Rinse, Repeat, Impeach 🌻 🌻 🌻

Impeachment Politics: Facing threats from his right and urged on by Trump who has been actively pushing him to do so, Kevin McCarthy announced the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden yesterday to placate Trump but also in exchange for some Republican votes for a budget package. The President has a disturbed, legally compromised son but Hunter isn’t a government official, and Joe hasn’t done anything impeachable, however that’s of no concern to McCarthy and his crowd because they’re just looking to create a false equivalency scenario for Trump who is seeking retribution for the various and sundry attempts to hold him accountable for his very real criminal activity.  Despite earlier promising that he wouldn’t open an inquiry without first holding a floor vote, something that is necessary for subpoenas to be valid, or so Republicans claimed during Pelosi’s regime,  McCarthy didn’t hold one, because he doesn’t have enough votes and doesn’t want to put the most vulnerable members of his caucus in the position of having to take a public position on an issue that could put them in jeopardy of losing their seats in 2024.  Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz who together with Margie Q has been one of those aggressively pushing for Biden’s impeachment wasn’t satisfied with McCarthy’s “anemic” action because he wants that floor vote so he’s now threatening to call for a motion to vacate, House-speak for a vote on tossing the Speaker to the curb.  And because she’s just another one angling to be Trump’s running mate, New York’s Elise Stefanik who is third in Republican House leadership and maybe even second these days since second in command Steve Scalise is undergoing chemotherapy, has been in constant communication with Trump, doing his bidding. To summarize, the Republicans, despite years of trying, don’t have implicating dirt on Biden but are all in on giving him the Benghazi treatment and while it would be nice to be able to dismiss their impeachment shenanigans, the Benghazi hearings uncovered Hillary’s emails, costing her the 2016 election, leaving us with Trump in the first place.

Trump’s Legal Mess: The opening of the Biden impeachment inquiry sucked up lots of yesterday’s media time, which of course is one of the points of pursuing it, but that didn’t stop things from happening in Trump’s various cases, well most of his cases as not much is happening in Florida where Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon appears to be taking her time about almost everything. Former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows hasn’t given up on having his Fulton County case tried in federal court.  He’s appealing Judge Jones’ Friday decision to keep his case in Fulton County and has asked Jones to stay his “stay in Fulton County” decision as his lawyers run an appeal through the 11^th US Circuit Court of Appeals and then up to SCOTUS. Ken Chesebro, who has already been granted a speedy trial has filed a motion to have all the charges against him dropped, arguing that he was just acting within his capacity as a lawyer when he advised the Trump campaign how to interfere with the election via the false elector scheme.  Not to be outdone, Trump’s lawyers have also asked to have some, if not all, of the Fulton County charges against him dropped because he too was just doing his job.  For her part District Attorney Fani Willis is pushing to have all 19 defendants tried at once, a bit of a problem since some want to be tried fast, others not so much and others not at all.  Shifting to Washington, Trump’s lawyers have asked Judge Chutkan who is overseeing the January 6 election interference/insurrection case to recuse, something about her being obviously prejudiced against Trump while also being Black, okay they didn’t put the Black part in writing, but you know it’s on their mind. Let’s not forget New York, where Trump’s lawyers, a different set because he needs and has lots of them, have asked another federal appeals court to pause E Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit, the one that is focused only on determining how much he owes her for calling her a liar when she wasn’t lying, to give him time to invoke an immunity defense. 

States of Play:  Maybe two times will be the charm, at least that’s what officials in Alabama are hoping.  Despite losing at the Supreme Court earlier this year, state officials are pursuing another appeal in an effort to keep a districting map that still limits the state’s Black residents to one winnable House district.  For some reason, they believe that they’ll be able to persuade Justice Kavanaugh to flip his vote their way, doubtful but maybe they know something the rest of us don’t. Things aren’t much better in Wisconsin; there the Republican dominated legislature is threatening to impeach newly elected State Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz who recently trounced her Republican opponent by a previously unheard of 11 points.  Protasiewicz’ crime, she’s liberal and Republican legislators fear that she will throw out the heavily gerrymandered district map that results in swingy Wisconsin, a 50-50 state with a Democratic Governor and one Democratic US Senator having such a Republican dominated legislature. They’re also not happy that she’s pro-choice and is expected to join with the state’s other left leaning judges to overturn Wisconsin’s 1849 law that makes it a felony to perform an abortion.  They’re right to be concerned about both, she was voted in for a reason. And, then there’s Arizona, a pivotal state where a Senate seat will be up in 2024.  Blake Masters, the right-wing Trump endorsed/Peter Thiel funded candidate who lost to Democratic Senator/Astronaut Mark Kelly in 2022 is very publicly squabbling with Kari Lake, the Trump loving election denier who still insists she won the governor race that she didn’t win. Both want to be the Republican candidate in 2024.  Current Senator, Krysten Sinema, the former Democrat who is now an independent caucusing with the Democrats, hasn’t announced her plans. Congressman Ruben Gallego is likely to be the Democratic candidate. Arizona is so much fun to watch, well maybe only for masochists.     

Viral Musings:  Roll up your sleeves, Pfizer and Moderna’s newest COVID vaccinations are approved and available to almost everyone though the CDC says that people recently vaccinated should wait two months before getting the updated shot and that those who have been recently infected can wait three months but can also get it “as soon as they’re feeling better.” The newest Novavax shot hasn’t been approved yet but probably will be soon if that’s your preference. Though Florida’s DeSantis appointed wacko Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, the guy who doesn’t believe in masks, continues to rail against vaccines, the new COVID shot will be made available in Florida, a good thing because infections and hospitalizations are increasing there now, even faster than in other states.