Diaper Don is Back 🌻🌻🌻 💙

Ugh:  The twice impeached former president who lost the popular vote twice is back.  Last night Trump, I am reluctantly going back to calling him by his name, announced that he’s running for president during a more anemic than usual Mar a Lago speech filled with his usual boldfaced lies. To be clear, I didn’t watch because why would I subject myself to that pain but from what’s shown up in the news it appears that the crowd of attendees at his announcement fete included a mix of his typical hangers-on like Roger Stone together with a lot of Palm Beach blondette fillers, and some, but not all of his family members. Jared was there but Ivanka who says that she’s done with politics, presumably because she’s working on getting herself back on the Met Gala invitation list, was not.  Neither were Tiffany who was given a bye to go on her honeymoon and Don Jr who oddly enough had left Mar a Lago after Tiff’s wedding to go hunting and then had his return plans scuttled by a snowstorm, the icy stuff or so he says. Trump who is playing the underdog card that worked for him in 2016 says that this time around he’ll be working with a slimmed down campaign team to save money. Alternative facts lady, Kellyanne Conway is one of those still on the team that will be led by Florida operative Susie Wiles who is largely credited with turning Florida red, strategist Chris LaCivita, and former White House political aide Brian Jack.  A whole bunch of Republicans appear less than pleased that Trump has thrown his hat back in the arena, particularly upset by his timing and the impact that it might have on the upcoming Georgia Senate runoff between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.  Never Trumper Mitt Romney likened Trump to an aging baseball player who keeps playing, a comment far nicer than many were thinking not that most of those won’t vote for Trump if he’s their party’s candidate.  Ron DeSantis who is either the Republican’s heir apparent or this cycle’s Jeb Bush and former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker rolled into one, is doing his best to ignore him not that Trump is returning the favor.  He’s already started in on  his potential rivals.  Getting back to that other Walker, Herschel, he has finally figured out that Trump and a few other Republican grifters, including Texas/Cancun Senator Ted Cruz, who he thought were raising money for his runoff race are just using him to fill their coffers.  They’re doing that by retaining 90% of what they claim to be raising on his behalf.  That’s a fairy astute observation for Herschel who this weekend told Georgia voters said that the “US needs more gas guzzling cars with good emissions.”  Sharp as a tack, no?  Many in Trump’s circle are convinced that Trump announced his run now to make it more difficult for the Merrick Garland DOJ to indict him for one or more of his crimes.  That’s not a legitimate legal argument, but it is a potent political one.  He’ll probably still be indicted but probably not until after the Georgia runoff. Fulton County DA Fani Willis is closing in on Trump and his cohorts too though she is also expected to wait until after the runoff. Some disappointing news on the legal front: Rudy Giuliani is off the hook for his Ukraine shenanigans.  Having failed to obtain guilty verdicts in other high profile foreign lobbying cases, the DOJ has decided not to pursue charges against Rudy. 

Still Counting:  The Republicans are closing in on taking over the House.  As of this morning, GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and his squad are only one seat short of the 218 they need and are likely to have somewhere around 220 seats by the time the counting is complete.  Bolstered by the support of Margie Q who appears to have been bought off with promises of some Benghazi type hearings, McCarthy survived a leadership vote 188 to 31 yesterday.  That’s far short of the 218 votes he’ll need to become speaker during the leadership vote that will take place in January, so he has lots of promises/bribes to make between now and then. Reports are that McCarthy tried to “grow” his caucus over the weekend by approaching Texas’ anti-abortion Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar with an offer of a plumb committee assignment in exchange for him becoming a redcoat, Cuellar turned his emissary down. It looks like the Democrats campaign committee’s decision to support Cuellar when he was primaried from the left has paid off.  It’s fair to assume that Nancy and company have made similar offers to a Republican or two because all’s far in love, war, and politics. Things aren’t all hunky dory on the Republican Senate side either where a circular firing squad exercise is in process.  Florida Senator Rick Scott is challenging Mitch McConnell’s leadership and together with a group including Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham is pressing for the leadership vote to be put off until after the Georgia runoff. McConnell will probably retain his leadership but still the infighting is fun to watch.  On the Democratic side, Chuck Schumer will continue to be the Senate Majority Leader while on the House side everyone is waiting to see whether Nancy Pelosi wants to stay on as leader.  Though she hasn’t conceded and may never do so, Republican election denier Kari Lake who has already thrown her support to Trump for his reelection, lost her Arizona Governor race to Democrat Katie Hobbs.  Hobbs who was criticized for refusing to debate the telegenic but hugely deceptive Lake won her race with fewer votes than Senator Mark Kelly but by more than Biden did in 2020.  One wrinkle in the otherwise good Arizona news is that the Attorney General race remains too close to call with Trump endorsed Republican Abe Hamadeh, a 2020 election denier, closing in on Democrat Kris Mayes whose lead has shrunk to 771 votes. That race is expected to go to a recount.  Also don’t forget about Republican gun lover Lauren Boebert, though she still leads her opponent, her race where she was supposed to be shoe-in hasn’t been called yet. Alaska and Maine remain undecided too as their ranked voting computations haven’t yet been completed.       

Ukraine: Yesterday, a Russian missile landed in Poland killing two locals raising the specter that the Russians had triggered NATO’s all for one and one for all Article 5 collective defense provision. At this point the conclusion is that though the missile was Russian it likely originated in Ukraine, shot into the air while the Ukrainians were defending themselves from a huge incoming Russian missile strike. As to Putin and his Russian military, CNN reports that their withdrawal from the Ukrainian city of Kherson where they committed all kinds of atrocities was put off until after the midterms in part because Putin didn’t want to give Biden a “win.” Wonder what ole Vlad thinks about his buddy Trump’s announcement?