Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Rinse, Repeat:  On Friday, the House passed a $1.2 trillion government funding bill by a vote of 286 to 134. Despite their control of the House, the majority of Republicans voted against the bill. Late into the night, the bill passed through the Senate by a vote of 74 to 24.  It was signed into law by President Biden on Saturday. That’s good news for the country since it means that at least through the end of September we’re funded and open for business.  However, it’s not such good news for Mike Johnson whose days in the Speaker chair may be numbered or at the very least are effectively neutered.  His right flank is beyond furious, his majority keeps shrinking, and he can’t pass anything, without the help of Speaker in the shadows Hakeem Jeffries and his Democratic minority.  As to that shrinking majority, Colorado Republican Ken Buck turned in his House ID after Friday’s vote and to make matters worse, Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher who had previously announced that he wasn’t running for reelection surprised everyone, including Johnson, by announcing that he’ll be following Buck out the door come April 19.  Gallagher had been viewed as the future of the Republican party.  His early departure combined with his chosen departure date falling too late to schedule a special election for his replacement are indications of just how dysfunctional and disgruntled Republican House membership has become. To drive that point home, Margie Q, apoplectic about the funding bill’s passage and also seeing an opening to get in front of the cameras, announced plans to call for a motion to vacate to force a vote on booting Johnson from his Speakership position.  For now, with Congress off on a holiday recess, her announcement is just a threat though she says that she’ll push the button on that threat when Congress returns if Johnson moves forward with a vote on Ukraine aid.  With Buck and Gallagher out, Johnson can only afford to lose one vote on anything.  He may still have control of the Speaker’s plane but for all practical purposes Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries controls the House and should Margie force a “vacate” vote Johnson’s continued reign, as pathetic as it is, will rely on Jeffries handing over a few votes to keep him in his tenuous position, something Jeffries might do to get Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan funded.  Not that anyone cares, but over the weekend serial liar George Santos whose attention getting antics rival Margie Q’s, announced that he’s so disgusted by the House’s passage of the funding bill that he’s leaving the Republican Party.  He still plans to run for the NY 1 House seat currently occupied by Republican Nick LaLota but as an independent, turning what’s likely to be a close election into a three-way race.

Broke Don? Today could be a bigly bad day for the Donald on two fronts.  First, and most significantly, if he doesn’t get a waiver of some sort from the courts or, in the absence of a waiver, show up with around $550 million in cash or the equivalent in a bond to fund his fraud penalty while he proceeds with his appeal, New York’s Attorney General Tish James will get the keys to his shaky empire.  Over the weekend, Trump posted that he has $500 million in cash which is odd because last week his lawyers told the courts that he didn’t so it’s fair to assume that he doesn’t but with him who knows?  Should he fail to pay up, don’t expect to see Tish padlock Trump Tower, first of all Trump doesn’t own the glitzy Tower, just the commercial properties and his apartment.  Nor will she be sending sheriffs to padlock his other properties, all of which are likely leveraged and many of which he doesn’t own in their entirety. Rather, she’s expected to start with his bank accounts and to also latch on to any cashflow headed his way from renters at those properties. As to his wealth, shares in Trump’s Truth Social are due to start trading publicly this week.  The company is theoretically valued in the billions but there’s really little value there, the company is mostly a meme stock, meaning that its shares will, at least initially, trade on hype rather than value. At least for now, Trump’s substantial ownership share is subject to a six-month lock-up.  No bond company will accept locked-up “meme” shares as collateral for a bond so unless a “friend” buys him out, Truth Social is unlikely to provide him with a lifeline, not that the friend solution should be counted out. That second front, Trump and his lawyers are due in court today in front of Judge Juan Merchan who is expected to set an April date for the beginning of his Manhattan hush money/election interference case.  Despite Trump and his lawyers’ efforts to block testimony from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, Merchan has already ruled that the two can testify.  The Judge also ruled that though the infamous Access Hollywood tape can’t be shown, it’s contents can be discussed, meaning that jurors won’t hear him but will hear about him saying that he’s allowed to grab certain body parts.  Also on the legal front, it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on in Fulton County.  On the one hand the Judge overseeing the case has granted Trump and his co-defendants the right to appeal his decision not to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis, on the other hand Willis says the case is proceeding on schedule.

Both sides? NBC has jumped the shark. Network poohbahs have hired former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid commentator because apparently management believes that it’s important to give election denying serial liars representation in the run up to an election that could decide whether democracy as we know it continues. It’s not all that surprising that the decision to bring McDaniel on board didn’t go over well with viewers or employees of MSNBC, NBC’s liberal arm, which explains why MSNBC president Rashida Jones announced over the weekend that, at least for now, she has no plans to tell her hosts to have McDaniel on any MSNBC programs. However, it also didn’t go over well with others at the more centrist NBC including those at Meet the Press. Yesterday, McDaniel was interviewed by host Kristen Welker, hardly a liberal snowflake. Welker and Chuck Todd, who has been known to frequently outrage the left, took the unusual step of slamming management’s decision, making it clear that they had both been blindsided by NBC’s decision.  Moreover, Welker went out of her way to say that her interview of McDaniel had been scheduled well in advance of the hiring announcement adding that she had no idea that she’d be interviewing someone who was being paid by the network to appear.  To be clear, it’s not unusual for places like MSNBC and CNN and even Fox, which gives airtime to the very well-spoken token Democrat Jessica Tarlov, to hire commentators with differing opinions. Who can forget Rick Santorum who not only opposes abortion but is against birth control or Hugh Hewitt or Megyn Kelly who’s brief sojourn at NBC cost the network millions? The issue with McDaniel isn’t her positions, it’s that she still refuses to acknowledge that the 2020 election was legitimate and until yesterday’s appearance she hadn’t even acknowledged Biden’s victory. For crying out loud, why NBC, why?

Senate Politics: Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who voted to impeach Trump says she won’t vote for him and also seemed to indicate that she might leave the Republican party which probably has Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer offering her the moon and the stars and a committee chairmanship to caucus with his team.  Also on the Senate front, yesterday Tammy Murphy announced that she was suspending her campaign for New Jersey Senator meaning that Congressman Andy Kim who until recently was best known for helping Capitol workers pick-up trash after the January 6 insurrection, will get the Democratic nod.  In all likelihood he will be New Jersey’s junior Senator come next January.  

Fog: Russia is now doing its best to blame Ukraine for the horrific terrorist attack that killed 133 and counting at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall despite a wing of ISIS claiming responsibility. Measles, the most contagious of childhood diseases, which is easily preventable by a very effective vaccine is making a comeback, not because the vaccine has stopped working but because people are failing to have their children vaccinated.  That’s a bigly problem that could get worse since Trump is now on record saying that he won’t fund any school that mandates vaccines and nepo baby RFK Jr, who could well be an election spoiler, says he’s never met a vaccine he’s okay with.  There may or may not be a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, one that would see the release of only 40 Hamas held hostages for 700 to 800 Israeli held Palestinian prisoners.  And though it remains fair to point out that Kensington Palace’s PR squad is really bad at its job, it’s well past time to fill the Princess Kate rabbit hole and wish the ailing Princess a speedy recovery.      

#BringThemAllHomeNow