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.