Turkeys and Canaries🦃🤡 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤡 🦃 

Big Oops: Trump’s retribution plan took a hit this week after Federal Judge Cameron Currie dismissed the criminal cases against former FBI Director Comey and New York Attorney General James.  The judge didn’t rule on the many flaws in the cases or on former beauty queen/insurance lawyer Lindsey Halligan’s inept handling of the indictments, instead he ruled that Halligan’s appointment to serve as interim US Attorney was unlawful, meaning all actions she took, including signing the Comey and James indictments, were invalid. The issue is that the Constitution requires that US Attorney nominees be confirmed by the Senate. They can serve in an interim role for 120 days, but presidents only get one bit at the interim apple, meaning that absent Senate confirmation, once the 120-day period has expired for any interim US Attorney, the appointment responsibility falls to the local district court.  After Halligan’s predecessor Erik Siebert’s 120-day period expired, the judges in the Eastern District of Virginia appointed him to continue in the role. When he refused to seek a Comey indictment, Trump pushed him out, replacing him with loyalist Halligan. Judge Currie ruled that allowing her appointment to stand violated the Constitution because it would allow Trump to circumvent the Senate confirmation process in Virginia and elsewhere across the country by continuously appointing interim US Attorneys, something that Trump has been doing in several other districts including in NJ where another one of his loyalist lawyers, Alina Habba, is pretending to be the US Attorney.  The dismissal was without prejudice meaning that the Department of Justice can move forward with new indictments although it remains unclear whether or not Comey can be reindicted since the statute of limitation for his alleged crime, lying to Congress, has already expired.  Attorney General Bondi insists that the judge, who obviously, at least to her, is suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome, is wrong.  She says that as far as she’s concerned Halligan can keep on doing what she’s doing, filing indictments that don’t fly, while the DOJ appeals.  As of last night, no appeal has been filed.

The Right Stuff:  Having lost, or at least lost for now, one of his retribution battles, Trump is now going after the six members of the House and Senate who’ve reminded members of the military that their oaths are to the Constitution, not the president and that when ordered to do illegal acts, like blowing civilians out of the Caribbean Sea or pommeling innocent people walking while brown here at home, they shouldn’t. To that end Secretary of War and Beer Pete Hegseth has targeted Arizona Senator/Astronaut Mark Kelly, threatening to recall him to the Navy to then prosecute him for what Trump and Hegseth are calling Kelly’s participation in the seditious “illegal orders” video. Kelly isn’t backing down because as fellow Senator from across the aisle Lisa Murkowski put it yesterday “to accuse him and other lawmakers of treason and sedition for rightfully pointing out that servicemembers can refuse illegal orders is reckless and flat out wrong.”  That’s a comment that Utah Republican Senator John Curtis concurs with and that many other Republicans know is correct but are keeping quiet about because that’s what they do. Kelly, who Kamala Harris considered as a possible VP running mate, has been positioning himself for a possible 2028 presidential run.  With the help of Hegseth and Trump he is now raking in lots of cash because if anything, being targeted is elevating him in the eyes of many.  Naturally, it’s not just Hegseth who’s going after Kelly and his five video mates, so is the FBI which has diverted some agents away from fighting real crime but not from accompanying Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend to her Country and Western and Wrestling performances. More than ever, Patel needs to further ingratiate himself with Trump because according to MS NOW (MSNBC), his days serving as FBI director may be numbered.  Carol Leonnig, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who before joining MS NOW was on the Washington Post’s FBI beat reports that Trump and his top aides have grown “increasingly frustrated by the unflattering headlines Patel has recently generated” and are talking about kicking him to the curb soon.  Trump’s Press Secretary Lying Leavitt says that’s fake news.  Time will tell.   

Ukraine 🌻🌻: The Ukraine story keeps getting weirder. Secretary of State Marco Rubio who in his spare time is also the National Security Advisor, National Archivist, and AID Administrator, has apparently wrestled back control, or some control, of the Ukraine-Russia “peace plan” negotiation from son-in-law Jared Kushner, real estate buddy Steve Witkoff, and Putin senior foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov(!?!). Apparently, as detailed by Bloomberg News, Witkoff, who has only the nicest things to say about that cool guy Putin, an indication that that former KGB guy knows a mark when he sees one, had been secretly advising Ushakov on the best way for Putin to handle Trump as if Putin needs any advice. Anyway, the “plan” on the table now, that Trump says has only “minor” issues to resolve, no longer has all the items on Putin’s wish list and is therefore more acceptable to Ukraine’s Zelenskyy who is having his own problems at home, something to do with a corruption scandal.  While Ukraine and the European crowd are more amenable to the newest version of the plan, Putin maybe not so much because he wants every piece of land where any Russian speakers reside or have ever resided.  The over simplified bottom line: Trump is desperate for a peace plan, any plan, because next year’s Nobel Peace Prize beckons and also to be fair, because he doesn’t like that so many people are dying in what he continues to call Biden’s war; Putin isn’t al that interested in anything that doesn’t get him all the land and demilitarization of Ukraine that he wants; and while Ukrainians are suffering they aren’t interested in giving away the whole shop.  Maybe Trump is right and a deal is close at hand, maybe not so much.  It’s complicated, sadly so.    

Health Care:  Here’s a surprise, the health plan that Trump promised to announce this week is now on hold, again. This time he actually had a plan backed by some conservatives and moderates that included a two-year extension of Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) subsidies with income caps and other new limits.  Though more progressive Democrats were expected to balk at any cutbacks, enough of them might have gotten on board to avoid the premium calamity that’s about to implode.  However, Republicans not so much, especially in the Senate where extending the subsidies would require 60 votes. Apparently, most Republicans weren’t kept in the loop, were surprised that Trump was about to announce a plan, and many of them oppose any extension of the Obamacare subsidies.  Moreover, most of those who could be arm twisted or otherwise cajoled into extending the subsidies, won’t agree to any extension that allows private health insurers to continue reimbursing for abortion care something that many states allow through separately set up funds, a work around written into the original Obamacare legislation that gets around the Hyde Amendment prohibition against  federal funds being used for abortions.  Not keeping legislators, particularly in the House in the loop appears to be a bigly problem right now, not just for health care but for everything.  Punchbowl News’ Gabe Sherman who is good at ferreting out what Republican House members are thinking reports that many more of them are considering following Marjorie Taylor Greene out the door early next year.  As unlikely as it sounds, he says that it’s even possible that through Republican attrition Hakeem Jeffries could become speaker even before the midterm elections.  That seems like a stretch, but former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy says that Margie Q is the canary in the coal mine so maybe Sherman isn’t far off.  In the meantime, a few things to watch.  First, as expected Texas and the DOJ are suing to get the decision regarding the new Texas redistricting map overturned and while they consider the appeal, the Supreme Court has reinstated the new R+5 map. Second, under extreme pressure from Trump, Indiana Republicans have decided to proceed with a vote on a Republican friendly redistricting. Third, next week there will be special election in Tennessee to replace Republican Mark Green (no relation to Margie Q) in a deep red district that Trump won by 22 points in 2024.  Though it’s highly unlikely that Democrat Aftyn Behn will upset Republican Matt Van Epps, the polls are surprisingly close.  Anything under a ten-point victory for Van Epps will be very alarming for Republicans.           

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

 

        

 
Flying Duds🦃🤡 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤡 🦃 

The M Games:  Marjorie Taylor Greene is leaving Congress and NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani may or may not have Trump’s number. Margie Q’s announcement of her intent to retire from the House in early January wasn’t all that surprising although the press treated it like it was shocking.  Unlike many of her colleagues her financial stability doesn’t rely on her House income.  She wasn’t enjoying her position anymore and was getting lots of Trump inspired death threats.  By announcing an early January retirement date rather than leaving right now, she’s ensured that she will qualify for a government pension at 62 because though she may be a conspiracist, she’s not stupid.  Though she garnered loads of press attention, an appearance on The View, and lots of kudos for lining up on the “release” side of the Epstein files battle and her concern about the affordability of health insurance hit home with many she has few friends in the House where her abrasive, take no prisoners attitude was a turnoff to her peers. Her relationship with Trump had grown fraught even before her Epstein files push after he’d told her that he wouldn’t endorse her if she ran for Georgia Governor or Senator because he’d been advised that polling indicated that she couldn’t win either race.  Though she’ll be gone from House, odds are we haven’t heard the last from Margie Q.  Maybe a Megyn Kelly or Tucker Carlson style podcast or a commentator slot on a right leaning media outlet is in her future.  She could even make it to CNN if she stops with the Jewish lasers.   As to Mamdani, like him or not, he’s no fool and knew that getting into a war of words with Trump during their White House meet-up would put NYC’s finances in further jeopardy, making his ability to achieve any of his “affordability” goals even more difficult.  Given Trump’s propensity for lashing out at anyone whose positions don’t align with his, and certainly Mamdani’s socialist positions don’t align with Trump’s, his kind words for Mamdani were surprising.  Maybe Trump behaved because at the end of the day he’s a New Yorker with local property interests, or maybe it’s because some of his big donors have begged him not to threaten or actually send troops into the big apple, or maybe it’s because he’s been advised that aligning with someone who ran and won on “affordability” will helping him in the midterms, or maybe he’s trying to cozy up again to mend fences again with the Muslim voters in places like Michigan. Lots of reasons for a truce of sorts,  but Trump being Trump, he’ll eventually erupt. Though Mamdani held off on calling Trump a despot and a fascist during their “lovefest” he didn’t hold back afterwards. Trump’s DOJ isn’t holding back either, yesterday it was announced that they’ll be investigating the large demonstration that took place outside of a NYC synagogue where shouts of “from New York to Gaza globalize the intifada” and “make them scared” were among the phrases screamed at attendees to an event for an organization helps Jews immigrating to Israel. Lots of condemnation from the usual NY based politicians but the Mayor-elect’s spokesperson said that while “he believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.”  In other words, promoting Jewish immigration to Israel is “illegal” and thus not okay with him.  Three more years of Trump, four or more of Mamdani.  What could go wrong?   

Ukraine🌻🌻: Trump has announced a 28-point plan for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine. The plan was met with lots of skepticism and quite a bit of condemnation outside of Moscow with several international experts and pundits saying that it was obviously written and maybe even translated from the Russia because it’s chock full of Putin’s wish list items, including the turning over of large swaths of Ukraine to Russia and the abandonment of certain weaponry by Ukraine. To that end a few Senators, including Republican Mike Rounds and Independent Angus King reported that they were told by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the plan had been drafted by the Russians and was “just a starting” point. Rubio’s spokesperson then denied that he ever said that, but Senators Rounds and King stand by their assertion. Our European allies, or at least the countries that used to be our allies, aren’t happy.  Trump insisted that Ukraine better agree to the deal or a deal by Thanksgiving or face the loss of all US support but after the plan was heavily criticized, he walked back his deadline.  Rubio says that “productive” negotiations are taking place.  Ukraine’s Zelenskyy who is likely fuming behind closed doors and throwing darts at a target emblazoned with Putin and Trump pictures is putting on a brave face, saying nice things about Trump in public because by now he’s learned that saying nice things about Trump is crucial even when everyone knows you mean none of them.  What’s really happening?  Who knows, but maybe a cockamamie peace plan provides diversion from the Epstein files, so what if it comes at the expense of Ukraine’s war weary citizens. In other warzones, Gaza is heating up as is Lebanon.  And those Epstein files, the DOJ has 30 days to release them or come up with an excuse not to. 

Viral Musings:  The number of reported US measles cases is approaching 2000 as vaccination rates continue to sink below the level required to achieve herd immunity.  RFK Jr, who secured the key vote of Louisiana Republican Senator/Doctor Bill Cassidy by promising not to diss vaccines, has updated the CDC webpage on vaccines and autism so that it now says that “another statement that vaccines don’t cause autism is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism." The website goes on to say that “studies supporting a link have been ignored by health authorities." That’s not true but the good news for Senator Cassidy who yawned when asked about RFK’s lies is that Trump probably won’t support a primary challenger against him during the midterms, the bad news for everyone else is that RFK’s bull 💩  assertions will lead to more people remaining unvaccinated, more measles and other diseases, leaving all of us exposed to previously avoidable viruses and whatever else is lurking.  Over the weekend, Tatiana Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy and granddaughter of President John F Kennedy revealed in a truly heartbreaking New Yorker magazine essay that she has a rare, aggressive, and lethal form of acute myeloid leukemia that was discovered right after the 2024 delivery of her second child. Her article which details her various treatments and two unsuccessful bone marrow transplants includes a condemnation of RFK’s research cutbacks, the impact that they are already having on her alarmed doctors and the likelihood that they will impede the discovery of future cures. Beyond sad and tragic on all accounts.  In other health news, it’s reported that having finally woken up to the impending health insurance premium disaster, Trump will be announcing a plan that may or may not involve some extension of the Obamacare subsidies for some people.  Maybe he really has a plan or maybe his announcement will come in a rolling two weeks? In any case since notices about premiums are already out, it may be a bit late if he’s hoping to immediately impact the “affordability” crisis. That’s the crisis that Treasury Secretary Bessent asserts only affects people in blue states, the people with more services who actually live longer but whatever.        

More 💩:  Trump’s threats against the Senators and Congresspeople who advised members of the military that their oaths trump illegal orders is hitting home.  They’ve all received loads of death threats, not that Trump cares.  One of those on the receiving end of those threats is Senator Mark Kelly whose wife Gabby Giffords was left disabled after she was attacked by a gun toting crazy person. Though she’s still holds her seat, Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida has been indicted for “stealing” $5 million of COVID related FEMA funds that she then allegedly used for her 2020 campaign.  She’s calling the indictment a sham. Time will tell but should she be found guilty, she probably won’t get one of those Trump pardons given her party affiliation.  In other political news, former Democratic Senator Doug Jones, the moderate who served in the Senate briefly after beating opponent Republican Roy Moore, who lost because of his history of engaging in sexual misconduct, announced that he plans to run for Alabama Governor.  His Republican opponent will be Tommy Tuberville, the former coach/Trump acolyte.  And one more thing, Transportation Secretary/Reality TV star Sean Duffy says that your Thanksgiving flights will be better and presumably safer if you dress appropriately. So, no PJs, sweats, or jeans just dresses with heels and suits with ties.                         

 
It Hasn't Even Been a Year 🤡 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤡 

Hangman: Yesterday Trump posted calls for the arrest, imprisonment, trial, and execution by hanging of six Democratic members of Congress who he called traitors for their “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR OF THE HIGHEST LEVEL!” saying an “example MUST BE SET.”  The treasonous behavior in question is their video pointing out to members of the military that they should obey only “legal orders.” Reasonable advice since their oaths prohibit them from carrying out illegal commands.  Unlike Trump, the Democrats involved are all distinguished veterans of the military or national security agencies.  They include two Senators - Arizona’s Astronaut Mark Kelly and Michigan’s Elissa Slotkin and four Representatives - Colorado’s Jason Crow, Pennsylvania’s Chrissy Houlahan, New Hampshire’s Maggie Goodlander, and Pennsylvania’s Chris Deluzio.  None of the Democrats involved are anti-military, socialists or even snowflakes. The actions that convinced the six to post their cautionary video involve Trump’s military campaign targeting suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea.  Those actions, which may violate both US and international law have resulted in the deaths of 83 people even though no evidence has been presented tying the boats or the victims to crimes. The Trump crowd claims that government lawyers have provided a legal opinion approving the legality of their “blow the boats out of the water” campaign but they haven’t publicly shared the secret opinion, and given its source who’d believe it anyway?  It’s likely that one of the reasons that the few survivors of the boat blow-ups have been returned to their countries of origin rather than taken into US custody is because trying them here would require the administration to defend their actions in court.  Our “special relationship” ally, the UK is so disturbed by the Caribbean campaign that they’ve stopped sharing relevant intelligence so as not to be implicated in what are likely extrajudicial murders.  Naturally, Speaker Johnson defended Trump’s statements though he said he would have used different words.  Senate Leader Thune said he disagreed with how Trump suggested the situation should be handled, although he also found the Democrats' video to be "ill-advised, unnecessary and clearly provocative."  Is it a stretch to believe that Secretary of War and Beer Pete Hegseth has a few of his minions deleting all references to the Viet Nam My Lai massacre and Lt. William Calley from all military academy textbooks and syllabi?  In other military news, Homeland Security’s ICE Barbie Kristi Noem got a little more attention than she intended for her decision to no longer classify swastikas and nooses as hate symbols, downgrading them to the merely divisive list.  Last night it was reported that their reclassification has been unwound possibly because they actually are hate symbols.

Legal Mumbo Jumbo:  We may never see the opinion justifying the boat bombings, but we are watching the DOJ screw up in plain sight.  On Wednesday, when questioned by District Judge Michael Nachmanoff who is overseeing the James Comey case, Acting US Attorney/Beauty Queen/Insurance lawyer Lindsey Halligan said that only the chairperson and one other member of the grand jury had signed off on the final indictment of Comey.  If accurate, that’s a screw-up that could result in Comey’s indictment being tossed which might be why the DOJ unwound her testimony on Thursday, asserting that the indictment had actually been signed off on by the full grand jury. Legal pundits say there are quite a few other things wrong about the Comey indictment, including Halligan’s misrepresentations and the inappropriate testimony of an FBI Agent not to mention Trump’s very public call for retribution so while the indictment kerfuffle may not be the thing that causes the case to be tossed it could be icing on Comey’s get out of jail free cake. In Halligan’s defense, reportedly she is a good insurance lawyer and was third runner-up in the Miss Colorado contest. DOJ’s plans to prosecute California’s Senator Adam Schiff may have hit a speed bump too.  Oddly enough a federal grand jury in Maryland is looking into whether people involved in the investigation into Schiff’s mortgage were legit government employees or whether they were just pretending to be government employees who may or may not have been working for William Pulte, the senior housing official who added the weaponization of mortgages to Trump’s retribution quiver and for Ed Martin, Trump’s weaponization chief. The exact details of what’s going on aren’t clear since their source is conservative activist Christine Bush who reports being twice called to testify. Last night Ken Dilanian from MSNOW (the new name for MSNBC) suggested that AG Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche may be letting the Maryland US Attorney pursue this investigation because they’ve grown frustrated with being put into the position of prosecuting Trump’s enemies for crimes that aren’t crimes. Then again, they seem to enjoy their roles so maybe there is something else going on.  Also bigly frustrated is Jerry Smith, the one judge who dissented from the majority decision that concluded that Texas’ redistricting was an illegal racially motivated gerrymandering.  He released his dissenting opinion yesterday and it was an unprecedented partisan doozy.  He repeatedly blamed George and Alex Soros (dog whistle alert).  He also went off on California Governor Gavin Newsom who had nothing to do with Texas’ redistricting except that he managed to one-up it with a statewide referendum.  The case is likely to end up at the Supreme Court.  It’s not clear if Smith’s diatribe will provide fodder for SCOTUS’ ultimate decision or whether it will turn off a few in the usual conservative majority.        

More 💩: The Senate snuck a provision into the government funding bill that allows those Senators whose call records were obtained by Jack Smith as part of his investigation into January 6 to sue for upto $500,000.  Yesterday the House unanimously voted to repeal that provision.  There probably are enough votes in the Senate to do the same but Majority Leader Thune isn’t expected to bring the House bill up for a vote in part because one of its loudest supporters in Trump buddy Lindsey Graham.  Lastly, after saying that SNAP recipients would have to reapply to get their benefits, an impediment to many who are qualified but are also working and taking care of their families, Agriculture Secretary Rollins walked back her statement saying that recipients wouldn’t have to reapply. Maybe someone pointed out to her that depriving people of food isn’t a good look particularly in the run up to the holidays. It’s also not a good way to improve in the polls which currently show House Democrats with a 14 point lead over Republicans with a lot of the lead attributable to “affordability” concerns.    

 

 

Swine🐷🤡 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤡 🐷 

Epstein, Epstein,🐷:  The dam finally broke yesterday.  Everyone in the House with the exception of Louisiana’s Clay Higgins voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Bill that requires the Department of Justice to release its trove of Epstein files.  One of those voting for the bill was a clearly miserable Speaker Mike Johnson who asserted that he was confident that the Senate would fix the bill so that innocent people would be protected.  By innocent he didn’t mean the women who were trafficked and sexually abused when they were girls because the bill already protects them, but Epstein’s “friends,” including Trump. Apparently, Senate Majority Leader John Thune didn’t get Johnson’s message, or more likely chose to ignore it.  Instead, he allowed Chuck Schumer to bring the bill as written up for passage by unanimous consent.  The bill quickly passed through the Senate and is now sitting on Trump’s desk awaiting his signature.  Trump who was busy last night feting Saudi Arabian Prince Mohammed bin Salman A/K/A the bone cutter says he’ll sign it right after he throws all his ketchup bottles at the wall.  That said,  there’s plenty of wiggle room written into the bill and it’s more than possible that Attorney General Pam Bondi will manage to edit out what Trump doesn’t want released.  At Trump’s direction she’s already directed Jay Clayton, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, to open an investigation into Epstein’s ties to “prominent Democrats including Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, JP Morgan Chase and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”  If an investigation is opened, Bondi is expected use it as a reason to sit on the files, or at the very least the files that Trump doesn’t want out in the open.  A number of Democrats have already been tarnished by the emails that the Epstein estate recently released including former Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers and Virgin Island Representative Stacey Plaskett. Summers announced that he is stepping away from his public commitments and though he’s still at Harvard, his position there is in jeopardy.  His “crime,” or at least the one we know about it, is that he continued to communicate with Epstein, even seeking romantic advice from him, even after Epstein had been outed as an abuser.  Though she survived a hastily called effort to censure her for texting with Epstein during a 2019 House hearing, Plaskett is now also tarnished.  So far, despite all the hoopla Trump remains, if anything, he’s emboldened.  On Monday night he told Bloomberg’s White House Correspondent Catherine Lucey to “Quiet Piggy” for asking a question about Epstein and on Tuesday he berated ABC News correspondent Mary Bruce for asking questions about former Washington Post reporter Adnan Khashoggi and the Epstein files, calling her a “terrible persona and a “terrible reporter” while suggesting that ABC should lose its licenses.  So nice that sex trafficker Epstein’s long term friend Trump remains so comfortable publicly targeting women while defending murderers and swine.

Saudi Time: Yesterday Trump gave Mohammed bin Salmaan (MBS) the full royal treatment because it turns out that caring about the dicing of and slicing of Washington Post reporter Khashoggi is so yesterday and anyway a “lot” of people say Khashoggi wasn’t a nice guy so maybe he deserved to be put through the bone chopper.  Also, even if our intelligence services and the intelligence services of a whole bunch of our allies agree that it was MBS who ordered Khashoggi’s death, they’re all wrong. He knew nothing, kind of like everyone else in Trump’s orbit knows nothing about anything that matters.  Trump didn’t just give MBS the royal treatment while hosting him in the increasingly garish, tarted up, faux gold White House and saying that he’s a great champion of human rights, he agreed to let Saudi Arabia purchase advanced F-35 fighter jets from the US as well as lots of advanced US computer chips, including the ones needed for artificial intelligence initiatives.  In exchange, Saudi Arabia will not be recognizing Israel or joining the Abraham Accords, the two things that those sales particularly the sale of the planes were supposed to make happen, but they promised to invest trillions if not zillions more in the US even though they probably won’t though there will be more Trump related properties built within the kingdom.  So basically, Trump came out ahead, the US not so much, and Israel, not at all. At least for now, we’re not helping Saudi Arabia with its nuclear program, so that’s something.

More 💩:   Acting US Attorney Lindsey Halligan, the former beauty queen/insurance lawyer who Trump and Bondi used to get the James Comey and Tish James indictments has hit a bigly speed bump.  It turns out that, at least in the eyes of magistrate judge William Fitzpatrick who is reviewing the James Comey indictment, she engaged in  “government misconduct”  tainting the grand jury proceedings. The judge called Halligan out for suggesting to the grand jury that Comey might have to testify at trial to explain his innocence and for also improperly suggesting that the grand jurors should assume that the government had more evidence against Comey than what it presented to them.   The judge went on to say that “the record points to a disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps, missteps that led an FBI agent and a prosecutor to potentially undermine the integrity of the grand jury proceeding.”  Apparently, Halligan who had never before prosecuted a criminal case has also never watched Law and Order.  All of this is separate from the other proceeding looking into whether or not Halligan was legally appointed to her Acting US Attorney position.  The indictment mess isn’t the only one standing in the way of Trump achieving his objectives.  Yesterday,  a federal court blocked Texas from using its newly drawn congressional maps in next year’s midterms, ruling that the new map which was drawn to result in five more Republican seats is likely an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. The court based its conclusion on a letter sent by the Trump administration to Texas in July by the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division head Harmeet Dhillon who has a history of opposing civil rights which is why she is now in charge of civil rights. In response to Dhillon’s letter which said that Texas’ districts were “unconstitutional” as drawn even though they weren’t, Texas Governor Abbot explicitly directed the Texas legislature to redistrict based on race in a manner that increased the number of Republican leaning districts while squishing minority voters into their own districts in a manner that decreased the number of likely Democratic districts. Texas is appealing the decision.  In other redistricting news, despite Trump’s threats and the resulting swatting of at least one Republican legislator, Indiana’s Republican controlled legislature voted against redistricting their map.  If the Texas decision stands, or at the very least stands through the midterms, then Trump’s efforts to make the Congressional map redder won’t have done much for Republicans but will because of the redrawing of the California districts in a manner that is expected to lead to five more Democratic seats make it bluer.  The California redistricting which California Governor Newsom clearly said was only done to counter Texas’ action is being challenged in court too but since it was achieved through a public vote, it is expected to withstand judicial review. Nothing good to report on the health care front where Trump is standing firm against extending the Obamacare subsidies while trying with the help of some Republican legislators to dismantle Obamacare altogether.     

 

 

TACO Time Again🐔 🌮😱 ✡️🌻😱 🌮 🐔

🌮 🐔:  Trump chickened 🐔 out again. He spent the weekend attacking and un-endorsing Marjorie Taylor Greene, threatening to do the same to anyone else who votes for the release of the Department of Justice’s Epstein files while directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into President Clinton, venture capitalist Reid Hoffman, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers all of whom were mentioned in the Epstein estate emails though none were mentioned in the context of sexcapades.  Then late on Sunday, Trump pulled a TACO, telling House Republicans to vote in support of the Epstein file release.  Quite a turnaround given his insistence that the Epstein affair is a hoax perpetrated by his Democratic enemies, those people he called ”Radical Left Lunatics” in his social media post where he directed House Republicans to support the file release.  Trump really hasn’t changed his mind, he still fears the files so diversions like war with Venezuela and the “testing” of nukes lie ahead but with the House vote expected to take place on Tuesday more or less a fait accompli and the growing likelihood that a “jailbreak” was about to happen meaning that upwards of one hundred House Republicans are likely to join all Democrats in voting for the file release, he felt cornered.  A few cautions, if Trump really wanted to facilitate the file release, he could just direct Pam Bondi to do it, he doesn’t need the House and then the Senate, which still hasn’t committed to act, to vote on the files. Also, his direction to the House includes a caveat for Bondi to release what she deems appropriate and while that could just mean making sure that victims’ names are redacted, it could also be a veiled direction to pull a Rosemary Woods as in the Nixon secretary who erased 18 minutes of implicating tapes. And who doesn’t believe that Trump intends to pardon Bondi, as well as the rest of the miscreants in his administration before he leaves office, if he ever leaves.  On the subject of pardons, Trump issued a few more to some more undeserving people this weekend including a January 6^th rioter whose trove of unlicensed guns led to his rearrest and another who is a known fraudster.  Also, because he always attacks others for doing what he does, his staff had him re-execute some of his earlier pardons because they were initially signed using an autopen, the device that he asserts disqualifies all of Biden’s executive orders and pardons.

🌮 🐔 🌮:  Trump didn’t just TACO on the Epstein tapes, he also pulled another tariff TACO.  Though he still insists that he’s brought the price of groceries down to levels never before seen he hasn’t and he knows it as do consumers who know when they have to cut back and/or purchase lower quality meat or just settle for more beans so on Friday he signed an executive order retroactively lowering tariffs on beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, as well as some other agricultural imports.  That’s progress in the right direction, but tariffs on lots of other products, including the components needed for housing construction remain.  Additionally cutting tariffs now won’t immediately translate into price reductions to consumers so those holiday meals will still cost more than they did last year.  Also, some of those tariffs were beyond nonsensical to begin with because tariffs were never going to lead to US grown bananas or more US coffee.  Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Treasury Secretary Bessent who knows better, spent part of his weekend sticking with the assertion that tariffs don’t increase consumers prices which begs the question why did tariff aficionado Trump decide he needed to lower them to get prices down?  Bessent also blamed higher meat prices on “illegal” migrants crossing the border with herds of their diseased cattle. Funny how even Fox doesn’t have video of that happening.  As to undocumented people, calling her newest invasion/round-up in Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte’s Web, Kristi Noem had her INS troops invade another Democratic enclave this weekend because having them parachute into Chicago wasn’t enough. How cute to name the rounding up of brown people after a children’s book but maybe just a bit better than Secretary of War and Beer Pete Hegseth’s naming choices. His NSFW choices include Operation Southern Spear, Operation Rough Rider, and Operation Midnight Hammer.  I guess we now know what he watches in his hotel rooms. Turning back to Ice Barbie Kristi, according to ProPublica, she spent more than $200 million on a television ad campaign intended to scare away undocumented workers.  A large part of that ad work was awarded, non-competitively, to a firm with close ties to a Republican consulting firm with long-standing personal and business ties to Noem and her senior aides, not that you’d know that by looking at public documents since the firm’s name is intentionally obfuscated.  Noem is another one who is relying on getting a Trump pardon or a Thousand Year Reich.

More 💩:  Trump’s redistricting directives aren’t working as planned.  Since California’s voter approved redistricting has more or less neutralized his Texas seat pick-up, he now has the DOJ suing the Golden State.  Of course, he has no problem with Texas’ redistricting even though it was done without voter sign off.  His attempt to pick up a seat in Utah has been thrown off course by a state court’s ruling that rejected a Republican-drawn congressional map, instead approving an alternative map that creates a new, likely Democratic-leaning district. Not a lot of joy out of Indiana either where despite his intense lobbying Republican state legislators have so far refused to move forward with his plan to eliminate Democratic seats.  No surprise that Trump isn’t taking their decision lying down, he’s now calling for the ousting of the Indiana Republicans who are stymying his plans.  Though Trump pardoned those who participated in the various fake elector schemes, it’s unlikely that his pardons affect state prosecutions which is a bit of a problem for those being prosecuted in Georgia where a replacement for Fulton County Prosecutor Fani Willis has been appointed and in Nevada where the fake elector cases has been “revived” by the court.    

Parting Message:  Don’t buy into Margie Q being reformed.  Though she does deserve credit for standing by Epstein’s victims, she’s already trying to get back into Trump’s good graces by saying that she still adores him just disagrees on the Epstein front.  Also, when asked this weekend, she refused to criticize Tucker Carlson for hosting white supremacist/anti-Semite Nick Fuentes saying that Fuentes and presumably Carlson are entitled to air their opinions because after all what’s a little Holocaust denial and hate speech among MAGA friends.  Again, anti-Semitism is a both sides problem.        

 

 
The Dog That Didn't Bark 🐶🤡 😱 ✡️🌻😱 🤡 🐶

Open Sesame:   The government shutdown is finally over, for now.  With the votes of six Democrats the resolution that funds the government through January, made it through the House and was signed into law by Trump.  The six included Maine’s Jared Golden, Washington’s Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, Texas’ Henry Cuellar, California’s Adam Gray, North Carolina’s Don Davis,  and New York’s Tom Suozzi.  Their votes weren’t critical to the resolution’s passage since all Republicans except Kentucky’s Thomas Massie and Florida’s Greg Stuebe also voted yes but with the exception of Golden who has announced his retirement, may be critical to their reelection since they’re mostly from swingy districts that in some cases have been redistricted into lean red districts. The government reopening and those Democrats breaking from their caucus were supposed to be the story of the day, or at least that’s what Trump had planned but unfortunately for him it wasn’t because while Jeffrey Epstein may or may not have killed himself, he remains dead and his ghost is still out there, in full haunt mode so  to blunt the passage of the continuing resolution and also to bring Epstein back into the headlines a few wily Democrats released some implicating tidbits from the part of the huge Epstein file trove that they had access to.  Those emails landed with a big thunk and are now reverberating through the orange man’s head.

Epstein, Epstein, 🐶:  Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva whose swearing in had been held up for seven weeks has finally taken her oath of office.  As expected, the new Congresswoman immediately provided the 218^th signature on the discharge petition that forces a floor vote intended to compel the Department of Justice to release their complete set of Epstein files.  Those files should not be confused with the files that the Epstein estate has released or the set of files already in the hands of the House Oversight Committee some emails from each were just made public. Reluctantly, Speaker Johnson has now scheduled a vote on the DOJ files for next week when it’s expected that somewhere around 50 Republicans will join all the Democrats in voting for their release.  Those additional Republicans are expected to join in to avoid being labeled as abettors of the sex abuse of children, a bad look among many of their MAGA voters who have spent the past few years searching for child molesters in pizza parlor basements.  It’s still not clear whether Senate leader John Thune will hold a similar vote so the release of the DOJ’s complete set of Epstein files is not imminent. The content of the emails from the Epstein estate that were just released goes far to explaining why Trump spent part of this week trying to convince at least one of the three Republican Congresswomen, a group that includes Margie Q, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace who had joined Republican Thomas Massie in signing onto the discharge petition, to remove her signature from the petition. His efforts failed. Though the released tidbits don’t fully implicate Trump in participating in Epstein’s most horrific activities, they reveal that he was well aware of what Epstein was up to, spent some “quality” time with at least one of Epstein’s underage girls, and that Epstein and his partner in sex trafficking and molestation Ghislaine Maxwell were, together with the guidance of writer Michael Wolff, plotting ways to use what they knew about Trump to their benefit. In one email Epstein wrote to Maxwell “I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump,” a reference to one of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes mysteries where the dog didn’t bark at the killer because the killer was known to the dog.  The 🐶 insinuation being that for years Trump didn’t condemn Epstein’s heinous acts because he was implicated in them.  The released emails also shine light on just how questionable Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s “interview” of Maxwell was because they provide further evidence that she lied to him and that he willingly bought her lies hook, line, and sinker all to appease Trump. No wonder that Trump has Secretary of War and Beer Hegseth ramping up hostilities against Venezuela and those “drug” boats.  He’s desperately in need of a distraction.  

More 💩:  Senator John Fetterman was hospitalized yesterday after injuring himself in a fall that occurred as a result of him becoming “light-headed” during a ventricular fibrillation episode. As of last night, the bruised Senator was staying in the hospital to have his heart medications adjusted. Trump’s Federal Housing Agency goon, Bill Pulte has referred Congressman Eric Swalwell to the Justice Department, claiming that he’s another one of Trump’s enemies who committed mortgage fraud. It’s fair to assume that Swalwell did not but that’s not the point because he is a vocal Trump critic and that’s all that matters. In other Pulte news, the AP reports that he’s been freaking out staff by sharing confidential Fannie Mae information with its competitor because rules don’t apply to him.  Former Fox host/current podcaster Megyn Kelly who may or may not have a heart and also writes her own rules has been known to defend black face.  Now she wants everyone to know that older men like Epstein and maybe even Trump having sex with underage teens doesn’t count as abuse unless the girls in question are under 15 and are someone other than her teen daughter.  As detailed in the NY Times, the 17-year-old high school junior that former Florida Congressman, one time Attorney General nominee Matt Gaetz allegedly had sex with during a party came from a broken home, was emotionally damaged and got involved with Gaetz and his middle-aged male friends to raise money for braces for her teeth. And lastly, yesterday Trump appointed Paul Ingrassia the lawyer who couldn’t get Senate confirmation to lead the Office of Special Counsel because of his Nazi affinity and his disdain for Martin Luther King to be the Deputy General Counsel for the Government Services Administration (GSA) because apparently the only anti-Semites and bigots worth condemning reside on the left. Only the best in the Trump universe.       

 

 

Boondoggle Ranch 🤯😱🌻✡️😱🤯

Dems Whining: Democrats need to get a grip.  Republicans control the Senate and the House and though Trump’s control is starting to show some cracks, and he really is corrupt, tone deaf, and possibly certifiably crazy, through a combination of threats and a shared philosophy, he controls the Republican Party. Democrats managed to bring their Republican counterparts’ collective disdain for their constituents’ health care, even their need to eat, and the affordability issue (this year’s version of it’s the economy stupid)  to the attention of voters but even the most progressive among them had to know that they weren’t going to get the Republican caucus to extend the Obamacare subsidies just as they couldn’t get them to rebel against the $1 trillion cut in Medicaid benefits.  It’s not popular to say that, but it is true.  As shown by last week’s elections, voters, or at least a lot of voters, know that Republicans and Trump are responsible for their suffering, extending the shutdown through the holidays ran the risk of redirecting that rage.  So enough with the circular firing squad.  Democrats need to regroup and move forward because while it may be cathartic to blame Chuck Schumer, it’s not productive especially since not even the loudest kvetchers want his job.  Afterall who wants to be a lightening rod? They just want someone to yell at, and some of them are probably just as mad at him for failing to endorse New York’s Mayor elect Mamdani as they are angry that he couldn’t force everyone in the Democratic coalition to coalesce, something Senate Democrats rarely do. Does anyone remember Joe Manchin or Krysten Sinema?   Elections have consequences.  Like it or not, Trump and his forces won in 2024. Democrats need to turn last week’s election results into a trend, win the 2026 midterms, and then focus on doing the same in 2028.  In other words, stop the back biting, move forward, and extend last week’s wins. As to moving forward, there probably will be a vote on extending the Obamacare subsidies in December, odds are they won’t be extended which sucks, but if Democrats regroup and control their messaging vulnerable Republicans, a larger crowd than before the shutdown, will suffer as the ballot box.

State of Play:  The House is back in session.  Speaker Mike Johnson, who is far more deserving of ire than Schumer called his members back from their extended paid vacation to vote on the Republican’s version of the funding resolution which in addition to including provisions to protect some government workers now also includes a sneaky provision that allows the Senators whose call records were “seized” by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars.  Those call records weren’t seized, they were legally obtained to help Smith determine who Trump called during the January 6 insurrection, but facts don’t really matter much anymore and though he looks smooth, Senate Leader Thune is another one who follows the dear leader’s commands.  Johnson plans to finally swear in Democratic Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva today, not because he wants to but because he can’t avoid doing so anymore.  In theory, that should also mean that the discharge petition intended to release the Epstein files will get the crucial 218^th vote needed but count me as among the skeptical as to whether the release ever happens.  On the Epstein front, Trump who continues to pardon fraudsters, appears to be paving the way to commute Epstein’s partner in sex abuse Ghislaine Maxwell. She has been getting super special treatment at her new club Fed prison where with the help of prison officials, she’s been working on her commutation plea.  She’s clearly going to get one, it’s just a matter of when.    

More 💩:  We’re still waiting for judges to rule on whether or not insurance lawyer/beauty queen Lindsey Halligan’s appointment to serve as US Attorney is legitimate.  However, we have learned more about the origins of the “mortgage fraud” charges against NY Attorney General Letitia James and the possible future charges against California Senator Adam Schiff.  Despite Director of Federal Housing Finance Agency Bill Pulte’s assertion that he learned about James’ and Schiff’s faux mortgage fraud from public sources, he didn’t.  The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that mortgage agency Fannie Mae’s ethics and investigations group received internal complaints alleging senior officials had improperly directed staff to access James’ and Schiff’s mortgage files. In response Fannie Mae’s investigators started looking into who had given the orders and whether Pulte had the authority to seek the documents.  Naturally, this being Trump-land, the ethics investigators involved have all been removed from their jobs. The excuse for their removal, that they were DEI hires, the justification that Trump and his cronies use to root out anyone not sufficiently MAGA.  Pulte has been in the news a lot this week, because he’s the one who suggested to Trump that the housing affordability crisis could be solved by facilitating the issuance of 50-year mortgages. For a variety of reasons, that’s a bigly bad idea, so bad that a number of people in Trump’s inner circle are furious with Pulte for bringing it up. Pulte sold the idea to Trump by telling him that 50-year mortgages would lower borrowers’ monthly payments, technically accurate but the mortgages would be costly in the long run as borrowers would pay much more interest over the life of their mortgages, and with the interest front loaded it would take far longer for them to recoup their equity.  Fannie Mae has also lowered their credit standards, another idea that seems good on paper especially for those home buyers with lower credit ratings but lowering standards tends to result in more mortgage defaults which leads to and exacerbates financial crises. It may be time to get Margot Robbie and her bubble bath back to explain a few things about mortgage math to Trump, but only with a bodyguard.  

Peeps🧍🏽‍♂️🧍: The Wall Street Journal has been digging into FBI Director Kash Patel’s misdeeds.  He didn’t just fly his country singer girl friend to her wrestling match concert, he also used his FBI plane to go to a private, invitation only Texas hunting resort called the Booddoggle Ranch as one does when their boss embellishes the White House with gold tchotchkes and holds Gatsby themed parties during shutdowns.  On a more serious note, Patel also infuriated many at the Department of Justice and the FBI by prematurely announcing the uncovering of a Halloween terrorist plot. His too early announcement allowed some of those implicated to flee the country to avoid arrest. Put this into the category of things that happen when incompetent conspiracists are given key government posts. It fits in right next to the reports that the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida is continuing to go after everyone and anyone from the Obama years, Obama included, who had the nerve to investigate Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, the election that Trump did win before losing in 2020, the election he insists he also won.  A number of prosecutors in Florida have resigned or been pushed out for refusing to cooperate. Yesterday, the increasingly visible and very uncowed former President Obama, who Trump is once again insisting was born in Kenya, spent his Veterans Day pleasantly surprising some World War II veterans by accompanying them on an honor flight to Washington DC.  That falls into the category of things honorable leaders do.

Synchronized Swimming and Crabcakes 🤯😱🌻✡️😱🤯

The State of the Shutdown:  Late yesterday eight members of the Senate’s Democratic caucus joined all Republicans except usual holdout Rand Paul in providing the sixty votes needed to pass a procedural vote, the first step in ending the government shutdown.  The eight include Maine’s Angus King, Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman, and Nevada’s Catherine Cortez-Masto, the three who had previously voted against the shutdown, plus five additional Democrats including New Hampshire’s Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan, Virginia’s Tim Kaine,  Illinois’ Dick Durbin, and Nevada’s Jackie Rosen. The Senate’s funding resolution which will keep the government funded through January 30 has a few new sweeteners, including a reversal of the mass firing of government employees that took place during the shutdown and a provision barring future layoffs through January 30 but does not include Obamacare subsidies, the issue that triggered the shutdown. Republican leader John Thune has promised to hold a separate vote on the subsidies, but it’s highly unlikely that it will pass both Houses, so the sharp increase in the cost of insurance as well as the increase in the number of people going without will remain an issue through the midterms which despite progressive squawking will probably benefit Democrats in the long run. Democrats, even those who voted for the Senate’s version of the funding resolution, aren’t happy with it; they signed on after concluding that there was not a thing they could do to get Republicans, most notably the callous and tone-deaf Trump to agree to anything better.  The increasing chaos at the airports in the run up to Thanksgiving, the concerns of unpaid constituents, and the SNAP mess contributed to their decision.  The Senate resolution now needs to make it pass the House.  Don’t expect instant relief because that could take some time since ersatz Speaker Mike Johnson sent his caucus home again last week to avoid a vote on the Epstein files discharge petition and the swearing in of Democrat Congressman-elect Grijalva besides even members of Congress, or at least those not flying private, are impacted by flight cancellations.

Snip SNAP 🤯: Trump gives new meaning to both the “Nero fiddled while Rome burned” and “Let Them Eat Cake” adages.  While food pantry lines got longer, he spent part of his weekend golfing and at another Mar a Lago event, this one featuring synchronized swimmers alongside shellfish filled banquet tables all while a film of how he really won the 2020 election ran as a backdrop. He spent the rest of his weekend flying to and then attending a Washington Commanders football game, part of his campaign to intimidate the team’s owners into naming its new stadium after him. While he was dining, flying, and being booed by less than adoring football fans, SNAP food stamp payments remained in limbo. It’s hard to accurately describe the SNAP trajectory, it went something like this: Trump declared no SNAP payments during the shutdown despite the availability of contingency reserves; then two federal district judges said that the administration had to make the payments; then the Trump administration began to make partial payments; then the district courts said make the full payments; then Trump said no payments will be made; then the Department of Agriculture indicated to the states that they should initiate full payments which several states started to do; then in an effort to legalize halting all payments the DOJ skipped over the Appeals court and went directly to the Supreme Court which issued a stay halting payments while the case was first reviewed by the Appeals Court; then the Trump administration started threatening the states ordering them to claw back the payments already made with the permission of the Department of Agriculture.  Last night the Appeals Court said that the payment should be made but their decision remains stayed for another 48 hours pending a full Supreme Court review. Confused?  Imagine being one of the 42 million Americans reliant on food stamps.  Fairway, my local supermarket, is “selling” food baskets to be sent to local food pantries; it might be worth checking with yours because if ever there was a time to do a mitzvah it’s now.          

Health Planning: Trump didn’t just cause SNAP chaos this weekend he also made it clear that it’s not just the Obamacare subsidies that he wants on the chopping block, he’s after the whole program. To that end, in addition to reposting obviously false claims that former President Obama receives royalties from Obamacare renewals, on Sunday Trump posted that he was “recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by Obamacare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over. In other words, take from the BIG, BAD Insurance Companies, give it to the people, and terminate, per Dollar spent, the worst Healthcare anywhere in the World, Obamacare!”  He then posted that his plan would involve sending all of us $2000 from the money “earned” from his possibly illegal tariffs to be used for health care.  Putting aside that the tariff revenues are taxes that we are already paying and that no one likes their insurance companies, his health care plan is nonsensical pie in the sky bull 💩, a return to the time when people who didn’t get their insurance through their employees and couldn’t afford insurance were left high and dry.  And that $2000, how far will it go when someone needs chemo or even just maternity care? Trump is delusional, callous, and evil, and his Project 2025 abettors, who don’t believe in food subsidy programs like SNAP, most certainly don’t believe that everyone is entitled to affordable health coverage. As to affordability for anything, Trump’s plan to bring down prices, or at the very least curb inflation, continues to involve a combination of smoke and mirrors and jazz hands.  He’s mostly just bragging about lowering costs and inflation, hoping that enough of us, or at the very least, enough of his base believe him despite reality and why not, a lot of people still think he’ll be releasing his “health plane” in two weeks, when he releases his tax filings.  

More 💩: Trump is still pardoning people willy nilly.  Not just fraudsters and donors, now he’s granting pardons to anyone who helped him challenge the results of the 2020 election, the one he lost but that he continues to insist that he won. Last night his pardon attorney revealed that Trump had pardoned a long list of his political allies for their support or involvement in alleged plans to overturn the 2020 presidential election.  The list includes Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, among dozens of others including the false ballot crew. In other crappy news, as our military prepares for a new war or two, Secretary of War and Beer Pete Hegseth continues to fire and impede the promotion of lots of competent experienced officers maybe because he doesn’t want anyone around to stand in the way of Trump’s next war and his election interference plans? And because despite all the 💩, there are decent people on both sides of the aisle, warning of an “existential threat to democracy” Federal District Court Judge Mark Wolf who was appointed by Reagan, announced in a “searing first-person essay”  published in The Atlantic that he had stepped down from the bench to speak out against Trump who he accused of “using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment.”

 

 
Nancy Was Alone 🤯😱🌻✡️😱🤯

STFU:  The government is still closed.  SNAP funding is still up in the air, but planes are grounded and Trump who for a nano second appeared to understand that Tuesday’s Democratic victories were significant and likely (hopefully) an indicator of things to come, is back to ignoring reality and still impeding shutdown negotiations.  Yesterday, after announcing that he’s gotten the prices of what he called “fat shots,” but what the medical establishment calls GLP-1 agonists, down to more affordable levels, he went on to lie, prevaricate, and fantasize about everything else.  He claimed the economy was in the best shape ever, even though Treasury Secretary Bessent acknowledges that parts of it may already be in a recession and corporate job cuts, to quote CNBC, “surged past 1 million so far this year, with 153,000 layoffs just in October. The worst October since 2003.”  Trump went on to claim that grocery prices were way down, citing Walmart’s “bag” of Thanksgiving foods to prove his point.  The problem with that assertion is that prices aren’t down, and even his delusional base can’t ignore their grocery store receipts.  Additionally, the bag he cited includes only 15 products, six fewer than the 21 products included last year when the Sleepy guy was president.  On the SNAP front, Trump who never misses a meal, is still standing in the way of feeding people.  Yesterday, after a Rhode Island District Court judge ordered the administration to restart all rather than just a portion of SNAP funding using the contingency funds set aside for that purpose, the DOJ announced plans to appeal. To clarify, a Gatsby themed party at Mar a Lago, $20 billion maybe even $40 billion to Argentina, another billion to retrofit a “gifted” plane, $300 million for the Trump or maybe the Epstein Memorial ballroom and Trump actually said that there isn’t enough money for SNAP payments because the US has to remain “liquid for catastrophes, wars, anything” but absolutely not for feeding 42 million hungry Americans even though those SNAP payments ultimately contribute more back to farmers and grocers than they take.   By the way liquidity isn’t an issue, for better or worse the US unlike the rest of us can print money when it’s needed.  And wars?  Why is the end all wars, Nobel Peace prize seeking guy planning wars against Venezuela and maybe even Nigeria while revving up his nukes? Is it Wag the Dog time?  Lastly, during a hearing on the legality of Trump’s tariffs Chief Justice Roberts said what most of us know, tariffs are taxes.  The rest of the justices, or at least those other than Alito and Thomas also appear to get that tariffs are taxes and that taxing power belongs to Congress.  That said this SCOTUS never fails to disappoint and Amy Coney Barrett is concerned about how the tariffs already levied will be refunded so we’ll only know what they court does when what’s supposed to be an “expedited” decision is released.       

More About Tuesday:  Tuesday’s election results were even more stunning across the board than originally reported.  The ban the book crowd was ousted from lots of school boards including in Texas where control of the third largest school board is no longer in the hands of those who had removed textbook chapters on climate change, vaccines, Covid, and diversity. Mississippi Democrats broke the Republican super majority in their very red state’s Senate.  Maine voters rejected a voter ID initiative that would have created new voter ID requirements and made absentee voting less accessible, both intended to suppress voting by members of the Democratic base.  Perhaps influenced by the repeated reports of the tear gas and rubber bullets, and plastic handcuffs being used on school age children around the country by Kirsti Noem’s weaponized forces, voters in Bucks County Pennsylvania which voted for Trump in 2024, ousted their incumbent elected sheriff who had signed a deal to collaborate with ICE earlier this year.  All of this is on top of all those resounding Democratic victories in Virginia and New Jersey, two states that Speaker Johnson dismissed as not being indicative of anything.  And in a final irony, given the significant shift of Hispanic voters to Democratic candidates, Republicans in Texas are now a wee bit nervous that their aggressive redistricting might not pan out as planned as some of those “red” leaning Hispanic voters might actually turn a few red districts blue come the midterms. That doesn’t appear to be a concern for Democrats in California where Ken Calvert, a Republican incumbent, has already announced plans to challenge another Republican in one of the state’s newly drawn districts.  Still it’s going to be a long slog to the midterms, and as Democracy Docket’s Mark Elias warns, Trump and his cohorts have lots of vote suppressing plans in their bag of tricks and lots of military like people to enforce them.   

Peeps:  Yesterday, Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi announced that she won’t be seeking reelection to Congress in 2026. The 85-year-old Pelosi was first elected to Congress in 1987. The daughter of a former Mayor of Baltimore, she didn’t formally enter politics until the youngest of her five children was six.  She was the first and, so far, only women to become Speaker of the House.  Republicans, many of whom secretly admired her grit and competence, loved to dump on her, portraying her as that radical socialist from San Francisco. She was neither, but she was ahead of her time, a hugely competent legislator whose vote counting skills and backroom cajoling was remarkable.  She is largely credited with getting the ACA (Obamacare) passed.  While some Republicans, including former Speaker Paul Ryan who fled Congress because of Trump and who is now cashing it in as a Fox Corporation board member came out from under his protective rock to praise her yesterday.  Trump not so much; the vindictive self-obsessed wannabee king called her retirement a “great thing” adding “She was evil, corrupt, and only focused on bad things for our country.” Not much of a surprise from the master of projection but still despicable.  In other retirement news, citing incivility in politics and threats against his family, Democratic Congressman Jared Golden, the centrist from Maine announced that he won’t be running for reelection. Golden who frequently crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans, will be missed because despite being a party outlier, he was part of the Democrat’s headcount.  Moreover, it’s not clear that another Democrat can win in his district even after Tuesday’s Democratic trounce of most things red. The beleaguered Sean Duffy, busy cancelling flights across the country because overworked and now also unpaid flight controllers have been calling in sick, remains the Secretary of Transportation.  However, despite the unqualified reality star’s best efforts to convert his second job as interim Head of NASA into a permanent one, he will soon lose that job.  Trump has nominated, or more accurately renominated tech industry’s Jared Isaacman to serve in that capacity.  Isaacman, who was Elon’s Musk’s preferred appointee and who also had bipartisan support was nominated early in Trump 2.0 before Trump unexpectedly withdrew his nomination, citing a “thorough review of his prior associations.” Those associations included his past donations to the campaigns of Democrats, not a secret but an excuse for Trump, with the urging of his then head of personnel Sergio Gor, to dump him back when he was feuding with Musk who, in addition to having just secured a $1 trillion compensation package, is now back in Trump’s good graces. Gone for good is former VP Dick Cheney who passed away earlier in the week.  By current Republican standards, Cheney, the father of former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who was credited (discredited?) with pushing the US into a war with Iraq, seemed almost normal in comparison to what we have now, in part because he recognized Trump for what he is and publicly announced his intent to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024. Though she might not be for long,  Lindsey Halligan is still the interim attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Halligan who was appointed by Trump when no one else in the Virginia office would proceed with obtaining indictments of former FBI Head James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James is now also a Special Attorney.  That title was bestowed on her by Trump toady/Attorney General Pam Bondi who despite her assertions otherwise knows that Halligan’s appointment as interim US Attorney is likely not legitimate. Bondi provided further evidence of her acknowledgement of Halligan’s questionable status by backdating her “special” appointment to September 22, not so coincidentally three days before Comey’s indictment.  Though the Comey’s and James’ indictments may not survive judicial review, Bondi’s team isn’t discouraged.  Word is that they’ve moved on to seeking an indictment of the next name on Trump’s retribution list, Obama era head of the CIA head John Brennan.  Sean Charles Dunn, also known as the “Sandwich Guy” who was tried on a misdemeanor assault charge for throwing a hero at a dressed for war Homeland Security officer, was acquitted yesterday by a jury of his peers who weren’t buying that what he did was a punishable offense. The charges against Dunn had been downgraded from a felony to a misdemeanor after Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox host who is now the US Attorney for DC had failed to get a felony indictment. One more thing, NY Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik who was Trump’s pick for UN Ambassador before she wasn’t and who has gained notoriety and traction for her loud condemnation of anti-Semitism and college wokeness announced this morning that she’s running for Governor of New York against incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul. Stefanik’s no shoe in, one of her reasons for running is that her district could move blue as the result of redistricting but before she went full MAGA she was viewed as a moderate so she’s a skilled shapeshifter.  Moreover, she is expected to capitalize on downstate fears about NYC’s Mayor-elect Mamdani.