Chaos Everywhere ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Fog of War:  There’s little I can say about what’s going on in Israel and Gaza right now that you won’t hear and see elsewhere so I’ll mostly leave it at that.  However, keep in mind that news sources matter and even reputable ones get things wrong.  For example, 20% to 25% of the missiles shot from Gaza by Hamas targeting Israel fall short of their targets landing in and frequently killing people in Gaza, deaths that initially get attributed to Israel; despite first reports that Iran was behind the attacks in Israel we still don’t know whether they were directly involved in the actually planning; despite assertions otherwise, the $6 billion exchanged for the American hostages held by Iran remains in a Qatar account; and, last week I misreported the number of Gazans being told to leave their homes, it’s a high number, 1.1 million but not the 1.5 million that I wrote. The list goes on and on. That’s why it’s called fog of war.  Though social media has never been even close to perfect, back when it was called Twitter, X used to be the place that many went to during international crises to provide and to get timely reports of events on the ground, but now more than ever, the company is failing us, providing an inordinate amount of misinformation and hate tinged propaganda. To quote the frequently blunt, but on point, Mark Cuban “Twitter is a cesspool of misinformation on Israel/Gaza.” Also, the EU says there are “indications” that X is “being used to disseminate illegal content and disinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict.” That’s probably an intended feature rather than a bug as Elon Musk has intentionally neutered the company’s fact checking apparatus.  Worse yet, Musk encourages misinformation, rewarding “verified” posters of outrageous lies and debunked claims, who now get rewarded via his monetization/advertisement scheme for their most “popular” posts.  Musk even reposts a lot of the hate and lies himself which given his very large following is a huge disinformation amplifier. Worth noting, in the past blue check verification was something mostly granted to media outlets, official entities, and well-known celebrities but now most of those so-called verified Xers/tweeters are only verified because they bought their blue checkmarks. Moving from X to Trump’s Truth Social that other purveyor of twisted information, its prospects took a major hit last week when the SPAC company planning to purchase it returned $533 million that it had previously raised back to investors. Naturally, a spokesperson from Trump’s Media Group claimed that the merger was still happening and that what they called just a “development” was in fact a positive step.  To be clear it was not a positive step.

The 🤡 🚗:  The House still doesn’t have a speaker.  The Republican’s current designee, Trump’s coup partner Jim “Gym” Jordan, is still somewhere between 10 and 20 votes short of the 217 Republican votes he needs to move into the office vacated by Kevin McCarthy.  As anticipated Gymbo has been playing hardball with his caucus’s holdouts.  He spent the weekend wrestling some of his opponents into submission, with help from Fox’s Sean Hannity who actually sent an email to them as part of a shame and intimidation campaign. That effort shouldn’t be taken lightly, as Mitt Romney earlier indicated, a number of Republicans supported Trump during his impeachment trials over fears for their jobs and the safety of their families so it’s too early to count Gymbo out.  As of now the Speaker vote is scheduled to take place on the floor of the House tomorrow, starting at noon. According to Jake Sherman’s Punchbowl News, a group of House Republicans including Alabama’s Mike Rogers, California’s Ken Calvert, Florida’s Mario Diaz-Balart and John Rutherford, and Virginia’s Jen Kiggans, among others say they won’t vote for him ever, though with Republican’s ever isn’t always a long time. Over the weekend, Republican House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner, told Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan that if his party fails to come-up with a Speaker on its own, it will have to work something out with Hakeem Jeffries’ Democrats.  With pressure building and a bipartisan consensus that a funding package is needed for Israel, for Ukraine too though the consensus there is smaller, a deal with Hakeem is possible though unprecedented.  The battle for the Speakership isn’t as bloody as the truly horrific one in the Middle East but it warrants attention because a Jordan victory won’t turn out well unless you think closed government, Treasury defaults, failing our allies, and the like are good things.

And:  Though he still insists he’s innocent and says he won’t be stepping down, NJ Senator Bob Menendez’s life got a bit more complicated on Thursday after the DOJ hit him with new charges.  He’s now accused of accepting bribes from a foreign government and conspiring to act as a foreign agent. On the subject of indicted office holders, George of many names Santos says that though he won’t step down over any of the charges against him, he will resign in protest if House Republicans reach across the aisle to solve the Speaker crisis.  And we all know how he always speaks truth?  In a jungle style election, Jeff Landry, a very right-wing Republican just won, becoming the governor of Louisiana. He replaces Louisiana’s termed out, somewhat centrist Democratic Governor John Bell Edwards.  It’s not clear that what happened in Louisiana is the beginning of a trend since the state is fairly red, so all eyes are now focused on the more purple Virginia’s November statewide elections where early voting is already taking place.