Tag: United Nations

One Year In Moscow Jail for Reporter Doing His Job

[March 29 marks one year since Evan Gershkovich, reporter for The Wall Street Journal, was arrested in Yekaterinburg, Russia, and detained on allegations of espionage. Gershkovich, his employer and the U.S. government vehemently deny the charges.]

PASSOVER/EASTER 2024

Twenty-Five for SBF -- FTX cryptocurrency exchange king Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday for stealing billions of dollars from customers (per The New York Times). The sentence was about half of the 40 to 50 years sought by federal prosecutors, but also far longer than the six-and-a-half years his defense attorneys sought. But it could have been worse: The fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges for which SBF, 32, was found guilty carry a maximum penalty of 110 years.

SBF apologized before being sentenced, but Judge Lewis Kaplan, handing down the sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan said; "He knew it was wrong. He knew it was criminal."

Lessons learned?: Er, no. Cryptocurrency values have skyrocketed in recent weeks. The political connection is that many proponents see cryptocurrency as a libertarian alternative to government currencies.

•••

Ban NBC News? -- The Republican National Committee may ban NBC News from the GOP convention in Milwaukee this summer over its decision to drop former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, Politico reports. "We are taking a hard look at what this means for NBC's participation at the convention," RNC and Trump campaign spokeswoman Danielle Alvarez said. Several prominent NBC News and MSNBC personalities objected to news last week that NBC had hired McDaniel as a paid pundit after Trump's party replaced her with Michael Whatley and Lara Trump.

•••

Joseph Lieberman – The moderate’s moderate who became the first Jewish candidate on a major-party presidential ticket, Joseph I. Lieberman, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 82. The cause was complications of a fall, according to a statement released by his family (per The New York Times). 

Lieberman served the U.S. Senate for Connecticut from 1989 to 2013 and was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000 presidential election, coming within a few hundred Florida ballot chads from becoming vice president. Lieberman had served his first three Senate terms as a Democrat but lost his party’s primary in 2006 and went on to win the general election as an independent. 

In 2008, Lieberman endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain (AZ) over Democratic Sen. Barack Obama (IL) for the presidential election and was vetted as a potential running mate for McCain. Pushed by Republican leaders, McCain instead chose Sarah Palin, the hard-right governor of Alaska and harbinger for the Tea Party movement on Capitol Hill two years later. Lieberman endorsed no one in the 2012 presidential race and he did not run for a fifth Senate term, instead retiring in 2013, but he supported Democrats Hilary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020.

•••

How to Apply for an RNC Job -- Imagine you're a recent college grad with a poli sci major, or even a grizzled veteran of political campaigns and you're looking for a new job. Say you're a Reagan Republican, or if you're one of those freshly minted college grads, maybe a Bush or Romney or McCain Republican.

Apply to the Republican National Committee -- a potential plumb in a presidential election year. You had better lie if you want the job.

That's the word from "people familiar" with RNC interviews following Donald J. Trump's ordered purge of Ronna McDaniel (who can't keep a new job herself -- see right column) with North Carolina GOP Chairman Michael Whatley and daughter-in-law Lara Trump, have told The Washington Post.

"Those seeking employment" by the RNC "have been asked in job interviews if they believe the 2020 election was stolen," the sources said, "making the false claim a litmus test, of sorts, for hiring."

RNC spokesperson Danielle Alvarez would not deny the WaPo report, according to a follow-up by The Guardian. "We want experienced staff with meaningful views on how elections are won and lost and real experience-based opinions about what happens in the trenches.

Be sure to update your CV.

•••

Mifepristone Appears Safe -- A majority of Supreme Court justices appeared ready to throw out a challenge to the FDA's expansion of the availability of mifepristone, a drug used in medicated abortions. Justices, including Trump appointee Amy Coney Barrett challenged individual doctors and doctors' groups have "standing" in the case during about 90 minutes of oral arguments Tuesday, Amy Howe writes in SCOTUSblog. Elizabeth Prelogar, the U.S. solicitor general, argued that doctors must show they face "imminent harm" before their lawsuit could go forward. Beside potentially limiting access to mifepristone -- which the FDA expanded from 2016 to 2021 -- a finding for the plaintiffs would potentially limit the authority of such federal agencies as the FDA.

•••

Abortion Drug on Trial – The Supreme Court hears arguments Tuesday in a case in which a group of doctors opposed to abortion are challenging the Food and Drug Administration’s approval more than 25 years ago of mifepristone, a drug used in medicated abortions, per SCOTUSblog. As NPR’s Nina Totenburg put it in Morning Edition, “You might call this ‘daughter of Dobbs.’”

The case’s outcome could determine women’s access to the abortion drug, even in states in which abortion is still legal after SCOTUS’ decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade nearly two years ago. 

•••

Netanyahu Cancels – The Biden administration made it clear to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week it would abstain, rather than vote for, a United Nations’ resolution passed Monday that calls for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza. A single vote by the U.S. would have automatically vetoed the resolution. 

But Netanyahu immediately cancelled a high-level delegation’s trip to Washington the White House had specifically requested in a phone call between Biden and Netanyahu last week, according to The Washington Post. 

The Biden administration wants Israel to call off a planned military operation in Rafah, a high-density city whose citizens already are reported to be suffering severe starvation. 

The cancelled visit is “surprising and unfortunate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

--TL

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Big Day for DJT

MONDAY 3/25/24

UPDATE: Trump Wins One, Loses One -- On Monday, a five-judge appellate court gave Donald J. Trump 10 days to post $175 million in lieu of a $454 million bond heretofore due today while he appeals his civil fine in the New York state real estate fraud case, The New York Times reports. But Judge Juan Merchan refused to grant Trump a delay in his case involving hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. That trial is scheduled to begin April 15. Still.

In Court – Donald J. Trump was to appear in a Manhattan courtroom Monday to try and put up yet another delay in yet another of his trials. This is the one in which Trump allegedly tried to cover up a sex scandal with porn star Stormy Daniels just prior to his 2016 Electoral College victory over Hilary Clinton with money funneled to her via his former fixer/personal attorney Michael Cohen. The Monday hearing is to finalize a trial date of April 15, The New York Times reports.

In Westchester County – The former president’s grace period to pay a $454 million fine for his New York state civil judgment in a fraud case over the valuation of Donald J. Trump’s properties ended Monday after his attorneys said posting a bond for that amount is “virtually impossible.” Attorney Gen. Letitia James has laid the groundwork for seizing assets, beginning with one of Trump’s properties in Westchester County, according to The Wall Street Journal. James also could go after Trump’s accounts at financial institutions, says the report. 

•••

Putin Propaganda – The Kremlin has continued to try and shift blame for a terrorist attack on a concert venue last Friday that has left at least 137 dead and 180 injured to Ukraine, despite ISIS-K – the Islamic State in Khorasan – having claimed responsibility. Kyiv has adamantly denied any connection. Photos are circulating of the four suspects arrested displaying signs they have been tortured. According to the NYT, ISIS-K is active in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, with sights set “on Europe and beyond.”

•••

Russian Hits on Ukraine -- With U.S. Congress continuing to put off renewed military aid to Ukraine in deference to the MAGA minorities in both chambers, Russian military dropped ballistic missiles on the Security Service (SBU), Ukraine’s main intelligence and security agency, the Kyiv Post reports. Overnight drone attacks hit two power substations in Ukraine’s southern region. 

Empty Hill: The Senate is out until Monday, April 8, and the House doesn’t return until the next day, April 9.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the White House, Congress and Pentagon Thursday. On Wednesday, he called on the UN to remove Russia from its Security Council. --UN Photo/Mark Garten)

THURSDAY 9/21/23

Zelenskyy Fights for Aid – After telling the United Nations Wednesday it is not supporting Ukraine sufficiently in its fight against Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Washington Thursday amid growing criticism from a minority of Republicans on the hard-right. Republican leaders are demanding strict accountability of U.S. aid to Ukraine, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has moved to block an additional $24 billion proposed by the White House in the Senate’s spending bill.

Zelenskyy made his case on NPR’s Morning Edition, telling host Steve Inskeep; “Yes, of course we have the same values. Freedom and democracy. That is why we are fighting against Russia.”

The Ukrainian president reiterated that there cannot be any sort of peace plan that does not include Russia’s complete withdrawal. Zelenskyy told Inskeep that Ukraine is “absolutely ready” for elections scheduled for 2024, but he cannot be definite they will take place, depending on conditions of the war.

NOTE: Despite expectations there would be an encounter between the two, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov avoided Zelenskyy's speech before the UN Security Council Wednesday (see Wednesday's ...meanwhile...).

•••

Succession – Rupert Murdoch, 92, has announced he is retiring as chairman of Fox Corp. and News Corp. effective mid-November, Axios reports. His son, Lachlan, becomes chairman of both companies, and he becomes chairman emeritus.

•••

Tuberville Can’t Block Brown – After Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) separated the president’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from about 300 military officers, the Senate approved Air Force Gen. Charles Brown Jr. for the Pentagon’s top position, by 83-11 vote (The Washington Post). Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has been blocking assignments over his opposition to a military provision that helps troops travel to a state different from their post for abortion services. 

Brown, who becomes the second Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff after Gen. Colin Powell replaces the retiring chairman, Gen. Mark Milley, who has served in the post since 2019.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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WEDNESDAY 9/20/23

Lavrov to Face Zelenskyy – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday in a special United Nations Security Council session. Russian state media reported Lavrov’s attendance, The Washington Post reports, “setting up a potentially dramatic encounter” 19 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

At the General Assembly: Speaking before the UN’s General Assembly Tuesday, Zelenskyy reiterated Ukraine’s position that it will not accept any peace plan that does not include Russia’s full withdrawal – including from the Crimean region it invaded in 2014.

•••

House Judiciary to Grill Garland – Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland appears before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday to take questions about the Justice Department’s investigations of Hunter Biden and former President Trump. Hard-right House Republicans have criticized the department for what they say is favorable treatment of the current president’s son compared with the department’s treatment of the former president, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

In Garland’s prepared statement to the Judiciary Committee, he says; "As the president himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the president's lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress' prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law, wherever they lead. And that is what we do."

--TL

Biden Urges Unity for Ukraine

TUESDAY 9/19/23

UPDATE -- President Biden called for world unity in aiding Ukraine's fight for sovereignty in his Tuesday morning address to the United Nations General Assembly. He also took the opportunity to urge all nations to intensify efforts to reverse climate change.

"The United States seeks a more secure, more prosperous, more equitable world for all people, because we know our future is bound up with yours," Biden said. "And no nation can meet the challenges of today alone."

Citing record-breaking heatwaves, wildfires, drought and flooding in various regions around the globe, the president said "these snapshots tell an urgent story of what awaits us if we fail to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and begin to climate-proof our world."

With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looking on from the audience, Biden said; "Russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence. But I ask you this: If we abandon the core principles of the UN Charter to appease an aggressor, can any member state feel confident that we are protected? If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?

"The answer is 'no.' We must stand up to this naked aggression today to deter other would-be aggressors tomorrow."

Biden to UN – President Biden tells the United Nations General Assembly Tuesday the U.S. is reversing the Trump administration’s isolationist policies with “more American engagement, more American investment, more American presence” across “all continents, all corners of the world,” White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan says (per NPR’s Morning Edition). This includes enduring support for Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion, of course. The White House has asked Congress for another $24 billion in aid to Ukraine in the face of MAGA-Republican pushback in the federal budget showdown playing out on Capitol Hill.

Zelenskyy attends: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also speaks before the General Assembly in New York, where he will try to win over countries – many in Africa and Latin America -- that have refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, The Globe and Mail reports. Zelenskyy and Biden are scheduled to meet at the White House after their UN appearances in New York. Later, Zelenskyy flies off to Ottawa to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and rally support against the Russian invasion, sources told The Globe and Mail. 

C5+1: Biden also is scheduled to meet with leaders of the C5 nations Kazakhstan, Krygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, in an effort to release them from the influence of the superpowers that surround them; Russia and China. 

Absent: Russia and China, as well as France and the United Kingdom are not attending this year’s UN General Assembly. Prior to leaving Kyiv, Zelenskyy questioned why Russia still has a place in the UN.

•••

Trudeau; ‘Credible Intel’ of Killing by India – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons Monday that Canada has “credible intelligence” that the government of India was behind the killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia (The Globe and Mail). The leader, Hardeep Sign Nijov, was designated a “terrorist” by New Delhi. Trudeau’s charges have deepened a growing crisis between the two countries, with India expelling a Canadian diplomat after Canada ordered an Indian diplomat to leave Ottawa.

•••

CR is DOA – Senate Democrats have “no interest” in House Republicans’ 30-day Continuing Resolution introduced Sunday night, that would keep the lights on in the federal government through the end of October, Roll Call Daily reports. But even a $279-billion, three-bill fiscal 2024 spending package put forth by the Senate’s Democratic majority may be quashed by some Republicans’ procedural objections. The Senate is considering suspending the germaneness rule in order to cut off objections by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and others. Their procedural objections would require 67 votes. 

Upshot: With such disarray in the Senate as well as Republican infighting in the House, a government shutdown after the end of the fiscal year September 30 is likely.

Pushing the speaker?: Aides and allies to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) are convinced that conservative House Republicans – you know, the more conservative, MAGA and MAGA-esque ones – are trying to provoke a shutdown in order to push him out as speaker, Punchbowl News reports. Evan after the House Freedom Caucus forced McCarthy to cut $100 billion in spending bills from a deal he made with President Biden earlier this year, Republican leaders remain unable to pass 2024 appropriations bills on the floor because of the continued GOP infighting. 

•••

Today is … Talk Like a Pirate Day. Yet we’ve refrained from doing so, until now. Arrrrrrg, matey.

--TL

____________________________________________

...meanwhile...

MONDAY 9/18/23

U.S., Iran Swap Prisoners -- Five American citizens held in Iran are to fly to the United States, with a brief stop in Qatar, in exchange for five Iranians held by the U.S., plus the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian oil funds held in South Korea. The agreement reached overnight is described by The Washington Post as a "high-stakes" prisoner swap indicating a thaw in relations between Iran and the U.S.

•••

House GOP Whips Up Deal to Avert Shutdown – The Main Street Caucus and the House Freedom Caucus, both consisting of House Republicans, reached a short-term spending deal they plan to bring to the floor as a continuing resolution (CR), this week, The Hill reported late Sunday night, saying it would have “slim odds” of passing the Senate and of being signed by the White House. In fact, the GOP’s majority may be too slim to get it off the House floor.

The federal government's fiscal year ends September 30.

Discretionary spending cuts: The deal would keep Department of Defense, and Veterans Affairs spending at the current level, but would cut all discretionary spending by 8%. 

And, a border crackdown: The deal also would include the House GOP’s H.R. 2 Border Crackdown Bill, minus its provision to require E-verify. 

It leaves out… disaster relief funds and a request for supplemental funding for Ukraine that the White House requested in August to be added to the CR.

•••

Preventing WWIII – People in Ukraine are dying every day to prevent World War III, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News’ 60 Minutes. When Scott Pelley asked about recent drone strikes on the Kremlin, Zelenskyy said that foreign drones supplied by NATO nations were not used but added this warning to Russia and Vladimir Putin; “your sky is not as well protected as you think.” 

Zelenskyy, President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu are scheduled to speak to the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York.

•••

Trump’s Art of the Peace – Former President Trump declined to give details on how he would end the war in Ukraine Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, telling moderator Kristen Welker, “if I tell you exactly, I lose all my bargaining chips.”

Welker later asked Trump for his reaction to a recent Putin statement that, “We surely hear that Mr. Trump says he will resolve all the burning issues within several days, including the Ukrainian crisis. We cannot help but feel happy about it.”

“Well, I like that he said that,” Trump told Welker. “Because that means what I’m saying is right. I would get him into a room. I’d get Zelenskyy into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out. It would have been a lot easier before it started.”

Up on the Hill – Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are in session Monday through Thursday. The Senate only is in session Friday.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

NY AG Sues Trump for “Massive Fraud”

(WED 9/21/22)

New York State Attorney General Letitia James (center, above) announced a $250-million-plus civil suit against ex-President Trump, his family and his company. The suit seeks to permanently bar Donald J. Trump, sons Don Jr. and Eric, and daughter Ivanka from doing business in the state, James announced in a press conference Wednesday. 

The former president also would be barred for five years from entering any commercial real estate acquisition in the state and from applying for any loans from New York-registered financial institutions.

The suit alleges Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars over the years. The investigation covered 2011-2021. Of her many examples of alleged over-value, one included the former president’s own apartment at Trump Tower Manhattan, which was listed at 30,000 square-feet, roughly three times its actual size. As a result, the likely value of $127 million was inflated to $317 million in 2012, still more than any apartment sold in Manhattan.

Mar-a-Lago revenue should have been valued at less than $25 million per year, and no higher than $75 million per year – Trump valued his Florida residence and private club at $739 million, she said. No word on the value of Trump’s golden escalator.

The suit also includes these remedies:

• An independent monitor to oversee compliance, financial reporting, valuations and disclosure to tax authorities for no less than five years. 

•Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)-compliant audited statements, showing Trump’s net worth, for five years.

•Replacement of current trustees of Donald Trump’s revocable trust with independent trustees.

The suit also seeks to permanently bar former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg and controller Jeffrey McConney from serving in financial control of any New York corporation or similar entity in the state. James said former Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before Congress sparked her office’s investigation. Such alleged white-collar fraud is not “victimless” crime, she said.

“When the well-connected break the law it reduces resources to working people, to regular people, to small businesses and to taxpayers,” James remarked. 

“Claiming you have money that you do not have is not the Art of the Deal. It is the art of the steal.”

•••

Biden Speaks to UN – President Biden did not have to alter his speech much, before the 77th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in light of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bellicose statement about extending his attack on Ukraine.

“This war is about extinguishing Ukraine’s right to exist as a state,” Biden said, “plain and simple. And Ukraine’s right to exist as a people. Whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever you believe, that should make your blood run cold.”

Biden equated the fight for Ukraine’s sovereignty as a democratic nation with the struggle to maintain democracy everywhere, including the U.S.

“The only country standing in the way of that is Russia,” he said. While Biden was expected to alter his remarks after Putin announced his “partial military call up” CNN reports the president’s speech written before that announcement held up.

Extending the UN Permanent Security Council: Biden noted that 141 nations share the United States’ condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He called on the UN to expand its permanent Security Council, which since its inception consists of China, France, the Russian Federation (previously Soviet Union), the United Kingdom and the U.S. Currently, any single country among these five may veto a UN resolution.

Global food security: Biden also announced $2.9 billion in federal funding to strengthen global food security. He disputed Putin’s statement that current global food insecurity is the result of Western sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. 

“Our sanctions explicitly allow Russia the ability to export food and fertilizer,” Biden said.

•••

Putin’s Not Bluffing? – Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “partial military call-up” mobilizing up to 300,000 reservists – falling just short of a draft -- to hold its border with Ukraine, the AP and NPR report. This has set Russians “scrambling” to buy airline tickets out of their country. In his seven-minute address Wednesday, Putin “also warned the West he isn’t bluffing about using all the means at his proposal to protect Russia’s territory,” a veiled reference to the country’s nuclear capability. 

But Russian nukes, as always, are held in-check by Western nations’ capabilities, Sergey Radchenko, professor of Russian history at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, told NPR’s Morning Edition, so Putin’s claim his sabre-rattling is not a bluff hints it is indeed a bluff. And U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink tweeted that Russia is showing “weakness” and “failure” after its escalation of the war. She vowed that the U.S. will never recognize Russia’s scheme to claim Ukrainian territory.

Radchenko said plans announced Tuesday by eastern and southern regions of Ukraine currently controlled by Russia to hold votes on becoming an integral part of Russia – which Ukrainian President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy has called a “sham” – is a ploy for Putin to claim that it is Ukraine doing the invading when the country tries to take back those territories.

Biden’s UN Speech: Coming up Wednesday morning, President Biden speaks before the United Nations General Assembly (which Putin will not attend, despite Russia’s membership). The White House is scrambling to rewrite Biden’s speech in light of Putin’s announcement from Moscow, MSNBC’s Morning Joe reports.

•••

No Cake in Mar-a-Lagogate – Special Master Raymond Dearie, the candidate of the two candidates named by Donald J. Trump’s attorneys who was agreed to by the Justice Department, “appeared skeptical” about the former president’s claim he “declassified” classified documents recovered in the FBI’s August 8 search of Mar-a-Lago, as Time put it Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, Judge Dearie told Trump’s attorneys “You can’t have your cake and eat it.” 

Upshot: Trump’s attorneys have avoided arguing that Trump had declassified the documents for fear of breaching ethics standards with an untruth.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(TUE 9/20/22)

Mortgage Rates Hit 6% -- The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee is expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points (0.75%), when it meets Tuesday and Wednesday, Punchbowl News reports. The Fed has been imposing big increases in the interest rate since inflation hit 40-year record highs, and Chairman Jerome Powell (pictured above) will likely signal more big increases until inflation comes down significantly from its current 8.3% annual rate. The mortgage rate is running at 6% for the first time since the inauspicious year 2008. 

Note: Warnings of a coming recession among some economists (and most Republicans, looking to save their prospects in the midterms) are offset by other economists (and the Biden White House) who point to record-low unemployment and high job growth. The economic anomaly is that we’re still suffering the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic (despite Biden’s claim on 60 Minutes that it’s over) as well as the effects of the cutoff of Russian oil to Europe, where Germany and the United Kingdom in particular, are suffering higher inflation rates and face almost certain recession and a cold winter. 

This is not to downplay the economic suffering of the American working- and middle-classes, but if Vladimir Putin has had any personal success in his brutal attack on Ukraine, it’s that he has hijacked potential economic recovery in the West following shutdowns from the pandemic. 

•••

Texas Sheriff Investigates DeSantis’ Flights – Bexar County, Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar (D) has opened an investigation into Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) political stunt he played out on Fox News in which 50 Venezuelan migrants were flown from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts last week. The migrants had turned them in to U.S. Border Patrol after crossing from Mexico and were granted “temporary protected status,” and Salazar is looking into whether they were “lured from the Migrant Resource Center” under “false promises” for work and assistance, according to The Washington Post.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

_____________________________________

This Week in NYC and DC (MON 9/19/22)

(United Nations HQ, New York City)

The White House – Joe and Jill Biden attended Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral in London Monday as the United States had a chance to react to the president’s comments on CBS News’ 60 Minutes Sunday night that U.S. troops would defend Taiwan if China conducted an “unprecedented attack.” 

“So unlike Ukraine, to be clear, sir, U.S. forces, U.S. men and women would defend Taiwan in the case of a Chinese invasion?” 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley asked.

“Yes,” Biden replied.

Chinese spokesman Liu Pengyu said in a series of tweets that Biden’s remarks “sends wrong signals to Taiwan independence’ separatist forces, and severely jeopardizes China-U.S. relations and peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” CBS News reports. 

Biden also told Pelley that he hasn’t decided whether to run for re-election in 2024, and said that he was not briefed about the top-secret documents found at Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, nor was he aware of the FBI’s search warrant ahead of time.

•••

This Week – The United Nations 77th General Assembly begins Monday at its New York City headquarters, the first in-person meeting since 2019. President Biden is expected to give his speech Wednesday on the war in Ukraine and on climate change, a day later than the U.S. president’s usual place on the schedule, because of his attendance at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.

The House of Representatives and Senate are in-session Monday through Thursday; the Senate only is in session on Friday.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

_____________________________________

...meanwhile... (FRI-SUN 9/16-18/22)

(Judge Cannon)

Judge Picks Dearie -- This all seems to have gone to Donald J. Trump’s plans, with a federal judge he appointed after losing the 2020 election refusing to allow the Justice Department to review documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago home August 8 until a special master requested – demanded – by the ex-president’s attorneys has examined them first. That special master appointed by Judge Aileen Cannon Thursday, senior New York Federal Judge Raymond Dearie, was proposed by Trump’s attorneys and deemed acceptable by the Justice Department. 

The Justice Department is not allowed to use the sensitive documents in its investigation while Dearie reviews them and is expected to appeal Cannon’s ruling before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th District, in Atlanta, The Washington Post reports. 

DOJ had argued that the special master should not be allowed to review the classified documents seized, but Cannon in her ruling said that it is a “matter of dispute” whether the documents marked classified are, in fact, classified. Trump’s attorneys have suggested that the documents may not be classified, but have not asserted that Trump personally declassified them, WaPo says. Trump also has not given any indication why he kept the papers.

Timing is key: Cannon has given Dearie to November 30 to complete his review, which pushes the case well into next year, when the GOP hopes to have majorities in both chambers of Congress and can begin some counter-investigations of its own. By then, too, Trump may very well have announced his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination and will continue to accuse the DOJ under the Biden White House of conducting yet another “witch hunt.”

ICYMT1/6CD (In Case You Missed This 1/6 Committee Development): Ex-President Trump’s ultimate chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has agreed to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol.

--Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

Immigration Executive Order are Only a pre-Trump ‘Reset’

By Nic Woods

President Joe Biden, in his first day in office, signed a slew of executive orders, memoranda and proclamations that included some attempts to overturn his predecessors’ immigration policy, which were, essentially, done with executive orders signed mainly to undo the work of his predecessor.

Just like the tit-for-tat, the policy signals in the immigration executive orders aren’t new. Much either resets immigration policy to where it was before Trump was inaugurated, or underscores what was the pre-Trump normal. 

Unlike former President Trump, Biden is signaling that he’d prefer legislation be passed to bolster the executive orders and is currently preparing a legislative package that further codifies the policy, but key Republicans have started to balk, claiming that because he was signing executive orders already, he didn’t actually mean what he said in his inaugural address about unifying, and governing, as one nation.

But Biden’s immigration asks are not that egregious. One EO basically requires the Census Bureau to do what it is already required to do by the U.S. Constitution – count every person, citizen or not. But this differs from Trump’s efforts to carve out non-citizens from the Census count. 

The main ask – a streamlined, eight-year process for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants to become citizens – would make the Census EO redundant, as people in the pipeline for citizenship would likely have less to fear from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and are more likely to be comfortable with answering a Census worker’s questions.

Many of the other immigration EOs, such as lifting the ban of travelers from Muslim nations, either returns us to “normalcy” or it brings back to the table issues Trump tried to avoid or end altogether, e.g. protection from deportation for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or programs for refugees and asylum seekers, some of whom were in mortal danger for assisting U.S. troops in such trouble spots as Iraq. 

Others overturn Trump executive orders that pushed for the aggressive deportation of unauthorized immigrants and deported Liberians who have been living in the U.S. For these, Biden has directed the State department to restart visa processing and develop ways to address the harm from having that process be in limbo for so long.

In yet another EO, Biden ends construction of Trump’s border wall in favor of bolstering the borders with new technology that does similar work at, perhaps, less cost.

What Biden isn’t doing is throwing open the U.S. borders for everyone to get in unvetted. No one wants that and, as a centrist, such an extreme position isn’t in his wheelhouse. But he seems to be making a bold move to succeed where presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush failed by finally providing a clear, legal, more humane route to U.S. citizenship.

Other Biden first day initiatives:

• A 100-day “masking challenge” that entails mask requirements in federal buildings and on federal land, as well as public transit. Biden called for mask requirements on trains, airplanes and buses, and in public airports. 

• Establishment of a directorate for global health security and biodefense, with the goal of having protocols in place determined by past pandemics in order to be prepared for future pandemics.

•At first a fan of China’s early response to COVID-19, former President Trump quickly came to criticize and then pull representation from the World Health Organization for not being tougher on the country. Other critics agreed the WHO for failing to take a tough stance on China’s slow response to early outbreaks, The Washington Post says. Thanks to Chinese bureaucracy and restrictions, the Post reports, it took nearly a year for WHO to gain access to the country, which finally happened this month. But WHO helps with worldwide distribution of medical supplies and holds regular meetings on the coronavirus, which Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official in the U.S., attended by webinar Thursday.

• Eviction and foreclosure moratoriums that were part of the March 2020 CARES Act were extended by Trump in December, set to expire at the end of January. Biden’s EO extends the moratoriums through September 30.

• Like the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, Trump extended to the end of January a freeze on student loan payments otherwise due to expire with the CARES Act in late December. Biden’s EO also extends the freeze, again, to September 30.

• Trump exited the Paris Climate Agreement, which the Obama administration signed on to in 2015, calling climate change a “hoax” and claiming the international treaty was unfair to the U.S. But Biden has nominated John Kerry to a new cabinet-level position, special presidential envoy for climate, with the intention to rejoin and continue work on the treaty.

• Canada’s TC Energy’s Keystone XL pipeline has been in the works for nearly a decade, connecting Alberta’s oil sands with Montana. While some state Democrats, as well as most Republicans support the $8-billion project, Native American tribes and ecology groups have fought it since the beginning, and the U.S. achieved energy independence during the Obama administration. Biden has issued a moratorium and TC Energy has suspended its development. Biden is to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Friday.

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Culture Wars Go to College

By Todd Lassa

A bit like an NCAA football rivalry, the Culture Wars have stumbled onto the battlefield of the college and university alumni of presidential candidates’ staff and cabinet. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., fired an early shot as the former vice president began announcing his choices to staff the White House. Rubio expressed concern about people who received degrees from Ivy League schools, presumably in an effort to appeal to the Trump wing, as one of Trump’s biggest demographic constituencies consisted of non-college educated white males.*

Then the Biden transition team launched a trial balloon, or canary in the Senate coalmine if you will with Neera Tanden, the president of the Center for American Progress, nominated to become director of the Office of Management and Budget. Tanden was a longtime confidant of Hillary Clinton tipped to potentially be her chief of staff, background that has drawn some opposition from supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who believe she helped torpedo his 2016 Democratic nomination bid. When Trump won instead, she took to Twitter with the “#Resistance” hashtag. Since Biden announced his intention to nominate her, she has deleted more than 1,000 tweets from over the last four years, according to the New York Post.

Her tweets’ alleged nastiness has drawn the ire of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham and Texas Sen. John Cornyn, both Republicans, though one might presume that as far as Rubio is concerned, she won’t be among the “polite & orderly caretakers” of the nation’s decline. 

What’s more, Tanden has a law degree from Yale.

The other intended cabinet are mostly ivy leaguers. They include Ron Klain (chief of staff; Georgetown University and Harvard Law), Janet Yellen (Treasury; Pembroke College of Brown University and Yale), Antony Blinken (State; Harvard and Columbia), John Kerry (special envoy for climate; Yale, though he had “low grades”), Alejandro Mayorkas (Homeland Security; University of California-Berkeley and Loyola Law), Linda Thomas-Greenfield (United Nations ambassador; Louisiana State and University of Wisconsin-Madison, a “public ivy”) and Jake Sullivan (national security advisor; Yale). [Hat tip to Wikipedia and New York magazine’s Intelligencer.]

Biden will be the first non-Ivy grad to take the White House since Ronald Reagan in 1980 and ’84. He attended the University of Delaware and Syracuse University for law. Trump is an Ivy League grad with an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Reagan? Eureka College. According to Lou Cannon writing in a piece for the UVA Miller Center (https://millercenter.org/president/reagan/life-before-the-presidency) “He majored in economics but was an indifferent student, graduating with a "C" average in 1932.”

Sounds like Rubio’s kind of guy.

*It should be noted that Rubio (along with Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson) is considered a lead Republican candidate for president in 2024, assuming the party remains centered on its Trump populist wing and that no members of the outgoing president’s family—Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner—announce they’re running (which could explain the rumored pre-emptive pardons). To say nothing of Trump himself announcing another run in ’24 (which could also explain the rumored self-pardon).

Please address comments to editors@thehustings.news

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It’s Trump’s GOP, but is it Still the Conservative Party?

By Todd Lassa

The Lincoln Project and its followers have been agonizing over the future of the heart and mind of the GOP since the Democrats first had comparative moderates running for the nomination such as Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and of course, Joe Biden.

What if Republican stalwarts, they wondered, helped propel one of those people to victory? 

After such a victory, what happens to the Republican Party? Does it revert to its Mitt Romney-esque roots, thus rejecting such erstwhile party leaders as Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham, who quickly turned from profoundly anti-Trump to enthusiastic supporter-enablers by November 2016? Or does it continue to be the Trump Party?

Anti-Trump Republicans now find themselves at a fork in the road with especially sharp tines. When (or if) President Trump vacates the White House, the Grand Old Party could revert to its pre-populist ways and welcome back the “never-Trumpers.” Or the party, such as it is, could shun those who have been associated with people from John McCain to George W. Bush.

The struggle has been playing itself out among Republicans inside its Washington power structure, where potential candidates for its 2024 presidential nomination have been lining up. 

That struggle hinges at first on whether Donald J. Trump himself chooses to run again in ’24 (the 22nd Amendment limits presidencies to two terms, but they do not need to be consecutive), or whether his son, Donald Jr. or daughter Ivanka gains more traction within the party. If not, the first Trump loyalists already on the short-list include former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Ted Cruz (Texas), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and even Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Alternatively, never-Trumpers who espouse traditional conservative values, have been getting behind Govs. Larry Hogan (Md.), Charlie Baker (Mass.) and Phil Scott (Vt.), all from Democratic-leaning states, former Ohio Gov. John Kasich or Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, who gained notoriety before the Nov. 3 election for the leaked (wink, wink) recording of a call to his supporters in which he said Trump “kisses dictators’ butts” and spends like a “drunken sailor.” 

Sasse had warned of a “Republican bloodbath” in that recording, predicting a Nov. 3 “Blue Wave” would give Democrats a big Senate majority. That didn’t happen, but questions of Trump’s authenticity as a conservative and whether he and his family can maintain control of the GOP remain.

Please address your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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