Monday on The Hustings
MAY 24, 2021 -- SAMUEL F.B. MORSE SENDS FIRST TELEGRAPHIC MESSAGE; 'WHAT HATH GOD WROUGHT?', 1844
Coming Tuesday – A home page debate on House Resolution 1, the For The People Act on voting rights, and state legislatures’ efforts to tighten voting laws. The Hustings debate is presented as a preview of Tuesday evening’s Braver Angels National Coliseum Debate on Voting in America. Scroll to the bottom of this post for details on how to attend the Zoom event.
International Outcry Over Jetliner Forced to Land in Belarus – A Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday was forced to land by a MiG-29 fighter jet in Minsk, Belarus, under orders of Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. Roman Protasevich, a journalist and anti-Lukashenko activist was arrested upon its landing. The Belarus government claims the plane was diverted because there was a bomb on board. There wasn’t.
It’s “a case of state-sponsored hijacking,” Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, told The Wall Street Journal.
The Biden Administration is looking into appropriate U.S. sanctions, though Russia will continue to economically support Belarus.
Protasevich had contested the results of last August’s Belarus elections, in which Lukashenko was re-elected president with 80% of the vote, according to Reporting Democracy. Lukashenko’s government insists the jetliner was diverted because it believed a bomb was aboard the plane.
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Memorials for Floyd Begin – George Floyd’s family members and others who have lost loved ones to police violence held a march in Minneapolis Sunday in memory of Floyd’s death. It was the first of several commemorations, including a White House meeting with the Floyd family scheduled for Tuesday, one year after he was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of the killing last month. Former officer Chauvin is scheduled to be sentenced by a Hennepin County judge on June 25.
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On Biden’s Infrastructure Price Cut – President Biden announced a “price cut” in his American Jobs Plan infrastructure proposal, from $2.3 trillion down to $1.7 trillion this past weekend, in an effort to close in on a deal with Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has floated an infrastructure budget on the order of $600-800 billion.
On ABC News This Week Sunday, Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican moderate whom the White House figures in among the 10 members of the opposition party Democrats need to avoid a filibuster and get to bi-partisan agreement, said “the heart of negotiations is to get to the scope of the bill,” by which she means that Republicans want the White House to strip out what they consider social programs in the Biden proposal, and deal only with roads, bridges, broadband and the like. No indication yet, however, that any Republicans will go for a rollback of the Trump Administration tax cuts from the 21% corporate tax rate back up to the 28% rate.
Note: The White House has given to Memorial Day to reach an agreement with Republican senators on a bi-partisan infrastructure compromise. But Biden doesn’t even have Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-WV, on board, so the chances of a Democratic bill to scuttle the legislative filibuster is nil. That leaves the possibility of passing a more ambitious Biden plan under reconciliation, though the smart bet appears to be on a package price closer to the low-end of a trillion dollars.
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Axios Poll Shows Things Republicans Might Not Like -- Two hot-button issues that Republicans are working to create more friction about are (1) alleged voter fraud and (2) resistance to the creation of a 9/11-type commission to look into the events of 1/6. An Axios-sponsored poll conducted by Survey Monkey has results for both of those topics that don’t look good for McConnell, McCarthy and the random Minions.
That is, when asked about “how much, if any” voter fraud occurred in one’s state, 18% answered “a lot,” 28% “some,” 25% “not much” and 24% “not at all.”
On the subject of support for a bipartisan 1/6 congressional commission, 44% “strongly support,” 21% “somewhat support,” 12% “somewhat oppose” and 17% “strongly oppose.”
Note: For the fraud question, let’s face it, statistically one might assume that “some” or “not much” occurred because that are sufficiently CYA answers. Of course, the minority that say “a lot” are more vocal than those who answer “not at all” because who can get all worked up about something that didn’t happen? Still, this seems to be not an advantageous approach for the Republicans, as putting doubt in the minds of their voters — witness the results in Georgia this past January.
As for the commission on 1/6, the Republican approach seems to be one that if they don’t permit one to go forward then there won’t be any “distraction” for the 2022 elections. Wouldn’t it be more likely the case is that if you have 65% supporting something that they’re going to try to quash that they’re going to get more attention than they’d like on their obstruction?
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Leahy Considering a Run for Senate Longevity Record – Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, is considering a run for a ninth term, Poltico reports. Leahy, 81, is the only Democrat ever elected senator from the state. (Although Bernie Sanders caucuses with the Dems, he is officially an Independent.) First elected in 1975, Leahy would not be the oldest senator, but he would pass the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s, D-WV, record 51 years in the upper chamber if he completed his ninth term in 2029. Vermont has a late primary next year, August 9, so Leahy has until May 26, 2022, to decide whether to file for re-election.
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Braver Angels National Coliseum Debate, Voting in America – The debate is scheduled for 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Tuesday, May 25 on Zoom. Audience members are encouraged to participate as debaters or in the Q&A sessions. After the debate, The Hustings will post audience comments and opinions in the left and right columns at https://thehustings.news. Go to https://www.braverangels.org for more information, or register at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/national-debate-voting-in-america-registration-154335111473
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash