War on Iran

THURSDAY 3/5/26

Trump to Noem: You’re Fired, More or Less – The answer to what do we mean by “more or less”? is, “depends on what a special envoy for the Shield of America does, exactly.”

Yes, that is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s next job – until now a nonexistent security position -- in the Trump administration, the president said in firing her, according to The New York Times. Trump also said he wants to replace Noem as Department of Homeland Security secretary with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK).

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would not commit to voting for Mullin and Noem’s firing does not change Democrats’ demand for restructuring immigration enforcement in order to fund DHS.

Conversely, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said he would vote for Mullin, a “nice upgrade” from Noem, the NYT reports. Still, no one has called Fetterman a DINO (Democrat In Name Only). Yet.

•••

Power Vacuum – The Senate rejected a war powers vote Wednesday, 47-53, that would have officially put a stop on President Trump’s war on Iran, (per NPR’s All Things Considered ). The vote was mostly along party lines, which means that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) voted with most Democrats for the resolution and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) voted with most Republicans against it.

In the House … The House was set to vote Thursday on a similar measure introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). Similar results were expected, though it would take just a couple of Republicans joining Massie to approve the resolution.

But Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) teed up the thin GOP majority against it, saying “It would put the country in serious harm, and it would certainly jeopardize the lives of our troops and all those who were involved in making these great sacrifices to defend us.”

Spreading through, and beyond, the region … With Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz and reports of strikes on US ally Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan airport, the war has spread wide through and beyond the region. According to Azernews, an Iranian drone strike on Nakhchivan airport has left four dead so far. Meanwhile, Israel Defense Forces have struck Beirut after Iranian-controlled Hezbollah fired rockets and drones on the north of Israel, The Times of Israel reports.

•••

Tariff Refunds Due – Federal Trade Court Judge Richard Eaton at the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade has issued a written order directing the Trump administration to begin the process of refunding more than $130 billion in import fees, The Wall Street Journal reports, following the Supreme Court’s ruling against the tariffs in its February 20 ruling on Learning Resources Inc. v. Trump. Such companies as Costco Wholesale, FedEx and Pandora jewelry are among more than 2,000 importers that have filed lawsuits seeking the refunds. –TL

________________________________________________

No Arms Shortages – The US has the means to carry out its air campaign on Iran “for as long as it wishes,” War/Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a press conference Wednesday morning (per The Wall Street Journal). That campaign could last up to eight weeks, he said – or also, Hegseth said in various points in the press conference, six weeks or less than four.

“They are toast and they know it, or at least they soon will know it,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth was tamping down concerns the war in Iran would deplete the US arsenal. He was accompanied at the Pentagon by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine.

Hegseth said that a US submarine sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, the first such sinking by a sub since World War II.

Caine said that Qatar shot down two Iranian bombers that were “inbound” and that the United Arab Emirates has intercepted multiple drones, while Iran has fired more than 500 missiles and launched 2,000 drones.

All the President’s Explanations … The US with Israel struck Iran before Iran could get off a pre-emptive strike of its own, President Trump said Tuesday in yet another explanation for the war. The US-Israeli airstrikes brought an abrupt end to negotiations between Iranian diplomats and US special envoy Steve Witkoff and White House son-in-law Jared Kushner last week.

Trying to straighten out the White House’s message, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said later Tuesday that Tehran was given “every single possible opportunity” to shutter its nuclear weapons program in negotiations with Witkoff/Kushner (per The Guardian).

Tehran “had no intention of actually negotiating a nuclear deal,” Rubio said.

Rubio earlier had acknowledged that Iran wasn’t enriching uranium for weaponry following the US strike last June on the country’s three major nuclear facilities.

•••

First Round of Primaries – Texas State Rep. James Talarico topped firebrand US Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic primary for John Cornyn’s (R-TX) US Senate seat, The Associated Press reports. Talarico took 52.8% of the vote to Crockett’s 45.9% in his quest to become the first Democrat elected statewide in 30 years.

On the GOP side, incumbent Cornyn, after spending $70 million on his campaign, edged state Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, 41.9% to 40.7%, which means they’re both headed off to a May 26 runoff.

In North Carolina former Gov. Roy Cooper (D) faces former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Watley (R) to replace retiring Republican US Sen. Thom Tillis.

Arkansas is the biggest climb for Democrats, with Hallie Shoffner winning the party’s primary to challenge Sen. Tom Cotton’s re-election bid. Democratic state Sen. Fred Love will challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sander’s re-election bid. –TL

________________________________________________

TUESDAY 3/3/26

The Latest – The State Department has closed US embassies in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after being hit by Iranian drone attacks and has advised ambassadors to immediately depart from 14 Middle Eastern countries, The New York Times reports. Meanwhile, Israel’s military said Tuesday it has seized an area of Lebanon in a conflict with Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia.

Death toll … Six US soldiers have been killed, USA Today reports, with 787 deaths counted in Iran, 11 in Israel and eight in Gulf states.

Munitions buildup … Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) says the case for supplemental funding for munitions was “brought up in discussions” Monday in a Gang of Eight closed door briefing with Trump officials and top lawmakers on the House Armed Services, Foreign Relations and Appropriations committees, Roll Call reports.

“There are more details to be determined, of course, how long the operation goes and what the need is,” Rubio told reporters after the meeting.

Good questions … President Trump generally has been sticking with his four- to five-week timeline. Impetus for US involvement with Israel has been less clear.

Pre-emption … Israel’s determination to attack Iran would guarantee that Iran would strike back at both Israel and the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in a closed meeting with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine, The Guardian reports. Rubio & Co. held the meeting ahead of an expected House vote Thursday on a war powers resolution sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA).

“It was abundantly clear that if Iran came under attack by anyone – the United States or Israel or anyone – they were going to respond, and respond against the United States,” Rubio told reporters at the Capitol afterwards.

President says … “Our objectives are clear,” Trump said at a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House Monday (pictured). “First, we’re destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and we see that happening on an hourly basis, and their capacity to produce brand new ones, and pretty good ones they make. Second, we’re annihilating their navy, already we’ve knocked out 10 ships. They’re at the bottom of the sea. Third, we’re insisting that the world’s number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon, they can never have a nuclear weapon. I’ve said that from the very beginning. They’re never gonna have a nuclear weapon. They were on the road to getting one, legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country. And finally, we’re insuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorists outside of their borders.”

Trump uncharacteristically took no reporters’ questions after just six minutes of remarks but characteristically pivoted to compliment himself about choosing new gold drapes and how he is building the biggest, best ballroom anywhere in place of what used to be the White House East Wing.

•••

The Clintons’ Recordings – The House Oversight Committee Monday released recordings of its questioning of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton regarding their connection to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, taken at the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center in New York last week, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Hillary Clinton told the committee she did not know Epstein, only that Ghislaine Maxwell had attended daughter Chelsea’s wedding as a “plus-one” with another guest.

Bill Clinton told the committee he recalled seeing Donald J. Trump at a golf tournament about 2002-03 in which the future president told the former president he “had some great times together over the years” but fell out over a real estate deal.

“The president …” Bill Clinton said, “this is 20-something years ago, never said anything to make me think he was involved in anything improper with regard to Epstein, either. He just didn’t. He just said, ‘we were friends, and we had a falling out over a land deal.’ That’s all.”

•••

Tuesday’s Primaries – Primary elections are held Tuesday in Texas, North Carolina and Arkansas. – Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

________________________________________________

Regime Change? -- MONDAY 3/2/26

By Todd Lassa

Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei is dead, killed by Israeli and US military forces on sudden strikes announced by President Trump at 2 a.m. Saturday, Washington time.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History is dead,” Trump Truth Socialed.

In a brief telephone interview from Mar-a-Lago Sunday told The New York Times he intends to keep the assault on Iran going for “four to five weeks.”

“It won’t be difficult. We have tremendous amounts of ammunition,” the president said in the interview. “You know, we have ammunition stored all over the world in different countries.”

The US military attack on Venezuela in which its president, Nicolás Maduro was arrested and brought to New York in January was “the perfect scenario” for regime change in Iran, Trump told the NYT. But Iranian protesters – an estimated 7,000, according to The Associated Press, of whom gave their lives trying to push back against the brutal totalitarian regime in the last month – do not have an organization backing them in order to take over, Middle Eastern analysts say.

“Anytime you start down this path, you don’t really know where it leads,” Daniel Shapiro, former US ambassador to Israel, told NPR’s Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday, from Israel, as Iran counter-attacked that country with missiles. “Again, I hope to see the demise of this regime, and I hope the Iranian people have a better life. But what has been launched now could produce all kinds of outcomes, and it could produce a military dictatorship. It could produce a civil war. It could produce a splintering of the country itself.”

The US-Israeli attack comes after negotiations broke down last week between Iranian diplomats and US special envoy Steve Witkoff with White House son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump has said just before his State of the Union address that war on Iran could come within a couple of weeks if no accord was reached.

In another, earlier call, this one with The Atlantic’s Michael Scherer Sunday, Trump said of Iran’s post-Khamenei leadership; “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner.”

But attacks intensified on Sunday, the NYT reports, with Iran striking Israel and Gulf countries in the Middle East, killing three US troops.

Having prepared for Trump’s apparent capriciousness, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced a House resolution calling for a war powers vote on Trump’s military action in Iran.

Is the start of a new war with Iran a wag-the-dog situation? The week in which only congressional Republicans and the MAGA faithful had anything good to say about Tuesday’s State of the Union address ended with ex-President Bill Clinton testifying on his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein while deferring to the House Oversight Committee to determine whether the current president should do the same.

But any wag-the-dog theories must consider the other party involved in a “four or five week” war on Iran: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who fended off an impending trial into corruption charges against him by claiming it would divert too much necessary attention on the country’s war fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah in Gaza.

Last December, in a request suggested by Trump, Netanyahu asked Israeli President Isaac Herzog for a pardon. Netanyahu has called the three separate cases of bribery, breach of trust and fraud launched in 2019 a “witch hunt.”

Four years before that, Netanyahu vehemently opposed then-President Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action written to prevent Iran’s nuclear arms development. Trump killed Obama’s JCPA at the beginning of his first term in 2017.

Today, Netanyahu has yet another diversion from his impending trial, as Trump faces the possibility of another extended US war in the Middle East and the end of the lower gasoline prices at the pump he has claimed as a major part of his second term’s economic miracle.

After the US-Israeli attacks, Iran notified ships in the region that it had closed the Strait of Hormuz, according to The Independent. By Sunday night, benchmark US crude futures were up by as much as 11% to $75 barrel, with Brent futures, the global price gauge, up 8% to about $79, The Wall Street Journal reports.

_____
MONDAY 3/2/26

…meanwhile…

TUESDAY 8/5/25

House Arrest for Bolsonaro – Brazil’s supreme court has ordered house arrest for the country’s Trumpy ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for an alleged coup plot to remain in office after his 2022 re-election defeat, The Associated Press reports. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case, said Bolsonaro had spread content through his three lawmaker sons, thus violating precautionary measures imposed on the former president.

Coffee talk … Thanks to the simpatico between President Trump and Bolsonaro, Trump has set the tariff on Brazil – which imports most of the coffee beans the US consumes – at 50%. The US already has a trade surplus with Brazil.

•••

Will Israel Annex Parts of Gaza? – As Canada, the UK and France prepare to recognize a Palestinian state in September amidst piling evidence that the Israeli Defense Force is starving citizens in Gaza in its fight against Hamas, the Israeli government has “floated” the possibility of extending its military offensive and annexing parts of the strip, The Guardian reports. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene Israel’s security cabinet in the coming days to discuss options.

This follows collapse of indirect ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff last Saturday.

•••

Harm Reduction Redacted – The Trump administration is quickly phasing out “harm reduction,” the key method for states, localities and communities to respond to the drug overdose epidemic, according to Roll Call. In the past week, the administration began removing educational materials from government websites, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration told states that harm reduction is used to “advocate for policies that are incompatible with federal laws and inconsistent with this administration’s policies.”

Trump in July issued an executive order targeting homeless people that criticizes “harm reduction” and “safe consumption” efforts. --TL

_____________________________________________

MONDAY 8/4/25

Messing With Texas – President Trump called on the Texas legislature, which consists of 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats, to redraw US House districts in order to add five Republicans to the House of Representatives after the 2026 midterms. State House Republicans obeyed and were to begin voting on a new map Monday in a special session that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott called in order to take up measures regarding the deadly Independence Day Hill Country floods, stiffer regulations for hemp and other GOP-leaning issues.

On Sunday, at least 51 of those 62 state House Democrats fled Texas, mostly for Chicago (where Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has been one of the more effective Democrats pushing back against Trump’s politics and policies), as well as New York, NPR and Houston Public Media reports on Morning Edition.

The Texas House does not have a quorum and thus cannot conduct business if fewer than 100 of its members are present, according to The Texas Tribune.

“This is not a decision we make lightly, but it is one we make with absolute moral clarity,” state Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the House Democratic Caucus said in a statement. Wu, according to the Tribune, accused Abbott of “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voice of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.”

Abbott issued an ominous statement of his own.

“The truancy ends now,” the Texas governor said. “The derelict Democratic House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3:00 PM on Monday, August 4, 2025. For any member who fails to do so, I will invoke Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382 to remove the missing Democrats from membership in the Texas House.”

Abbott would then appoint his own Republican replacements for the missing Democrats, HPM reports.

As of Monday, two weeks remain in Abbott’s special session.

•••

Drowning the Numbers – The Trump Camp including such supporters as our own right-column contributing pundit Rich Corbett were caught in celebration over a “booming” economy unhurt by White House tariff negotiations when, inconveniently, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest numbers showing just 73,000 jobs added to the economy in July. What’s worse, the BLS revised heavily downward by 258,000 jobs combined its earlier reports for May and June, to just 19,000 and 14,000 jobs added, respectively.

The unemployment rate remains low, at 4.2%.

It must be noted here that the BLS often makes such revisions upward as well as downward. The May and June revisions indicate a lag in counting the effects of the “Liberation Day” tariffs, April 2, which Trump delayed numerous times as he reportedly negotiated deals. These are ongoing.

Trump took it out on BLS administrator Erika McEntarfer, a Biden appointee.

“I believe the numbers were phony, just like before the election. And there were other times” President Trump Truth Socialed Friday, according to RealClear Politics.

The BLS reported the US economy added just 114,000 jobs in July 2024 and a healthier 142,000 for that August. September 2024’s job report was stronger, with 254,000 added, but for October 2024, the US economy added just 12,000 jobs according to a report issued that November 4 – the day before election day.

“So you know what I did?” Trump continued on Truth Social. “I fired her. And you know what? I did the right thing.

“She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, and they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” Trump said.

Ironically … These poor employment growth numbers would have given Trump appointees to the Federal Open Market Committee, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, a better argument for lowering interest rates at the Federal Reserve’s regular confab two days earlier. Both dissented against the 10 others on the FOMC by calling for a quarter-point cut in interest rates, in line with Trump’s criticism of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s reluctance to do so.

Waller, who has made clear his interest in replacing Powell as Fed chair when Powell’s term ends next May said on July 17, according to the New York Post, “the economy is still growing, but its momentum has slowed significantly, and the risks to the FOMC’s employment market have increased.” --Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
MONDAY 8/4/25

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

…meanwhile…

WORLD POETRY DAY TUESDAY, 3/21/23

(It's also the first full day of springtime for Trump, the day the former president had expected to be arrested by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's (pictured) over his investigation of possible financial crimes in connection with 45's payment of hush money to two women, including porn star Stormy Daniels. Though an indictment didn't look likely Tuesday, the New York Police Department Monday erected barricades around Manhattan's Criminal Court in anticipation of MAGA protesters.)

House Republicans … are attempting to counter Bragg’s next move with their demand the “George Soros-funded” DA turn over documents in the case and come in for a grilling/hearing.

•••

Kishida Counters Xi – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit to Kyiv Tuesday for a “show of unity” with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the second day of Chinese leader Xi Jingping’s three-day Kremlin sleepover with Russian dictator Vladmir Putin (AP).

Xi, who is said to be on a “peace mission” to Moscow, has invited Putin (charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court last week) to Beijing later this year.

Kishida, who also will meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda before returning to Tokyo Thursday, is chairman of the Group of Seven summit this May in Hiroshima. Can a country in the Pacific become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?

--TL

_______________________________________________

...meanwhile...

MONDAY 3/20/23

Weekend of Trump’s Discontent – This is what Donald J. Trump posted on his Truth Social media outlet Saturday: “The far and away leading Republican candidate and former President of the United States of America will be arrested on Tuesday of next week!” (Per The Guardian.)

Trump continues; “Protest, take our nation back!”

Which of His Myriad Cases?: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (pictured above) is expected to charge Trump under his investigation of $130,000 in "hush money" paid to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election by then-Trump fixer Michael Cohen and whether the payments violated campaign finance laws.

Signals, Maybe, But Not Words: Bragg did not confirm speculation he will issue the charges. “As with all our investigations, we will continue to apply the law evenly and firmly and speak publicly only when appropriate,” he said in a private email to his office employees, according to Politico.

Meanwhile: A Trump spokesman “walked back” Trump’s Truth Social rant, saying there is no notification from the Manhattan DA that he has “decided to take his witch-hunt to the next level. President Trump is rightfully highlighting his innocence and the weaponization of our injustice system.” (Per ABC News.)

In the private email according to Politico, Bragg warned “we do not tolerate attempts to intimidate our office or threaten the rule of law in New York.” His office has been coordinating protection with the New York Police Department and the Office of Court Administration.

Above the Law?: Former Vice President Mike Pence -- who a week earlier finally called out his ex-boss for being “wrong” about his ability to overturn the Electoral College count on January 6, 2021 -- told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Saturday on This Week it would be a “politically charged” mistake for Bragg to have Trump arrested.

“I’m taken aback at the idea of indicting a former president of the United States, at a time when there’s a crime wave in New York City that – the fact that the Manhattan DA thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority. I think is, just tells you everything you need to know about the radical left in this country.”

But Wait, There’s More: Cohen told MSNBC Sunday he has been re-called as a “rebuttal” witness to testify Monday in the hush-money case. Cohen’s former legal advisor, Robert Costello, also is expected to testify, and has signaled to a Trump attorney that he has information that counters Cohen’s previous testimony pinning the hush-money payment on Trump, and thus exonerates him, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press.

Mixed Signals?: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called for calm in the face of potential arrest of the ex-president. “I don’t think people should protest this stuff,” he said at a House GOP issues retreat, The Hill reports. So as to not upset Trump too much, the speaker – who condemned Trump’s complicity in the January 6^th Capitol insurrection before visiting him at Mar-a-Lago in February 2021 – suggested that the ex-president was calling on others to “educate people about what’s going on.”

•••

Also This Week – The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday to set interest rate increases. There is speculation on Wall Street the Fed will hold off on another increase, otherwise expected to be 0.5% to fight inflation, because of the recent failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Update: The Fed will hike interest rates by 0.25% this week, CNBC says.

Senate: The full Senate is in session Tuesday through Friday.

House: The full House of Representatives is in session Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

•••

USB Merges with Credit Suisse – USB is calling it a merger, though it looks more like a takeover of troubled fellow Swiss bank Credit Suisse. According to USB, the two entered into a merger agreement Sunday after intervention of the Swiss Federal Department of Finance, Swiss National Bank and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Committee. Shareholders of the failing bank will receive one USB share for every 22.48 shares of Credit Suisse. USB will write off 16-billion Swiss francs (US $17.28-billion) of Credit Suisse debt and will appoint “key personnel” to Credit Suisse. USB hopes to complete the merger by the end of this year.

The "merger" will cost USB $3 billion to take over Credit Suisse, The Wall Street Journal reports.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

FRIDAY 3/17/23

(U.S. European Command has released de-classified video footage of a Russian Su-27 “conducting an unsafe/unprofessional intercept of a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 in international airspace over the Black Sea…” Russian aircraft spilled fuel on the MQ-9 drone before an Su-27 caught its propeller and forced European Command to down it. See the released footage here:https://www.eucom.mil/article/42318/media-advisory-camera-footage-release-from-us-air-force-mq-9-interaction-with-russian-su-2)

Slovakia Joins Poland – Slovakia becomes the second NATO country to provide warplanes to Ukraine for its defense against Russia’s invasion. It will send 13 MiG-29 jets to Ukraine. Earlier this week, Poland announced it will send four of the Soviet-era warplanes to the country. According to The Kyiv Independent, Ukrainian Prime Minister Eduard Heger said the jets will be used to protect the country’s skies and “not to carry out attacks against Russian military.”

Meanwhile: Beijing has announced Chinese leader Xi Jingping meets with Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week (per NPR).

•••

Truth Social Money Laundering Probe – Top executives of Truth Social became concerned last spring about “opaque entities in two emergency loans” to Donald J. Trump’s struggling social media site, The Guardian reports, citing “documents, emails and sources familiar with the matter.” The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York is investigating yet another potential crime in connection with the former president, in a scoop by The Guardian earlier this week.

The two “emergency loans” include $6 million from the ES Family Trust in February 2022 (the month Russia invaded Ukraine), the trustee of which turns out to be a director of Paxum Bank, a part-owner of which is a relative of a Putin ally. The first of the two loans came in December 2021 from Paxum Bank, which is registered in Dominica.

Trump, Meanwhile, Defends Russia: In a video he released Thursday, Trump said, “the greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia,” per another UK-based newspaper, the Daily Mail, “it’s probably more than anything else ourselves and some of the horrible, USA-hating people.”

•••

Other Banks Save First Republic – Eleven banks led by JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co. have deposited $30 billion into First Republic to save the San Francisco bank. The bailout includes $2.5 billion each from Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, and The Wall Street Journal reports that First Republic executives sold $11.8 million in stock in the two months leading up to the bank’s crash, at an average price of nearly $130 per share.

Executive Chairman James Herbert II was among the bank’s executives who sold shares before First Republic stock fell to $34.27 per share and credit-rating agency S&P Global downgraded the bank four notches to “junk” status. WSJ notes that insider stock sales at banks are exempt from normal disclosure rules.

•••

We welcome your civil comments. Become a Citizen Pundit with an email to editors@thehustings.news on any recent issues, and note whether you lean left or right in the subject line.

--TL

_____________________________________________

THURSDAY 3/16/23

Ukraine to Get Warplanes – Poland will provide Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, President Andrzej Duda said at a news conference Thursday (per The Washington Post). Poland is the first NATO nation to provide fighter jets, long requested by Ukraine after Russia’s invasion more than a year ago.

•••

TikTok ... Time Out? – The Biden administration demands that Chinese-owned TikTok be sold to avoid a potential ban in the United States, according to NPR’s Morning Edition. It is not clear whether federal officials have set a deadline for such a sale, the report says.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has been examining for two years whether U.S. data collected by TikTok are properly safeguarded from employees of the social media site’s Beijing owner, ByteDance. TikTok has commited $1.5 billion to its “Project Texas,” in which U.S.-based Oracle is to build a firewall to ensure security for users in the U.S.

The Trump administration had attempted to put TikTok out of business, NPR notes, but efforts were halted by federal courts.

•••

Banking “Remains Sound” – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will tell the Senate Finance Committee Thursday the U.S. banking system “remains sound” and promote the government’s “decisive and forceful actions” to shore up confidence, Axios reports.

Meanwhile: Credit Suisse will borrow up to $54 billion from Switzerland’s central bank. Shares in Credit Suisse momentarily plunged 25% Wednesday after Saudi National Bank indicated to other European banks it would no longer support the Swiss bank.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Trump to Constitution: Drop Dead

By Todd Lassa

Donald J. Trump last weekend claimed the United States as his very own banana republic by calling for suspension of the Constitution so he could be reinstated as president, because, you know … the Big Lie.

In case you missed it, this is what he said (via Politico) on his Truth Social site (as Elon Musk awaits his return to Twitter): “A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

Wonder whether it was one of Trump’s star attorneys who suggested it was within his right to call for ditching the Constitution? Or perhaps the advice came from antisemite Ye, white supremacist Nick Fuentes and/or far-right provocateur Milo Yiannopolis (who has just departed Ye’s 2024 presidential bid according to the Daily Beast – the campaign for which the artist formerly known as Kanye West wants Trump to be his running mate).

“Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they’re going to break from him and return to some semblance of reasonableness,” said incoming House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY), “or continue to lean into the extremism, not just of Trump, but Trumpism.” (PBS News Hour.)

One might also wonder what constitutional originalists on the right think of Trump’s call for “termination” of rules, regulations and articles found in the Constitution.

GOP lack of reaction to Trump’s latest comments so far rival the party leadership's lack of their reaction to his dinner with Ye, Fuentes and Yiannopolis. ABC News This Week host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday had to press Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) for his comments on the Truth Social post.

Joyce, chairman of the Republican Governance Group said, “It’s early. I think there’s going to be a lot of people in the primary … I will support whoever the Republican nominee is.”

At first glance, the defeat of many Trump-backed candidates in the midterms, and then the notorious Mar-a-Lago dinner two weeks later have been hailed as a voter affirmation of American democracy. Even the New York Post was ready to write the obituary for Trump’s political career as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emerged as the new darling of the hard-right wing. But the inability of such GOP leaders as Rep. Kevin McCarthy and Sen. Mitch McConnell, topped by Joyce’s comments on This Weekhave kept Trump’s future alive and well. According to Politico, latest polls show the ex-president remains the most likely 2024 GOP nominee.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Angels & Delirium

By Stephen Macaulay

In a paper published in AI & Society, Natasha Lushetich writes, in part, “Apart from shedding light on the rift between the realm of ideality and materiality and corporeality, characteristic of the two-world theory derived from Western metaphysics (Nishitani 1991), this paradox also sheds light on human inability to process complexity as multiplicity, collapsed orders of magnitude, virtuality and/or vertiginous speed.” Lushetich is referring to Medieval thinkers facing the paradox of “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.”

While you might begin to wonder whether you’ve happened to stumble upon a page that isn’t The Hustings as you thought it was or that somehow I’ve managed to, well, stumble, a moment of patience.

The angels paradox generated, as it were, lots of heat and very little light. Aquinas et. al disputed and debated what the answer is. Or could be. Or should be. Or might be.

Or. . . .

Arguably this scholastic exercise was something that we might consider to be not much more than quibbling — the status of the Medieval thinkers involved in trying to answer it. It was a place where there was an intersection of belief and intellectual precision. (Given that Lushetich’s paper was published in 2021, it is clear this is still something that is relevant in certain intellectual niches.)

Donald Trump posts on the ironically named “Truth Social”:

"So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great 'Founders' did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!"

One could quibble. One could note his bizarre syntax. One could point out that he continues to maintain something for which there is no evidence (on Truth Social, no less).

There are far too many people who continue to attempt to dance on the head of a pin when it comes to chastising Trump while simultaneously staying in his favor.

“No, he shouldn’t have had a dinner date with a Nazi sympathizer and a white supremacist, but damn, doesn’t he look good?”

Let’s not try to be too clever by half, to be delicately epistemological about all this.

The former president of the United States is saying there should be the ending of the Constitution because he is the “RIGHTFUL WINNER” of an election he didn’t win.

This is the Presidential Oath:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Protect and defend, not end.

Anyone who believes in the idea and ideal of America can no longer support Donald Trump. Sure there are people who like some of his ideas or some of his accomplishments, but the individual who is publicly taking this decision is clearly not playing by the rules that have been the guiding principles of this country.

It doesn’t take a Medieval philosopher to attempt to figure this out. There is no complexity. No multiplicity. No several things to hold in one’s mind simultaneously.

It is plain and simple, not in the least bit paradoxical. Trump wrote it. Clearly he believes it. And a man who wants to overthrow the Constitution of the United States is someone who clearly does not have the best interests of the commonweal in mind.

_____
COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news