TACO War Timeline

More comments on the US-Israeli war on Iran in left and right columns, from contributing pundits to The Hustings. To add your voice, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean left or right in the subject line.

TACO Exit -- To exit this "effort" without a claimable win would be the ultimate TACO. Could Donald J. Trump claim killing Ayatollah Khamenei was enough, and excuse the ensuing days/weeks of fighting with blather? Maaaaybe, but I think he'll want more.

Or, Hegseth can join Noem. –Hugh Hansen

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CITIZEN PUNDITS -- You are invited to our first in the Debate & Donuts Series, Talking With, Not At: “Has the Trump economy made life more affordable for Americans?” at The Allen Theatre & Salamander Bookstore Café in Annville Township, Pennsylvania, next Wednesday, March 11. EMAIL us at editors@thehustings.news to confirm your attendance. It’s free and open to the public as audience members or participants in the debate. --Editors

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FRIDAY 3/6/26

War Goes to ‘15’

More comments on the US-Israeli war on Iran in right and left columns, from contributing pundits to The Hustings. To add your voice, email editors@thehustings.news and please indicate whether you lean right or left in the subject line.

Eight-Week Timeline is Achievable -- The US and Israeli military are performing magnificently – “about a 15” on a scale of 10, according to President Trump. Secretary of War Hegseth’s eight-week timeline seems achievable, given the decisive strikes that have crippled Iran’s nuclear sites and proxy networks. This preemptive action wasn’t about regime change or bowing to Benjamin Netanyahu, but about preventing future threats from a regime bent on nuclear armament and exporting terror. As a result of Operation Epic Fury, the Iranian people themselves – along with those living under constant threat across the Middle East – will be far safer. A short campaign to restore deterrence, without endless entanglement, safeguards America ... and it was long overdue. –Rich Corbett

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FRIDAY 3/6/26

SCOTUS Nixes Tariffs

IEEPA Does Not Authorize Trump Tariffs -- President Trump cannot impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) the US Supreme Court has ruled in Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump. In its ruling Friday morning, Chief Justice John Roberts Friday writes; "The President asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope. In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it."

Roberts read a 10-minute summary of the decision Friday morning with no oral dissents. SCOTUSblog reports a 6-3 decision with Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh dissenting. Solicitor Gen. John Sauer and attorney Neal Katyal, who argued against the tariffs, were present in court for the opinion.

•••

Disappointing GDP – Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of just 1.4% for the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s less than expected according to APR’s Marketplace, which notes the government shutdown last autumn and softer-than-expected holiday spending did not help. Annual GDP growth was 4.4% for the previous quarter.

Meanwhile … Touring a steel plant in Rome, Georgia, Thursday President Trump said this: “What word have you not heard the last few weeks? Affordability. Because I won. I won affordability.”

Trump cited lower gas and used car prices, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

•••

10 Days in February/March – President Trump at his first Board of Peace meeting in Washington Thursday “weighed” a limited strike against military or government targets in Iran if he does not get a nuclear deal with the country, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We’re going to make a deal or get a deal one way or another,” Trump said.

He said he would decide within the next 10 days. Later, his timeline was expanded to two weeks.

“Only President Trump knows what he may or may not do,” said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly.

This all came amidst a military buildup with 12 warships in the region, including a second strike group led by the USS Gerald R. Ford.

“There’s another beautiful armada floating beautifully toward Iran right now,” Trump said.

About the board … The Board of Peace in its first meeting pledged $7 billion from member countries to contribute to the rebuilding of Gaza, even as disarming Hamas “remains a challenge,” according to Semafor. Chairman for Life Donald J. Trump said the US will donate $10 billion to the board, though he did not suggest where the tax money would come from (or where the money might end up after he leaves the White House, while remaining chairman, in 2029).

Amidst concerns that the Board of Peace, which has been joined by such countries as Hungary, Argentina, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, but not France, Germany, Denmark, the UK or Canada will replace the United Nations, CfL Trump suggested it will ensure the UN will “run properly” and hinted at future involvement elsewhere. –TL

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THURSDAY 2/19/26

(Ex-) Royal Arrest – Police arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, ‘Randy Andy’ Thursday morning after the latest release of Epstein Files by the US Department of Justice revealed that the Andrew formerly known as Prince had released sensitive government documents and commercial information to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy. The Guardian quotes former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying, “I have submitted a five-page memorandum to the Metropolitan, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and other relevant UK police constabularies.”

Ex-Prince Andrew’s brother, King Charles, said the “law must take its course.”

Police searched Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former house at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, as well as addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk, according to the newspaper. The former prince turned 66 Thursday.

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The Art of Dragging Out Peace Talks – It has been repeated many times by critics of the current administration that President Trump had promised to bring peace to Ukraine on day-one of his second term. Thanks to a deal Moscow is dangling in front of the White House, it looks like it will not happen without Ukraine’s surrender of all the Donbas region and probably questionable security guarantees from the US and NATO.

After two days of trilateral negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner mediating, even Ukrainian diplomats indicated a bit of progress (perhaps the progress is that they were at the same table with the Kremlin and Washington?).

That might not matter if President Trump bites at Kremlin negotiators led by Vladimir Medinsky who have placed $14 trillion worth of business deals between Russia and the US on the table in exchange for the US dropping its sanctions. The Kremlin’s offer was reported by NPR’s Charles Maynes on Morning Edition.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the talks brought the sides closer to a detailed framework for ceasefire monitoring, according to The Kyiv Independent, but the “political track” remains contentious, especially on the issue of territory.

Zelenskyy told Piers Morgan on YouTube’s Piers Morgan Uncensored: "Thousands, dozens of thousands of Ukrainians have been killed on this direction, defending this part of Ukraine. We have to understand that Donbas is part of our independence. It’s a part of our values. It’s not about the land. It’s not only about territories. It’s about people.” –TL

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WEDNESDAY 2/18/26

‘Difficult’ Peace Talks – Results of the second day of trilateral talks with the US mediating peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia might be called “mixed,” though on the positive side of mixed. The second day of negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, ended after approximately two hours, according to news reports.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky described the talks “difficult but practical” and said the next session is expected “soon,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his countries are ready to monitor a ceasefire, if there is political will to enforce it, The Kyiv Independent reports.

“They have basically agreed on almost everything,” Zelenskyy said, leaving open the question of what sticking points remain as the Russia’s war on Ukraine approaches its fifth year.

Monitoring would definitely involve the US, Zelenskyy said, calling this a constructive signal.

“We can see that some ground work has been laid, but positions remain different, as the negotiations were difficult,” Zelenskyy said.

•••

The Paramount View – CNN’s Anderson Cooper announced he is leaving CBS News’ 60 Minutes Tuesday, as millions of fans of CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert flocked to that show’s YouTube channel to watch the host’s interview with US Senate candidate and Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. By early Wednesday, Colbert’s interview with Talarico had chalked up 5.3 million views on YouTube.

Colbert told viewers Monday that CBS attorneys had warned him “in no uncertain terms” that he “could not have” Talarico, who is campaigning for the Democratic nomination for the seat currently held by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), “on the broadcast.” This came after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr suggested that talk shows might no longer be exempt from the “equal time” rule requiring all candidates in a political race be given the chance to appear.

On Tuesday’s Late Show, Colbert displayed a copy of a statement released by CBS attorneys that the show “was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

Colbert countered the attorneys’ Tuesday statement, telling his Tuesday night audience that “every word” of Monday night’s script that revealed CBS attorneys’ prohibition of the Talarico interview was “approved by CBS’s lawyers who, for the record, approve every script that goes on the air.”

The host then “curbed” the attorneys’ contradicting printed statement in a dog-poop bag. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is scheduled to end in May, and it’s clear Colbert is prepared for a potential early exit.

Applying the equal time rule to broadcasts of The Late Show or Jimmy Kimmel Live would require five interviews prior to the Texas primary March 3, including Talarico and fellow Democrat and US Rep. Crockett. Cornyn is being challenged in a who’s-MAGAier race on the GOP side by Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton and US Rep. Wesley Hunt.

On Morning Edition Wednesday, NPR’s David Folkenflik connected censorship of broadcast of the Colbert-Talarico interview with CBS owner Paramount-Skydance’s attempt to buy Warner Brothers Discovery. Paramount-Skydance is owned by David Ellison, son of Trump supporter and Oracle founder Larry Ellison. The attempted purchase is funded in part by the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, Folkenflik noted. And target of their intended purchase, Warner Brothers Discovery, owns among other media entities, CNN, whose premier prime time news show is Anderson Cooper 360. –TL

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TUESDAY 2/17/26

Geneva Twofer – Indirect talks between the US and Iran have resumed Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland, The New York Timesreports, with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner also taking on US-Russia-Ukraine peace talks in a two-day meeting. This US diplomacy double-duty doesn’t bode well for Ukraine’s interests, as Russia has signaled it will take a harder line on a peace deal, according to The Kyiv Independent.

“This time, we intend to discuss a wider range of issues,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “including, in fact, the main issue that concerns both the territories and everything else related to our demands.”

Oman Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi is hosting US-Iranian talks, according to the NYT, with emphasis as usual on the Trump administration’s attempt to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. The White House has ordered a buildup of US forces in the region, including two aircraft carriers. Countries in the region are worried potential US strikes on Iran could destabilize the Middle East and endanger US allies that host American soldiers in the region.

Iranian diplomats have indicated a willingness to pause enrichment of uranium, according to The Wall Street Journal, move some stockpiles offshore to a third party such as Russia and in an appeal to Trump’s Art of the Deal inclinations, cut business deals with the US. But Iran has not floated the definitive halt to enrichment that Trump has demanded.

Trump’s deployment of two aircraft carriers to the region in fact has been countered by this bellicose reaction from Iran’s leader, Ayatollah Khamenei: “An aircraft carrier is certainly a dangerous piece of equipment. But more dangerous than the carrier is the weapon that can send it to the bottom of the sea.” –TL

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After Munich -- PRESIDENTS DAY 2/16/26

Dealing With Russia – Special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner are “upbeat” about the latest round of talks with Russia and Ukraine to begin Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is a bit more cautious.

“The answer is, we don’t know. We don’t know the Russians are serious about ending the war,” Rubio said, per NPR’s Charles Maynes on Morning Edition. “They say they are, and under what terms they’re willing to do it and whether we can find terms that are acceptable to Ukraine that Russia will agree to. But we’re going to continue to do it.”

The Kremlin indicates it prefers diplomacy to war, but that its victory is inevitable and will continue to take it by force to the point it can convince the US that Ukraine’s case – including holding on to the portion of territory in Donbas Oblast that it hasn’t already lost to Russia – is hopeless. The Kremlin is trying to convince the Trump White House that once it is past this, Russia and the US can get back to business and investment, Maynes reports. Witkoff sees doing business in the region is key to bridging differences with Ukraine, he says.

At the Munich Security Conference last weekend Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, “The Americans often return to the topic of concessions and too often those discussions are … discussed only in the context of Ukraine. Not Russia.”

Kinder, gentler US … Last year Vice President JD Vance chastised Europe for stifling freedom of speech by limiting access to Europe’s far-right politicians and parties. This year Rubio told the conference Europe and the US “belong together,” The New York Times reports.

“We want Europe to be strong,” Rubio said. World Wars I and II are a reminder that “our destiny is and always will be intertwined with yours.”

UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer, who so far has survived revelations in the Epstein Files that his ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, leaked sensitive government documents to Jeffrey Epstein, conceded at the conference that it’s time for Europe to step up and defend itself.

“As Europe, we must stand on our own two feet,” Starmer said.

Meanwhile, Hungary … At a joint press conference in Budapest Rubio told Viktor Orbán, who is up for re-election April 12, that President Trump is “deeply committed to your success,” The Guardian reports Monday.

“We are entering the golden era of relations between our countries and not simply because of the alignment of our people,” Rubio said. “But because of the relationship you have with the president of the United States.”

Last Saturday Orbán, Hungary’s PM since 2010, told the Munich Security Conference that the European Union, not Russia, is the “real threat” to his Hungary. Orbán’s Fidesz is effectively Hungary’s only party, and another term is virtually guaranteed in eight weeks.

Trump’s support, then, is of very little surprise.

Killing of a Russian dissident … Monday, February 16 – Presidents Day in the US – marks two years since the killing of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny in a maximum-security prison in the Russian Arctic. On Saturday, the foreign ministries of Britain, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands released a statement that Navalny’s body showed the presence of traces of epibatidine, a toxic substance found in a South American frog, according to The New York Times.

“Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America,” the statement reads. “It is not found naturally in Russia.”

After a weeklong battle in 2024, Russia released Navalny’s body to his mother, according to the report.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria V. Zakharova told the state-owned Tass news agency that the statement from the five European nations is a “PR campaign to deflect attention from pressing issues in the West.”

Addressing the Munich Security Conference Saturday, the dissident’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, said, “I want to repeat: Vladimir Putin killed my husband, Alexei Navalny, using a chemical weapon. Of course, it’s not news that Vladmir Putin is a killer, but now we have yet another direct piece of proof.” –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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PRESIDENTS DAY MONDAY 2/16/26

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.

•••

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!”

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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

Is This Any Way to Run a Country?

Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

The government shutdown continues.

If a functioning government is a good thing, then why isn’t Donald Trump trying to get it up and running rather than simply claiming that the Democrats want to fund the healthcare of illegal aliens?

Never mind the absurdity of that claim, but aren’t all of those ICE agents supposed to be ridding the country of illegal aliens?

Then there is the whole question of putting the National Guard in the streets of American cities even though governors like Gavin Newsom and JB Pritzker have said they don’t want them.

Conservatives used to believe in the sanctity of state’s rights. This is crushing that with a boot.

Rather than providing substantive reasons for troop deployments, Donald Trump simply makes unsubstantiated claims about the amount of crime that’s occurring and calls those two governors insulting names.

Is this how the president of the country should deal with governors?

Ironically enough, in the Federalist No. 46 James Madison wrote:

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."

Which seems to indicate that Newsom and Pritzker, not Donald Trump, should have control over the National Guard in the states.

But should we expect those who govern the country to be familiar with what are arguably founding documents of the country?

On September 1 on his site Donald Trump posted:

"Pam, nothing is being done!!! What Comey, Sh’ Schiff, Letitia??? They all guilty as hell, nothing is to be done. We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, indicted me 5 times OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!"

Presumably the “Pam” in question is the US Attorney General.

Subsequently James Comey and Letitia James have been charged, the former for making false statements (rich in the context of the Donald Trump Administration) and obstructing a congressional investigation, the latter for mortgage fraud (rich in the context of Donald Trump being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree).

Adam Schiff is under investigation for fraud (mortgage, bank, and wire) and for making false statements to financial institution’s (rich in the context of Donald Trump’s felony convictions in New York for inflating and deflating the value of properties to either get better loans or to decrease tax exposure). Schiff has yet to be charged (though by the time you read this. . . .)

Is the post directed to Ms. Bondi the sort of thing that a president should be writing? Didn’t the Supreme Court rule in Coffin v. United States (1895) “It is a maxim of law that every person must be presumed innocent until proven guilty”?

On October 10 China announced it would restrict the exports of rare earths, materials that are essential for the production of everything from electric motors to smart phones. China has an estimated 60% of all the rare earth mining in the world and performs 90% of the processing (after it is dug up it needs to be processed to become useful).

Donald Trump immediately took to his social media site and said he would put 100% tariffs on Chinese imports as “immediate and full retaliation” for what he considers “hostile and monopoly behavior.”

It should be noted that the US does have rare earths, as do Brazil, India, Australia, and Canada. It is interesting to note that the US’s once very good friend Canada has 15.2 million tonnes of rare earths in the ground — and the US has 1.9 million. Wouldn’t it be advantageous to try to rebuild the relationships that Donald Trump wrecked?

Anyway. . .there is no monopoly.

The US markets had a negative reaction to Trump’s post — on the order of $2 trillion — so a week ago Sunday the tone changed to “the US would like to help China, not hurt it. Don’t worry about China, it will be all fine!”

Is this how diplomacy is carried out: by a series of social media posts that include unfounded information?

The Administration has struck a deal with EMD Serono that, in part, will have the division of Merck provide in vitro fertilization medications to American women at a deep discount. The drug company will be relieved on Section 232 tariffs as long as it puts in more US manufacturing and performs more research here.

While this is certainly a good thing for the women who are considering IVF, which is exceedingly expensive, it does seem to be a bit of a shakedown for the company – again, something that conservatives are not in favor of.

In order to access these drugs it will be necessary to go the TrumpRx.gov website.

What seems to be forgotten in what is going on is that Donald Trump is serving the American people. The citizens are paying for that website, Donald Trump isn’t. If there is a governments website for prescription drugs, shouldn’t it be something like “AmericaRx.gov”?

How Conservatives can find any of this behavior acceptable is a mystery.

As Russell Kirk wrote:

“A state in which an individual or a small group are able to dominate the wills of their fellows without check is a despotism, whether it is called monarchical or aristocratic or democratic.”

He is undoubtedly rolling in his grave in Mecosta, Michigan.

Macaulay is pundit-at-large for The Hustings.

•••

Commentary on Saturday’s No Kings from a contributing pundit, who, unlike Stephen Macaulay, is not a never-Trump conservative -- A great reminder to rewatch Nixon's "Silent Majority" speech on Saturday! –RJ Caster

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MONDAY 10/20/25

…meanwhile…

(President Biden expressed doubts ex-President Trump would accept a loss, in an interview taped for CBS Sunday Morning. Scroll down the center column for details.)

Ukraine Takes Kursk – Although not officially connected to Ukraine’s invasion of the western Russian region of Kursk, a column of Russian military vehicles and personnel “was destroyed” there, The Kyiv Independent reports Friday, citing Suspilne and the independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo. Kursk Oblast is the location of the Ukrainian military’s incursion this week into Russia.

The report was corroborated by pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Rybar, which said that a local resident who filmed the attack handed the video over to Ukrainian media but has been arrested by Russian authorities. In the BBC’s report on the incursion, a reporter says Russian media have been unusually frank in reporting on Ukraine’s success in the region.

•••

That Mar-a-Lago Presser – Ex-President Trump’s hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago Thursday was “rambling and chaotic” according to NPR’s Morning Edition and by now you’ve heard the highlights.

This one stands out: “Nobody’s spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours – same real estate, same everything, same number of people if not – we had more.”

That’s right, Donald J. Trump was comparing the peaceful 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to his January 6, 2021, speech at the Ellipse leading up to the attack on the US Capitol. He described his White House departure in the presser as “peaceful.”

The country is in mortal danger if Trump does not win the November 5 presidential election, he said, predicting war and a depression on the level of the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Asked about his remarks before the National Association of Black Journalists last week suggesting that his Democratic challenger, Vice President Kamala Harris changed her ethnicity, Trump called her “very disrespectful” of both her mother’s Indian heritage and her father’s Jamaican heritage.

Describing Harris’ appeal, Trump said; “She’s a woman. She represents certain groups of people.” (Direct quotes per The New York Times.)

--TL

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THURSDAY 8/8/24

Trump Agrees to Three Debates -- Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump announced at a "rare" Mar-a-Lago press conference that he has agreed to three debates with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris (per Politico). They are to be on Fox News September 4, ABC on September 10 and NBC on September 25.

•••

It’s About Cars? – President Biden is pretty sure Donald J. Trump will resist defeat in the November 5 presidential election. On CBS Sunday Morning Robert Costa asks Biden if he’s “confident there will be a peaceful transition of power in January of 2025?”

“If Trump loses, no I’m not,” the president responds. “I’m not confident at all. He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it. All this stuff about if we lose it’ll be a bloodbath … Look what they’re trying to do in the local election districts where the people count the votes … putting people in place where they’re going to count the votes.”

The full interview runs Sunday morning, August 11, between 9 am and 10:30 am Eastern time.

Republican reaction: Trump defenders say his statement earlier this year that there “will be a bloodbath” was a warning about the US auto industry if Chinese automakers are allowed importation without serious tariffs (Biden has imposed a 102.5% tariff on Chinese-built EVs). The former president’s comments came after the United Auto Workers’ leadership endorsed the Democratic ticket.

Flashback: In the Trump-Biden debate in late June, the one that led to Biden stepping down from his re-election campaign, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Trump three times whether he will accept the results of this November’s election.

After some evasion and downplaying of his role in the January 6^th attack on the US Capitol, when Bash asked; “yes or no?” on that third attempt, Trump replied, “absolutely” he would accept results if the election was “fair and good.”

NOTE: Don’t miss Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s commentary, “Letter from the President” in the right column.

•••

Reports: Ukraine Pushes Into Russia – Ukraine forces launched on Tuesday “an ambitious operation” across Russia’s western border at Kursk Oblast in large numbers,” The Kyiv Independent reports, citing a mix of sources. Officials in Kyiv have so far been silent about the offensive.

But Russia’s defense ministry says the invasion involves a Ukrainian force likely involving 100s of troops and dozens of vehicles, according to the report. A “visibly frustrated” Vladimir Putin called the offensive a “large-scale provocation” and accused Ukrainian forces of shelling residential areas, in a short, televised address on Wednesday.

The Independent reports no official announcements from Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spoken to his commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, and said “details would follow later.”

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

(President Biden expressed doubts ex-President Trump would accept a loss, in an interview taped for CBS Sunday Morning. […]

The Biden Bubble

THURSDAY July 4, 2024

THE LATEST -- Donald J. Trump has extended his lead to six points over President Biden, the widest margin since late 2021, in a poll by The Wall Street Journal begun two days after the presidential debate. That's a bump from a two-point Trump lead in February. Also, 80% told the WSJ poll they consider Biden too old to run for a second term as president.

Meanwhile... President Biden has told key allies he understands the coming days of campaigning are "crucial" and that he may not be able to salvage his bid for a second term if he can't convince the voting public he is up to the task, The New York Times reports. Biden is scheduled for a Friday interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC News, plus campaign stops in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

"He knows if he has two more events like that , we're in a different place," one of the allies told the NYT.

But in a call to his campaign staff, Biden said, "No one's pushing me out. I'm not leaving."

And White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president told her directly he had not spoken with allies about dropping out of the race.

__________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 7/3/24

A clear divide is bubbling to the surface between rank & file Democrats and the president's close advisors, friends and family, after his disastrous performance in last Thursday’s debate with Donald J. Trump.

“In private, Democrats panic. For the Biden campaign, everything is fine,” reads a Wednesday headline in The Washington Post.

Veteran Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) became the first, and so far only, Congress member to call on Biden to step down from his campaign, telling NPR’s Morning Edition “we have a criminal and a gang who are about to take over our government.”

The issue is not with Biden’s first three-and-a-half years, which most mainstream Dems heartily applaud. It’s about the next half-year, which Biden simply cannot win as far as they’re concerned.

“I think he’s behind and we need to put our best people forward,” Doggett told NPR. “I think the concerns I’m voicing are widespread.”

The Biden camp, consisting of his family and long-time advisors including Jennifer O’Malley, Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Bruce Reed, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients and his chief of staff while vice president, Steve Richetti, should be conferring with him at Camp David this long July 4 weekend. If any single one of them can pop Biden’s bubble and convince him it will take a younger Democrat to keep Trump out of office, the Democratic campaign for president will change very quickly.

We would say this will turn the 2024 presidential election on its head, but that happened nearly a year ago, when Donald J. Trump announced he would run for the Republican nomination. If Biden refuses to end his re-election campaign, “down-ballot” Democrats including House candidates, who until now were confident their party would flip the Republican Party’s wafer-thin margin in the lower chamber fear they will lose seats and not have the majority necessary to slow a second Trump administration’s radical agenda.

To that point, Biden Wednesday morning issued a memo to his House allies that shows still-tight internal polling and greater fundraising than the Trump campaign in June. The Biden campaign “significantly outraised” the Trump campaign, $127 million to $112 million, according to the memo, revealed to Politico.

--Todd Lassa

__________________________________________

SCOTUS' 6-3 ruling Monday granting ex-President Trump immunity from official acts in connection with the January 6^thattack on the US Capitol remains the topic of political discussion leading into the nation’s 248^th birthday Thursday. Should we consider 248 years without a king a pretty good run?

End of Democracy? -- TUESDAY 7/2/24

Trump Gets Another Court Delay -- Sentencing of Donald J. Trump on his conviction in a Manhattan court for falsifying business records in connection with a hush-money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels has been rescheduled from next Thursday, July 11 -- four days before the Republican National Convention begins -- to Wednesday, September 18, according to The Wall Street Journal. How did Trump manage yet another court delay? Two extra months gives Judge Juan Merchan time to consider whether the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity affects Trump's conviction.

More from Sotomayor – Monday we repeated Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s (pictured) minority opinion in which she was joined by justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson in concluding; “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

Sotomayor began her dissent thusly: “Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency. It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law. Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for ‘bold and unhesitating action’ by the President … the Court gives President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more.”

_____________________________________

TRUMP WINS IMMUNITY -- MONDAY 7/1/24

UPDATE: SCOTUS Hands Trump ‘A Major Victory’ – A US president has “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” the Supreme Court said in a 6-3 ruling, which Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign calls “a major victory.” But the ruling, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, sends the issue back to Tanya Chutkan, US district court judge for the District of Columbia, for the question of which acts Trump allegedly committed in conjunction with the January 6^th attack on the Capitol are “official” and which are not (per NPR and the AP).

Delay is a win… Punting back “official” versus “unofficial” acts to Chutkan gives Trump the big win, as there is no chance special counsel Jack Smith’s case will come back to the district court before November 5. If Trump wins the presidential race, the case will die under his Justice Department.

Opinions… Roberts’ majority opinion says the district and appeals courts did not take sufficient time to consider the questions of immunity and official v. unofficial acts. Writing for the minority, which included fellow liberals Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor writes that the majority opinion “reshapes the institution of the presidency,” and concludes: “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

•••

Post-Presidential Immunity? – The Supreme Court Monday will issue its ruling on whether Donald J. Trump has immunity as an ex-president, in special counsel Jack Smith’s case charging him for his alleged efforts to block Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. SCOTUS also will issue its ruling on whether states, specifically Florida and Texas, can restrict social media companies from removing certain political posts or accounts, The Washington Post reports. Then SCOTUS goes on vacation until the first Monday in October.

•••

France Turns Right – As Democrats wring their hands over whether it has a better chance of not losing to Donald J. Trump this November with a new presidential candidate brokered at its Chicago convention this August, the far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen was leading France’s parliamentary elections after the first round of votes Sunday. The Wall Street Journal quotes a Harris Interactive poll that says National Rally and its allies took 34% of the first-round votes to 30% for a coalition of leftist parties.

President Emmanuel Macron, who surprised and upset his supporters when he called for snap elections last month, clearly has lost – his pro-business party and its allies were in third place with just 22% of the votes.

“I have never seen France more divided,” remarked NPR’s veteran Paris correspondent, Eleanor Beardsley.

•••

Britain to Turn Left? – The UK’s parliamentary elections are Thursday, July 4, where the Labour Party, led by former public prosecutor and human rights attorney Keir Starmer, has led the Conservative Party by double-digits for 18 months, according to The New York Times. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, of the Conservative Party, called for the elections in May, the first full parliamentary elections since December 2019, when Boris Johnson won in a landslide victory for the Conservatives, who have led since 2010.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

THURSDAY July 4, 2024 THE LATEST — Donald J. Trump has extended his lead to six points over […]

…meanwhile…

Defense rested without testimony from accused business document falsifier Donald J. Trump in his "hush-money" trial Tuesday. Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled closing arguments for next Tuesday. Meanwhile, President Biden has reacted with a campaign video on X (above) to the 30-second Truth Social video posted Monday afternoon touting a second-term Trump administration that contained two visual text references to "unified Reich" along with hypothetical headlines crediting Trump with deporting millions and creating economic boom.

FRIDAY 5/24/24

South Carolina Voting Map is a Go – The U.S. Supreme Court threw out, 6-3, a federal district court ruling holding that a congressional district on the South Carolina coast was an unconstitutional gerrymander that sorted voters primarily by race, per SCOTUSblog. SCOTUS’ decision clears the way for South Carolina’s Republican statehouse majority to use the map the federal district court had blocked.

The ruling, along conservative-liberal lines, “sets a high bar for plaintiffs to meet in future gerrymander cases,” SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe writes.

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the decision for the majority.

•••

No Abortion Pills in Louisiana – Gov. Jeff Landry (R) is expected to sign a bill passed by the Louisiana state legislature Thursday that reclassifies two abortion-inducing drugs as controlled and dangerous substances, the AP reports. Doctors have said the drugs, mifepristone and misopristal, are used for other reproductive health care needs.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports Friday that East Coast abortion clinics have experienced a surge in traffic since a Florida law banning most abortions took effect.

•••

Clash of the Libertarians – GOP presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are headed for a clash, The Hill reports, this weekend as both are scheduled to speak to the Libertarian Party’s national convention in Washington, D.C.

•••

Border Bill Blocked, Again – Senate Republicans blocked for a second time advance of the bipartisan border enforcement bill that languished earlier this year after Donald J. Trump told his party to keep it off the books so he could continue to use the issue to challenge President Biden, per The New York Times. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he advanced the bill for a second time in order to “remind” voters that Republicans have stood in the way of its passage.

--TL

__________________________________________

THURSDAY 5/23/24

Repeat the Latest Lie? –The authoritarian’s art of restructuring “facts” by repeating lies until the general population believes them has worked well for Donald J. Trump – who continues to insist he’s the rightful winner of the 2020 presidential election – so why not expand the program?

Trump was to hold his next campaign rally in Brooklyn Wednesday according to NPR’s Morning Edition, so we will soon see whether the former president repeats the lie that the current president’s Justice Department was ready to have him shot during the FBI’s August 2022 court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents. Trump “misrepresented” a standard DOJ statement included in such searches, according to The New York Times.

About that ‘recession’... Earlier this week The Guardian published results of a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the newspaper that says 55% of those surveyed incorrectly believe the U.S. economy is shrinking and 56% think we are in a recession, despite strong growth for real gross domestic product. Real GDP was up 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024 after a much-stronger 3.4% growth in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysts. This coincides with a bull market for stocks, with the NASDAQ and the Dow Jones Industrial Average continuing to break record highs -- the Dow is at 40,000 points.

Perhaps she wants to be UN ambassador, again… More than 10 weeks after suspending her campaign for the GOP’s presidential nomination, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley has been grabbing about one in five votes from Trump in primaries including in Indiana, Nebraska and Maryland, giving never-Trumper Republicans and moderates hope for a backup plan in case, say, the former president’s falsified business records/hush money case actually does him in. When Haley dropped out of the race, she said she could not vote for Trump this November.

Now, Haley, at a speech before The Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. says that while she does not like everything Trump has done and said, “Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.”

Clearly, she agrees with the 55%-56% majority in the Harris poll, above.

•••

Independence Day – British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak “stunned” ministers of parliament from his conservative Tory party with his call Wednesday for elections on July 4, the Independent reports. Sunak’s call for elections followed “yet another” Tory MP announcing early retirement, when Dame Eleanor Lang said she would step down ahead of the elections.

Sunak told British news broadcasters that the U.K. economy is “going gangbusters,” after the Labour party challenged his claim the country’s economy is now growing faster than the U.S. Sunak also confirmed in the news tour that plans to fly undocumented immigrants from Great Britain to Rwanda – no matter which country they came from – would not happen until after July 4.

•••

Alito Flies Freak Flags – Legend has it that President Dwight D. Eisenhower considered his appointment of The Warren Court’s eponymous chief justice his greatest failure in two terms. By the time President George H.W. Bush nominated Robert Bork in a failed bid for the Supreme Court, Republicans and Democrats had learned to closely vet the politics of their SCOTUS nominees.

But what would Bush’s son, 43^rd President George W., think of his 2005-06 nominee, Samuel Alito? Bush isn’t likely to comment, as he has largely dropped out of public view since distancing himself from the GOP’s MAGA movement a few years ago.

SCOTUS’ nine justices, including Alito, in November 2023 signed a Code of Conduct said to be, in most cases, “not new.”

“The Court has long had the equivalent of common law ethics rules … derived from a variety of sources …” the introduction notes.

Among the rules, “A justice should not … make speeches for a political organization or candidate, or publicly endorse or oppose a candidate for public office…”

And yet, photos taken in July and September 2023, and from a Google Street View image taken in August of last year, just prior to SCOTUS signing the Code of Conduct, show an “Appeal to Heaven” pine tree flag used by the religious strand of MAGA’s “Stop the Steal” protests flown at Alito’s Long Beach Island, New Jersey beach house, according to The New York Times. This follows an NYT report that an upside-down stars-and-stripes was photographed at Alito’s suburban Washington home just after January 6, 2021.

Alito blamed the upside-down American flag on a dispute his wife had with a neighbor who had an anti-Trump sign on his front lawn. The SCOTUS justice did not respond to the Times regarding his “Appeal to Heaven” flag.

A Supreme Court decision on Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s January 6/election obstruction case is expected before SCOTUS takes its summer break.

--TL

__________________________________________

WEDNESDAY 5/22/24

Start of Backlash – The governments of Spain, Ireland and Norway announced Wednesday they recognize a Palestinian state, contending there will be no end to the conflict in the Middle East without it. The Israeli government – which has waged war on Gaza for more than eight months while refusing to delineate between itself and Jewish citizens or between Hamas and the Palestinian people – denounced this as giving aid to Hamas, The Washington Post reports.

This brings to 143 the number of nations supporting a Palestinian state, BBC News reports, and more countries are expected to sign up over the next week.

Quote: “In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side in peace and security.” – Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

•••

MAGA Win for McCarthy’s Seat – Donald J. Trump-endorsed Vince Fong has won a special election to finish out the term of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the AP reports. California state assembly member Fong, whom Trump called “a true Republican” in February, defeated Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux in the special election. It is up to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to determine timing in swearing in Fong to serve the remaining six-plus months of McCarthy’s term, though Fong clearly has the support to propel him to a re-election win this November.

•••

McAfee Wins, Willis Advances – Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee easily won a full term in Tuesday’s Georgia primary, while Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis easily won the Democratic nomination and will advance to the November general elections, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. McAfee is the judge in Willis’ case charging former President Trump and more than a dozen of his associates with election interference in 2020. Willis is expected to defeat Republican challenger Courtney Kramer in the heavily Democratic county this fall.

--TL

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 5/21/24

UPDATE -- The Trump defense team rested its case in the falsified business records/hush-money trial just after 10 a.m. Tuesday. That means the ex-president will not take the stand in his own defense. Closing arguments are to begin Tuesday, May 28, The New York Times reports.

No Trump Testimony? – Ex-President Trump’s defense attorneys have indicated they could rest their case Tuesday after calling just two witnesses to the stand, capped by Robert Costello, a former federal prosecutor who had served as a legal advisor to Michael Cohen. That would mean no testimony from Trump in a case that could go to the jury in a matter of days. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with hush-money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.

Cohen, Trump’s ex-fixer/attorney, was the prosecution’s 20^th witness, in case you’re keeping count.

Stormy Monday… Perhaps drawing on his past experience as a federal prosecutor, Costello objected out-loud from the witness stand, proclaiming “geez!” in reacting to Judge Juan Merchan sustaining an umpteenth objection by prosecutors to a question from defense. Costello then blurted out, “strike that” … again, something you do not stay if you’re not prosecution or defense trying the case.

“You don’t give me side-eye and you don’t roll your eyes,” Merchan admonished Costello, before clearing the courtroom – including reporters – presumably to further admonish defense’s witness. (From NPR’s Morning Edition and The New York Times.)

•••

Trump Drives it Home – Various news outlets, led by a full issue of The Atlantic late last year have been warning that Donald J. Trump means what he says if he wins a second presidential term this November (or should we say “when he wins…” as pundits believe he is no more likely to concede a loss this year than he did after 2020). Now comes Trump’s Truth Social account, which posted a video featuring references to “the creation of a unified Reich” with hypothetical news headlines we’d be reading next year after that presumed victory over President Biden.

Note… “Reich” is German for “empire,” by the way.

Navarro’s take… Unflinching Trump loyalist Peter Navarro, the economist who served as a White House trade advisor for the former president, predicts from prison that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell would be gone within the first 100 days of a second Trump administration, from an interview with Semafor’s Gina Ghon. Navarro is in a minimum security federal prison in Miami for refusing to cooperate with the congressional investigation into the January 6^th attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Powell, it is worth recalling, was appointed the 16^th Fed chair in 2018 by then-President Trump, who quickly grew tired of his pick because the Fed was looking to increase a then-unnaturally low U.S. inflation rate.

--TL

__________________________________________

MONDAY 5/20/24

Trump Trial Monday -- Testimony by former fixer Michael Cohen in the Donald J. Trump falsified business records case – a.k.a. “hush money” – was to continue Monday and the entire case could go to the jury by the end of the week. We also could see the ex-president himself testify in the trial, although “everybody” is advising Trump against it, according to Politico. Which is to say, legal experts “and even Trump’s political allies,” though maybe not so much political opponents, nor “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” who might take some delight in watching him bring some of his campaign rally antics to the witness stand.

No Extradition for Assange – Julian Assange has been granted permission to appeal his extradition by the U.S. in his WikiLeaks case by two high court judges in Britain, The Washington Post reports. Assange and his attorneys will be allowed full defense on First Amendment grounds, and as an Australian citizen. He has been charged in the U.S. for espionage for releasing sensitive military and diplomatic files through WikiLeaks in 2010.

If convicted of U.S. charges, Assange could face up to 175 years in prison, NPR reports.

•••

Arrest Warrants Sought for Netanyahu and Sinwar -- The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas’ Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, The Wall Street Journal reports. Netanyahu and Gallant are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the ICC, which Israel does not recognize.

Replacing Hamas… Former army chief Benny Gantz, a current minister in Israel’s three-member war cabinet also denounced the ICC prosecutor’s move. But Gantz said he would quit the Israeli government in three weeks, and potentially force new elections, if Netanyahu does not come forth with a plan to replace Hamas in Gaza with international and local Palestinian supervision.

•••

Iran ‘Copter Down – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, 63, and other top officials, including foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian are confirmed dead after a helicopter crash Sunday, according to NPR’s Morning Edition.

What it means… As president, Raisi, 63, had an administrative job with little power, but he was considered next in line to be Iran’s supreme leader as an aging Ali Khamenei prepares to step down.

•••

Biden at Morehouse – President Biden told the graduating class of historically black, all-male Morehouse College he heard voices of protest against the Israeli-Hamas war and that the conflict on Gaza breaks his heart, too, the AP reports.

“I support peaceful nonviolent protest,” Biden said in his commencement speech, where some graduates wore keffiyehs – Palestinian scarves – around their shoulders, on top of black graduation gowns. The humanitarian crisis in Gaza, he said, is “why I’ve called for an immediate cease-fire” and for Hamas to return hostages still held from the group’s October 7 surprise attack on Israel.

•••

Up on the Hill – The Senate is in session Monday, giving House representatives like Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) a free day to attend ex-President Trump’s falsified business records trial in Manhattan. Both the House and the Senate are in session Tuesday through Friday, ahead of a Memorial Day weeklong recess.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

The U.S. economy added a moderate 175,000 jobs in April, the Labor Department reported Friday. This slowing compares with 303,000 jobs added in March and has sparked a rally on Wall Street. The unemployment rate inched up to 3.9%, from a 3.8% level in March. This might be good news for the economy overall as the Federal Reserve remains concerned about inflation sticking above 3%, and will not likely cut interest rates before autumn, at best. Job gains were reported for health care, social assistance, transportation and warehousing. (Chart: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

FRIDAY 5/3/24

Biden: Stop the Chaos – President Biden took a sort of middle ground in a brief, unscheduled White House address on pro-Palestinian campus protests that have resulted in more than 2,000 arrests to date, according to NBC News.

“There’s a right to protest, but not a right to chaos,” Biden said. “People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being arrested.”

As the protests threaten to spill over to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this August, Biden rejected deploying the National Guard as some Republicans have suggested, The New York Times reports. This as Republicans hope to work the pro-Palestinian protests to their advantage in November as Democrats are working the abortion issue.

--TL

__________________________________________

THURSDAY 5/2/24

Campus Protests – New York City Mayor Eric Adams told NPR’s Morning Edition that 40% of Columbia University campus protesters of Israel’s war on Gaza are “outside agitators,” based on the arrests from when the city’s police removed students from an occupation of the school’s Hamilton Hall. Thousands of campus protesters have been arrested at campuses from the University of California Los Angeles – where police evacuated encampments Wednesday evening -- to Stony Brook on Long Island and Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire.

The question of when police will intervene in campus demonstrations varies by municipality and state, NPR reports. New York’s police department goes in only when a school calls for help, while at the University of Texas, state troopers have the support for intervention from Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Meanwhile… The House Wednesday passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, 320-91, Morning Edition reports. Introduced by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), the bill defines antisemitism as “A certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” Opposition to the bill consisted of 70 Democrats and 21 Republicans.

•••

1864 Arizona Ban Lifted – Arizona’s 1864 abortion ban was repealed by the state senate Wednesday, 16-14, with two Republicans joining all 14 Democrats in the vote (per The New York Times). Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) was expected to sign the repeal Thursday, which will replace the 1864 law with a 2022 ban on abortions after 15 weeks, but with no exceptions for rape or incest.

•••

Greene Motion – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced Wednesday she will introduce a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) next week (per CQ Roll Call), despite support from House Democrats to vote it down. Or rather, according to MTG, because of it – she wants Democrats who support Johnson to go on-record with their districts’ voters. MTG so far has but two co-sponsors for her motion to vacate next week, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ).

--TL

__________________________________________

MAY DAY 2024

Brown Deals With Protesters – The Brown Divest Coalition peacefully ended its week-long “Encampment for Gaza” at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, after university President Christina Paxson agreed to raise a divestment resolution at a corporation meeting in October, The Boston Globe reports. Paxson did not agree to demands to drop charges against 41 student protesters in an administration building last December, NPR reports, but the compromise contrasts with demonstrations at Columbia University in New York and the University of California Los Angeles where college administrators called in police to break up the protests Tuesday.

•••

Florida Ban – Florida’s strict six-week abortion ban replacing the state’s 15-week ban takes effect Wednesday, ahead of a November ballot measure to overturn the new rule. Clinic operators say the six-week ban, which makes exceptions only in rare instances, will affect at least 40,000 women per year, Politico reports. More than 6,000 women from Alabama and Georgia, two nearby states that already have very strict abortion bans, had travelled to Florida for abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

•••

Culture Wars Polled – In a clear sign of the culture wars that threaten to deepen the chasm between the two major parties for a long time to come, an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist poll released Wednesday finds that 47% of Democrats say the “rise of fascism and extremism” is their most important issue in the upcoming election, while 36% of Republicans say it is “lack of values.” Those issues for either party are by far the number-one concerns, Morning Edition reports. Republicans’ number-one concern is further described as the need to instill “children with faith in God, teaching them that hard work and discipline pay off..."

--TL

__________________________________________

TUESDAY 4/30/24

Stormy Weather – The Access Hollywood video in which Donald J. Trump describes his “grab-them-by” method of assaulting women raised interest in squelching Stormy Daniels’ story of an affair with the 2016 Republican presidential nominee, Keith Davidson, attorney for the adult film star testified Tuesday in the ex-president’s criminal trial in which he is charged with falsified business records. (Trump continues to deny the affair.) Daniels said that after the video’s release, he had “sometimes frantic” conversations with longtime fixer Michael Cohen as the November election approached, The New York Times reports.

In contempt: The judge in State of New York v. Donald John Trump, Juan Merchan, early Tuesday held the ex-president in contempt for violating a gag order by attacking witnesses in the case, including Daniels and Cohen. Fine for the nine counts is $9,000, and Merchan has issued a warning that Trump could go to jail if he continues such attacks.

Merchan gave Trump until 2:15 p.m. to remove five comments from Truth Social and two from his campaign website, which he did, NPR’s All Things Considered reports.

•••

Timely Interview – The Atlantic devoted an entire issue written by several contributors and staff journalists with “If Trump Wins” earlier this year. Further warning of an authoritarian second term is on the latest cover of Time magazine, with Eric Cortellessa’s two interviews with Donald J. Trump in Palm Beach, Florida, “How Far Trump Would Go.”

Trump confirmed to Cortellessa he would be willing to build migrant detention camps and deploy the U.S. military in deporting undocumented aliens from the United States, Cortellessa writes. He “might” fire U.S. attorneys who refuse his orders to prosecute someone; “It would depend on the situation.”

There’s much more, which every U.S. voter, Republican, Democratic, independent and third party, should read here. We’ll leave you with this quote from a sidebar to the cover story …

“If you look at the Biden administration, they’re sort of against anybody depending on certain views. They’re against Catholics. They’re against a lot of different people … I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country, and that can’t be allowed either.”

--TL

__________________________________________

MONDAY 4/29/24

Arrest ‘Both Sides’? – As House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has suggested sending the National Guard to college campuses to control pro-Palestinian student protests, the International Criminal Court is preparing an arrest warrant on charges related to the war on Hamas in Gaza for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

“If this is not contained quickly and these threats and intimidation are not stopped, the National Guard should be called in,” Johnson said, of the protests late last week.

The Israeli government’s war on Gaza is becoming to President Biden’s re-election prospects what the majority conservative Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health is to Republicans in November’s elections.

But Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who was mentioned in Sunday’s New York Times as possibly the leading candidate to become Donald J. Trump’s running mate, told Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream, “I don’t know if you need to call in the National Guard, maybe you just call in the police.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told anchor Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, “I think calling in the National Guard to college campuses for so many people would recall what was done during the Vietnam War, and it did not end well.”

Meanwhile … the Biden White House continues in earnest to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting early in the week with top Arab diplomats, according to The New York Times. Blinken has been urging Hamas leadership to accept Israel’s “extraordinarily generous” cease-fire offer.

That offer… Includes releasing “thousands” of Palestinians held in Israel, and a 40-day ceasefire, according to the BBC.

WCK returns to Gaza … Chef Jośe Anďres’ World Central Kitchen has resumed food delivery to Gaza, The Washington Postreports, less than a month after seven of its workers trying to deliver food to Palestinians were killed in a drone attack by the Israeli military.

•••

About that Pennsylvania Primary – Pundits in Pennsylvania are still talking about former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s showing in last Tuesday’s primary election, in which she got 16.6% of the vote against ex-President Trump despite having ended her candidacy – or should we say suspending her candidacy? -- March 6. A bit more startingly, Haley got 20% of the vote in heavily Republican Lancaster County, LNP/Lancaster Online reports.

Incumbent President Biden did not have an easy time of it in the swing state himself, however, where Rep. Dean Philips (D-MN), who also dropped out of the race March 6, got 5.4% of Lancaster County’s Democratic votes. Both county breakouts to LNP were courtesy Berwood Yost, director of Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research and the Floyd Institute for Public Policy.

•••

Read the Right Column – In “The Biden Shuffle,” Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay discusses the president’s low step height and his low approval rating. >>>>>>>>>>>>

•••

Up on the Hill – Both the House and Senate are in-session Monday through Thursday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____

Trump Legal Scorecard

[CPI at 3.2% -- As some economists (and the Biden campaign) eagerly anticipate an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve sometime this year, the Consumer Price Index has ticked up to 3.2% in February, from an annual rate of 3.1% in January, the Labor Department reports. That’s the wrong direction from the Fed’s target 2% rate. The month-over-month increase was 0.4%, with shelter and gas accounting for 60% of the increase. Energy was up 2.3%, while food, and food at home, was unchanged.]

IDES OF MARCH 2024

Fulton County, Georgia – Atlanta Judge Scott McAfee ruled Friday morning that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can remain on the election interference case against Donald J. Trump, but only if her former romantic partner, Nathan Wade, withdraws from the case …

Mar-a-Lagogate – U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appears to have handed prosecutors in the confidential documents case against Trump a win by ruling against the ex-president’s attorneys’ motion that the Espionage Act behind the indictments are “unconstitutionally vague.” However, Newsweek notes that Trump appointee Cannon instructed his attorneys in the ruling that they should bring up the “unconstitutionally vague” argument in “connection with the jury instruction briefing” …

Hush Money Case – New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg says his office is willing to delay Trump’s hush money case after receiving late evidence from the U.S. attorney’s office, to give defense attorneys sufficient time for review. The trial was scheduled to begin March 25, and may now be delayed by 30 days.

--TL

•••

The Schumer-Netanyahu Split – After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called for new Israeli elections on π day Thursday in frustration over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence on a ceasefire in Gaza, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took to the Senate floor to “remind” Schumer that Israel is not an American colony, calling his remarks “grotesque” and “unprecedented” (per Punchbowl News).

But just as Netanyahu’s hard-right coalition continues to consider Palestinians and their Hamas “leadership” in Gaza one and the same, so too do the staunchest U.S. supporters of Netanyahu refuse to distinguish between the Israeli government and the Jewish people. This despite the fact that even before the vicious, horrible Hamas attack October 7, Netanyahu was long-resistant to a two-state solution with Palestinians in Gaza.

Meanwhile ...

Gaza's health ministry has accused Israel's military of firing on Palestinians awaiting aid in Gaza, killing 20 and injuring 150, The Guardian reports. The Israeli military denies the reports.

Influencing our November election

In trying to save his own power, Netanyahu has helped to throw the November U.S. presidential election to Donald J. Trump, and he knows it. Biden has ceded substantial votes to “uncommitted” in the Michigan and Minnesota Democratic primaries as he tries to negotiate a ceasefire in Gaza in vain.

While Biden has known Netanyahu for a very long time, going back to his time in the Senate, Trump and Netanyahu had a closer relationship during the Trump administration – until Netanyahu congratulated Biden for his victory in 2020, which of course led Trump to criticize the Israeli prime minister for his “disloyalty.”

If Netanyahu continues to reject ceasefire in Gaza (it is necessary to note that Hamas has done very little to help, either) the Israeli prime minister might very well be able to make it up to Trump by congratulating him this November.

--Analysis by Todd Lassa

____________________________________________

THURSDAY π Day 2024

Schumer Calls for Israeli Elections -- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), wants Israel to hold new elections, saying its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has "lost his way" (per The Hill). "As a lifelong supporter of Israel, it has become clear to me: The Netanyahu coalition no longer fits the needs of Israel after October 7," Schumer continued. "The world has changed -- radically -- since then, and the Israeli people are being stifled right now by a governing vision that is stuck in the past."

•••

VP to Abortion Clinic -- Vice President Kamala Harris visits a Twin Cities, Minnesota abortion clinic Thursday, Axios reports, a first-ever such appearance by a sitting veep according to the White House.

•••

Meanwhile, in Ft. Pierce, Florida – Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon holds a hearing Thursday morning on two of the ex-president’s requests to dismiss his 40-count federal indictment in Mar-a-Lagogate. Donald J. Trump’s attorneys claim the section of the Espionage Act accusing him of mishandling classified documents and obstructing federal officials’ attempts to get them back to the National Archives Washington is “unconstitutionally vague as applied to President Trump,” The Washington Post reports.

Meanwhile, in Fulton County, Georgia: Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee Wednesday dismissed three of 13 counts against Trump in the election interference case (per WaPo). Prosecutors may refile the charges, however.

•••

Schumer's Watch is Slow – The Senate may take its time in taking up the House bill passed Wednesday, 352-65, that would force ByteDance to sell its U.S. interest in TikTok, or face some sort of blockage or shutdown in the country.

“The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” CQ Roll Call quotes Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

This, despite obvious House urgency for the bill sponsored by Select China committee chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

Not on Warner's watch: From its interview with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Semafor has a much different take on the upper-chamber's timing on the TikTok bill. "We're going into a 24-hour election cycle, where literally millions of Americans get a lot of their news from this site," said the chairman of the Senate Select committee. "And if that can be manipulated against American interests -- I don't care whether you're Democrat or Republican, that is not in America's interests."

The Trump factor: Politico reports of worry that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a 15% stake in TikTok, has influenced Trump’s flip-flop on the issue, as he has since objected to removing the social media platform from the nation. Former Trump administration Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway has signed on with Club for Growth to counter the push to ban TikTok on national security concerns.

Our take: Two things. A.) It’s a notable shift if the Senate, and not the House, takes up Trump’s cause. But after all, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is now a solid Trump backer. B.) If ByteDance is forced to sell TikTok to an American entity or face shutdown, wouldn’t Yass be in the catbird seat to buy up the 85% he doesn’t already own?

--TL

____________________________________________

Tick...Tick...Tick...

WEDNESDAY 3/13/24

Rrrrring -- The House passed HR 7521 Wednesday morning, 352-65, (per The Hill) that would force ByteDance to divest U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days. That clock doesn't start ticking until the Senate passes the bill. President Biden, whose re-election campaign has used the social media platform to reach young voters, is in favor of the bill and presumably will sign it.

How to Stop a Clock – The House is expected to pass HR 7521 Wednesday, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force China’s ByteDance to divest its U.S. interest in TikTok within 165 days over national security concerns, or face shut-down here. This, even though the House needs two-thirds majority to fast-track suspension of rules procedures that the Republican leadership plans to use, Punchbowl News reports, and even though the leader of the GOP, Donald J. Trump, has reversed his position calling for the social media phenomenon’s removal.

TikTok flip-flop: Much has been speculated about Trump’s reversal on TikTok. He proposed a ban in 2020, but more recently said that its shut-down here will give more power to Facebook, which a 2022 “documentary” blames for Trump’s 2020 re-election loss. One theory that sticks out more than most is that billionaire Jeff Yass, who has a “huge financial stake” in ByteDance according to Axios, has invited Trump to a retreat by Club for Growth, a conservative group that also opposes the ban. Yass has previously contributed $4.9 million to Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign.

Bonus social media gossip: Trump last summer asked The World’s Second-Richest Man Elon Musk whether he wanted to buy Truth Social, The Washington Post scoops Wednesday morning, citing two people “with knowledge” of the matter. Musk apparently demurred, but the conversation indicates an even closer relationship between the 91-times indicted ex-president and the owner of X than previously known.

•••

It’s … Trump v. Biden – In sports terms, the 2020 race would be Biden v. Trump, but however you put it, November’s presidential election is a rerun of the last. Ex-President Trump and President Biden both clinched their parties’ nominations Tuesday, winning primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington. In addition, Donald J. Trump took the Hawaii Republican primary (Biden earlier won the state).

Georgia on my mind: Pundits point to Georgia, the state where Trump begged for 11,780 extra votes in ’20. While Biden took 95.2% of the Democratic vote (Marianne Williamson, 3%, Rep. Dean Phillips, 1.8%) Trump took 84.2% of the Republican vote, with 13.2% going to Nikki Haley and 1.3% to Ron DeSantis.

Democrats shouldn’t get too excited, though: Republican voter turnout in Georgia was more than twice that for the Democratic Party.

History: November will mark the seventh time in U.S. history that the two major party candidates will be the same as in the previous election. For those of you who are about to be contestants on Jeopardy! here are the previous six, according to Pew Research:

1952 and 1956: Dwight D. Eisenhower v. Adlai Stevenson.

1896 and 1900: William McKinley v. William Jennings Bryan.

1888 and 1892: Grover Cleveland v. Benjamin Harrison.

1836 and 1840: Martin Van Buren v. William Henry Harrison.

1824 and 1828: John Quincy Adams v. Andrew Jackson.

1796 and 1800: John Adams v. Thomas Jefferson.

•••

Not With Hur -- Perhaps it’s a sign of how well Robert K. Hur, special counsel on President Biden’s documents case, did his job that both Democrats and Republicans took shots at him in a congressional hearing Tuesday. Hur argued that he did not “exonerate” Biden in his report, and he defended his questioning of Biden’s memory, according to The Washington Post.

“I did not exonerate him. The word does not appear in the report, congresswoman,” he told Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA).

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) called him “part of the Praetorian Guard” preserving the Washington “swamp.”

Responding to a question by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) on the federal documents case against Donald J. Trump; “Sir, I’m not here to express any opinion with respect to a pending case against another defendant.”

You can read Hur's full report for the U.S. Department of Justice here.

--TL

____________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/12/24

Buck Out -- Rep. Ken Buck (D-CO) said last year he would not run for rr-election this November. On Tuesday, he told reporters he can't wait that long to leave.

"This place just keeps going down, and I don't want to spend my time here," Buck said (per The Hill). The 65-year-old congressman often breaks from his party on various issues, and has criticized Trumpian election denial. With his unexpected early departure, the GOP now has 218 members to 213 House Democrats.

•••

Tuesday’s Primaries – Georgia is the big one for both Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald J. Trump. There are also primaries in Mississippi, Washington and the Northern Mariana Islands, with Hawaii holding GOP caucuses, per U.S. News & World Report. The organization Democrats Abroad also hosts a primary.

•••

Biden Budget v. House GOP – The Biden administration proposes a $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025, up 4.7% from this year, but with tax raises on corporations and the wealthiest Americans to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the next decade (per USA Today). The proposal would restore the child tax credit from the American Rescue Plan, launch a program for affordable, high-quality childcare available from birth to kindergarten and provide new mortgage relief for home buyers.

The White House’s budget is a wish list that will get lots of attention by both the Biden campaign and the Trump campaign between now and November (as Congress likely extends this fiscal year’s budget past its September 30 end), as will an alternate proposal just passed by the GOP-led House Budget Committee, according to the Huffpost. That “budget blueprint” for 2025 would shrink the deficit by $14 trillion over the next decade while extending the Trump tax cuts, which expire next year. HuffPost says “vulnerable” congressional Republicans are balking at taking a full House vote on what would be the first such Republican alt-budget to hit the floor since 2014.

--TL

____________________________________________

MONDAY 3/11/24

Orban Explains All -- Fresh back in Budapest from his visit to Mar-a-Lago, Hungary's authoritarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, explained how Donald J. Trump will end the war in Ukraine if he is returned to the White House.

"He will not give a penny in the Ukraine-Russian war," Orban told Hungary's M1 TV channel, according to the BBC. "That is why the war will end. ... If the Americans don't give money and weapons, along with the Europeans, then this war is over. And if the Americans don't give money, the Europeans alone are unable to finance this war. And then the war is over."

We have been warned.

•••

Sweden became NATO's 31^st member nation Monday morning, NPR reports, after decades resisting joining the Western military alliance. Sweden and Finland applied for membership in May 2022. Finland joined last year, but Sweden had faced opposition from Turkey and Hungary.

•••

Trump Mocks Biden’s Stutter – After generally favorable reviews of his State of the Union address last Thursday for its display of the president’s energy if nothing else, Joe Biden’s stutter has become the subject of Donald J. Trump’s ridicule beginning with a rally in Georgia Sunday. Trump infamously mocked a New York Times reporter for his upper-body disability back in 2015, but this is his first such attack on Biden’s lifelong speech impediment.

What stands out about this to John Hendrickson, himself a stutterer, writes in The Atlantic is, “the sound of Trump’s supporters laughing right along with him. This is a building block of Trumpism. The man at the top gives his followers to be the worst version of themselves.”

•••

Oscar Speech – Mystyslav Chernov, one of three filmmakers of 20 Days in Mariupol to win the Academy Award for Documentary Feature Film Sunday night said in his acceptance speech he wishes he could exchange his Oscar statue for “Russia never Invading Ukraine.” At last year’s Academy Award ceremony Navalny took home the Oscar for the same category. Its subject, Aleksei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances at a Russian prison last month, led the Oscar broadcast “death reel.”

Pope chimes in on Ukraine: Pope Francis "sparked anger" last weekend after he said Ukraine should have the "courage of the white flag" and negotiate the end of the war with Russia, CNN reports. On X, Business Ukraine magazine responded with the post that the Pope "might want to consider the famous words of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on, "neutrality"; "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."

•••

ICYMI – After all the hand wringing and folderol about the current fiscal year budget, its can having been kicked by continuing resolutions several times since last October, the Senate passed a $460 billion bill, 75-22 last Friday to avert a partial government shutdown (per The New York Times). Congress now has to March 22 to pass the other half of the federal budget. On Monday, President Biden unveiled his federal budget proposal for the coming fiscal year, which begins October 1.

•••

Up on the Hill – Both the full House and the full Senate are in session Monday through Wednesday. The Senate only is in session Thursday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Biden’s Call to Arms

By Ken Zino

President Biden in his third State of the Union address invoked America’s previous victories in the Civil War and Word War II and in other times of crisis, notably the covid pandemic. What initially looked to be a call for democracy over plutocracy based on the White House fact sheet released earlier turned into an aggressive attack on the former president, “my predecessor,” more than a dozen times, repeatedly taking on the elephant insurrectionist not in the room -- Trump -- without saying his name.

He instead referred to the “previous administration,” and the Republicans who enabled him in the campaign speech, during a surprisingly pugnacious and impassioned delivery. This shouldn’t be, well, Greek, to the average voter. Biden wants to make American leadership great again, building from his demonstrably good policies.

(Read Zino’s exquisitely detailed column on the address in The Gray Area.)

He delivered a call to action for four more years that clearly channeled the ideas of the progressive wing of the Democratic party. My take here is that Republicans are in for the fight of their political lives based on their record. Biden also took on the Supreme Court -- staring directly at that Supremely Corrupt gang -- invoking the chaos overturning Roe v. Wade is causing. “My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” he asked. “Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America.”.

“Overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” Biden said in his opening salvo. “If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking … But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world. It wasn’t that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now, my predecessor, a former Republican president tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ A former American president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. … I say this to Congress: we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill.”

In his 68-minute speech, Biden addressed:

•January 6th: “We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. January 6^th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. But they failed. …. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6^th. I will not do that. … And here’s the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when you win. … Political violence has absolutely no place in America!”

•Reproductive rights: Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama was in the audience. “Fourteen months ago tonight, she and her husband welcomed a baby girl thanks to the miracle of (in-vitro fertilization). She scheduled treatments to have a second child, but the Alabama Supreme Court shut down IVF … unleashed by the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. She was told her dream would have to wait. …To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep families waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF nationwide.”

•The economy: “I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. … America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, investing in all Americans to make sure everyone has a fair shot.”

•Infrastructure: “Thanks to our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, 46,000 new projects have been announced across your communities -- modernizing our roads and bridges, ports and airports, and public transit systems.”

•Pandemic and public health: “The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer. Turning setback into comeback. … With a law I proposed and signed and not one Republican voted for we finally beat Big Pharma. Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin seniors with diabetes only have to pay $35 a month.”

•Tax reform: “I’m a capitalist. If you want to make a million bucks, great! Just pay your fair share in taxes. A fair tax code is how we invest in the things … that make a country great, health care, education, defense … The last administration enacted a $2 trillion tax cut that overwhelmingly benefits the very wealthy and the biggest corporations and exploded the federal deficit. They added more to the national debt than in any presidential term in American history. …. Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another $2 trillion in tax breaks? … Thanks to the law I wrote and signed big companies now have to pay a minimum of 15%. … It’s time to raise the corporate minimum tax to at least 21%.”

•Social Security: “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them. … Republicans will cut Social Security and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. I will protect and strengthen Social Security.”

•Border Security: “In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of Senators. … That bipartisan deal would hire 1,500 more border security agents and officers. One-hundred more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases. Forty-three hundred more asylum officers and new policies so they can resolve cases in six months instead of six years. One-hundred more high-tech drug detection machines to significantly increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles from smuggling fentanyl … I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him. It’s not about him or me. It’d be a winner for America. My Republican friends, you owe it to the American people to get this bill done. … We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. Send me the border bill now.”

•Climate Change: “I am cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030. Creating tens of thousands of clean-energy jobs, like the (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) building and installing 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations.”

•Crime: “The year before I took office, murders went up 30% nationwide the biggest increase in history. Now, through my American Rescue Plan, which every Republican voted against, I’ve made the largest investment in public safety ever. Last year, the murder rate saw the sharpest decrease in history, and violent crime fell to one of the lowest levels in more than 50 years. But we have more to do. Help cities and towns invest in more community police officers, more mental health workers, and more community violence intervention.”

•Middle East: “I know the last five months have been gut-wrenching for so many people, for the Israeli people, the Palestinian people, and so many here in America … Tonight, I’m directing the U.S. military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the Gaza coast that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters. … As we look to the future, the only real solution is a two-state solution. There is no other path that guarantees Israel’s security and democracy. There is no other path that guarantees Palestinians can live with peace and dignity. … no other path that guarantees peace between Israel and all of its Arab neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.”

Inspiring Conclusion

“The very idea of America, that we are all created equal and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I won’t walk away from it now. My fellow Americans the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are it’s how old our ideas are. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are among the oldest of ideas. But you can’t lead America with ancient ideas that only take us back. To lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be. ...

“I see a future where we defend democracy not diminish it. …

“I see a future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms not take them away. …

“I see a future where the middle class finally has a fair shot and the wealthy finally have to pay their fair share in taxes. I see a future where we save the planet from the climate crisis and our country from gun violence. …

“Above all, I see a future for all Americans. I see a country for all Americans. And I will always be a president for all Americans. Because I believe in America. I believe in you, the American people. You’re the reason I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. … So let’s build that future together. Let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Don’t Say His Name

(FRI 3/8/24)

By Todd Lassa

The State of the Union address did not begin with the economy and President Biden’s success with GDP, employment and lowering the Consumer Price Index from 9% to 3% (OK, that was Federal Reserve handling inflation by raising interest rates). Instead, Biden went straight to saving world democracy and saving our own.

Evoking FDR’s January 1941 State of the Union address, Biden said “my purpose tonight is to both wake up this Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment either.

“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today.

“What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both home and overseas, at the very same time.”

Reaganesque

In a speech in which he mentioned his predecessor many times, but never by name, he also recalled President Reagan’s demand that Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down this wall,” and connected that notorious predecessor with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), seated, as tradition, behind the president and next to the vice president gave relatively subtle facial clues throughout the address; frowning and shaking his head at Biden’s not-so-subtle suggestion that MAGA Republicans on the Hill are empowering the Russian dictator.

“I say this to Congress,” Biden said, “we must stand up to Putin. Send me the Bipartisan National Security Bill. …

The Insurrection

Biden then made the easy pivot to January 6, 2021, saying political violence has “no place in America.”

“The insurrectionists were not patriots. They were here to stop the peaceful transfer of power. … Here’s the simple truth. You can’t love your country only when you win.”

Border Bill

The president touted the $118-billion border protection bill that Johnson refused to bring to the House floor. When heckled about it, Biden ad-libbed, “Oh, you don’t like that bill, do you? That conservatives got together and said was a good bill?”

Ramping up his re-election campaign, Biden warned of the power of women voters vs. the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ticked off his contributions to the improving economy, including “the lowest” inflation rate in the world, the CHIPS act shifting computer microprocessor production from China to the U.S. and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which he said many Congressional Republicans voted against, but then touted money brought to their districts.

“If any of you don’t want it in your district, just let me know.”

Gaza

With a large contingent of Gaza-Israel ceasefire protestors outside the Capitol and silent protests by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN), holding up “ceasefire now” signs inside, Biden announced an emergency military mission establishing a temporary pier on the Gaza coast of the Mediterranean “that can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters” for Palestinians under siege from Israeli military forces.

The White House had announced the plan earlier Thursday and late in his address.

Generally, Biden came off as lively and relatively sharp, and only got tongue-tied a few times well into the address. He again spoke of chipping away at the federal deficit in part by raising taxes on billionaires (while raising salaries for public school teachers). His predecessor’s tax cuts, mostly for the rich, expire next year and if Biden loses in November, they certainly will be renewed under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House.

Other takeaways (via smartphone notifications): “Defiant Biden.” (AP). “Biden draws sharp contrasts with Trump in fiery State of the Union address.” (The Washington Post). “President Biden delivered a feisty, confrontational speech, engaging in a vigorous back-and-forth with Republicans.” (The New York Times). “Biden shifted into campaign mode, targeting Trump and the GOP on reproductive rights and immigration.” (The Wall Street Journal). “Biden didn’t mention Trump once. But his speech tonight was an open salvo ahead of a long, ugly match.” (Politico).

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Beautiful Bloviation

By Stephen Macaulay

Biden was boisterous, bold, bullish, and even brash, but. . .

Pop quiz:

•Who made the following statements?

•When were they made?

“Jobs are booming, incomes are soaring, poverty is plummeting, crime is falling, confidence is surging.”

“U.S. stock markets have soared 70 percent, adding more than $12 trillion to our nation’s wealth.”

“[W]e are restoring our nation’s manufacturing might. . . . America has now gained 12,000 new factories under my administration, with thousands upon thousands of plants and factories being planned or being built. Companies are not leaving; they are coming back to the USA.”

Answers:

•President Donald J. Trump

•February 4, 2020; State of the Union Address

All of that sounds pretty good — and somewhat familiar — doesn’t it?

And, of course, Trump, the incumbent, lost the presidency to Joe Biden.

The State of the Union address is prescribed in Article 2, Section 3, of the Constitution:

“He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. . . .”

Odds are if you work for a large organization of any type you’ve been required to attend an all-hands address presented by the leader of the corporation or the charity.

And odds are the nicest thing you did when you got the advisory about attendance was to roll your eyes.

If there was any way to miss the bluster and the blah-blah-blah you did it. (“Erm. . .I have to get a root canal. . . .”)

Yet somehow we (yes, I guess this means me, too) expect that the American public is going to watch the address or, at the very least, been keen on catching up on the content delivered by the president.

Forget it. It didn’t happen.

Yes, those who are deeply involved in watching MSNBC or Fox News undoubtedly were jonesing for the speech.

But Biden partisans might only reconsider their support if, say, he had a 20-minute Mitch McConnell moment.

And Trump supporters wouldn’t change their mind about Biden even were he to lead the assembled in the House of Representatives’ chamber in a “Hang Mike Pence!” chant.

What really matters is what is said — by both Biden and Trump — between now and November 5.

The State of the Union is really not much more than obligatory smoke and mirrors.

I mean, Trump closed his last (and I hope it really is his last) State of the Union sounding, well, Bidenesque:

“America is the place where anything can happen. America is the place where anyone can rise. And here, on this land, on this soil, on this continent, the most incredible dreams come true.

“This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American Epic, the American adventure has only just begun.

“Our spirit is still young, the sun is still rising, God’s grace is still shining, and, my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come.”

Sounds like a guy with the sort of vision that we’d like to elect.

Right. . . ?

-30-

_____

…meanwhile…

Too Big to Fill – Donald J. Trump (whose limited-edition gilded hi-tops, above, are sold out at $399) leads Nikki Haley 64% to 33% in South Carolina’s GOP presidential primary Saturday according to 538’s polling average for the state.

FRIDAY 2/23/24

Da, CPAC – Fearing he could be a flight risk, federal law enforcement re-arrested Alexander Smirnov in Nevada Thursday, two days after a federal judge released him from custody over charges he told the FBI lies about President Biden and his son, Hunter (per HuffPost) regarding bribes from Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Smirnov says he was handed those lies by Russian intelligence agents.

We are not paying enough attention to Smirnov and the collapse of the House Republican investigation into the Biden case, led by Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY), Jonathan V. Last argues in the never-Trumper conservative publication, The Bulwark. By which he means; American voters and mainstream media are not sufficiently concerned.

“Russia is trying to interfere in a presidential race (again) on behalf of Donald Trump (again),” Last writes. But hey, to be fair, there is a lot going on, and it seems unlikely core MAGA Republicans are getting much coverage of this from their preferred media outlets.

At CPAC in suburban Washington Thursday, before what is described by several outlets as having a sparse crowd so far, candidate for running mate Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) backed Donald J. Trump’s longstanding Russia policy.

“We’re the one that forced this war, because we kept forcing NATO on Ukraine and showing Russia, hey, we’re going to build military bases on your borders,” Tuberville told the crowd (per The Recount). “And Putin said, no, no, you’re not going to do that. I haven’t voted for any money to go to Ukraine because I know they can’t win.” Tuberville later added; “Donald Trump will stop [the war] when he first gets in … he knows there’s no winning for Ukraine. He can work a deal with Putin.”

History check: Ukraine wanted to join NATO after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the 1990s.

--TL

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Haley’s Comet – Facing likely embarrassment in Saturday’s South Carolina, her home state, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is sticking it out, going so far as to break away from the Republican comfort of Fox News to appear on mainstream outlets like CNN and NPR.

“Just wait, just wait. March, April, May, June,” Haley told CNN Wednesday. The question has not been so much “why?” but “how can she stick it out?”, so let’s not forget that the former South Carolina governor and Trump administration UN ambassador has the hefty financial backing of the Koch brothers, who have become never-Trumpers.

On CNN’s King Charles Wednesday, basketball legend and co-host Charles Barkley told her, “I’m dying to vote for you,” but is put off by Haley’s statements about racism in America.

In a phone call from her campaign bus Thursday morning, she resisted telling NPR’s Steve Inskeep whether she would vote for Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee. (Which seems inevitable unless his myriad trials sink him before the Republican convention in Milwaukee.)

“I have a lot of concerns about Trump regaining the presidency,” Haley said on Morning Edition. “I have even more concerns about Biden being president. I mean, you look at both of these men and all they have done is given us chaos, all they have given us is division.”

Being a “traditional” Republican, Haley criticizes Biden for the most “socialist” policy of any president in U.S. history (uh, FDR?) but unlike Trump, she is in favor of continued support for Ukraine in its resistance against Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Meanwhile: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) also appeared on Thursday’s Morning Edition, telling Michelle Martin why he’s not running for president as a third-party candidate: “I just didn’t want to be a spoiler.” Manchin said he will continue to speak out for the middle, however. “It’s difficult being in the middle.”

--TL

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WEDNESDAY 2/21/24

In From the Cold – Alexander Smirnov was charged last week by special counsel David Weiss with felony false statement and obstruction charges for providing allegedly false information about Joe and Hunter Biden in the Burisma case. On Tuesday, Smirnov admitted that the “intel” pumped up by Fox News since the latter part of the Trump administration was passed to him by “officials associated with Russian intelligence” (per Axios).

As yet another connection between ex-President Trump and Vladimir Putin’s Russia comes to light, Trump has finally expressed his feelings about the death of dissident Aleksei Navalny at an Arctic Circle prison.

When Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked Trump at a town hall Tuesday how he would raise the $364 million (plus interest) in penalties in last Friday’s verdict in the New York fraud case against the Trump Organization, the ex-prez said; “It is a Navalny. It is a form of communism or fascism” (per Rolling Stone).

•••

Saving Speaker Johnson – Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) is leading a group of moderate Democrats as sponsor of a resolution that would require any Democrat or Republican party leadership to sanction any vote to vacate the speaker’s chair, Axios scoops. The resolution would free Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to move bipartisan bills to the floor without fear of Donald J. Trump’s reprisals. That might include desperately needed relief to Ukraine in its defense against Russia … except … Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA) has said she would introduce a motion to vacate Johnson if he advances the Ukraine aid bill to the floor.

--TL

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TUESDAY 2/20/24

Trump’s Navalny Problem – The death of Aleksei Navalny, likely at the indirect hand of Vladimir Putin, has nothing on the indignities thrust upon the former president … according to the former president. Yes, Donald J. Trump weighed in on Navalny’s death on his own Truth Social media site Monday, though he did not mention his friend and mentor, Vladimir Putin. To quote (per The New York Times)…

“The sudden death of Alexie Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our country. … CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down on path to destruction.”

Meanwhile: Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton, told MSNBC’s Inside with Jen Psaki over the weekend, that Putin was playing his former boss when he named Biden the “more stable” candidate that Russia could work with after November. “If Trump is elected, there will be celebrations in the Kremlin, no doubt about it,” Bolton said.

•••

Can Thomas Refuse This Offer?: Tired of the U.S. Supreme Court’s lack of ethics and Justice Clarence Thomas’ eagerness to take advantage of that lack in the name of ultra-conservative politics, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has offered Thomas $1 million per year for the rest of his life if he steps down, now. Or, at least, in the next 30 days, which Oliver has given him to respond, according to The Washington Post. Oliver also is throwing in as a bonus a $2.4 million motor coach outfitted with a king-size bed, four televisions and a fireplace.

He can: Of course, there’s nothing above – not prohibited by ethics restrictions -- that Leonard Leo and the money behind the Federalist Society couldn’t put up to make sure Clarence Thomas remains on the SCOTUS bench and maintain the conservative super-majority.

•••

Expelled former Rep. George Santos (R-NY) has sued the eponymous host of late-night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live for hiring Santos on Cameo to send several short messages, including a video congratulating a blind woman for passing a drivers’ test (The Washington Post). Kimmel’s segment, called ‘Will Santos Say This?’ appears to have violated Cameo’s guidelines stating users must not use false names … though Kimmel’s schtick certainly has made the site more popular than ever.

--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.

•••

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.

•••

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.

•••

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)

•••

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.

--TL

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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 3^rd 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.

--TL

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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.

--TL

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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.”

•••

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 3^rd 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