolution extending the current fiscal year budget beyond its Friday midnight expiration, to December 16. President Biden will have signed it ASAP.

Here are the 10 House Republicans who joined all the Democrats in the House of Representatives to pass the bill, according to The Hill: Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Garret Graves of Louisiana, Chris Jacobs of New York, John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, Hal Rogers of Kentucky, Fred Upton of Michigan and Steve Womack of Arkansas.

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New Sanctions on Russia as Putin Claims Four Territories – The White House announced a new round of sanctions on Russian government and military officials and their families, per The Hill, in response to President Vladimir Putin’s forced annexation through sham referenda of four regions of Ukraine. The sanctions by the Treasury, Commerce and State departments target the governor of Russia’s Central Bank and former Putin advisor Elvira Sakhipzadovna Nabiullina, more than 100 members of Russia’s Duma, members of the country’s National Security Council, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, among others. In addition, 57 entities will be restricted from obtaining key technologies and other materials. 

Meanwhile: Ukrainian military forces say they have surrounded enemy troops in Lyman, hub of the Russian military in Donetsk, one of four eastern and southeastern regions Putin claimed in a ceremony Friday, according to the Daily Beast, which calls it Putin’s most humiliating defeat by Ukraine yet. It “could be one of the most serious Russian military losses of the war so far,” according to the report.

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House’s Turn – The Senate Thursday passed a continuing resolution funding the federal government at current levels through December 16, and now it’s the House’s turn. Failure to do so before midnight Friday, the end of the fed’s fiscal year, would shut down key Social Service, IRS services and national parks, The Washington Post notes.

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Cannon v. Dearie – Federal Judge Aileen Cannon Thursday overruled Special Master Raymond Dearie’s order that Donald J. Trump’s attorneys clarify whether they believe the former president’s claims that the FBI lied in its seizure of government documents at Mar-a-Lago August 8 (WaPo again).

Upshot: Dearie’s ruling last week would have forced Trump’s lawyers to deny his claims that more than 100 documents in the seizure were not classified or face potential perjury. As the judge who appointed Dearie the special master in Mar-a-Lagogate, Cannon has the power to do that. Trump’s appointment of Dearie as lame duck after he lost the 2020 election is paying off for him, and is continuing to slow the case well past the midterms and toward a possible GOP takeover of House and Senate majority rule.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Shifting Allegiances in The Villages

By Jim McCraw

The Villages, in Central Florida, is the country’s largest retirement community, with some 130,000 residents in one contiguous settlement spread across three counties. It has been a Republican stronghold for a long, long time.

The population here is vastly white, upper middle-class Christian, with a few Jewish, Black and Hispanic residents.

The Villages boasts the world’s largest American Legion post. It helped elect U.S. Navy veteran Rick Scott governor twice, then helped send the Republican to the U.S. Senate.  He was replaced by former Congressman Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican and now the youngest governor in the country, just 42 when he took office.

The Villages are represented in the House by Republican Daniel Webster. Almost all of the county supervisors in Sumter, Lake and Marion counties, on which The Villages are built, are Republican. 

Sumter county routinely has the highest voter turnout in the entire state. Trump was swept into office in 2016, but his margin over Hillary Clinton was 1.2 percent in Florida. That’s about 112,900 votes.

Things have changed over the last four years, and now there is much more support here for Democrat Joe Biden. Disenchanted Republicans have been coming in to The Villages Democratic Club headquarters in Wildwood, the largest in Florida, since May to complain about Trump and ask how they can volunteer to help Biden’s campaign, says its president, Chris Stanley. 

She estimates 5.8 percent of Republicans in The Villages who voted for Trump in 2016 will vote for Biden on Tuesday. The disaffected cite three big reasons for switching candidates. 

“Reason number one is his handling of the coronavirus and his lack of leadership.  Reason number two is his view of military veterans as ‘suckers’ and ‘losers.’ They don’t like that. Reason number three is policy, the elimination [deferral] of the payroll tax [to mitigate economic effects of pandemic shutdowns], because it will affect their children and grandchildren.”

Republican Voters Against Trump recently completed a $3 million disgruntled-voter billboard campaign across Central Florida with messages like “I’m a Republican.  I’m a patriot.  I’m voting Biden.” … “I’m a Republican. I’m a Marine veteran.  I’m voting Biden.” …  “I’m a Republican. I’m a Christian. I’m voting Biden.”

“A lot of Republican voters are going to be casting their votes for Joe Biden because the last four years, what they expected they were going to get from the Trump administration has not been what they want, and Joe Biden is offering them an alternative to bring this country back,” says Daniel Henry, a young, Black Republican voter.

This year more than 40 percent of the state’s 14.4 million registered voted early, and Florida election experts predict the turnout in 2020 will exceed the 1992 record of 83 percent -- which could mean more than 100,000 from The Villages alone. There are signs that Florida could swing to the Democratic side, much as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin flipped to the GOP four years ago, and The Villages, so solid-red for so long, will contribute to this swing.

Jim McCraw is a semi-retired writer and columnist. He has been a resident of The Villages for nearly five years.

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